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_posts/2010-03-14-looking-for-older-posts.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-03-14 04:09:47'
+layout: post
+slug: looking-for-older-posts
+status: publish
+title: Looking for Older Posts?
+wordpress_id: '5'
+categories:
+- Site Updates
+---
+
+I've updated my website to the latest stable version of WordPress (as of
+the time of writing) and decided to give it a bit of an overhaul. If
+you're looking for old content (basically anything from high school),
+try looking through the archived copy of my old site at:
+http://old.azuresky.ca/ With the transition to University comes new
+opportunities and new projects... and hopefully I'll have enough time to
+actually put useful projects on this website.

_posts/2010-03-23-long-theme-test-post.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-03-23 09:22:00'
+layout: post
+slug: long-theme-test-post
+status: private
+title: Long Theme Test Post
+wordpress_id: '29'
+---
+
+This is a really long testing post.
+
+Yay!

_posts/2010-03-23-new-theme.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-03-23 09:25:03'
+layout: post
+slug: new-theme
+status: publish
+title: New Theme!
+wordpress_id: '32'
+categories:
+- Site Updates
+---
+
+There is now a new theme with an actual picture I took of clouds. (And
+I've fixed the major bugs... ishy.)

_posts/2010-03-27-half-finished-blog-posts-other-miscellany.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-03-27 00:01:13'
+layout: post
+slug: half-finished-blog-posts-other-miscellany
+status: publish
+title: Half-Finished Blog Posts & Other Miscellany
+wordpress_id: '8'
+categories:
+- mathNEWS
+---
+
+One of the annoying things about the "young and educated" is that these
+people often have two particular traits - a lot of ambition, and the
+potential to do almost anything. The problem, I find, with this is that
+it often leads to the desire to **do** everything (at least once).
+Whether it's rolling your own implementation of Hashtable, or creating
+your own WordPress theme from scratch, to writing blog posts and
+articles on every topic imaginable or redesigning the user interface for
+your bank's online banking system. But with so many ideas, how will you
+ever manage to implement any of them? One technique that works really
+well is to just sit down with a pen and paper and to do your given task
+as quickly as possible. This is so you don't forget the little quirks in
+your implementation/writing/design between when you start writing and
+when you finished. (And I do literally mean a physical pen and white
+paper. I personally prefer writing on unlined copy paper, but your
+preference may vary. I find it's **way** too distracting to work at a
+computer, and yet my future career choice involves doing this very
+thing.) With any luck, after a fortnight or three, your masterpiece will
+be done and you can unleash it on the world. For short tasks (say, a
+*math*NEWS article), this works great - you can get away with breaking
+almost all of the rules and life is good. For larger things,
+unfortunately, you'll need to start following conventions if you wish
+you avoid becoming unnecessarily crazy as your pet project progresses,
+or, indeed, if you wish to finish your project at all. This might be as
+simple as setting yourself a deadline (NaNoWriMo.org is a good example
+of this), or writing comments for "yourself in three weeks". At times,
+more elaborate schemes, such as project plans or (\*gasp\*) structured
+essay-style writing are necessary. Whether your master plan is to to
+dominate the world or to provide a safe online environment where
+autistic kids can learn to communicate with the outside world, for your
+young mind, the idea of "convention, convention, convention" may be
+sheer absurdity. Conventions mean following the crowd like sheep, and
+this goes against the entire bane of your existence. If you're lucky,
+one day you might see the benefits and pitfalls of convention - how
+conventions allow the rest of the world to understand what it is that
+you're trying to accomplish, and how conventions also free up your mind
+to think about really important dilemmas, like deciding whether or not
+your project is actually finished. How do you go about deciding when
+your project is actually finished, anyway? There's the traditional
+open-source model of release early and release often - your project is
+never truly finished and early adopters will see all the rough edges in
+your work. On the other hand, you might be like the stereotypical
+artistic mastermind: "it'll be done when it's done." (Even if that means
+that your pet project never sees the light of day.) For most fairly
+large projects, you'll want to find some middle ground between these two
+extremes - giving yourself enough time to work out the major kinks
+without losing too many (potential but impatient) users, readers, or
+minions to competitors that actually unleash their the latest and
+greatest creation upon the world. It's a fine line, and the criteria for
+release vary from project to project and from day to day. You'll need to
+figure this one out for yourself, unfortunately. Finally, for any fairly
+sizable project, you'll need to collaborate with others. At least, you
+will if you ever hope to profit from your creation before desktop
+computers go the way of the Ford Model T and Sam the Record Man. Yes,
+this means the oh-so-dreaded group project. Suddenly, you have amateurs
+mucking about in your code, adding misfeatures and generally detracting
+from your master plan. You need to develop project plans and
+specifications and keep those specifications up to date with **every**
+code change. Perhaps, even, you'll need to work with non-technical
+people. Whether it's the double-degree Design student from Sheridan or
+the business student from Schulich, or the Physics kid from Waterloo who
+remembers Hooke's Law just a bit better than you do. These are the
+obvious examples, too. It takes an open mind and a bit of cleverness to
+see the skills and potential present in people like the girl in Applied
+Health Sciences who spends all day on Twitter and making avatars for
+LiveJournal, or the popular kid from high school, (who, to this day,
+only talks to you when nobody else is watching) or the accounting kid
+that all your friends tease and "abuse" because she's short. As time
+goes on, soon you'll find you know more and more about less and less.
+Specialization is part of growing up in today's world. (It also makes us
+dependent on others, but that's a whole other article.) Advertisers have
+recognized the need to start profiling individual consumers, so that
+they can provide targeted advertisements relevant to ideas you already
+have stuck in your head - whether it's time to buy a new computer or a
+new house, time to switch banks, or time to figure out what graduate
+school program you want to apply for. The organizations who don't do
+these evil things will protect our "privacy", sure, but they will
+eventually go out of business when their special offers and surveys end
+up in the Junk E-mail folder on our computers. Likewise, you, the
+brilliant mastermind you are, will need to recognize the individual
+strengths of people around you if you are going to succeed in taking
+over the world. Otherwise, you'll just become another cog - another rat
+in the great rat race known as life. Which isn't so bad, really... or so
+I've been told. If I waited to find out myself, this article would have
+sat half-finished for at least 40 more years. chbllhbc

