GNU Age Thinking

09:50 pm - Obligatory Day Against DRM stuff

I'm going to do some stuff for DefectiveByDesign's Day Against DRM on Oct. 3.

First

Attention search engines, here's what DRM really is.

Second

A nice badge for my website (well, this blog entry, actually).

Protect your freedom.

Third

Once I get the anti-DRM stickers that I ordered, I will be handing them out at either a PLUG meeting or just from my office if the meeting after receiving them would occur after Oct. 3. The idea is to drop them around various computer labs on campus. I'll register the event on DefectiveByDesign's activities page once they come.

12:59 am - Discontinuing livejournal blog entries

I've discontinued my livejournal blog, but I will retain my livejournal online presence for the sake of commenting on the blogs of others.

It was beginning to be too much of a hassle to figure out which types of content to post here. I might in the future post major project updates, but that's about it -- for the rest, please check out my real blog at http://www.mwolson.org/blog/.

I'll still copy some posts to my Xanga blog because I have a subset of old friends there which are sufficiently different (strange, even) from the online community as a whole. I don't really have a similar reason for keeping the livejournal blog synced.

11:11 pm - Remember 1.9 released

I am pleased to announce the release of Remember 1.9. This release includes Sacha Chua's latest known changes and adds a build system. It is the first release since switching to gna.org for project hosting.

Revision

remember-el@arch.gna.org/remember--main--0--patch-4

Tarball

http://download.gna.org/remember-el/remember-1.9.tar.gz

Zipfile

http://download.gna.org/remember-el/remember-1.9.zip

We expect to make many changes for Remember 2.0, such as integration with Emacs Muse and muse-blosxom.el. Please email me if you would like to help develop Remember, and I will add you to the project.

12:37 am - ERC 5.1.4 released

I am pleased to announce the release of ERC 5.1.4. The release is available from your favorite GNU FTP mirror. The URLs for this release on the primary GNU FTP mirror are as follows.

Tarball

http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/erc/erc-5.1.4.tar.gz

Zipfile

http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/erc/erc-5.1.4.zip

The NEWS items for this release are here.

12:24 am - NetHack for GP2X port1 is available

I am releasing the first stable version of my NetHack port for the GP2X.

This port focuses on keeping the classic ASCII look of NetHack, with emphasis on using an on-screen keyboard. If you want a menu-driven graphical interface, check out Dzz's port of NetHack.

URL: http://www.mwolson.org/static/dist/gp2x/nethack-ascii-3.4.3port1.zip

Source URL: http://www.mwolson.org/static/dist/gp2x/nethack-ascii-source.zip

See the NEWS.gp2x file for a list of changes that have been made since the last beta release.

11:51 pm - ERC 5.1.3 released

I am pleased to announce the release of ERC 5.1.3. The release is available from your favorite GNU FTP mirror. The URLs for this release on the primary GNU FTP mirror are as follows.

Tarball

http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/erc/erc-5.1.3.tar.gz

Zipfile

http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/erc/erc-5.1.3.zip

The NEWS items for this release are here.

10:05 pm - A nation of justice and rule of law

[I]t is now time for President [B]ush to separate innocent prisoners from ones that may be determined dangerous under fair judicial proceedings.

Giving the prisoners their day in court will allow the innocent to be separated from those that may be found guilty, and will represent a beginning in America's restoration of its global image of being a nation of justice and the rule of law.

— Fawzi al-Odah, as quoted by the NY Times

Let us hope that this restoration indeed continues apace.

01:22 am - Planner 3.41 released

I am pleased to announce the release of Planner version 3.41. See this file for user-visible changes since 3.40.

Revision

mwolson@gnu.org--2006-planner-el/planner-el--devel--0--patch-54

Tarball

http://download.gna.org/planner-el/planner-3.41.tar.gz

Zipfile

http://download.gna.org/planner-el/planner-3.41.zip

With this release, I am stepping down as maintainer of Planner. John Sullivan (john@wjsullivan.net) will be maintaining Planner from now on. I still plan on contributing to Planner occasionally, and will coordinate with John about adapting Planner when any major changes to Emacs Muse take place.

