If you running a GNU/Linux distro with PulseAudio by default, and you love pSX AND PulseAudio, you probably very mad by now hehehe… Fear not! I’ve found the solution, and would like to share with the community:

Rename the ~/.asoundrc and/or /etc/asound.conf files to something else.

There you go Simple isn’t? To think I uninstalled the WHOLE PulseAudio suite so many times just to make pSX work… tsk… :/

Reference
Ubuntu Forums

If you got Fedora 12 , own a NVIDIA Video Card, and need 3D, you probably getting insane by now to make that Driver work. Fear not! I found a solution and would like to share with the community:

Install the RPM Fusion Repositories, if you didn’t already.

su -

mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r)-nouveau.img

dracut /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)

gedit /etc/grub.conf

Add the following to the end of the line(s) starting with ‘kernel’:

dblacklist=nouveau

Now:

setsebool -P allow_execstack on

yum –enablerepo=rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing install kmod-nvidia

nvidia-xconfig

Reboot.

There you go

References
Lonely Spooky’s Blog
NVNews.Net
RPM Fusion

the end might not be that near.

Due to the lack of time and motivation (both internal and external), I was about to close this blog. But why?

There may be a couple of reasons, but none of them is strong enough. Motivation to keep on is stronger, even when it’s not as strong as it should be.

You all see, English is not my native language. I sometimes feel like a baby writing stupid things to communicate, while I’d like to do more than that: communicating on a charming – or, at least, clever – style. I am able to do that in my first language.  But I can’t just write it and translate it afterwards. It’s not natural. Language affects our thoughts, and I’m sure that both my thoughts and my way of seeing the world are different in English. Not only because there are different words to be chosen, but because my story with these words is different. It’s a different story. Words were acquired on a different context and have different cognitive associations.

Actually, I feel lighter in English. I just hope that someday I will be able to write better. To write in a way that I can in fact translate this lightness into the right words and sentences in order to make it obvious and pleasant to the reader.

For the time being, all I can do is trust my heart and its ability to reach other hearts, no matter what language is used.

• How To Become A Hacker by Eric S. Raymond.

• Kaido Kikkase tõlge eesti keelde

Eric S. Raymond on häkkerimaailmas kahtlemata tuntud nimi ja tema kirjateosed on rangelt soovituslikud lugemised igale tõsisemalt “asjaga” tegelevale inimesele avardamaks maailmapilti ning mõttemaailma. ESR on kahtlemata üks neist “tipphäkkeritest”, kellest ta ise HOWTO-s kirjutab, mistõttu on ta kahtlemata õige mees pealkirjas mainitud kirjatükki kirjutama.

Üldjuhul mõeldakse häkkerist (kõige kitsamas tähenduses) kui programmeerijast, aga häkkerlust võib vaadelda ka laiemalt.

Ma usun, et häkkerlikke põhimõtteid/suhtumist saab edukalt rakendada ka muudes eluvaldkondades, lihtsalt oskused on teised. See osa HOWTOst, kus räägitakse programmeerimisest, tuleb asendada vastava eluvaldkonna loova ja manipuleeriva tegevusega.

Ja lõpetuseks ma arvan, et taoline HOWTO kuluks ära tegelikult misiganes elualal. Abistav, otsekohene, läbinisti aus. Täpselt nagu häkkerikultuurile omane.

Mis oleks Sinu elus teistmoodi läinud, kui Sa oleksid lugenud enne misiganes eriala õpetavasse asutusse astumist lugenud läbi kõikide huvipakkuvate erialade ausad ja otsekohesed HOWTO-d?

http://www.ratedcolleges.com/blog/2009/100-amazing-how-to-sites-to-teach-yourself-anything/

Squid is an open source proxy server that comes pre installed with many linux distributions. The software can be used for a lot of neat stuff, but I came across a situation where I wanted to be able to lock down access to the whole web except for a few approved sites – kind of an information kiosk scenario.

Assumptions

I am using Ubuntu Server 9.04, which comes with Squid installed already. Apparently it is not automatically installed with Ubuntu Desktop, but it is available in the repositories and as such can be installed quite easily by:

sudo apt-get install squid

Configuration

Once you’re set with a standard installation, edit /etc/squid/squid.conf and locate the line starting with INSERT YOUR OWN... Now, add the following lines:

acl whitelist dstdomain "/etc/squid/whitelist.txt"
http_access allow whitelist

You may want to comment out the line http_access allow localhost if you want the same rules to apply for localhost as well.

You can now edit /etc/squid/whitelist.txt and add domains using the following pattern:

• example.com will add that domain
• .example.com will add example.com and all subdomains.

It seems possible to be a lot more sophisticated with regular expressions and stuff, but this was good enough for me.

Reload the squid configuration:

/etc/init.d/squid/reload

Error pages are located in /usr/share/squid/errors and can be customized.

Finally, you’ll need to configure your browser to use the proxy server. If you are running Firefox, follow these steps:

• From the Firefox menu, Choose Edit > Preferences. Click “Advanced” and then “Network”
• Click “Settings” and select the “Manual Proxy Configuration” radio button.
• In the “HTTP Proxy” field enter the name or IP address of the machine running your proxy.
• In the “Port” field enter the value 3128 and check “Use this proxy server for all protocols”.

Your should now be able to visit only the sites registered in the whitelist.

References

• http://www.squid-cache.org/
• http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-804-ubuntu-installing-an-http-proxy-server-squid
• http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=521999

How to check Oracle processes in windows using command line?

Oracle DBA monitors oracle processes on unix using ps command. It is rumor that there is no alternate command available in windows for checking oracle proceses on windows. This technical tip helps Oracle DBA for monitoring Oracle processes on windows using command line.

Burning problem of Oracle DBA is how to check Oracle process in Windows while GUI not available (May be in Remote database monitoring). In unix it is very easy for administrating using ps command. Is there any alternate available in Windows? When we will ask this question get no answer for same. Because lack of knowledge of command line for Windows. Here you can get help for same which command is available for performing same task of Oracle DBA.

Is there any command in Windows like ps command in Unix for Oracle DBA?

How to check Oracle processes in windows. This is burning problem for every Oracle DBA.

In unix there is command called “ps“. Using ps command Oracle DBA can check all type of processes which are running in system. Ps command is very useful to administrating and monitoring oracle in unix/linux systems for all Oracle DBA.

But unfortunately there is no command available in windows just like ps in unix! Means there is no way to find out running processes in windows system using command line! Only task manager option is available in windows system for Oracle DBA. Using task manager we can check running processes in windows system. Task manager is GUI tool. Sometimes it is very difficult to monitoring and administrating Oracle on windows systems for Oracle DBA using GUI tool.

