Archive for April, 2010
2010
04.29
Tags: 10.04, LTS, lucid lynx, released, ubuntu
Posted in linux, sysadmin, ubuntu | No Comments »
They’ve passed their RC status and have moved into full Long-Term Release for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx — local mirrors are still showing the RC version, but it’s out!
What’s new?
- F-Spot replaces the GIMP
- PiTiVi video editor added
- GNOME 2.30
- New themes: Ambiance and Radiance
- New wallpaper
- Linux kernel 2.6.32
- New nVidia hardware driver
- Gwibber social media application
- Faster boot time, with a different look and feel on the bootsplash screen
- Ubuntu One adds contacts and bookmark sharing
- Ubuntu One music store integrated into Ryhthmbox
- Ubuntu Software Center 2.0
I’ve only played with the 10.04 Server edition so far, and the faster boot time is definately a big win (though some regressive network driver support still needed to be ironed out – hopefully sorted for the final release…)
Yay!!! Well done, guys!! Thanks for a new, even more sparkly LTS!
2010
04.29
Tags: latency, network, seacom, south africa
Posted in Did you know, seacom, sysadmin | 1 Comment »
The latest notification received from SEA-ME-WE 4 indicates that the repair work on the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable is expected to be completed by 22.00 (UTC) on 28 April 2010.
That’s the update from SEACOM. MTN Business gives similar information.
An hour ago, the link was marked as back up – the stability of the link will be shown by how fast / how slow the access on the web via the SEACOM cable is again, after the last few days of slow web access and intermittant internet connectivity via rerouting…
Here’s hoping…!
2010
04.27
Tags: latency, network, seacom, south africa
Posted in Did you know, seacom, sysadmin | 2 Comments »
MTN Business (in their NOC notices) have confirmed what SEACOM had alluded to – the maintenance windows (and hence the high latency and traffic redirection via the SAT3 cable rather than the SEACOM link) has been extended until 30 April 2010. SEACOM in their notice on 26 April:
The ongoing repair work is affecting several cable systems and has impacted negatively on the overall Internet connectivity in many regions across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, which rely to some extent on the availability of the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable for global connectivity. (more…)
2010
04.25
Tags: bash, command line, Exchange, imap, pop3, shell, telnet
Posted in bash, code, linux, sysadmin, windows | No Comments »
It’s quite simple, really: POP3 (Exchange, dovecot etc) you know, IMAP (Exchange, dovecot, courier etc) you know — so this is just a recap, right? You know how to telnet into the machine — in Vista or Windows 7, you may need to install it separately using “Add/Remove Programs”, or just use Putty in Telnet mode… otherwise, apt-get install telnet if it’s not on your machine (or yum install telnet)
POP3:
telnet SERVER 110 (more...)
2010
04.25
Tags: deactivate, facebook, privacy, remove account
Posted in security, sysadmin | No Comments »
Just a few clicks to deactivating your account...
Facebook — now will accounts up for sale ($25 / 1000 where there are less than 10 friends, and $45 / 1000 where there are more than 10 friends) – has again changed their privacy approach – even retroactively…
So – here’s a quick how-to on removing yourself from the system:
- Log into your account with your valid username and password
- Choose “Account” -> “Account Settings” (top right-hand corner)
- Choose “Deactivate account” – last option of those on the page.
- Choose your reason for deactivation – top of the list (ironically) is “I have a privacy concern”, with “I don’t feel safe on Facebook” at number 6.
- Click on “Deactivate my account” (remember to opt out of receiving future mails from Facebook, too)
But you knew that already! 
2010
04.21
Tags: cannot find, DDE, errors, excel, microsoft, office, windows
Posted in sysadmin, windows | No Comments »
Uncheck Excel's Ignore other applications' DDE and you're done!
You double-click an attachment in Outlook – or Thunderbird – or any mail client or third-party client, for that matter – and you can’t open the file in Office (in my case Excel 2007, but this works for Excel 2003 as well).
But instead of the file, you get a notification telling you that Windows cannot find “filename“. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button and then click search.
