You are attempting to install a package to a directory that is not

on PYTHONPATH

You are attempting to install a package to a directory that is noton PYTHONPATH

I was installing some python script and in my exhausted stupor said yes to a bunch of things…which is why you should never code tired.

Anyhow, this python install added ~/.pydistutils.cfg .  So I go and try to do some other install…and bam! I’m in the wrong path.  Spent 30 minutes of my (still stupor) trying to understand this gem:

Here are some of your options for correcting the problem:

* You can choose a different installation directory, i.e., one that is

on PYTHONPATH or supports .pth files

* You can add the installation directory to the PYTHONPATH environment

variable.  (It must then also be on PYTHONPATH whenever you run

Python and want to use the package(s) you are installing.)

* You can set up the installation directory to support “.pth” files by

using one of the approaches described here:

http://peak.telecommunity.com/EasyInstall.html#custom-installation-locations

Easy_install has me spoiled.  Anyway, I tried editing my bashrc to remove all the paths this other python script has polluted me with…but it wasn’t until I reached this line that I realized there was a files called ~/.pydistutils.cfg that this thing install created.  I deleted that file and tried to find a way to install this sucker without the use PYTHONPATH.  Not available in the easy_install repo…bummer.

Clearly, I’m no python guru, as I’m sure you python afficionados out there are already laughing at my blunder.  Go ahead, enjoy it at my expense… it’s what newbs are for.

If you are old enough to remember when cars had no head rest and people died from whiplash, then you know that when people demanded head rests, car manufacturers complied.

Perhaps you are old enough to remember before cards had 3 point restraints… people died from internal bleeding during a crash or ejection from the vehicle and you guessed it, the public demanded safer cars and manufacturers complied.

Then in 2008 our economy began to tank, gas was $4/gallon.  Oh look, car manufacturers suddenly focused not on making Hummers, but compacts.  Repeat of the 70′s.  Gas went down and how economical the car was suddenly left the airwaves.

Remember when car gas tanks exploded on impact…like a rear end fender bender?  Cops were burned,  we found out that a $3 fix could have prevented this…they were sued, and all car manufacturer fixed the issue too.  No more exploding cars.

The bottom line is, if the soccer mom wants it, they’ll sell it.  So here are 5 reasons why this oil spill is your fault:

1. Chances are that if you are reading this, you live in suburbia.  That means to go anywhere you must drive your car somewhere.  I live in suburbia.  I drive my car to work…over hills, over dale, and dusty trails…I could take a bike, but the hills are big and I’m lazy.  So I drive the whole 4 miles, all but 10 minutes.  Besides, people with cars are crazy and I have mouths to feed, I can’t afford to die on a bike.  But hey, if there was a cheap little car  could buy that barely got me over the big hill on the way to work but had a roll cage, I’d buy it, today.  But I rather fatten up, and drive… fatties burn more fuel, it’s a fact of life, lets accept our responsibility.

2.  Hybrids are a great first start… but people are stupid.  The crazy tree huggers want you to go all electric with seat made of hemp cloth, and composite body made of melted bongs and recycled tie-dye head-scarves with all the glorious power of a Tyco® Barbie go cart; but the crazy huntin’ Teabaggers want to drive like their favorite tabacco chewing Nascar star, with huge trucks large enough to fit grandma while she holds the buck just hunted this morning…you know, Ford® tough Bubba type.  We could meet halfway, if only Jannis and Bubba here could give in a little and get a damn hybrid.  But why wont I buy a hybrid?  Because it’s expensive, and I just payed off my car that gets a whopping 21mpg, that fit the kids comfortably and has enough muscle to pull that A-frame camper I’ve been dreaming of buying and will never, ever, ever….ever buy.

3. Carpooling would work too.  You know people that live near you, go right by you, take the same highway as you on their way to work, or near where you work.  You see them everyday and bitch about the drive in, how awful the accident looked and how there aren’t enough lanes to fit ‘the traffic.’  And since you live in suburbia, chances are you work downtown… park and ride is out of the question for you because ‘what if I had an emergency?’  There are 3 people that live in my suburban complex and work where I work.  Turns out my work office is in suburbia too!  I could walk my lazy butt down hill…5 minute tops, and hop on a carpool.  But that means for 12-13 minutes I’ll be at someone else’s musical mercy and that’s just too much to bear.  I want to listen to raunchy rap, and this person likes country…I want to listen to nerdy podcasts and this person is chatty and has a foreign accent I can’t understand.  I’ll take my chances with an oil spill instead of this torture!

4. Because you live in suburbia chances are you own more TV’s than people live in the house.  You probably indulge in Fox News/MSNBC 24-7.  You ‘DVR’ shows that you’ll never watch, and keep your computer on all day, every day.  That hot water heater you own sucks the money from your soul, but not so much that it hurts.  You rather keep the house warmer/cooler, than to don on sweaters/undies.  And your night stand is littered with charging gadgets with names ending is *pod, *berry and *one.  Ya, I do that too.  Speaking of which I need to charge my computer so it wont die before I can submit this post…

5.  It’s not hurting your pocket book yet.  When we’re paying the equivalent of what Europe pays, Americans will bitch about the inefficient cars we buy, the inefficient grid transporting our power, the crappy inefficient water heater in the basement, and lack of decent warm sweaters in your drawers.   When it finally hits my pocket book, I’ll give up that stupid A-frame dream, move closer to work,  and invite Ms. Incomprehensible Chatterbox to carpool in my hybrid vehicle and let her listen to her stupid country songs on my way to work and listen to her talk about tanning on the way home.  Then I’ll light a fire, eat by candlelight, and play a game of checkers wearing heavy flannel pajamas.  The *pod/*berry/*one will be off because, who am I kidding? I’m no doctor and no one needs me at midnight, and these things can wait for the sun to solar charge them in the morning.  When it finally hits our pocketbook, we’ll ask car manufacturers to up the ante, increase milage, hybridize our cars, and make them clean…er.

