How-To: Compiling XCache from Source
January 30, 2007 by Jason · 27 Comments
For those of you that are not running RPM-based distros, you're probably feeling a bit left out. Up until now, all of my tutorials have dealt with upgrading RPM-based distros. Well, that ends here. I'm going to walk through the fairly simple process of compiling and installing XCache for httpd from the original source.
The current stable release of XCache is 1.0.3. The "Unstable" release, made for PHP 5.1 & 5.2, is 1.2.0. Despite the label, I have not found anything "unstable" about the 1.2.0 version. That said, there have been a few issues reported on the vBulletin forums for users of PHP 4. If you are running PHP 4, I'd recommend that you use 1.0.3, just to be safe. Now, down to the work.
The 15750 Hz “Noise” from my TV is driving me NUTS!
January 27, 2007 by Jason · 10 Comments
Can anyone else hear the 15750 Hz tone generated by most TVs? My girlfriend was telling me I was crazy and that the sound didn't exist until my Uncle Chuck explained that the sound does exist while we were back in Illinois for my Grandmother's birthday & Christmas.
I've got two TVs in my apartment (a 15-ish-year-old 20" GE and a 3-year-old 36" Toshiba) and I can hear both if they are on no matter where I am in the apartment (2 BR/2 BA, separate kitchen & dining room; it's not a small place), even if the doors are closed.
I'm almost ready to go out and spend $3000 on a nice 1080p LCD screen so that I can sit in the living room in peace because even turning the volume way up (with 500W of Klipsch power behind it) doesn't drown it out... Heh, the only good news is that all of the big-box retail stores are getting rid of their CRT screens (or at least tossing them in the back corner of the store) so if I do break down and decide to go shopping, at least I won't get a headache at the same time.
Upgrading to PHP 4.4.4 on RHEL & CentOS
January 25, 2007 by Jason · 2 Comments
Yeah, I know, some of you don't like PHP 5. Some don't like it because it breaks some of their (poorly written) software. Some don't like it because there aren't any RH-approved packages for upgrading. Some don't like it for good reason because PHP 4 is actually faster at many tasks when compared to PHP 5.0.x or 5.1.x (I'm stopping there, 5.2.0 is wicked fast for me). For those people, I'm going to toss this out quickly so that you have an easier time moving to the newest version of PHP 4 without compiling from source.
If anyone reading this uses the Plesk Management Panel then you're probably familiar with AtomicRocketTurtle. "Back in the day" Scott used to provide RPMs for PHP 4.4.4 on RHEL/CentOS 3 & 4. He has since dropped support for that version (unless you're one of this paying customers) but he's still got the src.rpm available for anyone. That src.rpm makes it very easy to upgrade your system to PHP 4.4.4.
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Upgrading to httpd 2.2.4 on RHEL and CentOS
January 17, 2007 by Jason · 20 Comments
Well, a new version of httpd was just released the other day. I kind of expected this to open a flood of people requesting a how-to on upgrading to the newest release of Apache's httpd 2.2.4 on RHEL & CentOS 4 and I wasn't wrong. I've had a few people searching for "apache 2.2.4" and "httpd 2.2.4" on my site search today so I figured, "Hey? Why not give the masses what they want?"
As it turns out, if you followed my how-to on upgrading to httpd 2.2.3 then this is going to be a pretty easy upgrade for you. If not, don't worry, I'm going to start including pre-modded SRPMS and occasionally complete RPMs (x86 only) at the bottom of these tutorials. That should give some of you that have had problems an easier time with the upgrade.
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Upgrading to MySQL 5.0.33 on RHEL and CentOS
January 12, 2007 by Jason · 11 Comments
If you follow the MySQL Announcement list then you already know that version 5.0.33 was just released. Unfortunately, those of you on RHEL/CentOS (and even Fedora, at least for the time being) do not have any way to install it unless you compile from the tar.gz source because MySQL has decided to only regularly release binaries to those that pay them for the Enterprise version. Compiling from source, by the way, is something that MySQL does NOT recommend that you do, even though, at current, this is the only option that they give you. Funny, isn't it?
