In unrelated news, later on I will post a quick and effective guide to hot-swappable USB2.0 large size hard drives under Linux. Just got it dialed, and it KICKS ASS!
]]>Then the backup failed, and it was bad. This cycle repeated itself many times, and this was also bad.
Then the boy bought a 200gig USB2.0 Hard Drive, and this was good, after it was bad for a while.
This is the story of his quest...
Recently the farmer next door has been spraying manure to fertilize their field. Emma has run around in that a couple of times, and it reeks. I thought that that was the worst possible thing in the world that she could do.
Today I received a message from Quoth about my dog's "whacky hijinks" for the day:
cd /etc/rc.d/init.d/;chkconfig --add shoutcast;chkconfig --level 3 shoutcast;chkconfig shoutcast on
Rantradio.com has been running this script since late november, and reliability has been GRRRRRRRRRRRRR8!
Feel free to either download the script here, or continue reading and copy and paste it.
]]>8.0 came and went and then RedHat went to a new numbering scheme, leaving RedHat 9 (no dot) as the obvious 8.1 release.
So I do my upgrade after waiting a few weeks to see if any showstopper bugs appeared, and then changed my sources, and ran apt-get dist-upgrade.....
]]>I am guessing that blogs have a unique and easily detected text string that makes the job a no brainer.
Hint: It's the trackbacks stupid.
]]>
I finally got a new pair of glasses! Check em out! The previous glasses were chipped, scratched, and otherwise destroyed. I guess that I am not allowed to ride these while dirt jumping though...
As an added bonus, when I posted this article, I found a bug in the MSIE 6 interpretation of CSS when creating :hover borders (border-color) on img items...
]]>For this reason, I have decided it is time to get off my ass and learn wxPython. That's right... not just Python but the wxWindow library for it. That way I can code for Windows, Linux, and OSX at the same time. Call me a M$ whore for GUI coding, but I insist on UI standardization.
]]>It is amazing how important the proper tools are to do this kind of work. My meter was at work this weekend, so I ended up flying half blind, and using an LED soldered to a resistor in order to test for polarity and voltage on all my power leads. Cheesy.
]]>MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
]]>Howto follows...
]]>Because of the backlash from this new agreement (most of it due to a related mis-interpretation), CafePress has issued a clarification, which contains a completely different line item for 6.3 (that being the current licensing agreement), which is WAY less Draconian. So it looks like the thing they are trying to get you calmed down about just hasn't gone into effect yet.
Keep in mind this part too:
download here.
]]>Robot geeks would also do well to check out Robots.Net to get their robot jones on.
]]>Some neato Python hints, and a .plan follow.
Anyway, I added a link to this page in order to drive hits up. Me==bad.
]]>Release target is Monday (June 16 2003).
Features:
Windows installer for StreamJacker 2.00b: download here
]]>And I miss my honey.
]]>Funny how I have to watch what I say on my online diary.
Two weeks without internet access starting essentially today. I wonder how I will handle it. At least I have the laptop to hack on if I feel the need.
]]>The day after my last post, somebody broke into my house, and helped themselves to everything that they thought they needed more than me. They took both of Quoth's computers, all our files, and a large part of our computer equipment. They also stole both my sister, and her boyfriend's systems, and some of all our clothes etc.
The good news is that our dog, and our bikes were with us on vacation. I also still have the server with all of the software I have written over the last few years backed up (on a slowly failing hard drive).
So now I have to make a choice...
]]>
StreamJacker 2.10b is done. Just need to re-package it.
I will have broadband at home (parents) inside of the week.
]]>I will be meeting with James in a bit about projects for Rant Media. Looks like DIRT is more of a necessity every day.
Fixed Links (ed)
]]>Maybe I should switch to Debian or Gentoo or something...
]]>It used to be that computers would start to work magically as soon as I walked into the room (no kidding, ask some of my co-workers). Then I got cocky, and I think that they could smell that somehow (the computers, not my co-workers).
Now NOTHING works unless I build it myself, usually after extensive Makefile tweaking.
