Silicon Valley Redneck

Yikes!

Things having been a bit slow on the revenue-work front, I've been doing some work on AGROS - the current focus is the configuration program, without which it's highly awkward to use AGROS in projects (basically, every project's a code fork, and I keep having to merge bugfixes and upgrades from the radar project back into the main source tree).

Other topics to be addressed as time and attention span allow are USB, CANbus, upgraded self-test system, and TCP/IP networking.

The thought of implementing a TCP stack from scratch sent me looking for a college textbook.  I have vague recollections of the Tanenbaum networking book being a slim hardback volume with a high usefulness density.  And yet... I can't seem to find it.  Maybe I misplaced it temporarily; maybe it was borrowed by a co-worker, many years ago, at a company that then went out of business before I remembered to retrieve my book.  Maybe it's in a pile of stuff that came home from the office and that I haven't sorted out yet.

Whatever... it might be worth buying a new copy.  Check Amazon.  Marked down to $88???  Yipe!  Oh, and it's up to the fourth edition... and 900 pages.

I wonder if the small book is still in there, struggling to get out.

Oh, well.  Maybe I'll spend a bit of time haunting used book stores.

chmod +t gunk.tar.gz

Oh... is that not the kind of "sticky tarball" I've been hearing about on the news?

I think they want to be a little more specific.

There's this "Victory Project" thing that Insty linked to... offering gigabuck rewards for a variety of achievements:

1. Develop a cure for breast cancer.
   
2. Develop a cure for diabetes.
   
3. Reduce greenhouse emissions from petroleum powered automobiles by 95% without increasing the cost of a normal car more than 5%.
4. Achieve 150 miles per gallon of gasoline in a 3,000 lb. car, using EPA standards; without increasing the cost of a normal car more than 10%.

Hmmm.

Well, I have a feeling that #3 is impossible as stated, and #4 is probably non-feasible.  I'm no oncologist, but I have this notion that #1 may run afoul of "breast cancer" not being all one disease, and "cure" being kind of hard to pin down.

Then there's #2... diabetes is at least three different (though related) diseases, one of which is cured automatically after a few months.  Does the "cure" have to be for all types?  Type 2 is already curable in some cases.  (I'm about half cured, after a year of relatively minor lifestyle adjustments; do my doctor and Wikipedia split the billion when my glucose eventually returns to normal?)

Revisiting the wording of #3, I see that there's more than one way to parse it.  By the alternative interpretation, simply blowing up all the gasoline refineries would do the trick.

Methinks these goals need to be restated, in engineer-speak (or maybe in lawyer-speak).

Rummaging through the backlog...

Not that I don't have a backlog of important stuff I should be doing, but somehow the backlog of inconsequential trivia keeps intruding.

I keep being bothered by the sign on this building at Rancho San Antonio:

<

There - that sign just next to the door.  Here's a close-up:

Er.

Who, exactly, needs a sign to tell them that the building in question is a white barn?

Is it not just a white barn, but the White barn, formerly owned by Bob White, the quail farmer?

Or does someone share the labeling obsession of Adam West's Batman?

This seems somehow wrong

Do my ears deceive me, or has Mr. Candidate of Change just been officially endorsed by America's Old Royal Family, the Kennedys?

With the ongoing duel between the Royal Bush Family and the Royal Clinton Family - hey, it's Hillary's turn, after which we'll have Jeb, then Chelsea, then Jenna - the younger generation may never have heard of the Royal Kennedy Family of long ago, and, for the rest of us, the family has largely passed into legend.

It's time for a change!  Let's all get behind the candidate endorsed by the Ancien Régime!

22 years ago this morning...

I walked to work, as I usually did back then, and was just getting settled into my office when the boss came in to tell me that he'd heard that the Shuttle had blown up on launch.

Huh?  How can this be?

There being no Google News in those days, I tuned my office ghetto blaster to a news station.  Indeed, Challenger had failed catastrophically.

There followed weeks of speculation as to the cause... some of it clearly counterfactual, even at the time.  (Sound like the aftermath of any other events?)

In the end... well, flying into space atop a tower of explosives* has always been a risky business, however much NASA tried to pretend otherwise.  Pretending the risk isn't there, instead of acknowledging and managing it, turned out to be a route to losing astronauts and setting the whole program back by a decade.  Maybe more than a decade, if one buys the argument that the Shuttle program has been largely a distraction.

And now... well, there's a next-generation launch vehicle on the drawing boards.  To be ready some years after the Shuttle fleet is due for retirement.  And it looks remarkably like the old-fashioned disintegrating totem poles, doesn't it?  How next-generation is that?

