Assorted thoughts

Posted on April 3, 2005 by Arthur

First of all, as of today, we have finally joined the Daylight Savings time crowd. Somewhere, or earlier I wrote that this week there would be a 4 hours difference between here and the old continent, which wasn’t correct. It was actually 6 hours. My apologies.

While cleaning up the old laptop (the Only Working MyCom MyNote 930 In The World!), I discovered that the modem/Ethernet card (PCMCIA) had given up on me. I’m pretty sure it didn’t come with the laptop: it’s a genuine Dynalink L1456VOC Fax/Modem/Ethernet card, serial number: LM93026584. Its MAC address is: 00-E0-98-14-36-A1. I always wondered what happens with a MAC address that’s going to be ‘outphased’. Should I inform authorities that that card is going to be destroyed? So that its corresponding MAC address can be reused? I can think of a good slogan too: ‘We Reuse MACs’.

Anyhow: it served its needs over all those years.

Cleaning up the 930’s laptop, I noticed that the disk had 3 partitions. Funny: I completely forgot about it. Also, the laptop still has one of those ‘ancient’ 3 1/2″ diskdrives. The last couple of years we have seen these drives (and disks) slowly disappear from the market. It still causes some confusion: most new computers do not have these drives. How to copy a file from one computer to the other? Over the network, you said?

Believe it or not: networking cards, hubs and cables and even USB memory sticks were a lot more expensive back in those days. Today, these things have become so affordable that nobody actually worries about copying files the ‘floppy’ way.

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More of this, please

Posted on April 3, 2005 by Arthur

This week’s ‘More of this, please’ recap will not focus on the death of the Pope. For your weekly dose of public grief please visit Metafilter or something.

This week, Canada resumed the annual seal hunt, something that didn’t go over well in other countries. Interestingly in clashes between hunters and protesters, one Dutch citizen was arrested (in Dutch). The Dutch man was a member of the Sea Shepherd organization and he was released of custody (according to the organization’s ‘blog’) .

Next week scholars from around the week will study the impact of the music of The Smiths on our lifes. I’m serious. From the press release of the organizing Manchester Institute of Popular Culture:

“The music of The Smiths contained an emotional depth and a technical virtuosity that moved people in a way that almost no other band has managed before or since. In spite of their enormous cultural significance and personal resonance, The Smiths have yet to receive sustained academic attention. To date, there have been remarkably few serious examinations of the band. The purpose of this symposium is to put that right.”

I’m pretty confident that the collective pessimism in the Eighties have something to do with the music of the Smiths.

Disclaimer: I listened to the music of the Smiths.

Posted in More-of-this | Comments Off on More of this, please

The culture of life is killing us

Posted on April 2, 2005 by Arthur

Earlier this week, there was a report that humans are eating and using up resources in a rate that is so destructive that there’s only one way out: to the moon!

But in all seriousness: the pope is dying, if you weren’t aware of it yet. All the channels on my black box have something to say on this matter too: you know, the Paula Zahns, Soledads and Costellos. The legacy that is the Pope: with plenty of misquotes

Continue reading →

Posted in We-reflect-news | 1 Comment

The Bridge too far

Posted on March 31, 2005 by Arthur

Playing Bridge too far the last years/rounds in a CivIII game, I noticed how close the opponent was. If one could only make bridges to cross channels like the one shown in the picture. A waste of time to build transports.

Also, notable is that, yes, in this game I’m about to beat my opponents since they’re all still in the Wooden-Boat-with-Sail Age. Here’s the kicker: Their galleys are able to destroy my steel transports. Why? The game defines transports as ‘non-attacking-no-defense’ units. Hilarious.

Nonetheless, playing original Civilization III is always fun and a challenge. Even when the opponents are still in the Stone Age. Rocks can hurt, you know.

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A note of nothingness

Posted on March 31, 2005 by Arthur

Hi. You have heard from me because I maintain this weblog. I have something I need to share with you: I didn’t do it. Better yet, I wasn’t informed about this. Mucho better, you’ll find out that I’m not even affiliated with WordPress, its organization, forums anything, besides that its software has been installed on this server.

Then, what’s the point of me denying everything I have nothing to do with?

