Monthly Archive for May, 2009

Of Roombas and Art

Published
by
Joel
on May 18, 2009
in 930posts and Fun Stuff
. 0 Comments

In case you couldn’t find enough reasons to want to buy a roomba for a little Randomly generated art after my last post, I found a flickr pool of Roomba Art. Right now it’s a small pool of photos, but after looking through them I have a feeling it will slowly fill it up with awesome images as its popularity spreads across the web. I’ve included a two of the more interesting images below. In a side note, I discovered through one of the captions that the initial spiral is created when the roomba starts in spot mode and it then transitions to it’s chaotic orbit.

3533146556_c3ae3f1340

Courtesy of bartlec

3535488802_2afb496299

Courtesy of reconcious

OpenDNS: A Followup

Published
by
Edwin
on May 13, 2009
in 930posts, The more you know... and Tips and Tutorials
. 4 Comments

In a previous article, I discussed OpenDNS and it’s proxying/filtering capabilities, suggesting that by changing the DNS servers your computer uses for queries will bypass OpenDNS’ content filtering. While this part remains accurate, my suggestion that using a root DNS server from Wikipedia’s article was a bad one.  After actually having tried it, I discovered it does not work for whatever reason. Maybe they restrict DNS queries to edge DNS servers in order to prevent being taken down by a DDoS.  Anyway, use 4.2.2.1 – 4.2.2.6 instead.

opendns2

I also made the mistake of assuming that if you are stuck behind an OpenDNS proxy, you probably don’t have the ability to change what DNS servers your computer is using.  Apparently, hotels and other establishments are using it on their “public” wireless.  Ethical and legal ramifications aside, setting your computer to use 4.2.2.1 will bypass OpenDNS filtering. So, again, just to burn these numbers into your mind:

4.2.2.1

Quick instructions on how to change this: (from this guy)

Click on “My Computer”. Click on “My Network Places”. Click on “View Connections”. Right click on the connection that supports your Internet connection and go to “Properties”. Double click on the Internet Protocol TCP/IP option. Make sure “Use the following DNS server address” is selected, and input the above recommended DNS.

To check go to “Start > Run > “cmd” ”. Type in “ipconfig /all” and you should see the DNS you input where it says “DNS”.

Those DNS servers (4.2.2.1-4.2.2.6) are apparently owned by Verizon as a throwback for something. So, they might just stop working one day.

I have grown uncomfortable with using OpenDNS as my DNS provider. While their privacy policy is adamant that they do not keep records, they provide statistics for your account. I’m not saying they are in any way malicious, but after seeing this…

.................................

Bum bum ba dum...............

…I am hesitant to send all my traffic to them.

A FINAL NOTE:

OpenDNS remains a solid choice for people wishing to set up easy, potentially effective content filtering for their network. Their actions to stop Conficker and other malware are commendable. They make it simple for people to move away from their using their ISP’s often-slow DNS servers. However, their content filtering should not be considered effective in any environment that does not control which DNS servers machines on that network can use. Also, there are glaring privacy concerns for any one that cares about that kind of thing.

The End………………………………………………………………………?

Chaos is beautiful

Published
by
Joel
on May 11, 2009
in 930posts and Fun Stuff
. 1 Comment

Today, I’ve got another exhibit to add to the awesome visualizations that can result from a little chaos in practice. The image below comes from a blog called SignalTheorist courtesy of Gizmodo.  It is the result of a 30 minute exposure in a darkened room as a roomba carried out its duties.

roomba-movements

While it looks like utter chaos, a closer look reveals a small spiral centered almost in the middle of the crook of the L. I don’t know exactly how a roomba works, but I’d surmise that the center of this spiral was the roomba’s starting point.  Once it feels out the dimensions of the space it looks like the roomba then begins a seemingly chaotic cleaning cycle. I think it’s almost worth grabbing a roomba and running some tests to see if any portion of the initial spiral follows the Golden Ratio or if it’s a constant expansion. If any reader of the Sector has a roomba or is about to become the proud parent of one please conduct some tests or if you don’t mind me nerding it up let me know and I’ll be glad to help. You never know, we may even make you an honorary member of the Sector (and a guest post to boot).

So maybe this time I’ll learn…

Published
by
Sam
on May 9, 2009
in 930posts
. 5 Comments

If there’s anybody out there reading this (yeah, right) who has worked with Wordpress before probably knows about permalinks. They’re those handly little URLs that look like “http://www.sector930.com/01/01/foo-bar” instead of “http://www.sector930.com/?p=666″. We gave permalinks a shot a little while ago, but we noticed it was breaking all the links to individual articles. So we put it on the backburner for a while.

