Older blog entries for jpick (starting at number 72)

I put Debian on the Mac Mini using Release Candidate 3 of the Sarge installer. It almost worked flawlessly - but it failed at the installing yaboot stage. I tried again, this time with my extra firewire drive unplugged, and it worked. That was too easy - much easier than I expected. The next step is to buy a putty knife, and do the 1GB DDR memory upgrade. Beyond that, I'm going to try to run user mode linux on it. I've also always wanted to try Mac on Linux. :-)

I installed Blojsom at work. Unfortunately, it didn't work on Kaffe. I'll have to dig deeper, but I think it found a bug in our regex code (but I could be mistaken).

I managed to cook up some Perl code so I could post from the command line using Net::Blogger from CPAN and the Movable Type API (my initial attempts using XML::Atom weren't as lucky). So now, when I do a build at work, the details of the build get posted to my little in-house blog. The next step is to write a bookmarklet that I'll be able to click on, and have the build automatically scheduled to run on one of my test machines. I'm quite excited by the concept of using blogging technology to glue together all the various testing scripts I'm working on. Once I get it all prototyped, I'll try to set the same thing up on the outside for Kaffe, and also for some other projects I'm playing with.

Happy birthday to me. I gave myself a second Mac Mini - I'm going to put Linux on it and replace my old and noisy Linux dhcp/fileserver.

I think I'll take a look at Blojsom for the Kaffe website. It certainly seems to have a lot of the right features.

My quest for a javascript-based terminal emulator continues. I tried out Anyterm - I got it to work, and it's open source. The terminal emulation is a bit weak though, and it's backend is based on C and a custom Apache module. I could see it working really well if the backend was replaced with something like JTA (with Unix PTY patch) or maybe Hush?

Well, I finished memorizing all my Hiragana for my Japanese classes. So I set about figuring out how to actually type it. It took me a few hours trying to figure out how to configure my Debian desktop. It was somewhat tricky, given that I'm not literate enough to read the Japanese documentation. I had the most trouble just with the trivial task of getting kmodmap and KDE to cooperate -- so I could remap the Windows key to be the Kanji conversion key. I never got kinput2 to work, but I finally managed to get UIM + anthy + gedit to work! Very cool.

I'm glad I'm using Debian - all the packages were just there. It seems like it will be a handy way to study, since retyping Hiragana involves me converting back to romaji so I can type it.

I found this link while googling around for javascript links - JS/UIX - a Unix-like OS/environment written in Javascript that runs in your web-browser (it works with Mozilla, at least). They've even implemented virtual filesystems and vi!

Mark told me to blog this when I got it done...

Kaffe 1.1.5 has finally been released, after more than a year since the last release. So go get it now.

I think our next release should be a "stable" / "production" release...

I finally got my Squeezebox. It was backordered for a month, but I finally got it (I notice they no longer have the colour boxes on the website). Anyways, it's great. I love it.

Slowly, I'm getting the server in shape. I set up a Xen session on it for Classpath -- Mark volunteered to be a guinea pig for it. I saw he logged in once, but I don't think he's done anything with it yet. This weekend, I'll migrate some of my own sites over. I had to patch some of the Xen python stuff because it annoyingly bound the consoles to all the ports, so they were accessible from everywhere -- and their default Domain-0 kernel for Xen 2.0.3 didn't even have iptables in it. Not good - I want secure console logins so I can run passwordless, and just use ssh keys.

I went to see Bram Cohen give a talk on bittorrent at Stanford (in the William Gates building. :-) It was a full house. He had some interesting insights, I though -- I was pretty impressed.

Amazon's A9 search engine now has yellow pages searches with street images. Very cool.

I can't see my house, since it's on a residential street. But I can see my work, where I have coffee, where I grocery shop, etc, etc. (I hope the links work)

I had the same idea about 10 years ago. They stole my idea! Of course, they actually went and did it, so props to Amazon. Google has bought Keyhole, so I'm sure they'll be doing something similar soon as well...

22 Jan 2005 (updated 22 Jan 2005 at 06:35 UTC) »

This is my second blog entry today. That doesn't happen often.

The Mac Mini I ordered arrived. Yay! I hooked it up to my flat screen Sony TV (37XS910) via the DVI connector, and it just worked. I'm very impressed. It's a really nice piece of hardware -- definitely a good purchase. It's perfect for the living room - completely silent, and the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse make it quiet usable from my sofa...

