Life and Love - - computer science blogging, so easy a caveman could do it.

Windows 7 Tricks

wh5a — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:39:55 -0400

From "Windows 7 Up and Running"

Open a command window anywhere Shift-Right-click on a folder

Ctrl-click an application icon in the taskbar This action will cycle through all the open windows belonging to the application. For example, suppose that you have five IE windows open. Pressing the Ctrl key while you click the IE icon in the taskbar will toggle between all the opened IE windows (including tab pages).

Shift-click (or middle-click) an application icon in the taskbar This will launch a new instance of the application.

Ctrl-Shift-Click an application icon in the taskbar This action will launch the application in administrator mode.

北卡Outer Banks归来

wh5a — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:13:52 -0400

赶在夏天的尾巴，去了一趟outer banks (OBX)，为了纪念我们初识的日子。

自从老婆经常写游记和传照片以来，我就懒了不少，去好多地方也提不起劲去记录一笔，不过本人的习惯就是，喜欢把有用的信息记录下来，以备以后查阅。

从Charlottesville去OBX，先走I-64，到Norfolk时走环城高速664，然后从168向南再走158便到了，一路上都有路牌提示因此很好走，不过与Google/Bing/GPS显示略有不同。168那一段Chesapeake Expressway是收费的，只需两元。全程共250 Mi左右，虽然158不是州际高速，大家还是开的飞快。回来的时候胸有成竹，没想到在158上没有看到转上168的路牌就一路开过去了，最后只好按照GPS的指示转上US-17，略有些绕路。

进入北卡以后一路都是农田，还插了很多No OLF的标志，后来了解到是当地居民抗议政府在那边建立空军基地的计划。Youtube上还能找到介绍。再开一会，一路上就都是OBX的广告了，让人顿时蠢蠢欲动。

Outer Banks是一串远离大陆的岛链，忘了在哪里看到说她有着美国第三棒的海滩。原以为与Key West类似，到了之后发现又略有些不同，去Key West的路很狭长，经常能在路边就看到海，很多时候车速很慢，而OBX的交通明显要好很多。沿海有一条12号公路，以Virginia Dare命名，与之平行的158公路则是主路，一路上还有很多餐馆商店等。从Kitty Hawk开始，往南每隔0.5mi便有一个milepost。我们想起在Key West找到0mi标志时的情景，也想去找到OBX的0mi，没想到在路上开了两遍只有1mi的标志，奉劝有同样想法的朋友放弃这个念头，呵呵。

与VA最近的三个小town是Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills和Nags Head，属于Dare County，网上有人称作大胆县，到了之后才知道是以Virginia Dare命名的，呵呵。这三个小town都很近，搞不懂怎么还分这么细。

OBX有四个灯塔，我们看了Bodie（不能爬）和Hatteras（规模最大，有visitor center并可以爬）的两个，最北的和最南的两个放弃了。从Kill Devil Hills去Hatteras要一个小时，往南坐渡船应该会很有意思，可惜我当时身体不适，于是作罢。OBX的海岸线极长，到处都是beach，Hatteras的national seashore并没有显得多有意思，不过我们在那里看到了kiteboarding的帅哥们，真是一项非常刺激的活动。

Wright Brothers Memorial 6pm后关门，我们过去远远看了看，还误打误撞到了First Flight Airport，是个非常小的供小型飞机起降的机场，在那里看到了停着的两架小飞机。

Jockeys Ridge State Park是我最喜欢的去处，从入口的trail进去后，眼前一下子豁然开朗，给人造成黄沙万里的错觉，还真以为是到了沙漠。沙子非常细，赤脚走上去好舒服。爬上沙丘后，面朝西就可以看到落日。Kitty Hawk Sports在公园里开设hang gliding班，初级班90多，先在教室里学习基本知识，再从沙丘上滑翔下来共计五次，真的挺有意思的，可惜我们到的时候运气不好，我身体不舒服。还有一种是用飞机把你拉到天上，可以选择不同的高度，再由一位教练陪着你滑翔下来，130多，有机会一定要搞一次。

我们还去Roanoke Island参观了Fort Raleigh的历史遗迹，当初英国人在这片新大陆殖民的遗迹已经荡然无存，于是荣耀给了后来的殖民地Jamestown。那里还有个植物园Elizabethan Gardens，是老婆的最爱。岛上还有个水族馆。岛上有个小town叫做Manteo，以一位印第安人命名，我们后来坐在beach看海，天上有飞机做广告说可以参加air tour，飞机就从Manteo起飞。

我们这一次根据TripAdvisor的建议住在Cavalier Motel，真的很不错，oceanfront的房间确实对着海，不像有的旅馆对着的其实是一片杂草。而且是family friendly的，有一块playground可以给小朋友玩，价钱也相对合理。

Some info about Linux console

wh5a — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:18:00 -0400

Most people never need to worry about the Linux keyboard and console HOWTO. Although it's written in 2002, I still find it worth reading, and below is a summary.

