In fact, atq is literally out of order – I guess the idea is that you pipe it through sort. very very old-school thinking

At the other end of the scale, at -c provides an information overload of EVERYTHING about the job. (60+ lines of env? yikes. I don’t need to know that most of the time!)

So where is the simple and useful summary that I’d genuinely expect of atq?
ie, not only the queued command times, but WHAT those commands are – one per line.

As a result, here is my simple “batq” – a better atq

#!/bin/bash

# a better atq
#
# returns the original atq output in bold
# AND IN ADDITION, ALSO:
# * returns items sorted
# * the intended working directory
# * the command to be run
#
        # TODO:
        # $command is not robust - will fail on multiple lines

function do_extraqinfo() {
    while read job ; do
        jobid=$(echo $job | awk '{print $1}')
        detail=$(at -c $jobid)
        dir=$(echo "$detail" | egrep ^cd | sed -e 's/cd \(.*\) || {/\1/g')
        command=$(echo "$detail" | tail -1)
        # alter the following line if the bold offends you
        tput bold ; echo -n "$job" ; tput sgr0
        echo "  $dir    $command"
    done
} 

atq | sort | do_extraqinfo

The wikipedia article on Geek Pride day lists a “manifesto” of sorts, or a “geek code”(see below) for Geek Pride Day…

…here it is:

Rights:

1. The right to be even geekier.
2. The right to not leave your house.
3. The right to not like football or any other sport.
4. The right to associate with other nerds.
5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
6. The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
7. The right to be out of style.
8. The right to be overweight and near-sighted.
9. The right to show off your geekiness.
10. The right to take over the world.

Responsibilities:

1. Be a geek, no matter what.
2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.
3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.
4. To save and protect all geeky material.
5. Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a “museum of geekiness.”
6. Don’t be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.
7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.
8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.
9. Don’t waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.
10. Try to take over the world!

So, I have a problem with this. Not all of it, and mostly the ‘responsibilities’ section…

But I get ahead of myself. Here is where I disagree…

Right #5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).

So, in response to this, some images.

[Thanks to http://www.buzzfeed.com/scott/nerd-venn-diagram for what seems to be the original Geek Venn diagram, and http://www.surelyyourenotserious.com/blog/?p=920 for the spectrum diagram]

So back to it.

Whilst Right #5 states that a geek may have no friends – which is fine as a choice, it also implies that geeks may have no friends due to a lack of social grace. …and that, imho, doesn’t sync with the very definition of a geek. (don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against nerds by the definitions given here. I have nerdy friends and geeky friends, and I have nerdy moments and geeky moments. But it’s to be a geek that I aspire, and take pride in)

Nonetheless, it’s a relatively minor issue and harder to defend (but lets me include pretty pictures

Moving on to the responsibilities. Overall, they mix ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ in annoying and inconsistent ways…

2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.

Surely being a geek is largely about individuality. I don’t mind competitive behaviour, but I object to it being a responsibility. You cannot mandate competitiveness.

3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.

MUST?! No. Really not. To be allowed to care passionately and state your case, sure. But I object to “must” here.

4. To save and protect all geeky material.

Even though I myself am a hoarder and packrat, I think to call it a *responsibility* is too wide reaching. Also, “all”?? See point #6

5. Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a “museum of geekiness.”

Again, why is SHOWING OFF now a responsibility? Be passionate, sure. But sometimes collecting is a private endeavour. This links back to #3.

6. Don’t be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.

This… I kind of agree with. Kind of. But still think it’s a bit strong for a RESPONSIBILITY…

Also, this contradicts several other responsibilities listed herein. According to this I have to specialise, but according to #4 and #7, #8, I have to care about ALL and EVERY geeky thing…

7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.

Is this a competition again? sheesh. See point #6

For the record, it’s possible to be a geek without caring about movies or books!

8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.

EVERY? See points #6 and #7. *sigh*

9. Don’t waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.

Limitations is not the geek way. Defining some things as being not geek and therefore a waste of time – is a limitation!

Damn the man. Do what you want.

And another thing…

In accordance with responsibility #6 (and yes, I recognise the irony of citing responsibility #6 which I myself object to), isn’t “Geek Pride” kind of, well, GENERIC?

