I’ve decided to totally rearrange my site. The blog part was fun in 2005 when I started it, but now that I have so much less time to actually post it should no longer be the main look of my website.
I both post less often and less interesting stuff as I feel quality posts take a little more time to work on, which I have less of now.
As a replacement I will make sure that all links to http://maarten.lippmann.us/index.php?p=’some number’ keep working and those posts show in a div somewhere in the front page, so the interface to the word press database has to somewhat stay intact; I still have many viewers coming to my older posts and I want to keep a feed up for people to subscribe.
But I want to explore IT projects I have done in the past more and give them easier access from the front page. The last blog posts will no longer be shown by default, but will be accessible through a little ajax-generated link list.
Big plans, clearly. The project is currently accessible at http://staging.lippmann.us although it’s very much in the early phase of me trying to find an ok look and feel and playing with some hands-on javascript and php (I’ve got the system showing what’s currently playing on my home stereo as a little cron/ajax test). It’s going to be white on black with red headers, which is a bit controversial it seems from early reviews, and I want to keep it 100% w3 strict compliant.
I love classical renditions of metal, like Xytra’s passage, and works by apocalyptica. Here is a youtube video of 3 young women playing System of a Down’s Toxicity on violins and drums, very impressive.
Like many IT professionals I’m rather disenchanted with the concept of virusscanners and adware tools. They hardly ever actually add security, are generally a nuisance and always slow down computers. Sometimes they gather personal information and sell it, which, combined with the slowing down of the computer they are installed on is no better than most virusses.
It’s one of the reasons I prefer Linux; there are hardly any viruses to worry about for linux users.
Going with free virus scanner alternatives is generally better than the norton or mcaffee; for example the free versions by avira, avg or avast. At least you’re not being gouged that way ,and you always have an up-to-date scanner. However, more and more virusses can go by scanners undetected, even up-to-date scanners.
The best way to protect from virusses is to prevent them from entering in the first place of course. One way is by smart browsing, but when your browser (or java or flash or other plug-in or add-on) is not patched, even if you don’t actually personally actively download and install something, your machine can still get infected through software vulnerabilities. So what to do?
Use the Personal Software Inspector from secunia! (love that thing)
All it does is make sure the installed software on your windows systems is up to date, and notify you if it’s not (it also describes the severity of the vulnerabilities of the unpatched programs you might have). It even gives you relevant links to help you update the vulnerable older versions of whatever software you have to the latest and greatest patched one.
Keeping stuff up to date truly is half the battle.
Of course you might wonder why something this cool is free. Secunia is a site focused on computer security, they make money from the aggregated security statistics of the users. What software people are more likely to patch, how much unpatched software the average windows user runs , etc. are all valuable questions they try to answer with the stats they get back. Which helps the windows world stay more secure.
Yay I made my first rss feed. It’s a php script that reads all files in a directory, and creates feed items based upon the content.
It’s for my family in holland, so they can subscribe to videos of Annalise we post online.
here’s the link:
Today I checked my mail folder at Manning, to see if I passed the comps exam. I did, which is great (although the exam was a bit of a joke truthfully).
there was, besides this great news, also a little note in my mail folder.
It had my name and a number (520) at the top, and the line love lies bleeding in the center.
(ill make a scan to put here)
I feel honored and intrigued by this little note.
I feel somewhat sad too.
It’s too cryptic to be a joke, but seems so tragic.
I think that a person in my INLS 520 class has feelings for me, and is suffering due to the fact that she (or he) knows I am unavailable.
I sit in the front and only really see the teacher so can’t really speculate as to who it might be. I think the teacher is cute but that’s about my opinion of the class.
I really feel sorry for the person, whoever it might be.
Haven’t posted in a while.
Guess what’s been keeping me occupied.
Cristóbal showed me a little xml file which, when placed in your home directory, makes all fonts prettier!
It’s not enabled by default in many Linux distributions due to patents or something.
Anyways, save below code as .fonts.conf in your homedir, reboot X, and enjoy:
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"> <fontconfig> <match target="font" > <edit mode="assign" name="autohint" > <bool>true</bool> </edit> </match> <match target="font" > <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" > <const>none</const> </edit> </match> <match target="font" > <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" > <bool>false</bool> </edit> </match> <match target="font" > <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" > <const>hintnone</const> </edit> </match> <match target="font" > <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" > <bool>true</bool> </edit> </match> </fontconfig>
How bad is it to drink a glass or two of alcohol as a nursing parent? Let’s find out!
Imagine you were a 120 lb mom, breastfeeding a 12 lb 3 month old baby. How many beers would you have to drink in a row (so no time for the liver and kidneys to get rid of it) to get your baby as drunk in one subsequent nurture session (4 oz) as you would be after two 12 oz glasses of beer (with 5% alcohol content) yourself ?
Note: when you drink, after a short delay the level of alcohol in your breastmilk is the same as that in your blood.
For your calculations you are allowed to make some reasonable assumptions, like assuming the blood volume of the baby is 10% that of the mom, etc.
Also, according to the Oklahoma police department website, after two beers drank in immediate succession, the theoretical blood alcohol content (this varies often) for a 120 lb adult after 2 12 oz beers is .06 %. So the blood alcohol content of the baby should get to that level (not good considering baby livers, but let’s ignore that).
Answer will be here in a few days when I feel like doing some calculations. Feel free to beat me to it with comments.
We’ll begin with box, and the plural is boxes.
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese.
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
When couldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot – would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this and plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be nicknamed kese?
Then one may be that, and three may be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!
So our English, I think you will all agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see. I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother.
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there.
And dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up — and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk it when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five!
