Bluetooth Tethering your Ubuntu Jaunty netbook to iPhone running 3.0

Having access to an iPhone running the latest firmware, I was anxious
to get my netbook running Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope).

It's easy once you install blueman from Synaptic package manager. For
whatever reason, the default Gnome bluetooth manager won't get the job
done.

Open up Bluetooth Manager from "System Preferences". Set your iPhone's
bluetooth to be discoverable.
The iPhone will show up in the list (if not, hit the 'Search' button).
Once it does, click on 'Bond'. 'Bond' will cause your iPhone to tell
you your netbook is trying to pair with it (It actually says 'Netbook
would like to pair with your iPhone', charmingly anthropomorphic).
You want that, so click 'Pair'.
Your iPhone will tell you to confirm that the same passkey is being
displayed in Blueman on your netbook. Confirm this on your netbook
too.
Once this is done, right click on the iPhone in Blueman. Under
'Network access', select 'Network access point'.
That's it, you're tethered. Your connection will show up in Network
Manager as 'bnep0'.

Netbook kernel redux (Virtualbox)

Right after you upgrade your kernel, Virtualbox is going to complain
that it can't load its corresponding kernel module.
Make sure you *also* install the corresponding Linux kernel headers
package and then reinstall Virtualbox.

Netbook kernel

This might seem a bit obvious, but until I installed the updates on
the husbinator's EeePC, I didn't know a netbook specific version of
the Linux kernel was available.
To get it on to your netbook, follow this link - http://array.org/ubuntu/setup.html

I installed it on the Lenovo S10. Haven't seen a *massive* jump in
performance like the Dothan-based Eee, but its a bit snappier.

Hold off on the latest Lenovo S10 BIOS update

Liliputing says hold off on S10 BIOS update v90.. may cause bricks,
ulcers http://is.gd/B2x9

It's not worth rushing into this one to clear up a little fan noise.

When all else fails ... (Unison)

Blow away *all* of the archive-files. Including those on the remote
end. I'd forgotten that Unison leaves files in ~/.unison on the remote
side as well. I couldn't get past the 'inconsistent state' error until
I read the article below.

See http://blog.philippheckel.com/2008/10/25/unison-and-multiple-hosts-warning-inconsistent-state/

S10 Bios 59

I had upgraded the BIOS on Cupcake to version 59 (available from the
Lenovo forums) to alleviate the off and on fan problem. If you've got
an S10, you know it's annoying and distracti-WHIRRRRRRR

I'll be rolling back though, probably to 58. The CPU temp idles at
55C. It ratchets up to 60 when web surfing.

--
Sent from my iPhone

Midnightblue.net

While I'm working on my website, just so there's some content, I set up a redirect like so -

<?php

header("Location: http://lifeatmidnight.blogspot.com");

?>

Compiz on Jaunty...

I upgraded the netbook to from Intrepid (8.10) to Jaunty (9.04). Gnome-session stopped launching Compiz. It runs fine if you launch it from the terminal, and picks up that it needs the intel Xorg driver.

When compiz, or metacity don't launch, you have no window decorations, you can't change context, and you can't move between desktops (obviously). I just added compiz manually back via the gnome-session-manager. Aside from that weird quirk, Jaunty is great. Network-manager sucks with the Broadcomm 802.11g card a whole lot less, instead of about five minutes of hit-or-miss WPA2 authentication, it now logs on first try.

Permission issues in Leopard web sharing

Midnightblue.net is down right now, so I needed to set up a staging server on Caffeine (the MacBook Pro) in order to hack away on the redesign. It needs one, I've got x number of domains, and a few different subject areas I need to break down and link to.

I did an archive and install of Leopard recently so I went to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf , enabled php5, and assumed that would pretty much be the extent of things after I enabled Web Sharing.

Not so much... Leopard doesn't copy 'username'.conf to /etc/apache2/users , so apache doesn't know that the Sites folder in the user's home directory is supposed to be visible too.

Caffeine:extra kristy$ ls /etc/apache2/users

Caffeine:extra kristy$

I found that information here at Apple, so my next step was to look in the "Previous Systems" folder that the Archive and Install left behind, and 'kristy.conf' was in /etc/apache2. It's pretty simple in case you have to create that file from scratch, looks like this-

<Directory "/Users/kristy/Sites/">

Options Indexes MultiViews

AllowOverride None

Order allow,deny

Allow from all

</Directory>

My next step is to set up syncing of the website files via Unison to Cupcake (the Lenovo S10) and get its staging server launched. It's a strange quirk that this tiny little laptop has a 160Gig hard drive, and plenty of room to store anything I might be working on.

