That’s the question that greeted me in my e-mail inbox this morning. I subscribe to Seth Godin’s blog via e-mail because I enjoy receiving the knowledge he has to share in short form on a daily basis. The posts provide immediate inspiration and trigger thinking based on Seth’s own experiences and wisdom from years of practicing in the industry.
So what of the e-mail? Well, Godin set out to do what he does on his blog, but in book form and with many contributors. Call it a crowd-sourced e-book. What’s more, is that it is a free download. Contributors include the inimitable Merlin Mann, the life hacker Gina Trapani, and the warring artist Stephen Pressfield.
Here are more than seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year. From bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert to brilliant tech thinker Kevin Kelly, from publisher Tim O’Reilly to radio host Dave Ramsey, there are some important people riffing about important ideas here. The ebook includes Tom Peters, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried, along with Gina Trapani, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber. (via “What Matters Now: get the free ebook“)
Read more about the ebook at Seth’s blog or download the PDF of What Matters Now.
Last week, Asa Dotzler, Mozilla’s director of community development, urged us to switch to Bing as the default search engine in Firefox. Since the release of Bing, I have been switching back and forth between it and Google’s search engine depending on my needs and the quality of the results I obtain from one or the other.
While I’m still torn between who to make my default (probably neither for some time to come), Asa makes a compelling argument for going with the company that protects your privacy better. In a time when sites like Facebook make sweeping changes to privacy in an attempt to gain more traffic from search engines like Google and Bing, it’s nice to have some tools available that do not leech away all privacy.
But that’s not what I want to discuss. This morning, when I loaded up Bing, I saw this:
That’s right. Bing is sporting a firefox on its home page today. Whether intentional or not, it’s a subtle nod from Microsoft to Mozilla. And red pandas are adorable to boot.
Developers have had some time to update their applications to use the new thread model in Linux, but should a piece of software still require an old model, there’s always the tempting environment variable, LD_ASSUME_KERNEL, available to lend a hand.
This environment variable was handy when it was first introduced for handling threading issues in Linux with applications that used an old thread model. However, with new version of Linux, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x, it can break other applications that are compliant with the new thread model.
What exactly is this LD_ASSUME_KERNEL variable?
On their developer wiki, Novell answers the question, “What is LD_ASSUME_KERNEL all about?”
The environment variable LD_ASSUME_KERNEL can be set to a value that indicates the kernel OS API version an application is compatible with and is used by the Linux Dynamic Linker/Loader for determining what directory paths to use when loading the Standard C Library (GLIBC or libc.so.6). This is the primary mechanism for dealing with backwards compatibility for applications written for older Linux versions.
…
One of the primary distinguishers of features is the difference between the older LinuxThreads POSIX threading model and the newer threading model NPTL (Native POSIX Thread Library).
So, LD_ASSUME_KERNEL controls which libraries are loaded. Ulrich Drepper explains LD_ASSUME_KERNEL and which libraries and paths each kernel specification loads. To summarize:
- 2.4.20 – newer — New thread model (/lib/tls)
- 2.4.1 – 2.4.19 — Linux Threads (/lib/i686)
- 2.2.5 – 2.4.0 — Old threads (/lib)
What’s the problem?
The problem is that the environment variable can be set on any user and easily forgotten. Until it breaks a newer application that the user must start using which is what happened to me recently.
In my case, a legacy application had long since been removed from the server, but the environment variable had been left to languish in the .bashrc file for the user. It was probably just chance that errors did not appear sooner.
Among other issues, the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL variable has been known to cause problems with Oracle installations on SLES 9, SLES 10, RHEL 4, and RHEL 5, as well as CentOS and other newer Linux releases.
If you have some legacy servers around that will be interacting with newer operating system versions, it may benefit you to take a moment and make sure that LD_ASSUME_KERNEL isn’t hiding out in some user environment. And if you still have an application that requires it, well, I can’t tell you what to do. You may need to get rid of the older application, or stick with an older release of the operating system.
Tumble Dry Medium
There should be a label on Apple’s iPhone headset (the earphones with integrated remote and microphone) that states how unbelievably durable they are. I was rather displeased to find that after about 6 months, the left ear bud was starting to lose volume output. At first, I thought I was losing hearing in that ear, but a quick comparison use of my fiancée’s ear buds with my iPhone proved that the left side of her set had no volume loss.
I called Apple support to find out if Apple Care covered them. It did. Apple sent me a new set and I returned the defective. I’ve been using the replacement set for about 6 months now, and it sounds as though the same problem is occurring. I was trying to determine if the ear buds were the problem, or if there was something in particular that I do — winding them up the same way, catching them on objects and having them ripped from my ears, listening to music, listening to podcasts — that might cause the problem.
Over the course of a few days, in the midst of my pondering what to do with it, I managed to lose my iPhone headset. People who know me know that I do not lose things, particularly items that I use daily. So it was a great surprise to me that I could not even retrace my steps, but I had this feeling about having set the ear buds on top of the dryer before heading out to mow the lawn one day.
No, I used them after that.
I went for a week without them. I finally bit the bullet and ordered a new set from Apple yesterday. I received my shipping confirmation e-mail from Apple in the early afternoon, so it is with all apparent obviousness that I tell you I found my old set yesterday evening… in the bottom of the dryer… quite wound together but looking rather clean.
I had left the ear buds in a pair of pants that I had laundered just the night before and tossed into the dryer before heading to bed. The headset managed to slip out of the pants in the drying process. After uncoiling the tightly wound wire clot, I figured I might as well see if it survived the washing and drying process.
Imagine my delight when I tested it with my iPhone and all bits and bobs (ear buds, microphone, remote clicker) worked just as before. Yes, the left ear bud still seems a bit lower volume, but that’s alright, I’ve a new set on the way. The only real problem I see is that the washing process made the wires curly, gave them a perm of sorts, and no manner of straightening is removing those curls. Perhaps some time hanging will straighten them out, but I somehow doubt it.
While I am displeased with this odd loss of volume in the left ear bud of every headset I get from Apple, I am happy to say that the outer durability of the headsets is nothing less than phenomenal. I think I’ll call this set “Curly Q”. Here’s a photo of the survivor.
Be well.
As the designated “tech guy” of the family, I often find myself using LogMeIn to manage family PCs and address issues as they arise. However, LogMeIn requires a client application to be installed.
A client is not bad, but it’s not convenient in some situations. One of those situations occurred tonight when my mother called with an issue that involved computers outside the family. As a regular listener of the TWiT network of podcasts, I decided to give GoToAssist a try since I hear Leo mention it in his ads every now and again.
Wow.
Bravo, Citrix. I have never had such a simple and straightforward remote access solution. This post sounds like an ad, but I assure you it is not. I am not an affiliate, nor do I wish to be. I do believe that GoToAssist is a phenomenal service.
Not only did I have users on three different computers connected in less than 5 minutes, but they had piece of mind afterward as Citrix uninstalls the software from the user’s PC when the session is ended.
At $69 USD per month, it is not a service for those who only have rare occasions to use it. But if you offer paid tech support on a regular basis, it is well worth the money to have this in your tool set. There are, of course, discounts for paying annually instead of monthly.
As with most online products these days, there is a 14 day free trial. You must supply a credit card to start the trial, but you can immediately cancel the service, and it will remain active until the 14 days are up.
If, like me, you are impressed and could see yourself using it again, Citrix also offers a Day Pass for GoToAssist. For $9.95 USD, you can get 24 hours of GoToAssist usage.
Based on my hourly fee for support, that’s a bargain. Long story short, if you need a remote access support solution in a pinch, give GoTo Assist a try. You’ll really like it.
Be well.
