Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/06/27/ken-robinson-ted-talk/
Trying to get your week going? Can’t quite find your groove? Try and spend 20 minutes with Ken Robinson.
Lots of good humor to deliver a simple and important message. We face an important problem in that we designed our primary education systems to build conformist factory workers. As we rocket ever faster in to our collective future, what we’ll need more than ever is the capacity to formulate creative solutions to our new problems. Kids start out creative, then we educate the creativity out of them. We need to do what we can to help our kids grow with access to the various disciplines which move them, so that they can realize their potential as 21st century human beings.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/06/28/cat-house/
Maggie peers out from the Cat Ottoman.
Yes, we have a “Cat Ottoman.”
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/06/29/hope-we-dont-run-out/
“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide . . . I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”
—Thomas Edison
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/06/29/pricing-truck-rentals-budget-vs-penske/
[Notes from my move from Brooklyn to Mountain View, CA in July 2010. We rented a truck and towed a car. We drove via I-80/I-70. We stayed at Motel 6 when we could, and I asked my Android GPS to avoid tolls, especially East of the Mississippi.]
When I moved from California to New York I went with Budget Truck rental, based on price. It went well enough. This time I’m going with Penske, based on my sweetheart’s AAA discount. Penske’s web site is more polished, especially the “enter make and model of car to be towed” interaction. Today I received a 20% discount coupon for Budget. I made my reservation and was pleased that the price came out lower, until I reviewed my Penske reservation and saw they had included tax in their total. Budget did not. It also looks like Penske applies the AAA discount per-item, where Budget’s discount was only on the truck itself.
| Item |
Budget |
Penske |
| Discount |
20% coupon |
12% AAA + web discount |
| 10-day one-way 16′ truck rental |
$1,291.20 |
$1,250.06 |
| Tow Dolly |
$185.00 |
$264.00 |
| Hand Truck |
$35.00 |
$17.60 |
| 2-dozen furniture pads |
$54.00 |
$26.40 |
| “Cost recovery fee” |
$33.00 |
| Total |
$1,598.20 |
$1,558.06 |
Notes:
- Penske applies “web reservation” and AAA discounts to the truck rental.
- Budget coupon code ON113 for 20% off Sun-Thu pickups registers as “AARP discount.”
- Budget applies a “web reservation” discount of around 10% if you don’t enter a coupon code.
- Penske applies the AAA discount to tow dolly, hand truck, furniture pads.
- Budget’s tow dolly is cheaper.
- Penske hand truck and furniture pads are cheaper even before discount.
- Penske hand truck and furniture pads seem perfectly reasonable, where Budget looks like they’re padding the price.
- Budget tacks on their “cost recovery fee” after you enter your credit card to make the reservation, with a vague explanation that it is standard practice in the industry.
- Budget adds a refundable deposit of $150.
- Penske includes taxes in their total, making their total appear higher than Budget.
4 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/06/30/bay-trail-panorama/
Stitched together with Hugin, the best panorama creator ever!
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/06/30/ups-tracking-number-rollover/
My package was shipped today. It arrived last January.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/07/01/sleeping-with-a-toy/
Maggie snoozes off, not letting a friend's home-made fish toy loose from her grasp.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/07/02/colby/
This photo sucks. But Colby rocks it anyway.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/07/03/breakfast-party/
Florentine, waffles and fruits! Oh my!
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/07/05/book-donations/
PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE BOOKS OUTSIDE ON GROUND OR DRIVEWAY
We eased this situation by providing foster homes for some of the books left on the ground.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/07/05/wordpress-upgrade-php53-centos/
If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, you really ought to keep it up to date. Popular software is a popular security target, and as new exploits are discovered, new patches are deployed. Fortunately, WordPress makes this super-easy. Just go to Dashboard > Updates and you can update with one click. I basically get a free update any time I get it in my head to write something.
Except this morning, when I was told that an update was available, but:
On my CentOS VM, this was addressed by:
sudo yum update
sudo service httpd restart
Actually, it was a little difficult, because we’re replacing php with php53:
0-13:11 djh@www0 ~$ cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS release 5.6 (Final)
0-13:11 djh@www0 ~$ rpm -q php
php-5.1.6-27.el5_5.3
0-13:11 djh@www0 ~$ yum list installed | grep ^php
php.x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed
php-cli.x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed
php-common.x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed
php-gd.x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed
php-mysql.x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed
php-pdo.x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed
1-13:11 djh@www0 ~$ sudo service httpd stop
Stopping httpd: [ OK ]
0-13:11 djh@www0 ~$ yum list installed | grep ^php | awk '{print $1}'
php.x86_64
php-cli.x86_64
php-common.x86_64
php-gd.x86_64
php-mysql.x86_64
php-pdo.x86_64
0-13:12 djh@www0 ~$ sudo yum remove `!!`
sudo yum remove `yum list installed | grep ^php | awk '{print $1}'`
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Setting up Remove Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package php.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 set to be erased
---> Package php-cli.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 set to be erased
---> Package php-common.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 set to be erased
---> Package php-gd.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 set to be erased
---> Package php-mysql.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 set to be erased
---> Package php-pdo.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 set to be erased
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Removing:
php x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed 6.2 M
php-cli x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed 5.3 M
php-common x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed 397 k
php-gd x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed 333 k
php-mysql x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed 196 k
php-pdo x86_64 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 installed 114 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Remove 6 Package(s)
Reinstall 0 Package(s)
Downgrade 0 Package(s)
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Erasing : php-gd 1/6
Erasing : php 2/6
Erasing : php-mysql 3/6
Erasing : php-cli 4/6
Erasing : php-common 5/6
warning: /etc/php.ini saved as /etc/php.ini.rpmsave
Erasing : php-pdo 6/6
Removed:
php.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 php-cli.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3
php-common.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 php-gd.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3
php-mysql.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3 php-pdo.x86_64 0:5.1.6-27.el5_5.3
Complete!
