/etc/log

Day 0

2010-12-27T23:05:00.002+11:00

This is the first day of my 100 days project in developing my first web application.

I am going to log daily to keep things tracked.

First off, I need to go through the PDF tutorial of Practical Django Projects.

This is it. The first day of my journey. Wish me luck :-)

I'm not dead

2008-06-21T12:04:00.002+10:00

I am about to graduate in July to get my bachelor degree of business information systems in RMIT University.

I am currently working for a small immigration agent in China Town. However I have not got paid yet since last month. The reason is my Chinese boss is so stingy and I am really not happy about this. But, this is a great opportunity for me to get some solid work experience in Australia. Therefore I'll negotiate with him next week about his website project. If he insists to behave like an asshole, then I will definitely get away from this mess immediately.

Actually I am thinking about making something for myself. The 'unnamed project' is not dead yet. I already started to learn PHP and Python. I learn quickly as I took the advantages of previous JAVA and OO programming experience. So, hopefully, I will start to work on the 'unnamed project' once I finished the final presentation next week.

I think this is the best times of my life. I feel so energetic everyday though I can also feel the challenges I am facing. There is only one 23 of me in my whole life, and I will not just let it pass away with vanity.

unnamed project

2008-01-20T17:22:00.002+11:00

Introduction
Fancy a platform to share your thoughts? Here's my solution - a simple and semantic platform which strictly follows KISS rule. Registered user can post up an opinion about something, then other users (both unregistered and registered) can read the opinion and comment on it. Most importantly, the unique feature of this platform is that everybody can choose "thumb up" or "thumb down" on any opinions or comments. In such way, therefore the users' "thumbs points" would increase from "up" and decrease if received "down".

Requirement
1. user registration and administration, thumbs points system.
2. content management system in which users can post the thoughts and comments.

to be continued...

Ubuntu booting issues

2007-05-15T19:40:00.000+10:00

oops, I almost forgot. the previous post about ubuntu 704 booting issues. the reason behind it is the new linux kernel set IDE HDD as sdx as well. we can see that the system halted for a long time when modprobe the 'sdx' devices. Therefore I think the reason of booting slow is the mis-configuration of my IDE disks.

Yum metadata problem

2007-05-15T19:33:00.000+10:00

1. Q: where can you find your current Yum repositories?
A: /etc/yum.repos.d
2. Q: What does this message(below) mean when I try to run Yum?

[tom@localhost ~]$ sudo yum install yumex
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Error: Error: requested datatype primary not available

A: I dont know what it stands for. But I guess it might be the problem of broken metadata files. Here's the solution:
# sudo yum clean metadata

Yes, everything would get back to normal after this command.

extremely slow boot-up of Ubuntu 7.04

2007-04-26T19:17:00.000+10:00

Enable JRE for Firefox 1.5 in Fedora Core 6

2007-04-26T17:58:00.000+10:00

download the jre install file on java.com
enable the file to be executed:
# chmod a+x jre-6u1-linux-i586-rpm.bin
make a directory for java, move the rpm to the directory:
# sudo mkdir /usr/java
# sudo move /home/tom/Desktop/jre-6u1-linux-i586-rpm.bin /usr/java
go to /usr/java and execute the file:
# cd /usr/java
# ./jre-6u1-linux-i586-rpm.bin
Press 'enter' to scroll down the license, then 'yes' to agree (so boring, stupid design!)
When system prompts 'done', it's actually not done yet, you need to configure firefox plugins:
# cd /usr/lib/firefox-1.5.0.10/plugins
# sudo ln -s /usr/java/jre1.6.0_01/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
Restart firefox to verify the installation.

Add xscreensaver to gnome-screensaver in Fedora Core 6

2007-04-25T14:04:00.000+10:00

I found the gnome-screensaver preferences in FC6 has no xscreensavers to select. I miss my favourite GLMatrix so badly! Henceforth I took some time to figure out a proper solution. The original idea by Phil Crissman is here

install xscreensaver:
# yum install xscreensaver
copy xscreensavers binary to gnome-screensaver:
# cp -i /usr/libexec/xscreensaver/* /usr/libexec/gnome-screensaver/
'-i' switch is to make the process interactive.
download this script
'chmod' to enable script to be execute:
# chmod +x migrate-xscreensaver-config.sh
move the script to '/usr/share/applications/screensavers'
convert xscreensaver config files (.xml) to gnome-screensaver config files (.desktop)
# ./usr/share/applications/screensavers/misgrate-xscreensaver-config.sh \ /usr/share/xscreensaver/config/*.xml
A restart of X may be required.

Enjoy the matrix!

