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 | #