ok so there are a few things i have wanted to post about in the last few days that i have just been too lazy to do.

first, i wanted to mention the dvd burner. seems the dvd burner is on the fritz. before i formatted and reinstalled, it started acting wierd by making a clicking sound every time it started to read a disc. as of late, the drive has started making the same sound when it closes a dvd while burning. so it looks like the drive will have to be replaced asap. i’ve been shopping around, and this drive seems to be the best choice. might as well make the jump to dual layer and just wait for the $1/disc days to arrive.

secondly, i found a link to AIM Fight on slashdot a while back. so far, it seems only chris and a friend of crystal has beat my score. i think one other person beat me, but i cannot remember whom.

next, i found some rather interesting news about the XBox 360. it seems that it will not be featuring an HD-DVD drive in the initial release. wow, if history has told us anything, this will be the final nail in microsoft’s attempt to break into the gaming industry. this basically means that microsoft will be repeating what is known as the Osborne effect. for some of the older gamers out there, we have seen this before. remember back when sega made gaming consoles? i do, and i remember that they made 2 mistakes that buried them. first was the SegaCD. nuff said. second was the Dreamcast, which in turn was sega’s last attempt at making hardware. why did those systems flop? anticipation of better hardware.

basically what this boils down to is this. first, microsoft will most likely be locking themselves into the DVD format because by releasing 2 versions of the XBox, there will then be non-standard hardware. this means that software publishers will be either leary about making XBox360 games, or will stick to one format only. these publishers will most likely stick to the DVD format, since it was in the original release. we’ve seen this before in the PS2; the exact reason why online play never really took flight. secondly, this will mean that more people will be willing to wait to get the system. this means lower initial sales figures which means less game publishers. we’ve seen this before with the Gamecube. but this anticipation will mean that while those people wait, Sony and Nintendo have the chance to get their hardware out and then people will choose on either raw power of the system (basically, the numbers), brand loyalty (fanboys), or game library. granted microsoft will have an advantage on the library, but they will be severely lacking in terms of raw system power (aside from the myths that the ps3 and revolution are all just hyped).

surely microsoft is doing this for a good reason… then again, they’ve only posted profits in 1 of 8 of the last quarters in their XBox division while Nintendo has yet to post a loss.

next but not last, i wanted to mention my site. a long time ago, i developed a site i coined “anti-thought.” yeah, it just happens to be the name of this blog, but it was originally the name of that site. the site had the same basic principle as this blog though less evolved. well, recently i emerged lighthttpd and set it up. there is no content set up on the machine, but it will eventually be there. i will be redoing the general layout of the site as well as updating it with some newer technology. i will be using SSI to drive a majority of the page, including the menu and the main content. i will also be using CSS to drive the general theme. i’d like to setup a couple of CSS templates so users can switch to one that is most pleasant on their eyes. i will be reorganizing the data and creating a section to warehouse most of our pictures.

without further adue, here is the link: Anti-Thought. make sure to note that there is a port number other than 80; this was to stem the tide of the script kiddies bangin down on my webserver’s door (granted they never get it, but it’s just plain annoying). also, i’d like to mention that i have setup a publically accessible music streamer here: Erebus Music Server (the default theme is slow to browse, i’ve been meaning to change it). as you may have noticed, i’m using port numbers to control service and host destinations. if the music server is too swamped that i am unable to enjoy my music, i will effectively kill it’s public access and only allow restricted IP addresses. if you are not listening, tell your player to stop/pause. if i am forced to block IP addresses, i will only allow close friends who ask for access. i cannot listen to this at work so as long as my wife can surf the net when she needs to during the day, i don’t care how many people listen; evenings are another thing. so enjoy!

lastly, i wanted to mention that i finished another book called “hellbound heart,” written by clive barker. this book was the basis to the movie “hellraiser.” i will be giving my review of the book hopefully tomorrow after the gym.

so we recieved “finding neverland” from netflix earlier this week. friday night, crystal and i decided to sit down and watch it (after much house cleaning). so the following is my review of “finding neverland” (starring johnny depp and kate winslet).

having heard very few things about this movie, i was somewhat expecting something in the tune of “hook” (starring robbin williams). we found it couldn’t have been further from that movie.

the story is about JM Barrie, a famous playwright. the movie begins with his reaction to a less than steller play, that he had written, on opening night. he then goes to the park for some inspiration for another play and meets a family who becomes just that.

