Monthly Archives: April 2009

Beta++

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The /etc/redhat-release from my Toshiba laptop, gypsy, the closest to a production laptop I have:

Fedora release 10.92 (Rawhide)

I backed up my home directory, installed F11 from the live USB, and yum updated everything. Restored the home directory back, and let the Gnome desktop complain and delete things it didn’t like, and I’m rolling. Kind of a ham-fisted upgrade approach, but effective and fast.

Now, I’m installing stuff I use that’s not on the LiveCD (Thunderbird, Sunbird, Xchat, devilspie, etc), and the gypsy will be on the bleeding edge again.

The most distressing thing that doesn’t work is the Enigmail Thunderbird plug-in. I presume a newer Enigmail version is in the works. It’ll shine when it shines.

-k-

,

Fedora Rules, Again

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I’ve been mucking about trying to get the latest Fedora 11 Beta updates for my Dell Mini; there is some problem with the Fedora mirror sites, as it happens. yum update simply didn’t, well, update. When the Mini gets too far behind, it beats its brains out updating; it’s not exactly a speed demon. Hence, I update it frequently.

I applied my somewhat limited recovery methods in an attempt to rectify the problem. A yum clean all, rpm –rebuilddb, yum update yielded nothing.

I then logged on to the #fedora-qa IRC channel, and lurked for a bit. Sure enough, the Fedora Rawhide mirrors were in a state of distress, and the Fedorans were on it. I think the problem was identified and fixed, and all that remained was the syncing of the mirrors, which is a paint-drying process in terms of time. Then, this little clip from IRC:

<dgrift> edit /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-rawhide.repo
<dgrift> in the top repo there add:
<dgrift> baseurl=http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/fedora/linux/development/$basearch/os/

Right on! I made the change, a yum clean, yum update, and the Dell Mini stands tall, upgraded. I’ll back this change out, once the mirrors are healthy, and all’s good.

Where else, anywhere, could you get free software, and free support for same, by only hanging out and observing? With the closed model, I’d be paying for support, getting telephone ear while someone, in broken English, struggled through a “customer support” script, wherein I’d be asked to try things I’d already done.

Part of the “payment” for free software is a burning desire to be involved, on whatever level necessary, in the resolution of your own problems; to fire up Uncle Google, check some on-line fora and chat channels, and understand what you’re doing.

Today, it worked like a charm.

-k-

From the Alabama Tea Party

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Via The Liberty Papers, reportage on the recent Alabama Tea Party. There’s a longish video of this on the site as well. I’ll post the transcript; as you read it, imagine Jeff Foxworthy reading it, and you’ll be all set.

Since I work in Washington, I contacted my source at the Department of Homeland Security and asked him what I should be on the lookout for. And I’ve got my notes from that interview with me. You might be a right-wing extremist if . . .
. . . you refuse to bow to Saudi royalty.
. . . you think the only good pirate is a dead pirate.
. . . you don’t think it’s a good idea for politicians in Washington to borrow another trillion dollars you grandchildren will have to repay.
. . . you think you know how to run your life better than a bunch of ‘experts’ in Washington.
. . . you believe in God, but don’t think that Obama is the Messiah.
. . . you believe the only reason you have First Amendment Rights is because of your Second Amendment rights.

-k-

Weddings and Hydraulic Jacks

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I have 16 first cousins on the maternal side of my family; they all live in Kansas. I have no idea how many second cousins I have1.

I’d probably know my second cousins better, or at least be able to match them up with their parents, if I actually lived in Kansas and were able to attend all the family whingdings that happen back there. Alas, that’s not my current lot.

A while back, we received a wedding invitation from a second cousin who is tying the knot in Kansas City MO a couple of weeks hence. Her dad, my first cousin, is the closest to my age of any of the rest of the first cousins. He also called our Norton KS homestead within hours of my mother’s death in 1999 and offered his immediate condolences. If I recall correctly, he was also a casket bearer at Mom’s funeral.

So, I went out to his daughter’s and soon-to-be son-in-law’s wedding registry. They are registered at Sears and at Crate & Barrel. Many of their choices were practical and formulaic; the bathroom items, wine glasses, cooking accoutrements and gizmos. All perfectly practical. All needed. Then I happened on this, from the Sears registry, a Craftsman Professional 12 ton Hydraulic Jack.

As I bought the almost newlyweds their Craftsman Professional 12 ton Hydraulic Jack, I pondered how MLB and I have made it through nearly 30 years without such a thing. The discussion of whether or not we need one is ongoing.

Best wishes to Lindsey and Doug. I consider him a second cousin; is the spouse of the child of a first cousin also a second cousin? In my little world, it is so.

-k-

1 Second cousins are offspring of first cousins, no? This stuff always confuses me.

Feeling Lighter

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No matter how big of a goat screw it is at work, and it’s approaching the three ring variety, there’s one thing they can’t take away.

Today, I passed the stinking on-call pager off to the next poor sap.

I’m enjoying the extra spring in my step already.

-k-

Go, Tarheels!

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My normal rules of sports engagement include the phrase “root for those who took you out.” If I were to follow that tonight, I’d be bleeding Michigan State Spartan green; the Spartans did get the best of the Jayhawks in the Midwest Regional.

But I’m not. NC Coach Roy Williams has forever endeared himself to me from his coaching years with the Jayhawks. After his children graduated from high school, I was hoping against hope that whoever was coaching North Carolina would be meeting with unparalleled success, so there would be no incentive on NC’s part to seek a new coach. That hope quickly vanished.

Fast forwarding a few years, Coach Williams has won a National Championship, and the ‘Hawks, with Coach Bill Self at the helm, cut down the nets one year ago.

So, for the deep historical connection between the ‘Heels and ‘Hawks, dating back to the Dean Smith days, I gotta say:

Go Tarheels!

I plan to tune into the game, at the conclusion of tonight’s 24. Roots can only run so deep, after all.

-k-

Still adjusting Clocks

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Since the recent “spring forward” time change, I’ve noticed posts here are still being made with the time before the change. I think WordPress should do this without any intervention on my part, but they don’t.

I thought I had fixed the time weeks ago; evidently, I haven’t. So, in the guise of content, this post, with which I’ll test the new, and hopefully correct, timestamping.

As you were.

-k-