The Nortons

syslog Tip of the Day

thane — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:28:14 +0000

OK, if you don’t know what “Terminal” is on a Mac, stop reading now. I am serious. This is geek factor 10, Mr. Sulu.

You have been warned. I spend a lot of time at the terminal on OSX. A lot of time. Additionally, I spend a lot of time using syslog to try and figure out what went wrong on a particular machine. Now, as anyone who has used syslog knows, if you just type syslog, you get way too much information. What many people don’t know is that syslog has some really, really nice filtering features. For example, if you want to know what happened since you last booted, you just need to run 2 commands. The first is:

syslog -T sec -k Message Seq npvhash

This will give you a bunch of lines that look like (big number) localhost kernel[0] : npvhash=4095. Now, take that number and run:

syslog -k Time ge (number)

That is everything since the last boot. If you want a different boot from that list, you can do

syslog -k Time ge (number) -k Time le (next number - 1)

Figuring this out made me so giddy, I had to tell anyone who would listen.

Audio Abuse

thane — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:55:53 +0000

Today was a great day for getting youtube links that you can’t unhear. First, there was the Orchestra Fail:

Followed closely by an apparently old example of someone strangling a trumpet:

And this was all followed up by the an excellent video response:

Cover Songs

thane — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:31:38 +0000

So, Stuart was imitating one of Tory’s songs for her band, saying that he was going to make his own band and play those songs. Anyway, Tory is getting all upset and we explain to her that (a) imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and that (b) there are bands that just do covers of other bands songs. This devolves into a discussion of the cover song she is most familiar with, Baby Got Back by Jonathan Coulton. So that she can hear the original song, we pull up Sir Mix Alot’s version on YouTube and she gets to see it in all it’s glory and splendor.

Parent of the year Awards, this is my entry. We followed it up with a Gilbert and Sullivan cover.

Tory and Daddy play Calvin and Hobbes

thane — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:59:13 +0000

Dad:
Tory: What do you say?
D: Must have been a barge coming through.
T: Try again.
D: Tasted better going down than it did coming up.
T: Three strikes and you’re out, buster.
D: ‘scuse me.

Last Airbender

thane — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:57:02 +0000

Summary: Watch the TV show, dodge the movie.

I expect a lot from Mr. Shyamalan. This time, he failed to deliver. While he stuck to the story, he removed most of the best aspects of the characters. In the show, Sokka and Irho are mostly used for comic relief. With the removal of the comedy, they come off more like 3rd wheels. For Peet’s sake, we never see Sokka eat! Irho never even has a cup of TEA! Also, there is way too much angst. Zuko is supposed to be all angsty, but Sokka and Ang? WTF?! Oh, and while he stuck with the story, sometimes he would just chuck in elements without any explanation, or rush through things so fast that there was no way anyone who hasn’t seen the show would ever get pulled in. Thankfully, since I had the kids there, I was able to feed of their love of the story and enjoyed myself. But I will never forgive Shyamalan for not using the statues in the air temple to tie in his past lives.

Stuart wants Coffee

thane — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:07:30 +0000

Stuart: I’m full.
Dad: OK.
S: But I have room for coffee.
D: How about some milk?
S: Coffee will be fine.

Good Night Waning Moon

thane — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:53:19 +0000

by Tory
Goodnight Waning Moon

Stuarts Alphabet

thane — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:10:22 +0000

I wish I could find a link to the poster, but this is the alphabet as read by Stuart from it.

A is for Ballet Princess
B is for Bathtub
C is for Baby Salad
D is for Potty
E is for No Face
I is for Night
O is for Kid it the Middle
P is for Baby on Pumpkin
R is for Deer
S is for Santa and Stuart and Stocking
T is for Twins
U is for Upside Down
Z is for Bees

I wrote them down as fast as I could.

Getting Reactions

thane — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:35:55 +0000

Tory is sitting on the couch, buzzing her lips and putting on her shoes. The noise was driving Stuart to distraction. I come in, get him to leave, then begin to leave myself.

Tory: He actually expects me to stop doing something that gets a reaction out of him.
Me: Well, You actually expect him to stop doing something that gets a reaction out of you.

Tory ponders this for about 2 seconds, then starts buzzing her lips again.

St Judas

thane — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:22:35 +0000

Today in church, I find myself pondering the orthodoxy around Judas. Jesus knew that he would be betrayed, that he *must* be betrayed to die a painful ignobile death. This was too important to be left to chance or to be handeled poorly. Someone had to knowingly betray their most loved, most honored, most holy person into the hands of the enemy. Like Abraham, the person must be willing to sacrifice that which is held most dear. Unlike Abraham, however, there is no reprieve. Who among us could rise to that challenge. Not me. Not even for the Kingdom of God and for Peace on Earth.