every word of it.

Are you excited? I am. Hopefully we’re excited about the same thing.

Today, Eclipse Ganymede was released. Eclipse is a software platform that has an amazing plug-in system that allows it to disguise itself as a Java Development Environment. That’s how it sneaks in. “Don’t mind me, I’m just a Java IDE.” And then all of a sudden you’re using it for reporting.

But, I love Eclipse. Most days, I spend my entire working day staring at Eclipse. So it’s nice that it’s a pleasure to use and continues to improve.

I’ve already mentioned the bread crumbs. Honestly, I haven’t made much use of them in practice. It’s a nice feature to have, but I find it is faster just to use the Package Explorer + Outline to get where I need to be.

A feature of Ganymede that I love and use all the damn time is the enhanced search results.

This is an example search. Notice how the results list the context of where the term was found. It makes scanning a list of matches easy.

One of the features I’m excited about is the Save Actions

I haven’t really used it, since I just found out about it. But it looks to be a nice time saver. Performing a lot of clean up automatically for you.

Also kind of interesting and part of the Ganymede release is the Eclipse Communication Framework. This allows for Collaborative Editing. Collaborative Editing isn’t new, but it could be more useful now that it’s “standard” from within Eclipse. We’ll see.

The “New and Noteworthy” is a mile long. It really is amazing that the Eclipse Foundation can coordinate a release with 23 different projects.

So thanks Eclipse, for making my life easier.

Important News Regarding Netflix Profiles

Dear Raishad,

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

If you have any questions, please go to http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962 or call us anytime at 1 (888) 638-3549. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The Netflix Team

I will miss the Profiles. They were a great way of making sure I got my movie, and my mom got her crappy Indian movies every week. No need to manage the queue manually.

Netflix is a customer friendly company. So it’s kind of disappointing they’re removing features (that I use).

Working on my Lab , noticed a new option in Eclipse 3.4m6

“Show in Breadcrumb”

Turns out Eclipse has Breadcrumb navigation for Classes

On first blush, you think it’s pretty useless. But it has some merit. Like if you want to maximize your editor workspace, you can now hide the Outline pane, and still have most of the functionality by using breadcrumbs. You can even hide the Navigator pane, since you can browse package structure. But I think that’s taking things a bit too far. One pane at a time.

Thanks Eclipse!

The award for “Most Awkward Error Message Ever” goes to the Mac BU over at Microsoft

Seriously? “The Mac cannot connect to the Windows-based computer”

Just too many words, that explain nothing. Of course I’m using a Mac. Of course I’m trying to connect to a Windows machine. I would’ve taken a boring, simple, meaningful – Unable to Connect, Connection Timeout.

I can take care of myself.

Problem: Trying to burn a DVD over Remote Desktop

Error Message: If you are running Nero burning software via Windows Remote Login, you might not be able to access your drives for burning. This is a security restriction from Windows

Solution: Taken From Here. I noticed when I was searching to the solution to this problem, not a lot of people had the answer. And the only site that I found – wasn’t in English. I was surprised Nero didn’t have it as a FAQ on their site.

Start Group Policy Editor – Go to the Start menu and type in, gpedit.msc

In the left pane of Group Policy Editor, navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Removable Storage Access.

In the right pane of Group Policy Editor, change the value of the Setting, All Removable Storage: Allow direct access in remote sessions, to Enabled.

Exit Group Policy Editor and you should be able to burn a DVD over Remote Desktop now

Here’s a tip for if you have an old G4 Mac.

As you know, for some reason Flash on MacOS is slower than Flash on anything else. And having a G4 certainly doesn’t help things. I dread going to sites with a heavy Flash interface. Frankly it’s a bit disappointing mixed in with a smidgen of depressing.

But hey, it’s Saturday. Time to get some work done. You set your awesome 12″ Powerbook (perhaps the greatest laptop Apple ever built) besides you and you head over to Hulu to catch up on Friday Night Lights/Chuck/House/Psych/Terminator while you work on work work. But oh no, the video are in Flash. And Flash is a dog.

