Search Results: "will"

5 December 2005

Erich Schubert: Blogger.com sucks - doesn't work with planets

Apparently, blogger.com does a referrer check for images. Therefore, if you have your blog there and it's syndicated to a Planet, all images will disappear. Unless they are cached in your browser, of course... Therefore: don't use blogger.com

Lars Wirzenius: Debian: Debconf7?

It has been brought to my attention that there is already scheming going on about the location of Debconf7, the one after Mexico. I know that people in Edinburgh have often expressed their desire to host Debconf, and I for one think it would be a swell location. We must have at least one Debconf where it rains, after all. Also, the last time I was offered, I was too much of a chicken to eat haggis. I'd further like to have the opportunity to view Scottish mountains through a really small window on a light-proof box. So, Scots, if you want it, you'll have to fight for it. According to Andreas, the main organizer, one of the best ways to fight is to participate in the organization of the preceding conference. This helps the organizers get some understanding of what is involved, andwill make things go more smoothly. Debconf7 in Ediburgh: because rain is wet!

Aigars Mahinovs: Another bug has pissed me enough to start debuggin...

Another bug has pissed me enough to start debugging. This time it is Totem-xine crashing on startup in Ubuntu dapper.

The first thing is that you cann't rebuild totem from sources multiple time after ubuntu patches - ubuntu uses dpatch to patch something in automake files and after the build has been run, the unpatch fails thus preventing a rebuild, doh! Worked around that by removing that patch. (Bug not reported yet)

After installing totem-gstreamer, my main suspect is the change to the statusbar, that look very recent. Could it be that Totem developers forgot a critical fix to the xine backend? Could it be that the treat xine backend as a ... second class citizen? To what? To that GStreamer? I tried to use GStreamer, I really did, but there are a few tiny issues: 1) it doesn't open even half the files that xine does, 2) within 5 minutes of a movie audio-video can easily get out of sync by 5 seconds. I have never seen A-V sync in xine. Ever. I love telling our Windows using frends that my movies "just work" with totem-xine, please do not take that away!

Anyway - back to the bug we go.

As we have a clean crash, I recompiled totem with debugging symbols ("DEB_BUILD_OPTS=nostrip,noopt debuild -us -uc") and run with gdb. When totem crashed, I got the code line, where it happened:
(totem:4608): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid cast from   ' to  TotemTimeLabel'

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x08068659 in totem_time_label_set_time (label=0x8199a60, time=0, length=0) at totem-time-label.c:69
69 if (time / 1000 == label->priv->time / 1000

Now, that is interesting, lets see, what we have here - time is an int, so no segfaults from there, but label is a TotemTimeLabel. Hmm, that error now makes sense. And when we take a look at label->priv, it appears to be a pointer to TotemTimeLabelPrivate with an address of 0xffffffff. That's the problem, now we only need to backtrace trough the program and find the bug that is causing that.

Well all looks pretty nice - there is a "tick" event in the player that calls the time update. Not really clear, why there is such a discrepance between GtkLabel and TotemTimeLabel or why this structure is not inicialized in time. More strange is that gstreamer backend never calls this function. Wierd. Let's see what happens if I just return from it without doing anything. Does not help - now statusbar is crashing.

Let's try it from another angle - it worked before. Nothing much in totem changed since release of breezy. Installing the version from breezy, it works fine. Recompiling the version from breezy on dapper - crashes. Ouch! It looks like xine backend of totem has not been ported to that new crazy Gnome 2.12 thingie, like gstreamer backend was. Strange - that is a backend, it should not be dependent on the frontend, no? Anyway, it is not something I can do - I will have to install the breezy version, hack some dependencies to make it no conflict with one optional library and then file a critical bug on totem for breaking the xine backend.

But even that will have to wait 'till tomorrow, sleep is of the essence, anywere.

