Phillip Pearson - web + electronics notes

tech notes and web hackery from a new zealander who was vaguely useful on the web back in 2002 (see: python community server, the blogging ecosystem, the new zealand coffee review, the internet topic exchange).

2005-9-8

CoLinux considered useful

I'm starting to like CoLinux; I think it's what's going to keep me working next time I'm on the road.

Here's a rough summary of what it took to get the instance that lives on my portable hard disk and runs off a Win2K laptop going ...

Install the Debian image, the TAP driver and interface, and also bridged networking support. Install WinPCap.

Set up /etc/network/interfaces like this:

auto lo eth0 eth1

iface eth0 inet static
  address 192.168.2.14
  gateway 192.168.2.63
  netmask 255.255.255.0

iface eth1 inet static
  address 192.168.98.2
  netmask 255.255.255.0

iface lo inet loopback

Put this in config.xml:

<network index="0" type="bridged" name="Wireless LAN" mac="wlan card's mac address here" />
<network index="1" type="tap" name="colinux-TAP" />

(My home network is 192.168.2.* and 192.168.98.* is a fake network to get connectivity between the Linux instance and the Win2K laptop I'm running it on. You might not need the TAP device and eth1 - but if you find you can connect from Linux to the outside world but not the host PC, this will help. I tried DHCP for eth0 originally, but it gave me the address my WLAN card was using under Windows, which didn't work.)

On Windows, edit c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and add "192.168.98.2 colinux" at the bottom.

On Windows, rename the TAP connection to "colinux-TAP", change its IP address to 192.168.98.1 and make sure that a default gateway is NOT specified.

Put name servers in /etc/resolv.conf.

update-rc.d -f inetd remove apt-get install emacs21 apache mysql-server python php4 libapache-mod-php php-elisp python-mode cp /usr/share/doc/mysql-server/examples/my-small.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Edit /etc/apache/httpd.conf and change MinSpareServers to 1, StartServers to 1, and MaxClients to 10 (this machine doesn't have much memory).

/etc/init.d/apache restart

I've probably forgotten something - but this is most of the "important" stuff :-)

... more like this: []

Web 2.0 Stereotypes

OK guys, this is going too far. Not ALL of the following are required for a web 2.0-style application/site:

- Name that consists of a number and a word. (37signals did it for their company, and 43places did it for their site. That's enough.)

- Blatant rip off of font and style from everything from 37signals.

- Ruby on Rails. (PHP is good enough for Flickr, remember).

- Yellow background appearing then fading out whenever something changes.

- Submit buttons that grey out and say "please wait" when you click them.