I guess I can add 'typing up the police interview transcript' to my list of unfinished tasks. When inspiration hits, I can work on something for months. Then something happens in my head and any attempt to even think about working will cause an anxiety attack.

Some of my unfinished programming projects:

• a team play oriented 3D space shooter

I got partway thru developing an engine for this (IrrLite). I was hoping to make something with similar team play elements to the Tribes series, but set in space, like Allegiance. Actually part of the reason it was to be set in space is that I figured the collision detection would be easier. I got as far as being able to fly around in a skybox and shoot fireballs.

I tried to develop a system for optimising vertex buffers and got stuck.

On a side note, I think someone should redo Allegiance, but with a control system similar to Freelancer.

• an MMO using Jabber and vector graphics

I think this idea could work. A game that isn't time critical, where perhaps a battle is played out over months. Similar to Puzzle Pirates or Tribal Wars. I got noughts and crosses working and started on battleships before giving up.

• a MAPI provider and object database

The idea of storing objects in a hierarchical database the way Outlook and Exchange do interests me a lot. I think it's the one thing that all the "open source exchange replacements" have missed. It's as if they feel obliged to stick to standard protocols like IMAP and POP3 for client to server communication and yet go inventing things like CalDAV.

MAPI defines a low level object database query API with a few mail-specific features. This single API works for email, calendar, contacts etc. Each object in the database is just a variable length collection of field names and values. It's much more flexible than a RDBMS where every row in a table has the same fields and adding more requires schema changes.

Unfortunately just about everything you'd need to replicate this in open source is missing. Well, to be honest, part of the problem is that I insist on doing everything in C#. BerkeleyDB might be a good back end for this but its API is not C# friendly. I actually wrote a b-tree implementation but got stuck at working out a file format.

• a WoW server emulator

This is a long and complicated story that I should probably write up some day.

I had a server working to the point where you could wander around the world and talk to other players. Combat kinda worked and that was about it. Keeping it up to date with the latest patches was a headache.

Blizzard (and/or Vivendi) apparently have my name somewhere from their crackdowns on WoW server emulation.

• a game based on the OdT comic

I thought a 2D fighting game (mock-up) would be easy. I was wrong

These are just a few of the ones I found looking thru my project folders. There are many many more, and they all haunt me.

This is a transcript of the interview mentioned in my previous journal entry.

They really do put those handcuffs on tight. My wrists were red and sore for the next few days. I had them photographed for the report to internal investigations ("B11"), but that's another story.

Before the interview there was a conversation like this:

HARRIS: You were there to steal weren't you?

FOOLE: No.

HARRIS: Well that's what you're going to say on the tape.

Taped interview:

HARRIS: This is a tape-recorded interview between Senior Detective Harris and [Foole] of [Foole's Address] conducted at Box Hill CID Offices on the 21st day of September 1990. Also present during this interview is Detective Fogarty and Senior Detective Vanderbilt. [Foole] do you agree that the time is now 1:20 PM?

FOOLE: Yes.

HARRIS: For the purposes of this interview can you state your full name and address?

FOOLE: [Foole] [Foole's Address]

HARRIS: State your age and date of birth.

FOOLE: I'm 17, born on 7 August 1973.

HARRIS: State your current occupation

FOOLE: I'm unemployed.

HARRIS: I am going to ask you some questions in relation to a burglary that occurred in the Doncaster area earlier today but before I do I must inform you that you are not obliged to say anything but anything you do say may be used as evidence. Do you understand that?

FOOLE: Yes I do.

HARRIS: I must also inform you of the following rights. You may communicate with or attempt to communicate with a friend or relative to inform that person of your whereabouts and you may communicate with or attempt to communicate with a legal practitioner. Do you understand that?

FOOLE: Yes I do.

HARRIS: Is it true that you have attempted to make a phone call to speak to your sister a short time ago?

FOOLE: Yes it is.

HARRIS: And was the circumstances of that phone call?

FOOLE: There was no answer.

HARRIS: At about ten minutes past 12 this afternoon you were seen by myself and Detective Senior Constable Marvin at a construction site in Doncaster Road Doncaster. Is that correct?

FOOLE: Yes that is correct.

