Check out French photographer and designer, Marianne Maric's Lamp Girls.

Her explanation:

These “lamp-girls” were first conceived as an illustration of the woman as a thing conveyed by the “entertainment world,” but gradually ascending to a state of consciousness. These photographs were part of a broader vision: once the costume was finished, the “living” model put it on and took place on a white rotating base into a dark room. The public had the choice to turn on or off the lamp, the dress, the girl, the room. I wanted to “immortalize” this moment when a woman become a simple household appliance. That is how these photographs were born.

I don't know it I believe that mumbo-jumbo but I do agree this is clearly a step-up from A Christmas Story's leg lamp...

I have talked a lot about our fabulous new couch that we got in Chez McPash..so here it is. Nothing too fancy, but so much better and way more comfortable than the old P.O.S. that left our house.  we still need to replace that ridiculously enormous chair to the left there...with maybe one or two smaller somethings. We also added the sweet lamp pictured as well.  It's looking pretty good.

Here are the list of tools available :

mk-table-checksum, mk-table-sync, mk-visual-explain, mk-heartbeat, mk-parallel-dump, mk-parallel-restore, mk-query-profiler, mk-archiver, mk-deadlock-logger, mk-query-profiler, mk-duplicate-key-checker, mk-find, mk-show-grants, mk-slave-restart, mk-slave-delay, mk-slave-prefetch

The one that I use most would be mk-visual-explain and mk-query-profiler

mk-visual-explain : If you’ve ever wished you could see MySQL’s EXPLAIN output formatted as a tree, now you can. This utility transforms EXPLAIN output into a hierarchical view of the query plan, which is significantly easier to read and understand than EXPLAIN.

mk-query-profiler : This unique tool can profile individual queries, batches of queries, external applications and commands. It measures dozens of server statistics and presents them in a way that makes sense. It goes far beyond mere execution time, and calculates such statistics as the number of disk accesses and index lookups. No other tool gives you such deep insight into how much work your queries really cause the server to do.

Maatkit now ships by default with many GNU/Linux distributions such as Debian and CentOS.

To have the tools available on you linux box, just do the following (assuming you are on an ubuntu box with your sources updated)

sudo apt-get install maatkit

mk-visual-explain

create a “query.txt” file this sample query as content changing “SAM_DB” to your own db name

SELECT s.table_name,

concat(s.index_name,'(',group_concat(s.column_name order by s.seq_in_index),')') as idx,

GROUP_CONCAT(s.cardinality ORDER BY s.seq_in_index) AS card,

t.table_rows

FROM information_schema.tables t

JOIN information_schema.statistics s USING (table_schema,table_name)

WHERE t.table_schema='SAM_DB'

AND t.table_rows > 1000

AND s.non_unique

GROUP BY s.table_name,s.index_name

HAVING (card + 0) < (t.table_rows / 3);

Now issue the following command with your settings if necessary :

mk-visual-explain --host Localhost --user root -c /home/salimane/Desktop/query.txt

Here is the output :

Filesort

+- TEMPORARY

table          temporary(t,s)

+- JOIN

+- Filter with WHERE

|  +- Table scan

|     rows           2

|     +- Table

|        table          s

+- Filter with WHERE

+- Table scan

rows           2

+- Table

table          t

Isn't that awesome ?

mk-query-profiler

Now issue the following command with your settings if necessary :

mk-query-profiler --host Localhost --user root /home/salimane/Desktop/query.txt

Here is the output :

+----------------------------------------------------------+
|                      1 (0.0816 sec)                      |
+----------------------------------------------------------+

__ Overall stats _______________________ Value _____________
   Total elapsed time                        0.082
   Questions                                 1
     COMMIT                                  0
     DELETE                                  0
     DELETE MULTI                            0
     INSERT                                  0
     INSERT SELECT                           0
     REPLACE                                 0
     REPLACE SELECT                          0
     SELECT                                  1
     UPDATE                                  0
     UPDATE MULTI                            0
   Data into server                        479
   Data out of server                      548
   Optimizer cost                           24.999

