Welcome to blog.chinoy.com Sign in | Join

January 2007 - Posts

old code

posted Wednesday, January 31, 2007 10:40 PM by hussain

A while back, I made some odd grumbles about Java vs. NET and, in doing some early spring cleaning of code, I realized I didn't really bother to explain.

I'd made a NASA WorldWind placename converter - it read in WorldWind placename files (which were generated by NET) and displayed them as text, as shown here:

Since then, the latest version of WorldWind, 1.4 (which is in beta right now) has switched to using WFS (streaming, from the network) for placename display instead of reading from local files, cutting down on 215 mb of installation size.

A year ago I was stabbing blindly at SWT and will probably update this code since I'm so smrater to JFace and/or an RCP editor, but if anyone wants to see the current code (and JUnit test case!), feel free to let me know.

0 Comments

50.92877, -1.423974

posted Wednesday, January 31, 2007 11:27 AM by hussain
That's Southhampton, UK's Bellemoor School for Boys where two prankish Year Eleven youths poured weed killer in the shape of a dongule on their school lawns.  Smart chaps killed the grass long enough for satellites to pick it up and propagate it.  Cheerio, lads!  That'll get you your A levels, indeed.

Microsoft's Virtual Earth has 2006 imagery which still shows it, Yahoo! maps with iCubed imagery doesn't get close enough, and Google Earth and maps has 2007 imagery, where the "dark mark" has been reseeded.
0 Comments

web 2.0 t-shirt

posted Wednesday, January 31, 2007 8:04 AM by hussain

The t-shirt of snake oil's is overshadowed by the description of it:

Web 2.0 Shirt

Fresh out of gamma and filled with Ajaxy goodness, our buzzword-compliant Web 2.0 Tee tells the world you’re ready to be acquired by Google. Or if need be, by Yahoo. Or AOL, if it comes to that. Nothing says, “I might be a billionaire tomorrow (so come home with me tonight)” like this funky, twin-sleeved wonder. Did you lose your shirt during Web 1.0? Wear this one, and pretend you have a future!
0 Comments

That didn't take long

posted Monday, January 22, 2007 12:49 PM by hussain

My expected temporary fix for my iPod has shown its limitations: iPod won't sync as of this weekend and is exhibiting the One Infinite Click again.

Aggressively reseating* the hard drive worked, again, but I've got plans to order a HD (and battery, just for fun).  Still doing a bit of research on whether it's worth trying to "go big" with a larger hd in the iPod.

Also, attempting to use CDs in the car is a strange thing to do.

Yaay, blogging.

* Oh, ps, there was one "technique" I left off of the One Infinite Click post - smacking the iPod.  Yes, actually physically assaulting the thing is something that the internets recommends due to the Toshiba single-platter 20gb hds having a tendancy to get "stuck."  A "stuck" hd is not a good thing, clearly, but resuscitating the thing so that cost/benefit replacement ratios can be debated isn't terrible. Thwaping it means it's going down anyhow, might as well get some pleasure out of it.  And, yes, I did hit the crap out of the hd to make it work.
0 Comments

Zamzola vs. Damadola

posted Friday, January 19, 2007 6:22 PM by hussain

This is for all you Google searches hitting here: Zamzola, South Waziristan (32.6919444, 70.0863889) (where the Pakistani military strafed villagers using a helicopter, claiming it as an anti-Al Qaeda operation, while the villagers insist it was missiles from a US plane, causing the Pakistanis to have to deny that the US was in any way involved furthering the oft repeated dance by the Pakistani military to assert it's sovereignty looking tough for the US while oppressing its own people) is not Damadola, North Waziristan (34.8055556, 71.4666667) (where, last year around this time, we tossed a Hellfire missile at some buildings, hoping to smush Zawahiri, and missed).

