source: MondoRescue/branches/stable/website/gossip-Aug-01.html@ 757

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<P ALIGN=CENTER>
<FONT FACE="Arial Black,Arial,Helvetica"><FONT SIZE="4">Diary (August)</FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
31st, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">As
Kermit the Frog once said,&quot; It's not that easy being green, 
having to spend each day the color of the leaves, when I think it 
could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold, or something more 
colorful like that.&quot; I am feeling pretty blue right now. A few 
days from now, I shall be single again. To my horror, I realize that 
at this moment in time no-one is in love with me. I guess I shall 
have to find a Mondo user with a short skirt and a long jacket...</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">At
the moment, I am working on mondo-restore.c; some users have 
reported bugs in the big file restoration phase but I am unable to 
replicate said bugs. However, I am rewriting the C code to make it 
easier to understand and to make it generated detailed feedback while 
it restores, so that when users send me their log files I can figure 
out exactly what is going on.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
30th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">By
the way - on November 26th, 2001, I shall start spelling in British 
English. I use American English at the moment but once I'm back in 
Britain y'all will have to watch as I practise my licence to colour 
myself. :-)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Another
day, another Mondi/Mindi release. We are now up to Mindi v0.39 rel 6 
and Mondo v1.13 rel 7. They are bugfix releases and they are fine. If 
they were women and I were a male chauvanist pig, I would eye them up 
and say, &quot;Yo, baby got back!&quot; (I would then be suspended 
for subjecting innocent software to sexual harassment in the workplace.)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Yesterday
evening, it was my pleasure to present Mondo to the Nashville Linux 
User Group. The audience was very interested, very appreciative and 
very quiet! I had a great time and I gather they did too. Mondo 
behaved iself when I wiped and restored my system, except for a 
couple of cosmetic bugs which I have now fixed. My grandfather used 
to say, &quot;Go everywhere twice - once for a good time and once to 
apologize.&quot; I hope I am at next month's NLUG meeting. Their 
meetings are off the chain, dawg, for real. (In case you were 
wondering, I don't front, nor do I play, although I have known to trip.)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
am going back to England in under three months. It would be selfish 
and short-sighted for me to allow myself to be attracted to a woman 
while I'm over here. My divorce comes through in a matter of days, so 
technically I could sleep with a woman if I wanted ('technically' 
because I'm not looking hard and I'm not sure I'm particularly 
appealing). However, I really don't think it would be ethical for me 
to do that. As a good friend of mine put it to me recently, men say 
they don't have a problem with one-night stands but they do; and, as 
I said in response, I tend to fall in love with the women that I 
sleep with. That is one reason I am so picky: it is a form of self-defense.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">If
I could avoid falling in love and if I could just find a woman who 
found me attractive, then a one-night stand would be an interesting 
experiment. You see, I've never had one. I have had two lovers; the 
first was a mistake and the second one I married (draw your own 
conclusions about that one!). I am not emotionally backward; I am not 
frigid; I am not afraid of women. I love women's company. It's just 
that until I met my wife, I didn't have the guts to come out and say, 
&quot;Okay, [your name], I think you're absolutely adorable, you're 
so much fun to be with, would you like to go out with me [as 
something more than a friend]?&quot;</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Well,
as I said to that certain good friend of mine, I am dating a girl 
but I am not <I>dating</I> her. That is, we go out to lunch, we see 
movies together, we hang out... and that's it. Only today did I 
muster the courage to say, &quot;If I told you I thought you were 
fascinating, intelligent, warm, kind and a lot of fun to be around, a 
great person to be with,... what would you say?&quot; She beamed but 
said nothing. She has told me in the past that she loves my company, 
that I am 'precious' and very sweet, and frankly I am content with 
that. I am not looking for hot sex or passionate flings.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Of
course, hot sex would be nice but it, like a good Sly Stallone 
movie, is hard to find; so hard, in fact, that often you'll settle 
for something mediocre and pretend it's twice as good as it is, just 
to try to satisfy yourself. Wait, did I just mention Sly Stallone and 
sexual release in the same sentence? Eek, I need a vacation!</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
28th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">OK,
now it's August 28th. I've released yet another Mondo/Mindi set. 