Today I decided to give it another go. The steps involved look something like this:

  1. Ensure mod_rewrite Apache module is installed
  2. Enable FollowSymLinks in httpd.conf
  3. Put AllowOverride FileInfo in httpd.conf
  4. Ensure Wordpress has write access to the .htaccess file in the Wordpress directory

Don’t ask me what any of this stuff actually does. I just followed the directions.

Anyways, in order to give Wordpress access to the .htaccess file, you can make it group writeable for a certain group (at least on our system). Since I was planning on giving that group write permission to the blog anyways, I came up with this brilliant idea to save time:

cd <www_root>
chmod -R 664 wordpress

Now, there’s a slight problem with that command. In order for directories to be readable from the web, they need to have execute permission. But “664″ is “owner read and write, group read and write, everyone else read.” EXECUTE IS NOWHERE IN THERE! And that lovely little “-R” ensured that every single directory underneath “wordpress” would have those permissions also. Here’s my reaction as soon as I ran that command:

#$%@%^$#%^%$#@$%^%$#@$%^&^%$#$%^&^%$#!!!!!!1111!!!1!!!!!!

What I should have run instead was:

chmod -R g+w wordpress

That would have kept me from going through each subdirectory (and there are a lot of them) and turning back on execute permission. I could have tried to write a shell or Perl script to do that quickly, but figuring that out would have taken just as much time.

You would think that by now I would have learned to back things up before making major, sweeping changes, between my job and the work I’ve done on the blog. Maybe this time…

Who’s Laughing Now?

Published
by
Joseph
on May 8, 2009
in 930posts and The more you know...
. 0 Comments

Today’s post is not directly about the Internet, technology, Web2.0, video games, scripting, cable standards, or the wide, wide world of being a defense contractor.  I do feel, however, that the “web culture” (nerds) will find it the most poignant.  Today’s entry is about revisiting childhood.

When I was a kid, I watched a lot of fucking TV.  Like, a lot.  Interestingly, I don’t watch any TV now except for Battlestar Galactica (which I’m way behind on and own only on DVD) and Spongebob Squarepants, which ought to give you some insight on the kind of person I am.  At any rate, the “glory days” were filled – FILLED – with Nickelodeon.  If it was on Nick, I watched it.  Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy, Salute Your Shorts, Wild & Crazy Kids, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Hey Arnold, Kenan & Kel.  Frasier?  Nope.  Seinfeld?  Never.  Everybody Loves Raymond?  Negative.  Family Matters?  I didn’t do that.  Full House?  Not today.  Virgin?  22 and going strong.  Cartoon Karma, maybe?

A big one for me was Doug.  Doug was one of my favorites.  Doug is an “every man.”  I knew a lot of adults who liked Doug, as he is a very real, human character.  Ironically, he is the only person on the show who has that characteristic.

To show the contrast, I typed “Doug Funnie Characters” into Google Image Search, an action I quickly came to regret as I succumbed to a wave of nausea and horror.  SafeSearch is indeed off.

I was able to narrow it down:

Seriously, what the fuck is going on with this guy?

You can look at Roger Klotz and inherently know he’s an antagonist, which is cool, but he’s green and apparently has hair made out of bacon.

Not so with our hero:

doug01

An average, everyday young man, slightly pudgy, with a big heart.  That’s what American children need.  They have GI Joe and the Transformers.  They need an equalizer, someone they can truly relate to in the world.  Optimus Prime is a great role model, but he’s made of metal and can turn into a truck, and can shoot lasers, a slightly unrealistic goal if you’re 8.  Doug Funnie: the Emblem of American Childhood.  Or is he?

I was sent a link to The Orange Splat, a Nicktoon archive/repository (which apparently was shut down by Viacom less than an hour ago, so god dammit), and watched an episode a while back on a whim, just for fun.  The episode was called “Doug’s Got No Gift.”  After watching it, and several more episodes of Doug, I saw him for who he really was.  The true face of Doug Funnie.

lenin010605nv9Maybe I’m crazy, but after watching several episodes of the show, I’m convinced that Nickelodeon is getting under-the-table funding from the reds.  Here’s the plot synopsis from Wikipedia:

“Doug unintentionally spends all of his money on a video arcade game ‘Bag a Neematoad’, and now he can’t buy Patti a beetball as a birthday present. So Mrs. Dink gives Doug the idea of making a gift for Patti, and all Doug hopes is that she’ll like it.”

