Jade's weblog Archive

I've recently accepted a job offer as senior developer at Volunteer Solutions, for the United Way.

Pretty amazing example of a seamless user experience, with a lot going on behind the scenes.

Interesting article on how to use XML HTTP.

Patch for smtp-auth. I'm having trouble getting it to work.

Very useful dictionary site for Japanese to English, English to Japanese, and a Japanese-Japanese dictionary as well.

Useful for copy and pasting when I'm reading Japanese websites.

Oracle 10g is out on the Mac.

My father has just set up his webpage. It has examples of his artwork, and looks much better than my site.

The Fertilator is a comprehensive calculator designed to assist hobbyists with the fertilization of their aquarium.

Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans, according to a nationwide poll.

The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

Scary statistics.

The age of smart drugs is dawning. Modafinil is just one in an array of brain-boosting medications — some already on pharmacy shelves and others in development — that promise an era of sharper thinking through chemistry.

Would you take a drug that made you smarter?

.

In June of that year, Murphy filed suit against the Herald and four of its writers for a "malicious and relentless campaign of libel unprecedented in the history of this Commonwealth." In court papers, he said the Herald "set out to sensationalize" a story that never happened. As a result, he said, his life had been threatened, his reputation had been ruined, and two of his daughters had been threatened with rape on a Herald-sponsored chat room. In August of this year, a Boston judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit.

An excellent essay on how to be an effective manager of smart people. My favorite part is where he suggests asking your team member: "What do you need to kick ass on this project?"

Loved this last year, loved it this year.

Pretty interesting.

On Slashdot, there is a discussion on how Google Suggest works. An even more detailed description of how Google Suggest works.

Great that you'll be involved with domestic violence legal work. Please consider taking a look at Stop Abuse For Everyone: http://www.safe4all.org

This is a list of movies someone recommended to me.

Pathfinder
Manchurian Candidate
Last of the Mohicans
Jean de Florette / Manon of the Sp ring
Princess Bride
Annie Hall
Babe
Terminator 2
Aliens 2
Walkabout
Chinatown
Das Boot
Hoop Dreams
Nashville
28 Up
The Last Wave
Blade Runner
Apocalypse Now
Big
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Godfather
Wrath of Khan (Star Trek 2)
Lost Weekend
Emerald Forest
Seven Samurai
The Hit
Rumble Fish
La Femme Nikita
The 7th Seal
Europa Europa
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Nashville
The Matrix

Interesting article.

[Comedian David Cross] even seemed to have a better handle on the mindset of Osama bin Laden than the Bush administration: "If the terrorists hated freedom, then the Netherlands would be fucking dust." Just a few months later, bin Laden released one of his tapes (not on Sub Pop), saying, "Bush has told you that we do not like freedom. Then why didn't we hit Sweden?" Whoa.

Via Joel Aufrecht

A Lone Activist Group Submits 99.8% of FCC Complaints.

find directory1 -type f > file1
find directory2 -type f > file2
diff -u file1 file2

Nonprofit organizations are supposed to certify now that we don't emploly anybody from these organizations, or this terrorist list.

Index: edit-this-page/templates/article-index.tcl
===================================================================
RCS file: /var/cvs/ibr/packages/edit-this-page/templates/article-index.tcl,v
retrieving revision 1.1.1.1
retrieving revision 1.2
diff -u -r1.1.1.1 -r1.2
--- edit-this-page/templates/article-index.tcl  6 May 2004 23:59:35 -0000       1.1.1.1
+++ edit-this-page/templates/article-index.tcl  8 Apr 2004 18:46:24 -0000       1.2
@@ -20,3 +20,9 @@
 
 etp::get_page_attributes
 etp::get_content_items
+
+# customization as per 
+# http://www.thecodemill.biz/publications/blog/one-entry?entry_id=9879
+# to allow includes, etc.
+eval [template::adp_compile -string $pa(content)]
+set pa(content) ${__adp_output}

I would nominate Stop Abuse For Everyone

Documents how to set up a production server with Arch.

As long as this is evidence-based, I don't really have that much of a problem with prosecuting even when someone recants.

Some side-effects: victims may come forward more, because they know it will be out of their hands once they make the initial allegation. Or they may come forward less, because they won't want their abuser to be arrested.

I was glad the article pointed out that people can make false reports.

How to turn on statistics command on Postgres

I updated my CO₂ page, with information on better needle valves

A good summary of reasons why to choose Debian over other distributions.

If you get an error like this:

/usr/local/aolserver/bin/nsd: error while loading shared libraries: libnsd.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Try ldd:

/usr/local/aolserver/bin# ldd nsd
        libnsd.so => not found
        libnsthread.so => not found
        libtcl8.4.so.0 => /usr/lib/libtcl8.4.so.0 (0x40018000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x400ba000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x400bd000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x400d1000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x400f2000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

It looks like the libraries are not being found.

Try this:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/aolserver/lib

Vinod's entry fixes it here:

http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=161815

You may need to edit your /usr/local/aolserver/nsd-postgres file to include Aolserver's lib directories.

Presentation on Macromedia Flex

Interesting that they will only name men convicted of domestic violence, and not vic e versa. Seems like a strange policy... What about GLBT domestic violence?

Gives an overview of Laszlo, and his argument for why to use it versus Flex or XAML

Laszlo may not need the presentation server soon. Very cool

Interesting rich text technology, outputs to flash, open source.

