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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/metamesh/meta-mesh-community-wireless-networks-for-all

Funding Canceled

Funding for this project was canceled by the project creator 1 day ago.

http://www.metamesh.org/blog/2015/08/14/ks-closure

Today we decided to halt our Kickstarter campaign. In the past few weeks, Meta Mesh and its volunteers have had to face a lot of challenges, both in the business and personal realms. We received wide support from many of those we directly asked. For that, we are terrifically grateful.

We have decided to change the direction our company is headed. In no way are we finished. In fact, this Kickstarter experience revealed a lot to us about who we want to be and how to be it.

In the upcoming months we will be expanding PittMesh, launching a webstore where pre-configured routers can be purchased, and will be building a dedicated PittMesh Working Group where people who want to contribute to building a Community Wireless Network can learn about new technology, can gain new skills, and can network with inspired people.

Definitely stay tuned to our website and our social media feeds. In fact, mere moments after closing our Kickstarter campaign something occurred which we will announce shortly that has been months in the making and we are incredibly excited about.

We’re not done. No way. As they say, it’s hard to keep a good man down. We’ll be in touch with you all again shortly.

I've gotten tired of the Secure Boot madness, especially lately with Microsoft's memo to OEMs that they are no longer required to provide an opt-out.

I've written the FTC. Here is the letter I sent to the antitrust division as per their instructions:

Hello, I'm writing to report a possible violation by Microsoft Corporation, who has been abusing their standing with PC manufacturers (who need to comply to get the "Designed for Windows" sticker) to bully them into making it increasingly difficult to install a competitor's operating system on a standard PC.

Around 2011, Microsoft mandated that machines that ship with Windows 8 come with a feature called "Secure Boot" enabled. What this does, is on boot, it checks to see if the operating system was digitally "signed" by a trusted authority, in most cases Microsoft alone, and if not, the system completely refuses to boot. While until Windows 10, Microsoft mandated a feature to disable secure boot in the BIOS, with Windows 10 they have told manufacturers that this is no longer required.

What's important to understand is, that Microsoft has literally positioned themselves as virtually the only trusted 'signer' of all competitors' operating systems. All competitors must either hope that the PC will provide a method to disable this 'secure boot', or *pay* Microsoft, a competitor, to graciously allow them to run on standard PCs.

Prior to the secure boot feature, it was extremely easy to load any competitor's operating system on a standard PC. It took no workarounds or 'hacking' or fiddling with settings. It would simply install.

There are many different operating systems available for the PC, including but not by any means limited to:
Linux (which comes in literally thousands of variations, each requiring to be signed by Microsoft for secure boot), FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Haiku OS, Solaris, and even Android.

These systems have no technical limitation preventing them from being installed on these PCs, but rather
are now artificially forced to pay Microsoft to run on any PC with Secure Boot 'locked' on.
I have already encountered a Toshiba laptop that did not have an option to disable secure boot, and it was impossible to boot my preferred homemade Linux operating system on it as a result, since I cannot and will not pay Microsoft to sign it.

Microsoft has made unusually high requirements for them signing an operating system. It even goes as far to state that components they sign must not be of particular free software licenses.
In addition, it contains a threat to revoke certificates for OSes that have known security holes in the boot sequence code, an action Microsoft would surely never do to their own OS. (Windows)

Here is a link to their policies regarding UEFI/Secure Boot "signing":
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windows_hardware_certification/archive/2013/12/03/microsoft-uefi-ca-signing-policy-updates.aspx

I await a response and hope that we can continue to keep the operating system running on a PC as the choice of the consumer, not one particular operating system vendor.

You may call me at censored if you wish or need further information.

-Daniel Hopson

I think this song goes well with this entry.

When in 2011 when the OCD hit me for the first time, I had no hope at all. I expected to die soon, because life was such a hell, I couldn't imagine any other scenario. Otherwise, why so much pain? Multiple obsessions hitting me at once, sucking the joy from my soul. This isn't normal OCD. This is stuff that had me screaming for someone to kill me at one point, but I won't get into that. Here's a link that describes it.

I found a spark of light in this pitch black from a youtuber whose whimsical little videos made me feel the first bit of joy in several months. I subscribed to her, HiHiAkafa, then subscribed to her new account HeavenSoulTrance, and finally AkafaXD. She suffers from what appears to be depression, and seems to be a furry. I don't mind of course (how can I, I sometimes think of myself as "the white rat"), and I always found her videos quite adorable. Point is, she posted a video not long ago explaining that depression was preventing her from working on her art. I was one of those who gave her encouraging comments, which she appreciated. It appears that hasn't done any good.

