Teh tubes are slow :( November 28, 2006
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentTeh intarweb tubes are slow in the hotel today.
My zmd services November 27, 2006
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentFor some reason I lost all my zmd services. Just in case this happens again, I am recording them:
URI: http://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source/suse/
Name: non-oss-inst
URI: http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.1/RPMS/
Name: SUSE-Guru
URI: http://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source/suse/
Name: inst-src
URI: http://packman.unixheads.com/suse/10.1/
Name: Packman
URI: http://ftp4.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/opensuse/repositories/mozilla/SUSE_Linux_10.1/
Name: mozilla
Ahhh. That’s better.
Dream a little Dream…
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentI recently (about 4 minutes ago) configured my screensaver to use good ol’ ElectricSheep. The premise of this screensaver is based off of Philip K Dick’s novel _Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep_. More information can be found at www.electricsheep.org, but here is a little synopsis:
Electric Sheep is a free, open source screen saver run by thousands of people all over the world. It can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers “sleep”, the screen saver comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as “sheep”. The result is a collective “android dream”, an homage to Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
Anyone watching one of these computers may vote for their favorite animations using the keyboard. The more popular sheep live longer and reproduce according to a genetic algorithm with mutation and cross-over. Hence the flock evolves to please its global audience. You can also design your own sheep and submit them to the gene pool.
Back in the days when I was a Mac user, I used this screensaver regularly. Getting it running on SLED 10 and now openSUSE 10.1 seemed to be a little hassel though. I started by trying to install the “stock” RPM, but soon ran into Dependency Hell(TM). It was not long after that little nightmare that I found Lenz’s Blog. Lucky for me, Lenz had a version of ElectricSheep that works on openSUSE 10.1.
After an easy install, I was ready to get down to business. I fired up the “Control Center” went to “ScreenSaver” but alas, no ElectricSheep in the list. I was puzzled. I checked the RPM and it did install the screensaver config file (an XML file in /etc/xscreensaver/ if anyone cares) so what could be going wrong? Welp, this is when I discovered that gnome-screensaver cripples your shizzel. It turns out that our buddies at gnome have decided that if you use the screensaver control console through gnome, you don’t want to see the list of all screensavers available to xscreensaver, so they only show you the “popular ones.” I suppose I should have noticed it sooner, xscreensaver installs about 100 (mostly crappy) screensavers and when I was poking through the gnome interface, I only saw about seven.
The good news is the fix is quick and easy. I used rug to remove the gnome-screensaver package. Nice thing about using rug for this is that you won’t get caught in Dependency Hell(TM) as rug resolves dependencies. An easy fix and I am now up and screensaving.
Sunny California! November 26, 2006
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentOk. So it’s not sunny right now, but I have high hopes for tomorrow. I really should have looked at the weather prior to departing. When I left Austin it was 75 degrees and sunny, so naturally I wore shorts and flip-flops. San Jose is 50 degrees and rainy. In other words, it’s miserable!
I am meeting one of the guys from my team for dinner in about 30 minutes and then another one for breakfast. I would like to add that this hotel is a shithole. There is a reason I prefer the Marriott. If I were here any more than 2 nights, I would high-tail my rear to the Courtyard — where at least I would earn points for my non-Concierge lounge experience.
Oh well, at least I got a nice first-class upgrade on my way here.
Headin’ West… (and some random crap)
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentHere we go again. I’m sitting in the America Airlines’ Admiral’s Club enjoying a refreshing Dr. Pepper. I’m headed out to San Jose, CA for a team meeting. This should be a fairly good trip. I’ve never been to California and I’m looking forward to spending a couple days with the guys from my team. And since the trip is only three days, I won’t be gone the whole week. I like the short trips.
I’ve heard the weather in San Jose is pretty nice so that can’t hurt either. I am heading to Salt Lake City for some product training next week. I am willing to bet it is going to be damn cold there! I am still planning on posting a few of my pics from Paris, I just haven’t had time yet. Maybe tonight from the hotel if the internet connection isn’t completely sux. I seem to have bad luck with Hotel Internets (TM). I also plan on posting updates regularly from San Jose since I will likely have nothing better to do in the evenings.
On a side note, I received my new laptop. It’s a Dell (of course!) D620. When I configured it online, it was basically the top-of-the-line. It has an Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo processor 2.33 GHz, 2 GB (one DIMM) of RAM. I plan on upgrading to 4 GB in the near future. I also ordered the upgraded video card (a 256 MB Nvidia Quadro 110M TurboCache) but it did not get added. Don’t fret though, Dell is shipping me a replacement machine and I will send this one back after I swap the drives (100 GB, 7200 RPM). Right now, I am running openSUSE 10.1 and a couple of VMware Virtual Machines — one SLES 9 with ZENworks Linux Management 7 and one Microsoft Windows XP (SP1). VMware seems to run very well, but I am going to try out using XEN Virtualization since the processor I have is “VT enabled.” I have had learning XEN on my TODO list for quite a while now and playing with it will certainly help me accomplish that.
Directory Robert Altman Dead! November 21, 2006
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentJust saw this on digg:
LOS ANGELES - Robert Altman, the caustic and irreverent satirist behind “M*A*S*H,” “Nashville” and “The Player” who made a career out of bucking Hollywood management and story conventions, died at a Los Angeles Hospital, his Sandcastle 5 Productions Company said Tuesday. He was 81.
I just rented and watched “A Prairie Home Companion” and I thought it was very well done. Robert Altman will be missed among film buffs all over.