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Not Very Helpful

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Very helpful program error in QGIS 2.2: “Warning! Exception thrown — bad_alloc”. It continued working fine after that, as whatever couldn’t find memory space managed to work without it.

However, when you compile a piece of software with debugging flags off, your not supposed to get messages about exceptions being thrown, as normal people have no idea what the heck an exception is or what they can do about it (not much).

display bandwidth usage on an interface

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iftop: display bandwidth usage on an interface.

Here's another helpful program for monitoring bandwidth usage. This one lets monitor bandwidth to individual websites, to see which sites are hogging all your bandwidth.

It's not perfect, as it uses reverse DNS to get the domain names, which in shared hosting environments, may not reflect the actual name of the website your downloading. But it's good information to have.

Evenings Are Kind of Nice Without the Internet

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Between walking down to the library, working on my laptop at the library, the evening walk, and dinner, I'm rarely home for more then half hour doing nothing.

The bus gets me home every night at 5:45 PM. I usually start dinner about 5:55 PM, and eat around 6:30. Then I usually sit back and listen to Marketplace on NPR, then walk down to the Bethlehem Public Library, which is 6/10th of a mile from my home. Then I play or work on the Internet until 8:45 PM when the library starts shutting down. From there, I walk home, then if the weather is nice, I do a 2 ½ mile walk around the High School, finally getting home around 10 to 10:15 PM. I then work on the blog for a bit, make some maps up, or do some coding until 11 PM, which is bed time.

Delaware Ave

It actually works quite well. I get a fair bit of walking and physical exercise in during this time period. The Internet is fast at the library and free. The library has comfortable desks to work at, and my Linux-based laptop is secure and works well. It’s probably even more secure then having Internet at home, because my laptop isn’t connected to the Internet most of the time, reducing the risk of hacking or virus greatly. Every time I go to the library, I make sure my laptop’s software is fully up to date – which is easy with Ubuntu’s apt-get.

End Navigable Waters

Come summer, I probably will spend several nights a week down at the town park reading, rather then at the library with the laptop. That’s always nice for a change. Maybe by summer, I will be able to find an open signal out in the parking lot by my place, and I can set up a lawn chair in the evening, after reading and my evening walk. If not, I don’t mind missing out on the Internet from time to time. I enjoy the quiet to read, write, or work on maps.

Why the Comcast-Netflix Deal Should Worry You.

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It's increasingly obvious that the federal government needs to step up regulation of internet providers, and where natural monopolies exist, require providers to carry competing Internet providers over their wires.