So on May 25 I celebrate TOWEL DAY. A day for Hitchhiker and Douglas Adams fans to celebrate this specific fandom. A geek fandom. In fact, a specialised geek fandom…

So don’t celebrate Geek Pride Day. Celebrate your geek pride by celebrating your passion when, how, and who with you choose in a manner appropriate for your geekiness. Here are some ideas:

• March 14: Pi day (3.14) – for Math geeks
• May 4: Star Wars “May the forth be with you” day.
• May 25: Towel Day (2 weeks after the death of Bop Ad), and also Star Wars day (the day the original Star Wars was released. Apparently also it’s a Discworld (of Terry Pratchett) day: The Glorious 25 May
• July 22: Pi day (22/7 = a closer approximation to π  than 3.14)
• September 19: Talk Like a Pirate Day

And… Don’t Panic if you disagree. I’m open to discussion, clarification, and reinspecting my opinions

PS: “Geek Code”? I think that is more correctly this old gem <a href=”http://www.geekcode.com/”>http://www.geekcode.com</a> – for which I have a collection of old codes somewhere, and in fact I’d support it’s re-emergance as a part of the Geek Pride Day, since that would help expand awareness of different elements of geek nature

How did they get to this point?

Here is my trip down OK Go video discovery lane

I was, of course, assisted in this by the existance of all the OK Go videos on one neat site. Conveniently, it’s their own: http://www.okgo.net/media/videos/

Also note: I will mainly be focusing on their video/visual style and evolution, with only passing commentary on the music. Finally, I was assisted in this by my silent partner in review, and her comments will occasionally find note here too.

…And so, on to the chronological order… [edit: it's not really chronological order, it's just the order they appear on their site. This page is basically a snapshot of the conversations my friend and I had about these videos, as we watched them in the order presented to us by the OK Go site]

What To Do

There is not much to say about this early clip. It looks for all the world like label-dictated style for an upcoming group who has yet to define themselves. It features a pretty ‘mainstream indy’ style. Simple setting, shot in black and white. No effects

Notable lyric: “could have been a genius if you had an ax to grind’

You’re So Damn Hot

Another clip which looks for all the world like a label formula. Clips from live shows on the road interspersed with flash-inspired animation. Nothing to write home about.

Get Over It

Yet another label formula clip. This time they’re in the center of an empty hall, performing, with occasionally clip-art shots of popculture items to sync with the lyrics.

Notable video moment: the slow motion ping pong. This felt like the first moment of OK Go’s future video quirkery coming out.

Don’t Ask Me (Dance Booth version)

This is clearly when OK Go started to cut their own creative teeth, as it were. It has a low budget self-made feel to it, with the band and random extras singing/dancing or just showing off (or even looking bored sometimes even!) to the music.

It’s gorgeous and smile inducing.

Don’t Ask Me

This label version of the same song is totally formulaic, and could have been produced for any generic band. Black and white, with simple colour patterns in the background, and don’t forget the cookie cutter dancing girl! (you will though)

It’s boring and yawn inducing.

Notable anything? Sorry, nothing at all.

Do What You Want

This video is a little bit dizzy inducing with it’s rapid motion hyperactive  bullettime-esque motion pans. I’d guess that band had creative input, but still played within the label marketing system. We get a generic band-surround-by-girls setting -  but the wallpaper (more of this next clip) behind them is quirky, and the girls are real (not fake models). But yet we still get a girls-dancing-in-slow-motion scene…

Do What You Want (Wallpaper version)

Taking their own lyrical advice, we have here an amazing example of the band striking out and just making what they want. At least, that’s how it feels! The concept is simple – the band and some performers, all performing… stuff!

The frenetic editing pace suits perfectly – but the masterpiece is the outfits. Everyone and everything (within reason) is covered in the same gorgeously hideous wallpaper pattern. It adorns clothes, instruments, the floor, the wall, furniture, segways…

Watching this, I feel that they have found themselves…

Notable video moment: the pogo stick…

[edit: as noted by Rachel (thankyou!), this clip came after the Treadmill listed below. I don't feel it changes my overall conclusion though. I think it just places it as a clip made with the groups new-found confidence in their own artistic abilities ]

Invincible

This is an odd one. I think it’s a group idea – to blow things up (cos that’s always fun, who cares about originality ALL the time anyway?), but it’s also full of generic ‘band performing’ clips too. My guess is that this is the band’s idea, but that they ceded some creative license to the label for the sake of finances and ability to make it…

Notable video moment: the chandelier

A Million Ways

To me, this is the precursor to the genius of Here It Goes Again, in the same way that Rubber Soul was the precursor to Revolver.

