Posted by nathan on Dec 26, 2006 in Uncategorized
Back when I was getting my first gray( I can not believe that the spell checker does not let me use an ‘e’ in gray!) hair, I had to be about 25 or so, and I could not imagine the life I live today. Even as I progressed over the years, and I gave up shaving or took it up again, my beard has not yet reached a point where I will be permitted into the mysterious society of “ol’ Grey-Bearded Wise Men” which is certainly not to be confused with the [[Magi]].
Steph and I followed our geekiest instincts last week and used several on line resources as well as KStars to travel back in time to see how the night sky over Baghdad looking west would appear during the approximate time of birth for the Christ Child. This did not make us any wiser - but we did get to feel slightly superior for about five minutes.
Which leads me back to where I was going with this before I got around to rambling aimlessly, sort of like Moses after leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt. This year our family went to Grace Church for a lovely Christmas Eucharist, EJ was perfectly wonderful in our little boxed in pew - those neo-Gothic churches are just fantastic! Then we had the traditional lunch in a Chinese restaurant followed by a movie in the local cinema, which EJ watched intently for the entirety!
Anyways, none of this was imaginable to the person I was ten years ago. There were ups and downs which I have experienced along the way and have all resulted in who I am today and would not trade them for any other. Sridhar may have just found one white hair on his head - but I guarantee that it’ll be at least fifteen years before he can apply for true membership to the “Ol’ Greybeard Society.” I just pray that I’ll be around to help indoctrinate him and teach him the [[Secret_handshake|secret handshake]].
Tags: Ubuntu
Posted by nathan on Dec 22, 2006 in
Father As my twelve readers can attest, there are several entries here about Ubuntu Linux - Specifically in regards to the KDE environment (yes, I know it’s recursive to say that - and I am certain that Aaron Seigo would have a greater clarification about [[KDE]] than I am capable of but I digress.)
I have on again off again had aspirations to have this blog syndicated on either the Ubuntu or a Kubuntu Planet but there are other posts which have little or nothing to do with anything technical. As the twelve distinct IP Addresses will testify, most of the work here is progress reports on a genetics experiment which has no control group. (Ok, so I’m just trying to keep the family informed about the latest cute thing my Lil Bug has done/learned/invented– incidentally, I have a laptop with DSL install so that she can use [[GCompris]] without freaking my dictatorial control-freak tendencies out too badly.
So, if there are plans for a smaller Planet of Ubuntu/Kubuntu Users blogs - Please feel free to include this one. Or there is the [[RSS]] option
Tags: KDE, laptop, Ubuntu
Posted by nathan on Dec 19, 2006 in
Father Last night, I cleaned a new set of photos off our digital camera, and then using [[Digikam]] and The GIMP I worked some digital magic before uploading them to the server. Incidentally, the phone company repaired the telephone switch in the basement and ran a new line to all the Apartments on the A line, which means we have our DSL again.
Our little Squeakazoid sitting on a tiny step somewhere in downtown Brooklyn. This is one of her favorite things to do, anywhere, she really seems to like finding a place to sit that is made for her as so much of the world is just too big for her to handle. It is really amazing for us to watch her grow and discover new hiding spaces like the space between the corner and Mommy’s vanity, behind the rocking chair or in the closet with the cat. There is a little ledge in the kitchen which she will sit on before she gets on the floor and puts all the cat food into the cats water.
Daddy with a monkey on his back. EJ really has a ball whenever she gets up on Daddy’s shoulders, she especially like taking him through all the gaits and it seems as if the canter is her favorite. Steph says that our Lil Bug gets a very funny expression on her face and makes a very dramatic grab for my hair. I feel the hair grab and the heels kick in just like Uncle Brad on one of his Arabian Horses, too bad it my neck that is getting kicked.
A Little Brekkie! Here are the Aussie Girls have their morning munchie session, the plate has grapes and cheese, the bottle has milk and they were both very happy!
And just so a certain little Pig doesn’t think I am a total Grinch- Here is a Holiday Photo:
Posted by nathan on Dec 17, 2006 in
Father TIME Magazine announced their Person of the Year today. Well, I have to say I did very little over at MySpace even less at YouTube and my poor flickr account has been suffering lately as my tendencies have become more contained within our domain.
I do like to post a flag so that my little handle doesn’t get corrupted by someoneelse who will be more active than me, so I create accounts whereever I can. This results in a great number of spam entries into my mail system, so I have to use some dead-drop boxes that I empty when they reach a certain level. It’s pretty funny to see all the spam trends as they sweep through. I am no longer getting advertisements for a larger member or greater performance, I guess the spammers have given up on me in that department. Now I get lots of emails with the subject, “HELLO it’s $Spammers_Name” or just plain “It’s $Spammers_Name” trying to hawk various stocks that they have invested in and are hoping to generate a false surge in order to cash out.
