Day: February 7, 2007

In order to keep my layout and content nice and neat, I have created a separate node for use for the “daily” poetry. In the header across the top of the page, next to Contact is a link to the poetry node called Daily Poem. While I don’t always post a poem every day, I do put new ones up regularly.

Also, starting with the poem posted today, I will be listing the URL that I got the poem from, if applicable. While the large majority of these poems come from various sites on the web that I find doing Google searches, I may from time to time post an original work by people I know that is not on the web yet.

Andy Fore – Thu, 2007 – 01 – 18 17:43

She Walks in Beauty
by Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow’d to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair’d the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

ref. url: She Walks in Beauty

Hear it being read by Bill Berkson

Andy Fore – Mon, 2007 – 01 – 22 13:13

Keep A Poem In Your Pocket
By Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Keep a poem in your pocket And a picture in your head And you’ll never feel lonely

At night when you’re in bed.

The little poem will sing to you The little picture bring to you A dozen dreams to dance to you

At night when you’re in bed.

So Keep a picture in your pocket And a poem in your head And you’ll never feel lonely

At night when you’re in bed.

ref. url: Poem In Your Pocket

Andy Fore – Fri, 2007 – 01 – 19 13:09

One of the annoyances I have discovered with MythTV and Fedora Core is the inability to eject the optical drive in a default install of MythTV.

Apparently the function EJECT that is called in the menu file for the Optical Disk doesn’t work in Fedora Core.

To fix this, edit the file optical_menu.xml. Look for the line:

EJECT

Remove the text EJECT and replace it with:

EXEC eject -T

This will tell the system to send the optical drive a close tray command if the tray is open and a open tray command if the tray is closed.

Andy Fore – Tue, 2007 – 01 – 16 02:27

Today is the birthday of Lord Byron, an English poet born in 1788 in Scotland. He was born George Gordon Noel.

His first success was the poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage written in 1812, which is based around his journeys from England to the eastern Mediterranean.

Check out today’s daily poem for another of his more recognizable poems, She Walks in Beauty.

This particular poem is one of my favorites, and it was featured in the television series Beauty and the Beast that ran on the CBS network in the US from 1987 until 1990. The first season of this show has recently been released on DVD.

Andy Fore – Mon, 2007 – 01 – 22 13:40

As Winds That Blow Against A Star
by Joyce Kilmer

Now by what whim of wanton chance Do radiant eyes know sombre days? And feet that shod in light should dance

Walk weary and laborious ways?

But rays from Heaven, white and whole, May penetrate the gloom of earth; And tears but nourish, in your soul,

The glory of celestial mirth.

The darts of toil and sorrow, sent Against your peaceful beauty, are As foolish and as impotent

As winds that blow against a star.

ref. url: Trees and Other Poems – As Winds That Blow Against A Star

Andy Fore – Thu, 2007 – 01 – 18 17:24

After recently upgrading my MythTV system, I set to editing the metadata for my video collection.

Everything worked fine when editing through the regular interface, but when attempting to edit the data through the MythWeb interface, I noticed that entries where the title started with double-quotes, the field in the edit screen was empty.

The data would be stored in the database, if entered in quotes, yet the edit screen would not retrieve it.

The solution is to add the usage of PHP function htmlentities in the edit.php file of the video module of MythWeb.

The problem is in line 102 where the value attribute contains the following snippet of PHP code:

The corrected version would look like this:

This is built off the latest version of the stable MythWeb module. Download the corrected version.

Andy Fore – Mon, 2007 – 01 – 15 16:53

So I ran across a story on Slashdot about how ABC/Disney had a blog shutdown over the posting of some audio clips from a radio-station affiliate in conjunction with the blogger’s letters to the radio station advertisers over their tacit support of the comments and views of the talk radio hosts on the station.

The Slashdot post linked to a blog posting on the Daily Kos: State of the Nation that had more details.

While I don’t exactly like the idea of corporate America picking on the little guy when their pocketbook is being affected, I wonder at the hoopla that gets kicked up in the liberal ‘Net community everytime something like this happens.

One of the comments on the Daily Kos post stated that this was

this is a really big First Amdendment and Blogger Rights issue

I think that the author of the comment would have had a good point if they had stopped after “First Amendment”.

What is it that makes speech in a blog any different than speech in any other medium? If there are legitimate freedom of speech issues in this particular case, beyond the often confusing interpretation of what constitutes fair use, then that is a valid point. However, just because the post was made on a blog shouldn’t impart any special protection beyond what has been granted in the caselaw surrounding the first amendment protections.

For years, people that have an issue with a particular view expressed through a commercial entity, be it radio, television, or print, have been writing letters to newspaper editors and advertisers. How is this any different now that we have another medium to voice our opinions? Just because the ease of getting the opinion across has been increased with the advent of Internet forums and blogs, does not mean that the same laws concerning freedom of speech or copyright are more or less applicable.

Do we really need a whole raft of new legislation when the medium is digital instead of analog?

Andy Fore – Mon, 2007 – 01 – 08 02:12

Rest
by Neal Carman

Sunset; the river calm. Afar, half-visible, the valley’s cleft containers. The whole, a scene of rest. Rest? A mill, a bridge, a railway, trees, a river ? What restful thing is there? The mill? A place of roaring waters, Of belts that flap and clatter round their pulleys, Of rollers crushing the germ of life That those who strain to move its mangled weight May strain the more. The bridge? A burden-bearer, that lately was Crushed rock, and sacked cement, and twisted rods of iron And lines upon a sheet of paper. The railway? Bald and stark manifestation Of motion, weight, and grimy toil, Where shovels, with ballast laden And rhythmic striking mauls Have served fire-gutted gods of steam and steel. The trees? Yes! fed on by insects, Beat by the winds, Robbed every year of light-transforming leaves, Strangling their weak and small, Strugglers — chained to their place till dead and rotted. The river? Bank-guawer, flood-begetter, Carrier of filth and cannibalic life, And mountains, Riding toward the all-receptive sea. A restful scene?

Yes, such throughout the world is peace and rest.

ref. url: Rest

Andy Fore – Sun, 2007 – 01 – 21 18:13

Dreams
by D.H. Lawrence

All people dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind,

Wake in the morning to find that it was vanity.

But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, For they dream their dreams with open eyes,

And make them come true.

Andy Fore – Sat, 2007 – 01 – 06 19:48