We're now up to Mondo v1.13 rel 6 and Mindi v0.39 rel 5. I've just 
vaped and restored my entire system with them. They are looking 
seriously good. I am very pleased with them.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">[Earlier]
Technically, it is late August 27th. I have been stomping bugs all 
evening. There were a lot of silly restore-time bugs that did not 
present themselves until I restored my Red Hat system in an 
all-or-nothing, please-God-let-this-work restore over the very system 
I had just backed up. I have stomped over 20 bugs in an evening. The 
bugs never should have crept into the software in the first place, of 
course, but oh well...</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
26th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Mondo
v1.13 (final) is out. It is looking very good. Most of the 
improvements and additions were made to the restore-time software, 
stuff you never see unless you have an emergency or you decide on a 
whim to wipe and restore your system.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Red
Hat's newt library is groovy. It is thanks to newt that I was 
finally able to write an attractive restore-time interface <I>and</I> 
a useful mountlist editor. The mountlist editor is particularly cool, 
IMNSHO, because it checks the mountlist-to-be as you edit it. The 
flaws and potential problems are displayed at the bottom of the 
window, below the list of /dev/xxx's and /mnt/yyy's. If there are 
lots of problems, there are lots of messages. Each time you resolve a 
problem, one message goes away. Each time you create a problem, a 
message is added. Simple.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Fran
Boon pointed out that it's a bit silly of me to post multiple 
releases with identical filenames. Consequently, v1.13 release 4 is 
also v1.13 (final). There were 3 beta releases prior to the final 
(fourth) release. Incidentally, the mountlist editor was Fran's idea. 
I have been talking with Fran for about a month, blissfully unaware 
that Fran is a guy. Fran, in England, means Frances. A buddy of mine 
read my web site and cringed with embarrassment: he had always 
assumed Fran was a guy (which <I>he</I> was, it later transpired). 
Oops. Sorry, Fran.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
have been getting a lot of erroneous bug reports from users whose 
kernels don't work with Mondo. Mondo creates boot disks, a 
non-trivial task. Some kernels just do not work on boot disks. 
Mondo's kernel-related requirements are covered in the Mondo FAQ, 
Mondo's Download page and Mindi's Download page. In addition, Mondo 
does offer the user the chance to use Mondo's kernel instead of the 
user's own. If you have trouble getting Mondo to work, try saying 'N' 
when asked, &quot;Do you want to use your own kernel (Y/N)?&quot;.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
25th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Mondo
and Mindi get better with each release. Please try the betas if you 
are feeling brave. I am doing my best to make Mondo support Red Hat's 
&quot;LABEL=&quot; extensions to /etc/stab.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">This
latest beta includes a fancy-shmantzy mountlist editor. I'm still 
testing it but I think it's groovy, baby.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
23rd, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Mondo
v1.13 (beta 2) and Mindi v0.39 (beta 2) are out. They support Red 
Hat's &quot;LABEL=&quot; extensions to /etc/fstab. OK, now be warned: 
I have not tested this code properly yet. It seems to work just fine. 
However, I have not yet run the backup/compare/restore cycle. I shall 
do that tonight. If it all works, fine. If it doesn't, I shall know 
in 24 hours or less.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
22nd, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
fixed some minor bugs in the new 1.13 beta &amp; uploaded fresh 
packages. The latest backup matched my live filesystem; great. It 
looks as if I have fixed the 'sorry, may I please have a CD that 
doesn't exist?' bug.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
21st, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Mark
Hannah found a bug in mondo-restore (the C program, not the 
scripts). If you try to restore a really big file that was spread 
across two or more CD's then sometimes mondo-restore will just sit 
there: it won't move on to the next CD. Or, if you are comparing a 
really big file, it will ask for a CD that doesn't exist. I am fixing 
the code now. In the meantime, if you experience that particular 
problem, please use the scripts instead. (See the ramdisk's README 
file for details.)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Fran
Boon gave me a long list of comments and suggestions. Thanks, Fran. 
