Off-Hook

As of February 10th, Skype and iMate are offering preferred VoIP connectivity on the latest iMate PDA2K and Pocket PC phones. These PDAs have EVERYTHING in the book (and some stuff not yet in the book)!

At around $850.00 (usd), they’re a bit expensive, but what can’t you do with this pda phone? They make blackberry look like a calculator!

The only consistent/persistent gripe I’ve ever heard regarding stable releases of Linux distros is keeping applications current. The most common method of accomplishing this is updating with “backports.” Backports are the most recent version of applications compiled for a previous release of a given Linux distro. Since the latest versions of applications are typically compiled for testing on the very latest version of a Linux distro (usually the “testing” or “unstable” release), they have to be re-compiled, or “backported” to work on the preceding stable release.

Ubuntu makes updating with backports particularly easy by providing a central repository dedicated exclusively to backports. The repository is:

deb http://ubuntu-backports.mirrormax.net hoary-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ubuntu-backports.mirrormax.net hoary-extras main restricted universe multiverse

There are additional repositories to get the bleeding edge stuff that is staged to move to the main backports repositories, but I don’t like using those, so I won’t go into any detail about them.

The repository is excellent and keeps users up-to-date on pretty much any oss app imaginable that doesn’t make it to the standard update repositories.

One such app that I wish I hadn’t updated from the backports repository is Firefox. At 1.0.6, the backports repository put up the latest version with transitional files to move from a “mozilla-firefox” directory to a simple “firefox” directory. I liked the idea and the backport was considered by Synaptic to be an “upgrade,” so I upgraded. Now 1.0.7 is out, and it’s in the update repositories as “mozilla-firefox.” Thanks to my previous little upgrade, I have conflicts and errors upgrading. Ubuntu insisted on trying to remove Firefox and upgrade with Mozilla-Firefox simultaneously. Dependencies and support files made it error out.

I finally came up with a very simple solution: I blocked the standard update repositories so that synaptic saw nothing to upgrade firefox with. This allowed for the uninstall of Firefox, along with some supported apps (only 3– I wrote them down so I could reinstall them later). After a successful uninstall, I unblocked the update repositories and updated the apps list. Then I installed Mozilla-Firefox 1.0.7 from the standard update repositories and reinstalled the supported apps.

Yet another way to solve this problem is to force the removal of firefox using dpkg instead of apt:

sudo dpkg -r –force-all firefox
sudo dpkg -r –force-all firefox-gnome-support

Everything went fine and I’m now on 1.0.7 with all my previous settings. I like the little challenges, and it provided me with a feeling of confidence about the upgrade. ANOTHER OS might have allowed me to get away with it, but then it would most likely be working with redundant depencies on files I neither wanted nor needed, and I’d never be confident about the stability of the application, or any applications dependent upon it.

The lesson– Challenges are good, and backports must be used cautiously, but what may appear to be problematic or difficult to some may, upon further inspection, lend confidence in stability that an “easier” OS can’t offer.

I’m like THIS close to finishing my computer.

Up to this point, I’ve hunted and gathered basic affordable components. My creation is a value-based 64-bit mid-range gaming rig that will dual-boot Ubuntu and XP-Pro.

I’ve managed so far to acquire the case (pictured), DFI motherboard, 500W power supply, Amigo modem (backup connectivity), NEC floppy drive, multi-card reader, Kingwin heatsink/fan and cooling accessories.

After we’ve moved (which is the PRIMARY ordeal I’m concerned with), I’ll be purchasing all the rest. This is quite a haul that includes, of course, the processor (Athlon 64 3700+), 1G ram (probably OCZ), 256M ATI 9600xt graphics, 160G Hitachi SATA HDD, ASUS combo drive, NEC DVD-dual burner, Acer 17″ LCD and some sweet 802.11b/g 125mbps wireless networking hardware (USR). This router is so sweet, it comes with WPA2, 128-bit WEP, and MAC Address restriction security, a built-in SPI firewall, and even includes a usb 2.0 port so that ANY usb printer can be turned into a network printer.

I’m modding in a toggle switch for those LEDs on the front– They’ll light up a room (not always a good thing)!

At any rate, it should fit the bill nicely for a while and make for a pleasant online experience for the wife and me (I often work from home over vpn), as well as provide an excellent educational tool for my little girl (she’s going to get the old computer). It should also make for a flashy LAN party rig. I have a couple of buddies building similar rigs of their own. It’s a wonderful (though slightly expensive) distraction.

You see, I spend most of my time at my Ubuntu Linux admin machine in ssh terminals correcting errors in our LSMS, updating for new NPA-NXXs, backing up data to redundant sql databases and tweaking shell scripts I created to try to automate as much of it as possible over a flaky internal network of DS3s to 8 DSM cards at 4 STPs fed by MPS translators directly connected to a central database in a small town 25 minutes from my office (making me have to use VNC to access the remote admin console to perform some specific gui-centric functions). The internal central database (a.k.a. “LSMS”) updates in auto-magically over 2 DS1s through a gateway router to the NPAC in Virginia and North Carolina in “real-time.” At least everything’s directly connected, so I’m not takin’ up space on valuable DACS ports.

At the same time I secure assigned numbers in pool block contributions only days before the blocks are actually released and troubleshoot everyday woes such as manually loading missing records or modifying corrupt or incorrect records, participating in Mass SPID Updates, attending Industry meetings on all things LNP to represent my employer, and researching new technologies such as VoIP and ENUM that will aid, complement, or eventually replace the current method. I stay abreast of all changes to the SS7 network, monitoring traffic on our network and working with switch translations to test turnup of services in new offices or restructure of host-remote relationships that can effect routing, and report on the amount of numbers ported contrasted with the amount of customers ported per month and space to exhaust on the network elements (which translates into making a business case for spending another $500 grand to “make it bigger”).

Outside of that, I don’t do much except blog, surf the net and drink lots of Dr. Pepper. You can see how a distraction is definitely a GOOD thing.

Rita takes aim at some New Orleans evacuees (and anyone else living in SE Texas and Louisiana). My personal opinion is that early statements and predictions regarding New Orleans not flooding again may be overly optimistic, though I pray they are true.