andri.dk

I had to setup a new mailserver at work the other day and I decided to go with Centos 5 (which is derived from RHEL 5, without the subscription fee). I installed Postfix, Clamav and Clamd like I did on the last server (that was Centos 4).

However when I wanted to start clamd (virus scanning daemon) it said that it fails because it cant read the database files.

I checked the directory and the permissions were fine, so I decided to take look in a debugger (strace).

For some reason the system was reporting 'access denied' on /var/clamav but only when I ran the program through 'service clamd start' but not when I simply ran the program itself with 'clamd'.

After hours of banging my head against the wall I finally swallowed my pride and asked for help on the #Centos channel (on Freenode).

They were alot of help (thanks) and told me that it could be SELinux denied access to those files, and ofcourse they were right.

I consider myself an experienced Linux administrator of many years and it still wasn't obvious why my program was crashing.

I consider it a huge flaw in any Linux distribution that employs SELinux that this stuff isn't reported in the terminal when SELinux is denying access to system resources.

How hard would it be to have a program running that checks for SELinux errors and report them to the appropriate terminal (if there is any)?!

I'm all for terminals, hardcore hacking, C programming and all that. But this is CLEARLY a usability issue for many Linux distributions and should be addressed.

Rant ends

Being somewhat of an open source fanatic I tend to ramble on about the evilness of closed standards and corporate bullying of Microsoft. But Microsoft isn't all bad and they did alot of good, so I'm going to list a few good things that have come from Microsoft.

Now that Bill Gates is retiring, I think it's a good time to give credit where it's due.

1. They brought computers to the masses. If it wasn't for they're questionable sale of DOS to IBM, we wouldn't have the computer evolution we have today.
2. They made the home computer a viable platform for game development
3. They made Office. It may be bloated but it's still damn good.
4. They brought software to the masses. Before there were only corporations and industries with a small amount of engineers working on software. Thanks to Microsoft it's a big industry there should be enough cake for everyone.
5. They established a common platform. The PC platform wasn't the strongest or fastest but it was cheapest way to get a common platform out to a lot of people.

That said. I think Microsoft is obsolete. They used to be the fresh, new, cheap solution against IBM and the old UNIX systems. Now I'm not really seeing any point in paying for this common platform our software runs on when we can use free alternatives like Linux, OpenSolaris and BSD.

It's not about open source or commercial software. It's a matter of you having control of your own computer and the choice of any software you wish. Not what is determined by a super corporation (that used to be the little guy).

Thanks for the trip Bill, but now it's time to go another way.

I've been extremely addicted to a simple little browser game for while now. What happens when a geek like me gets trapped inside a virtual world? Well, we start to find ways to make things easier.

So I created a little tool to help people who have many incoming attacks and don't know exactly who to ask for help or what to do.

I've tried a fair share of programming and scripting languages over the years and there's no clear winner or loser. It's just all a matter of programmers using the tools that are best suited for the task and that the programmer feels comfortable using it.

That said I'd like to list out a few categories that I think general programmers should be familiar with.

Core programming

For embedded systems, server programs and other projects that require top performance and scalability, high level programming languages are just not going to cut it.

It's also important that developers get used to defining their own variables and learn garbage control. It may not be a requirement in high level languages but it's a good practice, non the less.

Examples: C, C++

Web backends

More and more programs are moving to the Internet and it's mostly a matter of being able to write the next big thing, before someone else does it. So the focus is being able to do much, and fast.

Examples: PHP, Python, Ruby, ASP and many more

Web frontends

While most of the work is usually done on the backend, rich user interfaces on webpages are becomming more and more popular.

Examples: Javascript, Actionscript

Desktop

While the web may be gaining up on the desktop, there's still a huge market for desktop applications. While some applications require performance not gained by high level languages, for most projects the speedy development outweighs the performance gained by using something like C++.

Examples: Java, C#, Vala

Databases

Almost all applications use some sort of databases in order to store and manipulate data. While not the only standard, SQL is the most widely used standard and by knowing standard SQL syntax you'll be able to work with many different implementations.

Examples: mSQL (Microsoft SQL), MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, DB2

Web frontend: Javascript
Desktop: C#, Java, C++
Databases: SQL

If you feel like there's something missing or incorrect, just drop me a line or leave a comment.