She's erased everything on her last youtube account AkafaXD. The profile picture is glass shattering in a black void.
All that glorious art, lost. All her adorable animations, gone. A piece of me, a piece I integrated into my fondest memories, gone.

I managed to save some of her videos luckily, because I loved her work so much I had downloaded them from YouTube prior to her account wipeout.

I've made an archive of the handful of videos I had on hand, on my secondary server. http://gieba.universe2.us/rememberakafa

I just hope she stays safe.

The first Republican primary debates will be "legally" available online only to Fox News cable subscribers. Assuming you don't have TV access to the debate and are bored/interested/depraved enough to want to watch live, look for and post streams in the comments. They are sure to be clamping down on livestreaming services like Periscope, but others might escape notice. Twitter real time search is a great way to find these kinds of links and generally a good source of entertainment during these sorts of live events. Here's the Fox News schedule:

• 5pm ET: First (kiddy pool candidates) Debate
• 6pm ET: Online Pre-Show
• 9pm ET: Primetime Debate
• 11pm ET: Online Post-Debate Show

Jon Stewart's last episode of the Daily Show will start at 11pm ET and will last 52 minutes.

The candidates making the cut for the main debate were Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and John Kasich. Seven candidates who did not qualify were invited to participate in the 5:00 PM forum; these were Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, and Jim Gilmore. Because of a rule-change announced by FOX one week before the debate-invitations went out, Graham, Pataki, and Gilmore will participate at 5pm despite averaging below 1% in the five selected polls. (Former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson was excluded from the 5pm tier, along with other relatively-unknown candidates who did not meet the updated invitation-criteria of "consistently being offered to respondents in major national polls as recognized by Fox News.") The five selected polls were conducted by Fox News, Bloomberg, CBS News, Monmouth University, and Quinnipiac University.

I made this as a journal because I didn't want to subject all of Soylent to it, especially since Fox News is not making it easy to watch the debates.

Keep in mind: Republican debate drinking games are dangerous.

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        tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Wrap \u003Csmall\u003E tags around the selected text.");
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    tempbutton.setAttribute("value","x\u00B2");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Superscript");
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    tempbutton.setAttribute("value","x\u2082");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Subscript");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("style","font-family:monospace;");
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    toolbar.appendChild(document.createTextNode(" ")); // Divider

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    tempbutton.setAttribute("type","button");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("value","1. List");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Insert an ordered list or convert newline-separated text into an ordered list.");
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    tempbutton.setAttribute("type","button");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("value","\u2022 List");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Insert an unordered list or convert newline-separated text into an unordered list.");
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    toolbar.appendChild(document.createElement("br")); // Divider

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        // Create macros if they don't exist
        if(!localStorage.getItem("soymacro"+i))
        {
            localStorage.setItem("soymacro"+i,JSON.stringify(["M"+i,"string","Sample Text"]));
            //localStorage.setItem("soymacro"+i,JSON.stringify(["M"+i,"regexp","/a/gi","b"]));
        }
        var tempbutton = document.createElement("input");
        tempbutton.setAttribute("type","button");
        tempbutton.setAttribute("id","soymacros"+x+"button"+i);
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            if (JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("soymacro"+i))[2].length < 40)
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                tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Insert or replace selected text with: " + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("soymacro"+i))[2]);
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            else
            {
                tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Insert or replace selected text with: " + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("soymacro"+i))[2].substring(0,40)+"...");
            }
            tempbutton.setAttribute("onclick","macroChoose(document.getElementsByTagName('textarea')["+x+"],"+i+");");
        }
        else
        {
            tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Replace text matched by the regular expression: " + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("soymacro"+i))[2] + " with: " + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("soymacro"+i))[3]);
            tempbutton.setAttribute("onclick","macroChoose(document.getElementsByTagName('textarea')["+x+"],"+i+");");
        }
        toolbar.appendChild(tempbutton);
    }
    // Create macros edit button
    var tempbutton = document.createElement("input");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("type","button");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("value","Edit");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Configure user macros or discard changes.");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("onclick","if (document.getElementById('macrobar"+x+"').style.display == 'none') {document.getElementById('macrobar"+x+"').style.display = 'block'; macrobarInit("+x+");} else {document.getElementById('macrobar"+x+"').style.display = 'none'; if (p = document.getElementById('postercomment')) { var x = p.offsetTop; while (p = p.offsetParent) {x += p.offsetLeft;} window.scrollTo(0,x-75);}}");
    toolbar.appendChild(tempbutton);

    toolbar.appendChild(document.createElement("br")); // Divider

    // Despace button
    var tempbutton = document.createElement("input");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("type","button");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("value","Despace");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Delete newlines within the selection.");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("onclick","despace(document.getElementsByTagName('textarea')["+x+"]);");
    toolbar.appendChild(tempbutton);