Alternate of ps command in windows (Great tip for Oracle DBA):

Windows has own command to trace all running processes in the system. Using “tasklist” command Oracle DBA can able to trace all running processes in windows including oracle,sqlplus,exp,imp and others. Tasklist command is very closer to ps command. Using tasklist command Oracle DBA can able to access process ids, session ids, cpu time, and modules of running processes in Oracle on Windows.

No it is not TRUE. Really !!!

Please check help of tasklist command.

C:\>tasklist /?

TASKLIST [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]] [/M [module] | /SVC | /V] [/FI filter] [/FO format] [/NH]

Description: This command line tool displays a list of application(s) and associated task(s)/process(es) currently running on either a local or remote system.

Parameter List:
/S system Specifies the remote system to connect to.
/U [domain\]user Specifies the user context under which the command should execute.
/P [password] Specifies the password for the given user context. Prompts for input if omitted.
/M [module] Lists all tasks that have DLL modules loaded in them that match the given pattern name. If the module name is not specified, displays all modules loaded by each task.
/SVC Displays services in each process.
/V Specifies that the verbose information is to be displayed.
/FI filter Displays a set of tasks that match a given criteria specified by the filter.
/FO format Specifies the output format.
Valid values: “TABLE”, “LIST”, “CSV”. /NH S
pecifies that the “Column Header” should not be displayed in the output. Valid only for “TABLE” and “CSV” formats.
/? Displays this help/usage.

Filters:
Filter Name Valid Operators Valid Value(s) ———– ————— ————–
STATUS eq, ne RUNNING | NOT RESPONDING
IMAGENAME eq, ne Image name
PID eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le PID value
SESSION eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le Session number
SESSIONNAME eq, ne Session name
CPUTIME eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le CPU time in the format of hh:mm:ss. hh – hours, mm – minutes, ss – seconds
MEMUSAGE eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le Memory usage in KB
USERNAME eq, ne User name in [domain\]user format
SERVICES eq, ne Service name
WINDOWTITLE eq, ne Window title
MODULES eq, ne DLL name

Examples:
TASKLIST
TASKLIST /M
TASKLIST /V
TASKLIST /SVC
TASKLIST /M wbem*
TASKLIST /S system /FO LIST
TASKLIST /S system /U domain\username /FO CSV /NH
TASKLIST /S system /U username /P password /FO TABLE /NH TASKLIST /FI “USERNAME ne NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM” /FI “STATUS eq running”

Example:
C:\>tasklist

Image Name PID Session Name Session# Mem Usage
========================= ====== ================ ======== ============
System Idle Process 0 Console 0 16 K
oracle.exe 4 Console 0 282,100 K
smss.exe 636 Console 0 420 K
csrss.exe 692 Console 0 6,496 K
winlogon.exe 716 Console 0 1,336 K
services.exe 760 Console 0 4,020 K
lsass.exe 772 Console 0 7,188 K
svchost.exe 956 Console 0 5,568 K

Means using tasklist or tasklist -v command we can monitor and manage our oracle processes.

Now never tell that you don’t have ps command for windows !!!

All the best,
Gitesh Trivedi

About The Author: Gitesh Trivedi is an Expert Oracle DBA and working in Dbametrix. He has excellent 12 years experience. You can reach him on site http://www.dbametrix.com offers Remote DBA support and Offshore Oracle DBA support. All copyright reserved by @Dbametrix. contact mailto:info@dbametrix.com or at http://www.dbametrix.com/service.html

Okay,

It’s time for some ISBU Inspiration!

Greeting, you “Minions of Metal!” I’ve gathered you all together today…

Wait… that’s not it…

Most of you know that I’m plotting and scheming… and even conspiring to build a house out of recycled and repurposed ISBU (Shipping Containers).

A lot of you know that we’re helping several other families do the same thing, in fact, as you’re reading this!

Most of you know that I’ve further complicated that build, by including components recycled from steel aircraft hangars that were torn down…

And, most of you know that it’s been a battle from day one…

So… as my family plots and schemes, quietly and cunningly crafting “our house that locals might loathe…”

I thought I’d show you some of the things that inspire me, as I craft our Corten Castle…

Ain’t it cool?

In the dead of Winter, you’re all ’snuggly’ warm…

And in the Spring, Summer, and even the Fall (depending on your climate – your mileage may vary) … it’s like living in the outdoors! Talk about an inspiration! This would make me WANT to get up and greet the day!

Now, if that don’t make you wanna break out that treadmill, I don’t know what will…

I mean, you don’t want to scare the neighbors… or DO you? Hmmm?

If you built this out of SIPs, and then installed it on tracks, you could open and close it using an electric motor (powered by photovoltaic panels, naturally). It would be easy… using, say… something like a garage door opener motor, or even an old 4wd truck winch. Just apply a little bit of  “Grey matter” (but not as “track lubricant! OUCH!) and you’d have a push-button house to rival some of that stuff you see on MTV Cribs!

Now where’d I put that “man-thong?” It’s time to play, “Mess with the neighbor’s minds…” Muuuwahahahah!

Hey! If they didn’t want nightmares… then they shouldn’t have looked! 

Stay tuned!

In this post we present a new speedy way of writing HTML code using CSS-like selector syntax — a handy set of tools for high-speed HTML and CSS coding. It was developed by our author Sergey Chikuyonok and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers.How much time do you spend writing HTML code: all of those tags, attributes, quotes, braces, etc. You have it easier if your editor of choice has code-completion capabilities, but you still do a lot of typing.We had the same problem in JavaScript world when we wanted to access a specific element on a Web page. We had to write a lot of code, which became really hard to support and reuse. And then JavaScript frameworks came along, which introduced CSS selector engines. Now, you can use simple CSS expressions to access DOM elements, which is pretty cool.

via Zen Coding: A Speedy Way To Write HTML/CSS Code – Smashing Magazine.

Incredibly simple – utterly delicious.

SERVES 8  /  PREPARATION TIME: 10 MINS  /   COOKING TIME:  10 MINS

Easy to prepare

1 Kg / 2lbs 4 oz carrots (about medium-sized)

25 g / 1 oz butter

1 tsp caraway seeds

Small handful of chopped parsley

…………………………………………………………………..

Peel the carrots and trim off the ends.  Cut in half lengthways, then cut on the diagonal into slices about 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) thick.

