Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Philip White's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
10:42 pm	Goodbye, LiveJournal After careful deliberation, I've decided to bid farewell to LiveJournal and switch to Movable Type that I run myself. Now I don't have to compromise between functionality and advertising, don't have to keep my entries on LJ's servers, and can customize the blog as much as I want. Now my blog is at http://blog.qnan.org/philip. Since some people don't know what a blog aggregator is, I'll add this last paragraph. A blog aggregator is a great invention that makes it easier for you to keep up with everyone's blog, regardless of whether they use LJ or some other service. And they're all more flexible than LJ Friends: they can even notify you when there's a new entry, like mail clients do. There's web-based ones like Google Reader and Bloglines, and there are many computer programs for this. Give it a try. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
6:12 pm	Poll on how you read my blog I am considering switching from LiveJournal to a self-maintained Movable Type. More and more I like the idea of blogging and want to become more active, but I don't like that LiveJournal (the company) keeps my blog posts on their system. Of course they won't go out of business, but it's the principle of the matter: I like being in possession and control of my own data. But one of the main reasons I like LiveJournal is the Friends page, which is a convenient way to aggregate friends' blog postings. Today I spent a little while on duplicating this functionality without relying on LiveJournal. Now I run a program called newsbeuter which is even more convenient than LiveJournal's "Friends" page -- with it I can aggregate not just LiveJournal, but blogs from other sources. So now I'm weaned off of LiveJournal. I want to know how you read my blog. Please take the time to answer these two questions: 1) Do you have my blog intentionally bookmarked, or do you read it exclusively through LJ's "Friends" feature, or do you use a blog aggregator? 2) If you read it exclusively through LJ's "Friends", have you considered switching to a blog aggregator? Why haven't you switched? This is important to know because if you read it exclusively through "Friends", then if I leave LiveJournal I may lose your readership. I want to avoid that. Please comment and let me know. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 7th, 2008
9:49 pm	Fitness update Today I ran on a treadmill 1.5 miles in 12 minutes, meeting the Navy's entry requirement. This is both a significant milestone and a pleasant surprise at my rate of progress: this summer I was able to run only half the distance in half the time; after that I had to stop, as I was dead from exhaustion. Since I can already pass the sit-and-reach exercise and do enough pushups to qualify, the only hurdle is the sit-ups. I need to do 58 in two minutes. A month ago I did 50. On Monday Andreas is going to test me. I will keep you posted. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
1:08 am	Election results I scooped up 4.30% of the vote for State Representative in District 112. That's slightly worse than one in 23 people voting for me. This exceeds my expectations. Thanks to all of you who voted for me! (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
10:42 pm	Netflix friends I currently have 8 Netflix friends, and I want to grow that number. If you have a Netflix account and want to see how compatible our movie tastes are, as well as read the reviews I've written and what's at home and in my queue, add me! (Mainly because I want to see what's in your home and queue.) Just go to the Friends & Community tab, Invite Friends sub-tab, and enter my email address. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
1:16 am	My adventures with blu-tinted glasses I mentioned earlier that I got a Blu-ray drive. Unfortunately, because of the iron grip of the MPAA, I have two options: pay $70-100 for a supported Windows-based software player and be forced to watch movies only under Windows, or use an unsupported method to obtain the necessary keys to be able to watch the movie under Linux. I did the latter. So, right now I am able to watch Blu-ray streams under Linux. I have access to the individual video components; nothing else. For example, if a particular disc has the movie plus five previews, then I see six individual files. Like with regular files, I can choose which ones to play. The upside: I can skip previews if I want to. The downside: these video streams are all I get; I don't have access to menus, such as language and subtitle selection. Normally this is not a problem, but it turned out to be a big problem tonight. Tonight I rented "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" on Blu-ray and converted a back room of the house to a home theater. I had four other audience members, who were more-or-less sold on my promises of superior, high-definition quality. Eager to show off the blu-tinted wave of the future, I started the movie. The first spoken words occurred about five minutes into the movie. At that point we realized that we're hearing an Asian language. "Ooh, hold on, I can fix this!" I exclaimed and ran over to the laptop. Cycling through the available audio tracks gave us the opportunity to hear the director's and Adam Sandler's commentary (in English), but we simply couldn't find an audio track containing just the English version of the movie. We tried everything we could think of, to no avail. After many minutes of trying various options to see whether we can somehow stumble onto the English audio track—which we know must be hiding there somewhere—we gave up. I wish I knew someone else who plays Blu-ray discs under Linux with mplayer. What's your plan regarding Blu-ray? Got plans to buy it? Or are you waiting for the next best thing? Or you're not a consumer whore like me? (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 13th, 2008
