Upgraded to IPCop 1.4.6

Ok, I know, I'm too hungry for new versions, but that's me! :-). I upgraded my recently upgraded IPCop box. Now it's running version 1.4.5. Update: Now updated to 1.4.6.

With 1.4.4 it was not a smooth upgrade, but don't get me wrong. IPCop itself was easily upgraded, the problems were with "Copfilter" an "Addons Server". They were not ready for version 1.4.4 so obviously they're not ready for 1.4.5 either.

But taking the same steps as with the upgrade to 1.4.4, made them work with 1.4.5, except for Addon Server, that because of it's online checking, it reported that it cannot install the mods, so I have to scp the mods to the IPCop box and install them by hand and everything worked quite well, except that Addon Server does not show them as installed, but this is ok, because of them being installed by hand.

Linux in an Ethernet RJ-45 jack

This is really interesting, a german company made a network enabled linux system in an RJ-45 jack. It's called "Picotux". It has a 2.4.27 uClinux port. There is also an 802.11b enabled version of it (the antenna is bigger than the machine!!). I really like this kind of small devices, perhaps I can put one on the fridge and have a web server on the refrigerator!

Upgraded to IPCop 1.4.4

Well, I finally decided and upgraded my IPCop box from 1.4.2 to 1.4.4. All is working fine now, but it was not as smooth as it was supposed to be.

After installing the 1.4.3 and 1.4.4 upgrade files and before rebooting, I uninstalled all my installed MODs from Addon Server as it was recommended. Then rebooted and applied this patch to copfilter.

At this moment the copfilter menu dissapeared and accesing it directly with the proper url just kept it stopping the services. So I decided to go on reinstalling Addon Server and then go back to copfilter.

After installing the new 2.3 test Addon Server, the MODs started working properly, and when I Idecided to try another time with copfilter, I accidentally deleted the "home" directory and obviously all the web interface was gone!!!

After a couple of minutes of desperation, I tried to restore the home directory and was able to make it work (after a couple of frustrated attempts) from a 1.4.4 fresh iso image.

I removed completely copfilter and reinstalled it with the patch and everything worked as espected, obviously I had to reinstall the MODs because I had lost the original web interface of them when I deleted the "home" directory.

Everything seems to be working right now, so I think that my "home" restore was successfull.

Advice: wait for the official Addon Server and Copfilter upgrades.

Gentoo 2005.0

I've read in Barrapunto that Gentoo 2005.0 is out. I've always been curious about Gentoo and never tried. Perhaps it's because I'm feeling at home with Mandrake, who knows. But I think time has come and probably will be trying it on my SparcStation 10, and probably I will have to let it run for many long hours, because the trusty Sparky is not really fast.

Trouble waking up? use Clocky!

One can never stop being surprised!. It seems like a joke, but it's real. If you have trouble waking up, MIT media lab has created an alarm clock for you. When you press the snooze button, it rolls off your bedside table and hide itself in a corner, so you will have to go and get it to turn it off.

Reconfigurable Computer C-One

Perhaps not many of you know the C-One (Commodore One). This computer is unique because it's a reconfigurable computer. This means that in can "morph" into many different computers. To say it in simple words it's somewhat like an emulator, but in hardware, more accurately it's reimplementation of other chips in FPGA (field programmable gate arrays) chips. In other words the main chips of this machine can be programmed to behave as other chips.

So when you boot the computer the main chips are re-programmed with the cores (FPGA programs) and can function as other computers like the C64, VIC-20, plus/4, TI-99/4a, Atari 2600, Atari 400/800 series, Sinclair Spectrum, ZX81, Schneider CPC and many more or an entirely new computer not yet known by the human beign, all this without even opening the computer case.

AFAIK the only cores available are the C64, CPC 464 and CPC 6128. And today I found the VIC-20 core here.

This revolutionary machine is unique because of this capabilities, and it's brought to you by the same person who developed the C64DTV, Jeri Ellsworth.

Digital Camera

Some time ago I decided it was time to get my hands on a digital camera. I decided to go for the Sony DSC-P93. Wow!, I'm more than happy with it. It's really quite a good camera and has more functionality than I ever imagine. Let me say that I'm not a photographer or photo aficionado, so I'm sure someone with more authority than me will have something to say; but for my needs this camera is perfect. Also it worked flawlessly with Linux, I had just pluged it to the usb port and voila!, I can see it as a SCSI disk, no need for special software.

Site Redesign

Well, I guess that all beginnings are rough. I changed my mind over the design and made a couple of changes to one I downloaded. I hope you like it.

VoIP paranoia

This days seems to be VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) everywhere, in fact I'm looking at the alternatives to make up my mind on what to choose. Probably I will start with free calls over internet, then go with one VoIP provider, and then with real VoIP enabled phones.

But if you're looking for privacy, look somewhere else. Just using tcdump and vomit is enough to hear VoIP conversations. Perhaps piping VoIP trough a secure channel could help, but I think it will not be a smart thing to do, because it will probably degrade voice quality and besides that, you could do nothing when using services as Skype or Brujula VoIP.

Computer “Table” case

From time to time people keep surprising me. I've read on slashdot about this guy that made a computer case that doubles as a nice table (here is a mirror). I think I could have one of this in the kitchen!, do you like this kinds of mods?

More Contents

I 've been working hard, and the blog is growing. I have added new pages and proofreading what I have added yesterday. It turned out to be much more fun than I anticipated, but it's hard work too.

What I found more rewarding is that I'm organizing my thoughs and keep remembering things I've done in the past.

The projects now are not detailed, since I have already done them many time ago, but as new projects arise, I will try to write them with more details.

Spare time

I decided to take a few days off, and will finally work on My Blog Space. I will try to make some content and we'll see how things go with it. Everything should be ready by March 28th. since I will be working again by then. I will try to put some pages about my interests and projects. Stay tuned!!.

Hello everyone!

Hi everyone!, welcome to my blog. Today, March 20th. 2005, I decided to start myself into this blogging maddness. I searched for good blogging software, and choosed WordPress. I really like it, but to be honest I have not really checked all the available options on the blogging scene, just a few and decided to go on with this. I may change in the future, let's see.

I'm from Rosario, Argentina, and naturally my language is spanish, not english. So why on earth am I writing in english?. Well, I have a good reason, al least for me!. First, I like english. Second, I have a good excuse to practice. Third, let's face it, the vast majority of the web is in english, although there is a really big chunk of it in spanish too, so once again, this english blog may go multilingual someday, let's see.

And what stuff you will be able to find here?. Well, mainly stuff I interested in, my projects, and some news. Probably mainly geek and tech stuff.