Fedora 7 Test 3 LiveCD

2007-04-24T12:08:00.000+10:00

running F7 Test3 from RAM, I found:
A few exciting new features:
1. Post blog entry directly (no need to log on in web browser)
2. New Bling-bling icons and themes
3. Firefox 2.0.0.3
4. Beagle fully integrated on Desktop
5. kernel updated to 2.6.20
A few bugs:
1. Unstable Desktop Effects
2. Screen resolution on widescreen (I still can't set resolution to 1280x800)
3. the integrated blog post tool doesn't work on my blogger account. It may be caused by GFW.

Conclusion:
1. bling-bling new icons and themes are not as cool as FC6's DNA theme. Honestly I don't like the default "flying high" background very much.
2. a few bugs exist, but hopefully they will disappear in final release.
3. Where's my ipw3945 firmware? where is my 1280x800 resolution? Anyway it's just a liveCD in test, I think the final release will not disappoint me.

Wireless firmware in Fedora 7

2007-04-23T19:25:00.000+10:00

It's definitely one of the most exciting features in Fedora 7!
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeatureWirelessFirmware
The Ipw3945 series will be added!
Can't wait for the final on 24th May!

a few tips

2007-04-23T10:04:00.000+10:00

1.How to clean up yum caches, quoted from fedora official doc:

If you configure it to do so, yum retains the packages and package data files that it downloads, so that they may be reused in future operations without being downloaded again. To purge the package data files, use this command:
su -c 'yum clean headers' 
Run this command to remove all of the packages held in the caches:
su -c 'yum clean packages' 
When using these commands, at the prompt, enter the password for the root account.
Purging cached files causes those files to downloaded again the next time that they are required. This increases the amount of time required to complete the operation.

2. How to remove obsolete kernel image in Ubuntu?

Firstly, use the command below to check which kernel images have been installed on your system:

'dpkg -l | grep linux-image'

Then remove the unwanted packages:

'apt-get remove *****'

tips: modify /boot/grub/menu.lst to remove the unwanted kernel image from grub bootloader screen. However the kernel image is still in your filesystem.

3. How to start/stop the network manually?

'ifconfig' to list all wired network devices in system
'iwconfig' to list all wireless network devices in system
'ifup' to start a device, eg. 'ifup eth0'
'ifdown' to stop a device, eg. 'ifdown eth0'

Go back to FEDORA again

2007-04-22T22:01:00.000+10:00

After being tricked by various annoying Compiz problems in Ubuntu 7.04, I decided to have a try on Fedora Core 6. Ubuntu is a neat system for desktop users who wants to use Linux in a Windows-like style. In another word, User friendly. But dont get me wrong here. I dont say that Fedora is weak on user interface. Both of two systems are excellent on GUI. But I found "Desktop Effects" could function properly on my laptop with Fedora 6. Meanwhile the Fedora provides more pre-compiled packages on server configuration. Henceforth I don't need to download them separately after installation.

Fedora is the first distro I started my journey in linux world. My routine of linux so far:
FC4->FC5->Ubuntu 6.06->Ubuntu 6.10->Ubuntu 7.04->Fedora Core 6

I'm back, my queen, Viva Fedora!

A codec ends all codecs

2007-04-21T15:39:00.000+10:00

Only Mplayer is not enough.

For example, you can't play rmvb format instantly. There are two solutions of playing rm/rmvb formats:

1. Go to offical Real website, and download the stupid bin file to install. After that you can't even uninstall it automatically. if you want to remove realplayer from your system, you need to delete all files one by one manually. That definitely would drive you crazy!
2. find a codec that ends all codecs. is it possible? yes, god exists!

http://www.debian-multimedia.org/pool/main/w/w32codecs/

check the link above, and get the compiled deb pack to double click. then your mplayer would supports almost every popular codec in Win32 platform. What a codec!

enjoy the show!

I need to fix what I wrote yesterday. after a new experiment on Ubuntu 7.04, I found that the "dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg" command doesn't work at all. It may even cause system to crash if you were to choose the wrong option(s).

Therefore, the final solution is 915resolution! Install the package in synaptic packager first. then type "sudo 915resolution -l" in command line. it should list all the supported resolution of your video devices. for example, this is what I got from my dell inspiron 6400:

Intel 800/900 Series VBIOS Hack : version 0.5.2

Chipset: 945GM
BIOS: TYPE 1
Mode Table Offset: $C0000 + $269
Mode Table Entries: 36

Mode 30 : 640x480, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 32 : 800x600, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 34 : 1024x768, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 38 : 1280x1024, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3a : 1600x1200, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3c : 1280x800, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 41 : 640x480, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 43 : 800x600, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 45 : 1024x768, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 49 : 1280x1024, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4b : 1600x1200, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4d : 1280x800, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 50 : 640x480, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 52 : 800x600, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 54 : 1024x768, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 58 : 1280x1024, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5a : 1600x1200, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5c : 1280x800, 32 bits/pixel
tom@tom-laptop:~$

I want to set my screen to 1280x800 in 32bp, so I input: "sudo 915resolution 5c 1280 800". restart the x, choose 1280x800 from System->Preference->Screen Resolution. OK, all done.