| Es ist Deutsch Tag im Hause |
[Jun. 25th, 2008|11:04 am] |
Today is German day at the Belafonte. Instead of saying "Beanlet", we are saying "Kleine Bohn". We also have a delicious Kartoffelsuppe on the stove, courtesy Kleine Jayme.
In other news, I have been back at work full-time for the last three days. Kleine Bohn is experiencing yet another growth spurt and is constantly feeding. It's been hard on Jayme but she isn't complaining. She's a super hero. |
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| baal and the Lemmings stamp |
[Jun. 20th, 2008|04:05 pm] |
In non-baby news, I've recently completed a few fun projects. First, the new laptop.
( baal, destroyer of 32-bit binaries )
baal is a Dell Vostro 1500 with:
- a custom paint job, including completely removing the Dell logo plate, and filling then sanding smooth the top
- Intel Core2Duo 2.0 GHz
- 4 GB RAM
- 320 GB 5400 rpm SATA hard drive
- 3 miniPCI slots each with internal 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz antennae, for cards that do fun and/or bad things:
- Intel 3945 802.11abg wireless for normal Internet
- Gigabyte WI-01GT 802.11bg wireless with Atheros chipset, for cracking WEP/WPA
- DVD+R/W drive
- SD/MMC media card slot
baal runs Kubuntu 8.04 amd64, which is a 64-bit OS. I decided that since so many software packages are already available for 32-bit Linux, I'd just go ahead and move a step farther away from being supported by commercial vendors and run a 64-bit OS. Also, it really burned me up to have access to only the first 3.2 GB of RAM. How do you expect me to run 8 simultaneous virtual machines while editing images at 14000x6000 pixel resolution with only 3.2 GB of RAM? Madness!
Also on the subject of running a 64-bit OS, I really am bummed that I can't play On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.
Many, many thanks to Paul for painting baal for me. It was a lot of fun going out to his auto paint shop and spraying it. It was a collaborative process, it was fun, and it never would have happened without him.
This year Jayme and I can't go to Nowhere, but Camp Lemmings is carrying on without us. They have a great crew, most of whom we met at the practical day last weekend at Colin's house. Jayme made them a Lemmings flag (photos shortly), and I helped them organise the dome and other bits and bobs that I handled last year. Lizzie and Paul are doing a great job leading this year and I have every confidence they'll have a great time with few problems.
Early this week I heard Jayme on the phone with Paul. The powers that be got all excited about "passports" and "stamps" at Nowhere this year, but no one on the Lemmings crew was interested in sorting the stamp. So thanks to the magic of rubberstampz.co.uk and a bit of work in GIMP, we have one. It rocks the party.
( My new "marching lemmings" stamp tattoo ) |
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| Wisdom from Nansy the Greek midwife |
[Jun. 9th, 2008|10:50 am] |
We had another visit from our midwife Nansy. She's Greek. She all sorts of amusing opinions and tales to recount. After out postnatal checkup today, we discussed benefit fraud (stealing from public housing, funds, etc). Quoting her directly:
"I would never live in a council flat! They have cockroaches the size of biscuits, and poo in the lifts!" |
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| Emailing Pascale |
[Jun. 7th, 2008|02:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Lemon Jelly - Ramblin' Man | ] |
I have created an email address for Pascale: pascale [at] tolaris.com and written my first message to her. I thought some of you might have things to say to her, so for the next week this email will accept messages from the outside. After Saturday, 2008-06-14 I'll disable it until she's ready to use email.
I'm doing this as a sort of time capsule for her. Maybe some of you have stories of her parents (embarassing or otherwise), or hopes for her future, or just nice things you want to say. Jayme and I will keep these messages and give them to her when she is older. |
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| Week 1 |
[Jun. 7th, 2008|07:41 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Lemon Jelly - Elements | ] |
Oma went home Thursday morning. Jayme and I have spent the past two days adjusting to the new schedule without all her wonderful help. We've also made it a plan to go out every day, even for just an errand or two. The perspective provided by getting out of the house is worth the energy it takes. Or as I might have said in University, "room change!"
