This weekend I downloaded the FreeBSD 5.2 .iso and tried installing it on my new used PC. I'm having some trouble with setting up the DHCP client.

The LAN card is a 3Com card that is detected properly by the FreeBSD installation script. During installation, it asks me whether the card will use IPv6 or DHCP and I choose DHCP. The script then goes off to contact the DHCP server and retrieves what appears to be an appropriate IP address. 192.168.xx.3. The router is 192.168.xx.1, and my other PC (Win2K) is 192.168.xx.2 and works fine. So the .3 IP seems to be correct.

However, when the OS boots up, I am unable to make contact with anything. I can't ping the router, much less anything on the internet.

I went through the installation again and tried to install via FTP rather than from CD. That didn't work either, though the DHCP client seemed to retrieve an appropriate IP address from the router.

Besides a network connection, I seem to have everything installed correctly. My video needs a little tweaking, but I'm not sure how much I can do with that, it's an old system.

What can I do to get DHCP working?

Submitted to /. on 20040124 at 11:30:00CST.

Spirit's twin lander, Opportunity, arrived at the Martian surface at 0505 GMT. Celebrities present in Mission Control at Cal-Tech include former US Vice President Al Gore and current California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In other news real-estate prices in Mars' Meridiani Planum are soaring...

What happened to Search.pl and Comments.pl? They don't seem to be keeping up with the front page at all.

Yes, if everyone else jumped off a cliff I would too.

The Kingdom of the Obvious

Motto: "Prima Facie"

UN Category: Capitalist Paradise
Civil Rights: Very Good
Economy: Thriving
Political Freedoms: Excellent

Location: the West Pacific
The Kingdom of The Obvious is a tiny, economically powerful nation, remarkable for its absence of drug laws. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 5 million are either ruled by a small, efficient government or a conglomerate of multinational corporations; it's difficult to tell which.

There is no government in the normal sense the word; however, a small group of community-minded individuals is effectively ruled by the Department of Commerce, with areas such as Law & Order and Religion & Spirituality receiving almost no funds by comparison. Income tax is unheard of. A large private sector is led by the Information Technology industry, followed by Cheese Exports and Basket Weaving.

Crime is a serious problem, and the police force struggles against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. The Obvious's national animal is the dog, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the Value.

Slashdot ran a story about Knoppix yesterday and it piqued my interest. So I went ahead and downloaded the latest ISO and burned the CD.

I'm impressed at the automatic support of all my devices without any user input. It, as they say, "just works". All Linux installations ought to be this easy.

I have some gripes with the system, though.

The first is that Knoppix doesn't make it obvious how to complete the Linux installation. I understand that Knoppix is designed to be a distro on disk, but such a distribution is only a stepping stone to actually putting the OS on the disk for permanent installation. Why, then, doesn't Knoppix have an option under the Knoppix menu to prep and install the OS to the hard drive?

Another complaint is the lack of device control. Specifically I cannot figure out how to adjust the mouse sensitivity. The mouse pointer for my USB mouse flies across the screen at the slightest touch, and I can't figure out where the mouse applet lives. There doesn't seem to be any consolidated device control area, so I'm sure I just haven't hunted enough for the right applet. I would really like it if the device settings were all in a easily accessible and obvious place.

A very small thing I noticed and thought strange was that the KDE 'Start' button isn't activated by the Windows key.

I really don't like transparent system menus. I guess some people like it, so I don't begrudge them that. I just want to know how to turn it off. Where is this setting? It sure as hell isn't in the Desktop settings applet.

Why is the documentation so lacking? There seems to be a concerted effort to put the least amount of effort into writing the help documentation. I started Frozen Bubble, which I think is a game, and it hung when I selected the 1-player mode. So I clicked the 'X' and...nothing. So I right click Frozen Bubble in the task bar and select Close and...nothing. Now I'm stumped. It seems to me that the OS should realize that the application isn't terminating and do what it can to shut down the process, ideally it would prompt the user before it sent the final kill signal. There was simply no response from the application or any acknowledgement from the OS that the application was hanging.

Then I remembered, hey, this is Unix. There's got to be some manual way to kill processes. So I opened up bash and tried to figure out a way to kill the hanging process. The kill command needs a process number, so how do I get a process number? bash help doesn't help. This is where my documentation complaint really started to kick in. Why wouldn't the bash 'help kill' documentation have a pointer to whatever the command was to list running procs? I'm not asking for a hyperlinked set of docs, just a simple 'Also see: WHATEVER THE COMMAND IS TO GET THE PROC LIST'. Finally I found Kkill in the application menu (of all places) which proceeded to kill the game of Mahjongg I had to minimize to get to the hanging Frozen Bubble.