Maybe I'll go back to being a bike mechanic.
]]>The hard drive on this server is toast. It is complaining via SMART that it is severely degraded and should be replaced immediately.
Lame.
To make matters worse, the local bike shop is down-sizing.
]]>Everything should be up and happy as of RIGHT NOW.
I ahve also noticed a speed-up of about 10x for most server tasks, due to fewer hard drive timeouts. Who'da thunk!
]]>I have everything that I want up and running flawlessly, including a custom low latency kernel, and some wireless hacking tools (love airsnort).
Some tips and tricks follow...
]]>I think that Mark had it kind of right when he said that there is a niche market for everything, including the most user-hostile distro in history (I think).
The upside is that this computer SCREAMS, and does absolutely everything that i want it to. I configured it, learned TONS about the Linux OS, and can make it dance how I want to.
I am not going to switch back.
]]>I was disappointed to find out that X/Linux does not automagically turn of the touchpad when a mouse is plugged in. Lame. The solution? Mouse detection and configuration mangling when X starts.
]]>Info about the DIRT (Deniable Internet Radio Transmitter) P2P radio project, and the eng_cvs engineering file management system follow...
]]>While Python comes with a plethora of great HTTP handlers, and there is no shortage of "aftermarket" ones (like Twisted), none of them really fit my needs. DIRT needs to connect to a stream, determine it's stream type, and then morph into the correct handler class on the fly. That is where my library comes in. Dirtnetlib determines the correct handler depending on the mime-type, or other metadata that is sent on just about any http compliant connection.
Dirtnetlib will be released as part of dirt within the next couple of weeks.
]]>The span of time that a technology remains "cool" is inversely proportional to it's initial coolness.
The "cooler" a piece of tech is, the faster it will get adopted, and the quicker it becomes commodity, and therefore unremarkable. I just read this phrase on sombody's blog:
Sci fi a few years back, and unremarkable the day after it was implemented.
]]>I can understand a user getting hit by a virus once, or even twice, but some of my co-workers (used in the loosest sense of work here), never seem to get it. Occasionally somebody will find a free webmail server that I have not yet blocked at the firewall, and not a week later I am cleaning out dozens of different infectious vbScripts and screensaver executables.
Maybe I am going to have to move to using Norton Ghost and re-imaging any computer that invokes my wrath.
]]>My parents are great people, but it is their house, and we are messing with their daily routine just by being there.
]]>I was surprised to find that none of my domains went down during the power outage that hit the east coast a week ago. The reason follows....
]]>Unfortunately, since I have a desire to write a piece of software (DIRT) that depends upon good encryption, I am going to have to become an expert. Because of this, I am up to my eyeballs in Schneier's book, Applied Cryptography. I have since stopped bleeding from the eyes, and I think that I will have a working encryption and signature scheme running in the next couple of days ;)
]]>It picks my ass that I have to use external module sources to build a decent wireless PCMCIA system. It means that a kernel recompile risks me breaking my whole damned system when I rebuild PCMCIA-CS after.
Whine whine whine.
]]>Quicktime VR coming soon!
p.s. Why do they call apartments condos? What is the difference?
]]>Also, very little coding happening. Hard to churn it out when you have the acumen of a stapler.
Acumen: ANT: Dullness, stupidity, ignorance.
]]>I am compiling Dashboard on my laptop right now, and it looks like one of the coolest pieces of software ever. I hope it is even slightly stable. Gentoo barfed repeatedly on the build, but I eventually hax0red the Makefiles enough to get it to compile (hint guys: mcs -g -lib:$(libdir) ). Still remains to see if I get a display though.
]]>Follow the minimal instructions here, and tada! NO MORE SPAM!
]]>Looks like times might be a changin'
]]>One of my domains: ChargedMultiMedia, expired. No phone call (they had the right one), no email, no mail. No nothing.
My own damned fault for not being more pro-active (spam alert: market speak).
]]>Maybe I should get a brand new box.
]]>Alsa broke last night. I get surly without my depressing Gothy industrial musak.
