Date:	2007-12-06 21:57
Subject:	Gmail is Cool!
Security:	Public

Integrating google calendars with mail:




It saw that there was a meeting on Monday and automatically offered Monday December 10 and a topic! Sweet.

post a comment

---

Date:	2007-11-28 21:59
Subject:
Security:	Public

This feels so weird... making a new post and all...

Anyway, it's been a while and an update is in order. The important things:

I'm not going to school this year. I went part time the last two semesters and still managed to fuck up enough. I'm just done for now.

I finally have a driver's license at age 21. Woot. I also have a car, which makes having a license even better!

I have a job at Axiom Technologies, a small ISP in Washington County, Maine. It's kind of interesting what we do, actually. You can't do DSL everywhere out here[1] and the cable system around here sucks[2] so we use wireless transmitters installed on towers and houses. It uses the 900MHz, 2.4GHz, and 5.8GHz bands and the 802.11 standards - same as regular wifi only on a larger scale. Since there aren't any other IT companies around here we do a lot of other things beyond just ISP too. It's neat.

The less important things:
I don't usually watch TV, but this fall I've been watching Pushing Daisies and Big Shots (in addition to assorted cartoons like Avatar, Family Guy, and Futurama). I really like these two new shows. Pushing Daisies is so weird and whimsical but funny and endearing at the same time. And Big Shots is great because you have these 4 men who are powerful, wealthy, good-looking, etc - a life most men would envy - yet it's about all their problems. They have some really good ones :D

Hmm... so yeah, life is good.

[1] There are high-frequency filters 3 miles from every telco central office, so unless you're right in town, it isn't an option

[2] Pinetree cable finally kicked the bucket with all their overdue taxes to the towns around here. Time Warner is buying them out. It will be interesting to see if they bring Roadrunner here.

post a comment

---

Date:	2007-04-21 13:40
Subject:	21st birthday
Security:	Public

Coincidences of coincidences: my ID finally arrived and on my 21st birthday. Too bad I don't really have any friends that drink, so a bar crawl is sort of pointless anyway. I'm just amused by the timing.

post a comment

---

Date:	2007-02-08 20:08
Subject:	My (mis)adventures with Solaris
Security:	Public

Last weekend a SUNY Potsdam CS alumn donated a few old servers to our ACM chapter. A few Dell servers and a Sun Enterprise 3000. Fortunately, as far as hardware goes the sun server was mostly working from the start. We didnt' have a Sun monitor or keyboard, so it was a bit hit and miss at first getting GtkTerm to connect to it properly over the serial port, but we eventually got it. We then found out that half the memory on one of the CPU modules was incompatible. Removing that we were finally able to boot. The solaris installer was a real nightmare. I had to redo it a few times. By sunday afternoon, though, I had a working system running. Since then I've been installing software such as Apache2, MySQL, and PHP 5. My original plan was to make this a web server that CS students could experiment with. The campus provides web space, but you can't use any scripting of any kind. This way people could use PHP and cgi as they wish. I didn't find out until the other night, though, that it only has 512 MB of RAM. That's really not enough for MySQL and PHP, so the whole thing is really not anything more than a toy.

A couple of my impressions of Solaris...

The Services Management Facility (SMF) is pretty cool. As opposed to depending on /etc/rc$.d/ and /etc/init.d/ scripts, you load a service manifest which describes a process. This manifest includes how to start, stop, and refresh the service, as well as other services it depends on. It's a neat way to allow abstraction of services.

The filesystem is a bit weird. I'm used to The Debian Way of having binaries, libraries, and configuration separated into their own directories. For example, you wouldn't find any executables under /usr/share - it'd all be under /usr/bin. In Solaris, however, everthing goes in the same directory. So all the binaries and configuration for my Apache2 server are under /usr/local/apache2. Also, in Debian /usr/local is reserved for stuff installed by the sysadmin that's not covered under the package management system. With Solaris you've got /usr/local as well as /opt, both serving the same purpose. So, combine that with the previous problem and you've got a real mess trying to keep your $PATH complete.

I'd much rather just slap Debian on here, but the 3.1 installer doesn't see the cdrom drive, and the testing installer kernel panics.

Anyway, I was feeling really motivated about working on this thing earlier this week, but combining the problems I've mentioned with the fact that it has only 512 MB of RAM I find myself losing a bit of steam on the project.

post a comment

---

Date:	2007-02-02 15:24
Subject:	Spring Semester
Security:	Public

I was just reading my most recent post (from Jan 3) and realized an update is in order!