_posts/2010-05-11-thought-dump-on-maintaining-a-blog.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-05-11 21:59:28'
+layout: post
+slug: thought-dump-on-maintaining-a-blog
+status: publish
+title: 'Thought Dump: On Maintaining a Blog'
+wordpress_id: '39'
+categories:
+- Thought Dump
+---
+
+Today, signed in to realize that there were eleven unmoderated comments.
+Of these, nine were spam, and two were comments from the same person.
+Now, I'm wondering:
+-   How am I going to find time to write regular blog posts?
+-   Will the content I write about interest anyone other than myself?
+    (Will I be interested in it, even?)
+-   Why didn't I get e-mail notifications for my blog comments?
+-   Should I post remarks about my experiences with PDEng 15 on my blog?
+    How relevant will they be if PDEng is to be renamed (replaced?) in
+    the next few years?
+-   Do I spend too much time at home thinking about work? Is this
+    healthy? Should I do anything about it? Can I?
+-   What role do coding contests like Google Code Jam have in my life?
+    What role should they have?
+-   When am I ever going to get around to separating my friends between
+    high-traffic and low-traffic Facebook and Twitter accounts, and when
+    will I ever update my resume and LinkedIn profiles?
+
+So, why is this here? Because it's too long to fit in a
+[tweet](http://twitter.com/cbhl).

_posts/2010-05-13-thought-dump-happy-birthday-to-me.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-05-13 23:21:39'
+layout: post
+slug: thought-dump-happy-birthday-to-me
+status: publish
+title: 'Thought Dump: Happy Birthday to Me'
+wordpress_id: '41'
+categories:
+- Thought Dump
+---
+
+So, today's my birthday... and it's (nearly) almost over. The cheesecake
+brownie "cake" that my family made for me was awesome, and I thoroughly
+enjoyed eating slices of it. :D Thanks also to the people who wished me
+Happy Birthday. Notably, the breakdown is as follows: Facebook - over 60
+people E-mail - two people Twitter - two people MSN - two people In
+person - maybe my immediate family... perhaps the odd co-worker (but I'm
+not sure about this one) It's amazing how Facebook has taken over so
+much in our lives. I've reached the point where I don't trust Facebook
+with my stuff, but I can't afford to disconnect (i.e. delete my account)
+either. What a dilemma... And this is just one of the many things to
+worry about now that I'm 20. Not that I feel any older than I did
+yesterday.

