Shin
Nov
04

Mission catch up

While spending lots of time this week struggling to get back up to speed with current web development I’m discovering more and more things, developments I’ve missed, techniques people use, the most gorgeous designs (like here, here, here and here). And every link I click on leads to a new blog or site with articles containing even more links. Argh! Good vibes though. My current plan is just to soak up as much as possible, collect a bunch of scripts I come across and then let it all sink in before I get started on the design for this thing. And with this thing I mean the blog you’re currently reading and which will eventuall turn into the front page for X111.com.

It really does make me feel like I’ve been out of the loop for too damn long with everything that’s been going on back in ye real world. We’re still in table hell on the main site for fuck’s sake, heh.
So maybe this blog will spin off into a total redesign of the site itself, not just in terms of layout but of functionality as well.

I’m also starting to get a better idea of what’s out there at the moment in terms of web apps which will help me manage all my info, from bookmarks to to-do’s to RSS-feeds to photos and contacts.
There’s so much around, gotta try ‘em all! I’m trying to stay away from all the so called webservices though, call me old school, but I still prefer running a script myself instead of having my personal data managed by someone else.

Time to get back to webhopping and bookmarking like crazy.
Enjoy the weekend and carpe diem!

Oct
30

Back to WordPress

b2evolution looks pretty damn stale at the moment. Hardly any new themes or releases. Promises of a new major withstanding it’s all starting to look a bit old and if it weren’t that to the best of my knowledge it’s still the best of the multi-user systems I’d switch to something else.
In the mean time it’s time to resurrect this thing to see what WP can do and post some randomness now and again. Still not linked anywhere so all is quiet for now.

Jun
27

Potential site expansion

Seeing as I’m dabbling more and more with my Mac and trying to find my way through loads of sites searching for applications to do what I need and use on my windows machine I’m debating whether or not to start a Mac section with a newsfeed or 2 and an inventory of apps I come across and find useful.
Would be sjweet to use a blog for that so I could use categories and people would be able to comment.

Jun
20

What you get isn’t always what you need either

Eh, wtf just happened? Weirdest convo ever, and possibly the end of a year long dream. Time will tell. If everything said holds up things definitely took a turn for the worse. How quickly things change. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about vacation before I totally lose my marbles.

Jun
07

What you want isn’t always what you need

Definitely the quote of the week.

Birthday came and went with a wooshing sound as it sped by and I stood there looking at it. An ecard from an ex was the grand total of birthdayness.

On the upside, it’ll now sound a heck of a lot better when I say things like “I’m getting too old for this shit”. On the downside… maybe I really am getting too old for this shit.

So what do you do when you don’t have a clue as to what to do? Dive back into the web and start something new and fresh. Or something to that extent. Seeing as there are too many people reading my site and blog these days I figured I’d start a more private one here which will soon be tied in to a layout I have in mind to make a page all of my own and completey disconnected from the X111.com look and feel.
More of a notepad, some place to scribble things that are on my mind or to note my todo’s, the evergrowing list of stuff I hope I’ll get round to one day.

(edit: later copied from private blog to main)

May
22

One day it’ll all make sense

I saw that line in an artbook last week and I’ve been thinking about it since. It’s weird how the mind works.
Maybe it’s because of the impending disaster otherwise known as my 30th birthday. *shivers*

Mar
13

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Halfway through March again, time to smell spring.
I’m also halfway through the Novell Certified Linux Professional training having just completed the second administration course. Very interesting stuff, but a bit much to take in all at once during 5 days.
I seem to be fiddling with half a dozen operating systems at the moment, which is cool, I just get random waves of information overkill every now and again.
After having picked up the Mac a few weeks ago I’ve been playing with it a lot and I must say, I’m very impressed. It’s a lot faster than I thought an old G4/350Mhz would be and it’s almost good enough for daily use. Almost, because ofcourse I couldn’t resist diving into the BSD side of things and the poor little box is currently spending a lot of time compiling software using the incredible Fink Commander. Le Mac really does offer the best of both worlds. The standard Mac apps are all beautifully integrated in ways that make the whole end user experience a lot more enjoyable than I thought possible. The ‘it just works’ credo holds true.
And there’s a lot more freeware available than I had imagined. Some of the things I’ve installed and use at the moment include Adium, VLC, SubEthaEdit, Cyberduck, MenuMeters, Growl & TigerLaunch, and that’s not counting all the software I know from Linux.
Some things seem to be noticeably missing for reasons I can’t comprehend.
Everyone seems to be so much in love with iTunes that there’s no real Winamp port. Now ok, iTunes does run a whole lot faster on the Mac but still, I can’t stand the interface compared to Winamp. I want my damn ‘normal’ playlist! I also have yet to find anything that comes even remotely close to Grabit, my favourite Usenet binary grabber.
Still, with the amount of buzz Apple is generating at the moment and switchers crawling out of the woodworks by the thousands (or so it seems), it can’t be long before more of that kind of software surfaces. And if not I still have my linux ports, hehe.

The new version of Os X, codename Tiger is rumoured to be released in April at which time all the Macs will be bumped to 512MB standard, so anyone wishing to buy one would be wise to wait another month.

