dot dot is dead

Re: Arriving CA

2010-05-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Leaving Brooklyn

2010-01-24T14:00:00.000-08:00

(got my class-a, i'm a trucker now)

Change Tires

2009-10-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

New Tags

2009-09-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

MB UNIMOG U1300 (Repairs Needed)

2009-08-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Took various photos, like the steering box leaks:

The throttle assembly (lots of rust there):

Installed driver-side lap belt.

MB UNIMOG U1300 (Re: "No Signs")

2009-08-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

The New York Department of Transportation website has a page on parking commercial vehicles, which it summarizes:

For the purposes of parking, standing and stopping rules, a vehicle shall not be deemed a commercial vehicle or a truck unless:

It bears commercial plates; and
It is permanently altered by having all seats and seat fittings, except the front seats, removed to facilitate the transportation of property, except that for vehicles designed with a passenger cab and a cargo area separated by a partition, the seating capacity within the cab shall not be considered in determining whether the vehicle is properly altered; and
It displays the registrant's name and address permanently affixed in characters at least three inches high on both sides of the vehicle, with such display being in a color contrasting with that of the vehicle and placed approximately midway vertically on doors or side panels.

For the purposes other than parking, stopping and standing rules, a vehicle designed, maintained, or used primarily for the transportation of property or for the provision of commercial services and bearing commercial plates is considered a commercial vehicle

The actual text of TRAFFIC RULES (Title 34 Chapter 4, Rules of the City of New York), about signs:

(k) Special rules for commercial vehicles

with all seats and rear seat fittings, except the front seats, removed except that for vehicles designed with a passenger cab and a cargo area separated by a partition, the seating capacity within the cab shall not be considered in determining whether the vehicle is properly altered

(Cost: two "Unaltered Comm Vehicle (k)(1)" tickets $230)

MB UNIMOG U1300 (Heavy Duty Stickers)

2009-08-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

(registered & insured, emissions-tested & safety-inspected)

MB UNIMOG U1300 (Party)

2009-07-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

(with Izzy Mazzy Motors)

MB UNIMOG U1300 (2.5% US customs tax, 8.375% NY State tax)

2009-07-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

Note: Hood Emblem Missing

(with VAT-added repairs in Ravensburg, via the Mignon at Bremerhaven, via Port of NY/NJ)

Type 3 (Safety-Inspected)

2009-07-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

I spent a weekend disassembling and reassembling the front suspension, for the third time.

To get to the torsion bars: remove wheels, separate tie-rod ends, separate calipers from steering knuckles (do not disconnect brake lines), and unbolt dampers from lower arms. You can remove the entire brake-disk, steering-knuckle, ball-joint assembly, with the help of a floor jack by supporting the arm to release pressure on the ball-joint bolt.

~~WANTED: Peiseler VW 261 angle adjustment tool~~

I found the Peiseler VW 261 tool on thesamba.com for $200 in good condition. This is a tool that has several uses throughout the car, primarily among them adjusting the front and rear torsion bars to set vehicle ride height.

~~TODO: Get a torch, to free the torsion rods from the torsion arms.~~

The torsion arm and torsion bar had rusted together, which is why I couldn't finish the job last time. The torch handled one arm. The second arm, my buddy Darren's 5-ton press had met its match, it ended with twisted metal and a loud pop. And at last, I could apply my Peiseler VW 261.

~~TODO: Set front ride-height~~

Adjusted steering box and re-torqued all steering bolts.

Adjusted wheel bearing play.

Passed safety inspection.

(original post, 11 hours)

Re: Truck Driving Skills Test

2009-03-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

Meets standards for licensing? No.

APPLICANT TOOK UP TWO LANES WHILE STRAIGHT DRIVING ON HIGHWAY. INSTRUCTOR FORCED TO ACT.

Re: Teardown

2009-02-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

I measure the time spent on car projects in terms of afternoons. This project is to remove a VW type 4 engine from my Porsche 914 and rebuild it. Thus far, five afternoons.

Remove rear hood and engine cover, exhaust and heating elements
Remove air intake and throttle, disconnect fuel lines (label everything)
Remove electrical connections, clutch cable, shifter, and starter motor
Disconnect rear drive axles, remove engine and transmission
Remove intake manifold and fuel ring, distributor, oil breather, alternator, fan and ducting

Step 4 was not easy. If you suspend the engine/tranny with a strap at the flywheel, it's engine-heavy and leans to the front. If you suspend the engine by a chain at the fuel injectors, it's transmission-heavy and leans to the rear. The later configuration works best, because the transmission-end isn't too heavy to lift by hand, and a few wood blocks will help to lower the engine/transmission in small increments.

Special-purpose tools required: 12-point 6mm allen wrench for the drive axle bolts, flywheel lock for removing clutch and flywheel bolts, 2-ton engine hoist.

