AdrianHannah.net

Last weekend marked the end of the Windows 7 Release Candidate, so Microsoft kindly reminded those of us still using it that it was time to pay for a copy. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it in such a way as to allow us to simply install over the existing OS so that we could maintain the system we’d come to know and love, but instead required us to completely reinstall using our newly purchased Win7 discs. This further spurred me to initiate The Great Linux Experiment 2010.

About once a year or so, I get the urge to see if I can switch from Windows to Linux on my desktop. I’m not saying I don’t use Linux, I just don’t use it on my desktop. I have a netbook with Ubuntu on it, a server with Red Hat, and several VMs running BSD, etc. The point is that my desktop is my main machine and every once in a while I try to see if I can do everything I use my desktop for in Linux. This years contender was a newbie to the scene: Linux Mint. I’ve heard good things about it, and I’ve heard it’s easier to use than Ubuntu (ease of use is definitely a plus for me on my desktop machine, trust me). So I downloaded the ISO and a copy of UNETbootin and proceeded… to fail. When the machine booted into Linux Mint (which by the way, is quite pretty), it worked fine. When I tried to install, X crashed consistently at around 90%. I tried an older version of Linux Mint with the same results. So we got an alternative contestant: Ubuntu 9.10 (amd64). I’d first like to point out that I am aware that the 64-bit version is likely to be buggier than the 32-bit version and that some software may not work or may not be available for the 64-bit version, but what’s the point of having 64-bit hardware if you can’t use it to its potential. This installed with no problems and was up and running in no time. Here are my findings this time around:

Hurdle #1: iTunes

I’ve grown accustomed to iTunes as a media library/pod catcher. In fact, I really like it for those functions (I’m a little sketchy about video playback but that’s a story for another time). What should I use for a replacement in Ubuntu? I went with Rhythmbox (which I like even more than iTunes) for audio and Miro for video. Rhythmbox held up it’s end of the bargain, but I don’t like the way that it dealt with or presented podcasts. I also never quite got MP3 playback working properly so it always told me that my podcasts were either missing or couldn’t be imported. Nonetheless, I could listen to music and download audio podcasts to my hearts content. Miro, on the other hand, failed me miserably.

After setting it up and giving it some feeds to work with it took an incredibly long time to download anything (while other apps on the computer screamed along at normal speeds), and once it downloaded, I couldn’t watch anything. Pressing play on a video caused Miro to crash every time. I also don’t like the way Miro deals with video podcasts. It sits in the system marked as new until I watch it and THEN a timer is set on when the video will be automatically deleted (if I choose that option, which I did). The lowest you can set this is one day. If I have to choose when a video is deleted based on when I’m done watching it, then I’d like it to be gone immediately. I’d rather just keep the last video in the feed until a new one comes along. Couple these 2 problems together and these videos essentially never go away, since I had to watch them in the Totem player or VLC. I also didn’t like that Miro couldn’t minimize to the status area, but that’s minor.

Ultimately, I decided (thanks to the wonders of Wine) that I would just knuckle down and install iTunes on the machine. Thanks to Apple, this was impossible. I downloaded the newest version of iTunes from the website and ran the installer. According to the installer, there was no problem but when I tried to run iTunes, I couldn’t find it. The installer hadn’t done anything to the “C drive” in Wine. I tried again and managed to get Quicktime and Bonjour installed, but still no iTunes. Looking on the internet I found that I needed to install an older version of iTunes for it to work. But at this point Quicktime and Bonjour for the new version were installed and Wine wouldn’t uninstall them and every time I ran the installer for the older version, it would error out telling me it couldn’t install Quicktime.

Hurdle #2: Netflix

Being that I don’t currently have a TV or a way to watch Netflix “Watch Instantly” service (my Roku is in the basement of a friend in Michigan), I use this service like a mad man on my desktop. The last time around I remember having this issue because “Watch Instantly” used Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 and Moonlight (the open source clone of Silverlight) was only compatible with Silverlight 1.0, but there was progress being made in 2.0 compatiblity. Now, I find out that Netflix switched to Silverlight 3.0 just as Moonlight 2.0 was becoming available. Is it so wrong that I want to be able to stream movies to my computer that runs Linux? Apparently, according to Netflix and Microsoft, it is.

Hurdle #3: Flash

A lot of websites use flash to some degree. I needed to be able to use flash and I needed to be able to use Flash 10 specifically. There’s a beta out of Flash 10 that’s available for Linux. There’s a super kludgy way to get it working on 64-bit Ubuntu. It works, but it doesn’t work consistently or in a predictable manner.

