I remember hearing a story about a guy who went to an airport in order to have a five minute conversation with another guy who was about to board a plane. Apparently the guy boarding the plane charged the first guy a hundred quid a minute for his time. A lot of dosh, especially twenty years ago when I heard this story, but according to the story the information was worth a lot more than that to the guy doing the asking.
Alas my endeavours with Fedora are not going quite so swimmingly as I had hoped. The whole point of switching to a server with Fedora was that it appeared to be much more widely documented than the CentOS Linux on my old server (see note [1]). Unfortunately, now that I'm trying to use that information I'm find it difficult to find the bits that I actually need amongst the masses of information that's out there. If you want a run through on how to install it you can take your pick but if you want to know something about a particular issue with regard to using it...
A good example is the fun I've had with the GD Library for PHP. Some of my scripts make use of functionality from the GD Library for manipulating images and while this was already set up on my old server it was not set up on the new one. The information on how to get it working was very difficult to track down. My books had nothing to say on the subject (or at least I couldn't find it) and the relevant websites (php.net, libgd.org and fedoraproject.org) assumed that I knew things about installing and configuring that I don't and in some instances made references to files and directories that are not on my server (presumably because the information relates to a differnent version of Linux).
In the end I put in a call to tech support at the company from whom I lease the server and was told to enter the following at the command line:
yum install php-gd
/etc/init.d/httpd restart
It was as simple as that. Yum installs the package and then you restart the apache server. Pretty obvious really, but things always are when you know. It also occurred to me this morning for example that there is nothing on the box of tea bags that says to put the bag into the cup and add boiling water as opposed to tearing open the bag and tipping the tea into the cup. Pretty much anything else would require us to empty out the contents from the 'sachet', but not the ol' tea bag. Obvious WHEN you know.
It seems therefore that until I become a lot more familiar with Fedora (and I'm only going to achieve that by using it) I'm destined to spend hours of my time digging through mountains of information in order to find the snippets that I need. I'm not saying that I could justify a hundred quid a minute but I'm very grateful to tech support right now.
Notes:
[1] See this post for why I've realised that this was a mistake.
Wednesday, 9 May 2007
Sunday, 6 May 2007
10 Years Ago This Month
I said to Dee a couple of weeks ago that I wondered what the chances were of me spotting our bug in one of the back issues of Volks World magazine that I'd acquired, and then today it happened!
To add to the general weirdness, the advert comes from the May 1997 issue i.e. 10 years ago this month!
Judging from the asking price she was in better condition back then but she looks pretty much the same. The colour looks a little different to the previous picture I posted but I'm pretty sure that's down to the photo. She also has purple running boards and wing mirrors these days, and a different number plate. Same number, different place.
I've blanked out the area code of the guy who was selling her but I'm tempted to dial it and see if I can speak to him. Maybe find out a little of her history. I wouldn't want to weird the guy out though.
To add to the general weirdness, the advert comes from the May 1997 issue i.e. 10 years ago this month!
Judging from the asking price she was in better condition back then but she looks pretty much the same. The colour looks a little different to the previous picture I posted but I'm pretty sure that's down to the photo. She also has purple running boards and wing mirrors these days, and a different number plate. Same number, different place.
I've blanked out the area code of the guy who was selling her but I'm tempted to dial it and see if I can speak to him. Maybe find out a little of her history. I wouldn't want to weird the guy out though.
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
A Blind Guy Goes Into A Bar.
Today is Blogging Against Disabilism Day so I'm going to stray from my usual subject matter in order to show my support.
I'm afraid however that I do not have an awful lot to say on the subject because quite honestly it's beyond me why people can't get it through their heads that the only thing we all have in common is that we're all different, learn to cut each other a little slack, hold our hands up and admit that we screwed up when the other person makes it apparent that we've done something to piss them off, and accept an apology gracefully when it's offered. So instead I'm going to tell you my favourite disability related joke:
A blind guy goes into a bar and orders a pint before offering to tell the barman a really great blonde joke.
"I feel that I should point out" says the barman, "that I'm an ex-marine. I'm six feet tall, weight two-hundred pounds, and I'm blonde. The guy standing to your left is a martial arts instructor. He's six foot one, weighs two-hundred and twenty pounds, and he's blonde. The guy to your right is a professional wrestler. He's six foot two, weights two-hundred and forty pounds and he's blonde too. Now are you sure you want to tell your blonde joke?"
"Hell no," says the blind guy. "I don't want to have to explain the punch line three times".