0-13:13 djh@www0 ~$ sudo yum install php53 php53-mysql php53-gd
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: yum.singlehop.com
* epel: mirror.steadfast.net
* extras: mirror.fdcservers.net
* updates: mirror.sanctuaryhost.com
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package php53.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: php53-cli = 5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 for package: php53
--> Processing Dependency: php53-common = 5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 for package: php53
---> Package php53-gd.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libXpm.so.4()(64bit) for package: php53-gd
---> Package php53-mysql.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: php53-pdo for package: php53-mysql
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libXpm.x86_64 0:3.5.5-3 set to be updated
---> Package php53-cli.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 set to be updated
---> Package php53-common.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 set to be updated
---> Package php53-pdo.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
php53 x86_64 5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 updates 1.3 M
php53-gd x86_64 5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 updates 109 k
php53-mysql x86_64 5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 updates 92 k
Installing for dependencies:
libXpm x86_64 3.5.5-3 base 44 k
php53-cli x86_64 5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 updates 2.4 M
php53-common x86_64 5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 updates 605 k
php53-pdo x86_64 5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 updates 67 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 7 Package(s)
Upgrade 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 4.6 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/7): libXpm-3.5.5-3.x86_64.rpm | 44 kB 00:00
(2/7): php53-pdo-5.3.3-1.el5_6.1.x86_64.rpm | 67 kB 00:00
(3/7): php53-mysql-5.3.3-1.el5_6.1.x86_64.rpm | 92 kB 00:00
(4/7): php53-gd-5.3.3-1.el5_6.1.x86_64.rpm | 109 kB 00:00
(5/7): php53-common-5.3.3-1.el5_6.1.x86_64.rpm | 605 kB 00:00
(6/7): php53-5.3.3-1.el5_6.1.x86_64.rpm | 1.3 MB 00:00
(7/7): php53-cli-5.3.3-1.el5_6.1.x86_64.rpm | 2.4 MB 00:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 12 MB/s | 4.6 MB 00:00
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : php53-common 1/7
Installing : php53-pdo 2/7
Installing : php53-cli 3/7
Installing : libXpm 4/7
Installing : php53 5/7
Installing : php53-mysql 6/7
Installing : php53-gd 7/7
Installed:
php53.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 php53-gd.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1
php53-mysql.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1
Dependency Installed:
libXpm.x86_64 0:3.5.5-3 php53-cli.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1
php53-common.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1 php53-pdo.x86_64 0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.1
Complete!
0-13:14 djh@www0 ~$ sudo service httpd start
Starting httpd: [ OK ]
And now I have successfully upgraded via the web UI.
Most days, I am not a CentOS admin, so if there is a better way to have done this, I am keen to hear.
8 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/07/06/vta-cup-holder/
A hand hold on VTA's light rail makes a convenient place to hook a travel mug
I usually have my coffee at work, but on this morning I brewed at home and took it with.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/07/06/dinosaurs-and-mammals/
“Even though bicycle commuting is on the rise all over the country, as cyclists we remain vulnerable. We’re like mammals in the waning days of the dinosaurs: far more adaptable and with much better long-term prospects, yet in the meantime still in imminent danger of being squashed.”
—Bike Snob NYC
He goes on:
You’d imagine that at some point Americans would wake up to the fact that they’re being sold a very expensive illusion of safety that is in fact killing them and opt for practicality and efficiency over sheer size, but until that day there’s nothing illusory about city streets filled with light-running SUVs driven by a gentry who are more or less free to maim with impunity. And when it comes to cycling for transportation, the fact that your safety–indeed your very life–is not a consideration is what you might call a “barrier to entry.”
We all approach this barrier differently depending on our dispositions. Some of us hop it as adroitly as a cyclocross racer and ride undaunted. Others step over it with considerable trepidation, riding only occasionally or strictly for recreation. Still others simply go around it by opting for other modes of transport. And of course millions of people buy gigantic “safe” automobiles and just drive through the fucking thing while jockeying their smartphones, with two or three cyclists pinned to their bumpers.
As far as the larger-cars-are-safer myth: more massive vehicles need greater stopping distance to break or perform emergency maneuvers. Having more tons of metal surrounding you helps only if you assume you will get into an accident, possibly because your vehicle is bulky and awkward and you have a false sense of security which lowers your vigilance. Then you end up killing the other guy, in the smaller, more fuel-efficient car or bicycle. If you drive an SUV you get bonus points for driving a top-heavy vehicle vulnerable to flipping, which, as a light truck, is unencumbered by the Socialist mandate of rollover protection. Live free and die an avoidable fatality!
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2011/07/07/twins/
Danny and Curtis sport a Silicon Valley fashion sensibility.
. . . and matching glasses!
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