markmcb_blog

Man do I hate Linux sometimes.

So I’ve got an old PowerBook G4 867Mhz that is just not keeping up with the latest Mac software. Rather than scrap it, I thought I’d see if I could give it a second life. I decided to try Fedora 8 as I’m very familiar with that OS. My wife only really uses this computer to surf the net and check email, so I figured a base install would be perfect. All went well until I got to the wireless card. It didn’t work out of the box so I started Googling only to find tons of incorrect information.

The most common was the application of a program called bcm43xx-fwcutter which is used to extract data from a proprietary driver and create useful drivers for Linux. Well, 99% of the information surrounding this kept leading me to the same error:

# /sbin/modprobe bcm43xx
FATAL: Module bcm43xx not found.

# sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory

After literally 2 days of trying variations of the bad info, I had a sudden flash of common sense: check dmesg to see what’s failing. I ran the following:

dmesg | tail -n 30

Buried in the output was a message telling me to go to linuxwireless and get new drivers. I followed the simple instructions there and bam, it works like a champ. Spread the good word!

I always find it interesting when I believe something to be true for years and then one day someone says, “that’s incorrect.” Today was one of those days.

In Unix, Linux, OS X, or most any good operating system, you’ll find a standard command called top. It’s a simple programs that, according to the manual, “provides a dynamic real-time view of a running system.” At the top of the top (heh) output is a header that looks like:

top - 15:43:10 up 14 days, 15:25,  4 users,  load average: 0.27, 0.12, 0.10
Tasks: 106 total,   2 running, 104 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie

Note the top right load average numbers. I had always thought that those numbers represented the percent load on the processor averaged over the last minute, 5 minutes, and 15 minutes respectively. Well, I was right about the time intervals, but wrong about the information. The load actually reflects system load such that a value of 1 means the processor on average had 1 process waiting to run, i.e., was loaded 100%. So, in the values above, the CPU was only 27% busy over the last minute, 12% in the last five, and 10% in the last 15. Anything over 1 means that there is an overload and a queue of pending processes.

This would explain why I saw values of 40 when OmniNerd was last Slashdotted. I thought the server was doing well with a 40% load. In reality it had a 4000% load and was dropping requests left and right.

Oh well. Live and learn.

Some of my favorite Nine Inch Nails tracks are the purely instrumental ones. I have always thought that Trent Reznor does an amazing job of conveying images through sound. Much to my surprise and satisfaction, Trent posted a new album to their site a few days ago called Ghosts I-IV, which is entirely instrumental.

I think it’s pretty good. It is definitely the most mellow thing he’s ever put out. Some of the tracks are quite impressive in terms of intricate sound. I can’t wait to hear this album in digital surround sound because it has a precise detail that you just don’t get in most music and surround sound would really bring that out.

Aside from sound, each track of the digital copy has an embedded image that goes along with the track. The image from track 16 is shown to the left. As Trent states on his site, “This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams.”

If you get a chance, check it out. You can listen to most of the music free from the site. For $5, you can download it all.