A few years ago I remember working on doing some packaging for Edubuntu. I remember specifically people craving Celestia to be included into the main repo. The cry that went up from the more experienced Edubuntu members was that of “Have you any idea how many non main dependencies there are in Celestia?” However the truth was, though the number was large, no one really knew exactly how large is really was. The problem is you see in apt land, package X can depend upon package A, but then package A can depend on packages B,C,D,E and F. So doing an apt-cache depends on package X isn’t always helpful, and when an apt-cache depends for Celestia came back with around 20-30 packages, no one really wanted to look any further. You see to file an MIR (Main Inclusion Report) a packager needed to know all of the other packages that would need to be included into main. This is often a log process as packages in main go through much more stringent checks for security etc.

To this end I wrote a small app called 404main. It was a simple python script that used the output from apt to recusivly traverse the list of dependencies to give you a complete output of all packages that were required for package X, but that were not already in main. I called the tool 404main. I packaged it up and made it available as a deb. A while back someone, I completely forget now who, asked me if I would like it included in the motu-tools package. I was thrilled but then thought little more of it until the other day when a good friend of mine told me cjwatson had updated. I could hardly believe my ears, I checked it out and found that RainCT and cjwatson had both contributed changes to the little script. My thanks to you both, it’s great to see such a tiny idea still living on.

404main is now available in the ubuntu-dev-tools package.

GeekDeck has just released Issue 3, including;

• Editor’s Letter
  Well, we’ve made it to issue 3, I know there were some of you out there thinking we couldn’t do it. Go on fess up To be honest it’s not been entirely easy, but the team are working so hard to bring you each new issue. This one should be a really good issue, we have a fantastic interview with the OpenCandy CEO, plus a feature on Creating your very own Live CD distro and many more articles covering; undo, geeks and the Internet. We’ve also hopefully got the first GeekDeck podcast coming out in a few days. It’s a musing on many things, covering; Piracy, Marios Moustache, HUDs, Bugs, and much much more. Read more…
• Og looks at Foresight Linux
  I just cannot believe that it has been a month to the day that I proudly signed off on the Cherry Pick of the Month for the second issue of GeekDeck! A whole lot has happened since then and I literally did not have a chance to get a lot of writing done. As if keeping up and committing translations for the GNOME, Xfce and LXDE projects wasn’t enough, I embarked on a 2-week-long roller coaster of a ride at work that just ended this afternoon! Have I mentioned that I am also running for the GNOME Board of Directors? My last adventures took me to a very familiar road, this time in my own backyard so to speak, as I was elected into the Foresight Linux Council and became their Community Manager. Read more…
• Damien interviews OpenCandy CEO
  OpenCandy (www.opencandy.com) is a startup from San Diego, California that allows software publishers to connect and recommend other pieces of software during the installation of their product. It allows independent software makers to create distribution revenue while maintaining a good relationship with their users or simply to recommend other pieces of free software that they like. Read more…
• Why does society hate geeks?
  I’m a geek. There I said it, happy now? I enjoy fiddling with technology and making computers DO things. Chances are, most of you reading this are geeks too, so some of this article may seem like I’m preaching to the choir, but please bear with me as I have a point to make. When I was 10, I started programming in QBASIC. Whilst at college I studied Maths, Higher Maths, Computing, Electronics and Physics. When I reached university I moved into Acoustical Engineering, studying Fluid Dynamics, Vibration, Acoustics, Computing, DSP and much much more. I am a geek. Probably the point that defines this more than anything else is the fact that I loved studying all those things and that today I miss the shear volume of learning that I was doing during my education. Read more…
• Are modal dialogs a thing of the past?
  Everyone who has used a graphical computer interface has experienced modal popup dialogues. These are the small windows typically with “OK” and “Cancel” buttons which appear in front of the application. These modal dialogues are extremely popular with developers and are available in almost every user interface library. Read more…
• Our feature on creating a Live CD
  For the feature this month, GeekDeck’s come over all technical. Well it had to happen sooner or later. It’s not that we’ve shunned the technical articles at all, I think it’s probably that they take a lot longer to prepare and write than the articles about more abstract things. Putting my mindless prattle aside, let’s move on to discussing the real crux of the article. Read more…
• Mark gets angry…Very angry
  I’ve just come home from a bad day at work so prepare yourself! I decided to play a bit of Fable 2 to let off a bit of steam but that didn’t work. It only made me madder. More of that below, but, got me thinking about some of the things that get me mad in terms of games. Here are just a few. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Read more…
• Pete get’s something off his chest
  Ok, this one has been on the tip of my fingers for a long time. I’ve written about it in a less obvious way on countless occasions, and anyone who knows me well will know my stance on this. It’s something that actually pains me in multiple ways and I often feel like such a hypocrite just because I’m involved with the IT industry. Ok, it’s not something that keeps me awake at night, but it has taken up a significant amount of my thought process over the last few years. Thankfully that last statement was relative and I’m not required to divulge the actual figure of cranial activity over the the aforementioned time period. I’m talking of course about ignorance in the field of IT. Read more…
• Is the Internet really so virtual anymore?
  The Internet, the final frontier, where anything can happen in the safety of a virtual world protected by a barrier of anonymity and falsehood. Nobody gives their real name out on the Internet so it’s completely safe. If you meet someone you don’t like you can just block them. Never meet up with anyone you meet on the Internet. These were the so called unwritten laws of the Internet. All was tickity boo, until the little thing called social networking came along and changed the virtual world forever. The question is, is the Internet really so virtual anymore and is the Internet more real now that we’d like it to be? Read more…
• The best bag in the business?
  A while ago my backpack broke. When I say broke, I mean literally in several places. I’d used it for a good few years and it’s straps were torn and the insides disgustingly mucky and decrepit. It had gotten to the point that I was actually pretty embarrassed to have it on my persons. Deciding that towing it 3 metres behind me in a trailer wasn’t going to do anything to improve my image, I resolved that I should buy a new backpack, but what to buy? Read more…
• Pete gets a break as Mark talks E3
  Here we are at the conclusion of another issue of GeekDeck. It’s at this point that cbx33 can breathe a sigh of relief as this month I’m going to sign off. This time around it’s my turn to look back over the past month and find something to moan about (anyone that’s seen my other article in this issue, Me gamer, me angry! will see that it’s something I’ve been doing a lot lately!) Read more…