The kbd package contains important programs to tweak console settings. It also contains data such as keymaps and fonts. Debian family likes to split packages so the data resides in another package known as console-data. There's also a kbd clone, namely console-tools.

When a key is pressed, the keyboard controller sends scancode to the kernel keyboard driver. Unless in scancode mode, the driver parses scancodes into keycodes. Unless in keycode mode, the keycodes are looked up in the keymap (which can be changed with loadkeys or xmodmap), and the characters found there are transmitted to the application. The program showkey can examine scancodes and keycodes. Under X, use xev.

Fonts are loaded into the video card's character ROM, and can be changed using setfont.

Why is it that you sometimes get a lot of line-drawing characters, e.g., after catting a binary to the screen? Well, there are various character set changing escape sequences, and by accident your binary might contain some of these.

Bash, Emacs and X all do their own tty input handling.

By default, to get a screen to scroll, Linux leaves the text in video memory as it is, but change the viewing origin. The kernel console driver will write text starting at the top of the video memory, continuing to the bottom, then copy the bottom part to the top again, and continue. You can scroll back until the top of the video memory by using Shift-PageUp and scroll down again using Shift-PageDown, assuming a default keymap. The amount of scrollback is thus limited to the amount of video memory you happen to have and you cannot increase this amount. Upon changing virtual consoles, the screen content of the old VT is copied to kernel memory, and the screen content of the new VT is copied from kernel memory to video memory. Only the visible screen is copied, not all of video memory, so switching consoles means losing the scrollback information.

How to extract full text RSS

wh5a — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:38:57 -0400

http://feedex.net/

Yahoo Pipes

Leave comment if you know better ways.

Fun with NULL pointers

wh5a — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:11:23 -0400

This post is actually stimulated by a recent kernel bug

I always took it as granted that null pointers aren't accessible. However, after reading that lwn article I learned that it's by default allowed to map a page at address 0. This behavior of course can be controlled by the vm.mmap_min_addr sysctl knob. (UPDATE: According to this blog, this knob was introduced since kernel 2.6.23.)

The following code demonstrates my point.

$ cat a.c
#include "stdio.h"
#include "sys/mman.h"

#define PAGESIZE 4096
#define STEP (4096/sizeof(int))

int main() {
  int *p = 0;
  void *ret = mmap(p, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_ANONYMOUS|MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED, -1, 0);
  if ((int)ret == -1) {
    perror("mmap");
    // Look for the lowest mappable address
    do {
      p += STEP;
      ret = mmap(p, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_ANONYMOUS|MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED, -1, 0);
    } while ((int)ret == -1);
  }
  *p = 3;
  printf("*(%p) == %d\n", p, *p);
}

By default, we can establish a mapping at address 0.

$ /sbin/sysctl vm.mmap_min_addr 
vm.mmap_min_addr = 0

$ ./a.out 
*((nil)) == 3

(UPDATE: On 8/15/09, Debian kernel 2.6.30-6 changed this default value to 4096. Presumably, this change is made to defeat this even more powerful exploit.)

We can enforce a restriction through sysctl. The lowest mappable address will be rounded to the next page boundary. The root user doesn't seem to be restricted at all.

$ sudo sysctl vm.mmap_min_addr=10000
vm.mmap_min_addr = 10000

$ ./a.out 
mmap: Permission denied
*(0x3000) == 3

$ sudo ./a.out 
*((nil)) == 3

Linkin Park vs. Transformers!

wh5a — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:53:21 -0400

What I've Done

New Divide

Cool guys don't look at explosions

wh5a — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:30:47 -0400

A newly discovered browser, Conkeror

wh5a — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:10:16 -0400

Google Chrome has been my browser of choice for a long time, because of its snappy speed, clean UI, and secure design. However, when it comes to UI, what can beat Emacs-like browser with a Mozilla kernel?

