skype on Debian Linux (64bit)
[ link: skype-on-64bit-lenny | tags: skype linux | updated: Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:43:51 ]
My aunt asked that I get my mom hooked up on skype for my mom's B-day. That involved getting a webcam and hooking it up on my parents' Ubuntu system. Since I've never done anything with webcams, I didn't know where to start. This blog entry is about trying skype and the webcam going on my Debian Sqeeze laptop.
I am so peeved at Rogers
[ link: rogers-killed-my-dream | tags: android rogers dream | updated: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:16:32 ]
See the updates below if you want to keep your root.
I just received the following text from Rogers, and as it claims my data access has been disabled. Since I am running CyanogenMod I never had the 911 issues that the stock Rogrers firmware experienced.
Rogers/Fido Safety Message: URGENT Reminder 911 Calls HTC Dream
software update: Mandatory software update is now available to help
ensure 911 calls are completed from your phone. Please go immediately
to rogers.com/dreamsoftwareupdate on your PC to download.
In order to help ensure 911 calls are completed internet access was
temporarily disabled on your phone at 01/24/10 6:00AM EST. To
reactivate internet service, please complete your software update
immediately. Upon completion, internet access will be re enabled
within 24 hours.
For users of Macintosh and Windows 7, please call 1-
888-764-3771(1-888-ROGERS1) for update instructions.
We apologize for the inconvenience but we prioritize customer safety
above all.
So I called rogers to get it straightened out and get my data access back. However since everyone in the country that has a Dream or Magic got their service cut... you can imagine I wasn't the first one to call and complain. When the automated system told me that I would have to wait for 30 minutes I hung up. My time is a bit more important than that.
Ben Selinger wrote about his experiences and it seems to me that Rogers doesn't want people with phones they don't control as customers.
Well, this is one more strike for Rogers, and one more reason to leave. Let's hope WIND is all that it's cracked up to be.
running really nice
[ link: 20091205130455 | tags: zsh shell | updated: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:27:56 ]
Everyone that uses the shell eventually learns about nice -- the tool that runs a process at a reduced priority.
Well, there is also ionice that allows you to tweak processes from taking over all disk IO.
I added a vnice() function into my ZSH config so I can run or mark processes for lower priority for
both nice and ionice levels.
notmuch for vim
[ link: notmuch.vim | tags: mail vim | updated: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:27:56 ]
Quite some time ago now, I tried sup but found it's indexing latencies unacceptable for my workflow. I also found the user interface a bit foreign and hard to get into.
More recently I've found notmuch, a project that started as a C rewrite of the core bits of sup. Basically, it's a program that indexes and searches through your existing mail.
I had two issues with it.
- it had an emacs interface, and
- it uses maildir instead of mailbox.
squid and apt
[ link: 20091113102221 | tags: apt debian squid | updated: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:27:56 ]
In the past few months apt-get update started failing when using a squid3 web cache.
It woudl give errors like these...
404 Not Found [IP: 149.20.20.135 80]The HTTP server sent an invalid reply header [IP: 130.89.149.227 80]Failed to fetch .../Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 149.20.20.135 80]Failed to fetch .../Sources 404 Not Found [IP: 149.20.20.135 80]- etc
using WIP branches to save every edit
[ link: save-everything-with-git-wip | tags: git vim | updated: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:27:56 ]
I am experimenting with a new workflow to help solve the problem of lost work between commits. As described in my previous post, there are already several ways to deal with keeping track of frequent edits. The only problem is that they all involve dedication and extra effort.
using git workflows to avoid loosing intermediate changes
[ link: 20091104194146 | tags: git | updated: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:27:56 ]
A few days ago a buddy, Jean, had stumbled into a problem caused by infrequent committing to his git repository. Committing after the feature is implemented is common when working with tools like SVN... but we have multiple workflows available to us under git to manage frequent commits.
reflections on ACM Reflections
[ link: acm-reflections-2009 | tags: conference | updated: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:27:56 ]
I returned from the 2009 annual ACM Reflections | Projections conference held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I was asked to speak at the conference about Git.
I really enjoyed attending the conference, and not just because I learned how to play Beer Pong at the staff party. The organizers did a really good job of putting on a great event -- even if the line ups for food were a bit long, but it was free food for starving students, so what would you expect. I got to meet awesome people like Bram Moolenaar, the author of Vim, Alexis Ohanian, of reddit fame, and Ryan North, the guy behind Dinosaur Comics. I was also in awe of the facilities the CS people have at UIUC.
For ACM Reflections, I ended giving two talks: first one to introduce the topic of revision control, and second one to show people how to use Git. Although the second talk was called a "Workshop" it was basically a 2 hour lecture on Git, and I think it went really well. People kept asking questions for another hour after, and I received positive comments after the talk. However, I was not overly happy about the first part, and found it a bit weak. I think I'll stick to teaching people about Git, rather than teaching them about revision control in general.
The first talk was recorded and will be available on the reflections website soon, so you can tell me if you agree :)
Anyway, I ended up redoing my previous presentation using a slightly different format. You can get all the slidework.
... and in case you're wondering, I didn't win at Beer Pong.
bacula rejected Hello command
[ link: bacula-rejected-hello-command | tags: bacula | updated: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:27:56 ]
I added a new host to bacula today. That resulted in:
13-Oct 16:58 bacula-dir JobId 1026: Fatal error: File daemon at "oxygen:9102" rejected Hello command
13-Oct 16:58 bacula-dir JobId 1026: Error: Bacula bacula-dir 2.4.4 (28Dec08): 13-Oct-2009 16:58:39
After looking around on the web and coming up with nothing, I noticed the version difference. The new host happened to run version 3.x.y of bacula-fd, unlike my director that runs 2.4.y. Apparently bacula doesn't support the director being an older version than the client.
pimping out git log
[ link: pimping-out-git-log | tags: git | updated: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:27:56 ]
I got playing with git log and ended up creating this alias:
[alias]
lg = log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr)%Creset' --abbrev-commit --date=relative
Which adds a git lg command that is a prettier version of git log --oneline.