I think this may have been the first time the band ‘just went ahead and made it’ and totally circumvented the ’system’. And what do they do? They dance around in the back yard! And it’s great!

For the first time we have a feel not only for the groups quirky style, but for the band members involved. Without this, there never would have been the treadmills…

Notable video moment: letting the video run past the end of the performance

[edit: again, thanks Rachel. This was a practice video which was leaked and went viral. Ok, so it wasn't deliberate in it's low-key, but shows their style coming through loud and clear ]

Here It Goes Again

OK Go, On Treadmills.

The clip which may have guaranteed OK Go lasting posterity even if they never made anything else again. I can’t say much to this that hasn’t been said a million times. How do you know it’s genius? From the sound of a million viewers all saying “why did I never think of that?”

Notable video moment: when you rewind to watch it again.

WTF

I must admit, this video actually annoyed me, but my silent partner in review thought it amazing. To my eye, making a whole video where the visual effect is that of a crashed Windows 3.1 (or 95/98/2000/XP) program – was cringe worthy.

In fairness, it did have potential though. If the effect had been applied selectively, whilst other times ‘locking’ the background in place, then I may well have been equally impressed. Silent partner, otoh, thought it was great.

And it’s not like there weren’t scenes which made good use of the style either – I don’t deny that. But the basic premise upon which all this cleverness was built? Just didn’t do it for me. So overall: cringe, with a concession of clever.

Notable video moment: the chair (which instead reminded me of old-skool demo scene

This Too Shall Pass

I love this and think it’s genius (though my silent partner thought it ‘meh, with a side order of cute’). It just grows and amazes as one long clip unfolds and expands, with new people and camera angles when you least expect.  I don’t want to give it away, so I’ll only say that it’s the first reveal of the brass which does it for me.

Notable video moment: every time you wonder how you didn’t see that person before now

This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Version)

Their most recent piece is a stunning piece of fun invention. I think it shows that the band is willing to now use the medium of video clips to make cool stuff, even if it has only a passing meaning to the song (and why not, it’s not like the formulas the labels push do any better anyway!).

This time a huge Rube Goldberg machine accompanies them in time with the song. A song which soon gets stuck in your head too (though I did find the Marching Band version to be rather forgettable, so ymmv).

The treadmill video gets a cameo here, and I think that the band feels they have more to show the world than just that one idea, and don’t want to be overshadowed by their own history after all.

I only hope that they don’t burn out, forget about the music, or typecast themselves in trying to escape the treadmill meme…

Notable lyrics: “let it go / this too shall pass”

Conclusion

Some groups – and indeed, people, start out quirky and imaginative, but when they begin to achieve fame, they get scared. They close down and start repeating themselves for fear of losing what they have, and instead lose that very edge that got them started.

Others instead, seem to use the power of fame to push the envelope of what is possible/accepted or expected – and so expand their own edge, in relative fearlessness of the effect it may have on their fanbase or reputation.

And it is into this latter category that I put Gonzo the Great.

oh, and also: OK Go.

Post Script:

Being a newly confirmed fan of both their video and their music – and I am kicking myself that I found out they were here in Brisbane a few weeks ago… and only found out this week when I discovered this clip history. No matter, next time…

[edit postscript: I wrote this review after an evenings entertaining video watching. I have since been corrected on some chronology and facts, and no doubt will find new errors in my assumptions down the track. In the interest of satisfying both my desire to not revise history, but also to not spread misinformation; I will update this post with edits like this as I find or am informed of errors. The original post will remain otherwise untouched.

...that'll sure teach me to write and post at midnight! [1]]

To summarise the previous posts…

Winter:

The room: 14 – 30.5C

The rack: 23.3 – 43.4C

Spring:

The room: 14.4 – 33.8C

The rack: 22.6 – 45C

And newly…

Summer:

The room: 19.6 – 34.9C
The rack: 27.9 – 45.7C

The seasonal trend is there. Not unexpected for it to be there, just nice to know what it is, quantitatively.

http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera.html

If you haven’t seen it, then do so now.