Place the carrots in a steamer basket and steam for 5 – 7 minutes until softened, or place in a heatproof bowl with a little water and microwave on ‘High’ for 3-5 minutes.

To finish the dish: Gently heat the butter in a frying pan.  Tip in the caraway seeds and cook for 30 seconds until they start sizzling.  Add the carrots and stir into the butter until glossy and heated through (about 3 minutes).  Toss through the parsley and serve.

…………………………………………………………………..

THESE CAN BE PREPARED IN ADVANCE:

Cook the carrots up to 2 days in advance, leave to cool, then cover and store in the fridge.  Reheat in pan, finishing with butter and caraway seeds as above, just before serving.

The MagLev alpha was released recently.  Before I get too far in to this post I need to make it clear that I’m not affiliated with the MagLev development team.  I’m not really even much of a Ruby interpreter hacker.  I’m a curious ruby developer that has heard some interesting things about the project and wanted to get it up and running now that it’s available.  I decided to make this post because the install and setup procedure is anything but standard.  It’s not complicated, just not what you normally would expect.

First lets get the code:

$ git clone git://github.com/MagLev/maglev.git

Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/rgarver/Sources/maglev/.git/
remote: Counting objects: 28955, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (12671/12671), done.
remote: Total 28955 (delta 15669), reused 28427 (delta 15200)
Receiving objects: 100% (28955/28955), 14.97 MiB | 539 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (15669/15669), done.
Checking out files: 100% (2180/2180), done.
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/rgarver/Sources/maglev/.git/remote: Counting objects: 28955, done.remote: Compressing objects: 100% (12671/12671), done.remote: Total 28955 (delta 15669), reused 28427 (delta 15200)Receiving objects: 100% (28955/28955), 14.97 MiB | 539 KiB/s, done.Resolving deltas: 100% (15669/15669), done.Checking out files: 100% (2180/2180), done.

$ cd maglev

Great, we have the code.  Next step is to do a base install.  This installs the base libraries and GemStone which is the fabled persistence layer that MagLev has integrated.  GemStone is a object persistence layer originally built for Smalltalk.  If you haven’t ever played with Smalltalk or some of the variants (eg: Squeak) I recommend it.  It will turn your head upside down.

$ ./install.sh
[Info] Starting installation of MagLev-22578.MacOSX on sirius.local
Password:
Sat Nov 21 09:22:44 PST 2009
[Info] Setting up shared memory
  Total memory available is 4096 MB
  Max shared memory segment size is 4 MB
  Max shared memory allowed is 4 MB
[Info] Increasing max shared memory segment size to 2048 MB
kern.sysv.shmmax: 4194304 -> 2147483648
[Info] Increasing max shared memory allowed to 2048 MB
kern.sysv.shmall: 1024 -> 524288
[Info] Adding the following section to /etc/sysctl.conf
# kern.sysv.shm* settings added by MagLev installation
kern.sysv.shmmax=2147483648
kern.sysv.shmall=524288
kern.sysv.shmmin=1
kern.sysv.shmmni=32
kern.sysv.shmseg=8
[Info] Setting up GemStone netldi service port
[Info] Adding "gs64ldi  51456/tcp" to /etc/services
[Info] Downloading GemStone archive using /opt/local/bin/wget
--2009-11-21 09:22:44--  http://glass-downloads.gemstone.com/maglev/GemStone-22578.MacOSX.zip
Resolving glass-downloads.gemstone.com... 207.171.185.197
Connecting to glass-downloads.gemstone.com|207.171.185.197|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 74858717 (71M) [application/zip]
Saving to: `GemStone-22578.MacOSX.zip'

100%[==========================================================================>] 74,858,717   847K/s   in 1m 45s

2009-11-21 09:24:32 (694 KB/s) - `GemStone-22578.MacOSX.zip' saved [74858717/74858717]

[Info] Uncompressing GemStone archive into /Users/rgarver/Sources
[Info] Linking gemstone to /Users/rgarver/Sources/GemStone-22578.MacOSX
[Info] updating MSpec, RubySpec, and RBS submodules
Submodule 'benchmark' (git://github.com/acangiano/ruby-benchmark-suite.git) registered for path 'benchmark'
Submodule 'spec/mspec' (git://github.com/rubyspec/mspec.git) registered for path 'spec/mspec'
Submodule 'spec/rubyspec' (git://github.com/rubyspec/rubyspec.git) registered for path 'spec/rubyspec'
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/rgarver/Sources/maglev/benchmark/.git/
remote: Counting objects: 7332, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (5521/5521), done.
remote: Total 7332 (delta 1595), reused 6917 (delta 1274)
Receiving objects: 100% (7332/7332), 9.90 MiB | 578 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (1595/1595), done.
Submodule path 'benchmark': checked out 'd807eea7f7b2f38240bc177a0c22e599081882ea'
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/rgarver/Sources/maglev/spec/mspec/.git/
remote: Counting objects: 2745, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1080/1080), done.
remote: Total 2745 (delta 1848), reused 2484 (delta 1644)
Receiving objects: 100% (2745/2745), 378.57 KiB | 383 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (1848/1848), done.
Submodule path 'spec/mspec': checked out 'bcec47c70e0678a29fd0c1345358c4daf7b971a3'
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/rgarver/Sources/maglev/spec/rubyspec/.git/
remote: Counting objects: 26787, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (8705/8705), done.
remote: Total 26787 (delta 18332), reused 25672 (delta 17482)
Receiving objects: 100% (26787/26787), 3.71 MiB | 520 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (18332/18332), done.
Submodule path 'spec/rubyspec': checked out 'b0a18cf80dc706d39ee550831b8b941224b60fb6'
[Info] Creating new default 'maglev' repository
[Info] Generating the MagLev HTML documentation
[Info] Finished upgrade to MagLev-22578.MacOSX on sirius.local

[Info] MagLev version information:
maglev 0.6 (ruby 1.8.6) (2009-11-20 rev 22578-1067) [x86_64-linux]
GEMSTONE: 3.0.0 Build: 64bit-22578
MONTICELLO: MagLev-ao.1067.mcz
MAGLEV: commit e2a4fe2e0f7ca85cdcb141e6b56913eba802eefd
        Author: Allen Otis <otisa@abaco.gemstone.com>
        Date:   Thu Nov 19 19:57:09 2009 -0800
[Info] GemStone version information:
GemStone/S 64 Bit
3.0.0 Build: 64bit-22578
Fri Nov 20  8:22:00 2009

[Info] Adding these to your .bashrc will make it easier to run MagLev
export MAGLEV_HOME=/Users/rgarver/Sources/maglev
export PATH=$MAGLEV_HOME/bin:$PATH

[Info] After you complete this upgrade and verify MagLev is working, run
  rake stwrappers
to generate the .rb files for the GemStone/Smalltalk FFI
in MAGLEV_HOME/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/smalltalk/

As you can see on OS X it will build everything for 64bit which is pretty cool.  It also downloaded a bunch of support libraries and updated all of the submodules.  If you ever update the code locally you are supposed to run ‘$ ./update.sh’ to rebuild everything and get it all up and running.

