Casper's Life

Linux & Asus P5QL Pro

One of the more annoying things about new motherboards and Linux is that they sometimes does not work – that is they actually work, but then something does not work.

The most annoying thing for me is always the network card…..

In this case with the Asus P5QL Pro, the network card was not recognized by the Linux distribution I normally use for my server (CentOS), and after having spend a reasonable time using Google trying to find out what was going on – I successfully figured out:

1. the driver is skge (skge.ko)
2. the driver is not working (depends… on the version)
3. the best way is to compile the driver from source

Steps required:

1. install kernel-headers
2. install development tools (gcc and make)
3. get the source for the linux drivers here
4. compile the driver
   # unzip LinuxDrivers.zip
   # cd LinuxDrivers/Lan/linux-v<version>/src
   # make
5. and if no errors
   # make install

This will install ‘atl1e.ko’ which is the name of the driver Asus provides – see it’s kind of different to the one which is in the kernel already (crap!)

Now the problem is that next time you update your kernel you need to compile the kernel module again to get networking running.

Until the driver in the kernel is updated, I can only see one solution – have two network cards.

The buildin (which is the primary), and then another one which will give access to the box so that it’s possible to enable the driver again (crap! again!).

technorati tags: motherboards, Linux

Posted in computers, hardware, linux | 3 Comments »

So you do ‘webdesign’

Some one send me this link.

Maybe this was what they decided on when they designed the ‘internet’ – or maybe it was just Microsoft….

technorati tags: webdesign

Posted in internet, programming | No Comments »

Shazam the first really useful iPhone app

I’m the first one to admit that my short term memory is like a drainpipe, that is, not very good. I often hear some music which I think should be added to my collection, but 1 minute later I can’t remember what it was.

Now there is an app for the iPhone which can help with that; Shazam. When you hear something which you don’t really know, you run it, it will “listen” to it, and tell you what it is.

And also do other stuff like tag it, and it will enable you to buy it from iTunes (don’t like that part, but someone might do).

Great part is that it’s for free. But as it requires a microphone it will not work with the iPod Touch.

technorati tags: iPhone

Posted in iphone | 5 Comments »

First usefull App from AppStore

Finally an App from the AppStore, which actually can be used for something, and at the same time is free.

I’m talking about the WordPress App, which was released yesterday.

Now I just need a way to do copy n’ paste, send vCards, and one last thing which I can’t remember what is.

technorati tags: AppStore, WordPress

Posted in apple, iphone | No Comments »

Learning Python

I’ve been learning something new this week (which happens on a regular basic), but this time it was very official, I actually went to a training.

It was decided, that I had to learn Python, which is a programming language, and yet another of the scripting ones – we already have Perl, PHP, Ruby, and so forth, which meant that I actually was in some sort of pathetic way was looking forward to see what all this was about.

There is one thing which is annoying about Python, and it’s even worse that they have decided not to do something about it. They have not implemented a ‘switch’ statement, they have some obscure reason why;

It is too early to decide. I’d like to see at least one completed proposal for pre-computed values before deciding. In the mean time, Python is fine without a switch statement, and perhaps those who claim it would be a mistake to add one are right.

The whole thing is discussed here.

A switch statement is used to in a very simple way do a selection:

switch( variable )
   case 'a' : do something if variable is a
   case 'b' : do something if variable is b
   otherwise/else : do something if variable is neither a nor b
end switch


Instead they they have decided that ‘if’ is a lot better. The same as above just with ‘if’:


if variable == 'a' then
   do something if variable is a
else if variable == 'b' then
   do something if variable is b
else
   do something if variable is neither a nor b


Well it does not take long to see that using ‘if’ does work, but it will look like a mess, which is avoidable by using ‘switch’. Well until further notice there is no other option than to use ‘if’ – sadly enough.

But there are good things also, it have a tight integration to the OS, which means that the whole Std. C Library is there (more or less), and also lots of other things is available. On Linux for example there is integration to both KDE (QT) and Gnome (Gtk2), on OSX there is Coca, and Carbon, and an interface or ObjectiveC (PyObjC). The nice thing is that on OSX it’s available from Xcode (integrated development environment). I don’t know about Microsoft Windows, as I don’t have much interesting in dealing with Windows development these days (as I do this for fun).

Everything is an object, but due to the way namespace is dealt with, one end up doing strange things. For example, to use sqrt (square root), one would do;

import math
x = math.sqrt(9)

and not like in C/C++

#include <math.h>
....
x = sqrt(9)
...


Of cause there are ways to get around the namespace thing, but it’s slightly annoying.

But in general, it a usefull language, lots of things are using it; like Xen (hummm, yes). It’s easy to do prototyping in, and one could actually use it for application development, there are a enough libraries to make it possible. The designer tools on Linux can generate Python code, so nothing is stopping you from writing stuff in Python.

The best of luck….

technorati tags: programming language, python

Posted in computers, programming, software, technology | 2 Comments »

First steps with an iPhone

One of the most annoying things with the iPhone is that on have to pay through the nose to get an unlocked iPhone (current only Orange in France, and they charge €699 – afair), and Apple have an silly idea about programs on it – the SDK is a great idea, but I’m still to learn Objective-C (it makes my head in)…..

But getting an iPhone, there are a couple of things which needs to be done to make it usable for the “normal” population (the people who either does not want an AT&T subscription, or does not live in the US.

• download ZiPhone from http://www.ziphone.org/ (choose either Windows or OSX)
• run ziphone – the “Unlock, Jailbreak & Activate” option will fit most people. And it will allow people to use their own simcard (just what I wanted)

  At this point you will have a functional iPhone which can be used to with you own (old) simcard

• use installer.app (Installer on the screeen) to install
  • “Boss Tool” to move your fonts from the root filesystem – you’ll need to restore the phone if it runs full (you do not want to do that).
  • “Community Sources”, which will add more installation sources, and yet even more applications

Next install the following to get some usability;

• “Contacts | HomeScreen” which will allow you to access the Address Book without having to go though the Phone application
• and even more programs which looks interesting…..

More to follow…

technorati tags: Apple, iPhone

Posted in apple, iphone, osx | No Comments »

Is that an iPhone?

Well I got one of these 21th century gadgets, up to now I’ve never really been in to ‘smartphones’, I in general find them way to bulky, and way to expensive. Then on top of that there are phones which are based on Symbian, Microsoft Mobile OS, and then there is RIM with their BlackBerries (or what ever they call them these days), that all make it difficult to chose. In general I do not want anything to do with Microsoft, Symbian is not the greatest (in my humble opinion) , and RIM well…. no thank you.

So I was in the US for business anyway, and being a Mac geek I went in to the local Apple store to have a look at this thing people have been talking about for the last year. And temptation came over me, and out I walked with a small box containing an iPhone…. (sometimes I do silly things).

But I have to say it’s kind of cool, not the smallest thing on earth, but it kind of fit, the screen is excellent, and when I think about about it – yes there is the iPod Touch, which can the same, except that it’s not a phone, there is the iPod Classic, which can play music and videos, but one cannot install applications (more on that later), and the screen is not really that great (I still use my 60GB iPod, as my music library cannot fit on neither the iPhone nor the iPod Thouch).

There are some miss haps, with the iPhone, there are no groups in the Address Book, no support for Flash in Safari Mobile, and no option for sending vCard (contacts). But when one look at the whole package one get a very neat device which can entertain one for a very long time.

Many people have have mentioned all of this before, and more will continue to do so, as it could look like the iPhone will do with mobile phones as the iPod did with portable music players.

technorati tags: Apple, iPhone

Posted in apple, iphone | 1 Comment »