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Blog http://www.opgenorth.net/Default.aspx?pageid=1 Copyright 2007, 2008 Tom Opgenorth 120 tom@nospamopgenorth.net mojoPortal Blog Module V 1.0 Followup from Last Month's EDMUG Meeting http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/342627537/BlogView.aspx Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:54:00 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=289 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=289 <p>Last month (June, 2008), <a href="http://www.edmug.net">EDMUG</a> played host to <a href="http://blogs.dashpoint.com/">Rod Paddock</a>'s presentation on <a href="http://www.silverlight.net">Silverlight 2.0</a>.  In Rod's presentation, he used a SQL Server 2005 version of the music database at <a href="http://www.freedb.org/">FreeDB</a> that he made himself.  It's a respectable size, around 5GB or so, and relatively up to date.  At the end of his presentation, Rod was kind enough to give me a copy of it.  I recall that some other people at that meeting were also interested in having a copy of that database. </p> <p>If you are one of those, let me know via the comments here, and we can make arrangements for you to get a copy too.  Due to the large size, I'd not going to put it up on my server, for fear of busting some bandwidth camp from my ISP.  To that end, I propose two options for getting a copy of this database:</p> <ol> <li>It compresses down (tar.gz) to about 2GB which I can put on a DVD.  Alternately, bring your external HDD or laptop, and you can sponge the uncompressed version (assuming, of course, I know that you're interested).</li> <li>If you're at <a href="http://www.altnetconfcanada.com">altnetconf Canada</a> in August, that might be another place to get a copy of this DB from me.</li> </ol> <p><i>Update (July 23, 2007):</i></p> <p>I now have (hopefully) a MySQL version of this database.  I converted it using the <a href="http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/gui-tools/5.0.html">MySQL Migration Toolkit</a>.  There were a few errors reported in the conversion - maybe a dozen - and I figured that a dozen or so errors on almost 30 million records was okay by me.  If you're interested in MySQL version, just let me know.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=289&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/342627537" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=289 And We're Back http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/341014587/BlogView.aspx Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:03:13 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=288 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=288 <p>It seems that I should not go away on vacation.  Every time I do so, some piece of my network ends up failing and dying and forcing me to scramble at the last minute.  Such is the price of geekdom I suppose.</p> <p>This past week I was in Mexico, enjoying heat and humidity with my family at an all inclusive resort.  I was a bit surprised this morning when I went to check e-mail.  No Internet.  A bit of trouble shooting seems that my 8-port SMC switch died.  I'm thinking probably around July 12th or so, not 100% sure.  I was completely off the grid in Mexico, so didn't check any e-mail or my web site or blogs.</p> <p>Anyway, I quickly ran out to <a href="http://www.memoryexpress.com/">Memory Express</a> and picked me up an new <a href="http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX8575(ME).aspx">16 port Netgear switch</a>, and all seems to be working again.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=288&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/341014587" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=288 The Experiment, +13 Days: Size Matters http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/326690862/BlogView.aspx Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:28:56 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=287 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=287 <p>I've now been running Linux as my primary OS for nearly 13 days, with no major complaints.  Thought I would illuminate another sticky point that might cause one trouble if you're not careful.  If you followed my tips from <a href="http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=286&mid=27">Day 11</a>,  your VM is probably using /tmp for some temporary files.  I made the mistake of putting /tmp on a partition that really didn't have a lot of free space.  Consequently, as I was using my VM's throughout the day, VMware would complain about not enough disk space in /tmp and that the memory of my VM's might get corrupted as a result.</p> <p>The solution to this was to use <a href="http://gparted.sourceforge.net/">GParted</a> to resize my partitions.  I made one smaller and one bigger.  Now I have a lot more free space in /tmp, and everything seems to be moving along just great.</p> <p><em>Moral of the Story</em>: The size of your /tmp partition matters.</p> <h4>The Future:  No MacBook Pro?</h4> <p>I will say that, after these past two weeks, I'm ready to strike the <a href="http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/">MacBook Pro</a> off my list of future laptop contenders.  I will admit that part of this bias does it's origins in the commie-inspired DRM that is iTunes.  The vast majority of my music collection is MP3, which I ripped from my CD's.  The stuff that I foolishly bought from iTunes, is of course, locked away as safe as a virgin in a nunnery.  As well, it doesn't help the MacBook Pro cause that I can get a white-box PC for cheaper (or, alternately, more hardware for the same amount).</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=287&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/326690862" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=287 The Experiment, +11 days. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/325463553/BlogView.aspx Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:47:41 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=286 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=286 <p>Today I'm about 11 days into my experiment with openSUSE as my primary OS.  So far, so good.  I've been using my client's Windows XP VMware image for a few days now, and really the only major problem is, as mentioned, that VMware doesn't seem to want to share the sound card with the VM.  Not a big deal.</p> <p>Keith Elder has an excellent post on build a <a href="http://keithelder.net/blog/archive/2008/06/30/Setting-Up-Windows-Server-2008-VMWare-Virtual-Machines-For-.Net.aspx">Windows 2008 server VMware image</a>, I highly recommend it.  I would like to expand on his post just one teeny tiny bit. </p> <p>Offically, Windows 2008 Server and Windows Vista are not supported on VMWare Workstation 5.0 or on VMWare Server 1.0.x.  This doesn't mean much, but if you're setting up a VMware image that you'd like to share between Workstation and Server, make sure that when you are creating the image you specify VMware Workstation 5.0 (see images below).  If you try to "Upgrade or Change Version..." from VMware 6 to VMware 5, you will clobber your NIC real good and lose and not be able to recover it short of some act of God. Not even tech support at VMware can help you.  Ask me how I know.</p> <p><img width="399" height="325" alt="" src="http://www.opgenorth.net/Data/Sites/1/images/vmwarecreate1.png" /></p> <p><img width="400" height="325" alt="" src="http://www.opgenorth.net/Data/Sites/1/images/vmwarecreate2.png" /></p> <p>Also, just after you create your VM image, you might want to edit your .VMX file, and add these three lines:</p> <pre><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;">mainMem.useNamedFile=FALSE<br />sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"<br />MemTrimRate = 0</span></span> </pre> <p>The first line is pretty important if you're going to be using VMware under Linux.  If you're running under Windows, this isn't as much of an issue.  Under Linux, a temporary file for the RAM will be created which then gets deleted when the VM shuts down.  If you're running your VM's off a USB disk, this file is typically in /tmp, which is probably a local disk, and so will therefore have faster disk access (being that you don't have to go over the USB2 cable).  If you don't have this line, it seems that VMware will spit up a nasty, obscure message to you about not being able to open the VM because it is corrupt and/or VMware doesn't have access to it.</p> <p>The second and third lines Keith explains in his post one Step 14.  Go read there.</p> <p> </p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=286&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/325463553" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=286 Rod Paddock At EDMUG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/321640940/BlogView.aspx Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:01:00 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=285 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=285 <p>Last night (Thursday, June 26th) <a href="http://blog.dashpoint.com/">Rod Paddock</a> gave a talk on using <a href="http://www.sliverlight.net">Silverlight</a> 2.0 to the Edmonton .NET User Group.  I'd say that Rod did a pretty good job, despite the fact that the beta of both <a href="http://www.sliverlight.net">Silverlight</a> and Expression Blend didn't exactly want to play nice all the time.  It's definitely perked my interest in the technology, and I can see a lot of business potential for it. </p> <p>The rich user experience that <a href="http://www.sliverlight.net">Silverlight</a> brings to the web-browser, will, I think raise the bar for what web applications will do for businesses.  Forget all the buzz about ASP.NET MVC or MonoRail or ASP.NET 3.5.  This is just another layer of makeup on the tired, old, hooker that is application development in .NET.  <a href="http://www.sliverlight.net">Silverlight</a> is what will make business users oh and ah and get excited about web apps again.</p> <p>Those who were at last night's talk will remember that Rod was using a fairly large database that he got from <a href="http://www.freedb.org/">freedb</a>.  It's fairly large, not quite 7GB of data.  I did get a copy of it, in MS-SQL Server format.  When I compressed it (tar.gz), I got it down to 2GB in size.  If you're interested in a copy of the database for your own purposes, leave me a comment here and we'll work something out. </p> <p>Note:  I would like to state that <a href="http://www.igloocoder.com">Don</a> is usually drunk, and as such you shouldn't believe some of the wild things he said last night, especially about me.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=285&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/321640940" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=285 The Experiment, Day 3 & 4 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/320132222/BlogView.aspx Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:58:34 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=284 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=284 <p>Just a quick recap of days 3 & 4 of running with openSUSE 11 as my primary OS.  By far and large, not a lot of complaints.  As I do most of my work on a laptop, I tend to keep my VM's on external HDD's connected via USB2.  I've been doing this for a while now, under Windows.</p> <p>I'm not to sure I'm a big fan of how openSUSE mounts (or tries to mount) my external HDD.  It just doesn't seem as...seamless...as how Windows XP does it.  I'm use to just plugging in my external HDD, and not worrying about it until it's time to disconnect.  openSUSE seems to get a big confused with automounting, and I always seem to have to help it along.  