Author archives: Mike
B3 Arrived Today (Maybe install the B2 at Linux Caffe for developers)
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Young Coders.
I normally carry my B2 with me when I go down to work at Linux Caffe (well, almost everywhere, really), lets me put it out on the table and let people who are interested in the project strike up conversations even when I'm working on other client's projects. Find some good contacts that way, do ...
Promotion didn't go well (Frustrating...)
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Knight Errant.
Spent the whole working day getting a promotion-to-live done. Just a large number of stupid little errors popping up due to system differences between the staging and live machine. We're missing a stage in the stages due to a configuration mix-up, which is what let it happen.
Went out to dinner with Soni and her ...
Cleanliness is next to DUH! (Don't delete the build directory for no reason!)
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Young Coders.
I spent much of the day yesterday trying to get my OLPC hacking environment back up and running so that I could work on the code again. At one point I got everything save 1 package (libabiword) to build, but then I noticed that there was an old Python 2.4 install in the build directory ...
Remember to test before un-chrooting (Obvious idea...)
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Tuxedo.
As mentioned I did the kde-monolithic to kde-split update within the aufs-based chroot. Everything built fine, I merged the packages directory and the /etc/portage directory into the root tree and did the update with usepkg in the root.
What I *should* have done is try running from the chroot first. I would have noticed the ...
Chrooted aufs makes a nice Gentoo addition (Compiling and installing while you are running...)
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Tuxedo.
My laptop has been waiting for ages to get the KDE monolithic to KDE split update done. It's just so annoying needing to unmerge the system while you're upgrading. So today I decided to try using aufs to create a chrooted copy-on-write version of the system.
sudo mount -t aufs -o dirs=installroot:/=ro none fakeroot
sudo ...
One more big item off the todo list (Brokers beginning to make sense...)
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Vindaloo.
We have a new apartment at Yonge and Davisville (come the 28th). Just have to drop in and get the paperwork done on Monday. Other than moving we are pretty much finished the "big" items on the "family" todo list. Still a few big individual things for each of us, but we're basically ready to ...
Apartment hunting sucks... (Long day's wandering)
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Vindaloo.
We decided to move to a new place a couple of months ago. Couldn't get anyone to show us a place to which to move until this month (they all wanted to concentrate on the start-of-this-month crowd). So, we've been apartment hunting. 5 working days spent so far.
We thought we were going to close ...
My XO seems to have lost its touchpad (Well, usability on it, anyway...)
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Young Coders.
Showing the laptop to a lady yesterday I discovered that the touchpad/trackpad was misbehaving. Moving the cursor would work as long as I was touching the trackpad, but when I took my finger off the trackpad the cursor would jump back (that is, in the reverse of the direction of motion) a couple of cursor-widths ...
Laptops for Nigeria (Different type...)
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Young Coders.
Came into the "office" this morning to discover a last-minute project in-process. Project was attempting to get a "boxed" Edubuntu configuration that was to be carted over to Nigeria for one of their model schools. 3 hours to build the whole system.
We wound up with just the server (an old laptop) poorly configured, but ...
I'd forgotten how loud normal desktops are! (Rescue machine seems less a gift...)
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Vindaloo.
We have a rescue machine here. Soni gave her (reasonably powerful) workstation to a family member in exchange for their tired old machine. It's a consumer-level Compaq, nothing special and I'm sure quite normal seeming to most people.
But it's driving me nuts! It's so loud and annoying!
As of having to replace the old ...
Mike C. Fletcher, the VRPlumber, is a philosopher of design turned computer programmer based in Toronto, Canada. He works primarily in the Python programming language, and maintains a large number of Open Source software packages. You can reach him at: mcfletch@vrplumber.com.