An excerpt from Jayme's monologue to Pascale this morning:
Jayme: Hello!
Jayme: How are you today?
Pascale: <yawn>
Jayme: You're having a nice yawn-and-stretch!
Jayme: Have you fed enough?
Jayme: Your mouth is covered in milk!
Pascale: Kuh-gack!
Jayme: Oh, and there's the first spit-up of the day!
Two new photos are up, showing her pretty blue eyes and flaking first layer of skin.
Also, Pascale likes Lemon Jelly. |
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| It's all about the baby now |
[Jun. 4th, 2008|01:20 pm] |
Yep, it's all about Pascale now. It's all we care about, and how we spend 90% of our time. We sleep at 9pm, wake every 3-4 hours, and get up when she does. She sleeps between us against my side, or on my chest. I lie very still, and don't really sleep like I used to. I feel my body relax like it does before conciousness slips away, but I remain aware of her every sound and movement. Like a fish, I sleep with half my brain at a time.
The Nursing Mother's Companion says that your baby's cry may feel like an alarm going off in your whole body. True.
Pascale doesn't like sleeping alone yet, so she's not using her crib. We'll try to use it for mid-day naps, or to entertain her (she's got a neat mobile, courtesy Oma *).
More photos here.
Oh, and we learned that Pascale couldn't have had a home birth anyway. Not only was the cord around twice (not in itself too dangerous), but it was also very short. She was literally tethered inside! How have humans managed to reproduce like this?
* Grandma Wilmore has requested to be hertofore referred to as "Oma". The cast is now set at:
James Zelaya Wagner = Pappy
Patricia Zelaya Wagner = Tita (Abuelita)
James Wilmore = Pops
Patricia Wilmore = Oma
Yes, our parents have the same first names. This is hilarious! |
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| Enter: the Beanlet |
[Jun. 1st, 2008|12:36 am] |
They say that a woman becomes a mother when she becomes pregnant, but a man becomes a father when he holds his child for the first time.
Pascale Rose Wagner entered the world on 2008-05-31, at 17:27 BST, at Royal Free Hospital, London. She weighed 3020 grams at birth, and has blue eyes and comically large feet. I loved her from the moment she arrived, a floppy squirming purple wet ball on Jayme's belly.
( Presenting Pascale with Grandma Wilmore )
Jayme had an absolutely terrible labour. After a normal early pregnancy, she insisted on rotating around back-to-back with Jayme, positioning her head to ram into Jayme's spine with every contraction. Which Jayme experienced every 10-15 minutes for three days (and nights with only the sleep afforded between contractions), building to an exhausting, screaming desperation by the end of day 2. By day 3 Jayme was nearly out of hope and energy, due for an induction the following morning, when her waters finally broke. Day 4 brought worse and nastier contractions. We planned for a home water birth using only gas and air (the English phrase for N2O+O2), but the baby just wouldn't change her position, her cervix wouldn't fully clear, and (unbeknownst to us) the cord was wrapped double around the baby's neck, causing her to resist the contractions that were choking her. I have never seen Jayme in so much pain, and I vow I will never allow her to experience it again.
A very short (and surprisingly pleasant) ambulance ride later, Jayme was saved by an epidural and the baby was saved by ventouse and a fast snip to the umbilical cord.
And I cried. I don't usually cry.
Jayme and Pascale are spending the night at Royal Free for observation, and I'm at home cleaning up the results of our failed home birth. The house looked worse than the aftermath of the best raging college party I ever threw. Visiting hours start at 10:00 tomorrow. I'll be there at 09:55, Beanlet. |
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| Announcing Tinylaser ...-ette! |
[Jan. 10th, 2008|12:13 am] |
As many of you have read over on ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) slownewsday's blog, we are having a baby. Today we had the 20-week scan. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannndd ... it's a girl!
The ultrasound was very clear, and even though it's harder to be certain of a girl than of a boy, I'm sufficiently convinced. So the search for names and nicknames begins in earnest. As Jayme's mother says, perhaps we'll start by changing her name from "Beanlet" to "Beanlette".