Fear not – there’s hope. (more…)
2010
04.20
Tags: activation, phone number, toll-free, windows, xp
Posted in sysadmin, windows | 6 Comments »
Windows XP – got to love it. We have all reached the spot where we need to activate XP over the phone for some reason or another.
On the activation screen, there’s a phone number – which does not work. It’s a matter of finding the right one, though – an a simple Google. Yahoo! or Bing search doesn’t return the result quickly. (more…)
2010
04.19
Tags: clowns, mini cooper, venn, volkswagen beetle, wolfram
Posted in Did you know | No Comments »
There are important questions, and there are more important questions. Wolfram|Alpha positions itself as a computational knowledge engine. Questions such as “What is pi?” are quickly resolved, with a good short summary stating that π is a universal mathematical constant that is defined as the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. That’s all fine and good. You can ask tricky things, such as “10 nearest stars” and it works it out, and Bob’s your uncle, ask about an ISBN number at it will render the barcode, and give a basic Venn-diagram question, and it gives you a logical and graphical portayal. (more…)
2010
04.18
Tags: iceland, nats, volcano
Posted in Did you know | 4 Comments »
Futher to previous information about the volcano impact on air travel, another update will follow at 21h00 BST, but the latest is below:
Based on the latest information from the Met Office, NATS advises that the restrictions currently in place across UK controlled airspace will remain in place until at least 0700 (local time) tomorrow, Monday 19 April.
Let’s see what happens next…
Update – 19 Apr 2010:
Based on the latest information from the Met Office, NATS advises that the restrictions currently in place across UK controlled airspace will remain in place until 0700 (local time) tomorrow, Tuesday (20 April).
From 0700 (local time) tomorrow, Tuesday, Scottish airspace will be open, and south to a line between Teesside and Blackpool. Mainland Scottish airports will be open.
This is a dynamic and changing situation and is therefore difficult to forecast beyond 0700 local; however, the latest Met Office advice is that the contaminated area will continue to move south with the possibility that restrictions to airspace above England and Wales, including the London area, may be lifted later tomorrow (Tuesday).
2010
04.17
Tags: iceland, nats, volcano
Posted in Did you know | 2 Comments »
The Icelandic Weather Office summarises it nicely:
Kristín s Vogfjörð © Bárður EinarssonPhoto taken west from Reynisfjall towards the sea, off the village Vík, south Iceland. Black ash obscuring the sunlight.
“After a few days of quiet in Eyjafjallajökull volcano, a new and much more forceful eruption has begun west of Fimmvörðuháls, under the ice-cap.
The eruption is below the highest peak of Eyjafjallajökull, at the southern rim of the caldera.
A plume rises at least 8 km into the air. No lava is seen yet but melt-water flows both north and south of the mountain.”
From NATS (which has a temporary page up relating to the airspace over the UK clogged up due to the volcanic ash from the volcano in Iceland): (more…)
2010
04.16
Tags: clamav, clamav-milter, clamd, end of life
Posted in code, Did you know, security, sysadmin | No Comments »
clamav finally sent the end-of-life payload yesterday evening – 0.96 is the current version, so it’s been a good run
Possible symptons you experienced:
- Repeated notifications:
WARNING: getpatch: Can't download daily- - All freshclam mirrors are ignored
- Your mailq fills up with detailed MAILER-DAEMON messages referring to the End-of-Life nature of clamav 0.94
- (… add your own here…)
But they warned they’d do this in October 2009:
Starting from 15 April 2010 our CVD will contain a special signature which disables all clamd installations older than 0.95 – that is to say older than 1 year.
This move is needed to push more people to upgrade to 0.95 .
We would like to keep on supporting all old versions of our engine, but unfortunately this is no longer possible without causing a disservice to people running a recent release of ClamAV.
