March 2007 Archives

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
- Albert Einstein

Is anyone shocked that this post is not about ceramics?

I am straining my brain working on GITI v2 AND GITI SiteEngine's permissions systems. I feel like this is a system that has been done to death in the form of NTFS, .htaccess, Passport, LDAP, etc, etc; but yet, it is essential that I write this from the current point of GITI authentication in order to allow SiteEngine and GITI to both work properly when they are introduced to more users. This is less important for GITI, as I am about its only user, but with the places im putting SiteEngine and the ways it will be used, it is becoming more important that it be able to authenticate users and that their realms/perms be respected. Some time ago I decided that GITI and SiteEngine would operate on separate, but equal authentication realms. GITI and SiteEngine users can authenticate to SiteEngine (the subordinate product), while only GITI users can authenticate to GITI herself (controller of all that is technological or intellectual). These permissions tables and their rules have been understood for some time, but at first I started assigning roles (much like those used for Microsoft SharePoint Services), giving no thought to user-level microcosm control. In a way I am no closer to that now than I was before I started this endevour, but then again, maybe I am? Currently I am working on the concept of feeds (since thats what the new site will need to understand for access control). The concept for control is that no user can add themselves to a non-public feed, and all users will be assigned to the private feeds they are allowed to access, however, they will be able to turn them on and off at will.

Maybe I should sleep before I start having nightmares about the code i've written and the database tables i've created.

If I am so attached to my mud, why is it that I'm sitting here at 0600 writing an INNER JOIN statement for retrieving Feed permissions?

I am currently working on modifying my personal website (http://curtis.kularski.net) and have decided that my current domain (curtis.kularski.net) is too linked to its upper level domain (kularski.net). I want more freedom from this. Do any of my readers have any suggestions?

If someone can come up with a domain that I like enough to use, the winning suggestion will win their choice of handmade ceramic bowl (or the option for a custom bowl). The rules are simple, I need a domain that reflects who I am. It shouldn't be too long, but it must be available in the global DNS (you can use http://www.whois.sc to confirm).

Suggest Here:
Name:
Suggestion:
Are you a bot?	- YesNo

The two most downloaded images from my blog are the following:

I don't get it. I understand the pic of the guys kissing (sort of), but whats with the freaks who are posting the pic of the baguette to their profiles? Today when I started my log excavation project (curiosity&&boredom driven), I started to get pissed at the number of people who link to these images instead of downloading them and using them on their own space, but then I remembered that not everyone has the resources I do for such things, as well as got a chuckle out of the number of people who are that interested in images that I've used in past blog posts. None of the other images I have ever used on the blog come close to the numbers of hits that these pics get on a daily basis from MySpace and various forums.

My guild is having a pottery show/sale.

I was just having a merry little stroll through my HTTP server's log files, checking up on varying websites I have. I found an interesting, but yet disturbing trend. The most recent visitors (over the past several hours) have all been robots! Not a single human among them! All of the users are either GoogleBot, Yahoo SLURP bot, MSNbot or MSN Media Bot. Whats up with this? Oh, and I got happy for a second when I saw an IP address I thought was human, only to discover that it was just an automated process getting a copy of my most recently blog entries (supposedly for the reading of its human though).

Today I embarked on one of my last truly "new" objectives in ceramics, sculpture. Part of the ceramics curriculum for this semester is wheel thrown sculptural forms. I have never done anything for the sake of sculpture, I have always done functional forms. The assignment is a series of 6 serial sculptures, of at least 12 inches in height, showing a progression or consistent changing theme. I have chosen to do a series of sculptural pieces that reflect my resistance to sculpture, as well as my transition to accepting it. The first and middle (i think) pieces were finished today. The forms are fairly refined for the first piece, appearing as a pile of wheel thrown forms, with very little manipulation. The middle piece (the only other one i did today) is similar in its keeping to good form, but is a little more loose with some wheel modifications (dragging to create warping, etc).

