Now 100% Ubuntu only at home

Migrated from Fedora Core to Ubuntu. The reasoning is simple. The upgrade on my desktop for Fedora was proving problematic - the /boot partition is only 200Mb but apparently 500Mb is required. I would either have had to use a hard-wired connection to download FC14 or resize the partition.

Option a) is out during to wiring restrictions and Option b) was out simply because I couldn't be bothered. I have the latest Ubuntu (meerkat) on my laptop and any install or upgrade with it has always been very simple. Hence the decision.

Result: Happy. Ubuntu working very well on my (very) old desktop.

Migration from Ubuntu Lucid Lynx to...

..Maverick Meerkat via Update Manager was, as usual, very easy and went smoothly. No issues to report.

Also installed Ubuntu Tweak and it has been very useful in tidying up and removing old packages and kernels.

The C++ Programming Language by the creator of C++

Just started to wade through the tome that is the above book by non-other than Bjarne Stroustrup himself.

I am looking forward to it - but his opening assertion that C++ is 'fun' is already something I have taken issue with :-)

It should make for interesting reading when stacked up against the C++ Coding Standards (101 rules, guidelines and best practices) which he was also involved in writing.

Finally...

..got around to completing "C++ for Dummies" as mentioned on Feburary 10th of this year!

Now to proceed with completing the following

"C++ Coding Standards - 101 Rules, Guidelines and Best Practices"

So far I am at point 18. There is a lot to C++ !

Finally got OpenVPN and Firestarter to play nice

My last post indicated there were web pages out there you could refer to to get Firestarter and OpenVPN to work together.

However the following link provided me with the details for MY situation (your own may obviously be different)

http://ignore-your.tv/2006/08/03/openvpn-and-firestarter/

So, for me I had to update the user-pre file with details of my tap interface. Thus I added the following:-

$IPT -A INPUT -i tap+ -j ACCEPT
$IPT -A OUTPUT -o tap+ -j ACCEPT

To find out if you must add details for a tap or tun interface, run the command 'ifconfig -a' from your command line and look for the 'tap0' or 'tun0' (or similar text). Note, this of course will only show up IF your VPN is already up and running - but not working (due to Firestarter ;-)

Security - Linux style

Maybe it's because I have been left scarred by my use of Windows or maybe it's simply good sense but I am adding a firewall and virus checker to my Fedora install.

• Firestarter (firewall)
• clamAV (virus checker)

Life in the Old Dog yet?

Seems I could have been a bit premature on the future of the Palm Pre. HP are certainly talking up entry into the smartphone market with the Palm and webOs leading the way.

The OS (in my opinion) is at least the equal of the iPhone OS in most regards and better in others (true multitasking from the word go on webOS).

Now lets see how HP takes on Apple in the coming months!

The big advantage for HP/Palm is the community of developers out there who love to develop on the webOS platform.

Palm Pre

I am very much enjoying using the Palm Pre. Unfortunately it looks like the days of the Palm are numbered. Little or nothing has been heard of potential onoing developments for webOS devices since the takeover by HP.

If anyone has heard of anything from HP in terms of a roadmap for webOS and future smartphones from Palm/HP I would be very much interested in hearing about it....along with every other Palm Pre owner!

Linux kernel and Linksys USB wireless adapter

I had problems with my Linksys WUSB54GS wireless adapter when I tried to use it with Ubuntu (v9.10 Karmic Koala and v10.04 Lucid Lynx) and Fedora (Fedora Core 2 and Fedora 12).

Sometimes it would work and find my network. Other times it would not. This seemed to be related to issues with its driver (rndis).

I purchased a new TP-Link wireless adapter from e-bay. This worked straight out of the box with Ubuntu 10.04. This uses the rt73 driver (I think).

Anyway, the up-shot is I am finally certain that I have a wireless adapter I can reply on and I can recommend it - for Ubuntu 10.04 at least. I am going to re-install Fedora 12 and see what happens there.

Ubuntu/YouTube/Firefox - "an error occurred, please try again later"

I upgraded my laptop to the latest version of Ubuntu (10.04). I noticed straight away that embedded Youtube videos where not working in Firefox. After much messing around I found the following worked.

1) Remove swfdec - a free open source replacement for Adobe Flash Player
2) Remove gnash - the GNU SWF movie player

This was on the back of advice from this post.

This resolved the issue - But i am left wondering what the impacts of removing the above packages may be?

Disabling Broadcast SSID does not work on Fedora with LinkSys WUSB54GS

I normally disable the broadcast of the SSID of my wireless betwork as set up on my LinksysWAG54GS router. Turns out that this behaviour is not supported by the driver used by my USB modem (a Linksys WUSB54GS) on Fedora.

Interestingly, some people think that using what I thought was a fairly obvious security feature is pretty pointless.

Have a look here for the fact that WUSB54GS and disabling SSID does not work on Fedora/Linux. It's in black and white under the 'What does not' work section.

As a result, consider upping your WPA password to greater than 20 characters to make it useful!

Windows Free

I am now Microsoft Windows free for the first time since University.
CentOS at work, Ubuntu on my laptop, Fedora at home and of course webOS on my Palm Pre.

Feels good :-)

Remember the Milk App for the Palm Pre

I was able to install this app from the Palm USA link.

This application is currently in beta but it is a welcome addition to my own beta GTD system.

Unfortunately there seems to be an issue with Google/RTM and the Palm Calendar app.

I have the Palm Pre Calendar app sync'd with with my Google account calendar. This works fine.

For Google calendar I have added the RTM Daily and sidebar gadgets. Again, these all look fine when I view my Google calendar with my browser on the laptop/desktop.

Now, when I look at my Palm Pre calendar I can see that there is an RTM task icon at the start of each day. However, none of the entries from the RTM task list (which shows up fine on Google calendar ) has made it onto the Palm Pre calendar i.e. it is always empty.

I have posted about this on PreCentral and RTM forums. If and when I get this issue resolved I will post an update.

Customised Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic

I am currently reading up on CAMEL/CAP/GSM/SS7 concepts. It has been a while since I have done anything in this area having been concentrating on SIP for so long. This is all part of AePONA's Network Gateway project.

It's nice to get to grips with something different.

Test of my RememberTheMilk calendar.

Getting Things Done (BETA) system in place

Well, I have set up my first iteration of a GTD system. I have based it on another guy's system as documented in his blog . So a big thank you to him.

I have tweaked the system though and I am using the website RememberTheMilk to handle my action lists. The original suggestion was to use Google Notebook but although it is still available for use, Google have deprecated it and will not be supporting it going forward.

So, my beta system is in place. I have no doubt there will be the initial teething problems and things will get refined along the way but it is good to have a GTD system up and running in the office. I still have to do the same at home though!

Getting Things Done

I have started reading David Allen's Getting Things Done (to add to my reading list).

It seems the GTD system is well thought of. I will give it a go once I am finished reading.

Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04 to Ubunut 9.10

This morning I shall be attempting a network upgrade of my laptop using the following link.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

Any problems shall be noted and recorded for posterity.

An online wiki

I have decided to choose Zoho.com to act as the host for my wiki page. I have been using kjots as an extended notepad application in my job as a software developer. It has proved very useful but I would like to have access to my notes from any web-enabled device and not just my desktop at the office.

I had a quick look around and it seemed my choices were:-
1) Set up a machine to act as a server and host my own wiki.
2) Put my wiki on a USB stick
3) Simply replace kjots with a wiki on my desktop at the office
4) Find an online wiki hosted by another website.

3) was immediately ruled out. 1) was too much like hard work. 2) always ran the risk of getting lost.

Hence I chose the last option. Zoho.com has been chosen. Let's see how it goes.

New reading material

Back to the following reading material now

1) C++ for Dummies

2) C++ Coding Standards - 101 Rules, Guidelines and Best Practices

As stated on November 18, the first is being read as its never a bad idea to go back over
the basics once in a while - you never know what you missed.

The second book is being read as it comes highly recommended by colleagues.

Completed reading Mobile Web 2.0

Finished reading the following book

"Mobile Web 2.0"

An interesting read given that it was written in 2005 and quite a bit of what they discussed has come to pass (especially around the smart phone handsets)

Twitter

Just signed up for Twitter - ostensibly to follow the GSMA OneAPI tweets

NaaS - Network as a Service

Created a new entry for an emerging concept - the Network as a Service (NaaS)- on Wikipedia.

The NaaS term has been coined by Aepona.

Returning to work on Monday 1st of February

Well loyal followers(!) I return to work from paternity leave on Monday, 1st of February, 2010. Hopefully I will start making semi-regular contributions to my blog once again after that.

Happy New Year - and there is a baby on the way

Due to break from work today for a few weeks as my wife is expecting our second child.

Hopefully I get back to regular updates on my blog after the happy event.