I have traditionally run my web site and mail domain and such from a server in my linen closet. This is a convenient solution and I don’t expect to be changing it any time soon. However, I think I might be going to switch the operating system the server is running.
Currently, it’s running Mac OS X 10.3, which is a very nice OS. However, my aging Beige G3 is quite definitely on Panther’s Unsupported List so I have to use XPostFacto to get it to run. That, in itself, is not such a problem. However there are a lot of little niggling problems with the set up that annoy me. For example, SSH connections to the machine take forever to start up for reasons I have not yet invested to necessary amount of time to figure out. In addition the machine is generally laggy when serving content in Apache.
So, I’ve decided to give Linux a shot on the machine. Specifically, the latest release of Ubuntu. (Yes, I realize that Ubuntu is more of a desktop distribution, and ye olde Debian is more server-oriented, but I find my life is considerably easier if I only have to deal with one flavour of Linux at a time.) I’m running Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE as the default desktop) on my Win/ux box, so it wins on familiarity. It also boasts far more up-to-date packages than straight Debian. And, last but certainly not least, Ubuntu has some of the best Mac support I’ve seen outside of, say, Yellow Dog Linux. Which is nice, since I’d prefer to keep the same distribution on all of my Linux machines.
Now the obvious question is: what about BSD and Solaris? Well, Solaris is easy: it won’t run on my server. If I had an x86 box in the closet, you can bet I’d be trying to get Solaris up and running on it. As for BSD, as much as I like FreeBSD they don’t do macppc, so the options realistically come down to either Darwin/OpenDarwin or NetBSD. Darwin’s hardware support would suit my machine right down to the ground and NetBSD is an excellent system, but as I said, I prefer to reduce the number of OSs I have to support in my own apartment, so Ubuntu wins by virtue of already being here.
So, there’s the challenge: can I get a Linux box set up to replace my OS X server without tearing my hair out?
To decide the issue I’m going to install a fresh copy of Kubuntu onto my Win/ux box and get the necessary servers configured and running on it. Then I’ll migrate my data and, finally, switch the port forwards on my firewall to point at the new Linux server rather than the Mac. If all goes well, I’ll install Linux onto the G3, move the data and switch the ports back to my server.
With any luck this shouldn’t take more than a few days. [Insert sound of hysterical laughter here]
Posted on 19 April 2005 in Uncategorized
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I think John has finally crystallized my thoughts into words for me:
I’m a film-geek snob. I found myself differentiating between people who were
passionate about movies, and jackasses who don’t know what else to do and like
movies. Yes there is a difference.
And, since I don’t think I’ve actually done it, I want to thank John for getting me to actually finish watching the complete set of John Carpenter movies. My favourite is The Fog and has been since I first saw it. I guess I really am a sucker for the Pacific Northwest (even when it’s actually Northern California), and it’s got Jamie Lee Curtis so that should mollify any Halloween purists. They Live is wonderfully cheesy and gives a nice, cynical view of advertising; for my money it just doesn’t hold up to The Fog, but I’m better off for having seen it. Carpenter’s 1982 remake of The Thing isn’t on the same level as (the original) Assault on Precinct 13, but it’s still a damn good flick. Actually, now that I think of it, I still haven’t seen Escape from LA, I should do that.
Note: that link will fall out of immediate relevance soon since John doesn’t provide permalinks.
Posted on 17 April 2005 in Uncategorized
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For those of us who see our programs as a group of functions with stack frames and global storage, it can be a little confusing when we’re faced with things like Prolog and Haskell which seem to bounce around all over the place. Luckily, some people can manage to talk to both camps and occasionally a wonderful document describing one camp’s viewpoint in the other’s terms comes about. This is one one of those documents.
This essay is for people who, in web years, are older than dirt. More
specifically, if there was a period of time in which you programmed in a language
which did not have garbage collection, then I mean you. For most people these
days, that means that you had some experience with a language named C.
It is a pretty safe bet that — despite your deep technical background — you find
that you have some genetic defect that makes it completely impossible for you to
understand articles with titles like Continuations Made Simple and Illustrated.
And for some reason, that bothers you.
Sam Ruby’s Continuations for Curmudgeons
Posted on 15 April 2005 in Uncategorized
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Apple Mail won’t let me use the MPW font for plain-text messages. And that has been driving me nuts since I switched to OS X. Luckily, typing defaults write com.apple.mail NSFixedPitchFont MPW into the Terminal will.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Apple Mail (it’s tough to break the habit of calling it Mail.app, but I’m trying dammit) is a wonderful mail client for my needs. It does everything I want it to do and does it well enough for me. Which is lucky because Thunderbird doesn’t look as nice and I can’t really justify buying Mailsmith.
My previous main mail programs were Eudora (back in its shareware days), Claris Em@iler and, very briefly, Microsoft Outlook Express. I loved Emailer, it was fast and simple. It had a clean interface and live filtering (that thing iTunes does where the results of your search are updated as you type). But it was discontinued as a product long before Claris was folded back into Apple and, as you can imagine, was therefore lacking in support and updates. Eventually I had to retire the trusty workhorse and Outlook Express was the path of least resistance at that point. Luckily I was able to switch to Apple Mail within a year of that. I really clung to Emailer right to the bitter end. If you want to take a look at it (remember, it’s a System 7 era app, so you’ll need Classic installed and a grain of salt), you can apparently download it here.
And, really, can you blame me? I mean, the splash screen art was oddly reminiscent of the artwork on the 25th Anniversary edition The Fountainhead. Which, to my mind is just the icing on an incredibly rich piece of wonderful software.
Back to the point: Apple Mail lets you view plain text messages in a monospace font, which is a wonderful feature, it doesn’t actually let you choose MPW as that font, however. The reasons for this probably have something to do with a bit not being set somewhere in MPW’s ttf file but, frankly, I don’t care why; I just want to use my favourite monospace font for mail.
Luckily, the fix is pretty simple. We just have to alter Mail’s preferences behind its back. So, quit Mail, fire up Terminal and enter ‘defaults write com.apple.mail NSFixedPitchFont MPW‘. Then launch Mail and type a couple of braces into a blank email to check it actually worked. Of course, you have to have the MPW font installed on your system for this to work…
Posted on 7 April 2005 in Uncategorized
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