Gotta love that “brand new” feel of a gentoo install after a emerge --deep --update world ^_^

So my #2 machine at work runs Fedora Core 6. I recently upgraded the card in it, and the nVidia driver refused to install, because it couldn’t find an include, linux/config.h. This include file was removed by Fedora for Core 6; it’s use is deprecated anyway by the kernel maintainers, so nVidia should go back and update their legacy drivers or something.

I did some googling, and the correct solution here is to extract the package, and modify a file, like so:

su
mv /path/to/nvidia/driver/that/you/downloaded/b4/u/did/su .
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0.version-pkg1.run -x
cd NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0.version-pkg1/usr/src/nv
vi nv-linux.h
[replace #include with #include ]
cd ../../../..
./nvidia-installer

And that’s all there is to it. Now edit your xorg.conf if you need to.

Someone told me about COMODO Firewall the other day, and said it was free, lightweight, fast, and simple. Well, I tried it, and here’s what I found:

If you want application-based control, this program is great.

If you want component-based control, this program is even better.

The above 2 work well because this software has the option of using a “safe list” of components and applications from COMODO’s servers somewhere, which can seriously simplify things for new users, so you don’t get bombarded out of the gate with access requests from the program.

If you just want simple, rule-based, network filter level control, this program is FUCKING PERFECT. It’s basically like iptables for Windows. Here’s how I set mine up:

1. Turn off application and component control, and application behavior analysis
2. Delete all the rules in the network monitor component except the last one (the default drop) and the incoming ICMP ones if you actually care if hosts are dead (for most people, this will only speed up error notification, since the OS will timeout packets at some point anyway).
3. Add your own rules above the default drop for allows
4. Finally, add at the very top an allow all outgoing IP rule, so your outgoing traffic is allowed
5. If you use windows on a windows network, you’ll need to allow incoming 135/udp or network names won’t resolve when the machines tries to resolve by using broadcasts. You can ignore this if you’re a DNS/WINS only setup.

That’s all there is to it. The program is relatively gentle on system resources; it uses about 14 MB of RAM, and doesn’t slow down the system with bloat the way ZoneAlarm did. I also like how this program makes no assumptions; ZoneAlarm implicitly allows certain types of traffic (like the aforementioned 135/udp) without telling you, because it just *assumes* it’s needed for windows, and thereby necessary.

In any event, I’d recommend this firewall if you are a Linux user with an iptables addiction; otherwise, there’s nothing special about this aside from the fact that it’s free.

To get the program for free, you give COMODO your email address (hooray for spamgourmet) and they send you an activation code that’s good for life.

So I’ve been looking at my stats for my site over the last few months. It looks like about 2/3 of my visitors are using Firefox or Mozilla, 10 percent are using something else, like Opera, Konqueror, Safari, Lynx (w00t, whoever you are using lynx on OpenVMS), and the rest are using IE6. Only about 4 percent are using IE7, which tells me that they’re all pirates, or have switched to Firefox. In either event, fuck Microsoft, and fuck IE too!

First, if you didn’t graduate from the U of A, or at least know something about what happens every year at graduation there, just skip this post. It won’t make any sense.

Anyway, I was reading the Wildcat and saw this article about tortilla tossing at the December commencement. Apparently, the U of A is spending $3000 and change on security at the event to stop people from tossing tortillas. Oh my god…who gives a shit? Every year, the U of A makes a big stink about tortilla tossing, and how it offends Mexicans (it doesn’t, by the way) or how it offends the hungry (again, college students ARE the hungry ones with the tuition increases), or how it offends the gays (ok, I don’t know if they used that one yet, but I’m sure it’s coming — the euphemism is just too perfect to be ignored) or some other group that actually doesn’t care if people toss tortillas.

If they would just stop making such a big fucking deal about it, people wouldn’t do it simply to spite the efforts of the asshole, PR-obsessed administrators at the school. It’s a fun tradition (though, aside from the Computer Science convocation, I didn’t actually *go* to the big whole school graduation ceremony, deemed it a WOMBAT) and I’ve not heard of one report of a tortilla-related injury.

Fuckers need to lighten the fuck up, and donate the floor tortillas to the food bank or something. Last time I checked, bums don’t have a 5-second rule.