Once you have it installed you should add the following lines to your .profile or .bashrc

export MAGLEV_HOME=/Users/rgarver/Sources/maglev
export PATH=$MAGLEV_HOME/bin:$PATH

You’ll need to make sure you run those lines on the command line also.  Once the environment is setup you can run ‘$ rake maglev:start’.  This command apparently boots up the core MagLev engine.

$ rake maglev:start
(in /Users/rgarver/Sources/maglev)
startstone[Info]: Starting Stone repository monitor "maglev".
startstone[Info]: GemStone server 'maglev' has been started.

Once that is started you are good to go:

$ maglev-irb
/Users/rgarver/.irbrc
error , no such file to load -- readline,
          during /Users/rgarver/Sources/maglev/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/completion.rb
error , no such file to load -- readline,
          during /Users/rgarver/.irbrc
irb(main):001:0> puts 'hi'
hi
=> nil
irb(main):002:0>

I got a question about how to draft the collars that I usually have on my garments. They are really simple to draft, surprisingly simple and here comes a little tutorial on how to.

1.

We start of by taking the front piece and back piece of the pattern you are using to make the garment. Put them with the neckline together but the shoulders slightly overlapping (perhaps by 0,4 inches / 1 cm ) And copy 4 inches (10 cm) of the center front and centre back. Also copy the whole neckline.

2.

Lower the centerefront by 0,4 inches (1 cm)

3.

Mark out the width of the collar, the same all the way.

4.

Fix the shape of the front, if you are bad at making round shapes, use a small bowl or a glass or something, that is what I do,

5.

Now we will reduce the length of the outer part of the collar. Make triangles that are about 0,2 to 0,4 inches (0,5-1 cm) in the bottom and goes to the neckline.

6.

Cut out those triangles.

7.

Tape it together, now you are finished with you pattern.

8.

The amount you take of the outer part of the collar decides how high they get. To the left is a collar with a lot taken out and to the right is a collar with not so much taken out.

A step by step guide to regaining sanity 2.0.real

Or

Live in the Time of Twitter and Real-Time-Web

I’ll be honest. It’s a misleading title. But then it’s catchy (or so I think), and also displays the writer’s knowledge (if one can call it that) of the literary work that inspired (as defined by Bollywood music directors, story writers) the title. It hardly matters, then, that the article has no connection whatsoever to that literary work, or the title. Actually it has some connection to the latter (I have to keep someone interested!).

Yes, that’s the first mental adjustment you should make, before its too late: everything in web 2.0.real (or whater version that’s out right now) is designed to catch your attention.  Attention first, content later.

It’s not very dissimilar to people faking things in their resumes, to pass the first cut — for when you’re competing with people who’re faking royally, those who don’t fake never make the first cut, despite the real content (as opposed to real time? lol, I didn’t say that!) in their resumes. It’s after the attention (or first cut), that the content becomes relevant.

So to get back to the point (did we ever go away from it?):

1. Just because it’s catchy doesn’t mean it’s worth reading.

Yes, learn that as fast as you could (except, make an exception for this blog).  And save the disappointment (except for this blog). In short: don’t trust the lead ups. Don’t trust the title. Scan fast, and decide if you want to spend time reading it.

Here is the corollary:

2. Not everything needs to be bookmarked

Gone are the days when you clicked a link, and bookmarked it, tagged it, put it on this list or that. Organized it …

Gone gone gone…

That only made sense, when you actually meant to come back to those links for a detailed look, for ruminating, for thinking over (mean the same thing? I know. It’s for effect), for reading about and around them. And that only made sense when the links were far and few, that you could actually do those things.

Remember this: too many bookmarks is no bookmarks.

Sure you’ll get a couple of links in hundreds that you come across on twitter on a daily basis, that you’ll need/want to bookmark. But the rest you need to treat with the same respect (or lack of it) that you would afford, say, a conversation you have with a colleague over a cup of tea in the office pantry. You listen. You comment. You forget — trusting your brain to bring it back, if it ever became necessary.

And that brings us to the next point:

3. Not everything needs to be read with full attention

Yes. What’s more: it cannot be done, so don’t try doing it. If you ever learned about  sampling theorem, you know what to do. If you didn’t, go read about it NOW (haha: that’s rule 4, we’ll get there). And forget rule 3 while you’re doing it.

The problem of the ‘real time web’, as of now, is that it’s a waterfall.  And till things get sorted out, with filters, meta-filters, agreegators, and meta-aggregators, and net-oracles (yes!) come to your aid, you’d do well to glance and discard. Even at the risk of loosing content. Yes. (That’s rule 5. We’ll come to that).

Keyword is: fast. Yes, real-time-web demands a wire-speed decision making about value proposition of a content. You’re maybe lucky enough right now: you still have a few milliseconds per lead. Soon, you’d have microseconds. Then nanoseconds. Sharpen up your skills, or you’ll become one of the unreal-timers.

4. Now is the time

Now, is the time when everything has to be read. Not later. Not tomorrow, not sometime later. Those were the old days. It’s now or never,  for most of the content you’re reading won’t be relevant tomorrow, or day-after. Why not ‘not read it at all’? Well if you can do that, you’re the liberated. You, my friend, were not sucked by the matrix. And you my friend, are a big fat lier: for you wouldn’t be reading this stupid howto then. Not this far, at any rate. If you’re here, you need help, dear. You’re already sick. Like me.

5. It’s okay to miss news

Yes. Remember this: all ad campaigns are trying to sell you what you don’t need. And so it is with the real-time-web, and tag lines of its creators.

So when they say: “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world” don’t take it literally. Don’t take it to heart.  Share what you can. Discover what you can. The rest — you’ll thank me for this insight — was always there, and you were good at missing it, not not even knowing you missed it. And you could live with missing all that. So don’t forget ‘that’. Say with me: it’s okay to miss news.

6. Don’t throw away the baby with bathwater.

Yes. For all my sarcasm, scepticism, cynicism, there is lot to be found there.  Things for which you should forget rules 1 to 5. You’ll bookmark those things, tag them, put them on lists. You’ll read about them, around them. Blog about them. Update your world-view with them.  You’ll read them later; reread them even.

