http://ward.vandewege.net/blog Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:58:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This country never ceases to amaze me. Everything is standardized - down to the kind of cheese you get when you order a sandwich. There's American, Swiss, Cheddar, Provolone, etc. Somehow Emmentaler, Gruyere and the many other cheeses from Switzerland got standardized into 'Swiss cheese'. And that 'Swiss cheese' often tastes ... http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/08/irish-swiss-cheese/ Via the Google blog: the FCC is set to rule shortly on the unused 'white spaces' - parts of the spectrum between broadcast TV channels that currently goes largely unused. Google's launching Free the airwaves - a campaign to make people aware of the FCC's pending decision that could alter the ... http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/08/free-the-airwaves/ Dell announced that a few more models are now available pre-installed with Ubuntu: the XPS 1530n and the Studio 15n. I configured an XPS 1530n with the following specs, which are available both with Ubuntu and Windows: ... http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/08/price-comparison-dell-xps-m1530-with-ubuntu-vs-windows/ I've got a number of servers that run coreboot + Xen. I like to run coreboot with a linux-as-a-bootloader (LAB) payload. That means that coreboot, after bringing up the machine, boots into a small linux kernel + busybox environment, entirely contained in rom. That environment can serve as an emergency ... http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/08/kexecing-into-a-xen-kernel/ Ars Technica describes a pilot project in Ottawa that puts a new twist on telecommunication infrastructure: the customer-owned last mile. From the article: A private company has recently completed a project to string dark fiber from a colocation facility under the Ottawa City Hall to a neighborhood of 400 older, upper-middle-class ... http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/08/my-apartment-needs-a-tail/ So you've done quite a few dapper to hardy upgrades, and you're ready for the next one. You apt-get update apt-get upgrade apt-get install update-manager-core and then do-release-upgrade -d You go get a cup of tea, and come back to # do-release-upgrade -d Checking for a new ubuntu release Done Upgrade tool ... http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/07/upgrading-from-dapper-to-hardy-hash-sum-mismatch/ It's official - we have a new logo! Many thanks to the folks who made this happen: * Konsult Stuge * coresystems GmbH * Kitchener Waterloo Linux User Group and Richard Weait * Breakfast Design http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/07/new-coreboot-logo/ So you're happily developing a rails app, and for whatever reason need to restart your devel server. And then you get this (paths removed to improve readability): $ script/server => Booting Mongrel (use 'script/server webrick' to force WEBrick) => Rails application starting on http://0.0.0.0:3000 => Call with -d to detach => Ctrl-C to shutdown server ** Starting ... http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/06/misleading-mongrel-errors/ $ host ftp.us.debian.org. ftp.us.debian.org has address 128.30.2.36 ftp.us.debian.org has address 64.50.238.52 ftp.us.debian.org has address 64.50.236.52 ftp.us.debian.org has address 35.9.37.225 $ telnet ftp.us.debian.org 80 Trying 35.9.37.225... Connected to ftp.us.debian.org. Escape character is '^]'. HEAD / HTTP/1.0 HTTP/1.0 200 OK Connection: close Content-Type: text/html Content-Length: 2949 Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:36:34 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 Connection closed by foreign host. Excuse me? $ whois 35.9.37.225 Merit Network Inc. MICH-1 (NET-35-0-0-0-1) ... http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/06/ftpusdebianorg/ WBUR, one of the two NPR stations in Boston now streams in unencumbered and patent-free Ogg Vorbis! Check out the WBUR listen page. Here's the direct link to the m3u. Also see the FSF press release about this. http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2008/06/ogg-streaming/