Enter conkeror, written completely in Javascript that extends xulrunner. It's customizable by writing new Javascript code (what a pity it's not Lisp!)

Emacs users can start navigating very quickly. What frees users from mice is the "hinting system". To start, press "f" for follow. For more information, refer to the tutorial (C-h t).

Below is my .conkerorrc:

// Tab bar
require("new-tabs.js");
// Middle click on a tab to close
tab_bar_button_close = 1;

// Open Middle-Clicked Links in New Buffers
require("clicks-in-new-buffer.js");
clicks_in_new_buffer_target = OPEN_NEW_BUFFER_BACKGROUND;

// Switch to Buffers 1-10 Using Number Keys 1 through 0
function define_key_buffer_switch(key, buf_num) {
//    define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, key, function (I) {
    define_key(default_global_keymap, key, function (I) {
        switch_to_buffer(I.window, I.window.buffers.get_buffer(buf_num));
    });
    define_key(download_buffer_keymap, key, function (I) {
        switch_to_buffer(I.window, I.window.buffers.get_buffer(buf_num));
    });
}
for (let i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
    define_key_buffer_switch(i == 9 ? "0" : (i+1).toString(), i);
}

// Key bindings for compatibility with other browsers
define_key(default_global_keymap, "C-w", "kill-current-buffer");
// Some keybindings must be rebound in a proper keymap to take effect
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "back_space", "go-back");

// The binding to find-url didn't prefill with current URL
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "g", "find-alternate-url");

/* I'd like to enable caret mode by default, but I always get a javascript error.
session_pref("accessibility.browsewithcaret", true);
   So I'm trying a workaround by pushing caret-mode to any URL /
var my_re = new RegExp(".");  // There's a star not showing up in my blog?!
auto_mode_list.push([my_re, caret_mode]);
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "f7", "caret-mode");

Tips:

M-x reinit                      reloads the rc file
conkeror -daemon &      keep a daemon running (Be careful that C-x C-c will kill the daemon)

Complaints:

No friendly way for changing page encoding

小知识：美国的两种医学学位

wh5a — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:03:44 -0400

因为MD（Doctor of Medicine）比DO（Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine）多得多，以前一直只知道MD这一种学位。翻看电话本，看到还有DO之说，于是查了一下，还挺有意思的。

http://www.askdrwalker.com/index/What_is_a_doctor_of_osteopathic_.htm

http://www.creative-wisdom.com/education/essays/others/do.shtml

DO强调把人体看做一个整体治疗，MD则针对各个器官头痛医头脚痛医脚，还真有点象中西医的区别。

新偶像，侯高俊杰

wh5a — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:30:05 -0500

记得几年前，网上有高手将《本草纲目》和《辣妹子》mix在一起，效果真的很搭。居然今年春晚周杰伦和宋祖英真的同台演唱了，央视现在也很会搞了嘛。不过两人风格实在差别太多，春晚也没有想出办法让他们同时唱，呵呵。隆重推荐，侯高俊杰底迪。

面向和谐的编程？

wh5a — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:50:49 -0500

http://www.oopsla.org/oopsla2008/program-overview/onward-short-papers

Towards Harmony-Oriented Programming，OOPSLA 08的一篇short paper，由两名来自香港CUHK的作者发表。这题目怎么总有点恶搞的意思呢？

Windows 7 Beta 7000 64-bit 初体验

wh5a — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:53:16 -0500

本人一向喜欢追新，所以也不像很多人那样鄙视Vista。微软向公众推出Windows 7 Beta，我自然是要试一试的。总的来说很满意。

先从一台淘汰的Dell Inspiron 700m上安装的Gentoo刻盘。第一次用Linux刻盘，前后废掉两张DVD+R和一张-R。先用cdrecorder，不知是speed没设对还是光驱不支持+R，两张+R盘在刻了几百M后都废掉了。然后用dvd+rw-tools中的growisofs工具刻。不知何故，它不能识别+R盘，换上-R盘，因为speed没设对，再次废掉一张。最后，用最低倍速终于成功刻出一张64-bit盘。