The form is roughly specified now as (bottom to top):
Large Bowl
Large Cylinder
Small Bowl (inverted)
Medium Bowl
Small Cylinder
Medium Sphere
Small Sphere

Planting LongHorn Okra Seeds
Cooking Sausage and Peppers
My magnolia tree is blooming

"Time? This is no time to talk about time, we don't have the time" - Cmdr. Deanna Troi, Star Trek: First Contact

Computers: OK
Weather Station: OK (late)
Radio Clock: not yet (expected in 24 hours)
Cell Phone: OK (late)
GE Auto Clock: nope
VCR: OK
Router/Switches: nope, and I'm not going to check that damn box! (never have)
Dad's Coffee Pot: 2 hours behind (manually set, hmm... something is up there)

I now must do the math to make the wrong devices right again. Why do these devices not support Atlantic time?

I have been told my previous blog entry, "Time", was insulting. For anyone that may have been insulted by the entry, I'm sorry, I did not mean it in that way. I accept myself to be a standard of non-standardization, and expect my readers to do so as well. I exist in a world of my own where I can state what is normal, knowing that it is likely that anyone viewing into my world will perceive it as a queer and confusing place. I accept that I am different from a lot of the world, hence I write from a perspective of the majority, with the reality of being in the minority, in order to personify the way I experience things in the "normal" world. So again, I am sorry that my words were taken as an insult, I have a great respect for those of you who can still think of 12 hour time as the standard.

Daylight Saving, Universal Coordinated, Tea, Eastern Not-so-Standard. Why do we care? Why does the United States government feel the need to control time? Here is a thought, why don't we all just make the plunge and convert to UTC? Time is a reference method for common understanding, at its most dramatic meaning. Moving times around just confuses everyone, and if interacting with people in different time zones, things become even more complicated, especially on days of daylight saving implementation/demise. Time would be much simpler if everyone could just agree to adjust their schedules forward or back an hour at the appropriate times of the year, still allowing for adjustments for the agricultural community, as well as reducing energy consumption based on the sun's schedule. With so many wireless, radio, and Internet communications not being physically able to respect the political boundaries of the time zones, there is no logical reason to continue operating on diverse time zones. Also, the practice of time keeping in exacts is ridiculous, time is a natural concept, which relies on the Earth's rotation, which is always constantly changing speeds as it reverses its rotation (currently it is slowing down). The biggest reason to kill off daylight saving time is that it isn't natural, and the human body reacts badly to it. The human brain can be trained to accept any sleep pattern as normal, but sticking to one pattern has been proven to prevent abnormal weight gain, and also increase "happy hormones", lowering the chances of slipping into a depression (DST is sometimes a factor in seasonal affective disorder).

Also, while we are adjusting times, what the fuck is wrong with you people who are hanging on to your precious 12hr time format? It is insane! How do you ever know what time it really is? When I am in the ceramic studio, I get so annoyed when I have to turn up a kiln, there is a problem and I check the log, only to find that someone last checked the kiln at "9", 9 what? 9 when the sun was up? 9 when it was dark? 9 and 21 are much more distinct numbers. 24hr time is far more logical in the long run. Also, it doesn't take very long to adjust to 24 hr time. According to military performance reports, it takes a new US Marine about 3 days to become fully acclimate to 24 hour time. Shouldn't civilians be able to adapt in less than a week?

I never give the time changes much thought, but this year, I have had to give a little consideration to the event to ensure that things are consistent.

• Computers - updates have been applied (but I am a little worried about my Linux server)


• PDA - applied patch and new version of ActiveSync


• Media Player - doesn't give a flying fuck about time (seriously, watch it not know how long a song is)


• Weather alert station - gets updates locally from radio, will update normally.


• Projection Clock - gets radio updates from a Denver, CO (via a repeater), little nervous, not sure if the adjustment will take


• Digital Camera - not too worried, always needs a manual update anyway


• Cell Phone - will be updated by its tower


• Router/Switches - My router and managed switch update themselves via NTP, but require end-user checking and unchecking of the Daylight Savings Time box.


• VCR - PBS will update it for me :-)


• Network Printer - uses UTC via NTP, doesn't care about DST

So, did I miss anything?

If you are attached to DST practices or the 12hr clock, please comment, I want to know what everyone finds so enjoyable about either of these topics.

I know I don't spend enough time with my network and its toys, but here is the latest revision to my network map: