Aussie fair use

Good news on the fair use front reported here.

tech/IP | 29 Dec 2005 | #

Nokia 770

My Nokia 770 arrived today in the post. Rock. This is is a very cool little box. This is "first post" using it - next step is loading up the development environment, and porting some python over. And don't forget self to donate to the GNOME Foundation like Nokia requests - Thanks Nokia for the cool box and for supporting GNOME!

tech/gadgets | 29 Dec 2005 | #

p.l.o.a. problems

Andrew, that p.l.o.a. issue is already known (thanks wildfire) and scheduled to be fixed (and is my fault that it hasn't yet been fixed). Hopefully over the Christmas break this and atom support can get added when I get a round tuit.

tech/projects | 23 Dec 2005 | #

Linksys NSLU2

So my latest toy is a Linksys NSLU2 "slug" home NAS unit. Look at that great size - just al little bigger than a Treo650. It arrived yesterday from OzTechnologies and everyting just worked.

Well, almost.

The USB hard drive I plugged it into wasn't jumpered right - which wasn't my fault as the drive was assembled into the USB case by the company I bought it from - and consequently the slug failed to properly format the drive as ext2. This meant plugging it into shadowfax (my laptop), deleting all partitions, and starting over after correcting the invalid jumpering on the drive. The slug should have given me some diagnostic rather than just failing.

Setup of the device is very easy, with a web browser interface to control all settings. Giving the device a static IP address, a name that fits in with the naming scheme of my home network, creating a couple of users and shares are all that's needed to be up and going. Oh yeah, make sure you change the default root password too - the interface doesn't compel you to do so :-(

Then it was a simple as creating a desktop shortcut by using my Ubuntu GNOME desktop to the share, saving the passwords into my keyring, giving me an easy way to connect to the device in the future.

So opening the share in a nautilus window is the next step, followed by opening up another window for ~/photos/. Select All, Copy, change window, paste. 90 minutes later all 20Gb of my photos are now on a network share instead of my laptop.

Yay!

Where to from here? Well, the nslu2-linux project is probably next on the agenda.

tech/gadgets | 23 Dec 2005 | #

Nullifying the Patent Threat

Another honourable attempt at protecting Linux and Open-Source Software is the establishment of the Open Invention Network.

Looks like it goes something like, Promise to not exercise your patents against Linux or certain Linux-related applications, and you can use our patents royalty free.

It's early days (been going for less than 2 months) , and there's not much detail yet (what classifies as a certain Linux-related application?), so it's hard to judge the potential effectiveness. Nonetheless, any protection is good protection, even if it's using the tactics of the thought hoarders back at them.

tech/IP | 21 Dec 2005 | #

Star Wars in 30 secs

Star Wars in 30 seconds from the Bunnies has just been released!

tech/misc | 19 Dec 2005 | #

Riemann's Hypothesis

I'm most productive in the morning, so in my calendar I block out all time before midday for me to actual do technical work (as opposed to attending meetings / managing people).

This works generally well, except for people who think they're too important to honour previously made calendar commitments :-( Anyway, back to the story...

The key is to say in your calendar booking that you're doing something important. Something that your manager / other workers won't want to distract you from doing. As many people at work have at least some technical bent, I need task names that sound deeply technical - something that at least sounds worthwhile and something they are unlikely to know very much about. That way I can get back into the zone writing code undisturbed.

So my solution has been to use some theoretical computer terms combined with some mathematical problems. Afterall, who's going to argue with a calendar entry that says, "Verify distributed grid for solving Riemann's Hypothsis". Laugh all you like - that (recurring) calendar entry stood the test of time for the last 6 months.

That was, until today.

My manager googled and found this - http://www.coolissues.com/mathematics/Zeta/zeta.htm - "Now I've saved you 3 hours every week"

Damn you Google! I now need a new fake calendar entry for Tuesday mornings :-)

tech/misc | 16 Dec 2005 | #

19 Inch Dell LCD

Just took delivery at work today of a new Dell 19" LCD display. While I lose resolution (1280x1024 compared to the 1600x1200 of the CRT had beforehand) the clarity difference is amazing.

I'm still running dual head, with a Dell 19" Trinitron CRT next to the LCD. What was very acceptible yesterday is becoming unacceptible today - i.e. moving back and forward between an LCD and CRT makes my eyes hurt.

Fortunately both monitors have dual inputs, meaning that as well as the desktop being dual head, I can go dual head with my laptop too. And that still leaves one more VGA cable to cater for the spare Linux box sitting under the desk.

So I have a 19" LCD and a 19" CRT as the eyes for my main desktop development machine; a spare Linux box to do some auditing; and a laptop. It's getting to be a nice setup.

tech/gadgets | 16 Dec 2005 | #

HP Laserjet fun

Having fun with C# and HP Laserjets

tech/code/C-Sharp | 07 Dec 2005 | #

LinuxSA December 2005 - Christmas Dinner

     Hi all,

     As is the tradition, for the December meeting of LinuxSA we go
     somewhere for dinner (no meeting topic, no speaker).  You'll need to
     register (see below) so that we can book a table of the appropriate
     size.  (thanks to Janet for organising this!)

     The important info:

         When:   7:00pm on Tuesday, 20th December, 2005

         Where:  Genki Japanese Restaurant
                 http://www.harima.com.au/genki/map.htm
                 1/9-15 Field Street
                 Adelaide SA

         Who:    Any Linux-minded people who want to eat with us!

         RSVP:   Friday, 2nd December, 2005
                 http://www.linuxsa.org.au/meetings/

     For more information: 
  
         Email:        organisers@linuxsa.org.au
         Web Page:     http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
         Mailing List: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
         IRC:          #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net

tech/LinuxSA | 02 Dec 2005 | #

Return from the dead again

After 3 weeks of the flu' I'm now back on deck. Just.

social | 02 Dec 2005 | #

Generics go mainstream...

James, you mean like Ada83 had 22 years ago? and Java 5 also has now?

It's taken just a little while for this wonderful language feature to make it out of the trusted computing / defence / aerospace market... :-)

And before you say it, C++ templates are just macros, so they don't really count :-)

tech/code | 14 Nov 2005 | #

How to solve "resource shortage"

How do you solve the problem of not having enough "resources" to meet your project's deadline?

Outsourcing via Primate Programming Inc.

tech/misc | 11 Nov 2005 | #

RSA-640 Factored

Schneir reports that RSA-640 has been factored.

Some links to follow up. Note that this isn't RSA-1024 by any means, but it continues to highlight that relying upon today's strong crypto may not guarrantee data security in 20 years time.

From one of these reports:

      The factorization of the latest RSA number to fall involved "lattice" sieving 
      done by J. Franke and T. Kleinjung using hardware at the Scientific Computing 
      Institute and the Pure Mathematics Institute at Bonn University, Max Planck   
      Institute of Mathematics in Bonn, and Experimental Mathematics Institute in 
      Essen. The factorization of RSA-640 was accomplished using a prime 
      factorization algorithm known as the general number field sieve. Sieving was 
      done on 80 2.2-GHz Opteron CPUs and took 3 months. The matrix step was 
      performed on a cluster of 80 2.2-GHz Opterons connected via a Gigabit network  
      and took about 1.5 months.

Not trivial compute power, but not out of the reach of people with lots of machines, or lots of money. Can you say university lab supervisor?

Practical Implications: Use RSA-2048 as a minimum for any new keys. Review the sensitivity of the data you are protecting with RSA-1024 and re-encrypt if you need longer term security.

tech/misc | 11 Nov 2005 | #

LCA2006 programme available

The programme for linux.conf.au 2006 is now available. And there's some surprises in there for those who've been before - 8 simultaneous miniconfs, and 6 streams including seminars and tutorials running side-by-side. More value for money every year. And I know of a few surprises that the conference program doesn't show :-)

Just remember, there's only 7 days of early bird registration still available. Don't you think it's time you registered to come to this great Australasian tradition? :-)

linux.conf.au 2006. Dunedin, New Zealand. 23rd - 28th January 2006 - Register now!!!

tech/linux-australia/lca2006 | 11 Nov 2005 | #

Parallel Peer Programming

While looking at Planet+ I found Scott James Remnant's excellent piece on Parallel Peer Programming.

It's not very surprising to see that the fantastic efforts of Canonical are due, at least in part, to using some XP-techniques.

tech/code | 04 Nov 2005 | #

Bulky Pocket Syndrome

I now have a Motorola V3 as my cellmobile phone. The thinness of the device was its biggest selling factor - my wife is happier since I now suffer less from bulky pocket syndrome. There's only my keys and palm pilot problem to solve now :-)

On the cool tech side, the V3 doesn't have some proprietry gumpf phone connector - it uses mini-USB for both battery charging and connectivity. Under Linux it appears as a USB modem - something to explore to see if its useful in the coming weeks. There's also bluetooth, but shadowfax (my laptop) doesn't, so that'll have to wait.

tech/misc | 04 Nov 2005 | #

Support Creative Commons

Support the Creative Commons fundraising campaign. Your right to release your content however you wish.

tech/IP | 01 Nov 2005 | #

IronPython now free

Previously I ranted about how IronPython made a huge mistake by going non-free - meaning that Boo was now the pythonesque language of choice for cross-platform development.

So this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that IronPython is now usable - it's changed licence to the CPL. This doesn't take away from Boo, but gives us even more choice for rapid application prototyping.

Well done Jim Hugunin!

tech/code/C-Sharp | 31 Oct 2005 | #

World Wide Weather

What happens when Google Maps is merged with The Weather Channel? You get Weather Bonk.

tech/misc | 31 Oct 2005 | #

It's getting worse

Continuing on...

     f(x)=6x+3 walks into a bar, goes up to the barman and asks "Can I have a couple of sandwiches please?"

     The barman replies:  "Sorry mate, we don't cater for functions"

tech/misc | 28 Oct 2005 | #

Support NoSoftwarePatents by Voting in the Europeans of the Year ballot.

There's a new way of saying no to software patents - voting in the Europeans of the Year ballot, highlighting the efforts of Florian Müller from NoSoftwarePatents.com.

In case I obscured those links too much, here is the how to vote card and here's the ballot.

Do your bit to raise awareness that software patents are bad for consumers, software developers, in fact everyone except big multinational companies.

tech/IP | 21 Oct 2005 | #

It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life

That's it in a nutshell.

tech/misc | 20 Oct 2005 | #

Converting ArrayList to string[]

For the third time today someone has asked how to convert an ArrayList into a string[].

    ArrayList myArrayList = new ArrayList();
    ...
    string[] myStringArray = (string[])myArrayList.ToArray(typeof(string));

That's how.

tech/code/C-Sharp | 19 Oct 2005 | #

Support your local Debian Hacker

If you are able, you should support your local Debian hacker, lest he falls fowlfoul and have to resort to other means of paying for his beer.

And it would be a good test to the financial viability of an individual working on free software. Even if most starving hackers are not as famous as AJ. There's plenty of people I know who'd like AJ's little experiment to succeed - showing that career nirvana - developing free software with the freedom to scratch your own particular itch - is possible and is sustainable.

Go AJ, go!

tech/linux | 19 Oct 2005 | #

linux.conf.au 2006 Registrations now open!

If you didn't see the announcement, registrations are now open for linux.conf.au 2006!

Also note that an ever-growing list of speakers and miniconfs are now available.

tech/linux-australia/lca2006 | 11 Oct 2005 | #

Ubuntu Release Party changes time

There's been a change to the Adelaide Ubuntu Release Party time - now at 2100 instead of 1800 so that you can go to the LinuxSA meeting beforehand...

tech/GNOME | 10 Oct 2005 | #

LinuxSA October 2005 - Transmission of IP datagrams on avian carriers

  Hi all,

  Time for the LinuxSA October 2005 Meeting announcement...

  CHANGED DATE!  PLEASE NOTE BELOW!

  We're privileged to have Peter N. M. Hansteen from Norway speaking at
  our meeting this month on a topic that has been of particular interest
  to LinuxSA members over the years (CPIP):

    http://www.linuxsa.org.au/pipermail/linuxsa/2001-May/028952.html
    http://www.linuxsa.org.au/pipermail/linuxsa/2001-May/029292.html
    http://www.linuxsa.org.au/pipermail/linuxsa-talk/2004-December/000159.html

  As Peter will be in Adelaide for only a brief time (which does not
  overlap our usual meeting date), the meeting for October has been
  moved from 18/Oct to 13/Oct.

  The usual details:

    When:   7:00pm-9:30pm (doors open 6:45pm) on
            Thursday, 13th October, 2005
    Where:  Senior Secondary Assessment Board
            of South Australia (SSABSA)
            Boardroom (1st floor)
            60 Greenhill Road
            Wayville SA
    Cost:   FREE
    Who:    Anyone and everyone.
            No pre-registration necessary.

  Presentation:

    While some draft internet standards get implemented almost before
    they are fully specified, it took 11 years for RFC 1149 (The
    transmission of IP datagrams on avian carriers) to be implemented.
    A member of the first implementation team, Peter N. M. Hansteen
    presents an overview of the CPIP working group activities, including
    a view to future development.

  Pizza:
  
    After the meeting, please join us for pizza at San Giorgios (cnr.
    Frome Street and Rundle Street in the city).
  
  For more information: 
  
    Email:        organisers@linuxsa.org.au
    Web Page:     http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
    Mailing List: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
    IRC:          #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net

tech/LinuxSA | 07 Oct 2005 | #

Adelaide Ubuntu Release Party

If you're in Adelaide next Thursday (Oct 13, 2005), why not come along to the Ubuntu 5.10 "Breezy Badger" Adelaide release party.

Contact Ryan (xfesty computeraddictions com au) to let him know you're coming...

tech/GNOME | 07 Oct 2005 | #

Sound activated flashes

Foo camp did fun things with balloons and sound activated flashes. Looks like it was good fun.

Re-found via nat.

Reading elsewhere on the web, things like smashing lightbulbs and popping waterballons work well. And of course the traditional shooting bullets through apples. More fun things to add to my todo list :)

photos | 05 Oct 2005 | #

So, just how much money would it take....

So, how much money would it take to make AJ be the Subservient Chicken for just one day? :-)

Any takers? (just so long as its recorded using Annodex, or other free software)

tech/linux-australia | 04 Oct 2005 | #

The Long Weekend

The October Long Weekend - it's the traditional "start work on the garden after the long winter" weekend. The problem is that with spending time in Chicago, our house hasn't seen any maintenance since late last year. Even worse is that the Davies family have seen 3 winters in a _row_ :-)

So it was time to mow the lawns, weed, move stuff, remove dead stuff, plant, decide, purchase, arrange etc etc etc. An all day activity. So busy that I missed a phone-hook up meeting. Sorry guys :-(

The weekend did have a fun aspect to it - on Saturday I went mountain bike riding through Mt Crawford forest. Of course the guys I went with wanted to take the black diamond track, the most difficult, which just added to the fun. While there were some good stacks, I somehow avoided coming off. Very beautiful scenery, and some good exercise - will do this again soon.

social | 04 Oct 2005 | #

All the best

Today the final set of people from the black day leave. Goodbye Trev, Scotty, Glen and Eunice! You were some of the best people to work with, both technically and as part of a team. All the best with Sarugo - securing your digital memories.

tech/misc | 28 Sep 2005 | #

LCA2006: paper judging just about complete

I just finished judging papers for linux.conf.au 2006 last night, which really meant transcribing my results into the system and double checking the scores.

Again we have a great range of familiar faces presenting new stuff, and a lot of new faces too. LCA2006 should again be a nice eclectic mix of warm and fuzzy open-source goodness and cool fun - the best conference mix on the planet!

Which of course brings us to you. The excitement is building in the community, the logistics are well at hand, the speakers are almost decided and announced, but are you going to be there? If you haven't been yet, it's time to change that.

linux.conf.au 2006. Dunedin, New Zealand. 23rd - 28th January 2006

tech/linux-australia/lca2006 | 28 Sep 2005 | #

Some Advantages

There are some advantages to having your own server on-line.

tech/misc | 23 Sep 2005 | #

Plug for booq

My mother-in-law just purchased a 14" iBook, and she wanted a Booq laptop sleeve to fit. Of course the 3 Australian distributors of the product don't sell this model in Australia, so it had to be a direct order to the US of A. Grumble.

So I ordered the sleeve from the USA direct from Booq (at exorbitant shipping cost), but they made an error in shipping by sending me the Vyper M (for 15" PowerBook) instead of the Vyper XM (for 14" iBook). Grumble grumble grumble. But they redeemed themselves by shipping me the right model as soon as I reported the error - no questions asked, no additional cost to me. Their response was the best I've had when purchasing something from overseas over the 'net and something going wrong.

Great customer service Booq! - and from the look on my mother-in-law's face, excellent product!

tech/misc | 19 Sep 2005 | #

LinuxSA September 2005 - Introduction to TYPO3

  Hi all,
  
  Time for the LinuxSA September Meeting announcement (it's Tuesday
  week).  This month we have a special guest presenter from Germany...

  The usual details:

    When:   7:00pm-9:30pm (doors open 6:45pm) on
            Tuesday, 20th September, 2005
    Where:  Senior Secondary Assessment Board
            of South Australia (SSABSA)
            Boardroom (1st floor)
            60 Greenhill Road
            Wayville SA
    Cost:   FREE
    Who:    Anyone and everyone.
            No pre-registration necessary.

  Presentation:

    Ingmar Schlecht will be giving an introductory talk on TYPO3
    (http://www.typo3.com/ and http://www.typo3.org/), an
    enterprise-quality Open Source content management system.  Ingmar is
    a TYPO3 developer from Germany, working in Australia for a couple of
    months.

  Pizza:

    After the meeting, please join us for pizza at San Giorgios (cnr.
    Frome Street and Rundle Street in the city).

  For more information:

    Email:        organisers@linuxsa.org.au
    Web Page:     http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
    Mailing List: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
    IRC:          #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net

tech/LinuxSA | 12 Sep 2005 | #

IP Address parsing weirdness

Hmmm, I wouldn't have expected this:

    string str = "2.10";
    if (null != System.Net.IPAddress.Parse(str))
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine("This is an IP address");
    }
    else
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine("This is NOT an IP address");
    }

Can you guess what is printed? I didn't know you could abbreviate IPv4 addresses. Can anyone point me to an RFC that justifies this weirdness?

Update: Well, I'll be a suck egg mule. See your local copy of inet(3N).

tech/code/C-Sharp | 07 Sep 2005 | #

Houseboat 2005

Spent last weekend travelling from Murray Bridge to Mannum via houseboat. Eat. Sleep. Play cards. Rest. A wonderful weekend.

social | 03 Sep 2005 | #

Bad Jokes

Following in the same vein as these bad jokes comes this:

     A neutron goes into a bar and asks the bartender, "How much for a beer?" 
     The bartender replies, "For you, no charge." 

tech/misc | 18 Aug 2005 | #