把盘丢进去，忍痛格掉OS X，就去睡觉了。发现这一版本的Windows安装时比较自动化，不需要过多的人工干预。早上起来后，随便点了点，就安装完毕了。

摘自关于启动管理器的讨论：Bootmgr(.exe后缀被省略)，代替了ntldr和ntdetect.com。Boot\BCD(Boot Configuration Data)，代替了boot.ini。另外boot下还有一个memtest.exe，以及上述两个exe的mui。这种启动方式其实在Vista中就改变了，只是我一直没有正式使用Vista，所以忘了这回事。

Windows的安装还是这么霸道，直接将MBR覆盖掉了，但是居然没有识别出其他盘上的XP，不给我启动菜单直接就跳到了Win 7。我使用BCDEdit编辑加入XP的entry，发现还是启动不了。也许是因为我之前留了个小分区装了grub，把Windows的启动管理器弄傻了。用linux启动光盘启动，重装一遍grub，就可以实现双系统启动了。

启动后的界面类似Vista，但没有了那个比较鸡肋的sidebar，取而代之的是更灵活的desktop gadgets。最明显的几点改进，就是UAC没有那么烦人了，还有就是任务栏改变很大，有点Mac OS X的意思了，很不错。没了Quick Launch，但是可以将常用程序pin在taskbar上。

Media Player可以直接放xvid格式的avi文件。

大部分32位程序都可以完美支持，甚至包括我的杂牌USB无线网卡 for XP 驱动。以前没有用过64位的Windows，发现在任务管理器中会标出32位的程序。微软很多程序如IE和WMP都有两份，既有64位又有32位，缺省似乎总是执行32位的，大概是出于兼容插件的目的吧。

Chrome不能完美运行，大概是它玩的tricks太多了。需要在快捷方式加上--in-process-plugins才能运行，大概是把sandbox功能disable了，需要看一下代码。Chrome引以为豪的多Tab管理界面在Win 7下，最大化时行为不太正常，加上--magic_browzR使用新的Frame代码也没用。不能打开flash。

IE8似乎比XP下的好用了。

分辨率被自动识别成了1680x1050，但我一般喜欢把分辨率设低一些这样对眼睛舒服。最奇怪的是，如果我把分辨率改成其他的，显示内容不会铺满整个屏幕。所以只好保留分辨率设置，再把DPI缩放为150%。

使用管理员cmd，运行powercfg -h off，可以关闭休眠功能，但我没有找到GUI的方式。

Gentoo Linux on Dell Inspiron 700m

wh5a — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:38:49 -0500

Useful tools

gentoolkit

portage-utils

sunrise

Description of use flags

/usr/portage/profiles/use.desc
/usr/portage/profiles/use.local.desc

Autostart programs

Edit /etc/conf.d/local or /etc/conf.d/local.start.

Auto login

For agetty, use "-l" to change the login program, and "-n" to avoid prompting for username.
For the custom login program, use "exec login -f username"

Wireless network

In the kernel, enable ipw2200 support. Then emerge ipw2200-firmware. You should NOT build ipw2200 into the kernel. Because it looks for the firmware on the file system, which is not ready yet. See the documentation when you config the kernel. It's easiest to build it as a module. Or, you can use an initramfs.

Udev obsoletes hotplug/coldplug, so you don't need them.

After the driver is installed, just emerge wpa_supplicant and edit your /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. Everything else should be taken care of automatically.

Portage tips

Exclude packages

http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/HOWTO_Create_an_Updated_Ebuild

autounmask

Tweaking configure. Man 5 ebuild tells us that we can pass extra options to ./configure by setting the environment variable EXTRA_ECONF. There's also EXTRA_EMAKE and EXTRA_EINSTALL. An example looks like this: EXTRA_ECONF="--enable-gold" emerge -av '=sys-devel/binutils-2.18.50.0.6'.

Function keys

First of all, build the i8k support in the kernel. The usespace tool i8kutils is not necessary. Its README could be helpful though. In particular, read "THE I8000 MULTIMEDIA BUTTONS" section. I ended up using the solution described here and here to map mute, volume-down, volume-up buttons under X. I don't know much about sound output, but setting PCM is only effective when "PCM Out" is set to "pre 3D". Setting Master is more reliable.

.Xmodmap

keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume

.xbindskeyrc

"amixer set Master toggle"
XF86AudioMute

"amixer set Master 5%-"
XF86AudioLowerVolume

"amixer set Master 5%+"
XF86AudioRaiseVolume

I believe the Fn-CRT/LCD combination is to be handled by the BIOS, but it doesn't seem to do the job. We can use i855crt instead. Examples: i855crt off, i855crt on 1024x768@70.

