Advogato blog for mdekkers

11 Apr 2002

Thu, 11 Apr 2002 20:45:22 GMT

What a bad day. Actually, make that two bad days. Some people simply don't get it, and will not even make an effort to do so. First of all, I didn't get to finish the stuff I was working on, but instead had to babysit a totally clueless person on a middleware project. Now, if there was actually any hope of the individual in question grasping what it is all about, that would not be too bad, but there is no hope at all for this guy. What have I done to deserve this? I don't know.

People don't want to leave me alone to do my job, and am just getting hassled. I wonder how the thought process goes:"Oh - I'm totally fucking bored out of my skull. What shall I do? I know!! Let's go and hassle someone!! Maybe that way, I will not be the only one looking like a total dickhead."

Anyway....

This comes to mind.

8 Apr 2002

Mon, 8 Apr 2002 18:19:18 GMT

Got a lot of little nagging stuff done today - paperwork and related kinds of trash. Am also penguinizing a Compaq Presario 2700, but it is not going all that smooth. This machine does not like Linux.

The victim (hapless co-worker) needs VMWare with XP Pro, and since this machine is not happy with Linux, the VMWare installation process is pretty painful. The modem is crap, the sound settings don't seem to stick for some reason, the ext3 disk decided that it is ext2, NFS mounts are spotty at best.

Putting the final touches on the Community Council proposal for Openoffice - hopefully get it out of the way tonight.

Really need to finish the Linux Desktop setup here at work - most of it ready, but ran into some weird-ass bugs - KDM totally locks up the server when a remote connection is made to it - requiring a hard reset. bugged it, and was informed this was impossible. Tried on 2 different machines, same results. XDM works fine, so will just go with that. I suspect the particular kernel i'm using is the culprit (2.4.16-64GB-SuSE). nss_ldap is giving me a different set of problems, is basically not getting stuff out of LDAP for me - don't really have the time to sort that out, so will set up a central set of files somewhere to get that working, and play with nss_ldap later on.

OpenAFS works like charm so far - am seriously impressed with this particular system. Next stop - the desktops.

If anybody actually reads this, and is wondering about the rambling: I am setting up a Proof of Concept desktop environment (no, I didn't do the crappy writeup) that is mainly based on Linux. 30 Desktops (our whole unit) will use a thin-client like desktop, running KDE, OpenOffice, Notes (Either via CrossOver Office, if that proves unworkable on a large scale, via Citrix) and some other assorted applications. All this will run on a 100% Linux back-end.

We will use this for a few months, and is successfull, we will suggest other departments and ministries to start using this. getting in touch with SuSE is like pulling teeth though, and likewise IBM. The only really responsive company so-far was CodeWeavers - hats of to those people, they do a great job.

I hope to get the whole backend production-ready by tomorrow.

7 Apr 2002

Sun, 7 Apr 2002 20:15:41 GMT

Came across this just now. Interesting. I wonder if it understands what makes women tick <-- that would the ultimate killer app

6 Apr 2002

Sat, 6 Apr 2002 21:28:48 GMT

Well, it should be telling that as soon as I sign up for my account, the connection to the server keels over. Oh well.

Just finished the first draft for the OpenOffice.org Community Counsil. I really hope that Sun will take note of this - we are so fed up with the incessant stream of BS coming from that particular company.