For the first time in about three years we are having a really nice snow and the temperatures are not supposed to change dramatically enough to mess with things.
The above image is at ISO-800, so not a really great image, but I believe it shows the gist of things 
Photography in the snow is not easy.
After having my Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop fail the Ubuntu 8.10 install process due to a thermal issue for a second time, I returned to Windows. Today I found Xubuntu, which claims to be lighter than Ubuntu. I was originally considering it for a netbook computer, but decided to give it a shot on the laptop. I used the “alternate” installer.
The Alternate installer seems to be much easier on the CPU, and as an advanced user, I find being asked questions occasionally to be very helpful. For example, I do not usually keep a physical network cable attached to my laptop, and Ubuntu takes this as no network found, whereas the Xubuntu installer prompts about the missing network. The keyboard detection process is a little strange, as you are asked to type characters that might exist on your keyboard, and you are presented with a lot that do not.
So far, it is installed and seems to be pretty nice. All the Ubuntu, half the fat.
The status page and the status module use an emotion list. I have played with the list a little in the past few days, trying to come up with emotions that work. The present list is way too lengthy (mostly obtained from http://www.mytherapistnc.org/emotions.htm). The list is also ineffective. At first glance it looks like it covers everything, but it doesn’t. I am considering no longer using a master list and simply entering emotions as I have them and then using those as the list, but that seems so hard, especially on those days when I feel “blah”, but can still pull an emotion out when prompted.
Upon a user request, in GITI Education, Time is now a relevant field for assignments. Basic time support has now been added to the Add, Edit, and View single assignment pages. With this update to the Education module also comes a change of intention for the “Date Assigned” and “Time Assigned” fields. The field labels now express the intention of taking on the earliest date the assignment will be available, and not necessarily recording the actual date the assignment was created.
The batch add system will receive the functionality after implementation options are considered, especially with regard to the programmatic assigning of times to a batch of assignments. The batch edit system will receive the functionality as soon as the batch edit code itself is written.
Back to the LiveCurt.net project concepts again. How much do people want to know about me and how do they want to know it?
My status page is fairly basic information that is just putting stuff commonly available in one easy to access place, but LiveCurt is supposed to be more, it’s more than just my status, it is putting all parts of myself together, in both a public (not very exposed) and more private (probably TMI) way, depending upon access level.
I was just thinking about the fact I have an outstanding order for DVDs, which upon arrival will be registered in GITI Library, which is a public-facing module. The DVDs will just simply get registered in GITI and the library system will silently update, giving no one a clue of what has changed. Perhaps that is the type of information that people might want to see on LiveCurt.net?
Oscar brought up a point the other day, mentioning that he thought the whole idea of recording what one is doing at any moment in an electronic form seems a little strange. Wouldn’t all of the Twits be disappointed to hear that? I look to Oscar’s opinion as a more traditional value aspect of things, and I am starting to think he is right, being that connected is a little strange. I ignore the opinion as it relates to my personal status system because my actual status message thing is more of a self-analysis psychological experiment than anything else. I find the process of recording the statuses to be very difficult, just because when I am at home and not working on something academic, my status changes from minute to minute, and my level of conscious involvement in it changes about as often. Identifying my emotions (an aspect that Twitter does not include) is even more challenging, first because there is no standard list of emotions beyond basic emotions (look for another post on that later), and second, because it is hard to really identify how I feel, which I suppose is the reason why I set up the little experiment in the first place. For the Internet accessible portion of my status message, no one I know really wants to pop in to my website to check to see what I am doing, they would prefer to hear it from me. I agree with the concept of getting it from me, but there are times when the status message can be useful, such as when I need to leave the electronic world suddenly, it is just easier if my status is available like that, so no one is wondering where I am (since I am usually reliably within 10 feet of a computer).
I have been having so much of a problem getting things together for LiveCurt.net because I have several concepts of what it COULD be, but no ideas as to what it SHOULD be. Thinking about the site, I wonder if things like the last time I logged into GITI should be present, but then I think about the reason it is on status, it is like my pulse, it indicates that I am at least awake and alert, even if I have not bookmarked anything, stated a status or posted a blog entry. I am almost always logged into GITI, so when I first wake up, I check e-mail and log into GITI, those are predictable events, even though I may not get immediately dressed or immediately do anything (a status of “?” with an emotion of “comatose” doens’t seem helpful).
I am learning to be a more expressive person through having status running, and I feel like I keep less things to myself since it has been operational. The pressure to get LiveCurt running is based on several factors, including the status page becoming too verbose and overshadowing the future role of the LC system.