Feedback is always appreciated. I'll implement 90% of the changes she 
recommends. Do other users have wishlists they would like to send me?</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Oops!
The failsafe 2.4.7 kernel is compiled for the K7. My bad. I'll fix 
that tonight... [Later] OK, I've released Mindi v0.39 and Mondo 
v1.13; they're both in beta but I want to get these bugfixes out 
there NOW.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
18th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">The
latest Mindi release - v0.38 - is out today, and includes a 2.4.7 
kernel, so you don't have to recompile your kernel to make it sane - 
er, I mean suitable for boot disks. Mondo v1.12 is out today, too. 
Download and enjoy.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">As
usual, I am backing up my system overnight and restoring in the 
morning to test the software. Fun. [Addendum] OK, Mondo works fine 
but my CD writer is b0rken. It complains more than I do.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
have bought my plane ticket back to England. What a pity my American 
employer was unwilling or unable to sponsoer my work visa. Tell me 
this: if there is an American out there who can do my job as well as 
I do, how come 100 people were interviewed, 15 were hired and I was 
the only immigrant? Hint: they believe in affirmative action; my 
r&eacute;sum&eacute; mentioned Africa; they thought I was Black.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">It
is a good thing that I do not listen to criticism from strangers. A 
lot of White Americans accuse me of hanging off my (Liberian) wife's 
coat-tails. Bollocks. She and I are, or were, one flesh. If you speak 
to me, you might as well be speaking to her. That is her view and I 
have come to accept it.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">In
additional, she is not a Black American: she is Liberian. A lot of 
Black Americans are jealous of that fact, she tells me. Indeed, a 
(Black) friend of mine once said, &quot;Oh yeah, those Africans, they 
think they're so special, so much better than us.&quot; (Us = Black 
Americans, I guess. I did not inquire. Nice to know racial prejudice 
is crossing racial boundaries, isn't it?)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
get stick from a few Black friends for trying to hard to &quot;be 
Black&quot;. My wife is not Black, she is Liberian. So, if anything, 
I am trying to be Liberian... only I'm not trying, of course. Africa 
is made up of several countries, each of which has different tribes 
and languages. Black Americans are Black Americans because the 
culture was homogenized after years and years of you-know-what. 
Likewise, a lot of White Americans parade down the street once a year 
dressed in green and call themselves Irish. Bollocks. My grandmother 
was Irish and I do not call myself Irish, nor to I talk about my 
&quot;Irish roots&quot;. I was born and raised in England. I am 
English. I love and respect Ireland as part of Great Britain but I am 
not Irish. I am more Liberian than I am Irish, and you don't see me 
wearing an &quot;I Love Liberia&quot; t-shirt.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Ironically,
the same friend that said, &quot;Africans think they're all 
that,&quot; also vilified me for saying Irish Americans aren't really 
Irish. She said, &quot;What do you know about culture? About what it 
means to be away from your homeland? About how you define yourself by 
where you're from, not where you are now?&quot; Well, duh. I moved 
3000 miles to be with the woman I loved. I think I know the 
difference between culture and nationality.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">She
was also the woman who accused me of looking at my customers (when I 
ran a computer store) and judging them by their skin color. She said 
I saw a typical Black man as &quot;just another nigger.&quot; 
Incidentally, she told me - as a compliment, I am sure - that I was 
the only White man she had ever had at her house. To cut a long 
story, short, it became apparent that I knew the difference between 
being Black and being 'ghetto', and she didn't. My wife backs me to 
the hilt on this point. (Jeanette and I are still close friends, by 
the grace of God.)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">So,
on the one hand, I feel it is right and proper for me to embrace my 
wife's culture. She feels the same way. However, I do occasionally 
get in trouble for unwittingly using &quot;Black slang&quot;. I am 
not sure which slang is Black and which slang is White (or Hispanic 
or whatever) and frankly I resent the idea that certain expression 
are the preserve of one social or ethnic group. That smacks of 
snobbery. I attended private schools for 10 years; I know about snobbery.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Sorry,
folks, but unless you've moved from one English-speaking country to 
another, you have no clue how different the local dialects are. I 
only found out last week that getting back <I>with</I>&nbsp;someone 
was not the same as getting back <I>to</I>&nbsp;someone. I have been 
in this country for 2 years. Okay?</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Besides
which, I am not White: I am English. The trouble is, certain 
ignorant Americans of all colors and creeds cannot distinguish 
between a White man and an immigrant. I am forever encountering 
ignorance and prejudice, and the ironic thing is, because I'm White, 
I'm assumed either not to care or not to be subject to it at all. 
