Starvin’ Marvin

I was setting up a subversion repository for personal usage and I though it would be be nice to share the necessary steps for a simple ssh+svn access configuration for a Ubuntu based system. Beware that this is probably the simplest svn setup possible, but actually it mets my requirements: simple, fast and secure. So here it goes:

1. Install subversion package:

sudo apt-get install subversion

2. Add subversion group:

sudo addgroup subversion

3. Add users to this group:

sudo vim /etc/group
Find subversion group created and add yourself (and others) to the group.

4. Create basic directory structure and set permitions. Basic assumption are that main svn dir will be located in /home/svn/ and sample svn project will be called simply project

cd /home/
sudo mkdir svn
cd svn/
sudo mkdir project
sudo chgrp -R subversion project/
sudo chmod -R g+rws project/


5. And finally create your project:

sudo svnadmin create /home/svn/project/

Voila, it’s done! You can access it with the command:
svn co svn+ssh://[sshuser]@[hostname]/home/svn/project/
Happy versioning!

And the gadget saga continues: now I bought a PS3!

It seems that Project Euler considers me only 4% genius, having solved 7 out of 178 problems. Not bad, for the little free time I’ve spent in last week solving the interesting challenges provided by this project.

I’m sure I could have solve a larger number of problems if I used the Jedi approach: “Use the brute force, Luke!” . Instead I preferred to look for the mathematical elegant approaches to the problems, even when I started by brute forcing it. I would say that the most fun part is when you solve the problem, you can and browse the forum thread (you don’t have access to this until you solve it!) and compare your solution with others. It is amazing to see people solving it in the most amazing ways, in the most amazing languages! I’ve been using C and I think I’ll keep it this way.

If you are into programming and love math, this is the right time killer for you!

I bought an Ipod Nano. I love it! Isn’t it beautiful?

Ever wondered why Google launched a mobile version of Google Maps, even for non-GPS enabled handsets? Your answer is right here. The updated version of Google Maps for mobiles comes with a new service that gives you rudimentary location information without needing a built-in GPS. The name for this new feature is My Location and is still in the beta phase but will provide your location in the map wherever Google Maps is available.

It seems that this new application takes advantage of the information broadcasted from cell towers and from the Cell ID it is able approximate your current location. Of course, this feature is pretty intrusive (google could track your location with this, but hey, they already can track what search for and you care do you?), so if you are a privacy freak, don’t use this. Nevertheless, this is a innovative piece of software and very useful if you don’t have a GPS enabled hanset.

I’ve tried the feature in Lisbon, and it work pretty well, giving me an accuracy of about 2km in my tests. I must confess I was not expecting this to work here in Portugal, because I thought Google wouldn’t have geolocation of cell IDs used here in Portugal, but it seems that they already have a huge database with this. I wonder how they built this database… Did they bought this information from operators or did they gathered this info by wandering around?

I found out a really interesting article on Ars Technica about some schools banning Wikipedia as a source for student’s assignments. I’ve also found out some places were puting in practice some more aggressive measures to avoid wikipedia: bans on campus computers, stickers saying “Just say no to wikipedia”, etc. The argument is that wikipedia is not accurate enough for citations in school work. Well, I might agree with that in some cases and I generally believe that wikipedia is a very good starting point when you’re starting to study a certain subject, not the absolute reference about everything. In fact, the concept is similar to a encyclopedia (that, as wikipedia, generally you don’t use as citation in your school work, right?) and, as far as I know encyclopedias don’t get banned at schools!

So, where it goes my understanding about this subject: please, don’t make wikipedia your worst enemy, because it is your best friend. Learn from it, and when you study some subject deeply take some minutes and correct what you found wrong or inaccurate there. This way, you will be improving the overall quality of wikipedia. Hopefully, others will do the same and probably you’ll benefit from this on other subjects.

I was installing Firefox on one of my machines and I realized how nice plug-ins are. So I decided to compile in a post some must have plugins that you I need to install every I do a fresh Firefox install:

• Foxmarks - By far the best way to have your bookmarks synced and saved in the network
• DownloadThemAll - Well, one of the things I hate in Firefox is the Download Manager. DownloadThemAll is a pretty good Download Manager and provides me all the features I need: fast downloads, HTTP multiple gets, one click downloads, etc.
• Scrapbook - Found something interesting, but no time to read it now? Thanks to a friend of mine I found a easy way to save parts of webpages to enjoy later on. You may think this is not very useful, but it really improves your online efficiency.
• Foxtrick - Do you play hattrick? If the answer is yes, then you know why you need it.

I could state more, but these ones are the ones I consider essential. Do you have any other suggestions? Fell free to suggest some.

Edit (28/11/2007): I added one plug-in that I have forgotten. One that it is really simple and really helpful: QuickProxy. The name says it all, just a simple icon in the status bar for quick switch between no proxy and  proxy enabled.

Fifty years after Sputnik launch, I present you something that it’s not rocket science: a wireless upgrade to your wifi antenna. This is one way to go, but you can even simplify more the project. The material? You just need to pick up a piece of aluminum foil and a scissor. How to do it? Just watch this!

I have tried this, it really works! To prove my point, just check this screen cap: the red line indicates more or less the time when I’ve placed parabolic dish in my WiFi antenna. Impressive, uh?

I did an upgrade in my wordpress installation (now using version 2.2), and I managed to “destroy” compatibility with current theme and photo gallery. I think I need to explore new plugins and themes…

As you might have noticed, I’ve left Instituto de Telecomunicações for quite a while but my homepage was still in HNG server. Finally I had the time to migrate the database and reconfigure my homepage in my own server. So where you have it, the same old page in whole new server.