What it should say:

Doug goes to the mall in order to try and find Patti a birthday present.  His idea is to buy her a high-end, name-brand beetball (rugby ball), but he is enticed and distracted by the flashing lights and sounds of the “Bag a Neematoad” arcade game.  After several exciting rounds, Doug becomes obsessed with getting a high score, and discovers that he has spent all his money, and cannot afford the expensive gift.  Mrs. Dink tells doug to make a gift for Patti.  Doug makes her a homemade beetball holder, which Patti loves, after she receieves several varieties of high-end, name-brand beetballs.  Patti tells Doug the holder was her favorite birthday gift this year.

In other words:

hammer_sickle_cleanSubliminal messages from this episode:

- Malls are crowded places with lots of distractions, all of which revolve around consumption.  By going to a mall, you will undoubtedly spend all of your money.

- Competition for dollars (capitalism) caused Doug to spend all of his money on a flashy arcade game.  Competition is bad.

- Success (being at the top of the high score list) is a function of how many dollars you have (how many attempts you make at the game).  It can be inferred that competiton (more importantly, being on top) is bad.

- Without dollars, the individual is powerless to achieve success (Doug can’t afford to buy the gift).

- Mrs. Dink is the absolute antithesis to Mr. Dink.  Mr. Dink is rich and eccentric, and buys “very expensive” but incredibly impractical gadgets that consistently do not work.  Mrs. Dink is a consistent voice of reason in the Dink family, and always suggests a sensible alternative.  By suggesting to Doug that he make the gift, Mrs. Dink is empowering the worker, and dissuading him from excessive consumption, which ultimately leads to failure.

- Patti favors Doug’s practical gift over the designer beetballs, handing another clear victory to the worker.  Moreover, Doug’s gift is a beetball holder, possibly inferring that the rich are nothing without the workers to “hold them up.”

In other words: don’t spend money.  Competition is bad, capitalism is bad, and  consumption leads to failure.  In the end, only the workers are truly successful in their plight, and they ultimately hold more power than the bourgeoisie.

I realize this may sound completely insane, but watch, if you can, several more of the Doug episodes, and you see this pattern repeat over and over and over.  I especially recommend “Doug Inc,” ‘Doug Runs,” and “Doug’s Career Anxiety.”  Doug Funnie, have you no decency?

Of course it’s all moot now, since apparently Viacom shut down The Orange Splat.  Fuck you, Viacom.  Anyway, I am not a communist or socialist, (unless, of course, the damage has already been done) but this is what I’ve seen, and this is what I think.  Take it for what you will.

I was originally going to title this post “Doug Funnie is Communist Twaddle,” largely because I’ve never really gotten a chance to use the word “twaddle,” but I didn’t want anyone to think this post was about another Twitter client.  Oh God.

I’ve Got Your Toothpick Right Here: Part 2

Published
by
Edwin
on May 6, 2009
in 930posts and Fun Stuff
. 2 Comments

Now that everyone has had a chance to look at the “answer” to the “puzzle,” I will explain why I think it’s fucked up.

First, let’s review the rules of the puzzle:

Without rearranging any, remove exactly nine toothpicks below to spell the last name of a US president.

Now, why I think it’s fucked up:

Spelling requires valid letters. No one would say that the word “priΩk~” is spelled correctly.

I realized that to most people it was a “free” puzzle, but I paid for that magazine. I also realize I spent way too much time working on it and complaining about it. But, in the end, I still feel cheated. Making people think “outside the box” only works if there is a large, more rigid box that defines the laws of time and space in your little puzzle world.

And to anyone that got it and wants to say differently, you can cram it up your ~~>.

POSTSCRIPT This might have been the first time I’ve cursed on this blog. I guess I can no longer show it to my mother. Or anyone’s mother. Except Joe’s. Was it worth it? I think time will show that it was.

I've Got Your Toothpick Right Here: Part 1

Published
by
Edwin
on May 5, 2009
in 930posts and Fun Stuff
. 0 Comments

Last month’s WIRED magazine focused on puzzles and mind games. Throughout the issue were little puzzles crammed into the margins of the pages. Most of these looked like they might require what I like to call “work,” something that would take multiple sheets of paper and time. The following puzzle, however, stuck out as obtainable with my meager brain and marginally better-than-average ability to remember trivia:

Toothpick puzzles challenge you to move line segments to form words or shapes. For example, removing the center bar below spells BOB:

Your challenge: Without rearranging any, remove exactly nine toothpicks below to spell the last name of a US president.

