Ξ June 30th, 2006 | → 3 Comments | ∇ Tech |
For the past week I have been fighting with my server to behave itself properly. I have an old Pentium III machine running Suse Linux, which I actually like for a desktop OS. It is very polished and user friendly. The problem is YaST (Yet another Setup Tool), which makes it extremely easy to install and configure a Suse machine, arguably easier than setting up a Windows machine. I kind of like having that ease of use, with the stability and security of Linux. However, it turns out that YaST has oversimplified everything to the point, where doing neato server configuration is difficult to impossible. One can still manually configure everything on the command line, but YaST likes to have control of everything. So my particular server, which used to run Windows Server 2003 (evil, evil), was actually quite easy to set up to be a firewall, router, ethernet switch (with a 4-port Network Interface Card), file server, etc. Everything was up and running in no time, and actually easier to configure than the Windows OS (which actually took 10 times longer to boot up). Everything worked except the ethernet switch portion, which is ideally achieved by setting up a network bridge across the four ports of the 4-port NIC. Using bridge-utils, everything came up as expected, and running a dhcp server on the bridge wasn’t much of a problem. All the client machines could easily access the server and the internet. BUT THEY COULDN’T TALK TO EACH OTHER! Why not? Well I spent about three afternoons trying to find the answer. Fred spent an additional 4 hours looking for the answer. Finally, last night after troubleshooting everything possible, we were about to chalk it up to incompatible hardware, until we decided to look at the firewall. I had assumed that since Suse’s Firewall was configured to only block traffic on the external interface, and to leave all internal ports open, it wouldn’t be an issue. But lo and behold, add three iptable entries to the firewall rules and everything works. THREE LINES!! Countless hours and all it took was THREE LINES! And it’s all YaST’s fault. I’m sure of it. You would think that a computer with an advanced operating system and decent hardware could do the same thing as a $30 router…
So today I decided that Suse probably wasn’t the best distro for my server, since I don’t want/need fancy GUIs and easy setup tools. I want everything to just work. My dad is all about FreeBSD, and after researching different distros and such, I would have to agree that FreeBSD or OpenBSD would be a good solid platform for a server. But one problem: FreeBSD doesn’t appear to be able to handle the file server role, since I am running partitions using LVM2. FreeBSD can do the same thing, but all clues point to the fact that it won’t work with the existing Linux implementation. Soooo…. since FreeBSD will be yet another pain I think I will give the ol’ Ubuntu Server a whirl (Sorry, Dad, you almost had me talked into it). I’ve played with Ubuntu a little in the past, and it seems pretty easily configurable. It has also been #1 on distrowatch.com for quite a while. So why not? That will be one of my many projects this weekend.
In reference to a previous post about geeks and nerds, I should add another category: Gurus. These are the people that have truly been there and done that. I should mention that my father is a true guru in most things computers. And now that he is so impressed by how extremely cool his son’s blog is, he decided to try his hand at it. I guess these things are contagious. So if you really want to see a geek (guru) in action, check out his blog at randalldow.com. Hopefully he’ll blog about cool, geeky, technical stuff from time to time.
Well, it’s back to the coal mines for me. At least it’s Friday and I only have eighteen thousand things to do this weekend. That’s better than last weekend.
My university has a pouring contract with Coca-Cola. This means, that for the most part, only Coke and Coke products are allowed to be sold on campus. Coca-Cola happens to be my favorite drink, and for years, I have been very happy that in a Pepsi-loving society, at least on campus, one could easily purchase a nice refreshing Coke. This is all going to change next week. The pouring contract has expired and Pepsi had a better deal to offer. So over the next month I am going to watch my beloved red vending machines and soda fountains turn blue.
I am a little torn on the issue, though. There is an independently owned Pepsi Distributing plant in town, and the owner is a valued member of society. I have personally met his son, and went to high school with his grandchildren. They are very nice people and they really give back to the community. I think they deserve to have the pouring contract at the university in their own town.
