Michael Melhem's Weblog

News straight from the horse's mouth......

A bit of social comment if I may,

These days, there seems to be a multitude of blogs sprouting up all over the web. The blog revolution is well underway!

Interestingly, some of these blogs are transforming the way we access the news, no longer are we having to rely solely on big news organizations for information. We can by-pass big media "spin" and access news directly from first hand perspectives of "ordinary" individuals on the ground.

I find the most interesting blogs are those emanating from conflict zones around the globe (one can even find soldier blogs!) Here are couple of examples from Iraq.

* The Brothers
* Rose

The ability for visitors to post comments allows for a dialog to develop between people and cultures which perhaps can lead to a naturing of understanding and tolerance. Or I am being too simplistic?

At any rate, "information is power".

Metaphors for Extreme Programming

I found these metaphors (by William C. Wake) on the Web, I think theyre pretty cool;

* Test-first is a math book
* Refactoring is compression
* Collective ownership is a situation room
* Pairing is a musical duet, or tag-team wrestling
* Iteration is a clock escapement
* Learning XP is learning a foreign language
* Continuous integration is balancing a checkbook
* "Go home clean" is day trading
* A standup meeting is a starter's gun
* A retrospective is a game film
* Going XP is a group hike

Click here for an explanation of each metaphor.

Mery visits Frankfurt

Here are the photos from the sansi Bar.

Printing to a Windows (samba) Share from Debian

Perhaps someone might find this useful...

To connect to a share printer via samba, one needs to ensure that the following packages plus any required dependencies are installed. (Under debian use apt-get to install them)
cupsys
cupsys-client
cupsys-bsd

One might need other 'Common Unix Priniting System' (CUPS) related libraries as well , not sure.

Via your web browser, connect to local host port: 631, ie http://localhost:631/admin

From there one can add printers using the cups web frontend.

Click on "Add a printer"

Choose the device, in this case "windows printer via samba"

Choose the device URL:
in my case I had to type in my windows NT_domain plus user and password:
smb://user:pass@nt_domain/server/sharename

Now choose the 'make' of your printer (in my case 'HP') and choose the model from the given list.

If all went well, a successfully installed message should be displayed.

Click on the 'Print Test Page', to confirm the that the printer is working.

Here is another helpful site re this issue,

Debian ATI 3D graphics drivers

I have just installed the Linux ATI 3D graphics diver onto my Inspiron 8600 laptop.

A good site on how to download and compile the fglrx module/driver can be found here.

Once you have followed the instructions above, you will need to make sure that your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file is configured properly.

Here are some relevant sections of a working XF86Config on my INSPIRON 8600 ATI RADEON PR0 9600/DISPLAY 15.5" 16/10 Ratio. Of particular interest would be the Modline configurations for people with a similar setup

Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
#Identifier "ATI Graphics Adapter"
Driver "fglrx"
# ### generic DRI settings ###
# === disable PnP Monitor ===
#Option "NoDDC"
# === disable/enable XAA/DRI ===
Option "no_accel" "no"
Option "no_dri" "no"
# === misc DRI settings ===
Option "mtrr" "off" # disable DRI mtrr mapper, driver has its own code for mtrr
# ### FireGL DDX driver module specific settings ###
# === Screen Management ===
Option "DesktopSetup" "0x00000100"
Option "MonitorLayout" "AUTO, NONE"
Option "IgnoreEDID" "off"
Option "HSync2" "unspecified"
Option "VRefresh2" "unspecified"
Option "ScreenOverlap" "0"
# === TV-out Management ===
Option "NoTV" "no"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B"
Option "TVHSizeAdj" "0"
Option "TVVSizeAdj" "0"
Option "TVHPosAdj" "0"
Option "TVVPosAdj" "0"
Option "TVHStartAdj" "0"
Option "TVColorAdj" "0"
Option "GammaCorrectionI" "0x00000000"
Option "GammaCorrectionII" "0x00000000"
# === OpenGL specific profiles/settings ===
Option "Capabilities" "0x00008000"
# === Video Overlay for the Xv extension ===
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
# === OpenGL Overlay ===
# Note: When OpenGL Overlay is enabled, Video Overlay
# will be disabled automatically
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "on"
# === Center Mode (Laptops only) ===
Option "CenterMode" "off"
# === Pseudo Color Visuals (8-bit visuals) ===
Option "PseudoColorVisuals" "off"
# === QBS Management ===
Option "Stereo" "off"
Option "StereoSyncEnable" "1"
# === FSAA Management ===
Option "FSAAEnable" "no"
Option "FSAAScale" "1"
Option "FSAADisableGamma" "no"
Option "FSAACustomizeMSPos" "no"
Option "FSAAMSPosX0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX1" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY1" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX2" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY2" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX3" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY3" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX4" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY4" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX5" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY5" "0.000000"
# === Misc Options ===
Option "UseFastTLS" "0"
Option "BlockSignalsOnLock" "on"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "yes"
Option "ForceGenericCPU" "no"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0" # vendor=1002, device=4e50
Screen 0
#Screen "Default Screen"
EndSection

SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Virtual 1920 1200
EndSubSection
EndSection

Exterminate!

Just when you thought it was safe to turn on your TV sets, the Daleks are back!! Its great to know that the doctor Who TV series is still kicking on! Daleks really gave me the creeps as a kid, its no wonder they have been voted the “most evil” of doctor Who’s villains. However it was always been comforting to know that a solitary staircase could be adequate defense against these menacing critters.

My favorite doctor was Tom Backer of course, and who can forget his lovely assistant Sarah Jane Smith.

Great, I have always wanted to have a Dalek on my blog.

Gaping Black Hole

It was brought to my attention that there is a gaping black hole in my web log. Well let me see if I can plug it. Here are pictures from last weekend.