Category Archives: Net

Backup the wrong way around

After straying around for a few weeks, the LosLocos finally arrived at the final destination: Berlin. And the skipper – having nothing to repair on his boat – finally is able to take care of our website. But what’s happening ? Why is my backup running that fast ? What… “not found” ?  … deleted ? How ? But, but I actually wanted to…. Well. It seems I’ve done it.

All is gone. Everything we uploaded in these last three years: thousands of photos and many videos…. all gone. That’s something not everyone could do. And definately not as fast as me. To efficiently delete these amounts of data you need a proper internet connection and the right tools ! Heh.

Flaggenparade im GartenBauzaun Discount !! Jetzt !!!

But as I’m not really new in this arena I don’t get a stroke but keep quite calm and start searching through the backups of our blog. But not ! Funny enought it’s exactly that ONE folder that somehow is not included in the nightly backup routine. Heh. So the only option that is left: To restore everything manually. Up until mid 2012 this is an easy task as I did a complete backup of the whole site when we were in Moorea. The rest I have to extract from a PDF export I once did in Brisbane. And the final posts I restore manually.

Two days later our site and all our pictures are online again. And now I’m finally starting on a long overdue update. There was quite some things happening during these last weeks, believe me !

Posted in Berlin, It's funny ! Laugh !, Learning for life, LosLocos, Net, Pics, Work | Comments Off

Alone at the bar…

…not really at the bar but more so in an internet- (or as called in the 90′s: cyber-)cafe. Hehehe. Yeah, internet through the good ol’ network cable.

I wish, I could tell some amazing stories of the lonesome sailor in Domrep but actually I’m quite bored and feel lonely. As said before, there isn’t much to do in Bayahibe. I’m cleaning the ship, got two gigantic bags with laundry to the shore and now I’m in the net, trying to get an old website of a friend to work.

Posted in Net, Pics, Rancho Relaxo | 5 Comments

A little break (for the webserver)

Sorry for the downtime on our website. The server was broken after a software update on the SAN. Now it seems to be working again.

Posted in Linux, Net | Comments Off

About the language

Some have noticed – others haven’t: Our blog is bi-lingual. – Yes it is !!

At least for now. You can find the little country-flags on the upper right corner. Use the red-white-red one for German (Austrian ;-) language. If you’re able to decipher, you’ll find that the German posts tend to be longer and with a little less typos. I also cannot promise to write in two languages for now and forever… As long as we’re connected to the intarwebs, that’s no problem and just takes time. But once we’re out on the great blue yonder, our only means of communication is Email and from there on the posts will only be in one language. Or maybe we’ll switch and use German for every odd and english for the even dates ? We’ll see. I just wanted to tell…

Posted in Net | Comments Off

The Rancho Relaxo on Facebook

I totally tried not to, but in the end I had to give in: Now we’ve got a Facebook page. Try to search for Rancho Relaxo and hopefully you’ll find us. Blog posts should automatically appear on our fb-page. We’ll see it it works…

Posted in LosLocos, Net, Rancho Relaxo | Comments Off

New gadget: LunaWLANnet

Today the newest gadget arrived: The famous LunaWLANnet. So what’s that ? It a gigantic WLAN antenna to be mounted on the top of the mast. It will give us access to the internet whenever there is a marina or hotel with wlan nearby. I just ordered it a few days ago and was amazed when today it arrived in a huge box… The thing is 1.2m long !!
So I unpacked the gigantic antenna and put it out in the garden. Connected the 20m network cable and went inside to connect the power adapter and connect the LAN cable to the computer. The cable that goes to the antenna also delivers the power for the antenna using PoE. So there’s no need for another power cable to put into the mast. VERY convenient !
After all was setup, I open the webbrowser and go to the website of the LunaWLANnet to select the WiFi network of my choice. Done. After three minutes I was online. And most of those three minutes I spent searching for my own network – the list of available access points is amazing in our neighborhood.