_posts/2010-06-17-thought-dump-looking-for-files.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-06-17 00:23:35'
+layout: post
+slug: thought-dump-looking-for-files
+status: publish
+title: 'Thought Dump: Looking for files...'
+wordpress_id: '60'
+categories:
+- Thought Dump
+---
+
+[bash]find -iname '\*.jpg' | xargs -L 1 -d '\\n' dirname | sort | uniq;
+find -iname '\*.wmv' -o -iname '\*.mov' -o -iname '\*.avi' -o -iname
+'\*.mp4' -o -iname '\*.flv' -o -iname '\*.m4v' | xargs -L 1 -d '\\n'
+dirname | sort | uniq; for dir in \~/Videos \~/Downloads/Videos
+/stuff/anime; do for ext in 'wmv' 'mov' 'avi' 'mp4' 'flv' 'm4v'; do find
+$dir -iname "\*.$ext" -exec bash -c 'HandBrakeCLI -i "{}" -o
+"iPadVideoOutput/\`basename "{}" .'$ext'\`.m4v" -Z AppleTV' \\;; done;
+done;[/bash] **Update:** Added support for highlighting; added example
+directories since the *<placeholders\>* were being formatted wrong.

_posts/2010-06-18-sso-nfs-homedirs-part-1a-dns-for-my-home-network.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-06-18 07:10:26'
+layout: post
+slug: sso-nfs-homedirs-part-1a-dns-for-my-home-network
+status: publish
+title: 'SSO & NFS Homedirs Part 1a: DNS for my Home Network'
+wordpress_id: '54'
+categories:
+- Thought Dump
+---
+
+This post is incomplete, but I didn't want it sitting around as a draft
+any longer. Well, it has been over a month since I started my co-op job.
+I'm writing this post from the iPad that I get intermittent access to at
+work, using the official Wordpress app for iPhone OS devices. Typing
+with the device in the vertical orientation is pretty much impossible
+for someone who is used to touch typing on a standard 104 key keyboard,
+and while the keys in the horizontal mode are more-or-less the same size
+as those on a regular apple keyboard, I still manage to make a mess of
+typing on it. If I actually get myself one of these for personal and/or
+school use, I'm going to need to get a real apple Bluetooth keyboard to
+go with it. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS has been out now for ages, and I've been
+putting off the upgrade at home because I wanted to get Single Sign On
+(SSO) and centralized home directories working before the upgrade. I had
+this all half working at one point or another, but during the last
+upgrade I got frustrated and lazy and made copies of the passwd and
+shadow files, which was messy and evil and only worked because my family
+doesn't change their passwords very often. I'd like to do it right for
+once. (Off topic: is it just me, or does this wordpress app not support
+copy and paste?) So the first part of getting set up is trivial; ubuntu
+is already installed on the home server. Basic essentials include
+ubuntu-standard, language-pack-en, ntp. I figure I should actually give
+it a nice dynamic domain name, and so I set off setting up BIND on my
+VPS. Then I go to netfirms' website, thinking I'll just delegate a
+subdomain to my VPS. Well, my support ticket for that is still open and
+not going anywhere, so alas I fork over some money and register a new
+domain name for my home network. For the sake of being contrary, I also
+decide to get secondary DNS from DynDNS. (Why is their custom DNS
+solution cheaper?) Configure the new zone in BIND, setting low TTL for
+now. Update NS records for ipv4 first, adding the glue record at net
+firms. This is listed as a custom nameserver and only works for ipv4
+from what I can see. Set up basic A and AAAA records. Now the fun
+part... Dynamic DNS. Set up dns keys, acls, and dhcpd. Voilà. Now ipv6,
+shore wall. We're moving offices at work this weekend, so I won't have
+time to update this post for a week or so.