Joerg Jaspert: New lists.debconf.org setup

So that I have something in my blog again, lets repeat what I wrote to debconf-list about the moved lists.debconf.org setup: As announced to the old debconf6-team list there is now a new layout of lists.debconf.org running. We are running mailman now with lurker as the web-archive thingie. That also got a few new lists in our setup, see below. Generally - all lists are subscriber-only, non-subscribers are moderated. debconf-announce: Important news about Debconf. This list is a MUST for everyone, organisator or participant. Postings are moderated, discussion happens at debconf-discuss@lists.debconf.org Moderator and only allowed posters are currently: Gunnar Wolf, Andreas Schuldei and me. debconf-discuss: General purpose discussion list for all participants and interested people. Moderator is currently Andreas Schuldei and me, any volunteers are welcome! debconf-team: The list for the organizer team to communicate about all kinds of dirty details and grand schemes. Moderator again Andreas and me, volunteers welcome. debconf-video: The list for taping and streaming the conference. Moderator is Holger Levsen and me, ask Holger if he accepts you as an additional one. debconf-website: The list for website development. Moderator is Neil McGovern and again me, ask Neil if he wants you. :) debconf6-speaker: For the speakers, wanna-speakers and bof-initializers, to sort out and exchange relevant infos and helpfull tips. Moderator is Andreas Schuldei, Alexander Schmehl and myself. debconf6-localteam: Specially designed for local matters on the Debian Day, this mailing list brings discussions for all the people involved locally on DebConf. In the webarchives, you also see the old Debconf5 Speakers list. Of course that one is closed, but the archives are there. Similar for the other lists, I imported the archives into all of them. If you want to volunteer to moderate a list: - Its not much work, usually lists are subscribers-only. You need to go and look regularly for posts that mailman put on hold, either because the list isnt in To or CC or because some other problems it might have. You will get a daily mail if there is something waiting on you and can then select “Approve, Discard, Reject” together with “Sender will be banned/accepted forever”. - If you want to volunteer ask the existing *other* moderator, not me.

4 December 2005

Matthias Urlichs: No, I will NOT support M$ users any more.

Yet another item on the already-too-long list of blatantly unethical behavior by Micro$oft.

This says everything, and should surprise nobody.

Matthew Palmer: My Number One Travel Accessory

I'm currently in Sydney Airport, about to board a plane for Melbourne and OSDC 2005, and, as usual, I did the whole pointless security dance (even Amanda Vanstone agrees with me!). This time, however, was different -- I had all of my pocket-cruft in a new bumbag ("fanny pack" I think it is in American) instead of in my pockets. It was by far the fastest I've ever gone through a security checkpoint anywhere. I just whipped off the little baggie, slipped the lappie out of it's bag, stuffed all of the items on the conveyor, went through the metal detector unmolested, and grabbed my gear on the other side. I was off and running again in about 20 seconds. Now that I've posted this, of course, my trip through the security screening on the way home on Thursday will involve having my hemorrhoids aggrevated by a large man who has just been through a messy breakup and a triple shift...

Benjamin Mako Hill: Unacceptable Behavior in Any L4e

Because there are people that seem to be unclear on the subject: The reason people type "l10n" and "i18n" instead of "localization" and "internationalization" is because the words' length makes them difficult to type. Tech communities are willing to put up with this ungainly and opaque shorthand for the sake of our wrists. In spoken English, "EYE-eighteen-EN" is not easier to say that the expanded form. Pronouncing the keyboard shorthand does not imply that speaker is savvy or in the know. It should not be done.

Miguel Gea: Experiences with oracle in Debian

I few months ago I decided to add support to Oracle database to dbconfig-common frontend. At that moment, I began learning how to install it and how to manage it.

My work:
1.- Download Software. My first surprise: Oracle -> 685M, Postgres -> 15,8M
2.- Read Manuals: A lot of them, with a high quality but... I can't find how to install in Debian. Google solves it: Desktop Survival Guide. Tricky but works!
3.- Manual database create/remove/test/dump...:
* create/dump: dbca is a graphical frontend than help to it; the --silent parameter let it works without graphical frontend.
* dump: exp works nice. The first test: to dump a complete void database (1 user, 1 table), takes 9 minutes and 12Mb!!!; Postgres -> 9 sec. and 200k for 100 tables/triggers.

