Geek on Two Wheels » Random

You’ve Failed Me, GE Nighthawk

yangman — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:34:02 +0000

In just over two months, both of the GE Nighthawk bulbs I used to replace the old charred bulbs in my highbeams are dead: one with a broken filament, and the other just doesn’t work, although appearing physically fine. A third replacement I purchased has a plug that’s off-spec, and will not fit.

Never again.

I Like Long Analogies

yangman — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:35:54 +0000

11:14 < krichter|work> yup, perforce
11:14 < yangman> p4 is like a sleigh dog with some weird mental condition
11:15 < yangman> everything is fine and peachy most of the time, but occasionally, for no reason, it’ll tear up all your socks or run your sleigh into that tree
11:15 < yangman> that specific tree, around the corner, by the shed
11:15 < yangman> you don’t know why
11:15 < yangman> but, at the end of the day, you’re just glad it’s there at all, because those 400kg crates don’t haul themselves
11:16 < n0ob> also, branches seems to require brain surgery
11:16 < cdemwell> lol
11:16 < yangman> yeah, it’s a trick you’ve heard that the dog can do, but you’re always afraid to try because you notice people that say they do them are often missing limbs

Rock Climbing in Emoticons

yangman — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:40:02 +0000

20:45 < yangman> now, rock climbing

21:06 < calyth> \o/

21:08 < jeikobu> \o_

21:20 < calyth> _o/

21:20 < calyth> _o_

21:20 < calyth> |o|

21:21 < calyth> .o.

21:21 < ffff> (o(

[...]

22:50 < yangman> that is a fairly accurate depiction of climbing, yes

It’s Facebook Caturday

yangman — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:31:51 +0000

It’s not often that I check my Facebook account. And, when I do, usually because someone is organizing some event using it, I rarely pay much attention. Today, however, was an exception:

It’s caturday, apparently.

(Not shown: a link about cats further down the page.)

In Thirty Year’s Time

yangman — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:31:11 +0000

I want to be like this in thirty years:

I believe it to be a totally awesome and worthwhile goal.

A Fishy Tale

yangman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:22:54 +0000

My family keeps a tiny aquarium of three goldfish. Two are stubby, have tiny fins, and move about more by waddling than swimming. The third resembles a tiny golden carp with the behind of a Fantail, and is larger than the others combined.

It’s also a huge asshat.

The three fish are housed in a pathetically (but not quite unethically) small aquarium, and have only each other for amusement. Now, I don’t know what goldfish or carps usually do for amusement when not being fed, but I’ve often noticed the largest of the three using the others to play what I’ve dubbed Upside-Down Fish. The rules are simple: pick a fishmate, chase it into a corner, use the aquarium wall to flip your mate over and push it to the surface, then see how long you can keep it upside-down.

Remember those old-timey cartoons where sometimes a bully would pick up a smaller guy, roll him into a ball, then use him to play hoops or knock down some pins? It’s exactly like that. Except it’s only slightly funny, and mostly just mean.

In the words of the wise animal sanctuary warden:

Well, animals are not like people, Mrs. Simpson. Some of them act badly because they’ve had a hard life, or have been mistreated…but, like people, some of them are just jerks.

Beverly Hills Battlebot

yangman — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:27:29 +0000

When I was growing up in China, there was a weekly SciFi radio show that was along the lines of Power Rangers. I listened to it religiously, and it featured the Beverly Hills Cop theme music as the opening score.

To this day, whenever I hear that tune, I think giant battle robots.

Weiss explains DRI and DRM

yangman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:29:24 +0000

One more for the Linux graphics-related series of articles: How DRI and DRM Work.

Peter Hutterer Explains X11 Releases

yangman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:37:29 +0000

Since we’re on the topic of Linux graphics systems, here’s is a recent article by Peter Hutterer explaining how X.org releases work:

X11R7.5 released – but what is it?

I’m Not Dead Yet; Also, Ideas Wanted

yangman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:13:41 +0000

I missed my Photo Friday post last week. The week before was a rushed job, and, honestly, wasn’t up to my standard of This is Pretty Interesting. I assure you, I had good reasons for sucking.

Now, I usually avoid meta posts about this blog, but I’ve been attempting at establishing more online presence, and missing a single post, even if just a photo, was too much of a personal let down to simply brush away. Let me assure you that Photo Fridays will continue to be a regular feature, and I’ll try my best to stop being lame.

That said, the primary purpose of this post is not to make excuses, but to solicit some ideas.

One thing I would like to do regularly here is to write technical articles on topics within the GNU/Linux and open source software domain. Having been involved in X.org at a capacity beyond being an average user for some time, the amount of misconceptions and misunderstandings surrounding some of the open source platforms have been both surprising and frustrating. As much as I have tried and mostly succeeded in remedying individual cases, there’s definitely more that can be done in terms user education.

Item number one on the list of article ideas is a three-part series on video playback, specifically rendering. Item number two may be an (simple) exposition of the state of graphics in Linux: where things have been, where things are going, and why certain things are so difficult. Three and beyond: I haven’t a clue.

This is where you come in—what would you like to know better?

Post a comment, dent me, tweet me, or even suggest ideas in meat space. I can’t and won’t guarantee that I will be sufficiently knowledgeable in most topics suggested or care enough to find out more about them, but I believe most of you are aware of my ability to ramble on about obscure technical trivia, and how much I seem to enjoy it.

It’s win-win, really. You have a chance to learn about something without first having to do all the legwork (assuming you trust my competencies) and I get to explore more interesting things.

Give me your best shot.