Saturday, May 29, 2004
Friday, May 28, 2004
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Scripting News: 5/27/2004
Scripting News: 5/27/2004
Heh heh... a simple lack of judgement and this is what happens. I just so love linux for this when I am using it. Nothing to worry about.
Heh heh... a simple lack of judgement and this is what happens. I just so love linux for this when I am using it. Nothing to worry about.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Slashdot | Japanese Digital TV Viewers Complain About DRM Restrictions
Slashdot | Japanese Digital TV Viewers Complain About DRM Restrictions
I guess this is where the interactivity of the internet comes in. Sooner or later people are going to get tired of the same old media being generated for television. There are going to be people who are creative and who are presently creating/going to create alternative media. You choose what you want. The problem with the television is that you are limited to what you watch. That limit is no longer present with the advent of the internet, and broadband.
The big companies like the RIAA and the MPAA want to make sure that there monoply on this media remains. Fine by me, I wont watch what they generate. Its a whole bunch of crap anyways. I would rather watch/read alternative stuff, that is actually worth something.
I used to watch TV a lot. My mother used to complain that I was addicted to the television. Thats changed. I dont have a television, and who has time anyways. The computer is interactive I can schedule downloads and move on with my life. Watch stuff when I actually have time, if I have time.
I guess this is where the interactivity of the internet comes in. Sooner or later people are going to get tired of the same old media being generated for television. There are going to be people who are creative and who are presently creating/going to create alternative media. You choose what you want. The problem with the television is that you are limited to what you watch. That limit is no longer present with the advent of the internet, and broadband.
The big companies like the RIAA and the MPAA want to make sure that there monoply on this media remains. Fine by me, I wont watch what they generate. Its a whole bunch of crap anyways. I would rather watch/read alternative stuff, that is actually worth something.
I used to watch TV a lot. My mother used to complain that I was addicted to the television. Thats changed. I dont have a television, and who has time anyways. The computer is interactive I can schedule downloads and move on with my life. Watch stuff when I actually have time, if I have time.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
PREfast: Less Bugs, More Reliability
PREfast: Less Bugs, More Reliability
More and more people are providing interfaces to applications through a web interface. This would probably be more fascilated through Avalon and the new technologies that are going to be introduced through Avalon. Some other applications that provide an interface through the web are, most blogging software, mldonkey (P2P app), and now this. Interesting...
More and more people are providing interfaces to applications through a web interface. This would probably be more fascilated through Avalon and the new technologies that are going to be introduced through Avalon. Some other applications that provide an interface through the web are, most blogging software, mldonkey (P2P app), and now this. Interesting...
InformationWeek > Anti-Virus > Network Associates Unveils Linux Anti-Virus > May 24, 2004
InformationWeek > Anti-Virus > Network Associates Unveils Linux Anti-Virus > May 24, 2004
Interesting... I could definitely use this in my lab. We have an equal number of Windows and Linux PC's. Windows laptops are in the hands of the graduate students who dont do updates, or have firewalls and form a hazard for others on the network.
Interesting... I could definitely use this in my lab. We have an equal number of Windows and Linux PC's. Windows laptops are in the hands of the graduate students who dont do updates, or have firewalls and form a hazard for others on the network.
I've been using kopete that comes bundled with Suse 9.0. Its pretty old I guess, and really unreliable. It has most of the features that I would want from such software, but it crashes too often. Overall, on a dual 500 Mhz PC with a gig of ram, Suse 9.0 seems a bit slow. KDE takes too long to load. These systems are getting old but a dual 500 Mhz system should have some decent performance.
I'm installing Suse 9.1 which has KDE 3.2 on it. That should be interesting because a number of articles had said that there was a marked improvement in performance and load times for KDE 3.2. Hopefully this will improve performance on these PC's.
I'm installing Suse 9.1 which has KDE 3.2 on it. That should be interesting because a number of articles had said that there was a marked improvement in performance and load times for KDE 3.2. Hopefully this will improve performance on these PC's.