]]>I had a problem the other day. Engineering documents that are stored in PDF format needed to be watermarked with "Uncontrolled Document". Unfortunately, running the watermarking slows down the intranet web server to a crawl, and kills the (slow) thin client's to a crawl.
Here is my solution...
]]>Next project, the new mini-itx ammobox server for The Rant Sites.
]]>Sorry for the unscheduled down time, but it all happened so fast.
The coolest feature is the automatic duplexer and booklet maker. It will print 4 pages (2 on each side), and automatically reorder pages to make a foldout booklet. Just the thing for a guy who downloads PDF manuals off of the internet ALL THE TIME.
]]>It is no secret that I am tired of the engineering tasks, and the time they take up. This would give me the time and room to concentrate on what I am really interested in... hacking ALL DAY!
]]>Happy me!
Broadcast should be up by this evening.
]]>Too busy to post though.
]]>Case in point. Using the APT tools for Redhat completely broke my primary server. Moving to Apache 2.0.40 from 1.3.8 was part of the problem, but sendmail, dhcpd and ghostscript all broke in... innovative ways (what makes ghostscript generate photo negatives for EVERYTHING)?
Lesson learned? Do it the old fashioned way, by hand, and schedule twice as much downtime as you think you need. The good news is, we are back up (mostly).
]]>printpdf is a script to print a pdf file to a raw printer queue which has a postscript printer attached. The PDF will be automatically rotated to the correct orientation for letter paper size (useful for landscape scanned documents). The document can also optionally be watermarked with message text.
convertpdf does a similar conversion, but generates a PDF file that is reformatted/rotated correctly, and usually MUCH smaller than the original, with minimal loss of resolution, but in grayscale.
There is no warranty on any of these programs, and they are just simple BASH scripts that hopefully will make your day easier. It took me a day and a half to sort through all of the wierd ghostscript "features" that were making my days difficult. Both scripts require ghostscript and imagemagick.
]]>In unrelated news, Quoth has been corresponding with Wil Wheaton this week. Soon she is going to leave me to have his forbiddent love child(ren).
Women.
]]>Meanwhile, I lack a computer of my own at home, since I have not had the time to build one up for myself.
Am I destined to always be an enabler?
]]>Testing is going very well, with much faster overall delivery, and a far superior interface for me to work with. Sendmail has always been cryptic, at best. Postfix has a configuration system even easier than the sendmail.mc file (and a million times easier than modifying a sendmail.cf file). Speed is unlikely to be an issue.
I have also written a bash script to stream mail queues through kaspersky in order to remove viruses before delivery. This is in addition to the existing sanitizer and spamassassin scripts.
]]>You will require either rpm's or source packages for the following:
You will also need a startup script for clamd (available for redhat here).
]]>
Looks like Marsom (the child of Marjorie and Steven Calder) has finally arrived. Huzzah!
As far as I can tell, the dog is not as excited about the whole thing though. I would recommend more steak, for the sake of the baby.
Seriously though, a big congrats to Marj and Steve. The have successfully reproduced, thereby validating their entire existance.
Not anymore.
Just getting a Windows computer to stay functional is now in many ways more complicated than maintaining an enterprise Linux server. I can say this, since I do both professionally.
]]>Are they trying to tell me something?
Maybe they are telling me to implement MT-Blacklist. I was going to make a script that detected the spam when I got the notifications, but a plug-in for Movable Type seems so much cleaner.
]]>I have had some problems getting Outlook to authenticate properly using Postfix. Everything else just plain works, but Outlook (XP version), just dies and gives up. No real reason. What is especially wierd is that different systems will work, while other identically configured systems (same version of outlook and everything) will just puke on the SSL startup, and die.
Wierder yet, Outlook only pukes when sending actual mails, but the test settings feature works perfectly.
Ah well, if only outlook supported STARTTLS, or my Lusers could be happy on Linux/Eudora/Mozilla.....
]]>He raised some scary possibilities for Canada in the future.
]]>Finally at about 8:30am, I was able to start using my static IP again. I was only required to restart the network interface on my Linux firewall.
