Any UChicago student has certainly seen, and probably used, one of the many recycling bins on campus. As any Maclab tutor could tell you, the Maclab recycling bins are emptied into the same container with all the other trash. Just from that observation, I think it would be fair to assume that the rest of the Reg’s recycling containers are treated the same way, but surely other buildings recycle, right? Apparently not so… Apparently the bins in the Reynolds Club are treated the same way. We only have paper bins (ignore the sticker that says aluminum cans only), but the Reynolds Club has full on different bins for different types of recyclables. I think it is safe to assume that the same is true for the rest of campus. I realize that recycling in Chicago sucks, but surely the university could find some way of recycling. I think this whole mess is really offensive on so many different levels, besides the fact UChicago is not recycling. Is this thing some sort of ruse on someone’s part so that students and staff can feel better about the university and feel good for thinking we are recycling. I go out of my way to recycle when I can, dammit. The university could at least show the same respect for its community.

Update: Apparently, trash is sorted after the fact, so it doesn’t really matter, but it is still less than forthright to put up recycling bins if they are just combined anyway.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t quite get the point of “big deal” versioning and upgrading with something like Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu on my laptop and one of my desktops. I like it on my laptop, because I rarely have to spend time configuring anything. I use it on my desktop, because it is an AMD-64 machine, I like Debian, and Ubuntu has better support for AMD-64. There are some things that Ubuntu does pretty well. For core packages, Ubuntu’s packages tend to be more up to date, and there is less stupidity. As far as the actual distribution, it is pretty nice.
What I find annoying about Ubuntu is the community around it. Mostly as a result of StumbleUpon, I come across all sorts of blog posts that show you how to make your Ubuntu totally awesome by installing a few standard and obvious packages. Worse are the Ubuntu forums, which always seem like a clusterfuck of stupidity from the linux world. Maybe I am being harsh; I remember posting some fairly obvious questions to Linux Questions when I was first using Linux in high school. Still, it is just the feel I get whenever I come across a post.
As I mentioned, one of the features of Ubuntu that really annoys me is the emphasis on versioning. Each one has some clever name, and each one is made into a big deal on the internets. There was an upgrade made available recently, which I have installed. I could see that it was putting aptitude through a gauntlet, but I don’t quite see what was changed. Some packages were made standard, and some were taken out. You are always given an “option” if you want to remove all the packages that are no longer supported or not, but aptitude never stops giving you crap afterwords until you do. Last time I upgraded, I discovered that I no longer want to use xmms. Actually, I started using audacious, and I have been happy with it. Anyway, it seems like they just reinstall most packages for some reason. I know Ubuntu does some stuff to a few packages to get them to work better together. There were also some new utilities, but still, it all seemed like something that could be done by aptitude normally. I just don’t get the big deal made over it…

I haven’t been posting a lot recently, so I thought I would just kind of outline a little of what has been going on recently.

Some members of the RAS installed the weather station on the roof of Ryerson today (I wasn’t involved in the efforts today unfortunately). In addition, the web view now works (not me again), which I started on. It is still temporary, but it is currently up. I will be assembling a better website, which will be more permanent. I was fearing we wouldn’t be able to get it onto a POSIX operating system, but then wview came to the rescue. I will put up some pictures soon. It was really great to see it finally on the roof. It was some random idea I had a while ago, and it finally materialized.

The biggest news for me today is that I was accepted to Google Summer of Code on the Globus Toolkit. I will be working on a diagnostic administrator interface framework; essentially, it is more Python+XML work, but with Globus. This will also be the third summer in a row that I have done XML work with people based at a national lab (Globus is based at Argonne–not the same as actually working there for the summer, but I will be visiting soon). I will also be working at the Maclab, which should be fun and a chance to do some real work on projects there.

