RoAkSoAx’s Weblog

Today we had the Ubuntu Cluster Stack session at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Dallas, Texas. We made a few decisions regarding the future goals of the ubuntu-ha team summarized as follows:

Failover Cluster Stack: We decided to continue to fully support redhat-cluster-suite, as well as openais /corosync and pacemaker. However, we will also track Heartbeat 3.0 since LinBit has decided to step up and continue to maintain Heartbeat 3.0 for an undetermined period of time (No new features though, see post here). This way, those who still don’t want to upgrade to pacemaker/openais, will have the opportunity to upgrade to Heartbeat 3.0 + Pacemaker.

Load Balacing: We decided to experiment with keepalived and ipvsadm because of the simplicity and speed of keepalived. This also led us to provide bonding that works out of the Box.

Actions:

1. The first step will be document simple installation/configuration of the different clustering tools to help with any possible transition/testing. This includes: Pacemaker-Corosync/Openais, Pacemaker-Heartbeat 3.0, RHCS, Keepalived/ipvsadm.
2. Be more active in upstream, since lots of Ubuntu users are asking for help in upstream channels (#linux-cluster, #linux-ha). Also, work with Debian on getting Pacemaker/corosync working as best as possible (To set as default cluster stack in the future).
3. And, off course, update packages to latest upstream release as possible, and do this in collaboration with Debian.

Once we finish these actions, we’ll continue with some of other objectives we would like to achieve. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to post.

I finally arrived to Dallas few hours ago!!!  Right now I’m hanging out at the Hotel’s lounge with a whole bunch of other Ubuntu Developers!! I’ve already met some however I might not have identified all of them… but soon when everybody is with their name tags.

Anyways… this is so exiting… I really look forward to this week!!

Yesterday I was working on my old laptop and I had to move location, so I disconnected my laptop from the power outlet in the wall. After doing this, my screen started flickering and showing strange lines, from time to time different colors and stuff like that. This is the second time that happens to me… however I got it fixed the first time and I do not know how.

The same behavior is shown during booting process (POST), loading process and well… even when I connect to my laptop through VNC. I have not connected it yet to an external monitor because I do not have cables. You can see a screenshot here:

If anyone know what could be wrong, or a possible fix, let me know.

So… I gave it a try… and I liked it. The last few weeks I was programming (after a long time) for a project of one of my classes. Since I wanted to learn python for a while, I decided to do my project in Python. At first, it was just going to be a command line application, but… after giving it a second thought, I decided to provide a GUI too using pygtk.

So, since there I saw lots of post about quickly, I decided to give quickly a try too… and it is awesome! I really like it.

Anyways, my app is a simple app that’s allowing me to learn python. It enciphers a text file using a public key, and then it hides the message in an image. I’m making use of python-gnupginterface and python-stepic for this. As you can see, it sounds like a simple app, and it really is… I’ll publish it when I’m done.

Btw… give a try to quickly, you are gonna like it. Thanks rickspencer and didrocks for this awesome tool.

Few weeks ago I found out that Florida International University had recently created a LUG, called the Panther Linux Users Group. I have not officially join just yet but I’m about to.

Anyways… the thing is that I’ve just find out that they are organizing a Install Fest this Saturday, October the 17th. So for all of you who live in Miami, study at FIU, and just want to know more about what Linux is, this is the perfect place to be. The Install Fest is going to take place at the ECS (Engineering and Computer Sciences) Building, room 141, from 1pm to 5pm. If you want more information please contact PLUG President Lionel Nimmo, lnimm001 AT fiu DOT edu or Advisor Nagarajan Prabakar, prabakar AT cis DOT fiu DOT edu.

Other than that… I’ll be there if anyone wants to meet me.

After a loooooooooong week… I finally finished my midterm exams that kept me away from the computer….

Now, the project week starts… but I’ll be now able to do a fresh Karmic install to my machines, since I’ve just been upgrading from Karmic Alpha 3…

Anyways.. I really look forward to see how Karmic works on my machines after a fresh install, and specially how it works on my new HP dv4t… I’ll keep you posted.