It turns out I am in fact eligible for a [subsidized!] student loan this semester. I went to financial aide a while back and got things sorted out. According to them I was eligible for it last semester yet I don't believe I received any notification of it. Oh well, I'm here now.

This also means I'm still working for the IT department at school. Money is good.

I'm enrolled part time again, but this time with two normal classes. No new independent studies. I've got Computer Networking and Foundations of Computer Science which is just a fancy name for "discrete math taught by the CS department". So far both classes have been enjoyable.

Networking has been a bit frenetic, but worthwhile. My only problem with that class is a new edition of the textbook will be coming out in March. Why in the world would a textbook publisher start a new edition in the middle of a semester?! Oh well.

In discrete we've only covered propositional and predicate logic so far. About 50% of the class has also been about programming with Scheme though, which is surprisingly fun. The professor has a reputation of being a difficult bastard (honestly, that's about the best way to sum it up) but so far he's seemed quite good to me. His love for Scheme can be a bit unsettling though.

So - things are roughly back on track.

post a comment

---

Date:	2007-01-03 12:08
Subject:	I hate travelling
Security:	Public
Mood:	exhuasted

I hate the bus trip from Maine to Potsdam. I left on Monday at 6:45 PM and got into Potsdam at 8:00 PM last night. Fortunately we made a stop at Borders before my bus left, so I had some stuff to read. I got Wintersmith, a new Terry Pratchett book. I love these books about Tiffany Aching, she ranks right up with Rincewind and Death as my favorite Discworld characters. I wish it had been a much longer book though - it only lasted 7 hours out of my 25 hour trip. The absolute worse part about the bus trip is the 7 hour layover in Boston. It's not long enough to warrant getting a hotel room (which would be quite expensive anyway in my opinion anyway) but it's nearly impossible to get any sleep at the bus terminal. I tried using my big duffel bag as a bed, which worked on one trip, but didn't this time. So I usually end up spending the next day sleeping on the bus. It's not a very good sleep, and I've been sick with a cold so I'm still exhausted and feel like I could sleep for a week (if I could breathe, of course). I woke up a lot last night too, though, because of my stuffed up nose and exploding sinuses.

Anyway, enough complaining, here's some news.

I screwed up again last semester. I was taking Statistics as an indepentdent study, but I slacked off and did hardly any of it. So I'm back here in Potsdam this January to finish it. I'm really not sure what I'm doing though. I don't have enough money to enroll even part-time this semester. Even if I dropped from 7 credits to 4 my bill would be a bit over $2k. After this month's rent and food and next month's rent I don't think there's anyway I could pay that. Also, if that's the case I'll need a new job. I have been working for the school, but I need to be a student for that job. Back in August it sounded like a great idea to come back to Potsdam. We had a Plan[1], but now I'm starting to feel a bit crazy about all this.

I think part of my problem is I don't even know what I want from life. I thought music school was simply more intense than I had anticipated. Then I thought computer science was the answer - I just needed something that I felt passionate enough about and I'd all of a sudden become a better student. Sure, I aced CS II this past semester, but I completely blew off my other course, which is required for the major. I have to admit, I don't know what I want to do with a CS degree.

Stopping now before this gets too ranty (or more ranty than it already is?).

[1] come back to potsdam part-time, get an apartment and a job so that next fall I could be considered a NY state resident.

1 comment | post a comment

---

Date:	2006-12-21 00:47
Subject:	PHP Success!
Security:	Public

Building the interface for my herb database proved to be much more difficult than creating the actual database. I've completed it though (well, I don't think there's anything else I want to do with it...) and am happy with the result: http://beam.to/hotaru/herbarium.php.

post a comment

---

Date:	2006-12-18 22:17
Subject:	AJAX woes
Security:	Public
Mood:	frustrated

I thought I'd work up a nice AJAX driven interface for the herb database I created for my Discworld MUD website. The first problem I ran into was a poorly formed SQL query which gave me a cryptic error message from PHP. That was easily fixed after just a bit of web searching. I've been wracking my brain over this ajax problem for a couple of hours now. It simply doesn't update. I don't understand at all because I used a test php script that just echoed the variable sent to it and it worked perfectly. I have no idea what the problem is now, but I'm going to leave it for a bit and come back later.

post a comment

---

Date:	2006-12-18 14:56
Subject:	Learning SQL again
Security:	Public

I was reviewing the functional dependencies of the merit badge schedule database I created yesterday and I realized I had a mistake:

(badge, time, section) --> program area

When in reality badge and section determine time:

(badge, section) --> time
(badge) --> program area

To maintain the reference in the Schedule table to the Sessions table I simply added a UNIQUE(badge, section, time) clause to the Sessions table definition before dropping the primary key and then adding the key (badge, section).