If you have, proceed…

So if I can be allowed to blow my own horn for a moment, I’d like to boast that I occasionally seem to have quite marvelous ideas independently or others. Admittedly, others who were lucky enough to think of it earlier enough and/or had resources enough to make something of it. But my claim is that I sometimes think of these things _independently_.

And it has has been said of inventing – the best inventions are obvious, which is why it’s so humbling to remember that one didn’t think of these ‘obvious’ things themselves.

But in my case, can I finally “prove” that I did…?

Back to the video – I’d like to draw your attention to a point approximately 3:45 in: “…time travel. I’m not going to show you some of the wonderful historic imagery in here – there’s some in here with horses and carriages as well [...] it also is the foundation for augmented reality“.

Now compare with an email of mine to a friend, where I wrote this:

What would be kind of cool: augmented reality goggles (this is one of those ideas I had years before I knew there was a word for it) that show recreated historical versions of the world… but, instead of just showing a certain era, you see the ‘prettiest’ building at any given location. Making a best-of-all-possible-eras virtual world

So as far as I can tell (can anyone confirm?), this talk was made on Feb 11 or 12 (based on dated video comments afterwards). My email has a date stamp of: 10 Feb 2010 15:17:07 +1000). And, frankly, even if the video was recorded first, I sure didn’t see it till today

As an aside, my email was prompted by a rather ugly house I see regularly in town, and my own wonderings if it used to be pretty…

• • Contemporary Google maps street view
  • Sometime pre 1994, it was ugly then too
  • Circa 1930s – it was gorgeous.

I especially love how you get basically the same angle on all three – which was, of course, the key to my own inspiration

So clearly, the next thing for me to work out is real time travel – at which point I can begin to start sending these ideas of mine back to people in the past with the resources to make them a reality asap! =)

Regardless..

New years resolutions? Out.
New years goals? In.

So, in three brief categories, here are my goals for 2010

• Location: This year – to live by myself.
• Body: Cut milk from my diet (as a drink, I’m not cutting all diary as food just now), and ensure I exercise enough to maintain current fitness levels or improve.
• Mind: Stay on target with pet projects and complete them

Note: these resolutions earlier appeared as a StatusNet dent here: http://identi.ca/notice/18121538 and were mirrored via twitter here: http://twitter.com/nemothorx/status/7346796530 (they were furthermore mirrored on facebook!)

So. Why can’t we have a voting machine to do this?You choose your preferred policy on a range of issues (healthcare, tax, immigration, environment, education, defence, etc), and at the end it says “you have chosen the . Is this correct?”

And it can even fill in preferences for you (Dear USA. Get preferential voting and the bare minimum. Till then, I cannot respect your so-called ‘democracy’).

Yes, this is far from perfect and full of flaws[12], but really, if Subway can have lunch voting machines (I’d love to see the stats on bread choices in fact), then why is there so much drama about getting one for government?

[12] by far, the biggest issue I can see is showing a lack of bias in determining the party that best matches the selected choices and relative priorities between them. Is this a solved problem? I don’t know.

Here are the spring results

So in 3 months of spring, the ‘indoor’ (outside the rack) temperatures: 14.4 – 33.8C

And the “outdoor” (inside the rack) for the same winter season: 22.6 – 45C

So in short – not too different from winter… a couple of degrees warmer all around… though I bet a bellcurve plot of common temperatures would show a slightly different bias to the story too.

Thermometer reset, and into summer… hello summer!

256 colour support is there. It’s in the code. It works. It’s nice. And it’s… not only not enabled by default, there is no clear and simple way of enabling it even if you WANTED TO.

I was going to blog more about this, but the following IRC fragment I think says it all. Any questions?

<nemo> it'd be sure nice for a distro to set itself up with no self-crippling
        for ancient stuff that, frankly, nobody is using anymore
<nemo> (or if they do, then it's being used by people savvy enough (probably)
        to work out the compatibility issues themselves
<nemo> ubuntu does a good step, I think, but probably not enough
<nemo> 256colours should be the GLOBAL DEFAULT these days
<Screwtape> Every time somebody suggests that, they get shouted down by people
        who say things like 'BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I SSH TO MY
        FreeBSD/OpenBSD/Solaris/Dragonfly/Xenix MACHINE!'
<Screwtape> We can't even figure out whether backspace should be ^H or ^? 
<nemo> [a] don't use this distro then
<Screwtape> It's hardly global domination if everybody stops using it. 
<nemo> it's hardly global domination if we're compromising ourselves for the
        compatibility of those who DON'T use it
<nemo> [b] have a nifty 'set_maximum_compatibility' script, which backwardsify
        everything

...

