anthony's blog http://www.debian.org.hk/blog/1/atom/feed 2004-03-11T19:05:29+08:00 Notebook hard disk failed; no 40GB 1.8" disk in Beijing http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/notebook-hard-disk-failed-no-40gb-1-8-disk-beijing 2005-03-16T22:15:02+08:00 2005-03-16T23:09:02+08:00 anthony The hard disk in my new IBM X40 started misbehaving around 2am last night. Some time earlier it was making rather loud noises. And then two commands (ps and smartctl) locked up the machine and I have to used sysrq magic keys to reboot it. It's too soon for the harddisk to fail because the notebook was bought in October last year, so it's about 5 months only. My original plan was to buy a new harddisk, transfer data from the failing one to the new one as much as possible, and then take the failed one to an IBM repair center for a replacement. But the sad news is I could not find a 40GB 1.8" harddisk (which the IBM X40 can only use, it can't use the 2.5" ones) in Beijing's Zhongguancun! Zhongguancun to Beijing is what the Golden computer center to Hong Kong, you go there for any kind of computer hardware and parts. For all the shops I asked which sold 1.8" harddisk, they only had 20GB. Once again, it proves that if you want to play with the newest electronic toys, your best bet is to try your luck in Hong Kong :|

]]> The hard disk in my new IBM X40 started misbehaving around 2am last night. Some time earlier it was making rather loud noises. And then two commands (ps and smartctl) locked up the machine and I have to used sysrq magic keys to reboot it. It's too soon for the harddisk to fail because the notebook was bought in October last year, so it's about 5 months only. My original plan was to buy a new harddisk, transfer data from the failing one to the new one as much as possible, and then take the failed one to an IBM repair center for a replacement. But the sad news is I could not find a 40GB 1.8" harddisk (which the IBM X40 can only use, it can't use the 2.5" ones) in Beijing's Zhongguancun! Zhongguancun to Beijing is what the Golden computer center to Hong Kong, you go there for any kind of computer hardware and parts. For all the shops I asked which sold 1.8" harddisk, they only had 20GB. Once again, it proves that if you want to play with the newest electronic toys, your best bet is to try your luck in Hong Kong :|

So bear with me if I'm a bit slow in replying your emails or such, I think I'll not be back to full force until I can work on my notebook again.

]]> Damn... http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/damn 2005-03-10T22:53:10+08:00 2005-03-10T23:42:10+08:00 anthony Your Brain is 40.00% Female, 60.00% Male You have a total boy brain Logical and detailed, you tend to look at the facts And while your emotions do sway you sometimes... You never like to get feelings too involved Your Brain is 40.00% Female, 60.00% Male You have a total boy brain Logical and detailed, you tend to look at the facts And while your emotions do sway you sometimes... You never like to get feelings too involved ]]> mozilla.org.cn http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/mozilla-org-cn 2005-03-05T06:23:56+08:00 2005-03-06T17:28:56+08:00 anthony Mozilla China officially launched today, which is backed by the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS) and the Sun China Engineering and Research Institute (ERI). Well, isn't it funny to see that ISCAS's website doesn't render properly in Firefox 1.0?
]]> Mozilla China officially launched today, which is backed by the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS) and the Sun China Engineering and Research Institute (ERI). Well, isn't it funny to see that ISCAS's website doesn't render properly in Firefox 1.0?
]]> No. of download per architecture for ftp.hk.debian.org http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/no-download-architecture-ftp-hk-debian-org 2005-03-05T04:49:23+08:00 2005-03-05T12:42:23+08:00 anthony After reading Tollef Fog Heen's blog, I tried to do a similar statistics on ftp.hk.debian.org from Dec 2004 to Feb 2005. Results are as follows (only include successful requests, that is HTTP 200 responses). Hmm, I think some archs can be cut to save some disk space...

]]> After reading Tollef Fog Heen's blog, I tried to do a similar statistics on ftp.hk.debian.org from Dec 2004 to Feb 2005. Results are as follows (only include successful requests, that is HTTP 200 responses). Hmm, I think some archs can be cut to save some disk space...

