Playing with Phone

Review: YaCy Search Engine

So here is my review of YaCy, the Open Source Search Engine.  Created solely that .. "no one company should control search."

Review:

Went to the site, typed in a search, results sucked, back to google.

This is like Linux on the desktop, you'll struggle to get what you really want... when there's an alternative available that gives you what you want the first time without the struggle.

They appear to be in the "Slackware" on floppies stage, call me when they're in the "Mint" stage.

Apple Supply Chain

Good article on Apple's Supply Chain.

http://tinyurl.com/3mauqme

Image Resize, Thumbnail Generation

Use Perl to resize images to thumbnail size.  Helpful when you are supporting websites with a TON of images.
Requires Image::Magick


#!/usr/bin/perl
#Name:  thumbgen.pl
#Desc:  Generate thumbnail sized images from full product images.
#Author:  Rob Owens
##Change##
#initial:rowens/100411
#
#Notes:
#Development Env:
#ImageRoot:/var/www/html/images
#Full:/var/www/html/images/full
#Thumb:/var/www/html/images/thumb
#
#estore.savtira.net width=70
#
# PerlMagick Method(s)
#my($image, $x);
#
#$image = Image::Magick->new;
#$x = $image->Read('Blood_for_Blood_God_by_NachoMon.jpg');
#warn "$x" if "$x";
#
#$x = $image->Resize(geometry=>'70x');
#warn "$x" if "$x";
#
#$x = $image->Write('Blood_thumb.jpg');
#warn "$x" if "$x";
#
#
#
#my $FullDir = "/var/www/html/images/full";
use Image::Magick;
require './lib/imagelib';


#my $FullDir = '/home/rowens/repos/imageresize/html/images/full';
#my $ThumbDir = '/home/rowens/repos/imageresize/html/images/thumb';


my $FullDir = $ARGV[0];
my $ThumbDir = $ARGV[1];
my $size = $ARGV[2];
my $x = x;


if (( $FullDir eq '' ) || ( $ThumbDir eq '' )) {
        usage(basic);
        exit 1;
} elsif ( ! -e $FullDir ) {
        usage(source);
        exit 1;
} elsif ( ! -e $ThumbDir ) {
        usage(target);
        exit 1;
} 
if ( $size eq '' ) {
        $Resize = '70x';
} else {
        $Resize = $size . $x;
}


opendir(D, "$FullDir") || die "Can't opedir $FullDir: $!\n";
while ( my $file  = readdir(D) ) {
# remove "." and ".." directories
        next if ( $file =~ m/^\./ );
# only files
        next if ( -d "$FullDir/$file" );
# all images into an array
        push ( @tmpfull, "$file" );
}
closedir(D);


#print "@full";






foreach $tmpfile (@tmpfull) {
#       printf "PRE:  $ThumbDir/$tmpfile\n";
        next if ( -e "$ThumbDir/$tmpfile");
#       printf "PST:  $ThumbDir/$tmpfile\n";
        push(@full, "$tmpfile");
}
#
foreach $file (@full) {
        resize("$FullDir/$file","$ThumbDir/$file","$Resize"); 
}

# ./lib/imagelib

#use Image::Magick

my ($image, $x);

$image = Image::Magick->new;

sub resize {

        $infile = $_[0];

        $outfile = $_[1];

        $resize = $_[2];

        my($image);

        $image = Image::Magick->new;

        $image->Read($infile);

        $image->Resize(geometry=>$resize);

        printf "Resizing image:   $infile\n";

        $image->Write($outfile);

return 0;

} print;

sub usage {

        $err = $_[0];

        if ( $err =~ /source/ ) {

                printf "Error:  Source Directory doesn't exist\n";

                printf "Usage:  thumbgen <source_directory> <target_directory> [pix width]\n\n";

        } elsif ( $err =~ /target/ ) {

                printf "Error:  Target Directory doesn't exist\n";

                printf "Usage:  thumbgen <source_directory> <target_directory> [pix width]\n\n";

        } elsif ( $err =~ /basic/ ) {

                print<<EOF;

Thumb Generator:  Used to generate thumbnails.  Shrinking width size while

maintaining scale.

