Fri 06 Sep 2019 09:22:08 AM EDT

Slept from ten-thirty to six-thirty.
Woke briefly around two.

High of seventy-three and scattered showers today.

Work:
- Order UPS for Scott
  Done.
- Patch Exim
  Done.
- Clean up Postfix notes
  Mostly done.
- Schedule Yardi demo
  No.

Fifteen-minute walk at lunch.
Light rain.
Saw a dragonfly and a huge (live) woodchuck.

Home:

Posted on my D&D blog for the first time in a while.
https://devilghost.com/blog/20190906114703.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/redhat/comments/d0cvf2/obligatory_i_passed_the_rhel8_rhcsa_exam_tips/
> - You need to make sure you know how to fix boot problems or change a root password. If you don't know this, you can't do the rest of the exam, which is frustrating if you know how to do the rest of the tasks on that locked-out or broken system. Some of the folks I was testing with ran into questions like these and literally walked out half way through the exam because they didn't know how to get into their machine or past a boot issue.
> - When you are taking the exam, you get access to a basic web UI that helps you keep track of what questions you are asked to do. Make sure you use the features of this UI as it helps orient you and keeps you on track. I personally found it really useful.
> - READ EVERYTHING. You get access to an introduction at the start--it gives you some hints that help you overcome some of the questions.
> - A common test taking technique is to start with the questions you know how to do well first--this is good advice generally, but some of the questions build on each-other (i.e. "make X partion of Z size" and then later on "on X partion, make directory Y".) If you skipped ahead to the easier "make a directory" question, then you may do it incorrectly or not understand where it needs to go since it was based on a previous question. So my advice? Try really hard to do the question in order, and only skip it if you really don't know.
> - Know how to find correct examples of config files so that when you are asked to make one that you don't have to memorize the whole syntax, rather, you just know the file location. /etc/crontab is a really good example of this if you get a question asking you to schedule a task, but there are other examples for config files like autofs, tempfiles, etc...

https://kottke.org/19/09/pixars-ai-spiders
> As I mentioned in a post about my west coast roadtrip, one of the things I heard about during my visit to Pixar was their AI spiders. For Toy Story 4, the production team wanted to add some dusty ambiance to the antique store in the form of cobwebs.
> Rather than having to painstakingly create the webs by hand as they’d done in the past, technical director Hosuk Chang created a swarm of AI spiders that could weave the webs just like a real spider would.
> > We actually saw the AI spiders in action and it was jaw-dropping to see something so simple, yet so technically amazing to create realistic backgrounds elements like cobwebs. The spiders appeared as red dots that would weave their way between two wood elements just like a real spider would.
> All the animators had to do is tell the spiders where the cobwebs needed to be.
> > “He guided the spiders to where he wanted them to build cobwebs, and they’d do the job for us. And when you see those cobwebs overlaid on the rest of the scene, it gives the audience the sense that this place has been here for a while.” Without that program, animators would have had to make the webs one strand at a time, which would have taken several months. “You have to tell the spider where the connection points of the cobweb should go,” Jordan says, “but then it does the rest.”
> Chang and his colleague David Luoh presented a paper about the spiders (and dust) at SIGGRAPH ‘19 in late July (which is unfortunately behind a paywall).

Watched a couple episodes of New Tricks.

Servings: grains 4/6, fruit 2/4, vegetables 3/4, dairy 2/2, meat 4/3, nuts 0/0.5

Brunch: egg, banana, orange, cucumber, tomato, coffee
Lunch: doughnut, carrots
Afternoon snack: coffee
Dinner: Philly cheesesteak

108/70