Category: Linux

Charge of the Lighttpd brigade..

Posted by Martyn Drake – June 16, 2010

I’m heavily getting into this Ubuntu lark, so much so that this blog is now running on a 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04 LTS miniserver. But I’m no longer using Apache 2. Instead I’ve stuck my neck out and decided to give the fast and lightweight web server, Lighttpd. Installation is simplicity itself via aptitude, as is installing PHP 5 (which runs as a fastCGI module).

Configuring this blog was no hassle at all, but did meet a bit of resistance attempting to set-up a virtual host for the stats. I got around this by (a) enabling the simple-vhost module and (b) checking and re-checking my appallingly bad regular expressions in defining the $HTTP["host"] directive. Took a while to see the error of my ways, but got there in the end, and so far loving it. Adds another feather to the cap, and forces me away from the pointy-clicky world of cPanel which can make one very lazy if you’re used to it.

Me, Ubuntu and Hollywood

Posted by Martyn Drake – June 13, 2010

Over the past few days I’ve been tinkering with Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid). I like it enough to seriously consider moving my work Dell laptop running Windows 7 with Blu-Ray reader/burner and dual SLI NVIDIA 9800M GT graphics cards over to it. Especially as I’ve found a good number of articles surrounding how to play Blu-Ray titles. It is still awkward, but then again, Linux is unfortunate that Hollywood doesn’t seem to like it much. I’ve discussed this issue on this very blog time and again, but here it is again for those that may have missed it:

But Hollywood DOES like Linux. Or rather the multitude of post-production and visual effects facilities that rely on Linux to create the gorgeous artwork that we see grace our cinema screens, Blu-Ray discs, or DVD discs. Yes – Linux is used in both big VFX studios and small boutiques. And yet for the artists, producers and engineers that work on these films it’s never easy because Linux has not yet (to the best of my knowledge) received proper licensing from the relevant authorities that control DVD and Blu-Ray specifications. As a result most artists require a standalone DVD player attached to a TV to playback any reference material DVDs/Blu-Rays rather than on their own workstations. And given the complications of region encoding, these facilities have to use multi-region players – mainly those that can use the DVD manufacturer’s control codes to work around the set region which the unit ships with.

So Hollywood loves Linux to create it’s movies (as it’s also free as in beer to them), but HATES anybody wanting to use it on their own home computers to watch the very same movie that Linux helped create in the first place.

Here comes the madness: Windows 2008 Server certification!

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 11, 2010

Memset is the only company I have ever worked for that actively encourages it’s staff to learn and try new things, and will pay for training and certification in technologies that interest individual members of staff.  It works out well for my employers because they’ll get back an employee whose has been properly certified in a particular discipline.  That’s not to say that we’re not already experienced in using these disciplines, but it’s nice to get recognized by the vendors that make it all possible.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I’ve wanted to do now I’ve been given the chance.  Back at MPC, which promised the Earth but delivered only dirt, I had wanted to take a course on learning Maya – to help me provide better application support to the artists on the floor, and possibly take my career further in another direction other than just systems administration.  That never happened.  The best I got was a subscription to Safari Books Online.

But prior to MPC all my previous employers operated a bugger-all training policy[*] and I had to learn what I wanted to learn in my own time.  Pretty much my entire career to date was formed from self-learning.  I bought my own books (or borrowed from libraries), bought my own software and hardware, and just had to teach myself how to do things.

Windows seems to be the way forward despite the massive proliferation of Linux.  I’ve been using Linux since around 1994 when the kernel was seriously pre -1.0 and was very experimental.  Windows Server came into my field of version back in 1998 and I’ve been using it on and off since then.  That’s the problem – it’s been on and off.  When I suggested to one of my former employers that we use an email ecosystem that was not Exchange, they bulked at the idea – management wanted Exchange and management was going to get Exchange.  The IT department hadn’t much experience with it, so they paid a consultancy firm to come in and do all the work setting up Domain controllers, Exchange, and all the bits and bobs that go with it.  I dread to think how much was paid to these consultants to do the work.  All I know is that the mail server I managed under Linux and running Exim had survived a major version upgrade and move to new server without any hassles.  Exchange and Windows Server was a lot more problematic and we didn’t have the in-house experience to manage it ourselves.