[spoiler]

Barrie finds out that the woman and her three boys are living alone after her husband died of cancer. Barrie helps to foster the children’s imagination and soon becomes almost a part of the family. the children become the inspiration for his latest play, peter pan. Barrie’s wife and most of the public becomes sceptic of Barrie’s relationship to the family and his wife actually leaves him in the end.

the boys (peter and his older brother) quickly mature once they learn that their mother has a life-threatening illness. the play becomes a huge success but the mother dies shortly after its opening. just before she passed away, she was able to see his vision of “neverland” from his childhood.

[/spoiler]

all in all, the movie was slow but well acted. johnny depp once again managed to actually become the character he was playing, never allowing himself to become type-casted. the characters had little development, but the traits that were emphasized were heavy with emotion. the plot was fairly thin, but this did not prove to be a problem with the overall effect. the director made an extra effort to make the scenes look as photograpic as possibly. this is was a pretty decent movie and it’s a shame it recieved little to no press.

my rating (of 10): 7

the dvd burning machine was finished being built last weekend. since there were no X packages to emerge, the build process was relatively quick. i booted the machine without the licecd today for the first time, as i was ready to begin burning some of the dvds i have backlogged on erebus.

come to find out, when the machine booted and tried to load grub (the boot loader), i ran across a serious problem. grub was printing “GRUB GRUB GRUB…” in an infinite loop. after grepping around the forums and googling what i could, several people hinted at the fact that manually configuring grub might have been a problem. the official grub people recommend using grub-install.

i tried this to solve my problem with no luck. another such solution hinted that the geometry of my MBR (on hd0) was screwed up. the solution was to wipe the drive completely (copy zeros to the device file) and reinstall. this would mean either backing up the current / directory or bonking the entire install. neither sounded very appealing, so i kept looking for another solution.

then i found this helpful grub thread in the forums. right underneath “Grub error 18″ is a mention of my problem. the solution was to switch from Auto detecting HDD types in the bios to specifying them with “User Type HDD”. i loved this solution as it was a hardware issue and not a software one (that required a rebuild of the system). i switched the types and used LBA since the drive is small.

it booted perfectly fine. so word to the wise, grub-096 seems to not like Auto detection HDD types.

one last thing. i have several posts i have been itching to make this week and have written down their topics as not to forget. tonight crystal and i will be watching “Finding Neverland”, so i may not get to posting them tonight. tomorrow, i have plenty of work to do on my network, so i will have time to make the appropriate posts (got 100+ packages to rebuild on citadel).

don’t touch that dial

so by the title, you should’ve guessed that this blog has 3 subjects.

first, management. there is a saying about management (especially in the software industry) that goes as follows: management wants the developers to produce an efficient (read: well-designed), cheap, and rapidly developed product. trouble is, they can only get two of three things. i’m quickly finding out that some people i work with think it’s just too easy to succumb to this type of statement. they’d rather hack out a crappy solution and spend way too many hours bug fixing and maintaining than to spend an extra 20 minutes and plan out a flexible design. they lean on that expression as if it were a crutch.

on top of that, i’ve noticed that people in general loathe change. i feel that sentiments like this could cripple someone’s career. many of the developers in my area are from an older generation, a pre-C generation if you will. C was most likely forced upon them unwillingly, much like C++. few people utilize C++’s improvements over C and favor C library routines such as printf over iostreams. the people i’m working with haven’t even heard of STL!! how can you be a C++ programmer and never use an STL string?! i believe that it is essential to adapt and learn new ways of doing old things. it is human nature to be static, but doing so will hinder advancement and growth. as with everything in nature, you must adapt or die. not advancing with technology and learning new ways of doing the same old thing very certainly mean career suicide. this might explain why so many people have been at the same company for 10+ years, which is rare in software engineering.