Here’s a pic of our new gadget. Our old-school telephone is just for size comparision. Go to lunatronic to get your own antenna.

Posted in Hardware, Links, Net, Pics, Rancho Relaxo | Comments Off

First short-wave experiments

On saturday I did a few first steps in short wave technology. One of the basics is to be able to receive a wather fax. This is hardly anything new. People have been doing that since the eighties. The thing is: I don’t have a shortware tranceiver and I don’t have a Windows(TM) PC.

So I coupled my trusty handheld SW radio with my MacBook using a 3.5mm ‘headphone’ cable. The software I was using/testing was: CocoaModem 2.0, Fldigi 3.2 and MultiMode Cocoa. After fiddling around with the receiver (using mode: USB) I finally received a faint signal. But that was enough to pull that first weather fax from Northwood, UK !

It’s actually quite amazing that one can receive quite precious data using only standard components and free software – without internet, telephone, WiFi… Well. It was only a test for getting used with the software. The final setup will hopefully consist of a proper tranceiver and a dedicated small Netbook or Laptop with all software installed and configured. Unfortunately the ONLY piece of software that doesn’t exist on Linux or Mac is the SailMail program for sending/receiving emails via SSB. But maybe I can find a solution for that, too.

Posted in Amateur Radio, Apple, Hardware, Links, Net, Pics, Sailing | Comments Off

USA: The war on truth ?

After the very successfull ‘War on Drugs’ and the ever popular ‘War on Terror’ – are we now ready for the ultimate fight ? Maybe Sarah Palin would like to start a ‘War on Truth‘ ? Comment on FB: “Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders?”

And one other thing that really confuses me about that last wiki-leak: The whole world seems to be discussing Julian Assange’s problems with two swedish girls and whether it is good/bad/illegal/whatever that wikileaks does… When will people start discussing the CONTENT of the leak ?

I’ve just donated 50€ to wikileaks.org ! Go, Julian Assange, go !!

Update 4.12.2010, 15:15h:

Wikileaks.org is offline – the webspace at amazon is cancelled, the Website in Switzerland wikileaks.ch is partly inaccessible… What’s next ? An US drone bombing the suspected H.Q. of wikileaks ?

Here another excellent article – from Reporters without borders !!

Update 4.12.2010, 22:37h:

Very interesting story on Slashdot about the shutdown of wikileak’s PayPal Account
The story comes with plenty of very insightful comments. Here’s a good one:

Re:Rather symbolic isn’t it? (Score:5, Insightful)
by lexidation (1825996) writes: Alter Relationship   on 04.12.2010 18:21 (#34444302)

I spent ten years of my life as a “real” journalist in several major US media markets. The primary difference between the news “we” presented and what’s being presented via Wikileaks is precisely that Wikileaks allows more or less unfiltered access to the source material. Ask yourself: do you really want someone else selecting what’s fit for you to read? Trust me, having unfettered access to original sources, so that you can independently develop your own take on what’s happening, is infinitely better for you — and better for society — than having the news dished out to you by a “professional” like me in my former incarnation.

What’s happening to Wikileaks is astounding and should be scaring the living shit out of each and every one of you. They have been transformed into a “criminal” organization in the eyes of many members of the public and many members of the mainstream media inside of a week. From the beside-the-point rape case involving Julian Assange to the loss of hosting, DNS services and, now, the possibility to gain funding. That’s how easy it was to get the job done.

I’ve been an observer of political life, professional and otherwise, for more than forty years. Never have I seen an assault on free speech like this one. It doesn’t matter what your personal view is on the wisdom of exposing the day-to-day minutiae of realpolitik. Free speech — and your right as citizens to live under an open government — are under attack. I can only hope people will speak up to defend them.