I'm afraid however that I do not have an awful lot to say on the subject because quite honestly it's beyond me why people can't get it through their heads that the only thing we all have in common is that we're all different, learn to cut each other a little slack, hold our hands up and admit that we screwed up when the other person makes it apparent that we've done something to piss them off, and accept an apology gracefully when it's offered. So instead I'm going to tell you my favourite disability related joke:
A blind guy goes into a bar and orders a pint before offering to tell the barman a really great blonde joke.
"I feel that I should point out" says the barman, "that I'm an ex-marine. I'm six feet tall, weight two-hundred pounds, and I'm blonde. The guy standing to your left is a martial arts instructor. He's six foot one, weighs two-hundred and twenty pounds, and he's blonde. The guy to your right is a professional wrestler. He's six foot two, weights two-hundred and forty pounds and he's blonde too. Now are you sure you want to tell your blonde joke?"
"Hell no," says the blind guy. "I don't want to have to explain the punch line three times".
Monday, 30 April 2007
Fedora Core 6
Given that I haven't said much about MacBooks or Fedora recently you would be forgiven for thinking that I'd given up on them. The reality is that the good ol' MacBook (yeah, coming on for 7 months old now) is doing splendidly and my 'Fedora Project' is well underway. The Fedora thing went off in an unexpected direction though:
The plan, after buying a copy of "Run Your Own Web Server Using Linux & Apache" was to install Fedora Core 4 on an old desktop PC so I could familiarise myself with it before switching my online web server over to it. However, we then decided to move house, had a barrel of laughs when a burst pipe in the loft soaked the place (on the day we moved in), and in the meantime observed that Fedora is currently up to Core 6 with Core 7 on the horizon. Then the folks I hire my server from came up with what must be the stupidest special offer in the history of dedicated server leasing: "hire one, get one free". I mean, whose going to be able to make sensible use of an offer like that? Well, me actually.
The lease on my old server was due for renewal so I renewed it for just a couple of months and took up the special offer (so I currently have three servers). What I've done is to put three of my 'play' sites on one server while my 'important' sites are going on the other. At the moment I'm just concentrating on getting everything moved over before the contract ends on the old server but when I'm done I'll be able to use the 'play' server to try things and learn the ins and outs of the OS with no fear of accidentally taking the 'important' sites off-line if I mess up.
The reason I haven't blogged about this to date is that I don't anticipate that it would be a whole lot of use to anybody. I didn't actually have to install Core 6 because the servers were supplied with it already installed. They were locked down such that the only way in was through SSH so I've had to go in, open other ports, start httpd, sendmail, mysqld etc. Not a lot of point me documenting that here (I've made notes for my own future reference) because unless you, dear reader, were to hire exactly the same type of server from the same company the chances are you'd be looking at a (slightly) different list of things to check off your to-do list in order to get up an running.
I will be blogging about some of my endeavours with Fedora as and when I anticipate that it may be interesting and/or useful for others. For example I bought four books (two about Fedora Core 6 and two about Webmin) whose usefullness I will no doubt comment upon at some point. In the meantime I'm just quietly getting on with it.
The plan, after buying a copy of "Run Your Own Web Server Using Linux & Apache" was to install Fedora Core 4 on an old desktop PC so I could familiarise myself with it before switching my online web server over to it. However, we then decided to move house, had a barrel of laughs when a burst pipe in the loft soaked the place (on the day we moved in), and in the meantime observed that Fedora is currently up to Core 6 with Core 7 on the horizon. Then the folks I hire my server from came up with what must be the stupidest special offer in the history of dedicated server leasing: "hire one, get one free". I mean, whose going to be able to make sensible use of an offer like that? Well, me actually.
The lease on my old server was due for renewal so I renewed it for just a couple of months and took up the special offer (so I currently have three servers). What I've done is to put three of my 'play' sites on one server while my 'important' sites are going on the other. At the moment I'm just concentrating on getting everything moved over before the contract ends on the old server but when I'm done I'll be able to use the 'play' server to try things and learn the ins and outs of the OS with no fear of accidentally taking the 'important' sites off-line if I mess up.
The reason I haven't blogged about this to date is that I don't anticipate that it would be a whole lot of use to anybody. I didn't actually have to install Core 6 because the servers were supplied with it already installed. They were locked down such that the only way in was through SSH so I've had to go in, open other ports, start httpd, sendmail, mysqld etc. Not a lot of point me documenting that here (I've made notes for my own future reference) because unless you, dear reader, were to hire exactly the same type of server from the same company the chances are you'd be looking at a (slightly) different list of things to check off your to-do list in order to get up an running.
