With the recent discussions of Daniel Robbins and the future of the Gentoo Linux foundation, it's obviously kick-started some work done on their website (not by me personally, but more likely from the community on the mailing lists). News is now being populated, and there is a clear discussion forming over what needs to be done to make the 2008.0 installer CD. The mailing lists and the package updates are happening at a furious pace (as always).
Keep in mind, though, you don't actually need to use the Gentoo installer CD to install Gentoo Linux. You can use any LiveCD that runs Linux to install Gentoo. Some that come to mind are:
As long as the CD boots up on your PC, establishes a connection to the Internet (or somewhere you can get the Gentoo stage 3 tarball), and allows you to partition your hard drive, you're good to go for an install of Gentoo.
Great to see!
Friday, 25 January 2008
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Welcome back drobbins!
Based on my previous post of "Gentoo appears dead, yet is so alive!", and Daniel Robbins's recent offer, I would like to welcome back Daniel as president of the Gentoo Foundation to allow him to fix it up. I know this still needs to be approved by Gentoo's council, but this is my vote of confidence in Daniel's leadership.
I oppose any motion from any of the council to stop this from happening.
Welcome back drobbins!
I oppose any motion from any of the council to stop this from happening.
Welcome back drobbins!
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Melbourne Victory: Too little - too late
Well done to the Melbourne Victory for their 3-0 win over the Wellington Phoenix at Telstra Dome on Friday night. The problem is that they left their "hot streak" too late and have now missed out of the finals. With the Newcastle Jets winning over the Central Coast Mariners, the top four places have been cemented for the finals.
It was a strange season. Similar in many ways to the previous season, but Melbourne left their "on form" run too late. It came much earlier last year as Fred became useful from the midfield around Round 8. What many see as his replacement, Carlos Hernández, didn't start making a major impact until around Round 16 or 17, but by then it was a struggle for the rest of the team to be mentally ready as well.
Strangely enough, being in last years final did not make Adelaide United (who was the opponent for the 2006/07 finals) a better team either. They have finished in around the same place as Melbourne Victory this season, and have missed out on making the finals.
Good luck Victory, for the AFC Championship for 2008, and more importantly, I hope you beat Sydney FC next week!! And if you after a more in-depth discussion on the Victory, try their blog.
Gentoo appears dead, yet is so alive!
As some of you may know, I use / embrace Open Source. I love the concept of having access to source code, so much that my computer's operating system is Linux - but not just any Linux. I prefer Gentoo Linux.
If you had a look at Gentoo's main website (from the link above), you'd notice it hasn't been updated for a while. The last time (at the time of writing this article) that the Gentoo Weekly News was updated was 15.10.2007. For the casual web surfer, this may be alarming, and may be interpreted as an indication that the distribution is dead. It is far from dead - it's very much alive.
The two major indicators of the health status of this distribution are the mailing lists (with the main one being the gentoo-user list), and the rate at which new packages get made and published. Either one of these two links will show the environment is thriving with discussion and activity. The problem is that for the casual observer, they will perceive the wrong aspects as the major indicators.
And since Gentoo is a "meta-distribution" of Linux, another indicator of little activity would be the lack of installation CD releases. The surprising thing is that you don't even need the installation CD to install Gentoo. You only require a Linux live CD. So, in reality, you could boot up your PC using an Ubuntu Linux CD, and then use it's tools to partition and install Gentoo onto your system.
Not too shabby for something that on the surface appears to be dormant!
If you had a look at Gentoo's main website (from the link above), you'd notice it hasn't been updated for a while. The last time (at the time of writing this article) that the Gentoo Weekly News was updated was 15.10.2007. For the casual web surfer, this may be alarming, and may be interpreted as an indication that the distribution is dead. It is far from dead - it's very much alive.
The two major indicators of the health status of this distribution are the mailing lists (with the main one being the gentoo-user list), and the rate at which new packages get made and published. Either one of these two links will show the environment is thriving with discussion and activity. The problem is that for the casual observer, they will perceive the wrong aspects as the major indicators.
And since Gentoo is a "meta-distribution" of Linux, another indicator of little activity would be the lack of installation CD releases. The surprising thing is that you don't even need the installation CD to install Gentoo. You only require a Linux live CD. So, in reality, you could boot up your PC using an Ubuntu Linux CD, and then use it's tools to partition and install Gentoo onto your system.
Not too shabby for something that on the surface appears to be dormant!
Friday, 4 January 2008
Prime Minister Rudd and Internet censorship
I voted for Kevin Rudd in 2007. For the first time since I was able to vote, the party I voted for won. While I don't think I was voting for the long-term future (after all, which government is completely altruistic?), and as my seat has been, and most likely always will be a Labour seat, it was nice to see "my team" win. Keep in mind, it's a popularity contest - and I don't think most people really know what they're doing.