    // Symbol button
    var tempbutton = document.createElement("input");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("type","button");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("value",":-)");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("title","Insert a symbol.");
    tempbutton.setAttribute("onclick","if (document.getElementById('smilebar"+x+"').style.display == 'none') {document.getElementById('smilebar"+x+"').style.display = 'block'} else {document.getElementById('smilebar"+x+"').style.display = 'none'; if (p = document.getElementById('postercomment')) { var x = p.offsetTop; while (p = p.offsetParent) {x += p.offsetLeft;} window.scrollTo(0,x-75); } }");
    toolbar.appendChild(tempbutton);
    boxes[x].parentNode.insertBefore(toolbar, boxes[x].nextSibling);

    // Symbol list
    var smilebar = document.createElement("div");
    smilebar.setAttribute("style","-moz-user-select:none; -webkit-user-select:none; display:none; font-size:16pt; max-height:240px; overflow:auto; padding:0.5em;");
    smilebar.setAttribute("id","smilebar"+x);
    var smiles = ["\u0026amp;","\u0026lt;","\u0026gt;"];

    var codes = [[161,169],[171,172],[174],[176,177],[180,183],[187,191],[215],[224,255],[402],[629],[632],[916],[920],[931],[934],[937],[945,946],[956],[960],[963],[8216,8221],[8226],[8230],[8251],[8364],[8478],[8482],[8528,8542],[8585],[8592,8652],[8712,8716],[8721],[8730],[8733,8734],[8736],[8743,8749],[8756,8757],[8773],[8776],[8800,8805],[8834,8837],[8984],[9760],[9762,9765],[9770],[9773,9775],[9784,9794],[9812,9831],[9833,9842],[9850],[9855,9861],[9874,9877],[9882,9885],[9888,9893],[9913],[9940],[9962],[9971],[9981],[9992,10087],[65533],[127744,127756],[127759],[127775,127776],[127797],[127801],[127804,127812],[127817],[127820,127822],[127828,127831],[127838,127839],[127843],[127849],[127855],[127860,127867],[127891],[127904,127911],[127918],[127939],[127942],[127977],[128025],[128074,128078],[128123,128131],[128137,128142],[128148,128150],[128152],[128158],[128161,128164],[128168,128170],[128172],[128176,128177],[128187],[128189,128190],[128193,128194],[128197],[128203,128204],[128206],[128214],[128225,128227],[128231,128233],[128241],[128244],[128246],[128250,128252],[128259],[128266,128270],[128273,128276],[128278,128280],[128286],[128293,128299],[128302,128303],[128509,128510],[128659],[128684,128685]];

    for (var i=0; i<codes.length; i++) { if (codes[i].length > 1) { for (var j=codes[i][0]; j<=codes[i][1]; j++) { smiles[smiles.length] = String.fromCodePoint(j); } } else { smiles[smiles.length] = String.fromCodePoint(codes[i][0]); } } // Populate smiles array with code ranges converted to individual characters

    smiles = smiles.concat(["xD",":-)",":^)","(^_^;)","\u0028\u00A0\u0361\u00B0\u00A0\u035C\u0296\u00A0\u0361\u00B0\u0029","\u0028\u00A0\u0361\u007E\u00A0\u035C\u0296\u00A0\u0361\u00B0\u0029\uFEFF","\u00AF\u005C\u005F\u0028\u30C4\u0029\u005F\u002F\u00AF","\u0028\u256F\u00B0\u25A1\u00B0\uFF09\u256F\uFE35\u00A0\u253B\u2501\u253B","\u0028\u30CE\u0CA0\u76CA\u0CA0\u0029\u30CE\u5F61\u253B\u2501\u253B","\u0028\u0060\uFF65\u03C9\uFF65\u00B4\u0029","\u0CA0_\u0CA0","\u0295\u2022\u1D25\u2022\u0294","\u0028\u3065\uFFE3\u00A0\u00B3\uFFE3\u0029\u3065","\u0669\u0028\u204E\u275B\u1D17\u275B\u204E\u0029\u06F6","\u30FD\u0F3C\u0E88\u0644\u035C\u0E88\u0F3D\uFF89"]); // Add in arbitrary emoticons