Enjoy!

Ok, so the other day I was fiddling with a few things whilst customising a live cd, but today I had a bit of a train of thought. My brain decided that in theory I know pretty much everything I need to create a live linux distro from scratch, well almost. I wanted to try this out, but need a few more bits of information where my knowledge is a little sketchy. Does this sound like a reasonable way of doing things. Oh by the way, I’m doing this in Ubuntu

1) Build a base system using debootstrap and then customising as needed by chrooting
2) Use casper to make the “live” bit work. Here’s where my knowledge is sketchy
3) Use syslinux to setup the CD process
4) Build the cd using the mkisofs tool.

A few questions, if people know. Does casper make the system load the right kernel modules etc to make it portable? How do I incorporate squashfs, or does this come in casper?

(I should mention, that when I get it to work, I’ll document the whole thing in, http://geekdeck.wordpress.com as an article)

So, in reaching the epiphany that I posted about last, I’ve also reached another. I don’t need to shock people with my appearances anymore. This was another trait of mine. I used to dye my hair regularly, flitting between red, blond, brown. The red, now that I look back on it, was both a conversation starter for people I knew, and a way to keep people away that I didn’t know. A method of intimidation. When I was younger I used to cut my hair VERY short, as another means of intimidation. So here below is the stupid lengths I went to to achieve this. Enjoy. Tony you should especially find this one amusing

It’s taken me years to come to this point. Probably thousands of computing hours have gone in to this, and to be honest I’ve had to dig pretty deep, and grow a real pair to be able to write this post. To some of you it’s going to sound weird, some may actually be able to relate. I’ve never been one for speaking about my feelings online, yet this is something which has been holding me back for a long while and I guess I wanted to share it, in case it’s something that’s affected others too.

I’ve been involved with many projects over the years, and started many too. Some have come to fruition, others have not. I sat and thought long and hard about why I’ve put so much effort into computing and projects in general. It’s pretty simple really, like many people I’ve been striving for acceptance. I wanted people to notice me. Having been a geek since I can remember, the one thing I always wanted was to be popular. I wanted people to talk to me, to want me, to tell me I was doing a good job.

Thinking about this a while I couldn’t put my finger on why. I had a great childhood, with a loving family who encouraged me all they could. Whilst I write this, I’m still unaware why I craved this acceptance so badly. Lately I’ve been tweeting a lot, and as most of you know I started a new zine called GeekDeck. Today the realisation sunk in that I was still kinda doing the same thing. Striving for the most number of views, trying to be successful.

