Older blog entries for cdfrey (starting at number 89)

badvogato: I'm not sure who you're quoting, but that's not the only way to view this topic. See also this (point #10) and this.

Time for that monty python spam song again... :-)

ryuslash: looks like you've got the right balance to me. Advogato is just more free-form than you might be used to. We make up the formatting rules as we go along.

ryuslash wrote:

Anyway, the reason that I have found this is that I'd really like to comment on certain people's posts, but I don't want to fill up the recentlog with these replies. Only the people interested in the original post would want to know about any discussion about that post, I would think.


Actually, this is totally the wrong logic for Advogato. :-) If it is about Free Software, then assume that everyone is interested, and comment away. If it is even remotely linked to Free Software, you can assume the same. And if someone has already posted something to the recentlog, then responding to it in the recentlog is definitely fair game.

It is helpful if you include a link back to the post you are replying to, though.

As for features, I don't know StevenRainwater's patch queue process, so he should answer that. But I did add some comments to that particular article concerning features that I think would improve the recentlog threading.

bbTracker and Local Content warning on the BlackBerry

I've been playing with the bbTracker BlackBerry app on a BlackBerry 9000 device, running v5.0.0.348 (Platform 5.2.0.23) firmware. bbTracker is an open source GPS logger, which just tracks your location, but does not include maps. Useful for very basic GPS work, or for Open Street Map.

Anyway, when you install this application as a COD file, it is not signed like many others, and when it tries to access the filesystem on the device, the BlackBerry OS shows the following prompt message:

The application bbTracker has attempted to open local content. But it does not contain a signature. It might not be from a trusted source. Would you like to allow this? Yes/No

This gets very annoying, as you can imagine. And this particular prompt does not have a "do not ask me again" checkbox, so it appears every time.

I'm using a BlackBerry 9000 device, running v5.0.0.348 (Platform 5.2.0.23) firmware.

Since bbTracker is not signed, you will need to adjust the filesystem permissions manually. Go into Options | Applications | Edit Permissions. Unsigned applications have three main groups: RIM, MIDP groups, and MIDP JSRs.



When the cursor is along the top, select MIDP groups:



Expand the Data Space, using the main menu:



I set all these options to ALLOWED:

I'm not sure what the ONESHOT, SESSION, and BLANKET options are, but allowing these permissions removes the above prompt for me.

Syndicated 2011-09-03 15:49:50 from A Pilgrim's Journal - Entries tagged advogato

ryuslash: Welcome. This can be a rather daunting site to get started on, if you don't know anyone. I've given you the benefit of the doubt and set you to Journeyer (for personal reasons, that's the only cert I give).

Try writing about the free software you've done, or would like to do. Tell us more about yourself so we can get to know you. Perhaps even write some documentation and post it here.

What languages are you proficient in? What free software do you use regularly? What features would you like to see in them? What's your current free software project?

The recentlog needs more free software topics. :-)

Inspiring Japanese Culture

fzort, thanks for the link! There is so much that's smart in that article. I like the idea of rotating teachers. I'm impressed.

My small personal experience with Japanese culture is also favourable. Their respect for their elders takes things to a new level that just seems completely out of fashion in the west. I found that there was a lot to learn from the simple example of just one Japanese student's life.

Your Don Knuth comment made me chuckle. It's true; it would be hard not to love him. Maybe if more Christians lived like that, we wouldn't be "taking the Lord's name in vain" and giving God a bad rep in the world.

Syndicated 2011-03-19 17:57:46 from A Pilgrim's Journal - Entries tagged advogato

Crackpots and Disasters

fzort, as fair warning, you might consider me as one of those "religious wackos" that you dislike, but not every wacko is the same. If I may be so bold, I'd suggest that you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. The "bathwater" here being the Christians who are giving you all the reason you seem to need to hate their God.

If God exists, who do you think He would be more angry at: a person who makes over a million dollars a year, who may even claim to be a Christian, and still has most of it in his bank account at the end of the year; or a poor Haitian who practices voodoo?

I think this is a difference that a lot of us "religious wackos" miss. If we are somehow blessed with plenty in the western world, that is not evidence that God is rewarding us for something good we've done. Rather, it is proof that we are doing a piss-poor job at the responsibility God has given us to take care of the poor. And if any of these Christians read the Bible, they should take note of the parts that indicate that rich people who don't share are actually storing up judgment for themselves in the very wealth they take comfort in. Their riches are their judgment. That cool thousand, million, or billion in the bank will be a liability at the last day.

Don't assume someone is a Christian just because they claim to be. And by that same token, don't assume that God is pleased with Christians just because they claim He is.

If I understand the Bible correctly, North America could easily be more hell-worthy than Japan or Haiti, in the same way that Jerusalem in Jesus's day was more hell-worthy than Sodom and Gomorrah.

Syndicated 2011-03-18 17:44:25 from A Pilgrim's Journal - Entries tagged advogato

fzort: I suspect that proclus does not read the recent log. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I've ever seen him respond to anyone.

This may be a clue as to how to cleanup the recentlog. Perhaps an automatic email whenever your nick is mentioned in a blog post. Or a <call_you_out> tag, which requires a response within a month before you get pruned from the default recentlog threshold. :-)

Repairing the GoFlex Home NAS Drive

I was recently introduced to the GoFlex Home Network Drive over the holidays, and got to help set it up. Unfortunately, the device has a bug, which is not fixed in the latest updates, that makes it impossible to use static IP addresses.

Each time the device powers off and restarts, it sets itself to use DHCP.

The device runs Linux under the hood, and even exposes the SSH port, but the accounts it uses are not obvious. And root is disabled.

To fix the device yourself, you will first need root access. The easiest way is described in this wiki page. Basically:

	ssh USERNAME_hipserv2_seagateplug_XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX@DEVICE_IP_ADDRESS
	sudo -E -s

The USERNAME is the name of the account you have created on the device, when using the usual Windows interface. The XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX is the PK Product Key located on the bottom of the device.

First, make it easier to gain root access by enabling root SSH logins:

	Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and uncomment:
		PermitRootLogin yes
	Set your own root password:
		passwd root
	Restart SSH:
		service sshd restart

Next, there is a bug in the logic of the /etc/init.d/oe-bootinit script's ensure_firstbootnetwork() function. The entire function should probably only run if the /etc/firstboot file exists, but there is an if/else statement that only checks this for the first half of the if statement. The else is where the DHCP overwrite happens.

By this point, though, your device has passed the first boot, so you don't need this code anymore. I commented out the entire block of code, and replaced it with something innocuous, just to avoid any shell issues with empty functions:

        echo do nothing > /dev/null

You'll want to be careful editing these files, since if you make a typo that prevents network boot, you won't be able to login to fix it.

It seems that Seagate has known about this issue since September, but there were no software updates that fix this issue. Using the web interface to check for updates, it claimed that the device was up to date. You may want to take this into consideration when making future purchasing decisions.

Good luck, and enjoy!

Syndicated 2011-01-03 16:14:18 from A Pilgrim's Journal - Entries tagged advogato