Ahmed Sajjad Blog

Last Monday, I finally got around to reading the current issue of Linux Journal (thank you Stuart) which convinced me to give the development kernel a try. Compiled and installed version 2.5.68 on my home machine (still Redhat 7.2) which went smoother than I had imagined. It feels blazingly faster than the 2.4.20 kernel I normally use and folding@HOME runs much better. Once stable, the 2.5 series will become 2.6 or 3.0 depending on Linus's decision.

Networking changes seem to have eliminated the problems I was having with the fiber connection. That is a bit strange, since the troubles were on the ISPs side and other users were still facing them. Either all of them were solved yesterday or I was just lucky. If none of those, then this really is a superior OS. And I haven't even touched the new audio features yet which are supposedly a major improvement.

There are still a few big problems though such as X crashing (NVidia driver related) and USB keyboard not working. Modules couldn't be loaded at first because of an older modutils package, the update of which requires glibc 2.3. The installed version was 2.2 so that is a major change to the system. After some thought and a few searches on Google, I decided to go ahead and risk the update using RedHat's Rawhide repository which seems to have turned out ok.

I hope to solve the rest of the problems soon and will post an update later. In the meantime, I'm content to run folding@HOME on the console and GUI apps through VNC and reboot to the 2.4 kernel for anything requiring GLX.

You can get the kernel source here: http://www.kernel.org/

Posted at 16:01pm Comments(1) | ¶

This is just hilarious:

"Former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf is attempting to surrender to US forces ...., but .... the Americans have refused to arrest Mr Sahhaf"

He is starting to remind me of the foul tempered bus driver from Southpark, Mrs.Crabtree, who becomes a star because of her "act".

Posted at 12:00pm Comments(2) | ¶

Today (Tuesday 29th) was the first official holiday of the Japanese "Golden Week". This is almost the only time of the year in Japan (well at least Tokyo) when the weather is neither cold and rainy, nor hot and humid, i.e. very nice. There are usually 3 holidays in the week, but this year, the 2nd holiday will fall on a Saturday.

Since I live quite close to Yoyogi park, I went there with some friends, instead of trying to fix my shiny new kernel (more on that later).

We stayed there until evening playing football ("soccer" for some of you) and various other games. It was a nice mix of foreigners and Italian speaking Japanese so got to practice a little bit of both languages.

Posted at 00:43am Comments(1) | ¶

Things you always wanted to know about the characters of Lord of the Rings, but were afraid to ask:

Reminds me of the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Just read Legolas's diary. Thank you for the link Stuart.

Posted at 14:36pm Comments(1) | ¶

Be sure to put on your headphones (or turn on your speakers) first:

Someone commented that it is the voice of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi information minister, but to me it sounds more like a villain from a bad Indian movie.

Posted at 21:37pm Comments(2) | ¶

Posted on Slashdot last weekend. The article is by the author of Taking The Red Pill: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in The Matrix and is quite informative:

He addresses issues such as "Can humans really be an energy source? How does the Matrix know what fried chicken taste like? Why do the rebels have to enter and exit the Matrix via a telephone system (that doesn't actually exist)?"

Posted at 14:15pm Comments(2) | ¶

Focuses mainly on Iraqi Shias, but provides some background for the faith I belong to:

Has some inaccuracies such as describing the split from Sunnis because of a struggle for power and painting it as a cult.

Posted at 00:49am Comments(1) | ¶

Just got back from Waseda University where I had to sit for an IT test. I need to pass it to be officially recognized as a sysadmin in Japan, though the test has almost nothing to do with system administration.

It was a multiple choice test, but here, choice means between 3 to 10 answers. Apart from assembly, C, Java and Cobol, it tests you on databases, algorithms and lots of math. But it wasn't just those that almost made me stick the pencil in my eye. The whole test was in advanced Japanese. I have no chance. Should have taken Yoshiba-san's advice about bringing a dice.

Anyway, Waseda is quite interesting. Most of the buildings are old and ugly, but there were a few newer, uglier ones. I can understand Japan's obsession with smoking, but it was still a shock to see smoking areas outside every block. They did have some greenery, which partly made up for those shortcomings.