I'm feeling all sorts of weird parenting-urge tinglies. |
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| Baghdad Movie |
[Nov. 2nd, 2007|12:35 pm] |
And the giantlaser surfaces ...
Some time in late Autumn of 2003, I got the idea to film a short tour of the Baghdad office. Jayme was on holiday to the States, Hank was still working for us, and I was pretty well settled in. I never published the results, because at the time I didn't have the upload capacity to share a 50 MB file with the world, and I didn't have the talent to clean it up or edit it together.
For that matter, I didn't (and still don't) have the talent to film anything. You may enjoy watching it anyway:
http://www.tolaris.com/gallery/baghdad_movie
http://www.tolaris.com/download/baghdad_movie
Do see outtake 02. |
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| On Learning to be English |
[Sep. 24th, 2007|10:04 am] |
It is raining today. It is raining hard enough that it's affecting our one of our teleports' satellite uplink, which is a significant accomplishment when you've got an auto-tracking 7.3 meter parabolic antenna. And Paul is teaching me a lesson on how to be English.
Tyler: Are you sure you want to meet to work on Gladys tonight? In the rain?
Paul: What? Where's your Dunkirk spirit!?!
Tyler: Inside, wrapped in a warm blanket. |
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| OpenID |
[Aug. 25th, 2007|09:14 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | No More Kings - Michael (Jump In) | ] |
Just now I - on a whim, and because I wanted to comment on someone's non-LJ blog - created an OpenID and installed it on tolaris.com. Thanks to the fine people behind phpMyID, that was easy as cake. And since it uses HTTP Digest, instead of the totally insecure HTTP Auth, I don't have to worry about it being intercepted by that nefarious Mallory guy.
Why use my own php-driven OpenID server instead of the one that comes with LJ? Because the whole point of OpenID is to allow you to manage your own identity, not a third party. It's not that I distrust SixApart; it's that I distrust everybody. Unceasing vigilance, people. |
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| The Vomit Comet |
[Aug. 5th, 2007|09:47 pm] |
In February 2001, just before I graduated from Cal Poly, I led a group of students on a trip to NASA's Ellington Field and a flight on the KC-135A "Weightless Wonder", or as everyone (to NASA's chagrin) calls it, the "Vomit Comet".
I had a crappy little disposable camera on that flight, but the film broke inside the casing before I finished the roll. Assuming it couldn't be recovered by a normal lab, I didn't have it developed afterward. Six years later, I finally did.
http://www.tolaris.com/gallery/vomit_comet
Some excerpts from my diary during those days:
Thu, Feb 8, 2001, 9:00 am: At Ellington Field hangar 990 to check in, get badged, and assemble experiment. Hassan and Francesco were detained while their (special foreigner) badges were retrieved, and we had trouble with the dimensions of the experiment (apparently we exceeded the maximum width and length, but they accepted our proposal, so they can bite us).
Thu, Feb 8, 2001, 1:00 pm: Safety briefing, journalist briefing, student briefing, and random problem solving. I'm both amazed and annoyed that the students are almost babysat, but the journalists and others are respected as adults. I'm just not used to being treated like that, and I can't take "parental" authority seriously anymore.
Fri, Feb 9, 2001, 5:30 pm: Physiological training at NBL (Neutral Boyancy Lab). They put us in an altitude chamber, gave us 30 minutes of 100% O2 at sea level to denitrogenate us, and lowered the pressure to atmosphere at 25,000 feet. Then, we took off the masks and let ourselves become hypoxic. My symptoms were mild, but Jeremy passed out after 3 minutes. A very exciting experience. They gave us really cool NASA 25,000' chamber plaques and safety badges, and cleared the whole team for flight.
Tue, Feb 13, 2001, 10:15 am: Flight delayed to 1pm, still due to fog. Ryan, Francesco, Jason, Kelly, Richard, and I drove to Dairy Queen and Subway for lunch. It was fun wearing our flight suits, complete with NASA badges, out in public. I'm an attention whore, I admit it.
