Spam Snark

Here’s a command line used in a VS2005 pre-build step:

if not defined FLEXNET_LICENSE (copy /y config_flexnet_no.h config_flexnet.h) else if “%FLEXNET_LICENSE%”==”1″ (copy /y config_flexnet_yes.h config_flexnet.h && xcopy /d /y %FLEXNET_HOME%\i86_n3\lm_new.c) else (copy /y config_flexnet_no.h config_flexnet.h)

Pretty darn cool…

The new layout is decidedly bad. As much as the old layout sucked, it’s much better than the new one.

Facebook’s design team should look at sites like blogspot.com or wikipedia.org for examples, products like Fogbugz (read Spolsky’s UI book, for crying out loud), and google “user interface guidelines” for some clues on how it’s supposed to be done.

Also: How about worrying more about improving performance during peak hours? No point in worrying about content if you can’t deliver it on a timely basis!

There’s an interesting truth in this article, and it is that Wikipedia should be considered only the first point of investigation in researching a subject. Book-based study - lots of either print or electronic book-based study - must follow initially getting familiar with the subject using a source like Wikipedia.

However, it does not hold that all information sources on the net are inherently error prone, or that all printed material is completely reliable.

A couple of examples:

1. If I want information on the history of the battle of Okinawa, I can conduct in-depth research online. The government has many resources available, and there are others, as well. In fact, I downloaded the PDF version of a book on this subject - originally published in 1947, I think - from the Government Printing Office. It was only after I’d spent some time with the online version, that I decided to get the printed one.

2. While bogus information about celebrities or politicians can be found on Wikipedia or similar sites, there are also tons on reliable or at least informative sites around. Every politician in the U.S. has an official website, as do most individuals enjoying celebrity status. There are also fan sites, online news and critical sites, etc.

The most important thing I got out of reading this article is that the straw man logical fallacy is not dead. It is alive and well in the minds of those who feel that students are dumbed down because of their use internet resources, when it seems - from the information presented in this one article, at least - that the fault lies with the teachers, professors, and experts, who consider this the case.

Those who are mentors will not fail to grasp the opportunity the net provides for teaching their proteges. The mundane and fearful will miss the boat, both with the student and net. They are quick to place blame on others - the invisible faces of the net - while not accepting a jot of it for their own weakness.

If there is a “short-cut culture”, a cut and paste society, where are the guides for the rising generation, who will show them the qualities and deficiencies of online resources?

Regarding printed material, it is not the case that all books are created equal. In my years as a computing professional, I have read technical texts that have run the gamut from punditry to advanced technologies. I’ve read - and in a couple of cases, tossed - books that have been of inferior quality, as regards either layout, accuracy, or both.

The same is true with some of the history texts I’ve read, though the irritant there more often than not has been the agenda of the author.

Another example of caution with print books is the maxim I’ve formed over the years of not reading most fictional works’ introductions, which are generally self-serving bits of polemic against the very works being introduced.

Better in these cases to call them “criticisms”, and put them in their own book. But that wouldn’t sell very well, would it? (I think “Finding Forrester” treats of this subject very well.)

This article is based on an email I sent to a couple of family members. Most emails I send do not contain much in the way of commentary. I made this the exception because I wanted to prove that a mini-essay about a online article - which contains at least one debatable point - could be done in fairly short order, without resort to any other source but my own recollection and critical thinking skills.

This last, critical thinking, is something that has been left out of the curricula of most schools for quite some time. C.S. Lewis addressed this years ago, in the “Chronicles of Narnia” (”My heavens, what are they teaching in schools these days?”). It has only been getting worse in the decades since he penned his works.

The irony is that the original Internet, especially its newsgroups, was considered the new public forum. The World Wide Web, while it has its risks, has only improved the situation.

Sauron: “Burzum-ishi krimaptul (in the darkness bind them).”

Ken: “Was that early or late binding?”

Sauron: “Huh? What? I… I don’t know that… AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”

Not really.

It is the mantra for real estate, however. Since I wanted to increase the amount of screen space used by the installation of Ubuntu Server I’m testing under VMware, it seemed an appropriate heading.

The list of Linux screen modes can be found in a table in this Wikipedia article: VESA BIOS Extensions.

So the Synergy bootstrapping discussed earlier doesn’t work as advertised once the system’s rebooted.

The changes I made only work if network connectivity is already established. That’s an of course, given that Synergy relies on a network connection, but not the case in my current wireless-only configuration.

The result is that I have to log on for the wireless connection to be made, and then I can start Synergy. There may be a way to start wireless during the boot cycle, but I haven’t investigated that yet.

The next big thing with Synergy was getting it to automatically start.

For Windows, this was a simple trick: Just click the Synergy dialog’s AutoStart button.

Linux is another story. The Synergy project’s Autostarting link gives some help, but is really too confusing. I did some searching, and found this discussion: Autostart Synergy w/Sudo.

After some testing, the solution I settled on was editing the files

• /etc/gdm/Init/Default

• /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default

to include the line “/usr/bin/synergyc hostname” just before the exit statement at the end of each file.

That seems to have done the trick!

Stacking a keyboard on top of a closed-lid laptop, and then reversing the steps, whenever I wanted to switch between systems in a limited-space environment, was getting to be a real pain.

Then I remembered Synergy. It has binaries for both Windows and Linux, so retrieving and installing it was simple. The biggest problem was getting the Linux client to see the Windows server.

Pinging the Windows system showed the problem: DNS was resolving external systems before local ones. I wasn’t sure on how to correct the problem, but searching quickly got me to the solution: How to resolve hostnames in linux.

Now I’m pleased to have both systems sharing a single keyboard and mouse.

I wanted to take most of the entries I’ve entered on my local blog and push them to Spam Snark.

This article, How to transfer a single post or selected posts from one blog to another, explains how.

It also looks like a cheap though manual method for backing up one’s blog entries.

After much fiddling around with Linux distros, I finally settled on one: Linux Mint. I think it strikes a nice balance in the usability and functionality departments. It’s now installed on my desktop system, and will probably stay there for the duration.

I’m still interested in getting something running in the virtualization department, and think that Ubuntu Server is the way to go, because of it’s low cost and small footprint.

I will need a system that supports KVM’s CPU requirements, but I’m not ready to surrender the laptop to that need yet - still have Windows tools I need for work.