Good overview of rich internet applications.

Link to a bunch of rich internet applications.

This is useful for Arch and CVS. Explains how to process .rej files with emacs.

Lists what's coming in Mac OS 10.4. Some of it is very very cool.

Good to file away for later. This was written by Joel.

It looks like the anti-gay marriage laws are already starting to be used against equal rights: in Utah, a lawyer is arguing that an individual in a same-sex domestic violence case shouldn't be able to get a protective order.

Do people realize what these laws do?

Orwellian, but I see why they're doing it. We'll need to watch how these technologies are used..

When people register on an OpenACS site, you can give them the option to join a mailing list:

Index: user-new.tcl
===================================================================
RCS file: /var/cvs/safe4all/packages/acs-subsite/lib/user-new.tcl,v
retrieving revision 1.1.1.2
diff -u -r1.1.1.2 user-new.tcl
--- user-new.tcl        22 Jun 2004 21:06:53 -0000      1.1.1.2
+++ user-new.tcl        5 Oct 2004 17:41:39 -0000
@@ -39,6 +39,20 @@

ad_form -name register -export {next_url user_id return_url} -form [auth::get_r
egistration_form_elements]

+# safe4all.org extention
+
+set checked_p [list checked ""]
+
+ad_form -extend -name register -form {
+    {join_announce_p:text(checkbox),optional
+        {label "Receive weekly news?"}
+        {help_text "You can opt out at any point, and we do not give out your email address."}
+        {options {{"" "on"}}}
+        {html $checked_p}
+    }
+}
+
+
if { [exists_and_not_null rel_group_id] } {
    ad_form -extend -name register -form {
        {rel_group_id:integer(hidden),optional}
@@ -81,6 +95,21 @@
                                      -secret_question $secret_question \
                                      -secret_answer $secret_answer]

+        # safe4all.org
+
+        if {[string equal $creation_info(creation_status) "ok"]} {
+            if {[string is true $join_announce_p]} {
+                ns_sendmail \
+                    "safe-announce-subscribe@mail.safe4all.org"; \
+                    $email \
+                    "join safe-announce mailing list" \
+                    "I would like to join the SAFE-announce mailing list. Infor\
mation on subscribing and unsubscribing are available at http://www.safe4all.or\
g/forums/forum-view?forum%5fid=13394"
+
+            }
+        }
+
        if { [string equal $creation_info(creation_status) "ok"] && [exists_and
_not_null rel_group_id] } {
            group::add_member \
                -group_id $rel_group_id \

This is the coolest tip I've heard in a while. I didn't even realize it was possible...

In your /etc/profile:

# System-wide .profile for sh(1)

# added to allow X11 applications to run
if [[ -z $DISPLAY ]]
then
export DISPLAY=:0.0
fi

PATH="/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin"
export PATH

[ -r /etc/bashrc ] && source /etc/bashrc

Open up X11, and now you can use X11 apps from the terminal. Nice!

You can set up X11 to boot on startup, in the background, and now you have seamless X11 / Terminal use.

Interesting article on Fox News.

.

Very interesting

Our apology to the rest of the world..

My skype id is jadeforrest.

I've updated this document. It works.

Interesting article on why Libya's 'renouncing terrorism' was not really that at all.

[15:10] > what could I have done in my config.tcl file?
[15:10]  *csari* change this line: set hostname                  [ns_info hostname]
[15:10]  *csari* to 'set hostname www.usbakery.com'
[15:10] > ahhh, that makes sense!

I just changed IP addresses/host names, and I think that's leading to signature problems on my archive?

usb-staging@usbakery:~/usb-staging$ tla changes --diffs
* looking for jader-usbstaging@bread.com--2004/openacs--usb-staging--1.0--patch-12 to compare with
corrupt pristine (failed inode signature validation)
archive: jader-usbstaging@bread.com--2004
revision: openacs--usb-staging--1.0--patch-12
directory /home/usb-staging/usb-staging/{arch}/++pristine-trees/unlocked/openacs/openacs--usb-staging/openacs--usb-staging--1.0/jader-usbstaging@bread.com--2004/openacs--usb-staging--1.0--patch-12
You should remove this pristine from your tree.


The solution, according to johill on #arch, is to delete the {arch}/++pristine-trees directory, and then 'configure a revision library'.

I'm figuring out how to do the latter right now.

Very good reviews.

This may be caused by a directory being owned by root underneath the current directory. I.e. permissions issues. Terrible error message, though.

$ tla changes --diffs
* looking for jader-usb@bread.com--2004/openacs--usb--1.0--patch-1 to compare with
* comparing to jader-usb@bread.com--2004/openacs--usb--1.0--patch-1
PANIC: i/o error in arch_inventory_traversal/is_nested_tree

This is pretty frustrating. I thought I could fix it with my .arch_inventory file:

precious ^supervisor$

But it's still not working:

$ tla tree-lint
PANIC: i/o error in arch_inventory_traversal/is_nested_tree

I ended up changing the =tagging-method file. That worked. The .arch_inventory file works for files in the same directory only, I think.

Work purchased me a new wireless mouse, and it's been great.

However, occasionally the mouse slows down. I applied a Bluetooth update, which seemed to help, but now the problem is back..

This is driving me nuts.

