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Laukaisualusta is running on a new hardware. I decided to upgrade to better processor and motherboard so that I can make more virtual machines ;) The new hardware is:
- CPU: AMD Phenom II 920 2.8GHz
- Motherboard: Asus M4N78 Pro
- Memory: 8GB DDR2 800MHz (added 4GB more)
added (EET): 17:53 - 11.06.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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A hilarious cat with a great interest on boxes =P Thanks to Ismo for the links!
added (EET): 23:45 - 26.04.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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About a week ago I installed Windws 7 beta to my laptop and I thought that I would share some comments about it =)
First of all I have to say that I am quite impressed how reliable the beta is already. It hasn't crashed, not even once. The Windows Update provided me automatically almost every driver that my laptop needed and for the rest of the devices I used Windows Vista drivers. The core of the Windows 7 should quite same as the Vistas so that didn't cause much problems.
The transition from XP to Windows 7 has been quite easy because I have already been using Vista for couple of years in my desktop computer. The basic usage is almost the same as in Vista. The most biggest change that I have noticed this far is the taskbar (taskbar is easy to notice ;). The quicklaunch is gone. Windows 7 allows you to pin programs and other shortcuts to the taskbar. When you open a pinned program windows doesn't create extra "icons" for programs beloning to that group. If you have several same programs open, those programs are automatically stacked under the one icon in taskbar. If you take the mouse over the stack, taskbar pops up a little menu where is a thumbnail of every window and you can easily switch to it (see the picture below).
Windows 7 beta has also had a slight impact on my mobility. The battery life has increased about 20-30% compared to Windows XP. I think that is because Windows 7 has much wider range of power management options than Windows XP. The WLAN management is also much easier in Windows 7.
Of course the new windows comes with the new imcombability issues for third party softwares. Most of the software that I use have installed nicely when I have forced it to be installed in Vista or XP combability mode. The only real problem that I have had with this project is the lack of support for firewall/antivirus softwares. There are already several internet security softwares from several providers that support Windows 7 but none of them are freeware. The university has license for students to use Symantec Endpoint Security 11. That only works partially. Let's hope Windows 7 RC1 will fix this issue also =)
added (EET): 14:57 - 01.04.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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It's been a while from my last post but I'm still alive. I've just been very busy with all kinds of school related projects and trying to find a summer job or job where I could make my MSc thesis. The summer job part is now covered. I will start in the beginning of May at the same place where I have been working the last two summers. Let's hope they can provide me subject for my thesis also.
There has been a good winter in Tampere this year. I can't remember when the temperature has been above zero degrees (celcius). Here is picture of Tosca in the snow =)
added (EET): 18:55 - 19.02.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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My desktop computer is running Windows Vista Home Premium x64.. I bought the OS one and a half years ago with the machine. As you all might know windows tends to get a "little" slower when the time goes by. So I decided to reinstall the OS. Well it was not just another typical reinstallation. Computer normally reboots couple of times when your installing Vista, my installation did that too but it also crashed to bluescreen with every boot. I had to set default settings to the BIOS with every boot(?).. I don't know why I had to do that because I didn't change any settings in the BIOS.
The problem might be that the installer in the installation media is quite old. The only hardware change that I have made is that I have updated the amount of memory from 2GB to 4GB. 4GB wasn't that common couple of year ago.. Maybe that was the problem...
After I finally got the machine up and running with the Vista I naturally wanter to update the system with the latest Updates. I took over 2 hours to download and install 75 updates from the last two years. =S
Now I can start to install all the other software o/
added (EET): 13:37 - 30.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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Couple of traditional video clips to cheer up the exam week =)
- Afro Ninja
- Sileny Ota (or something)
- Lannistumaton (Relentless)
- Weird Al Yankovic Ramboing (Something new also)
UPDATE:
Something football related too =) David Beckham's second goal in AC Milan's shirt. Let's see if Becks ever returns to U.S... Great announcer btw =D
added (EET): 14:45 - 29.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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Thanks to Ismo for the link =)
added (EET): 18:20 - 21.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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A dog enters a football match in Hungarian 1st division football match. Match officials almost manage to lure the dog out of the field but the dog decides to re-enter. =)
added (EET): 16:47 - 16.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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...and the end of it.
added (EET): 21:30 - 14.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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All my ongoing courses (or courses that I will attend this semester) are now in English also. Most of them used to be in Finnish ;). You can find the courses here.
added (EET): 17:10 - 12.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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How bored you have to be that you end up doing something like this.
added (EET): 17:06 - 12.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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added (EET): 16:03 - 10.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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I got bored on my christmas holiday and finally found some time code the new version of the website.
So, what's new then? Almost everything. First of all, the whole website is now made with a little framework that I have designed and implemented myself. Target for this framework development was that I could make websites without writing a single line/tag of html. This version of the framework didn't quite achieve that goal but has reduced the amount of coding significantly. Maybe the future versions will hit the targer better =). The framework has been made by using PHP5's object-oriented features.
Previous version of the website was published too early with unfinished content. I never had the time or motivation to make any content to it and the site remained unfinished. I decided that I wouldn't publish this version before it had most of the content done. Only thing that hasn't been made to the new version is the Statistics. Stats will be available in the near future ;)
Of course the layout is also totally new. The main navigation is now located in the top right corner of the page and possible sub navigation appears to the top of the main part of the page. Website also uses AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML) for certain functionalities. AJAX is something I found very useful because you can exchange information with the server without reloading the whole page. PHP is serverside "scripting" language, so when it is used solely it requires the reloads. But using PHP and AJAX together, they are quite powerfull for dynamic websites.
Feel free to comment =)
added (EET): 16:21 - 08.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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added (EET): 18:38 - 07.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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If you have a linux-box running with a ssh-server open to the internet, I recommend that you have look at this perl script called SSH Black.
SSH Black monitors incoming ssh-connections by analyzing /var/log/secure logfile (by default) and blacklists ip-addresses with iptables when certain amount of failed login attempts have been made from the same ip-address. The script also sends emails if an ip-address has been blocked (and when it has been released from the blacklist).
There are lot's of options that allows you to modify the script's functionality. You can even modify it to block incoming http-requests etc. SSH Black requires a little bit knowledge about the iptables but there are quite good installation instructions if you are not that familiar with it.
Check the website for more information.
added (EET): 16:01 - 07.01.2009 by Risto Mäntylä
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