I will be blogging about some of my endeavours with Fedora as and when I anticipate that it may be interesting and/or useful for others. For example I bought four books (two about Fedora Core 6 and two about Webmin) whose usefullness I will no doubt comment upon at some point. In the meantime I'm just quietly getting on with it.
Sunday, 29 April 2007
Beetle Electrics
Vol 9 and 10 of the Bug Me Video DVDs deal with wiring (you can see what's on each by visiting http://vw-diy.com). It has to be said that they are not the most exciting volumes in the series (Vol 3 Complete Engine Rebuild and Vol 6 Floorpan Repair & Replacement are much more inspiring) however Vol 9 & 10 have been an absolute blessing this weekend.
The points on which my bug would have failed an MOT (see previous blog entry) are:
1. Rust on the heater channel.
2. Horn not working.
3. Hazzard lights not working.
4. Beam headlights not working.
5. Windscreen washers not working.
Ignoring the rust problem for the time being I spent much of the weekend going back and forth between MacBook (on which I was playing the DVDs) and the wiring under the bonnet.
The problem with the horn was straghtforward: it's missing from the car. In its stead was a rather nasty sounding air horn operated by a switch that was kind of hidden away UNDER the dash. I removed it and will be ordering a normal one tomorrow which I'll connect up properly.
I can't say for sure what was wrong with the hazzard lights and the headlights, but they work now. There was a rather knackered looking radio cassette player (now removed) inserted into the dash but not wired up. My guess is that at some point there was another radio (that a previous owner wanted to keep) and, judging by the number of lengths of wire that ran nowhere at all, probably a few other 'gadgets' as well. By observing how things should be on the DVDs I was able to confidently remove all of the surplus wiring. This enabled me to realise that there was something odd going on with the 9th and 10th fuses because, amongst other things, there was an inline fuse connected across them at the back. I didn't even bother trying to figure that out. I just removed it and swapped the wires around so they were as per the DVDs and presto hey: working hazzard lights and beam headlights.
With regard to the window washers: after removing the pipes from the switch and blowing down them to ascertain that they were not blocked, I'm pretty certain that it's the pump mechanism in the switch that's kaput. I may or may not replace that because I've noticed that Volkspares sell an "Electric Washer Bottle" which sounds like a much better option to me. I'll give them a call tomorrow and get a few more details before deciding.
In the meantime I'll be refreshing myself on what Vol 7 has to say about replacing heater channels.
The points on which my bug would have failed an MOT (see previous blog entry) are:
1. Rust on the heater channel.
2. Horn not working.
3. Hazzard lights not working.
4. Beam headlights not working.
5. Windscreen washers not working.
Ignoring the rust problem for the time being I spent much of the weekend going back and forth between MacBook (on which I was playing the DVDs) and the wiring under the bonnet.
The problem with the horn was straghtforward: it's missing from the car. In its stead was a rather nasty sounding air horn operated by a switch that was kind of hidden away UNDER the dash. I removed it and will be ordering a normal one tomorrow which I'll connect up properly.
I can't say for sure what was wrong with the hazzard lights and the headlights, but they work now. There was a rather knackered looking radio cassette player (now removed) inserted into the dash but not wired up. My guess is that at some point there was another radio (that a previous owner wanted to keep) and, judging by the number of lengths of wire that ran nowhere at all, probably a few other 'gadgets' as well. By observing how things should be on the DVDs I was able to confidently remove all of the surplus wiring. This enabled me to realise that there was something odd going on with the 9th and 10th fuses because, amongst other things, there was an inline fuse connected across them at the back. I didn't even bother trying to figure that out. I just removed it and swapped the wires around so they were as per the DVDs and presto hey: working hazzard lights and beam headlights.
With regard to the window washers: after removing the pipes from the switch and blowing down them to ascertain that they were not blocked, I'm pretty certain that it's the pump mechanism in the switch that's kaput. I may or may not replace that because I've noticed that Volkspares sell an "Electric Washer Bottle" which sounds like a much better option to me. I'll give them a call tomorrow and get a few more details before deciding.
In the meantime I'll be refreshing myself on what Vol 7 has to say about replacing heater channels.