Hurdle #4: Synchronicity

A friend of mine recently wrote about how he uses syncing tools to keep his profiles relatively consistent between computers (http://www.crthomas.org/?p=198 and http://www.crthomas.org/?p=180). I recently took this to the extreme and installed a number of portable apps (http://www.portableapps.com) into my drop box which I sync among my different computers. The problem that I’ve run into here is now that I’m using Ubuntu, how to I sync all these apps? Actually, I dealt with this in a rather ingenious way! I’ve you create a sym link from where your Firefox profile SHOULD be that points to the profile in the drop box, Firefox works flawlessly. There are a few minor problems if you have version discrepancies, but it’s mostly with extensions and a restart will magically resolve them.

Thunderbird refuses to work though I’m guessing this is a result of Ubuntu running Thunderbird 2 and my drop box having Thunderbird 3 installed.

Pidgin has actually been the weirdest. It doesn’t read the profile as it exists in the drop box, but it will write to it :/

Hurdle #5: Games

While I don’t play a lot of video games, I do still play them every now and again. I am especially a sucker for the Civilization line of games and what with the newest in the series (Civilization 5) coming out later this year, I don’t think my poor little heart can take not being able to play it. FreeCiv is a reasonable facsimile of the Civilization games but it doesn’t quite cut the mustard for the latest and greatest.

As I mentioned with iTunes, it is possible that I could install this with Wine, and it may work competently (I ran Star Wars Galaxies over Wine on Ubuntu with a minimum of problems a couple years ago).

All in all though, I think I’ll be switching back to Windows on my desktop in the near future.

So as I’ve done in the past, here are the goals I have for myself in the coming year.  Yet again, I find myself overly ambitious.

A Basic, Working Copy of Silt (MUD server)

A leftover from last year (and the year before), I plan on having a working copy (in the loosest of terms).   Realistically, I don’t foresee this one happening this year either, but if I don’t put it here it’ll fall by the wayside.

Final version of the Birthright site

Three rewrites in and a handful of concept changes later, I think I finally have things settled.  This is the project of the year and I plan on having it fully, completely finished by the end of the year.

Brainstorm at least 5 good ideas for Linux Journal articles

Since getting one article idea accepted, I’ve been bitten by the bug.  Whether I come up with 5 ideas that get accepted or not, I want to come up with the ideas nonetheless.

Read the complete Hellblazer series

The comic series that spawned the movie Constantine.  I’ve had it for most of a year now, and just haven’t gotten around to reading it.  Time to change that.

Read 12 fiction books

I think this is self-explanatory.

Read 2 non-fiction book

This, also, is self-explanatory.

Master Scroll 2.0 project

This is a project for the website I maintain for my fraternity to keep track of info about the membership.  I’m working on making it a Joomla component and cleaning it up.

Finalize Drink Matron layout

I’m maintaining a website for my girlfriend and I told her I’d develop a template for it.

Pay off personal loan

‘Nuff said.

Pay $5k on student loans

Again, ’nuff said.

I started off the year with some pretty ambitious goals (as seen here), and now that we’ve reached the end of the year its time to take a look and reflect on these goals.

A Basic, Working copy of Silt (MUD Server)

This was a lofty goal at best from the get go, but I wanted to put it on the list to keep my mind on it.  The most I accomplished was starting a sourceforge project page for it.  So I think we can place this solidly in the FAIL category.

Finish the Birthright Webpage

This was one of those goals that started as a firmly planted win that would be trivial to complete, but ended up being the exact opposite.  I found myself getting too tied up in style issues and less worried about function.  Also, starting in June (when I got my job) I suddenly found myself without free time to work on it.  So in the ensuing chaos, I revamped the site and moved a little further into functional coding than I had been.  While not completed, it’s still making progress toward completion.  While I feel good about the progress of this project, I said I’d finish and I’m not even close to that goal so: FAIL

Achieve JLPT level 4

There’s nothing to say about this one except:  FAIL

Write a white paper on security

Originally, the idea for this came from when I was at Defcon and several of the speakers said that there is no better way to force yourself to learn a subject than to write a white paper on it.  I decided to do this as a goal simply to force myself to learn a little more about a subject I enjoy, and perhaps to get my name out there a little more (hey, you can’t blame a guy for a little self-promotion).  While I never got the proper push to writing a security paper, I did get approved to write an article for The Linux Journal regarding command line history.  The article isn’t done yet, but is solidly on its way and not due until July 2010.  Because the research is done and all that’s left is to finish the writing, this goal goes to: MEH.

Read 12 fiction books

I read Watchmen, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Babylon Babies, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, and Dexter by Design.  That puts me at 10 books, which is 83%.  Not too bad considering my lack of free time all around.  Chalk this one up to SUCCEED.

