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Trying to catch up on my packages, I recompiled the new version of pine since its latest security fix (not in pine itself, but the PGP scripts that come with it). The compilation failed with the old versions of the imap-uw and pico libraries, so I bumped the minimum required versions of both to the current versions in pkgsrc. If you have installed a binary pine package recently, you may want to recompile to avoid any strange behaviour (or core dumps).
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Jukka Salmi had filed PR/25623 regarding a build failure of sudo with Kerberos (Heimdal). This turned out to be a quick fix, fortunately.

Released tcsh 6.13

Written at lunch time in English • Tags: ,

I took some time today to release tcsh 6.13, allowing Christos to spend his time on code enhancements rather than the release procedure. The latest beta had already been out for a couple of months, and I had been using it every day for over a month without problems. This combined with no complaints on the beta testers list would seem to indicate it was an excellent release candidate. The previous release was from July of 2002, so it was about time to get a new release out.

Christos has promptly committed new patches into the code repository, so I’m thinking I’ll try to pick another beta 6 months from now and see if I could push the next release out soon after.

Pretty PostScript

Written early in the evening in English • Tags: ,

I hadn’t kept an eye on new developments in my favorite PostScript converter, mp for a while. Last I remember, I tracked down its home when I added it to pkgsrc as print/mp. It does a great job at printing mail, news and other documents. It also comes with templates to use with various day-runner formats.

A couple of days ago Hubert relayed a message from Rich Burridge, the author of mpdist, that the version in pkgsrc is really old. He had included the URL to its new home, so I spent some time bringing us up to the latest and greatest.

One upgrade down, a gazillion to go…

Apache::Gallery updated again

Written early in the evening in English • Tags: ,

Naturally as I am done with an upgrade, a security issue is announced regarding Apache::Gallery‘s use of the Inline module. A new version of Apache::Gallery was released, with new beta state modules as dependencies: Image::Imlib2 directly and Module::Build indirectly. (What’s wrong with good old Make::Maker, I ask!)

After figuring out Module::Build and then staring at strange shared library resolution problems with Image::Imlib2, I simply put in an ugly kludge. I just have a feeling that this will come back to bite me one day.

The new Apache::Gallery comes with two sets of templates: default and new. I’m yet to try them out — I just made the minimal adjustment for now to keep the existing albums working. The folder.png image was renamed to agfolder.png, and it is used in dir.tpl.

NetBSD packages updated

Written in the wee hours in English • Tags: ,

I’ve been running a new version of Apache::Gallery for a while (a couple of months, actually) on my on-line photos. It has all been working well, and is easier to maintain than the old one, so I committed the changes to the NetBSD pkgsrc repository.

The complete list of packages is:

While at it, I also committed a fix for tilde expansion in rdist6, and a fix I finally managed to find for Samba DFS support for Windows XP clients.

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I have made my Archos MP3 player much more user friendly by installing Rockbox, an Open Source replacement firmware. My favorite feature is resuming a stopped playlist where I left off — so my evening commute selection will continue where the morning one stopped at Grand Central.

Photo album

Written at evening time in English • Tags: ,

I’ve been experimenting with Apache::Gallery to start an easy to manage photo album on my pages. The results are now in. Thanks to the template approach it was possible to have the album share the look and feel of my site.

In the process of creating the templates I have also converted my standard layout to a PHP library. I still need to polish it quite a bit, though, but at least now it is easy to change the general look in just a couple of spots for all pages.

The next task would be to rewrite the web log from scratch with a well planned URL scheme in mind. Passing CGI variables as parameters makes it difficult to share bookmarks to articles, and the current workaround is very delicate in its configuration. The support for topic and keyword search is also lacking.

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I got introduced to phpBB forum software yesterday, so I decided to look into it a bit more. Some of the web sites hosted here have been asking for message boards at times, so now I have forum.gw.com up and running.

Turtle Beach AudioTron

Written early in the evening in English • Tags: ,

I added a Turtle Beach AudioTron to my stereo system this week. It’s an MP3 / WMA player that fits comfortably in a rack together with all the other hi-fi gear. I have already been storing the best parts of my CD collection on the home network as MP3 files, so I can listen to my favourites on the train (just copy files to a portable MP3 player) and while working on the computer. With the AudioTron all those files can be played on the stereo system. (more…)