It’s been holding me back. I can’t quite explain how, but the fear that everything I did could have a negative impact on my “image” has held me back so much. I feel so much better for releasing this, and now I can continue my online antics in a new and fresh way, unhindered by the constant anxiety of falling backwards and not moving forwards.

What I will say is a huge thank you to all the people who have stuck by me, and continue to stick by me and my wacky projects. In particular, I’d like to that the core team of GeekDeck, who have shown me what real friendship is. I bug them constantly for articles, yet they keep talking to me, they are my team, my best friends.

The acceptance I craved I received in spades a long time ago. I just never realised it. I was being greedy and wanting more, just like the capitalist pigs I detest. Money and greed is the root of so many of the problems we face today and I just don’t want to have a part of it.

I’m a husband, a father, and now an editor. I need to show people my true colours. I need to break free from my shackles. As mentioned before I don’t usually do this. I’ve thanked people before, I’ve made apologies before, but this is the biggest criticism of myself yet and I’m loving it.

Being a geek is both tough and great. I’m never going to make Wired’s top 100 geeks to follow on twitter, I’m never going to drum on stage in a punk band in front of 1,000s, I’m never going to be a standup comedian making 1000s of people laugh. In some ways it pains me to say those things. Growing old is tough. I feel I’ve missed a boat, but then to be honest in some ways I’m glad. I’m happy being who I am, doing what I do. I’m more enthused than ever guys. I have the best group of friends in the world. I love you guys so much.

To those of you suffering the same. Break free, don’t live in the shadow of what you want to become, boxing your thoughts and actions. Just do it, live your life for yourself and your friends. Don’t ever try to become something your not. It’ll never end in happiness. Acceptance is great. Be who you are.

GeekDeck has just released Issue 2, including;

• Editor’s Letter
• Interview with Foresight Linux creator Ken Vandine
• Og looks at rBuilder
• Mark has a scary gaming encounter
• This months feature on Piracy
• Pete discusses the pitfalls of multiformat releases
• Just where did LAN parties go?
• Pete goes back, way back
• A story of a real pirate
• Pete reviews HandBrake
• Signing off by hating my phone

Enjoy!

GeekDeck has just released Issue 1, including;

• Interview with Alan Pope
• Og’s Pick of the month
• Pete muses on the wasting of time
• Top gaming moments
• Getting people to understand security
• A feature on GSoC
• Mark reviews Sony’s “Home”
• Jordan looks at Science and Open Source
• A review of photoshock canvases
• Pete signs off with a look at irony

Enjoy!
Digg This!

Poking people in the eyes, and intimidating them thereafter by pointing at their eyes and rotating her hand slowly.
Growling like a zombie.
Being frightened.
Splashing so much in the bath that both mummy and daddy are soaking wet by the end of it.
Poking other toys in the eyes.
Listening to Stephen Fry in LBP and Pocoyo
Playing with PS2 controller

Hopefully tonight will start the beginning of NetGrappler being rewritten in Cairo, utilising techniques used in the gnome-system-monitor

Ooooh this is gonna be fun!

Did you ever find you wanted to set up a temporary VPN quickly and easily. Well now you can. The process is called point to point tunneling and suprisingly enough, it’s built right into the ssh server and client programs.

So how do we use this? Well, imagine that you would like to link two sites together. By sites, I could mean small local area networks, or ever larger networks. The only dissapointing part of this is that the remote machine must have root user enabled and ssh’able. This is because we are going to use the tun network sockets which need root to be created.

I’m assuming you know how to enable the root account on your box, if not, you can find this information readily available on the net.

So, we being by ssh’ing into the remote box using a command line similar to the following.

sudo ssh -w 1:1 -C root@server -vvv

The -w option denotes that we are going to use tun devices, and the 1:1 stands for the use of tun1 locally and tun1 remotely. You can also use the keywords any:any and then ssh will use whichever tun device is free.

Once this is done we can use the ssh session on the remote machine to run the following.

ifconfig tun1 10.12.0.20 pointopoint 10.12.0.10

In point of fact the addresses could be anything, as long as the don’t overlap in your current network configurations. On your local box, now issue this,

ifconfig tun1 10.12.0.10 pointopoint 10.12.0.20

Notice the addresses have been switched. Now if you can ping 10.12.0.20 from the local side, your tunnel is up and running. So all that’s next is to set up the routing in the routing tables.

Maybe next I’ll do an entire example case complete with routing information but basically, if you want to talk to a remote network from your local box, you’ll have to add routes on the local side that use the tun1 device as the gateway.

Hope you find it interesting.