Usage:  thumbgen <source_directory> <target_directory> [pix width]

        Example(s):

        Resize original images to thumbnail size, using default 70px wide: 

        thumbgen /var/www/html/images/full /var/www/html/images/thumb

        Resize original images to thumbnail size, specifying 100px width:

        thumbgen /var/www/html/images/full /var/www/html/images/thumb 100

        NOTE!  Program maintains the filename, hence output directory.

EOF

        }

return 1;

} print;

Linux Remote Password Changes

1.  For remote password changes, you'll need sudo rights on the remote.

2.  Ensure sudo is configured for remote root commands.

  a. Edit /etc/sudoers with  visudo

  b. comment out the following:

  #Defaults    requiretty
  #Defaults   !visiblepw

3.  Generate a new password for the user using this simple perl thingie:
Example:
[doomicon@songohan tools]$ ./genpass.pl password
$1$m/Ba1kqd$LXQxR..lqUwgWE5kSPESF0

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# usage:  genpass.pl '<password>'
# Generate MD5 encrypt string for remote useradd/usermod
# rowens
#"THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42):
# <phk@login.dknet.dk> wrote this file.  As long as you retain this notice you
# can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think
# this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return.   Poul-Henning Kamp
use Crypt::PasswdMD5;
my @salt = ( '.', '/', 0 .. 9, 'A' .. 'Z', 'a' .. 'z' );

$newpass="$ARGV[0]";
sub gensalt {
        my $count = shift;
        my $salt;
                for (1..$count) {
                        $salt .= (@salt)[rand @salt];
                }
return $salt;
}
$encryptpass = unix_md5_crypt( $newpass, gensalt(8) );
printf "$encryptpass\n";

4.  Using the password just generated, we'll use the nifty '-p' option for usermod.

ssh remote_host sudo /usr/sbin/usermod -p '$1$m/Ba1kqd$LXQxR..lqUwgWE5kSPESF0' remoteuser

If you have to change this user on multiple hosts, just loop it.

for host in `grep -v ^127 /etc/hosts | awk '{ print $1 }'`
do
ssh $host sudo /usr/sbin/usermod -p '$1$m/Ba1kqd$LXQxR..lqUwgWE5kSPESF0' user
done

Fin

Sailing with Dolphins

Sailing Again

Did some more sailing two Saturdays ago, last Saturday wind was "poo" so we ate lunch on the boat and kids and I dove in to clean the bottom.

My Beautiful Wife!

I'm on a boat... 

Alex a friend of my son, came along for the ride :-)

Lately the wind has been pretty poor, hoping to get out this Saturday morning, as with Hurricane Irene roaming about, the wind is expected to be pretty good ;-)

Catching Up... Boat Move

Well Summer has been a busy one!  Many Birthdays, a family vacation, moving a sailboat, new job, and an anniversary :-)

I haven't had the time to post much, so I will be trying to catch up.

First thing this summer was purchasing a sailboat.  I boat a 1973 Grampian 26' boat FOR CHEAP!!!  When I told a childhood friend of mine how much I paid his response was, "I PAID MORE FOR MY CROWNS AT THE DENTIST!  Your telling me I could've purchased a sailboat!"

YES!  I've been looking at sailboats for about 5 years, and with the down economy I've watched the prices of used boats plummet!  Craigslist, Yachtworld, you name it.  Check the sites, and you'd be surprised what you can find for under $5000.  It will require some elbow grease, but you can find sturdy sailboats, that can be made better with a little work.

So on to the boat, I present "Yellow Bird"  .. ya I know name is .. uhm well.. it will be changed.

I stumbled across this little boat on Craigslist.  The entire family drove down to Punta Gorda, FL to purchase.

Sam During the Purchase

Boat is purchased.. now.. I have to find a crew and sail her 100 nm!

Loading up and preparing to go...

Travis and Ce, crewmates in the foreground, mah girl Aileen in the background

Heading out.. Crew:  Travis, Ce and Myself.. two days of sailing.

Finally out of Charlotte Harbor, time to sail...

Travis Taking the Helm err.. Tiller

No wind :-(  Now we're motoring

more to come!!