Interesting to look at for comparison to the developmental practices of OpenACS. We're getting closer to a vision of something like this, but we're not quite there yet. Matthew's new AMS package allows us to have the plumbing for this sort of thing -- it really finishes some of the form problems OpenACS never resolved. Exciting stuff.

A blow by blow account of how things may go on election night.

Very very cool tool

Worth reading.

Someone forwarded this to me, and I forwarded it on. A friend found it slightly offensive, sent me his pastor's response, which I'll post as a comment after this.

I  need some advice,  regarding some  elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

• Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
• I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
• I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual un-cleanliness Lev.15:19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
• When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
• I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
• A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?
• Lev.21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
• Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die?
• I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear pig skin gloves?
• My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-

  Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.   Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging. Your grateful student,

Jon Udell has a great demo of the JotSpot demo, a next generation Wiki. It has some interesting ideas in it, kind of a cross between a CMS and a Wiki.

The internet found me... years after leaving this job, I end up in a database of game developers!

A man named Harry Crouch coined a term recently: gendersaur. I've changed its meaning slightly to refer to those who want one gender or the other to predominate, or those who think that the other gender is to blame for everything.

2004-09-23 20:08:14 [11723] FATAL: could not open configuration file "/var/lib/postgres/data/pg_hba.conf": Permission denied

Fixed with chmod o+r /etc/postgresql/pg_hba.conf

This seems to be necessary every time I upgrade postgresql from apt-get.

From the site:

The public is beginning to recognize—with increasing clarity—that the policies of President Bush and the right wing are simply failing America. That's why the right wing's rhetoric seems to be growing more divorced from reality every day.

They invoke "security" even as their catastrophic war of choice in Iraq makes American and Iraqi citizens less safe. They talk "opportunity," but practice tax cuts for the few and pay cuts for the many. They parade "compassion," even while our country suffers a record increase in poverty and job loss.

The right wing can't hide their dismal failures forever! Help cut through their smoke and mirrors, and pave the way for progressive solutions that genuinely serve the American people!

The night before last, I was thinking about my grandfather, who has gone blind in the last couple of years, and was struck with an idea: what if you took a small sonar system, hooked it up to a handheld computer and two earphones, and created a computer program that would encode the sonar signals into a meaninful map of the physical world around you?

I imagined what a huge difference this would make for the blind around the world, I imagined how it would be developed, and even how the business model would work. I named my 'company', thought through its development. I imagined the engineering and design problems that would be faced: ''what information would be important to convey and what to ignore? How long would it take to learn? etc...'' I wasn't able to sleep for about 3 hours after I went to bed.

Ah, but a simple Google search finds that I am not the first to think of such an idea. Alas.

• Portable 3D Sound / Sonar Navigation System for Blind Individuals
• Google search on sonar and blind

I wonder if someone has come up with a device that reads text to blind people? Scans the world ahead and reads out any text encountered. I'm sure there is. :)

.

I updated my docs on dynamically generating PDFs from OpenACS.

These are some notes that I hope to revise into a better post-mortem. They show how the safe4all.org server got hacked. Here's the vulnerability they exploited: http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=195894


safe4all.log.2004-07-27-00:00:200.153.243.141 - - [26/Jul/2004:07:22:26 -0700] "PUT /hbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 201 275 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -

safe4all.log.2004-07-27-00:00:200.153.243.141 - - [26/Jul/2004:07:22:26 -0700] "PUT /hbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 201 275 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -

safe4all.log.2004-07-31-00:00:213.219.122.11 - - [30/Jul/2004:10:55:24 -0700] "GET /hbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 200 15 "" "Wget/1.9.1" -

safe4all.log.2004-07-31-00:00:164.71.2.5 - - [30/Jul/2004:10:56:19 -0700] "GET /hbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 200 15 "" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 5.0; T312461)" -

safe4all.log.2004-07-31-00:00:207.46.98.60 - - [30/Jul/2004:13:56:21 -0700] "GET /hbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 200 15 "" "msnbot/0.11 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)" -

safe4all.log.2004-08-02-00:00:164.71.2.5 - - [01/Aug/2004:04:28:33 -0700] "GET /hbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 200 15 "" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 5.0; T312461)" -

safe4all.log.2004-08-02-00:00:82.135.2.64 - - [01/Aug/2004:10:20:52 -0700] "GET /hbr.htm HTTP/1.1" 200 15 "http://www.zone-h.org/defacements/filter/filter_defacer=H4ck3rsBr" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)" -

safe4all.log.2004-08-03-00:00:200.153.243.109 - - [02/Aug/2004:09:32:34 -0700] "PUT /hbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 204 0 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -

On http://www.zone-h.org/en/defacements/filter/filter_defacer=Hack3rz/ you can see all the defacements from this particular hackers:

2004/08/01 H4ck3rsBR M safe4all.org/hbr.htm Linux

The initial file: hbr.htm:

H4ck3rsBr Ownz You System...