I like my cute little Macbook alot. It's relatively small, powerful and I think the black version looks pretty cool. I've been a Windows user since Windows 3.0 and a Linux user for 10 years. I've had no problems with getting used to the Mac and in particular the Dock is far superior than the taskbar, any day.

But two weeks ago I got fed up with MacOS X and decided to install Ubuntu on my laptop for the following reasons:

It's funny when being sick at home I find myself doing stuff I'd normally not do (or at least postpone).

Stuff like cleaning, fixing broken things and reading.

Yesterday I got sick of that fact that my computer has been running on 3GB of ram while I know for a fact that it has 4GB in it.

So I decided it would be smart to update my BIOS and thought; "Hey, whats the worst thing that could happen?".

It should also be noted that I don't run Windows or DOS (the two operating systems that my motherboard producer supports).

So I found a little Linux tool called 'flashrom' and updated my BIOS (which is the little piece of software that your computer uses to find the most basic of hardware before running an operating system) with the latest version.

Now my computer is effectively useless as it either beeps constantly or says (yes, my computer can talk) that my memory is faulty.

Now I feel like I'm missing a leg or something while waiting for a replacement BIOS chip from Germany.

Have pity, geeks need their desktops like other people need oxygen.

In 2005 Novell released their old Netmail product as the open source project Hula. Netmail was a web based calendar and email server. This sparked my attention quickly and I eagerly awaited it's release.

I tried a alpha version of Hula in 2006 and it looked quite nice. The upcoming CalDAV (ical over webdav) features were especially nice and it had a fresh 'flowerly' look.

Last week however I was browsing my favorite open-source projects and discovered that not only had Novell abandoned their leadership in the project, they've also sold Netmail to one of their 'partners'.

I dug a little deeper and found Netmail at it's new home, the Messenging Architects..

There they have a small little story of how they acquired Netmail from Novell but nothing about the open source effort or where I could get the latest version from.

The Hula website (hula-project.org) is currently down and the domain now belongs to Messenging Architects.

What I'd like to know, is if the new and 'improved' M+Netmail that they're selling is in any way based on the GPL licensed Hula code.

Fortunately the project was forked in time. Behold: The Bongo Project

Everyone has important files like personal photographs, bank statements, a life's accumulation of porn and so and and so forth that would be hard or impossible to recover if that damn hard drive would fail.

I've always been well aware of the dangers of not taking backups but yet still lazy enough to ignore it.

Backup for the lazy includes the following steps:

• Put USB stick in computer
• Wait for computer to BEEP or USB stick to stop flashing
• Unplug USB stick
• Rinse and repeat!

I've been dreaming about a new laptop for a few months and I'll probably keep on dreaming unless I'll be filthy rich after next summer.

My dream laptop is

• Small: (11"-13" screen)
• Light: (1-2 kg)
• Fast: 2.0GHz minimum
• Memorable: 2GB RAM minimum
• Power efficient: 4-5 hours without power
• and preferably with... a SSD drive, LED backlight (f. screen) and a webcam

So far I've found two machine that fulfill my needs. If you know of any others, do tell.

Apple Macbook Air

• Small: 13.3" screen. Dimensions: 2cm*32.5cm*22.7cm
• Light: 1.36kg
• Fast: Intel Core 2 Duo: 1.6-1.8 GHz
• Memorable: 2GB RAM max
• Power efficient 4-5 hours without power
• and with... LED backlighting, webcam and an optional SSD drive

Asus U2

• Small: 11.1" screen.
• Light: 1kg
• Fast: Intel Core Duo ULV (ultra low voltage) 1 GHz
• Memorable: 4GB RAM max
• Power efficient: 4-5 hours without power
• and with ... LED backlighting, webcam and an optional SSD drive

Neither laptops are currently available although you can pre-order the Macbook Air.

Attached are pictures of Macbook Air and the Asus U1 (U2's older brother)

Thought it was time for another entry in English.

I'm back in Denmark and I've started my engineering studies at Aalborg University. Our first project was with Lego Mindstorms and it so happens that in my early years I enjoyed playing with Lego's and always wanted to build my own robot.

It's just too bad that they insist on us using the Lego Mindstorms IDE which is: slow, unstable and uses around 3GB of memory on my computer that has to run it in emulation because Intel Macs are not supported (neither is my Linux machine).

I got a compliment on my Danish skill today from a fellow student that didn't believe I only lived here for a year.

It is nice to hear because I personally feel that I speak to much English around here.

That's it for now...