Picking up new skills

I'm auditing the Stanford iPhone Development course. It's been a while
since I did any coding.. So this has been fun so far.

--
Sent from my iPhone

Buttonhole rose test run

Buttonhole rose test run
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac

I need to get some pearl-headed pins, but I think I'm on my way here.

Buttonhole rose test run

Buttonhole rose test run
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac

I need to get some pearl-headed pins, but I think I'm on my way here.

Flowerbomb

Tried Flowerbomb, I just don't know about this one. It's better now
it's died down a bit but it still reminds me of Angel. There's
something both fragrances have in common that I just don't like. Maybe
it's the patchouli and vanilla.

For reference, I do like Green Tea based fragrances, Safari, Warm
Vanilla Sugar and occasionally Chanel no 5.

Sent from my iPhone

Backup teeth

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F06%2F018202&from=rss

 

Good thing I still have all my wisdom teeth! Maybe I'll be able to harvest those for replacement teeth in a few years.

On wedding stuff

I'm talking myself out of going dress shopping *again* for gown that
would be worn just for the morning. I didn't know this would be so
hard, I didn't know I would lose my mind.

But I've got to deal with flowers, cakes and hairdressers, not
deciding on the dress is locking up progress on everything else.

Sent from my iPhone

Moving

....we've got to move out sooner rather than later. Landlord kicking
us while we're down by raising the rent about 20%. Also, neighbors
love karaoke.

--
Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse the typos.

New perspectives on my flat

Spent a great of today mildly stoned on the couch on completely
necessary nurofen plus and reading a whole lot of travel porn on my
laptop. Capsule hotels! First class cabins on planes! I fondly
remember the Pod Hotel in NY.

I look at my tiny flat, and realize that if I look at my life as a
journey, this place is just a cheap economy cabin on the way somewhere
better.

Then I started cleaning up, because it's almost time for us to check
out of here.

--
Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse the typos.

This is not your email address.

I have a bit of an email problem.
Not spam, though I am disgusted at the inbound signal to rubbish ratio in my accounts. I don't see the debris scooped out of my email swimming pool until I log into gmail.

2034 spam messages? What a waste of bandwidth. Most of them are in the wrong character set too, sent by hacked computers that are much closer to sentience than their owners.

No, I have a common word @ gmail email address that people keep handing out to their friends, business associates, and signing up for accounts on websites.

Some of them are just confused, but not really stupid people, so I feel bad publicly ridiculing them. There's the person who sent me a picture of a very ordinary middle aged man, seated at his desk, from their shiny new O2 iPhone. There's the lady involved in church events who also donates blood at an NYC bloodbank. I get the occasional email for her that I bounce. At some point, she's going to stop punching in the wrong address.

And then there's people who play poker online.

This is an automated message sent from Full Tilt Poker.

Your Player ID: JASONR42000
Your E-mail Address: Not yours, idiot
Validation Code: HahahahaNO

Please follow the instructions below to complete the e-mail validation
process.

As a security precaution, we require that you maintain a current,
validated e-mail account at all times in order to play on the site.
A validated e-mail account allows us to provide you with customer
support, and helps to maintain the security of your account. This
validation code will only be valid for twenty-four hours.

========================================
HOW TO COMPLETE THE VALIDATION PROCESS
========================================

To confirm that your new e-mail address is correct...

1) Launch the Full Tilt Poker application
2) Login to your account
3) Choose "Account / Validate E-mail Address" from the menu bar
4) Enter the 6 letter Validation Code in the space provided
5) Choose "Validate"

========================================
IF YOU ARE NOT THE OWNER OF THIS ACCOUNT
========================================

Full Tilt Poker will not send any unsolicited mail to e-mail addresses
that have not been validated. By taking no action, you will not receive
any e-mail correspondence from Full Tilt Poker. If you wish to have
your e-mail address removed from this account, please forward the
contents of this e-mail to support@fulltiltpoker.com

I got four of these, with different activation codes. You'd think after two attempts that our gambling Einstein would get the picture, that perhaps he'd better use his real address so he can win FABULOUS PRIZES.

==

Waiting to take off

Waiting to take off
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac

Can't see the pink Hello Kitty duffel though

--
"Mass stupidity is not a conspiracy" - Dave Ramsay

From the 'office' today

From the 'office' today
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac

Cranky lorrikeets building a nest

--
"Mass stupidity is not a conspiracy" - Dave Ramsay