Rehacked on the 15th:

2004/08/15 Hack3rz H R safe4all.org

A bunch of clueless people trying to figure out what happened:
http://www.parcom.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1732

Looks like they've broken into PHP Nuke too: http://www.phidelity.com/cms/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=30

They claim they don't leave any trojans:
http://mirror.delta5.com.br/2004/07/31/mail.buerger.passau.de/


safe4all.log.2004-07-18-00:00:200.158.9.169 - - [17/Jul/2004:16:08:24 -0700] "PUT /fusion.htm HTTP/1.0" 404 547 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -
safe4all.log.2004-07-19-00:00:200.158.8.201 - - [18/Jul/2004:19:46:49 -0700] "PUT /h4ck3rsbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 404 547 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -
safe4all.log.2004-07-24-00:00:200.162.208.250 - - [23/Jul/2004:04:55:27 -0700] "PUT /www.arplhmd.cjb.net_064133 HTTP/1.0" 201 294 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -
safe4all.log.2004-07-24-00:00:200.162.208.250 - - [23/Jul/2004:04:55:27 -0700] "PUT /www.arplhmd.cjb.net_064133 HTTP/1.0" 204 0 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -
safe4all.log.2004-07-27-00:00:200.153.243.141 - - [26/Jul/2004:07:22:26 -0700] "PUT /hbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 201 275 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -
safe4all.log.2004-08-03-00:00:200.153.243.109 - - [02/Aug/2004:09:32:34 -0700] "PUT /hbr.htm HTTP/1.0" 204 0 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:13:56:28 -0700] "PUT /www.arplhmd.cjb.net_175955 HTTP/1.0" 201 294 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:15:00:55 -0700] "PUT /index.html HTTP/1.0" 201 278 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:15:05:14 -0700] "PUT /default.htm HTTP/1.0" 201 279 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:15:05:23 -0700] "PUT /default.html HTTP/1.0" 201 280 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:15:05:33 -0700] "PUT /home.htm HTTP/1.0" 201 276 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:15:06:15 -0700] "PUT /index.htm HTTP/1.0" 201 277 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.101.38.143 - - [14/Aug/2004:16:49:45 -0700] "PUT /www.arplhmd.cjb.net_205434 HTTP/1.0" 201 294 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.101.38.143 - - [14/Aug/2004:17:17:33 -0700] "PUT /www.arplhmd.cjb.net_205434 HTTP/1.0" 204 0 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" -



safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:14:59:40 -0700] "DELETE /index.html HTTP/1.0" 204 0 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:14:59:45 -0700] "DELETE /index.tcl HTTP/1.0" 204 0 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"

safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:14:59:49 -0700] "DELETE /index.xql HTTP/1.0" 204 0 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:14:59:57 -0700] "DELETE /index.adp HTTP/1.0" 204 0 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"
safe4all.log.2004-08-15-00:00:200.140.36.237 - - [14/Aug/2004:15:00:20 -0700] "HEAD /index.html HTTP/1.0" 200 0 "" "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV" "ad_session_id=3614167%2c0%2c0+%7b313+1092521929+AFE1A1CE4C39886DB8352FB52167F1F92CE039EA%7d"



82.96.96.3 - - [14/Aug/2004:20:48:58 -0700] "CONNECT 82.96.96.3:802 HTTP/1.0" 404 547 "" "" -
82.96.96.3 - - [14/Aug/2004:20:48:59 -0700] "POST http://82.96.96.3:802/ HTTP/1.0" 500 540 "" "" -
82.96.96.3 - - [14/Aug/2004:20:48:59 -0700] "CONNECT 82.96.96.3:802 HTTP/1.0" 404 547 "" "" -
82.96.96.3 - - [14/Aug/2004:20:48:59 -0700] "POST http://82.96.96.3:802/ HTTP/1.0" 500 540 "" "" -


IP addresses:

200.158.8.201
200.162.208.250
200.153.243.141
200.140.36.237
200.101.38.143
82.96.96.3

If you missed the speech, you can watch it online here (RealPlayer required; alternatively, just load this URL into RealPlayer:

rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/project/c04/c04_dnc072704_obama.rm
Obama's keynote address.

Or, here's the text of Obama's speech at the convention. I recommend you watch the video, however.

Here's the Obama for Illinois webpage, and here's the Obama Blog.

I wrote the following to a friend who wrote an editorial in favor of the war in Iraq:

My main objections:

- The main arguments against going to war in Iraq is not that Iraq would never have been a threat (there are potentially many threats out there) -- the argument is that it was a huge and dangerous distraction from a very real threat: al-Qaeda. If al-Qaeda attacks us again, should we attack another country that might someday be a threat, or should we attack al-Qaeda? We should have put 120 thousand troops in Afghanistan, instead of Iraq. We let bin Laden go.

- Your argument about this not being a war for oil by saying that we haven't invaded Venezuela would be more persuasive if the US hadn't been involved in a coup in Venezuela during the Bush administration.

Google on this:

United States coup venezuela


We may yet accomplish good things in Iraq. But if al-Qaeda succeeds in another major attack against the US, that will be the price.

Oh, and there's also the additional problem that Iraq has become a huge propaganda machine for anti-Americanism. Al-Qaeda is terrifically happy that we've invaded Iraq. Numerous reports have said that we're losing the war on terror, because we're not attacking the problem at its source, but instead focusing on a distraction.

Good article summarizing techniques for backups on Linux.

Yumm.

Randy posted a useful tip for ad_form validation

screen seems very useful for me. Google Answers describes how to change the default from ctrl-A on screen

.

Good article on logging and analyzing queries in Postgres, thanks to Jeff.

The link doesn't actually go to the after-mount callback, but it shows how it's added into the .info file.

.

perl -pi -e "s/^\\connect olduser$/\\connect newuser/" filename

Thanks, Dave, Dossy, and Til.

To load in the database dump:

psql -f filename dbusername

Helpful reference.