Tue, Feb 13, 2001, 1:15 pm: Board for parabolas 20,328 through 20,360 on NASA 931 (our KC-135a). Up until now, I haven't been as excited as I expected, but I'm beginning to feel it. Yee-haw!
Tue, Feb 13, 2001, 3:15 pm: Back on ground. That was amazing! Zero-gravity is fucking incredible! The whole thing just flew by in the hour we had, but we got our test results, and had some fun. I had some dry mouth from the scopalamine and dexedrine, but no serious nausea. I did some backflips, but I had to take it easy, since there were experiments and cameras nearby. I got a lot of good float time. I shot from one wall to another, superman style, and learned to move in 1.8 G. The lunar and martian parabolas were fun, too, but they were the last ones, and came way too soon. I would give almost anything to do that again. It was even worth all the work we did to get here, although if I had to do it all over again, I'd do it differently. I flew with Kelly, Richard, and Jason on this flight, and Richard got a little sick, but otherwise we were fine.
Tue, Feb 13, 2001, 6:00 pm: Richard bought dinner at a Steakhouse for Kelly, Ryan, Jason, Ollie, Francesco and myself, since he puked first. Afterward, we saw the Purdue girls and took some of them back to our apartments.
Tue, Feb 13, 2001, 11:00 pm: Tired and trying to read in bed, I'm flying parabolas just laying here. I can feel 1.8 G pull into the mattress alternating with zero-G float. I think it has something to do with conditioned associations; reading without glasses is a little blurry, and that reminds me off the minor blurriness/tunnel vision from the flight. Or, as Jason says, maybe I've just taken too many drugs.
Wed, Feb 14, 2001, 9:30 am: Jeremy, Hassan, Ryan, and Francesco board NASA 931 and takeoff on schedule. The rest of us watch from the S-Band downlink in the conference room in bldg 931. I can't help it, but I'm waiting for someone to mess up and cuss. This is transmitted to all of NASA, and we've been warned that any inapropriate language is frowned upon by the higher-ups, who are watching this. Yesterday, I almost yelled "Oh shit!" on camera, on the very first parabola.
Wed, Feb 14, 2001, 11:52 pm: I decided to stay in again tonight. Allen, Ollie, and Jeremy drank a bunch of that piss-water "Lone Star" beer, much to the amusement of Jason and I. Allen gets really crazy when he's drunk, and he drunk-dialed Kelly in J6 and Melody (the Purdue girl).
Thu, Feb 15, 2001, 2:00 pm: Tour of the Robotics lab at Johnson Space Center. I was here earlier for the SCH tour, but this one is more in-depth, and we get to go down on the floor. We followed that with a tour of Mission Control. We got to go down on the floor of the old control room built in the Apollo era, while a bunch of (un-badged) tourists got to watch us through the glass on the back wall. |
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| At the gates of Babylon |
[Aug. 5th, 2007|05:13 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime | ] |
I now find myself in a corporate hotel suite in Dulles, Virginia. This is a far cry from last week, which I spent in a beautiful German village near Bonn. The steaks there were excellent. I haven't had the steak here yet. But I am about to expose myself to the ravages of the Tyson's Corner shopping center, sure to be a classic faceless American consumer experience. I need clothes, I'm here, and the GBP-to-USD exchange rate is heavily in my favour.
Otherwise, I am not fond of D.C. It is hot, muggy, and generally unpleasant. Steven Colbert said it best:
Mayor Nagin! Mayor Nagin is here from New Orleans, the chocolate city! Yeah, give it up. Mayor Nagin, I'd like to welcome you to Washington, D.C., the chocolate city with a marshmallow center ... and a graham cracker crust of corruption. It's a Mallomar, I guess, is what I'm describing, is a Mallomar. It’s a seasonal cookie. |
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| Nowhere 2007 |
[Jul. 23rd, 2007|01:53 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel - White Lines | ] |
The Lemmings returned from Nowhere 2007 two weeks ago. Nowhere is a European regional burn (Burning Man related event). Our pictures from the event are up.