Dec 2004

192207 i386
64539 all
6264 powerpc
352 sparc
174 hppa
142 arm
112 mipsel
21 alpha
9 mips
8 m68k
4 s390
3 ia64


(ignoring requests from Googlebot)

192195 i386
64486 all
6255 powerpc
339 sparc
167 hppa
133 arm
104 mipsel
12 alpha

Jan 2005

221980 i386
70907 all
2072 powerpc
1044 alpha
611 mipsel
456 sparc
298 hppa
272 m68k
252 mips
250 s390
238 ia64
214 arm


(ignoring requests from Googlebot)

221751 i386
70753 all
1807 powerpc
812 alpha
398 mipsel
205 sparc
45 hppa
1 ia64

Feb 2005

177502 i386
63081 all
3431 powerpc
214 sparc
174 mipsel
102 alpha
40 m68k
38 mips
33 hppa
28 ia64
26 s390
18 arm


(ignoring requests from Googlebot)

177470 i386
63035 all
3400 powerpc
188 sparc
148 mipsel
71 alpha
1 m68k
]]> First day of Beijing Debian mini-conf http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/first-day-beijing-debian-mini-conf 2005-02-28T22:36:17+08:00 2005-02-28T23:10:17+08:00 anthony The first day of Beijing Debian mini-conf was a success, and I'm sure tomorrow will still be great. Although we don't have any fist fight or even the slightest flamewar as Alex Schemhl had expected, the participants are really looking for something in this conference. There are more than 10 journalists in this morning, so there are more people than we expected and the room was already full when I arrived and chairs had to be added to accomodate more people, yet some people still have to stand (Oops yes I was late anyway).

The high time is the keysigning session. It's cool to do something that other people don't know what you're doing yet you're enjoying doing it. (Just kidding Smiling) Although this is the Asian Debian mini-conf, there are actually people coming from all over the world, the US, Europe, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. Great event.

]]> The first day of Beijing Debian mini-conf was a success, and I'm sure tomorrow will still be great. Although we don't have any fist fight or even the slightest flamewar as Alex Schemhl had expected, the participants are really looking for something in this conference. There are more than 10 journalists in this morning, so there are more people than we expected and the room was already full when I arrived and chairs had to be added to accomodate more people, yet some people still have to stand (Oops yes I was late anyway).

The high time is the keysigning session. It's cool to do something that other people don't know what you're doing yet you're enjoying doing it. (Just kidding Smiling) Although this is the Asian Debian mini-conf, there are actually people coming from all over the world, the US, Europe, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. Great event.

Good job Roger, your planning is great and all the hard work you did was worth of it!

Got to finish signing the keys of the people I met today, my notebook has problem in booting up during the keysigning party so I have to do it now.

]]> 還看明天 http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry-16 2005-02-27T23:33:35+08:00 2005-02-27T23:36:35+08:00 anthony 明天就是debian mini-conf了，雖然我只是參與的份兒，但還是非常的期待的。 Evil

]]> 明天就是debian mini-conf了，雖然我只是參與的份兒，但還是非常的期待的。 Evil

]]> Newton never dies http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/newton-never-dies 2004-12-09T01:08:36+08:00 2004-12-09T01:48:36+08:00 anthony While my coworkers and I were talking about Palm, Be and Apple tonight, Fatcat said that the demise of BeOS is a pity, and I replied that the demise of Newton is even a tragedy. Thanks him for telling me that there was a Newton conference in September, which was held in Paris. It's cool to see that after a product has been discontinued for 6 years, there is still a strong user base following it. To me, Newton has a position that can never be replaced. Same as other Apple products, Newton was (and still is) innovative. Not only that Newton (MessagePad 130) was the first real PDA that I used and developed upon (I wrote a navigation system with GPS in my Final Year Project), its UI design, the NewtonScript programming language, the object storage (soup), the handwriting recognition, all of them are just amazing and elegant, they are pieces of art rather than just technology. Its UI is simple yet effective and user-friendly, with consideration of accessibities and different form factors. NewtonScript is simply the best computer language besides Smalltalk, this template-based object-oriented language with the excellent IDE (don't get me wrong, I'm a vi guy, but this IDE follows the KISS paradigm, which is like the Smalltalk browser) makes programming for Newton a breeze.

