Advogato blog for crudman

21 Mar 2001

Wed, 21 Mar 2001 03:59:31 GMT

A hint of madness

Edits... edits EVERYWHERE...

After attempting to make them work, I'm no longer a fan of network cards based on the National Semiconductor DP83815 chipset (found on the Netgear FA-311 card). Unless you like poor performance, "Something Wicked Happened!" (read 'rare error codes') filling up the logs, and an obscene amount of transmit errors.

Replaced them with FA-310 cards (based on the tulip chipset).
Sanity partially restored. :)

28 Jan 2001

Sun, 28 Jan 2001 16:00:54 GMT

A better kind of normal

Ah, more late-night editing. Helps to get some quick turn-arounds at least.

Apparently ADSL is soon to be offered in my area in about 4-8 weeks. I'm also expecting hell to freeze over in about 4-8 weeks.

My Abit BP6 system (non-o/c'ed, with EC10 fix and misc crap applied) isn't nearly as tolerant of kernel 2.4.0-final as the previous 2.2x series. Without warning, the kernel will panic, anywhere from within 10 minutes to 24 hours of uptime. I've grown to love iptables/netfilter however, so the board will get replaced with something a bit more tolerable.

22 Jan 2001

Mon, 22 Jan 2001 01:23:12 GMT

Insert grind here

Did a spot of editing on Uraeus' upcoming article for LP. He's not kidding as to the extent of the provided answers, it'll be an interesting read once it's made available.

Working on a new homepage, which will explain the non-functional link at the moment. The old one was (admittedly) nothing to be especially proud of, so at least there are more things to avoid rather than include. :)

The new Nvidia Linux drivers (0.9-6) seem to have frame-rate issues with GeForce2 GTS (32M) and all GeForce2 Ultra cards, which is to be fixed in another release. Almost certain there's another problem relating to AGP, kernel 2.4 and SMP confgurations (with a MX card and even a TNT2), but I'd more evidence before submitting any kind of bug report.

Compiled MPlayer last night. Far better at seeking through DivX ;-) files than aviplay (player included with the Linux AVI File Library). While only a CLI player for now, using the cursor keys to seek backwards/forwards in 10 second and 1 minute intervals is becoming quite handy.

28 Dec 2000

Thu, 28 Dec 2000 01:54:10 GMT

Yuletide Goodness

sjanes71: While I can't speak for all Debian users, it's a fair chance that reiserfs 'support' (ie. in the installation program and boot/root images) won't be included until its become part of the stable (2.4x) kernel series. Until then, you'd want this: Reiserfs-Debian. Just be sure to follow the instructions to the letter, and you'll be most pleased. :)

17 Dec 2000

Sun, 17 Dec 2000 16:23:28 GMT

Stop Judging

It's great how people can judge your relative worth/accomplishments in a single day, simply by using the phrase: "So what did you do today?". Fail to answer correctly (ie. justify your existence by recounting an increasing number of stressful situations performed within a limited timeframe), and you're immediately branded a 'slacker'.

(cough)

My SMP troubles are over (as mentioned in a previous rant). It was all due to the Abit Slocket 133's not being able to perform in a dual configuration. Replacing them with a couple of Abit S370-DL slockets fixed the problem.

Did a bit of editing of ErikLevy's upcoming article for LP, it'll be an interesting read when it's posted.

Played with xine today. Very, very nice.

28 Nov 2000

Tue, 28 Nov 2000 14:33:15 GMT

It used to make sense...

The year is gradually winding up. At my current organization (which I'm due to leave in a few weeks), the rest of the tech-oriented people have already taken holidays. I'm practically the "skeleton crew" that's available now, and things have a tendacy to get busy. In the rare position of having quite a knowledgable boss (networking, et. al.) who's also still around.

Received a few responses to the ACE2K article, adding a few details to the Amiga presentation that was discussed. All's good.

Set up a Squid caching proxy both at work and home, especially handy for a poor ol' dial-up connection. Just had to grasp the concept of ACLs (and the 'never_direct' config option), just grand now.

SBLive! card arrived a few days back. MIDI soft-synth (aka /dev/sequencer) isn't in the official open-source drivers, though it is in an experimental branch of the CVS. Using it now, soft-synth seems somewhat broken currently.

Discovered something regarding an SMP setup of mine (mentioned in a rant a few entries back). Turns out the Abit Slocket IIIs (which can run at 133mhz FSB) seem to have serious problems when running in dual. They'll POST, but not much else. Those over at 2cpu.com recommend Asus S370-DL slotkets, just have to find a local supplier.