    for (var i=0; i<smiles.length; i++)
    {
        var smile = document.createElement("span");
        smile.setAttribute("style","cursor:pointer; padding:2px; white-space:nowrap;");
        smile.setAttribute("onclick","addSmile(document.getElementsByTagName('textarea')["+x+"],'"+smiles[i].replace("\u005C","\u005C\u005C")+"');");
        smile.appendChild(document.createTextNode(smiles[i]));
        smilebar.appendChild(smile);
        if (i+1<smiles.length)
        {
            smilebar.appendChild(document.createTextNode(" "));
        }
    }
    toolbar.parentNode.insertBefore(smilebar, toolbar.nextSibling);

    // Create macro configuration interface
    var macrobar = document.createElement("div");
    macrobar.setAttribute("style","display:none; padding:0.5em;");
    macrobar.setAttribute("id","macrobar"+x);
    var table = document.createElement("table");
    var tr = document.createElement("tr");
    var th = document.createElement("th");
    th.appendChild(document.createTextNode("Name"));
    tr.appendChild(th);
    var th = document.createElement("th");
    th.appendChild(document.createTextNode("Type"));
    tr.appendChild(th);
    var th = document.createElement("th");
    th.appendChild(document.createTextNode("String | Expression"));
    tr.appendChild(th);
    var th = document.createElement("th");
    th.setAttribute("title","Only used with expressions. Parenthesized substring matches (e.g. '$1') can be used.");
    th.setAttribute("style","cursor:help;");
    th.appendChild(document.createTextNode("Expression Replace"));
    tr.appendChild(th);
    table.appendChild(tr);
    for (var i=1; i<=7; i++)
    {
        var tr = document.createElement("tr");

        // Macro name
        var td = document.createElement("td");
        var name = document.createElement("input");
        name.setAttribute("type","text");
        name.setAttribute("id","soymacros"+x+"name"+i);
        td.appendChild(name);
        tr.appendChild(td);

        // Macro type
        var td = document.createElement("td");
        var rad = document.createElement("input");
        rad.setAttribute("type","radio");
        rad.setAttribute("name","soymacros"+x+"type"+i);
        rad.setAttribute("id","soymacros"+x+"type"+i+"S");
        td.appendChild(rad);
        td.appendChild(document.createTextNode(" String "));
        var rad = document.createElement("input");
        rad.setAttribute("type","radio");
        rad.setAttribute("name","soymacros"+x+"type"+i);
        rad.setAttribute("id","soymacros"+x+"type"+i+"E");
        td.appendChild(rad);
        td.appendChild(document.createTextNode(" Expression "));
        tr.appendChild(td);

        // Field A
        var td = document.createElement("td");
        var f1 = document.createElement("input");
        f1.setAttribute("type","text");
        f1.setAttribute("id","soymacros"+x+"fieldA"+i);
        td.appendChild(f1);
        tr.appendChild(td);

        // Field B
        var td = document.createElement("td");
        var f1 = document.createElement("input");
        f1.setAttribute("type","text");
        f1.setAttribute("id","soymacros"+x+"fieldB"+i);
        td.appendChild(f1);
        tr.appendChild(td);

        table.appendChild(tr);
    }
    macrobar.appendChild(table);

    var p = document.createElement("p");
    var save = document.createElement("input");
    save.setAttribute("type","button");
    save.setAttribute("value","Save");
    save.setAttribute("title","Save any edits to the macro configuration.");
    save.setAttribute("onclick","macrobarSave("+x+");");
    p.appendChild(save);
    p.appendChild(document.createTextNode(" "));
    var guide = document.createElement("a");
    guide.setAttribute("href","https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions");
    guide.setAttribute("target","_blank");
    guide.appendChild(document.createTextNode("Regexp Guide"));
    p.appendChild(guide);
    macrobar.appendChild(p);

    toolbar.parentNode.insertBefore(macrobar, toolbar.nextSibling);
}

var temp = document.createElement("script");