The highlights:
Our arrival Tuesday night was awesome. We got our basic camp up and relaxed with the citizens of our temporary village. Well ... relaxed may not be the right word.
Wednesday brought the terrible winds. Before its might, domes came down and centre camp itself collapsed. Spirits were low, but we huddled away from the sun and brought our awesome sound system online. By which I mean the 491 Gallery's awesome 1.4 kilowatts of sound, kindly loaned to us by the chief artist-in-residence of that wonderful place. Our camp was genuinely the loudest thing on site, including centre camp. We threatened several times to "turn it all the way to 11", but most of the time we stayed under 6. Next year I suspect we'll find ourselves placed at the Nowhere equivalent of 2 o'clock street.
DJ Bill (The Alchemist) played awesome, creative, and different sounds all week. We were far from being just a "Boom Camp". People came by all week to compliment us on the music coming from the Lemmings sound system, and Bill was honoured with a 2-hour set at the prime 2am to 4am slot at Centre Camp on Saturday night. He's already got a DJ handle, but he seemed genuinely tickled when they billed him as "DJ Lemmings" (amusing in its plural absurdity).
Playing Gregorian chant at 9am on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Someone did that to me at Burning Man some years ago, and I loved it. This was my secret gift to the event this year, and it was well received. Colin woke up thinking he was missing church.
The Lemmings dome was a major hit of the event. Wind permeable and covered only to the south, it was cooler during the day than almost any other structure on site. Every morning we awoke to discover exhausted, unconscious adventurers unable to sleep in their own sweltering tents. At night, the EL-wire Lemmings sign and LED lighting system was a brilliant beacon of colour visible all along the "Esplanade". The entire dome consumed less than 45 watts of power, which let us run on leisure batteries (deep-cycle marines) effectively indefinitely.
Santiago, Paul, and Colin's piercing suspension. Yes, those are shiny steel meathooks in Paul's back. He put a lot of energy into his suspension, swinging all over the place and really wowing the assembled watchers, to the tune of King Bee's "Back by Dope Demand". Then, he picked up Yan Yan.
Gladys the fire truck. Gladys is a 1954 Bedford Green Goddess, formerly part of a fleet of Auxiliary Fire Service trucks built to replace municipal water mains in the event of disaster. I played a small part in her flame-thrower installation, and am actively involved in her ongoing maintenance. Gladys brings the party wherever she lights up.
The Thursday night Burrows party. Lemmings co-hosted it, and it was a rocking success. Part of my enjoyment of this was the day's preparation. Our generator and inverter both packed up Thursday morning, and the situation looked dire. I spent the day running around to other camps, organising and cementing alliances. At the end of the day, our power system was joined to our neighbours' system in a large power grid capable of running everything all night, and the Burrows, Ninja, and Lemmings camps were fast on the way to being close friends. These guys are rock solid and it would be an honour to camp with them again.
The Lemmings march. Jayme's brainchild, and a hit wherever it went. We walked, just like our namesake and occasionally blocked and performed other animated Lemmings moves. Saturday night a huge, 30-strong, combined Burrows-Lemmings chain marched in a chain across the inner playa, around Centre Camp, and finally inside. We brought the party with us, and it made an impression on everyone.
Saturday night's coordinated playing of "Dark Side of the Moon". We had 4 sound systems all playing the classic Pink Floyd album, all within a second of each other. It was a fun game to wander the centre open space playing with the delay of the arriving sound waves, making the different sources appear to be in or out of sync. Of course, the album itself rocked. An ambitious plan, and one that worked spectacularly. We took the sound system all the way to 11 for this.