But I absolutely can’t stand the taste of Pepsi! In fact, what angers me the most, is that there is a general assumption that the general public can’t tell the difference. Every time I sit down at a restaurant and the waitperson comes around to take my drink order, I order a Coke. If the particular establishment is a Pepsi-infested one, I always get the obligatory and blasé “Is Pepsi okay?”, and without even waiting for a response, said person has already written it down and started asking the next person at the table what they want to drink! That is NOT okay!! This angers me. I always have to stop them and say “No! I’ll take Dr. Pepper” or whatever else they might have. Really, I don’t have a problem with the Pepsi company. I just don’t like the taste of their main drink.
So I guess this marks a sad chapter in the life of Jabba. There is nothing I can do about it. I will be forced to go off campus for a refreshment, or drink whatever other products might be available. *Sigh* 
This week has been a little busy for me. I started taking summer classes at my university. Summer classes are advertised as being quick and relaxing and a good way to catch up on credits or jump ahead. It is pretty nice. Class sizes are smaller, out-of-state students get to pay in-state tuition, and indeed a standard 11-week class is done and over with in only 8 weeks. There are some negative aspects, though, that immediately reminded me of why I hate summer school. Let me count the ways.
1. It’s summer! No one should have to study during the summer.
2. Classes are taught by TAs instead of professors. This can be good or bad, depending on the TA.
3. A 10 week class, which meets 3 times a week during the regular school year plus once a week for a lab or recitation (that’s right: 30 times per term, plus 10 labs/recitations) will meet 5 times a week for 8 weeks. The last time I checked this math, 3 x 10 + 1 x 10 = 40. 5 x 8 = 40. Yep, exactly the same. But for some reason, every teacher I have had always has this idea that we are in a condensed class, so they move twice as fast, don’t explain everything properly and skip over a lot of important stuff, but give twice the homework. The math class I am taking normally has two midterm exams and a final exam upon which your grade is based. During the summer (since there isn’t enough time) there will only be one midterm and a final. I can live with that, but the irony of the situation is that the particular subject matter of this math class is Logic. And I have twice as much homework to do in half the time. That kind of bothers me.
4. 4-week classes are deadly. Sure they are over as soon as they begin. Yeah, I get three credits for showing up 4 times a week for 4 weeks. Anyone can do that. In fact the 4-week class that I am in, is “Music Appreciation: History of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Who could complain about that? It’s great. But seriously, I have a rather short attention span. I have a hard time paying attention to a 2 minute TV commercial. These 4-week classes are two hours long and they meet Monday through Thursday. I started the class on Monday, and I have my first midterm exam on this coming Monday. That is enough to drive anyone insane.
Now I remember why I didn’t take classes last summer. Because I took classes the summer before that and realized that summer classes are someone’s idea of a bad joke. Hopefully I’ll survive. It’s only 8 weeks, right?
My friend Fred and I were discussing an interesting topic a few months back, and it has really found meaning lately.
To a lot of people the terms ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ are synonymous and are generally used to refer to an individual as some sort of loser or antisocial being. I would like to set the record straight on this issue, since I have been called a ‘geek’ from time to time, and in no way was expected to take offense. I myself used to think that these terms both carry a negative connotation. However, after studying the colloquial use of the terms, this is what I have found to be the case:
A geek is someone, who has an interest in computers, electronic devices, software or hardware, not as a simple user, but rather someone who is interested in how it works, what it can do, how do build it, and generally play with it; for no other reason than that it is intriguing that it even exists or that it is possible. A geek will see certain tools or pieces of software as ‘toys’ to play around with, rather than a means to an end. It is a hobby. However, an important thing to note, a geek is generally not confined to that one character trait, and if a geek were to interact with a non-geek, the geekiness will definitely take a break and geeks and non-geeks will socialize just fine. As stated earlier, to a computer geek, computers are a hobby and highly interesting and fun to play with. However that is all they are. A toy. A toy that at the same time can be useful for many day-to-day tasks, but mostly just a toy to play with.
