Well, it works now. So far, my new/old Debian box is a DNS server for my internal namespace and Primary Domain Controller for a WinNT4-style domain. It wasn't all that easy to get there...
I have a new toy. Once upon a time, when I was considering taking up web hosting that would give me full access to a server (by way of learning how to run one), I tried to put the same distribution of Linux on a spare box I had at home. Unfortunately the box was spare because it had died, and attempts to revive it failed (even though Debian's installer is probably a little less arduous than the Win98 one).
It's training time again. After something one of my colleagues just said, I have 'If I only had a brain' from the Wizard of Oz stuck in my head. I'm trying to resist whistling it; it's not going well.
(To be fair, the comment was that she wished she hadn't left her 'brain cell' at home. I'm not actually accusing her of not having one).
(To be fair, the comment was that she wished she hadn't left her 'brain cell' at home. I'm not actually accusing her of not having one).
If you've got a few moments to give me a hand with something, go over to my new gadget and test it for me. Put in a friend's e-mail address and a message, and it'll turn it into nonsense that might make a fun (albeit pretty easy) puzzle as the recipient tries to work out what was meant.
It's in what I'd consider to be the late stages of beta, and you might be able to get some unpredictable results out of it still (hence my request for help). If it does anything funny, please make a note as best you can on what you asked it to do, what it actually did, and when, then I'll try and fix it.
And of course, besides actual testing, anyone who wants to start a wishlist is welcome to.
It's in what I'd consider to be the late stages of beta, and you might be able to get some unpredictable results out of it still (hence my request for help). If it does anything funny, please make a note as best you can on what you asked it to do, what it actually did, and when, then I'll try and fix it.
And of course, besides actual testing, anyone who wants to start a wishlist is welcome to.
I still don't get this town's obsession with pirates (or poyruts, in the local vernacular). It's not just Talk Like a Pirate Day, since that's international, although I must say it has a far better following here than anywhere else I've been. It's more the fact that saying 'Yeaaarrgh!!!' appears to be contagious around here, and pirates just keep popping up everwhere.
Figuratively speaking...
Figuratively speaking...
I just happened across the pile of old student newspapers that I have kept hold of; around a year's worth (my final year) of which I managed to get contributions into around half. [OK, so they're not actually 'ancient' writings, especially if you're to listen to Annie thinking I'm particularly young, but I had to find a suitably useless title]
"Er... This is a limited company. The 'owner' isn't around."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you, goodbye."
Why can't these people look us up before they ring? And the ones who sound crestfallen when they ask for the previous MD by name and we tell them he's not in the office any more. Does it not occur to them that perhaps there's someone else here instead?
On a related note, a pair of very austere-looking representatives from HM 'Revenue and Customs' (apparently the Inland Revenue and HMC&E were combined last April; shows how much attention I pay to these things) just dropped by the office on the off-chance that they could talk to the MD, who unfortunately (or not) is off sick today.
I didn't see whether they were driving black Isuzu Troopers.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you, goodbye."
Why can't these people look us up before they ring? And the ones who sound crestfallen when they ask for the previous MD by name and we tell them he's not in the office any more. Does it not occur to them that perhaps there's someone else here instead?
On a related note, a pair of very austere-looking representatives from HM 'Revenue and Customs' (apparently the Inland Revenue and HMC&E were combined last April; shows how much attention I pay to these things) just dropped by the office on the off-chance that they could talk to the MD, who unfortunately (or not) is off sick today.
I didn't see whether they were driving black Isuzu Troopers.
Having only just acquired the link from Gordon who was late when he posted it, I'm even later for the first annual CSS Naked Day. I've had a quick look at the site with the stylesheet links commented out (I didn't check that there was no CSS in the markup itself, but there probably won't be) and I'm pleasantly surprised; Nucleus pulls through again...
I'm not going to subject you to unconditionally to the site's naked glory, but unfortunately it won't let me put raw PHP into the skin files so I'm probably not going to bother doing it conditionally either. You'll just have to wait until next year.
I'm not going to subject you to unconditionally to the site's naked glory, but unfortunately it won't let me put raw PHP into the skin files so I'm probably not going to bother doing it conditionally either. You'll just have to wait until next year.
Yesterday I was overtaken on a dull bit of dual carriage way by a pair of brand new black Isuzu Troopers, with blacked-out windows and near-sequential number plates. Strange thing was that above the manufacturer's labels along the bottom edge of the back door, another set just below the rear windscreen called them 'Denver - Colorado' or somesuch...
Now I'm pretty sure that our secret state is a little more subtle than that (plenty of slightly-rusting dark-blue Transits for the SAS to sneak around in, for example), and that had the Americans arrived they would have brought some GMCs with them. So given that with sequential number plates they're bound to be fleet cars of some kind, what kind of crazy organisation maintains a fleet of sinister-looking black Japanese 4x4s, masquerading as American ones?
Wish I could have got you a photo of them ;-)
Now I'm pretty sure that our secret state is a little more subtle than that (plenty of slightly-rusting dark-blue Transits for the SAS to sneak around in, for example), and that had the Americans arrived they would have brought some GMCs with them. So given that with sequential number plates they're bound to be fleet cars of some kind, what kind of crazy organisation maintains a fleet of sinister-looking black Japanese 4x4s, masquerading as American ones?
Wish I could have got you a photo of them ;-)
Sorry for doing the 'tech-blog' thing so much lately; I know it doesn't really suit a lot of you, but of the things I've been busy with lately, it's the one most appropriate for the 'blog.
My server is now very twitchy. The attempt to give it spam filtering went quite well. The attempt to give it mail virus checking was long and drawn out, but seemed to work, after a fashion. Somewhere around the point at which I replaced the spam filtering (which had been killed by the anti-virus) it all went horribly wrong. Now the web server and the database server fall over without warning (as you may have noticed) with memory access faults that are a little beyond me.
Let's see if the people who rent it to me have any smart ideas.
My server is now very twitchy. The attempt to give it spam filtering went quite well. The attempt to give it mail virus checking was long and drawn out, but seemed to work, after a fashion. Somewhere around the point at which I replaced the spam filtering (which had been killed by the anti-virus) it all went horribly wrong. Now the web server and the database server fall over without warning (as you may have noticed) with memory access faults that are a little beyond me.
Let's see if the people who rent it to me have any smart ideas.
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