Runcible Blog

Since I found out that it's possible to get my Quickcam Express working with FreeBSD, I set up an ingenious/silly webcam downstairs. Here's how it works:

• I have a thrown-out 700Mhz Compaq laptop from work FreeBSD 5.2 installed.
• I put the laptop inside a cardboard box while keeping the lid open slightly then stashed it in the corner of the room
• the webcam connects using a couple USB extension cables
• the laptop has a linksys wireless card that connects to the access point upstairs.
• the webserver mounts the "thundercat" /tmp partition via NFS
• every minute, this cron job runs:

#!/bin/sh

cd /tmp/webcam
rm webcam5.jpg
mv webcam4.jpg webcam5.jpg
mv webcam3.jpg webcam4.jpg
mv webcam2.jpg webcam3.jpg
mv webcam1.jpg webcam2.jpg

/usr/local/bin/qcamshot | /usr/local/bin/ppmtojpeg > webcam0.jpg
size=`stat -f %z webcam0.jpg`
if [ ${size} ]; then

mv webcam.jpg webcam1.jpg
mv webcam0.jpg webcam.jpg
fi

• symbolic links tie it together
• voilà!

So, a request for the image is really accessing the laptop downstairs, wirelessly. And here's the high quality result:

And here's the most recent one:

Monday night I volunteered at the Salem office of Dean's campaign. Although the volunteers said that Saturday's effort was more organized, I saw some hectic disorganization on Monday night.

I arrived at 5pm but stood around for a while waiting for someone to direct me. Finally I was told to man the phones (something I've never done) and received a quick briefing on what to ask voters. Since I'm not fond of phones, I ended up manning a copy machine instead, xeroxing inaccurate Mapquest maps. At about 9pm they needed someone to deliver door hangers and videos to some homes in Pelham. I enthusiastically volunteered, but after driving around for a while realized that I couldn't follow the directions they gave me. So I returned at 10, in time for the office meeting in which the leader announced that someone mistakenly put the wrong "polling place" address on about 600 door hangers in the Salem area. As a result, there was a mad dash to fill out correct hangers and deliver them to those 600 homes.

After extensively studying my map I set out again at 10:30, determined to finish the route. I soon discovered that streets in Pelham may or may not exist, and homeowners typically don't put their street address numbers on their mail boxes. But, after an hour of back-tracking I hit nearly every house (except the ones that didn't exist). It was tough but not as hard as the work the very determined volunteers performed in the past several months. Some people were up at 3:00AM delivering materials, and others looked completely drained by Monday night.

Yesterday I was assigned to do "visibility" at a Derry precinct. We stood outside the school holding signs and greeting voters. (I had an awkward moment when Gen. Clark arrived to greet voters. I shook his hand happily, but I really didn't have anything to say to him. So I kind of stood there for a minute and walked away. He must've seen my Dean sticker and wasn't that interested in talking to me anyway.) Over the course of the few hours I was there I heard periodic updates from another volunteer and from the "zone chief commander" (or whatever they're called) saying that the exit poll numbers indicated the race was very close between Kerry and Dean, and that Derry volunteers were working hard to get people out to vote. It seemed that if all the Dean supporters in Derry voted, Dean would overtake Kerry -- at least in Derry. This assumption turned out to be wildly off the mark. Kerry won Derry by about 300 votes! But it appeared to those of us on the ground that we were always just in reach of pulling it off.

In fact, here is an email I got Tuesday afternoon from the NH campaign manager:

From"Karen Hicks, Dean for America" nhdeanreport@deanforamerica.com
SubjectIt's a very close race - call your friends and neighbors
Date Tue, January 27, 2004 4:51 pm
To dcs@adullmoment.com

The polls are only open for a few more hours. This race is EXTREMELY close. Our projections are that Governor Dean is very close to winning the New Hampshire Primary. But to win, he needs your help...right NOW!

Please pick up the phone and call your friends and family who live in New Hampshire. If we can get another 900 more Dean supporters to the polls before they close - we'll win. Go visit your neighbors. Drive them to the polls. Howard Dean can win with your help!

Together we can change the way Washington works and politics is done.

One final reminder: Dean for America does NOT make "robo-calls" in New Hampshire. There are many reports of such robo-calls with pre-recorded messages delivering misinformation to voters. These calls have not originated from this campaign. If we win today, we will prove that this sort of negative campaigning has no place in New Hampshire.

Thank you. And please do all you can before the polls close.

Share the power. Invite everybody: http://www3.deanforamerica.com/site/R?i=EDJ5woTRupyo5DnivCNQ8g

So, it came as quite a surprise to hear "Kerry: 39%, Dean: 24%" shortly after the polls closed. We were still hoping the numbers were wrong and that Dean would surge ahead in the final tally, but I think we knew it wasn't going to happen.