]]> While my coworkers and I were talking about Palm, Be and Apple tonight, Fatcat said that the demise of BeOS is a pity, and I replied that the demise of Newton is even a tragedy. Thanks him for telling me that there was a Newton conference in September, which was held in Paris. It's cool to see that after a product has been discontinued for 6 years, there is still a strong user base following it. To me, Newton has a position that can never be replaced. Same as other Apple products, Newton was (and still is) innovative. Not only that Newton (MessagePad 130) was the first real PDA that I used and developed upon (I wrote a navigation system with GPS in my Final Year Project), its UI design, the NewtonScript programming language, the object storage (soup), the handwriting recognition, all of them are just amazing and elegant, they are pieces of art rather than just technology. Its UI is simple yet effective and user-friendly, with consideration of accessibities and different form factors. NewtonScript is simply the best computer language besides Smalltalk, this template-based object-oriented language with the excellent IDE (don't get me wrong, I'm a vi guy, but this IDE follows the KISS paradigm, which is like the Smalltalk browser) makes programming for Newton a breeze.

In the conference, the most interesting things are the possibility of a Newton emulator by Paul Guyot and the implementation of a NewtonScript interpreter. Wish them every success. Perhaps someday NewtonScript will be re-implemented and appears on the Linux desktop.

Long live the Newton.

]]> LCD broken, using VNC4 http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/lcd-broken-using-vnc4 2004-11-01T09:13:38+08:00 2004-11-01T09:26:38+08:00 anthony The LCD of my IBM X21 has become worse for quite a few days now, it doesn't display the correct colors - black as red and white as cyan, etc, that's horribe to the eyes. Until a new one arrive (the IBM X40, yay) tonight, I am using VNC4 on another desktop computer to use the X desktop. Strangely I can't make the VGA output work after around the time that I upgraded to the 2.6 series kernel. I'm happy with VNC4 so far, the only problem is when I press Ctrl-space to switch to input Chinese, the keystrokes are captured by the host computer instead of the desktop being connected.

]]> The LCD of my IBM X21 has become worse for quite a few days now, it doesn't display the correct colors - black as red and white as cyan, etc, that's horribe to the eyes. Until a new one arrive (the IBM X40, yay) tonight, I am using VNC4 on another desktop computer to use the X desktop. Strangely I can't make the VGA output work after around the time that I upgraded to the 2.6 series kernel. I'm happy with VNC4 so far, the only problem is when I press Ctrl-space to switch to input Chinese, the keystrokes are captured by the host computer instead of the desktop being connected.

]]> 中日韓 Linux 聯盟 何去何從 http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/linux-0 2004-10-12T20:48:05+08:00 2004-10-12T22:40:05+08:00 anthony 盛傳已久的中日韓(CJK) Linux 聯盟具體工作已經正式開始。昨天我突然收到通知，公司要我去中方的工作組開會。得悉日本和韓國已經提出了初步方案，中國之前則只是隨便的提到會做有關桌面的東西。對於這些會議我從來不感興趣，因為實際效益實在太低，對於我喜歡少說話多做事的就覺得是浪費時間。

會議第一階段是自由發言，大家各自就日本和韓國的方案發表意見。第二階段各人提出方案，特別是就桌面方面的想法提出意見。由於聯盟能做的絕對不是開發工作，因為協調不容易，不同公司有自身的利益，一個跨公司的開發團隊成功的機會很底。所以目標是放在研究和調查等方面。我提出我們可以從 desktop 的 usability 著手，對於現在流行的 Linux desktop 做 usability 的研究，制定測試的方法和準則，然後分別在中日韓三國建立實驗室，得出分析報告。結果可以給 Gnome 和 KDE 做參考，希望能有正面的影響，促進 Linux desktop 在 usability 的發展。

]]> 盛傳已久的中日韓(CJK) Linux 聯盟具體工作已經正式開始。昨天我突然收到通知，公司要我去中方的工作組開會。得悉日本和韓國已經提出了初步方案，中國之前則只是隨便的提到會做有關桌面的東西。對於這些會議我從來不感興趣，因為實際效益實在太低，對於我喜歡少說話多做事的就覺得是浪費時間。