11:08 pm	NPR news story Historic House Race Reflects Cultural Change by Bill Brown. This is my first appearance on the radio. (At least on non-amateur bands.) (7 Comments |Comment on this)
11:21 am	Record NPR today? Can anyone record KERA (90.1 FM) today from 4 PM to 6 PM? I am supposed to be on there, but I have class at that time. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 12th, 2008
2:51 am	Netflix and Blu-Ray I'm a big fan of Netflix. I have a two-at-a-time plan and make sure that I return my movies as soon as I watch them, which is usually the day I receive them. Still, I manage to maintain a queue of about 120 movies, and I'm constantly adding to it. By accident, a few days ago I bought a Blu-Ray drive for my computer. Looking at the bright side, I immediately enabled the Blu-Ray feature of my Netflix account. As a result, I learned that starting November 5th, Netflix is raising the cost of the Blu-Ray option from $0/mo to $1/mo/account. However, the Internet is aghast and disgusted. Countless people are downgrading and canceling their memberships out of principle. Someone started a Facebook group (with as many as one members) for those who are "disgusted" with the price increase, and one person suggests that those who cancel their memberships [WILL] BE WELCOMED AS HEROES! WITH HONOR! But mostly, it's people virtually spitting on Netflix for caring about money. One dollar per month. That's the price of a candy bar or one-third of a cheeseburger. I've learned long ago that people are irrational about nickel-and-diming (and in general the true cost of things), but this particular brouhaha especially disturbs me. Right now there are over 151 responses to Netflix's blog entry about the price increase, and many of them are clamoring that it's a rip-off and—especially amazing—that many people are looking at ways to cut costs. Really? Cutting costs? Then how about not buying a Blu-Ray player (cheapest standalone Blu-Ray player on Amazon: $195) and an HDTV (easily over $1,000)? Buying just one Blu-Ray title in a store costs around $30. Netflix offers all-you-can-eat Blu-Ray discs for $12 per year (or 1% of your home theater setup), and suddenly it's a big deal. Either (a) accept the price increase gracefully, or (b) cancel the Blu-Ray option and don't whine about it. Or (c) act like an insufferable jerk with an entitlement complex. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
11:12 pm	Fitness update In two minutes, 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups. Goal for Navy entrance: 47 push-ups and 58 sit-ups. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
1:08 am	Getting fglrx to work in the latest kernel If you want to run the bleeding-edge Linux kernel and use fglrx, here's a patch for fglrx to compile with the kernel's new API: http://www.qnan.org/~pmw/patches/fglrx/fix-for-2.6.27.patch I got a part of it from the Internet, but it didn't fully work; I had to flesh it out some. This patch works for kernel 2.6.27-rc8 with Gentoo's ati-drivers-8.532. I made a Portage overlay for this to make the patching process automatic. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
1:39 pm	Review of Lenovo My experience with Lenovo thus far. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
9:23 pm	No more Advance Purchase... As long as I've known about Greyhound Lines, they've been good to me by offering a 14-day and 7-day Advance Purchase discount. The discount is huge: ~50% off the walk-up fare. But, as of this spring, the discount is no longer available. I searched Greyhound's web site for an explanation, then searched Google. I didn't come up with anything. So I called Greyhound, and the representative confirmed it for me: the Advance Purchase discount is officially no longer available, forever. So, Internet, now you know. (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
12:33 pm	I am le tired Yesterday I managed to do what I've been putting off since April: I replaced the rear inner tube of my bicycle. It's been holey since about April, and between then and now the bike has been resting, dormant despite its great potential. "Do you really put off such trivial tasks for five months?," you may be asking. Well, dear reader, please understand: replacing the rear inner tube is one of the most disgusting tasks that my white-collar, starched, tender hands have ever had the displeasure of participating in. Replacing rear inner tube is nothing like replacing the front. With the front, you quick-release the front wheel with one smooth motion, then with another fluid motion strip off the tire, and install a new tube before the old one even hits the ground. Then you dust off your hands and call it a day. Unlike its unassuming sibling, the rear assembly requires a commitment and a sacrifice from the humble bike owner—that is, if the owner wants a well-maintained bicycle. Specifically, the goddamn chain must come off. And since the chain must come off, I figure I might as well clean it and the rear wheel's freewheel. First step: wield gripping pliers. I use gripping pliers to unscrew the bolts from both sides, allowing the rear wheel assembly to slide in the horizontal dropouts. At this point it might be obvious to remove the rear wheel while leaving the chain to mind its own business, but unfortunately this bicycle's dropouts are not long enough to permit this, so the chain must come off. Second