Acquired a Voodoo 3 3000 (PCI) from a friend for AUS$55. Did someone say multi-head? :)

19 Nov 2000

Sun, 19 Nov 2000 13:34:11 GMT

The Good, the Bad, and the Cruddy

The ACE2K write-up should be about on LP sometime soon. Hooray.

Have been spending a bit of time getting a few of the old 'classic' games (Descent 1/2, Doom 1/2, Quakes, etc) working on the Linux box. Most impressed with Doom Legacy (aside from a few OpenGL issues), and just managed to get D1X (Descent 1 port) working from CVS. Will make some D1X binaries available (mainly for those having trouble over at the Linux Game Tome) of the SDL and SDL/GL builds. Music and networking seem to the only stumbling blocks so far.

Ordered a SBLive card today. Need hardware MIDI (sorry ES1371 card) for all of these programs that demand a /dev/sequencer for music (usually musserver). That and a "Jumbo VI Mug". Mmmmm.

1 Nov 2000

Wed, 1 Nov 2000 14:50:09 GMT

Attentione il est Myron

The Software RAID array continues to work well. Quickly hacked up a cooling system by clearing the plastic and metal brackets that usually block the 3 and a 1/2-inch drive bay, placed both drives into the bay, and used two Socket 7 fans to plug the hole. Aside from the noise, it creates a nice airflow in the case.

Ah, more writing. Some more things will start appearing on LP very soon. Oh yes, it shall be done.

I've resolved to do two more things in my life. The first is to get more sleep (lack of sleep produced two life-threatening situations that I'll detail one day, so get more sleep everybody) and the second is to consume a lot more water (to combat dehydration).

Something seemed to have gone very wrong with the efnet servers today. Not that I actually use efnet all that often these days (now it's the OpenProjects system and IRCnet), but most servers were either dead or split. Only 25 of them were up at one stage. Freaky.

Skud really knows how to pick an article of interest. "...but many a Windows user PREFERS the safety of their misery and discomfort over the courage needed to try something new." Couldn't have said it better myself.

21 Oct 2000

Sat, 21 Oct 2000 13:01:51 GMT

Trust your inner-sleep daemon

Ever have that feeling you just want to lie in bed, for the entire day? Next time you consider, think about the consequences of getting up.

I went on over to ACE 2000 today, to do a little expo coverage for your friend and mine, LP. Provided katzj can put the pistols down for at least 10 seconds, it'll get processed and made available soon.

The train trip home, was another thing altogether.

A few stations along the route, I bumped into a few people who were coming back from the day's racing. They were completely drunk, with at least one of them smoking. Just what you want on a crowded train. Then I realized these were people I used to go to school with. Oh, the conversations we had. Purposefully got off at another station.

While waiting for another train, a man just started talking to me. He claimed that he "wasn't schizophrenic", was required by law to "take the medicine", and told me about his quest to search for a house (given to him by Jenny Garth of 90210 fame) which also contained AUS$85 million.

While I certainly didn't believe his ranting (but agreed with him entirely, for fear of reprisal), I managed to help him locate and catch his intended train to Dandenong (he would've ended up catching a train to Cranbourne instead).

I'm sleeping in tomorrow, no question.

19 Oct 2000

Thu, 19 Oct 2000 04:20:38 GMT

I'm spending all my time, driving 'round...

Arg, been a few days.

Work: After finally locating the MD patches (the "Software RAID HOWTO" is a little out-of-date unfortunately), I was able to get a RAID 0 array up and running. Woo. Nice and flexible. Must remember to send a few little additions to the HOWTO maintainer.

Thinking about a Beowulf experiment using the "Scyld Beowulf" CD-ROMs (in transit).

Books: I'm reading "Building Firewalls" (O'Reilly, 2nd edition) at the moment. Sweet book, very clear and logically explains the internal workings of commonly-used protocols (to decide whether to allow/disallow protocol X over a firewall). Almost dropped the book after discovering what WINS really does. Glad it's being phased out.

I've ordered a recent revision of the "Unix System Administration Handbook" and "Think UNIX" from a local alternative operating system store. The sample chapter I read for the former is hilarious. :)

LP: Still toiling away. Just have to get into the right frame of mind (which usually comes at 11:30pm for some damn reason) to totally polish it off. Too many distractions at this end.

IRC: There's now an openprojects server for you Australian users:
niven.openprojects.net (located in Brisbane).