I always hear than Oracle is the best database, but now I'm not to sure.

- The installation is too tricky.
- Create databases is slow (minutes)
- 9 minutes and 12mb to dump a complete void database? Slow!!!!!
- To work correctly you need to manually define 7 environment variables. No comments.
- It needs a big server. 500Mb Ram, 1Gb Swap, minimum.
- It's not possible to create a database remotely because it's necessary to create manually directories locally.

I was thinking about create debian packages for the new Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Beta Release , but It will be a lot of work. Maybe an alioth project?

About dbconfig-common... It will be probably finished this week, but it will need a lot of test/verify before release it.

3 December 2005

Uwe Hermann: Some of my photos on flickr

Quake Level
Oldtimer
Escher lookalike architecture
Yes, I finally got a (free) flickr account and uploaded some of my favorite photos from my photoblog to my flickr page. This has several reasons: Note: My photoblog will not die, I will continue posting new stuff there. I'll just use the flickr page for some selected shots. There's an RSS feed for the flickr page, if you want track my photos.

Jeff Bailey: Seeking Sushi in this City

I'm looking for good vegan sushi in Montr al. I'm looking for fairly standard things that I'm used to find in Japanese places in Vancouver, and some of the nicer places in Toronto. It should have things like Natto, Kanpyo, Ume Shiso, Shitake, and Inari for their rolls. It would be nice to order a bowl Edamame to share, or to get a bowl of steamed rice. Anyone know of some? If it also meets the constraints of 1) Being accessible by M tro 2) The rice is done reasonably well, then I will cheerfully take you out and buy dinner for both of us. Interested? Email me jbailey@raspberryginger.com (Fine print limitations: 1 per restaurant, first come first serve for a particular restaurant; one per month; I'll pay up to for your meal; a limit of 12; No promises after a year, if we move from Montr al, or if I suddenly find myself unemployed, dead, allergic to rice, etc.

Erich Schubert: Filtering BitTorrent

If you are responsible for a network with many "nomadic" users, e.g. students, you'll notice quite often they "forget" to shut down their bittorrent programs. Port filters only work up to a certain amount, so I wanted to try out the "string" match included in recent kernels (e.g. 2.6.14). You'll need iptables 1.3.4, which is not yet in Debian, but you can grab some temp packages from my debian directory. The filter rule I tested was
iptables -I OUTPUT -j DROP -m string --string "BitTorrent protocol" --algo bm --from 0 --to 100
(I don't know if algo bm or algo kmp is more performant, or which performance hit this is going to have on your router. The from parameter could be increased to skip the tcp header, too) Note that you might want to add high-volume "usually good" ports with accept rules in front, like port 80 (www), ssh (22) or mail (25, 465, 110, 995, 143, 993). Be careful with using "state ESTABLISHED", too: the string will be sent over an already established connection, not a new, so this is where you need to apply the filter!

Joey Hess: next debconf

Only 5 months until the next DebConf, in Oaxtepec MX this time. As I read tonight the very well done Final Report for DebConf5, and remember that excellent conference I am already looking forward to the next one. I've been thinking about driving down from Virginis to Oaxtepec instead of flying in. It's a long drive, but maybe I could stop at a few DD's houses and/or travel down with some. In fact, I hope we get a lot of American DDs who have not been able to make recent DebConfs now that it's so relatively near to home. So, time to think about any talks I'd like to give there. The absolute best talk at DebConf5, the one I would most like to emulate, was Enrico's polygen extravaganza. The key things were that a) Dr. Zini rules b) it was a simple talk introducing us to something fun c) large quantities of running code were written on the projector during the talk. I might try to emulate the parts that I can (without taking Enrico-emulation medication) to some degree in one talk, if I can just find the right subject. Since I hate writing papers for talks, I also got an idea for a way to use a talk time slot that will be impossible to write a paper for before time. Gotta hurry, since it turns out talk submission closes amazingly soon: On the 6th!