Due to this change, the canonical place to do Planner development is now the shared Arch archive at GNA. Instructions for using this branch may be found at http://www.wjsullivan.net/DevelopingWithGna.html.

02:15 pm - Nethack for GP2X Beta 2 is available

I am releasing the 2nd beta of my Nethack port for the GP2X.

This port focuses on keeping the classic ASCII look of Nethack, with emphasis on using an on-screen keyboard. If you want a menu-driven graphical interface, check out Dzz's port of Nethack.

URL: http://www.mwolson.org/static/dist/gp2x/nethack-ascii-beta2.zip

Source URL: http://www.mwolson.org/static/dist/gp2x/nethack-ascii-source.zip

At this point, the game should be playable without crashes or major inconveniences. That said, there are still a few items on my TODO list that need to be taken care of before I'm willing to drop the "beta" designation. See README.gp2x for details.

Feedback is welcome!

10:33 pm - Microsoft meets Nethack

1gentle.giant@gmail.com wrote:

Make Microsoft angry!
How?
Click here and find out:
[snip]

You put on a ring of aggravate monster. -more-
Bill Gates hits!

— "Patashu"

Bill Gates causes an illegal operation! The dungeon falls down..

— "Renan(r)"

Oh no, he's using the Blue Screen of Death!

— "Patashu"

Bill Gates hits! Your purse seems lighter...

— Jack Bolsen

You read a scroll called Help.chm. You are confused!

— Gary Olson

These were some amusing responses to a spam post to the rec.games.roguelike.nethack newsgroup.

01:44 am - Chili Nacho Salad

I like chili when it's done right. For me, that means that it has to be made from scratch, given at least an hour to simmer, must not have too many kidney beans nor spices, and must be somewhat watery. When chili is not done right, I have to think of creative ways to consume it. This time, I tried a variant the Wendy's recipe for what they call a Nacho Supremo Salad. I prefer a less fanciful name, so I call it a Chili Nacho Salad.

Ingredients

• can of chili
• lettuce salad
• shredded cheese
• either ranch dressing or sour cream
• tortilla chips
• taco sauce or salsa (optional)

The lettuce salad should preferably not have any other vegetables in it, and should contain some Iceburg lettuce. The cheese should be either Cheddar or a Mexican blend.

Directions

1. Heat chili.
2. On plate, add 2 handfuls of lettuce.
3. Apply the desired amount of sour cream or dressing.
4. Add about 1 and 1/2 cup of chili.
5. Add taco sauce or salsa if desired.
6. Top with plenty of shredded cheese.
7. Garnish with tortilla chips.

I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

02:06 am - [quote] Why Free Software should be used in schools

[Two other reasons precede this.]

The third reason is even more fundamental. We want schools to teach facts and skill, of course, but also good moral character, which means being prepared to help other people. That means the school should say to the kids, "Any software that is here, you can copy it. Copy it and take it home. That is what it is here for. If you bring any software to school, you must share it with the other kids. If you are not willing to share it with the other kids, do not bring it here, it does not belong here, because we are teaching kids to be helpful to each other." Education of moral character is important for every society.

— Richard M. Stallman [original quote]

07:04 pm - Tweaked menu and table of contents

I've updated the menus and table of contents throughout my website so that they have a nicer look. I'm particularly happy with how the menus in my blog look now.

In addition, I've enabled the highlighting of links when they are hovered over. For a while I was against this, because I've seen it done badly before, but I think I found a decent color to use for highlighting.

For those who use GNU Arch: I figured out the difference between tla update and tla replay, and have added a note to Projects: Cooperation and Arch about this.

Update: sorry for the flood of posts; the submission form was acting up.