// Add selection handling function
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function getSelection(textarea) { if ('selectionStart' in textarea) { if (textarea.selectionStart != textarea.selectionEnd) { return [textarea.selectionStart,textarea.selectionEnd]; } } } "));

// Add comment formatting buttons
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function addBlockquote(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<blockquote>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/blockquote>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addPara(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<p>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/p>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addBreak(area) { if ('selectionStart' in area) { var pos = area.selectionStart; area.value = area.value.substring(0,area.selectionStart) + '<br>' + area.value.substring(pos); area.focus(); area.setSelectionRange(pos+4,pos+4) } } function addHRule(area) { if ('selectionStart' in area) { var pos = area.selectionStart; area.value = area.value.substring(0,area.selectionStart) + '<hr>' + area.value.substring(pos); area.focus(); area.setSelectionRange(pos+4,pos+4) } } function addHyperlink(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { url = prompt('URL:', 'https://'); area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<a href=\"'+url+'\">'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/a>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addBold(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<b>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/b>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addItalic(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<em>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/em>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addStrike(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<strike>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/strike>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addEcode(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<ecode>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/ecode>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addTT(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<tt>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/tt>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addSmall(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<small>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/small>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addSuper(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<sup>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/sup>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } function addSubsc(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + '<sub>'+area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1])+'<\/sub>' + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } } "));

// Add list creation functions
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function addOrdlist(area) { if ('selectionStart' in area) { if (area.selectionStart != area.selectionEnd) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,area.selectionStart) + '<ol><li>' + area.value.substring(area.selectionStart,area.selectionEnd).replace(/\\n/g,'<\/li>\\n<li>').replace(/\\n<li><\\/li>/g,'') + '<\/li><\/ol>' + area.value.substring(area.selectionEnd); } else { temp = '<ol>'; while(listitem = prompt('Enter a list item. Leave the box empty or press Cancel to complete the list:', '')) { temp += '<li>' + listitem + '<\/li>\\n'; } area.value = area.value.substring(0,area.selectionStart) + temp.substring(0,temp.length-1) + '<\/ol>' + area.value.substring(area.selectionStart); } } } function addUnordlist(area) { if ('selectionStart' in area) { if (area.selectionStart != area.selectionEnd) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,area.selectionStart) + '<ul><li>' + area.value.substring(area.selectionStart,area.selectionEnd).replace(/\\n/g,'<\/li>\\n<li>').replace(/\\n<li><\\/li>/g,'') + '<\/li><\/ul>' + area.value.substring(area.selectionEnd); } else { temp = '<ul>'; while(listitem = prompt('Enter a list item. Leave the box empty or press Cancel to complete the list:', '')) { temp += '<li>' + listitem + '<\/li>\\n'; } area.value = area.value.substring(0,area.selectionStart) + temp.substring(0,temp.length-1) + '<\/ul>' + area.value.substring(area.selectionStart); } } }"));

// Add macro functions
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function macroChoose(area,x) { if (JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+x))[1]=='string') { macroString(area,x); } else { macroRegexp(area,x); } }"));
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function macroString(area,x) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (sel && sel[0] != sel[1]) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+x))[2] + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } else if ('selectionStart' in area) { var pos = area.selectionStart; area.value = area.value.substring(0,area.selectionStart) + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+x))[2] + area.value.substring(pos); area.focus(); area.setSelectionRange(pos+JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+x))[2].length,pos+JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+x))[2].length); } }"));
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function macroRegexp(area,x) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (sel && sel[0] != sel[1]) { var reg = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+x))[2]; area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1]).replace(new RegExp(reg.substring(reg.indexOf('/')+1,reg.lastIndexOf('/')), reg.substring(reg.lastIndexOf('/')+1)),JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+x))[3]) + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } }"));
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function macrobarInit(x) { for (var y=1; y<=7; y++) { document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'name'+y).value = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[0]; if (JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[1]=='string') { document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'type'+y+'S').checked = true; } else { document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'type'+y+'E').checked = true; } document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'fieldA'+y).value = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[2]; if (JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[1]!='string') { document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'fieldB'+y).value = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[3]; } else { document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'fieldB'+y).value = ''; } } }"));
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function macrobarSave(x) { for (var y=1; y<=7; y++) { if (document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'type'+y+'S').checked == true) { localStorage.setItem('soymacro'+y,JSON.stringify([document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'name'+y).value,'string',document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'fieldA'+y).value])); } else { localStorage.setItem('soymacro'+y,JSON.stringify([document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'name'+y).value,'regexp',document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'fieldA'+y).value,document.getElementById('soymacros'+x+'fieldB'+y).value])); } } document.getElementById('macrobar'+x).style.display = 'none'; var boxes = document.getElementsByTagName('textarea'); for (var z=0; z<boxes.length; z++) { for (var y=1; y<=7; y++) { document.getElementById('soymacros'+z+'button'+y).value = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[0]; if (JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[1]=='string') { if (JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[2].length < 40) { document.getElementById('soymacros'+z+'button'+y).title = 'Insert or replace selected text with: ' + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[2]; } else { document.getElementById('soymacros'+z+'button'+y).title = 'Insert or replace selected text with: ' + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[2].substring(0,40)+'...'; } } else { document.getElementById('soymacros'+z+'button'+y).title = 'Replace text matched by the regular expression: ' + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[2] + ' with: ' + JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('soymacro'+y))[3]; } } } }"));