Posted in Hyperlinks | 3 Comments

What the Oops

Posted on March 30, 2005 by Arthur

I don’t curse but I doze off for a minute while watching CNN: there was some kind of commercial from the ‘Concerned citizens of whatever’ with a typical political spiel (in this case Republican). Yadda-yadda-Social-Security.

A second later, when I woke up, another commercial played, voicing the opposing view (Democrat!) on a different topic, this time on how Congress overstepped its responsibilities in the Schiavo case. I mean, the case wasn’t mentioned, but the theme was obvious.

There were days you could eat a bag of popcorn while watching CNN. Today? It’s even a bigger mess: I long for those days in Holland were political parties had an allotted (and fixed) time to showcase their programmes and agendas and talking points after the 8 o’ clock news and only before the official election date.

Outrageous, this. We can all curse now.

Posted in The Chest Desire | Comments Off on What the Oops

Uh.

Posted on March 30, 2005 by Arthur

I use MSN Messenger for work-only purposes. I don’t chat with others, except for when I need to.

I think something terrible has happened over at MSN. Weird errors and that.

Has the world come to a standstill yet? Is it time to run out and stock up supplies? Or is Microsoft going to admit we all should be using IRC now?

Posted in Hyperlinks | Comments Off on Uh.

Cancer

Posted on March 30, 2005 by Arthur

Notable differences of approach in the fight against cancer on different continents. The fight overhere seems to be focused on survival, while across the ocean it’s… I don’t know. I’m a pessimist, I gather, as in that there should be less focus on the chance of survival, since the chances are slim. 10 Million people are diagnosed with cancer every year. 6 Million people die of cancer each year. There’s no cure for cancer.

However, while there’s no cure in the foreseeable near future, there’s a lot that can be done in the field of prevention. Think and particularly, talk about it.

On a sidenote: I am a bit amused about the difference of approach on the continents particularly if you take the logos of both Canadian and Dutch cancer societies (please click the infinity link to go to the linkthroughs that take you to both sites). One has a daffodil. The other has a crab with a sword through it. A symbol of hope versus a crab. Who wins?

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Postgres stuff #1

Posted on March 28, 2005 by Arthur

Technical stuff: I have finally some time to break into some specific Postgres stuff and do something for this database as many others have always done for MySQL. Nothing earth-shattering.

Here’s the first finding: my personal Postgres (debian) is a bit more advanced than the ones we use at work:


>select version();
PostgreSQL 7.4.2 on i386-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC i386-linux-gcc (GCC) 3.3.3 (Debian 20040401)

Note: via the Postgres mailinglist: be careful when trying to update your Debian Postgres version to the latest 8 series. Dump your tables. Dump your tables.

Postgres version 7.4 and up have the ability to query the information_schema tables to find out which extra features are supported (a la Oracle/Sybase/MSSql). This works easy as in 1…2…3:

>select * from information_schema.sql_features;

Other tables in information_schema that can be queried are: sql_implementation_info, sql_languages, sql_packages, sql_sizing and sql_sizing_profiles (and so on). If you know what these tables are for, have fun. If you run an older version of postgres, do the queries on pg_namespace and pg_type to get the table names. The following query basically fetches all tables for a specific database:


SELECT oid, nspname, pg_get_userbyid(nspowner) AS namespaceowner, nspacl
FROM pg_namespace
ORDER BY nspname

This fetches all the namespaces: naturally, we have to look for the ‘public’ namespace. Use its OID to find the real set of tables within the (currently) selected database.


SELECT oid, relname, pg_get_userbyid(relowner) as tableowner, relacl, relhasoids
FROM pg_class
WHERE ((relkind = 'r') OR (relkind = 's'))
AND relnamespace = 2200::oid /* my public has an oid of 2200: yours may or may not */
ORDER BY relname

Naturally you will need to find triggers and typecasts and functions of course. Later more on those.

Posted in SQL | Comments Off on Postgres stuff #1

More of this, please

Posted on March 27, 2005 by Arthur

Recapping the news, the following tidbits were interesting (and apparently) less highlighted:

In the Schiavo case: Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told the police in Pinellas Park that they were on their way to get Terri to a different hospital where they could resume her feeding:

“Participants in the high-stakes test of wills, who spoke with The Miami Herald on the condition of anonymity, said they believed the standoff could ultimately have led to a constitutional crisis – and a confrontation between dueling lawmen.”