Read 2 non-fiction books

I got halfway through 1 book and halfway through another.  I just can’t force myself to stay interested in non-fiction and I don’t know why.  FAIL

Start a podcast

I did it, we’re at 24 episodes strong and 2 months short of a year running.  Inconsistent, I know, but we’re getting better!  Listen at http://whatstherumpuspodcast.com/ SUCCEED

Be $10k less in debt

I made a good deal of progress towards paying off my debt, not as much as I’d have liked but a decent go of it nonetheless.  MEH

So there is a rundown of my goals for this year.  Stay tuned next week when I recount my goals for the coming year.

I recently read an article on Lifehacker about how Netflix is in talks with some movie studios in regards to cutting the cost of the DVDs they buy from the studios significantly.  In exchange, Netflix will be required to withold new releases until 30 days after the initial DVD release.  I feel that this is a bad move on their part and felt inclined to tell them so.  I encourage you to do the same.  This is what I wrote to Netflix via http://www.netflix.com/ContactPR:

I recently read a post on lifehacker.com regarding a possible plan to delay availability of movies for 30 after their DVD release. This is an absurd idea. There are two ways that people will react to this.

1). Blind Indifference – The reason people use Netflix is to see movies whenever they have a chance to. Just because a movie isn’t available for 30 days doesn’t mean people will rush out to purchase (or rent) the DVD. My account, for example, has close to the 500 disc limit imposed on accounts so it will be a LONG time before I get around to watching any new releases.

2). Sheer Outrage – I know several people who are willing to cancel their accounts over this. Why are they paying you money if have to go to a Brick and Mortar to get new releases anyway? Chances are those of your (former) customers that fall into this category will end up pirating the movies as a form of protest against the movie industry.

In neither case will it drive up DVD sales, and at best you will simply keep your customers at the status quo. I understand that it would cut your costs significantly, but how is this a good business decision on your part?

(http://lifehacker.com/5402449/netflix-may-delay-new-release-movies-by-a-full-month)

Have you ever been forced to change your password on a regular basis, more frequently than you feel you should have to?  Have you ever tried to set your password only to be told that the password didn’t meet some requirement?  I’ve been thinking about this topic quite a bit lately because both of these situations have arisen in the last month for me.

At my job, I am required (by Windows Domain Policy implemented by our system administrator) to change my password every 45 days.  I understand the mentality behind forcing password changes on a regular basis.  Changing your password on a regular basis means that if your password is ever compromised it’s only compromised until the next password change.  Unfortunately, if a person is required to change their password too often, more than likely they’ll make it something easy to remember as opposed to making it a password that’s difficult to crack.  I’ve found that changing my password every 3 months is a good balance for me.

Like most of my generation, I use the Internet for a LOT of things.  I have accounts on numerous websites (some I don’t even remember).  So believe me when I say, I’ve seen some pretty ridiculous password policies.  I’ve seen:

• sites that require 1 capital letter, 1 number, and 1 special character, but only allow a password to be 8 characters long,
• sites that require 1 capital letter, 1 number, and 1 special character, but the number can’t be the first character and the special character can’t be the last character,
• sites that don’t broadcast the password policy, just tell you that you’re password doesn’t fit,
• sites that have a max length for the password but don’t tell you, and there is no error when you set it.

and these are just a few of the more ridiculous ones.

Implementing policies like this can lead to security breaches or lax password management.  For instance, to circumvent the password policy at work, I wrote a batch script that would change my domain password a specified number of times (this is because in Windows you can set a policy to keep password history and disallow you from using the same password within the history, in my office its 25) and back to the original password.

A friend and I schemed up an idea for password policy a few years ago.   First off, there is no policy with regards to minimum length, required character sets, or placement of characters.  The enforced changing of  the password would be dependent on the strength of the current password.  If you have a weak password, you’ll have to reset your password sooner.  If you have a ridiculously strong password (64 characters with alphanumeric and special characters including capital letter and minimal entropy, because that’s how I roll) you would never have to change your password.

I suppose the moral of my story is that password policies can be good if implemented sanely.  If not, they can cause more problems than they prevent.  In short:  password policies GOOD, moronic IT managers BAD

It’s my blog, and I can say whatever I want. So there.

Also, I’ll have you know this is the only hit when searching for Bliggle Darnock Marchiqua Norlanthou via Google. I have exclusivity, baby!

Yours Truly,
Quigniggly McPooterspank

I’ll start by saying this: I hate online quizzes.  Occasionally there is one that is entertaining or even makes sense.  But for the most part, they are inane and try to equate you to some abstract concept that there is no real mapping from human personality to.  They’ve only been made worse by the influx of apps into Facebook, and the ease in which someone can slap together a quiz app and share it to all their Facebook friends.  Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:

• What Type of Heart Are You?
• Who were you in a past life?
• What type of kiss are you?
• What decade are you?
• What type of shoes are you

And the list goes on and on!  The ones that really bother me are the ones that ask 3 or 4 questions that have nothing to do with the question and then magically correlate that information into some relevant category to determine what type of shoe you would be if you were a pair of shoes.  Sometimes I think people mindlessly click links to quizzes just because they are now trained to do that.  So here’s what I’m going to do.  I will post a link to this article on twitter under the auspices of being the link to a quiz.  I will keep track of the clicks through to the page and update this article.

