The Musings of Chris Samuel

• A quick #lazyweb – is there an easy way to return the list of words that MATCH()'d in a #MySQL select ? #
• OK @metrotrains, I know it's a Saturday timetable today but why aren't the trains on the Belgrave line running to it? #
• off to work (eventually), no holiday today for Melbourne Uni staff, we get Easter Tuesday instead for an extra long weekend #
• Looks like the @metrotrains train I was counting on catching to work disappeared into thin air, over 20 min wait till next one! #
• Congrats to Jörn Engel on getting #LogFS into the mainline #Linux kernel for 2.6.34! #
• Note that Australian Do Not Call registrations for your home #phone only last 3 years! http://bit.ly/9z86xy #spam #
• The @newscientist has an interesting article on the issues (and non-issues) with the IPCC 2007 report http://bit.ly/cCkJAU #
• #Victoria is going to use #Linux based e-voting systems – wonder if the #voting software is open ? http://bit.ly/cMaZ3r #
• "0 of 592 processors in use by local jobs" – and more to come! #VLSCI #SGI #torque #moab #
• So why the focus on Melbourne #knifeculture when "assaults involving knives dropped 2.8%" according to police ? #
• US finally recognises the contribution of Women Airforce Service Pilots during WW2 http://bit.ly/dn3qeM (via @marsroverdriver) #
• continued bringing up the #VLSCI #SGI cluster, now at 760 cores, need a few more cables to arrive for the final racks! #
• Great time at @andybotting's going-away party – he's leaving #VPAC and heading to the UK – if you need an #HPC / #grid person grab him! #
• It appears octopuses are TV snobs, they ignore videos on CRT's and only go for HD LCD screens – http://bit.ly/dCpHE9 #
• Court documents show #SCO emailed an "independent" journalist to "send a jab PJ's way" – PJ being the founder of #Groklaw #
• Running a 750 CPU test NAMD job on the VLSCI cluster, so far so good! #

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In an interesting blog on patents, copying and litigation former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz discloses that Bill Gates and Steve Balmer tried to put the frighteners on Sun over OpenOffice.org to try and protect their office application monopoly. Their attack went like this:

“Microsoft owns the office productivity market, and our patents read all over OpenOffice.” [...] “We’re happy to get you under license.”

Of course (as ever) they do not identify any patents, as that would let us fix any problems (if there are actually any), they would much rather weave their usual web of FUD on the matter than come clean. Jonathan’s response turned the issue on them on a different tact:

“We’ve looked at .NET, and you’re trampling all over a huge number of Java patents. So what will you pay us for every copy of Windows?”

That killed that angle of attack off..

I’ve just spent a bit of time fixing up a fairly simple bug that was preventing Rich Boakes’s “Worst Offenders” plugin¹ from working in current WordPress versions (basically it was assuming it had created a submenu somewhere it wasn’t) and merged my branch back into trunk to check the content of comments for a list of bad words. No release yet, this is just in trunk, but if you are feeling adventurous you can go into your WordPress’s wp-content/plugins directory and do:

svn co http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/worst-offenders/trunk/ worst-offenders

Of course make sure you’ve nuked any earlier version of Worst Offenders first!

1. This plugin classifies your Akismet spam queue by various criteria to let you do bulk deletes for comments matching various criteria [back]

The ever fantastic “How to be a Retronaut” website has posted a brilliant collection of colour images of modern Leningrad which have been matched to, and partially overlaid with, black & white photos of the Siege of Leningrad during World War 2.

The collection has been put together by Segei Larenkov.

