YakShaving: Shawn Ferry's Weblog
v. intr. [MIT AI Lab, after 2000: orig. probably from a Ren & Stimpy episode.] Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you're working on.
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20080319 Wednesday March 19, 2008
Is Competetion Bad?

Adam said his record for Escapa! was 16.02 and I knew I could beat it.

So I did it a few times and figured more of the pattern out. Instead of claiming some high number I took a screencast of the session. Then after ending the capture I beat my own time so I took a screenshot.


My best time is now 23.234 and that is (including the time for the video and blogging this) is 15 minutes of my life that I will never get back. My question now is how many people will actually watch the video?


Another fun, quick and simple game I have found myself wasting time on: Desktop Tower Defense



Mar 19 2008, 12:40:44 PM EST Permalink Comments [1]

20080307 Friday March 07, 2008
Chinposin for the Chinerati

What?!? A chinposin T-shirt as an external and ongoing display of authority.

 

Are YOU chinposin, take a look at the chinposin blog for some explanation of the chinposin movement straight from the mouth of the chinerati.

 

ThinGuy posted about chinposin yesterday, and Friday's are for chinposin! My latest avatar snapped by my wife (@cdash) this morning. Chinposin doesn't take a description of the avatar I call this one:

 

Authority at rest cannot be STOPPED!

Authority at rest cannot be STOPPED!

It figures that I was not the only person to go with a chinposin at rest avatar today, but as far as I can tell I was the only one to actually do it from bed. This shows that my own natural authority shines through :)


Mar 07 2008, 11:49:10 AM EST Permalink Comments [0]

20080228 Thursday February 28, 2008
Twitter Lock-In

During last night's Twitter "Timeline Oddity Update" I caught some interesting comments from @bhlackey and @thinguy in response to an update that appeared in my stream. I won't reproduce it here.


200802281228.jpg


200802281226.jpg


200802281247.jpg

I experienced the following behavior while trying to logout so I could create the @smutr twitter account.

403 Forbidden: The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it. I call it lock-in



Feb 28 2008, 12:31:02 PM EST Permalink Comments [0]

20080223 Saturday February 23, 2008
Baked Chicken with Tomato and Olives


I slacked off and used canned tomato, it is easier. The original recipe calls for capers but we are out.

The chicken is baked from frozen from the costco bag-o-chicken.

Chicken (from frozen):

  1. Heat oven to 350 deg
  2. Place chicken in baking dish, brush lightly with olive oil (or spray with cooking spray)
  3. Bake ~25 min
  4. Top with tomato olive mixture, bake additional 10min

Tomato, Olive topping (Start while heating oven):

  1. Heat the oil, lightly brown the garlic. Take a moment to appreciate the smell of cooking garlic
  2. Add the onion cook until slightly translucent
  3. Turn up the heat to medium and add olives, heat until hot, stir a bit
  4. Add tomato, simmer for ~10 min
  5. With ~10min left on the chicken, top with tomato mixture

Enjoy with a salad and possibly a carb, Basic recipe from "How to Cook Anything"

This is a picture of me taking a picture of dinner (or really the food I pre-cooked for dinner some time next week).

Taking a picture of food

Using a Joby Gorillapod SLR-ZOOM, Nikon D1x, Nikon 17-35/2.8 AF-S and MC30 cable release. The Joby has a little bit of vibration when I let go of the D1x so I wait for a moment and fire with the cable release


Feb 23 2008, 01:56:58 AM EST Permalink Comments [2]

20080221 Thursday February 21, 2008
Breakfast pictures for ThinGuy

The effective (35mm) zoom for this picture is 52mm, shot in natural light and pulled up a stop from the raw. The f/2.8 aperture is what causes the shallow depth of field. The front of the lens was probably 3-4in from the edge of the waffle.


Toaster Waffles w/Blueberries and Maple Syrup


Feb 21 2008, 01:24:31 AM EST Permalink Comments [2]

Lunar Eclipse

I am disappointed with the pictures I got from the eclipse. Low ISO for noise begets a longer exposure which proves that the universe isn't standing still. Oh well maybe next time I'll be home and take a bit more time to get it right.

Lunar Eclipse


Feb 21 2008, 01:08:26 AM EST Permalink Comments [2]

20080219 Tuesday February 19, 2008
Full Keyboard Access in Firefox from OS X

Recently some complaints have surfaced about keyboard access to form elements in Firefox 2 in OS X. I don't see the problem.

I have Full keyboard access for "All Controls" set in System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts

I have "Enable Access for assistive devices" set in System Preferences -> Universal Access (although I don't think this is related, IIRC it is for some other programs that I use)

Since a video is the easiest way I can think of to show this, here you go:


If anyone happens to know what configuration changes you might need to make to get this working please feel free to let me know. I don't recall making changes other than the above.


Feb 19 2008, 03:40:21 PM EST Permalink Comments [1]

20080217 Sunday February 17, 2008
Dinner and Dessert

C- and I made dinner and pie on Friday night. Dinner was good but the salad needed a better rinse it was a bit too salty. The pies are quite tasty although the strawberry rhubarb didn't thicken up enough. We like pie!

Dinner: Pickled Cabbage Salad and Baked Fish


Apple and Strawberry Rhubarb pies from scratch
The Gallery


Feb 17 2008, 11:40:10 PM EST Permalink Comments [2]

20080130 Wednesday January 30, 2008
The ZFS Device Shuffle

I shot this video/screencast demo thing nine or ten months ago. The audio from the datacenter was terrible. I have been sitting on it and some voice overs that I wasn't pleased with for about 4 months. Today I decided that it was time finally get it published, did another voice over and while it isn't perfect its good enough.