It's something I can live with for now. </p> <p>The other thing I notice is that openSUSE doesn't seem to want to share the sound card with VMware.  I'm getting more than a few alerts from VMware that the sound card is not available and can't be used.  Again, nothing to critical - for now.</p> <p>The third thing I'm noticing is that some HDD enclosures seem to work better than others.  I'm noticing that at least one HDD enclosure (a SmartDisk FireLite with a 250GB HDD inside) doesn't seem to want to consistently and reliably work.  I did have VMware (and openSUSE) complain that they could not write that particular HDD as it could no longer be found.</p> <p>So far, I am pleased with how Linux is handling NTFS as well.  I remember back five or six years ago that NTFS support for Linux was pretty much read-only.  Read-write was for people who were delusionally insane or who go to the same hair stylist as Justice Grey.</p> <p>A couple of lessons learned:</p> <ul> <li>Get lots of disk space.  I'm thinking it may be time to get a 320GB HD for my laptop, and keeping my "working" VM's there.  I'd have something like a 100 GB partition for Windows XP, and then 220GB for openSUSE.</li> <li>Backups - I'm very happy that I made copies of my VM's and worked off those. </li> <li>Fear not the command line.  But if you're a *nix guys, you're probably there already.</li> </ul><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=284&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/320132222" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=284 The Experiment Day 2. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/318630209/BlogView.aspx Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:40:29 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=283 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=283 <p>As I indicated yesterday, I'm doing a little experiment to try and see if I can reduce my dependency on Window.  Yesterday I installed OpenSUSE 11, today I was going to install some extra stuff into OpenSUSE, and see if I can get VMware Workstation up and running.</p> <p>First thing that that I did wrong was install the wrong version of OpenSUSE.  Silly old me wasn't paying attention when I downloaded the ISO, and I grabbed the 32-bit ISO.  I wanted the x64_86 edition.  So, I downloaded that DVD, and then re-installed from scratch.</p> <p>With that out of the way, I preceeded to install the following:</p> <ul> <li>VMWare Workstation 6.04.</li> <li>FireFox 3</li> <li>Opera 9.5</li> <li>Git</li> <li>Subversion</li> <li>Mono 1.9</li> <li>MySQL Query Browser</li> <li>Adobe Air for Linux, beta 1.  Twitter</li> <li>Pidgin</li> <li>NTFS-3G (for read/write access to NTFS partitions)</li> <li>ntfs-config (to help config this read/write access to NTFS partitions).</li> </ul> <p>Now VMware Workstation 6.04 is kind of what I'm after, so that was the recent focus.  Installing VMware on OpenSUSE 11 isn't that hard.  Basically, I did the following:</p> <ol> <li>Download VMware Workstation for Linux.  I used the RPM.  I installed via YAST2.</li> <li>Went and got kernel-sources, gcc, gcc-c++, and make.</li> <li>Dropped to a bash shell, su to root.</li> <li>Type vmware-install.pl to get VMware workstation.  I just went with all the defaults at the prompts.</li> <li>Run VMware</li> </ol> <p>One thing you might find when you try to open up your VM's.  You might get a wacky error message like: VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0)<br /> Failed to allocate page for guest RAM!  Best to just follow the advice in this <a href="http://razius.blogspot.com/2007/12/vmware-crash.html">blog post</a>.</p> <p>Next on the TODO list is to try, on some test VM's, developing on Linux.  If no problems after some undisclosed amount of time, then I guess maybe I'll trying working full-time under Linux.</p> <p>And, if that works, then the true test/question:  can I get World of Warcraft  working on Linux?</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=283&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/318630209" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=283 The Experiment Begins http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/317866345/BlogView.aspx Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:59:26 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=282 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=282 <p>I've decided to try a little experiment, and see how things will go, computing-wise, if I minimize my dependence on Windows.  Now, I don't want to run out and buy a Mac (not yet, anyway), so I'm taking a middle ground.</p> <p>I first repartitioned my hard drive (thanks <a href="http://gparted.sourceforge.net/">gparted</a>), and set aside a 15GB partition.  On this partition, I installed <a href="http://software.opensuse.org/">OpenSUSE 11</a>.</p> <p>My plan is to run <a href="http://software.opensuse.org/">OpenSUSE 11</a> as the host OS, and then use <a href="http://www.vmware.com">VMware</a> to run VM's for my work and such.</p> <p>I'm curious as to how it will work out.  I know the one hurdle I would like to come is the stupid DRM that Apple iTunes uses.  Anybody have some suggestions, so I can do this while it's still legal to format-shift in Canada (or perhaps I should spell it Kanada if bill C-61 passes).</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=282&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/317866345" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=282 FAIL: Windows Vista 64 As An O/S For the Home http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/315799074/BlogView.aspx Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:02:58 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=281 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=281 <p>Recently I upgraded the family computer.  Well, I upgraded the hardware and changed the operating system to Windows Vista 64bit.  