• 419 scammers now sending pictures of alleged loot and (badly) photoshopped passport ID page – inspired by Mossad? #
• Unfortunately the 419 scammers don't seem to know about EXIF information pics from 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010.. #
• Happy St Davids Day – Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus – Cymru am byth! #cymru #wales #
• Apparently locusts aren't common in Melbourne, advised by friend to send my photos to DPI to confirm whether/not they are #
• http://twitpic.com/160ig7 – Could this be a locust at Cardinia Reservoir ? #
• Installing xCAT via Yum – wow that's easy! #hpc #
• Kudos to @mobicity for publicly sorting out my friends #Nokia #N900 USB port warranty repair http://bit.ly/bWTgjy #
• [hotel door hacking+defence with #HHGTTG RT @alecmuffett must-see for anyone who stays in a hotel: http://bit.ly/aVDmuB #
• Yay for #xcat new #VLSCI #SGI cluster has first compute node remotely installed - now need to refine the kickstart! #
• Also first parts of the #VLSCI #IBM cluster arrived today, but they'll need to wait for the room to be built.. #
• What sort of sick people target hospitals with suicide bombers ? That's not religion, it's inhumane madness.. #
• [LWN subscribers article - please support LWN!] RT@lwnnet: [$] Apple's patent attack http://lwn.net/Articles/376793/rss #
• Yay, #Kubuntu has packages of #KDE 4.4.1 in the KDE PPA – downloading almost 600MB of updates now #
• Link for announcement of #Kubuntu #KDE 4.4.1 packages – http://bit.ly/bAByOp #linux #ubuntu #
• Mr Bean does Avatar RT LEIGHSALES http://twitpic.com/16fuyz – This should give you a giggle to start your day. #
• Finally got serial-over-lan working with #xCat and #SGI XE340's, hadn't set the port to 1 in the nodehm table, d'oh! #
• Very very true – RT @newscientist: Why scientists must be the new climate sceptics http://bit.ly/dqiDyn #
• Looks like the BoM's Laverton rain RADAR is back up and running! http://bit.ly/dowdNR #melbourne #
• http://twitpic.com/160ig7 – Answer from DPI – no it's a grasshopper, but… #
• http://twitpic.com/16jikh – according to DPI this is an adult plague #locust at Cardinia Reservoir near #Melbourne #
• Like to be able to get #Google #Analytics stats for your plugin on #Wordpress org ? Vote for this: http://bit.ly/cOzXho #
• [awesome engineering!] RT @astronomyblog OK GO video which reminds me of the Great Egg Race http://bit.ly/9eByz3 #
• Surived epic hailstorm today – was driving back from Cardinia Reservoir and had to pull over until the worst had passed #
• Got home to find Donna had been defending the house from flooding and helped unblock the road to let it drain properly #
• On/off/undervoltage power for most of arvo – fortunately only a few dents in the car and a cracked window at home #
• Thanks @maddoghall for the blog comment on DECnet orphaned in #Linux sic transit gloria networking! http://bit.ly/aApDqM #
• Great Clark and Dawe sketch on Tony Abbott's Excellent Outback Adventure – http://bit.ly/bKb7Kda #politics #comedy #
• ABC reported hailstones of 10cm diameter in Ferntree Gully – fortunately the ones that hit our car were only golf ball size! #
• BoM 256km #rain radar shows storms heading south towards #Melbourne http://bit.ly/9Dtn3p – could be interesting! :-/ #
• Grr, why is #SVN asking me for my GNOME keyring passphrase? I use #KDE not GNOME, I Have no GNOME passphrase! #fail #
• Looks like the current line of thunderstorms has missed Mount Dandenong, but #Melbourne might not be so lucky.. #
• Looks like the storms have died down a bit looking at the BoM #rain radar – was almost black when it was over Shepparton! #
• Rumours of a hail cannon being used somewhere around Mt Dandenong, can hear regular distant bangs.. #

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• final sync of my #VPAC email before my account bites the dust: almost 25,000 emails in my sent folder over the 6.5 years #
• Love the Calvin and Hobbes tribute in this #XKCD http://xkcd.com/702/ #
• SpaceRef have photos of #SpaceX #Falcon9 #rocket upright on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral http://bit.ly/aAMVML #space #
• Carrying a #gun in Phily, PA means you are over 4X as likely to be shot and killed than someone unarmed http://bit.ly/9YW8P0 #
• hmm, @mobicity won't honour warranty on friends #N900 that has the #Nokia acknowledged broken USB port of death #
• Guardian: "When using open source makes you an enemy of the state" – about IIPA targeting Indonesia http://bit.ly/aW0HqB #
• misread a @metrotrains tweet saying "Minor Delays – Sydenham line", thought they'd built a Sysadmin line for a sec #
• Great fun – online solar system simulator http://bit.ly/bKWvxD – via @plutokiller (who obviously wants target practice) #
• at Cardinia Reservoir, no roos but there are #locusts #
• Problems with the BoM #Melbourne forecast ? Currently saying (for today, Saturday) 'Max ##' http://bit.ly/9g8pYB #
• #Tsunami warning for #Australia (QLD, TAS, NSW) after Chile #earthquake http://bit.ly/aFy2gl #
• Joint Australian #Tsunami Warning Centre – Warnings for QLD, NSW, Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island – http://bit.ly/aP5c2m #
• Joint Australian #Tsunami Warning Centre: Warnings for QLD, NSW, VIC, TAS, Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island bit.ly/aP5c2m #
• #Tsunami warning for #Victoria from Lakes Entrance to Gabo Island: from now for the next few hours http://bit.ly/bUc86I #
• JATWC: #Tsunami warnings for QLD, NSW, VIC, TAS, Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island http://bit.ly/aP5c2m (fixed link) #
• JATWC appears to have dropped #Tsunami warning for QLD, still in effect for NSW, VIC, TAS, Norfolk + Lord Howe Island #
• JATCW has reinstated #Tsunami warning for QLD! #
• Just updated #SpamAssassin 3.3.0 rules with sa-update, looks like a whole bunch of new tests went in! #spam #
• ABC reports that 5 people killed by #tsunami on the Robinson Crusoe islands http://bit.ly/cYdoG3 #
• Looks like a lot of readjustment going on with the Nazca/South American plate boundary, about 70 large aftershocks so far #
• Just realised that 2.6.33 now supports my Leadtek Winfast DVB-T card I've had since I bought this desktop 2 years ago! #
• Dear #lazyweb anyone know how to add a library (gomp) to the ones that dpkg-buildpackage uses for ffmpeg ? #ubuntu #debian #
• Solved my ffmpeg compilation, proved to myself that GCC 4.4.1 -ftree-parallelize-loops=4 doesn't help with encoding.. #
• Wow, another 20 odd magnitude 5+ aftershocks on the Nazca/S.A. plate boundary in the last 12 hours.. #