In general, I get the feeling of a very good OS from Knoppix, but it lacks the polish of Windows 2000/XP or MacOS. I'd like to get to know it more when I have more time. I really want to figure out what the attraction is to this OS. Windows has come such a long way since the nightmare days of Win98. Windows 2000 and XP are approaching the point of perfection from a user perspective and stability standpoint.

Is it my preconceived notions of how smoothly and comfortably an OS should work that turns me off every time I boot Linux?

So here it is, my first day of work. Being sent off like a child on the first day of school, with the tears of a sad woman trailing off behind me. She isn't really crying, she's handling it ok. Well, she's sleeping, and quite deeply.

I'm pretty excited, and this job is quite important to me. You see, it's a start-up company ran by one of the few people whom I actually trust to run a start-up company. He's done it before, and been successful. He's a really smart guy. In fact, everybody is really smart. This just makes me feel inferior, because these guys have already succeeded. Me, I'm just masturbating my own ideas hoping they climax at some point before my 30th birthday.

They also are into racing games. To me, this is just like the ultimate sign of character. Mind you, it's not because there is any logic or reason to it, it's just because I like racing games. I was going to invite the prez on over sometime to play some XBox PGR2 or Need for Speed Underground in the theater, except some jackoff decided he could configure the theater better than a paid professional and instead forced it into not working. So, they have to schedule that paid professional to come back out and fix it. I've been really dying to play some XBox in that theater, and now it's like a damn high school cock-tease waiting to.

This internet connection is great, however it decides to start lagging to hell at some points. Seemingly arbitrarily. So, I'll be enjoying some nice Desert Combat (red5, shadowspark, where the hell are you guys?) and then suddenly get kicked because for about 3-5 seconds my connection pings at 400ms. Then it's back down to 40ms or so. That's a whole great big crock of shit, that one. But, it's a $25 T1 shared amongst not that many people, so I can't bitch too much.

Morning, a good day, and my "vacation" is over.

Join me now in a moment of Woo...

Woo.

So, in our new apartment our cellphones work better as a marital aid than a communication device (not that I'm aware of any of that sort of usage, just saying it's more functional in any capacity other than it's intended design.)

So, we need to get a home phoneline, and I'm looking at voice over IP. Or calling AT&T and telling them they need to get a signal in this neighborhood, which you know, is right in downtown. How can I not have cell reception in this block. It literally is a block, where we happen to live... I can go down one block in either direction and be at least at 75%... Even if I go to the roof, I get a great signal. I'm not really going to walk to the roof just to make a phone call. My friend has TMobile, and my contract is up for grabs, but my phone is locked. Still have the womans contract which is going to expire in about 10 months. Woo.

So, what are your experiences with VoIP and what provider is good? Most likely be used to call to Japan, because other than that, I don't think I want to talk to people.

In a nutshell, got moved in, just got the computers setup, and had a great New Years. The UHaul trip up was a pain in the ass, after we are supposed to get started at 8am and the UHaul is adamant about not starting, which is contrary to the point of getting a truck to move your belongings from point A to point B.

After the slowest UHaul repairman in the world got to our apartment very quickly (about 35 minutes from the second call to the Breakdown Hotline) he spent 15 minutes unhooking a battery and hooking a new one up. After swapping the batteries out 4 times, and doing miscellaneous stuff, the truck came back to life. So, I'm pretty pleased about that, and we got on the road and we were only 2 hours late.

Luckily, the movers were cool about rescheduling and we got everything up in the apartment in 2 hours. We've spent the last two days just getting everything arranged, and finally this morning had the furniture in a finalized arrangement so I could start doing the computers and network. Right now I just have the router and my workstation up, but it's a good start. We've omitted the dining room table from being placed, because it would just make everything too damn crowded.

After it's up and pimp, I'll take some photos. Anyway, I'm here, and happy fuckin' new year.

I am watching CNN and a London-based reporter is spending a month with an Ethiopian village to document the life of a starving people. He is large in size, probably 250 pounds or so and taller than most of the Ethiopians he lives with.

He wants to discover for himself the reasons behind the famine and starvation.