Thank you.

screenshot of Damadola and Zamzola from NASA WorldWind 1.4rc4

0 Comments

Mullah Omar in Pakistan... or Afghanistan?

posted Wednesday, January 17, 2007 8:11 AM by hussain

Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban that OBL once called "the Caliph," has eluded the NATO & US forces since the beginning of the operation in Afghanistan. His whereabouts are suspected to be in Afghanistan, but Afghani Secret Services' recent captures of Taliban spokesmen has put that in doubt, continuing the spat between the countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Al Jazeera reports that Nato-led troops and Afghan forces arrested Muhammad Hanif, a Taliban spokesman, in Nangarhar province in the east after he crossed through a border checkpoint from Pakistan.
Al Jazeera, 01/17/2005

On Monday, NATO caught a top spokesman for the Taliban and on Tuesday, another.

The captured militant, whom NATO did not identify, had fled another recent offensive by Afghan and NATO forces in the south of the country, the alliance said. He was captured in the Gereshk district of Helmand province late Tuesday
Sayed Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service, told reporters Wednesday that the Taliban spokesman's real name is Abdulhaq Haji Gulroz, a 26-year-old Afghan from Nangarhar's Chaparhar district.
Ansari said Hanif had lived in northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar and had told investigators that the Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Omar was living in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, protected by that country's intelligence agency.
Afghan raid nets Taliban chief, 01/17/2007
"He lives in Quetta," Hanif says of Omar, as he sits in an oversized chair in a dimly lit room, as Afghan agents pepper him with questions. "He is protected by ISI," the 26-year old said in a quiet voice, referring to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Captured Taliban spokesman says militant leader lives in Pakistan, International Herald Tribune, 01/17/2007

This capture was confirmed by another Taliban spokesperson, Qari Yousef Ahmadi. This spokesperson, Ahmadi, contradicted a 12/13/2006 US report of having killed a top Taliban commander in Helmand province, Afganistan, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani. He did confirm the death of four Taliban commanders, including Mullah Abdul Zahir.

Quetta's the capital of Baluchistan province in Pakistan, a city of approx. 800k people and something like the 9th largest city.

A few days ago, on 01/05, Qatar's Gulf Times/Reuters published that Mullah Omar is in e-mail contact with the world and OBL and claims he's in Afghanistan.

So, who's to be believed? Pakistan's history of dissembling and mismanagement of their tribal areas vs. a Taliban PR guy who could very well be lying. Or, if he's not and there is protection from the Pakistani government, he's in no trouble revealing that fact, because no one in Pakistan'll scour Quetta.

0 Comments

Random

posted Tuesday, January 16, 2007 9:43 AM by hussain

Once More Into the Security Breach, an op-ed by wirter Kathyrn Harrison on how flying's so secure.

World of Warcraft 'Code Monkey' song - m4a (iTunes/QuickTime) format. Humor.

programming on atari - an image of the glory days of programming when gravity didn't exist.

0 Comments

Bin Laden & Zawahiri's Excellent Adventures

posted Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:19 PM by hussain

Along with the Frontline report about the resurgence of the Taliban, a recent interview with Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, it's starting to feel a lot like deja vu around here. (Sure, there's some diplomatic dance off's going on with Iran, but that's just pretty-stepping.)

Three weeks ago, Pakistani satellite station Geo TV conducted an interview with the Afghan warlord that was just aired, confirming that OBL and Zawahiri were taken to an undisclosed location during the 2001 Tora Bora attacks.

Hekmatyar was a big Northern Alliance player and ally of ours against the Soviets during our clandestine guerrilla war in the 1970's which left Afghanistan in ruins, associating with OBL back when it was cool do to so. I still feel that this indicates OBL & Zawahiri are in Pakistan (and at the very least have enjoyed tacit cover by Pakistan) due to Hekmatyar's intimate association with the ISI. Since preferring to fight rather than participate in what he sees as an occupying force/government, he's been in hiding and is rarely heard from. In the 70's he formed a political party that's active in Pakistan, Hizb-i-Islami (Party of Islam) and was Prime Minister of Afghanistan from '93-'94. That's influence.

