http://kc5mpk.com/blog A constant rattle of unintelligible nonsense Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:26:15 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows. - David T. Wolf [1] Especially funny since I have a co-worker that thinks very much along those lines. To top it all off, his name is eerily similar. http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2008/06/19/quick-quote/ It has been far too long since my last 'real' update. For that, I apologize in advance. It has been a crazy few months since the last post. Let me see if I can work my way through some of the more memorable events. I will probably break this post ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2008/04/02/it-has-been-a-long-time/ For anyone looking to use the "Windows Key" for shortcuts in Xfce 4.4.2, be sure that you do something like this before you try to use the shortcut editor: xmodmap -e "add mod3 = Super_L" Once that's done, the shortcut editor will actually recognize the key. This is as much for my ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2008/02/13/xfce-442-and-windowssuper-shortcuts/ If you waded through my last entry you will know that things haven't been terribly smooth during my move. Thankfully the previous events were not an indication of future events. Tuesday came and by the evening, my first chance to check, I had DSL fully functioning. I also got a ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2007/10/25/new-apartment-update/ I know it's been ages since I wrote anything here, and some of that is having been busy. The rest? Yeah, you know it ... I'm lazy :-) So, I've been trying to get moved into a larger apartment since early August. I asked my current complex if they had anything ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2007/10/22/the-woes-of-moving-and-stupid-people/ For TJOC 2008 (and beyond) information, please go check the TJOC Development Blog. http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2007/09/16/tjoc-update/ Well, like I said about this time last year, camp is over for the year. I also said last year that I had all sorts of exciting things to share, and then I never followed through. Well, I'm saying the same thing this year, but I can promise you that ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2007/06/06/tjoc-2007-2008/ Well, I got Fedora 7 installed on my laptop today. That's actually what I'm using right now. I must say, it's pretty slick overall. I've been very impressed with some of the new features that are available by default. If you are currently running an older version of Fedora [Core], ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2007/06/06/fedora-7/ 'Tis the night before TJOC and all through the apartment, not a soul was sleeping, not even me ... It's been a long rampup to camp for me already, and camp doesn't officially start until tomorrow (well, later today). We did the Diagnostic O written test online this year, and since ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2007/05/26/the-night-before-tjoc/ Well, I found a way to make it work, but I'm not sure why it broke to begin with. In /etc/asound.conf I simply changed the variable "defaults.pcm.device" from a value of 4, to one of 0. I chose zero only because the output of aplay -l indicated that device zero ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2007/03/30/sound-update/ So, I've finally run into my first real issue with Fedora Core 6. Don't get me wrong, it has done me well for quite some time now, but it finally cried 'Gotcha!' the other day. In the course of a standard 'yum update', which, since it's so simple, I tend ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2007/03/28/alsa-on-fedora-core-6-issues/ It's been a very long while since I've taken the time to write anything here as you are probably well aware. I have a little time to kill before a meeting this afternoon, so here goes nothing. Since the last 'personal' entry I have is really back in the summer there's ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2007/01/31/i-am-alive-really/ dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/remotestorage/linuxupdates-2 bs=1k count=1048576 losetup /dev/loop2 /mnt/remotestorage/linuxupdates-2 pvcreate /dev/loop2 vgextend updates_store /dev/loop2 lvextend -L+1G /dev/updates_store/store umount /mnt/vg e2fsck -f /dev/updates_store/store resize2fs /dev/updates_store/store mount /dev/updates_store/store /mnt/vg Where the filename (linuxupdates-2) increments, the 'count' in the dd command is a multiple of the one listed (1GB), and the loopback devices (loop2 here) increments. http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/12/13/lvm-extention-process/ I have something more substantial coming down the pipe as far as entries are concerned, but I thought I'd share this while I was thinking about it. During Thanksgiving my father and I redid the way that my FT-8800R (thanks dad!) is mounted in the car, along with cable routing. ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/12/01/new-radio-install-not-a-new-radio/ Anyone listening? Hello? If you are, and you know a nice way to create a local Ubuntu mirror via rsync, drop me a note here or via email. I'm trying to set one up here at LeTourneau and just haven't found anything useful (the mirror server is running Fedora Core 5 ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/12/01/ubuntu-mirror-question/ The Linux Updates mirror (on campus only) now has full support for Fedora Core 6 (Core, Updates, and Extras). It updates twice a day, just like Fedora Core 5 and Gentoo, so check out the configuration page to see the scheduled times, configuration instructions (they are the same as Fedora ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/11/20/linux-updates-updated/ http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2006/09/25/trickle_theory.html http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/09/29/trickle-theory/ If you are a Linux user at LeTourneau University, and happen to use Fedora Core 5 or Gentoo Linux, you need to check out our new shiny local mirror. Once I get my hands on some more disk space, I'll be able to support Debian and Ubuntu so do not ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/09/01/linux-updates-mirror-on-campus/ I'm back from TJOC 2006 and I'm armed with a whole set of cool ideas and plans for TJOC 2007 and other nifty things. I'll post some details and thoughts after I get some sleep. Good night! http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/06/03/back-from-camp/ Well, I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning for the Texas Junior Orienteering Camp. I can't ever seem to remember how many years we've been doing this (and I've been to every one), but I think it is somewhere in the range of 7 or 8 years. These days I just ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/05/26/tjoc-2006/ The latest numbers. You can see that things are improving a little on average as our transaction count goes up. We are still significantly short of the 5 seconds goal, but it will require me moving the posting process out of the linear flow. Total Transactions: 71 Min: 3 Max: 34 Average: 7.55   Target Actual Diff Real % 50% 36 17 19 23.94% 90% 64 63 1 88.73% 98% 70 70 0 98.59% http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/05/22/ecommerce-sla-update/ The new phone has arrived! It's currently charging, but you can check out some photos I took while unpacking the phone (tagged razr) over on my Flickr! page. http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/05/19/phone-update/ I finally did it. I broke down and purchased a real phone and wireless plan. As a result my phone number will be changing. I know, I know, I could keep my existing number and save all you losers some effort, but it turned out to be somewhat complicated because, ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/05/18/new-phone-phone-number/ As we all know (if you've ever used it or heard me complain), the ecommerce process (recording the payment, etc) has been running pretty slow lately. My boss and I recently had a discussion where we agreed we wanted to spend some time fixing this. I put some better logging ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/05/18/ecommerce-performance-tuning/ If you are on campus and are restricted to an HT (that atleast has 440 capabilities), feel free to use the new crossband repeat capabilities of my new radio. Simply use 445.750 simplex whenever my radio is in range and you should get through to the 146.640 repeater here in ... http://kc5mpk.com/blog/archives/2006/05/10/crossband-repeat/