fak3r

If you run a Linux desktop you need to be using conky.  It compiles all those shiny gadget you see on other desktops eating system RAM, down to what you need; information on what your system is doing.  So try it out, install conky, and then drop this into your home directory as .conkyrc - then run conky.  The file is pretty self explanatory, enjoy!

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If you’re like me, you’ve messed up your xorg.conf before and wanted to start over with the default that you know dpkg-reconfigure can set it to.  Because of this I’m posting here because I’ve needed it multiple times in the past and have tired of looking it up!  To automatically reconfigure Xorg in Debian or Ubuntu issue the following:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Then logout/login or restart X via contrl-alt-backspace.  As one who tweaks things a bit more than he should, this has saved me a few times now. Props go to a poster on this page.

This is a big deal for me, I played with Skype back in the day, but never really used it much since it required a second client, and I have always used Gaim (which is now Pidgin) to consolidate all of my accounts into one client and didn’t want to break out of that mold, but now I don’t have to.  Using the Skype API, Eion Robb has created a Pidgin plugin called Skype API plugin for Pidgin/libpurple/Adium.  Now I just add my user to the Pidgin accounts tab and I can now chat via Skype in Pidgin just like I chat with all my other contacts.  Note that you can’t do the video of Skype on Pidgin.  Mac users note that you can use this on Adium (my fav OS X chat client), which uses libpurple, which is the backend for Pidgin, on Mac.  So now I’m using Skype again, which is a propreitary app, thanks to them providing an API for the Open Source community to latch on to.  Ah, the circle of life…

UPDATE: I’m reworking my config blending in the security ideas found on camomel.org they’re really thought things through on this, this should make for a very secure environment.

I’m always trying new software, and with the webserver I’ve moved from Apache 1.3 to 2.0 to 2.2, and then later I moved everything over to Lighttpd, which I’ve liked, save for some memory issues that popped up.  Now, enter a web server named nginx (engine x), written by a Russian hacker. It’s already proved it’s meddle by running some of the largest Russian sites for years now.  It has the speed of Lighttpd, but with none of that memory weirdness, plus it uses a fraction of the CPU, so scaling should be smooth for highly visited sites.  It also does cool things like load balancing, reverse proxy, IMAP and POP proxy, etc, so I can see it being used in a variety of ways on a network.  It took me some time to understand how to configure it, which was a case of me just making it harder than it really is, so I wanted to post it here.  Look for updates as we go along, but this is currently backing a Production site I manage.

user					www-data www-data;
worker_processes  			5;
pid 					/var/run/nginx.pid;
events {
worker_connections 1024;
}
http {
include				/etc/nginx/mime.types;
default_type			application/octet-stream;
log_format main 		'$remote_addr $host $remote_user [$time_local] “$request” ‘
‘$status $body_bytes_sent “$http_referer” “$http_user_agent” ‘
‘”$request_time” “$gzip_ratio”‘;
access_log			/var/log/nginx/access.log  main;
error_log			/var/log/nginx/error.log;
sendfile 			on;
tcp_nopush        		on;
tcp_nodelay      		off;
keepalive_timeout		65;
gzip				on;
gzip_http_version		1.1;
gzip_vary			on;
gzip_comp_level 		6;
gzip_buffers			16 8k;
#gzip_proxied			expired no-cache no-store private auth;
gzip_proxied 			any;
gzip_min_length			1000;
gzip_types			text/plain text/html text/css application/json application/x-javascript
text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
server {
listen			80;
client_max_body_size	50M;
server_name 		server.domain.com;
root 			/var/www;
index  			index.html index.php;
access_log  		/var/log/nginx/access.log  main;
error_page   		500 502 503 504  /500.html;
location = /500.html {
root		/var/www;
}
location ~* ^.+.(jpg|jpeg|gif)$ {
root		/var/www;
expires         30d;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /var/www$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string;
fastcgi_param REQUEST_METHOD $request_method;
fastcgi_param CONTENT_TYPE $content_type;
fastcgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH $content_length;
}
}
}

With the barriers lowering, and other market factors creeping in, Macs are slowly making a move into the enterprise.  While this may/may not solely be Apple driven, the fact is that people like choices, and the Macs are now far more compatible with other systems than they once were, so finally folks have options.  In my recent travels to Woods Hole we had ~14-15 developers from around the world, and there were 4 Macs there.  Of course we had the normal thing where someone couldn’t get something working in Windows, Mac folks would chime in with, “just works on a mac” and later when Mac folks couldn’t plug a projector into the certain Macs, the windows folks throw the, “just works in windows”, so it was all in good fun.  So while I don’t consider these folks “enterprise” as in working for a corporation, it clearly shows that more people can use what they want, and have IT adapt for their needs.  I talked to a friend up there about his MacBook Pro - it’s a beauty of a machine, and he loves it b/c he can do everything he needs, plus run windows for dev work that you can only do in Windows.  Of course if I had such a beast it’d be running Linux, and that’s my argument for my buying my Dell laptop; while the Apple is nicer, it was also ~2500$ more than the Dell.  Yes, maybe when my work buys me a ‘top I’ll rethink it - but now I’m thinking smaller again - and I really like the Xseries Thinkpads (used be by IBM, but now it’s Lenovo - but the same otherwise) and they’ve always had excellent Linux ability.  two devs in WH had those, and I had to borrow them - not to work on them, just to pick them up - nice and light, thin, but with high screen resolution.  of course for a full fledged system like thatI could also look at the MacBook which shares most of the Thinkpads features - but for a Mac I’d prefer the black MacBook after my long, drawn out suffering with my old iBook…but I digress.  Now, what was the question?  Oh yeah, more Macs in the workplace, yeah, it’s how I’ve always said it should be, and it’s more that way now.  I run Debian Linux at work now, on my work provided HP desktop machine, on my personal Dell laptop when I bring it, on my Development server, and (soon) on my production server.  What kind of support do I need from IT?  Gimme an IP and a gateway IP and I’m all set.  So, in conclusion, I believe four reasons for Apple’s success with people using more Macs at work is due to the following reasons:

1. x86 processor which allows the bridge to those who still *think* they need Windows.
   