Monday, May 24, 2004
Mozilla Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded
Mozilla Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded
I'm using one of the nightlies. There is very little wrong with firefox. The one and only gripe I had was that the 0.8 release on Linux had problems with cutting and pasting urls from the URL bar. Seems like its fixed in the newer nightly. Good.
I'm using one of the nightlies. There is very little wrong with firefox. The one and only gripe I had was that the 0.8 release on Linux had problems with cutting and pasting urls from the URL bar. Seems like its fixed in the newer nightly. Good.
Yahoo! News - Net aficionados grovel to test Google's e-mail
Yahoo! News - Net aficionados grovel to test Google's e-mail
Crap... if only I had read this an hour ago, I could have earned a $300!
Crap... if only I had read this an hour ago, I could have earned a $300!
Its sad to think shoddy software makes people scared of computers. Things could be so much better. They are better for me I guess because I understand computers. Its my job. But its a scary world for the people around me, scared at every popup message, not knowing to click or not, so tempted but so scared. Something doesn't work, no surprise there. Just leave it be until they have a chance to catch someone who knows about computers (namely me!).
How to install Windows XP in 5 hours or less [dive into mark]
How to install Windows XP in 5 hours or less [dive into mark]
Heh heh... I have to do this crap at work every day! Everyday someone has problems with their computer.
The sad part is that I know tons of people who prefer not to play with thier system. They dont install any new software whatsoever and just use the defaults apps that come with Windows XP. They are too scared that if they install anything its going to mess thier system up. And the sad part is, with or without installing newer apps their systems still mess up. All the adware and spyware of web sites like chat websites and such.
I on the other hand reinstall often. Not because the system gets messed up but because as a sysadmin I play around with different Operating systems a lot. Now that I have a test system at work and at home though, I am running a much more stable system. Lets see how long Windows XP lasts on this stable system.
Heh heh... I have to do this crap at work every day! Everyday someone has problems with their computer.
The sad part is that I know tons of people who prefer not to play with thier system. They dont install any new software whatsoever and just use the defaults apps that come with Windows XP. They are too scared that if they install anything its going to mess thier system up. And the sad part is, with or without installing newer apps their systems still mess up. All the adware and spyware of web sites like chat websites and such.
I on the other hand reinstall often. Not because the system gets messed up but because as a sysadmin I play around with different Operating systems a lot. Now that I have a test system at work and at home though, I am running a much more stable system. Lets see how long Windows XP lasts on this stable system.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Friday, May 21, 2004
Monday, May 17, 2004
Installing this time was a breeze. Two things I did differently. First, I am at work, so I have ethernet. I upgraded to the latest kernel available. Second I downloaded the prism54 modules from cvs. They worked like a charm without any problems.
So I finally have a well configured system to work with.
So I finally have a well configured system to work with.
Well I guess I read wrong on slashdot yesterday. The latest fedora core 2 is test 3, and it is definitely messed up. It detected the hardware fine on my laptop, but the resolution kept going back to 640x480. Messed up. Reinstalling Suse... sigh....
And it fedora detected my wifi card just fine... sigh...
I finally upgraded machines at work to Suse 9.0. They were a hodge podge of redhat and Suse before that, ranging from redhat 6.1 to Suse 9.0. Now they are all Suse 9.0 and it feels so good to have the same good eye candy, with no messed up fonts!
And it fedora detected my wifi card just fine... sigh...
I finally upgraded machines at work to Suse 9.0. They were a hodge podge of redhat and Suse before that, ranging from redhat 6.1 to Suse 9.0. Now they are all Suse 9.0 and it feels so good to have the same good eye candy, with no messed up fonts!
linux prism54 netgear wg511 driver sucks!
Been having the hardest time getting this working... dunno why... I've dont it before. I just seem to be running a bit of bad luck or something.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
messed up my suse installation
I was experimenting with my system today, and messed up my install of suse. Quite frustrating. I upgraded to the 2.6 kernel, and have had everything working except the wireless network card (Netgear WG511). Turns out that the hotplug scripts are not compatible with the 2.6 kernels. It was suggested that I try hotplug-beta. After searching for hours on end, I finally found a package that seemed to be an updated version of hotplug. I installed it. Big mistake. Now the Wi-Fi card won't boot in either 2.4 or 2.6 as the upload for the firmware fails.