__ Table and index accesses ____________ Value _____________
   Table locks acquired                      0
   Table scans                               2
     Join                                    1
   Index range scans                         0
     Join without check                      0
     Join with check                         0
   Rows sorted                              23
     Range sorts                             0
     Merge passes                            0
     Table scans                             1
     Potential filesorts                     1

You can get more information from here or here

A great example of a classic piece of design with a twist - the Yoyo lamp by Catarina von Matérn & Lisa Lindstöm. The Yoyo Lamp keeps all the classic toy shape but can't functioned as your toy anymore. Designed as a floor lamp or as a table lamp, the 16cm power cord will replaced the Yoyo string and can be roll it out around the room wherever light is needed. Nice huh...+TechnaBob

Inutile dire che ho installato Ubuntu con una configurazione LAMP, più Ssh e le solite cose sul client. Perché Ubuntu? Perché mi ci trovo bene, è la distro che conosco meglio e quindi è più facile per me lavorarci. E poi è stato molto soddisfacente piallare la SuSE Linux Enterprise che c'era sopra*.

A questo punto, dato che si operava in MySql, abbiamo deciso di verificare la presenza di software adatto allo scopo, ovvero che semplificasse almeno la parte di amministrazione e verifica delle query. Certo, esiste l'ottimo PhpMyAdmin, ma volevamo provare anche il resto.

Essendo venuti a conoscenza dei MySql Gui Tools (in origine eravamo più interessati a MySql Workbench, anche se poi l'abbiamo usato pochissimo) abbiamo deciso di installarli per provare.

Dato che in ditta sarei io l'esperto di Linux (in realtà ce n'è anche un altro ma viene raramente in sede) è ovviamente toccato a me. Vi posso dire solo una cosa: che agonia!

Ho impiegato tre ore abbondanti, e non tanto per i tempi di compilazione, quanto per realizzare come risolvere gli errori. Poi qualcuno mi dovrà spiegare perché nelle varie cartelle dei sorgenti ho dovuto dare il comando make all... Cos'è, make non gli andava bene?

D'accordo, piccoli sfoghi a parte, siccome io sono infinitamente buono ho passato qualche ora a creare un buono script che automatizza tutto. Tale script scarica ed installa automaticamente la versione 5.0r5 di MySql Gui Tools. È testato per funzionare su una Ubuntu 8.04 nuova di zecca (a parte il tema cambiato, che non influisce minimamente). Naturalmente perché poi si possa usare è ovvio che da qualche parte deve essere installato un server MySql opportunamente configurato.

Immagino che per farlo funzionare su altre distribuzioni bastino poche modifiche ai comandi, ma non saprei dirvi sinceramente.

Veniamo al dunque, scaricate lo script da qui e ponetelo sulla Scrivania. ora basta dargli i permessi di esecuzione e farlo partire:

Un invio e si parte!

Ora non resta che aspettare. Può succedere, specie nella parte iniziale, che lo script sembri inchiodato. In realtà non è così, funziona bene. C'è solo da aspettare qualche minuto. L'unica cosa che vi raccomando è di controllare che il download del file dei sorgenti vada a buon fine (che non ci siano interruzioni insomma) perché altrimenti lo script prosegue e fa pasticci (non danneggia nulla, ma può succedere che crei qualche file inutile) e non conclude nulla.

Ricordate inoltre che lo script vi chiederà più di una volta la password del vostro utente, quindi o lo fate partire subito anteponendoci sudo oppure ogni tanto dovete inserirla. Detto ciò, allacciate le cinture di sicurezza e partite.

La fase iniziale, dopo aver sistemato le dipendenze viene scaricato l'archivio dei sorgenti...

Se tutto sarà andato a buon fine (ma anche no in effetti...) il messaggi conclusivo sarà così:

In pieno stile MySql, un educato saluto!

Un indice di corretta esecuzione dello script è la presenza dei quattro pacchetti nella vostra home directory.

A questo punto, in maniera pressoché automatica avete tutto pronto. Non vi resta che appurare la popolazione del menù di Gnome:

Le icone sono molto carine

Infine si deve fare un fix a mano. Digitate il seguente comando da terminale:

sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/mysql-workbenchE subito dopo la prima riga inserite quest'altra riga:
export LANG=en_USSembra assurdo, ma se non si esporta questa variabile, il tutto non parte su sistemi che non siano in lingua Inglese Americano.