會議第一階段是自由發言，大家各自就日本和韓國的方案發表意見。第二階段各人提出方案，特別是就桌面方面的想法提出意見。由於聯盟能做的絕對不是開發工作，因為協調不容易，不同公司有自身的利益，一個跨公司的開發團隊成功的機會很底。所以目標是放在研究和調查等方面。我提出我們可以從 desktop 的 usability 著手，對於現在流行的 Linux desktop 做 usability 的研究，制定測試的方法和準則，然後分別在中日韓三國建立實驗室，得出分析報告。結果可以給 Gnome 和 KDE 做參考，希望能有正面的影響，促進 Linux desktop 在 usability 的發展。

建議得到非常正面的反應，在座成員都表示這是一個很值得去做的事情，唯獨是那個擁有國家背景的Linux distro的代表強烈反對，就他一人提出了一大堆能不能做、會不會做的問題，但就是不去想怎麼才能做，是不是應該做。雖然主席和其他幾個人極力和他 argue，但最後也是因為得不到共識而得放棄。今天我終於看到他們醜陋的面目。原來由中國政府一手扶持的這家公司就是由一群什麼都不會幹的廢物所控制。中國政府只要一天繼續直接或間接的幫助這些企業，那就像向一頭永不吃飽的獅子餵飼事物一樣，到頭來只是把納稅人的錢白白的花光。在這個不倫不類的社會主義政權下實行的資本主義制度，所帶來的就是這些社會毒瘤。

雖然他們已是臭名遠播，大家都知道他們什麼事也不會做，但究竟為什麼還是會被邀請呢？如果這家公司沒有被邀請，事情又會怎麼發展呢？

]]> sarge d-i http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/sarge-d-i 2004-10-12T20:05:47+08:00 2004-10-12T20:23:47+08:00 anthony 上次幫自己部 server 裝機，用左隻 sarge installer，感覺非常好，全程都無問題。雖然 sarge 未 release， 我以後都會繼續用 sarge d-i 喇。

不過voidoo大哥，而家未有 security update 喎，咁係咪要等 release 咗先可以用部機呢？

]]> 上次幫自己部 server 裝機，用左隻 sarge installer，感覺非常好，全程都無問題。雖然 sarge 未 release， 我以後都會繼續用 sarge d-i 喇。

不過voidoo大哥，而家未有 security update 喎，咁係咪要等 release 咗先可以用部機呢？

]]> 與 dpkg 君的一席話 http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/dpkg 2004-03-31T14:24:16+08:00 2004-03-31T14:24:16+08:00 anthony ２００４年３月３１日，１４時２４分，在 irc.freenode.net 的 #debian 頻道我和 dpkg 君有過這樣的對話，節錄如下：

<ypwong> gnome
<dpkg> it has been said that gnome is a desktop environment - see http://www.gnome.org. a little dwarf, or a race in d&d, or not the same as gtk but the gnome developers don't know that
<ypwong> debian jp

]]> ２００４年３月３１日，１４時２４分，在 irc.freenode.net 的 #debian 頻道我和 dpkg 君有過這樣的對話，節錄如下：

<ypwong> gnome
<dpkg> it has been said that gnome is a desktop environment - see http://www.gnome.org. a little dwarf, or a race in d&d, or not the same as gtk but the gnome developers don't know that
<ypwong> debian jp
<dpkg> i heard debian jp is a project by Debian developers in Japan to provide excellent Japanese support in Debian. smile See http://www.debian.or.jp/ for more information.
<ypwong> debian hk
<dpkg> no idea
<ypwong> wtf
<dpkg> what the fuck is wtf
<ypwong> S*$#@-0$%
<dpkg> I'm not sure, is it larger than a breadbox?
<ypwong> Debian HK is a project by Hong Kong (not necessarily living in smile Debian developers and enthusiasts to promote the use of Debian. More information can be found at http://www.debian.org.hk/.

<dpkg> okay, ypwong
<ypwong> debian hk
<dpkg> i guess debian hk is a project by Hong Kong (not necessarily living in smile Debian developers and enthusiasts to promote the use of Debian. More information can be found at http://www.debian.org.hk/.