*Yes, I do know this isn't a literally correct description.

Slightly less oog.

Well, I'm still not happy about politics; I give Chimpy until the end of 2009 before he loses his title as "worst president since Clinton."

Still, my stocks are looking a bit better today, though still far below where they're supposed to be for my retirement.

And, I got the official results of my last visit to the vampires.  All the numbers are solidly normal except HDL (a hair low again), creatine kinase (still a bit high, but not alarming), and fasting glucose (still high, but, at 119, now out of the "diabetic" range and back into merely "pre-diabetic"). I also note that, while I've got my LDL down to 83, my doctor seems to have raised my target from 100 to 129, maybe because of the lower glucose measurement.  Oh, well: if 83 is better than 100, it's betterer than 129, right?

Kaiser is now helpfully providing on-line charting of the history of one's lab results.  Quite useful, if one is tracking issues.

I still need to get more regular exercise.  Losing another 20 pounds in time for swimsuit season would be a Good Thing (and it'd be nice to be one of the healthiest-looking people at my high school reunion in August), and might even get my fasting glucose all the way back into the normal range.

Oog.

Stocks down, Fred out of the race... today's news is not good.

I'm not too worried about the stocks, as long as the ones I have wander back up sometime in the next decade or so.

Fred dropping out of the race is doubleplusungood news.  Apart from his positions (some of which I agree with, some not), he has two important qualities: sanity, and a life outside of politics.  Alas, those are the very qualities which are non-conducive to campaigning these days.  (Attempting to substitute detailed and well-considered positions for catchy sound bites doesn't work too well, either.)

"Politics isn't in my blood."
    - Colin Powell

"That's what we need in a President!"
    - me

It's a sad election year when the actor has more substance than any of the mainstream candidates, and even sadder when he quits before I've even had a chance to vote for him.

Now we're back to the usual: which candidate am I least against?

"I usual votes 95% against somebody.  How could I vote if I din't have nobody to be against?"
    - Albert Alligator

A couple of years ago, I was forecasting a nightmare choice of Hillary vs. Rudy.  Now, with the Huckster in the picture, the options may be even worse (and Bloomberg may yet jump in to offer us another horrible option).

Megalomaniacs, idiots, cardboard cutouts... such choices we have.

Update: now, here's a candidate I can support!  But is she 35?  At least in dog years?

"Secure the borders.  Kill the terrorists.  Chase the cats."

Is sanity taking a holiday?

No, this isn't about politics....

I have a client's board & test fixture on my bench.  Been there for a few days, as I implement & test some firmware fixes & enhancements.

One of the unscheduled enhancements is the ability to operate correctly on Channel A while there's a persistent fault indication on Channel B.

This morning, I set about tracking down the origin of the persistent fault indication.  (Actually, there are two such indications, only one of which I've actually made any progress on.  The other may be a wiring issue in the test fixture.)

I'm seeing a comparator output sitting HIGH when it ought to be LOW.  I have 3.0V on the - input, 1.4V on the + input, and the output is obstinately refusing to go LOW as it should.

Sounds like a defective chip, no?  Well, I don't have any spares handy - or, rather, I have spares, but they're commercial grade, and this needs at least industrial grade, so I don't want to install a lower-rated part and risk having it shipped to the end user.  However!  There's another of the same part (LM139) on the board, with two sections unused.  I can simply wire one of the unused sections in parallel with the not-working one (the outputs are open-collector, so I can get away with this).

Um.  Same result.  3.0V on pin 8 (3IN-), 1.4V on pin 9 (3IN+), and I get an absence of low-drive on pin 14 (OUT3).

Break for lunch, ponder further... then try hooking a pullup to pin 13 (OUT4).  Voila!  Though 4IN+ and 4IN- are both grounded, OUT4 is LOW in the default condition, and, when I push the button and 3IN+ goes to 14V, OUT4 goes HIGH.

Eh?

It sounds like this chip has a misbonded pin... and I don't know what's wrong with the chip that was misbehaving in the first place, but a misbonded pin is something that can only happen at the factory.

These parts bear what appears, to my aging eyes, to be the logo of a well-established chip manufacturer... and they got into the supply chain of a small but established defense contractor.

This can't be happening!  It's inconceivable!

Or maybe it's just a holiday, and trying to work was a bad idea...?

Well, the client just dropped off two spare chips (probably from the same batch).  Time to get busy with the blow-dryer.