Several missing parts, including the bottom right and left warm air guides (which cover the cylinder heads from below). Maybe they're not critical, but what about the thermostat. Where's the thermostat!? All I found was the thermostat roller:

MB UNIMOG U1300 (Shipping and Handling Not Included)

2009-02-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

1982 Mercedes Benz Unimog U1300, OM 352A 6 Cyl Diesel (Turbocharged), Front/Rear 540/1000 PTO (w/ PTO clutch), Front/Rear Hydraulic (4 Circuits), Air/Hydraulic Brakes, Rear Power Lift, Front Category 3 Implement Plate, 16/70 R24 Tires, 13x24 Wheels (4 Spares), 8 Forward/Reverse Speeds, 4WD Diff Lock, Working/Crawler Groups, 3-Way Aluminum Dumper, Pintle Hitch w/ Trailer Air-Brake

Empty 5400 Kg, Max 9000 Kg, Tow 29000 Kg, Max Speed 89 Km/Hr, 13000 EUR

Note: Broken Hood Emblem

(via Überlingen Germany on the Swiss border, eBay purchase from an orchard keeper, December 2008)

Re: California Import

2009-01-31T13:00:00.000-08:00

Re: Front End Repair

2009-01-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

To start with, the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles inspection determined my vehicle (a 1970 Volkswagen Fastback) to be un-roadworthy. The steering box, too much play. Ball-joint and tie-rod seals, broken. The front-suspension bump-stops, missing. The front suspension shock absorbers, completely worn. The brake calipers, mis-matched (one original with worn-out pad, one replacement with new pad, a smaller 1600-style Ghia/Beetle caliper). The fuel lines, cracked.

1. Remove the wheels, brake calipers, spindles. Disconnect outer tie-rod ends and ball joints. Disconnect speedo cable. Remove shock absorbers. Drain and remove fuel tank. Disconnect inner tie-rod ends. Disconnect steering coupler disc. Disconnect steering damper. Remove steering box with arm. Remove fuel pump. Remove body/axle bolt and deteriorated rubber body mounts. Remove the frame/axle cover bolts. Remove axle.

There are supposed to be four rubber bump-stops. Three were missing, and one of the bump-stop mounting posts was bent slightly upward. The upper torsion bar is designed with a tab which prevents it from coming out (it must be rotated 90 degrees and then removed), but the bent post prevented this one from coming out,

2. Grind Remove upper-left mounting post. Remove upper suspension arms and stabilizer bar. Remove lower suspension arm tabs. Remove lower suspension arms, torsion bars attached. Correct bend in suspeension post, add reinforcement welds. Weld new 3/8" mounting nuts into sections of 1" half-round steel pipe. Weld new mounting points on. Clean, de-rust and oil parts. Strip axle, prime and re-paint parts.

3. Make a list of replacement nuts and bolts. All new high-strength (10.9) metric bolts were used except as follows. Metric fine-thread high-strength nuts and bolts are nearly impossible to find in the U.S., so the original damper mounting bolts (12 x 1.5) and steering arm-to-knuckle bolts (10 x 1.0) were kept. The axle set-screws were kept. The steering gear to pitman-arm bolt is a grade 8.8, 12 x 1.5. The left-hand thread tie rod tightening bolts were kept. All other bolts were renewed.

4. Obtain new parts: replacement steering gear, replacement tie-rod ends and ball joints, replacement Red Urethane bump-stops. The left inner tie-rod end is a "No Longer Available" Type 3 part with a 9 degree bend, but a guy on thesamba, had them for $100, new steering gear, new steering coupler disc, new steering-damper rubber mount, new Bilstein dampers, new brake discs, two (correct) rebuilt brake calipers, new brake lines and hoses, new fuel hose and filter. I cut new hard urethane body mounts to match the new dampers. I buy most of my parts at Bughaus and Cip1. The shocks were from Jbugs.

5. Send fuel tank to nearest GasTankRenu to be sandblasted and re-coated.

6. Attach axle. Reassemble in reverse order. Bleed brakes. Set wheel alignment. Do-it-yourself wheel alignment. I saw this trick on the web: raise the vehicle and spin each front wheel, use spray-paint to paint a stripe around the wheels. Let the paint dry. Scratch a line into the stripe, by rotating the wheel against a sharp edge. Clip a tape-measure to two jack-stands, and measure the distance between the lines in the wheels, front and back. My new German dial-indicator from Pelican Parts and my iPhone calculator came in handy.

TODO: Set front ride-height. The ride is much too low, because I was unable to separate the torsion rods from the torsion arms.

TODO: Get a torch, to free the torsion rods from the torsion arms.

WANTED: Peiseler VW 261 angle adjustment tool. Helps you set the proper 17 degree angle for ride height.

NOTE: The front/lower torsion-arm retaining tabs are incorrect. Both are stamped for the same side.

TODO: find a correct opposite-side tab.