]]>An explanation why follows:
]]>
I can hardly wait to get to Uncle Dak's so that I can drink myself into oblivion. I solemnly promise to get pix of everybody, and to install a gallery package in order to best embarass everyone.I am sick and tired of people calling me pissed off for not helping them out with their computer systems. I get AT LEAST a call per night from people asking me for computer help. This cuts down on my personal time.
I have had at least a dozen different computer systems on my desk in the last week, and only one person out of all of these people has so much as offered me a beer in thanks. I STILL DO NOT HAVE MY OWN COMPUTER WORKING.
This is ending now.
I am going to tell everybody to check this blog message out when they ask me for computer help. Anybody who complains after is going to get a firm "Go fuck yourself".
I will not be working on anybody elses computer until at least after X-mas, and then, only if I feel like it (and am morbidly bored).
]]>Neato hack eh? Here is the secret.....
]]>
Just got back to Toronto from Jamestown New York. We went to the top secret Valeo dynamometer testing facility...]]>More review-ish goodness follows...
]]>
I have a couple of test Shoutcast streams up on this server, eating about half of my available processor load. That processor load thing is making me REAL nervous, since any more processes added on top of them could cause laggyness of the streams. Note to Nullsoft: how about you compile SSE, MMX, etc into your binaries eh? Alternate possibility, I may switch to ICECAST.
Interesting side note;Movable Type tries to parse the data from those streams when I link to them directly, causing a slow down (and perhaps eventual crash) of the movable type system. Could be an easy DOS attack, if people send a link to a large enough file.]]>MovableType is one of my favourite pieces of software. I was disappointed to find a flaw in the version that I am currently using, and may need to update.
When you have trackback ping autodiscovery turned on, Movable Type will try to download and find trackback ping targets in all linked sites. Not only does it not intelligently remove obvious pages (it checks inside of JPG, GIF, PNG etc), but it doesn't handle slow, large files properly.
A link like this one which is a 128kbit shoutcast stream, will hang the new story submission script, while it waits for the end of data. This end will never come, since our stream is usually up for weeks. The apache server eventually times out, and the post never gets, um, posted (in either the http or blog sense).
Lesson? Turn off auto-discovery of trackback pings when you are posting a link to a BIG file, or else!
]]>I read this review of Fedora R1 just now, and had to get my two cents in on it.
Their first complaint (about flash player), was true on the face of it. Flash plugin does not install with the macromedia installer. Fortunately, there is an rpm which fixes the problem. I had already installed apt (using yum), so getting flashplayer was easy. I just did this...
cd /etc/apt;
cat sources.list.d/macromedia.list >> sources.list;
apt-get update;
apt-get install
Admittedly, I have no idea why this is disabled by default, since you do get warned about the GPL-non-smurfiness of the Macromedia packages as soon as you attempt to install them. Once flashplayer was installed though, badgerbadgerbadger came up no problem.
Next up, Java. I actually downloaded it to see if it worked after reading the review. Guilty as charged. Java does not work in the browser. That said, the gnu java toolchain were installed already. Still, not intuitive, and a pain in the ass for running browser apps.
Next... RPM locking. No such problem for me, and I have never personally encountered it. Perhaps an upgrade related issue? I am curious, since I use RPM based distros for most of my user installs, and would hate to have them become a dead end due to some kind of packaging issue.
Samba worked perfectly in every way I could test. Mounting, browsing, etc were all bombproof. Previous versions of Redhat have given me endless grief with samba though. Mount crashes due to a cryptic glibc bug which no other distro shares.
A personal complaint? package availability, well, sucks. Coming from Gentoo I was very disappointed (and I know that this is not a fair comparison). Debian and even earlier versions of Redhat have quite a few more packages available. I develop primarily wxWindows/Python apps, and was expecting to have these packages available, but was forced to download and compile them myself. I was expecting more from a "community driven" Linux. Back to Gentoo/Debian I guess.
In conclusion (again), this review broke my spirit a little, since it showed me that the new Fedora has a ways to go until it is ready.
