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4:12:09 pm on 1/7/09

I realize and accept the fact that I’ve been talking about the same thing the last several posts. I’ll mention it one more time, then let it go. I don’t know why I’m enamored by my past life - I guess I’m not realizing that I was “cool” in a way I never realized before. The irony of course is that this realization comes years after any coolness left. Now instead of fun times, computer jokes, and savvy programming projects, I’m stuck behind a laboratory bench performing monotonous research, studying for classes and exams I have absolutely zero interest in, and trying to stretch my imagination as far as I can to somehow pull my school and work to a level where I “need” to write software to accomplish it. It’s this constant tugging both toward, and away from, who I was several years ago. As I mentioned in the previous entry, I’m rebuilding both of my main PCs at my house (software-wise, at least). I rely on the no-ip DNS assistance client to give a domain name to my dynamic home IP address. (swharden.sytes.net always points to my home IP address, which right now happens to be 97.104.81.110) Although I don’t use my home system for serious web server purposes, I do connect to my home network from all over using SSH to access the linux terminal. I also run a small web server and torrent server to help share things now and then. Anyway, this is why I posted…

Whenever I download the No-IP DNS client utility, I stop and check out my little contribution to the project. There, on the support page, under client configuration, you can find The Newbie’s Guide to the No-IP™ Linux Client which is a guide I volunteered to contribute to the company several years ago. It won some award for the best entry and I received 2 years of a free domain name of my choice. Since I had nothing to lose (heck, it was free) I registered ScottIsHot.com (the former home of this very blog). When was that? [searches posts] Well, my Wonderful Days blog entry from OCT 2003 mentions the blog as 4 months old, so I’d guess ScottIsHot.com started around July of 03. I think it took half a year from my tutorial submission to my prize, so let’s assume I wrote it in late 2002. That’s 6 years ago? I was about 17 I guess. It was probably a short time after I wrote the entry I described in the previous post. Hey, going back to something I mentioned earlier…

Why isn’t the SSH server installed and activated by default in new Ubuntu installations? Maybe it’s some kind of security thing, who knows. The point I’m trying to get at is that, if I hadn’t been told about ssh years ago when I first began my venture into open source operating systems while running a FreeBSD webserver, would I have known about it now? Is SSH common knowledge? I use it multiple times daily - it’s critical to my needs! Since essentially everything in linux can be accomplished by the console, the ability to connect to my home linux PC’s console remotely from any other PC is incredibly valuable! I guess this is a message to anyone just starting out with linux. Learn to use SSH. Oh, and screen. Very nice =o)

As a closing note I thought I’d post a screenshot found on the Gentoo Linux website demonstrating what the desktop of a gentoo developer looks like. I noticed the wallpaper and, although it wasn’t not too surprising, I still got a chuckle from it. I still love the feel of a desktop with totally transparent borderless terminal windows, and the speed and responsiveness you get from a cut-the-crap window manager like FluxBox. Hey, a random thought popped in my head just now. I wonder if it reveals my psyche more than I can describe? My thought (unedited for logic or embarrassment and as pure as I can reconstruct it) was this (and I’ll use the fancy quotes):

“I wonder what it would feel like knowing that one day I would be lucky enough to be an active member of the development team for such an important project as FluxBox - wait, I have teeth cleanings to look forward to instead…”

Yeah, I know there are some logical arguments. Dentistry isn’t necessarily all or nothing. Just because I would be working as a dentist (not necessarily only cleaning teeth though) doesn’t mean I’d have to forgo my desire to be a part of something important. I guess it just means that any significant contributions are unlikely. After investing time in my family and my career, I doubt I’d have enough free time to be actively involved in any kind of meaningful open source project. Ever. [keels over; dies promptly]

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 29th, 2008 at 10:44 amand is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

4 Responses to “Enamored by a Past Life”

Scott wrote the following at 02:05:38 PM on December 16th, 2008

test 123

Scott wrote the following at 02:06:23 PM on December 16th, 2008

Wow, I think I’ve actually fixed my comments script. However, at the same time I’ve likely made it easy for spammers to blast their junk here. [sigh]

Scott wrote the following at 02:12:51 PM on December 16th, 2008

Ehh, Akismet spam prevention might help now. So much trouble =o(

Scott wrote the following at 02:13:09 PM on December 16th, 2008

spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam

Yeah it totally doesn’t work well.

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