/dev/zero » geeking

Testing out Windows Live Writer

Andrew — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:49:03 +0000

Just messing around with the Windows Live blog client.

Not really a big fan of MS freebie "non-commercial" tools, but Windows Live Mail is a big step up from Outlook Express. Just kind of curious how this works.

More Geocaching

Andrew — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 20:24:31 +0000

Heading out for an afternoon of geocaching with Kem.
We’re going to try to hit 10 caches in one day!

Swype

Andrew — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:38:21 +0000

I got a new Android phone the other day (Tmobile Vibrant /Samsung Galaxy S) that comes pre-installed with Swype. I’m not as fast or proficient as the guy in the demo videos yet, but it’s a hell of a lot faster than taping.
Anyone else have it, and what do you think of it?

Manipulating maildirs at the filesystem level

Andrew — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:26:16 +0000

Let’s here it for being able to manipulate you mail directory structure at the file system level and still be able to access it through Thunderbird.

DJBDNS and IPv6

Andrew — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:51:12 +0000

Tip: When patching DJB’s “dnscache” for IPv6, you can’t just tell it to bind to both the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. You will need to run two separate instances, one binding to the IPv4 address, one binding to the IPv6 address.
I haven’t checked, but I’m betting my tinydns instance is also not binding to both addresses and will have to be run as two separate instances as well.

Andrew — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:41:30 +0000

The AT&T tech just finished installing the Uverse modem and I just completed the “registration”. First thing I did was hit speedtest.net of course.

Not bad. Not bad at all, when I was quoted “12Mbps”. 10MBPs actual is pretty good.

Fixing Vmware virtual disks

Andrew — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:57:39 +0000

Having hosed a Gentoo guest on a VMware ESXi host by filling the partition (which VMware really doesn’t like) then attempting to fix it by mounting the partition in anther guest and fsck’ing it first, I got the error message “the parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created” when I tried to boot the original Gentoo guest.
Googling pointed me to a nice post at Recovering VMware snapshot after parent changed.
Step two lists the following caveat:

“Look at the size of the snapshot virtual hard disk. If it is more than 2GB and you’re running a 32-bit OS, or it is more than the amount of memory that you have available, the following method will probably not work. You’re welcome to try though.”

I found this wasn’t an issue as it appears (at least as of ESXi 4.x) VMware has separated the vmdk “header” and “data”, putting the “header” in the “hostname.vmdk” file and the actual data in “hostname-flat.vmdk”. The original vmdk is now only a couple of hundred bytes and easily edited in vi. Grabbing the CID from the Gentoo.vmdk and modifying parentCID in Gentoo000001.vmdk had me back up and running (at least to the point that I could now boot the Gentoo guest, using an Ubuntu ISO so I could access the file system and clean it up. I moved /home to a new partition, fixing the space issue).
Next time, I’ll just be smart and build all systems with LVM, then I can just add more physical extents when I need more space.

Twitter Updates for 2009-11-22

Andrew — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Back from honeymoon, just opened wedding gifts. #

Google’s Holiday Gift: Free Wi-Fi at Airports

Andrew — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:35:40 +0000

Cool. Now why couldn’t they have done this YESTERDAY, when it was useful to me?

Google’s Holiday Gift: Free Wi-Fi at Airports.

Twitter Updates for 2009-11-06

Andrew — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

RT @feather802 Currently fulfilling my primary purpose in life: Cat Bed – We were doing that this morning, to. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-11-05

Andrew — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Rep. McCaul is an idiot making any such statemtns without more informtion. #FtHoodShootings #

Twitter Updates for 2009-11-03

Andrew — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

RT @tomservo79 Marriage is a Lovecraftian ritual meant to summon Yogsothoth. Gay marriages are all about Cthulu. The divide is pretty clear. #
RT @choochoobear It might be a little longer before the drippy faucet in my tub is fixed. – I hear they have pills for that now. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-11-02

Andrew — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

RT @nprpolitics Tech alert: The @nprtechteam is live-tweeting NPR.org's switch from Oracle to MySQL tonight. #
RT @BrentSpiner the only rolls I regret have complex carbs. — now there's an actor who knows where his bread is buttered. #
RT @martinbogo @strongbow Heh, and Mr. Spiner is looking a bit like you and me these days … – now be nice! #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-31

Andrew — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Who wants a Google Wave invite? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-29

Andrew — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

#tmh20 OK, get on with the zombie gag already. #
Obviously: there's a Black Lantern controlling them. #tmh20 #
#tmh20 don't break the 4th wall, guys! #
It's a 20 yo Mercedes. Hotwire the damn thing. #tmh20 #
I hope you have some sanitizer. #tmh20 #
Zombies and "your moma" cracks? #tmh20 #
He's eating cat and rat brains, not lamb and human brain. #tmh20 #
No! Don't let him get behind you! #tmh20 #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-23

Andrew — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

reeeeeevertb! Ouch! Can barely understand what you're saying. #tmh19 #
I, for one, am glad zombies are replacing "vampires" as the chic horror meme #
That's just filled with AWESOME! RT @grantimahara YES! This is exactly the cake that I wanted!! RT @thinkgeek: http://bit.ly/2rvfXT #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-22

Andrew — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Playing Farkle #
is seriously hooked on Facebook games. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-21

Andrew — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Damit, I've been wanting to meet @choochoobear for a long time, he's going to be at a local con… ON MY WEDDING DAY! TANJ! #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-20

Andrew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Just finished addressing a bunch of wedding invitations. Now no more than I want to about MS Ofice mail merge. #

Whyreboot?

Andrew — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:08:04 +0000

Nifty tool I just read about that tells you what will happen next time you reboot your Windows system. The idea being when you install an app that insists you must reboot to complete the install, this tool will tell you what’s going to happen.
Read about it here: http://blog.rootshell.be/2008/02/13/why-reboot/

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-13

Andrew — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Stop
Andrew Edelstein #

Guardian blocked from reporting Parliament

Andrew — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:13:15 +0000

For the first time in history, a British news paper is blocked from reporting the proceedings of Parliament.
A law firm, Carter-Ruck, representing an oil company successfully obtained a gag order preventing the Guardian from reporting that a member of parliament has asked a question of a cabinet minister regarding the actions of the oil company, Trafigura, in dumping toxic waste in Ivory Coast.
This is apparently possible due to a the creation of the British Supreme Court earlier this month.

AP Bets Farm Microsoft Will Crush Google

Andrew — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:58:30 +0000

AP Bets Farm Microsoft Will Crush Google.

As they say, what could possibly go wrong?

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-09

Andrew — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

RT @supersiblings Wha… wha? Obama got a noble prize for NASA bombing the moon because Marge Simpson is in Playboy? #twittermash #
Anyone on Google Wave? I can haz invite? #
/me waves at Nija (unfortunately, not Google Wave…) #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-08

Andrew — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Working on learing PERL once and for all. #