2. Microsoft’s epic fail with Vista has frustrated users to no end, witness the stay of execution XP has recieved from Dell.
   
3. Apple’s awesome design sense, which cannot be duplicated, puts it in that “wow, gotta have that gadget” bucket
   
4. and lastly (and maybe to a lighter extent) the fact that Darwin is a Unix derivative, so *geeks* can use it and get the same thrill they do via Linux.  I’ve seen this not only on my trip, but to the annual DefCon, where Macs are shown alongside the blocky black laptops of yore.

Look, business is like everything else, to survive it must evolve.  Plus, choice is freedom, which makes it an inherint human desire.  Wouldn’t you rather work somewhere that allowed, and TRUSTED, you to work with whichever OS you perferred?

A recent study by a tech group talks about not only there being a positive monetary benefit for IT workers to know Open Source, but a more fulfilling sense of purpose as well.  While this tells me nothing I don’t already know, it’s something that’s important as the next wave of IT geeks start knocking on the doors.  “Want to make more money as an enterprise application developer? You’re in luck–if you know open source. According to a recent report from Bluewolf Consulting, enterprises increasingly deploy open-source software, and look to specialized application development on top of it, to drive business value:

The rise of open-source software in application development puts developers with a specialization in those technologies in a position to ask for a 30 (percent) or 40 percent pay increase, Kirven says. “We’ve gotten more requests from our permanent-placement division for open-source developers in the last six months than in the last five or six years combined,” he says. “It’s not as easy as getting free software; someone has to get it up and running. LAMP is everywhere now–these types of technologies no one heard of 18 months ago are all the sudden becoming a hot commodity.”

Indeed. Not only does open source bring developers more money, but it also apparently brings them more satisfaction. Jon Williams, chief technology officer of test preparation company Kaplan, made it very clear in an

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a month ago that open source is one of his best retention tools. Let people do interesting work, and they stick around. Make them mindlessly monitor that Windows machine, and they’ll bolt.”  I can attest to this, as can my last few contracting positions.  I was brought on to do interesting, challenging, Open Source work, but when that dried up, so did my interest in staying.  Fortunately I’ve recently left the corporate world behind and have found an Open Source position that allows me to fully utilize my skills, while building something with a purpose that’s not based on a corporations’ bottom line (and I’m loving it).  As a followup, there’s also an article about how open source drives enterprise innovation, which after my previous statement reveals, I could cover both sides of.

Related articles

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With all the tweaking to get my Dell Vostro 1500 working with Ubuntu, it’s still been an annoyance to get sound working evertime after hibernation. It goes to sleep fine, it wakes up fine, it obeys all of the power preferences I defined within Gnome fine too, it’s just that when it comes out of hibernation, the sound is usually off. It’s not muted, it’s off. Trying to restart alsa (the sound server) is a lession in frustration, so until now I’ve been ignoring it since it was rare that I would need it, but still…come on. This week I came across a solution in the Debian Forums that creates a new task for Linux to do before it shuts down and before it starts up.: “Create the file /etc/pm/sleep.d/49sound…

mkdir /etc/pm
vi /etc/pm/sleep.d49sound

with the following contents:

function kill_sound_apps() {
pidsnd=$(lsof | grep /dev/snd | awk '{ print $2 }')
pidmixer=$(lsof | grep /dev/mixer | awk '{ print $2 }')
piddsp=$(lsof | grep /dev/dsp | awk '{ print $2 }')
kill $pidsnd $pidmixer $piddsp
}

case "$1" in
hibernate|suspend)
kill_sound_apps
modprobe -r snd_hda_intel
;;
thaw|resume)
modprobe snd_hda_intel
;;
*)
;;
esac

exit $?

Then just make it executable:

# chmod +x /etc/pm/sleep.d/49sound

So before shutting down, Linux properly shuts down the sound, and when it comes back it, it properly starts the sound. As always, this *should* work, but the fact that it hasn’t been updated in Ubuntu Gusty is one of the reasons I’m shifting to Debian Lenny on this ‘top.

NOTE: yes, I am thinking of making Ignignokt my official HOWTO mascot. “Using a key to gouge expletives on another’s vehicle is a sign of trust and friendship“

As a IT contractor I’m enjoying giving my opinion when asked, and sometimes even when I’m not asked; I have the confidence to be open and honest with everyone and want them to know that. Because of this I’ve been getting to do things I otherwise would not have since they would not have known I was interested or experienced in such things. One of the things I was hired for was to setup Apache on Linux to work with their web instances. It’s been fun, and while I’ve used Apache for over 10 years, there’s always new things to learn. Recently they asked for my opinion on ’support’ options for Apache. Keeping in mind, they already have support for the hardware and support for the Linux distribution, they still think they need another support channel for Apache. To me this a big waste of money and have somewhat made my case to them. While I understand their position that this support is a way to cover themselves if Apache ‘breaks’, the fact that this software is Open Source has to change the way they have traditionally considered support.

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