The Shuttle is Gone

STS-107 has broken up over Texas, just after re-entry for a scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Details are available at NASA and CNN

July 16, 2002

* Playing with the colors again! Still not on the new server yet. I reinstalled the O/S three times over the weekend and I think I will do it once more tonight just so I get it just right. I also need to finish building my SGI Indy, which will most likely end up being my main workstation at home and may end up being our data server as well. (yes, it was running for a while, then I reinstalled the O/S on it a couple of times, and I think once more should get it just right ::grin::)

July 10, 2002

* I have finally decided that NetBSD/Sparc just isn’t up to the challenge of running Apache, PHP and/or Zope. I have been twisting and massaging the installs into every conceivable permutation (and a few inconcievable ones as well). Different versions, different configs, stock configs, you name it, I tried it. The closest I got was Apache 2.0.39 with PHP 4.1. Unfortunately, the server occasionally refused connections, refused to parse some of the php code, just to name a few of the issues. So now I go back to my home turf. I will be installing Solaris on the box sometime this weekend. I have a great deal of confidence that this configuration will work correctly with Apache and PHP, and with a bit of luck, even Zope may work.
* Now, don’t get me wrong about NetBSD- It has proven to be a most capable O/S on my firewall/nat box at home ( a little sparc classicX with a 4gig drive and about 60meg of ram, named Grendel). I have been very pleased with the way the O/S installed, configured and has been performing. Even with the network loaded, I have yet to see the little 50Mhz processor utilize more than about 8 percent of its capabilities.
* As Faith was going through some paperwork from Logan’s school, she came across another standardized test result. I have mentioned this before, but the school administers this test to assess the students reading level and comprehension. Logan always scores a couple of grades higher than his actual grade level. This year, however is a bit different. His score placed him in the 99th percentile (this is normal for him) of his peers and it rated his level and comprehension equal to the average twelfth grader after eight months. Wow! Quite wonderful news, eh? Then as I kept reading the report, it goes on to also list a suggested reading level for Logan to aim for. This year it suggested that he should read between 5th and 11th grade material. It seems the school thinks he should slow down and let the rest of the kids catch up. This is yet another example that reinforces our decision to home-school. Oh, if you are wondering what he is currently reading, besides his school work, he has started on Douglas Adams’ ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, and so far, he seems to be enjoying it quite a bit!
* In other home school news, I should note that Logan’s home-schooling began on July 1. So far we have been covering the very fundamental aspects of his education, focusing on finding any deficits and quantifying his abilities. So far the deficits have been nearly non-existent. In addition to the standards of math, science, history, grammar and reading, in the evening we are also learning sign language and latin.

June 5, 2002

* Live in the Northern Hemisphere? Check out a crescent sunset next monday night! (remember, don’t look directly at it, use a special solar filter or better yet, a pinhole camera)
* Look’s like we’re going to find out just how right “Uncle Albert” really was… click here
* hehehe… (OK, so the first time I came out as a Sith Lord, I figured I’d better try again…)
*

:: how jedi are you? ::

June 4, 2002

* Well, so much for the broadband access increasing my time spent working on this journal! Between family, school, work (and working on my BSD firewall) I just can’t seem to devote as much time as I would like to this journal at the moment. I suppose that I could convert it to a weblog (that does seem to be the trend) and that would help, but for now, it’s just turtles, all the way down.
* For a long time now Faith and I have had an ongoing discourse on the deficits of public education. I think we both speak with some authority on the subject, since we are products of the public school system. After trying to work with the system to get Logan the education he needs and deserves, we have finally made a decision that should have been made long ago. Last week was Logan’s last week of public education. At least for the next few years. We have made the decision to home-school. We both feel that this is his best chance for a good education. Too many times we have spoken with teachers that are just overwhelmed by the number of children they teach, or seem to have some sort of power trip thing going on. Mostly it has been the quality and quantity of the material presented. Logan has now spent the last three years on addition and subtraction. It was not until the last two months of class that they finally progressed to fractions. Mind you, Logan, Faith and I all have had discussions with his teachers in an attempt to accelerate his learning material and nothing ever happened. Not that I blame the teachers themselves necessarily, Logan has had the benefit of one or two of the best teachers I have come across, it just seems that there hands are tied by the system that requires that the children pass state-wide standardized tests. Therefore, that is the curriculum they teach regardless of what a child’s individual needs may be. And my children’s individual needs will be best met at home.
* Just for grins, I went ahead and took the BeliefNet’s Belief-O-Matic quiz that purports to categorize what your spiritual beliefs are. It appears that Charlie was close, as both Unitarian and Taoism appear in my top ten.

Here are the top ten (out of the twenty-seven that I was categorized
as):
1. Mahayana Buddhism (100%)
2. New Age (90%)
3. Liberal Quakers (89%)
4. Neo-Pagan (88%)
5. Unitarian Universalism (87%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (86%)
7. Taoism (80%)
8. Bah�’� Faith (72%)
9. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (71%)
10. Orthodox Quaker (69%)

(also of interest are the last six entries)
22. Orthodox Judaism (35%)
23. Islam (33%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (33%)
25. Jehovah’s Witness (26%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (20%)
27. Roman Catholic (20%)

Kind of a curious mix, don’t you think?

