jc blog - tales of a modern-day nomadic hunter-gatherer

Follow jcomeau_ictx on Twitter This is the weblog of Intrepid Wanderer. You never know what you might find here; graphic descriptions of bodily functions, computer programming secrets, proselytizing for the antichrist, miscellaneous ranting and kvetching, valuable information on living off the land... if you don't share my rather weird interests you may want to try slashdot instead.

You can consider my Del.icio.us links an extension to my blog, as are my LifeTango goals and my other to-do items. My to-buy list is also public, but only for sharing any useful ideas that might be there; I'm not requesting charity, neither do I offer it.

You can find me easily in google searches, as jcomeau, jcomeau_ictx, or jcomeauictx. There are lots of other jcomeaus, but AFAIK I'm the only jcomeau_ictx out there so far.

If you want to comment on anything you see here, try the new Facebook comments, reachable by clicking the "[comment]" link at the end of each post. If for some reason that isn't working, go ahead and email me, jc.unternet.net. You know what to do with the first dot. Make the 'subject' line something reasonably intelligent-looking or it goes plunk! into the spambasket unread.

This RSS feed may or may not work. Haven't fiddled with it in forever. RSS Feed


2005-12-21-1559Z

Finished The Da Vinci Code yesterday afternoon. Despite the author's displayed knowledge of technology approaching zero faster than 1/x2, and also in spite of most of his characters appearing to be so tightly wound that if one were to sneak up behind them and say "boo!" they would instantly explode, killing everything within a half-mile radius, I'd have to say this is a worthwhile read. It ties together coherently and succintly a lot of what you'll read in more scattered form elsewhere, and brings a much-needed damning of Christianity to the public eye.

On the other hand, of what real use is the sangreal? Let's say we change control from Mars to Venus, from the warmongering male to the sacred feminine, the Goddess. We're on a hellbound bus, and we want to change drivers? You can if you want; I'm off this bus altogether. It doesn't matter to me if the Merovingian bloodline is still intact, if they want to continue the notion that Homo Sapiens Sapiens is the end product of evolution and we are here to dominate and subdue the earth, whether by a father's "tough love" or a mother's coddling love. [comment]

2005-12-15-2110Z

LandRollered into town again last night, this time with 0 falls. Not that I'm getting any more skilled, just that I was being more careful. No matter how cold it is outside, I always sweat when skating.

No wonder when I ask for Cointreau sometimes in Mexico they ask me if I mean "Controy". I thought it was just a difference in pronunciation until I asked in the liquor store in Palomas yesterday for some orange liqueur and ended up taking home a square, green bottle of Controy, a Mexican-produced Cointreau substitute, for US$8.65. Offhand it seems to taste stronger of alcohol and not so sweet as that produced by my cousins overseas. [comment]

2005-12-14-1825Z

OK, so lots of chicks dig Dan Brown, and I finally decided yesterday to read one of his books to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately the first one I found was Digital Fortress. I slogged through the first few chapters and decided that the guy didn't know diddly about crypto. A public key is the same as a passkey? I don't think so, Danny boy. NSA being stymied by something encrypted by two different algorithms? Give me a break. Assuming something is an unbreakable code rather than just the output of a randomizer? Not bloody likely. How can someone read this tripe after Cryptonomicon, written by a real computer programmer? I give up. Maybe I'll try Da Vinci Code someday. [comment]

2005-12-13-2238Z

Ever written an HTTP server? Doesn't get much easier than in Python:

$ cat ~/bin/httpserve
#!/usr/pkg/bin/python
import sys, SimpleHTTPServer
sys.argv.append('80')
SimpleHTTPServer.test()
This assumes the script is called with no arguments; it sets the port to 80 rather than 8000 which is the default for SimpleHTTPServer. Just cd to the directory you want to serve and type httpserve, and Python does the rest. [comment]

2005-12-12-2112Z

Last Friday morning I rode my LandRollers a whole (golly gee) mile into town, only falling down twice. Except for the too-tight fit, it was a blast. Just can't wait to break my neck using these with a sail...

