2006-12-30

Linksys WGA 11B

I've had the Linksys WGA 11B 802.11B gaming bridge for a while and I broke it out the other day for use with an Xbox 360. It's kinda cool (RJ-45 to wireless bridge) but there are some problems with it:


  • Can't use WPA

  • Uses the MAC id of the Ethernet device connected to it, not its own

  • Have to turn on SSID for the thing to work (more of a problem now that I have a router that actually DOES turn off SSID unlike my old Belkin)

  • 11 MBps performance



The XBox is a loaner from someone who's moving but while I have it I'd like to try the media server thing; however, I do not want to broadcast my SSID. I could set up another router as a honeypot and turn it on/off but that's a lot of ho-de-ho for this. I should just spring for a new 802.11G flavor sexy thing but then what would this poor guy do?

Full Moon Names for 2007

From Yahoo.

Here is a listing of all the full Moon names, as well as the dates and times for 2007. Unless otherwise noted, all times are for the Eastern Time Zone.

Jan. 3, 8:57 a.m. EST - The Full Wolf Moon. Amid the zero cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. It was also known as the Old Moon or the "Moon After Yule." In some tribes this was the Full Snow Moon; most applied that name to the next Moon.

Feb. 2, 12:45 a.m. EST - The Full Snow Moon. Usually the heaviest snows fall in this month. Hunting becomes very difficult, and hence to some tribes this was the Full Hunger Moon.

March 3, 6:17 p.m. EST - The Full Worm Moon. In this month the ground softens and the earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signals the end of winter, or the Full Crust Moon because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. A total lunar eclipse will take place on this night; the Moon will appear to rise will totally immersed (or nearly so) in the Earth's shadow over the eastern United States. The rising Moon will be emerging from the shadow over the central United States, while over the Western U.S. the eclipse will be all but over by the time the Moon rises.

April 2, 1:15 p.m. EDT - The Full Pink Moon. The grass pink or wild ground phlox is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names were the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and -- among coastal tribes -- the Full Fish Moon, when the shad came upstream to spawn. This is also the Paschal Full Moon; the first full Moon of the spring season. The first Sunday following the Paschal Moon is Easter Sunday, which indeed will be observed six days later on Sunday, April 8.

May 2, 6:09 a.m. EDT - The Full Flower Moon. Flowers are abundant everywhere. It was also known as the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon.

May 31, 9:04 p.m. EDT - The Blue Moon. The second full Moon occurring within a calendar month is usually bestowed this title.

Although the name suggests that to have two Full Moons in a single month is a rather rare occurrence (happening "just once in a . . . "), it actually occurs once about every three years on average.

June 30, 9:49 a.m. EDT - The Full Strawberry Moon. Known to every Algonquin tribe. Europeans called it the Rose Moon.

July 29, 8:48 p.m. EDT - The Full Buck Moon, when the new antlers of buck deer push out from their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, thunderstorms being now most frequent. Sometimes also called the Full Hay Moon.

Aug. 28, 6:35 a.m. EDT - The Full Sturgeon Moon, when this large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water like Lake Champlain is most readily caught. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because the moon rises looking reddish through sultry haze, or the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon. A total lunar eclipse will coincide with moonset for the eastern United States. The Central and Mountain Time Zones will see the Moon's emergence coincide with moonset, while the western United States will see the entire eclipse.

Sept. 26, 3:45 p.m. EDT - The Full Harvest Moon. Always the full Moon occurring nearest to the Autumnal Equinox. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice-- the chief Indian staples--are now ready for gathering.

Oct. 26, 12:52 a.m. EDT - The Full Hunter's Moon. With the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can ride over the stubble, and can more easily see the fox, also other animals that have come out to glean and can be caught for a thanksgiving banquet after the harvest. The Moon will also be at perigee later this day, at 7:00 a.m., at a distance of 221,676 miles from Earth. Very high tides can be expected from the coincidence of perigee with full Moon.

Nov. 24, 9:30 a.m. EST - The Full Beaver Moon. Time to set beaver traps before the swamps freeze to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Beaver Full Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now active in their preparation for winter. Also called the Frosty Moon.

Dec. 23, 2:51 a.m. EST - The Full Cold Moon; among some tribes, the Full Long Nights Moon. In this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and the nights are at their longest and darkest. Also sometimes called the "Moon before Yule" (Yule is Christmas, and this time the Moon is only just before it). The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long and the Moon is above the horizon a long time. The midwinter full Moon takes a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite to the low Sun.

2006-12-29

Startups and why free tools aren't always free

Good article from Giles Bowkett on startups Web 2.0 style. Here's a very intriguing quote:



Every venture capitalist wants that huge success, the big disruptive innovation that destroys old industries and makes them millions.

The irony is, the biggest disruptive innovation that ever came from the Internet could in fact be open source software, and the old industry it destroys will probably be venture capital.




The other part of this post is that I can't use Phil Ringalda's BlogThis! tool any more (because I have FF 2.0) and the script from Blogger's help doesn't work with Google-based accounts. BlogThis was a huge help in just snipping interesting stuff from the web to write about, but then I guess all that linking and quoting was what helped my previous blog get labeled as a spam blog.

Phil's not updating BlogThis anymore, and I don't blame him - your reward for writing a cool, free and useful tool is often a bunch of yabos beating on you for changes like you were Microsoft. Some developers get testy about that and post snarky messages, others just melt away. When you get a check, at least you keep showing up.

2006-12-24

Update

Created submit and basic profile form. Can't get my PHP page to accept the form submission, it keeps barfing the source code. I'm sure it's a common problem.

Christmas time, off to the in-laws. Merry Christmas!!

Looking for a movie

It's from the forties, noir-ish, and the story is about a cop and a journalist looking for a killer called "the judge" who only kills on rainy days. The end is where he (the killer) sneaks up on someone and I think it's the cop, or maybe a mannequin and the cop is in the corner.

Someday I will find it.

2006-12-23

More stuff!!

  • Enabled HTTPS on the server
  • Created my first mySQL stored proc
  • wired PEAR code to the PHP forms

2006-12-22

Master list of to-dos


  1. Come up with a title - done.

  2. Come up with a template
    1. Color palette.
    2. Page layout.
    3. Title/headers.

  3. Create account management system.

  4. Create function templates.

  5. Create initial form.

  6. Create data access layer for persistence.


So here we are again..

Another blog. This time I'll chronicle the rise of my latest idea from nothing to a slightly more advanced but still utterly useless state of nothing.