New Job

Been awhile since I posted, new job keeps me busy :-)

www.savtira.com

Busy, Busy, Busy

My apologies for not updating the blog, however things have been quite hectic.  I purchased a sailboat; which I have to sail from Punta Gorda to St. Petersburg.  I landed a new job "Praise God", and did a 15 mile hike with my son.

Lastly readying a 5 day family vacation to Key Largo.

All this running around, and fulfilling obligations work and otherwise has put me behind on getting my stuff up for sale.

Hopefully, I will soon get the opportunity to catalog everything and get it listed for sale.

If you follow this blog, and have a rough idea what I have, just send me an offer.  No reasonable offers refused.

Space Wolves Prepare for Sale

Posting Pictures of my Space Wolves to prepare for eBay sale.

Have to come up with a complete list, but it did grow pretty large!

I did have a TON O' FUN painting this stuff!  I don't think I'll ever stop painting, it's enjoyable and relaxing.  Just not sure about playing :-)  I think if you get get eBay deals, trades, or pick up used armies.. then GO FOR IT!  Purchasing new from GW has just gotten a bit outta hand.

Term WGBL or WL

Wolf Priest (or) Rune Priest

Grey Hunter Powerfist

Rune Priest

Long Fangs

Grey Hunter

Nice Interior on One Rhino/RB

Another shot

Drop Pods

Blood Claws

Blood Claws

Vehicles during paint

Vehicles during paint

Lukas

sadf

Logan (during paintjob)

Logan (during paintjob)

Almost all of it (this pic is short terminators and Logan)

Heyoh!

It's been awhile since my last post.  Found some older pics that never made it.. they were interesting, so giving them a post.

Noobhammer group is still playing every Saturday.  We've mixed up armies a bit for variety, and I have to say... Chaos sucks against 5ed Armies.  Fun to play, but geesh!

I bought all of Jawaballs Dark Eldar, *Thanks Jawa!*, and have alot of figs and raiders to put together.  Think this will be my last army.  With the announcement that UK shops can't ship to the U.S. (no more waylandgames.co.uk orders), and announcement of price hikes.   I'm done.  This is a fun game... but not that fun.  I have plenty of figs to keep me going.  If I can't find it on eBay, then so be it.

On to some interesting pics in the collection (thanks to MattG)

SW Rhino

Blood drops on Chaos Landraider

LITERALLY, 3 minutes max on base colors, and a DIP!  Wanted to see how fast I could crank out a fig!

Jawaballs Selloff

Those of you who follow 40k blogs are probably familiar with Jawaballs (Chris).  He is doing a big selloff to raise a little $$$ to put towards a house.

Help a 40k brother out:

http://warhammer40kbloodangels.blogspot.com/2011/04/great-jawaballs-sell-off.html

Dark Eldar is spoken for :-)  I snatched it all up, but he still has alot of stuff left.

Terminators

So I'm really addicted to Terminators.  They're awesome models, a ton of fun, and in specific situations when used correctly they pwn. 

Some highlights of my top Three favorite Terminator moments.

3.  Drop Pod Done Wrong (fail moment, epic funny!)
So early in my gaming, I loaded up 5 Assault Terms in a droppod, and then proceeded to drop them right in front of a Chaos Castle.. Havoks, Plague Marines, CSM all bubble wrapping a Defiler.  Hey we were noobs without vehicles... that Battlecannon sucked when your on foot.

Yes, I have pictures of that Epic n00b Fail moment!

Prior to getting shot to pieces!  3++ is good, T4 and 1 wound.. isn't.

So yea I learned a valuable lesson in, not being able to assault the turn you arrive.. how NOT to allocate wounds, and that a massed amount of Bolter fire can kill Terms.  Given enough dice to roll for saves.. you will roll ones.

There was a saving grace to this moment..  With the two terms left that didn't run away, I was assaulted by the CSM's.  I only caused ONE wound!  That's bad rolling... HOWEVER, I won combat by .. you guessed it one wound, CSM proceeded to fail their leadership roll (boxcars), and proceeded to run 11" .. yeup, right off the board ;-)  Hilarious moment, Noobhammer Gang will not soon forget.

