Robert Small, The blog thereof.

http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick#The_Software

Just a quick blog to say that I’ve added a few things to Chute Stick. I’ll thin down the number of packages as soon as possible, but we’re still well within the 1GB memory stick so I can spend time doing that later.

I’ve added all versions of Skype. Skype provides a reasonably secure method of getting a message to someone; it also permeates firewalls better than most viruses. I added 7zip as it seems to be a good free alternative to WinZip, the 7zip compression itself is remarkable. In some of my experiments with it I’ve experienced almost 50% smaller files than standard zip (using `zip -9`). Because of this excellent compression I’ve included a copy of p7zip (the *nix port). CamStudio may seem like a strange choice, but it does offer a way for you to quickly record a video of how to do something, this could be essential if you’re unable to tutor someone face to face but need them to (for example) administer a box for you. I’ve debated if a Linux desktop recorder is needed, but if you have ssh you can probably do most administration through that.

Well, that’s all so far, I’m snowed under with work at the moment so I was just popping this through. Most of the additions have been related to things I’ve needed for work over the last few days. I will be blogging about some other things (mostly work related) soon, when I escape anyway!

Kind regards, Robert.

http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick#The_Software

or,

Why I think the lottery and X-Factor like TV shows are bad.

Society owes you little. It does not owe you fame and fortune, that’s something you may well owe yourself to earn, but it’s not something that society owes you. Relatively recently it has become the fashionable thing to want to magically become rich and sometimes famous.Life is not a lottery, even ‘ideal’ jobs like ‘network marketing’ require you to work hard and learn your trade before you have any chance of making much money. However it seems we’ve become enchanted with the vision of instant ‘celebrity in a bag’; hard earned success gained from talent and energy has been replaced by flash success based on luck and the opinions of a couple of judges.

Not only do we want to chose our celebrities by the proxy of talent show hosts, we want to chose our rich by the proxy of lottery cards. There have always been ‘lucky’ people who gained riches through inheritance and had no idea how to use them. Today it seems to be something we desire, to get something without working or otherwise ‘earning’ it. Personally I dislike gaining anything by raffle or lottery, I was brought up to believe that success had to be earned and not won.

I feel this way of thinking could be part of the reason why we have such a ’sue, sue, sue’ culture. People are always looking for ’something from nothing’.

I may be wrong, tell me how you feel.

Kind regards, Robert.

My lunch today was not amazingly notable, but I’d like to tell you about it anyway. Mainly because of the stuffed peppers, it was one of my first attempts at ‘art’ in the form of food. The red is a stuffed pepper, feta and olives. Not amazingly exciting to look at, but more presentation than normal and very tasty! Do please provide your ideas for similar takes on this, I’d love to know if there’s a traditional dish of a similar type.

Kind regards, Robert.

‘Doesn’t have a point of view,
Knows not where he’s going to,
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere Man, please listen,
You don’t know what you’re missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.’

People interest me, quite a lot in fact. I often hear people give a vague allegiance to a political party, but when I try to find out how many of the core values they share it’s often surprisingly fewer than one might hope. All too often it seems that people have one view and a different political support, believing in freedom and positive action against environmental crime. It’s true that we create not only our own future but the future of our children and their children. Surely then we should think more before we idly act or fail to act.

I believe that it’s the duty of every world citizen - and you are a citizen of the world, like it or not - to strongly consider and debate world issues. Our thoughts may well pave the future of our own lives and those of billions of others.

I challenge you to never vote for a political party because your parents did or because your friends do, I challenge you to be your own person and make your own choices. It’ll surprise you how something you do can change things so far from you. A Kabbalist described it to me like a stone thrown into a pool of water, although the stone may be small the ripples still reach a surprising distance. In the same way your hurried attempt to cut queues at a set of lights might spoil someone’s day in another country. Think, if such a small thing can do something so big, what can a big thing like a vote do?

Even your choice of car could change many people’s lives. A small energy efficient car will produce less pollution; and if you believe in global climate change or not, this is a good thing. A larger car may protect you better in an accident but heavily increases the chance of you injuring or killing someone else.

I think the moral I’d take from this is to think before you act, always. Don’t be a nowhere man.

Kind regards, Robert.

