Never install a tool unless you’re certain what it will do. I just installed ez-ipupdate, and set it to look on eth0. I was trying to set it up so I wouldn’t have to call my Mom (when at Dad’s) or check ipchicken every time my IP changed, and just have my server update the DNS automatically. Unfortunately, the tool obediently checked the IP on eth0, and found it to be 192.168.1.100, the LAN IP of the server, which was different than what was listed. It changed it immediately. I had a hunch right after I hit OK that it might do that. Sure enough, the records flashed from the correct IP to that of 192.168.1.100, the LAN IP. I tried checking some DNS lookups, hoping that some delay in DNS updates would give me correct IP. It didn’t, and I turned to other sources. Mom didn’t answer the phone, so I tried checking my bash history. Luckily, I still had an ssh command logged with the numeric IP from when I was checking the IP earlier. I manually changed it back, and hastily uninstalled ez-ipupdate. Whew.
Author: Steve Dougherty
Sicko
We went and saw Sicko. It’s very powerful, funny, and is also awesome. It raises many intresting questions, pointing out the free national health care in France, Canada, the UK, and even Cuba, and contrasts them with the for-profit-only health “care” industry here in the US. It shows sad stories of people denied health care, and the consequences thereof. In closing, see it! I can’t be bothered to type the whole thing. :p
Summer!
Summer’s coming along quite nicely. It isn’t too hot, I’m not too busy, and I finally have free time to play World of Warcraft until it comes out my ears and I continue hearing sound effects even when not playing. My main, Zrynth, a frost spec mage on Onyxia, is level 51. I have a few level 14 alts. A holy spec undead priest, an undead rogue, a lower-level hunter, and there may be some others I’m forgetting.
Camp CAEN is in two weeks, and I’m preparing. This will include labelling my stuff, and getting a gigabit switch and ethernet card to be able to squeeze extra megabits out of that lovely U of M backbone. ^^ I’m thinking that once I get the switch I’m going host a LAN party. I think I’ll need more Cat 5. : \
As far as Counter-Strike Source goes, mapping is still enjoyable. The current map my buddies and I are playing on was originally made by Walter, and then I have tweaked, improved, and added details to it, such as environmental lighting. We’re using it to run around in circles while gunning down mass amounts of knife-only bots. Entertaining.
I also got the Logitech G5 gaming mouse. LAZOR MOUSE! PEW PEW! (laser sounds) It’s pretty sweet. Really accurate, and it has these buttons to adjust sensitivity right on the mouse! Nice for transitioning from sniping to swirling without having to go to a menu.
I’ve also started playing Frets on Fire, which is a nice offline time-waster. War of the Servers also “spawned” yesterday.
The Matrix
The first one was awesome, the second one sucked, and the third one took it even lower. The tagline for Revolutions should read “Abandon Logic, All Ye Who Enter Here.” That would sum up the comprehensibility and believablity of the plot. Not only did it not make sense, but the dialog was so cliched that I could easily predict what people would say, and I was usually right. I do, however, feel I must give props for the awesome visuals and final Smith fight scene. It seemed the thinner-than-paper, predictable plot was an excuse to have sweet graphics. Mmm. Graphics.
Four Down, Two to Go
I studied from the wrong guide for US History. Oh well.
3 hours left…
Two Down, Four to Go
Well, first and second hour finals went smoothly. Now I have to familiarize myself with loads of US History terms and memorize equations for math.
Counting Down…
Well, I’m now able to say we barely have double digit hours left in school. 15:30! W00t! Too bad the final 9 hours will be the hardest (I think) of the year.
Passwords Fixed and Crunch Time
I fixed the passwords last Friday. It turned out I had the apache2.conf looking for /usr/local/apache/passwd/passwords when it should have been apache2. File transfer can now be accessed. Web stats are now accessible here for those interested.
In school news, I’m sure I’m not the only one starting to feel the finals squeeze. The year’s wrapping up and pressure is ramping up as we prepare for the tests… of DOOM. (Pat.) I’m watching my gaming time dwindle away, and it’s being replaced with time in which I’m putting off the studying I know I need to do. Writing that made me need to go study…
Ventrilo Startup and Password Problems
It seems that logging into a server-password-protected thing (such as file transfer) causes a 500 error. Redoing the passwords from scratch should fix this. Perhaps a file’s missing or there’s some configuration change. I’ll find it when I stop being lazy.
Anyways, I’m posting my crude-but-operational Ventrilio daemon startup script:
#! /bin/sh # /etc/init.d/vent# Things here would be carried out every run, but # we don't have any of those # Now carry out commands case "$1" in start) echo "Starting ventrilo daemon..." /home/steve/vent/ventrilo_srv -f/home/steve/vent/ventrilo_srv -d ;; stop) echo "Stoping ventrilo daemon..." killall ventrilo_srv ;; force-reload|restart) sh $0 stop sh $0 start ;; *) echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/vent {start|stop|force-reload|restart}" exit 1 ;; esac exit 0
Stick that in /ect/init.d, make sure it’s chmod’d to 755, and run update-rc.d vent defaults. It’ll start a Ventrilo daemon (you’ll probably have to change the paths) which will also turn off upon system shutdown, halt, or reboot.
I’ve been trying to get a TeamSpeak server working well, and maybe it’s a combination of bad codec choices and running off a home DSL connection, but it sounds horrible and lags too. Maybe it would help if I RTFM. This weekend seems like it’ll be chock full of time.
StarCraft II!
Blizzard announced in South Korea today that StarCraft II is in development! There are many new units, especially for Protoss, and Terrans seem to have not gotten all too many upgrades, but the video did focus on Protoss.
YouTube demonstration videos: