Why Buy New When Strange Will Do?

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“Hey Bob, do you think you can install Linux on a machine for me?” I hate “just installing Linux” for people. Actually, it’s not all that bad, but the machines become one-offs. I’d much rather give people the CDs and have them do it themselves, and then maintain it themselves. “Sure. What kind of machine is it?” I’m a masochist at heart, apparently. “Oh, it’s this old machine that was a mail scanning appliance. I want to rebuild it and use it for a desktop.” “I know the machine you speak of. Isn’t it like five years old?” “Yeah. Linux should run okay on it, right?” Linux, the miracle worker. Dear Linux, I have an IBM PS/2 Model 30 386 …

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Shell Scripting & Blogs

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You know why I love my blog? It’s because of everybody who reads it. Thanks y’all. Case in point: my fix to randomize shell script execution went from # Don’t slam the mail servers! sleepamt=$(echo “$RANDOM/1092” | bc) /bin/sleep $sleepamt to # Don’t slam the mail servers! /bin/sleep $(($RANDOM/1092)) Hehe. It’s like extreme programming, writ large. The second case has fewer dependencies, though, and I like that.

$RANDOM

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Shell scripting just isn’t my bag. Maybe it’s that I started life with DOS and batch files, or that my first scripts were in csh (not the greatest shell to script with). I just tend to write everything but the most basic things in Perl. Sometimes, though, I just need to fix a shell script. I hate grafting Perl in the middle of a script, mostly because I know damn well you can do whatever you need with the shell. Every time I have to fix a shell script I end up learning something. That is, provided I can figure out how to ask Google for what I want to know. 🙂 Today I wanted to introduce a random sleep …

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Dear New York City

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Dear New York City, I was with you on September 11, 2001, trying not to be mindlessly patriotic in the aftermath but also amazed that somebody could do such a thing. Just as my mother remembers exactly where she was when JFK was shot I remember exactly what happened for me that morning as I watched. I remember the second plane strike, answering some of our questions. I’ve been to Ground Zero twice, thinking each time of the sheer volume of the destruction. Five thousand people dying is small compared to wars, genocide, and epidemics, but never in such close proximity and with so little warning. And never with such a toll on emergency personnel. I’m glad the U.S. has …

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links for 2006-09-09

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O’Reilly Network — Speakable Web Services Lightning in a Bottle – July 14th, 15th and 16th, 2006 (tags: festival music)

Burgers and Fries

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A) Who would name a cat “Burgers and Fries?” B) OMFG this is funny. C) Bruce Schneier blogs about squid. I’m going to blog about pissed off cats. Meet Pinky the cat, a loving feline who needs a good home.

Prefontaine

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“The best pace is a suicide pace, and today is a good day to die.” “Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.” “A lot of people run a race to see who’s the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.” – Steve Prefontaine, taken from his Wikipedia entry If the movie “Without Limits” is true to the spirit of Steve Prefontaine, I think he and I would have had a lot in common. Starting with our attitudes.

links for 2006-09-05

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BostonHerald.com – International News: Wild end for Irwin: Killed in freak attack by stingray Thanks for making cool wildlife shows, Mr. Irwin. (tags: nature obituaries)

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