I’ve been ill. I hate being ill, especially when you can’t even get out of bed most days. I hate the fatigue after the illness. In general, I dislike being ill and all that goes with it. I had tonsillitis as a part of glandular fever.

Well, that’s that, I’m at least partially well now. The unfortunate fact is that I seem to be one of the few people who get a post-illness fatigue from glandular fever, either that or I’m just lazier than normal.

I’ve recently become involved in yet another business. It’s certainly very comfortable and they provide good training, nice perks and a very reasonable wage. They also are open to new people so get in contact with me if you’re interested.

In general I’m getting by in life, my next trip to the States is being planned. I could use some advice there, especially on an inexpensive way to get to Amsterdam airport from Norwich. I love swimming, but not in that cold conditions! One of the annoying sides of my local airport is that it doesn’t seem to provide many flights to anywhere, and those it does are rather expensive. To annoy me more I find the website for it is both badly designed and dysfunctional.

For those of you who know what ‘Project X’ or ‘That Project’ is, it’s now named ‘Footman’ and is coming on reasonably well. In fact I hope to have a working demo soon for internal testing.

V8d Org IRC will be moving to InspIRCd from UnrealIRCd. This move will take place over a set time (probably a day) which is yet to be confirmed. We will attempt to prevent any disruption, but some will be inevitable.

I think this should get everyone up to date with my life; if you have any questions, do comment.

Kind regards, Robert.

Just to mention that I’ve now released a list of the software I currently have on my pen drive.

 http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick#The_Software

I will provide more information on each item in the near future including versions and links. I expect a few of you are thinking of cloning my setup until I release a script.

Kind regards, Robert

Some of you will already know about this little project that I’ve been working on. Basically I’m producing a USB memory stick with all the things which I think it needs. Quoting the wiki page:

http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick

If you’re in a situation where you only have one memory stick, what’d you want on it? If baggage handling lose all your bags and you just have the encrypted hard drive in your jacket pocket and the memory stick round your neck, what do you want on the stick?

You’re stranded on an island (or somewhere with a really poor internet connection) and you want to acquisition a computer for your own uses, what do you want on your stick? Someone else on the island wants you to fix their computer, what do you want on the stick?

In general, what do you want on a memory stick when you don’t trust or want to use your internet connection? This is what the Chute Stick project is meant to provide.

Although there are many different situations where this may be of use and some of them wont require most of the software provided this is meant to be an ‘in any event evacuation plan’. I know a lot of you have already contacted me about this and so there probably wont be that many comment; however, there are several things which I’d love to be posted here:

• Situations where you might need a rescue stick.
• Software suggestions/requests.
• Things to stay away from.
• Suggestions for replacement software, I know I may not have picked the right stuff all the time.
• Suggestions about ways of packaging or unpacking software.
• Ways to make things more accessible to more people.

Of course you could just tell me I’m doing something useful!

Which brings me to another point, what am I doing? Well I don’t intend to distribute too much software, I’d prefer to write a script which downloads and updates software to a memory stick for you. Much of the software I’m looking at is either not free/libre and so I don’t expect to be able to do more than provide a script to get the end user to download and use the software correctly. If anyone is familiar with the gentoo ebuild context they’ll understand more of what I mean, my script wouldn’t require pre-built packages but do it’s own work.

The wiki page is: http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick

Kind regards, Robert.

I’ve created a Wiki for my own personal use, this is where I will provide some useful information as I discover it, for example the progress on my rescue/emergency memory stick project.

It’s located http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/ (here) so feel free to read it and use it as a reference. Currently users are not allowed to register or edit, this may change in the future.

Kind regards, Robert.

Another BottleCap release candidate, this one is Windows compatible out of the box. Just remember to edit bcsettings.py. Get the update and please report any bugs here.

Kind regards, Robert.

I’ve just uploaded another RC. I advise updating as it has a few bugfixes, especially if you’re on windows. Tonnes of work to make pylint happy and adding of docstrings, expect another release soon as I change and add things. I still have to fix the clones module but I’ve made the highlight ban code actually work.

Have fun, stay safe, and feel free to tell me if there’s anything wrong, remember to check the official channel for updates! irc.v8d.org #BottleCap

Kindest regards at this festive season, Robert Small.