So I wanted to install Mythbuntu on my old Dell C640, I downloaded the CD and started the PC. Things went cool until the installation reached 25%. At that point ubiquity decided that the CD was corrupt and the installation could not continue.

So I tested the CD on both the old computer and a newer one. The newer computer didn’t find any error, but the C640 said the cd was completely broken (19 broken files, but one of them was the squashfs image).

Now what? Boot from USB? Didn’t seem to be an option, since there is no option in the boot menu. After a lot of time I found the following working solution:

• Boot the laptop from the CD (remember only the installation failed)
• Have a copy of the CD on an USB Disk
• Mount the USB Disk (mount /dev/sdb1 /tmp/usb)
• Mount the squashfs filesystem image that is located on the USB Disk (mount -o loop /tmp/usb/casper/filesystem.squashfs /tmp/squashfs)
• And now the big trick: bind the new location (/tmp/squashfs) on the location that is created by the installation CD (/rofs). The command to do that is: mount –bind /tmp/squashfs /rofs.
• Start ubiquity.

While waiting for a new rebuild of KDE from subversion I usually waste way too much time on Knetwalk. It’s a fun little game where you need to connect all the pcs to the net (the world symbol).

And just for the ego factor: my current high score is 55 seconds for a ‘hard’ game (171 points).

People who read my blog now that I frequently post articles I have read on Boing Boing. This post is not different from that rule. There is just one funny twist about this one: I find it unbelievable that I have to read an American blog to know what is happening in Leeuwarden. Afterall my sister is living there.

So much for the intro.

Henk Hofstra installed a couple of fried eggs in the center of Leeuwarden. The project is called: art-eggcident. Each of the eggs is about 30 metres wide and will remain in the city for the next six months.

Sometimes I forget the wonders of the different modules Apache has. A friend of mine drew my attention to mod_rewrite. A very useful tool indeed. You can prevent people from steeling your content, or do other nice redirecting rules with it. Here is a nice example that illustrates how to redirect all incoming calls from one site to another (just put the lines in your .htaccess file):
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (example.com) [NC]
RewriteRule myarticle.html http://www.cacheserver.com/myarticle.html [R,L,NC]
</IfModule>

Link.

The first thing I thought when I saw this nice little device was: wow this would make an excellent remote control for my mythtv box at home.

But with 300 Euros it  really makes for a very expensive remote control. So I’m now looking for an alternate excuse to buy this ultimate gadget. Maybe someone around me ‘needs’ it.

Link.

Great video. Someone singing a song reverse. Try to get the name of the song before the middle of the video.

Bruce Schneier (security guru) just finished an interview with Freaknomics. In the interview he answers a lot of questions of Freaknomics readers. His answers include a lot of links to articles he has posted on various topics. Well worth a read.

Q: Is there any benefit to password protecting your home Wifi network? I have IT friends that say the only real benefit is that multiple users can slow down the connection, but they state that there is no security reason. Is this correct?
A: I run an open wireless network at home. There’s no password, and there’s no encryption. Honestly, I think it’s just polite. Why should I care if someone on the block steals wireless access from me? When my wireless router broke last month, I used a neighbor’s access until I replaced it.

Link

Alright, I’ve done it. Have been playing around with Feisty and got it all to work on my precious Dell D830. I had a lot of problems with Feisty (you will find the links on the left) so when Gutsy came out I hoped everything would be fixed (it did have the new intel drivers).

Well I was wrong. The problems with Gutsy on my Dell are just too big. My wireless is failing all the time. Compiz doesn’t really work (applets don’t start, settings are not saved). Too much to tell.

So I did it, I switched to hardy. Better to have an unstable release that kinda works than a stable release that just kinda doesn’t work. At least now I know I can’t blame anyone. So as time will pass I will post some updates about my experiences with Hardy.

Sometimes coincidence just plays it games. Today BoingBoing posts a story about vinegar and the things you can do with it. I would say that just comes in handy whenever you might need it.

Sample recommendations:

Make creamy scrambled eggs: as eggs thicken when scrambling, add a tablespoon of vinegar for every two eggs.

Rub vinegar on the cut end of uncooked ham to prevent mold.

Add a tsp. of vinegar and sugar to correct a too-salty taste (in any recipe).

Pour a dash of white vinegar on a cloth and lay it over a burn, including sunburn.

Try vinegar ice cubes to clean and deodorize a garbage disposal.

Pour a cup of vinegar into the dishwasher and run the empty machine through the whole cycle to get rid of soap buildup and odors.

Use a paste of vinegar and baking soda to clean tarnished brass, copper, and pewter, or the scorch marks on the bottom of an iron.

Renew sponges, loofahs, dingy white socks, and dish rags by letting them soak overnight in dilute vinegar.

Remove grease and grime from fan blades, oven interiors, tops of refrigerators, etc.

Pour 1/2 cup baking soda and 1 cup vinegar into a sandwich-sized or quart-sized plastic bag and tying over a scummy shower-head for an hour.

Clean toilet bowl rings by turning off the input spigot, removing water from the bowl, and laying vinegar-soaked paper towels on the ring for an hour or more.

Stretch any commercial window cleaner by combining it with 1/3 water and 1/3 vinegar.

Scrub fireplace bricks with vinegar.

Decrease static or dust accumulation of plastic or vinyl surfaces by wiping them down with vinegar and water.

Use vinegar on mildewed garments that cannot take bleach.

Wash new clothes with 1/2 cup white vinegar to eliminate manufacturing chemicals.

Remove odor and perspiration or deodorant stains by spraying vinegar on underarm or collar areas.

Make nylon hose look smoother and last longer by adding a tablespoon over vinegar to the rinse water.

Get salt stains off shoes with a dilute vinegar wipe.

Stop itching from insect stings or poison ivy by dabbing or spraying with vinegar.

To cut appetite and reduce weight, drink one glass of a mixture of vinegar, honey, and grapefruit juice before meals.

Pour vinegar wherever you don’t want ants to congregate.

Add it to the kids’ sandbox to discourage cats from employing it. Also, spray vinegar on furniture or surfaces you want a cat to leave alone.

Get rid of rust on spigots, tools, or bolts by soaking them.

Tighten the cane in a sagging chair by sponging it with a heated solution of 50/50 vinegar and water.

Wash skinned game with a 50/50 vinegar/water solution to reduce the gamey taste.

Add vinegar to a pet’s drinking water to discourage fleas and mange.

Link.

Every time I need to do this, I forget where I found it. This information is copied from here.

Vorbis ogg:
vorbisgain -arfs *

mp3 (using mp3gain):
find -type d -exec sh -c "mp3gain \"{}\"/*.mp3" \;

mp4 and mp3:
find -type d -exec sh -c "mp3gain \"{}\"/*.mp3" \;

mpc:
find -type d -exec sh -c "mp3gain \"{}\"/*.mpc" \;

flac: just use the –replay-gain option when encoding or use the following (treating all the flacs as one album!):

find originals -name "*.flac" -type f -print0 | xargs -0 metaflac --preserve-modtime --add-replay-gain

or you can create the following small script and call it with the name of your base directory (/srv/music, or something like that). This will treat all songs in one directory as one album.
#!/bin/sh
basedir=${1:-.}

IFS="
"
for dir in `find $basedir -type d`; do
ls $dir/*.flac >/dev/null 2>&1 && metaflac --add-replay-gain $dir/*.flac
done