Checksum Arcanius

My good friend Shai is back online in style over at DonutEnigma. Welcome back to the blogosphere buddy!

JDOM, the excellent XML parser for Java that I highly recommend, recently got even better by releasing version 1.1 with a variety of minor bug fixes. Go get it now and parse as you should in Java.

Somewhat to my surprise and chagrin, we are checked into a hotel that doesn’t have the internet readily accessible. While there is a single computer in the lobby that is connected to the internet, there is no wireless or wired connectivity provided by the Ports Hotel. There is some “interspot” company offering wireless access, which we have been sporadically able to use, but their hours of operation are extremely limited and so far we haven’t been in the area when they are open to attempt to purchase connectivity from them. Of course, they have to automated system, which Dan and I would have both readily used. So tonight, I wandered around with Dan in search of internet. The first trip yielded some temping morsels, but no luck. So now that everyone is asleep or headed there, I took off again in search of the internet. And, as the last post and this one makes clear, I found it, to the tune of 18 Mbps on the Linksys Community Network.

At any rate, it is nice to be able to check my mail again. I just hope Canada is as safe as it is cracked up to be. Actually, I’m not worried — after all, I biked through the lightning today. For reals (see next post).

A little program that does exactly what it says, does it perfectly, and does it with a remarkably well-designed user interface.

I decided to install Ubuntu Linux on my new laptop, which I recently named “Graphitica.” It did not go well.

Apparently, the D630 is not yet well supported. The main install disk failed cryptically. The alternate (text-based) install worked better, but then X failed to work. The wireless card also fails to load some part of the driver properly. Basically, its a big mess. I’m willing to do some work to get a new operating system installed, but right now the task seems a bit too large, so I probably won’t resume this battle until after school is out for the quarter (after August 17th).

Ever since I had my own computers, they have had names. The original, a Pentium Pro 180 in a full tower, was named oasis, after one of my favorite bands at the time, and also I liked the idea of a desert oasis. My next computer was an Athlon 600; it became the new oasis and the old oasis became wadi, an Arabic word for a normally dry stream (ie, the opposite of an oasis). I owe that name to my brother. Wadi became the first server behind silverfir.net; it was the computer that was hacked due to a vulnerability in the Linux kernel and another vulnerability in some photo album software I was using at the time. Silverfir.net was then replaced by sf2 (“silverfir #2), a 500-MHz Pentium III.

About that same time, I inherited my Dad’s very old IBM Thinkpad, equipped with a Pentium 90 and 16 megabytes of RAM. The computer had only a small screen (12”), but it was heavy and black, so it became named blackbrick. With Bobby’s help, that computer became my introduction to Linux, wireless networking, war driving, and mobile computing in general. It was no surprise then that the next computer to come my way was a laptop that I purchased in 2003 during Fry’s grand opening sale. It was an HP with a AMD Athlon 2400+. I planned on having that computer last a long time, and it was my first modern mobile computer, so I named it mobius, after the Mobius strip — I thought that the name evoked the mobile nature of the computer as well as the eternal nature of the Mobius strip.

Then came an unexpected bump — in early January, 2004, I won another laptop, a Compaq desktop replacement with a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz processor. It was heavy, but I couldn’t justify passing up the faster processor speed, so it became my new primary computer and I ended up giving mobius to my mom. The new laptop earned itself the name of kleinoscope, evoking the idea of the Klein bottle, a three-dimmensional analogue of the mobius strip.

Oasis, in the mean time, lasted me through my first stint at college and a good ways in to 2004. However, in anticipation of the imminent release of Half Life 2, I purchased a new desktop machine. Its colorful case, along with the name of my most recent laptop, led to the obvious naming choice of kaleidoscope. Oasis was then recommissioned in place of sf2 as the primary silverfir.net server. Today, oasis remains silverfir.net’s mail server. Dan’s monstrosity Frankenputen, meanwhile, has taken over web and file serving duties.

Kleinoscope and I had been through a lot in three-and-a-half years, and the laptop finally died somewhat spectacularly not too long ago. It was time for me to get a new laptop. Enter the brand-spanking-new Dell D630. However, no name that seems appropriate has come to mind for this computer yet. Right now, it is named a rather terrible TBD and I don’t intend to let it stay that way for much longer. But I need help. Please leave your suggestions!