HARRIS: Can you tell me who you were there with?

FOOLE: [Dodgy mate]

HARRIS: Who's [Dodgy mate]?

FOOLE: A friend of mine.

HARRIS: How old is [Dodgy mate]

FOOLE: I think he's 16.

HARRIS: How long have you known [Dodgy mate] for?

FOOLE: I first met him about 10 years ago.

HARRIS: And who is [Dodgy mate] to you?

FOOLE: Just someone who lives near me.

HARRIS: Is he a relative or...

FOOLE: No

HARRIS: A friend?

FOOLE: He's a friend.

HARRIS: Did you go to school with him or ...

FOOLE: No

HARRIS: How often do you associate with him?

FOOLE: I have been about every second day recently by before then, not a lot.

HARRIS: Whereabouts does he live?

FOOLE: In [Dodgy mate's address]

HARRIS: Can you explain to me the events or the circumstances that lead to you being at this construction site?

FOOLE: [Dodgy mate] came over to my place this morning about 9:30 or 10 o'clock and told me that we were going up to Doncaster to see a movie. I said I didn't have any money and he said he'd pay for me. So we went up. We went to the cinema and it was closed and he said "I want to check out a building site near here".

HARRIS: Whereabouts are these cinemas located?

FOOLE: Doncaster Shoppingtown.

HARRIS: And about what time would this be that you went up to the cinema?

FOOLE: 11:30

HARRIS: Keep going

FOOLE: We went to the building site and walked around a bit and he found a hole under a fence so he climbed in through there and he told me to wait around the other side where there was a door.

HARRIS: Can you just explain to me this building site. What does it look like?

FOOLE: About 3 stories high, cement.

HARRIS: Was there any glass or windows in there?

FOOLE: Yes there were windows in some points.

HARRIS: Would it be correct to say that the building site in question looks very very familiar to that of a large block of offices?

FOOLE: Yes it does.

HARRIS: And would it also be correct to say that this particular block of offices would be roughly three-quarters completed?

FOOLE: Yes it would

HARRIS: And would it be also fair to say that the outer perimeter of the buildings are fenced with up to 8 foot fences, some covered in barbed wire, and that the place is basically very secure?

FOOLE: Yes

HARRIS: And would it also be correct to say that you can't walk into the place without having to climb or bend or move something out of the road by force? Would that be correct?

FOOLE: Yes it would

HARRIS: All right, continue

FOOLE: I went around to the other side and he had opened a door from there and I walked in through the door and...

HARRIS: How did he open a door?

FOOLE: From the inside it just opened. It was only locked from the outside. He walked around a bit and looked around and he found lock on a door that went to a staircase and he proceeded to attack the lock with a screwdriver.

HARRIS: How did he attack it?

FOOLE: He removed - he jammed the screwdriver through the top of the plate over the lock and ripped that off then chipped away at the wood around the lock to remove it and then he opened the door.

HARRIS: Where were you while this occurred?

FOOLE: I was about 2 feet away just watching.

HARRIS: What was the purpose of this?

FOOLE: I was just following him. He looked like he knew what he was doing.

HARRIS: You didn't ask any questions?

FOOLE: No I didn't.

HARRIS: You just went along with this person who was destroying things and damaging things and didn't ask any questions?

FOOLE: That's right.

HARRIS: What about in relation to going to this building site initially?

FOOLE: I didn't ask any questions.

HARRIS: What about when he went through the hole and opened up the door?

FOOLE: I didn't ask any questions.

HARRIS: You just stood there and absolutely did nothing or said nothing?

FOOLE: I probably would have said I didn't want to be there because there was too much risk of getting caught because it was right next to a main road but he said that wouldn't bother me.

HARRIS: What do you think was the reason of going there?

FOOLE: I don't know. He just does that sort of thing. He enjoys the risk.

HARRIS: The risk of doing what?

FOOLE: The risk of getting caught.

HARRIS: Getting caught doing what?

FOOLE: Vandalising?

HARRIS: What happened after this door had been forced?

FOOLE: We walked through the door and walked up a flight of stairs to the second floor. He looked out the window and saw a car parked there so we ran out ... outside of the building and I said I don't want to go back in. He kind of just stopped. We went back in anyway.

