Big Fat Ostrich

Well it’s time to upgrade and say goodbye to Jaunty Jackalope. With the recent release of Ubuntu 9.10, aka Karmic Koala, it had to be done.

Karmic Koala was released on 29 October 2009, and while I am a little late on my review, I will say that I wanted to wait it out. After the initial release, I was hearing a lot of grumbling about slowness and issues with upgrading as opposed to a fresh install.

The last time I wrote a review of the Ubuntu upgrade process was way back in April of 2009.There were some issues with that tracker bug, but that was finally resolved. This time however, the upgrade went really smooth. Actually, let me back up a bit: The first time I tried to upgrade (2 months ago) to Karmic Koala, I used my old PIII 500Mhz laptop as a guinea pig. The exercise went horribly wrong, and to no fault of Ubuntu. Yes, my old Dell Latitude PIII finally bought the farm. That 20Gig hard drive has done it’s final spin.

So I had no choice but to bite the bullet and try the upgrade on my main machine.

I’m happy to say that the upgrade went perfectly smooth. I was a little worried that some packages might break considering the history of package installation that my machine has, but that didn’t happen.

The only issue I had was upgrading Virtual Box once Karmic was installed. If you use Virtual Box 2.0, you’ll need to first remove it (as root) with apt-get remove virtualbox-2.2.6.31-160, then download Virtual Box 3.12 from here and install it like so: dpkg -i virtualbox-3.0_3.0.12-54655_Ubuntu_jaunty_i386.deb

There was some initial slowness during the first boot, which is normal. Thunderbird and Firefox took forever to load. After the second boot, everything seems fine using the 2.6.31-16 kernel. Other than that, I have nothing bad to say about the Karmic Koala upgrade, so far. Time will tell.

I will say that the new splash screen is pretty slick. Click to enlarge:

Addendum I: After using Karmic Koala for about three hours, a nasty little bug was revealed. It turns out that a ton of useless messages will get logged to /var/log/messages, kern.log, and syslog. The logs fill up to the point where / or /var/log fills up. I’m really surprised that this made it out into the field, and it’s extremely annoying. The messages in question look like this:

Dec 1 08:02:42 compname kernel: [35031.545468] CPU0: Temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 13710)
Dec 1 08:02:42 compname kernel: [35031.545470] CPU0: Temperature/speed normal

Good thing though, is that there’s a simple temporary fix that you can use from the Ubuntu forums. Check out post #57 here. Once you apply the fix, backup or delete the huge log files and restart rsyslog.

Aside from that (I know, it’s a pretty major bug), Karmic Koala is running very fast and snappy. I’m inclined to say that the slowness I experienced with Jaunty was the fault of Firefox. Now, with Firefox 3.5.6 on Karmic, browsing is extremely fast. I’ve been testing browsing in Karmic using Chrome 4 as well, and page loading is very fast there too.

Addendum II: After a good 4 days of using Karmic, I’m really satisfied with performance.  Chrome 4 is good, but not there 100% yet. All apps seem to be loading fast, and my Windows XP Virtual Machine is smoother than before. Plus, Firefox is still surprising me with page loading,  especially when clicking through Adgitize blogs and ads.

m.

Radiation Juan

The Radiation Juan Chronicles will be featured whenever Juan finds his way out of the desert and actually sends us something. Join him on his dangerous , drunken escapades.

The Sweet Green Glow

I walked into the bar and goddamn did I need a drink. The bartender was a hulking beast with a hateful slouch that told you he would not be listening to your sad stories.

He looked like he used to eat logs for a living but soon found out that it was an even shittier job than serving the locals at Los Diems on rte 70. All I wanted was a few hard shots of Toxiquilas to make the yesterday go away. Pine Nut looks at me and says, “We ain’t got none of that. Pick again”

But hell, I was determined. “Its not hard to make”, I told him. “Vermouth and tequila in a small shot…”

“I said we don’t got none”

Fine. So I leave the bar and head to the local liquor outlet.The door was locked but by my watch they’d be open at noon. 5 minutes later the door opens. God, I love these people for their punctuality. I walk back to Los Diems and swing the vermouth onto the bar. “Here y’ar. It’s on me”

I swear the very air fell on the floor. No one said a word or even looked at me.

Except for Johnny Tea Bag behind the bar.