Posted in Freedom, Links, Net, News | 1 Comment

Finally some new pictures

Now that our homepage on the new server is taking on it’s final form, I’m starting to upload pictures of this summer. The link to the gallery is above, but you have to register an account to access them. Sorry for that inconvenience – but I don’t want Google & Co. to store all our pics on their servers… That’s for a little feeling of privacy on the net. Hehehe.

Posted in LosLocos, Net, Pics | Comments Off

Multilingual Blog

I’m experimenting with a couple of plugins to make the site bilingual. You can choose the language in the menu to the right.

This also works for the RSS-Feeds. Example in German.

Posted in Links, Net | Comments Off

Server migration complete…

We’ve been relocating our website to a new server. This also involved a major upgrade of the underlying hardware as well as an upgrade to WordPress 3. We switched to the new URL: rancho-relaxo.at – since our little yacht is flying the Austrian flag, that should make sense, although we’re still living in .de ;-)

What else is new ? Well, I’ve decided to switch back to english. Most of our readers actually are not native german speakers, so be happy that now you too can decipher our gibberish.

The Gallery (up above, see ‘pictures’) can now only be accessed by registered users. We will keep posting selected pictures to the blog, but the bigger portion is for friends and followers only.

Other enhancements (booklist, shiptrak, position alerts, …) are still to come, stay tuned…

Posted in Links, Linux, LosLocos, Net | Comments Off

OpenCPN 2.2 unter Mac OS X 10.6.4

Ich bin ja ein grosser Fan freier Software und begeisterter Nutzer von openCPN. Leider wurde bisher die OS X Version nur stiefmuetterlich behandelt, heute habe ich aber mehr oder minder zufaellig eine aktuelle Version gefunden und diese auch relativ problemlos zum laufen bekommen. Hier also eine Kurzanleitung fuer alle, die auch an bord gerne auf Windoof verzichten moechten:

OpenCPN 2.2 Beta fuer Mac auf der deutschen Seite von openCPN runterladen. – Zu finden unter Beta-/Testversionen. Der Download funktioniert ueber Mac’s Mobile Me. Hier muss man mit Passwort einloggen (findet man auch auf der download-Seite, oben). Danach den Ordner OpenCPN Beta…mpkg auswaehlen und den ‘Download-Pfeil’ am oberen Fensterrand anklicken. Nun wird ein .zip Archiv erstellt, das anschliessend am eigenen Rechner gespeichert werden kann. Das .zip Archiv zuerst auspacken (Doppelklick) und anschliessend openCPN installieren (Doppelklick).

Nun zum komplizierten Teil:

Leider fehlen noch zwei Bibliotheken, ohne die das OpenCPN nicht laeuft. Diese erhaelt man ueber MacPorts. Dieses also runterladen und installieren.

Leider ist OpenCPN als i386 Applikation kompiliert, weshalb die MacPorts-config angepasst werden muss:

Die Folgenden Kommandos fuehrt man in einem Terminal-Fenster aus:

edit /opt/local/etc/macports/macports.conf
Nach build_arch suchen, und die Zeile wie folgt anpassen:
build_arch            i386

Danach die Datei speichern, hierzu ist das Admin-Passwort notwendig !

Nun die erforderlichen Bibliotheken installieren (dies dauert ein paar Minuten !). Und nicht wundern, auch diese Kommandos benoetigen das admin-Passwort ! Beim der ersten Verwendung von sudo wird auch noch zusaetzlich eine Warnmeldung ausgegeben.

sudo port -v selfupdate
sudo port install libpng tiff

Nun noch einen Link anlegen, damit OpenCPN die Bibliotheken auch findet:

sudo ln -s /opt/local/lib /usr/local/lib

Das Terminal-Fenster kann nun geschlossen werden.

OpenCPN starten und freuen ! – Ueber Erfahrungsberichte oder Verbesserungswuensche freut sich der Ersteller des Paketes ! Seine Email-Adresse ist in der Datei Liesmich.txt zu finden, diese befindet sich gleich neben dem openCPN download, am selben Server.

