A Man and his Penguin

When I was leaving to go to work, I see a yellow envelope sitting in the letter box. At first I thought it was something sent from some friends we have in England, but when I get closer I see that it was sent from Chicago, and it’s addressed to "Chris Lees, Ubuntu Podcast". What listener had got my address, I wondered. When I opened it up, I found a two-DVD set - the OpenSolaris Starter Kit. Wicked, I’d forgotten I requested that!

It contains the Belenix, Schillix, and Nexenta live CDs; plus the Nexenta "install" (I assume it’s like the Ubuntu Alternate CD), the OpenSolaris source code, some instructions and learning materials, and Solaris Express Community Edition b57.

Pictures to follow.

Now for the Tale Of Two Suppliers:

A customer bought a Panasonic LCD TV from us 7 months ago. It very quickly developed a fault - it would sometimes not turn on. It went in for repair - the service agent claimed to have fixed it, but the problem occurred again. It went back in; no problem found. We started getting onto Panasonic’s back, asking for it to be exchanged as it was still under warranty. They didn’t want to know. We kept the TV at the shop and observed the problem a number of times. The service agent came around again and picked up the TV - we showed the guy who picked it up what the problem was; and he observed it.

Now, the service agent is again claiming they can’t find the fault, and that the pickup guy "is just a truck driver" (which I doubt, he seemed pretty knowledgable) and that "he didn’t see any problems" which is a complete lie since *I showed him* and he even commented on what he thought the problem could be!

Panasonic are giving us the run-around.

Rocky from Teac came in today to tell us about some new products. I asked him if Teac was making MP3 players again, since I’m scared that if my Teac MP3 player breaks that I’d have to downgrade to an iPod. Even though we don’t stock much Teac stuff, Rocky told me that if my MP3 player breaks, that I should give him a call and he’ll get the service guys to fix it for free "as unsold floor stock".

That, my friends, is the tale of two suppliers. We have a fair bit of Panasonic stock, but they don’t want to know us. We don’t have much Teac, but they’ll happily help in any way they can. Rocky from Teac, Aaron from Conia, and Jarod from Electrolux - those are the three reps who I know will support us.

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Where were all you Perth Ubuntu users? I was at the cafe for ages and no Ubuntu users came up to me! Fortunately I’d also invited my friend Joey and his girlfriend for coffee and dinner, so that was good. See, I told you I was going to go and do more this winter. Pictures forthcoming (I’ll still tag the picture as "Feisty release party"!)

No, this actually isn’t a post about iPod owners!

It’s actually a post about my beloved Teac MP-20G MP3 player, and how it is actually smarter than me.

As you know, I love the Narasirato Pan Pipers, and I listen to their album all the time. I also like an album called Garden of Eden. Now, I decided to put these albums onto my MP3 player so I could listen in bed. I opened up the Jockey software in Windows and dragged the folders on. After the music loaded, I unmounted the player and started her up.

No sign of the pan pipers; not under the Ns for Album nor Artist. Garden Of Eden also wasn’t under G for albums nor artist. Though, part of Mylene Farmer’s album "Le Autre" that I’d loaded at the same time was on there under L for albums.

Thinking that something must be wrong with the software, I tried again and again to load the offending albums on. I even tried dragging the folder onto the MP3 player in Windows Explorer then telling the Jockey software to "sync" to the contents of the MP3 player (create a database based on what’s on the player).

In frustration, I copied off all the music onto my external hard drive, wiped the player clean, then used Jockey to copy everything back on (or, as I call it, "The iPod  Solution"). Everything loaded correctly and showed up in the MP3 player’s own list; except Garden Of Eden and Narasurato Pan Pipers!

Cursing, I tried using the Firmware Update utility in case it was some problem with the firmware of the player, and that it might have retained the old database. But that didn’t work.

Finally, I notice that while my mouse is over the MP3 files in Windows Explorer, it isn’t showing me any ID3 information. So I look in the MP3 player, under "U". There are my two albums. As I hadn’t put ID3 tags in the files, the player didn’t know the names of the albums or artists, and so it had put them in as "Unknown" album.

I’m such an idiot. My MP3 player was actually more intelligent than me. But I’m glad that it was a wetware problem, and not a hardware problem - my Teac MP3 player has been great and I wouldn’t want to have to downgrade to something less intuitive or less distinctive.

As the subject line says, I’ve recompiled Pidgin (hopefully with SSL support for MSN) and am currently compiling Gnash.

Why are you compiling Gnash? It’s in the repos!

True, it’s in the repos, but this is the example where having x86 users building a PowerPC distribution is really dumb. On x86, it’s a great idea to use OpenGL as the rendering engine for Gnash. The official graphics card drivers allow hardware acceleration. On PowerPC, it’s a bad idea - there are no official graphics card drivers for PPC, so you don’t get direct rendering; which makes OpenGL programs run very slowly.

Gnash supports the Cairo backend (experimentally), and this should run quickly enough for our purposes.