I updated my easy virtual hosting document. I finally fixed the most major problem I was having with it.

My ISP (Qwest) recently implemented a brain-dead measure to prevent spam. They require you to check your email before you can send out email.

Of course, this doesn't prevent spam at all -- it only makes it harder if you have a low-volume mail server. Here's what I did to get around this:

$ crontab -e

Add this line:

*/10 * * * * /usr/bin/telnet pop.ptld.qwest.net 110 < /home/mename/bin/script.txt >& /dev/null

Every ten minutes, it connects to port 110, and runs the contents of bin/script.txt

$ cat bin/script.txt
user username@qwest.net
pass mypassword
list
quit

Interesting..

What I actually ended up doing, however, is setting Spamassassin up with Exim

I used this link to set up courier-imap. I also looked at http://www.crazysquirrel.com/debian/mail.php

This changes every day, I believe. Thanks to Joel.

I appeared in another article featuring my work with Stop Abuse For Everyone. It was a very positive article, I think.

Ad_form has a facility for allowing you to pull in new values from the database while the form is being edited. This is a really cool feature if you know how to use it.

Basically, all you have to do is:

In the definition of your form, put in an html section

    {pm_task_id:integer(select),optional
        {section "Task"}
        {label "Subject"}
        {options {$task_options}}
        {html 
        {onChange "document.log_entry_form.__refreshing_p.value='1';
submit()"}
        }
        {value $pm_task_id}
    }
} 

In this case, the form is called log_entry_form. When you submit the form, it will show the form again, this time with the value for pm_task_id and the rest of the form set. I then have a section of my form that says:

if {[info exists pm_task_id]} {

extend the form here

}

This can allow you to do things like sub-categories with ad_form.

When you have code in a /lib directory, and you want it to be called by any package, you need to make sure any links you return are relative to the package the /lib resides in. Let's say it's in package-A/lib and it's being called from package-B/www/myfile.tcl

Look a lars-blogger/www/blog.adp for a good example of how to deal with this.

See the link below.

http://news.statesmanjournal.com/album/album.cfm?i=192&r=10

Look right above the woman in the white t-shirt: Kate, Jade, and Pam, in clockwise order. John Kerry came by about 10 minutes later. We all got to shake both of their hands. We were in a remote section, way behind where the speeches were made, but Pam got the rest of us to chant HOW ARD HOW ARD, until he came up. Then she started in on KER RY KER RY, and eventually he came up too. I don't think his security team was very pleased. It was like a rock concert, but it was also pretty amazing, because all of Pioneer Square was a sea of people -- so it was pretty neat to have them come right by where we were.

Howard Dean greets well wishers during presidential candidate John Kerryﾒs campaign stop in Portland. Dean, the Vermont governor, once was running against Kerry but now has thrown his support behind the Massachusetts senator.

LORI CAIN / Statesman Journal

Interesting article.

This was done by a friend of mine. I found it to be pretty powerful.

Sorry for the downer, but I need to tell everyone I can about what is going on...

We are losing the war. Yes, we beat their army, we crushed their government but right now we are losing the people. No one seems to show these people any respect, they are fed up and want us to go.

They are tired of us breaking in their doors at 3 in the morning. They are tired of us holding children in a school while the parents wait out side. They are tired of us firing rounds into their farms to register the guns.

They are tired of us driving across their land and destroying their crops.

They are tired of the roadblocks and having their cars searched.

We are treating everyone like the enemy right now because of a few bad guys running around causing trouble. People are being detained for having a spool of wire in their house, or because someone buried some bad stuff within a couple hundred meters of their house. People do not even want soldiers shopping in their stores anymore. A lot of innocent people are being shot by soldiers because of miscommunication or nerves, or because they were in the way of a bullet. I am beginning to worry
about what is going to happen here, are we going to be able to get out if we want to? It is turing into a Vietnam. I am here in the wire so I have very little say or very little opportunity to effect change. The men are not getting rest and they are getting jumpy and or bored which is not good for the Iraqi civilians. If you look at the polls, you will see the start of what I mean, it has gotten at least 30% worse here as far as the civilian attitude in the last week. I am questioning myself as an American soldier and I do not like that. If this keeps up, the Taji general population overall will want us gone. Without significant changes in attitude I think that things will be very bad within a month.

[11:16] <bartt> You use a TAGS file for that.
[11:16] <bartt> Are you familiar w/ M-. ?
[11:16] > No, not really.
[11:17] <bartt> OK, let me publish some scripts I use to create TAGS files for OpenACS.
[11:17]         jadeforrest cheers :)
[11:17] <bartt> TAGS files are one of the best things about Emacs and VIM
[11:17] <SchemaThings> tks bartt!
[11:17] <SchemaThings> totally
[11:18] <SchemaThings> the toolmaster 9000
[11:18]         bartt setting up a ~/bin GNU Arch achive

[11:19] > I can't believe I was living without oacs.el before :)
[11:44] <bartt> OK, for those with tla, you can get otags & otags-site using:
[11:45] <bartt> tla get -A bart-arch@thecodemill.biz--2004 bin--main--0 bin
[11:45] <bartt> Do this in your ~ and then add ~/bin to your PATH.
[11:45]         bartt making a tar file of this archive.