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• "No bug is too foolish to check for. Given enough code, developers will write almost anything you can think of.' http://bit.ly/diOOI9 #
• Oh the irony! Pauline Hanson is about to become an immigrant – she's moving to the UK – http://bit.ly/9J9FFh #
• #Maemo and #Moblin to merge. #Maemo loosing #Debian base, moving to RPM base http://bit.ly/92smw8 via @lwnnet #
• #Maemo + #Moblin = #Meego – what a bad new name! #
• #Wordpress 2.9.2 is out – fixes a disclosure hole where registered (non-admin) users could see posts in the trash. #
• #VLSCI announces its' #SGI Altix XE #HPC cluster http://bit.ly/bIaMBN #
• don't really like the new @abcnews website layout, no longer any quick way to see Victorian stories.. #
• More info on the #Maemo 6 /#Meego change on maemo.org http://bit.ly/aPcpI2 "deb still for Harmattan, rpm for MeeGo" #
• So that might mean that #Maemo 6 / #Meego from #Nokia might use .deb, *and* RPM (as permitted by the LSB) #
• Interesting – #Meego will be "entirely open source", can be seen as an alternative to #Mer – http://bit.ly/d5xwhq #maemo #
• .@nokconv @petermaemo – could #Maemo 5 apps run on #Meego ? Will #Meego be available for the #N900 ? Deb and/or RPM ? #
• #N900 update on the way ? RT @nokconv @arun8gb A: We've already pushed two software updates, and are pushing another today! #
• An earlier answer to the query about #Meego on #N900 : RT @nokconf @pirlok A: It's too early to say. #NokiaMWC #maemo #
• Kudos to @PeterMaemo and @nokconv on taking #maemo #meego questions – still confused about diff between #harmattan + #meego #
• New #Maemo 5 update out for #N900 – 3.2010.02-8.002 #
• #N900 #maemo update is minor one to prep for larger one later Feb with #qt 4.6 http://bit.ly/b8Ujf6 http://bit.ly/ar2Oa2 #
• Oh so true for many restaurant websites http://bit.ly/bzanJO (via @fooishbar) #
• Two stunning images from #NASA #WISE mission: #Comet Siding Spring http://bit.ly/b5OQO9 and Andromeda http://bit.ly/cCZUss #
• Spooky – the full size JPG of the #NASA #WISE image of Andromeda is 6666 x 6666 – 'tis the picture of the beast! #
• The JMRI case (Jacobsen v. Katzer) has been settled – FOSS wins – http://bit.ly/aKkQlJ #copyright #legal #opensource #gpl #
• At Doncaster playhouse for tonights 'Footsteps of a Nobody' by @donna_williams – starts 8pm #autism #
• Yay – LensBaby (I have their original #LensBaby to use on our #Nikon #D100) are on Twitter as @SeeInANewWay ! #
• Just to correct myself, it's not the original #LensBaby I've got, it's the #LensBaby 2.0 #
• Good blog by Sylvia Pfeiffer on issues that would face #Google should they open up the #VP8 codec http://bit.ly/cCeVXq #

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For those computer history buffs it is sad to learn that the Linux kernels DECnet code is going to be orphaned in 2.6.33, the git commit by Christine Caulfield says:

Due to lack of time, space, motivation, hardware and probably expertise, I have reluctantly decided to orphan the DECnet code in the kernel.

