.... to bring you nothing i suppose. sorry, the website needed an upgrade which it got and then i went absolutely beserk with drupal modules, adding what must have been almost every one in existence, and the site just went fuckin' *bang* (like chopper does). it's mostly fixed now, sort of.
Microsoft sponsors Apache -
Microsoft has become a platinum sponsor of the Apache Software Foundation, custodians of the open source Apache web server. That translates into at least US$100 000 a year that Microsoft will donate to the foundation, funds the Apache team can spend on paying to run its support services. The announcement was made by Microsoft’s director of platform strategy, Sam Ramji, during a speech at the Open Source Convention in Portland, Oregon on Friday. Ramji also gave details of the sponsorship on Microsoft’s Port25 blog. Ramji said that while Microsoft was sponsoring the ASF this did not mean Microsoft was abandoning IIS as its web server technology. “We have invested significantly in refactoring and adding new, state-of-the-art features to IIS, including support for PHP. We will continue to invest in IIS for the long term and are currently under way with development of IIS 8,” Ramji said. Apache is, by many metrics, the most widely-used web server on the Internet today. Over the past six months Microsoft has announced an ever increasing number of ways it plans to develop closer ties with the open source community including supporting ODF in Microsoft Office, playing a role in the future development of ODF, and improving document interoperability.
I will probably expand on this at some stage, so for now it's going to be short, but I recently put Debian onto a Sun Netra, which was pretty cool, but I decided to cross-grade from Debian to Ubuntu which I've done before without having any issues, and I ran into issues. Tons of them in fact. But only one was bad enough that I almost gave up, and by bad enough I mean that anybody who is good with dpkg would have solved this quickly but no matter how hard I searched (at first), all I could find was whining about how if you have this problem it's your own fault because you've mixed Debian and Ubuntu, but not giving any clues as to how to solve the problem. I had mixed the two, but I also hadn't. My /etc/apt/sources.list had only Ubuntu sources, but some of the software on the machine was Debian. Anyway to get to the point if you have this problem:
Selecting previously deselected package sysvutils.
(Reading database ... 168107 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking sysvutils (from .../sysvutils_2.86.ds1-14.1ubuntu9_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/sysvutils_2.86.ds1-14.1ubuntu9_i386.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man1/mesg.1.gz', which is also in package sysvinit
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/sysvutils_2.86.ds1-14.1ubuntu9_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Then please fix it by doing the following:
$ sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i /var/cache/apt/archives/sysvutils_2.86.ds1-14.1ubuntu9_i386.deb(Reading database ... 168508 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking sysvutils (from .../sysvutils_2.86.ds1-14.1ubuntu9_i386.deb) ...
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man1/mesg.1.gz', which is also in package sysvinit
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man1/last.1.gz', which is also in package sysvinit
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man1/lastb.1.gz', which is also in package sysvinit
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man8/pidof.8.gz', which is also in package sysvinit
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man8/killall5.8.gz', which is also in package sysvinit
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/last', which is also in package sysvinit
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/mesg', which is also in package sysvinit
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/sbin/killall5', which is also in package sysvinit
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/lastb', which is also in package sysvinit
dpkg - warning, overriding problem because --force enabled:
trying to overwrite `/bin/pidof', which is also in package sysvinit
Setting up sysvutils (2.86.ds1-14.1ubuntu9) ...
And when you are done, thank these guys.
Traffic Fines can now be paid any time, anywhere in a safe and convenient way via Cellphone Banking from FNB. Previously, traffic offenders had to travel to the traffic department and stand in long queues to pay their traffic fines. The traffic fine payment functionality on Cellphone Banking from FNB eliminates this hassle. FNB currently processes payment for the following Municipalities:
- City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality,
- City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality,
- Drakenstein Municipality,
- Dithlabeng/Bethlehem Municipality,
- Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality,
- Emfuleni Local Municipality,
- Ga Sekgonyama (Kuruman) Municipalty,
- George Municipality, Hibiscus Coast (Port Shepstone KZN) Municipality,
- Kungwini Local Municipality,
- KwaDukuza Municipality,
- Midvaal Local Municipality,
- Piet Retief Municipality,
- Potchefstroom Municipality,
- Sunday's River Valley Municipality
How can you pay your traffic fine?
