Rubenerd

Before I started school, my parents figured out they could keep me quiet for a few hours by putting on the “Pure Steam” VHS tape. A documentary produced by the ABC in 1980s, it documented the Flying Scotsman’s journey around Australia for the Bicentennial celebrations.

Years later, Clara and I found a copy at the Hornsby public library, and damn it I ripped the entire thing!

While most people grow out of such interests along with Thomas the Tank Engine, I never did. Steam locomotion will always remain one of my most treasured memories and obsessive hobbies, though Singapore didn’t exactly have any to actually travel on. Darn.

Among the most memorable events on the video was the triple-run between the streamlined, New South Welsh 3801; Victoria’s premier, Hudson-type R-761; and the 4472 Flying Scotsman. I so badly wanted to experience an event like this, though I never thought I’d be able to.

Fast forward to yesterday, and the Maitland Steamfest was celebrating its 30th anniversary. I only just turned 30 myself, so my old man took it as a sign and booked me on a trip on one of the world’s most technologically-advanced steamers, the articulated New South Wales 6040 Garrett!

Like the video, some of New South Wales’ best locomotives were on living display. One upping this memory from my childhood though, they put a whopping four trains together for a quadruple parrallel run through the country side in a race back to Maitland.

Holding my girlfriend’s hand, SLR or iPhone videoing in the other, as these magnificent beasts flew past and alongside us for fourty minutes was breathtaking. Easily one of the most memorable events of my life.

Thank you to all the tireless volunteers and engineers, to the Canberra Steam Society for letting us borrow your locos, and to everyone I shared the carriage with for the festive spirit and fun. You made this grown up boy very happy.

Photos will be added soon.

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28:22 – Now that I'm thirty (GULP), a rambling episode about having my card skimmed in a taxi. Also failed burnouts, beeeeees, the Sydney housing bubble, burglaries, listener feedback (Marc and Shambles), missing an Overnightscape Central, Windows 95 nostalgia, sprinklers, and introverted office cacti.

Recorded in Sydney, Australia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Attribution: Ruben Schade.

Released April 2016 on The Overnightscape Underground, an Internet talk radio channel focusing on a freeform monologue style, with diverse and fascinating hosts.

Subscribe with iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast or add this feed to your podcast client.

I’ve been doing a ton of data re-arranging and backing up with another HP Microserver. With ZFS of course, I’m not an animal.

In the process, I’ve been using rsync for merging folders, and simple scp for new batches of files. This workflow was typical:

$ scp * destination:/tank/plex/anime/Natsume Yuujinchou/

Seasoned sysadmins and *nix people will see the first problem here. I didn’t escape the space, so it created a folder at the destination called this:

$ ls /tank/plex/anime/
==> [..]
==> Natsume

So I escaped the space:

$ scp * destination:/tank/plex/anime/Natsume\ Yuujinchou/ 

And the same thing happened. I put the folder in double quotes, in single quotes; even in Perl-style qw// for shits and giggles. Nothing.

Then quite by accident, I discovered scp does tap completion on the remote server. Pretty cool! So I tabbed to see what it was expecting for this folder:

$ scp * destination:/tank/plex/anime/Natsume[TAB]

And I got this:

==> scp * destination:/tank/plex/anime/Natsume\\\ Yuujinchou

When one escape isn’t enough, use two! Except then you’re escaping the backslash. So we’d better add another one.

Today I learned.

Maybe its because I’m getting older, but I have no patience for most beta software; I just want stuff that works. The joke is on me of course, much of the non-beta software I use isn’t stable anyway.

Which is why I was surprised to find myself downloading Apple’s Safari Technology Preview last week. Maybe it was the purple icon, which we all know is one of the world’s best colours. Or it could be that latest updated to my beloved Firefox that seemed to reduce its performance to a crawl.

It’s been rock solid so far. I’d been bitten by the Webkit Nightly releases in the past (and for good reason), but the Safari Technology Preview has been crazy fast, stable and has a purple icon. Did I mention the colour of the pictographic representation of the application?

I don’t follow browser engine developments closely enough to know what this latest branch offers that the current Safari doesn’t, but this browser works just fine. My only disappointment is still the lack of an address bar that doesn’t suck.

Update

As of build “9.1.1 (11601.6.10, 11602.1.25)”, there are issues:

• The Plex web player fails, unlike stable Safari
• You must double-tap Return for the Address Bar to work reliably

To start an SSH session on a specific port:

$ ssh -p 22222 host

To download a file over SCP on a unique port:

$ scp -P 22222 host:file .

To start an SFTP session on a specific port:

$ sftp -oPort=22222 host

To start an tftp session on a specific port:

$ tftp host 22222

Hashtag Linux userland! Time to break out some port of another nature.

UPDATE: I wrote about SFTP ports seven years ago. I guess my memory is worse than I thought, though at least it hasn’t affected my memory.

We’ve reached peak Bubblegum Web 2.0 Logo. They’re even starting to look the same.

I was going to post a throwaway Twitter image of it reaching 1000, but 1024 is more auspicious. What wasn’t was the fact I had to look up how to spell auspicious. The audacity.

This originally appeared on the Annexe.

Icelandic PM faces no confidence vote over Panama Papers disclosures

Protests outside parliament after documents show Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson’s wife owned offshore firm with large claim on collapsed banks By Jon Henley

In before Putin, British MPs and the Chinese Politburo. Says a lot.

This originally appeared on the Annexe.

Government still committed to uni fee hike

Simon Birmingham says the government remains committed to making university students pay more for degrees.

Super.

The Overnightscape Central is a fun weekly podcast hosted by the illustrious PQ Ribber. Hosts and listeners of The Overnightscape Underground participate in a topic each week, and you’re welcome to join.

02:20:46 – The inspiration for all things ONSUG, Mr Jean Shepherd is the topic of this gathering!! Rubenerd!! Chad Bowers!! Shambles Constant!! Frank Edward Nora!! Also: A special appearance by Shepherd from the Alex Bennett Show, December, 1972!! PQ Ribber is your host!!

You can view this episode on the Underground, listen to it here, and subscribe with this feed in your podcast client.