And that is why, it’s a good thing that you’re sick. Like me.

Go, get real!

The goal of this document is to walk through the installation of a MoinMoin wiki without getting bogged down in any details.  We’ll go through requirements, decisions, and steps to complete, that’s all.  (OK, I did end up indicating what directories are added; I can’t stand when stuff is added I don’t know about.)   I will follow up this post with the details for those who are interested. Once you have completed the steps herein you will have a working MoinMoin wiki on your Dreamhost.com shared hosting account.  By no way is this the only way to set up MoinMoin on an account, or even the best way, but I tested it and it will work.  Lets get to it!

Requirements

• Dreamhost shared hosting account.
• A domain setup as fully hosted
• Shell and FTP access to the domain account

Assumptions

• Dreamhost running python version 2.4
• MoinMoin version 1.8.5
• Understanding of editing files from Linux shell
• acctname is the accout name you used to access your domain account through ssh and FTPS.
• ~/ = $HOME = /home/acctname/

Decisions

• URL to run wiki from (we use sub directory) [We will use: http://hosteddomain/wiki]
• Private name for the wiki’s instance name [We will use: dhwiki]

Steps

1. Download MoinMoin wiki tarball from http://moinmo.in/MoinMoinDownload (moin-1.8.5.tar.gz) to your local workstation.
2. From FTP: upload file to Dreamhost into folder ~/files [/home/acctname/files]
   ** All commands from now on are from your shell access **
3. cd ~/files

4. tar -xvzf ~/files/moin-1.8.5.tar.gz [new directory is created: ~/files/moin-1.8.5

5. cd ~/files/moin-1.8.5

6. python setup.py --quiet install --prefix=$HOME --record=install.log

   [two directories created: ~/share/moin; ~/lib/python2.4/site-packages/MoinMoin]

7. Setup environment variables

   1. export PREFIX=$HOME

   2. export SHARE=$PREFIX/share/moin

   3. export WIKILOC=$SHARE

   4. export INSTANCE=dhwiki

8. cd $WIKILOC

9. mkdir $INSTANCE

10. cp -R $SHARE/data $INSTANCE

11. cp -R $SHARE/underlay $INSTANCE

12. cp $SHARE/config/wikiconfig.py $INSTANCE

13. chmod -R o+rwX $INSTANCE

14. Edit file $INSTANCE/wikiconfig.py
    Find and change the follwing lines:
    1. sitename = u'Your Wiki Title'
    2. logo_string = u'<img src="/wiki/common/moinmoin.png" alt="MoinMoin Logo">'
    3. Remove hash (#) in front of: page_front_page = u"FrontPage"
    4. data_dir = '/home/acctname/share/moin/dhwiki/data/'
    5. data_underlay_dir = '/home/acctname/share/moin/dhwiki/underlay/'
    6. url_prefix_static = '/wiki'   [(remove # from line)]
    7. mail_smarhost = "dreamhost smtp server"

15. cd ~/hosteddomain

16. cp -R $SHARE/htdocs wiki

17. chmod -R a+rX wiki

18. cd wiki

19. mkdir ./cgi-bin

20. cp $SHARE/server/moin.cgi ./cgi-bin

21. chmod -R a+rx ./cgi-bin

22. cd ./cgi-bin

23. Edit file moin.cgi
    Find and change the following lines.  Please remove the # if they exist on THESE lines:
    1. sys.path.insert(0, 'home/acctname/lib/python2.4/site-packages')
    2. sys.path.insert(0, '/home/acctname/share/moin/dhwiki')

24. cd ..

25. Edit file index.html
    Find and change the following lines:
    1. <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL=cgi-bin/moin.cgi/">
    2. Click <a href="cgi-bin/moin.cgi">here</a> to get to the FrontPage
26. Go to your favorite browser and enter your wiki's domain: Http://hosteddomain/wiki

Use these instructions at your own risk.  I extend no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy or safety of your data or website.

These instructions where tested by building the following wiki: http://MMonDH.brettski.com/wiki

All comments are welcome

References Used

• http://master.moinmo.in/MoinMoin/InstallDocs#basic-install
• http://www.wombatnation.com/misc/installMoinMoinDreamHost.html

Revision Information

• 11/21/2009
  • Initial post after successfully building a wiki following exact steps

Nothing really needing explaining here, but wanted an example for doing a recrsive grep handy as I can never remember it.

grep -RH –include “*.java” TEXT_I_AM_LOOKING_FOR *

Making cards is finally a reality. Something we’ve come to realise quickly is that although it is easy to make a good card, making a great card is a little more difficult.

Although flook selects what it thinks are good cards to show you, it is difficult to make that selectionbefore it knows what you like – or if there simply aren’t many cards near you. So whilst we’re all new here it’s better if all the cards are good To help make good cards, we wanted to share some of the things we’ve learnt whilst we’ve been building and testing flook. Bear in mind that we’ve only been flookers a few months longer than you – so if you have any tips for us, we’d love to hear them.

Deleting cards
Let’s start off with something you may not have realised – you can delete your cards. Just find the card you want to delete in the swipe view and then tap it to bring up the black menu bars at the top and bottom (we call that the HUD). On the bottom bar, you’ll see a delete button – just hit that to delete your card (Flook will ask you to confirm first). Obvioulsy you can’t delete other people’s cards but you can moderate them – more on that next time.

Subject
The subject of a card is probably the most important aspect of making a good card. We’ve found a general rule of thumb is “Would I interrupt a conversation to point X out?” if the answer is yes, it’s a good card.

• “Look, a motorbike” – not a good card
• “Look, a custom Harley being driven by a monkey” – good card
• “Look, a statue” – not a good card
• “What exactly is the Economist trying to tell us with this sculpture?” – good card
• “There’s a bar” – not a good card
• “This bar is great – on Fridays they give away free oysters” – good card.
• “Here’s a picture of me” – good card if you are Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie.

Text
Cards are personal. They are made by you about things you know better than anyone else. Make sure that you not only put your interests and opinions into cards but also put a little of your personality into them.

Use the templates
From the card creator, you can select different types of card. They add variety but they might give you inspiration about how to word your card. flook will also learn what types of card you like and show you more of them.

Be positive

In an early version of flook, we had a card category called ‘rant’. It was good fun making rant cards but not such good fun reading someone whine about their parking ticket. The best advice is that if something is really annoying you, use flook to find something better to do and go and do it.

