11March2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
So today I had to call Microsoft. Except it wasn’t Microsoft it was an automated voice as I tried to activate 5 additional client licenses for a copy of Windows Server 2003. No internet access so it had to be telephone. Windows Server comes with 5 CALs (Client Access Licenses) which allows 5 clients to connect, no more. Some software folks were running their fancy stuff which uses Windows file and print sharing to talk to the server app which ran, unsurprisingly, on the server. Only it stopped when the sixth PC tried to connect - this happened to be the PC which was being used to demo the software to the client. I have to drop everything and add in the 5 CALs. Only when I request a text of the activation code it doesn’t arrive. I wait and still nothing. So I call the number again. After refusing to enter any numbers on my phone I’m eventually transferred to a CSR, somewhere in Asia. I’m not racist - I just have difficulty understanding the numbers he is reading back to me - there is about 40 of them.
Eventually I have the key and the CALs are added, everything starts working and we’re happy. I’d like to note at this point that a Linux-based PBX with 7 telephone extensions took less than two hours to set up. This is an entire telephone exchange. I have then spent two days dealing with seven Windows clients and two servers, activating this, uninstalling cruft and agreeing to that. For $DEITY’s sake Microsoft, get with the program.
I got the activation code text five hours later. This was not a network issue either - The Girl had texted me to let me know she was in A&E. Die, foul beast of Redmond, just die already.
10March2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
You can read the horrifically long release notes here. We are still running an old svn checkout from ATrpms at home at the moment but I will update on my return. It really is a most incredible piece of Free software.
10March2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
So support for these little beggars has been present since 2.6.20. They’re pretty clever things - setup as mass storage devices containing the drivers so on Windows the install wizard sets it up and you’re online within seconds. With linux its a quick config file edit. You’ll need to have wvdial or gnome ppp installed. Here’s the /etc/wvdial.conf file which works fine with 3 in the U.K. and seems to be the case with vodafone as well.
[Dialer Defaults]
Phone = *99***1#
Username = wap
Password = password
Stupid Mode = 1
Dial Command = ATDT
[Dialer 3G]
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 384000
Init2 = ATZ
Init3 = ATq0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D1 +FCLASS=0
ISDN = 0
Then (as root), run:
wvdial 3G and you should be on!
9March2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
So after mapping my local area on openstreetmap, I felt compelled to try and get mapnik into Fedora. Spent a good part of Sunday finding out why it wouldn’t build on PPC64 - this is because I’m thick and in the end it need a two line patch to stick the libs under /usr/lib64 as opposed to /usr/lib. Still, learnt a bit of python in the process so not a dead loss.
Job continues to be ace. I will however be very, very glad when I get my driving license back two weeks from now. :)
21February2008
Posted by Christopher under: Family & Friends; Linux & Open Source; White Noise.
Hectic week and dog-tired but here it is in bullet-points:
- New job rocks but don’t like publicly blogging about work so that is that
- Sold guitar and amp (ostensibly to upgrade to acoustic but actually for the readies)
- Log4net has been accepted into Fedora (it only took 5 months!)
- The road to my driving license winging its way back to me is truly in its final stretch as the DVLA are talking to the doctors
- Virgin media have only just realised after three months that I am on the wrong tariff
- The girl is moving house tomorrow so I am supplying rippling muscles of steel to smooth the process
- My new job rocks
16February2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source; Music.
I’ve got this album of 500 songs called The Rolling Stone Magazine 500 greatest songs of all time. Radio Chruz is currently playing Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is”. Its not really very rocky at all. More like a smooth pebble, rolling across the ocean floor.
I’ve spent the evening sorting out issues with Jokosher and the FLAIM database engine, two pieces of software I package in Fedora. The former wasn’t building due to new python egg policies which require the building of each egg from source rather than distributed as a binary. Thankfully the Jokosher developers use setuptools so the process was pretty simple and the script takes care of all of that.
FLAIM required a couple of patches, one of which I’ve punted upstream to get it building in x86_64. Keeping patch count down makes things much easier, packaging-wise.
Both packages track subversion checkouts rather than stable releases for various reasons. FLAIM is waiting for the day when ifolder finally arrives in Fedora.
Now listening to “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. Its 1am and I’m still not really rocking very much…
13February2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
The last few days have seen a healthy batch of flapping turkeys on the usual discussion channels. It all started following the discovery of an exploit which allows users to gain “root” or administrator privileges on a system. Fair enough, its bad to find something that has been been around for over a year and a half but only Secunia, who I have linked to above, seem to have an “Everyone keep calm” approach.
Here’s why: Its only a local exploit - you need to be sat in front of the computer.
I also compiled and ran the code (for fun). It failed the first time round. The second time it gave me root, then locked up my system solid.
Lastly, a patch has been posted, merged and I’m running it within a couple of days of the problem rearing its ugly head. If anyone wants to know what caused the problem, here is the one line of change:
- if (unlikely(!base))
+ if (!access_ok(VERIFY_READ, base, len))
So I’m not overly concerned.
12February2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source; Travel & Leisure.
Richard Hawley provided entertainment on Friday night. Think Morrissey blended with Edwyn Collins - great voice and if he hadn’t gone into music he would’ve been a good stand-up comedian.
The Hacienda was a nightclub in Manchester and is spoken about in oft-reverent terms by those who attended it and even by those who never did. The girl and I visited an exhibition detailing the club and its history at the impressive Urbis on Saturday. Its difficult to see what all the fuss was about though the interior was pretty radical and it attracted a number of famous faces, seemingly on numerous occasions.
Back in the land of geekdom and not one but two Fedora wiki upgrades have taken place. The current wiki has been upgraded to Moin 1.6 and at the same time has been converted to Mediawiki. This is great news - I was whinging about the speed of the wiki yet again on IRC last week as it took about one minute for a small page edit to update. I can’t emphasise this enough - moin sucks harder than a whole cluster of black holes.
Lastly an email from my brother entitled “Look what [I] just installed”:
…Ubuntu Linux…
I have found the way out of The Matrix.
Will let you know how I get on.
It brought a tear to my eye…
7February2008
Posted by Christopher under: White Noise.
As the Republicans always manage to appear a bunch of war-mongering rednecks bent on either the destruction of a large part of Earth or total world domination, I ignore them completely now and watched Clinton and Obama’s speeches following Super Tuesday. For the blogosphere, here are my views:
Clinton is a better speaker than Obama and looks more presidential but reads from cards. Obama is off the cuff, or appears to be.
Clinton does a lot of this “shut-the-hell-up” hand movement to her supporters which I find a bit annoying/patronising but it could be a North American subtlety I’m missing. Obama also does it but appears better.
The speeches covered similar topics. Both make references to the recent tornadoes but Obama does a better job of it - Clinton only seems to cover it for the sake of it. Obama making plenty of references to the fact the he has not been funded by lobbyists - this is what wins it for me.
Outcome: I’d love to see Obama win but won’t be too unhappy with Clinton. If McCain wins I’ll shoot myself.
7February2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
The next version of Fedora 9 in its very Alpha early form is available for testing. If you don’t know what an Alpha release is then wikipedia is your friend and has a good write-up - click here.
I’m getting tired of constantly patching this blog to the latest wordpress release so might farm it out to wordpress themselves. It seems the sensible thing to do but being a bit of a content-miser I’m putting it off.
