I got fed up with it being under hasnbang0.com/blog, I decided to move it to it’s own subdomain.  The reason it was bugging me was that it was mixed in with all of my other files.  I needed to make scripts test to make sure it didn’t touch the blog files, and that was a nuisance (simple, but a nuisance).

So, here we are: blog.hashbang0.com

Please update any links, and your RSS/Atom feeds, here are the updated feed links:

• RSS 2.0
• RSS .92
• Atom 0.3

I’ve no plans to move from now on, and I’m going to do a bit of trickery to make hashbang0.com/blog still work for anyone who really doesn’t want to update their links.

Coming to Aberystwyth back in 2006, I recall moving into my house in PJM (91, room C) with my family, Mum fussing about unpacking everything in my room, and my sister shoving all of my kitchen stuff in my cupboard (I never knew exactly what I had in that cupboard until I moved out the following summer).  I recall them leaving and being terrified to go downstairs, when I had plucked up the courage to go downstairs to meet my new housemates I was greeted by a friendly face offering me a cup of tea.  This friendly face was, of course, Faye’s and we spent many hours sitting in that kitchen drinking tea.
The year went on and I met new people, learnt new things, and had some wonderful times.  Perhaps most memorable is the ‘snow day’ in late February 2007, the revision sessions with seven of us crammed into my PJM room and generally ended up with Street Fighter being played on my SNES, and the long summer days playing frisbee on the University grounds.

After a long summer working, second year was upon me.  New lessons to be learnt, both in University (computer architecture, network programming, data structures and more) and in life (managing bills and other household issues).  Shortly into my second year Faye and I started going out, meaning we’ve been together just over two and a half years as I write this.
The second year saw me get an interview with Sun Microsystems and after an exam in January 2008, I was offered the job.  Revisions sessions got bigger and moved to lecture halls with projectors and elaborate slide shows.
The most memorable events of second year has to include mine and Faye’s “one month anniversary” dinner (after spending all day working, we were just about to get ready to go out when a friend knocked on the door and had us talking for three hours.  After getting ready and finding a restaurant that was still serving, we managed to order lots of tapas, but they refused to make us paella), and going to see Bill Bailey perform Tinselworm in Birmingham.

As soon as second year finished, I was plunged into yet new situations.  Moving from Aberystwyth to Camberley, I started work at Sun Microsystems.  Rather than go into any sort of detail here, I’ll direct you to my various postings of which there was one a week detailing what I was up to in Sun.
Sun gave me a lot of new skills, and made me realise what I was interested in and that what I learnt at University might actually not be much use in the big wide world…
I loved being at Sun, everything about working, and working for a company that did what I wanted to do, and in a way in which I wanted to do it.  I hope that I have a similar employer in the future.

After spending the summer working for the MOD, I entered my final year of University.  It was difficult to get back into lectures, and I found coursework terribly difficult to get on with.  I was constantly pining to be back at Sun, back at my desk in GMP03 collecting tickets, tinkering with servers, and having a chat and a laught with the great people around me.
Of course, I had to go on.  The first semester didn’t hold much for me, apart from an overly crowded timetable.  After a terrible Christmas, I was back to do terribly in my exams (all passes, but not great ones).
Semester two came and went.  It was filled with loathing for my degree and a want to break out of the formalities and just learn things that would be relevant to me.

So would I do it again?  If I knew then what I do now, well, I wouldn’t do a computer science degree would I?  I’d already know it all
Seriously, University itself hasn’t always been a happy experience, and of late it’s been the cause of much anger.  But the people I have met and the relationships I have gained have been so great, how could I turn that down?

So, after four years, it comes to a rather awkward end: I’m still here in Aberystwyth, I will be for the next 24-30 months as Faye finishes her masters in fine art.  I am looking for work, hopefully something IT based, but I’ve just got to pay the bills.
If you are thinking of coming to Aberystwyth University, I’d advise that you have made the correct choice.  If you want to email me about it, I’d be happy to answer your email, and if you have an interest in anything you see on my blog or on my website, I would be thrilled to meet up and share a quiet pint chatting about it with you!  Drop me a line to arrange a time.

If you know me and are reading this, now, in six months time, or six years time, send me an email and say hi, I’d love to hear from you too

I have also created a breadcrumb script, in the status bar of the window you should see a new breadcrumb trail

The following browsers are supported 100%:

• Camino 2.0.3
• Firefox 3.5.8
• Opera 10.10
• Safari 4.0.5
• Chrome 5.0.375.55
• Lynx 2.8.7rel.1 (Yes, that’s right, it works very well in a text browser too!)