Re: Front axle repair

2008-10-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

(expect a full report when I finish the operation)

Re: Car Repair

2008-10-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

(if I had a million dollars I'd be here tomorrow morning., NY Times 10/19/2008)

Re: Skateboarding is a crime

2008-09-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

"At TPO PO observed respondent ride skateboard and interfere with passenger movement and service, $25"

(HAHAHAHAHAHA)

Re: Porsche 904

2008-07-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

My Google Alert for [Porsche 904] helped me find this awesome blog about a guy named Kevin who works with his hands. Meanwhile I have to report that I made two repairs on my 1970 fastback:

Shift-rod bushing: a $1 part and 2 hours of labor put the kibosh on the incessant rattle from inside the body tunnel
Rear brakes: new drums, shoes, cylinders, springs, adjusters, lines and hoses, everything except the backing plates (which I sanded and spray-painted) and e-brake actuators

A road trip to Greenport, NY (on the north fork of Long Island) proved successful, this is me on the ferry to Shelter Island:

Meanwhile I wish I was the one working on a Porsche 904 like this guy, and I think these guys ought to make their reproduction available as a kit one day.

Re: 26th St.

2008-06-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Road Trip (Actual)

2008-05-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

(SF to Klamath, CA via Mendocino)

View Larger Map

(Loss of coolant, water pump failure)

(Klamath to Mendocino, CA via tow truck)

Look what I made!

2008-05-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

(faucet lamp fixture)

Re: Road Trip

2008-05-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

(SF to NY via Spokane, WA, Hwy 2)

1970 Volkswagen Fastback

2008-04-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

(from Bethlehem, CT)

A spammer and a thief

2007-10-18T23:00:00.001-07:00

5 days ago I received a Google Blog Alert in my e-mail for the query ["AC-150" AC Propulsion] containing a snippet of my own recent blog post (about an electric project car):

Step 6: Repeat, Start over

http://electriclawnmower.blogspot.com/

Yesterday I received a Google Blog Alert in my e-mail for the same query, with an informative article about AC Propulsion, makers of the AC-150:

AC Propulsion

Today, I received a Google Blog Alert. Someone stole my text for advertising clicks. I've replaced "loader" with "loser" everywhere it appears:

US Lawn Mower Racing ociation

http://www.bobcat-loser.org

When I visited the page, it was just as you'd expect: my copyrighted text had been kindly replaced by semi-random text about bobcats, excavators, loaders, etc, and Adsense links. There's an unscrupulous person somewhere making tons of money on this.

Re: Broken scanner

2007-09-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

My Epson Perfection 3200 Photo (Firewire) scanner gave me around a thousand finished scans, costing approximately $0.35 each, over four years. Now it won't turn on. My scanner would have saved you from this other documentation:


 - Command: prcs execute [option ...] [project [file-or-dir ...]] [--
          command [arg ...]]
     ADDITIONAL OPTIONS: `-r', `-P', `--pre', `--all', `--pipe'
     `--match PATTERN', `--not PATTERN'

     Execute `COMMAND ARG ...,' suitably modified as described below,
     for the name of each file and directory in FILE-OR-DIR in the
     specified version, filtered by any `--match' and `--not'
     operators as described below.  This elaborate command is
     intended to facilitate efficient, open-ended extension of the
     functions of PRCS.  Each directory, whether or not explicitly
     named in the project, is included once, either in pre- or
     post-order.

     With the `--all' option, COMMAND is executed once.  Otherwise,
     it is executed once per file name.

     The PATTERN options filter the selected files.  To be selected,
     the entry in the Files attribute for a given file must satisfy
     the `--match' pattern (if any) and not satisfy  the `--not'
     pattern, if any.  Each pattern is a regular expression; an entry
     satisfies the pattern if either the name or any of the `:'
     options matches the pattern.

     For each execution of COMMAND, PRCS first replaces the following
     strings wherever they appear in COMMAND and in each ARG:

    `{}'
          Replaced by the name of the file.  With the `--all' option,
          replaced by the sequence of all selected file names,
          separated by "unquoted blanks" (that is, blanks that divide
          the replacement string into separate arguments).

    `{options}'
          Replaced by a string consisting of all colon-options
          applicable to the file (*note Files attribute::), separated
          by "quoted blanks" (that is, blanks that do not divide the
          replacement string into separate arguments).  If a
          directory is not explicitly named in the project file, it
          is listed with a `:implicit-directory' option, whether or
          not it appears separately in the Files attribute.  These
          directories appear whether or not the files containing them
          were on the command line (otherwise, it would be impossible
          to get just the directories).  The project file is included
          with the `:project-file' attribute.  With the `--all'
          option, all of these colon-option strings are concatenated
          together, with the strings for different files separated by
          unquoted blanks.

    `{file}'
          The name of a file containing the contents of the
          appropriate version of the file.  Unless the internal file
          identifier is null (which can only happen when there is no
          `-r' option, so that the working version is specified),
          this is the name of a temporary file containing a
          checked-out copy of the appropriate version, which is
          deleted after COMMAND completes.  With a null internal file
          identifier, `{file}' is the same as `{}'.  It is the empty
          string for a directory or a file carrying the `:symlink'
          option.  With the `--all' option, all of these file names
          are concatenated together, separated by unquoted blanks.

     (In contexts where curly braces are special to your shell, you
     will have to escape them.)  After these substitutions, PRCS
     invokes COMMAND, which must be an executable file.  It looks for
     COMMAND in the same directories as the shell (using the PATH
     environment variable).  When `--' and what follows are omitted,
     they default to

          -- /bin/echo {}

     which simply echoes the names of all files and directories in the
     selected version, one per line.