Posted at 15:37pm Comments(1) | ¶

I guess I was wrong about the bad view from my room. A few minutes ago, I noticed this most complete rainbow I've ever seen.

Not a good shot, but have a few better ones from my Canon, though it was tough to get everything at once. After a few minutes it turned more colorful and a second one appeared. Off to get that pot of gold (2 pots if I'm fast enough).

Posted at 18:26pm Comments(1) | ¶

This was posted on Slashdot yesterday about how relaxed most users are about security:

But what I've seen in Japan might be wierder. People are quite paranoid about giving away personal information, like passwords, (even to the sysadmins who already have it all ;)) yet see nothing wrong with sending highly sensitive data over email or ftp.

The passwords used are also dead simple, even those belonging to otherwise competent people. Recently, I received a Win2k server which was previously being used as a security gateway of some sort (can you hear the alarm bells?). It took one guess for me to login as 'Administrator'. password.

Posted at 16:44pm Comments(29) | ¶

For the past few weeks, my geeky addiction hasn't been FPS games or playing with my kernel, but Blog Shares trading. It could be my brief (and not so great) experience as a Futures trader years back, thats the main cause of it, but this is just too much fun. I've also managed to get into the Top 100 players.

And finally, as of yesterday, my blog is listed for trading:

After reading the Blogshares FAQ, I realised that a blog must reach a value of $1000 before it can be traded and that is why it took so long for this to happen. MJ's blog is now also tradeable. Buy at will.

Posted at 12:52pm Comments(3) | ¶

Its a quick (well not that quick) hack, but at least something is up. The comments will be sent to me by email for now and I'll put them up manually as soon as I can. Please bear with me until this is automated.

Posted at 12:46pm Comments(2) | ¶

Charlie posted this link on the TPCUG newsgroup. Good long article by Robert Fisk. He poses some intriguing questions, but who has the answers?

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=397925

America's war of 'liberation' may be over. But Iraq's war of liberation from the Americans is just about to begin.

Posted at 18:38pm Comments | ¶

This is still just a prediction so I wouldn't be too excited yet:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/biztech/12/10/meta.linux.reut/

Its about time Microsoft did something in this direction instead of just putting Linux down, though I'm sure a lot of people would still be very suspicious of anything coming from them. As I see it, they really don't have a lot of choices. Microsoft may be able to compete against something that's technically superior, but not something that is also free.

Posted at 12:03pm Comments | ¶

Off to this month's Meetup. Only about 5 people turned up at the first one, but this time there will be many.

Afterwards, we plan to go to Moda, where Joi Ito is DG'ing tonight.

Posted at 18:51pm Comments(6) | ¶

Details of the private palace and extravagant lifestlye of Saddam's elder son:

His personal zoo has lions, cheetahs and a bear. His storehouse has $1 million in fine wines, liquor and heroin. His house has Cuban cigars, cases of champagne and downloaded pictures of prostitutes.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=540&e=7&u=/ap/war_odai_s_hideaway

I haven't heard of anyone else that has all this and their own private city. At least not in the recent past. Tommy Suharto and the Sultan of Brunei's brother came close, but not quite. This is outrageous. The rest of the population sufferred in unimaginable ways and here they were doing everything against Islam while claiming to be Muslims.

I find it very unlikely that they died during the bombing. With all that money, Saddam could have bought a few private islands anywhere in the world, but they'll have to pay for all this. If not in this world, then the next.

Posted at 10:49am Comments | ¶

A parody site of Lord of the Rings that I found on Blogshares:

http://fembat.net/mt/botr/

Yes, I have shares in it and really want everyone to link to it.< g>

Posted at 00:19am Comments(2) | ¶

Quotes from M. Saeed al-Sahaf:

http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/

His current whereabouts are unknown, but he was even more interesting than the Taliban spokesman (the ambassador to Pakistan).