Really wanted to travel this month but I'm running behind on work and will have to knuckle down for a while. It's been overcast here for two days straight which helps put me in "work" mode. No rain yet, though, so I don't know if my cistern is gonna work...

Had a housewarming party on Saturday, now that the previous occupants finished removing their belongings while I was road-trippin'. Didn't get too many guests but floated my "shebeen" idea and it seemed to go over well. Got to get a decent battery first so I can play music after dark though. Some flashy lights outside would be nice too. [comment]

2005-12-07-1728Z

Guns are better than governments. You can have the former without the latter, but never the latter without the former.

I just re-read Ishmael on the way home the other day. There's a lot of stuff that I didn't catch the first time around. Anyway, I've now got a copy for my coffeehouse/shebeen, so stop by anytime and read it...

Yes, the shebeen is now ready for business, though far from ideal; the booze is here, usually one or two beers, and I can make coffee on demand, using one paper filter per cup (which I agree is wasteful, but most practical at the moment). The previous occupants of the place removed their remaining belongings while I was gone, so the place is mine all mine till I die, as long as I can come up with the $20 per month maintenance fee. I still need more chairs and tables, but all in due time. [comment]

2005-12-07-0531Z

Second day in a row I've had a nice clean Neandershit. Sunday I ate a nice omelet with veggies and meat for breakfast, fried fish with squash for lunch, and part of a steak burrito for dinner, and Monday I had coffee and trail mix for breakfast, a Philly cheese steak sandwich for lunch, and prime rib for dinner. Both yesterday and today my BM came out mostly stink-free, light brown and with almost no residue on the toilet paper. That's the way it should be; stinky shit or farting would have attracted predators in the wild. If I could only give up beer I'd probably have a near-perfect diet. But I won't, so I'll have to do the best I can within my self-imposed limitations. [comment]

2005-12-05-0525Z

In addition to the aforementioned fruit trees, I also found an orange tree yesterday afternoon with nice sweet navel oranges easily reachable from the sidewalk. Then, scouting around a little more, I found a sushi place, the Silver Sake with an excellent sashimi plate for $12-something. This morning we left Sacramento, and stopped for lunch at the Sequoia Brewing Company in Fresno; I got the fish-and-chips, which were typically overcooked but at least fresh fish, and tried their porter and two of the ales, all of which were better than average. They have free wi-fi but they've got it misconfigured, I could ssh out but couldn't get any web access; I thought it might be an MTU problem at first but after some testing I was pretty well convinced they had port 80 blocked. Their tech was gone by then though.

Took an untested route trying to avoid the LA metropolitan area as much as possible, going 99 through Bakersfield, then 58 east, then 14 south to 138 east, then 215 south and finally hitting I-10 somewhere near San Bernadino. The Motel-6 clerk requires IDs of everybody in the room, wtf? Well hello Big Brother, nice of you to stop by. Lousy Green Burrito at Carl's Jr. is full of rice and beans with only a little steak and costs as much as a decent meal elsewhere. Bitchy today ain't I? That's OK, I'm drinking some Dead Guy Ale and lightening up. I read Bucky Fuller's Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth on the way today, it's a good read but I can't help wonder if his ideas would have improved had Daniel Quinn come along a few years earlier. And he thought the Great Pirates had already become extinct after WWI? I wish. [comment]

2005-12-03-1840Z

Stayed in Sacramento last night, and did some walking around this morning. It would be impossible to starve in this town unless you were really trying: pomegranates, lychees, olives, lemons growing everywhere. Even saw a couple of date palms but no dates on them. Found a nice little Mexican restaurant called San Marcos and had an egg and chorizo burrito and coffee for about $3. [comment]

2005-12-02-1900Z

Rude awakening. Went to the Kinko's in Chico to get some work done, and no more free laptop workstations. Now they have LapNet, for which they charge 10 cents a minute. Ugly. So I went next door to Coco Caffé and used their free wireless, spending my money on food and coffee instead. Get a clue, Kinko's! [comment]

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