That he bailed when the Taliban took over in the mid '90s to live in Iran for a while makes some people think he's in with the Iranians and, therefore, an "undisclosed area" could possibly be in Iran. US pressure kicked Hekmatyar out of Iran. Get that? US pressure - that means us - on Iran - which further means we've got relations with Iran - made Hekmatyar a persona non grata there. So, more likely, the 2nd best place after Pakistan for hiding, would be Turkmenistan.

0 Comments

Watch and Listen

posted Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:50 AM by hussain
Two things, one to watch, one to listen:
  • Frontline's excellent summary documentary on Pakistan and the Taliban, The Return of the Taliban.  It's all on line.  Watch it.  Or, if you like, catch it on HD on PBS.
  • Soundprint's Feminism and the Veil.  A great piece on the use of the veil in contemporary Egyptian society.  Listen (when they put it up on line).
  • KGNU's Thursday Call In Show is on "Shi'ite and Sunni Islam," 01/11/2006 @ 6pm MST, a chat with Imam Ibrahim Kazerooni, an Iraqi Shia alim, and part of Denver's St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral's interfaith organization "Abrahamic Initiative" and head of the Islamic Center of Ahl Al-Beit in west Denver.
0 Comments

Solving my iPod's "One Infinite Click"

posted Saturday, January 06, 2007 12:48 AM by hussain

A few days ago, my 4th gen monochrome 20gb iPod refused to synch or be recognized by iTunes.  It was making the oft mentioned and characteristic constant faint clicking sound typically called the "infinite click of death."  I prefer to call it "One Infinite Click" after Apple's HQ address. After doing the Apple-recommended "5 R's" for what seemed like days (I did it in fits and spurts over two days, since it takes a long time for the iPod to be recognized as it's clicking and whirring), I eventually got it to half-resynch, but then fail, and back to the "One Infinite Click."

Macworld is on the 9th, so I figured I should wait to hear what the Steve's going to announce before making the drive all the way to Boulder or Denver to drool at those respective Apple Stores or buying something on line, just in case the prices drop.  The next best thing would be getting my hands dirty and trying to figure out what causes this.

After a bit of Googling, there're three main solutions I found on-line for "One Infinite Click," in ascending invasiveness:


The iPod was already behaving badly, taking a long time for any of my computers to recognize it, so the first step to reformat the HD was to put it into disk mode.  After a long time (over 10 minutes or so) Windows decided to recognize it and the iPod itself stopped clicking long enough to be recognized, I used the disk utility to reformat H:\ (quick, NTFS).  Disconnected, reconnected and iTunes 7 fired up and wanted to restore the software on the iPod.  Great so far.  Disconnected and connected to an external power source, as requested, let it do its thing then reconnected to the machine.  ITunes 7 wanted to restore again.  Ok.  One more cycle of that business and it's clear that reformatting isn't the solution.  I've got to open the thing up.

Pricewatch's and Froogle's listings for the MK2006GAL are around $100, so I figure I'd better do step 2 before spending the money.  Opening it up was easier than I thought: jeweler's screwdrivers and a bit of plastic stressing until I figured out which way to wedge and it popped open.  The internals look like all the pictures on the net.  I pushed the IDE HD connector on the HD.  I think it felt a bit loose, but I don't know.  Reseating complete.

I went through The Process: attached the iPod to the machine, let it restore, disconnected and attached to a power source, and back to the computer.  I think I may have heard one click as iTunes started to copy over the 3000 mp3 items, but I can't really tell.

Lucky me, the whole library loaded and it seems to work great!  No need to spend the $100 or so for a new hard drive (yet). I may, though, spend the $30 for a newer battery, as the one I have has been dying for a while.

The Steve announced the iPhone and iTV, but no change in prices to the 30 and 80gb iPods.  I'm very happy with my 20gb 4th gen, especially now that it works!
0 Comments