Seen the PSP? It’s Sony’s answer to get a grip on the handheld portable games market, a market that’s now in the hands (literally) of Nintendo. A couple of nights ago, the Canadian television was spending some broadcasting time on this PSP device: the hype and the enthusiasm among Canadian consumers. According to IGN however, sales of the PSP are lukewarm. Personally: I don’t see the point of having another media format (UMD) vying for your monies.

OK. What happened to the McCartney sisters, after their visit to the White House on St. Patrick’s Day?

Note to Nova Scotians and Dutch citizens: Starting today there’s a 4 hour difference between the Netherlands and our precious province. In the Netherlands, Daylight Savings Time will start as of today. Who says time travel isn’t possible, please cast the first stone.

Posted in More-of-this | 1 Comment

More observations

Posted on March 26, 2005 by Arthur

More observations on Halifax after a brief phone discussion with the homefront.

There’s a couple of things Halifax is famous for (Keiths), but the real attraction is actually the Citadel (and environs). It’s a kind of a shame that one cannot see the hill from the waterside because of all the highrises blocking the view. (A coincidence: a look at Google for this particular topic brings me to Mike Campbell’s blog).

While hanging out around different food establishments on Barrington Street, I frequently saw old Dutch friends in Haligonians. This is ridiculous, naturally. I assume it’s a sign of settling in with the fact I’m about to let go my memories. The sweet and the bitter ones.

Posted in Truro NS | Comments Off on More observations

Despite of

Posted on March 24, 2005 by Arthur

Things I found out while staying in Halifax:

  1. Despite drinking more Hortons coffees in 3 days, the chances of winning a GMC Envoy in the Nova Scotian capital are about as slim as anywhere in the country.
  2. If you look in the direction of Darthmouth, you’re definitely not looking south.
  3. While it’s generally warmer closer to sea, it always appears to be colder in Halifax.
  4. You can not get lost in Halifax. Just follow the ‘one way direction’ signs.
  5. Hotel rooms don’t come with free continental breakfasts.
  6. In any hotel: Don’t expect a newspaper on your doorstep on check-out day.
  7. They have pretty good Butter scotch pecan cheesecakes at the Citadel hotel, but if they are homemade, that is a different question.
  8. Don’t expect free hotspots around the center of Halifax.
  9. The Halifax Public Library? ? ?! ??
  10. Scotia Square Mall is quite a sightseeing around noon. That is if you like lots of people.
  11. I don’t look like a country bumpkin.
Posted in xsamplex | 4 Comments

Faustus and other music

Posted on March 20, 2005 by Arthur

Cleaning up stuff, I found a couple of CD-Rs which I thought were lost. Actually, I thought these disks were supposed to be rotting away.

One of those disks sticks out: it’s a backup of all of my old mp3s, most of them classical, jazz and contemporary Raging Thirties music. Essential and highly personal stuff, handpicked because of the special meaning most of them have.

Take for example the first movement of Eisler’s ‘Faustus – symphony’: it’s an eleven minute rollercoaster with so many ups and downs and tempo changes that it could have been a summary of the past 4-5 years.

Kurt Weill’s music (particularly the instrumentals from ‘Die Dreigroschenoper’ and ‘Aufstieg und Fall’) was primarily a jumpboard to more experimental music like the one that’s now on repeat in my media player: a piece performed by the Ebony Band1. I’m pretty sure it’s from a Hungarian composer who probably died an obscure death during the IInd World War.

Not to mention works from Milhaud, Antheil, Revueltas and Schoenberg (Verklarte Nacht/Transfigured Night). And Raymond Scott, naturally.

Music and memories go along fine together. It’s like chocolate cookies with a glass of milk. Or peanut butter with chocolate sprinkles.

1. That would have been a piece from Alois Haba, who happens to be a Czech.

ed1. Note: I was a regular contributor to Everything 2. More links inside.
ed (03/27/05) : Alfons correctly noticed that it wasn’t Haba.

Note: I was a regular contributor to Everything 2. More links inside.

Posted in Truro NS | 9 Comments