This video was inspired by CSI: Munich I watched it and thought, wait I have an x4500!




Link to ZFS Device Shuffle on Mediacast


Here instead we will try an object embedded quicktime found at Bye Bye Embed, the video above is being served from the all new and improved http://mediacast.sun.com

 

Edit: I have uploaded an amplified version, it appears that unless you are using good isolation earbuds or have relatively good quality speakers you can't really hear the audio portion. The trial copy of "Sound Studio" I downloaded did a wonderful job of letting me amplify the audio. The audio and video are the same, only the link has changed (It does not appear possible to replace the original content )

While I was at it we just released a new version of mediacast.sun.com (I could never get my login to the old one working). For some reason smugmug is taking 23MB of video and reprocessing it to 94MB. I can download that in about 3 minutes but the size is ridiculous. (No wonder my wife said it took forever to play)

 

ZFS Device Shuffle Video
(This is the smugmug video, I still like the interface it just isn't quite doing it for me otherwise)

 Edit: A bit of clarity I should go to bed at 02:30 instead of messing with my blog



Jan 30 2008, 08:47:24 PM EST Permalink Comments [4]

20080128 Monday January 28, 2008
Hockey: We won 5-0 (and a weekend recap)

We won 5 - 0, I got the game winning goal and an assist. Now I'm not really tired it will make for a long day tomorrow.

I left for the game right after we finished watching the NHL All Stars, I enjoyed the game. All in all it was a really hockey weekend. On Saturday we drove up to Hershey, PA for a Bears game (The Caps Farm team). We got in a little late and they were down 3 - 0 against the Senators.

In the end the Bears won 5 - 3, we hung out after the game for some autographs, talked to some of the players it was a nice day even if the drive home seemed a little long.

Slept in this morning (felt great) before doing some work around the house. @cdash and I pulled out the dish washer to insulate behind it, put new casters on an ottoman and tore up some defiled carpet and molding.

Now I have a two week break and a nice early 11:15 game (the latest possible slot) on a Monday.

In the end it was a good weekend but I'll pay for it in the morning. I think there may be a bit of Wii Lego Starwars in my future.


Jan 28 2008, 02:25:17 AM EST Permalink Comments [0]

20080125 Friday January 25, 2008
Firefox extension compatability override

The next time you disable the compatibility override and want it back...because you really want the XYZ plugin and you value it over stability or possibly usability.

about:config -> add boolean "extensions.checkCompatibility" false and restart

(This is really a note to myself)


Jan 25 2008, 12:03:49 AM EST Permalink Comments [0]

20080121 Monday January 21, 2008
China: Great Wall at Mutianyu




While we were in China we spent some time on the Great Wall at Mutianyu. In the gallery there is a "You are Here" mark on the

map. We hiked (or more like climbed) from that point to the end (the 20) and back. You can see un-restored wall at the end.


(FYI: Courtney took the large picture above)



Jan 21 2008, 10:38:16 PM EST Permalink Comments [1]

OLPC Pictures

I ordered/donated an OLPC XO-1 as part of the Give One Get One program
these are the pictures that ThinGuy scolded me for not posting a month ago.

OLPC shipping box OLPC Battery OLPC AC Charger OLPC XO-1 and Charger

OLPC not for use by Infants

OLPC Booting OLPC Booting OLPC Booting OLPC Booted

These pictures are from un-boxing the OLPC and booting it for the first time. I have enjoyed using it. The keyboard is a little small for adult hands (this is not a surprise or a criticism). The trans-reflective screen is impressively clear, the backlit screen is a little hard to read for small text (at least for me).

The packaging is sparse but solid, my favorite part of the whole delivery presentation is the warnings page, particularly "Not for use by Infants."

All in all I am glad I donated.

The whole gallery


Jan 21 2008, 04:03:50 PM EST Permalink Comments [0]

Network.com in Vegas (belated)

I have had these pictures sitting on my laptop for about 1/2 a year. I pulled a couple out for a screen cast that I still haven't published because the audio blows. I have been doing a better job again on publishing pictures shortly after I take them. Network.com is the Sun Grid Compute Utility, I have a few pictures from the on site work.

Network.com setup in Vegas, Bellagio, Glass Flower Ceiling Network.com setup in Vegas, Shawn, Courtney

Network.com setup in Vegas, Compute Nodes Network.com setup in Vegas, Thumper disk bay, green

Network.com setup in Vegas, Torx Peg in a Hex Hole. I didn't put it in there :), I just removed it so we could relocate the rails. Network.com setup in Vegas, Courtney loves Storage Network.com setup in Vegas, Core Switch Time Servers

The Whole Gallery


Jan 21 2008, 03:00:08 PM EST Permalink Comments [0]

20080108 Tuesday January 08, 2008
Checking to see if Ecto 3.0b20 can download this entry

Checking to see if Ecto 3.0b20 can download this entry before I say anything about it in mail. I thought it was working now, but it might only be updates to entries that it already knows about.

Edit: It worked.

Edit: It also picked up the edit (and I expect, will pick this one up as well) but if I keep updating to say this this post will get really old really fast


Jan 08 2008, 03:06:46 PM EST Permalink Comments [0]

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