I’m not getting one because I’m broke as f00k and I got shafted with my contract renewal. A lousy $50 a month rise…. whoopdee-fucking-doodaa. That’s inflation correction, not a raise. That still leaves me about $500 short compared to what I used to make. *grumbles* In a bizarre twist of fate they have agreed to pay me a MCSA training so I’ll actually know what I’m doing with the new SBS 2003 server we just got, I’m looking forward to that. so in a few months time I’ll have done enough and had enough training to go from admin n00b to fully qualified Linux and Windows sysadmin.
Not bad. Now if I could just afford the car check up next week life would look a whole lot sunnier.

C’est la vie.

Feb
11

Where do you want to go today?

I’m starting to get to that point where that line between work and hobby fade, quite possibly for the first time in my ‘career’, which I’m starting to like.
So the money’s not all that, but I kinda like the fact that I’m driving to work wondering what I’m going to fiddle with today.

Spent a lot of time this week on a Suse box which has been setup as a proxy and firewall for the second DSL line. And it’s working beautifully. I’m using Squid for the proxy, which took quite a while to figure out. It works out of the box but seeing as I’m using 2 NIC’s to bridge between the local network and the web and I wanted to set it up in a particular way that the proxy isn’t visible from the outside, all the traffic to the box HAS to go through the proxy and I wanted to implement access control lists so the main users only have limited access whereas me and my colleague have full access plus several other more advanced thingies I won’t bore you with… it took a while. Especially seeing as the config file is a (well documented) 55 page monster.
Ntop is a beautiful script for network stats with all the details and lovely views you could possibly ask for.

So all of this fiddling is making me like Linux more and more. It may take a little more time to set it up correctly than on Windows but it sure as hell is worth the effort.
Hehe, I still have to figure out why the damn thing is able to send out mails over the net without me having configured anything for mail. No smtp, no nothing, and trust me, I’ve checked everywhere, but when I use the mail command it still manages to send it out.

Meanwhile we upgraded our fileserver last week which was chugging along on Fedora Core 1 (don’t look at me, it wasn’t my idea) and spitting out 5MB worth of errorlogs on Samba alone each day to Core 3 and it’s been running silky smooth eversince. Ofcourse I plan on moving that to Suse as well eventually but for now this’ll do.

I have my second training in about 2 weeks, I’m looking forward to that, more tips and tricks and another step closer to becoming a NCLP.

In other random news, I bought an Apple! By accident, sort of…
I’d been bidding on some for a while, always making low bids and hoping I’d get lucky. But with the busyness and financial setbacks I’d forgotten about them, until some dude mailed me saying I’d won. So I went ‘eh’ and had to scroll back through my mail to see exactly what he was referring to, at which time the ‘eh’ changed to ‘ooooh’. So I’m now the proud new owner of a G4 PowerMac. It’s an old thing, running at 350Mhz, but it’s My First Mac so I’m still pretty damn pleased with it. Thanks to Commie for picking it up for me. )

Jan
25

Opzij opzij opzij

maak plaats maak plaats maak plaats, we hebben ongelofelijke haast.

*dramatic pause*
IT’S THE FUCKING END OF JANUARY ALREADY!
So… what’s new? Well, I’ve been rather down with the flu which was fun (lost some weight in all the right places, mwaha), and had my first course for Novell Linux Certified Professional last week.
It was cool, and boring.
Cool because I learned a few nifty tricks, boring because I already knew most of the stuff. Which is good I suppose because it’s nice to see your knowledge validated in a group of peers. Next month the second course, and then the month after that the third. After which I hope to pass the exam, and which will also mark the end of my 6 month contract… interesting times.
Work’s interesting, still learning new stuff each day. Some people need a major attitude adjustment though. Barking at me to fix something they b0rked in the first place is _not_ the best way to get me to move my butt.
What else… well, a lot, or not much, depending on your point of view.
On the surface not much, but…
I’m testing a CVS (pre-alpha) release of the new phpBB3, codename Olympus, which is remarkably stable and which has enough features and novelties to make any site admin go ‘Sjwwwwwing’.
First beta is expected for March, don’t hold your breath though, their milestones have been slipping and sliding all over the calendar. Still, kudos for them saying fuck it and continueing work despite all the whinos and for sticking to their high level of excellence.
Any and all potential new features for X111.com are on hold until that version gets here, so that’s leaving me with a site I feel is getting a little stale at times.
Once upon a long time ago this started as my personal php experiment which I (and Corvo) fiddled on, but these days I can’t just do that anymore because a lot of people come here, have their blogs and forum here and I want to make sure all of that is available at any time.
So I’m probably going to start a little subcorner for myself around here somewhere soon just so I can scratch my itch whenever I feel like experimenting with gfx/php a bit.
Semi-random topic switch: it’s time for summer. I’ve had it with winter. It’s not enough to be broke and have no time or anything, nooooo, the weather’s gotta suck as well. Well damn it, enough. I want sun and a few nights off with a couple of mates sipping cool ones or cruisin’.
Hmmm, time to poke everyone else perhaps.

And I want a Mac, so if anyone has a spare one… Mehehe, right. Ah well, I had to try.

Work in progress... not home!
Trying to get all/most of the new code working before I start on the eyecandy.