[11:47] <bartt> You can download the tar file from: http://www.thecodemill.biz/repository/otags.tgz
[11:47] <bartt> Extract in ~ (creates ./bin)
[11:48] <bartt> Then run otags-site <path to your OpenACS server root>
[11:48] <bartt> E.g. otags-site /web/openacs-4
[11:48] <bartt> This will create 2 files in each package directory: TAGS and TAGS-TCL
[11:49] <bartt> Plus a master set of TAGS and TAGS-TCL files in server root.
[11:49] hazmat [~hazmat@pool-68-162-33-2.nwrk.east.verizon.net] has joined #openacs
[11:51] <bartt> TAGS contains tags of all TCL procedure definitions, XQL query definitions and all SQL package bodies.
[11:52] <bartt> TAGS-TCL contains tags of all TCL procedure definitions and XQL query definitions but not the SQL package bodies.
[11:52] <bartt> otags-site calls otags
[11:52] <bartt> otags is configured to index Oracle XQL files.
[11:53] <bartt> Change the regexp in otags to index PostgreSQL XQL files instead.
[11:53] <bartt> Re-running otags-site will update the TAGS and TAGS-TCL files.
[11:53] <bartt> To use these files press M-. in Emacs
[11:54] <bartt> Upon first use Emacs will ask for a TAGS file.
[11:54] <bartt> If you want to search the entire site you point it to the master TAGS file. E.g. /web/openacs-4/TAGS
[11:55] <bartt> If you want to limit your search to a single package point it to the package TAGS file. E.g. /web/openacs-4/packages/acs-tcl/TAGS
[11:55] <bartt> If you want to limit your search to on the TCL and XQL files of a single package point it to the package TAGS-TCL file. E.g. /web/openacs-4/packages/acs-tcl/TAGS-TCL
[11:55] <bartt> Let me know if you have any questions.
[11:57] <bartt> You can switch TAGS files in an Emacs session w/ M-x tags-reset-tags-table
[11:57] > Is this documented anywhere, or should I copy and paste from this session so I don't forget?
[11:57] <bartt> I haven't documented this. Most of it is documented in Emacs though.
[11:58]         bartt Reminds himself to write another article

[11:59] <bartt> C-h i
[11:59] <bartt> m emacs
[11:59] <bartt> m tags
[11:59] <bartt> Will get you to the tags documentation in Emacs
[11:59] <SchemaThings> tags is a standard feature of either editor if you can tag the body of stuff you're working with
[12:00] <SchemaThings> so the bartt tag generator is the custom code / technique here
[12:00] <dirkgomez> lars uses them in a very interesting way
[12:00] <SchemaThings> how so?
[12:01] <bartt> Also very useful: M-x tag-search and M-x tags-query-replace
[12:01] <bartt> Followed by M-,

Jeff pointed out I can say:

ad_url

instead of...

parameter::get_from_package_key -package_key acs-kernel -parameter SystemURL

Thanks, Jeff!

Woohoo! :)

I posted a script I used.

If you're not as good at CVS as you should be, you end up doing things like this..

I've developed project-manager, and at work, we have a lot of customizations for it. I want to keep these separate from the pure version, which I'm releasing for OpenACS. However, I want to work off of my customized verison, and move those changes over the the pure version.

If I was using Arch, this would be fairly easy. If I was really good at CVS, this might also be really easy (although everyone tells me CVS doesn't handle this very well). I believe you'd use vendor branches.

But a easy to understand way to do it is to do development off on my customized version, and do

cvs diff -Nu > patchfile

and then in my release version

patch -p0 < patchfile

That seems to work fine so far for me.

Richard Hamilton called my project-manager package for OpenACS, a work of art! Wow, thanks, Richard!

I think it still needs a lot of work!

Interesting proc.

In OpenACS, if you have context and the mime_type, you can get the HTML to display as follows:

set richtext_list [list $description $mime_type]

set description [template::util::richtext::get_property html_value $richtext_list]

Finally found a link on this.

There is an article on Stop Abuse For Everyone, and my work there, in a daily paper in Eugene, Oregon.

I've noticed a pattern recently in people who don't seem very well socialized:

* they don't ask questions about the person they're talking with.

They either talk about themselves, or they don't talk much at all.

Shows how to use acs_community_member_url to get the URL for a community member that is subsite aware (I've always hardcoded it).

Here's where I keep track of posts that seem to not yet be in the documentation, dealing with problems with the OpenACS 4.6.3 -> 5.0 upgrade:

CVS problems: http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=172430
http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=109337

A couple files that might need to be deleted. Not able to log in
http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=152200

Resolution of the files that may need to be deleted:
http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=152200

Problem with acs-lang and more
http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=152200

The big thread on the upgrade:
http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=109337

set subsite_id [ad_conn subsite_id]
set user_group_id [application_group::group_id_from_package_id \
                       -package_id $subsite_id]

      select
        p.first_names || ' ' || p.last_name as who,
        p.person_id
        FROM
        persons p,
        acs_rels r,
        membership_rels mr
        WHERE
        r.object_id_one = :user_group_id and
        mr.rel_id = r.rel_id and
        p.person_id = r.object_id_two and
        member_state = 'approved'
        ORDER BY
        p.first_names, p.last_name

site_node::get_package_url -package_key organizations

I learned this from Malte. Thanks, Malte!