&quot;Oh no, Hugo, we mean those <I>other</I> immigrants. You're 
different.&quot; Or someone will tell me a racist joke. Do you have 
any idea how much I hate <I>that </I>word? The funny thing is, some 
of my friends would probably accuse me of hanging off my wife's 
coat-tails for loathing <I>that </I>word as much as I do. Well, we'll 
be divorced in under a month, so I guess everyone's happy.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">The
White racists will be happy because another interracial couple has 
split up. (&quot;I do worry about the children,&quot; they tell me. 
Well, maybe you should stop hitting your own children in the name of 
God, before you worry about another couple's kids.)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">The
Black racists will be happy because I'm just another White boy who 
doesn't Black culture ... or maybe I do, maybe I just don't like it 
as much as I like Liberian culture, and maybe the fact that I know 
the difference (along with more history than most Black or White 
Americans would like me to) scares the pants off certain people.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Some
of my English friends think I'm racist against White people, so I 
guess they'll be happy I'm coming back into the fold of &quot;us&quot;
and leaving &quot;them&quot; behind. (I'm not sure if 
&quot;them&quot; = Americans or what. I don't care.)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">The
bottom line: skin color means nothing to me. That is why America's 
obsession with race was such a shock. Where I come from, you do not 
ask where people are from or where their parents were born. My father 
was born in the aftermath of WW2 and <I>you d</I></FONT></FONT></FONT><I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">id
not ask where people were from.</FONT></FONT></FONT></I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK"> 
You just didn't. People wouldn't have pulled half the stunts they 
pulled in my presence if I were Black, which disgusts me because I 
would have gladly suffered in my wife's place when she came to 
America and was attacked by other Black kids for being 'different'.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Maybe
it's different in New York or California. Down here in Tennessee, 
people are as ignorant and racist as ever, only now it's not just 
White Americans that are that way. Never mind. I'll be gone soon. I 
can go back to a country where I won't get in trouble for 
&quot;implying that a ghetto is a negative place&quot;. God forbid we 
should remember the Jewish ghettos of Germany and Poland, or the 
modern-day Hispanic ghettos of East LA, or the Black ghettos of South 
Central. No, they're not negative at all.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Or,
as one White American put it to me, &quot;Well, slavery was wrong 
but a lot of the slaves were very well-treated. They must have been. 
