Super small Linux distro on X-Box

Lifted almost entirely from X-DSL.org:

X-DSL is a small (currently about 40mb) but fully functional Linux distribution for the XBOX, based on Damn Small Linux.

Installing X-DSL is just a case of copying a handful of files across to the Xbox E drive. You can then boot into X Windows with support for Xbox controllers and a virtual keyboard for text entry. X-DSL has fluxbox based desktop, with applications for email, web browsing, word processing and playing music. It can be customised with new applications by downloading myDSL extensions and placing them on the E drive

And check this out...

Oh be still my beating heart!!!

On a related note, be sure to check these out too
Damn Small Linux - a versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution
Xbox-Linux Project - Xbox Linux is GNU/Linux on your Xbox

Mr Gummy Residue, meet your nemesis!

I recently bought a new set of plates and dishes and whatnot. There was a little manufacturer's logo sticker thing on each plate that was stuck to the plate using some kind of double sided sticky tape. When I peeled off the logo-sticker, the sticky tape left a gummy residue on my plates. You know how it's like. Among other things, it is very irritating and usually a pain the butt to remove.

I tried using soaking the plates in warm water and then using a cloth to scrub it off, but the gummy stuff just refused to budge. OK, fine... Mr Gummy Residue, I've tried to play nice, but if you're going to be like that, I'm not gonna be Mr Niceguy no more.

Enter Simple Green, slayer of stains and all other manner of unwelcome household presences.

Awesome stuff. Squirt a little on the gummy stain, let it soak for a minute, then you simply use your fingertip (don't even need to use your fingernail!) to rub off the ex-tough-guy Mr Gummy Residue. Rinse off with warm water, and wipe dry.

Simple Green rules.

[ Cross posted on Sitting with Squirrels ]

Committed vs. Uncommitted

This is probably a no-brainer for server experts. But I found out the hard way that if your company faces power-cuts on a regular basis, better not go with the default way of ‘uncommitted access’. The database rollback might just knock your records outta sync.

And for goodness' sake, watch what you do after a server downs. It's like a virus attacking your Norton. It attaches itself to the .exe program, you Quarantine or Delete it....bam! You've had it. Likewise with dealing with a dbase containing both 'committed' and 'uncommitted' data - it's a friggin' minefield. Delete, modify (or even copy) the wrong thing and you self-destruct.

There’s no straight-forward solution to top-quality database administration. It’s a balancing game all the way.

That Penis Question

I'm waching Anatomy of Sex on the Discovery Channel right now. They made a really interesting comment: Contrary to common intuition, the limp penis is actually full of tense muscle. Think about that for a moment. Think about what you know about how an erection works.

A man gets an erection when blood flows into the penis, filling the cavernosa. This is why sometimes a man will get an erection after a heavy dinner that requires more blood flow to digest: Some of that blood will miss the offramp at the stomach, and keep going south.

What do you know about how viagra works? It mimics the effect of nitric oxide, which allows more blood to flow into the vessels in the penis. It relaxes muscles, which pinch down on the blood vessels. So, essentially, what's going on is that, if you're tense, you can't get it up because your penile muscles are clamping down on the vessels that allow for an erection. Tension can also be caused by psychological issues, which in any case imply a diversion of blood from the penis and back to the brain. See how that works?

But what really caught my attention about what one of the researchers on the program said was that essentially, a smaller limp penis can imply a larger erect penis. So, what's that say about Asian guys? :OD

But anyway, if you have problems achieving or maintaining erection, and you've ruled out physiological causes, think about relaxing. Seriously. If you're on vacation, put that cell phone or pager or laptop away! You'll thank me for it.

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]

Sony Music

Looks like Sony is about to join the MP3-player wars for real. They've had MD-players out before, but as technophiles all know, burning CDs is a bear. Following on the success of Apple's ubiquitous iPod in all its variants, different manufacturers have tried to follow along. Most have designed their players to be very functional, and a bit gimmicky, such as iriver, but few have been able to mimmick Apple's distinct sense of style. Now, however, Sony is entering the fray, with the introduction of new flash-based players:

The lineup includes a set of cigarette lighter-sized models, a bit more expensive than the iPod Shuffle but with a much longer advertised battery life — 50 hours of playback time with a rechargeable battery compared to Apple's 12 hours.