Photo
There are some tricks to taking good photos for cards. You need to think about how flook will use your photo. Portrait photos are not covered up, but landscape cards have their text overlaid on top of the image. When you compose an image try and make sure that the interesting parts are not going to be hidden by the text.

Also remember that the iPhone camera – even if you have a 3Gs – is not the best camera in the world. It will tend to focus on reflections in wndows rather than what is behind a window. It is also not good at picking up detail or high contrast. It is often better to focus on a detail of the thing you are making a card about than to take a traditional long shot. Specifically, straight photos of the front of a business are generally boring. You can always get the name of a business in the title or subtitle, so you don’t need the whole front of a business to be visible.

Getting room for more text
Flook automatically detects a photo’s orientation and lays a card out correctly for that photo. This has some side effects on the text though. In general, if you have a lot to say, a portrait photo will give you more text space. If you want the photo centre stage, a landscape one will fill the screen best.

Keep quiet
You don’t need to enter any text at all. Sometimes a photo speaks for itself.

Comments
Remember that if you run out of text space on the card front, you can comment on your own card as soon as it is created.

Check Apple’s text autocorrection.
It’s easy to let Apple correct your text to something you didn’t mean to say. It’s a good idea to read through your card before you place it.

Bueno pues os dejo por aquí una de las formas que hay de compilar el núcleo de Debian. Parece un poco largo pero es muy fácil una vez que los has intentado un par de veces. Comencemos:

1- Obtener el núcleo:

- aptitude install linux-source-2.6.31

- El resultado es el fichero /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.31.tar.bz2

2- Crear un directorio para la compilación y descomprimir en él el núcleo:
- mkdir ~/linux

- cd ~/linux

- tar xjf /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.31.tar.bz2

3- Utilizar el fichero de configuración del núcleo actual como punto de partida. Para ello:

- cp /boot/config-`uname -r`~/linux/linux-source-2.6.31/.config

4- Configurar el núcleo (aquí podemos hacer make oldconfig y configura automáticamente el núcleo que ya nos funciona, ahorrándonos los siguiente pasos):

- Etiquetar el nuevo núcleo poniendo un número significativo en la constante EXTRAVERSION que aparece en el fichero Makefile (por ejemplo -10)

- Configurar el núcleo con una de las siguientes opciones:

• make menuconfig (necesita las bibliotecas de desarrollo de ncurses)
• make config (necesita las bibliotecas de desarrollo de gtk)
• make xconfig (necesita la librería libqt3-mt-dev). Os aconsejo hacerlo con make xconfig.

5- Compilar la parte monolítica, los módulos y generar un paquete debian con todo:

- make deb-pkg

- El paquete así generado se almacena en ~/linux

6- Instalar el nuevo núcleo en el sistema:

- dpkg -i linux-2.6.31-10_2.6.31-10_i686.deb

- Generar la initrd: mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-10 2.6.31-10

- Actualizar GRUB: update-grub

7- Reiniciar y probar.

8- En caso de que tengamos o queramos volver a compilar, tendríamos que seguir uno de estos dos pasos:

- make clean y continuar por el punto 4 (manteniendo el fichero .config previo)

- make mrproper y continuar por el punto 3 (para empezar de cero)

Pues hasta aquí este howto, si tenéis alguna duda no dudéis en dejarme por aquí algún comentario. Espero que os haya servido!

Daddy, I WANNA POOL! I want it NOW! Daddy? Are you listening, Daddy? Daaaaaaady!

Yes, young Jedi… It’s easy to build a lap pool from a 40′ High Cube ISBU shipping container… IF you start planning now.

Recently, I was lurking a friend’s blog, where there is a rampant discussion going on about using ISBUs (Shipping Containers) as housing.

And, one of the readers asked about whether or not you could actually use one of these big steel boxes, as a Swimming Pool.

The answer is: YES.

Note: Don’t do this if it’s already snowing outside. Playing in the snow is for kids and idiots. Remember, H1N1 is not your friend. Just tell your kids;

“Hey you should’a spoke up sooner. Maybe next year!”

Where was I? Oh yeah…

We’ve used ISBU’s as the “mold” for lap pools a few times. I personally plan to do it again. It “mystifies” the neighbors.

Hurricane Katrina knocked the heck out of my photo collection, so you’re going to have to visualize this. You can do it… I’ll type slow.

Now, before you think I’m completely nuts, here’s a guy who’s doing the same thing… albeit above ground, with trash dumpsters.

Yeah, I know “New Yorker’s” are crazy!  Have you seen what they pay for apartments in the city? Oy freakin’ Vey! I’d have a heart attack once a month, when the rent came due!  But… this guy… he gets paparazzi and media hype, and everything!

So… First thing you do, is grab a shovel.

Not that namby-pamby “use your hands and get some blisters” kinda shovel… THIS kind of shovel;

Once you get that… find a sunny spot, dig your hole, and then shore up the insides, to prevent a cave-in, later.

Dig your hole several feet longer than the container, on the “door” end. You’ll see why later.

Remember, the skin on a container is just that. SKIN. It’s not designed to take a load. If you don’t believe me, read THIS.

You can use cinder blocks, a thin steel-reinforced (rebar) concrete wall, even railroad ties… But use SOMETHING, or you’ll be either sorry, or a guest star on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

(BTW: If you win the $10 grand, remember your ‘friends,’ huh?)

First, lay the ISBU on it’s SIDE.

Now, cut out the NEW top. Grind the “cut” lip smooth. Guess what? Wider pool.

And that pool’s gonna hold about 11,000 – 12,000 gallons of water.

Cut out your drains in the bottom. Install your water returns in the sides. Do your plumbing.

Remember, don’t sniff the glue, and rightie tightie… LOL!

Now, install your drain lines in your hole, and then build a one course outline of your container bottom so that the container will sit above your plumbing. Now fill in ‘that’ inside hole until it’s level… with gravel.

Now, drag the ISBU into your hole.

Okay… don’t drag it, drop it in there carefully, after lining everything up. Be careful of the returns if you’ve placed them outside the container, in the gap between the retaining wall system.

Some people actually prefer the “outside plumbing” method. I’m not one of them.

But if YOU are… Now, you can backfill into the gap between the container and the retaining wall, if you want. Some people use gravel, some use dirt.

Hey, use old socks if you want to, but just make sure that you fill up the gaps. You don’t want the container to “bow out” after you’ve filled it with water.