A lot of people are leaving the maclab at the end of the quarter, so I will end up with quite a bit more on my plate it looks like. After the last two weeks or so, I look foreword to that less. Over the last break, I converted many of the servers to Leopard Server, Apple’s latest rendition in bloated bad design. From that experience alone, I lost all respect for Apple (there wasn’t much there in the first place). What kind of upgrade on a server edition of the Operating System overwrites the most basic of configuration and files on upgrade? This last week, our web/dhcp server went down at the same time as our print system, our two most vital systems. From what it looks like now, DirectoryService, the LDAPesque utility that Apple now uses for local accounts as well. epically failed, and I do mean epic. There are some other problems as well; the actual cause is still allusive, but we at first presumed hackers, which can’t be ruled out. The print system? As far as we can tell, the problem is that Leopard is a horrid piece of shit that ruins every piece of software it touches. The implementation of CUPS on it is horribly broken (to a vast extent), despite the fact Apple owns it! I will spend more time in the short future on a series of posts that outlines my points of hatred for it. Dealing with the problems rated pretty high on my rankings of stressful events, and there is still work to be done.

Together with another failure, this time from NSIT, I think I know fully grasp an important life lesson: assume incompetence. NSIT made a pathetic effort to announce that they were going to switch the LDAP server from OpenLDAP to a Sun-based implementation . Apparently, they had a test server, but they neglected to give the address out, or test it on their own machines. NSITE/USITE has its own Macs, even another Maclab (I think of it as the bazarro Maclab; the imaging work is handled remotely, the none of staff know much computers from what I hear, there are few users, and the software is up to date), of which at least some run Tiger. No one tested these to see if logins would, you know, work. Anyways, all our tigers failed to login after the switch. It turned out to be some check box on some security page (in fact the only check box on the security page), for which it took 7 people 48 hours (I think that’s with few breaks in it) to find the fix. We decided to let them deal with it as it was their problem. Incompetence really explains this whole thing well. When we were switching to Leopard on the servers, the ServerAdmin presented us with a catch-22; it was impossible to save setting on one page without saving the settings on another, but it was impossible to save settings on the other one without first saving the changes on the first. What accounts for this flagrant error in the GUI? Why incompetence of course! I experienced a similar sort of situation on a Sun box I work on; everything program I used seemed broken. I e-mailed the sysadmins for a while at which point this golden rule struck me. I ended up compiling any program that failed to work on something. For example, there was some weird error with make. so I compiled and installed gmake to my home directory, and it solved all my problems. I suppose it is not fair to just call this incompetence; laziness should be added in there somewhere.

Some other stuff has been happening, but that makes for a decent mind-purge. It’s nice out again! I can where sandals and shorts comfortably!

I pass a sign every morning that reads “no trespassing violators will be prosecuted,” only with each word on a new line. I walk through the place as it blocks off my street. I don’t think I should have to walk through a sketch ally turned road that is without a sidewalk just because some construction group bribed some local politicians. The place’s location makes next to no logical sense without considering graft or “patronage.” Back to the point, the place seems like the type that would definitely want to go after trespassers, though I don’t think UofC students are exactly the target audience. I always find this sign curious as it does nothing to separate “no trespassing” and “violators will be prosecuted,” which I assume is what it meant as that message is the norm. Regardless, the full statement clearly says that no one will be prosecuted for trespassing. I don’t know much about what the legal meaning of sign even is, but I would think that if they meant anything, the apartment complex might have a hard time going after trespassers in court if the trespasser just pointed out the sign. Perhaps the usual meaning would win…

I noticed the same problem on a sign outside the botany pond. The sign read “keep off thin ice.” If there was a separation,  the intended meaning would come through. I of course am assuming that the UofC would generally prefer people to stay of a possible hazard…

I just don’t get why companies who do nothing but make signs would have gotten the concept of separation down at this point.

One of the current US Cellular commercials has a girl explaining  how she was apprehensive to go to college, because her dad is illiterate (she says that she has to read bills and mail to him). She goes on to explain that someone at a US Cellular store helped her dad read bills and other mail. If you watch enough TV, you have probably seen it. Every time I see it, I wonder what US Cellular is going for exactly. The story is so pathetic, it seems like it is probably true. Who would make that ad up? I come away just thinking US Cellular is weird for advertising that. Besides, the point of the ad is that someone at some US Cellular store was nice and willing to help this idiot guy out; its not in anyway a reflection of the company as a whole other than that they employ someone decent. A good employee would provide good customer service; helping out illiterate guys has nothing to do with cell phones.  US Cellular has always struck me as a confused company; that view has only been re-enforced.