// Add despace function
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function despace(area) { var sel = getSelection(area); if (!(sel[0] == 0 && sel[1] == 0)) { area.value = area.value.substring(0,sel[0]) + area.value.substring(sel[0],sel[1]).replace(/\\r/g,' ').replace(/\\n/g,' ').replace(/\\s\\s/g,' ').replace(/\\s\\s/g,' ').replace(/\\s\\s/g,' ').replace(/\\s\\s/g,' ').replace(/\\s\\s/g,' ') + area.value.substring(sel[1]); } }"));

// Add unicode insertion function
temp.appendChild(document.createTextNode("function addSmile(area, smile) { if ('selectionStart' in area) { var pos = area.selectionStart; area.value = area.value.substring(0,pos) + smile + area.value.substring(pos); area.focus(); area.setSelectionRange(pos+smile.length,pos+smile.length) } }"));

document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(temp); // Add script to page

So I just got a new laptop. It's an Acer Aspire E5-521. It was manufactured in April. It has 4GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD, and an AMD E2-6110 processor. Now, I know a lot of people don't like Acer, but since around 2009 they've cleaned up their act and I actually prefer their stuff. It tends to be of good build quality nowadays without being too pricey.

So, for the OS, I first tried to load my SubLinux with XFCE on it. It worked, but the kernel, which was a 4.0.0, mind you, didn't see the touchpad. I also couldn't get sound working, and 3D acceleration wouldn't work.

After fiddling with it and building a 4.1.3 kernel, I got sound and the touchpad working. Turns out it was using the HDMI as the default sound output, which is why it wouldn't work. That left me still without 3D acceleration. So I got tired of the fuss and decided to load Fedora 22 x64 on it. Went smoothly, everything worked out of the box.

But it didn't feel like home, and having to install all those -devel packages for my work was a massive irritation. Eventually I got fed up (no pun intended) and switched back to SubLinux, determined to get my video working. Finally, after compiling a new Xorg ATI driver (which required compiling a new version of LLVM and installing libglamor (needed for new ATI cards)), I got 3D going, and now I'm happy.

The machine is very responsive, and always seems to stay very cool no matter what work load I'm giving it and whether or not I have it sitting on a soft surface that would be really bad for most machines. The only pet peeve I have left is that the hard disk spins down on idle *constantly*. Give it 10 secs of no reads or writes and it spins down. Starts up quick so only a minor irritant, but it appears my kernel doesn't know how to talk to the damn drive and get it to stop ignoring 'hdparm'.

Display quality is alright, but a little too pixellated. I can see the pixels. Runs at 1366x768.
Seems to run Warzone 2100 quite well now that I got 3D going. The system ignores my commands to dim backlight. Did that in Fedora too. Suspend works fantastic however.

Battery life is around 4.5 hours on a full charge. Takes about 2 hours to charge.

Comes with a wireless n WiFi card. Works fine out of the box on both Fedora and SubLinux.
Keyboard is a chiclet keyboard, but it's strangely comfortable to type on.
Touchpad is one of those Macbook Air style things where the whole thing clicks. I enabled tap-to-click and that made me happy. I don't much care for the big clicky-button.

Has a webcam, but I don't have much use for that right now.

1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0.

This should do just fine for quite a while. Excuse me, I just heard my drive spin down again. Dammit.

We've all got little made up words and phrases that we use too much that help to define our personality.

