just sayin'

so i come from a family chock-full of baptist missionaries. my brain's been kind of stretched over the last couple days trying to square my love for my extended family with my own urge to stand up and call bullshit on this whole southern christian homophobia thing.

so let me just say this to my southern christian friends: i love you deeply and always will. i have no frame of reference to understand your opposition to same-sex marriage, but will accept it since to do anything else would be to deny your personal agency.

but i do disagree with you, and likely i always will. i hope that in time you will see same-sex marriage does nothing to diminish your marriage. i hope you recognize the desire to live in monogamous marriages extends to all sorts of people: gay, straight and all things in-between. i hope you will see that the gender of a child's parents has infinitely less to do with that child's welfare than the love and support offered the child from the parents.

my take on christ's message is we must all seek salvation by challenging ourselves to love those whom we once hated. the "conversion experience" is a chance to open our hearts and see the reflection of the divine spark hidden in the souls of others.

i love you not because the bible tells me to love you, but because it brings me closer to  my god. i do not agree with you, but i love you and no matter what you think about me or my marriage, i always will.

Learn how to encrypt your email with FREE tools (in Santa Cruz)

I was planning on meeting a few people for coffee on Thursday night (27 June, 2013) at Caffe Pergolesi in Santa Cruz and show them how to set up PGP/GPG + EnigMail so they can do encrypted email. Then a few more people started asking if they could come by...

So... if you live in Santa Cruz and want me to help you setup PGP/GPG Encrypted email (so the feds / advertisers / spouse can't read your email) come on by. If it's not raining, I'll probably be sitting outside speaking loudly about encryption technology.

So... 7:30 'til about 9ish at the perg this coming Thursday. Bring your laptop.

And if you already have a PGP key, come on by and we can do the key signing thing.

Installing VMS on Your Raspberry Pi

What is more pure than young love? And my first love in high school was for VMS, Digital Equipment Corporation's operating system from the late 70's. Sure, Unix (tm) and it's derivatives are the work-horses of modern computing, but VMS was the first "real" operating system I used. Using VMS in the modern era makes me a bit of an anachronism, but there were plenty of features I still kind of miss from the old days:

1. A sane default editor. Sure, I love emacs and vi, but you have to admit, their obscure key-commands create a bit of a learning curve. VMS's default edit command used arrow keys to move around and saved changes by default. (okay, this is more of a nit than a real feature, but still...)
2. Versioned files. VMS's file system, FILES-11, allowed you to save multiple revisions of the same file. When you created a file with an existing name, the default behavior was to create a new revision. If you made a total hash of things, reverting was as simple as deleting the most recent version.
3. Pervasive Help Files. Help files were managed centrally and IMHO thought out a little better than the Unix man page system. Also, the command to get help was help, which is more intuitive than "man."
4. Logical directories spanning devices. While not as "pure" as "union directories," it was possible to set the current working directory to a list instead of a single location in the filesystem. This had the effect of letting many commands search for files in multiple directories.

But the most important reason for using VMS these days is it's fun to challenge your status quo and try new things. And besides, I had a lot of fun with some of those old MicroVAXes, so this brings me back to a fun time in my life.

Setting up a VMS system is relatively easy (even for a novice.) The good people at trailing-edge.com distribute an open source VAX Emulator (and btw, the simh emulator emulates many other old systems.) Hewlett-Packard, the current owners of VMS, offer downloadable VMS install media free of charge for non-commercial hobbyists. And Phil Wherry has put together a really top-knotch guide for installing VMS on the simh emulator.

So if you want to join me in VMS-style retrocomputing, it should be as easy as downloading and installing the emulator, requesting a hobbyist license from HP and following Phil's install instructions.

A few things have changed since Phil wrote his install guide, so here are a few notes you may want to read to avoid frustration:

1. Don't use a wireless network as your primary network interface. Unless you use the TUN/TAP bridge described in the 0readme_ethernet.txt file in the simh source distribution, you may encounter issues placing your wireless network device into promiscuous mode.
2. HP no longer requires you to buy physical install media; you can download the files you need to install VMS directly from the web. You still need to enroll as a hobbyist with HP, but the process is a little easier and takes considerably less time than it used to. HP requires you to be a member of a properly sanctioned users group before handing out licenses, but if you've forgotten your DECUS subscriber information (like I have) you can apply for a free online account with DECUSERVE.ORG. Once you're signed up with them, head over to openvms.org for more info on how to create the account.
3. After you register, you'll get a license file from HP. Search for the VAX-VMS entry; it should look like this:
   

   $! This PAK issued on DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM
   $ Call CheckLicense "VAX-VMS" "DD-MMM-YYY"
   $ IF ($STATUS .EQS. "%X107880D3") .OR. ($STATUS .EQS. "%X107880CB")
   $ THEN
   $!
   $ LICENSE REGISTER VAX-VMS - 
   /ISSUER=DEC - 
   /AUTHORIZATION=HOBBYIST-VA-KEYxxxxx-xxxxxx - 
   /PRODUCER=DEC - 
   /UNITS=0 - 
   /TERMINATION_DATE=DD-MMM-YYYY - 
   /ACTIVITY=CONSTANT=100 - 
   /CHECKSUM=y-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy
   $!
   $ LICENSE DISABLE VAX-VMS/LOG/PRODUCER=DEC/ALL
   $ LICENSE UNLOAD  VAX-VMS/LOG/PRODUCER=DEC
   $ LICENSE ENABLE  VAX-VMS/LOG/PRODUCER=DEC/AUTH=HOBBYIST-VA-KEYxxxxx-xxxxxx
   $ LICENSE LOAD    VAX-VMS/LOG/PRODUCER=DEC
   $ ENDIF
   $ !

   
   When it's time to enter the license info during installation, enter only the fields that are listed in the license:
   
   

   Issuer [DEC]: DEC
   Authorization Number []: HOBBYIST-VA-KEYxxxxx-xxxxxx
   Product Name []: VAX-VMS
   Producer [DEC]: DEC
   Number of Units [1]: 0
   Version []:
   Product Release Date []: 
   Key Termination Date []: DD-MMM-YYYY
   Availability Table Code []: 
   Activity Table Code []: CONSTANT=100
   Key Options []: 
   Include Node []: 
   Product Token []: 
   Hardware-Id []: 
   Checksum []: y-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy
   

   
   

At the end or the process, you should have a perfectly serviceable VMS System. Enjoy!