zen.org Communal Weblog

In the beginning we had SATA cards that didn’t have working Linux drivers; I got different cards and all was well. Well, all was not well, to close the case we needed SATA cables with 90° jacks. We ordered eight Belkin cables for testing and again all was well.

So we ordered like twenty-two more cards for the rest of the cluster, and ninty-six more cables with 90° jacks on the end. Some where on back order, but a bunch came in and all was working. The the backorder cables started comming in, it seem Belkin changed the 90° jack, and the new ends are bigger. That extra quarter centimeter suddenly makes it so the cables really don’t fit any more! Well, they probably could squeeze in, but I think it would break something.

This all started in the beginning of June! Computers suck.

Maybe I’ve uninstalled Sarge from systems but I’m slowly getting them back. I’m up to eight systmes with Sarge, twenty-four mixed Debian Woody/Sarge systmes. I can actually do upgrades without worrying about breaking things! Well, Sarge is still testing, so there is a chance of breaking things.

A few weeks ago I was asked to install kgpg on one of these mixed systmes (actually another mixed system apart from the thirty-two systems above, but that’s another story) and all of KDE got upgraded at the same time, so did Samba. A week later I was told to downgrade Samba because the new one was broken. To downgrade Samba I had to remove kgpg and downgrade KDE. I got lucky because the next work day Debian put out a new version of Samba that worked.

Thanks to our friend Jason we’ve got a new version of the zen.org icon image:

This one is a lot more crisp. Really cool.

From our friend Michael, in response to my getting citizenship:

…and you also have the right to:

* paint the exterior of the house ‘Dart’ green;
* say ‘Can I go to the toilet?’ and ‘kiss my ass’ in Irish
* ‘Whoop!’ sporadically when listening to traditional music;
* make out the weather is worse than it really is;
* talk lucidly and persuasively at all times (except when being filmed);
* have pictures of JFK, the pope and your dog on the mantlepiece;
* say ‘feck!’ on any national broadcaster with impunity;
* get misty eyed over the thought of coddle, and how they don’t make it
properly anymore;
* Practice better/faster/cheaper ways of doing anything, despite the fact
they are illegal because you can now…
* …ignore the law right up to the point of getting caught, as it probably
doesn’t apply to you personally;
* tackle any looming problems using ‘a.s.f.i.’* techniques
* officially begrudge;

* a.s.f.i. – ah sure, feck it!

This summer I was asked to take the role of technical expert witness in a case in the High Court here in Ireland. My first. Holy cow.

It involved Internet filter usage in libraries, and I was on the side of the person filing suit for no filters being in place. Today, finally, was the court date. Last week I finished my official opinion, all 21 pages of it, and today it was going to be submitted to the judge as part of my appearance when the whole trial started.

In a very anti-climactic way the trial ended up not happening. There was no judge available to hear it, so there ended up being some kind of settlement since apparently neither side really felt like waiting til February or March for another try. The system is very different from America, at least using my Law & Order-based perspective: you learn at 11am whether or not you can get one of the three judges that listen to cases in this group, whatever that may be. If you get one, you may start in half an hour. Or you lose out and have to reschedule for some later date. Very down to the last minute.

Turned out only one judge was available, with three separate cases vying for position. The first case on the list, with us in third place, won out. I arrived at the court at about 9:45am ready to rock, and finally left after tons of cafe latte and tea at about 2:30pm. Most of the time was spent waiting around to learn if there would be a judge, then waiting for a settlement or a later trial.

Overall it was an interesting experience where I got to take part in two consultations (meetings with the client or the barrister involved), do a few technical evaluations of what’s currently set up at the library, research a-plenty, and reread my written opinion a few times en route to the Four Courts to make sure I would remember the important stuff. Lots of work but I think it was worth it. (Hmm, am I overstepping my bounds by putting it on my resume if I never actually spoke in the courtroom?)

Maybe I’ll be lucky and get to do it again some time. Hey, maybe I’ll even make it into the witness box.

As of September 30 (but I just got the certificate today), I am IRISH. I have dual citizenship. I can get a passport, vote, and properly bitch about this country because I BELONG here :-).

It’s amazing. You never think about getting citizenship in another country, at least I didn’t. It’s really a wild feeling.

Up in Dublin today, I was hunting around for a place to sit down and read my mail while eating lunch. Could’ve gone with the Subway Internet Cafe (yup, Subway made it to Ireland). But I thought I’d try lunch at the Clarence Hotel since E’s parents ate there and liked it, if I remember correctly. I’d seen it in a list of wireless hotspots in Dublin. The fabled U2-Bono-TheEdge hotel seen in their Beautiful Day video is reportedly an attraction for tourists and fellow stars. I can certainly say that the fellow at the reception desk was really nice and works hard to help you, particularly when the bartender tells you there’s no wireless Internet access but reception says there is. heh. Not free, of course, for 1 hour: 6 pounds sterling aka 8.55 Euro aka $11.38 US. After lunch he appeared in the bar to check that I’d successfully connected, and asked again who had told me they didn’t have access so he could make sure they knew the right answer. He’s good at his job.

For lunch, you have an assortment of traditional pub grub and then a Daily Dish—for Monday, an Irish Stew with Guinness bread. Stew was okay, but not amazing. Kinda bland flavor, though I’d love the bread recipe. The bar had maybe two other tables with anyone at them. I didn’t look in the restaurant, since I knew I was already splurging for lunch and it’d be ridiculous to consider what a restaurant meal here probably costs.

With an empty bar, I’m not sure why my equally empty pint glass has been left without intervention (regardless of whether or not I would drink any more having finished my lunch). Maybe they’ve been yelled at by customers with laptops enough that they don’t dare interrupt?

Anyway, all together a decent enough lunch but nothing to write (much) in your blog about. One review came up with a fun play on words: Where the Sheets Have No Stains.

Even though he falls asleep in his own bed, just about every night our 3 year-old wakes up somewhere between 10pm and 1am to come into our bedroom, climb over me, and snuggle down between us. Many a morning we’d wake up to find him there, neither E nor I with any memory of his arrival.

As comforting as it is to feel his warm little body cuddling up to us, I think he’s forcing us to come up with a strategy to make him opt for his own bed more often. The last few nights a combination of accelerated feet swinging out of nowhere, “Dad I wanna go downstairs,” and head-butts have made us get little sleep. It’s as if he were 6 months old again. If he slept through the night in a civil manner, he’d be more than welcome. But our kidneys and heads can’t take much more of the abuse.

Last night I think we can count perhaps 3 hours of real sleep. I’m up at 6 today while E sleeps in, and this afternoon I expect I’ll crash for a couple of hours to be in even close to a decent mood for the evening.

There’s plenty about a young P that we’ll miss in a few years, seriously regretting not keeping a more active journal of his funny quirks, new discoveries, and happy moments. We’ll lament our poor memories, knowing for any one tidbit we kept we let a dozen disappear forever. Yet somehow I suspect this random sleep deprivation isn’t going to be as quickly forgotten. 🙂

At 20:07 UTC on November twenty-sixth the moon was totally full. Now just a few hours on the waning side I went out in the cold with the opera specs Brendan gave me for being in his wedding party. The moon is amazing! If this happens much more I should get a small telescope on a tripod.

Wow, if you Google “Cosmic Wimpout“ you discover tons of info about the game, a FAQ, even a copy of it for the Palm. Sven taught me how to play this in our studio (said very loosely) apartment in college. The mention of stuff like Scrabble reminded me of it, and only now did I try to see who else knew about it. Turns out plenty do.