]]>I have so many things I need to do, and so little time to do them in. I am going to have to end these trips somehow.
]]>Wierd.
]]>I am betting about three months (which is the update interval for most of his sites ;)
]]>More details to follow.
]]>Also, I need to write some quick db management tools, and I have some trouble wrapping my head around the wxWindows table management system. I don't know why, but it just doesn't click.
]]>Solid Grid controls are sadly lacking in the GTK/GNOME API.
]]>Sigh...
At least I have this Knoppix cd.
I also happen to be posting this from a hotel room in beautiful Montreal (Laval actually). $10/night for high speed internet. Best money that somebody else ever spent ;) Looks like I may have to stay here an extra day, since the truck we were supposed to test on has some "issues",and may not be ready until we are supposed to leave.
]]>Anybody know of a nice (Linux friendly) UPS? Gotta run at least 3 servers, and probably more.
]]>
Keep in mind that I have already spam-scanned this email.
I think I am going to start hunting spammer servers for fun and profit. Maybe planting logic bombs, or spam advertising illegal services, and addresses to senators, or something like that.
Kidding.
]]>At least this rotation is making sure that our licenses stay compliant for all of our operating systems.
]]>Wish me luck!
]]>This server had been dying repeatedly due to some "dust ingress issues", but I have it working again. Total damage:
Today's target is Qualcomm.com.
This is a big company, with a lot of history in the networking arena. Why would they deliberately make their site so hard to use? Is some hack UI designer related to a high ranking qualcomm exec? Take a look at the top right hand corner. To select a menu item, not only do you have to guess what the little box is, but you have to chase it around the screen to find out! This kind of thing is par for the course for experimental design sites, but inexcusable for a large company that is actually trying to sell products to people.
]]>It disturbs me that such a clearly compentent and slick marketing firm decided that the best way to market themselves was to affect disdain, and even malice for the "proles" that buy the products they advertise. There is also an implicit consumption of the consumer (ironically enough). Check the video, and think about the message they are trying to get across.
]]>He should have picked a harder password though.
]]>Todays (potential) change comes from the need to run commercial developer tools for micro-controllers. It seems that very few of these chip fabs sell dev kits that run on Linux (wierd I think, since Linux in many ways is the tool of choice for embedded programmers). Since I want to run some of these tools, I am forced back to XP, which I hate, but am also pretty familiar with.
I'll letcha know what happens.
]]>I think I can understand how the light follows the guide although the diameter is so small (light will slow down inside the glass, causing the wavicles to seek the center), but it still wierds me out. At this scale, do the photons form a probabilistic cloud around the filiment? Just asking. Not a physics geek to that degree.
]]>I used some of the cash to buy a new Dremel tool (thanks to the punks who stole my last one, alongwith my computer, printer, and most of my other personal belongings) to replace the one that I "lost" last August. It is a no go, right from the factory. Don't they even test? Not wet, no drop damage, just DOA.
I also have a computer again, since the last one died late November (bad 512 Meg Samsung RAM DIMM).
I had a wireless-G firewall from Linksys, which I got early December to replace my computer (which also worked as a firewall, router, etc). It (the router, not the previous computer) was also DOA, with spontaneous reboots, crashes, and configuration lobotomies.
Why does everything suck so hard these days? Would it be so bad to have products that just WORK?!?! I know that the DIMM and the firewall were cheap, but shouldn't a cheap thing also work? I can understand fewer features, or a less sexy case, or more power consumption, or less range, or some other drawback like that for the lower price. I just can't understand shipping total crap. I would never do it (and have personally prevented the release of products that I have designed that I thought were not ready for prime time), so why should I have to accept drastically lower standards from other people?
]]>I unfortunately have to go in to work in the morning tomorrow to re-boot the server there, which seems to have crashed due to hardware problems (dust clog) again.
]]>Robot construction went surprisingly well, with the Blingwaytm progressing to a nearly completed state mechanically, and about 50% electronically. I have to do some more simulation of the control method before I run it live. Look for complete information here later on.
