In the process of rebuilding my MythTV box with Gentoo, I found a bug in the 2.6.19 kernel when it comes to using wireless and ndiswrapper for my Linksys WMP54G v.4 PCI card.
When you configure the kernel you normally have to only select CONFIG_NET_RADIO=y and CONFIG_NET_WIRELESS=y.
But with the 2.6.19 kernel I discovered via post on a board that you also need to select one of the wireless chipsets as a module, even if you don’t plan on using it. If you don’t do this then CONFIG_NET_RADIO will still be marked as “n” when the kernel is built even though that isn’t what you selected at config time.
To check the required values you can use the following command:
zgrep CONFIG_NET_RADIO /proc/config.gz
zgrep CONFIG_NET_WIRELESS /proc/config.gz
So, I hate developers. Wait, let me clarify: I hate developers who can’t think through the user experience.
When an uninstaller is written it really should remove all file associated with the application.
Case in point, recently I moved to a Windows Mobile-based smartphone, so I needed to cross-grade to Missing Sync for Windows Mobile from the PalmOS version.
When I run the uninstaller it removed a lot of stuff, but the following data was left behind:
- Missing Sync under the home library Application Support
- Palm Hotsync under the home library Application Support
- com.markspace.missingsync.ConduitManager.plist under the home library Preferences
- com.markspace.missingsync.palmos.plist under the home library Preferences
- com.markspace.MemoPad.plist under the home library Preferences
- Palm under the home Documents directory
- Palm Hotsync under the system library Application Support
Admittedly, some of these files/directories might be valuable if you want to re-install your software for some reason, but at the very least the installer should ask you if you want to remove it.
Also, in the Hotsync folder(s) there are sometimes conduits that are not part of the Missing Sync software, so it was actually nice that those were left behind.
Why is it that some of the essential tools that are used on a daily basis are missing from OS X?
Today I wanted to use wget and found that it was missing.
Fortunately, this is a very easy thing to fix. All you have to do is download the source code from the GNU page on the wget project, then follow the standard compile steps:
- unpack the source
- ./configure
- make
- sudo make install
Note: The compiled binary is placed in /usr/local/bin so you will need to add this to your path. This process varies depending on what shell you are using, but the default shell in 10.4.9 is bash.
Every now and then I will utter a saying that I grew hearing or using that makes my assistants wonder.
Today I happened to use the saying If wishes were horses, beggars would ride in reference to one of my assistants wish that the timesheet process here was all done electronically instead of the paper system that we have.
She wondered where I get these things from. I thought it was a pretty common saying, but I had never actually investigated where it originated, so I went googling.
The first reference I found was from Bartleby.com which listed the meaning behind the saying according to the New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy as:
If wishing could make things happen, then even the most destitute people would have everything they wanted.
While this was nice, I already knew what it meant, so I went googling some more for the origin of the phrase. It turns out that it is a line from a Mother Goose nursery rhyme, entitled If Wishes Were Horses:
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. If turnips were watches, I would wear one by my side. And if “ifs” and “ands” Were pots and pans,
There’d be no work for tinkers!