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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2005-11-29 12:46 pm

A New Penguin, CCNA2, Ars Magica, Socialising, Dunedin

So I finally ditched Mandrake and played around with a couple of distros for server-level fun. OpenSolaris was even installed at one stage, albeit briefly. FreeBSD, the preferred option, didn't want to install and I'm not man enough to fight it. Finally settled on Fedora. Then began the tiresome process of getting Python, Zope and Plone up and going. They don't talk to each other very well at all. If PHPWebsite was fully standards compliant I wouldn't bother with this nonsense.

Last week I passed the CCNA semester 2 theory exam. It was held out-of-sync because myself and the other student (yes, the class has had a 80%+ drop-out rate) were having problems with the prac test, so the instructor put that off until this week and sprung the exam on us instead. I rather suspect that if I actually had the opportunity to study for it I would have done better than the 77% that I received. It's good enough for now.

Gaming this past week has only consisted of Ars Magica. The Storyguide has placed us on the Calf of Man, a desolate windswept place far from civilization. My character, as a Greek scholar, is already beginning to feel exiled. I am increasingly of the opinion that the setting - minus the inter-House politics - is magnificant and the system is both flawed and incomplete.

In a fairly social week, I started with [livejournal.com profile] hasimir's gathering at the Gin Palace. There was fine conversation and some amusement at the fact that everyone present had an el-jay account. Later, an end-of-year gathering for the Henry George Foundation, with an excellent speech by Bob Knowles. Finally, went to [livejournal.com profile] caseopaya's end of year work function and had a very enjoyable time.

Have been reading books on network games and decided that would be a great profession; I would get to combine all my interests into one. Planning to go to the Dunedin Linux Conf in January. I have a mad dream of a dozen people taking over a disused warehouse in Dunedin and turning it into an IT centre of great repute. But who would join me in such a venture at the end of the earth?

[identity profile] nightcity.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
But who would join me in such a venture at the end of the earth?

Those with an appreciation for ridiculously cheap real estate?

And it's the quality of the virtual estate that'd matter most on a venture like that :]

[identity profile] cheshirenoir.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I've been enjoying Ubuntu recently. A wonderfully simple distro, which behaves very well. I have heard it described as "Linux for your Grandmother" as it's that simple to use and set up.

[identity profile] strangedave.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
One of the problems with python/zope/plone is the latter two are in fairly active development, so there are frequent versioning issues. The debian installs work fairly OK though, don't know whats the issue with Fedora. You can easily end up in dependency hell on any version if you install a few products, which you will, because thats the point. I have a fair bit of plone/zope experience, and the learning curve can be fairly steep, so feel free to bounce me questions.

I'm in the middle of learning how to develop content types using Archetypes/ArchGenXML at the moment.

[identity profile] tatjna.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Dunedin isn't the end! There's at least 200km after that. Ever been to Invercargill? ;-)

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)

Oh, I've had a wee look at Invercargill... There's this attachment I have with the place...

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)

Well I've currently installed...

Python-2.35
Zope-2.8.4 and
Plone-2.1.1

Any other combination seemed to go awol.

I've fixed up the userid and ownership issues (basic installation at /home/user/zope/instance1) but when I runzope I get deprecation warnings and Plone doesn't appear in Zope interface at http://localhost:8080/manage

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)

Yeah, I like Ubuntu a lot.. It's Debian that plays nice and simple... I just couldn't find my bloody install disks!

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)

One of the great things about Dunedin is that population is falling and the buildings were made when it was richer and bigger. So you get great real estate and the work would provide great virtual estate.

The ultimate agenda is to live in Dunedin, design a historical fantasy version of World of Warcraft and do something interesting with the politics of the land.

Heh. I should read the userinfo, shouldn't I?

[identity profile] tatjna.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
And you're still calling Dunedin the end of the earth? Been to Dargaville? That really -is- the, erm... end. In the vulgar sense of the word.

Re: Heh. I should read the userinfo, shouldn't I?

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)

Heh. I thought you had read the userinfo hence the wink and smile!

Dargaville? I almost bought a shop there a couple of months ago...

[identity profile] severina-242.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Ahh Invercargill - we ate the meat equivalent of a baby there.....

Re: Heh. I should read the userinfo, shouldn't I?

[identity profile] tatjna.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
In the name of all that is good and intelligent in the world, don't go and live in Dargaville! Please! It will eat your brain!

(I lived there for nearly ten years and it's like an intellectual desert combined with a black hole, all set in the 1950's)

But I may be a little biased. ;-)

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)

That was a seriously weird restaurant. Tex-Mex in Invercargill? Still, one certainly couldn't complain about the portions. IIRC I had half a chicken and you had two shanks from the world's largest lamb.

Re: Heh. I should read the userinfo, shouldn't I?

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)

Actually, double-checking said shop wasn't in Dargaville... It was further north on the east coast; Paihia

I suspect that the lack of intellectual culture in both places would be a problem for me. Dunedin does well in my book for being a relatively small town but with the highest number of graduates per capita in NZ. It may sound a little elitist, but that sort of thing is important to me.

[identity profile] belegdel.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
But who would join me in such a venture at the end of the earth?

You could twist my arm. We've pondered relocating to NZ more than once :)

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)

Wages are lower. Social services are better. Politics is better; much better.

[identity profile] antayla.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"I have a mad dream of a dozen people taking over a disused warehouse in Dunedin and turning it into an IT centre of great repute. But who would join me in such a venture at the end of the earth?"

What would you do with your IT centre, host network games?
I've considered moving to NZ in the past, but the immigration standards are higher than that of Oz, and once you get into Oz, you can easily get into NZ.

At this point, moving anywhere would have to provide some benefit greater than the personal network and area knowledge I have based in the Portland, OR area.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)

Well, I'd have a side project (see above) on developing a historical fantasy MMORPG.

Apart from that there's a fair few businesses and people in Dunedin. Whilst there is a couple of small computer professional services (e.g., ProSouth) I reckon some higher-end networking services would be interesting.

I like the idea of a massively networked south island ;-)

Ubuntu is most certainly NOT Debian.

[identity profile] imajica-lj.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
It WAS Debian derived, but to be "Debian" there has to be a an active process where the Canonical people get the opportunity to back port the really great changes they have made BACK into Debian.

This has not occurred, no one is happy about it either.

[identity profile] imajica-lj.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
> I have a mad dream of a dozen people taking over a disused warehouse in Dunedin and turning it into an IT centre of great repute. But who would join me in such a venture at the end of the earth?

Sold.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)

Excellent! I was hoping you'd say something like that.

Re: Ubuntu is most certainly NOT Debian.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)

Quite; I've read some of the discussion on this.

[identity profile] zey.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Social services are better.

Hmmm... Last time I looked through some NZ govt websites, it seemed like NZ had already put through Fightback! Howard-like WorkChoices + Welfare reforms and weren't all that interested in winding them back...

[identity profile] zey.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
So I finally ditched Mandrake and played around with a couple of distros for server-level fun.

I was forced to install Novell SuSe a week or two ago. It really confirmed to me that I much prefer Debian systems. Granted, the Debian Stale vs Debian Unstable question gets hairy towards the end of a major revision, but, there's a lot to be said for the known quantity.

OpenSolaris was even installed at one stage

Is that what they're calling Solaris for Intel these days?

Last time I had Solaris for Intel installed, it was a pretty hideous beast with a fairly short hardware compatibility list, (which at the time didn't include the most popular network card on the market).

Re: Ubuntu is most certainly NOT Debian.

[identity profile] imajica-lj.livejournal.com 2005-11-28 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Other than my ranting? :)

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