And in the left corner we have the US president:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/q110377.html

Posted at 11:50am Comments(9) | ¶

I didn't really see any kind of connection between the two, but now I have to agree with the Bush administration:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/03/02/07_link.html

May seem silly at the beginning, but gets the message through very nicely

Posted at 16:22pm Comments | ¶

Stuart just sent me this.

http://www.sial.org/rss/equake/

It lists earthquakes that have happened recently. I haven't felt one in a long time here in Tokyo which isn't good. The 'big one' is due soon and I wouldn't want to be here when it comes.

But as we were discussing on the TPC's earthquake newsgroup, better to be prepared for it. Mike Lloret had a nice long list of things he has ready.

Posted at 12:45pm Comments | ¶

MJ has put up a site for boring or just bad views from apartments:

http://www.souzouzone.jp/blog/archives/007477.html

Plenty of material for it here in Japan though most of it will look the same. I should take a photo from my room and send it. All I can see is a few neighbouring houses and a big, boring building on the left. Victor was right about how ugly the buildings are in Japan.

Posted at 18:20pm Comments | ¶

http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull/

Posted at 18:54pm Comments(29) | ¶

My original key expired on Thursday so today I created a new one. This one will expire in 2 years so I have a bit more time with it (and more time to forget what to do when it expires).

/pgpkey.txt

GnuPG Key ID: 0xD7AD0E13
Key fingerprint = 9C39 074F BF24 6B89 A41D  0A6D 1E08 1281 D7AD 0E13

To import using gpg:

gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys D7AD0E13

Posted at 20:14pm Comments(11) | ¶

http://www.probush.com/traitor.htm

The list includes at least 1 ex-president and many celebrities. From the site:

"IF YOU DO NOT SUPPORT OUR PRESIDENT'S DECISIONS YOU ARE A TRAITOR TO OUR COUNTRY!"

Where will it end?

Posted at 15:27pm Comments | ¶

In the blogging script I am using and building (planning to release it after its cleaned up a bit) I recently added a function to ping Weblogs.com after each update. It didn't seem to work and I narrowed the problem down to 'wget' not being allowed by their site. Changing the user agent with wget's -U switch works perfectly.

Posted at 13:00pm Comments | ¶

Last night's TPCUG meeting was one of the best I've been to yet and the first one this year. Freedom Lohr spoke about video editing and the Tokyo DV site that he is part of. His work has been quite popular on the internet and with other bloggers.

Now I have an urge to get a Mac and a video camera, but I'll try to hold off that temptation for a while, though I heard that older Macs have come down a lot in price.

Posted at 11:24am Comments | ¶

It seems that the coalition troups have entered the holy city of Najaf and Saddam's forces have taken cover in the shrine of Imam Ali (A.S.). May they suffer God's wrath for putting the shrine at risk. Got this from Shi'a Pundit:

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2492709

Iraqis fired on U.S.-led troops from inside the Ali Mosque in Najaf, an important Shi'ite Muslim shrine, on Wednesday but the Americans did not return fire, an official at U.S. war headquarters said.

At least the Americans have enough sense to avoid the shrine. After the Kaaba, this and the shrines in Karbala are the holiest places for Shi'a Muslims. Here is another BBC article on them:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2907201.stm

Posted at 11:04am Comments | ¶

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/wwn/20030319/104808600007.html

NEW YORK -- Federal investigators have arrested an enigmatic Wall Street wiz on insider-trading charges -- and incredibly, he claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2256!

Good time to sell? Also from the article:

Officials are quite confident the "time-traveler's" claims are bogus. Yet the SEC source admits, "No one can find any record of any Andrew Carlssin existing anywhere before December 2002."

Posted at 18:09pm Comments | ¶

About 2 weeks ago, I subscribed to the RedHat Network and yesterday they released the latest version of their OS to subscribers. I tried downloading it last night, but their servers are extremely slow.

Now I am trying BitTorrent which uses a kind of peer-to-peer protocol and is written in Python. Not much luck yet though since I can't seem to connect to any other users.

Posted at 16:31pm Comments | ¶