I'll probably unearth a number of similar problems as I work with it more.

In my Scouts table I've defined the primary key (lastName, firstName) and the unique key (lastName, firstName, troop) although I wonder if the unique key is not needed since there will already be unique (lastName, firstName) combinations and no other table references (lastName, firstName, troop). I'm not sure why I included the unique constraint in the first place now...

( Scouts table definitionCollapse )

post a comment

---

Date:	2006-12-17 23:39
Subject:	Learning SQL
Security:	Public
Mood:	proud

For a while now I've desired to know how to design a relational database for a number of different things. Databases are simply a very important part of IT and are used in so many ways on both small and large scales, it seems it would be very valuable to have some understanding of them. Earlier this year I installed PostgreSQL on my laptop and played around a bit. I didn't succeed in doing much more than wrap my head around the idea of a table, though. I also played with the database module of OpenOffice.org in an attempt to create a new database to manage the merit badge schedules at Camp Roosevelt[1].

Finally, after a 26 hour bus ride home with the book "Joe Celko's SQL For Smarties" [2] (ok, I didn't spend the entire time reading that book... in fact I probably spent very little time reading only select portions of it, but they were very informative portions!), I now feel like I have a finger-span's grasp on the whole relational database model. Yesterday I created a database for storing information about poisonous herbs on the Discworld MUD that I may use on my website.

# Poisonous herbs of the Discworld MUD

CREATE TABLE `Solvents` (
  `solvent` VARCHAR( 30 ) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE `Herbs` ( 
  `herb`    VARCHAR(30)  CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, 
  `solvent` VARCHAR(30)  CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT 'water',
  `effect`  VARCHAR(300) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL, 
  `desc`    VARCHAR(300) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  FOREIGN KEY (`solvent`) REFERENCES `Solvents` (`solvent`)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE `HerbSources` (
  `source` VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `herb`   VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  FOREIGN KEY (`herb`) REFERENCES `Herbs` (`herb`),
  PRIMARY KEY (source, herb)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

I used MySQL for this since that's what's available from my web host, but there are a number off annoying things I've found about MySQL.

First, to use the REFERENCES predicate you must select the InnoDB engine for the table (default is MyISAM). With the default engine MySQL silently ignores the REFERENCES predicate.

The next thing I found was that even though (to my knowledge anyway) foo REFERENCES bar is valid SQL, MySQL will only support it using the syntax FOREIGN KEY (foo) REFERENCES bar. Perhaps I wouldn't be as irritated by this if I had known about foreign keys better, but this proves that Joe Celko's book is a bit out-dated (1995) since foreign keys weren't mentioned at all but REFERENCES was.

A more important database, of course, would be the merit badge schedule for Camp Roosevelt. I worked on that this evening, starting by drawing a E-R diagram to get a sense of what tables I would need and how they were related. I'm learning that how you want to display and retrieve information isn't necessarily the best representation of how to store it in the database (I'm sure that sounds incredibly obvious to anyone who has designed a database before, but it was the hardest concept for me to understand).

# Camp Roosevelt Merit Badge Schedule
CREATE TABLE `Troops` (
  `number`       VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `weekAttended` TINYINT     NOT NULL,
  `leader`       VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `town`         VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`number`, `weekAttended`)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE `Scouts` (
  `lastName`  VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `firstName` VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `rank`      VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `troop`     VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  FOREIGN KEY (`troop`) REFERENCES `Troops` (`number`),
  PRIMARY KEY (`lastName`, `firstName`),
  UNIQUE (`lastName`, `firstName`, `troop`)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE `ProgramAreas` (
  `area`     VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `director` VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`area`)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE `Sessions` (
  `badge`       VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `time`        TIME        NOT NULL,
  `section`     TINYINT(1)  NOT NULL,
  `programArea` VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  # Other possible rows may include ``maxSize`, instructor`, and/or `duration`
  PRIMARY KEY (`badge`, `time`, `section`),
  FOREIGN KEY (`programArea`) REFERENCES `ProgramAreas` (`area`)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE `Schedule` (
  `lastName`  VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `firstName` VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `badge`     VARCHAR(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `time`      TIME        NOT NULL,
  `section`   TINYINT(1)  NOT NULL,
  FOREIGN KEY (`lastName`, `firstName`)    REFERENCES `Scouts` (`lastName`, `firstName`),
  FOREIGN KEY (`badge`, `time`, `section`) REFERENCES `Sessions` (`badge`, `time`, `section`),
  PRIMARY KEY (`lastName`, `firstName`, `badge`)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