05.21.02

* BwaaHaaHaahaa!!!!! I have finally upgraded to a broadband internet connection!!!! Suddenly flash sites aren’t quite as annoying as they used to be. Don’t worry, I have no intentions of “fattening” this site just because I can load it faster. I will strive to maintain a bandwidth-friendly site. No, it hasn’t helped me trim down the amount of time I spend surfing, I just get to digest more garbage than before!
* Needless to say, I have been quite busy at home setting up a meager (Pentium 90, 24meg ram, 504 meg HD w/dual nic’s) FreeBSD box as my firewall/nat box. This mimics a setup at a local ISP that I was asked to look at last week. They are in the process of rebuilding their firewall, so hopefully my setup will help in my understanding of their setup and I can be more useful to them.

05.15.02

* As has always been the case, Xionic Labs is my playground. It is a place for me to play with various webcentric technologies. Sometimes this is apparent (as with minor modifications such as color schemes), but other times it is not. I have used this space to play (meagerly) with databases, artificial intelligence ( a perl/php based knowledge-base/decision tree) as well as many projects for school. from basic html and and css to php integration and mysql, this site has been mostly for my own amusement. As long as it is useful to me in this manner, it will stay up. When the day comes when I no longer come here to play, it will come down. Hopefully around the edges of the site some visitors have found meaningful content. If so, then great! I have recieved some excellent feedback in the past from people who have benefited from one page or another and it is for them that those particular pages stay. OK, that’s enough for that minor rant.
* The big question here really is about the paradigm of computer usability. Not only should we be questioning what computers are used for, but why are they used at all. Do they serve to improve the quality of life? Can they be used to lower the quality of life? Like any tool, the computer must be utilized appropriately. in order to utilize a tool, you must understand its function. In the case of computers, this understanding of functionality has been greatly twisted so that it now resembles a “Magic Beige Box” that can do just about anything! It has been inflated to the status of being the answer to just about any problem. And when those expectations fall short, well then it must have been a problem with the software, or we needed faster hardware. What about the initial conception of what the MBB (remember: Magic Beige Box) was capable of. Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the primary reasons we need (or don’t need) computers. The function of a computer boils down to three things: First, a computer can used to store data. Second, a computer can be used to retrieve data, and third, a computer can be used to manipulate data. That’s it really. Nothing more, nothing less. How we choose to utilize this tool determines its effect on our daily lives.
::more on this later::

05.14.02

* I forgot to mention that we saw Spiderman last weekend. As a fan of the old comic books (pre “marriage to Mary Jane”) I was extremely impressed with the storyline, the imagery, everything. Quite a fun movie!
* Made a small purchase on lunch today. I came across an old sparc20 that someone was selling. The price? $25.00 I didn’t have to think too hard on that one! I will probably load it up w/NetBSD some time this week.

05.10.02

* So my first Astronomy class was Wednesday night. I was warned that this could be a very difficult class if you end up with the wrong professor. Mark had a great time in his Astronomy class because his teacher was more of an amateur enthusiast than anything else. My teacher? Well, my prof is the physics/mathematics professor for the university and therefore this class is much more oriented towards those disciplines. This will most assuredly be one of my more difficult classes. It will also be one of my most enjoyable classes. The professor exhibits such a great passion for the subject that is truly infectious. He definitely knows the subject and is most eager to talk about the science behind it (i.e. the physics - Chaos theory was even tossed about a bit!) Quite an exciting class!
* The Mercedes is back from the shop. I had to drop it off due to a minor fuel leak and ended up getting a major tune-up while it was in there. I figure it was worth it if I can keep the car in good shape for another year or two.

05.06.02

* HAPPY BIRTHDAY RONAN AND KEENAN!!! Today is the boys’ first birthday! Wow, the past year has just flown by! It seems like yesterday that Faith showed me our first ultrasound and proclaimed “We’re having twins!!” Now the boys are already standing and crawling and chewing on everything with their new teeth! The best thing to see is when they chase each other around the house laughing at each other. They have developed such a great bond with each other and with Logan. To see how much Logan has grown into the role of big brother is quite impressive, as well. He is always ready to help out with the twins (except diaper changes ::grin::) Ronan and Keenan have their one year checkup today, so I should have some accurate stats later today.
* Logan was also a great help at his grandpa’s house on Sunday. He trimmed the weeds and helped spread mulch.
* The barbecue went very well on Saturday and the couch was delivered on time. Two things about the couch: first, it’s much bigger than I originally thought. It will have to be the only furniture downstairs as nothing else will fit now. (Actually, it’s not the couch that’s too big, I just thought the room was bigger than it actually is) Second, when the couch was delivered, it had several large grease marks on it. So now we are beginning a battle with the furniture store to get that fixed or replaced. Stay tuned….