Tassos Bassoukos - Self

Grub Error 17

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:25:43 +0300

If you ever stumble upon the error message

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

while attempting to install GRUB, do take a look at the partition table of the disk you're using, as the partition type in the table may not match the actual file system of the partition. While the Linux kernel doesn't pay much attention to the partition type, GRUB does - and fails with the above message.

This happened to me while trying to install a system to boot off an USB stick, where I forgot to edit the partition table types.

How's that for timing?

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 04:48:31 +0300

Our brand-spanking-new 4-way server has arrived today - just in time for Feisty! It's quite a fortunate coincidence, since if it had arrived here yesterday I might have gone with Etch. I'm currently waiting for the CD-Writer to finish, which for some reason has dropped the writing speed to 12x apparently just to spite me on this single occasion - hell, the download was faster than that!

Speaking of speeds, I'm currently seeding for the i386 and the amd64 versions of Ubuntu Server 7.04 ISOs, and it has struck me that the amd64 ISO uses on average 1.2 times the bandwidth of the i386 ISO; I had the impression that amd64 wasn't in that widespread use in the server domain.

P.S. The new server thinks that it's a vacuum cleaner...
P.P.S. The CD was borken, need to burn another - gah!

Life goes on and on and on...

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:28:17 +0300

Two things have been keeping me quite busy the last six weeks: I'm now properly employed, and I got married on September 16th!

To be honest, the marriage thing has taken a lot more time and energy than we expected - at one time I joked that my vacations really started when my 2-week leave ended - but in the end it was all worth it. Expect photos to be available on our wedding blog sometime this week. The last week we've been recovering from the party, and I've only now got some courage up to write about it...

On another side, I'm now a full-time emnployee of Aristotle University, where I'm partially the sysadmin for a computer room/lab for students (oh, the joys of Windows systems). This also means that I can expect to retire as a public servant, holding the same position for the next 30 years (and doing the same stuff, too...).

One Laptop Per Child

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 03:39:30 +0300

Infoworld reports that the Nigerian government will buy one million OLPC machines. Unfortunately, the first thing that comes to mind is the proliferation of 419 scams that will flood the internet in 2-3 years...

On another note, it seems that there is also some traction in Greece for the OLPC concept, as seen in this call for participation.

Smallest code segments?

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 03:22:26 +0300

Quick: how long is the shortest program to calculate the first prime number after a given number? The answer might surprise you!

In perl, it's about 60 characters:

perl -e '$i=$ARGV[0]+1;$i++while("."x$i)=~/^(..+?)\1+$/;print"$i\n";' 90

Of course, I believe APL will win that contest hands down...

P.S: There's even a perl competition to produce the shortest code for a given problem, with the name Perl Golf...

Petals Around the Rose

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Fri, 2 Jun 2006 11:47:09 +0300

Wherein I reference a secretive little game of five dice, which is more of a puzzle than a game.

The name of the game is, predictably enough, Petals Around the Rose and it is played with five six-sided dice.

The name of the game is Petals Around the Rose, and that name is significant. Newcomers to the game can be told that much. They can also be told that every answer is zero or an even number. They can also be told the answer for every throw of the dice that are used in the game. And that's all the information they get.

Nifty, huh? You can view a more detailed explanation-cum-story, including answers, here. And there are several sites where you can play it online. Myself, it took me about 30 minutes spread out over 5 hours of work to figure it out. Of course, now I'm sworn to secrecy too, and cannot say anything more than the above...

Spot The Reference

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 11:39:20 +0300

I've hit upon the following gem while doing something completely unrelated, and just have to mention it here too. I'm sure you've heard arguments against blogs that fit the essence of this quote:

The multitude of ●●●● is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name, others for the sake of mere gain.

Well, think again - the quote originated in the middle ages (1503 is the best date I got) by Marting Luther, and it targeted books, not blogs. The parallels are interesting, and sure make one think...

Do you want spam with that?

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 03:34:40 +0200

The developers at Google must have way too much free time, as I found out as I cleaned up my spam folder in gmail (all 2 of them):

Since my Web Clips sources do not include anything with a cullinary tendency, the big question is: Is Google spamming me - in my spam folder?

The Notebook Has Left The Building

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 10:53:12 +0200

The notebook has had some problems lately - such as the plastic of one of the mounts for the screen breaking, the DVD drive making very scary noises and the disappearing integrated bluetooth controller - so I've taken the plunge and sent it off for repairs.

I've been feeling a bit strange since I've left it at the repair shop, and a bit liberating. I've been using it most of my awake hours, moving from home to job to job and home back every day for the last year, and now when working on another computer I feel as if I've been displaced from my home... Not to mention that I've taken to adjusting everything to my tastes on whichever desktop I sit - keyboard shortcuts, mouse acceleration, screen size and whatnot. I still miss all my tools however, and it seems that productivity has taken a very noticeable hit...

Premature Alzheimer?

abassouk@gmail.com (Tassos Bassoukos) — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 03:33:28 +0200

While sorting and cleaning some old paperwork at the office, I found an A4 sheet of paper with a logical circuit diagram (or schematic) printed on it. The strange part is that it looks like it was made by me (judging from small glimmers of recognition on specific items), but I have no recollection of writing it or even the purpose it should have.

The schematic isn't very simple either - I counted 20 logic gates, 4 flip-flops, 2 8-bit counters, 2 6-bit comparators, 2 6-bit latch registers, one multiplexer and a 64x4 bit RAM. Also present are a clock generator, 6 input switches and 38 output indicators. Moreover, the whole layout (especially the I/O parts) produces the feeling that the schematic was printed from a logic simulator, not a plain CAD application.

Now, I'm the first to admit that my memory never was one of my major strong points, quite the opposite. But the effort needed to produce this schematic looks non-trivial, and I'd expect that it would have left at least some memory or impression on my mind, and I'm baffled that it has not.