Update: with the first chip replaced (the spares have a different lot number), it becomes a perfectly ordinary Heisenbug caused by lack of a pullup resistor: measuring the + input puts enough of a load on a floating signal to pull it down below threshold, and adding an actual pulldown resistor makes it behave.

Thing is... when application of the voltmeter brings the pin below threshold, and the output goes LOW, a string of messages scrolls by on the debug console to let me know a signal changed state.  I'm pretty sure this wasn't happening before I changed the chip... and I don't think this explains the wrong-output-pin-on-the-other-chip effect, unless of course comparator #4, having its inputs grounded, was tossing a coin to decide what its output should be, and subtle changes in the environment changed the outcome of the toss.

Bouncing back and forth...

...between programming languages can be problematic.

At the moment, I'm back to working on the radar project, which is in C except for the program that runs on a PC and simulates the master control box.  That's in Ruby.

So, as I implement (among other things) a change in the communication protocol, I'm coding a few lines of C, a few lines of Ruby, and then back to C... which, given the kinda-sorta similar-looking syntax, leads to peculiarities.  Stuff like forgetting the precedence of the ternary operator (?:), which was leading to a thread in the Ruby program dying silently of a type-related error.  Or expecting a relational operator to return 0 or 1, instead of false or true.

It'll get even worse if I start playing with embedded C++, which is a can of worms all its own.

I'm sure there's something I should be doing...

In fact, I know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing right now, and this isn't it.  Still, one gets sucked up in these memes, doesn't one?

Via TSM, and thence Tam, comes the random-album-cover meme.

Here's one for a Scottish winter:

The title, incidentally, is from a Flaubert line.

(And now I'm pondering silly pronunciation options for "Flaubert."  Like a Scott Adams character?  Flowbee?  What else?)

Altie medicine...

...meets the Autorantic Virtual Moonbat.

Now playing at Cectic!

A randomly silly thought

Do any AJAX textbooks take examples from Hudson & Landry?

A phreaky coincidence

It's one of those paper-shuffling evenings - estimated taxes being due tomorrow and whatnot - and it's about time to pay the phone bill.

The next check out of the checkbook is #2600.

Is that the right check to pay the phone bill with, or what?

Fun with GPS

I've been using that refurbished Garmin c330 for a while now, and finding it quite useful, but it does have the occasional hiccup.

It hasn't amusingly misdirected me in the manner that El Reg likes to report, but...

It always gets confused by the still-under-construction I-880/Mission Blvd. interchange, though that's just a momentary thing, as it thinks that I'm suddenly on a different road, and then realizes that I'm on the ramp after all.

More interestingly, as I crossed the Benicia-Martinez Bridge northbound, the nav lady said "Recalculating.  Recalculating.  Recalculating," and then got quiet, as though I were in a parking lot or otherwise off-road.  The display told me to drive northwest to I-680... and showed my car several road-widths east of the road, driving through the Carquinez Strait.

In fact, Google Maps currently shows water where I was driving, though it looks like the northbound span is under construction in this view:

Didn't I see this in an opera somewhere?

Seeing this story, I just can't help wondering whether their father was some sort of itinerant deity, and whether Destiny was involved.  Shouldn't they have had a son who would break his grandfather's spear and marry his parents' half-sister or something?

Well, maybe it's best that they didn't.  We might have been looking at Götterdämmerung in another couple of decades.

(Via Lex.)

Neologism? Really?

Via El Reg, I see that an Aussie dictionary is having a word-of-the-year contest, featuring "new words selected for inclusion in the annual update."

New words?  In the "general interest" category, I find "dumpster diving."

I dunno about you, mate, but here in California that term was definitely in use in the mid 1970s.

Mind you, I never scrounged for household food items, as their definition has it.  No, the local brand of dumpster diving was practiced behind high-tech companies.  Used to be, Spectra-Physics would toss out-of-spec (but still usable for hobby purposes) laser tubes, as well as repairable power supplies and such.  Chip companies would toss heaps of wafers with too many bad chips.  The dumpsters would yield an amazing bounty for young techies.

Well, that was painless.

For Christmas (actually a few days after, as the timing worked out) Joy went halvesies with me on a new stove.

The stove that came with this house wasn't exactly new when I moved in, going on 20 years ago, and it wasn't exactly top of the line when it was new.  By this time, two of the burners weren't working, and the electric starters for the remaining ones were iffy (they often required the attentions of an Aim'N'Flame).  The electric starter would light the oven, but it had to be activated by turning one of the burner knobs to "start" for a moment.

Repairing the old one wasn't really an option, as some of the bits that needed disassembling were thoroughly rusted together.