Aigars Mahinovs: After reading the Final Debconf5 report I suddenly...

After reading the Final Debconf5 report I suddenly saw how this report shows all of us how much blood, sweat, tears and ruined stomachs has really been put into organising the best Debconf ever (so far at least). A lot of Debian Developers were present at Debconf5, even more Debian developers, Debian users and other free software users gained something from this event - a better Debian.
I feel that we should give all organisers of Debconf5 the prise the deserve, but as we can't send them all to a two week vacation to Hawaii, we could at least express our gratitude on a web page.
So, if you feel that Debconf5 has given something good to your life - got to http://wiki.debian.org/Debconf5ThankTheOrganizers and express that in warm words towards the people that made that happen!

P.S. Today I configured my Palm to be a IR remote trigger for my Canon 350D, happy like hell about that.
P.P.S. Number of unique visitors to my photo gallery has reached 575, with one of the photos seen by 475 unique visitors, thanks! (Hint: more comments with constructive critique would be useful to improve quality ;))
P.P.P.S. For me "a1t" will always mean that girl nicknamed "alt" with the shotgun pointed my way, really.

2 December 2005

Edd Dumbill: Emacs font joy

Seems I despaired too soon about not being able to get good-looking fonts in Emacs. Thanks to Duncan Mak I've been able to compile and install an Emacs with anti-aliased fonts on Ubuntu. Here's the recipe: Screenshot of anti-aliased Xft enable Emacs Then I had to edit out the build instructions for the -nox variant of Emacs, as it didn't build properly, and to be sure, added this to the Emacs-gtk confflags section of debian/rules :
  emacs_gtk_confflags += --with-xft=yes
After that, fakeroot dpkg-buildpackage -b in the source directory, and some time later, Emacs packages with anti-aliased fonts. There are some limitations: you need to set the font in your ~/.Xresources file like this:
  Emacs*font: Monospace-8
You may also want to fiddle with the Xft.dpi and Xft.hinting X properties to get the fonts to match your desktop environment. OK, so it's a bit of effort, but worth it. Hopefully this patch will mature and make its way into future Linux distributions.

David Moreno Garza: Heh

 
 

Rough translation: "So these were the ones who were completely against Berlin wall...". El Fisgón, La Jornada newspaper, on recent declarations by George W. Bush saying the US will enforce the border with Mexico.

 

Aigars Mahinovs: Here is my friend lastguru - the second most acti...

Caught in the act!
Here is my friend lastguru - the second most active photographer on the AnimeFest3. He is trying to get a shot of the audience, but while he is doing that, I got a shot of him :)

Yesterday I discovered a great surge in popularity of SBackup - just on SourceForge around 700 people downloaded it in a period of three days (compared to ~250 total downloads before that) and some new bugs were filled.Only then I remembered about the interview I gave over the email, looks that it was published on Monday. Fun. Now the plans for a good rewrite are even more prominent on my ToDo list and I am also thinking about trying to get all developers of similar tools to unite in the context of this rewrite. This will bring all their good features in (encryption, per-user subconfiguration, removable media support, config on server option) and ensure continued development of the project even if I get a bit lazy on it ;) A confederation for simple yet feature complete Linux backup solution?