Friday, 27 April 2007
MOT - Reconnaissance
After some discussion on the VZi forum, where most folks seem to swear by the tools from the Halford's professional range, I did a trip over to the superstore in Norwich and had a good ol' spend. I came back with a 150 piece pro set (that's on special offer at the moment), plus a breaker bar, a compression tester, a 3 tonne trolley jack (nice big 'cup' on it that'll go right around the oil strainer cover plate for when I want to take the engine out), and a couple of 3-tonne axle stands (they were out of stock of the 2 tonne ones). I also bought a MIG welder and a compressor with air hammer and cut-off tools. Looks like I'm going to need them all too:
I took her round to the local garage yesterday and got them to run through the MOT checklist and tell me what'll need doing in order to get her through the real MOT; due at the end of May. I'm pleased to say there were no surprises as I already knew that the horn and window washers aren't working and I was pretty certain that the nearside heater channel was going to need replacing. Actually the garage said she needed welding on the door sill and floorpan but having seen one of these things in pieces (on the Bug Me Video DVDs) I know it's the heater channel.
The first job however is to create a place to work. The driveway at the side of our house is gravel so there's no way I can start jacking up a car on that. I'm in the process of pricing up concrete slabs.
I took her round to the local garage yesterday and got them to run through the MOT checklist and tell me what'll need doing in order to get her through the real MOT; due at the end of May. I'm pleased to say there were no surprises as I already knew that the horn and window washers aren't working and I was pretty certain that the nearside heater channel was going to need replacing. Actually the garage said she needed welding on the door sill and floorpan but having seen one of these things in pieces (on the Bug Me Video DVDs) I know it's the heater channel.
The first job however is to create a place to work. The driveway at the side of our house is gravel so there's no way I can start jacking up a car on that. I'm in the process of pricing up concrete slabs.
Saturday, 21 April 2007
How to become a VW Beetle expert in 2 easy steps
Step 1: Go to http://www.vw-diy.com/ and buy all of the "Bug Me Video" DVDs.
Step 2: Watch them.
Seriously, these DVDs are the business.
At the beginning of this month I knew next to zip about cars but needed to learn fast because my old car was failing and I wanted to buy a Beetle.
My first purchase was a copy of "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot" by John Muir. This is regarded by many as the bible for Beetle maintenance and I would not argue with the suggestion that every Beetle owner should have a copy. Let's face it, the author died 30 years ago and the book is still selling and is currently in its 19th edition; how could it be anything other than a masterpiece?
As a total auto-dunce however, and without a Beetle in front of me to refer to, I found it hard to get into. (That's the beauty of the DVDs: you can see exactly what they are talking about). I am finding Mr Muir's book much more accessible now that the DVDs have shown me what's what and I actually have a bug parked outside so I can go out and look at the bit that's being described.
Another thing that should be taken into consideration about the book is that the cars were not nearly so old when it was written and this has consequences. For example, the section on how to assess a vehicle that you're thinking of buying makes no specific mention of the heater channels, an area that any current advice will draw great attention to. I guess when the book was written they were mostly in decent condition and Mr Muir would have simply walked away from a bugs with less serious problems in other areas on the grounds that there were plenty more to choose from. These days if you find a bug with good solid heater channels it's most probably because they've been replaced already. Similarly, unless the owner has gone out of their way to keep it original, you'll probably find that your average bug contains parts that were not available when the book was written.
My second acquisition (we'll get to the DVD's soon enough) was about 90 back issues of Volks World magazine that I found on eBay as a job lot. They date from about 1996 up to about 2001 so the adverts are out of date but pretty much all of the other information is still relevant. I found them particularly helpful, as I said in an earlier blog entry, in deciding what kind of Beetle I wanted. Now that I've bought the bug I dare say that they'll come in useful in the future as, with 90 issues to go at, there are articles on pretty much any aspect of maintenance and modifying that you can think of. It would have been difficult to use them for my initial learning however because the pieces of the puzzle would be presented in no particular order; whereas the DVDs start with the simple stuff and progress in a logical sequence.
Of course 90 back issues of Volks World (for 42.50) is also something of a lucky find however if you pay a quick visit to their website at http://www.volksworld.com/ you'll see that it's possible to buy books of articles and indeed, I bought "All practical articles on customising and restoring Beetles from 2000 to 2003." I have to say that I was disappointed when it arrived to find that it was a collection of not particularly nicely bound black and white photocopies of what were previously colour articles. In fairness though, the pictures are quite adequate even in black and white and while it doesn't look like fifteen quids worth of book it can't be denied that the information in those articles is probably worth an awful lot more.
So, finally, the DVDs:
I discovered them via a copy of Practical Classics magazine that I picked up at Tesco. They looked good from the video clips on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/ but at 15 quid each I wasn't about to jump right in so I bought Vol 1 and 6 to check them out. They arrived a couple of days later, I watched them both the same day, and immediately placed an order for Vol 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 i.e. I skipped the ones about Type 4 engines.