That said, I've taken a slightly different approach to this tutorial as compared to my "Upgrade to MySQL 5.0.27" tutorial. That how-to dealt with rebuilding the src.rpm from the FC7 development tree so that it would work on RHEL & CentOS 4. This how-to uses the spec file from the official MySQL src.rpm for 5.0.27, upgrades the source to 5.0.33, and then adapts it so that it generates RH/Fedora-style RPMs for an easy upgrade.
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The New Apple iPhone
January 10, 2007 by Jason · Leave a Comment
If you haven't seen the new Apple iPhone yet (or whatever they call it), go check it out before you read the rest of this post.
Now that you're familiar with this "breakthrough device", tell me, how, exactly, does Apple expect this thing to be a hit? I've read that their goal is to have 1% of the market within 12 months of first availability. That means that within the next year 1 out of every 100 cell phone users is going to lay out a week's pay (plus or minus) to get a new iPhone. Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm still using the same Motorola V600 I got when I first signed with Cingular. The only thing that would make me spend the money to get a new one is if this phone stopped working.
Back to the iPhone, sure, it's cool looking and the widescreen display is definitely a plus if you want to watch a movie on the go. Yes, it would be great to get high-quality audio and make/receive phone calls from a single device (although a decent smartphone and an iPod nano would cost quite a bit less). But really though, $600? Wait, what's that, I need a two-year contact with Cingular as well? I'd be willing to bet that they're at least $1000 if you don't want the contract (or are one of those people who keeps renewing to get new phones and aren't currently eligible). Oh, and yeah, I know that it's only $500 if you want the 4GB model instead of the 8GB, but do you honestly think that anyone who is kicking out this much cash is going to skimp out and get the cheap model? It's like buying a luxury car and not paying the extra $800 for the upgraded stereo or the heated seats...
We Have Drop Shadows!
Alright then! We've got drop shadows! The designer of this K2 skin put out a new version that includes drop shadows around the post area. The three skin images are still bugged though. Every single one is a JPEG and they're all way larger than they need to be. I slimmed them down from 65KB to 4.5KB (using Paint.NET and pngcrush), putting the front page of this site under 80KB, including HTML, images, CSS, and JavaScript.
Next up to bat, fixing the problem with the right edge of italic text being cut off if it hits the edge of the content column. If anyone knows how to fix that, let me know.
Run your own Home/SOHO PBX with AsteriskNOW
January 4, 2007 by Jason · 10 Comments
The second beta of AsteriskNOW was released yesterday and I just now got a chance to download and try it out. I have to say, this "beta" product looks and feels better than many commercial suites that I've tested and is definitely worth a look if you are looking for a PBX system for your home (perhaps to compliment a VoIP phone line) or office.
About 18 months ago the company I work for decided that it was time to move from having a few (4, to be exact, not counting the fax) analog phone lines to using a PBX system. At the time we did some research and eventually decided that a system that would allow us to use a mix of analog and VoIP lines was what we were looking for. Not wanting to be locked into a single hardware vendor, we decided to go with a system based on the open-source Asterisk software, specifically [email protected] (now Trixbox).
As can be gathered from the name, it was not terribly suited to business use and both systems we deployed were retired within a few months and replaced with a system from SwitchVox. While that system has a few bugs, all in all, it's a very stable platform. It's also not free (solutions start at $1000 and move up rapidly) which can be a real turn-off for a home or small office user. That's where AsteriskNOW comes in.
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Happy New Year 2007!
January 1, 2007 by Jason · Leave a Comment
I hope everyone had a good time last night celebrating (or sleeping, if you didn't stay awake). I'm just going to toss out a quick post to say Happy New Year to everyone. Here it goes...
Happy New Year!