For the OS course this semester, we’re using xv6, a simple operating system based upon Unix System 5, but rewritten from scratch for modern hardware and compilers.
The process for building xv6 on MacOS X is slightly more involved than on other systems. It took me a few tries to get it right, so here it is. These instructions are for MacOS X 10.7 (Lion), although they should be similar for other versions. They’re based on the original MIT instructions.
After a surprise storm in late October, downstate New York hadn’t seen any real snow until yesterday. Admittedly many people prefer it that way (it sure makes driving easier), but I’m of the view that you can’t have a genuine east coast winter without the stuff. Besides, without the snow the countryside just looks bare and dreary.
For now though, winter is back on schedule. There were even people out skiing at Rockefeller State Park.
Swan Lake – Frozen and Snowed Over.
Today I went to the memorial for Carol, one of my grandmother’s best friends. Carol passed away last month after a long illness.
It’s hard to know what to say at such an event. Words seem painfully inadequate. She was an extraordinary person in many ways, but above all she had a knack for bringing cheer and joy wherever she went. In our hurried, impersonal world, that is indeed a rare gift.
One of the more poignant moments at the memorial came when her close friend explained that Carol had said previously that she didn’t want any memorial to be held. “I know. But it’s not for you. It’s for us,” the friend replied. And it was.
Goodbye Carol.
It’s hard to believe that I made my first post to this site’s predecessor (myownlittleworld) exactly ten years ago. The site has had its ups and downs since, much the same as its author, but I’m hoping it will still be going strong ten years from now.
Looking back at old posts and the memories they conjure up, I recognize the skinny, sharp, cynical, occasionally confused kid who posted his musings on these digital pages. I’m not sure quite what he’d think of the current version of me, but I hope wouldn’t be too terribly disappointed.
And if I could send a message to that fellow (not that he would have listened!) what with hindsight being a benefit and all, it would have been: Don’t take yourself (or anybody else) so seriously. Life is just too short.*
*Seriousness is a leading cause of chronic overcautiousness among other damaging neuroses. Such a condition, if untreated by ample quantities of levity and silliness, frequently degenerates into a state known as ‘being a tiresome bore.’
I try to avoid saying too much about politics. This is partly because most of the time others have already said what I would have said, and said it better than I could have. In truth though, I steer clear of political posts because I really have nothing nice to say, and who wants to be Cassandra anyway?
Still, given that the 2012 ‘election-cycle’ is almost upon us, and given the absurd spectacle we are now greeted with, now seems as good a time as any to say what I think, and what I think (writ large) is:
The Democrats deserve to lose this election.