Some evil nasty cold callers  who want to sell us windows and doors have been on the phone for a third time. Previously they have been cagey and haven’t given away any information that could identify them, except the name “Status”. They always claim to have made an appointment with the homeowner (that’s me) to…
Ballooning
Charlie’s birthday present this year, it being an important year: I chose Wickers World for the flight, since they have sites nearby and seemed the most professional. We were lucky enough to fly on the first attempt and had beautiful weather, although there was rain behind us.
X-RaceProtection: yes
From time to time it occurs that two people answer a mail in the same way where one would do – closing an unblock request, for example. When this almost happened on debian-release the other day I amused myself by dreaming up an SMTP header that would prevent such embarrassment. I wasn’t being serious in…
Tips for a successful BSP
It is important to rehearse your space carefully. Find a quantity of friends equal to the attendees you expect, lay out the intended room, and check that everybody has free and easy access to their chair. Invest in a decent access point and some power strips with a decent cord length. Relax. I cannot stress…
From building to demolishing
Building things is fun, but sometimes it’s nice to have a little light relief with a sledgehammer. Saturday was one of those occasions; there is was a ‘decorative’ wall in the corner of our lounge. It should have died about thirty years ago and I’ve hated it ever since we moved in a year ago. First…
Point Release Security, Reloaded
When I first undertook the tracking of minor security fixes in point releases, I quickly out-scaled flat text files and a good memory. A Python library and sqlite database helped automate sending notifications and keeping tabs, but the manual work associated with tracking incoming bugs from the security team, applications to and responses from the…
I’m probably not going to DebConf12
For two years I have been very fortunate indeed to be fully sponsored for travel and accommodation at DebConf – once on the Newbies programme, and once from normal funds. However, considering the cost this year (at least $1,000 in travel expenses) and of personal circumstances, which are not favourable, I am reliant on sponsorship…
Reinstalling at arm’s length
Recently I had need to re-purpose a server and for convenience, I decided to do a complete wipe and reinstall since it had previously been used for all sorts of package testing, experiments, dak debugging, the list goes on. I took a careful backup and then cooked up some USB installation media, but it took so long to boot (USB1.1, yay) I ran out of time before the building was locked.
Since this box has two hard disks, and not being one to back down from a challenge, I eventually reinstalled it over the weekend with nothing – no install media, no reinstall robot or intelligent hands – just a reliable internet connection and a healthy dose of courage. Here’s how.
DebConf 11
So, I got enough of the requisite sponsorship and finally booked some flights…