A nerd is a slightly more complex animal. A nerd is basically a geek that lacks social skills and for the most part has lost touch with reality. Someone, for instance, who feels that there is indeed nothing more to life than playing with computers. Someone who has allowed this certain hobby to be present in all aspects of their life.
I’m sure everyone knows at least one person like this. Said nerd will talk about his particular interest exclusively, regardless of the person he is talking to. For instance, I know a guy once who loved working on cars. A redneck in nature, this particular person would talk about nothing else. I got along with him just fine, since I also am a master of the automotive arts, however when we would be somewhere and meet someone who obviously had no interest in cars, be it classic cars, race cars or other, i.e. a person who uses an automobile to get from point A to point B only, the nerd in question would continue to try to impress this person by reciting useless knowledge about how cars work, or he would talk about cars he has fixed in the past. Seriously, this is annoying! I have met many people like this that will only talk about computers. That is fine if you are talking to me, but when we are getting lunch at a local diner, please, do not try to impress the cute waitress by your infinite knowledge of programming languages.
I encourage people to become well rounded individuals. If you seriously only have one interest, that is fine, but if you insist on discussing this interest with someone who doesn’t care about it, you are a nerd. Being a geek is okay, but just don’t let it control your life!
Ξ June 26th, 2006 | → 3 Comments | ∇ Tech |
Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m a map geek. That means that I enjoy looking at maps and studying terrain for no particular reason except that it is interesting. About a year ago, a coworker introduced me to Google Earth. That was about the coolest thing ever! But one issue I had in subsequent months, since I use Linux as my primary desktop of choice, was that Google hadn’t ported their Google Earth app to Linux. I can understand that it is a big project, and most of the world uses Windows, blah, blah. BUT they ported it to Mac OS X. And I like to think that Linux should be a higher priority than Mac, since Macs until recently operated on an entirely different platform. Oh well. So be it. I have a Mac G4 cube at work, so of course I immediately wanted to play with Google Earth on that. Well, once again, Google angered me slightly, since Google Earth was only supported on OS 10.4 and higher. I was running 10.39. My boss didn’t feel like buying me a license for Tiger, just so I could play with Google Earth on it. Besides I also have a PC at work, so what was the problem? I like to try new things when they come out. That’s what!
Anyways. Today turns out to be the coolest day in my career of geekiness, since not only did I start my first blog earlier today, but I just found out that Google has released Google Earth version 4 beta. AND IT RUNS ON LINUX!!!
I just got a thousand times happier, since I have been waiting for this forever. So far there are no distro-specific releases, and absolutely no installation support that I could find on their website right off the bat, which might discourage someone from trying to install it if they didn’t know what they were doing. But I had no trouble installing it at all. And it runs well. One thing that bothered me a little… It doesn’t require you to become a root user to install it. It will simply install the entire program into the home directory of whatever user is installing it. That’s fine, I guess, but just kind of Windows-like… If you do run the installer script as root it will put it in the right place and then all you have to do is put a link to it, wherever you like. I put mine in my KDE menu and it even has the cool Google Earth icon. I’m going to go play with it some more now…
Greetings to everyone that I have told about this blog and to everyone who just randomly stumbled onto it, because they have gotten so bored and have already read the entire rest of the world wide web, that they are left with no choice but to start reading pointless blogs like Jabba Rants.
Not completely pointless… I get to write a blog about random things in my life (this is my first blog ever, by the way) and you get to read about random things in my life that probably mean nothing to you. See? Everybody wins.
A note about the name: My name is Justin. Through a mere coincidence, that includes a long story and background, nothing of which has to do with the Hutt by the same name, my friends have taken to calling me ‘Jabba’. It stuck, and many people just call me that. The ‘Rants’ part of the title is tentative, and I picked it because I have seen other blogs on the web use it, and I figure that it works for them, plus I like to half-seriously complain about random things, so you could say I like to rant about stuff. There you have it. See you next time.