Ora potete cominciare a provare i programmi, sperando che vi siano utili.

C'è tutto... Certo, passi che è una alpha, ma è abbastanza limitata...

Credo di non avere altro da aggiungere. Spero solo di aver reso la vita più semplice agli altri che si devono scontrare con questi strumenti, la cui compilazione sembra essere stata resa astrusa di proposito.

Riferimenti:

• MySqlWorkBench - Community Ubuntu Documentation
• MYSQL Bugs

_____

* E non me ne vogliano gli utenti di tale distribuzione, ma avere una distro dove per scaricare gli aggiornamenti bisogna inserire un login e una password (che erano già inseriti e non funzionavano) è veramente troppo.

The littlest one, Tiny, is still getting used to it, and doesn't like to move very fast on the slats, but he is slowly getting the hang of it! We still put them back in the building every night. On the first picture, you can see the doorway that leads back into the building.

This is one of my favorite hens, and her name is Amy. She's a little slower than all the rest doing everything, but she's very cute and friendly. And on top of all that, she's got a much longer beak and bigger eyes than all the rest of the hens! Mom calls her a little collie hen, since she's got such a long beak! Even when all the hens are out, you can spot her easily because of her big eyes.

This is a rather interesting and accidental picture I got of our male guinea, while I had him cornered in the Rooster Pen. I have yet to figure out why he was turning his head upside down, but I'm glad I caught it. :D

This is my favorite rooster, Daniel. Danny for short. I think he's improving with the hens, including the younger ones. I have had him out with them and whenever he gets too rowdy, Jacob takes care of him. He hasn't been chasing the hens as much, so I'm hoping he's grown out of that phase he was in. :) Mom said in about two weeks we can start mixing foods with the younger/older hens and start moving them over to the Hen Pen!!

This is an old picture of Prince, which I have edited a little and added Scripture to.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55 & 57

I know the Scripture probably doesn't really match the picture, but I couldn't think of a better one. If anyone else can, please do let me know!!

Cassette Tape Lamp by Transparent House. Each lamp is hand-made using 140 actual tapes, which cast surprisingly pretty shadows onto the surrounding walls. +CubeMe

Now, we have some immediate requirements for technology developers and was wondering if we have people within this group who would like to work in a fantastic environment and work on some brilliant ideas
that we've been toying with. As someone who'll be working with us, you might not know everything about technology but should have the 'fire within' to learn, experiment and make mistakes. You should be creative and logical, should be a self starter with an ability to troubleshoot and deal with software programming problems. Basically, you should have an attitude for finding 'solutions'.

Please do read more about careers with us.

The details of the technology developers that we're looking for are as follows.

Number of openings: 3

Years of experience: 2+ years

Languages: PHP 4&5 (min 2 years experience)

Databases: MySQL and PostgeSQL (min 1 year experience)

CMS: Drupal (min 6 month experience; the more the merrier)

Scripting Languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript and AJAX

If you fit the bill, or would like to do somebody else a favour, tell them about this. Please get in touch with me on 9811214413 or write to me.

Look forward to having you on board.

Download installation from website

1. wget http://nchc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/awstats/awstats-6.7.tar.gz
2. tar -xvzf awstats-6.7.tar.gz
3. mv awstats-6.7 /usr/local/
4. cd /usr/local/
5. mv awstast-6.7 awstats
6. cd awstats/tools/
7. perl awstats_config.pl       --- This will run the script, feel the details & note down final results.