lets move on to the “buddon” topic. i’m not perfect about my speak and articulation, but i make it a point to enunciate as best as possible. i’ve started noticing words that people are commonly mispronouncing or butchering. one such word is button, usually pronounced “buddon”. others have include “bidness” (business), and “dat” (that); there are more but my memory escapes me. someone that i speak to on a regular basis uses the “buddon” one and my skin crawls every time i hear it.

lastly, lets talk about “the 2 pounds.” crystal and i have been going to the gym (24 Hour Fitness) for 4 weeks, 4 times a week. that has equated to roughly 24 hours of working out in 1 month (pun not intended). in those 24 hours, i have lost 2 pounds and have started to bulk up. i signed a membership agreement (contract free, just have to pay first and last month’s dues up front) after my trial membership expired. $28 a month and i can use the gym any day of the week, at the one location. having seen some progress, i’m really starting to enjoy going to the gym once again. tomorrow i have my body assessment upon which i will be measured and weighed; i’m eager to find out my body fat percentage.

the last thing i wanted to mention was that i’ve been listening to the Xenogears soundtrack and have been wanting to play the game all over again. i’m just not sure if i can bare through another 20-30 hours of leveling up. there are several new rpg’s that are coming out and i might have to look into them. if anyone has any recommendations, post a comment.

i recently read this article on how most games are not for children anymore. the article raised some decent points, but highlighted on some deeper concerns.

the author is entirely right about the gaming industry and it’s maturity. i grew up playing “Spy vs. Spy” for the NES into the wee hours of the night. today’s kids are growing up on the PS2 playing games like “GTA” (ignoring the fact that the game is a major rehash every iteration). when kids walk into the store, they see adult themed games that are about 10 years ahead of their maturity level.

this started to make me think about the demographics of the targeted gamers. most of the industry has matured with my group of gamers. this age group has gone from 6 to 26 in the last 2 decades of gaming greatness. with this maturity comes a new era of games. us older “old-school” gamers desire different things in games nowadays. but this will all cycle back to nintendo’s favor.

nintendo has been living off the slogan that “someone in the world turns 6 all the time.” this will eventually be their rise to greatness once more. all of us aging gamers are getting to the point where we’re having kids. these kids will not be able to wrap their infantile minds around games like “25 to Life” and not understand their social/moral impact. we aging gamers will be choosing games for our kids soon (as many have already started to), and those games are almost entirely produced by nintendo.

in the next generation war, i will most likely be siding with nintendo. in the current generation, i felt that the gamecube was the best machine of the pack. the only thing it lacked was a decent library of third party publishers and online play. both points will be moot with the next console.

also, since i am older and wiser, my taste in games has started to change. i no longer have time for 80 hour rpgs. i no longer desire to play a game that encourages criminal activity. i have no desire whatsoever to play 200+ football games (never did, but thanks to EA, we have plenty of choices). i now prefer games that rely the core values most games are neglecting; originality and fun. games like ratchet and clank and katamari are extremely entertaining and don’t rely on any serious time investment. i need games that allow me to save and load at any point because life has become too hectic to sit in front of the TV for 8 hours.

the only threat to nintendo’s future is the casual gamer. the casual gamer is one that i refer to as the “haloer”. this gamer is one who’s favorite game of all time is Halo and their first system is the XBox. this type of gamer is usually personified by frat-boys. once nintendo can appeal to these gamers as well, sony will have it’s first real competition since, well, ever.

on a side note, this i-RAM device gives me a chubby just thinking about the possibilities.

yesterday morning, a friend of mine in DC (chris) bought 6 tickets to see NIN in san antonio on 10/16. NIN is one of the bands that i’ve been wanting to see for years but haven’t had the luck to get the tickets in time. earlier this year, i missed the ticket release by less than a week. back in 2000, i missed the ticket release by 6 hours. anyways, i’m glad i get to finally see them before i get too old and uninterested in concerts.

i wanted to hit on some stuff about my home lan. for those of you who don’t know, i usually have a lan at home setup to serve many utilities such as webserver, fileserver, dvd/cd burner, desktop machine, laptop, router, testbed, and several unutilized machines. here’s the current setup (bear in mind, half of the lan is currently in the closet due to space issues):