I prefer gravel. It’s easy to place, strong, and easy to get back out if I have to… Click heels three times… I hope I don’t. I hope I don’t…

On the inside, most people line the container to get smooth sides. It’s easier to clean. Plus, it gives you a place to run your water return lines INSIDE the container.

Just some inspiration!

This is the best way. It’s the “Ronin Way.” Several sheets of plywood. Sand it smooth, or get the good stuff.

If your kid keeps missing his curfew, it’s a weekend of “Wax on, Wax off” with an orbital sander…

Who says you have to beat them?

Now, here’s where it gets tricky…

You need a place to put the pump and filters, right? Well, that container has doors on it.

Remember?

At the door end… (remember the container is on it’s side now, so the doors will be hinged at the top and bottom) build a wall out of concrete, masonry, or whatever you can handle about 4 feet or so into the box. Make it “strong and thick” and insure that it’s firmly attached to the container because it’s going to have water pressing against it. Use tapcons or something similar to attach your new wall to the container sides.

This is going to form the ROOM for your pool apparatus, and supply storage.

Now, it’s below grade, so you’ll have to build steps down to it. But that will be cool, literally. Use cinder blocks to build retaining walls on either side, to keep the dirt from falling in Again with the cinder clocks… I know, I know… But, you’ll look like you did in high school, when you’re finished!

Think of this as Corten Calisthenics.

Build some cool steps down into the hole. Don’t bump your head on the “door/cover.”

Now, go get some sand. A LOT of sand… A truckload of sand. Builders sand.

Don’t steal it from the beach! The Green-Peacer’s will beat you to death with a biodegradable bucket and shovel!

Relax, I know what you’re thinking… All that sand… Oy Vey! Use a backhoe or a Bobcat, or a bunch of unruly kids that you are currently punishing for setting the house on fire or wrecking the car.

Even MORE inspiration!

Dump it into the big empty end of the container, and then sculpt it to form your slope for the bottom. Nobody wants a pool without a shallow end. Not all of us are Michael Phelps!

Build some steps down into the shallow end. You can use lumber, if you’re careful. Otherwise, consider forming and using concrete.

Okay, if you did it right, you now have a pool that’s about 34+’ long, and over 7 feet deep now, at the deepest point. You also have a built in pool room that is almost 8′ high, about 4 ‘ deep, and almost 9′ wide.

Now… Open that top door UP, and put a post under each end. Now, you have a covered porch on your pool room.  Open the bottom one, and either remove it, or even use it as a deck.

You can easily enclose this space using a small insulated wall and a door, to cut down on pump noise.

That done, get some liner track from the pool supply store, and install it around the top edge of the container. Once you’ve finished doing that, install the plastic pool liner that you can buy from any pool supply company or store. It will fit into the liner track.

WHAT? A Vinyl pool? Ronin… Are you freakin’ nuts?

Nope. You wanna do this “yourself” or not?

The idea here is to take an ISBU container and turn it into an affordable pool, for less than half the cost of going to a turnkey pool company.

You can go fiberglass… But not in a ISBU shell. It’s a shame too, because frankly, fiberglass is the way to go. Easy maintenance, lower chemical usage, and long life that is relatively hassle-free.

But you had to go and use an ISBU…

I’ve never seen a fiberglass shell that would drop into an ISBU cavity.

You can go “Gunite,” but you better have an extra $10,000 – $15,000 laying around, because you’re going to need it. Oh yeah, you’ll need a couple of contractors too. And laborers. Lot’s of laborers…

And Gunite (or concrete) pools require more chemicals, have a rougher surface (thus they are harder to clean) and they usually need replastering at about year 8-10.

Now… IF you go VINYL, you’ll be able to install most everything all by your “onesies.” As in, you and the family. And they’re easy to maintain, and fairly easy on chemicals.

There are drawbacks. People will tell you that the liner will wear out in 3-5 years. Bull. Liners last 10 years, easy. Some last longer. And, the current crop are starting to approach that 25 year “degrade and decay” mark, IF the pool is properly maintained and taken care of.

Realtors will tell you that a homebuyer won’t like your “plastic pool.” So what? You’ll have gotten years of pleasure out of it.

And you didn’t have to drive all the way to the beach, lake, or river…   waste relaxation time stuck in traffic, fight for a parking space, fight for some sand to stake out, buy “overpriced and under-quality” concession stuff that they try to pass of as “food and drinks,” or dirty up your car with sand and debris on the way back.  You’ll have saved enough to pay for this pool, and then some.

Just look at the Realtor and laugh. Screw them. They don’t like it, THEY can haul it out to the curb!

Yes, you’ll probably have to buy the pool liner material (which isn’t exactly cheap), and you might even have to make your own, depending on the length you go with. Or you might find a custom house that will do all the work for you. If you do this in the off-season (when work is slow), you’ll get a terrific bargain. You’ll figure this out with a few phone calls.  And, if you’re really worried about that alleged pool liner “imminent failure”… this is a perfect opportunity to DOUBLE the thickness of that lining, to help prevent any tears or leaks. This isn’t nearly as difficult as it sounds. Ask your local pool guy.

We did. Our last lap pool liner was a  “thick” vinyl custom, and it cost $2800, straight from the liner company. (It cost more than a normal “custom” liner because we used a much heavier vinyl that was harder to work with. If we’d used regular pool liner, it would’ve come in about $1500 or so.) We sent them detailed dimensions, they did all the work, and we got a really high quality product. If we’d “done it ourselves,” or waited until Spring…  it would’ve cost about $4000.00 or more. Your mileage may vary.

Put it in the hole. Make sure the shallow end of the liner is in the shallow end of the pool. You’d be surprised how many people make this mistake and waste time and effort. Install your drains.

Here’s a good “blow by blow” of installing a pool liner.

It includes how you attach the liner to each pool step. It’s not as colorful as it would have been if I’d written it, but hey… that just guarantees that you’ll understand it!

Now you have a plastic lined rectangular custom pool in a steel reinforced shell.

After you’ve installed your pool liner you can secure it using decking, tiles, or whatever suits your fancy, No one is going to know that you used a shipping container.

Now, install your pool water returns, traps, etc… and the pool pump/filtration system.

Now’s also a perfect time to add that solar pool water heating panel into the loop…

And maybe a few photovoltaic panels to run the pump and filter…

Can’t you just picture yourself lounging out here?

Now… about the top of that “pool room…”

Frame in a wood deck the same size as your “pool room” roof. Make sure that there are spaces between the wood decking slats. Now your pool room is basically weathered in, and it can breathe. If you’re a pool pump or filtration system, you need to breathe, trust me.

Add water, jello, or even chocolate milk. I don’t care.