8. mkdir /var/lib/awstats

9. chmod 655 /var/lib/awstats/

10. Take backup of yout httpd.conf file (If in case anything goes wrong)
11. vi /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

Add following lines in httpd.conf

+++++++------------------------------------------------++++++++++
# Directives to allow use of AWStats as a CGI
#
Alias /awstatsclasses "/usr/local/awstats/wwwroot/classes/"
Alias /awstatscss "/usr/local/awstats/wwwroot/css/"
Alias /awstatsicons "/usr/local/awstats/wwwroot/icon/"
ScriptAlias /awstats/ "/usr/local/awstats/wwwroot/cgi-bin/"

#
# This is to permit URL access to scripts/files in AWStats directory.
#
<Directory "/usr/local/awstats/wwwroot">
Options None
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
+++++++--------------------------------------------------+++++++++

12. vi /etc/awstats/awstats.your.server.com.conf

Change the log file location as per your configuration

##LogFile="/usr/local/apache2/logs/access_log

13. /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl stop
14 ./usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start

15. Now run "/usr/local/awstats/wwwroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -update -config=<server.name.com>" #This will take some time to complete this process.

15. DONE now check "http://domainname/awstats/awstats.pl?config=<servername> #what you configured.

----------------------------------------------

If wants to schedule this command then add the following line to crone tab

0 * * * * nice /usr/local/awstats/wwwroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -update -config=<server.name.com>

________________________________

Author : VIJAY LAD

Following are the steps:

Open /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/localhost.cfg with any favorite editor.

Add the following lines in "HOST DEFINATION" section as per your requirements:

#############################################

define host{

use                        linux-server         #Name of host template to use

host_name            vijaylad.com     #Your domain name
alias                       myserver         #Pet name of your server:-)
address                 XX.XX.XX.XXX    #IP address of your server
check_command  check-host-alive
max_check_attempts      20
notification_interval   240
notification_period     24x7
notification_options    d,u,r
}
##################################

Now restart Nagios with following.

/etc/init.d/nagios reload

Done.....Check from web interface.......Some of hosts take bit time to connect..

Note : Please use it on your own risk

Author:- VIJAY LAD

The whole point of this picture is that a lamp is in a garden, decorated or actually is a vine of flowers and leaves. I got this inspiration from a lamp in a hotel room. It was originally curved, but I stuck with a straight lamp. People might think the lamp is used for light, but it’s not. That’s pretty much it. Nothing but a typical lamp in a typical garden with your typical flowers.

Ecoresin is a translucent, non-toxic polyester resin composed of 40% post-industrial polyester content. But equally important is that it can be used to make beautiful decor objects like the Light Block, which only reveals its hidden branch pattern when illuminated...

We're wondering if we could make something similar using DIY wood grain paper sheets and a balsa wood frame. Looks like we might have a DIY craft project in the making.

View Original Article

To visualize profile data, you must have KCacheGrind and GraphViz. It should be easy to find versions suitable for your flavor of Linux. Debian users can quickly install KCacheGrind and GraphViz and all the packages' dependencies using the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT).

$ sudo apt-get install kcachegrind graphviz

To profile your code, simply point your browser to your PHP application.

As an example, let's profile the simple Prime Number Display, checkprime.php, shown below

<?php
function IsPrime($Num)
{
	if($Num == 0) return 0;
	else if($Num == 1) return 1;
	$No = 0;
	$Result=0;
	for($CurrNum = 2; $CurrNum <= $Num; $CurrNum++)
	{
		for($Divisor = 2; $Divisor < $CurrNum; $Divisor++)
		{
			$Res = $CurrNum / $Divisor;
			if($Res != 1 && intval($Res) == $Res)
			{
				$No = 1;
				$Divisor = $CurrNum;
			}
		}
		if($No != 1)
			$Result = $CurrNum;
		$No = 0;
	}

	// If the only divisor is the number itself, it's prime
	if($Result == $Num)
		return 1;
	else
		return 0;
}

?>

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Prime Number Display</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Try the Prime Number Display!</h2>
    <form action="checkprime.php" method="POST">
    Enter a start number: <input type="text" name="start"></input>
    Enter an end number: <input type="text" name="end"></input>
    <input type="submit" name="Diplay"></input>
    </form>
    <hr />

<?php
if (isset($_POST['start']) && isset($_POST['end']))
{
	$start = $_POST['start'];
	$end = $_POST['end'];
	for($i = $start; $i <= $end; ++$i)
	{

			if(is_prime($i))
			{
			echo '
			'.$i.' ';
			}
	}
}
?>
  </body>
</html>

Point your browser to http://localhost/checkprime.php (or the appropriate URL)

and enter 0 for start number and 100 for end number

If you list the contents of the profiler output directory (named in php.ini), you should see a file named something like cachegrind.out.18936. The prefix cachegrind.out. is fixed. By default, the numerical suffix is a CRC32 hash of the directory path to the checkprime.php file. Hence, if each of your applications lives in its own directory, output from each application is segregated by file name. (If you prefer to associate output with time, add this line:

xdebug.profiler_output_name = timestamp

to php.ini.)

Launch KCacheGrind and open cachegrind.out.18936. A new window resembling the figure below should open momentarily.

Click the Callees tab, double-click the highlighted line of source code, and choose Source File from the Grouping list. Your view should change to resemble to the screenshot below.

As you might expect, virtually all the processing time (95.16 percent of the 1753118 milliseconds) was spent executing 101 invocations of the function IsPrime(). To hasten this application, we can see that if the function IsPrime() could be re factored , it will benefit the whole timing of the application. Also, instead of checking all the numbers between the range, if we can put a small check on the numbers, if it can be a prime before calling the function IsPrime(), it will even reduce the numbers of times the function was called.
A smarter version of the IsPrime() function is shown below. Instead of 101 function calls, only 51 were required , and time was reduced to 2513 milliseconds.

<?php
function IsPrime($i)
{
	$d = 3;
	$x = sqrt($i);
	while ($i % $d != 0 && $d < $x) $d += 2;
	return (($i % $d == 0 && $i != $d) * 1) == 0 ? true : false;
}
?>

<?php
if (isset($_POST['start']) && isset($_POST['end']))
{
	$start = $_POST['start'];
	$end = $_POST['end'];
	for($i = $start; $i <= $end; ++$i)
	{
		if($i % 2 == 1 || $i == 2)
			if(IsPrime($i))
			{
			         echo '
			         '.$i.' ';
			}
	}
}
?>

Conclusion

If your Apache installation is already optimized and your application is already cached, but your performance is lackluster, consider how the code is working. Is your algorithm efficient? Is the code too complex? Are you reimplementing a function that PHP already provides?

Certainly, if you cannot name or spot the bottlenecks, it's time to find and fix the slowdowns. Don't guess -- profile! You may be surprised at how your precious compute cycles are being spent.

And never forget: Disable Xdebug on production servers, as it always adds overhead when enabled.

The Hanging Lamp

Pen and Ink on paper (wire and handmade paper)

2003

The Hanging Lamp

Pen and Ink on paper (wire and handmade paper)

2003

The Flower III

Watercolor, pen and ink on paper

2005

[gallery]

Maybe I'll get a good quality scan of the finished picture,
[p]

XAMPP: Apache, PHP, MySQL etc in one easy to install package:

XAMPP is an excellent way to install the foundational base for creating powerful web sites.

Here are some notes VitalBodies likes to keep handy for Ubuntu installations:

Download: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html

INSTALL:

cd /to directory XAMPP is...

Begin the install:

sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.6.6.tar.gz -C /opt

cd /opt/lampp/

START:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

STOP:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp stop

TEST: http://localhost

SECURITY:

/opt/lampp/lampp security

PW: your_password
Username: lampp (is the default)

CONFIGURE: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html
TRANSFER FILES TO HTDOCS:

gksudo nautilus

I usually find that lots of poeple find it quite difficult to install any application made in PHP and MySQL on their Linux boxes. They find it a bit confusing how to configure the settings. How to install the LAMP stack. Where to put the PHP applications code. I was quite inspired to write to this after having I saw people facing problems on Ubuntu Forums. This is the one which I dealt with.

Sometimes spoon-feeding becomes important,but only for the first time.

Scenario:

A newbie who knows just the basics of Linux. He/She wants to run a PHP application like wordpress / phpBB / osCommerce on their computer.

The distro is assumed to be Ubuntu, though it doesn't change much for others too.