If you are an FNB account holder, register for Cellphone Banking today and have easy access. The process is simple. Dial *120*321# on your cellphone.
You will need to key in the unique traffic fine reference number that identifies the traffic offence. Select the account you wish to transact from if there's more than one account linked to your Cellphone Banking profile.
A confirmation screen with the traffic fine details (reference number entered, amount due and car registration number) will be displayed for you to confirm. After you confirm the traffic fine payment, the money is debited from your account and transferred into the relevant traffic department account. You will receive confirmation of the payment success via an SMS message.
And it's that easy. So be sure to use this simple and secure option to pay your traffic fines today!
For more information on how we can help you take the hassle out of paying your traffic fine, call us on 0861 313 210.
Terms and conditions and standard cell rates apply.
Tour rider Fofonov tests positive - Dmitriy Fofonov tests positive for a banned stimulant, according to the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD). [bbc cycling]
Sastre achieves childhood dream - Spaniard Carlos Sastre says he fulfilled a childhood dream by winning the Tour de France. [bbc cycling]
Australia stoke rivalry with GB - Brett Lancaster says his Australia team-mates are determined to topple Great Britain's much-vaunted cycling team at the Olympics next month.. [bbc cycling]
Russia, The Final Frontier For Data Centers?
To paraphrase (and mangle) StarTrek’s famous tagline: Can Russia be the place where Internet companies boldly go looking for the final frontier of data center? At least one blog thinks so, and points to the massive hydroelectric power capacity on tap in Russia. An article in this week’s The Economist points to RusHydro, a Russian company that has capacity of producing 25 gigawatts of electricity.
Much of the unused part is in Russia, RusHydro says. It has 5GW of new capacity under construction and more than 20GW on the drawing board—enough to double production.
Power is seen as the biggest constraint when it comes to building data center capacity. As a way around this conundrum, large consumers of Internet data center capacity have located their facilities closer to energy sources. For instance, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have built data centers in Quincy in the state of Washington near a hydroelectric dam where they pay a lot less for power than say in Silicon Valley. (Related stories, The Geography of Internet Infrastructure and Why Google Needs Its Own Nuclear Plant)
From that perspective, it is not as far fetched to imagine that these and other companies could plan on building data centers in Russia. Microsoft has already made its intentions very clear and is planning a data center in Siberia. Google has been slowly expanding its presence in Russia including a recent purchase of Rambler for $140 million. M Of course the big problem is that of lack of massive Internet backbone pipes in and out of Russia, but that might be an issue that can be addressed easily.
Why? As we have noted before, there is a lot of capacity being built across the Pacific Ocean. Earlier this week, a new 570 km cable with a capacity of 640 Gbps between Russia and Japan went live. The cable is a joint venture between TransTelecom Company CJSC of Russia which has about 55,000 km of backhaul network in Russia. The other partner in this cable is NTT. Similarly, Eastern Europe is seeing big build outs when it comes to fiber to the home (and/or premises). These networks needs back haul pipes leading to big network upgrades.
I think the reason Russia’s natural environment makes it a good candidate for big data center expansion. There are some folks who have come up with ways to leverage natural environments such as cold weather to lower the amount of power required to cool a data center. Andrew Hopper, head of Cambridge University Computing Lab’s has been preaching the mantra of putting data centers next to power sources, since it takes “electrical transmissions costs out of the equation.”
[gigaom]
A Tour to cherish - BBC Sport's Peter Slater looks back at the highlights from the 2008 Tour de France [bbc cycling]
Sastre wins Tour de France crown - Carlos Sastre seals his first Tour de France title and becomes the third Spaniard in a row to win. [bbc cycling]