Two Derry volunteers and I then decided to head to the concession/victory "party" in Manchester. It turned we didn't even need tickets to get in. Many supporters just decided to return home and sleep, but there were I'd say a couple thousand people filling the auditorium at SNHU. I was glad to see so much optimism and energy, and Dean's speech -- though it was his standard stump -- met with a huge showing of support. I don't know if the cameras captured the enthusiasm, but I got the sense that those of us in Manchester were in it for the long haul and believe Dean can make a comeback. At the same time, I sensed a concealed doubt among many supporters and saw some people on the verge of tears.

For all the effort and energy that New Hampshire volunteers put in over the past few months, a second place finish (more than 10 points behind) must hurt. Dean might lose some momentum but will retain many of his core supporters.

It's hard for me to look back in hindsight and determine why exactly NH voters chose Kerry over Dean or why the margin was as large as it was. I'm sure it had something to do with Dean's perceived "electability" -- voters chose the bland but "safe" Kerry out of political pragmatism. But I can't provide much commentary on the issue.

I do believe that Dean's campaign means more than just winning the presidency. He's said many times that his campaign is about changing America, and he's the only candidate that is believable when he says "You have the power..." to enact change. He leverages and encourages the genuine grassroots support he's collected. The other candidates, in contrast, seem to say, "thank you for choosing me". In other words, their candidacy is more focused on winning a race than really changing the country for the better. At least that's my impression of the other guys.

I'll have pictures of the Manchester event soon, but here's one that proves I was there:

I've noticed a bunch of segfaults lately in apache's log:

[Sun Jan 25 23:51:36 2004] [notice] child pid 9999 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)

I think I've tracked the problem down to too much compression. I have mod_gzip installed, but it is configured to ignore PHP files. But I did have

zlib.output_compression = On

The problem was that when I installed turck-mmcache to cache compiled PHP scripts in memory/disk space, I didn't notice the

mmcache.compress="1"

So, either PHP was trying to compress code that mmcache had already compressed, or vice versa. Either way, it lead to periodic apache segfault. But, now I have turned off zlib.output_compression since mmcache should handle the compression. It seems to speed things up quite a bit, and the gzip compression (together with mod_gzip for static pages) really helps to squeeze the most performance out of the limited upload speed I have here.

Ok, end of computer babble.

UPDATE: I may have spoken too soon. The segmentation faults continue....

Is it bad karma to cut off a funeral procession so that I don't have to wait 5 minutes for them to pass?

Bush: Enemy of Freedom

Why do I get the urge to punch something whenever Bush speaks?

I should say that i've been in pretty good spirits lately, even if my tone seems negative. But the state of the union address really pushed my buttons. The president gets an hour of free airtime to distort the truth, gloat to his friends, and condemn those who disagree as unpatriotic enemies of America. And the only feedback allowed from the audience (congress) is either enthusiastic applause or a standing ovation. I'd imagine that if Bush gave his speech to Parliament in Britain he'd have been booed to death. (similarly, if he'd given the speech to Parliament, the band, he would have been funked up. *rimshot*)

The camera panned away during applause for audience reaction, but whenever it panned back to Bush he was giving his characteristic dumb-ass, arrogant smirk. Laura Bush, on the other hand, maintains an incredibly creepy, demented grin at all times. She's either drugged beyond belief or is actually a robotic house wife from circa 1952.

Have you noticed how often Bush talks about "freedom"? I believe that he is employing a well-known technique where one repeats a word so often that the word becomes meaningless or loses its original meaning. After hearing a Bush speech one starts taking the words free and freedom for granted, which inevitably opens the definition up to distortion. For instance, does the PATRIOT act preserve America's freedom or does it enable government agencies to spy on law abiding citizens, thus encroaching on their freedom? Does the proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage preserve America's freedom or does it discriminate against a large group of people? Bush complained, "Activist judges, however, have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives. On an issue of such great consequence, the people's voice must be heard." I almost smashed the TV at that line. Coming from the president who said he didn't pay attention to focus groups (the millions of protesters before the war), I'd say he can pretty much STFU on this one.

Back to freedom -- I particularly enjoy the term, Enemies of Freedom. To put international terrorism and politics into such comically simplistic terms insults everyone's intelligence. And coming from an intellectual titan like Bush, it's doubly insulting. Any enemy of the US is just jealous. They just hate our freedom, that's all.

But wait a minute, if this epic battle is all about freedom, shouldn't people be free to hate America's freedom? And, since Rumsfeld said, "...freedom's untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes.", does that mean I'm free to loot? Oh no, I'm getting trapped in a maze of meaningless uses of the word freedom!

Well, if Bush is going to refer to any miscellaneous enemy of America as an Enemy of Freedom, I'll have to start using the term to refer to a true "Enemy of Freedom": George W. Bush! My mischievous hope is that by linking Enemy of Freedom to Bush's site (and if others do, too), the phrase will be Google bombed, and anyone searching for Enemy of Freedom will be directed to a true Enemy of Freedom. Try searching for "miserable failure" on Google. The bombing campaign works! Try it -- it's fun!