Anyways, I am not going to let this honor of being TIME Magazine’s [[Person of the Year]] go to my head, or any other part of my body.
UPDATE: This is a graph of the number of blogs which are linking to this honorable article.
Posts that contain "person Of The Year" per day for the last 30 days.
Get your own chart!
Posted by nathan on Dec 13, 2006 in
Father Today, the phone lines coming into our building along with several cable lines were disrupted which meant that our internet service was cut off. Not only was our DSL no longer working but I could not jack into a WiFi network from one of the neighbors as their service was down as well. As I had an assignment due today, I bundled up my laptop and headed to the library to work using their WiFi network.
Around lunchtime, I left and headed into Park Slope to grab a bite. As I passed [[Grand Army Plaza]] I saw a rather unique situation unfold. There are essentially six roads which lead into the roundabout. While I was walking around the perimeter three ambulances entered the roundabout from three different streets, then they all exited the roundabout using the remaining three streets and every single ambulance crossed the other ambulance’s path.
There are all sorts of strangeness in such a situation. The first is that I even noticed it - must be the result of rereading Chaos: Making a New Science as well as having a good unit of Proability in my Finite Math class. But then I thought about the strange chances of such an occurrence that at the same moment in time, in the same place three ambulances would be screaming thorough on an emergency run. Strange. Improbable? Or just highly unlikely?
Perhaps it happens as frequently as once a week in a city the size of Brooklyn maybe less frequently than that. It could be a good study for a more academic paper.
Tags: School
Posted by nathan on Dec 11, 2006 in Uncategorized
Can we leave New York city now? How about the United States of America?
you are awesome.
Posted by nathan on Dec 10, 2006 in
Father Yesterday was C3M’s Christmas Children’s Party. EJ had a great time and got totally worn out. Here is a picture of the two of us. Steph was at rehearsal for the Christmas 
Posted by nathan on Dec 9, 2006 in
Father Yeah!
I was hungry today while picking up my instrument from the repair shop, so I nearly stabbed the guy behind the counter for wishing me a happy holiday. Ok not really, but felt like it, awkwardly enough.
EJ and I watched the Empire Strikes Back after Day Care and played on the bed before she fell asleep. She is growing up now, it is so amazing.
Posted by nathan on Dec 5, 2006 in
Father A week ago, maybe slightly longer, I completed an application to Portland State University. I am aiming to transfer into their Computer Science program in the Winter of 2008. I fully realized that this will result in having to move completely across the continent to a new place that doesn’t have nearly as many people as my local neighborhood. No problem with any of that.
So a couple of days ago, I received a letter requesting transcripts from the current school and a letter from my doctor that stated how immune to Measles, Mumps and Rubella I am.
So, My actions then were to call University of Phoenix and have transcripts sent to PSU - which cost me $7, and I paid for that with my debit card. The next day, I bought an album from Magnatune.com then the following day my bank called me to make certain that I was one actually making these purchases [ they finally got a plus point in their favor - no if they would only acknowledge linux on their website! ].
Yesterday, I called the Doctor to see how we could resolve the MMR portion of the problem - which after several phone calls between me and the staff I am going in for my annual checkup as well as receive a new MMR shot, as the last time I remember getting one was in boot camp and I seriously doubt that the US Navy can find that record in sufficient time for it to be useful for me.
And we are only at the beginning of this particular chain of events, who knows how far into the future it will stretch out before us.
Tags: School, Ubuntu
Posted by nathan on Dec 2, 2006 in
Father Yesterday, my buddy Mark came over to the house and we installed Kubuntu on his old laptop. Since the laptop was pretty ancient and was still running Microsoft Millenium Edition (silly name if you ask me) I had to do a little bit of geek voodoo to get the computer to cooperate.
Using a Knoppix Live CD of DSL (Damn Small Linux) to boot up and disengage the MSN code, I was able to follow that up with an installation of Ubuntu Linux 5.10 Hoary Hedgehog. Then once that was complete - I used Hoary because it does not have a graphical installer and it does a pretty good job of erasing and repartitioning a hard drive - I was able to boot a Kubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake Live CD and install that version. Then finally, late at night I went into the list of repository sources in /etc/apt/sources.list and changed all instances of Dapper to Edgy.
Then I ran these commands
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
An hour later, the computer had the basic code for Kubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft installed ( it would have been much faster had this laptop had an ethernet connection, instead the install was done completely over WiFi). Some minor changes and then I had completed the process - naturally I take the hard way there could have been a much easier resolution but I had to set it up perfectly!
Tags: Ubuntu