step: prepare chemicals. I have a canister of liquid degreaser that calls to be mixed in a 1:5 ratio with water. I prepare this in a white salad bowl. Third step: wield the aptly-named "chain tool"—a device I didn't know existed until my first rear-wheel flat. It takes about 846 words for the innertubes (specifically Wikipedia) to describe how to properly use this device. After I went to my local Kinko's and printed out the instructions for future reference—in case they updated the Wikipedia article since the last time I printed and laminated it—I went on to step 4. Step 4 should be "do not touch the chain under any circumstances," but alas one has to hold the chain to apply the chain ruletool. What this means for me: my hands are black with oil that has five trillion particles of dirt, microbes, and vicious amoeba. Here begins the arduous struggle of the white collar. Now I put the chain, the rear wheel's axle, and my hands into the salad bowl. The smell of rotting flesh indicates that the chain and the axle are like new once again! While a nearby cat laps at the salad bowl, I replace the tube of the rear wheel with the practiced ease of... someone who's replacing the tube of the front wheel. See the top for how easy that is. The whole time, I must strike a balance between thoroughly washing off the grease from my hands and in a vain effort to keep it from permeating things like tools and chemical bottles, and just deciding "eh, fuck it" and fingerpainting myself like an Injun. Once all is done and it's time to reassemble these thinggies and make it one whole cohesive thing, the hardest part rears its head. That is: to restore the sanctity of the chain. I need to slide the metal pin back through the inner part of the link, taking care not to damage the chain permanently. Too much force when the inner part is not aligned with the outer, or too much force applied at an angle to the metal pin, and the battle is over: God:1, Philip:0. Fortunately, on my 48th attempt, the chain was restored. For step N of N—this is the last step, by the way—I lightly applied oil to the chain assembly and the rear wheel's freewheel axle. All in all, I spent probably about 45 minutes yesterday to prepare my bike for another nine months of riding. I was tired, but the effort was well worth it. This morning I cruised to the Corporate Challenge 15K bike race1 in style, all hip on my shiny bicycle. The clouds disappeared and there was peace in the world. Footnote 1: I didn't actually compete in the race; I was one of the volunteers to block vehicle traffic across the race path. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 16th, 2008
1:02 pm	Go Liberty! As some of you know, I am running for a Texas State Representative office in my district on the Libertarian platform. Today I saw an animated political cartoon that had me laughing throughout because it's so piercingly accurate, and I want to share it with you. I unfortunately do not know who holds the copyright, but I hope the owner doesn't mind. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 15th, 2008
7:53 pm	A twenty-five year old mother proposes a federal law. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
11:21 pm	GTK If you're a fellow software developer, please check out my first GTK+ program and tell me how I can improve it. Can I avoid using threads? Can I separate further the networking code from the GUI code? In other news, I've been responsible for my neighbor's dog for the last couple of days. In the mornings and evenings I take him out and for half an hour we alternate between sprinting, jogging, walking, and sitting. I think he enjoys it. He's a cute little fatty. His owner returns tomorrow. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
8:53 am	Fitness update About two years ago I posted that I can do 20 pushups with a 7-second break. As I recall, after that point I was too exhausted to do any more. Yesterday I did 48 pushups in two minutes and 30 situps in two minutes. I need to do 47 pushups and 58 situps in two minutes (separately), and run 1.5 miles in <= 12 minutes to pass the Navy's entry fitness requirements. My goal is to be able to do this by the end of the year. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 13th, 2008
2:14 pm	Dallas' proposed ordinance I got this in my inbox today: The Dallas City Council plans to consider a mandatory spay and neuter ordinance as early as Wednesday, June 18. Sportsmen must take action now in order to prevent this draconian ordinance from being approved. The proposed mandate is being sought by radical animal "rights" and anti-hunting organizations and is an affront to our hunting heritage and private property rights. With very limited exceptions, this measure requires every dog older than six months to be spayed or neutered. Owners hoping to breed their dogs at some point during their lives would be required to apply annually for an "intact" permit referred to as a "breeding permit" costing $500. Permits will not be issued for any dogs that are not of a pure breed recognized by a national breed registry such as the American Kennel Club. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
8:19 pm	Dallas Central Appraisal District? Does anyone have any experience dealing with the Dallas Central Appraisal District? They mailed me a document asking me to pay a $50 tax. This is levied on my server in a downtown colocation facility, whose "market value" they estimate at $2,000. I estimate its market value at around $100. On Monday I'll be mailing them my protest. Apparently, at that point a hearing will be set up for me, and I will have to waste my time on refuting this dumb tax. Any tips for me? (Comment on this)