HARRIS: Why did you go back in if you state you never wanted to?

FOOLE: Because... I don't know, I don't know.

HARRIS: Were you forced in any way to go back in?

FOOLE: No

HARRIS: Were you offered anything for going back in?

FOOLE: No

HARRIS: Were you threatened for going back in?

FOOLE: Sort of ... humiliation .. threats.

HARRIS: What does that mean?

FOOLE: He'd tell everyone that I whimped out.

HARRIS: What happened after that?

FOOLE: We went back inside and went down stairs and I just walked around and looked around the place and didn't touch anything and he started to rip a sheet of masonite off the wall in a small room.

HARRIS: That would be a storage room.

FOOLE: Yes

HARRIS: And how did he, as you say, rip this masonite off?

FOOLE: I wasn't watching so ...

HARRIS: Whereabouts were you when this was happening?

FOOLE: I was in another room just looking around.

HARRIS: So at some stage you did go off and just start looking of your own accord as well?

FOOLE: Yes

HARRIS: You didn't just follow behind [Dodgy mate]?

FOOLE: Yes

HARRIS: So you have gone off and looked around?

FOOLE: Yes, because I don't like to be near him when he's doing this business. I usually walk off.

HARRIS: And what were you looking for?

FOOLE: Nothing

HARRIS: What was the purposes of looking if you were looking for nothing?

FOOLE: I was just seeing what was there

HARRIS: Why?

FOOLE: I wasn't looking for anything in particular

HARRIS: Why were you looking for things?

FOOLE: I was just seeing what kind of things were there... nothing...

HARRIS: What if there had have been something there that you liked?

FOOLE: I wouldn't have touched it.

HARRIS: I put it to you that would have. I put it to you that you went to the premises for the purpose of seeing what was available to steal.

FOOLE: I deny that.

HARRIS: I also put it to you that whilst in the car coming over here that you stated that was the reason why you went over there to steal.

FOOLE: I don't remember saying that

HARRIS: I also put it to you that you stated that [Dodgy mate] had told you that you two were going over there to see what you could steal.

FOOLE: I did not state that.

HARRIS: What happened after he started removing the masonite?

FOOLE: He entered a small room and looked around and said "This is just rubbish in here" and came back out and then the police officers came.

HARRIS: Did you go in that compartment at all?

FOOLE: Yes I did.

HARRIS: Why did you go in there?

FOOLE: I was just following him.

HARRIS: What did you expect to see in there?

FOOLE: Nothing. I didn't expect to see anything. I was seeing what was there - curiosity.

HARRIS: Can you explain what you were carrying with you at the time?

FOOLE: Some of the time I was carrying a bag with sort of tolls in it... screwdrivers, pliers.

HARRIS: Can you explain the tools exactly?

FOOLE: There was a large flat head screwdriver, a pair of pliers. I don't know what other tools there were. Probably a Phillip's head.

HARRIS: Who owns the bag?

FOOLE: The bag is mine.

HARRIS: Who owns the tools?

FOOLE: The tools are [Dodgy mate]'s

HARRIS: Why did you have the bag?

FOOLE: He carried - he took it from my place.

HARRIS: Why did you have the bag?

FOOLE: Why was I carrying it? Because I think he put it down so I picked it up.

HARRIS: Why was the bag taken with the two of you?

FOOLE: I don't know. I didn't ask that.

HARRIS: Someone's just taken your bag, picked it up and taken it and you haven't asked anything.

FOOLE: That's right.

HARRIS: Did you talk with [Dodgy mate] at all?

FOOLE: Not about what he was doing, no.

HARRIS: Did you talk to him about anything?

FOOLE: At anytime or while we were in there?

HARRIS: While you were doing what you have been doing.

FOOLE: I probably said something but I can't recall.

HARRIS: So you could have talked about what you were doing.

FOOLE: I could have, but I didn't.

HARRIS: Well how can you say you didn't. You've just said you could have.

FOOLE: No I ...

HARRIS: You've stated that you can't recall much about the conversation you had with [Dodgy mate] but you're saying that you definitely didn't talk about what you were doing.

FOOLE: That's right.