Bugs and fixes

Fixing broken portage or python

glibc-2.9_p20081201 breaks portage

--as-needed introduction and fixing guide

glibc-2.9_p20081201-r1 breaks firefox-3

升级X的讨论。I didn't encounter this problem on my system, which has evdev and no hal. However, downgrading X to 1.5.2 did cause some issues.

Tips

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Maintain_Gentoo_-_%22Best_Practices%22

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Laptops

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/kernel-config.xml

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/openrc-migration.xml

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/utf-8.xml

http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/lisp/emacs/emacs.xml

http://kunxi.org/archives/2007/07/howto-gentoo-20070-on-dell-700m/

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-279395-highlight-bookstack.html

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewforum-f-12.html

http://www.celifornia.com/documents/dell700m.html

http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/HOWTO_ATAPI_CD_Burning

http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/TIP_Recommended_Packages

X

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/X.Org/Dual_Monitors

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/dri-howto.xml

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Intel_GMA

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/X.Org/xsession

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Synaptics_Touchpad

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg_input_hotplugging

Fonts

The blessed way of configuration is through eselect fontconfig.

Free fonts

Distcc

I have some Debian machines to speed up compilation. It's important to make sure that all machines have the same version of gcc, in this case, gcc-4.3.2. With older versions of distcc, the client must preprocess the source files first and then send the preprocessed files to the servers. With distcc-3, there's this so-called pump mode that allows the client to send the source files with the header files, and have the servers to do the preprocessing. Enabling pump mode in Gentoo is simple:
distcc-config --set-hosts "foo,cpp,lzo bar,cpp,lzo baz,cpp,lzo" pump emerge -u world
Unfortunately, Debian only has distcc-2.18. Debian's distcc has a nice zeroconf feature that Gentoo's missing: auto discovery of servers. Check out /usr/share/doc/distcc/README.Debian.

Using the default setup, you're most likely to see errors with exit code 110. The man page of distcc tells us it's "compiler not found". That's because Gentoo uses i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc as the default compiler, whereas Debian only has i486-linux-gnu-gcc. The solution is to create symlinks on Debian.

For debugging info, we can look at /var/log/distccd.log on the server side. The file was empty on the first run, but restarting the server solved the issue. On the client side, we can DISTCC_DIR="/var/tmp/portage/.distcc/" distccmon-text 5.

Power management

First config your kernel to add in necessary support. Then, install acpid, which receives kernel events and performs actions by matching user-defined rules. In my case, I'd like to suspend to ram when I close the lid. The package hibernate-script does just that. It installs two programs: hibernate, and hibernate-ram. Their behavior can be fine-tuned by editing files under /etc/hibernate/. Under the hood, they rely on either one of the two kernel implementations. For more information, refer to /usr/share/doc/hibernate-script-1.98.1/README. The preferred uswusp implementation, which requires the userspace program suspend, doesn't work well with X on my computer.

Now, I'd like to put the computer to sleep when I close the lid. First observe the log file (depending on the syslogd program you use, the file may differ), and I saw a pair of events when I pressed and released the lid button:

acpid: received event "button/lid LID0 00000080 00000001"
acpid: rule from /etc/acpi/events/default matched
acpid: executing action "/etc/acpi/default.sh button/lid LID0 00000080 00000001"
BEGIN HANDLER MESSAGES
END HANDLER MESSAGES
acpid: action exited with status 0
acpid: 1 total rule matched
acpid: completed event "button/lid LID0 00000080 00000001"
acpid: received event "button/lid LID0 00000080 00000002"
acpid: rule from /etc/acpi/events/default matched
acpid: executing action "/etc/acpi/default.sh button/lid LID0 00000080 00000002"
BEGIN HANDLER MESSAGES
END HANDLER MESSAGES
acpid: action exited with status 0
acpid: 1 total rule matched 
acpid: completed event "button/lid LID0 00000080 00000002"

Instead of looking at the log, you can also run acpi_listen.

Below are my files for handling the lid closing event:

# /etc/acpi/events/lid 
# To only trigger on one, you may use the line
# event=button[ /]lid .*[02468ace]$
# to match only every second event. 