Judging by the deafening silence on the linux-decnet mailing list I suspect it’s either not being used anyway, or the few people that are using it are happy with their older kernels.

To be honest I’m surprised it’s lasted this long, the last time I used DECnet in anger was around 1997 I think..

• One of worlds oldest languages, Bo, of Andaman Islands, has lost its last native speaker http://bit.ly/axs9E8 #history #sad #
• It appears the eSATA DVD-RW that came with my Dell Latitude Z600 can trash DVD's when doing a "-dummy" test with wodim! #
• Garth Davis, director of @donna_williams #film "Nobody Nowhere" directed 2010 Coke #Superbowl advert http://bit.ly/bMsfXT #
• Conroy's filter will not make the internet safer – http://bit.ly/bMYANP #censorship #australia #nocleanfeed #
• It appears Australian shadow finance minister Barnaby Joyce doesn't understand finance.. http://bit.ly/cdWwQA #politics #
• #Myki boss sacked – Metlink boss appointed instead – http://bit.ly/aicWLN #melbourne #publictransport #
• Uni of Melbourne + #IBM announcement at 10am Thursday – http://bit.ly/bhNvrK #
• Announcements of #VLSCI #IBM #lifescience #HPC partnership http://bit.ly/9LMoSF http://bit.ly/dxIBDq http://bit.ly/anwTCR #
• Amazing thunderstorm over central #Melbourne at the moment, lots of thunder! #
• RT @elmonte09: Help! Counting twitter atheists by #tag If atheist, RT this whole message #atheist #
• It's depressing just how wrong some of the press reports on IT stories can be.. #
• It appears we've finally solved where to put the first Intel Nehalem cluster for #VLSCI due to arrive on Wednesday! #
• Nice graph by @mikal of popularity of various #SMTP #email servers since 1996 based on various surveys http://bit.ly/9fncUU #
• 15th July 1993 "I'm busy trying to re-install Linux on my PC after todays diskswapping" – tracked down some old email #
• In August 1993 the University of Wales, Aberystwyth #usenet news spool was a whopping 400MB. #
• So Barbie is now a "computer engineer" http://bit.ly/6wUJfr – can't figure out if that's good or bad (via @markbate) #
• Chip-n-PIN protocol broken, fraudsters can use cards without knowing PIN, paper from Cambridge (PDF) http://bit.ly/bEhYL8 #
• That Chip-n-PIN security vulnerability via @timfaas and @benjaminblack – paper by S Murdoch, S Drimer, R Anderson, M Bond #
• Fascinating website – How to be a Retronaut – http://bit.ly/cX5geJ – historical #photos both real and imagined! #history #
• Here's a #photo from 1844 by Henry Fox Talbot of the building of Nelsons Column in #London – http://bit.ly/crg2ho #history #
• Film of London in 1903 – wouldn't mind betting aggregate people-miles-per-hour is faster then than now http://bit.ly/9CK06m #
• More digging through old email – first web server I set up (as a test) was in January 1994 to demo to Uni folks #
• Working with @donna_williams on the complete overhaul of Auties.org – now based on Wordpress to make life easier #

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This is a great shame, though probably not that surprising these days, but the UK Joint Academic Network (JANET) is going to pull its Usenet News service on the 31st July 2010. Basically I suspect the ever declining SNR has put people off, and these days everyone knows the web and the closest they get to knowing what Usenet is (or maybe was) Google Groups. JANET says:

There are now few active registered News Feed users and News Read users and the current infrastructure is nearing its end of life. JANET(UK) have therefore decided that it is no longer economically viable to run the service, especially in the current financial climate. We therefore will cease to offer the service when the existing contract expires on July 31st 2010.

Especially sad for me as I cut part of my first real sysadmin job at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, was working on the Usenet news system that had been set up originally by Alec Muffett and I was for quite a while the maintainer of the UK.telecom newsgroup FAQ and the alt.config guidelines.

Update: I’ve been digging through some old email – here’s one from 4th August 1993 giving an idea of what we had to struggle with:

OK, I deleted all binaries under alt.binaries, all of junk and all of control. That, coupled with the AEM_TIDY got us about 27 meg back. I then ran a doexpire, whch took a long while but we’re now up to about 53 Meg free, or about 85% of the 400 Meg partition.

Yup, the entire university news spool at that time was a whopping great 400MB. We were using nntplink with CNews for the time (this was before we knew about INN).