<ypwong> thx
<dpkg> np
<ypwong> u r idiot
<dpkg> no idea, ypwong

]]> Woody 是牛仔電影中的人物？ http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/woody 2004-03-28T18:03:51+08:00 2004-03-28T18:03:51+08:00 anthony 開放系統世界是國內的一本Linux和開源雜誌，由國家背景的賽迪集團編寫，以月刊形式發行，每期100頁左右，從業界到end user的使用都有涵蓋，內容算是豐富。以前在高登等電腦商場都可以買到，但現在我不太清楚。

2004年3月刊有一篇題為"Debian及其社區發展"的文章，筆者為楊鵬和李洋，文章大致可讀。不過其中的一段可以令大家在沉悶的一天開懷：

“其實，就像Windows 95的代號是Chicago，Windows
XP的代號是Whistler一樣，Debian各個版本也有非常奇怪的代號。[...]
Debian從1.1到3.0的版本代號都非常有趣，例如，Debian
1.1叫Buzz，1.2叫Rex，2.0叫Hamm，2.2叫Potato，3.0叫Woody。據說這些名字都出自於電影裡面人物的姓名，目前使用的Woody就是某部牛仔電影中的人物。”

]]> 開放系統世界是國內的一本Linux和開源雜誌，由國家背景的賽迪集團編寫，以月刊形式發行，每期100頁左右，從業界到end user的使用都有涵蓋，內容算是豐富。以前在高登等電腦商場都可以買到，但現在我不太清楚。

2004年3月刊有一篇題為"Debian及其社區發展"的文章，筆者為楊鵬和李洋，文章大致可讀。不過其中的一段可以令大家在沉悶的一天開懷：

“其實，就像Windows 95的代號是Chicago，Windows
XP的代號是Whistler一樣，Debian各個版本也有非常奇怪的代號。[...]
Debian從1.1到3.0的版本代號都非常有趣，例如，Debian
1.1叫Buzz，1.2叫Rex，2.0叫Hamm，2.2叫Potato，3.0叫Woody。據說這些名字都出自於電影裡面人物的姓名，目前使用的Woody就是某部牛仔電影中的人物。”

]]> All work and no play... http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/all-work-and-no-play 2004-03-27T13:33:08+08:00 2004-03-27T13:33:08+08:00 anthony All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. What work I have done this week, too much. Looked into Nukes from the Jboss project, tried different plugins of Eclipse: vim plugin, subversion plugin, black sun editor plugin, finally got to try out the Innodb engine in MySQL, discovered a cool GPL'd data modelling tool called DBDesigner4 which can reverse engineer databases, configured ODBC for PostgreSQL by using the PostgreSQL ODBC driver, psqlodbc and unixODBC, dug into Torque to see how it works with Innodb, and set up PhpWiki for our team.

]]> All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. What work I have done this week, too much. Looked into Nukes from the Jboss project, tried different plugins of Eclipse: vim plugin, subversion plugin, black sun editor plugin, finally got to try out the Innodb engine in MySQL, discovered a cool GPL'd data modelling tool called DBDesigner4 which can reverse engineer databases, configured ODBC for PostgreSQL by using the PostgreSQL ODBC driver, psqlodbc and unixODBC, dug into Torque to see how it works with Innodb, and set up PhpWiki for our team. Oh my god!

]]> Russian Debian http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/russian-debian 2004-03-13T17:44:28+08:00 2004-03-13T17:44:28+08:00 anthony 在google隨便的輸入了 "debian hong kong"，竟然發現有個俄文的Debian網站(翻譯)提到我們這個網站，呵呵，可能他們也是從google找到的。

]]> 在google隨便的輸入了 "debian hong kong"，竟然發現有個俄文的Debian網站(翻譯)提到我們這個網站，呵呵，可能他們也是從google找到的。

]]> Swiss army knife - the Geek version http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/swiss-army-knife-geek-version 2004-03-11T19:05:29+08:00 2004-03-11T19:05:29+08:00 anthony 瑞士軍刀是求生工具，USB disk 也是求生工具，前者用於野外，後者用於電腦環境，兩者合而為一又如何呢？

]]> 瑞士軍刀是求生工具，USB disk 也是求生工具，前者用於野外，後者用於電腦環境，兩者合而為一又如何呢？

]]>