# It is more reliable, however, to check the state of the lid:
event=button/lid
action=/etc/acpi/lid.sh %e

#!/bin/sh
# /etc/acpi/lid.sh 
if grep -q closed /proc/acpi/button/lid/$2/state ; then
  hibernate-ram
fi

lesspipe.sh, a preprocessor for less

wh5a — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:56:27 -0400

今天才通过zhllg知道less的这个功能。

less可以通过LESSOPEN 这个环境变量来设置 input preprocessor，从而扩展其可以解释的文件，很好很强大。Debian本身带了一个预处理的shell脚本，放在/usr/bin/lesspipe，但似乎功能没有另外一个专门的lesspipe.sh强大，支持的文件更多，以及语法高亮（在文件尾加':'去除高亮）。

要替换的话，修改~/.bashrc的一行：
[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(lesspipe)"
=>
[ -x /usr/local/bin/lesspipe.sh ] && eval "$(lesspipe.sh)"

iBus - Intelligent Input Bus for Linux / Unix OS

wh5a — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:46:35 -0400

今天知道一个新的输入法项目，也许会很有前途，特此记之。

UDPATE: http://www.gnome.asia/static/upload/event_file/Input_Methods.pdf

gcc --help command-line option

wh5a — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:52:17 -0400

I just learned that gcc-4.3's changes include extended --help. This feature is very useful.

The following will display all the options controlling warning messages:

  --help=warnings

Whereas this will display all the undocumented, target specific options:

  --help=target,undocumented

This will display the optimizations that are enabled by -O3:

  gcc -Q -O3 --help=optimizers

Money As Debt

wh5a — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:44:20 -0400

A great educational film.

Quantum Mysteries Disentangled

wh5a — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:23:39 -0400

I'm a physics layman, but I always enjoy introductory articles on quantum mechanics. I found this one to be pretty good.

Web developers!

wh5a — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:33:19 -0400

密切关注毒奶粉事件

wh5a — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:04:44 -0400

http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2008年中国婴幼儿奶粉污染事件&variant=zh-cn
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/黑心食品

三鹿集团是中外合资公司，其最大海外股东是新西兰恒天然公司。恒天然公司在8月份得知奶粉出现问题后，马上向中资方和地方政府官员要求召回三鹿集团生产的所有奶粉。不过恒天然公司经过一月多的努力未能奏效，中国地方官员置若罔闻，试图掩饰，不予正式召回。恒天然只好向新西兰政府和总理海伦·克拉克报告。9月5日新西兰政府得知消息后下令新西兰官员绕过地方政府，直接向中国中央政府报告此次事件，中国政府才严正对待此事。

中华人民共和国国家质量监督检验检疫总局对全国婴幼儿奶粉三聚氰胺含量进行检查，结果显示，有22家婴幼儿奶粉生产企业的69批次产品检出了含量不同的三聚氰胺，除了河北三鹿外，还包括：山西雅士利、内蒙古伊利、蒙牛集团、青岛圣元、上海熊猫、山西古城、江西光明乳业英雄牌、宝鸡惠民、多加多乳业、湖南南山等22个厂家69批次产品中检出三聚氰胺，被要求立即下架。

