A Very LA Moment

From The Daily Heller

Fascinating Parasitology Video

Inspired by the Lemonodor Auxiliary Blog:

Quick Notes on Enabling Samba in OpenSolaris

I've been experimenting with OpenSolaris again. I figured out how to enable my broken samba package: I discovered that, after installing the package with

pfexec pkg install SUNWsmbs SUNWsmba

I had to execute:

svccfg import /var/svc/manifest/network/samba.xml

I then copied /etc/sfw/smb.conf-example and modified appropriate values, and created a configuration file that was saved to:

/etc/sfw/smb.conf

Finally, I could enable the SAMBA server:

svcadm enable samba

A blast from the past

As is typical as of late, I was feeling rather isolated and lonely in Los Angeles. My business partners and roommate had all left on vacation, leaving me with little else but to operate out of an empty office. Being the sentimental creature that I am, I'm rather used to spending the fourth of July with my family in the beautiful state of Montana; my separation from them was having a deleterious effect. Having noticed that I've been in a bit of a rut recently (understatement), my parents invited me home for the weekend -- an invitation that I gladly accepted.

Since I've been at home, I've had the opportunity to go through some not-quite-buried treasures. When I left home for my first place of work, I relieved myself of all those useless trinkets, toys, photographs, awards, and other memorabilia that one acquires as a child. The remaining portion of the physical artifacts of my life I sorted and placed inside of labeled banker boxes.

In high school, I had been very active in extracurricular science fairs and research projects; this activity afforded me a great deal of travel and exposure to conferences. My successes were, to some degree, achieved through my own curiosity, attention to detail, and talent as a clear communicator; however, I believe that I thrived primarily due to the combined efforts and guidance of my teachers, to whom I am forever grateful. Sentinel High School, like a blacksmiths' workshop, took the raw metals of my personality, and fired and then forged them, forming a young Junior who traveled to Arizona and participated in the International Science and Engineering Fair in 1996.

Having achieved more than I could have ever expected, I became somewhat complacent, but was still interested in finding another vein of research that caught my interest. One of my science teachers suggested that I attend the Canyon Ferry Limnological Institute (now Montana Science Institute) near Helena, MT. At that time, it was run by husband-and-wife team Gil and Marilyn Alexander. Being young, egocentric, socially awkward, filled with hormones, and somewhat emotionally unbalanced due to my family situation, I left the camp early and went home, but not before making several faux pas that I still feel ashamed of. The teenage mind is painted in bright, primary colors -- and the reds are impressively vibrant.

Before I had left, however, I had performed some research into hydrogen peroxide rocket fuel. More captivating, however, were the patents of a Mr Stanley Meyer regarding a "hydrogen fracturing" process. I had reviewed several patents that had been written in a disorganized, unclear, and esoteric manner, so as to obviously make comprehension of the disclosed invention difficult -- if not impossible. I had sent e-mail messages to a Mr Daniel Hamilton, presumably living in Texas, who had insinuated that the Meyer cell could produce more energy than it consumed -- thereby breaking the laws of thermodynamics. At that point, I became highly skeptical and filed Meyer's cryptic patents away into a large, black, metal binder where they sat, provoking occasional curiosity and maybe a bi-yearly web search on "hydrogen fracturing."

Today, I retrieved this binder from it's banker box, and curiosity struck. I performed a web search on Stanley Meyer, and discovered that he had suffered the sad fate of the huckster that he was. In late 1996, Meyer had been sued by several investors for fraud and was found guilty thereof. An expert witness, Michael Laughton, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London (wikipedia), had determined that Meyer's cell operated no more efficiently than a standard electrolytic cell. Meyer later died in 1998 of a brain aneurysm.

Somehow, this seems a fitting end for a man who would have tricked a young high school student with free energy propaganda, but didn't.

The black binder has been cleared of its contents and is now patiently awaiting something far more useful.

Last night, I watched too much Monty Python.

I'll have you know that I'm the Prince of European Identity Crisis. Oh yes. To use a horrible writing cliche, 'it all began' back when I was born. But after that, I traveled to Germany and Sweden. And, suddenly and unexpectedly, on the flight back, the "Luftansa" airline attendant made a point of asking everyone on the plane what they would like to drink; I think she was really trying to offer us potable refreshments.

Several rows ahead of me (I was in tourist class in the Airbus -- I'm not that "wealthy," if you get my drift), she began asking people what they would like. In English. She slowly bumbled towards my row, riding the airline turbulence like a seasoned cowboy rides a Tennessee Walker, asking each successive row's occupants their beverage preference.

Eventually, she made it to my row. She asked me what I would like to drink. IN GERMAN. So, with my best and wittiest parlance, I replied, "Bitte ein schtillis vasserlaksjdlaksdjfoinadf," just like a good German. I also added a couple of 'yah-yahs' par excellence. Yep. Out of all the occupants in the airline ahead of me, she thought I was the most Krauty. Even the two occupants to my left and right were asked their preference in English -- they simply weren't Euro enough for her! Oh, no, they were most certainly not.

Suitably impressed and clearly assured that I spoke her native tongue, she returned with my drink. As she carried on down the aisle, nothing else was ever said between the two of us. To this day, I still assume that she's still somewhere far above us all, fording the swiftly flowing jet stream, at altitudes often exceeding 9,000 meters.

Not surprisingly, I was totally addicted to house music during the period of 1997-2002, including Blümchen, remixes of Nena, and Toy-Box. Please don't think less of me because of this, but I'd like people to think of it as extracurricular intracultural studies. Sometimes, I still watch the "Heut Ist Mein Tag" music video when I want to be generally creeped out and made to feel like I have some sort of overtly Teutonic raver-girlfriend.

Cold War... History?

Read a fascinating story about the United States' missile tracking systems that were developed in the 1960's, entitled BMEWS - 510 Full Days. I'm sure many have read this site already, but for me, it was a very interesting to see how the author believes that mutual assured destruction (MAD) was necessary to keep the United States, the USSR, and the rest of the world safe for over thirty years.

Few people are probably aware of the sale of US missile launch and guidance technology under the Clinton administration during the 1996 election cycle. Even fewer are aware that monies given to the Clintons were laundered through a Buddhist temple southeast of my church's location -- was that money given to ease the transfer of US satellite technologies into Chinese hands?

Guess what was actually occupying the minds of the American populace in the late 1990's? Monica Lewinsky.

Historians have a LOT of work to do - a lot of ground to cover - when looking at the politics of the previous decade. So, just how clean is Hillary Clinton's nose, I wonder?

Never start a business in January

As a small business owner, determining methods to avoid taxation is not an issue of principle; it is an issue of survival. The easiest example: suppose you score a six-month contracting gig, followed by a year of no work. If you begin the contract on the first of January, you report all $100,000 of your income in a single taxable year. As a result, your tax bracket is ridiculous. Now, suppose you began the work on the first of June, and are paid weekly. In one taxable year, you make $50,000, and in the next, $50,000. As a result, your income more accurately models reality.

That said, I read a Wikipedia article about Hollywood accounting, and found it unscrupulous.

Oh, if there were something that I could do to increase the overhead costs associated with the production of software!!