Why not use swfdec? That supports Youtube videos!

All the really good stuff from Youtube is also available on Google Video, and you can download and play stuff from Google Video without even having any Flash support. Also, you can use the Video Downloader extension (not included) for Firefox to download the actual video data from Youtube as a .flv, and then play it in Mplayer (not included).

If you really want swfdec, you can install it exactly the same way that you always did on PPC. Gnash seems to have better compatibility with various Flash movies.

Where can I download Copland Community Preview?

Hold on, not yet… but it will be available soon. I’ll probably release it as a torrent + a Yousendit.com service (you e-mail a particular address, it will be sent to you that night on www.yousendit.com).

How long until Gnash finishes compiling?

It just has! Brilliant!

—————
I got the chance to play with Windows Vista today at Dick Smith’s. It was on a laptop, and the Aero interface was enabled. Honestly, it’s not a patch on Beryl. Having windows fade in and move toward the viewer a smidgin looks quite smooth, but there certainly wasn’t a WOW factor about it. Speed-wise, Vista seemed to be okay… but it took longer to display the recycle bin window than Ubuntu+Beryl does to display the trash.

Funny, that…

I burnt a new copy of the same disc image, and when it was booting I edited the Xorg, so when X started up it already had the correct configuration. Now it’s working fine when logging in as the default user.

That’s good! So it was either a bad burn (I’ve been burning onto the same disc each time) or for some reason you have to have the Xorg configuration correct from the get-go. That means that, either Copland will work for everybody, or it will at least work for everyone who DOESN’T have a G3 iMac.

I haven’t recompiled Gaim yet, but I’ve found something else to do while in the chroot.

My latest CD image has some kind of bug. When I try to log in to XFCE as the default user, it gets as far as starting xfdesktop and then stops. Pressing Control-Alt-F2 causes the CD to make some noise for a few seconds, but nothing else. Pressing Control-Alt-Delete causes the machine to freeze.

It was quite a while in between CD image builds, so I don’t know if maybe it was something I added a while ago and forgot about. I remember adding the Broadcom driver, which loads using rc.local. That may be the problem, but removing the driver before logging in does not help.

Curiously, if I kill X and then do "sudo startx", it all works fine.

So, the next time I’m in the chroot, I’m going to set a root password and allow root logins (I think XDM allows these by default). So Copland testers will have to use the root account. I think we’re safe though - security through obscurity. Obviously this isn’t ideal, but it’s a good stopgap until I can figure it out (or until I start again from the Feisty codebase, which is more likely!)

——–

At work today, the dimwitted single-mother I sometimes work with asked me if she had to remove Norton before "installing another virus" (I choked back a giggle). Then she pulled a copy of Windows LiveCare from her bag - apparantly it has a 3-user license? Anyway, I told her to stick with Norton.

I don’t really know why I related this almost-amusing personal anecdote. I just found it funny that she thought those security suites were actually called viruses.

———
I wish Angelica would come online tonight.

Under a whim, I decided that Copland Community Preview should have the latest version of Gaim. After all, the old 1.5 version doesn’t really work anymore (maybe it does, but not well!), and I successfully built Beta 6 on my Dapper system. It works a treat.

So, I put the iMac back into the chroot and copied over the Gaim source code. Then I did a ./configure. After about 5 minutes of configuring, it complained about a build dependency. I downloaded it. Another 5 minute configure later, it complained about another build dep. I got it. A 6 minute configure later, it complained about yet another build-dep - this one was a multiple dependency, took up 14 megabytes.

Then finally the configure step completed, and I ran make. About half an hour later, make gave me an error about incorrect ELF files. Then I realised - I had compiled Gaim beta on the x86 before, put the folder with its x86 binaries on the PowerPC, and hadn’t done a make clean.

So I did a make clean to get rid of all the x86-compiled stuff. 8 minutes of configure later, I ran make. An hour afterward, make finally finished. Aptitude purge gaim. Sudo checkinstall. It all went okay. So I worked on some other Copland stuff for a little while, had a long break, made a new desktop entry (calling it "Pidgin") and an updated About box picture, deleted all the build-deps for Gaim, then built the CD image.

It’s 9:45 pm. I run the disc, and debug the xorg-profiles code. Now I’m at a desktop. I set up my internet connection, start Gaim, and input my MSN details… to find that Gaim won’t connect because I don’t have the right SSL libraries installed into Copland. Furthermore, I find that the SSL development libraries were needed at compile time. Doh!

Luckily, I did keep a copy of the /var/apt/cache directory, so I probably have all the build dependencies for Gaim. But they are there as debs, which I must now install manually in the correct order into the chroot. Then compile Gaim again. Lucky me. Lucky little me.

And I was planning to probably release this disc image! It certainly won’t happen now, until these bugs get ironed out - and then I’ll have the fun of migrating to Feisty’s base with the same problems! But no, I will release an Edgy-based disc image.