This is the computer that my kids play their games on, my wife does her work and her post-graduate work on.  I use it to play the odd bit of World of Warcraft and surf the web.  To me, it's not that important.  To my family, not being able to play Freddie Fish or using <a href="http://www.incredimail.com">bloated crap-ware</a> to keep in touch with colleagues and friends is pretty close to catastrophic.</p> <p>Today, I've decided to repave the family PC with good old Windows XP, and turn my back on Vista 64bit.  The straw that broke the camel's back was when I went to setup the kids <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.B._Funkeys">U.B. Funkeys</a>, and much to my dismay the driver that this toy needs aren't supported under Vista 64.  Simply put, to much of my kid's software and gizmos just don't work under Windows 64 bit.  Now, some of you might say, "Wait - it's the responsibility of the vendor to ensure compatibility".  Yes, it is.  However, for the here and now, my kids and wife don't care who should be supporting what.  Stuff doesn't work, they yell/whine/cry at me.</p> <p>I'm sure Windows 64 bit is fine for other roles, but as an O/S for a home PC that need to run older games and such, it FAILS.</p> <p>Pragmatism wins, Windows 64 bit loses.  Windows XP gets reinstalled.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=281&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/315799074" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=281 CSA - Martian Weather Report http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/313869183/BlogView.aspx Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:41:43 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=280 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=280 <p><a href="http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/exploration/phoenix_weather1.asp">CSA - Martian Weather Report</a> </p> <p>Now this is kind of neat:  weather reports from Mars.  Now, some of you might think, BORING.  Think about this first:  This isn't a "stick your head out the window" kind of thing.  This involved placing a man-made object tens of millions of kilometres away on another planet, and then transmitting that data back to Earth where big, wrinkly, brains can interpret that data and where you and I can see this with a simple click of our mouse.  Smooth, little, brains like mine boggle at the thought of this.</p> <p>Anyway, I guess the latest weather report kind of makes our Canadian winters seem not so bad.   At least the Martian cold is a dry cold.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=280&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/313869183" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=280 Time For New a new Blog Engine? http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/313547457/BlogView.aspx Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:50:16 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=279 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=279 <p>For the longest time, almost three years now, I've been running <a href="http://www.mojoportal.com">mojoPortal</a> for my website.  My basic criteria at the time was pretty simple:  open-source, Mono compatible, and supports either MySQL or PostgreSQL for a database, and something that seem to be supported/actively developed.  I settled on mojoPortal.  Joe Audette, the author of mojoPortal, has been spending the past 4+ years working on mojoPortal, and as done a pretty good job getting it to work with a variety of databases, and on both Linux and Windows. </p> <p>Lately, I've been thinking that perhaps mojoPortal is getting a bit to big/bloated for what I need.  Don't get me wrong, I still like mojoPortal.  However, after the past three years, I've learned that all I really need is a simple blogging engine, with Windows Live Writer support (<em>as an aside, I'm working on WLW support for mojoPortal.  Hoping to merge the code into trunk soon - really</em>).  mojoPortal seems to have all that, and then more.  It's a lot of stuff I don't really need, and I'm sure that most security types will tell you that you just don't install stuff you don't need on your PC's - the less there is to hack, the better.</p> <p>Now, what criteria would I have for a new blog engine?  Well, in no particular order:</p> <ol> <li>Windows Live Writer support</li> <li>Can run on Linux.  Either Mono (C#) compatible, or something like Ruby or boo</li> <li>If it does use a database, then MySQL</li> <li>Open Source</li> <li>Relatively light weight, compared to mojoPortal.  My definition of "light-weight" is rather abitrary, based on what I see when I dig through through the code of this new uber-blog engine.</li> <li>Modular design</li> </ol> <p>Ideally, I think it would be nice if there was a blog engine that uses <a href="http://www.castleproject.org/MonoRail/">MonoRail</a>, or perhaps ASP.NET MVC.  However, I really haven't found anything yet that fits the bill. I suppose if I was independently wealthy, I'd take the time and just write my own, but, honestly, I just don't see the point to that.</p> <p>If you have any suggestions, I'd like to hear about them.  Feel free to speak up.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=279&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/313547457" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=279 Another Annoying Test Post On The Blog. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/313522713/BlogView.aspx Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:19:32 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=278 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=278 <p>This is just a test post, please feel free to ignore.  In fact, you are encouraged to ignore this blog post.  Just checking to see if the error that pops up when users post a comment is fixed.