John Borwick’s blog

Neat stuff John likes.

October 31st, 2004

compiling embedded python on OS X

I haven’t yet figured out how to take this code:

#include <Python.h>

int main() {  PyInitialize();  PyRunSimpleString("print 2100");}

And compile it. I’ve tried gcc -I${PYTHON}/include/python2.3 -o test test.c but I don’t know what library to use… or where to find it.

October 31st, 2004

TCP/IP Illustrated

I’ve been eyeing TCP/IP Illustrated volume one. Seth has a copy, and it’s really useful.

Then I read a review of volume two:

Difficulty aside, this book alone will honestly make you a TCP/IP guru - now that I’ve read volumes 1 and 2, the networking administrators where I work come to me with questions about issues they can’t resolve. I’m literally comfortable saying that there’s nothing I don’t know about TCP/IP, and that’s not a statement I’d make lightly (feel free to test me). But more than that, I learned a lot about writing good, solid code… in learning the networking stack as a whole, I was able to understand some higher-level software engineering concepts that had previously eluded me.

which is a pretty hearty recommendation.

My current plan is to work on my (computer) networking knowledge and to learn Python, so I’ll have most of the “system administration basic requirements” covered.

October 31st, 2004

one-stop no excuse absentee voting

Lauren and I voted early at the Forsyth County Government Center yesterday. The polls were open from 10 AM - 1 PM. We arrived at 11:15 AM and waited two hours forty-five minutes to vote with electronic ballots.

While we were waiting, I asked the elections board why I’d never received my voter registration card. They had keyed my address in as “591″ rather than “541″. My actual address “541B Trade St” could not be inputted; we found out from Lauren’s registration that it must be “541B N Trade St.” Their computer program stores a scanned version of the registration card, which is awesome, because they could verify what I’d written down and chalk up the typo to “BOE ERROR“.

I think we voted with a computer because people were voting from different districts and they couldn’t create a standard paper ballot. The trouble with the computers (other than the lack of any auditing) is that people can see who you vote for. There were 10 voting machines and three volunteers checking registrations inside a 10 foot by 15 foot room. You’d think after the first few days they would have tried to optimize the system by getting a bigger room, maybe more voting machines, and making sure that there were no bottlenecks.

They should also give out numbers if the wait is going to be longer than 10-15 minutes, so that people can leave and come back, get drinks, sit down, etc. Spain is the expert in this arena: lines there (for train tickets) can be 2 hours long and ALWAYS use numbers.

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