     One small glitch: `prcs execute' uses the current directory in
     effect when it is invoked as the current directory seen by
     COMMAND.  This is true, even when the PROJECT operand specifies
     a subdirectory.  For example,

          % cd /usr/users/foo
          % prcs execute D/P -- pwd

     will print `/usr/users/foo' once for each file listed in
     `/usr/users/foo/D/P.prj', and not `/usr/users/foo/D', as the
     general description of the PROJECT operand might otherwise
     suggest (*note Specifying Projects::).  This allows you to do
     something like the following:

          % ln -s . P-1.0
          % tar -cvf P-1.0.tar `prcs execute --not :.*directory P-1.0`

     for making tarfiles containing all files in a project in an
     appropriately named subdirectory for distribution.

     If the `--pipe' option is present, then the contents of the file
     (as would be contained in the file named by `{file}') is
     supplied as the standard input.  The `--pipe' and `--all'
     options are incompatible.  Any ARG whose replacement contains
     unquoted blanks (introduced by the `--all' option) is divided at
     those blanks into separate arguments (even in the case where
     substitution results in a null string, that null string will be
     broken out as a separate argument).  Each of the resulting
     arguments, is passed directly to the program specified by
     COMMAND as a single string, with no further processing by any
     shell.

     With the `--all' option,  PRCS will invoke COMMAND only once.
     The order of the lists of arguments replacing each pattern in
     COMMAND is consistent, so that, for example, the options for the
     first file name in the replacement for `{}' is the first string
     in the replacement for `{options}'.  For example, if a project
     contains the files `A', `B/Q', and `B/R', then

          prcs execute --all . -- foo -a{}-b "{options}"

     will execute (in effect) the single command

          foo -aA B/Q B/R B-b "" "" "" ":directory"

     With the `--pre' (for pre-order) option the directory name is
     listed first, then the non-directory file names within that
     directory, then the subdirectories and their contents.
     Otherwise, subdirectories and their contents are listed first,
     then the names of its non-directory files, then the name of the
     directory itself.

     With `-n', the command prints the commands that will be executed
     without actually executing them.

What to do with nectarines?

2007-07-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

(make pie with a friend, or jam all by yourself—75 nectarines, 4 cups sugar & pectin make 10 8oz jars of jam)

Re: July 4

2007-07-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

(The graffiti mural on the corner of César Chávez and Bryant reads "People Unidad")

Re: Gearhead

2007-07-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

(This is my 1963 IHC Scout 80)

(He chases his tail)

2007-06-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Re: El Cacto

2007-06-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

(yesterday and today)

Re: Scout 80

2007-05-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

"We can roll in my sixty-three"

(international harvester company service manual, 1961 thru 1971, background)

Re: Trouble

2007-05-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

"never thought my [noun] would be getting Tiffany in the mail!"

(those are embossed capital "T"s on the box)

Re: El Jardín

2007-05-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

Re: Beach Umbrella

2007-04-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Re: Used Flashbulbs

2007-04-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Re: Lawnmower

2007-04-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

1974 porsche 914
ebay buy it now experience
visit my electric lawnmower blog

La Casa

2007-04-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

La Región

2007-04-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Los Cuartos

2007-04-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

26th/Florida

2007-04-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

(recent gossip)

Re: Pleasure Point

2007-03-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

(top left - surfing before work, top right - surfing after work, bottom - low tide at 34th ave, santa cruz, ca)

Weekend lyrics

2007-03-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

I got bent like a wet cigarette
and she´s coming after me with a butterfly net

Re: Sunnyvale

2007-02-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

(defun cindys-filename-hook()
  (if (buffer-file-name)
      (let (mlname name prname)
        (string-match "\\(.*/\\)\\([^/]+$\\)" (buffer-file-name))
        (setq name   (match-string 2 (buffer-file-name)))
        (setq prname (match-string 1 (buffer-file-name)))
        (if (string= name (buffer-name))
            (setq mlname (format "[%s]" (buffer-file-name)))
            (setq mlname (format "[%s%s]" prname (buffer-name))))
        (if (> (length mlname) 25)
            (setq mlname
                  (concat "[..." (substring mlname (- (length mlname) 22)))))
        (setq mode-line-buffer-identification (list mlname)))))

(add-hook 'find-file-hooks 'cindys-filename-hook)

; Sun Micro internship, Sunnyvale, CA 1996
; changes your Emacs modeline to show the trailing directory path

Re: Beaches

2007-02-24T23:00:00.000-08:00

(prainha, rio de janeiro)

Conic sections past midnight

2007-02-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

(remember when someone in math class would ask a question like why I should care that 1 / sin(pi/4) = sqrt(2) and the math teacher said that you just might and that x * y = constant is a hyperbola? related post)

Re: Transaction Processing

2007-02-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

:-(

(ABOUT JIM GRAY BEING LOST AT SEA)

Re: Beach/Dog

2007-02-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

(polaroid sx-70, 10-month expired time-zero film)

Re: Xdelta 1.1.4

2007-01-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

An especially grateful user wrote me to say thanks for the open-source software:

RTPatch

Xdelta 1.1.3

Thanks! Another writes:

I hope you can release a bugfix and rub off the beautymarks. xdelta-1.1.x is still used widely and a maintenance release would be appreciated.Thanks again! =)

This is a maintenence release: Xdelta 1.1.4 remains substantially unchanged since 1999. This release fixes a bug: Compressed data from 32-bit platforms failed to decompress on 64-bit platforms. This is fixed in the decoder (it was a badly-designed "hint", now ignored), so you can now read old 32-bit patches on 64-bit platforms. Patches produced by 1.1.4 are still readable by 1.1.3 on the same platform. Still, Xdelta 1.1.x is losing its edge.