It appeared in today's Oregonian.

postgres73@www:~$ createuser rubick-dev
Shall the new user be allowed to create databases? (y/n) y
Shall the new user be allowed to create more new users? (y/n) y
psql: FATAL 1: user "postgres73" does not exist
createuser: creation of user "rubick-dev" failed

I tried to upgrade and got a message back:

The following packages have been kept back
libssl-dev openssl
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

You have to type apt-get dist-upgrade to overcome this.

I at least have not found a way to do it, without borrowing a PC.

Unfortunately, that may mean I can't use my new Powerbook from work at home, wirelessly, because apparently older wireless routers can't deal with 802.11g, or Airport Extreme.

Maybe next time I'll buy an Apple router.

Interestingly, I talked with tech support, which was a call center in India. It was weird after reading all of these articles about call center and programmer outsourcing, to actually be talking with a real live person who was benefiting because of outsourcing.

Outsourcing has become a big issue in the US right now, because a lot of white collar jobs are being shipped overseas to lower costs. Huge debates reign on Slashdot and the editorials of the NY Times.

I've released the alpha version of project-manager.

I received a very nice write-up in the Points of Light Foundation award page.

This allows you to follow function definitions by pressing M-.

I can't wait to try this out.

This is from Tech Republic. Unfortunately, they don't offer the URL in their emails...


MODIFY FILES WITH PERL

When you're writing scripts or installation programs that need to
modify data in specific files, the ability to automatically change
files can be a very useful thing. For example, this ability comes in
handy when you have a file from which you need to remove a certain
string or word, when you're changing an IP address in a number of
files, and so on.

Manually modifying these files can be time-consuming, especially if
it's a repetitive task. However, you can use the Perl program to
accomplish this. All Linux distributions come with this program.
Execute the following:

$ perl -pi -e 's|[old_string]|[new_string]|g' [file]

The strings can be simple words or regular expressions. Let's say you
changed the location of a directory (e.g., from /var/spool/mail to
/var/spool/messages), and you want to change every file in the /etc
directory to reflect the path change. Execute the following:

$ find /etc -type f| xargs perl -pi -e
's|\/var\/spool\/mail|\/var\/spool\/messages|g'

In this example, we use find and xargs to ensure that the system only
runs the command against regular files--not accidentally against
directories or other file types. This also walks the /etc directory
tree and will recursively change all files.

We've written the paths as \/var rather than /var because we need to
escape the / character, which we can also use as a delimiter in the
Perl expression. (Instead of using |, you can also use /, #, and @ as
delimiters.)

To remove a word from an entire file, execute the following:

$ perl -pi -e 's|myword||g' file

This basically replaces "myword" with nothing. (Note that there's no
space between the second and third delimiters.)

Using Perl in this fashion, you can get extremely creative when
modifying configuration files or any other type of data. Think of it as
an automatic search-and-replace function.

I have two computers with wireless connections on my home network: one is an old Mac OS 9 computer, and I have a new Powerbook G4.

The old Mac connects fine to our Linksys wireless connection -- the new Powerbook does not get a reliable connection.

I downloaded Airport Grapher, and it shows the connection regularly going to 0% every five seconds, very regularly. so regular it almost looks like a heartbeat, although there are exceptions where it goes out for longer. But it never stays on longer than 4 second.

The system log is full of messages like this:

Feb 29 12:16:15 localhost kernel: AirPort: Link UP: "emerson" - 000625665b62 - chan 11
Feb 29 12:16:20 localhost kernel: AirPort: Link DOWN
Feb 29 12:16:20 localhost kernel: AirPort: Link UP: "emerson" - 000625665b62 - chan 11
Feb 29 12:16:22 localhost kernel: AirPort: Link DOWN

It looks like it must be some configuration thing on my Powerbook, but I can't figure out what it could be. Any ideas?

OpenACS project-manager is a web-based project-manager.

Today I released version 0.8d, which is still buggy, but it can be used to get an idea of how it will eventually work for those intererested.

cvs add folder
find folder -type d -print | xargs cvs add
find folder -name CVS -prune -o -type f -print | xargs cvs add

Uses the new category API for ad_form

For work on domestic violence issues. It's a honor :-)

If you are a programmer, this is a must read article.

A great article by Jeff Davis

Allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds through IMAP

I'd strongly recommend anybody to view this. Why? Because it's your money that's being spent!

I'm have some trepidation about doing this, because I have songs I've purchased from the iTunes store. Is there going to be some sort of cryptographic prohibition against putting the music on my new computer? I hope not... We'll see.

Don't click on any links in your email!!