关于三鹿奶粉，5月份的老帖

wh5a — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:41:59 -0400

搞笑的是，在原帖发后10天，原作者在其后跟帖表示买到的奶粉其实是假货。其实是被人堵了嘴（关键字：王远萍）。

http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/free/1/1262292.shtml

经历了这一事件，就像经历了漫漫长夜；又像做了一个噩梦。同时，也说明我们的食品安全问题任重而道远，想揭露事件的真相是很困难的，除非出现像安徽阜阳那种大事件，而所能揭露真相的比例占总数也是极少的。
　　事情是这样的。我全家（包括岳父岳母）都有吃奶粉的习惯。自2007年11月份开始，我在县城某超市陆续购得一批“三鹿”牌子的奶粉。经食用，首先发现生产日期及批号为2007/12/19 D 01 08的儿童高钙配方奶粉有如下现象：女儿晚睡前食用，次日晨起第一注小便排出，粘稠、呈淡黄色米汤状，还有细小颗粒沉淀，并偶有腹泻；停用即清，再食用又浊。再闻冲开之后的奶粉气味，似香不香；入口感觉淡涩、且有粉渣感。
　　开始，我以为买到假货了。出于公民义务，我将情况电话告知厂家服务热线。厂家叫我寄2包原封奶粉，送实验室检验。
　　我于2008年2 月25日，向河北石家庄三鹿集团股份有限公司寄出儿童高钙配方奶粉（生产日期及批号：2007/12/19 D 01 08）、中老年高钙配方奶粉（生产日期及批号：2007/12/29 D 02 37）各一包。
　　过了多天，我致电厂家，询问是否收到寄检奶粉？有无问题？请把检验结果传真给我。厂家承认收到，并证实是他们生产的产品，但没有跟我说有无质量问题，只是说地区代理商会跟我联系。
　　过了几天，地区代理商代表厂家果然和我联系，叫我把没吃完的退还或换货；还说次日来人回收或换货。我不同意。我首先要的是检验结果。如果没问题，孩子吃了为何有上述情形？如果有问题，是什么问题？为什么不让我知道结果？如果不能让我知道结果，你为什么要叫我寄检？我又何必寄检？我孩子吃了，出现一些反常现象，可以退还或换货，那其它人的孩子呢？
　　自称是厂家代表的人给我的答复是：《检验报告单》涉及商业秘密，不能给我，但是可以给我看（到目前为止我还没有看到）。还说他们的儿童奶粉只适合３－７岁儿童，我孩子超过７岁。但包装袋上却明明标着：适合３岁以上少年儿童食用。后来提出：吃到肚子里的就说不清楚了；剩余１５包，１１包退一换一，开掉的４包退一换二。这是什么逻辑？他这样说有道理吗？连自己的产品都不熟悉的人，他能是厂家代表吗？我还能跟他谈吗？
　　我只好向消协投诉。消协于3月27日下午联系了卖家（超市），买卖双方在县工商局直属工商所所四楼由消协工作人员主持调解。卖方确认是他们所销售商品，说厂家不出具检验结果他们也觉得莫名其妙，最多只能按原价回收我们所食剩余的奶粉。我不同意。觉得此举意义不大，厂家既然叫我寄检了，我也寄检了，我一定要先知道奶粉有无质量问题！谈话间，他们还透露：他们仓库里还有大批这样的奶粉；泰顺县最大的连锁幼儿园——育才幼儿园也用这种奶粉。听到这些，我更想知道这批奶粉有无质量问题了，而想知道有无质量问题？唯一的办法就是由公正的第三方（即工商部门）通过合法的程序抽样送检。但检验费用得由我先垫付，说全检要上万，等于我要花几十倍的钱去证实它。我犹豫了，说回去好好想想。双方没有谈拢，调解没有成功。
　　这到底是怎么回事？我又找厂家。想通过厂家解决问题。我给厂家发了电子邮件，内容如下。
　　“前段时间，我把奶粉寄你处检验的事。经与地区代理商和零售商多次协商，无果。现直接向你提出我的处理意见。
　　一、要求寄我检验报告单。如果说涉及商业秘密，寄我检验结果，并加盖公章。也可。
　　二、如合格。要求对所剩余的我认为有问题的奶粉进行退换，毕竟这一批次的产品在食用后出现了一些不正常现象。
　　三、如果出于某种不可告人的原因，不能办到。我们即默认它为不合格。并按《食品卫生法》的相关规定处理。
　　四、无论那种情况，如换货，为确保所换奶粉质量。我要求你部直接与我接洽，或由我指定商店退换。
　　五、最后，双方签定调解协议，并通知消协。
　　上述五点妥否？请商榷。并尽快予以回复。”
　　但是厂家一直不做答复。后经思考，我觉得把奶粉寄送生产产家、让他们自己说有无问题，这一做法不妥。真理始于怀疑，而终于信仰。我就是把房子卖了，也要查明事情的原委、破解心中的疑惑。我于３月３１日正式向县工商局直属工商所提出申请：为了天真的孩童，为了风烛残年的老者，为了更多的消费者，应该对这一批次有争议奶粉进行取样、并送权威部门检验。无论结果如何，对大家都是一件好事。
　　县工商局直属工商所的同志，在接到我的申请，并请示上级领导后，组织人员来到超市。结果发现慢了一步：前两天货架上满满当当的上述批次的奶粉（包括其它老包装的）一包也没了，全部变成了新包装的奶粉，仓库里也没有，全部不知所终！问超市的管理人员，说是不清楚。这次行动失败的原因主要是厂家确定是其生产，工商方面有些迟疑，在之前增加了调解程序；也是这个原因，没想到去超市会取不到样。
　　现在我手里的那堆奶粉就成孤证了。我看到那堆奶粉心里就郁闷：吃又不敢吃，扔掉又可惜、也不敢，换吧？又怕他们把类似原来那种质量的换给我。唉，身为人父、为人子的我该咋办呢？现在我只有寻求媒体的帮助了。