"The Ubuntu community would like to thank you for your
      contributions to the Ubuntu project. In recognition of this, we
      offer you an expanded set of options for your ShipIt request."

Well, that’s nice. Finally I get the recognition I deserve

However, it seems that I get fewer options than before! The PowerPC discs are gone, of course; but so is the 5 CD option. I have only actually distributed one of my previous order of Dapper (I have another one in my car for emergencies), so I doubt I’ll be able to distribute 8 32-bit discs and 2 64-bit discs in six months. I really wanted 5 discs - 3 32-bit, 1 64-bit, and 1 PowerPC.

Sure, I could order ten and then just use whatever I could; but that would probably lead to wastage (or giving them away to strangers on the street in September). I might have to sell them on eBay or sell them in the shop.

On the same note, if anyone out there wants a Dapper CD, please get in touch with me through Ubuntu Forums (my username is 3rdalbum). I can only ship within Australia, sorry. Also, don’t forget my Feisty Release Party on Friday; 6:30pm at Dome Hillarys (Sorrento Quay). I’ll have my leftover Dapper and Breezy CDs on the table so you know it’s me.

EDIT: I ordered ten. I can always contribute to Ubuntu-Au’s own shipping effort.

Some misguided soul has decided that Linux should be promoted at the Indy 500 by sponsoring a car. So they are taking donations in the hope that they’ll get enough money to become a major sponsor.

The following is the message I sent to him (every bit of it is true):

Mate, this is a waste of money.
I used to work for a Betta Electrical store. Betta Electrical sponsored
the V8 Supercars - well, they actually sponsored Craig Lowndes’ car
(Team Betta Electrical). This was the only advertising they did.

Did this lift Betta Electrical’s profile? No. Since Betta Electrical
didn’t actually advertise in the usual ways, non-revheads saw the
company as being irrelevant; and since the company’s public profile was
so low, suppliers didn’t consider the stores worth supporting.

Betta Electrical went broke late last year during the racing season.
The suppliers lost money, the stores lost money, and the racing team
lost its major sponsor overnight.

Mate, it costs a lot to sponsor motorsport, and unless your product is
directly related to cars, it’s a complete *jup jup!*ing waste of time
and money. I’d rather the money went to real advertising or to hiring
developers to reverse-engineer proprietry drivers.
I really mean this - not one person will switch to Linux because it has
been mentioned in a car race. Not one single person came into our store
because it was mentioned in the entire racing season. If you think
motorsport is the best place to invest Linux users’ money in, then you
need a reality check, and I hope this e-mail provided you with it and
that you’ll be refunding these people’s money.

——————-
If you’re thinking of donating toward this sponsorship, PLEASE don’t. Not one person will switch to Linux simply because the name and the logo is painted on the bonnet of an Indy car. If you already have your wallet out and want to put some money toward something Linux-related, please put it directly toward your favourite FOSS project or toward some Free Software Day activities.

I had a dream last night that my whole computer was compromised with a virus that I just couldn’t get rid of, and that it got in through the Linux side. I treated the dream very seriously, because a while ago I once had a dream that my computer’s hard disk crashed, and a few days later it DID!

So I downloaded ClamAV and KlamAV (the KDE frontend) and ran it over my home directory. An hour later, I came back and checked the log to find that IT HAD FOUND A TROJAN!

I right-clicked on the virus report and asked it to show me information from the two anti-virus vendor’s websites. Nothing - they couldn’t find any information. So I tried Google, and found that the "trojan" is merely a piece of annoying Javascript that does stuff to your browser window. It’s actually classified as a "bad joke".

But where did it come from? It came from a program called Eversoft First Page that I had unsuccessfully installed in Wine. It’s an HTML editor which comes with some sample Javascripts and things.

Tonight I must tell Clam to scan my whole Windows partition, even though that will take HOURS and HOURS! And Klam will probably crash near the end, which is what happened tonight.

For extra security, I’ve got my Evolution mail piping through clam.

I don’t know if maybe the Gnome developers have fixed this bug by now, but it’s been around for a long while.

"Summary and folder mismatch, even after a sync" when you have a lot of e-mails.

Google wasn’t much help - it told me to delete a couple of files, but when I checked those files weren’t there. I managed to guess what files were relevent, and now Evolution works properly.

I’m also wondering about the wisdom of having XFCE as the desktop of Copland. Ubuntu Server + XFCE use more memory than you typically find in the older G3s; and Copland is a distro intended partly for "salvage" (finding a use for older computers).

In future versions, I might have XFCE as an optional add-on with my custom configured desktop; and Openbox would be the default (it runs as a stand-alone window manager for REALLY low memory consumption, and it’s smaller than Fluxbox).

Saving the best bit for last: I met Angelica today. We went to the movies and saw Hot Fuzz - boy that is a funny movie, but pretty gruesome at the end. Well worth seeing. And apparantly I don’t bore her… that surprises me. She doesn’t bore me; in fact, she’s sweet and probably a bit shy like me.