Xdelta3 compresses faster and better, using a standardized data format—VCDIFF, and has no dependence on gzip or bzip2. If using a standardized encoding is not particularly important for you, Xdelta3 supports secondary compression options. Xdelta3 (with the -9 -S djw flags) is comparible in terms of compression, but much faster than bsdiff. Xdelta3 includes a Windows .exe in the official release.

As always, I'm interested in your feedback (file a new issue). Are you compressing gigabyte files with Xdelta3? Have you used dfc-gorilla (by the makers of RTPatch)?

(cross posted from http://xdelta.org)

Re: Virtuous Motives

2007-01-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

It got seriously under way, this sensitizing, either with the letter from Mucho or the evening she and Metzger drifted into a strange bar known as The Scope. Looking back she forgot which had come first. The letter itself had nothing much to say, had come in response to one of her dutiful, more or less rambling, twice-a-week notes to him, in which she was not confessing to her scene with Metzger because Mucho, she felt, somehow, would know. Would then proceed at a KCUF record hop to look out again across the gleaming gym floor and there in one of the giant keyholes inscribed for basketball see, groping her vertical backstroke a little awkward opposite any boy heels might make her an inch taller than, a Sharon, Linda, or Michele, seventeen and what is known as a hip one, whose velveted eyes ultimately, statistically would meet Mucho's and respond, and the thing would develop then groovy as it could when you found you couldn't get statutory rape really out of the back of your law-abiding head. She knew the pattern because it had happened a few times already, though Oedipa had been most scrupulously fair about it, mentioning the practice only once, in fact, another three in the morning and out of a dark dawn sky, asking if he wasn't worried about the penal code. "Of course," said Mucho after awhile, that was all; but in his tone of voice she thought she heard more, something between annoyance and agony. She wondered then if worrying affected his performance. Having once been seventeen and ready to laugh at almost anything, she found herself then overcome by, call it tenderness she'd never go quite to the back of lest she get bogged. It kept her from asking any more questions. Like all their inabilities to communicate, this too had a virtuous motive.

(thomas pynchon, the crying of lot 49)

88 Lines About 44 Women

2007-01-10T04:00:00.000-08:00


// Copyright 2007, Josh MacDonald
// 
// I run Gentoo on a small computer with a bad board.  I had run
// Windows on it "successfully", but the electronics were too noisy
// for audio, so I could run Kazaa but couldn't play the music.  It
// wasn't until installing Linux that I found it had bad RAM.  I
// replaced the memory, and now it's working with what you might call a
// "variable speed" clock.  The clock skews several seconds in
// several days.
//
// Laziness made me do it.

#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int change_time(double arg) {

  struct timeval tv;
  struct timezone tz;

  if (gettimeofday(&tv, &tz)) {
    perror("gettimeofday");
    return -1;
  }

  // in version 2, finer resolution!
  tv.tv_sec += (int)arg;

  printf("setting time %+f\n", arg);

  if (settimeofday(&tv, &tz)) {
    perror("settimeofday");
    return -2;
  }
  return 0;
}

int how_far_off(char *dir, double *offset) {
  struct timezone tz;
  struct timeval tv;
  struct stat buf;
  char *fn = (char*)malloc(1024);

  strcpy(fn, dir);
  strcat(fn, "/time-stamp");
  unlink(fn);
  FILE *f = fopen(fn, "w");
  fclose(f);
  if (stat(fn, &buf)) {
      perror("stat");
      return -1;
  }
  double ft = buf.st_mtime /* version 2: buf.st_mtim.tv_nsec * 10e-9 */;

  if (gettimeofday(&tv, &tz)) {
    perror("gettimeofday");
    return -1;
  }

  double tt = tv.tv_sec /* version 2: tv.tv_usec * 10e-6 */;

  *offset = (ft - tt);

  printf("difference is %.05f secs\n", *offset);
  return 0;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
  double arg;
  int ret;

  if (argc != 2) {
    printf("usage: program directory\n");
    return 2;
  }

  if ((ret = how_far_off(argv[1], &arg)) ||
      (arg == 0) ||
      (ret = change_time(arg))) {
    return -ret;
  }

  return 0;
}

(amaranta here's a kiss, I chose you to end this list, the unlucky márquez daughter, the nails lyrics #44, 88 line UNIX/C source code to set the local time based on a network filer)

Pictures from Rio

2007-01-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

(awesome, I shot that! see laura's photos)

(hot sand makes girls run)

(brenard sings gospel, praise and meditation)

(that's me)

(table at fish restaurant)

(laura and david)

(yeah!)