On his first day he accompanies his host family to the 'church' which is nothing more than a small clearing with seats out in the open. Upon his arrival several of the congregation become possessed with fear. They spring out of their seats and shake all over, dancing around like people possessed in voodoo rituals. They scream and cry out at his large appearance. One old village leader sums up for me the primary problem of this village's starvation which isn't simply lack of food. He stands before the congregation and proclaims loudly that he "heard that the man eats other humans". The problem is lack of education and a culture based on superstition.

So everyone ought to know who won the Franchise Wars. You know, where Sylvester Stallone gets treated to dinner in San Angeles by the evil Dr. Cocteau.

Wrong. Not Taco Bell. Pizza Hut. It was the weirdest thing. I was watching the lips say Taco Bell, but the words were Pizza Hut. Even the sign outside the restaurant said Pizza Hut. In fact, every single Taco Bell artifact was relabeled with the Pizza Hut logo.

It seems Tricon has gone and changed the outcome of the Franchise Wars on us.

I expect that KFC wins the Franchise Wars a few years from now...

I just stumbled across this little gem. I don't see a name for the product. What it essentially does is create files with the names of common movies and songs that contain nothing more than zeros. Stick these files on a web page or FTP server and wait for the *AA sue-bots to crawl your site and send a C&D letter. The *AA of choice would be making a legal threat illegally. So if you're really bored of have the $$ to spare you could sue for barratry. Who has the patience for that though? This would fill their sue-bot output with a bunch of BS, similar to filling a spammer's spam-bot with a bunch of bogus email addresses. It's a novel idea...

It's not just for geriatrics!

Found a great apartment in First Hill. Lots of hospitals, and I mean that in the most bizarre way I can. There are more hospitals there than old people, which says a lot.

6 blocks from my work. Includes T1 internet access, parking, satellite TV, sewer, water, garbage, theater and some other stuff. Great times.

I will be having an XBox party in the theater when I get settled. Probably the second weekend in January. Life is good.

I'll be celebrating (not celebating, I know it isn't a word) New Years in Seattle. Got the good job, really really happy about this. I'm excited about working up there, and a bit nervous about the move. We're going to be living in downtown (Belltown, hopefully, I got my eye on a really nice apartment there) because it's a lot easier than me trying to commute. Me commuting will result in getting lost for the first month (not because I'm bad with directions, because I like to explore. Like Tim Allen) and possibly assaulting some stupid driver. It's just better for society for me not to commute, and I save gas.

I start after the New Year, and probably won't be on much (I haven't really been on lately anyway) because I'm freaking busy. Anyway, just wanted to share the good news.

Cheers.

Note: I would have selected the journal Topic "Football." Oddly enough it wasn't an option... ;-)

I have a gripe, and it's a big one. This particular gripe is with the college football ranking system and bowl selection system. In short I believe the current system is a scam. Tell me this, how can the number one college football team in the nation, USC, not play in the national championship? How can the number 3 team, OU (O Who?), play in their place? Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a USCOU fan either. I'm a K-State fan. That's right. I have a Wildcat tattooed on my ass, and I like it. I'm a fan of the team that was ranked 15th last week, K-State. I'm a fan of the team that played the team that was ranked number 1 last week, OU. I'm a fan of the team that beat the living hell out of the number 1 team in the nation, at least they were last week. That's right. #15 K-State whipped the living shit out of #1 OU 35-7. Oh hell yeah! Who's your daddy?! If your a O Who fan, you probably don't know. ;-P Let me just say one more thing before I get back on topic. Bob Stoops REALLY looked like he needed a dip REALLY badly at the end of the 3rd quarter. If you don't know what I mean by that then this will be utterly lost on you.

Last week's #1, OU, was completely and utterly trounched by #15, K-State. It wasn't like OU wasn't there to play. They scored on their fourth play. OU just couldn't K-State's running or passing game. OU's offense couldn't handle K-State's power house of a defense. OU was simply bested by the better team, the team that went to Arrowhead to win. That ass-whoopin' dropped OU to number 3 and raised K-State to #8. Why is it that OU is still playing in the Sugar Bowl, this year's championship game, then? I'll tell you why. It's because some computer in up-state New York thought they should be. USC whipped Oregon State Saturday by 24 points. This win ensured USC the number 1 spot in the nation. However no one ever expected a BCS computer to decide that since OU played 1 more game than USC that OU was the better team. Opps! Bend over USC. Now you know how we K-Staters feel. The BCS jackasses have been screwing us for years. Strength of schedule my ass. How many times have we had the number 1 defense in the nation? This year we have the nation's leading rusher. The BCS always treats us like their midwest bitch.