All throughout my career, Windows experience has been in great demand by potential employers.  Good Windows system admins can earn considerably more than Linux sysadmins in some cases and there appears to be no let down in the demand for Windows servers and VPSes.  So it seemed logical for me to pick a Windows 2008 Server certification that should take me up to MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional) at a minimum.  And that’s what I’m hoping to do over the next few months.

I had considered an official Linux certification such as LPI or RHCE, but it’s a popular choice here and almost everybody else is doing a certification in LPI.  Perhaps that’s something I’ll do after my MCITP, but for the moment I think the benefits that MCITP would bring to my employers and to my overall career development is the way to go right now.

[*] Thankfully not literally.

Things that scared me as a child..

Posted by Martyn Drake – February 10, 2010

1 - Battlestar Galactica.

I’m sure I’ve already recalled it here at some point on this blog, but for those who missed it: I was about 5 or 6 years old. It was Christmas Eve. I was rapidly becoming very tired and had actually starting sleeping with my eyes open. Subsequently I went to bed and I started snoozing. At that time I was heavily into the 80s Battlestar Galactica TV series and had the bedspread and the curtains.  Well, I went to bed that night and after a while I woke up and thought I saw Cylons gathering together to sing Christmas Carols.  If that wasn’t bad enough, I hid under the blankets and then saw Zippy, George and Bungle from Rainbow walking towards me as if the blanket was a tunnel.  Then I saw my grandmother enter my room and then enter a wardrobe.  And never came out.

Now I started to panic.  I got up and left my bedroom only to find that spiky thing from Star Wars (used to interrogate Princess Leia) making it’s way towards me.  I was edging towards the stairs.  It was at this point my parents woke up and managed to wake me up.  From that point the Battlestar bedsheets and curtains were consigned to the cupboard.  Permanently.

2 - The aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Never seen the whole film.  The only thing that stands out in my mind is the ending when the spaceships land and the aliens (built by E.T’s special effects maestro, Carlo Rambaldi) stepping out.  What really freaked me out was the lack of noses, big eyes, elongated limbs and well, it just freaked me out.  It took me a while to repeat the phrase, “IT’S A PUPPET!!” (thank you Brian Connelly).

3 - E.T. – The Extra Terrestrial.

How the hell could ET, a cuddly space alien be frightening?  Well, what spooked me as a kid was when ET screams.  At the beginning when he encounters Elliott, and a little further along in the film.  Also when he was dying and turned white.  And his croaky voice.  Still, that didn’t put me off asking for a cuddly ET doll which I cherished until I lost it one day.

4 - The dying alien from Cocoon.

It kind of resembled a dried prune.  And I didn’t like prunes at that time in my life.

5 - The Library Ghost from Ghostbusters, and Zaul’s voice.

This film caused me to scream and run out of the living room, desperately begging my mum to switch the video off.   Mum explained the irony in the scene, but that still didn’t work for me.  And Zaul’s voice when he takes over Sigourney Weaver’s body sent the screaming heebie-jeebies through me.  But it was this film that made me want to get into special make-up effects and visual effects.  And I partly succeed in that, so thank you Ghostbusters.

6 - Children of the Dog Star.

Children’s TV series.  They looked weird, were weird, and quite frankly it spooked the living crap out of me.

7 - Chocky.

That blasted voice haunted me for a good while, I tell you.

8 – Aliens in the Family.

Until Ralph Fiennes came along and MPC digitally removed his nose in his role of Voldermort, I had hated anything that had no nose.  These aliens had no noses (how did they smell?  Terrible!) and had put the wind up me a good ‘un as a youngster.

There.  Now you know.  I was a wimp.

I’m a Mac AND a PC. Yet I’m not complacent.

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 2, 2009

Interesting article over at the Mail Online about the so-called Windows 7 “black screen of death”.  Even more interesting is the comments where the forever OS snobbery war continues.

People saying “Get a Mac”, or “My Mac has never seen a virus” are far too complacement for my liking.  In the six years of working in an industry where Macs are the dominant platform for creatives (followed behind by Linux – yaaboosucks to Microsoft!), I’ve seen Macs become infected by trojans – installed by users who have unwittingly given the trojan access to their system by giving it their admin user password (which is usually only required for major system operations, such as installing kernel extensions or amending system configs).  This has resulted in an compromised system – and this is because the users have usually downloaded something from a dodgy (warez, illegal torrent, etc.) web site and believed their Macs were invulnerable to viruses, etc.