Lets Start:

Step 1: Getting the LAMP stack on your system

You first need to install LAMP on your box, Installation is quite simple. Just get the following packages using the command on your terminal ( Applications> Accessories>Terminal)

sudo apt-get install apache2 php5-mysql libapache2-mod-php5 mysql-server

While installing MySQL, it might ask for set up the root password,if it doesn't ask, then continue.

For more information check this post here .

Step 2: Download the PHP application

You need to download the PHP application which you want to run over the webserver. Examples are Wordpress, phpBB, osCommerce, MediaWiki etc

Get them and let it be in the folder where you have downloaded it.

Step 3: Moving these software to the Apache's root directory

Apache's root directory is /var/www (/var/www/html). This is owned by the user www-data which is a minimal user created just for running apache and web servers. A normal user cant write to this directory.

Now here is the solution of how to copy the data to this directory. This method can be used for any directory which the normal user does not have write access. The concept behind the method is to start an instance of nautilus ( explorer) with root (superuser) privileges. For this follow the isntructions

* Press Alt + F2

* A Run daialog box appears, over there type gksudo nautilus /var/www

* You will be asked for your password as you are elevating your privileges

* Nautilus opens up,now copy the tarball/zip file from the download location to /var/www

* Untar the archive by Right Click > Extract Archive

You may have the package in the folder say /var/www/wordpress. We are supposing wordpress as an example.

Step 4: Setting up username and accounts in database

Now you need to have a create a new database for the software you intent to work on. For this open MySQL from the terminal. If you had been asked to set up the password at time of MySQL installation then use this command

mysql -u root -p

and then enter the root password which you set up

if you were not asked to set up root password, then use this command at terminal

mysql -u root

After this is done you will be dropped to mysql prompt. Create a new database using this:

create database foo;

type quit to exit.

Step 5: Change the data in the config file.

Hunt for file which may have name such as config,settings etc etc. One you locate it,open to find the area for entering database settings. The settings should be:

Hostname: localhost

Username: root

Password: <the password you set up>

Database name: foo (or whatever you created)

Step 6: Access it via browser

Now point your browser to http://localhost/wordpress

You may get the basic installation thing or whatever stuff you need.

Additional Stuffs:

You can be asked to make some locations writable. There may be instances like the software cant write to a specific folder or file. It can be used for cache or any such temporary stuff. Then you need to change the permissions. Simply give write permissions to the user www-root. However this situation may be unlikely. e..g we have to change the permissions of folder /var/www/wordpress/cache

sudo chmod -cR u+w /var/www/wordpress/cache

The Grono lamp is definitely a hacker favourite. Its smooth rectangle shape opens it to lots of possibilities. Here are a few.

Decoupage a Grono
Ingalill spent half an hour pimping this lamp. She found the picture and printed it, découpage it on and finished with a coat of varnish.

Have a Grono pARTy
Jen of Painted Fish Studio threw a pARTy, where her friends gather at her house and make an art/craft project. The object in the limelight was the Grono and at the end of the evening, out came a delightful array of Grono lamps, pimped to perfection.

Paper is used as the main decorative element, stuck onto the lamp with gel matte medium - which takes longer to dry but more forgiving when it comes to placement than glue.

Lovely aren't they? See pics of other Grono lamps.

Knitted Grono lamp shades
Michaela finds the Grono lamp too frugal. "It craved for an overlay. The milky background is just the right stage for a knitted lace cover in alpaca-silk-yarn," she says.

See other Grono hacks:
> Palm leaf textured Grono lamp shade
> Grono as hanging bathroom lights
> Hand painted Grono lamp
> More Grono hacks including one with moo minicards

View Original Article

I finally got a harp for the lamp which I got at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for $5ish and the lampshade at Hobby Lobby (I guess the lamp base was broken when they took it out of the box).  I'm taking Statistics this summer because I have to in order to get into the Education program, so I sit there and knit while he lectures.  It's pretty convenient, so I don't feel like I'm completely wasting my time.  Last year I tried to make a prayer rope, but when I got to the cross part I couldn't figure out how to finish it, so I took a break from it, for a year.  Last Sunday I was in Mrs. M's car and she had one on her rear-view mirror, I asked her how to do it and she told me.  So, I took out my 100 knots and started again.  It looks better this time.