Displaying on a TV, even my high-end one, is very different than using a monitor. One drawback with the Mac UI is that it draws the menu in the overscan area of the TV. I couldn't find any preferences to adjust for the overscan (via Google, it appears that they do have support for that in the OS when outputting via component video -- but not via DVI apparently). Anyways, I figured out how to use the Zoom feature in the "Universal Access" (aka. accessability) preferences screen to let me zoom in and see the menus.

I can tell I'm going to have to do a lot of video mode switching depending on what I'm doing. Mostly, for DVDs, I think I'll use 1920x1080, which looks pretty awesome. However, for computer use, at that resolution, there's an awful lot of flicker (it's interlaced), and the fonts are ridiculously small. I'm using 720x480 now, which just about lets me see the fonts while sitting on the sofa (I'm nearsighted).

I'll have to dig around for Mac OS X utilities for quick switching of resolutions, etc. I'll have to do some research on some nice remote-control driven media centre UI software too. Of course, I'm going to use this box to test Kaffe with, and I'll probably try dual-booting Linux and maybe even Darwin and/or some of the BSDs.

In other news, I brought my little Linksys ethernet switch to work, and tried hooking up my server using that. It worked wonders -- all the IPMI problems magically went away, confirming my suspicions that the problems I was seeing was actually do to the Cisco Catalyst gigabit-Ethernet switch it was plugged into. I imagine that's what I'm seeing at the colo as well, as they have similar equipment. Since I think I understand the problem now, I'm going to reinstall the server at the colo next week. Then I can move onto more important things, like getting a new Kaffe release done.

Intel finally released the Vanderpool (aka VT) specs. Cool.

19 Jan 2005 (updated 19 Jan 2005 at 04:54 UTC) »

Proposed California Senate Bill 96

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. Section 653.15 is added to the Penal Code , to read: 653.15. (a) Any person or entity that sells, offers for sale, advertises, distributes, disseminates, provides, or otherwise makes available peer-to-peer file sharing software that enables its user to electronically disseminate commercial recordings or audiovisual works via the Internet or any other digital network, and who fails to exercise reasonable care in preventing use of that software to commit an unlawful act with respect to a commercial recording or audiovisual work, or a violation of Section 311.1, subdivisions (b), (c), or (d) of Section 311.2, Section 311.3, 311.4, 311.10, 311.11, or 502 is punishable, in addition to any other penalty or fine imposed, by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment.(b) As used in this section, "peer-to-peer file sharing software" means software that once installed and launched, enables the user to connect his or her computer to a network of other computers on which the users of these computers have made available recording or audiovisual works for electronic dissemination to other users who are connected to the network. When a transaction is complete, the user has an identical copy of the file on his or her computer and may also then disseminate the file to other users connected to the network. (c) As used in this section "recording" means the electronic or physical embodiment of any recorded images, sounds, or images and sounds, but does not include audiovisual works or sounds accompanying audiovisual works. (d) As used in this section "audiovisual work" means the electronic or physical embodiment of motion pictures, television programs, video or computer games, or other audiovisual presentations that consist of related images that are intrinsically intended to be shown by the use of machines or devices such as projectors, viewers, or electronic equipment, or a computer program, software, or system, as defined in Section 502, together with accompanying sounds, if any. (e) As used in this section,"commercial recording or audiovisual work" means a recording or audiovisual work whose copyright owner, or assignee, authorized agent, or licensee, has made or intends to make available for sale, rental, or for performance or exhibition to the public under license, but does not include an excerpt consisting of less than substantially all of a recording or audiovisual work. A recording or audiovisual work may be commercial regardless of whether the person who electronically disseminates it seeks commercial advantage or private financial gain from that dissemination. (f) As used in this section,"electronic dissemination" means initiating a transmission of, making available, or otherwise offering, a commercial recording or audiovisual work for distribution on the Internet or other digital network, regardless of whether someone else had previously electronically disseminated the same commercial recording or audiovisual work. SEC. 2. The provisions of this act are severable. If any provision of this act or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application. SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.

Doesn't a basic web browser fit the definition of "software that once installed and launched, enables the user to connect his or her computer to a network of other computers on which the users of these computers have made available recording or audiovisual works for electronic dissemination to other users who are connected to the network."? Yeah! Let's criminalize file downloading! Way to fill up California's jail cells dude!

I'm sure this won't get anywhere once people get wind of it. But the politician who thought this was a good idea sure must be a dumb-ass.

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