According to filesystem timestamps, I wrote this 4/9/1998. I know where I was seated when I wrote it, and it was definitely
spring, so that date is plausible.

It seemed apropos, given Dennis' passing, to post it now.

Hopefully, those who might be offended will remember that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

   DMR is my shepherd; I shall not want
   He maketh me to write code sans disasters:
   He leadeth me around the null pointers.

   He restoreth my tapes: he leadeth me
   In the paths of UNIX for its name's sake.

   Yea, though I walk through the valley
   Of the shadow of Wintel, I will fear no evil:
   The Source is with me; my root password and group staff
   They comfort me.

   He prepareth a server before me in
   defiance of Slick Willy Gates:
   He protecteth my filesystems from Usenet;
   My Sun runneth faster.

   Surely network and printer shall work for me
   All the days of my life: and I will dwell
   With my data intact for ever.

Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Jerry Bolton, Jr. All Rights Reserved.

My father is into HO railroading.  He's got quite the layout in-progress in his garage.  However, he's having trouble finding DCC turn-tables for his engine-yards.  The ones he can find are expensive and back-ordered.  My brother and I decided it would be a fun project for an Arduino (or three).  Here's the first installment of build pics / videos, after the break.

Yarr, matey!  Batten down th' hatches and secyarr th'  wiring!  Lively now, ye lubbars!  Upload yer sketches ye scurvy dogs, else ye'll be walkin' th' plank!  Details aftarr th' break!

So, the day turned rainy and there is a somewhat rigorous moratorium here on desktop computing.  I decided that didn't include supervised robotics.  Full details, more pics and movie mayhem if you click "Read More."

Think The Producers' "Springtime...  in Germany" when reading the title, it might make slightly more sense...

A friend of mine was recently posed a challenge by hir instructor in an introductory Java class.  The challenge was (sic.) "I was recently writing a program to generate usernames from the first seven letters of a student's last name and their first initial, given a list of names.  If you know how to do that, you can take the final right now."

What follows (click "Read More" if you must...) is a write-up of my own over-engineered version of this exercise in sed, perl, and Java.

I wanted to use Drupal to post pictures, much as LiveJournal can.  However, I already have...  an image gallery.  And, while it is a good and wondrous thing to have the gallery integrated with Drupal, what I really wanted was to be able to nicely choose images mid-post, without having to do crazy things like write my own <IMG> tags.  Yes, I can do it that way... I learned how last millennium.  So, I found that once I had gallery2 integrated with drupal...

The Little Traverse Wheelway is a bike path that circumscribes Little Traverse Bay.  I've personally seen about 12 miles of it from a bike, and its pretty spectacular.  Most of the wheelway is specially set aside and paved for bikes.  Some of it is sidewalk, and a few segments are officially marked bike lanes on public roadways.  The path is peppered with places to stop and enjoy the views, as well as some seating and even a few picnic areas.  It connects several area parks and at least three incorporated municipalities.  Yesterday before work, I had the pleasure  of an intense early morning ride, my longest yet this summer, 7.1 miles out  and then back again (14.2 total).  I didn't need to walk  the bike, though I did take a quick break for some photos---"read more" to see them.  The whole trek was 1.25 hours.

Not quite the land of the midnight sun here. :)

More shots after the break (click "read more...")