Force the UK to commit copyright infringement

Posted by hank Wednesday, May 14, 2008 21:57:00

You know what would be awesome - forcing the UK to commit copyright infringement by simply watching a copyrighted movie in public in London. You’d have to watch out for some things, but if you did it you could legally request a copy of the footage under the Data Protection Act, putting them in a tricky position with the MPAA. As they recorded it in the first place, they are already in violation of copyright law. It would rock. Someone needs to do it.

Hardy Heron on the M1530

Posted by hank Saturday, May 03, 2008 01:53:00

So, I upgraded my Ubuntu installation from Gutsy to Hardy today on my precious laptop. It went pretty well except for the nvidia driver. I ended up having to copy one of my old configurations over xorg.conf to actually make it work. Just so anyone who has the same problem again (including myself) can fix it without being really lucky, here’s a link:

A working xorg.conf for Gutsy and Hardy on the M1530

It ends up looking like this:

The above was done with emerald and Compiz Fusion.

Horray!

My favorite program

Posted by hank Friday, April 25, 2008 23:40:00 


    \  |  /
     /```\               \/ \/
  _ |     | _                           /\
  _ |     | _                          //\\
     \___/                             //\\
    /  |  \                             ||
                                        ||
                                       /||\
+++++++                           +++[>+++++++>+++                +++++
+>+++>+\>                       +++++++++++>++++++++            ++++<<<
<<<-]>+++.>>     @__         ++.<<+++.>>>>+.>--.<-----        -----.<<.
<-.>>>>-------   /  \     .++++++.<<<.<<-.>>>>.>---------    .+++++++.<
.>++++++.<<.<<--.>>>++++.+++..<<.<++.>>>+++.>----.<<<.<<++.>>>>--------
------.>---..+++++++.<<<.<<.>>>>++++.<<<<--------------.?>>>.__________

Hint: It’s code, and the language it’s in has a dirty word in the name

Things you can't say on the radio

Posted by hank Thursday, April 24, 2008 21:26:00

I was listening to “Ends” by Everlast on the radio today on my way to work. It was going alright, but I noticed that there are quite a few things you can’t say on the radio that are surprising.

Things you can’t say

  • whore
  • drugs
  • Colt 45
  • balls
  • green

Now, I realize that much of this has to do with context, but come on… You can’t say smoked the finest green? What’s wrong with the word whore anyway? Concubine is in the Bible, and that’s a synonym, so… Would it be OK to say that on the radio? Do we need to censor Christian radio when they say concubine?

So, I looked into it, and found this. Interesting…

Shutdown Day for Good Health

Posted by hank Saturday, April 19, 2008 14:25:00

Shutdown day is approaching. It’s May 3rd, 2008!

What I will do

  • Turn off my desktop
  • Turn off my laptop
  • Turn off my routers
  • Turn off most of the lights
  • Read a book
  • Go for a bike ride

What I won’t do

  • Turn off the AC
  • Turn off the fridge

Why

I’m not doing this to decrease my “carbon footprint,” decrease dependence on foreign oil, or for any other political gain. I’m doing this because it is a healthy thing for any human to do once in a while. Taking a break from the highest levels of technology is good for the brain and the soul. Readers, please join me!

MySQL issues in Hardy Heron

Posted by hank Saturday, April 12, 2008 00:44:00

I couldn’t get MySQL to start in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron after I changed my datadir to /nexus/tardis/mysql - it turns out I needed to change the AppArmor configuration like so:

/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld


  /var/lib/mysql/ r,
  /var/lib/mysql/** rwk,
  /nexus/tardis/mysql/** rwk,
  /nexus/tardis/mysql/ r,

This was in response to the following syslog messages:

/var/log/syslog


Apr 12 00:30:59 tardis mysqld[17818]: 080412  0:30:59 [ERROR] /usr/sbin/mysqld: Can't find file: './mysql/host.frm' (errno: 13)
Apr 12 00:30:59 tardis mysqld[17818]: 080412  0:30:59 [ERROR] Fatal error: Can't open and lock privilege tables: Can't find file: './mysql/host.frm' (errno: 13)
Apr 12 00:30:59 tardis kernel: [25185.601980] audit(1207974659.063:36): operation="inode_permission" request_mask="r::" denied_mask="r::" name="/nexus/tardis/mysql/mysql/host.frm" pid=17817 profile="/usr/sbin/mysqld" namespace="default"
Apr 12 00:30:59 tardis kernel: [25185.602018] audit(1207974659.063:37): operation="inode_permission" request_mask="r::" denied_mask="r::" name="/nexus/tardis/mysql/mysql/host.frm" pid=17817 profile="/usr/sbin/mysqld" namespace="default"
Apr 12 00:30:59 tardis mysqld_safe[17823]: ended

Apparently I didn’t see this important message in my.cnf when I was modifying it:


# * IMPORTANT
#   If you make changes to these settings and your system uses apparmor, you may
#   also need to also adjust /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld.

Then, I went and checked /etc/mysql/debian.cnf for the debian-sys-maint password and set it like so:


GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<that password>' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Korean Films

Posted by hank Friday, April 11, 2008 12:08:00

Lately, I’ve been watching quite a few Korean films. For some reason, all three of them have been really sad. At least this last one I watched has a happy ending.

Musa the warrior

I liked this movie - these dudes go through tons of battle together and you get to know all the characters really well. I’m not going to ruin the ending, but it’s really sad - almost enough for me to not recommend the movie to anyone. But, I still consider it a good watch.

Joint Security Area

A heart-wrenching film about a group of friends divided by the border of North and South Korea. This is another one with an insanely sad ending. Bring Kleenex.

Il Mare

This is the one I just finished watching. Il Mare means “The Sea” in Italian. It’s about this awesome mailbox that makes things travel in time. It’s another movie that really puts the viewer through the tear-cycle. Totally worth it.

Now, I’ll make an attempt to re-emasculate myself. I didn’t actually cry while watching any of these movies, but I think quite a few people would. They have way sadder points than almost any American film I’ve ever seen.