Here’s my recommendation. Use Camino. Camino for whatever reason, handles Flash better than Safari and Firefox. Not a tiny bit better, but a lot better.

Give it a try, you’ll thank me.

When someone asks for your password, don’t give it to them.

Simple.

But apparently not simple enough for some.

That’s right. My brother gave his Steam password to someone posing as Steam Customer Support. Unbelievable.

You know, they should teach a class in school – Internet Smarts. I think it’ll be beneficial. Like stick it with Keyboarding. That was a required class right? And honestly, Internet Smarts is a lot more useful.

Anyways, I’m now going through the process of restoring his account. I think it happens a lot, since there is a nice well laid out procedure for it. And there should be – considering I’ve spent at least $100 on that account.

I talked to the guy who stole it. Pretty bold.

Oh Linux, why can’t you just let me win.

This morning I decided to go ahead and upgrade my kernel to 2.6.22-14. But things didn’t go smoothly. Something went wrong, so I tried it again apt-get install -f

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  easytag
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
3 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 3170kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 288305 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing easytag ...
Setting up linux-image-2.6.22-14-386 (2.6.22-14.47) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-386
Not updating initrd symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Running postinst hook script /sbin/update-grub.
Your /etc/kernel-img.conf needs to be updated. Read grub's NEWS.Debian[1]
file and follow its instructions.
 
 1. /usr/share/doc/grub/NEWS.Debian.gz
 
 
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... 
No GRUB directory found. To create a template run 'mkdir /boot/grub' first. To install grub, install it manually or try the 'grub-install' command. ### Warning, grub-install is used to change your MBR. ###
 
User postinst hook script [/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 1
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.22-14-386 (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic (2.6.22-14.47) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
Not updating initrd symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Running postinst hook script /sbin/update-grub.
Your /etc/kernel-img.conf needs to be updated. Read grub's NEWS.Debian[1]
file and follow its instructions.
 
 1. /usr/share/doc/grub/NEWS.Debian.gz
 
 
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... 
No GRUB directory found. To create a template run 'mkdir /boot/grub' first. To install grub, install it manually or try the 'grub-install' command. ### Warning, grub-install is used to change your MBR. ###
 
User postinst hook script [/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 1
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-2.6.22-14-386
 linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Alright, seems some stuff needs to be changed. One thing at a time. I make the changes in described in /usr/share/doc/grub/NEWS.Debian.gz and try it again

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up linux-image-2.6.22-14-386 (2.6.22-14.47) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-386
Not updating initrd symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Running postinst hook script /usr/sbin/update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... 
No GRUB directory found. To create a template run 'mkdir /boot/grub' first. To install grub, install it manually or try the 'grub-install' command. ### Warning, grub-install is used to change your MBR. ###
 
User postinst hook script [/usr/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 1
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.22-14-386 (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic (2.6.22-14.47) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
Not updating initrd symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Running postinst hook script /usr/sbin/update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... 
No GRUB directory found. To create a template run 'mkdir /boot/grub' first. To install grub, install it manually or try the 'grub-install' command. ### Warning, grub-install is used to change your MBR. ###
 
User postinst hook script [/usr/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 1
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-2.6.22-14-386
 linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

It’s strange really. Why am I missing my grub folder? If grub is really gone, how am I even able to boot into Linux?

So I make the folder, /boot/grub, and try again.

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up linux-image-2.6.22-14-386 (2.6.22-14.47) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-386
Not updating initrd symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Running postinst hook script /usr/sbin/update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... Generating /boot/grub/default file and setting the default boot entry to 0
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... 
 
Could not find /boot/grub/menu.lst file. Would you like /boot/grub/menu.lst generated for you? (y/N) y
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-386
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done
 
 
Setting up linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic (2.6.22-14.47) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
Not updating initrd symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled 
(2.6.22-14.46 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Running postinst hook script /usr/sbin/update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-386
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

Success! But is it really? Let’s look at my boot directory. /boot$ find .