The reasons I voted for Rudd was personal. Firstly, I was hoping from a change from the Liberal government at the time. I did not agree with John Howard's deals for free trade with the USA. While I love the Americana concept, I dislike the current government. I don't like how through free trade, they can impose their laws on us. Secondly, and probably most importantly, I voted for Labour as they did not have the same Internet policy as the Family First party. The Family First party had an idea to put a large firewall / filter around the whole of Australia, and control what content could come into the country. Now Rudd's Labour government wants to do the same.
I'm not going to discuss how easy it will be to bypass, or that the plan allows for an "opt-out" option. My issue with this plan is that it assumes that Australians are:
Software does not replace good parenting!
If you too are offended by the government treatment, please write to your local member or to Mr Rudd directly. Do be polite and straight to the point. Maybe it's not too late to stop this waste of money and effort just to please a small minority with divine-like morals...
The reasons I voted for Rudd was personal. Firstly, I was hoping from a change from the Liberal government at the time. I did not agree with John Howard's deals for free trade with the USA. While I love the Americana concept, I dislike the current government. I don't like how through free trade, they can impose their laws on us. Secondly, and probably most importantly, I voted for Labour as they did not have the same Internet policy as the Family First party. The Family First party had an idea to put a large firewall / filter around the whole of Australia, and control what content could come into the country. Now Rudd's Labour government wants to do the same.
I'm not going to discuss how easy it will be to bypass, or that the plan allows for an "opt-out" option. My issue with this plan is that it assumes that Australians are:
- too lazy to monitor their kids on the internet (if this is the case, just don't hook up to the internet in the first place)
- too stupid to bypass it
- too "lemming-like", as similar plans have been implemented in other countries
- like to pay $30 Million AUD upfront, and $22 Million AUD a year to maintain this concept
Software does not replace good parenting!
If you too are offended by the government treatment, please write to your local member or to Mr Rudd directly. Do be polite and straight to the point. Maybe it's not too late to stop this waste of money and effort just to please a small minority with divine-like morals...
Tuesday, 1 January 2008
Happy 2008 to all!
May you and your loved ones have a happy, safe, and prosperous 2008. It's been 2008 for about 16 hours now in Canberra, but I know there are probably some places around the world that it's still 2007.
All the best to all, and catch up with those of you I can!
All the best to all, and catch up with those of you I can!
Sunday, 30 December 2007
New formula Codral, and why it's no good! And why the PS3 and Rayban are doing it wrong...
It's been some time between rants, but the drought is over, and here I go...
I picked up an infection of the sinus while down in Melbourne for Christmas, and went to my trusty supply of Codral, which I have known in the past works like a charm to get the stuffiness out of my head and get me breathing again - as well as numb the pains in the other parts of my body. The box was "Codral: New formula". I thought this was good - "If it's new, it must be an improvement on the old formula". All it was is the same stuff as before with the pseudoephedrine taken out and phenylephrine put in to replace it - actually I can't confirm the ingredients of the tablets, but the packaging and the marketing of the tablets was exactly the same. On the next day, I noticed digg.com had an article about this. The article suggested that phenylephrine is just a placebo compared to pseudoephedrine. But here's the problem, pseudoephedrine has been "quietly" taken out of common over the counter decongestants, and been replaced with phenylephrine. This is to curb the increase of methamphetamine production - don't ask me anything about this, I'm not a chemist in any way. After consuming some new formula Codral, I noticed that while my headache was gone, my nose was still blocked up. I went down to the chemist to find that you can still get the original formula Codral, but had to go through the process of being identified with my driver's licenses - obviously to track me and my purchases in case I wanted to start a career as an illicit drug manufacturer. No problem, except the packet of tablets I was handed looked nothing like the original - it was a different colour. Even the tablets looked different to the original. Thankfully the original formula worked, and I am breathing a whole lot easier.
If anyone is having similar problems, and finding that the medication is not working "like it used to", you're probably in the same situation as I am, and your body doesn't find phenylephrine as useful as pseudoephedrine when clearing a blocked nose. At least in Australia, you can ask for the original stuff, even though it doesn't look at all like the product used to look.
This leads me to what's wrong with other products. I've been a big fan of the Sony PlayStation since the original came out. I remember going over to a friend's house and watching a basketball game and thinking how awesome it was. When the PlayStation2 came out, I had obtained one 3 months later - waiting for the first sale that had a price drop, thus paying only $600, not the original $800. It introduced DVD technology into my home. On top of that, it also introduced DVD technology to my extended family (when players were $1000+, not like today where they're $35). Most importantly, I didn't need 2 machines connected to my television. The PlayStation2 was backward compatible with the PlayStation. And I do still play my old PlayStation games. This leads me to the PlayStation3. They came out with a 60GB hard drive, and backward compatibility with the PlayStation and the PlayStation2 for around $1000. Recently they came out with a 40GB model, no backward compatibility and a price drop to around $650. While this would mean I would be paying less for the PlayStation3 than I did for the PlayStation2, it means I would have to keep two machine under my TV to play all my games - something I do not want to do. And it's bad in the long run for Sony. It's another day I do not upgrade my TV or adopt BluRay - or even worse, go with HD-DVD technology. Sony can fix this by offering the backward compatibility in the current model. Bad decision just to save a few dollars here and there.