This oil spill isn’t just BP’s fault, its yours too…and mine.  Own it you oil loving creature you…we mind as well have broken the pipes ourselves.  Get off your high horse of blame.  Slicks happen, but prevention could have started with you, at the demand side.

Also the delay is pretty horrendous.  Last time I remember a delay this bad was calling foreign countries back in the 80′s.  I’m not sure, but it seems that everything goes through the Fring servers, if so, I can’t see the reason for this at all.  Hopefully they’ll either fix this or something else will come along.

Bottom line:  use it in a pinch if you really have to.

Technorati Tags: fring, iphone, skype, voip

In other news I played a tennis tournament and our team got second place yay… But I fell and retired a game and came home with a nasty inversion sprain.

Lastly quals are killing my soul and sucking the living life out of me and this the lack of posts.

Ooh I forgot to mention the yiphone/ipwnage drama that should unfold tomorrow. It’s like a reality TV drama with really smart geeks. Hehe

No problem…here are two ways you can do an install… the least painful:

1) Put the HD in another computer and use it to boot up a CD.

This isn’t for the faint of heart when it comes to opening things up. Most laptops (barring my beloved old macs) have easy ways to remove the old 2.5″ HD…you can use another more modern laptop with a CD to boot say Windows or a Linux distro like (my favorite) Xubuntu ( I really love them!). Ubuntu is finally a linux ready for prime time…bar none.
Anyhow, boot the CD and proceed with the install on that HD.

2) Put the HD in a USB enclosure.
You can either boot up from a CD and begin installing on the USB drive, or like me, use an iso of Ubuntu in vmware to boot the live disk,then do the install.

If it’s a fresh hard drive, then you’ll want to install GRUB or LILO. I used GRUB and make sure you pay attention to the steps so that you can force Ubuntu to install the master boot record on the USB drive. Twice I did the install and coulnd’t figure out why it wasn’t booting when I replaced the drive…it’s because I had not created an MBR. Dumb moment I know…

Once you replace the drive GRUB may complain with this error:
“Grub error 21: Selected disk does not exist”

it’s saying…hey, I know I”m supposed to boot into this OS, but I can’t find the drive(partition)! That’s because when you installed your disk had a designation…say hd1. Now you put it in another computer and it’s designation is say hd0… what is GRUB supposed to do?

Press e for edit, and you’ll see something like: root (hd1,0)
Add a line (command is at the botton) and type root (,0) means you hit the tab key for it to tell you what it did find. For me I changed to hd0 and then I hit ‘b’ and Ubuntu booted up.

Once you’re in Ubuntu open terminal so we can fix this permanently or it’ll keep giving you that error.

type: sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

find where it says “## End Default Options ##”

edit the line where it says root (___,_)
where the blank indecates what you found when you tabbed above.

Voila! brand new install. Feel free to ask questions or ask about your specific situation!

Technorati Tags: xubuntu, linux, install, no cd, no floppy, hard drive, old computer

I decided to reopen my son’s iBook today and fix it. It has a famous G4 logic board problem. Anyhow, I had tried the shimmy fix, and the reheating Pin 28 with a solder gun fix…until the problem came back. So this site had one more fix and that was to scrape the green paint to the copper and add a bead of solder to the side of pin 28. Bellow is my geek masterpiece!

I’ve reached an even higher level of geekhood!

Technorati Tags: iBook G4, logic board repair, graphics chip, max fan, no screen, solder, pin 28

Anyhow, this morning I have the kids helping make breakfast for their daddy. The 3yo hands me the eggs and the 9yo is the waitress. At some point the 3yo throws a piece of corn bread she’d been eating on the floor for whatever reason those neurons fired at that time. She was promptly put on time out and given a talkin’ to about not throwing food. She sits there on time out crying louder to show us how hurt she is for the banishing punishment and after a while declares: “I’m ready to listen now mommy.” (yup, I’ve trained her well haven’t I?

So I ask her to help me with the placemats and she found a Dora placemat I had gotten her a month ago. The same Dora placemat she hated and told me then to “give it to sissy, I don’t like it.”

After finding it she declares: “hey mommy look! it’s my Dora placemat, can I have it on the table? I’m sorry I said I didn’t like it and give it to sissy, I do like it.”

How sweet is that? I would have expected her to just declare it was hers or just have forgotten the incident as I had already forgotten…she out of the blue apologizes for having snubbed my gift a month ago.

Daddy had his heart shaped fried eggs served by his little princesses and prepared by his queen. Life is good indeed.Technorati Tags: kids, father’s day, love, cute