2.  Getting it Right
So against the guys I play, I got bored of running Rune Priest, Grey Hunter, etc.  I threw Logan and some terms in a Land Raider Redeemer.  Fighting a close Annihilation game against Joe's nids.  He kept his Mawlok under ground to prevent giving up a VP.  It was that close.  His warriors, genestealers and Broodlord were already in my backfiled eating thru Long Fangs...  Turn 5, my LRR is finaly there...  I rolled up, Flamestorm, Heavy Flamer, Assualt... fin.

They freakin wiped EVERYTHING!  The awesomesauce!

1. Droppod Done Right!
Same game against Joe's nids (see moment 2. Getting it Right).  It was our first game at 1850 points.  That's ALOT of bugs, and Joe was trying out the Swamlord for the first time.  Spearhead deployment, he hides the SwarmLord behind a Trygon for cover.

I get first turn.  I drop my lone pod of 'shooty' Terminators 10" behind his SwarmLord (no cover from this angle), and proceed to epic roll combi plasma and assault cannon downing the SwarmLord before his first movement phase.  I just remember Joe's simple "that sucked"...

Selloff

Well I'm getting a bit bored with the Armies I'm playing, and considering a sell off.  Take a plunge and start a new army.

I'm disappointed that the 5thED choices are limited.  I'm not interested in Power Armor, so that leaves:  Tyranids, IG, and Dark Eldar.

I already have alot of Tyranids, so gonna give them a go this weekend.  I'm more interested in Dark Eldar than IG, however IG seems to have more configurations.  If I wasn't so adverse against Power Armor, I would invest time in my sons Blood Angels.  I really enjoy the various combo's you can use, DoA, Armor, etc.  Blood Angels have alot of options.

Still trying to decide what to sell.  Obviously will sell Orks and Chaos.  Debating on selling my SW, if I ever decide to give them another shot, I would like to redo their scheme anyhoo.

I'm ready to start a new project.  On a sidenote, Matt was kind enough to have a couple of high gloss posters made for me.  I bought frames and everything :-)  Below are the posters that he had made. 

ForgeWorld

... making Games Workshop model prices look CHEAP, since 1998.

So Forgeworld just came out with a NEW vehicle for IG, it's about twice physical size of a Chimera.  Go check it out here...

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/CRASSUS-ARMOURED-TRANSPORT.html

Amazing huh?  So do you think it's worth $181?  I'm making the assumption that Forgeworld has replaced Resin with Silver for casting.

Next time I have $512 laying around, maybe I'll just head over to their site and pick up a Chaos Warhound Titan... or I'll purchase a plane ticket to the Caribbean instead.

Hey FW, GTFO

Now if you regularly purchase from Forgeworld, please tell me your reasoning.  I would like to understand how someone could pay so much for a plastic model.

~rob 

Been Awhile

So got promoted at work (yay!), but has left me a bit busy.  I have been tinkering around with some Wolves.  Played a fun list with Logan and 12 or so Terminators (long fangs n' such to fill in).  It was alot of fun, and a departure from what a normally play.

Fun to me is any list that is a departure from what I may normally play.  So normally it's Grey Hunters in Rhino's, Long Fangs galore, throw in melta and a Rune Priest or two and BAM!

That has gotten bit tired.  I need to mix it up, keep it fresh :-)

I've got alot on the paint table, and with some time freed up, need to get it organized and take some pictures.  Keep an eye out.

Logan

Not finished yet, but so far so good.

Face Value

See the comments in this post.  Blogger answers a question plainly, using the rulebook... and the picking apart of the each syllable of the rules begins in the comments.

One thing that I dislike generally in this game, thou it's not prevalent in our gaming group... why I generally don't play outside of it.

Is how people will just pick the rules apart when the rule is obvious.  I find it ironic that 99% of the time the person(s) picking the rule apart, is trying to help the army they play.

I recently read a post whereas someone was asking a question about assault vehicles, specifically the Land Raider.  He wanted to know "Can I move 12", dump my guys, and Assault".  A poster responded that he could not do that... about 8 posts later of arguments, he explained you can't "dump" troops... you can "disembark".

While there are some good peeps that play this game, there are alot of socially inept, rude, smelly turds as well.

Thankfully, I haven't played against one directly yet... well, at least the one I did had good hygiene.

If you have followed that post, read the comments, and feel the need to "clarify" something about that rule... give yourself a quick "sniff", make sure you don't need to shower.