Being able to make a major contribution to a burn event. At 191 people, Nowhere is still small enough that 8 committed Lemmings, one dome, and one sound system can have a major impact on the experiences of the other participants. Nowhere felt like my first burn all over again, except this time I was a rock star leading a team of rock stars, camping among a whole herd of hard core party professionals. |
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| Delurking, Potter Madness, Germany and D.C. |
[Jul. 23rd, 2007|01:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | VNV Nation - Solitary | ] |
Of late, my presence on LJ has been in comments alone. I delurk.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is on sale in Sainsbury's, and presumably other major supermarkets, all over London. There are displays on every register. Clearly no one had to wait in line at midnight. Jayme picked up her copy for £8.87, disposing of the digital-photo-of-every-page-complete-with-fingers-holding-pages-down copy she found via bittorrent. I must commend the publisher on issuing direct to paperback. This title is a license to print money, and they could have easily taken the piss by printing hardcover only. It is being sold in hardcover. And we would have bought it anyway, smiling all the way home.
I will actually brave the hordes of spoiler-intent fuckwits here on the Intertubes, and wait for Jayme to finish. Then I will read her copy. I will not be heartbroken if my pristine brain is indeed sullied by premature knowledge of key plot points. Others have apparently been driven mad by knowledge of Snape's true intentions.
Next week Travis, Alan, and I travel to Germany to set up a new satellite network at our new partner's teleport facilities. It's a big job, but we've gotten used to tackling big jobs lately and I'm confident it will go smoothly. I'll be there all week, then ...
I'm off to Virginia, USA, for another week of training with one of our hardware suppliers. As a liberal intellectual elitist, I just don't like the D.C. area. The stench of corruption, the ever-present security theater, and square after square of statues and monuments to American greatness just really bothers me. Or is it just the Jeffersonian architecture?
But at least I get to escape to New York for the weekend of August 10-12. I've never been to New York, so I'm looking forward to exploring the city. Plus, it is robink's birthday that week and I don't intend to let her forget it. |
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| My office smells like a pub |
[Jun. 8th, 2007|08:40 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Infected Mushroom - Before | ] |
It's time to get ready for the weekend. Let's see ... what do I need to do?
1. Pass all my work tickets that need immediate attention to the Dubai staff ... check.
2. Pack my laptop bag ... check.
3. Spill a 250 mL glass of white wine directly on my laptop ... check.
You know what I've always wanted to do? Remove my keyboard from my laptop and separate every single key from the backplane, and meticulously wash them. Oh, what a joyless existence I led before I did that!
Ten years of alcoholic computing and not a single accident. At home when we play tabletop games, I usually ban all drinks and food from the table for just this reason. Sounds like it's time to do the same for my desk.
In other news, I have a really crappy VisualBasic Windows app for which I've lost the installer. I'd very much like to move this app into my VMware Windows jail and decomission the ancient PC which currently hosts it. However, simply moving its "Program Files" directory isn't enough. It gives a dialog with this error:
Run-time error '429':
ActiveX component can't create object
[OK]
Oh Windows tech workers out there, how do I determine what libraries this app needs and pull them, much like a dentist pulls teeth, from this machine? I've tried using Process Explorer and copying "formatter3.dll" and "mscomctl.ocx" to my VMware image, to no avail. Any suggestions?
I'd be happy to Zip this app up and provide it to anyone that can help, or even give you VNC access through our firewall. And I'll buy you a beer. |
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| Hoi Amsterdam! |
[Apr. 28th, 2007|04:27 am] |
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And now, we go ... to Amsterdam! See you all in a few days. |
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| Slashdotted |
[Apr. 24th, 2007|08:05 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Tim McGraw - Where the Green Grass Grows | ] |
rezendi's article about octal and myself just got slashdotted. Way to go, Jon! |
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| Chopsticks! |
[Apr. 15th, 2007|04:54 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | David Bowie - I'm Afraid of Americans | ] |
My fellow humans,
Today I stand before you with a solution to a problem that has plagued man since time began.
Crisps are delicious but treacherous, for one can only enjoy a few before they make your fingers greasy. The invention of the keyboard has only worsened the problem! For now we must choose between that snack we love, and our desire to keep the keyboard clean.
No longer! For I ... have found a solution! I present:
Chopsticks!
Yes, the humble chopstick. Not only a curious way of eating brought to us from the mysterious far east, they can be used to eat all manner of food! Chips, crisps, little weiners, and fingerfoods of all kinds! Try it today! |
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