mdlbear | Done last week (20160508Su

Monday I got my new work laptop,and spent altogether too much time (much of 2 days, spread over 3) configuring it thanks mainly to an obscure bug in my .bashrc file.

It seems that, in Ubuntu 14.04, the wrapper script that starts sessions for lightdm -- or maybe just terminal sessions -- is written in bash (rather than the safer and more usual sh), so it naturally sources the user's .bashrc file on startup. This is usually a good thing, since the user's environment ends up being configured the way they like it. When a terminal emulator like xterm or gnome-terminal starts up, it uses whatever is in the $SHELL environment variable to create its shell. This fails when one has the seemingly-innocuous like "SHELL=$0" in one's .bashrc file.

This normally does exactly the right thing, because when you start a program -- and in particular a shell -- $0 is bound to the path that was used to start the program, and all is well. Unfortunately, in 14.04, the wrapper script is started in an odd way, with $0 bound to "bash" instead of to "/bin/bash". So terminals don't start, because they can't find the shell. What hurts is that the line was put in to fix a similar bug in RedHat, where shells were getting started by Gnome with $SHELL set wrong.

Anyway, by mid-week my job-related anxiety level was sky-high, and has remained that way.

Most of what I've been doing around the house counts as puttering.

Notes & links:

0508Su Mother's Day
* up 06:15; W=196.4; dishes,... laundry, dinner
* 15min: books, end tables.
: Barnard's new battery arrived. I'd been expecting one of the 3-cell ones, but got a
6. Which I don't mind too much, since it gives it a 5-hour battery life. It is not,
unfortunately, easily upgradable. (And probably not really worth the trouble.)
* Farmer's market with Chaos and Colleen. I was still busy when they wanted to leave,
so I told them I'd catch up. By the time I got there they were almost done. We split
up at QFC, with me going there for meat and C+C going to TJ's. Also stopped off at
the auto parts store for a turn signal bulb for the van.
* shelf/towel rack in kids' bathroom. The older of my two Ryobi drills appears to be
dying -- there's a distinct smell of burnt insulation.
* I'm also missing a couple of 25' tape measures. At least two, maybe three.
I did, however, find the worry-stick I've been missing and blamed the cats for -- it
was in the top basket of my rolling file, evidently having fallen -- or been pushed --
off the back of my desk. I still blame the cats.
: The screen-door rollers I got yesterday are the wrong kind. I remembered wrong, and
also got myself confused and bought three the same instead of two of one and one of
the kind I knew I had one of at home. There are two other kinds -- with a center
screw, and cantelevered, and I need some of each.
@ mdlbear | RainbowCon 1 - report from the con bear
* made chili for dinner. Four pounds of meat and two boxes of chili kit. Win.

0509Mo
* up 6:15; W=196.8; laundry, dinner
: Got my new laptop at work. Spent too much time configuring it.
* Cooked chicken tikka masala for dinner. By the time it was ready around 7:40 I was
hungry enough that it was affecting my thinking.
% at least, I *think* it was hunger. My stomach is still hurting even after eating, so
who knows? It's not like I'm good at that kind of self-knowledge.
: The halogen-replacement bulbs I ordered arrived; the one I put in the light fixture
over the dressing table works perfectly. Need three more, for the rest of the
fixtures upstairs.
-> ordered two of a different brand, since the one I ordered last week is out of stock.
~ replace dimmer switches upstairs - need at least 3 switches, maybe 5 -> dimmable bulbs
work, so not urgent to replace the dimmers
& don't have to call Invacare about the flashing wrench indicator light on Colleen's
chair: http://www.manualslib.com/manual/78153/Invacare-Pronto-M51-Base.html?page=26
says 9 flashes is a "communication fault". Re-seated the base-to-joystick connector.
No more wrench. (The manual says, "contact Invacare/dealer for service". Foo.)
x call Invacare

0510Tu
* up 6:30; W=197.2; laundry, dishes
* rough day at work, accomplishing almost nothing, frustratingly. Managed to screw up
my new laptop by installing xfce4-terminal on it. That makes *all terminals* fail to
start. Apparently they run some kind of wrapper around the shell. AARGH!
Note that this does *not* happen on normal Ubuntu machines as far as I can tell.
It may have something to do with systemd.
* 15min: A little book puttering. Brought down the VG fir 1x12 that used to be the top
shelf in the closet -- it'll be perfect for N's bedroom.
% 9:16 sleepy, drifty

0511We
* up 5:30; W=195.4; laundry,
* *finally* got my new work laptop configured. :P Much time was wasted; I need to
automate more of the setup process. But it's usable now, with xmonad, eclipse, the
local build system, and most if not all of the certificates I need.
@
The Rose: 272 Sq. Ft. Housetruck For Sale
@ '99 Sterling Diesel Roadrunner House Truck For Sale

0512Th
* up 5:30; W=195.2; laundry, dishes
* Found what was causing terminals to fail to start on my Ubuntu 14.04 laptop at work.
(They worked under Unity, but not Gnome or Xmonad) -> export SHELL=$0
Aparently there are wrapper scripts that fail to use the full pathname. This seems to
be a problem unique to Ubuntu 14.04, but it does it at home too. Not in 12.04,
15.10, or 16.04.

0513Fr
* Up 3:50; W=196; laundry, dishes
@ West Seattle Blog… | West Seattle Crime Watch: The case of the leaping prowler
You can see our back fence in the picture -- we may need to start keeping the back
gate closed.
: My next batch of stock vests on June 15th. Not sure I can hang on that long.
* Finally got everything working satisfactorily on my work laptop -- the final one was
figuring out that plugging the PS2 trackball into the dock made it stop recognizing
the trackpad! WTF? Putting it on a USB adapter worked. :P
* put up a bulb in Kat+Rabbit's room; left them the other one. (Kat's out larping)
The 10W LED bulbs aren't as bright as the 120W halogens, but they're close enough, and
more than adequate. I got a 14W to try in my room; I'll probably get more for the
middle room upstairs because the ceiling is higher, and inverse square law.
(No; as it turns out I had two more 10W bulbs on order; they're just being slow)
% back hurts. Left QL, I think. Used the last of my methocarbamol.

0514Sa
* Up 6ish; W=194.8; laundry, dishes
@ How England's First Feline Show Countered Victorian Snobbery About Cats
(The origins of English cat-tolerance (and -fancying) - Bitter Grace)
@ The 50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time | TIME (including the Hitachi magic
wand vibrator and the Commodore 64)
% ok; things may not be completely hopeless. I was noodling on the guitar, played a
verse of "For Amy", then somehow launched into Donovan's "To Try for the Sun".
Where the heck did *that* come from?
* 15min: a lot more than 15min, but puttering, mostly in the garage. Some books
arranging. Some shredding.
* Shopping: Home Depot and Waltreens
* one of the three boxes of shredding from the garage done. Mindless, and I could
easily have been doing something better. But still. A certain sense of
accomplishment, and I damned well need it.
* shop work and shelf-hanging. Finding wall anchors with small enough heads and shafts
was a challenge -- I eventually used 3/16" anchors with Spax screws. Worked, but...
~ call Safeco -> told N the details of the settlement
% wiped. Back hurting.
& Took a flexeril before bed