~peaCe

Games Play, Picked up a Brush

I've taken about a two week break from painting and it has been nice.  Just to get stuff done around the house, and play a couple of games in between.

Played a good Chaos vs. Tyranids... I play against Tyranids ALOT!

I ran a DP (wings/lash), two squads of Berzerkers (Rhino/Land Raider), squad of CSM w/ Rhine (MoS), 8xDaemonettes, and round it out with two Defilers.

This list proved to be freakishly devastating against Nids.  Defilers actually didn't do much, Zerkers with an Assault vehicle stomped.  Daemonettes did their job, as well as the CSM with MoS (initiative 5).

Second game, the group mixed things up a bit.  Our Nid player Joe joined me for some SW action, and see how it is from my side of the table, while Ben wanted to try Joe's nids.  The only thing Ben knows of Nids is what he's seen against them.

I brought two lists, Joe rolled for which one to use.. Wolfstar.

This was a one-sided battle that started off horribly (rolling), but in the end we won, only losing two models.

After a two week hiatus, decided to paint up a couple of 'shooty' Terminators.  I have plently of Assault Terminators, so thought I would use the last bits I had laying around to paint up two guys with guns.

Some base colors done.

Red WarPaint

Cool Site, NOT 40k related :-)

Good friend of mine is taking a glassblowing class.  Name is Matt, same guy who took my 1G pictures.

Definitely worth checking out http://mattgalvin-glass.blogspot.com/

Be sure to check the slideshow, great pics!

It Was Fun..

It was fun while it lasted, but gotta throw in the towel.  Real life is creeping in, and the time I'm spending painting plastic models just seems less and less important.

Taking a break from it all.

I really appreciate everyone who followed along for the ride, and hope you enjoyed the bits I got to share.

As of today, I managed to finish 1500 Chaos, 1500 nids, 1850+ Space Wolves, and just over a 1000 Orks.  lol the bane of my painting existence.

Bloggin' out.

peaCe
~rob

Chaos Take Four

Still mucking around with the color schemes.  I really like the Red/Purple, however trying to get it right is tough.  For one, I don't see it the way everyone else does.

I have gone with a darker purple, and still trying to land the red.  I included a "before" picture.  As some of you know, the Chaos figs are in disarray and I'm repainting.  So I have my Icon Bearer that is coming up next.

As you can see, I'm just going to keep painting the squad, and compare figs to determine the colors I like :-)

ugly..

can you tell the difference in shades?

Moving On...

I paid extra close attention to mold lines.

After spending way too much time on one fig, I've moved on.

I have the Daemonettes and Gargoyles built and primed.  Started painting the Gargoyles a bit tonight, was hoping to get more done but I've been slacking.

I stuck as to a scheme for the Daemonettes, thinking a pink base, purple wash, pink/white top coat, white highlights... wow that's a mouthful.

Tall Flesh for the wings

Chaos Color Schemes, again

Reworked a bit better

I reworked the purple.  Essentially mixing my own adding some Mordian Blue and using the Purple Wash.

I like it, the contrast is there, but still not what I was going for.

Chaos Color Schemes

This is where I suffer.  I'm color blind, so I typically have to search the net for schemes I like and note the colors used.

So, I venture out on my own to come up with a Slaneesh/Khorne (hehe I know) scheme.

This is what you get when you give a color blind guy paints...

NOT complete, Just base color for ideas

1G Month Two, Space Wolves

Space Wolves

Month two has seen me complete the four month requirement for Space Wolves.  I have a bit over 1850 painted to a "Table Top" quality.  I am missing some minor things, lenses, mud on tracks, etc., however I am happy with them and will continue to work on them.

Matt was cool enough to take pictures of the entire batch, so without further delay may I present the full gambit of my Space Wolves.

Space Wolves

Wolf Priest, Wolf Guard Battle Leader, and Rune Priest

Two Rhino's, Three ten man Grey Hunter Squads

Two Razorbacks for two five man Long Fang Squads

Two Drop Pods, carry Wolf Guard Terminators (8), or Blood Claws (8+Lukas and Wolf Priest)

Misc Pictures

Grey Hunters

Lukas

Rune Priest

Wolf Priest

Wolf Guard