Author: Grant

A friend found the Red Bull Air Race on Channel 10 this morning – I received an urgent message from him saying I should get on and watch it ASAP. Holy shit – talk about a fantastic thing to watch (and to dream of doing).

Take a high performance aerobatic aircraft with a “best in the world” pilot in it. Now send them through a series of pylons at high speed in a tight space so they’re pulling lots of g’s and racing the clock to get around the course. Do all this at ground level.

Have a few pilots and aircraft competing against each other based on time.

Now do this a few times over a year at locations around the world.

Incredible!

Yet another of my phones has gone to meet its maker. First was a 6310i that just refused to talk to the network – all the lights are on, the SIM card is in but nope, no signal, no carrier name, no nothing.

Fortunately, I was able to scrounge a 6310 to replace it – not as good as the 6310i but still good. Sadly, that one was in my shirt pocket as I was preparing a bath for Nykolai. Ooops – its glowing screen last seen disappearing into the depths, the damned thing was never to work again (even after being left for a few days to dry out).

So, I’m back to an antique brick of a 5110 that at least works, even if it does have a cellular net monitor/debug package in it that’s busy displaying Matrix-like numbers and info. Wonder how long until that one carks it :)

We’re making progress with the new server (“soju”) – rather than try to create the whole new environment then port everything over, we’ve decided to set up a chroot’d environment on soju that replicates everything on the old server (“arethusa”). This lets us run the old server on the new without it (or anyone else) seeing a difference.

Once this is up and running, we’ll be able to replace old with new and then start phasing domains into the new environment we’re planning.

It’s a great idea but we have a LOT to sort out and test before we can consider it ready for deployment. So far we’ve copied a large number of files onto the new server and will be testing the “chroot jail” concept tomorrow night.

There are a number of us currently objecting to a proposed development over on Smith St in Collingwood. It’s all being coordinated by the Collingwood Action Group (CAG) and you can read all about it at SmithStreet.org. A record 1,500 objections were received last year and the local council (eventually) knocked back the proposal. The developers (Banco) have now taken it to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to get it pushed through.

A bunch of us are submitting our Statement of Grounds documents with objections and CAG is organising another ePetition trying to get various ministers to block it. After all, they blocked a proposed development at Wheelers Hill with only 400 objections.

Hopefully this one gets stopped too. We’ll know for sure after the VCAT hearing on Friday.

Things are pretty busy at the AWU – I’m got the following projects underway:

• changing email providers
• dealing with a cranky server
• adding & tweaking some new building systems
• two new software packages
• updating an industrial strength printer/copier/scanner

Add to that the usual day-to-day issues of networks, workstations, laptops, systems, airconditioning, security systems and so on… Lots to do but progress is being made.

We finally have a functional Mac in the house. While Kitt’s got a G4 with a mega screen, it’s still in storage and we’ve not managed to extract it yet (not sure where to put it :). A friend gave me an old G3 that they had spare – 300Mhz with 256Mb RAM – not a bad little machine. I’ve loaded it with OSX 10.3.9 plus a stack of open source software (FireFox, OpenOffice.org, etc), hooked it into our LAN and set it up on Kitt’s desk. She’s now using it for all her webmail, searching, etc. Given that she was using an antique little laptop, she’s ecstatic to have something a little faster.

So, Windows, Linux and OSX – wonder what else we can bring in and hook onto the network here. Perhaps a SUN box? My friend Jim would say it should be an AMIGA but maybe it’ll be a games console :)

For the past six months I have been using FireFox as my web browser, Thunderbird for email, Open Office.org for documents/spreadsheets and the Gimp for graphics. I’ve also just started to use the FlightGear flight simulator.

Like the Linux operating system, all of these packages are Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). You can download, install and run them without having to pay anything. If you like them and keep using them, you have the option of donating towards their expenses but it’s up to you.

The concept of FLOSS has been around for a long time but it’s starting to peak as more and more people start using it. It’s being considered for more and more work environments, not just in homes. Lets face it, FireFox is an excellent browser, Thunderbird’s anti-spam filters are great and OpenOffice.org does Microsoft Office’s role better than MS Office (well, MS Office 2000 crashes when trying to read some documents created in Office 2003, OO doesn’t :)

We made a concious decision within APC.au to switch over to FLOSS software where possible. As part of the work we do with non-government organisations such as human rights groups and so on, using commercial software was no longer viable from both the “tied to/trusting a coporation” perspectives and from the financial aspect (less money spent on infrastructure = more money available to help others, etc)

At this point, I am now able to seriously consider converting to Linux instead of Windows. All my applications are available on Linux and it’s an extremely stable platform to operate from. Hopefully I can take this step in the near future when I pick up a new laptop.

Avalon airshow finished on Sunday and I finished up on Monday – all went well and I got to experience things you just can’t buy. Things like clambering through warbirds, walking out to the wingtip of a C17, taking Nykolai through the warbirds and around the combat jets (on the tarmac where the public couldn’t go – had to get an escort and everything), etc.

I’ve got about 300 photos to wade through and sort out so it might take a while to load them all, but keep an eye on the site and they’ll be there.

For now, it’s back to the office and catching up on the work that piled up while I was “away” (if coming in some nights for various things, doing remote work from home and fielding phone calls counts as being “away” :)

I’m still down at Avalon Airshow and having a blast working with the aircraft. A few of us have started judging the performances of the various aircraft during their routines, holding up the scores for the pilots to see as they come back in. It’s getting great results from them and we’re having a hoot too :)

Still trying to juggle things at the office as well so between all that and family, there’s no time to spare for writing it all up and loading photos. I’ve got 189 pix to name, review and load. Plus, I’ve been logging the days highlights and just need to load them as well.

So, don’t expect to see everything until next week. Sorry – just the way it goes…

When is the worst time for a network switch to die? How about when the big bosses are in the office trying to work, it’s a public holiday and you’re out marshalling aircraft.

I managed to talk people through to a point where they could work again and came in this evening. Working through the systems, I confirmed that yet another WISE 10/100 fast network switch had died. This is the fourth one in just over a year so I’ll be replacing it with something bigger and slightly better.