</p> <p><em>Update:  Well, it looks like the problem is fixed.  And, to boot, it looks like I have the editing of posts with Windows Live Writer working too. </em></p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=278&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/313522713" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=278 Ubuntu 8.04 and Me http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/310128007/BlogView.aspx Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:41:05 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=277 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=277 <h3>Installing Hardy Heron</h3> <p>I'm in the process of setting up a new box to run some virtual machines for me, it's nothing to fancy, but it is adequate for my needs.  It's a humble little PC with scads of RAM (8GB) and a big hard drive (750GB).  I figured that setting this up would be a snap, as I had done it several times before - well for <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.  Installing Linux these days is pretty simple and quick, compared to say, install Windows.</p> <p>Turns out that things were quite as straight forward as I thought it would be.  The first glitch happened when I booted from the CD. I went through the first bit of the <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> install, at which point I was informed that the CDROM could not be mounted.  Somewhat confusing, as I had just booted from the CD no problem.</p> <p>Seems that there is a bug in the installer, and when you try to install on a PC with more than 8GB of RAM, the CD ROM gets "lost".  The work around is that when you're booting, you modify the startup so that only 4GB of RAM is used.  You do this by appending <font face="Courier New">mem=4G</font> at the end of the boot parameters.  Of course, when you're done installing, you have to edit the boot parameters and remove the <font face="Courier New">mem=4G</font> so that you get all your RAM back.  Of course, be aware that when you do this, you loose your CD-ROM drive.</p> <h3>Installing VMware Server</h3> <p>This had to have been one of the most painless installations of anything I have ever done - truly.  Installing <a href="http://www.vmware.com">VMware</a> on <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> isn't a big deal, you just have to make sure that you have all your dependencies up to date.  And, when you're on x86_64 there are a couple extras that you don't normally need on i386.  However, on the <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/">Ubuntu Forurms</a>, someone (a Canadian it seems) went to the effort of putting together a <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=788169">nice little bash script</a> that does everything for you.  Well, not everything, you still have to get the serial number for <a href="http://www.vmware.com">VMware</a> server.  Grab the script, make sure you read the directions posted, and away you go.  It's nice when things are that simple.</p> <p>Now the next great adventure is to move my VM's onto the new server.  Shouldn't be a big problem, as I do have some external HDD's for just this type of thing.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=277&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/310128007" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=277 NHAML View Engine for MonoRail http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/306094004/BlogView.aspx Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:15:38 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=275 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=275 <p><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/mirvodasergey/archive/2008/06/02/introducing-monorail-nhaml.aspx">This seems interesting</a>:  an NHaml view engine has been implemented for <a href="http://www.castleproject.org/MonoRail/">MonoRail</a>.  One thing about this that I find neat is that the <a href="http://andrewpeters.net/2007/12/19/introducing-nhaml-an-aspnet-mvc-view-engine/">NHaml view engine for the ASP.NET MVC</a> was ported back to <a href="http://www.castleproject.org/MonoRail/">MonoRail</a>.</p> <p>Great to see such cross-pollination of ideas and code between the two projects.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=275&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/306094004" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=275 D-Day http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~3/306094005/BlogView.aspx Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:22:51 GMT http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=274 http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=274 <p>Today is the 64th anniversary of D-Day.  If you are a Canadian, take a moment today and read up about 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 14, 000 Canadians which went ashore at Juno Beach (the 2nd most heavily defended beach of the invasion). </p> <p>Likewise, if you're British, I would suggest taking a moment today and reading up on Sword and Gold beach. </p> <p>And, if you are American, then perhaps read up on Utah and Omaha beach (the most heavily defended beach of the whole invasion).  And no, watching <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/">Saving Private Ryan</a> doesn't count.</p> <p>Granted military history (which I read a lot of) can be kind of boring and slow sometimes, but D-Day was a very important day in the 20th century, and some of the troops involved had been training for almost a year for just this one day.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.opgenorth.net'>Tom Opgenorth</a>  <a href='http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&ItemID=274&mid=27'>...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/opgenorth/blog/~4/306094005" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.opgenorth.net/BlogView.aspx?pageid=1&mid=27&ItemID=274