As you can see, this is a slightly larger and more complex database than the herbal one. I'm fairly happy with it for now, although I've realized I may have to alter it a bit. For example, if a merit badge section is removed from the Sessions table I would like all references in the Schedule table to be removed as well. Same with a troop and its scouts in the Troops and Scouts tables respectively.

I am concerned, however, with how I've handled the problem of different schedules each week (each troop generally visits camp one week out of 4, so each week we have a different group of troops attending). I don't believe that including week information in the Sessions table will make my SELECT queries any simpler, although I haven't given it that much thought yet.

My next step will be to start writing some PHP interfaces for these databases. This part should be fun and I think I might incorportate some AJAX to make it that much cooler. On the whole I'm feeling rather proud of how much I've learned over the past few days, even if it may appear meagre to outside eyes.

[1] Camp Roosevelt is a Boy Scout camp I work at. For the past 6 years I've worked at the Nature Lodge but starting next summer I'll be working as a Program Director for the entire camp. This is very exciting for me since the camp feels like a second home to me and I'm very passionate about the experiences we provide.

[2] I like the idea of a "smarties" book better than a "dummies" book, although in this case "dummy" would probably have been more applicable for me :) Note that the edition linked to is current (2005) but I have the 1995 edition.

3 comments | post a comment

---

Date:	2006-10-11 11:12
Subject:	Columbus Day Weekend
Security:	Public

I'm a little upset with my parents right now. Last Friday I added some minutes to my Tracfone after about a week of not being able to use it and I found I had a voicemail from my Grandparents. Apparently they had stopped in Potsdam on their way from Wisconsin to Maine. Since no one told me they were coming, though, I had no idea they would be around. So I'm a little upset I missed seeing them.

This weekend made me happier though. On Sunday a group of friends and I hiked Debar mountain in the Adirondacks. It was a beautiful day and a good hike. We're at the northern end of the park, so it's not terribly mountainous, but from the peak you could see a number of other small mountains and hills jutting up off the otherwise flat land. And of course the fall colours were in full swing, so it made for a fabulous day.

1 comment | post a comment

---

Date:	2006-09-17 15:14
Subject:	Computer Science
Security:	Public

I think I've finally found the right major. Our first programming assignment for CS II was due this past Friday. I had finished it the weekend before and worked on the extra credit portion this past week. I made my final submission on Friday, then immediately searched the Classes directory of the computer science server for the next assignment (it hadn't been posted online yet). I didn't start working on it until about 3:00 AM Saturday, but I had it very nearly finished by 5:00 AM. Anything that can get me to stay up until 5:00 AM is a good thing.

1 comment | post a comment

---

Date:	2006-09-10 19:18
Subject:
Security:	Public

I'm feeling a bit more "moved-in" after a couple of days cleaning various parts of the apartment. I have to admit that it wasn't a very pleasant smelling place when I got here, but it's a lot better now that I've cleaned the kitchen and bathroom - oh, and removed the dead bat. It's been a pretty uneventful weekend besides that. darkmoonsinger came yesterday to help, but by the time she got there I didn't feel like cleaning anymore. She came again today and helped which got things done a lot faster - many thanks to her for that.

post a comment

---

Date:	2006-09-04 17:47
Subject:	Reed Switch/Inverter Gone Bad
Security:	Public
Mood:	frustrated

After seeing graphics on my iBook again I got really excited and started putting it back together. I got the top shield put back on and decided to test it again, just to be sure. And did it work? Of course not. After some asking around I've found out it's most likely a components called the reed switch/inverter which connects from the motherboard to the screen somehow (I can only see the long grey part of it). Sure enough, I wiggled it around just a little bit and the screen doesn't show anything again. This is really depressing. I'm determined not to spend any money on this machine since it's getting pretty old, and while taking the top and bottom cases off wasn't too bad, I don't think I want to deal with repairing the display assembly. So, though you've been a great tool, it's time to say "so long", iBook.

post a comment

---

Date:	2006-09-04 14:10
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	hopeful

A couple of weeks ago I finished working at camp, went home, relaxed. When I tried to use my iBook however, the graphics went all wonky on me then went kaput (yes, highly technical terms there, I know). This made me very said because when I booted the iBook again I got absolutely no graphics - the fans ran, the hard drive spun, and I even produced sounds once the OS booted, but no picture. I was hoping this computer, while old it may be, would at least last me a few more years.

