debian

I just upgraded a Cobalt RaQ 2 (1U MIPS machine, circa 1999(?)) from Debian Etch (released 2007) to Lenny (2009), and then from Lenny to Squeeze (2011). While it was in use. Remotely. Blindfolded, and with one arm behind my back.

See you in Banja Luka!

April is shaping up to be a busy month; I have several trips lined up. Texas Linux Fest on Saturday April 10th (tomorrow!) in Austin. POSSCON on April 15 and 16 in Columbia South Carolina. The Cassandra Hackathon at Digg HQ in San Francisco. I’ll be giving talks on Cassandra at Texas Linux Fest and POSSCON, and I’ve organized a Debian booth for Texas Linux Fest (a first for me)....

I put the repository for my Cassandra package up on Github. The repo browser can be found here, and the wiki has a brief writeup of the build process for those unfamiliar with git-buildpackage. Patches welcome! NP: Take It Out On Me, Bullet For My Valentine

Debconf is over. Boo. :( Like those I’ve attended in the past, Debconf9 was well organized with plenty of interesting talks, in a great venue. I had loads of fun, learned a ton, and even managed to get a bit done. Many thanks to the organization team, the local team, the speakers, and the sponsors. This year I managed to sneak an extra couple of days post-conference which will be spent in the general vicinity of Madrid....

As announced here, I put a Debian package together for Cassandra 0.3.0. I don’t have any (immediate )plans to upload a Cassandra package to the Debian archive, (this package isn’t even policy compliant), so consider this unofficial and report any packaging bugs directly to me. Enjoy.

Yesterday was the Day Trip at Debconf, an opportunity for folks to step away from their computers (usually), and leave the venue (always) for some sort of group activity or tourism. When the organizers first started talking about this years Day Trip there were two candidates, Valle del Jerte and Teatro romano de Merida, or “Roman theater of Merida”. I’m kind of a history junkie and generally get pretty excited at the idea of touring ruins so I was heartbroken when Merida lost out....

A week from today and I’ll be headed to Spain for Debconf9. Can’t wait! NP: Worlds Collide, Apocalyptica

A few months ago a group of researchers announced a fairly serious attack that shattered everyone’s faith in SHA-1. It has frightening implications for anyone who relies on cryptographic signatures, and while consensus is that there is little danger in the near-term, most people agree that now is the time to start a move to something stronger. So, I’ve begun my transition, (document here), and submitted my new key for the Debconf9 signing party later this month....

Getting the Epson Perfection 3940 scanner setup on Linux requires jumping through just enough hoops that even if you have managed it before, it’s easy to forget when it comes time to do it again. I put this here in the hopes that it will make things easier for someone, (and it’s entirely likely that someone will be me one day :). Make sure your user is a member of the scanner group, (adduser youruser scanner)....