Free Software
Django, CAS authentication and Apache

I am certainly no stranger to Web Development, but I decide to really look at the Python web framework django in some detail last week to write a small web application for Workload Modelling for Academic Staff. Yes, this is a geeky, programming post. In doing so I ran into some trouble trying to get […]

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Free Software
Upgrading from Serendipity to WordPress on Debian

As you may have noticed, I have upgraded from Serendipity, which was creaking a bit, and seems to no longer be supported by Debian to WordPress. It was a moderately complex task, as I wanted to preserve backwards compatibility and a lot of content with mathematics and code. I installed the Debian package, and tried […]

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Free Software
Cinnamon; adding needed spice to Gnome 3

Ok, so I used Gnome Shell before it was officially released. I stopped using it because I thought it was intriguing, but awkward to use in its beta stages. Then Gnome 3 was released and gnome-shell was no longer an interesting option, it was the compulsory way to use the operating system; and I wrote […]

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Free Software
Life after the tomb: minidlna

Last Sunday morning I tried to access my mediatomb UPnP music server using the radio in my kitchen to be told it was offline. After messing around at the radio end a bit, I went to check on the actual machine, and found that mediatomb was not running. Attempting to restart it looked OK, but […]

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Free Software
Gnome 3, or Gnome Shell issues

I use the Debian operating system on several computers. My "main" computer (Imladris) runs Debian unstable (Sid) while the others mostly run on testing. I've been anticipating the Gnome 3 upgrade for some time, mainly because of the switch to Gnome Shell which is a completely new way of using the desktop. I had played […]

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Free Software
Multi User Sound in GNU/Linux

For some years now, basically since Aimee became old enough to use a computer, I have had a need for decent multi-user sound. Specifically I would often have intricate work open in multiple work spaces on my desktop, and Aimee would want to do some artwork. I guess Aimee was about two when she started […]

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Free Software
Note to self: Why I dislike Windows

I am not a fan of Microsoft Windows, most people who know me appreciate this to be a slight understatement. But I've used Microsoft's products. Like many people I've often had no choice. I actually use Microsoft trackballs. It's quite an irony that the best thing I can say about the world's largest software company […]

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php
Garbage collecting sessions in PHP

In PHP, sessions are by default stored in a file in a directory. Sessions can be specifically destroyed from within the code, for example when users logout explicitly, but frequently they do not. As a result session files tend to hang around, and cause the problem of how to clean them up. The standard way […]

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Free Software
My first Munin plugin

Munin is a great, really useful project for monitoring all sorts of things on servers over short and long term periods, and can help identify and even warn of undue server loads. It is also appropriately and poetically named for one of Odinn's crows (so I suppose I should have written this on a Wednesday). […]

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Free Software
Patent issues with card storage

I read from Slashdot that Microsoft is taking legal action against TomTom over a number of alleged patent violations. Three of these are apparently targeted at the Linux kernel in use by TomTom. Much of the focus of the discussion revolves around the use of FAT and FAT32 storage systems on media cards, and I […]

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