Also today we have a very good milestone - translation of Debian Installer to Latvian language has just reached 100%. I thank greatly our new contributor - Orvils from Latvian University who did bulk of the work. I still had to spend around 6 hours reviewing and correcting his translations and then updating the translations that changed or were added during the time that Orvils was translating, but it was much faster then it would have been it the translation was only up to me :)

Joe Wreschnig: Python, again

Accessors
Matt, Python has advanced tremendously and supports uniform access even more nicely than Ruby. You don’t need to play __getattr__ games at all. class Foo(object):
    def get_foo(self): return unmangle(self.__foo)
    def set_foo(self, value): self.__foo = mangle(value)
    def del_foo(self): ...
    foo = property(get_foo, set_foo, del_foo, "docstring goes here")
There’s actually a nicer syntax with the new decorators, but this will work with the Python in Debian. Unlike Ruby, this means you can un-wrap the attribute later if it turns out you don’t need mangling functions and do need speed. (Dick Davies pointed out I said this without anything to back me up. Timing these different methods, it turns out raw attribute access in Python is 30% faster than Ruby’s attr_*, which in turn is 50% faster than manual attribute setters in either language; non-property-ized Python get/sets are slightly faster than Ruby, but property-ized ones are slightly slower. There is a definite advantage to being able to expose the raw attributes.) Really, public get/set methods are a nasty hack, mostly restricted to C++/Java and Ruby/Python/etc. written by people who spent too much time around C++. Welcome
Michael Urman, co-developer of Quod Libet (and author of its sexiest parts), finally got a weblog. Currently there’s not much there, but he’s (hopefully) going to write about the metaprogramming he used to write an awesome Python ID3 reader/writer, and also some details on the Python interpreter bugs we keep turning up.

1 December 2005

Uwe Hermann: French Government Lobbied to Ban Free Software

From FSF France:
Friday November 18th, 2005, French Department of Culture. SNEP and SCPP have told Free Software authors: "You will be required to change your licenses." SACEM add: "You shall stop publishing free software," and warn they are ready "to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code" should the "VU/SACEM/BSA/FA Contents Department"[1] bill proposal pass in the Parliament.
WTF? This has got to be a joke... Please tell me this is a sick joke. (via MJ Ray)

Romain Francoise: Emacs and Xft

Edd, Emacs will support Xft after the 22.1 release, the code is already in a branch in CVS and needs some polishing. If you want GTK for menus, check out emacs-snapshot-gtk.

Edd Dumbill: Cool toys for Firefox and Emacs

Firefox extensions The release of Firefox 1.5 has awakened my interest in the browser, and a few extensions can make life easier.
View Rendered Source Chart
Really handy for a structured view of an HTML page's source. The big advantage is that is displays generated source too, perfect for figuring out AJAX applications.
Foxpose
Sheer eye candy. Thumbnail all your tabbed pages into one page.
Del.icio.us
Browser button for working with the del.icio.us bookmarks site. I've been reluctant to use remote bookmarks before, this extension might just push me over the edge. Really well thought-out integration with the browser.
Rails in Emacs Seeing as I'm not quite prepared to switch to OS X just in order to get TextMate, I figured it was time again to play with my editing environment. Pages from InVisible Blog and Scott Barron give a lot of tips as to the current state of play with Rails and Emacs. I've now got a reasonably pleasant setup, though I wasn't inclined to go the whole way to running the ECB IDE inside Emacs. On Ubuntu, the packages you are looking for are: speedbar eieio semantic ruby-elisp mmm-mode. I also found pabbrev a very handy interface for tab completion. Screenshot of Emacs editing a Rails application The future for Ruby and Emacs is looking hopeful. I learned that a proper Ruby grammar for the semantic package is being worked on, which will enable class browsing and intelligent completion. I am still disappointed that there's no version of Emacs that uses Xft or Pango for anti-aliased font rendering. To get sharp fonts, I still need to use a bitmap font like misc-fixed. If I were in the business of offering bounties for open source development, dragging Emacs into the GTK2/Pango era would be the biggest one. Checking the mailing lists indicates that Pango is not suitable for Emacs, but no alternative scheme ever seems to bear fruit. Yet if Aquamacs can do it... If somebody came along with a decent TextMate-a-like for GNOME, I'd pay good money for it. I've never been really happy with an editor since Cygnus Ed. Hallski and I keep talking about this, and only just manage to resist wasting months of time on trying to write one ourselves.

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