The traffic generated by a full CVD download, as opposed to an incremental update, cannot be sustained by our mirrors. (more…)
2010
04.09
Tags: co.za, offline, outage, whois
Posted in Did you know, linux, sysadmin | 1 Comment »
They’ve been working hard! Well done!!
| Function | Status | Comments |
|---|
| CAPTCHA whois | Not affected | http://captcha.coza.net.za |
| Port 43 whois | Not affected | whois://whois.coza.net.za |
| Primary Database | Not affected | |
| Name Servers | Not affected | CO.ZA zone integrity unaffected |
| Incoming and Outgoing email | Not affected | Applications queuing on incoming mail server |
| RT Ticket system | Not affected | |
| Network | Partially affected – Fixed | Redundant link restored |
| Main web site | Affected – Fixed | http://www.coza.net.za |
| Web whois | Affected – Fixed | http://www.coza.net.za/whois.shtml |
| Registration Engine (Updates, New, Deletions) | Proceeeding Normally | Backlog processed – transactions being processed in real time
Currently processing queued applications
Final data sync, Final testing ETA afternoon of 8th
New machine commissioned, OS Installed Restoring historic data |
| Payment Processing | processing backlog | Commencing on the 9th – ETA of backlog completion 11th
Processing of Suspension/Deletions suspended until complete |
| Online VISA/Mastercard payments | In progress | ETA 9th
Processing of Suspension/Deletions suspended until complete |
2010
04.09
Tags: apple, hp, hp slate, ipad
Posted in Did you know | No Comments »
The HP Slate - bigger, better, faster?
With the iPad having sold its first 300 000 units, some of which, according to Core, are being imported as grey products into South Africa as we speak, the HP Slate priced at around $550 makes its cautious appearance.
With a 1.6GHz processor, a USB port, built-in webcam, optional 3G, 5hrs runtime, and graphics playback at 1080p, it looks like quite a good contender for the — uhm – iPad user market for — uhm — people who don’t want a netbook and don’t want a keyboard, but still 0.68kg device. (more…)
2010
04.09
Tags: dual-boot, gnu, groff, links, mingw32, sed, vmware, wget, whois, windows, wubi
Posted in bash, code, linux, sysadmin, windows | No Comments »
You’re stuck on a Windows box. But you don’t want to install MinGW32? Can’t dual-boot to run Ubuntu or Debian on your Windows machine for some for that GNU happiness that sed, groff, wget, whois and all those happy apps bring with it? (more…)
2010
04.09
Tags: co.za, offline, outage, whois
Posted in Did you know, sysadmin | No Comments »
There’s an update on www.coza.net.za on the system outages they’ve experienced:
| CO.ZA Service Outage Status |
|
| 07 Apr 2010 |
| Original announcement here Current Status of co.za services. | Function | Status | Comments |
|---|
| CAPTCHA whois | Not affected | http://captcha.coza.net.za | | Port 43 whois | Not affected | whois://whois.coza.net.za | | Primary Database | Not affected | | | Name Servers | Not affected | CO.ZA zone integrity unaffected | | Incoming and Outgoing email | Not affected | Applications queuing on incoming mail server | | RT Ticket system | Not affected | | | Network | Partially affected – Fixed | Redundant link restored | | Main web site | Affected – Fixed | http://www.coza.net.za | | Web whois | Affected – Fixed | http://www.coza.net.za/whois.shtml | | Registration Engine (Updates, New, Deletions) | Proceeeding Normally | Backlog processed
Currently processing queued applications
Final data sync, Final testing ETA afternoon of 8th
New machine commissioned, OS Installed Restoring historic data | | Payment Processing | In progress | Commencing on the 9th – ETA of backlog completion 11th
Processing of Suspension/Deletions suspended until complete | | Online VISA/Mastercard payments | In progress | ETA 9th
Processing of Suspension/Deletions suspended until complete |
|
2010
04.08
Tags: co.za, offline, reverse pointers, whois
Posted in Did you know | 1 Comment »
[South Africa - Apr 8. 2010] Both www.co.za (South African co.za Domain Registry) and whois.co.za (The .co.za Domain homepage and the co.za Whois Server (Registration Details)) are offline (at least on port 80, for normal web traffic) — here’s hoping it’s just a reboot / upgrade!
Aaaaaaaaaanyway…
whois.co.za. 86400 IN CNAME co.za.
co.za. 86400 IN A 206.223.136.195
and (more…)