HARRIS: Well, if you can't recall the conversation you had with him, how can you state that you definitely didn't talk about what you were doing?

FOOLE: I remember that I asked him what he was doing when he was opening the lock.

HARRIS: I'll put it you that you're just saying that you didn't talk about this just to try and get yourself out of trouble.

FOOLE: That's not true.

HARRIS: How did the tools come to be in the bag?

FOOLE: He put them in.

HARRIS: And whereabouts did this happen?

FOOLE: At my house.

HARRIS: And you didn't ask what he was doing then?

FOOLE: Not really. I trust him.

HARRIS: Trust him for what?

FOOLE: For what he was doing.

HARRIS: Well, what did you think he was doing?

HARRIS: You trusted somebody but you didn't ask?

FOOLE: That's right

HARRIS: You trusted him with what?

FOOLE: I trusted him with my bag.

HARRIS: Trusted him to do what?

FOOLE: I knew I'd get it back, so I didn't ask why he'd taken it.

To be continued.

The part about "whilst in the car" pisses me off. Of course I didn't say anything like that. I wonder how many people they scare into lying like this to cover their mistakes.

During some of the pauses, I was reading pieces of paper being held up by one of the other officers in the room (Fogarty I think). They had insults written on them.

I'm surprised I held up so well. I would say one of my greatest weaknesses is conversation/arguing, but it was like here they were asking me about things where I was the expert.

Immediately after the interview he said something like "good job" and punched me twice in the forehead. It swelled up into a nasty lump.

Hopefully I can motivate myself to type up more of this. Unfortunately it is bringing back a lot of memories.

<Foole> i was wanding around a building site with a mate
<Foole> dodgy mate...
<Foole> and these 2 guys turn up yelling "police, get up against the wall"
<Foole> and im thinking ... police dont act like that to ppl hanging around building sites
<Foole> so i just stand there
<Foole> and one of them tries to jump me
<Foole> so i got him in a headlock
<Foole> and he keeps punching me in the head
<Foole> eventally i gave in
<Foole> and it turns out they were police
<Foole> so i got charged with assault of a police officer
<Foole> and got the crap beaten out of me in the interview room
<Foole> for an hour or so
<Foole> and they kept trying to get me to lie on the interview tape
<Foole> to say i was there to steal stuff
<Foole> to justify their actions
<Foole> yah i stuck to the truth
<Foole> and got beaten more for doing that
<Foole> i was 17
<Foole> and it still fills me with anger thinking about it
<Foole> my barrister for the court hearing told me it happens all the time
<Foole> yeah we got a copy of the recording
<Foole> and im typing it up
<Foole> they acutally screwed up a bit
<Foole> and i think that helped my case a lot
<Foole> he tried to charge me with trying to stab him with a screwdriver
<Foole> cos my mate had a screwdriver on him
<Foole> in the interview he said i tried to stab him with my right hand
<Foole> but im left handed
<Foole> they had to drop that charge
<Foole> and several others
<Foole> but i still got charged with assault of police

This happened in September 1990. The police officer's name was Glen Andrew Harris.

This was a pretty big event in my life. I have lots of random memories associated with it. Most of them fill me with anger and frustration. I'm planning on posting the interview transcript on this blog.

Outside the court house, my barrister said something like "If justice is people getting what they deserve, then i've never seen it".

1. Elaborate on your default icon. Well I don't have an icon on /., but my Jabber icon is my avatar from the odt comics.

2. What's your current relationship status? Taken.

3. Ever have a near-death experience? Nope.

4. Name an obvious quality you have? I don't think any of my qualities are obvious. It usually takes people a while to get to know me. Perhaps 'humility'.

5. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now? Pink Floyd - The Hero's Return is on WinAmp.

6. Any celeb you would marry? Nope

7. Who will copy and paste this first? No one

8. Name someone with the same birthday as you. Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden fame, David Duchovny of X-Files fame and Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame

9. Do you have a crush on someone? Not a crush, no

10. Have you ever vandalized someone's private property? Yes

11. Have you ever been in a fight? Many, but not for a long time

12. Have you ever sung in front of a large audience? Nope, can't sing.

13. What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? I'd have to say breasts

14. What do you usually order from Starbucks? Never been there. I'm not really into coffee

15. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose? Yes

16. Say something totally random about yourself. Sometimes my memories surprise/shock me. They seem like a different life.

17. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity? Someone said I looked like the singer of Del Amitri.

18. Do you wear a watch? Yes. I went for a long period with no watch because I felt too dependant on it.

19. Do you have anything pierced? Nope

20. Do you have any tattoos? Nope

21. Do you like pain? Sometimes. Right now I feel a dull ache from lots of walking and it feels comforting.

22. Do you like to shop? No, I dread most shopping

23. What was the last thing you paid for with cash? Supermarket shopping

24. What was the last thing you paid for with a credit card? I don't have a credit card

25. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? A telemarketer 8-/ I left the phone off the hook and wandered off while they rambled on about phone bills

26. What is on your desktop background? A picture I drew of my cat

27. What is the background on your cell phone? I don't have a cell phone

28. Do you like redheads? Some

29. Do you know any twins? I used to

30. Do you have any weird relatives? I don't think I have any 'normal' relatives

31. What was the last movie you watched? Pirates of the Caribbean 2

32. What was the last book you read? I'm halfway thru Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

If it's supposed to be a 'desktop', why is the picture on it called 'wallpaper'?

I tried installing Avahi recently. After dpkg or whatever installed it, I saw this:

Starting Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD Daemon: avahi-daemonTimeout reached while wating for return value
Could not receive return value from daemon process.
failed!

Not very helpful. Running the daemon directly gave me this:

# avahi-daemon
Process 14569 died: No such process; removing PID file. (/var/run/avahi-daemon//pid)
Found user 'avahi' (UID 107) and group 'avahi' (GID 109).
Successfully dropped root privileges.
avahi-daemon 0.6.10 starting up.
Successfully called chroot().
Successfully dropped remaining capabilities.
Loading service file /services/ssh.service.
netlink.c: bind(): Operation not permitted
avahi-daemon: starting up: iface-linux.c:350: avahi_interface_monitor_sync: Assertion `m' failed.
Aborted

I'm pretty sure I have netlink support (/proc/net/netlink exists). Lots of googling of these error messages gave me nothing.

By chance I found this post which explained everything. Because I'm running a 2.4 kernel, only root can bind to netlink. Adding the --no-drop-root option to the command line fixed everything.

Now I just need to find a use for Avahi...

I bought Neverwinter Nights recently (AU$21 for the Diamond edition! Bargain!)

When I tried to connect to an online game, I got to create a character but when trying to enter the game, the screen went black and nothing happened. The music was still playing and the cursor was working, but I couldn't enter the game. The same thing happened to a friend trying to join a game I was hosting.

I googled a bit and found that this has happened to a few other people. Their solutions seemed random.. from upgrading their router firmware to uninstalling XP SP2.

Using the wonderful Ethereal, I found out that some of the udp packets were getting broken up at my gateway. So I set the MTU for my network card to 1024 and the problem went away!

Hope this helps someone else.

#ifconfig eth0 mtu 1024

The thing that stops me from taking religion seriously is that, in my opinion, either:

a: God is perfect and all powerful and therefore wants the world to be the way it is. Therefore whatever I choose to do is what God wants.

b: God is imperfect and therefore does not deserve to be followed blindly.
or
c: There is no God.

All of these lead to the conclusion that I should make my own decisions about morality etc. rather than listen to people who tell me what God wants me to do.

Feedback welcomed.

The defrag applet in Windows always annoyed me. it would wait about 30 seconds after you press the 'defrag' button to tell you that there wasn't enough free disk space. This caught me out a few times when I started it up cos I was going AFK for a while and came back to find it asking me whether to continue or not.

Just in case anyone else has this problem, hasn't figured out the workaround and just happens to be reading my blog:

defrag.exe C: -f

This will start up the console based version of the defragger and go ahead regardless of whether there is enough free space.

Is it that I don't have anything to say or is it that I can't express it?

[22:41] <Foole> my cat just cornered a possum
[22:41] <Foole> so i grabbed the cat
[22:42] <Foole> and the possum ran up my leg and hid on my shoulder
[22:42] <Foole> that was my excitement for the day

Inspired by their acquisition of Ximian, i thought i'd take a look at Novell's ports for linux.