Google Chrome

wh5a — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:38:22 -0400

Google最近加入了浏览器第三次世界大战。试用了一下以后，感觉到很多优点：

1. 界面清爽简单。没有了标题栏，状态栏变成了自动隐藏的。
2. 速度极快，无论是启动、打开新标签、渲染页面、处理JavaScript，表现都非常优秀。V8 JavaScript engine确实不同凡响，令人同时期待Firefox的TraceMonkey（说到Firefox，它家最近出的Ubiquity和Weave也很不错，Firefox最强大的就在于其可扩展性）。Webkit HTML renderer与Gecko孰优孰劣我没有感觉，据说Webkit的代码写的比较好，利于embed到各种应用中。
3. 多进程模式思想超前。有些人以为从单进程模式到多进程模式是一种倒退，其实大谬不然。以前IE那种单进程，是一个进程只能访问一个页面，效率其低，因此才有其它程序使用OLE的方式嵌入IE的Trident内核来实现多tab浏览。但这带来的就是安全性和稳定性的降低。IE8也意识到这一问题，开始向多进程多页面过渡。但Chrome更胜一筹，不仅效率高，更内嵌一个任务管理器不但可以杀页面，还可以杀Flash插件。~~更厉害的是，Chrome考虑到了多种进程模式，并不是一个tab一个进程这么简单，同一个tab中，来自不同站点的内容也可以隔离在不同进程中。~~用于渲染页面的进程被置于sandbox中，优先级比主控进程低，所以受恶意网站的危害也小。
4. 开放。不仅是源代码开放，设计文档也很详尽。

缺点：
1. 浏览器功能比较单一，扩展性不够，给用户呈现的选项也较少。
2. 目前只支持Windows平台。

我稍微研究了一下Chrome，并自己做了一些修改。心得和程序下载见 http://sites.google.com/site/ggchromium/

UPDATE: Why Webkit?

THE documentation for linux kernel (and beyond)

wh5a — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:14:20 -0400

http://kernel.org/doc/

This is just a work in progress at the moment. But its table of content looks very interesting. For more information, check out Where Linux Documentation Hides published in OLS 08.

Why you need separate root and /usr partitions

wh5a — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:16:44 -0400

via LWN.

A user can do ln /usr/sbin/sendmail ~/sendmail then wait for a security bug to be reported in sendmail. Even though the administrator upgrades /usr/sbin/sendmail the buggy setuid sendmail is still available in the user's home directory.

This is one reason to have separate root and /usr partitions, because hardlinking across filesystems isn't possible.

Defeat Airport Delays

wh5a — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:35:52 -0400

Tips from PC Magazine Aug 2008.

Before you book, at www.flightstats.com you can get the odds of the flight being on time.

On the day of your departure, visit www.fly.faa.gov to learn if there are any delays specific to your destination.

You can sign up for OrbitzTLC Alerts or check updates.orbitz.com for real-time updates.

If you're already at the airport and have to rebook, don't wait at the back of the line at the service counter. Call your airline's telephone numbers instead.

奥运火了

wh5a — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:43:25 -0400

Presto

wh5a — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:29:20 -0400

Redirecting Drupal's Feeds to Feedburner

wh5a — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:55:13 -0400

Feedburner has an official plugin that allows you to redirect Wordpress feeds to Feedburner. There's also a 3rd-party module that allows you to do the same thing with Drupal. Unfortunately, you always get the same error "The specified local feed URI does not exist" when you try to redirect your feeds. The workaround, for now, is simply to comment out the complaining line.

从cs.virginia.edu转移到virginia.edu

wh5a — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:26:00 -0400

我们系的服务器不知怎么被黑了，与我无关的几个网页被插入了我的blog的内容，管理员于是怀疑有攻击者利用我的blog为跳板进行了XSS或者SQL injection攻击，只好临时关闭我的blog。说来奇怪，就算wordpress存在漏洞，我的帐户被完全控制，也不应该写入其它用户的网页啊？

本来选择自己host，就是觉得自由、方便，没想到还不如使用那些大站的服务稳定。干脆换到drupal，换换口味。