“A present, eh?”
“Yeah. Now make me a drink. Its a shot. You mix vermouth with …”
“You telling me how to do my job?”
“…”
“Good.”

He never took his eyes off me as he cracked open the bottle and mixed my shot.

“That’s 4.25, buddy.”
“What…I just GAVE you a goddamn bottle.”
“No one drinks in my bar for free.”

I was done arguing.

So I paid. All day long and right through happy hour.

Read Chapter 2!

God, it’s cold! I haven’t felt this cold since my ex told me to go sleep in the basement, when we didn’t even have one!

Anyway! Dobson here again to give you some tips on staying warm. Usually I’m up on my game, but this winter has caught Ole Dobson by surprise. It must be that global warming all those kids are talking about. Here I thought spring was right around the corner, when, bang! Old Man Winter bites me in the ass.

So open your drawers and pull out your tea bags. Let’s get toasty!

What, you thought I’d talk about clothes? Well I don’t care how cold it gets. This year Dobson is making it through just like he always has: His favorite argyle sweater and the beige raincoat. That thing cuts the wind it does, and I ain’t looking to score any fashion points anyway.

So let’s get teabaggin’!

These days I’m feeling “zen”, so I like Green Tea. Any old kind will do really. I get mine from those variety boxes they sell down at the pharmacy. You got a problem with that? My ex-wife did too.  That snob queen only insisted on loose tea. But hey, she should know about loose, hey!

Back to our teabag, just boil up the water, pour it in the damn cup, and throw the bag in. Wait about a minute and drink it carefully, lest you burn your tongue.

Enjoy.

Dr. Dobson

Because sometimes you’re just too lazy to even look in the fridge!

But not too lazy to play with Debian linux.

The Project:
Add a wireless webcam to my Debian server and then stick the camera in my fridge. Then I would only have to browse to a webpage to see if have to do groceries today!

Difficulty Level:
Not that hard to do.

Stupidity Level:
Possibly THE dumbest idea I’ve had in the last 4 years.

Hardware: Linksys has these WVC54GCA wireless webcams that have their own ip address as well as an embedded webserver which you can use instead of configuring apache.

So yeah, providing that your Debian server is already set up with wireless, you can skip the next step. Otherwise:

$ lspci (use lspci to figure out which card you have. That way you’ll know which driver to install)

# m-a a-i madwifi
# modprobe ath_pci

for Broadcom: b43-fwcutter

# apt-get install b43-fwcutter
# modprobe b43

for Intel : firmware-iwlwifi

# apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi
# modprobe iwl4965

Once you have the right drivers installed, you can use something like wicd to get your wireless setup.

Add this repository to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://apt.wicd.net/ debian extras

# apt-get install wicd

Cool. Now that your wireless web cam is set up, just browse to the ip address that it uses. Mine is at http://192.168.1.105 for example. What’s also cool about the  WVC54GCA having an embedded webserver, is that I can now actually ssh to my fridge. How awesome is that?!

Finally, I can now find out what in the world is in my fridge!

Except I might want to deal with the fact that there is actually no light in the fridge…

This blog needs more tech posts. Here’s one. This time though, for your convenience, I’m offering a short version that cuts through all the bullshit:

For iPhone tethering to work on a Windows machine, you need to install iTunes first.

If you’re still with me, here’s the long version:

Like you all know, I recently moved into a new apartment. New place=new internet, which takes time because they always fuck up the order and send the cable modem to the wrong address and then charge you too much money for the first month and when you call them to complain about it they only answer after a 2 hour wait and then you get some guy from India trying to sell you the “Extreme sports TV channels package” in that awful awful fake New-York accent.

ANYWAY! I want to be able to check my email from my new place and I find the iPhone awkward for “real” internet use. Never really got used to the onscreen keyboard, the small screen feels claustrophobic, and you can’t run more than one app at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome alternative to the real thing, but I can’t picture myself living with only an iPhone for a whole month. Which brings me to the main topic of this post: iPhone innertsnets tethering.