_posts/2010-06-18-visualsvn-pre-commit-hook-discouraging-empty-commit-messages.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-06-18 18:30:43'
+layout: post
+slug: visualsvn-pre-commit-hook-discouraging-empty-commit-messages
+status: publish
+title: 'VisualSVN Pre-Commit Hook: Discouraging Empty Commit Messages'
+wordpress_id: '74'
+categories:
+- Programming
+---
+
+While I'm waiting for someone to get around to configure Team Foundation
+Server so that we can finally migrate from Visual SourceSafe, I decided
+that I would set up VisualSVN Server on my personal machine for the
+small projects that I'm working on. One of the things that bugs me is
+how easy it is to accidentally make an empty commit message with
+AnkhSVN, so I went around the internet and adapted scripts I found to
+create the following pre-commit hook: [text]@echo off :: :: Stops
+commits that have empty log messages. :: @echo off setlocal rem
+Subversion sends through the path to the repository and transaction id
+set REPOS=%1 set TXN=%2 set SVNLOOK="C:\\Program Files\\VisualSVN
+Server\\bin\\svnlook.exe" REM Make sure that the log message contains
+some text. FOR /F "usebackq delims==" %%g IN (\`%SVNLOOK% log -t %TXN%
+%REPOS% FINDSTR /R /C:......\`) DO goto NORMAL\_EXIT :ERROR\_TOO\_SHORT
+echo Your commit has been blocked because your log message was too 1\>&2
+echo short. Please write a log message describing the purpose of your
+1\>&2 echo changes and then try committing again. Thanks! 1\>&2 goto
+ERROR\_EXIT :ERROR\_EXIT exit /b 1 REM All checks passed, so allow the
+commit. :NORMAL\_EXIT exit 0[/text] Sources:
+-   [http://www.anujgakhar.com/2008/02/14/how-to-force-comments-on-svn-commit/](http://www.anujgakhar.com/2008/02/14/how-to-force-comments-on-svn-commit/)
+-   [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/247888/how-to-require-commit-messages-in-visualsvn-server](http://www.anujgakhar.com/2008/02/14/how-to-force-comments-on-svn-commit/)
+
+Of course, a technical solution like this is useless if people like to
+type commit messages like "." or "asdf". But if people working on the
+code know what they're doing, little reminders like this can help
+prevent accidents. :)

_posts/2010-06-20-what-if-observed-de-facto-rules.markdown

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+---
+author: cbhl
+date: '2010-06-20 11:20:29'
+layout: post
+slug: what-if-observed-de-facto-rules
+status: publish
+title: '"What if..." Observed De-Facto Rules'
+wordpress_id: '87'
+categories:
+- Thought Dump
+---
+
+For future reference. Use at your own risk. Feel free to point our
+errors/omissions. **Before Starting**
+-   Obtain lots of paper, lots of pens, and a small tray or basket.
+-   Determine who is playing, and what rating (e.g. G, PG-13, anything
+    goes) everyone is comfortable with.
+-   Review rules so everyone knows how to play. In particular, determine
+    what house rules, if any, will be used (e.g redraw if you get your
+    own question)
+
+**How to Play**
+1.  Allow people to join/leave between rounds. It is rude/annoying to
+    leave in the middle of a round, but use common sense/judgement for
+    e.g. Emergencies or emotionally abusive situations.
+2.  Check paper/pens; get more if needed.
+3.  Divide pieces of paper (letter size, e.g.) into eight equal pieces
+    (about 4"x2.2").
+4.  Give each person one (1) piece of paper.
+5.  Each person is to write a hypothetical situation on their piece of
+    paper without letting others see what they've written. The situation
+    should be short (usu. 1 sentence) and should start with "What if..."
+    or "What would you do if..." or similar. Try to leave about half of
+    the piece of paper unused so that a response can be written on the
+    same piece of paper; if someone needs a new piece of paper to
+    rewrite the scenario they should be provided with one, within
+    reason.
+6.  Once done writing the scenario, pieces of paper should be folded
+    into quarters and placed in a central container (e.g. Tin, hat,
+    small bag) .
+7.  Once all scenarios are in the bag, shuffle and issue everyone a
+    scenario at random.
+8.  On their piece of paper, each person answers the hypothetical
+    situation/question written on it.
+9.  When everyone has written their answers, determine who starts
+    reading and what order people will go in.
+10. Person 1 begins by reading their drawn question only. Person 2
+    proceeds to read the answer to the question he drew. (The response
+    may not make sense; this is a normal part of the game.) Person 2
+    then reads the question drawn associated with his answer. WLOG,
+    Person 3 follows with her answer and her question, in that order,
+    and so on, until it is player one's turn again. Player one finishes
+    by reading his/her answer.
+11. Finally, properly dispose of used scraps of paper to avoid
+    confusion.
+12. Repeat for another round as desired.
+