And unlike the Shuffle, the Sony players have bright, 3-line screens to display song information.

A 512-megabyte model costs $130 and a 1-gigabyte model costs $180. Models with an FM tuner each cost $20 more. By comparison, Apple's shuffle is priced at $99 for 512 MB and $149 for 1 GB. The models will be available in May.

A second set of players, set to ship later this month, are roundish, with a diameter slightly larger than a poker chip. They run on AAA batteries, which Sony says will give the user 70 hours of playback time on a single battery. The prices range from $90 for 256 MB of memory to $150 for 1 GB of memory.

A third design is water-resistant, costing $130 for 256 MB of memory.

Hopefully this will do better than Sony's music label. At any rate, introducing competition is always a good thing, even if both the iPod shuffle and the expected offering from Sony seems a bit on the pricey side.

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]

Power Linux

According to CNET, Linus Torvalds has switched platform. Specifically, his main desktop machine is no longer an x86 platform, but the Power platform, designed by IBM, and used by Apple Computers in its PowerPC G-series computers.

Linus writes:

Part of it is simply that I wanted to try something else, and I felt like there were enough people testing the x86 side that it certainly didn't need me. Part of it is that I personally believe there are two main architectures out there: Power and x86-64 are what _I_ think are the two most relevant ones, and I decided that I had to at least check the other side of it out seriously if I really believed that

But CNET reports that Linus may have simply been acting like a typical geek:

"Oh, and part of it is that I got the machine for free," said Torvalds. "I'm really a technology whore."

So, what would you do with a G5 if you got it for free?

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]

PEBKAC

Very normal cause of 90% of all errors in the computing world
Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair

Setting Up Wireless

I spent probably three hours this evening trying to get my new Netgear WGR614 set up, and ran into some trouble. First, despite all indicator lights working fine, I wasn't able to connect to the Internet. This was eventually resolved by making sure that I told the router to make a connection.

Then, I had trouble setting up the wireless network. Everything seemed to be set up correctly, and diagnostics on the router showed that it was working, but for some reason I just simply couldn't get it to work on my laptop.

Finally, just a few minutes ago, I realized there's a button on the side of my laptop. It had an icon that seemed to be consistent with the notion of "wireless", so I switched it to "on". Problem solved.

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]

Test your own VNC

It can be a royal pain in the behind to debug VNC running across a firewall/router setup while you're *behind* that firewall (eg on the VNC server itself). With some firewall/routers (like mine, a Belkin High-Speed Mode Wireless G), even if you have the firewall's port-forwarding for VNC setup correctly, you may not be able to connect a viewer to your server, even if you're using the "real world" external IP address that you just (tried to) enable. Trying it will result in the super-cryptic, not very helpful but darned popular error "Connection refused (10061)".

Fortunately, there's an easy solution. Simply go to gotomyvnc.com and it will launch a port scan on your IP to see if your router rules have been setup correctly. Kewl!

Firefox 1.0.1

Firefox 1.0.1 was released on Feb 24th 2005. This new version (well, not really... it's more like a patch) promises improved stability and fixes some known vulnerabilities. However, as of today, it is known that there are some lingering issues which make me think that maybe I'll hold off on upgrading until those kinks are ironed out.

For all of you nosy little people out there, this is what I am currently running:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

Update March 10th 2005:
I updated Firefox to Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1

Mini Imitation

Intel's decided it wants to keep up with Apple, so it unveiled a concept mini-PC. The target is Apple's Mac Mini, which was unveiled earlier this year.

The Mac Mini is clearly still better-looking, although I'd expect Intel to encourage vendors to come up with more sleek body designs. But so far, I don't really expect anyone to catch up to Apple's industrial design.

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]