Doesn’t seem bad, right? So I started trying to remember all the presidents, and applying the rules of the puzzle:

1. It has to spell out the last name of a U.S. President.

2. You have to remove exactly nine toothpicks.

3. You can’t rearrange anything.

So after several minutes of mental churning, I enlisted my compatriot and long-time reader of the blog, Lenore, to aid in solving this puzzle, effectively tripling the power of the braincluster. Still nothing. So I thought about it for day, thinking I would just stumble across a president I’m forgetting. Last night, I started thinking how to write a script to provide me with a list of potential solutions, which I could just read and think “How did I forget about him?!?!” This would provide me with a sense of accomplishment, as I would just be writing the script to jog my memory of names, and would not count as cheating.

So I wrote the following script…..

#==============================================================================================#
#! /usr/bin/env python

# The puzzle requires you to remove a total of nine "toothpicks" to spell out the name.
# The number value beside each letter refers to the number of toothpicks removed from each
# character to make it that letter. So the numeric values of each letter in the final name
# must equal nine.

letters = {"A":1,"B":0,"C":2,"D":1,"E":1,"F":2,"H":2,"I":2,"L":3,"M":1,"O":1,"T":3,"U":2,"W":1,}

# The four mystery characters can be made into certain letters. All possible choices
# are shown here. I preserve a copy here so that the actual list can be tweaked to
# remove possibilities from the final batch of potential answers.

#ROWS BEFORE TWEAKING
#first = ["A","B","C","D","E","F","H","L","O","U"]
#second = ["C","D","I","L","M","O","T","U","W"]
#third = ["C","D","I","L","M","O","T","U","W"]
#fourth = ["A","B","C","D","E","F","H","L","O","U"]

# I have remove certain characters that would produce even more gibberish responses.
first = ["A","B","C","D","E","F","H","L","O"]
second = ["C","D","I","L","M","O","T","U"]
third = ["C","D","I","L","M","O","T","U","W"]
fourth = ["A","B","D","E","F","H","L","O"]

# Opens a file named "answer.txt" in your current directory.
file = open ('answer.txt', 'w')

# Loops through every possibility for each character
for a in first:
	for b in second:
		for c in third:
			for d in fourth:
				#Adds the number of "toothpicks" that have been "removed."
				sum = int(letters[a] + letters[b] + letters[c] + letters[d])

				# if the sum is 9, and the first letter is not equal to the second
				# letter, and the second letter is not equal to the third letter,
				# then that combination is written to a file for human perusal.

				if sum == 9 and a != b and b != c:
					file.write(a + b + c + d + '\n')
#==============================================================================================#

…because I’m a huge dork. The results are in a list. An example:

ACLL
ACTL
AILL
AITL
ALCL
ALIL
ALTF
ALTH
ALUL

So the idea was that the name of a forgotten president would jump out at me. I tweaked the possible characters so that I would get less gibberish, which cut down the results to 306 possibilities. I’m sure Ackermann’s beard would weep were it to read the script, but I’m not pretending to be a computer scientist anymore. I’m just another IT weenie that knows some rudimentary scripting. You should be happy that there are comments.

mspaint.exe

mspaint.exe

(I’M LOOKING AT YOU, MATT.)

I will post the answer and my final thoughts tomorrow, after everyone has gotten a chance to look at the original puzzle.

LINK TO ORIGINAL PUZZLE:

Pick Nine: Forming Words From a Jumble of Toothpicks

I consider the following to be CHEATING:

  • Looking at the answer
  • Looking at the comments
  • Looking at a list of the presidents
  • Asking someone who you know will look at the list of the presidents

I’ve Got Your Toothpick Right Here: Part 1

Published
by
Edwin
on May 5, 2009
in 930posts and Fun Stuff
. 0 Comments

Last month’s WIRED magazine focused on puzzles and mind games. Throughout the issue were little puzzles crammed into the margins of the pages. Most of these looked like they might require what I like to call “work,” something that would take multiple sheets of paper and time. The following puzzle, however, stuck out as obtainable with my meager brain and marginally better-than-average ability to remember trivia:

Toothpick puzzles challenge you to move line segments to form words or shapes. For example, removing the center bar below spells BOB:

Your challenge: Without rearranging any, remove exactly nine toothpicks below to spell the last name of a US president.

Doesn’t seem bad, right? So I started trying to remember all the presidents, and applying the rules of the puzzle:

1. It has to spell out the last name of a U.S. President.

2. You have to remove exactly nine toothpicks.

3. You can’t rearrange anything.

So after several minutes of mental churning, I enlisted my compatriot and long-time reader of the blog, Lenore, to aid in solving this puzzle, effectively tripling the power of the braincluster. Still nothing. So I thought about it for day, thinking I would just stumble across a president I’m forgetting. Last night, I started thinking how to write a script to provide me with a list of potential solutions, which I could just read and think “How did I forget about him?!?!” This would provide me with a sense of accomplishment, as I would just be writing the script to jog my memory of names, and would not count as cheating.

