I am not a video editor, so I have little to comment on the issues pro’s are having with the FCP X update. I can say that my graphics department will be facing a lot of issues with equipment, workflow, old projects, licensing, and so on. It will be fun times… And not sure about others, but my group does not handle 180 degree turns that well.

A funny video from Conan, a must watch…

And more of the issue.

How do you add an iptable rule? Lets make one for Apache in this simple example.

To start, what are the current rules on the machine? The below is for Fedora 14.
root@www ~ # iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT icmp -- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:ssh
REJECT all -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
REJECT all -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

To add a rule for http or port 80, we can enter the following command:
root@www ~ # iptables -I INPUT 5 -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT


The command will enter the rule in the 5th spot, which will be before REJECT all. This is important as otherwise the rule will never be evaluated. After the rule entry we need to save it or else it will be lost on reboot.
root@www ~ # service iptables save


My Fedora 15 install stopped working last night after a system update. It was late so I was left to deal with this today.

Changing SElinux to permissive allowed the system to continue booting (I realize thats low on details). The joys of running Alpha software, dont complain when its broke.

I purchased Match Day Live for the 2011 MLS season. Coverage of MLS on TV is fairly poor, so if you trying to catch even local matches you may be out of luck.

The streaming options include a 3k bit rate which is pretty decent looking on my 32″ TV (via HDMI from my MacBook). They have a mosaic option which allows the viewing of 3 streams at once. You have access to archives from the 2009-2010 season, and games from the current season.

Over all I am very happy so far (granted its only the first day). Only downside I see is that its dependent on Silverlight, so a no go for Linux. I read a lot about reviews from last year about choppy videos and issues. I hope they have them sorted out and I have nothing negative to say in this regard.

If you want to watch some games online, try out MatchDay Live. It feels good to support MLS and I hope that this support is a small sliver in the growing success of MLS in the USA. It is nice to see the growing interest in Soccer in the states.

Sadly Evernote does not have a native application for Linux users. We are left with the web interface when making use of the service. Luckily someone has developed a java clone of Evernote that has a Linux version. Nevernote can be downloaded in RPM, deb, and source packages for both 32 and 64bit.

Remember that you need to install Java to get the app to run. For those like myself running on clean and lean OS’s (go ArchLinux!), this may not be installed by default.

Perhaps Diaspora will be the first Social Network site that I will support. Not controlled by Corporate interests with shady handling of personal information, privacy, and data. Open source code, and a potential competitor to Facebook. All around a win win. I just hope it takes off once its open to the public.

Granted even with all that said, I still will have a hard time knowingly posting my personal information in a public forum. It amazes me everyday what people post about themselves, seemingly not understanding that everything on the net will never go away and you cant take it back.

I just noticed that fedoraproject.org has a new site. What a great change. Good work to the team who made it happen.

What is going on at Apple? As I recently posted, OSX 10.7 seems to be moving more and more towards iOS. The obsession within Apple towards the mobile world is probably motivated by both profits and their idea that this is the inevitable feature of computing. Regardless of why, this has certainly affected the way that their other technologies are developed and viewed.

How it Apple’s move regarding Java to be viewed? Is this another attack on anything that is not iOS and their preferred development model and language? I am not sure yet what exactly the motive is, but as time goes on Apple and the Mac platform seem more and more hostile towards anything not Apple.  This is very unfortunate, and may turn lots of developers off on the platform and move them to other OS’es such as Linux.

I love my Mac, and have respect of the OS (still second to Linux though). Yet I fear my days are numbered in the Mac world.

My initial thoughts on the Tiger OSX update… nervous.

I am afraid of the direction being taken with more convergence between iOS and OSX. iOS and the devices have done great for Apple. But lets keep mobile in the mobile space? Actually thats not really fair. I have no issue with merging features that are useful in either direction. And why should I make assumptions before I see the final product and try it.

Rather, my concern is about control and freedom. I fear that the move towards an app store is the beginning of more oversight by Apple. Sure, at first it may be optional, with some neat software that you can install. But you could still install from outside the app store. Although what happens if Apple decides that all software must be done via the app store, or at least go through approval? That is not a path I want to go down, regardless of how much security or stability it may offer. Think iPhone here. Want to install software outside the app store? You are forced to Jail Break it.

I hope that I am over reacting here, and that this may be a feature like the app store in Ubuntu that just allows for easier to find software while being completely optional. I welcome that change. Yet the moment I feel like Apple is telling me what I can and cant install on the OS… say goodbye.

I had a new install of Windows 7 Pro x86_64 on my Mac using Boot Camp. I was frustrated when after a fresh install and a single software install, I was getting errors trying to update Windows using Windows Update. When running the tool, I would get:

Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer.

Of course the Windows Update service was running, restarting both the service and computer did not help. What did, was turning off the service and removing all the files in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution, then restarting the service. It appears that either the software install or an attempt to check for updates had corrupted the update files.