Musings

Out in the park!

11-05-2008

Read THIS article just now. Shame about the garden. But, it's to be expected when 300 young people descend onto a garden and run amok with water guns.

Reading some of the comments below the article made me laugh, if not cringe. Quote;
"This says about all there is to say for people who can not form relationships outside of 'My Face', 'Space Book' and so on".

ROFLMAO... yeah right!

I watched the 2007 remake of The Invasion the other night. As a remake of the 1956 and 1978 Invasion of the body snatcher films, I thought it was ok. Nothing spectacular. One scene I particularly enjoyed was the following conversation between a Russian ambassador and a Washington psychiatrist that addressed the human problem. It made me think about the recently uncovered evil of Austria's Joseph Fritzl this week.

Yorish: I say that civilization is an illusion, a game of pretend. What is real is the fact that we are still animals, driven by primal instincts. As a psychiatrist, you must know this to be true.
Carol: To be honest, ambassador, when someone starts talking to me about the truth, what I hear is what they're telling me about themselves more than what they're saying about the world.
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Quite right, well done, doctor.
Yorish: Perhaps this is true, perhaps being a Russian in this country is a kind of pathology. So what do you think, can you help me? Can you give me a pill? To make me see the world the way you Americans see the world. Can a pill help me understand Iraq, or Dafur, or even New Orleans?
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Don't be drawn in by his madness, doctor. He is Russian, he needs to argue like he needs to breathe.
Yorish: All I am saying is that civilization crumbles whenever we need it most. In the right situation, we are all capable of the most terrible crimes. To imagine a world where this was not so, where every crisis did not result in new atrocities, where every newspaper is not full of war and violence. Well, this is to imagine a world where human beings cease to be human.
Carol: While I'll give you that we still retain some basic animal instincts, you have to admit we're not the same animal we were a few thousand years ago.
Yorish: True.
Carol: Read Piaget, Kohlberg or Maslow, Graves, Wilber, and you'll see that we're still evolving. Our consciousness is changing. Five hundred years ago, postmodern feminists didn't exist yet one sits right beside you today. And while that fact may not undo all of the terrible things that have been done in this world, at least it gives me reason to believe that one day, things may be different.
Yorish: Thank you, doctor.
Carol: You're welcome, ambassador.
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Excellent.

We all ask the big 'why?' when acts of evil occur. Its the human problem. How could someone lock their daughter up for 24 years? What makes someone do such? How could they?

At least we all have the ability to react to such crimes and violence in humanity with disgust. We can all have the hope that one day as Carol says in The Invasion that 'things may be different'. That we will finally grow up and stop hurting each other. Maybe then we can finally progress.

I am really no good at keeping this blog up to date! In fact, I fail. My neighbours create such great blog entries, keep up the good work!

I have been busy revising again for another exam next month. I may have a work experience placement at an IT firm in Leeds next month. This would help me greatly in my hunt for a career! Thanks to my brother in law and sister =) Again, its often not what you know, but who you know!

In my last entry I posted (quite literally) how to post a computer. I messed around with knoppix a few times. If you get chance, burn yourself a copy of this live bootable CD. You can use knoppix to help rescue a windows install and get a feel for GNU/Open Source.

Knoppix Boot

Download the iso image from one of the many mirrors, then burn to disk. Once burned restart your computer. Make sure the BIOS is set to boot from cd drive and you will get the splash image shown on the left.

If you get into a spot of bother with windows try to recover using Knoppix and one of the many guides available.

Knoppix Hardware Test

I decided to install the new version of Ubuntu, Hardy Heron. Since I have a 64 bit AMD processor I decided to install the 64 bit version. My test rig has two hard drives, and I want to set up Ubuntu on a RAID 0 array (two hard drives working together striping data across the disks) However, upon reading I discovered Ubuntu (and Debian) do not have support for the SATA RAID (also called FakeRAID) The only distros to support this currently are Gentoo and Fedora Core 5. Not to be hindered I discovered a way to install upon a raid array via the most excellent versatile powerful linux shell. Yes, the shell is that good, im addicted! This would also be an excellent way for me to practice and understand shell commands, and get under the hood of the system and understand what the operating system consists of (debian core, ubuntu-base, linux kernel, dmraid, grub, and ubuntu-desktop) The tutorial I followed HERE was for version 7.04, Feisty Fawn. I had to improvise in certain areas and learn more about each process via various websites till I got it right. But how much fun I had! I can see why so many people prefer Linux over Windows.

Here is a vid of my new freshly installed 64 Bit Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Linux distro on a RAID array:

Ubuntu Vid

Spent a few hours last night rigging the new test system together.
Here is my progress in the form of a step by step guide:

1. The Casing

First thing first, check out the casing and wiring. Familiarise yourself with the case construction. Have a suitable workspace available free from clutter. Do not use the floor, as carpet gives off a whack of ESD that will damage electrical components.

2. ESD Precautions

Here I have covered my small worktop with aluminium foil. Great to keep the static at bay. The rubber glove is for artificial insemination. Erm, ok, not really! Good for ESD prevention though!
Better to be safe than have a wonky computer.

3. Mobo

Put your casing somewhere save for the time being and carefully take out the motherboard from its protective wrapping. Place it on the work surface. Do the same with your processor, heatsink, memory and thermal compound.
Lift up the processor slot arm on the motherboard, align the processor and slot in. Push the arm back down. Apply some thermal compound to the top of the processor to keep it nice and cool. Clip the heaksink on top of the processor. Make sure it is on properly. Don't want it falling off now do we! Make sure the heatsink fan cable is connected to the motherboard
Insert your memory into the appropriate slots.

4. Attach Motherboard

5. Cables

6. BOOT!

7. CMOS

8. Done

Tomorrow, time to play with Knoppix!

I mentioned in an earlier post of my plans to experiment with GNU/Linux/Open Source. Well today I received the necessary hardware. Here is a picture and specs for the micro ATX open source test rig. A cheap system build for testing, learning and personal development.

Test Rig Hardware

X2 Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ 2.50GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2
Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
KeySonic ACK-3700C Ultra Compact Keyboard- Notebook Layout - USB
X-Qpack II Micro ATX Gaming Case With 500W ATX2.0 PSU - (Black/Silver)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
256mb Radeon x850 PCI Express Graphics Card (Spare)

I plan to install the newest release of Ubuntu, version 8.04, codename Hardy Heron, released in 7 days.

Watch this space!

What do you love about where you live?
Submitted by Emu with a Clue.

Its a short walk to my nearest Starbucks!

I have yet to hear the sweet buzz of the Bombus terrestris this year. I failed to hear the delightful sound on my urban exploration this afternoon. I think I must be a little paranoid after reading the reports earlier on in the year of diseases killing off vast numbers of Bees across the country. See the report HERE.

Maybe its still a little too early yet, so no need to panic. So put your 'Save the Bees' placard away.

Interesting... the experts say that there will be severe ecological problems if the bees kick it. Poor little buggers =(