So I wrote the following script…..

#==============================================================================================#
#! /usr/bin/env python

# The puzzle requires you to remove a total of nine "toothpicks" to spell out the name.
# The number value beside each letter refers to the number of toothpicks removed from each
# character to make it that letter. So the numeric values of each letter in the final name
# must equal nine.

letters = {"A":1,"B":0,"C":2,"D":1,"E":1,"F":2,"H":2,"I":2,"L":3,"M":1,"O":1,"T":3,"U":2,"W":1,}

# The four mystery characters can be made into certain letters. All possible choices
# are shown here. I preserve a copy here so that the actual list can be tweaked to
# remove possibilities from the final batch of potential answers.

#ROWS BEFORE TWEAKING
#first = ["A","B","C","D","E","F","H","L","O","U"]
#second = ["C","D","I","L","M","O","T","U","W"]
#third = ["C","D","I","L","M","O","T","U","W"]
#fourth = ["A","B","C","D","E","F","H","L","O","U"]

# I have remove certain characters that would produce even more gibberish responses.
first = ["A","B","C","D","E","F","H","L","O"]
second = ["C","D","I","L","M","O","T","U"]
third = ["C","D","I","L","M","O","T","U","W"]
fourth = ["A","B","D","E","F","H","L","O"]

# Opens a file named "answer.txt" in your current directory.
file = open ('answer.txt', 'w')

# Loops through every possibility for each character
for a in first:
	for b in second:
		for c in third:
			for d in fourth:
				#Adds the number of "toothpicks" that have been "removed."
				sum = int(letters[a] + letters[b] + letters[c] + letters[d])

				# if the sum is 9, and the first letter is not equal to the second
				# letter, and the second letter is not equal to the third letter,
				# then that combination is written to a file for human perusal.

				if sum == 9 and a != b and b != c:
					file.write(a + b + c + d + '\n')
#==============================================================================================#

…because I’m a huge dork. The results are in a list. An example:

ACLL
ACTL
AILL
AITL
ALCL
ALIL
ALTF
ALTH
ALUL

So the idea was that the name of a forgotten president would jump out at me. I tweaked the possible characters so that I would get less gibberish, which cut down the results to 306 possibilities. I’m sure Ackermann’s beard would weep were it to read the script, but I’m not pretending to be a computer scientist anymore. I’m just another IT weenie that knows some rudimentary scripting. You should be happy that there are comments.

mspaint.exe

mspaint.exe

(I’M LOOKING AT YOU, MATT.)

I will post the answer and my final thoughts tomorrow, after everyone has gotten a chance to look at the original puzzle.

LINK TO ORIGINAL PUZZLE:

Pick Nine: Forming Words From a Jumble of Toothpicks

I consider the following to be CHEATING:

  • Looking at the answer
  • Looking at the comments
  • Looking at a list of the presidents
  • Asking someone who you know will look at the list of the presidents

An Open Letter to a Certain Someone

Published
by
Sam
on May 4, 2009
in 930posts
. 3 Comments

Dear Mrs. (Mr.?) Chirpy,

I regret to inform you that I was forced to evict you from your new home. I am sorry that after all your hard work, I so easily destroyed your hopes and dreams of a simple life and a family. Unfortunately, your new dwelling was in an inconvenient and potentially dangerous location, and I had no choice but to do what was best for me. Just know that you will always be in my heart, and your ingenuity and perseverance serves as an inspiration to many. I will use the rest of this letter as a tribute to your accomplishments.

Here’s a shot of your front door:

Our good friend's front door

I am impressed with the fact that, despite the flap that is normally closed, you still figured out how to get in. Clever girl…

You never did see this view, but here’s what your house looked like from what I could see:

100_35771

I am also impressed with the fact that you went down a dark, vertical tunnel to build your dream home. You knew what you wanted and you went after it.

After I realized what you were doing, I was forced to take action. Regrettably, I destroyed your home. Here are some photos of the event:

Nest #1

Nest #2

Nest #3

That last one is a doozy! You see, the problem is that, while you may not have realized it, your house’s design could have started a fire. Then, we’d both be homeless.

Again, I am truly sorry that we could not live peacefully under that same roof, but I had to do what was necessary. Don’t give up, though; there’s a home out there for all of us.

Sincerely,
Sam