So, off to Western Appliance to pick out a new one: a Maytag with sealed burners, full-coverage grate, a large self-cleaning oven, and a top broiler; special purchase, $550.  It's only 30" wide - the old one was 36" wide, and had a center griddle, which was a really nice feature, but I also got a Lodge cast-iron griddle/grill which should perform the same function with more even heat (since it straddles two burners).  The only stove remotely in my price range with a decent center griddle is considerably more expensive, and virtually identical to the old one, old-style burners and all.

(Now I have a 6" gap, which seems to call for a 6" cabinet for storing cookie sheets and suchlike.  That doesn't seem to be an off-the-shelf item; I looked in Signetics Philips NXP Lowe's a couple of days ago, and the narrowest kitchen cabinet segment they had was 9".  Guess I need to do some home carpentry.  Oh, and clean the accumulated grease off the old avocthulhu-green vent hood and repaint it to match either the new white stove or the old brown cabinets.)

Anyway: the earliest opportunity for delivery that I was sure would fit my schedule was today.  The delivery guy was supposed to call the evening before to give me a 3-hour delivery window.

Yesterday evening, 6ish: phone call.  Between 10 and 1 today.

This morning, 10:25: I hear a truck.

This morning, 10:40: delivery guys leave, having removed the old stove, installed the new one, set the clock, tested the burners, and helped me move the old futon back where it had been before we moved it aside so the stove could get through.

Oh, and the sales guy had no problem splitting the price across two credit cards.  Western Appliance goes on the "would do business with again" list (except that I don't anticipate buying any more major appliances any time soon).

Later: So far, I've used the new stove to bake bread, boil crabs, and (with the new griddle) cook pancakes.  Works fine.

I haven't tried any of the fancy features (time delay, etc.), but may get around to investigating them eventually.

One feature I'd like to see is an "incubate" setting.  The lowest temperature setpoint for "bake" is 170°F; for "keep warm", 145°.  I can understand the reason for not allowing cooler values of "warm" - maintaining food around body temperature encourages microbial infestations - but there are things that need to be kept at around 80-100° for extended periods.  Such as, e.g., yeast (or sourdough) cultures destined to become bread.  Oh, well.  I can always continue doing what I've always done, which is to preheat the oven to the minimum permitted temperature, then let it cool down.  Or, were I to get ambitious, build a carefully temperature- and humidity-regulated incubator in an ice chest.  But then I'd need a place to put it....

Hm.  Come to think of it, a heat/humidity control gizmo for an ice chest wouldn't take up much space, and, as long as it didn't require modifications to the ice chest, could just be stored inside the existing ice chest, which is already taking up space in my shed.  For transporting drinks in summer, take out the incubator stuff and add ice; for incubating bread dough, skip the ice and thread the power/control cable through the drain opening.  And yet another thing goes on my Project List.

Arrrrr?

 

    My pirate name is:    

 

    Dirty Tom Flint   

   

    You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky.    Arr!    

  Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network  

Happy new year!

As is the custom, I led the Hangover Hike this morning, commencing at 0745 (that was the nominal meeting time; after waiting for stragglers, carpooling up to Skyline Ridge, and waiting for everybody to decide how many layers to wear, we actually hit the trail about 0845).

I had a dozen takers this year.  The weather in the flatlands was clear and cold (34°F; cold for this area).  Given the wind we'd had yesterday, I was expecting fiercely cold and windy conditions up on the ridge.

In fact, by the time we got there, the temperature was up to 55, with practically no wind.  After a bit of hiking, I was regretting my long pants and long-sleeved shirt (and long hair, for that matter).

A bright, clear morning!  (As usual, click images to embiggen.)

Views all the way out to the ocean!

Ocean, Pacific, 1 ea.

New year's resolution: do not meddle in the affairs of witches, lest you end up like this tree.

Coots on Alpine Pond.

That puddle has boats* on it!

Silicon Valley in the new year, slightly obscured by haze.  Stanford is left of center (with the possible exception of the Hoover Institution).

My house isn't quite in this picture, unless you have very good X-ray vision.

The view towards the ocean is so much clearer....

A potato bug, also known as a Jerusalem cricket, or "sunket."

And, as we pass the hobbit-hill, we know we're almost back to the cars.

Camera notes: (1) the pocket camera doesn't fall back automatically, so the EXIF data is an hour fast; (2) the lens needed cleaning.

 

*In SVR-speak, anything on top of the water is a "boat."  This covers anything from ducklings to aircraft carriers.