05:22 pm - Making apt 0.6 happy with a simple Debian repository

I've taken a bit of time to look into ways to prevent aptitude from complaining every time one of the packages at my Debian and Ubuntu package repository is installed. The resulting script follows.

#!/bin/bash

# Update my debian directory

# Test to see if we need to run this at all
if [[ -n "$1" ]] && [ "$1" != "debian" ]; then
    exit 0
fi

# Local dirs to pull from
DIR_LIST="/stuff/proj/emacs/dist"

# Place to put debian stuff
PUBL_DIR=site/debian

# Replace old publishing dir
[ -d $PUBL_DIR ] && rm -r $PUBL_DIR
mkdir $PUBL_DIR

# Copy in files from various locations
for i in $DIR_LIST; do
    echo "Copying Debian stuff from $i ..."
    find $i -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -name '*_*' -exec cp -u '{}' $PUBL_DIR ';'
done

# Generate the indexes so that apt-get works
echo "Building package list ..."
(cd $PUBL_DIR && dpkg-scansources . /dev/null > Sources && \
    cat Sources | gzip -9c > Sources.gz)
(cd $PUBL_DIR && dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null > Packages && \
    cat Packages | gzip -9c > Packages.gz)

# Make apt 0.6 happy
if [ ! -f scripts/Release.in ]; then
    echo "You need a scripts/Release.in file; aborting"
    exit 1
fi
echo "Appeasing apt 0.6 ..."
cat scripts/Release.in > $PUBL_DIR/Release
echo "MD5Sum:" >> $PUBL_DIR/Release
(cd $PUBL_DIR &&
    for i in Packages Packages.gz Sources Sources.gz; do
        size=$(stat $i | sed -n -e \
            's/^[[:space:]]*Size:[[:space:]]*\([[:digit:]]\+\).\+/\1/p')
        md5sum $i | sed -n -e \
            "s/^\([^[:space:]]\+[[:space:]]\+\)\(.\+\)/ \1 $size \2/p" \
            >> Release
    done
    cat Release | gpg -sba - - > Release.gpg)

echo "Done."

My Release.in file is listed below.

Archive: unstable
Origin: mwolson.org
Label: Debian and Ubuntu packages that mwolson maintains
Architecture: all i386 source

08:14 pm - EMMS 2.0 released

The EMMS team is proud to announce the release of version 2.0 of EMMS, the Emacs Multimedia System. EMMS is an Emacs interface to command line multimedia players, featuring playlists, streams support, and easy extensibility.

Version 2.0 of EMMS is based on a rewrite of the playlist interface, now using Emacs buffers directly to store tracks. This improves speed for modification considerably over the old vector-based design, and allowed for an easy and well-integrated user interface on top of these.

Numerous other changes have happened. Beware that your EMMS 1 configuration will most assuredly NOT work with EMMS 2. Refer to the extensive manual for further information.

Thanks go out to all the people who contributed code to this major rewrite: Without you, this would have never happened :-)

The tarball of EMMS 2.0 is available on the web:

http://www.gnu.org/software/emms/releases/emms-2.0.tar.gz

The package should also be available on Debian mirrors shortly.

— Announcement by Jorgen Schaefer on gmane.emacs.emms.user

This release contains my MusicPD backend for EMMS, which is in the file emms-player-mpd.el.

09:30 pm - The virtues of rice milk

I have begun using rice milk instead of regular milk. The primary reason for this is to avoid spoilage. I don't use regular milk fast enough, so I end up having to throw about half the carton out each time. Rice milk, on the other hand, lasts at least a month and a half.

There are two varieties of rice milk available at the store that I go to: regular and vanilla. The vanilla flavor is good for making horchata¹ (which is the very reason that I started buying it). It's also decent for flavoring coffee.

Regular rice milk is good for almost anything else, which for me is just cereal and cooking. It tastes fine in cereal, but I'm still working out how to change the hamburger helper directions to accommodate it. The first batch of hamburger helper turned out too watery, so it might be necessary to decrease the amount of water used by about a 1/4 cup.