Re: Solitude

2007-01-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

Nevertheless, and although he himself did not seem to notice it, those letters of recuperation and stimulation were slowly changing into pastoral letters of disenchantment. One winter night while the soup was boiling in the fireplace, he missed the heat of the back of his store, the buzzing of the sun on the dusty almond trees, the whistle of the train during the lethargy of siesta time, just as in Macondo he had missed the winter soup in the fireplace, the cries of the coffee vendor, and the fleeting larks of springtime. Upset by two nostalgias facing each other like two mirrors, he lost his marvelous sense of unreality and he ended up recommending to all of them that they leave Macondo, that they forget everything he had taught them about the world and the human heart, that they shit on Horace, and that wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.

(gabriel garcia márquez, one hundred years of solitude)

Editorial (Re: Capital Punishment)

2007-01-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

People have said that this blog has an unusual style. A collection of my pictures, mainly anachronistic ones, travel stories, and excerpts from books I've read, with a caption to help me remember the what, where, why, who, and/or whom of it. Whatever the editor could have been thinking, there's rarely a political or religious statement.

Sometimes I read books about war, like all quiet on the western front. There were riots from the favelas, 18 dead in Rio de Janeiro while I was in a hotel room in copacabana; the world hardly noticed. Saddam had been executed. I am against capital punishment.

Days later I read Night, in airport waiting areas and airplanes. Terrifying.

Two SS were headed toward the soliatary confinement cell. They came back, the condemned man between them. He was a young boy from Warsaw. An inmate with tree years in concentration camps behind him. He was tall and strong, a giant compared to me.
His back was to the gallows, his face turned toward his judge, the head of the camp. He was pale but seemed more solemn than frightened. His manacled hands did not tremble. His eyes were coolly assessing the hundreds of SS guards, the thousands of prisoners surrounding him.
The Lagerälteste began to read the verdict, emphasizing every word:
"In the name of Reichsfuhrer Himmler ... prisoner number ... stole during the air raid ... according to the law ... prisoner number ... is condemned to death. Let this be a warning and an example to all prisoners."
Nobody moved.
I heard the pounding of my heart. The thousands of people who died daily in Auschwitz and Birkenau, in the crematoria, no longer troubled me. But this boy, leaning against his gallows, upset me deeply.
"This ceremony, will it be over soon? I'm hungry ..." whispered Juliek.
At a sign of the Lagerälteste the Lagerkapo stepped up to the condemned youth. He was assisted by two prisoners. In exchange for two bowls of soup.
The Kapo wanted to blindfold the youth, but he refused.
After what seemed like a long moment, the hangman put the rope around his neck. He was about to signal his aides to pull the chair from under the young man's feet when the latter shouted, in a strong and calm voice:
"Long live liberty! My curse on Germany! My curse! My—"
The executioner had completed his work.
Like a sword, the order cut through the air:
"Caps off!"
Ten thousand prisoners paid their respects.
"Cover your heads!"
Then the entire camp, block after block, filed past the hanged boy and stared at his extinguished eyes, the tongue hanging from his gaping mouth. The Kapos forced everyone to look him squarely in the face.
Afterward, we were given permission to go back to our block and have our meal.
I remember that on that evening, the soup tasted better than ever...

I WATCHED other hangings. I never saw a single victim weep. These withered bodies had long forgotten the bitter taste of tears.
Except once. The Oberkapo of the Fifty-second Cable Komando was a Dutchman: a giant of a man, well over six feet. He had some seven hundred prisoners under his command, and they all loved him like a brother. Nobody had ever endured a blow or even an insult from him.
In his "service" was a young boy, a pipel as they were called. This one had a delicate and beautiful face—an incredible sight in this camp.
(In Buna, the pipel were hated; they often displayed greater cruelty than their elders. I once saw one of them, a boy of thirteen, beat his father for not making his bed properly. As the old man quietly wept, the boy was yelling: "If you don't stop crying instantly, I will no longer bring you bread. Understood?" But the Dutchman's little servant was beloved by all. His was the face of an angel in distress.)
One day the power failed at the central electric plant in Buna. The Gestapo, summoned to inspect the damage, concluded that it was sabbotage. The found a trail. It led to the block of the Dutch Oberkapo. And after a search, the found a significant quantity of weapons. The Oberkapo was arrested on the spot. He was tortured for weeks on end, in vain. He gave no names. He was transferred to Auschwitz. And never heard from again.
But his young pipel remained behind, in solitary confinement. He too was tortured, but he too remained silent. The SS then condemned him to death, him and two other inmates who had been found to possess arms. One day, as we returned from work, we saw three gallows, three black ravens, erected on the Appelplatz. Roll call. The SS surrounding us, machine guns aimed at us: the usual ritual. Three prisoners in chains—and, among them, the little pipel, the sad-eyed angel.
The SS seemed more preoccupied, more worried, than usual. To hang a child in front of thousands of onlookers was not a small matter. The head of the camp read the verdict. All eyes were on the child. He was pale, almost calm, but he was biting his lips as he stood in the shadows of the gallows.
This time, the Lagerkapo refuused to act as executioner. Three SS took his place.
The three condemned prisoners together stepped onto the chairs. In unison, the nooses were placed around their necks.
"Long live liberty!" shouted the two men.
But the boy was silent.
"Where is merciful God, where is He?" someone behind me was asking.
At the signal, the three chairs were tripped over.
Total silence in the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting.
"Caps off!" screamed the Lagerälteste. His voice quivered. As for the rest of us, we were weeping.
"Cover your heads!"
Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing...
And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished.
Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
"For God's sake, where is God?"
And from within me, I heard a voice answer:
"Where He is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows..."
That night, the soup tasted of corpses.