Last night I was enjoying Florida’s warm night chatting with some non-techie friends, and we ended up talking about computers and OSs (Windows, MacOS, and Linux).

During our conversation, I was surprised to find out that most of these people used PCs (with Windows), because they “didn’t” have a choice. But, what do they mean by that?? Well, the thing is that they were complaining about the amount of viruses found in Windows, and how many times they had to pay someone to reinstall it because of their viruses problems. However, they said it was their only choice because they felt like buying a Mac was too expensive by the time they bought their PCs.

But, why was a Mac the choice they couldn’t afford?? Well, this surprised me even more simply because they know that Macs are UNIX based (even though they don’t know what this means), and that  Mac’s do not have viruses (and we all know why). Anyway, the thing is that these people were starting to look into Macs simply because of the fact they’ve been told (by their friends), that Macs do not have all those nasty viruses that Windows does, and that they were not going to have any problems with them. So basically, lots of people are changing to Macs just simply because they now know that it does not have viruses.

But, enough about Macs. This is where Ubuntu (and Linux) came in. I told them… “why would you spend so much money to buy a Mac if you can just simply install Linux in your PC… and you wont have viruses…”. After saying this, they were a little bit confused so I just started explaining them what Linux is, what Open Source is, and most important of all, what Ubuntu is. After all my explanation they simply wondered “Are you telling me that with Ubuntu I won’t have viruses, and I won’t have to buy a new computer, and best of all, I won’t have to pay for it and I will have lots of applications for free??”… “Where can I try this… and where can I get this…” and well, I just told them… “you can download it for free, you can request free CDs, or even better, I can show it to you, and install it for you so that you can give it a try!!”…

Anyway, my conclusion here is that people is starting to realize that there are other alternatives than just sticking with one operating system, and that the best thing of all is that they won’t have viruses. However, they are really not aware that Linux exists. This clearly shows that there’s a huge market were Linux, and specially Ubuntu, can kick in, because… they are paying companies for virus free solutions, such as Mac, while they are not aware that this is not their only solution.. From my point of view… most of these people only uses their computers to edit documents, listen to music, and browsing the Internet… and this is something that they could do with Ubuntu… without a problem! So, let’s start Ubuntizing people!!

Starting today, I’m officially a MOTU!! It’s been a long and amazing road for me to get to this point but I finally did it!! I want to thank all people who have helped me:

• Nicolas Valcarcel (nxvl), who was actually the first one on getting me involved with this. and who helped me with my first steps.
• Steve Stalcup (vorian), who was actually my first mentor, with whom I learned lots of things.
• Ante Karamatic (ivoks), who was my mentor in the past few months, and the one who helped me with lots of stuff and taught me so many things; and for helping me when I annoyed him (so many times) with so many questions.
• And last, but not least, all of those who helped me on all those simple questions I had, and all of those who reviewed my packages and helped me to improve my quality.

Thank you. Now, let’s get to work.

Hi all!! Today I felt like I wanted to learn something new! In the past few months I’ve been doing a little Android Development. Now is time for some Web Development + python. So, what do you think I should use, Django or TurboGears, or… in such case, is  there something better… what would you recommend?

Thank you!

UPDATE: Thank you very much for your comments. I’ll go with Django for now but I’ll try TurboGears later on! Thank You again!

Well… as I’m starting my studies for a M.Sc. in Telecom & Networking, I was thinking on buying a new computer. I’m deciding between a netbook and a laptop. Actually, between a Dell Mini 10v and any laptop.

I, of course, want something that will allow me to carry it everywhere… though I do not know what I will use it for since I’ve not started class yet… anyways… do you think that buying a dell Mini is worthy enough?? I mean, is it really useful besides browsing the internet and editing documents?? Has anyone used it to work with Debian packages on it, and have tried to build them there?? How’s its performance…?? Please let me know your experiences to make a better decision.

Thank you.