For the past few days it has seemed like my birthday has gone from being not even thought of to being a trigger to talk to me. Chris, my mother, Oscar and Jared (in order of query) have all asked what I have planned and what I want to do for my birthday. My honest answer is that I simply do not know. Birthdays in my family end up being very food oriented, so that is the primary concern, what to eat and where to eat it. Perfectly valid thing to ask I suppose, except I plan what to cook and I cook it every other day of the year, why can someone else not have an opinion on this and let me have a culinary adventure and not fall victim to my own habits and concerns for what everyone else likes. Funny thing is, I get asked these questions every year, but it never matters, by the time everything is done my plan for my birthday ends up manipulated, mutilated and mucked around with by my mother and my aunt.
I do not know what I specifically want to do yet, but the general gist is I would like to spend a quiet evening dining with the parts of my family (including Chris) that I like, but my mother says it would be impolite to ask my father to stay at home. Funny thing about my birthday, it is the only family occasion that my father will not manage to duck out on. Maybe there is a sense of obligation there, or perhaps guilt?
I am steering away from a diner with my family at home, that seems almost too drab and non-acknowledging of my birth, and also, if someone other than me cooks, I know I will end up in the kitchen anyway because whoever is cooking will either not know how to do something, or I will not like the way things are being done, I’m over-anal like that. I guess that means I definitely want to go out.
Cakes are another topic I love. People suggest that for my birthday I should want cake, well… I don’t really like cake in general. The only cakes I really like are frozen yogurt cakes. I’m not going to mention this to anyone this year, I’m just going to let them sweat it out themselves and figure it out (only member of my family that reads this blog is Chris).
More topics of interest, I have been eligible to drink alcohol for 3 years now, and I have yet to have my first drink, and I do not anticipate having a great need for trying for it this year. I suppose not drinking probably brings down the level of festivity just a bit.
https://www.arin.net/knowledge/comic.html
I’m all for a friendlier ARIN, but WTF is this shit?
With the resistance of network operators and hardware vendors to accept IPv6, the lack of address in the IPv4 space is becoming more of a concern. I am personally wondering how many addresses in the IPv4 space are actually being used and how many are being wasted on frivolous assignments. Take for example, network 44. Network 44 is a fully class A allocation of 16,777,214 addresses that are assigned to the task of TCP/IP over Amateur Radio, also known as Amateur Packet Radio Network (AMPRNet). The technology has a maximum of 9600 baud, but usually averages 1200. That means the maximum speed of AMPRNet is about 8.72 * 10-4 % of the speed of the average cable broadband connection and well… microscopic compared to the links between backbone provider sites. I am not sure how many people still participate in this network (I couldn’t find any current information for it), but I do not suspect that they still require a full class A network. By its own admissions (HAMRADIO.UCSD.EDU), it is an experimental network that does not rely on connectivity to the global Internet. Wouldn’t that make them a candidate for a valid Class E use, or perhaps valid for NATing through a gateway (since they must still use gateways to obtain access anyway)?
I have no complaint with the AMPRNet creators or users, but more a problem with the policies that have led us to our current situation regarding IP address assignments.
One of my favorite things to do on my Fujifilm S5200 was take macro pictures. I have found that so far on the Nikon D60, it isn’t exactly the same process. Switching between the two cameras has not exactly been like moving between horses, they are two completely different beasts. The natural tendency for the D60 is to have a shallow depth of field, which causes problems with macro because of the already shortened field involved because of the closeness of the object. Additionally, my adapter lens that worked so wonderfully on the 5200 is almost too short of a field (focus is affected by 1-2mm distance change) on my D60’s 18-55mm lens (parked at 35mm), and is almost unusable on the 55-200mm (anywhere on the tube).
Yesterday, I was attempting to do some macro shots, and really was not in the mood to switch off the 55-200 to use the 18-55 for it, especially since I wanted the ability to zoom, so that I would not shadow myself. I found that the close-up adapters that I had disregarded as “useless” on the S5200 actually work quite well on the D60’s lenses. Another thing I am finding that I can do with the D60 that could not easily do on the S5200 is do macro shots while hand-holding the camera. The flash is ample that it makes the shots possible and once diffused, creates a very warm feel to the images that would otherwise come out as a very yellow, sick feeling to the color of the images without flash (incandescent and CF lighting causes it). The VR functions of the lenses are also quite nice for that type of thing. I am so looking forward to summer, so that I may give these things a thorough test and really compare the D60 to the S5200.
I am still relearning all that I had learned on the S5200 on the D60, as well as integrating some of the D60’s unique functionality into my technique.
One of the strawberry plants that has not yet been transplanted out of the AeroGarden has begun blooming. This is a fairly small plant compared to the larger friends that were removed from the garden recently.
This week I have to take these plants out and the starter tray and put them into soil so that I may begin prepping for the summer tomato and pepper plants that will be grown in the new starter tray.