Author Archives: Oliver Gorwits

MythTV Transcoding (3): Transcoding for iPad Playback

I’m doing a series of posts here on automated transcoding of recordings in MythTV. The idea is to explain the basics, then evolve the design to end up with recordings suitable for playback on the iPad, which is a little … Continue reading

Posted in mythtv, transcoding | 5 Comments

Is it silly that tmux is fun?

No, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to get a zing of excitement when you find a new tool that improves your life. Maybe you know what I mean – that feeling of happiness at saving time, remembering more … Continue reading

Posted in devops, linux, productivity | 1 Comment

Smokeping+lighttpd+TCPPing on Debian/Ubuntu

Some notes on getting Smokeping to work on Debian/Ubuntu using the lighttpd web server, and the TCPPing check. Install the lighttpd package first, as then the subsequent smokeping package installation will notice that it doesn’t require the Apache web server. However, … Continue reading

Posted in devops, monitoring, networking | 1 Comment

The Limoncelli Test

Over at the excellent Everything Sysadmin blog is a simple test which can be applied to your Sysadmin team to assess its productivity and quality of service. It’s quite straightforward – just 32 things a good quality team ought to … Continue reading

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local::libs for Dist Development

Most of my distributions are on GitHub and built using Dist::Zilla. As the dependencies of each vary widely and I don’t want to muck up my workstation’s libraries, I set up a local::lib for each distribution’s development. The App::local::lib::helper scripts make this really easy. As per the docs, I combine the helper with App::cpanminus (cpanm) for all installation. To bootstrap a new local::lib area, I wrote this simple shell script: #!/bin/bash # script named "new-ll" if [ -z $1 ] then echo ‘pass the distribution name, please’ exit fi echo "creating local::lib for $1 …" sleep 3 curl -L http://cpanmin.us/ | perl – –notest –quiet –local-lib \ ~/perl5/$1 \ App::cpanminus \ Dist::Zilla \ App::local::lib::helper . Entering the correct environment for a distribution uses another helper script: #!/bin/bash # script named "go" if [ -z $1 ] then echo ‘pass the distribution name, please’ exit fi ~/perl5/$1/bin/localenv bash . Which means my workflow for a new distribution is: $ new-ll New-Dist-Name $ go New-Dist-Name . Any Perl distributions installed in that shell (for example from dzil authordeps | cpanm or dzil listdeps | cpanm) will be placed into the new local::lib. It’s a simple ^D to exit. However it’s not obvious that you’re within this special environment, so editing Bash’s $PS1 variable (the shell prompt) to include the following, can help: echo $PERL5LIB | cut -d’/’ -f5 . My deep thanks to the authors of the distributions used to create this neat setup…. Continue reading

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MailHide WP plugin reconfigured

I’ve just disabled the MailHide WordPress plugin, for content on this blog. I realised it was mangling example code in my posts. Sorry about that!

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Migrate SourceForge CVS repository to git

Updated to include promoting and pushing tags. I recently had need to migrate some SourceForge CVS repositories to git. I’ll admit I’m no git expert, so Googled around for advice on the process. What I ended up doing was sufficiently … Continue reading

Posted in devops, git, linux, netdisco | 7 Comments

A Strategy for Opsview Keywords

At my previous employer, and recently at my current one, I’ve been responsible for migration to an Opsview based monitoring system. Opsview is an evolution of Nagios which brings a multitude of benefits. I encourage you to check it out. … Continue reading

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Cfengene3 on Debian Squeeze for local management

Dialling the nerd factor up to 11, I’ve decided to store configuration for my VPS server in git and manage it with Cfengine3. Joking aside, this is a sound decision: having the VCS repo makes backups simple and trustworthy, and … Continue reading

Posted in devops, linux | 2 Comments

Backing up Time Machine Backups from a ReadyNAS Duo

I’ve had a ReadyNAS Duo probably for about a year, now, and quite honestly can’t fault the little black box. Managing computer systems during the day, I have little interest in doing the same at home. The Duo provides home … Continue reading

Posted in OS X | Comments Off