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Posted:
Mar 15, 2013
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Installing Archlinux as a Guest on Virtualbox

Essentially, you can follow this guide, but there are several additional steps to take.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners’_Guide#Installation

I used the GPT and Syslinux options to install the bootloader. I only made one partition as well, since it’s not as important on a virtual machine, in my opinion.

  • You must install gptfdisk before running syslinux-install_update -i -a -m
  • My interface was enp0s3, which was the same as when I used the installer. The installer found the network fine, but it did not appear to exist when I rebooted to the existing OS. I was using net-auto-wired.

To fix the network, this is what I did:

  1. /usr/sbin/dhcpd enp0s3 to check that I could load the dhcp client.
  2. ln -s '/usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpd@.service' '/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/dhcpd@enp0s3.service'
  3. changed the references to eth0 in /etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.conf
  4. created a profile for enp0s3 in /etc/network.d/interfaces by copying the example (this seems to be overwritten by the netcfg-auto-wired).
  5. start and enable the auto service with systemctl

Remember that you can’t get packages from the net without the network :( I had to reboot into the installer several times because of this. I also installed the vbox guest module from pacman as described.

Relevant Links

Posted:
Jan 23, 2009
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Gratuitous iPhone Post

This is a post to test out my iPhone and the wordpress app. I am really starting to understand why cut and paste would be such a killer feature.

The keyboard works fairly well even with my paws.

Posted:
Jan 5, 2009
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Failing CAPTCHAs

Every time I fail a CAPTCHA, I feel my humanity is slightly impugned. Given Flann O’Brien’s theory about bicycles and their riders merging, isn’t it also likely that someone who uses a PC as much as I do will suffer a similar, digital fate?

On the other hand, sometimes the tests are just too hard:
hardcaptcha

Posted:
Dec 17, 2008
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Feynman, Wilkes and more

None of these things are going to get a full entry, so I will put them here for posterity.

The Feynman pointwiki is the first instance of six consecutive 9s in π

Feinman said he wanted to be able to recite the 700-odd digits of π up to that sequence, and then say “nine nine nine nine nine nine nine and so on”. Brilliant.

Early programmer Maurice Wilkes is attributed as saying:

As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn’t as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.

It’s still true today, despite the amazing tools that now exist to support programmers.

One of the great problems is that the human brain is so good at decoding information, it’s very hard to decide what is helpful to a user. Many of the tasks that are feasible with a computer are so trivial to a human that when they go wrong even a small number of times, they create real anger. A small insight into the power of the brain can be perceived with the following experiment on Sine Wave Speech. I was blown away by the gap in understanding before and after the process.

Posted:
Oct 10, 2008
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This is the end, my only friend.

There may be a problem with the money

I am usually resistant to the notion that times are permanently changed. There seems to be a real trend towards making things sound as bad or as good as possible, and to feel that each new event is totally unprecedented. It’s in the interest of a large swathe of people to believe that. The media, both in terms of the traditional broadcasters and the internet echo chamber need to generate hype as hard as they can, and are interested in presenting things in that fashion.

At the same time, I have to admit that a 2,500+ drop in the Dow over the last month makes me a little worried. I know that stock prices have little direct economic impact on a non-investor such as me, but at the same time I also feel that it does have some barometric value.

Sequoia Capital on startups and the economic downturn
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: downturn finance)

(found on VentureBeat)
I particularly find the notes about advertising and mobile interesting. They are often claimed to be immune or shelters, but I think that if there is a real drop in consumer spending, that will have an impact. Even oil is down, there’s a 12% drop year-on-year for Brent Crude for September. It seems like there is a retrenching throughout the global economy, and the Valley is far from immune

Posted:
Oct 8, 2008
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Random Links

Why German Tanks are like iPhones, by Charles Arthur. Turns out you can guess the annual production based on a simple formula and a spread of sequential serial numbers. Interesting how information can leak out to a determined study.

Engadget point out an ‘error’ by Vodafone marketing. This could cause some serious stir. On the other hand, they also report that they are ‘in love’ with the Storm’s keyboards. Could be an interesting phone.

Posted:
Aug 6, 2008
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Fun with Flickr

Flickr is a fantastic repository of photos. I have a pro account with them, and it’s one of the very few software services that I actually pay for.

Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat Ship Image is © Lockheed Martin

Other neighbors of mine with interesting pictures include:

  • Lockheed Martin, who have great shots of ships and aircraft (including the photo above)
  • The Library of Congress, which is hoping you will help a small part of their massive photo collection.

There are dozens of great groups to join, including the photogamer group for those of you who need inspiration.

Posted:
Jul 25, 2008
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Mac Success – how to sync ical with google calendar for free

So, I have found a few answers over the last few days to some of my queries. I found out, by coming in early to the office one morning, that the F5/F6 keys on the MBP are responsible for setting the Keyboard Backlight Brightness. Apparently you can only adjust that when the backlight is on, which is confusing.

A more important discovery that I have made is that there is a free way to sync ical with google calendar bi-directionally. This is really important to me because I have a load of different calendars which I use for work and I really need to be able to add and track events on different calendars.

The google web client is nice, but iCal integrates really well with the rest of the OS and feels right for usability. There are commercial clients such as Spanning Sync and Busy Sync, but as I am a cheap bas believer in freedom, I prefer not to pay for software.

It turns out that there is an application for both OSX and Windows called ‘Calgoo’ that will do the syncing for you. Their website is at calgoo.com.

One really nice feature is that it will let you create iCal calendars as you set up connectors.

Posted:
Jul 15, 2008
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Donning my Mac

I recently took the plunge and went form an all-linux environment to adding a Macbook Pro to my collection of computers. I thought I would record a few of the apps and tips I have found useful in setting up the machine.

Java

Java can be a bit of a bugbear for linux users, because of the choices between Icedtea, openjdk and the Sun hotspot. Since I do a lot of Java development, I really want the real thing.

On the Mac, the official JVM seems to come from 1 2 3 4 »Last »