Re: Amory Blaine; Rosalind

2006-12-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

"What's all this got to do with your being bored?"
Amory considered that it had much to do with it.
"How'll I fit in?" he demanded. "What am I for? To propagate the race? According to the American novels we are led to believe that the 'healthy American boy' from nineteen to twenty-five is an entirely sexless animal. As a matter of fact the healthier he is the less that's true. The only alternative to letting it get you is some violent interest. Well, the war is over; I believe too much in the responsibilities of authorship to write just now; and business, well, business speaks for itself. It has no connection with anything in the world that I've ever been interested in, except a slim, utilitarian connection with economics. What I'd see of it, lost in a clerkship, for the next and best ten years of my life would have the intellectual content of an industrial movie."
"Try fiction," suggested Tom.
"Trouble is I get distracted when I start to write stories—get afraid I'm doing it instead of living—get thinking maybe life is waiting for me in the Japanese gardens at the Ritz or at Atlantic City or on the lower East Side.
"Anyway," he continued, "I haven't the vital urge. I wanted to be a regular human being but the girl didn't see it that way."
"You'll find another."
"God! Banish the thought. Why don't you tell me that 'if the girl had been worth having she'd have waited for you'? No sir, the girl really worth having won't wait for anybody. If I thought there'd be another I'd lose my remaining faith in human nature. Maybe I'll play—but Rosalind was the only girl in the wide world that could have held me."
"Well," yawned Tom, "I've played confidant a good hour by the clock. Still I'm glad to see you're beginning to have violent views again on something."
"I am," agreed Amory reluctantly. "Yet when I see a happy family it makes me sick at my stomach——"
"Happy families try to make people feel that way," said Tom cynically.

(f. scott fitzgerald, this side of paradise—postmark rio de janeiro)

Re: Windows support

2006-12-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

To: <support@microsoft.com>
From: <josh.macdonald@gmail.com>

Dear sirs,

Thanks for the free downloads!

Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2

(as reported on http://xdelta.org)

Los Angeles

2006-11-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

Ventura

2006-11-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

(nice surf)

The sign said to...

2006-10-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

(beer commercial)

Post about 11/11/2001

2006-09-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

2 months and 2 days earlier, I arrived in Moscow for a new job
2 months and 0 days earlier, I watched CNN at 4:45pm, shocked
That day in 1821 Dostoyevsky was born
That day in 2001 I left Moscow for Amsterdam

In Russia those two months, I stayed at the apartments of Hans and Nina Reiser. Hans' company Namesys was developing a new file system. I had met Hans nine months earlier, in Berkeley, CA, at the Fat Slice Pizza on Telegraph Ave, to convince him he needed file system transactions, one of my favorite subjects.

In Amsterdam, I stayed at the bicycle hotel several days before flying home to California. I began writing xdelta3 in that hotel, those nights in Amsterdam, after much consideration of the proposed RFC 3284.

Nearly five years on, xdelta3 almost ready to release.

Re: Dolores Park

2006-09-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

(dolores park, may 2006)

Re: Burn

2006-09-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

(this is not the first time you've seen keith!'s special polaroid "handling")

Guerrero St. Sunday

2006-09-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

(summer polaroid)

Re: Pyramid Lake

2006-09-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

(xdelta3 now works with 64-bit files! 0x100000000)

Happy Camper

2006-09-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

(at earthdance 2006)

Parking lot

2006-09-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

(at earthdance 2006)

Commander

2006-09-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

(at earthdance 2006)

Re: Burning Man

2006-09-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

(i spotted waldemar on the playa, having too much fun for camera work myself)

Re: Lexington St.

2006-08-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

(at 20th)

Re: Shoes

2006-08-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Re: Coney Island

2006-08-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

(from shoot the freak)

Re: Orange Lantern

2006-08-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

“DR. STRANGELOVE IS LOST IN CYBERSPACE!”

2006-07-28T23:00:00.000-07:00


    ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RULES!
     EUPHORIA 2010 REIGNS SUPREME!
    THE NEW MAN FOR THE NEW MANKIND FOR THE
                             NEW MILLENNIUM!