After trying a bunch of stuff to get the card working in 2.4 again, I give up. Am picking up the Suse disks from work, and reinstalling.
I considered upgrading to a newer distro, with the 2.6 kernel, but I see very few advantages. I tried KDE 3.2 on a machine at work and there is barely any difference. Too much time already wasted and not much to gain. The speed increase that people talk about is negligble on these fast machines at work, and I feel that it will also be negligble on the laptop. So Suse 9.0 it is.
Reinstallation is cool, because with the original install I had allocated 4 GB for Suse which is way too less. At home partition magic is repartitioning to give me 5 GB, so I can have some room to play!
After trying a bunch of stuff to get the card working in 2.4 again, I give up. Am picking up the Suse disks from work, and reinstalling.
I considered upgrading to a newer distro, with the 2.6 kernel, but I see very few advantages. I tried KDE 3.2 on a machine at work and there is barely any difference. Too much time already wasted and not much to gain. The speed increase that people talk about is negligble on these fast machines at work, and I feel that it will also be negligble on the laptop. So Suse 9.0 it is.
Reinstallation is cool, because with the original install I had allocated 4 GB for Suse which is way too less. At home partition magic is repartitioning to give me 5 GB, so I can have some room to play!
Saturday, May 15, 2004
new stuff at blogger Yay!
I like the new theme. Much flashier and mo b00tiful!
and comments too! proper blogger comments that is.
and comments too! proper blogger comments that is.
Friday, May 14, 2004
mime types
There are some things in the computer world that are just completely frustrating. I was trying to configure mime types for my BOSS right now on his mozilla browser. He says it was working fine two days ago and it just stopped. So I started to look into trying to figure out the correct mime type, and I found different sites saying differernt things. And none of the solutions would work. Mozilla would just not show the right mime type. So I logged into the server, changed the file from a .wmv to a .avi, and it works.
But it was a frustrating half an hour trying to figure out what the hell was happening, and even more frustrating when you could'nt figure that out.
But it was a frustrating half an hour trying to figure out what the hell was happening, and even more frustrating when you could'nt figure that out.
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Slashdot | Programming As If Performance Mattered
Slashdot | Programming As If Performance Mattered: "[ Reply to This ]"
Performance mattered. Not according to the modern operating systems, they take longer and longer to boot up on newer and newer hardware ! :)
I wish BeOS had been the OS of the world!
Performance mattered. Not according to the modern operating systems, they take longer and longer to boot up on newer and newer hardware ! :)
I wish BeOS had been the OS of the world!
The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > The Internet's Wilder Side
The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > The Internet's Wilder Side
People should really check the background of a story before they start blabbering and blaming... what about all those people who spend time on IRC providing support for the Linux N00bs or are developers working on open source applications? Bunch of crap, is this article!
People should really check the background of a story before they start blabbering and blaming... what about all those people who spend time on IRC providing support for the Linux N00bs or are developers working on open source applications? Bunch of crap, is this article!
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Longhorn's Real Job: Trying to Gore Linux
Longhorn's Real Job: Trying to Gore Linux
Not if the open source community can come out with technology first! Then the patents will be of no use because of prior art.
Not if the open source community can come out with technology first! Then the patents will be of no use because of prior art.
Email clients?
How many people use Eudora to check thier email? I've found that where I work, most of the staff who dont know much about computers use Eudora, because most staff people seem to be used to it, and recommend it to each other. On the other hand, a little more savvy staffers use Microsoft Outlook 2003. Faculty who have been here at the university for a while have a different myraid of clients that they are used to. With them preferences are more varied. Some use ssh+pine. Others use Eudora, while others use Outlook/Entourage. Still others use the web interface that the University provides. Students who have laptops use thier own combinations of Outlook, Netscape Mail, pine and so on. I personally find Pine to be the best, with evolution/Outlook the next best. The problem with evolution and outlook is that there is no way to keep each copy in sync. When I am using those clients, I tend to use thier calendering and task scheduling features, but there is a problem with that. Both of them get out of sync and there is no easy way to fix that. Or at least one that I know of. So I just use pine to quickly check my mail, and leave task scheduling and calendering to my brilliant memory (sarcasm here!).