* The gerbils will feast on your/thy flesh -- Either humorous, or, less commonly, an indication that for your crimes you will be devoured by an army of undead gerbils. Like saying "you're going to fry in hell"

* Two bits short of a byte -- A few screws loose, not that bright, stupid, nuts.

* Nurble -- like derp, used to express a blank mind, no opinion, or no comment.

* Fudge ripple/Fudge ripple splatters -- shit.

* Fruity in the coconut -- Just plain nuts.

* Fucktard/fuckwit -- An extremely idiotic person.

* Stinky -- a smoke.

* Shit sandwich -- A terrible person, an intense asshole.

* As you say -- A statement of willingness to yield to another.

* Beef and beetle stew -- A lemon, defective, pointless. Originates from a childhood meal ruined by strange little red beetle things.

* Fuzzy crawler -- A larvae of the dermestid beetle, the "hide beetle". Hairy little brown caterpillars that I think are cute. I used to keep colonies as pets. See this image.

* Squeak -- A pencil or pen

* Underscare -- Underwear.

* Gorp -- A mix of peanuts, raisins, and often other nuts used as a snack. Trail mix.

* Face cheese -- Pus from acne

* Mewble -- The distorted meow a cat makes when it wants something.

* Fugly -- Ugly as fuck.

* Ear cheese -- Earwax.

* Salvation-in-a-bottle -- My OCD medication.

  * Satur-nes-day/Thurs-nes-day/etc -- An intentional mispronunciation of days of the week, pointing out the strange spelling of "Wednesday".

* Up your ass and around the corner -- You asked me where something is that I don't want you to find.

Got any of your own? It'd be fun to see.

NASA says their New Horizons probe suffered a temporary communication breakdown on Saturday at 17:54 UTC, 10 days before it's supposed to fly past Pluto on 2015-07-14. The probe went into "safe mode" but it will still fly past Pluto at the planned distance, speed, and time. The glitch may cause the approach animations and a gap in the light curves for Nix and Hydra. The mission team is working to restore communications to normal. "Full recovery is expected to take from one to several days," NASA wrote in a status report on Saturday. "New Horizons will be temporarily unable to collect science data during that time. The latency one way is currently 4.5 hours.

The two way communication progress can be seen here at the Canberra dish. There's a thread over at New Horizons Pluto System Encounter, 28 Jun 15 that has some things to say about the issue.

Some close up pictures of the planet: dark band at the bottom is around the equator.

University of Cambridge is Recruiting for a Professor of LEGO in 2015. The selected candidate will head a new research center that focuses on children’s relationships with play in education, development and learning. They will also investigate how unrestrictive play can help improve a child’s experience of education. LEGO funds it with an 4 million GBP donation (6.2 million USD).

So I released one of the biggest updates ever for Epoch a couple days ago. As of writing I have yet to update the site documentation, but I thought I'd recap some of the new stuff.

* Basic dependency support. ObjectStartPriority=sshd+1 for example. This is the most requested feature for Epoch of all time.
* 'epoch merge' and 'epoch unmerge' commands to automatically add or delete a config Import= line from epoch.conf, which will help distro maintainers.
* Ability to change logfile location via the LogFile= config attribute.
* Ability to skip or start objects from the kernel command line via skipobj= and startobj=
* New "interactive" mode for boot which mimics old Red Hat releases' "press I for interactive startup" thing with sysvinit. All objects intended to be interactive must have ObjectOptions=INTERACTIVE set.
* Ability to ignore all kernel options passed to Epoch, useful for initramfs. Depends on existence of /.epochnokargs file.
* Added option to ignore when a MountVirtual (e.g. /proc, /sys, /dev. /dev/pts, or /dev/shm) fails to mount.
* Ability to specify the amount of time that should be considered too soon for a service to be auto-restarted.
* Fixed problems with colors and 'less' command. 'epoch help' now returns without color, and 'epoch statusnc' can be used to view status without color. I prefer color because it's easier for me to see at a glance, but now you have the choice.
* Added makefile support, which just calls ./buildepoch.sh. There is also a make clean and you can specify options to buildepoch.sh with 'make BUILDOPTS="--myoption"'.
* Epoch now compiles as C99. I was getting too happy with my nice C99 // comments.

This is probably the biggest update I've released since 1.0.0 "Sage".

Get it while it's hot.

http://universe2.us/epoch.html