So, are you one of the people who fell for it?  See below for the current(ish) number of clicks I’ve generated.

Update: Between the time that I posted to twitter with the fake link introduction and the time that Twitterfeed tweeted the link legitimately for my blog, I received 7 clicks for this little experiment.

While eating a bowl of cereal the other day, I realized that I have an incredibly particular way of eating cereal.

The Milk

I like 2% milk.  It’s not as slimy as whole milk, but its still got that milk flavor to it.  When eating cereal, the milk HAS to be cold: cold-enough-to-hurt-your-teeth cold.

The Cereal

The type and brand of cereal are unimportant.  Though, for the record, I’m not a big fan of really sweet cereals (no marshmallows for me thankyouverymuch).

The Mix

Here’s where I start to get a little crazy.  You should fill the bowl with milk to 1/3 the level you added the cereal to.  Yes, I’m saying you pour the cereal first.  If you don’t, the first bite of cereal won’t have any milk soaked into it.  The ratio of cereal to milk is very important because each bite of cereal (eaten with a teaspoon, not a tablespoon) should be filled to the brim with milk with half as much cereal mixed in.

Each spoonful of cereal is the perfect mix of cereal and milk, and every spoonful a zen moment to start my day.

It’s been a while since I’ve written in cursive.  I don’t think I even remember all the letters.  Being a computer guy (read ubernerd), I quit handwriting things the moment I could get away with it.  I think it was somewhere around 13 or 14.  Prior to that, I was still required to turn things in handwritten in school.

I recently read an article at Lifehacker with the same title (http://lifehacker.com/5323302/is-cursive-handwriting-dead), in which they speak on the general decline of cursive handwriting and its effect on writing practices.  They say “People born after 1980 tend to have a distinctive style of handwriting: a little bit sloppy, a little bit childish and almost never in cursive.”  The question is, does this stem from the abundance of computers in society?  I feel that this may be an indirect cause, but I think it ultimately comes down to teachers not enforcing handwriting at an early age anymore.

What this breeds, is a culture of illegible handwriting.  A previous boss used to pass me handwritten notes with instructions, commands, passwords, etc. on them and I would ALWAYS have to ask for clarification.  But, I can’t throw stones since my glass house is pretty illegible itself.  Sometimes I wish I had spent more time on my handwriting, then I write something out long hand and my hand cramps and I realize why I like typing on the computer more.  Well, there will be plenty of time to improve my handwriting after civilization collapses and we’re all living in caves again.

Ever since I bought an iPhone several months ago, I’ve noticed something: AT&T is scared to death of the iPhone and its popularity.  They do everything in their power to hamstring the iPhone, whether it be limiting its capabilities on their network or forcing Apple to drop apps from its app store, they do what they can to protect their precariously built network.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me give you a few examples.

Slingbox
There is now a slingbox player app in the iPhone store!  We all say “Great!  Now I can watch TV on the go!” (which is the purpose of Slingbox).  “Oh no you can’t”, says AT&T which forced the makers of the Slingbox app to limit its use to wifi only.  $30 was a bit pricey for an iPhone app, but you could justify it if you wanted to watch TV anywhere.  Since it got kneecapped, I (and many others out there) wouldn’t even consider buying this app for a second.

3GS
Apparently this version of the iPhone is supposed to be faster over the air.  We’ll never know, because AT&T has this service blocked, allowing it to act no different than an iPhone 3G on their network.

MMS
This follows on the heels of 3GS because the two were released together, with the same result, for the same reason.

Netflix and Hulu
There have been rumors of official Netflix and Hulu apps recently that will allow you to watch Netflix and Hulu on your iPhone.  Again though, speculation says that AT&T will force these services to work over wifi only so their network isn’t crippled from the traffic.

In spite of all the hack and slashing they’ve done to what the iPhone does on their network, AT&T’s network still is one of the worst networks I’ve ever experienced.  What this is doing, is making the customers frustrated with AT&T.  Seriously, what were they thinking when they signed the exclusivity contract with Apple?  That everyone would buy the phone, pay for the contract and then never use it?  They should have put some serious effort into beefing up their network before the original iPhone was released, and continued improvements thereafter.  The marketshare the iPhone takes up will only increase, as will network usage and consumption.  It’s only a matter of time before the contract between AT&T and Apple is up, and if AT&T hasn’t shaped up, you’ll see a flood of ex-AT&T customers swarming every other service provider in the country begging and pleading to get away from AT&T as quickly as possible.