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Twitter Updates for 2008-04-08
April 8th, 2008
- Watching Star Wars Episode 1. Thank goodness for Tivo. #
- Ubuntu Hardy bug report http://tinyurl.com/5qxy7p #
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Twitter Updates for 2008-04-07
April 7th, 2008
- Finally got the bugs squashed after the Hardy upgrade. #
- It seems every new version of the Linux kernel breaks VMware modules ability to actually compile. Is this a failure on Linux or VMware? #
- @mollywood It’s better too look good dead, than to be alive and ugly.
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Free Software Smackdown: RMS vs. Theo
December 20th, 2007
There was a very long thread on the misc@openbsd.org mailing list of the last week. It all started with some comments from Richard Stallman responding to complaints to him about his past remarks on BSDTalk. Lots of flaming and other arguments ensued. Including this snippet.
Theo: “Since both emacs and gcc contain code inside them which permit them to compile and run on commercial operating systems which are non-free, you are a slimy hypocrite.”
RMS: “I see you are being your usual friendly self ;-}.”
Much of it was very thought provoking, but the majority was just bickering. The biggest point of the whole war being that RMS had specifically recommended against OpenBSD because it “included” non-free software, referring to the ports system. Theo and others took offense at this because the ports system doesn’t “include” any external software, it is only a framework of Makefiles that make installing lots of software packages, Free and Non-Free, easy. And the entire ports system is 100% Free-Software.
IMHO, the saddest part of this whole debacle is the fact that besides the extremely obscure gNewSense pet project of RMS, there is no other operating system, or distribution of an operating system more Free than OpenBSD. Both RMS and Theo have similar goals with Free Software, but have radically different tactics and personalities.
Marriage is a Civil Right
November 27th, 2007
A recent New York Times article very clearly and rationally explained my stance on marriage. As long as the government recognizes and assigns rights/privileges to those with a marriage licenses, it is an infringement of the civil rights of those denied licenses.
Those opposed to granting marriage licenses to others based on the choice of partner often spew forth ideas based on religion. I have no desire to legislate religion, but the marriage license is not only a religious idea, it is deeply intertwined with government processes, rights, and privileges, making it a civil right.
I can think of two possible solutions to this violation of rights. Remove the marriage license as a government document and tool to determine ones rights. Or the easier alternative to remove the immoral, discriminatory restrictions for getting said marriage license. Religions can continue to decide which marriages they accept or not.
The Efficient SysAdmin
November 27th, 2007
While working as a SysAdmin (System Administrator) there are many tasks of different types. Any good sysadmin knows that there is always room for improvement. Some actually go so far as to script and/or automate everything. These types often end up spending weeks or months developing automation systems while the rest of their duties suffer as do their users.
I once saw an article describing this dilemma. Basically all tasks can be broken into categories based on the difficulty of the task and the frequency of the task. Steps to reduce the time and effort to do these tasks should be prioritized by category. Tasks that are easy to do, that you do frequently, should have shortcuts applied when possible. An example might be using your shell’s alias feature. Tasks that are easy, that you do rarely, don’t bother over complicating it yet. Hard stuff that you do frequently should be automated as much as possible. Perhaps you could try your hand at Shell or Perl scripting. Those rare tasks that take some time on your part should be clearly documented to take out the guess work, perhaps even include copy/paste’able code fragments as well.
I highly suggest these two books by Thomas Limoncelli. The Practice of System and Network Administration, and Time Management for System Administrators. The first book covers a lot of general theory of system administration, not necessarily platform specific but there is lost of unix information. The second book offers excellent ideas and tips on managing your time better, reducing distractions, and getting rid random people interrupting you to ask why their email is slow.
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