Lastly, RayBan have moved away from the "flexi-hinge" on their Wayfarer models, to their original design of the interlocked rivets. None of the optometrists or sunglass sellers can understand why they have done this. It makes the sunglasses not as comfortable. On top of that, the newer model is priced around $309, whereas the older model is still around the $200 mark. Do shop around, you should be able to find some stock, but they are dwindling.
All prices quoted are in Australian Dollars!
Told you I can rant on...
I picked up an infection of the sinus while down in Melbourne for Christmas, and went to my trusty supply of Codral, which I have known in the past works like a charm to get the stuffiness out of my head and get me breathing again - as well as numb the pains in the other parts of my body. The box was "Codral: New formula". I thought this was good - "If it's new, it must be an improvement on the old formula". All it was is the same stuff as before with the pseudoephedrine taken out and phenylephrine put in to replace it - actually I can't confirm the ingredients of the tablets, but the packaging and the marketing of the tablets was exactly the same. On the next day, I noticed digg.com had an article about this. The article suggested that phenylephrine is just a placebo compared to pseudoephedrine. But here's the problem, pseudoephedrine has been "quietly" taken out of common over the counter decongestants, and been replaced with phenylephrine. This is to curb the increase of methamphetamine production - don't ask me anything about this, I'm not a chemist in any way. After consuming some new formula Codral, I noticed that while my headache was gone, my nose was still blocked up. I went down to the chemist to find that you can still get the original formula Codral, but had to go through the process of being identified with my driver's licenses - obviously to track me and my purchases in case I wanted to start a career as an illicit drug manufacturer. No problem, except the packet of tablets I was handed looked nothing like the original - it was a different colour. Even the tablets looked different to the original. Thankfully the original formula worked, and I am breathing a whole lot easier.
If anyone is having similar problems, and finding that the medication is not working "like it used to", you're probably in the same situation as I am, and your body doesn't find phenylephrine as useful as pseudoephedrine when clearing a blocked nose. At least in Australia, you can ask for the original stuff, even though it doesn't look at all like the product used to look.
This leads me to what's wrong with other products. I've been a big fan of the Sony PlayStation since the original came out. I remember going over to a friend's house and watching a basketball game and thinking how awesome it was. When the PlayStation2 came out, I had obtained one 3 months later - waiting for the first sale that had a price drop, thus paying only $600, not the original $800. It introduced DVD technology into my home. On top of that, it also introduced DVD technology to my extended family (when players were $1000+, not like today where they're $35). Most importantly, I didn't need 2 machines connected to my television. The PlayStation2 was backward compatible with the PlayStation. And I do still play my old PlayStation games. This leads me to the PlayStation3. They came out with a 60GB hard drive, and backward compatibility with the PlayStation and the PlayStation2 for around $1000. Recently they came out with a 40GB model, no backward compatibility and a price drop to around $650. While this would mean I would be paying less for the PlayStation3 than I did for the PlayStation2, it means I would have to keep two machine under my TV to play all my games - something I do not want to do. And it's bad in the long run for Sony. It's another day I do not upgrade my TV or adopt BluRay - or even worse, go with HD-DVD technology. Sony can fix this by offering the backward compatibility in the current model. Bad decision just to save a few dollars here and there.
Lastly, RayBan have moved away from the "flexi-hinge" on their Wayfarer models, to their original design of the interlocked rivets. None of the optometrists or sunglass sellers can understand why they have done this. It makes the sunglasses not as comfortable. On top of that, the newer model is priced around $309, whereas the older model is still around the $200 mark. Do shop around, you should be able to find some stock, but they are dwindling.
All prices quoted are in Australian Dollars!
Told you I can rant on...
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Merry Christmas to all...
No Linux notes with this post... just a Merry Christmas to all and I hope you have a safe festive period! Below is a photo of my brother-in-law's Christmas tree at his place. This was after all the presents were handed out.
