I think hell just froze over....

Yes, there is now a Mac Mini in my house.



I thourh that would n e v e r happen.

But it did.

And as a gadget, 'tis spiffy. Connected to an HDTV and the surround system, and my in house network, and it's a kicker assery little media device.

As a *computer*, though? Well, under all that fisher price glitz is an actual unix kernal, so it's not all bad.... if things could only stop whizzing, wirring and have bevveled glitzy edges. *eeek*

/Z

Awrighty then.... right?

Okay...

It seems my webpage is back in business. I've re-engineered it for the new server, although the boys and girls over at Lysator are still tinkering under the hood... so... with my luck.... the minute after I post this "the site seems to be working" announcement, it prossibly isn't. LOL ;)

Anyhoo....

The site should now work. So if you DO find something that don't woik... let me know, please.

Also, if you find old junk that needs tidying out, let me know. It's time for a spring cleaning, methinks.

Alas, I ramble. And don't I always.

Next time I may blog about something actually interesting.....

Until then... *knock on wood*

/Z

So Zap, Whats Up With Your Webpage?

Here's the deal on my webpage.

It's hosted by Lysator, an "academic computer society". Back in the day, being in an "academic computer society" was one of the few ways to get to actually touch a computer... or to get online at a reasonable price... or get nice bandwidth at a reasonable price...

...well, those days are kinda gone. Everyone has megabits in the wall and multiple computers in the house.

So Lysator membership is kinda down. And most importantly, the people who "run the ship"
all tend to be the "old foxes", some 35+ guys w. kids and a job who used to go to that university and has kinda inherited some "root" privileges to handle the machines.

These guys deserve all the credit, but they are volounteers. And when a catastrophic failure happens.... it's really hard to get stuff up again. BUT IT IS NOW UP.

So, zap, if the server is UP, wft isn't your webpage running?

Well, I have a problem. You see, some guys from Lysator wrote their own webserver... roxen (see www.roxen.com for details) and I always used the RXML extensions for it to do "cool stuff" on my webpage.

Some years ago I made a major overhaul, and wrote the entire webpage in RXML templates. GREAT. But... I wrote it for Roxen 1.3, which, admittedly, was kinda outdate already then. Silly me, because Lysator was planning to run the 1.3 compatibility module... so I was okay... right?

Well, now, three collapsed web server machines later (total hardware meltdown), they have finally set up a machine that runs... but ONLY Roxen 4.5 ... so my pages use ALL the wrong types of incompatible macros and stuff. So my pages are kinna dead.

When I find time... I'll work on it. I don't have time now.

/Z

The Host.. is Toast

NEW: There is an alternate torrent for the Revelations DVD download HERE

NEW WORKING TORRENT

I have personally verified this one and is also re-seeding it (although my bandwidth aint too grand).

See Information below about using FTP to download the film.
--

Weeel... Lysator, the host upon which the Revelations DVD's and the BitTorrent tracker for the revelations files reside, is down. Down down down. Frankly, I do not know exactly why, but the talk is that there was a massive hacking attempt. Vanity dictates that I think the interest drawn by the hosting of Revelations and little things like USA Today articles, MSNBC coverage and CNN featurettes drew the wrong kind of attention, and some zitty teenager with nothing but destruction on his mind (get a girlfriend, kid) got to it.

But frankly... I dunno! Since all routes for me to actually do know are locked within a downed network segment. Spiffy, that!

The ACC mirror is still up (Thank you, Umeå University), and I recommend going to it through anonymous ftp if you plan on getting the DVD iso files.

Be aware, though, that the files are 3.5GiB and 4.3Gib respectively. Lots and lots and lots ftp software have problems with that big files. There are two limits, 2Gb and 4Gb. Some software get past the 1st hurdle (i.e. you can grab disk #1 and it works) but a good 95% of the software can't grok the 2nd hurdle, i.e. disk #2 won't work.

Most notably Internet Explorer itself handles neither of the limits well. It thinks Disk#1 is 0 MiB and disk #2 is 237 MiB due to this problem! You CAN NOT use plain old explorer to get the DVD images (all the other files work fine, though).

Stuff I do know work include, but are not limited to:

• Unix "wget" for getting the files (plain command line ftp on one unix variant did NOT work)
• Windows XP's command line ftp
• CuteFTP client handles 4Gib+ files

Beond these you are on our own. Try to figure out if the ftp software handles 4GiB+ files. Then you

1. Connect to ftp.acc.umu.se (using anonymous as login, anything as password)
2. Go to directory mirror/media/StarWars-Revelations/
3. Get revelations-1.iso or revelations-2.iso
4. Optionally, get the revelations_dvd_art.zip for printing nice labels
5. Use your DVD burning software and the "Burn image" or "Burn disk image" or "Create DVD from disk image" or whatever it's called on your particular software to create the disks.
6. Grab a cold brew, slip down in front of your 62" plasma, right in front of the subwoofer, and hit "play"!

Anyhow.... I'm currently getting about 50 mails a day asking about this stuff. Phew. Be patient, folks.

/Z

Long day

It's been a long day. Finalized the carport that had been half finished for some months. My what a bit of panelling and paint does ;)

Bought the Firefly series on DVD, and the Battlestar Galactica. Kinda laughable how they both were being "innovative" by using "handheld cam w. lots of smash zooms". Man, that's gonna look about as dated in ten years as a gated reverb on a snare drum yells "1985" to anyone with ears. LOL.

Lots of cool stuff happening at work. Wish I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. And that gets so darned MESSY. I hate that.

More later. As always.

/Z

Welcome

Welcome, to Zaps blog.

Some day, this blog will be full of stuff. But, as Aragorn yelled, "that is not this day" :)

/Z