Steven Rosenberg https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/networking/ipv6/ frugal technology, simple living and guerrilla large-appliance repair en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss steven@stevenrosenberg.net (Steven Rosenberg) steven@stevenrosenberg.net (Steven Rosenberg) I upgraded from Debian Squeeze to Wheezy today https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/linux/debian/2012_0629_upgrade_squeeze_to_wheezy Though my track record with in-place upgrades of Linux/Unix systems is far from positive, I decided to do just that with my long-running (since late 2010) Debian Squeeze laptop today.

It went surprisingly well -- and by that I mean I'm using a fully upgraded Debian Wheezy laptop to create this post in Nautilus via sftp.

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]]> Fri, 29 Jun 2012 17:29:31 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/29/17/29/31/ Reducing swappiness in Linux for better desktop performance https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/linux/debian/2012_0620_swappiness_in_debian My Debian Squeeze system has been swapping a lot lately. I think web browsers -- mostly Google Chrome -- are to blame. I'm not sure switching entirely to Firefox will solve the problem. Web browsers eat resources.

To speed things up, I decided to reduce my "swappiness" to see how that affects system performance.

It's been a very long time since I've done it, so I Googled "swappiness in Debian," and came across my own entry from 2010 when I was running Ubuntu 10.04. I got my information from the Ubuntu community Swap FAQ, and you can too.

I followed the recipe on my Debian Squeeze system, changing swappiness from the default of 60 to 10 so the system will use swap less often.

So far, so good.

The next day: This is totally working. After six or so hours of my usual workload, I'm only using 1.2 MB of swap. Nice!

The next week: After a full day of computing, with lots of Google Chrome windows and tabs open all day (I barely used Firefox/Iceweasel today), doing some photo edits but no video editing, I'm using 1.4 GB of RAM and 24.8 MB of swap. I'd say the experiment in changing swappiness is a success.

]]> Wed, 20 Jun 2012 19:14:42 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/20/19/14/42/ Debian project leader Stefano Zacchiroli and the controversy over Debian Multimedia https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/linux/debian/2012_0613_debian_project_leader_and_debian_multimedia I came across Debian project leader Stefano Zacchiroli's Bits from the DPL on Planet Debian -- the most recent bits also living on Stefano's blog and on a Debian mailing list.

The more interesting bits this month include a controversy over duplication between the Debian Multimedia archive and Debian proper.

Stefano suggests that what package belongs where be worked out, or that Debian Multimedia shed its Debian name and move on.

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]]> Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:25:47 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/13/10/25/47/ I just installed Iceweasel 13 in Debian Squeeze https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/applications/browsers/firefox/2012_0612_iceweasel_13 I finally got Iceweasel 13 installed out of the Mozilla Debian APT archive on my Debian Squeeze system. For at least a week I've been stuck on Iceweasel/Firefox 12 due to dependency issues. dWhile a Debian Forums article didn't provide the exact solution to my problem, it did give me a clue:

Reinstall Iceweasel.

I did that, and I got the new Iceweasel/Firefox as well as the needed dependencies, and thus far nothing appears to be broken.

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]]> Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:00:55 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/13/10/00/55/ WordPress: What am I doing wrong? https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/blogging_systems/wordpress/2012_0612_wordpress_custom_output OK, here's the deal. In Ode I can get any kind of output I want through the project's infinitely flexible theming. In Movable Type I can create any number of custom Javascript output files that draw on the blogging system's database.

So how do I do this in WordPress? I'm looking into child themes (I confess that I've -- horror of horrors -- modified the main theme in a WordPress blog), but I need EXTRA theming. What I need is the ability to tap the blog database for custom HTML output that includes only the elements I want with accompanying HTML so I can display that output on other sites.

It's so easy to do this in Ode and Movable Type. Why is it so hard (or seemingly so) in WordPress?

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]]> Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:01:56 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/12/20/01/56/ How do you feel about social-networking posts originating as blog-post titles? https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/social/2012_0611-blog-post-titles Mon, 11 Jun 2012 02:50:42 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/11/02/50/42/ Allowing the use of multiple themes simultaneously would solve many #WordPress problems for me. https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/blogging_systems/wordpress/2012_0611_wordpress_theme_problem Mon, 11 Jun 2012 02:43:59 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/11/02/43/59/ Social networking -- the giving and the taking https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/social/2012_0609_social_network_temptation I know it's easy. You pick up your smartphone. You click the Twitter icon (or Facebook, if that's your poison).

Then you lay it out in 140- (or 500-odd) character bursts. Or you talk about the sandwich you're eating.

There's nothing wrong with that. Except that your words now live on some social network. Not on your own hard drive or server. Not even on a WordPress.com blog from which you can extract every post to archive and reuse as you please.

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]]> Mon, 11 Jun 2012 02:37:52 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/11/02/37/52/ I will not be posting on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Diaspora or Identi.ca https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/social/2012_0608_no_direct_posts These are the social networks on which I have accounts.

But I won't be posting directly on any of them.

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]]> Fri, 08 Jun 2012 19:37:24 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/08/19/37/24/ DSL Extreme: No plans -- or need -- to go IPv6 at this time; so what are web sites and ISPs going to do? https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/networking/ipv6/2012_0607_dsl_extreme_and_ipv6 With all the talk of IPv6 and how the Internet is running out of IP addresses and how we have to move from IPv4 to avoid catastrophe, I wondered what my ISP, DSL Extreme, is doing about it.

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]]> Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:33:06 UTC https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/2012/06/07/12/33/06/