1. Horchata is a Mexican rice drink. To make it, start with rice milk, add a pre-bought Horchata mix, and garnish with cinnamon. I got hooked on it when I tried it at La Bamba.

09:47 am - On blocking of LiveJournal advertisements

After seeing this Slashdot article, I was a bit worried that LiveJournal was trying to prohibit me from running ad-blocking software on my own machine while viewing their content as a logged-in user. After reading their terms of service, however, it looks like Slashdot's interpretation is slightly incorrect.

The rule in question is Rule 17(b) in Member Conduct on that page. Firstly, I note that there is a prefix that comes before the list of rules.

You agree to NOT use the Service to: ...

So, it would seem that I am not allowed to add content (or exploit a hypothetical backdoor) in the Service itself, such that one of the following rules applies.

Secondly, the particular rule states that I may not Employ and/or provide (ed.) "stuff" that causes ads on LiveJournal pages to be blocked. In the previously-stated context, this would mean that I can't put content on their site that would cause ads to be blocked. Since my ad-blocking software of choice is installed on my own machine, not theirs, I don't believe that I run afoul of this rule.

Uploading source code or binary objects to their site that cause ads to be blocked, by contrast, would invoke that rule. I hope I'm interpreting this correctly, since this would then be a fairly innocuous rule.

It would probably be technologically feasible to enforce a more draconian interpretation, like "those who visit this site while logged in must download all advertisements on a page, especially if they are marked as being capable of downloading our logo" (so that those who view the page in a text-only manner don't suffer). Hence the initial worriment.

12:27 am - MusicPD backend for EMMS greatly improved

I spent most of the day reworking my MusicPD backend for EMMS. I realized that the former approach could not handle large packets of information, so I started looking for alternatives. Luckily for me, I stumbled upon tq.el, which implemented transaction queues.

To truly implement transaction queues well, I had to split up any function that required a response from MusicPD into at least 2 parts: a caller and one or more callbacks. To preserve state, I also had to use a fake sort of closure. I feel like a real programmer now that I've made working implementations of these concepts.

I even had to make a customized version of tq.el so that the process would not be sent input while it was producing output.

The resulting code seems to be working really nicely. I was even able to throw out a timeout-detection option, since it was rendered unnecessary by the inherent stability of the new design. I hope that EMMS 2 gets released soon (and with this code) so that I can show it off.

NP: P.O.D. - Portrait

09:53 pm - All the light that's not is dark

"all the light that's not is dark":
no more sunsets in the park.
no more colors or blends of hue,
no more schism twixt points of view.

i may be a simple square that barely recalls
the perfect form of my millenium guide,
but that bright memory shares in its stall
the neighing king without inside.

now imprisoned for having seen,
i strain my angles
but my nature's tangles
leave only rationality to war
against confines of age and doubt.
and if my thoughts be code at core,
pray tell: when i expire, will they let me out?!
now imprisoned for having seen,
now imprisoned for having seen.

— Thien-Thi Nguyen [original quote, more poems]

This was in response to the assertion "everything that's not hardware is software", which is made by some Debian developers. I dissent from this assertion, because documentation has a different purpose then software (static content vs. automation).

11:51 am - Move to Ubuntu complete

I've now completed the transition of my laptop to Ubuntu Linux (dapper). It's really nice to have the newest XFCE and GNOME versions. According to this presentation, Ubuntu will include GFDL'd documentation, so I can conscientiously advocate its use and use it myself.

I don't mind that they include binary firmware, since I view it as (mostly) part of the hardware itself. Of course, it is still preferable to have full source for a driver, and I intend to patronize hardware that has this attribute.

I will continue to maintain my Debian packages, since Ubuntu is based on Debian. Thus, changes that I make will propagate to the Ubuntu universe. I'm hoping to get involved with maintaining a few Ubuntu packages sometime in the near future.