The same can be said of some Windows users.  Despite the almost universal paranoia of Windows systems getting viruses, I’ve also seen some Windows think along the same lines of the smug Mac owners in that “I’m careful – I’ve never caught a virus before and therefore do not need anti-virus software”.  Subsequently their machines have been compromised and it’s re-install time.  NEVER think you will be affected because one day you’ll most likely be kicking yourself.

Regardless of whatever platform you use – it’s always worth having some form of anti-virus/anti-malware software installed (free or otherwise) to ensure that you’ve got some warning about the new application you’ve just aquired will do.  Never willingly grant strange applications access to your system and always verify their source first.

Mac users – I highly recommend Sophos Anti-Virus.  Despite a few wibbly moments which have since been ironed out, Sophos is one of the most trusted and respected security vendors for all the major OS platforms.  Certainly, I’ve been very impressed with their Windows products in the past when I’ve used them.  For Windows users, I do not hestiate to recommend ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus.

Another thing that bugs me are people who do not take care of their system backups.  It’s now so incredibly cheap to buy an external hard drive, CDs, DVDs or Blu-Ray rewritables to back up all of your sensitive data.  And add to this the numerous onlne backup services (my favourite being SquirrelSave – but then again I provide the majority of support for this as I work for Memset who own and run it!) and you’ve got no excuse for losing data.

Pride and Prejudice and Operating Systems

Posted by Martyn Drake – November 5, 2009

This will sound hypocritical of me, but I really dislike OS snobbery.  I've unsubscribed from the Greater London Linux Group (GLLUG)  a number of times due to the general bitchiness of some subscribers over their hatred for all things Microsoft, OS X, or any number of other operating systems that are not Linux.

I also hate to say this, but much of this snobbery seems to stem from Linux zealots.  I continually hear how crap Windows is and that Linux is so much better than every other operating system.  Similar things from the FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD camps too – although they tend to put their OSes above Linux.  As for the hard core Windows user, they bitch about Linux being unfriendly and complicated.  OS X users come into the fray and say their computers/OS is better than Windows, Linux and all other *ixes put together.

I have news for you.  No one operating system is any better than the other.  And it also all boils down to personal choice.  I've seen Windows, Linux and OS X systems compromised[*] (and I should note: none were any of mine!).  I've not been around FreeBSD, NetBSD or OpenBSD to say the same.  But certainly one cannot be smug about any operating system when it comes to security. 

In terms of usability, I've always found Linux desktops to be terribly inconsistent and fiddly – and not a little ugly.  But that's just my personal preference.  Windows has generally been a bit more consistent (although I am still getting used to some of the changes in Windows 7 where Microsoft have moved some regular options I used to the Control Panel), but it provides the biggest choice in terms of software and compatibility.  OS X has been the most consistent interface of all, and provides a very friendly and wonderful approach to user friendly computing.  But I'm not liking much the software availability and quality of some of the software that's available for the Mac.  Apple's own software products are, for the most part, wonderful, but there are still some issues that prevent me from loving Apple completely.

The reason I'm now rooting for the Windows/PC camp is that it suits my needs now.  I may well head back to Macs later down the road, but for now, the PC and Windows does what I want it to do.  I could even go to Linux as a desktop if the interface was right (Ubuntu comes very close to my ideal, but it still needs work).  In terms of hardware support, Linux has never had it so good.  And the same can be said about Windows.

I certainly grumble about OSes and hardware myself, but I *do* try to bear in mind about having an objective outlook on things rather than simply dismissing something simply because it comes from Apple, Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, or whoever.  Each and every operating system has advantages and disadvantages over each other and I believe it is quite wrong to start slanging matches for the sake of doing so. 

[*] I'm seeing more people running obsolete versions of Fedora Core and even Red Hat Linux operating systems.  A few years ago I noticed a film distribution company running Red Hat 9 with telnet (not SSH!) and all available default services running (and all versions of those services were available for all to see) – and this was a server running the web site for a Terry Gilliam film.  I had to write to the systems team and advise them that this was putting their site (and reputation) in jeopardy.  Thankfully they then firewalled off the machine and fixed the problems.  The stupid thing is, this is still a common problem!

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