Monday 12-01-2009
NFS-backed swap on FreeBSD
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Posted by frase @ 22:35 on 12-01-2009
To setup an NFS-based swapfile on FreeBSD.
on NFS server:mkdir /var/swap
dd bs=1024 count=256000 if=/dev/zero of=/var/swap/swapfile
Set appropriate owner/permissions on the file and edit /etc/exports to export the file. Substitute desired values for count or path.
on client:mkdir /tmp/swap
mount -t nfs server:/var/swap/swapfile /tmp/swap
mdconfig -f /var/swap/swapfile
swapon /dev/md%d
This mounts the file, creates a file-backed memory disk and enables swap on the device, where %d is the device number shown in the mdconfig output (`mdconfig -l` will list all md(4) devices).
To disable swapping and unmount:swapoff /dev/md%d
mdconfig -d -u %d
umount /tmp/swap
Thursday 01-05-2008
one does wonder...
comments (0) »
Posted by frase @ 19:35 on 01-05-2008
why a default Ubuntu install doesn't have sshd or the necessary bits and pieces to mount an NFS share. In such a fully-featured distro, to omit these Unix fundamentals is, frankly, absurd. And awfully frustrating.
t
Saturday 08-03-2008
That cowardly portsnap(8)!
comments (1) »
Posted by frase @ 16:39 on 08-03-2008
Looking up portsnap.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 4 mirrors found.
Fetching snapshot tag from portsnap2.FreeBSD.org... done.
Latest snapshot on server is older than what we already have!
Cowardly refusing to downgrade from Sat Mar 8 12:42:09 EST 2008
to Sat Mar 8 01:15:54 EST 2008
Haha I just thought this error message was funny! On a related note, seems they've added a fourth mirror. I wonder where it is?
t
Thursday 17-01-2008
command line pun?
comments (1) »
Posted by frase @ 22:09 on 17-01-2008
So, I'm going to port cdparanoia III 10pre0 to FreeBSD. So naturally, I create an svn repo for the job, aptly entitled 'paranoia'. And now I must configure remote access.
`cd paranoia`
I swear I did not see that coming, until the text appeared. The scary thing is that I don't think about such fundamental programs as `cd` anymore. I just use them. Muscle memory or something...
t
Sunday 18-11-2007
News of my life.
comments (0) »
Posted by frase @ 15:36 on 18-11-2007
Well, it has been a little while, but here's a quick update on what I have been up to:
-----
-- Finished uni! Yes, I'm pretty sure I have finished all my courses so I am looking for a job now. Thesis consumed my life this year; it was a difficult year but to be finished is pure elation!
-- Wrote off my car. I got rear ended a little while back but the repairs weren't worth it. So Little Lancer is gone now; I wrote it off, collected the insurance money and saved having to pay my insurance for the next year. So now I'm carless, but I'll be able to borrow cars and scab rides for a while, and then look at getting a new car when I get a job.
-- Sold my Wii. Yes, well I did enjoy having it, but I have hardly been playing it lately, and although I do not regret my foray into console land it has made perfectly clear to me one thing: I am a PC man, through and through. Farewell Wii.
-- Became an official contributor to the FreeBSD project. I'm the maintainer of the Asunder port now, and I'm looking to possibly get into writing some drivers in the near future. In addition, I am hoping to contribute patches upstream to Asunder, and am also following Xfce development quite intently, keeping a lookout for places where I may be able to contribute.
-- Upgraded my computer (AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+, 2GB DDR2-800). Still waiting on an 8800GT to arrive. I have a massive backlog of games to play: HL2 Episode 2, Company of Heroes, Bioshock and now Crysis of course!
-- I'm on Facebook now. Social networking is... interesting. But I'm finding it okay. At least Facebook doesn't hurt my eyes. Which is nice.
-----
Anyhow that's all I can think of for now. Oh yes, and it's a great day to be an Australian. The Olyroos, the Footballaroos and of course our wonderful Netballaroos all won last night! Take that Iraq, Nigeria and New Zealand!
t
Thursday 13-09-2007
Blu-Ray has won the format war!
comments (0) »
Posted by frase @ 20:29 on 13-09-2007
Well, I have been suggesting that Blu-Ray was going to be the winner for a little while.
Now, Blu-Ray deals the fatal blow!
Osama bin Laden to release next video exclusively on Blu-ray DVD
t
Wednesday 29-08-2007
abandoning MSN
comments (0) »
Posted by frase @ 00:22 on 29-08-2007
abandoning MSN
Since the revelation of Microsoft's (rather frivolous) censorship of MSN, my dissastisfaction with the IM system has been thrust beyond tolerable limits. I am abandoning MSN.
In fact, I've already made the switch to XMPP, but I'm continuing to use MSN for a couple of months, in order to encourage as many as possible to also switch. So far, that's four people... far from stellar, but significantly better than none. What does concern me, however, is the number of people who exhibit complete apathy with regards to a deteriorating user experience and the undermining of their digital liberties, even when presented with significant evidence of these. Responses like "MSN works fine for me, so why change" might well be indicative of apathy, but experience has shown that the issue is more complicated and deeper than people simply "not caring".
ICQ and MSN
Sure, MSN "works", and of course most of your friends are still using it, so there's little incentive to change. But is this really the case? 8 years ago, everyone I knew jumped platform from ICQ to MSN in a matter of weeks. ICQ worked fine, and we were all quite content with it. Yet something happened to cause this momentous event. Although I believe that at the time, MSN was an inferior platform (although it did improve a lot, before going downhill and turning into what it is today), people were enticed to MSN by the Microsoft Passport integration, a feature that allowed one set of contacts to be shared by both Hotmail and MSN Messenger.