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
USB and Gentoo Linux
I can't believe how good Gentoo Linux (and this would probably apply to many other distributions as well) is with USB devices. I remember in the past where connecting to Windows required different drivers. With Gentoo (and I'm currently using the 2.6.23-gentoo-r3 kernel), I've been able to just plug devices into my machine, and they get mounted to the file system as USB mass storage devices. In summary I can confirm I can connect to the following:
Secondly, I can also confirm that with CUPS, the HP 8230 works with the hp drivers. Full colour printing, and it can also be used as a device to mount photo storage devices (eg. Compact Flash, Sony Memory Stick, etc...). The printer also attaches to my Gentoo machine via a USB cable. Just make sure when you're configuring the kernel (if it is not already compiled for you), to enable:
CONFIG_USB_PRINTER=y
Feel free to get in touch with me if you've got any queries.
- Sony DSC-V3 (see older posts in this blog for this)
- Olympus mju 795 SW
- Nokia 6300
- Sony PSP
- Various USB thumb drives ranging from 256MB to 2GB
Secondly, I can also confirm that with CUPS, the HP 8230 works with the hp drivers. Full colour printing, and it can also be used as a device to mount photo storage devices (eg. Compact Flash, Sony Memory Stick, etc...). The printer also attaches to my Gentoo machine via a USB cable. Just make sure when you're configuring the kernel (if it is not already compiled for you), to enable:
CONFIG_USB_PRINTER=y
Feel free to get in touch with me if you've got any queries.
Monday, 17 December 2007
Christmas, Bobby McGee's Conglomeration, and Locale in Gentoo
I went for a walk around Canberra last night to see what it was displaying to celebrate Christmas. My first stop was the Canberra Centre shopping complex. Being from Melbourne I was used to seeing Myer display Christmas windows. Canberra Centre had some displays set up with animated elves doing different activities. While the display looks great, each time I've passed it, I hardly notice anyone looking at them.
Next on my walk was the Christmas tree in the middle of the city. Well actually, it was not exactly in the middle of the city, but it well decorated anyway. The base is surrounded by large boxes, some as large as small coffee tables. There are angels and christmas decoration balls covering the tree along with christmas lights. As far large festive trees go, I do remember the ones in Melbourne last year being more decorative, but not as large. Might be worth a visit if you're in town.I next wandered over to Bobby McGee's Conglomeration at the Rydges Lakeside. Bobby McGee's hold a special place in my memory. It was the first job I got that was fully taxed. I was going to uni and working as a character waiter. For those that do not know much about Bobby McGee's, it's a concept restaurant where the waiters would dress up in different characters. I worked at Bobby McGee's in Melbourne, which was open in the early 90's, but was closed by 1998. I'm a big fan of "Americana Junk food", and I enjoyed many things about Bobby McGee's. The food, the atmosphere, the fact that you'd be working, but you'd be having fun - literally playing games and sharing jokes with the customers. Bobby McGee's was also unique in the fact it had a nightclub attached to it. The original concept was that you'd have dinner in the restaurant, and then party in the nightclub - a night's entertainment under the one roof. I joined Bobby McGee's in the mid 90's. This was when it was at its peak. Then came the scythe of cost cutting, and literally Bobby McGee's was "slashed to success" - except it didn't work. My personal observations was that they let the food quality slide, and decide to make as much money by marking up the drinks - and profiting off the nightclub. While there was nothing intrinsically wrong with this, management did just start hiring anyone - hoping that their core crew of staff would carry it along. It wasn't long before the only times Bobby McGee's was busy was on the weekends, and people were only coming to be entertained by the staff. Through no fault of the kitchen staff, people were not leaving being totally satisfied with their food experiences.
This brings me to Bobby McGee's in Canberra. It is the last Bobby McGee's in Australia. Melbourne and Sydney are closed. This was partially due to the passing away of Rich Morris, who was the Rydges Corporation Food and Beverage General Manager. It was his idea to bring back Bobby McGee's to its peak. It was a sad loss when I heard he passed away due to a household accident. I was even more saddened to hear his replacement was attempting to shut down all the Bobby McGee's in Australia and turn them into cafe / bistros. If you don't think Bobby McGee's was something appreciated by patrons - have a look at Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood. Both are similar in concept - but without as much fun. The latter is another great concept ruined by bad management.
I doubt the last Bobby McGee's will be around much longer after I write this post. After speaking with staff at Rydges Lakeside, they've already mentioned it will be closed and be renovated into another venue. Gone are the character waiters - and they don't even serve dinner in there. Do pop in if you get a chance, otherwise, have a look at the photos.
Lastly, I got around the configuring Locales in Gentoo. I initially set it to en_GB, but changed the settings in /etc/env.d/02locale to just en, and /etc/locale.gen to en_AU. While easy enough to configure, I don't fully understand what it has done to the machine, with the exception of change the format of the clock. It's just another thing on my system I need to get around to configure, but I'm still at loss to figure out what benefits it brings to my system. Ah... Gentoo... like the bastardized motto of Ubuntu: "Linux for human beings - who have too much time on their hands".
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