Custom openSUSE countdown graphics
I meant to write this post a long time ago, when the countdown for openSUSE 11.1 was still active.
In this thread on the openSUSE mailing list, David C. Rankin came up with a blue version of the original 11.1 countdown graphics.
That inspired me, because the official green version did not match the colorshceme of my website. Also, the 3 sizes to choose from (small, original, large) did not fit my needs.
So, I wrote a small PHP script, which can dynamicly change the looks (color, gamma, alpha, language), and size of the countdown logo, using the official logo as a base image.
OpenSUSE 11.1 was released quite some time ago, and the counter has been updated to 11.2.
You can see examples of the two versions of the counter here:
http://www.solidonline.dk/11.1.php?red=127&gamma=0.3&size=150x150
http://www.solidonline.dk/11.2.php?red=127&green=0&blue=127&alpha=30&gamma=0.6&lang=jp
You can read about how to use the custom countdown version on the openSUSE wiki:
http://en.opensuse.org/Countdown#Advanced_version_by_Sylvester_Lykkehus
You can link directly to the countdown graphics, or if your webhost has PHP support, you can get the source code here, and host it yourself:
http://www.solidonline.dk/11.2.phps
The yearly update ;-)
It's been over a year since my last post, and it's about time for an update.
A lot have happened over the past year, most notably I have completed my education, and in that regard my apprenticeship with Danfoss A/S has come to an end. I've learned a lot from working at Danfoss, and I feel well prepared for my future worklife.
I moved to Sønderborg in 2005, when I was offered to work for Danfoss as a part of my education. It's been a great experience, but I've also missed the place I moved away from, and in particular my friends in Nykøbing. On August 1st, I will get the key for my new apartment in Nykøbing, and I'm really looking forward for moving to the place where I feel at home.
In other news, TotalIRC has died out, at least for me and the other admins I have spoken with. There are various reasons for this. I know I had my own to stop serving the network, but I'd rather not go into the nitty-gritty details of the breakup here. I announced my decision to the other admins by email on August 24th 2008. No replies came back, and this server stopped serving as an IRC server shortly thereafter. Christopher (one of the founders) might have plans to start TotalIRC again at some point, I'm not sure.
That's it for now, I hope to keep the blog updated more than once a year, but I wont make any promises.
Have a nice summer everyone 
Resizing TrueCrypt volumes
Note: This approach does not seem to work with Truecrypt versions > 6.2
Can it be done ?
Not according to TrueCrypt's FAQ.
A quick search through their forums, does not reveal optimistic results either.
Nevertheless, I believe I managed to resize (only grow, not shrink) fixed-size TrueCrypt volumes (container files) formated with ext3 in the past. And I just tested it out again today, and it seems to be working pretty well. I have resized multiple volumes, without loosing any data. What impact, if any, it might have on the security of the volume, is beyond my knowledge of disk encryption.
So, if you try the following, I will not be held responsible for data-loss, weakened security of the volume, or anything of that kind. That being said, it works very well for me.
The following is what I did to resize a fixed-size TrueCrypt volume:
1. Create a fixed-size TrueCrypt volume (container file, not entire disk/partition), without a filesystem format.
Mount it in slot 1, without filesystem mount, through the TrueCrypt GUI.
Run mkfs.ext3 /tmp/.truecrypt_aux_mnt1/volume
2. Remount in slot 1, with filesystem mount, through the TrueCrypt GUI.
Copy some files to the volume, just to see if everything is good.
Unmount the TrueCrypt volume.
3. Use the 'dd' utility to extend/grow the volume as much as you like, in this example, 100MB:
Run dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=100 >> /path/to/truecrypt_volume.file
4. Mount in slot 1, with filesystem mount, through the TrueCrypt GUI.
Run resize2fs /dev/loop0 (replace loop0 with the loopback device where /tmp/.truecrypt_aux_mnt1/volume is mounted)
5. Run df -h and check that the filesystem has grown. Test that you can still read the files you copied to the volume earlier, and that you can write new files, beyond the limit of the original size of the volume.
That's it 
It works for me, it might not work for you. No guarantees given.
New design, cleanup and moving to MySQL
Working on it...
TinyMCE now integrated for blog system
TinyMCE now also availble for comments 
Implementation of Clean URL's (through apache's mod_rewrite) almost finished:
You can now access this post as
http://www.solidonline.dk/blog/20071222164609/
instead of
http://www.solidonline.dk/?page=blog&id=20071222164609
It looks much nicer, and should be search engine friendly 
KDE Styles and Window Decorations repository
I have put some RPM's online, for use with openSUSE 10.2.
They have all been build with the checkinstall utility.
I am not aware how portable/good quality RPM's this utility builds, but they work for me on my 10.2 machines.
The repository contains KDE Styles and Window Decorations. (Most of them from kde-look.org).
More will be added along the way.
All credits are due to the respective creators/developers.
URL: kde-extra USE AT YOUR OWN RISK
A story about HDD recovery with dd_rescue
"I wanted to share a little story about how my disk died, and how my data was recovered..."
I posted this story to the opensuse-offtopic mailing list, if you want to read it, it's available here.
More details on TeamSpeak 3
TeamSpeak has released some more information on their upcoming TeamSpeak 3 client, posted on their developer blog.
Especially an overview of the new architecture seems interesting.
At the time of release, TeamSpeak will release the main QT user interface, a console interface (lua) and of course the server, to Windows, Linux and Mac.
What keeps my interest for the development, is the ability to use ALSA in the next TeamSpeak version. That alone would be one major improvement over TS2.
Rest In Peace Cole
"Passed away unexpectedly in San Juan Bautista. He was born in San Jose and lived in Hollister at the time of his death. Cole loved all kinds of music, was a wiz on a computer, but most of all Cole loved being with his family, friends and traveling."
Those words are the start of an obituary of Cole C. Young.
Acer, as he was known through out IRC networks and on the internet, died on November 24. 2006. He was only 24.
I got to know Cole in early 2004 through the TotalIRC network, where he was an administrator (and co-founder), as well as a good friend of many of the people on the network.
Since that time, I spend a lot of time talking with Cole, about technical, as well as personal matters.
He became a good friend.
It is a couple of hours since I got the information, and honestly, I am still a bit shaken by it. He was there when needed, always ready to help out, and had an outstanding personality.
I know I speak for all of TotalIRC's administrators, users, and people who knew him, when I say that he will be greatly missed.
We are privileged to have known you Cole. May you rest in peace.