This serves as proof that mass abandonment of a platorm that "just works", and with which people are satisfied, can and does occur. So why isn't it occurring in this situation? I believe there is one subtle difference between the current situation, and what happened with ICQ and MSN... and I will get to that a bit later.
the problems with MSN
I will take a few moments to discuss some of the problems with MSN, both from a usability and technical perspective.
The biggest problem with the MSN user experience is the feature bloat. MSN was a fairly clean and simple to use system in the early days. Then they started adding features like there was no tomorrow - mostly absurd features that have no place in a text IM protocol. Some of these include:
- custom emoticons (heck, I find any graphical emoticons superfluous and annoying)
- winks
- handwriting
- THOSE INFERNAL NUDGES
The fact that some people actually enjoy and appreciate these touches greatly distrubs me.
A second major detractor from the user experience is the advertising which permeates the official clients. Granted, you can use a third-party client, as I have done for several years, but most people don't even know they exist.
On the technical side, the protocol is proprietary and closed (the protocol had to be reverse-engineered before third-party implementations could exist).
The system is also centralised, relying on a small cluster of servers goverened by a single entity (Microsoft). Which also means a single point of failure for the entire network.
Finally, on the matter of the recent censorship issues, I have a couple of points:
- This censorship is preventing many kinds of legitimate communication between users.
- The censorship is clearly designed to limit propagation through the network of URLs pointing to sites that exploit MSN, Windows, or other Microsoft software, but these sites can simply relocate to other URLs, meaning the censorhip is futile. Furthermore, such relocation, should they occur, would most likely result in more frivolous censorship.
- These measures would be totally unnecessary if Microsoft would just fix their broken, insecure software!
XMPP
My search for a superior IM system led me swiftly to XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). XMPP is everything MSN is not. XMPP is an open standard, built on XML. It is a decentralised system, and the protocol is implemented in many clients (both dedicated and multi-protocol). Importantly, it has very little in the way of feature bloat.
a quick comparison
-MSN supports text and voice communications, and all the regular IM features.
-Google Talk supports text communications (using XMPP) and voice communications, with all the usual IM features.
-Pidgin is a multi-protocol client that supports just about every text chat protocol ever invented.
Google Talk installer: 1.5MB
Pidgin installer (Windows, no GTK+): 5.7MB
Windows Live Messenger 8.1 installer: 17.2MB
...make of it what you will.
why won't people switch?
That is the million dollar question. Although in my experience, users are quite likely to simply say "meh" at the prospect of changing, it cannot just be put down to apathy. The mass abandonment of ICQ in favour of MSN that occurred serves as evidence that, at least 8 years ago, users were indeed open to switching to a platform that offered a better experience. I don't believe that has changed.
The situation today differs slightly, in one important area. I believe it all comes down to instant gratification. With the switch to MSN, users benefited immensely and immediately from the system that allowed contacts to be shared between Hotmail and MSN Messenger. With a switch to XMPP, the only positive change users are likely to notice immediately is the lack of advertising. The true benefits are felt and appreciated over time.
With a switch to XMPP, even though users often acknowledge the shortcomings of MSN when presented with the evidence, and even though they often understand the benefits of a system like XMPP as compared to MSN, they are unwilling to change simply because there is an effort involved, and because there is little in the way of instant gratification. Even though the effort required to change is small, they are still unwilling. They will throw up apathy or even profess satisfaction as a cloak, but ultimately, I believe that in the case of most users, this is what it comes down to.
the ultimatum
As with my free software advocacy, all I can really do in this situation is present people with the facts, and encourage them to actually make an informed decision on what to use, rather than simply accepting the norm.
I will continue using MSN (alongside XMPP) until the end of the Uni year, partly because there are some people I will need to stay in contact with, and partly to continue advocating the switch and (hopefully) see a few more converts.
To those who should remain: I wish you all the best on MSN. Please feel free to email me, and I hope to see you on the XMPP side some day.
t
Wednesday 15-08-2007
frogs in love
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Posted by frase @ 21:17 on 15-08-2007
a heartwarming photo of amphibian love - mum snapped this pic a little while ago on our back veranda
t
frogs in love
Friday 11-05-2007
removing unversioned files from svn
comments (0) »
Posted by frase @ 15:55 on 11-05-2007
hi guys, this is my first blog post in forever!
just thought I'd chuck a juicy little tidbit here: a simple script to remove unversioned files from an svn tree (just make sure you add the file before running it, otherwise you'll have to recreate it!).#!/bin/sh
svn status | grep "^?" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs rm -rf
And that's it!
Until next time,
t
Thursday 07-09-2006
an update
comments (2) »
Posted by frase @ 14:15 on 07-09-2006
Hello, world!
frase.id.au turned one year old yesterday. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I thought it would do well for me to write a quick update.
YES! I'm still alive. And as usual, work is progressing on Blogurk in a bursty, sporadic fashion. I'm getting pretty close to finishing all the features targeted for version 0.6 though, which is good.
Until such a time as 0.6 is done though, frase.id.au will remain more or less defunct. Like I said when I stopped blogging, I have plans for this site. These plans will only be carried out once Blogurk 0.6 is finished... not because Blogurk 0.6 is necessary for them, but because I'd rather get Blogurk 0.6 done and start using it instead of this ancient, ugly, proto-Blogurk that's currently powering frase.id.au.
Well that's about all I have to say for now. It feels good to get in here and write a post... it's been a long time. But until next time (and I have no idea when that will be... it *will* happen though), keep it real, home boys and girls, and take care of yourselves.
frase