This past weekend I spent some time taking the computer apart (quite an adventure if you haven't disassembled a laptop before) to get the hard drive out so I could at least save my data. It then occurred to me that if I had a firewire cable I could boot the mac in target disk mode and mount it on another computer that way! Today I borrowed a firewire cable from someone, booted the iBook and lo! there are graphics once again! I'm not going to get my hopes up too much, but perhaps it will continue working now? Maybe? Hopefully? Please god?

post a comment

---

Date:	2006-08-30 13:26
Subject:	Back in Potsdam
Security:	Public
Mood:	exhausted

So this past Saturday I hopped on a bus and came back here to Potsdam. The plan is to work full time and take classes part time so I can establish residency and actually be able to afford to go here full time and earn a degree. I just found out that the job I thought I was going to get is actually not going to be offered (I was going to replace a guy who's leaving the IT department on campus) and the best I can do there is work part time as a student assistant.

Also, I'm finding it difficult finding a place to live that isn't too expensive. Again, the place I thought I was going to stay at isn't actually going to be up for lease this semester so I spent all afternoon yesterday walking across town viewing apartments that are still available.

So far I've found these three:

1. very nice 5 bedroom apartment to share with 3 others (already living there). $487/mo, doesn't include utilities


2. Not nearly as nice as the first but closer to campus and includes utilities but not trash removal or internet/cable/phone. Could cost $375 - 537/mo depending on how many people live there


3. Studio apartment that's further than the others. Includes utilities but not trash removal or internet/cable/pohne. $395/mo.

None of my options are very good (in my opinion) but I'll have to take what I can get I guess.

post a comment

---

Date:	2006-05-30 10:23
Subject:	The Da Vinci Code
Security:	Public
Mood:	chipper

On Sunday my mom, sister, a friend of hers, and I went to Bangor to see The Da Vinci Code. I read the book earlier this year and really liked it, but I made a point of not reading it again just before seeing the movie. I did that with The Two Towers and it totally ruined the movie for me (they hardly followed the book for that movie). I'm extremely impressed, though, with how closely this movie follows the book.

There were only a few big differences:
( Spoilers!Collapse )

Before seeing the movie we stopped at Borders and the mall. I got another Discworld novel, Reaper Man, volumes 2 and 3 of the Hellsing manga, and The Way Up from the Pat Metheny Group. I've already finished Reaper Man, it was, as usual, very amusing. I also read volume 2 of Hellsing last night. I'm starting to run into some differences between the manga and the TV version.

I had an eye appointment today. It's been four years since my prescription changed, but I finally need new lenses again. I can't wait for them to come in. You don't always notice your eyes deteriorating slowly, but recently I've been able to tell that my eye-sight isn't what it should be.

I think I need some more user pics for Livejournal. I just realized I can have more...

1 comment | post a comment

---

Date:	2006-05-14 22:35
Subject:	Intelligent discussion on (Wizards)
Security:	Public

An intelligent conversation on (wizards). I attribute it to Elanor being absent.

( (Wizards) transcriptCollapse )

1 comment | post a comment

---

Date:	2006-05-01 23:17
Subject:	No More Internet for a While
Security:	Public
Mood:	exasperated

My parents are pulling the plug on my internet connection [1] so if you sense my disappearance that's why. I've blown another semester and apparently this will fix the problem. I might be able to make an appearance every now and then, but I doubt it.

So long.

[1] If you can even call it a connection - we have 56k dialup and I think the fastest I've seen this get is 33kbps.

1 comment | post a comment

---

Date:	2006-04-07 16:19
Subject:	WEEKEND!
Security:	Public

YAAAAAAAAY! WEEKEND-WEEKEND-WEEKEND-WEEKEND!

(hm... didn't feel as good as I thought it would)

2 comments | post a comment

---