<nemo> so, what else has potential, but is held back by... historical compatibility?
<nemo> and by 'potential', I mean "it's there on your system now, just waiting for
        you to apply the correct settings'
<nemo> I am identifying terminal colours, and default prompts
<nemo> (terminal colours, and all the terminals, applications (screen, elinks, etc),
        etc that go with.
<Screwtape> I.. can't think of anything else off the top of my head, sadly. 
<Screwtape> Or perhaps luckily.
...

In fairness, it’s not like it’s not been noticed before:

...
<nemo> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=121800
<nemo> 2003... status new
<nemo> wtf
<nemo> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=115750
<nemo> amuses me that my no-X11 server has terminfo for 'gnome' and 'gnome-256color',
        but my ubuntu desktop does not
...

And in case anyone wants to bring their terminal into the 21st century with 256colours instead of 8 (“tput colors” will tell you what yours can do), Screwtape has a nice little writeup here:

...
<Screwtape> http://screwtape.jottit.com/automatic_%24term_selection <-- Here's my
        automatic $TERM hack.

…

PS: As a final note: Shortly after this conversation, Screwtape filed the following debian bug report for vim’s syntax handling of sh scripts:  vim-runtime: sh syntax highlighting should default to POSIX.

…

PPS: Originally blogged to: http://blog.thorx.net/2009/10/linux-ui-crippling-itself. Please consider leaving comments at the blog rather than facebook or other social media side that this post may be propagated to. Thankyou

So I’m wary about extensions to his work.

The movie I enjoyed. I thought it could be better, and some parts truly bothered me, but other parts gave me smiles. I accept it as a HHG movie, but somehow it lacked a vibe.

So this week saw the release of the long-awaited 6th Hitch Hiker’s book, written by Eoin Colfer. I bought it, I have read it. This is my review.

So the first thing I’m going to do is write the positive, but then I’m editing it out to the end of the review, because ultimately, it’s not a book that should be leaving a sour taste in your mouth in reviews.

Mostly spoilerfree review follows

First, the negative (minor spoilers)

This isn’t the novel Douglas would have written, right? Well,  yes, and no. In the improbabilities that span the vast multidimensional space of the infinite universe, I’m sure that a Douglas Adams would have written this novel as his 6th after the 5 we know. But it’s unlikely…

Colfer’s Guide feels like he’s taken some of Douglas’ writing formulas, and used them again and again. Almost, but exactly not quite overdoing it, as it were. This was especially evident earlier on, His plot isn’t as rich as we had come to expect from later Adams work. And his characters have distinct aura of ‘loser’ about them. Dent is no longer the everyday man, he has become a worst-at-everything-since-childhood character, and other characters seem to fall under the knife of an author who wants them to be poorer versions of themselves than my own imagination had previously made them out to be.

Adams’ writing always had a very subtle touch of PG humour, whilst Colfer more regularly  seems to make them, or at least allude to dirty jokes in a not-quite Adamsian way. A subtle extra hint of crudeness somehow. Anyway… it’s just not quite what Adams would have written.

The Positive (spoiler free)

So Douglas’ books, especially the Hiker books, have a certain pace, a certain rhythm. They have a certain style, a certain flair. Improbable as it is, and dispite the negatives, Colfer has, by and large, nailed it.

There were parts of the book that I laughed out loud at. Parts that I nodded with big smiles at. Parts that I reflected to myself with a ‘yes, that gives me pause for thought, in a good way’. And most tellingly, and this is the highest praise I can give, parts that I totally forgot I was reading a non-Adams’ Guide story. On balance, it felt natural.

Frankly, if they announced tomorrow that Eoin is writing a seventh, then I’ll look forward to it with the same mixture of eagerness, caution and anticipation as I did for this one.

PS: Originally blogged to: http://blog.thorx.net/2009/10/and-another-thing-a-review Please consider leaving comments at the blog rather than facebook or other social media side this post may be propogated to. Thankyou