Well… I do care. Chocolate milk is gonna get pretty stinky in about six hours… If you plan on doing this, make sure that you’re downwind of me, huh?

Here’s a tip for you;

SALT Chlorination.  It’s much cheaper, and a lot safer.

Did you know that seawater is used to make laundry bleach? Yep. That’s right. And if it works in the laundry, it’ll work in the pool.

All you have to do is use a Salt Chlorine Generator. But why would you do this?

Ever get out of a pool with red, burning eyes? Well, it was a chemical burn from the chlorine.

Using SALT is WAY better than using chlorine chemicals. Initially, a certain amount of salt is added to the water. As water passes over the chlorinator’s specially coated plates, an electric current breaks down the salt and water into their basic elements to form sodium hypochlorite, which is the active sanitizer in all forms of chlorine. The chlorine kills algae and bacteria in the water and oxidizes the waste. Thereafter, the chlorine regenerates itself back to salt and begins the process over again in a virtually unending cycle. Since salt does not evaporate, an occasional addition of salt is needed only to replace what is lost due to the splash out, pumping out, draining or backwashing.

The obvious advantage is the cost effectiveness of the salt-water chlorination system. Imagine you spend $15 per day currently on chlorine, over a period of five years you will spend in excess of $25000. An equivalent salt water chlorination system will cost around 1/10th of that amount, with running costs being equal to 1/5th. The system would pay for itself in less than one year.

Plus, SALT IS ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY.

(Sorry, didn’t mean to yell…)

Stay tuned…

And send me a picture. All I have left now are these “inspirations.”

Stinkin’ Hurricanes, anyway… mumble, grumble, snort!

And since you’re still here;

If this blog has helped you, educated you, amused you, or even just made you shake your head and wonder why I’m not locked up in some room clad with rubber tiles…

Please know that this site has required a great deal of money, time and effort to develop & maintain. If it’s been useful to you at all, and you can afford to… You can help my family and support this site by making a small donation by hitting that Paypal button up there on the right.

Paypal is the VERY BEST “secure” way to donate to any cause… like ours.

This will help keep us alive while we try to remedy our own situation, and empower me to carry on writing, maintaining, providing countless hours of hard work, and including any updates or topics that you might suggest.

And… No anatomical impossibilities, huh? I’m not as young as I used to be…

Flash

Rij vaak door een spannend tunneltje bij het ophalen van de kidz. Vandaag voor een opdracht had ik mijn camera bij me en gelijk maar even een fotootje genomen in deze tunnel.

Als je met flitsen een goede balans wilt hebben met je object en omgevinglicht, gebruik de flitser als invulflits.
Zet je onderwerp niet te ver weg anders gaat de flitser heel veel licht creeëren en slaat het een beetje dood, zoals hieronder:

te ver te veel flits

Meet het licht van de omgeving en maak een correcte belichting met een juiste sluitertijd, diafragma en iso waarden.
Nou en dan klikken maar en de flitser doet de rest.

CHESTNUT & CRANBERRY ROLL   ** (Can be prepared ahead)**

Makes 2 rolls, each cuts into 8 slices

Preparation Time: 30 minutes.     Cooks for 1 hour

Easy to prepare

……………………………………………………………………………….

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 Bramley (cooking) apples, approximately 140 g / 5 oz each, peeled

3 x 450 g (3 x 1 lb) packs good quality pork sausages

2 x 200g (2 x 7 to 8 oz)  packs vacuum-packed chestnuts, rougfhly chopped

Small bunch sage, leaves roughly chopped

Small bunch thyme, leaves stripped

1 egg

100g / 4oz white breadcrumbs

175g / 6oz fresh or frozen cranberries

24 rashers streaky bacon

butter for greasing

…………………………………………………………………………….

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, then gently fry the onion for 5 minutes until softened.  Finely chop the apples, either by hand or in a food processor.

Squeeze the sausagemeat from the sausages into a large bowl, then add all the other ingredients except the cranberries and straky bacon.  Season generously then get your hands in and mix well.  Weigh out 450g (1lb) of the stuffing and mix a handfull of cranberries into it.  Use to stuff the neck of the turkey.

To assemble the rest:  Butter and season a large sheet of foil.  Stretch out the bacon rashers slightly with the back of a kitchen knife, then overlap 12 rashers on the foil. 

Spoon half of the stuffing mix evenly over the bacon, leaving a border of about 3cm (a little over an inch).  Scatter with half the cranberries, then pat them in.  Tuck the long edges of the bacon over the stuffing, then, using the foil to help, roll the stuffing up into a log shape. 

Repeat to make a second roll.

Heat the oven to 190C / 375F / Gas mark 5 / Fan oven 170C

Put the foil-wrapped rolls onto a roasting tin and roast for 45 minutes.  Unwrap, draining off any juice, then finish roasting for 15 minutes, until the bacon is crisp.

**These rolls can be prepared up to 2 days ahead and kept, raw, in the fridge, or frozen for up to 1 month.  Roast up to 1 day ahead if you wish, then reheat, wrapped in foil, for 30 minutes while the turkey rests and your vegetables finish cooking.

………………………………………………………………..

Recipe and photos from a recipe that appeared in BBC Good Food Magazine, Christmas edition 2007

SERVES 8     PREPARATION TIME: 10 MINUTES    COOKING TIME: 1-1/2 HOURS

Easy to prepare

Ingredients

Juice of 1/2 lemon

4 small eating apples

4 small pears

900g / 2 lbs shallots (unpeeled weight)

1 tbsp olive oil

50g / 2 oz butter

6 tbsp quince or redcurrant jelly**

bay leaves to decorate

METHOD

Put the lemon juice into a large bowl.  Peel the apples and pears, leaving the stalks on, then toss in the juice. 

Meanwhile, bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil.  Lower in the apples and pears, then cover and poach for 30 minutes or until the fruit just gives to a sharp knife.  Peel the shallots while you’re waiting.

Heat the oven to 190C / 375F / Gas mark 5  (170C fan oven).  Add the oil and butter to a small roasting tin, then add the drained apples, pears and the shallots.

Brush the fruit with a layer of the quince or redcurrant jelly **(cranberry jelly would work equally well)** and roast for 1 hour until softened and golden.

Turn the pears and apples around in the fat a few times during cooking, brushing twice more with the glaze.

Serve spooned around the turkey, decorated with bay leaves.

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This recipe has been very slightly adapted from a recipe that first appeared in the December 2007 Christmas edition of BBC Good Food magazine.  The photograph is from the same source.