Why I ask this question is that recently I've been helping a lot of people work with various different clients, and I really cant see why one would choose a client over Outlook 2003. The interface is amazingly beautiful. It makes checking email a joy. And if you have the right combination of software, its easily protected. Also, if you dont have a good anti-virus software, you should be safe unless you click on some stupid attachment.
How many people use Eudora to check thier email? I've found that where I work, most of the staff who dont know much about computers use Eudora, because most staff people seem to be used to it, and recommend it to each other. On the other hand, a little more savvy staffers use Microsoft Outlook 2003. Faculty who have been here at the university for a while have a different myraid of clients that they are used to. With them preferences are more varied. Some use ssh+pine. Others use Eudora, while others use Outlook/Entourage. Still others use the web interface that the University provides. Students who have laptops use thier own combinations of Outlook, Netscape Mail, pine and so on. I personally find Pine to be the best, with evolution/Outlook the next best. The problem with evolution and outlook is that there is no way to keep each copy in sync. When I am using those clients, I tend to use thier calendering and task scheduling features, but there is a problem with that. Both of them get out of sync and there is no easy way to fix that. Or at least one that I know of. So I just use pine to quickly check my mail, and leave task scheduling and calendering to my brilliant memory (sarcasm here!).
Why I ask this question is that recently I've been helping a lot of people work with various different clients, and I really cant see why one would choose a client over Outlook 2003. The interface is amazingly beautiful. It makes checking email a joy. And if you have the right combination of software, its easily protected. Also, if you dont have a good anti-virus software, you should be safe unless you click on some stupid attachment.
kernel updates --> Frustrating day!!!
Well, I decided to be a nice sysadmin and update the system on my personal laptop today. I forgot to uncheck the update to the kernel. I run a custom kernel since I need a custom driver for the wireless networking class. Well, I figured it wouldn't be a big deal downloading the driver again and recompiling. Only I forgot to log in as root to recompile. Apparently some of the source directories are not accessible as a normal user (dunno if its a suse thing, or a kernel thing). Anyway, I spent a hell of a lot of time trying to figure out why the compile kept dying with moduleparam.h not found.
Worse part is its all my mistake. If I had been paying more attention I would have solved this problem and installed the module without a hitch. But I was doing all of this while attending lectures in my various classes, and my attention was elsewhere. Hence, a download of kernel 2.6.5, compiling, finding sound has to be configured (which I dont know how to configure yet as its ALSA not OSS). Anyway, all in all, I wasted a hell of a lot of time and gained frustration. Its all fixed now, but never fudge with your kernel unless you give it your full undivided attention. The damage could've been a lot worse.
Worse part is its all my mistake. If I had been paying more attention I would have solved this problem and installed the module without a hitch. But I was doing all of this while attending lectures in my various classes, and my attention was elsewhere. Hence, a download of kernel 2.6.5, compiling, finding sound has to be configured (which I dont know how to configure yet as its ALSA not OSS). Anyway, all in all, I wasted a hell of a lot of time and gained frustration. Its all fixed now, but never fudge with your kernel unless you give it your full undivided attention. The damage could've been a lot worse.
Sunday, May 02, 2004
Saturday, May 01, 2004
"Open-Sourcing Java Could Promote Interoperability," Says James Gosling (SYS-CON)
"Open-Sourcing Java Could Promote Interoperability," Says James Gosling (SYS-CON)
2. "Some have asked what IBM would get if Java were open-sourced: doesn't IBM already have the source?"
They would gain the loss of fear that Sun could take Java and make it proprietary and close the source, or start charging like crazy, and do something else thats crazy and locks people in. Open Sourcing java means that it becomes public domain, and no one has control over it.
2. "Some have asked what IBM would get if Java were open-sourced: doesn't IBM already have the source?"
They would gain the loss of fear that Sun could take Java and make it proprietary and close the source, or start charging like crazy, and do something else thats crazy and locks people in. Open Sourcing java means that it becomes public domain, and no one has control over it.
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