.
./initrd.img-2.6.22-14-386
./System.map-2.6.22-14-386
./vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-386
./config-2.6.22-14-386
./abi-2.6.22-14-386
./System.map-2.6.22-14-generic
./vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic
./config-2.6.22-14-generic
./abi-2.6.22-14-generic
./initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
./initrd.img-2.6.22-14-386.bak
./grub
./grub/default
./grub/menu.lst
./grub/menu.lst~
./initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic.bak

That can’t be right. I’m missing files. GRUB just doesn’t disappear like that. Something had to have happened. Something big and scary.

I check and see what file systems are mounted

$ mount

/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/md1 on /tivo type xfs (rw)
/dev/mapper/raid-seagate320 on /share type xfs (rw)
/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-extra on /extra type xfs (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
nfsd on /proc/fs/nfsd type nfsd (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

Where is my boot partition?

From my /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /dev/sda1 -- converted during upgrade to edgy
UUID=065448c7-0098-4bbe-a6c1-d207b4201a1a /boot ext3 defaults 0 2

I tried manually mounting /boot, but it would get error messages like

mount: /dev/sdb1 already mounted or /boot busy

It was looking like /boot wasn’t being mounted. Was my UUID wrong? Nope. Checking /dev/disk/by-uuid shows that the UUID is correct. Something else was going on. Then I remembered something. A few months ago I was having trouble mounting a raid drive. I’m not an expert in Linux, but it looked like mount wasn’t taking actual device names. For example, /dev/md0 wasn’t working but /dev/mapper/Ubunut-extra was working. So I fixed my fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /dev/sda1 -- converted during upgrade to edgy
# UUID=065448c7-0098-4bbe-a6c1-d207b4201a1a /boot ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/sdb1        /boot   ext3    defaults        0       2

and reran apt-get install -f, restarted, and sacrificed a goat.

It worked. I don’t know what happened. I’m not sure what I did was the correct fix. But it’s working.

So Linux, what up?

Seeqpod is a pretty neat site. I’ve been using the iPhone version for a few months now. It’s a very easy way to find a song and play it on your iPhone. All that time though, I never tried visiting Seeqpod from a regular desktop browser. Turns out I was missing something great.

Before, when I wanted to sample a band, I had a couple of options: Google, MySpace, or the band’s website. Google worked, but you had to sift through reviews and fansites. You still had to hunt for a song, but you could find one. MySpace is a little better, but who wants to go to MySpace. MySpace is an awful, awful place. The band’s website would either refer you to MySpace, have a track up in a horrible embedded player, or have no sample tracks at all.

Enter Seeqpod. It combines a very amazing crawler with a very nice flash interface. So essentially what you get is a search engined tuned to finding mp3 files. You don’t have to fart around with inurl: or other operators. And it has the very convenient ability to share playlists

To celebrate, here is some Ned’s Atomic Dustbin

Google spies on me?

Google knows too much.

Exhibit A: Here is an email to Long

In it, I’m essentially stating that I’m like Charlie Brooker. In his latest article in the Guardian, he essentially points out that you can’t go on vacation if you’re single. It’s true. It’s just the way things are. So in the article, Charlie Brooker complains a bit and says his vacation is staying home and playing Half-Life 2. Replace Half-Life 2 with Mario Strikers and that’s me.

And Google, being omniscient as they are, place a link to a website renting villas in Tobago – Tobago being the Tobago in The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. Sure I mentioned the word “Vacation” in the email, I get that. But Tobago? I didn’t mention Trinidad or Tobago. So either it’s a lucky coincidence (maybe, hopefully?) or their algorithms are too smart.

Anyways, if you visit that site, you can rent islands. The cheapest island is $2300/night near Belize. If I ever get filthy rich, I’m renting an island. But probably not near Belize.