News, CLC, School, etc.

I don’t usually (read: ever) start my blogs with a link, but today will be different.

Matthew Helmke’s latest blog post on Planet Ubuntu got me thinking about some recent news.

Our leader of the Ubuntu Chicago Team, Richard Johnson, is stepping down . This is important on several fronts:

Richard is good at what he does. Regardless of how many jokes I make about him.

Richard is a good friend who taught me tons about Linux and introduced me into many people in the Open Source world.

Richard nominated myself, along with Jim Campbell J1mc to help replace him.

So where does this put me? Well I want to help out and I’ve been doing lots of agenda setting, Wiki editing, meeting scheduling, etc. So sure, I would be a logical candidate for leadership. However, I am simply uncomfortable with the tag ‘leader’ since we are a TEAM. I don’t want to overshadow anyone with my own thoughts, ideas, projects, or sex appeal. LOLAMRITE?!? ;p

We as a team are working on a project at Christian Life College, in Mt. Prospect, IL. We are migrating their broken and essentially useless Windows 2003 server to an Ubuntu server and setting up their network that is worthy of being called ‘geek friendly’. Even if the school is not the most technologically advanced, it is still exciting, imho.

Wiki Page

And on a personal front, I passed all my classes. Exciting! I think so anyway.

-Eddie M.

“Good” computing

I’ve been thinking about what makes an end user good or skilled at using a computer, and how to compare computing habits. There are a few that are obvious:

The user should never give out personal information.

I don’t care who you are; saving passwords and logging information or refusing/forgetting to encrypt non arbitrary information is just bad style. My friend argued with me that you never when you are going to need logs of your information. I disagree. You never know when the authorities are going to ask for logs of your information, which is why it’s better not to in the first place. This extends to people who run WEP encryption on their network, etc.

Memory is not expendable.

At my work, we have 3 main computers. Lots of people bring in their personal laptops to work. But i hear ths all the time, “This computer is too slow. I think it needs more memory.” Well realistically how fast do you expect this computer to go? Memory is what to use after the CPU is overworked, after you run OUT of computing power. Not before. So it seems backwards to upgrade the memory when there are simpler fixes.

Proper uses of computing power.

Don’t use 2 firefox windows when a tab will work just as well, but with less resources. There’s no need to run htop unless you are checking something on your system. Furthermore, all our computers are accessing a main NTFS file system. There is absolutely no need to run a Windows machine for a file system. This is backwards.
I can’t think of any more off the top of my head, but those a  few.

-Eddie M.

Virtual Machine fix

Well I figure out this much:

darkforce@speculum:~$ uname -r
2.6.17-12-generic
darkforce@speculum:~$

Let’s check the headers files:

darkforce@speculum:~$ aptitude search linux-headers
v linux-headers -
v linux-headers-2.6 -
i linux-headers-2.6.22-14 – Header files related to Linux kernel versi
p linux-headers-2.6.22-14-386 – Linux kernel headers for version 2.6.22 on
i linux-headers-2.6.22-14-generic – Linux kernel headers for version 2.6.22 on
p linux-headers-2.6.22-14-rt – Linux kernel headers for version 2.6.22 on
p linux-headers-2.6.22-14-server – Linux kernel headers for version 2.6.22 on
p linux-headers-2.6.22-14-ume – Linux kernel headers for version 2.6.22 on
p linux-headers-2.6.22-14-virtual – Linux kernel headers for version 2.6.22 on
p linux-headers-2.6.22-14-xen – Linux kernel headers for version 2.6.22 on
p linux-headers-386 – Linux kernel headers on 386
i linux-headers-generic – Generic Linux kernel headers
p linux-headers-rt – Linux kernel headers on realtime kernel
p linux-headers-server – Linux kernel headers on Server Equipment.
p linux-headers-ume – Linux kernel headers on 386 Embedded/Mobil
p linux-headers-virtual – Linux kernel headers for the virtual flavo
p linux-headers-xen – Linux kernel headers on Xen

Okay fine, let’s just grab the ones that I need:

darkforce@speculum:~$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.17-12-generic
[sudo] password for darkforce:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Package linux-headers-2.6.17-12-generic is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package linux-headers-2.6.17-12-generic has no installation candidate

Ummm great. I officially hate computers. Somehow I am running the edgy kernel in Gutsy, but my computer doesn’t even realize it.

Virtual Box Kubuntu Gutsy Install Attempts= Fail

Any and all suggestions are appreciated and I’ll input them to the post.

darkforce@speculum:~/Desktop$ sudo dpkg -i virtualbox_1.5.2-25433_Ubuntu_gutsy_i386.deb

[sudo] password for darkforce:
(Reading database … 132072 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking virtualbox (from virtualbox_1.5.2-25433_Ubuntu_gutsy_i386.deb) …
dpkg: error processing virtualbox_1.5.2-25433_Ubuntu_gutsy_i386.deb (–install):
trying to overwrite `/lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/misc/vboxdrv.ko’, which is also in package virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.22-14-generic
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
virtualbox_1.5.2-25433_Ubuntu_gutsy_i386.deb

Follow up

In my Wrong Source entry aka my Last blog post, I went on for a bit about the lyrics to ‘Neva antiquated’ by Jedi Mind Tricks. It has been pointed out to me that the lyrics are to the 2003 re-release of the Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electric Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness album, originally released in 1997. Thus, all the lyrics I found were 1997, and not the 2003 release which I wanted.

Excellent! Thanks spaz for pointing this one out!

-Eddie

Wrong Source Software

Excuse the title, but I had a question. What happens when everything you read and find on the Internet is a direct contradiction to what you feel to be true? Even wiki’s and googles won’t help you in this case. Example:

My Jedi Mind Tricks will break your molecular structure down.
(Return of the Jedi)
My Jedi Mind Tricks will break your molecular structure to pieces.
(Return of the Jedi)

These are the lyrics I found for ‘Neva Antiquated’ from Jedi Mind Tricks’ The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation Of Human Consciousness (1997) release. Except the version I have has the chorus:

I am the beginning and ending of what is war
(and I am the beginning and ending of what is raw)
X3

Now Jedi Mind Tricks did re-release this CD from 1997 in 2006 if I recall correctly. So I check the lyrics from Neva Antiquated (Dark Jedi remix) and…. the same result!

So either I have a super rare version of this one particular song from JMT or the whole world is wrong.

What does one do in the Open Source, wiki world when this happens to them? Where is the line between giving up and being adamant that the information you have is correct.

-Eddie

Christmas is Cancelled

x-Mas is not available for Linux.

proof

-Eddie