USC was voted number one in the nation by the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll AND the Associated Press' media poll. You remember what coaches are don't you, BCS people? They are the people who really know what teams are the best in the nation. Try not to forget that.

USC is the number one team in the nation. The Rose Bowl is this year's true National Championship game, once again. The BCS is now truly a joke. Now everyone realizes this. We K-Staters have been saying this for years, as has others. Now the nation knows it too. How exactly can a supposed number 1 team be number 1 and yet not even win their conference? Strike that, how can they be number 1 if they thoroughly got their asses kicked in their coference game? Bye bye BCS. The BCS ranking is a joke. The best should be decided by playoffs. That's the only fair why to play the game. You'll be gone very soon BCS, and we couldn't be happier.

I was sitting on my throne browsing through the latest MacMall catalog the other day when I came across the Microsoft product section (about 1.5 pages). I was reading the blurb on Virtual PC 6.1. I decided then and there that I must write down what I've been saying for months about Microsoft's Mac product line future. This is my prediction...

The whole reason Microsoft bought Virtual PC and Connectix is really quite simple. Microsoft is going to pull the plug on all their Apple development for all of their products except for Virtual PC. "Why?" you might ask? Consider this, Microsoft is having to develop their office and home use applications twice, once for x86 and once for PPC. They are duplicating development efforts for:

• Office X
• • Word X
  • Excel X
  • PowerPoint X
  • Entourage X
• MSN
• MSN Messenger
• Windows Media Player
• Remote Desktop Client

Note that Internet Explorer is not listed since it is no longer being developed by Microsoft for Macs. (yippeeee!!!!!)

That's a lot of redundant development, especially for a platform that's not even their own!

How can Microsoft lower their development overhead and still either a) sell products to Mac users or b) convince users to switch to Windows? To me the answer is very obvious. Microsoft is developing a common codebase for which to run their existing applications off of. They can save money by porting Windows to a Mac environment, just like in Virtual PC. They no longer have to code everything twice. A x86 version of Office 2010 will run just fine under Virtual PC on a Mac. That is how they lower their costs. Now they only have one application to develop: Virtual PC. That completes their first goal. They get revenue from more sales and have to do very little work to make it happen. How do they eventually get this userbase to switch to x86 Windows though? It's simple really: They pull a bait and switch and drive their mac customers to Windows. They could do this by introducing instability into Virtual PC that leaks over into OS X. They blame the crashing on Apple and lure some users away to x86-ville. They get everyone switched to Office via VPC but introduce a bug with the release of a new Office. The new Office won't run on VPC. Again they blame Apple. Microsoft then drags it's feet on "patching" VPC so that the new Office can run on it (funny, I thought this was a Windows environment...) all the while blaming Apple for bad coding and not sharing APIs. In the process they lure more users away. They do this every time a new Office comes out that uses a different file format. The Office via VPC users are continually stuck using a dated version that can't open documents from a new version of Office on x86. Frustration leads to migration; bye bye more users. Eventually Microsoft is just going to leave the Mac arena but not until after making a big public todo over how bad OS X is and how Apple leveraged its position wouldn't share APIs as well as intentionally making Microsoft products run poorly on OS X. This will of course be a load of hooey but the smear campaign will work to some degree. More people will switch to x86 just to get Office back.

Think it won't happen? I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. It seems to make perfect sense. The loss of Microsoft applications on Macs is a good thing to me--a damned good thing. Internet Explorer on OS X was a joke. It was HORRIBLE. IE literally locked me out of a PacketShaper 4545 once. That put a stupid look on my face, all because some genious programmer at Microsoft decided that IE should modify all pre-configured text fields on a form before form submissions, even if the field hadn't had its text altered. Genious. The worst thing about Microsoft products leaving the Mac arena is that this will give anti-Mac IT folks a chance to say no more Macs on the network. No more Office on Mac means that the Mac users won't be able to share files easily with the PC users. Anti-Mac IT folks will have a foothold to keep Macs off the network from then on.

I sure hope OpenOffice becomes usable on all platforms in the very near future. If it becomes adpoted soon enough, we might not really care what Microsoft does...

This of course is my opinion; I could be wrong.