iwl3945 performance is hideous

After upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04LTS, I noticed a DRAMATIC difference in the performance of the wireless on my HP nx9420... by "dramatic" I mean the difference of being able to download at between 4 and 8MB to downloading at never greater than 512K. That's pretty extreme. That said, I have previously noted that the iwl3945 drivers that shipped with 8.04 were broken and that I had to use the Linux Wireless Project's compatibility drivers. I suspect this is the root of my problems.

I've found a bug that indicates that the iwl3945 problems are not unique to me or my nx9420, and though most people have been able to remedy the problem simply by installing the LWP's compat drivers, I do not think this is a very solid solution on account of the fact that it leaves you with a functional yet extremely crippled wireless rig.

I'll continue working on this, but if anyone else has experienced this problem and has something they'd like to share as far as solutions are concerned, I'd LOVE to hear from you.

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NetworkManager: busted old crap; WICD: hot freshness

I suspect that anyone who uses GNOME's NetworkManager application and tray applet to manage multiple network connections shares my frustration. I did some hunting after I wasted gobs of time yesterday fighting with NetworkManager... I found WICD. WICD is a sweet little suite of python scripts that can manage wireless and wired network interfaces, and so far it hasn't been the epic pain in the ass that NetworkManager has consistently been. w00t!!! I'm running it in XFCE on my EEE in addition to GNOME on my work laptop.

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Return of an old domain

A long time ago (like the late 1990's) I had registered the domain, "sodaphish.com". This was a vanity domain I had registered to host my computer security-related site back in the day... when I gave up the Black Arts, I abandoned the SodaPhish moniker and with it the domain. A couple of years later, I re-registered the domain, for nostalgic purposes, and had been running a site there for several years until 2007. In 2007, I forgot to renew the domain and someone registered it out from under me. I was pretty livid at first, but had since gotten over it. Really.

Back in February, the domain was up for renewal. I contacted the registered owner and offered them $150USD -- a very generous offer, in my mind. They declined. I explained to them, in simple, clear terms, that the audience for people looking to buy this domain was VERY small -- me. They never replied. Yesterday, the domain was released by the Registrar of the pirate that pilferred it from me, and I snatched it up via GoDaddy's Backorder process. Hooray!!!

And thus, an old domain returns... SodaPhish.COM

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Cisco VPN on Ubuntu 8.04

One thing I hadn't tried following my upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 was VPN. I use the Cisco VPN client with has native Linux support. Unfortunately, the install of the VPN client in Ubuntu 8.04 is horribly broken, and not just to the point of re-installing... 'cause it won't, without a patch. I had started hacking through the code on my own, but decided to do a quick check to see if anyone out there had already conquered this particular Linux Monster. In fact, someone had.

The patch went in without a hitch and the install took-off without incident.

I have the VPN connection up and all is well...

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replacing GNOME Power Manager in XFCE4 on a laptop

I am running XFCE4 on my Eee PC, and since it was recommended to not use the GNOME Power Manager, I decided I'd implement the hack that allows you to use the XFCE battery manager and still have the power button bring-up the shutdown dialog... that hack is documented on the eeeXubuntu page... but there's a step missing: you have to tell X that your user is authorized to run programs like that on your display (this might seem like a bit bizzare to a Linux novice, but to those of us who grew-up running X11R6 from back in the day, it isn't too odd.) To do this, you have to add an entry to your /etc/X11/xserver/SecurityPolicy file:

property SCREEN_RESOURCES cjsteele ar aw

Once you've made the change, you just have to restart your X server -- I know you can do this without rebooting, but logging-out and logging-in didn't accomplish it, so I took the lazy path and rebooted. Now, it should Just Work.

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Linux 101: Enable DVD Playback in Ubuntu in Two Commands

Linux 101: Enable DVD Playback in Ubuntu in Two Commands

...in the interest of Freedom, every red blooded, American Linux user is obliged to do this.

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Whacked-out Weather

So, its no mystery to anyone that the weather has been WEIRD this year, but here's just how weird it has been... this evening, on my way home I passed a weather spotter just outside of my home, which lead me to check the NOAA's website for weather warnings. On the NOAA's page, for my particular locale, there was a Tornado Watch and a Blowing Snow Advisory. I'll give that a second to sink-in... okay... tornados and snow.

I realize that I'm not a meteorologist, but I'm pretty-sure I understand the basic physics (in principle) behind how tornados form, so I'm utterly mystified at how a tornado could be formed in a weather system that is also going to drop SNOW!?!?

It turns out, that they aren't the same two systems, but two. However, you can imagine my shock at my initial reading of the warnings.

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