I think they are superb but the results kind of speak for themselves because by the time I went shopping for my bug (about a week later) I'd watched the whole lot and was in a position to confidently examine the car and negotiate a better price. In fact I reckon I knew a heck of a lot more about the car than the seller and after I pointed out the various bits that would need attention we agreed a reduction in the price equivalent to double what I paid for the DVDs. Thus it is fair to say that they've already paid for themselves and by the time I've done the work that needs doing, work that I now feel entirely confident that I can do myself, they'll have paid for themselves many times over.
No doubt I'll be mentioning them on a regular basis as I document my progress and may even do a bit of a write up. In the meantime, all of the information you need is on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/, and if you are still not sure, do what I did and buy a couple to check them out. My bet is you'll end up buying the whole lot.
Step 2: Watch them.
Seriously, these DVDs are the business.
At the beginning of this month I knew next to zip about cars but needed to learn fast because my old car was failing and I wanted to buy a Beetle.
My first purchase was a copy of "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot" by John Muir. This is regarded by many as the bible for Beetle maintenance and I would not argue with the suggestion that every Beetle owner should have a copy. Let's face it, the author died 30 years ago and the book is still selling and is currently in its 19th edition; how could it be anything other than a masterpiece?
As a total auto-dunce however, and without a Beetle in front of me to refer to, I found it hard to get into. (That's the beauty of the DVDs: you can see exactly what they are talking about). I am finding Mr Muir's book much more accessible now that the DVDs have shown me what's what and I actually have a bug parked outside so I can go out and look at the bit that's being described.
Another thing that should be taken into consideration about the book is that the cars were not nearly so old when it was written and this has consequences. For example, the section on how to assess a vehicle that you're thinking of buying makes no specific mention of the heater channels, an area that any current advice will draw great attention to. I guess when the book was written they were mostly in decent condition and Mr Muir would have simply walked away from a bugs with less serious problems in other areas on the grounds that there were plenty more to choose from. These days if you find a bug with good solid heater channels it's most probably because they've been replaced already. Similarly, unless the owner has gone out of their way to keep it original, you'll probably find that your average bug contains parts that were not available when the book was written.
My second acquisition (we'll get to the DVD's soon enough) was about 90 back issues of Volks World magazine that I found on eBay as a job lot. They date from about 1996 up to about 2001 so the adverts are out of date but pretty much all of the other information is still relevant. I found them particularly helpful, as I said in an earlier blog entry, in deciding what kind of Beetle I wanted. Now that I've bought the bug I dare say that they'll come in useful in the future as, with 90 issues to go at, there are articles on pretty much any aspect of maintenance and modifying that you can think of. It would have been difficult to use them for my initial learning however because the pieces of the puzzle would be presented in no particular order; whereas the DVDs start with the simple stuff and progress in a logical sequence.
Of course 90 back issues of Volks World (for 42.50) is also something of a lucky find however if you pay a quick visit to their website at http://www.volksworld.com/ you'll see that it's possible to buy books of articles and indeed, I bought "All practical articles on customising and restoring Beetles from 2000 to 2003." I have to say that I was disappointed when it arrived to find that it was a collection of not particularly nicely bound black and white photocopies of what were previously colour articles. In fairness though, the pictures are quite adequate even in black and white and while it doesn't look like fifteen quids worth of book it can't be denied that the information in those articles is probably worth an awful lot more.
So, finally, the DVDs:
I discovered them via a copy of Practical Classics magazine that I picked up at Tesco. They looked good from the video clips on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/ but at 15 quid each I wasn't about to jump right in so I bought Vol 1 and 6 to check them out. They arrived a couple of days later, I watched them both the same day, and immediately placed an order for Vol 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 i.e. I skipped the ones about Type 4 engines.
I think they are superb but the results kind of speak for themselves because by the time I went shopping for my bug (about a week later) I'd watched the whole lot and was in a position to confidently examine the car and negotiate a better price. In fact I reckon I knew a heck of a lot more about the car than the seller and after I pointed out the various bits that would need attention we agreed a reduction in the price equivalent to double what I paid for the DVDs. Thus it is fair to say that they've already paid for themselves and by the time I've done the work that needs doing, work that I now feel entirely confident that I can do myself, they'll have paid for themselves many times over.
No doubt I'll be mentioning them on a regular basis as I document my progress and may even do a bit of a write up. In the meantime, all of the information you need is on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/, and if you are still not sure, do what I did and buy a couple to check them out. My bet is you'll end up buying the whole lot.
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