I like to jump in the deep end sometimes to see how well I go. I set myself the challenge of installing GroupWise on my Debian box. Google has been my friend thru this, especially when the only mention of whatever error i'm getting is in German.

alien was very handy for converting the RPMs. The installation of eDirectory (required by GrouWise) went fairly well. I did have to do a bit of hacking on the install script so it would use dpkg instead of rpm, and I had to learn a few of their terms.

I know a little about LDAP so it wasn't all new to me, but it seems that Novell like making you think up names for lots of things. To log in to ConsoleOne (the directory admin program) I have to enter a username, password, tree name and context.

I have only been able to get this login to work by adding the tree name as an alias for my directory server in /etc/hosts. I can't see how to add it to my dns server to get the same result.

I've also had some problems with their java package. When I ran ConsoleOne with it, it just continued to eat memory until it crashed, killing galeon along the way. Hacking the ConsoleOne launch script to use /usr/bin/java fixed that, altho some of the plugins arent showing up. I didn't have this problem on my suse system.

The next step was GroupWise. Luckily I have suse on my laptop, so I got to see how the install runs normally. The python based install program for GroupWise refused to run without specific versions of librpm installed; none of which are available to me as debian packages.

I aliened the GroupWise rpms and installed most of them. This needed the --force-conflicts because many of the files are in more than one package.

I'm currently trying to configure GroupWise using ConsoleOne. I REALLY wish I knew the relevance of all the names this thing is asking me for. A system name, a domain name, a postoffice name. With my first few attempts, I got all the way thru before it telling me one of the names conflicted with something else. When I went back and fixed it, it told me my database folder already contained a database so it couldn't use it. I had to kill ConsoleOne (it had one of the db files open), rm -rf the db folder, restart ConsoleOne and try again. After doing this a couple of times I start wondering why I'm still trying.

The reason is, I am frustrated by the mail programs I have used under Linux. I want a client/server mail system so I can access the same data store from different computers running different operating systems. I also want to be able to add properties to my messages, tasks, contacts etc.

I am hoping GroupWise will fill this need.

All the linux mail programs I have used seem to think the height of client/server mail is IMAP. After using Outlook and Exchange for a few years, IMAP looks pitiful to me. (If there is a way for IMAP to support adding arbitrary typed properties to messages and a client and server which support this, please let me know)

It would be nice if Novell made a portable mail client (not evolution unless they complete redo the backend interface.. again) which could be used as a plain pop3/maildir client and could be hooked up to a GroupWise server. A good flexible mail client/PIM will get people using the program and make them strongly consider the GroupWise server.

Anyway.. back to having another guess at what to call my system, domain, postoffice etc.

Most of the songs were chosen because they either reminded me of certain times in my life, or had a certain feel or uniqueness to them that appealed to me.

The Spiderbait song reminded me of when I used to go to the all-ages gigs at the Corner Hotel in Richmond around 1990. Spiderbait used to play occasionally.

That particular version of Wave Of Mutilation was on the soundtrack to Pump Up The Volume. I like that movie even tho it is a bit corny.

Tusk by Fleetwood Mac is a very unique song. To me it seems like a cross between rock and marching band. I don't think there's any other song like it.

Special Needs by Placebo has a great atmosphere to it. The lyrics are very subtle and the music fits them well.

A Perfect Circle - When I first heard of them I got put off by the hype. I listened to their newer album a few times and got hooked. A great atmosphere and unusual vocal melody.

Get Over It - even tho I hate the saying, the song appeals to me. It seems to be about having all the superficial indications of success but leading a miserable life. What's The Deal is about realising you are in that situation and going back to a simpler, happier life.

I realise that most of my musical experience is limited to comercial stuff and I might not think these songs were so special if I perhaps heard the songs that inspired them. Perhaps there's 100 other marching band rock songs and i've only heard that one because Fleetwood Mac were popular enough to get it played on the radio. It doesn't matter because I'm not writing this as a magazine article, just as an expression of my thoughts.

Reading back over this post it feels like a high school student's blog. Hopefully my style will improve as I write more.