OpenCPN Version InfoOpenCPN 2.2 screenshot

Posted in Apple, Links, Net, Sailing | Comments Off

Monolith Action Figure

Versuche ich auch normalerweise, nicht jeden Bloedsinn, den ich im Netz finde, hier weiterzuverteilen, muss ich dennoch heute mal eine Ausnahme machen. Als bekennender Kubrick-Fan und grosser Verehrer des Sci-Fi Genre fand ich diese ‘Actionfigur’ nicht nur lustig, ich hatte Traenen in den Augen, vor lauter Lachen. Hehehe. “It’s full of stars” Die tragik-Komik erschliesst sich natuerlich nur dem eingegleischten Fan, aber so ein guter Inside-Joke hat schon was…

340x_monolith_action_figure_main_zoom.jpg
Posted in Found, Net, Pics | Comments Off

Die aktuelle Position der Rancho Relaxo

Gibt’s jetzt auf Knopfdruck und zwar rechts oben ! Zur Zeit stimmt das natuerlich nicht, weil ich nur mal die Uebermittlung der GPS-Position testen musste, doch ist dies ein wichtiger Test fuer unseren Toern, der am Samstag beginnt.

Und wenn ich noch rechtzeitig eine Antwort von Mike aus Neuseeland bekomme, dann schaffe ich es evtl. auch unsere Position via ShipTrak bekannt zu geben. Das waere natuerlich nett.

Ach ja  – und moeglich wird das Ganze durch den SPOT satellite messenger. Das Geraet werde ich dann nach dem Toern vorstellen – wenn es sich bewaehrt hat.

Posted in Links, Net, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing, Travel | Comments Off

coquito.eu – singuläre Kinderklamotten

Zur Zeit ist nur ein Flyer zu sehen. – Aber vorraussichtlich ab 1. Juni gibt’s unter coquito.eu den neuen Webshop von Gui mit traumhaften, handfgemachten Kinderklamotten zu sehen ! Yay !

Posted in Berlin, Links, Net, Work | Comments Off

Woohooo IE8 is gonna be….

…the END OF THE INTERNET !!! *ROFL*

See for your self:

IE8 the end of the Internet

Posted in Found, It's funny ! Laugh !, Net, Pics | Comments Off

Berlin: Google Cache + Wikipedia :-)

Hahaha ! Timeless :-)

Berlin - Google Cache+Wikipedia_screenshot.png
Posted in Berlin, Found, It's funny ! Laugh !, Net, Pics | Comments Off

Stephi’s Blog ist ‘online’

Hehehehe. Stephi’s einzigartiger offline-Blog ist nun ‘online’. Was darunter genau zu verstehen ist, kann man sich evtl. voerstellen, wenn man die Bilder auf ihrer HP durchklickt.

Check it out: SinaKatharina

Posted in It's funny ! Laugh !, Links, Net | Comments Off

9 simple activities to help overcome depression !

Gefunden, beim lesen alter Slashdot Geschichten.

Original stuff from Ben Claassen III

9 simple activities to help overcome depression !

Posted in Found, It's funny ! Laugh !, Links, Net, Pics | Comments Off

The *essential* newspaper !

Generate tag cloud from slashdot (or other) news source, include pictures in relevant size and create a live, newspaper-like layout as clickable HTML page, downloadable as PDF, possibility to get by email.
Possible add-ons for later:

  • Do something with comments (letters section – in the same edition: better than in the real newspaper)
  • TV-Program: source: digg or youtube
  • Gossip
  • Music (tonspion or other site with mp3s found free on the net)
  • Editorial (sources, stats, subscribers, etc.)
  • Sports ? Nah.
  • Cartoon, Sudoku, Crossword
  • Customization by user
  • ???
  • Profit !!!

Alternate titles ? Anyone ?

Posted in Ideas, It's funny ! Laugh !, Net | Comments Off