“But Daniel” you ask, “what is this tethering you speak of?!?!?!?” Well, in Wikipedia‘s own words, “Tethering is the use of a mobile device such as a mobile phone to supply Internet access for another device which is otherwise unconnected, using the connected device as a modem. This can be done through Bluetooth wireless technology or cables (such as USB).” When this feature was first introduced (in iPhone OS 3.0 I think…) I was like “man, that word is really hard to pronounce”. Then I forgot all about it. A few weeks later I found myself thinking “I wish there was a way for me to use my iPhone as a mobile internet USB key…” Well well well! Whaddaya know! All I had to do was to call my provider and ask them to activate the tethering feature. I tested it on my main machine and it worked perfectly. Everything was awesome, until…

My work laptop broke down. It was 4 years old, so they replaced it with a shiny new Dell E6400. “Yay!” I thought, “Finally a computer I can bring to my new place to check my emails and chat on MSN while I’m scrubbing the floors!” So I tested the tethering thing on it and it didn’t work. Usually, you plug the iPhone in through the USB port and windows detects a new network device called “Apple Mobile Device Ethernet”. But on my brand new laptop, nothing happened! Oh it detected the “camera” part alright, but nothing else. After googleing and testing everything I could think of, I finally found the solution; That’s right folks, for iPhone tethering to work on a Windows machine, you need to install iTunes first! As simple as that.

Hope this one was actually helpful to someone

-Dan

Hey mate! I don’t need to explain, but the only reason I’m posting the following video is because Hey Hey It’s Saturday came up in my latest Google search for ‘ostrich’.

It seems that Australia’s longest running T.V. show Hey Hey It’s Saturday will be coming back in 2010, and will be hosted by Daryl Somers who hosted it for its entire 27 year (!) run. The show ended in 1999.

But since this is BFO, we’re interested in the Ostrich News portion. Do you see Ossie Ostrich there on the left? Ossie was hugely popular in Australia. So much so, that an Ossie puppet now lives in the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. You can say he (or she, I have no idea) was like the Australian Big Bird or something, but with actual comedic talent. Big Bird needed a serious beatdown in an alley. Still does.

Incredibly, in all those years that Hey Hey was on, I have never heard of the show, Daryl Somers, or Ossie Ostrich. Maybe it never made it to North American airwaves. I’m glad I found this though, and through the magic of the internest, I can catch up on 27 years of off color jokes and various puppet shenanigans. Ah yes, the ’70′s. A time of comedic freedom before the politically correct militants starting breaking heads over the slightest  perceived offense.

Here’s a clip from you tube. Check out 1:41 for some hilarious masturbation jokes! Seriously, I laughed.

Addendum: The original video has been removed (thanks bastards!). So here’s a replacement clip which is so much worse than the original one but at least includes an Ossie Ostrich and Johnny Depp face-off. Enjoy. Maybe.

Welcome to another edition of Unintelligible Wednesdays, where I try to post something when I have no energy to do so.

I did see Watchmen finally, and it was awesome. Really it was. The only thing about writing a review for Unintelligible Wednesdays, and about such a great movie, is that I risk destroying the spirit of it with a crappy review.

So I’ll review JCVD instead!

JCVD stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, ex-fighter extraordinaire, action hero, and all around great guy. He plays himself as a washed-up action hero, stuck with half-assed roles in half-assed movies. In JCVD, he’s still fighting, but for custody of his daughter! As the box says, it’s “The Biggest Fight Of His Life!”.

It was actually pretty good. The film takes place in his native Belgium where he’s treated as a hero. The locals adore him, a native (and famous!) Belgian son. But then, he gets caught up in a small time robbery, and hey, washed up actors need cash to maintain that Hollywood lifestyle. Is he guilty? Did he do it? Watch and see.

I gave it 7 Internetz on 10

Radiation Juan

The Radiation Juan Chronicles will be featured whenever Juan gets off his drunken ass to actually send us something. Join him on his dangerous and sometimes disturbing (but usually disgusting) journey.

Remember the Alamo

By the time I crossed the river, the sun had set and I could see the lights from the town. They weren’t big city bright lights though. More like small town low-watt bulbs flickering in the dusty night air. Looked like my kinda town.

Yes. I had been here before. The night before in fact. It had been slowly seeping back to me all day as I walked. The taste in my mouth kept reminding me of that. Just as pain holds memories, so does taste and smell. And what I was tasting in my mouth conjured up shiny images of tequila bottles and rusty pliers. I had lost my sense of smell at least six years ago, but that didn’t stop the muscle memory of my taste buds from remembering a lousy pile of human misery named Osvaldo.

Read Chapter 1!