Please send me any feedback on the new design

The exhibition is the display of 19 artists work, all in the medium of photography.  It’s well worth a visit, especially as it’s FREE to get in!  Support the artists by buying a catalogue (a bargain at £4) and if you see a piece of work you like, please buy it!

I spent Sunday in London too, walking around shops and generally seeing the London sites. I still marvel at the London Underground, I think it is an awesome service, I love it!
I’m also marvelling at the state of modern technology. I love that I can hook my phone up to my laptop for internet use, which is what I’m doing at the moment, whinging my way down some train tracks out of London Paddington while writing this blog post. I think its brilliant!

Anyhoo, off home to Melksham now. Will be seeing family and friends for the next week or so, as well as trying to tidy my dissertation code.

#!/bin/bash
/sbin/dladm up-aggr
/sbin/dladm up-vlan
/sbin/dladm up-vnic
/sbin/dladm init-linkprop -w

I need this to run on startup.

Now, as of Solaris 10, things like this should really be done in SMF.  We can easily create a new service using the following template (modify as you require ) :


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE service_bundle SYSTEM "/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/service_bundle.dtd.1">
<!--
SCRIPT DESCRIPTION GOES HERE
-->

</service_bundle>


Now, you put that into:
/var/svc/manifest/site
It should be named something like “my_script.xml” where “my_script” is a descriptive name of your script to run.
On the command line, as root or using `pfexec` run the following commands:
# cd /var/svc/manifest/site
# svccfg validate my_script.xml
# svccfg import my_script.xml
# svcadm enable my_script

Now if you restart, your script will execute!
Thanks to the wonderful people at the opensolaris.org discussion boards for their help!

I managed to get the master server to work fine by doing the following:

1. Make sure all hosts are in /etc/inet/hosts
2. Install SUNWyp
3. Set the domain name like so: domainname mydomain
4. Create the default domain file to make domain name persistent across reboots: domainname > /etc/defaultdomain
5. touch ethers, bootparams and netgroup in /etc
6. Copy /etc/nsswitch.nis to /etc/nsswitch.conf
7. Run ypinit -m and answer questions

This list should have started all of the necessary NIS services.  Setting up the clients proved a little more difficult.  All of the documentation I found said to do the following:

1. Make sure all hosts are in /etc/inet/hosts
2. Install SUNWyp
3. Set the domain name like so: domainname mydomain
4. Create the default domain file to make domain name persistent across reboots: domainname > /etc/defaultdomain
5. Copy /etc/nsswitch.nis to /etc/nsswitch.conf
6. Run ypinit -c and name the NIS master server
7. Start NIS client service with svcadm enable nis/client

However, this didn’t work.  I tried using host names and IP addresses to identify the NIS master when ypinit asked me to specify it, but it wouldn’t work.
As a work around I found that if you don’t specify a master server at all, ypbind will use the -broadcast option and find the master automatically.  Using the method above and staerting ypbind -broadcast myself didn’t seem to work.

This all works on OpenSolaris 2009.06

During the day we hope to have various areas of the school set aside for each of the decades the school has been opened, with music and school related pictures and memories from that era, and if possible, staff! We are hoping that as many ex staff, pupils and Governors can be persuaded to attend as possible, and hopefully be up for a photo shoot too!
We are looking to reopen the ‘tuck shop’ for a one off session, as well and opening the Sports Hall for a soft play/bouncy play and GW sporting hero’s area, we may even have a chance to open the school canteen for a small taste of a ‘last George Ward School dinner’! The event will finish with a final assembly at 4pm where we hope a few speeches from various headmasters/dignitaries may occur.

There are lots of other ideas for the day still being finalised to make this a fab ‘goodbye’ but we will need your help with getting this publicised and was wondering if you could advertise this for us in your media? We need to get in contact with anyone who has any photos, memorabilia or just wants to write into us with their old school memories, which could be displayed on the day in the various areas, all would be gratefully accepted.

Please forward any correspondence to the school at George Ward School, Melksham, Wiltshire, SN12 8DQ or via email to goodbye@georgeward.wilts.sch.uk or check out our school website at www.georgeward.wilts.sch.uk where we will have up to date notices as plans progress along with a direct link for any comments and memories to be sent in.

Your help in contacting any ex staff or pupils would be invaluable.

Thank you
Liz Dimond
GWSA
George Ward School,
Melksham
Wiltshire