ianneubert.com

I just thought I’d post this quick tidbit on how to change the timezone on a Ubuntu server after is has been installed. Simply rerun the timezone configuration:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

I’ve just published my PHP backup script to github.com. If you are looking for an easy to use, PHP based backup script to send things to S3, check it out.

Download the source at github.

It’s been in production for over a year at various sites. Works fine for me.

Here is the feature list:

• Simple to use
• Backups all databases on a MySQL server
• Backups and compresses (using bzip2) directories and files
• Uses URL type storage keys, so it’s easy to browse the backup bucket
• (optionally) Removes old backups according to a grandfather-father-son based schedule

I’ve been trying to figure out how to disable time/clock synchronization in a VMware Fusion guest for the past few months, and I finally stumbled upon the answer! This will prevent the VMware Fusion guest from getting the correct time from the host OS on boot or restore.

The following lines need to be added to the .vmx file inside the virtual machine package:

time.synchronize.continue = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.restore = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.resume.disk = "FALSE"
time.synchronize.shrink = "FALSE"
tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

Apple announced the 3G iPhone today. It’s a pretty small feature enhancement, only three new things:

• 3g Network
• GPS built in
• $200 for 8gb, $300 for 16gb

I think the best upgrade is the price. I was hoping for a lot more I guess, because that just doesn’t seem all that exciting. There are still a bunch of holes:

• No MMS support
• No stereo Bluetooth
• No video recording support

They basically just changed the chipset inside and called it a day. Whoopie.

UPDATE: The price is not cheaper in the long run, it’s a lot more expensive. The new iPhone 3G plan will cost me $75/mo, compared to $60/mo for the original. That means I would end up spending $160 more for the new iPhone over 2 years, versus the original.

After noticing some trouble with the twitter feed on ianneubert.com, I checked the site: istwitterdown.com and guess what it said?

I’m really tired of twitter being down all the time. I probably won’t be using it much longer.

I’ve signed up for a twitter account again. Now that I use Facebook, it has some neat integration to control the current status messages that many people seem to be using nowadays. Now I can sync status updates across Facebook, Twitter, and my own web site. Sweet!

I’ve also removed the last.fm flash player from my site’s side panel. It felt like it was slowing down the site too much. I just replaced it with a simple link to “Listen to my music“.

A friend of mine asked me to help him fix his Windows machine from a virus that he got infected with. Since I switched to a Mac a couple years ago I really hadn’t thought much about viruses, they’ve really gotten pretty evil. This one compromised the machine and then tried to extort him to buy anti-virus software to cure it! Lol.

Anyway, as I was reinstalling Windows I got this screen:

It reads:

Surfing the Internet: safe, fast, and flexible

Windows XP includes the most secure version of Internet Explorer to date.

That’s reassuring.

If you are trying to figure out how to get your network working again after cloning a VMWare image from Ubuntu 8.04, I hope you find this post before you waste an hour trying to figure it out like I did.

After copying the VMWare files and launching the copied instance be sure to tell VMWare that you copied the image. This will generate a new MAC address for your cloned server. You will need to remove the networking udev rule though, in order for udev to figure out your new MAC address.

Just run this command:

sudo rm -rf /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Then

sudo reboot

If you keep a base install image on hand (highly recommended!), be sure to remove that file before you start to make copies from it. Then you won’t run into this problem again!

I’ve blogged in the past about what I think about DRM. I just thought I’d point everyone to a real world example. Microsoft is dropping support for MSN Music effective August 31, 2008. After that point any music that you legally purchased from MSN Music will no longer be able to be played back on anything new.

What does that mean? If you can play it now, nothing will change. You’ll only notice when you buy a new computer or need to reinstall Windows and all of a sudden you can’t play back your music!

This is the worst problem with DRM, it’s easier and safer to pirate the stuff than it is to buy it legally. Thankfully the music industry has figured that out, and is now selling tunes without DRM. The movie industry hasn’t though, and until they do, I don’t think movie downloads are going anywhere.

[ From Wired News ]

I’m sure you’ve heard about the Optimus Maximus keyboard by now, but, until I saw this video today, I thought it was just vapor-ware. This has got to be the most amazing keyboard ever. I can’t wait to see one in person!