Re: Russell Square Park

2006-07-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

(8th floor view from the imperial hotel, london)

5th Ave Po Po

2006-06-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

Re: Sweet Milk, Calm Sea

2006-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

(an entryway on leliegracht, re: writing in the stedelijk stairway)

Take the high road

2006-06-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

(it's a morgan parked at darroch learg, an exquisite hotel experience in ballater, scotland)

SHO6 NBX (Vauxhall Zafira)

2006-06-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

(cows feeding, rapeseed growing, sun shining, me smiling)

Strange beautiful grass of green

2006-06-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

(forecast was for rain across the isles except northeast scotland—somewhere on the road from aberdeen to edinburgh, wallpaper)

Re: Watching the detective

2006-05-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

(at the Stedelijk CS, really liked the Michel Quarez exhibit, where the artist had written:

chez l'imprimeur la matière parfois
se rebelle et pousse des cris
qu'on entend entend encore quand tout
est remis sur les rails & l'affiche imprimé.

at the printer's the material sometimes
starts rebelling and screaming.
screams you still hear when everything
gets back under control & the poster printed.)

Re: Persuasion

2006-05-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

"So altered that he should not have known her again!" These were the words which could not but dwell with her. Yet she soon began to rejoice that she had heard them. They were of sobering tendency; they allayed agitation; they composed, and consequently must make her happier.

Frederick Wentworth had used such words, or something like them, but without an idea that they would be carried around to her. He had thought her wretchedly altered, and, in the first moment of appeal, had spoken as he felt. He had not forgiven Anne Elliot. She had used him ill; deserted and disappointed him; and worse, she had shown a feebleness of character in doing so, which his own decided, confident temper could not endure. She had given him up to oblige others. It had been the effect of overpersuasion. It had been weakness and timidity.

He had been most warmly attached to her, and had never seen a woman since whom he thought her equal; but, except from some natural sensation of curiosity, he had no desire of meeting her again. Her power with him was gone forever.

It was now his object to marry. He was rich, and being turned on shore, fully intended to settle as soon as he could be properly tempted; actually looking round, ready to fall in love with all the speed which a clear head and quick taste could allow. He had a heart for either of the Miss Musgroves, if they could catch it; a heart, in short, for any pleasing young woman who came in his way, excepting Anne Elliot. This was his only secret exception, when he said to his sister, in answer to her suppositions,

"Yes, here I am, Sophia, quite ready to make a foolish match. Anybody between fifteen and thirty may have me for asking. A little beauty, and a few smiles, and a few compliments to the navy, and I am a lost man. Should not this be enough for a sailor, who has had no society among women to make him nice?"

He said it, she knew, to be contradicted. His bright, proud eye spoke the happy conviction that he was nice; and Anne Elliot was not out of his thoughts when he more seriously described the woman he should wish to meet with. "A strong mind, with sweetness of manner," made the first and the last of the description.

"This is the woman I want," said he. "Something a little inferior I shall of course put up with, but it must not be much. I am a fool, I shall be a fool indeed, for I have thought on the subject more than most men."

from Jane Austin, Persuasion

Re: xdelta 3.0e

2006-05-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

Blog*Spot gets punched on the floor because my other blog is 404. New xdelta release 3.0e.

Update: xdelta.org is back.

It's all up to me

2006-05-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

May I borrow your book for two minutes?

2006-04-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

I was on the bus reading Graham Greene, The End of the Affair. I set the book in my lap to ponder its narrative: love, hate, jealousy, etc.

A girl two rows behind taps me on the shoulder, asking to see my book. She finished it a month ago and wanted to re-read the ending. She said the book really took grasp at half way.

I loved it from the start. I read fifty pages. Both men are contemptible—the husband and the jealous lover!

I hate when a great book ends. I suppose if the husband was smart he'd play like the wife.

Caption contest entry

2006-04-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

My friends and I were kicked out of a taxi yesterday night, the driver was positively crazy; we crashed area 51—an old-school two gun arcade shooter—playing "mad dog" style (two guns, one player); scored 45,100 points at ms. pacman .. will try harder; the photo above has no relation with any of these happenings, but has a great story attached.

Re: Bill's Pantera

2006-04-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

(my pantera above, my bill's pantera post from two years ago, please spam me at killbill@gmail.com)

Cal-i-for-ni-a

2006-04-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

(linda mar beach in pacifica, ca)

Club 600

2006-03-31T19:00:00.000-08:00

Surfboard/Sunroof

2006-03-23T18:00:00.000-08:00

Re: Jetblue

2006-03-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

Abort, Retry, Fail?

2006-03-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

(mis-handled polaroid)

Skateboarding is not a crime

2006-03-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

(from my photoblog)

Re: Hustler

2006-02-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

(boxing is back on saturday)

Re: Lifeguard

2006-02-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

(are you on myspace?)

Re: Happy Hacking

2006-02-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

GNU Emacs Manual, Tenth Edition, Updated for Emacs version 19.26, Richard Stallman

free software

This has to be the stupidest, geekiest thing I can come up with. Thanks to Richard Stallman, you know.

Taken somewhere

2006-02-14T22:00:00.000-08:00

Re: Oshkosh, WI

2006-02-13T22:00:00.000-08:00

Re: Sylvania

2006-02-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

(Sylvania blue dots for sure shots.)

Re: Rockster

2006-02-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

Re: Kitchen Bleach

2006-01-31T11:00:00.000-08:00

(polaroid pinhole camera)