No riding, since Helen and I both had the flu.
RantMedia had it's 5 year anniversary, but nobody showed almost, since there was a snowstorm.
]]>I will post the package in a couple of days after I finish testing it.
]]>Have a beer and call an old friend up on the phone....
Ever notice how the web has that capacity to be about 10000x as mesmerizing, drool inducing, anti-social, vegetative coma causing as television?
I just sat down at my computer, and I swear to god that muscle memory typed in fark.com. Apparently my subconscious wants useless news tidbits. This scares the crap out of me! How many other unconscious actions am I performing every day without noticing?I just blocked fark on the firewall at my work. That'll teach me/it! As soon as I get a coke (mmmmm..... must have coke).
]]>I realized suddenly (prompted perhaps by thinking briefly about my previous Fark post), that most of all of my thoughts function in this way. I am gifted with an unusually active, and intelligent subconscious... Or am I?
]]>grrrr.
Two straight days on something that should have (and always has before) taken less than 15 minutes.
]]>Problem has been solved. Only the wheel quadrature is left to implement.
]]>She hates it.
]]>The ODE library lets me write C code and simulate the whole thing with the actual control software that I will be using on the robot. Near huh?
]]>pyODE for all of your python motion simulation needs. Now I can run the sim in minutes instead of hours of coding (huge library dep issues with ODE since you have to generate makefiles etc).
]]>Good news I would say.
]]>I have also installed the software on the http://blog.cthuugle.com/yournamehere server, so there should be no/less spam showing up from now on.
The spam control panel can be accessed at http://blog.cthuugle.com/mt/mt-blacklist.cgi if you are curious and have an account, but please don't use it unless you know WTF you are doing. I would recommend going to the despam link at the top and trying it out, if you see some spam in there.
Ah well, I am still eating crazy Texas beef later
Note: The bastards here have firewalled the ICQ ports. Looking for a workaround.
]]>At least I don't have to "borrow" wireless here, for good reason: The military doesn't like competition.
Last time I went on a road trip, the filters in the server tower all jammed with dust (switched to compacted graphite on the machining floor), and the computers started overheating and crashing.
Then I went on vacation, and there was some sort of weird network crash, which I still can't track the cause of.
Now I go on another road trip, and the night before I leave, my computer, the VP of sales' computer, and one of the phone support guy's computers all get stolen. Luckily they can't use any of my archived SSH keys, since my hard drive crashed two days before the theft, wiping all of my data.
On my first day out of town, I accidentally remote-halted my home firewall, leaving Quoth in a tight spot. STUPID.
I think that this is the last time they will let me out of town (really this time).
]]>Maybe I should replace it with a Prism 54G card instead. Hopefully it'll still run Airsnort and whatnot.
I got the first half of our testing at the San Angelo test track. Had to sign a mellow non-disclosure, bot nowhere near as bad as the one I rejected at work. If all goes according to plan, we will be done tomorrow morning some time.
I can't wait to come home.
]]>I miss home.
Both Quoth and Emma were injured when I left. Hope they are better when I get back. Only a full day in the airport between me and them.
]]>internationalAin't she cute?!]]>
outgoing flights, noisy lounge
he waits to see her
He is going to be OK though. Got lucky.
]]>Stuffed a Knoppix LiveCD in the drive.
Booted up
Ran a term window
su;mount /mnt/hda3;mount /mnt/hda6;cd /mnt/hda3
tar czvprf /mnt/hda6/enki/rootbackup.tgz
qtparted (and deleted and remade the partition in the proper size)
tar xzvf /mnt/hda6/enki/rootbackup.tgz
/sbin/shutdown -r now
Done. Probably not much slower than under Windows/Partition Magic, but at least it was POSSIBLE with Linux.
]]>The gist of it is that outsourcing is going to move 200,000 jobs overseas (from the US) every year. This trend is throwing large numbers of US based programmers out of work. While there are advantages in the form of efficiency for US companies, as well as problems due to unforseen complications, the balance seems to be tilting in outsourcing's favor.
]]>As a disconcerting st