lunatechian (lunatech-ian)

If you use kde and you want to start certain apps (like konsole/amarok/kmail) minimized to the tray instead of coming up on the desktop, you can use the ksystraycmd command. For example ksystraycmd --hidden kmail will start kmail and put it in the system tray.

Made rpms of amarok-1.4.7 on RHEL 4. It was a real pain to get all the dependencies and making correct rpms of them, but all the pain was worth it.

Came to know about rpmbuild --short-circuit while trying to get things working.

After messing around with spec files for the past two days, I think rpm is a solid packaging scheme. The reason why people are crazy about debian packaging scheme (.deb) might be because of the awesome apt-get that is built on top of it. yum seems like an amateur effort next to apt-get.

One nice goodness that I discovered in rpmbuild was when I ran across Installed (but unpackaged) file(s) found: error.

rpmbuild terminates a build if the RPM_BUILD_ROOT contains files that are not explicitly listed in a %files section of the spec file. See the links for a detailed explanation of this feature.

Links

• rpmbuild --short-circuit option
• Unpackaged files terminate a build

Seen in one of our internal mailing list

Untempered criticism has a devastating impact

Editor's note - I posted this entry on my older blog.

Befor going into the details, a bit of background first. Have you heard of the Nigerian Scam? Here it how it operates - you receives an unsolicited fax, email, or letter often concerning Nigeria or another African nation containing either a money laundering or other illegal proposal. A sample goes something like

FIRST, I MUST SOLICIT YOUR STRICTEST CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION. THIS IS BY VIRTUE OF ITS NATURE AS BEING UTTERLY CONFIDENTIAL AND 'TOP SECRET'. I AM SURE AND HAVE CONFIDENCE OF YOUR ABILITY AND RELIABILITY.

So you get glittery eyed and start dreaming. You reply back and say "Yeah dude! i am in. Lets go and swindle gazillion dollars". Some more emails follow. At some point, you are asked to pay up front an Advance Fee of some sort or to extend credit. If you pay the money, there are often many Complications which require still more advance payments until you either quit, runs out of money, or both. Some times it may go further. You may be asked for your bank account numbers, copies of their passport and drivers licence and phone and fax numbers. What the scamsters are doing is the Identity theft. Your bank account is cleaned out once they have handed over all your details.

So after the gory details here is the story. Silicon.com decided to follow up on the offer and see where it leads to. Silicon.com's Will Sturgeon set up a Hotmail account under an assumed identity and contacted the scamster (a Mr. Madu Frank). You can read the rest of the story Silicon.com. Will Sturgeon made him run around in circles. Really good read. Enjoy!

Links

• archive.org page from silicon.com
• sample of nigerian scam emails

Have you checked out the redesigned Photos and Slideshows on Yahoo! News? I recommend Most Viewed Photos slideshow.

If you are a fan of Terry Pratchett and you missed the news - he has been diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's.

Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet :o)" he wrote in his message. "I know it's a very human thing to say 'Is there anything I can do,' but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

Good to see he has his humor intact.

Links

• Terry Pratchett says he has Alzheimer's

I have heard very few people say anything good about Donald Trump. I have seen him on tv only once on The Apprentice. When the time came to fire one of the contestants, he was very fair. He articulated the reasons for firing very well. I think he is a fair and straight-forward guy. Here is a snip from his interview.