http://www.hugeurl.com/?YTk1ZDZiYjU1NTkzZjYxZWU3NjFhNmRkYTEwMDMyYjQmMTIm Vm0wd2QyUXlVWGxXYTJoV1YwZG9WVll3Wkc5alJsWjBUVlpPV0Zac2JETlhhMUpUVmpGYWMy SkVUbGhoTWsweFZqQmFTMk15U2tWVWJHaG9UVmhDVVZadGVGWmxSbGw1Vkd0c2FsSnRhRzlV VjNOM1pVWmFkR05GZEZSTlZUVkpWbTEwYTFkSFNrZGpTRUpYVFVad1NGUlVSbUZqVmtaMFVt eFNUbUY2UlRGV1ZFb3dWakZhV0ZOcmJGSmlSMmhZV1d4b2IwMHhXbGRYYlVaclVsUkdXbGt3 WkRSVk1rcElaSHBHVjJFeVVYZFpWRVpyVTBaT2NscEhjRlJTVlhCWlZrWldhMVV5VW5OalJt UllZbFZhY1ZscldtRmxWbVJ5VjI1a1YwMUVSa1pWYkZKRFZqQXhkVlZ1V2xaaGExcFlXa1Zh VDJOdFNrZFRiV3hYVWpOb1dGWnRNSGRsUjBsNFUydGthVk5GV2xSWmJHaFRWMVpXY1ZKcmRG UldiRm93V2xWb2ExWXdNVVZTYTFwWFlrZG9jbFpxU2tabFZsWlpXa1prYUdFeGNGaFhiRnBo VkRKT2RGSnJhR2hTYXpWeldXeG9iMWRHV25STlNHaFBVbTE0VjFSVmFHOVhSMHBJVld4c1dt SkhhRlJXTUZwVFZqRmtkRkp0ZUZkaWEwcElWbXBKZUUxR1dsaFRhMlJxVWtWYVYxWnFUbTls YkZweFUydGthbUpWVmpaWlZWcGhZVWRGZUdOSWJGZFdSVXBvVmtSS1QyUkdTbkpoUjJoVFlY cFdkMVp0Y0V0aU1rbDRWMWhvWVZKRlNtRldha1pIVGtaYVdHUkhkR2hXYXpWSFZqSjRVMWR0 U2toaFJsSlhUVlp3V0ZreFdrdGpiVkpIVld4T2FWSXpZM2hXTVZKUFpERkplRmRZWkU1WFJY QlpWbXRXZDFkR2JITmhSazVzWWtad2VGVnRNVWRWTWtwV1ZtcGFXbFpXY0hKWlZXUkdaVWRP U0U5V1pHaGhNSEJ2Vm10U1MxUnRWbGRUYmtwb1VqTm9WRmxZY0Zka2JHUnpXa1JTV2xZeFNu cFdNalZUVkd4a1NGVnNXbFZXTTFKNlZHdGFjMk5zWkhSa1IyaHBVbGhCZDFac1pEUmpNV1Iw VTJ0b2FGSnNTbGhVVlZwM1lVWndSbHBGT1U5aVJYQjZXVlZrYzFVd01IbGhSbXhYWVd0dmQx bFhjekZYUmtweVdrWm9hV0V6UW5oV1Z6QjRWVEZzVjFWc1dsaGliVkpZVlcxNGQyVkdWblJO VldSWFRVUkdlVlJzVm05V01VbzJVbXRvVjFaRldreFdha3BQVW14YWMxcEhiRk5OVlZZelZt eGFVMUl4YkZkWGJrcE9WbXh3V0ZsWWNGZFdSbFp5Vm10YVQxVlVNRGs9

I've added in a section that describes how to use Arch with OpenACS.

Kate and I recently watched a DVD of director Michel Gondry's videos. We were blown away by a couple of them.

This is an open letter from Stop Abuse For Everyone to Howard Dean on domestic violence. Specifically, the letters asks for Dean to use more inclusive language, including male and same-sex domestic violence victims in his statements, and corrects a couple of inaccuracies in the statistics he is using.

Interesting column on SQL hierarchies.

On a Titanium PowerBook, running OS 10.3.2, on a wireless network. My network connection just died yesterday.

Anyway, it works fine over ethernet, but on the wireless network, only pinging seems to working, and nothing else.

jadeforrest: Can you think of any reason my Powerbook would lose the ability to do all network connectivity EXCEPT the ability to ping other servers (and be pinged as well). And only for the wireless connection -- ethernet is fine.
jadeforrest: I can ping, but no traceroute, http, ssh, imap, or smtp
markd2: do other machines on the wireless network work?
jadeforrest: yes
jadeforrest: It seems like if I'm able to ping, then it should be a software issue, right?
markd2: ping uses a lower level of TCP than the other protocols, so something somewhere isn't happy
markd2: (gee, that's real useful :-)
jadeforrest: I didn't know that, actually.
markd2: if I have weird networking stuff happen, I wave a dead chicken over it by changing my config, applying the change, the changing it back again
jadeforrest: I'll try that. :)
jadeforrest: I even have some thawing chicken I can wave over it!
markd2: at this consulting gig, sometimes their dhcp server (run on windows. sigh) just flakes out.
markd2: re-doing the config gets me a second try at a valid IP address
jadeforrest: I've renewed the DHCP lease, and it seems to renew pretty easily. And DNS is fine, I think, because I can ping mail.bread.com for example.
jadeforrest: Which is totally mystifying to me. I've never had a networking issue like that before.
markd2: anything interesting doing an ifconfig -a?
jadeforrest: I don't think so. I'll be back in a few minutes (it's downstairs)
jadeforrest: thanks!
cro: jadeforrest: It might be a path MTU issue. Ping packets are very small. Can you ping with larger packets?
*** cro has signed off (Read error: 104 (Connection reset by peer))
jadeforrest: Hmmm, I wonder if cro is on to something.
jadeforrest: If I ping the laptop (from another computer) I can ping at 64 bytes, and get 100% of the packets, but when I do 92 bytes, I get about 89% packet loss (for 56 packets)
markd2: the other computer is coming over the wireless too?
jadeforrest: yes
markd2: I'm baffled
jadeforrest: me too

Can anyone help? I'll post it for posterity if you do!

Kate now has a section on the website where she'll keep track of the books she's reading.