Sinned's weblog

I have not posted here in a week or so and though I should. It was so long in fact I had to try several times to login. The login portion of the page does not render very well on my Blackberry browser but that may be the fonts it is using. The new browser actually parses the CSS stuff and tries to layout everything as if it was a full GUI environment. I applaud the attempt and deal with the aftermath.

Work is this busy beehive of activity and mostly consists of fighting with telcos and spammers. I learned some very interesting facts about the DSL industry in Ontario and Quebec but due to an NDA I can not tell you about them. I still can not believe that Bell is not able to offer a true GigabitEthernet service for DSL resellers today although I suppose if they force resellers to keep getting 100Mbit FastEthernet circuits they make more money. Seriously at some point offering DSL is too much headache when you are ordering circuits faster than they can provision them. After all that has been ordered is processed we will have at least 6 FastEthernet circuits for all of our DSL customer in eastern Canada when we could get 1 GigabitEthernet and be good until next year sometime. Ahh, to be an entrenched telco who can squeeze their customers cause there is no other provider out there.

In other work related findings, I have finally discovered that I can not use hash-bang notation for my SQL scripts. It is highly unfortunate but I have learned a lot about command parsing and the way Unixes handle it. The biggest issues I ran into are: the hash mark, #, needs to act as a comment identifier and the program must accept the script as an input parameter. Both sqlplus and mysql use characters other than the hash mark for comments so they will not ignore the first line of the script. Mysql does not let you pass it a script on the command line but rather it requires redirecting input, via the < operator. Sqlplus does have the option but it needs to be prefixed but an @ sign with no whitespace in between which does not happen in program execution via hash-bang. This little project came about after I started writing auto-executing AWK scripts and saw a possibility to eliminate security holes by having cleartext password in the command line of SQL scripts. I have learned how to improve the security with Oracle's sqlplus but mysql is harder to get around.

I think I will be seriously considering a purchase of MacOS X 10.4 Tiger on DVD. It should be out now that is past 6pm on the 29th of April. I read about Spotlight and I am totally sold on that by itself plus all of the technical stuff I read they did in the kernel to start standardization. Longhorn is not going to be here for over 12 months and Tiger is here now so I think it is a foregone conclusion that I will be totally converted before LH is here. Now I need to save up for a nice shiny Powerbook 15" and if I am lucky the future will hold G5 Powerbooks which would be damn fine.

In other OS news, I have to give Solaris 10 a better evaluation than I have so far. I have become annoyed by the huge differences in the OS but I read an article on how much Solaris 10 has layed the smackdown on everything by adding needed features and a better management infrastructure. Also the article said the JDS was simply awesome with Gnome desktop. For icing, this review was based on the x86 hardware so I figure with Sun SPARC I will get some hardcore stabilty and it will look good doing it. I have an Ultra 60 standing by waiting for the goods which I have on CD already. Ready Go....

Well I see Square One so I think I will end this post for now and may be come back later.

Today I decided to log in just for the sake of logging in.

I was like "Wow the interface is all slick and graphical now." It looks crazy good too since I logged in with Safari on my iBook.

Then I thought it was interesting how all of these icons looked strangely familiar. I proceeded to login on my Windows XP system just to see if it was just my iBook. Nope the same icons on my other laptop however they do not look as good as they do on the iBook (actually everything looks better on the iBook I find especially Final Flight of the Osiris.)

Since logging in I decided to make a few small changes and such. and see what other things exist in here.

For now back to my regularly scheduled programing.

We I think spring definately in the very near future (barring any more displays of Sunday's weather.) This is great as it means more time outdoors walking, riding, playing and everything. Spring also means the coming of patio season which is never a bad thing.

This post is a test of sorts as I am trying out the new Blackberry web browser. So far I am happy with it as it it quite capable as long as sites are not overwhelming in graphics. The new browser even support style sheets which make this site a very different experience compared with before.

Recently I saw the movie Sin City and was duly impressed. In my opinion it was awesome movie and I definately want to check it out again cause I know I missed stuff. For a first watching I give it an A++ as it kept me enthralled and was gorgeously put together. If these are the kinds of movies you get for not being in the Directors Guild then I say bring on the independents or non-conformists.

In other news, I have had significant problems with my knee in the two or so weeks. For those who know me this is not totally unusual however this time it is more serious. I am serious looking into what options are possibly including surgery although I despise the thought, somethings are necessary.

I am still piecing my condo together which I can tell will be a long process. This is because I am a lazy person overall and really only have my own motivation and timetable to follow. This is not a bad thing but does make it seem like I am not getting anywhere however by not spending the money I have allotted for household items I have managed to get rid of my credit card debt from earlier this year. Clearing debt is always a good thing as it promotes less stress and easier breathing.

I have more stuff on my mind but type while on the bus is starting to become nauseating. So for now I shall end this post and maybe come back later.

On a closing note, I expected to reach the end of the text box by now. My previous BB posts were not this long I do not think but I will chack that out later.