Note: all internal ip addresses are in the 192.168.0.0/24 block, with 192.168.0.200+ being dedicated to dhcp.

citadel (72): main desktop [950 mhz amd]
erebus (34): fileserver (svn, nfs, smb, ftp, mp3) [733 mhz p3]
babel (92): dvd/cd burner [733 mhz p3]
phobos (75): webserver [75 mhz sparcstation 4]
lappy (20): laptop [1.6 ghz intel]
hanger (2): router [200 mhz intel]
testbed (56): test boxes [ranging from 233 mhz intel to 666 mhz dual intel]

ok so basically, the citadel machine runs gentoo and fluxbox (gnome backup). stays pretty up to date, but in the “x86″ keywords. i ran in the “~x86″ field before, but that led to _many_ problems. something about running nightlies just doesn’t seem quite right anymore. lappy is our dell inspiron 2650 laptop that runs winxp (that’s right, the only windows machine in the house). it’s starting to age and will most likely be replaced in a year. to those of you who know me well, this next statement may shock you. lappy will most likely be replaced by an apple laptop. ok, pick your jaw up off the ground.

hanger is a donated machine with 400 mbs of hdd space running ipcop. a company i interned for several years ago wanted to throw it away and they let me have it. eventually, hanger will be spruced up. i am thinking of building an mini-itx machine. all of the testbed machines are in the closet on the patio. none of them were operational and have incomplete cases. i was too lazy to complete them. eventually, i’d like to turn the testbed machines into a cluster for folding at home.

lastly, why i began talking about all of this to begin with. phobos is an old server box that a friend of mine from school (ron pedde). the only reason why i even wanted it was because it was a small and contained rack-sized machine. it even had a 16 gig scsi harddrive. the problem is i’m not wanting to use that machine much anymore. because it’s a sparc machine, support in linux is iffy. i know gentoo would be a better fit than debian, but i cringe at the idea of compiling everything on a 75 mhz processor. also, babel has become so far out of date, updating it has become a serious problem. it was an original 1.4 gentoo install and has since been updated to 2004.2. it has way too many useless applications. and compounded with the updating problem, has made it too difficult to maintain in its current installation. the best idea is to bonk the portage and bins, replace with 2005.0, and rebuild the whole system with updated use flags. this should take less time since i’ve done the exact same thing on the fileserver and there will be no X windows applications installed. i’ve also contemplated making it the webserver as well, to knock out the phobos problem as well.

im not sure yet on all of that however, and the next week should prove to be an experiment. im going to look for a minimalistic webserver that at the least supports fastcgi (php would be nice). since the old kernel on babel was 2.4.2x, the new libata + 2.6.x kernels should prove to make the dvd burning and setup easier.

citadel is finished being setup and has moved into an update cycle (updates performed bimonthly). erebus still needs smb and nfs to be setup; they are installed and updated, just not setup. lappy can’t be updated (pity it’s winxp). hanger is updated periodically via ipcop’s lovely update process.

so when i finish the experiments with babel, i’ll post some updates. also, i was wondering if everyone can ping my dyndns hostname: s1n.dyndns.org. also, you can browse to my music server here. if it becomes too bogged down, i will have to restrict external access to privelaged IPs. if you are unable to access my music server, please let me know, same if you cannot. since the webserver is not setup, do not direct your browser to the hostname, hanger will forward the request into the void.

time to get to work on babel.

this was something that came up as i told several of my RL friends (what a loser i am, shortening “real-life” to “RL”), i found that i was forming an audience. ever since stats.blogger.com went out of commission, i’ve been too lazy to develop (or utilize an existing) tracker. i’ve been meaning to do so for quite some time, just never got around to it.

basically, i have no idea who’s been reading my blog. if you are just now reading my blog for the first time or are a regular reader, please let me know. post a comment to this blog and tell me how often you read, how i might know you, what you think of my incessant ranting, or anything you feel worthy of noting. also, if you can’t post a comment, please email me.

it’s tough posting into the void and not knowing if anyone reads it.