I mean, why would you damage your own property? That's what my 
husband says. And when he holds his Civil War re-enactments, Black 
people come and shout at him and call him 'cracker'. See, Black 
people are racist too! There!&quot;</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">God
save us all. I honestly hope the entire South moves to Mexico. I 
think the one thing Mexico lacks is a bunch of tobacco-chewing, fat, 
inbred, ignorant, sweaty White people. I can picture them running 
across the border, looking for burritos and beer. Oops! Someone might 
think I'm racist against rednecks. My bad, dawg. I guess rednecks 
need to be protected. They do, after all, have a history of 
oppression (or oppressing, anyway).</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">So,
as I said, it's a good thing I don't listen to criticism from 
strangers, or I might have to write a great big diatribe against this 
entire country. Oh, wait a minute... Um... Oh dear. Hmm. Maybe I have 
some issues I need to work out. Please don't listen to me, sah. I'm 
just a poor immigrant.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
16th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Please
try the latest beta &amp; let me know what you think. I am slowly 
but surely ironing out some long-term bugs which didn't rear their 
ugly heads until now, for some reason.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
15th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
have pulled Mondo v1.11 from the web site. Some silly bugs have 
shown up and I just don't trust that version.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Mondo
v1.12 beta is out. Please try it if you are feeling adventurous. 
Otherwise, stick with v1.09 or v1.10, please.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
released v1.11 in a hurry. I must not allow myself to feel rushed, 
or I'll end up create some bugs in an effort to fix others.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
14th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Mondo
v1.11 is out. Some silly bugs have been fixed. WARNING - this 
version is incompatible with previous versions. Do not mix and match. 
It saves the afio archives as 'N.afio.bz2'; previous versions saved 
the archives as 'N.tar.bz2'.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">My
CD writer is not b0rken after all: it is just <I>i</I></FONT></FONT></FONT><I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">nsane</FONT></FONT></FONT></I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not. Oh well, at least I have 
one. Maybe I need more cooling fans. Right now, my computer sounds 
like an old man that can't sleep.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Would
anyone like to coauthor an article on Mondo with me?</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">It's
official: I am going back to England on November 26th. WebMD cannot 
persuade the INS to let them sponsor my work visa. I have no regrets 
about my marriage or about moving to America. I do, however, think I 
shall miss the cheap gas and free refills.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
12th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">There
were silly typos in /usr/share/mindi/mindi and /usr/share/mondo/mondo-archive.
I have corrected them. The changes are reflected in the new tarballs 
and RPM's.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">If
you want me to support GRUB, please send me a copy of your grub.conf 
file and instructions on how you run GRUB (e.g. install-grub 
&lt;foo&gt; &lt;bar&gt;). People tell me, &quot;Oh, GRUB is easy to 
use, easier than LILO,&quot; but I cannot make it work at all. I have 
been trying from time to time for several weeks. If you want GRUB 
support, please help me to help you.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">The
&quot;feedback&quot; web page, the FAQ and the boot-time error 
messages have been amended to remind users that the kernel, not 
Mindi, is usually at fault when the CD will not boot; users should 
copy their floppy disk images to floppy disks and boot from those. If 
your kernel cannot boot from a CD, it means something is wrong with 
the kernel; if you do not have the time or energy to fix your kernel, 
please boot from floppy disks.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
11th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Mondo
v1.10 came out today.The restore engine now uses newt instead of 
ncurses. I think it looks much nicer now. You be the judge. The new 
version includes some minor bugfixes. See CHANGES for details. Mindi 
v0.37, which was released today, has some bugfixes of its own.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Please
try the new versions and e-mail the mailing list (or me) with your 
feedback. The new restore-time engine is easier to use and prettier 
than the ugly old ncurses-based interface. My thanks go to Red Hat 
for their work on the newt and slang libraries.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
6th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Phillip
Deackes managed to get Mindi to work with the new OSS sound modules. 
I'm not sure how important audio playback is during disaster recovery 
but it's better not to get any weird kernel-related error messages, 
that's for sure. Nice one, Phillip.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
5th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">A
friend suggested I should tell Linux Journal about Mondo. 
Apparently, in November 2000, L.J. wrote a six-page article about how 
to do by hand what Mondo does automatically. (At the time, Mondo was 
in mothballs, so I don't blame them for not mentioning it.) I have 
e-mailed one of L.J.'s associate editors in an attempt to hawk my warez.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
am working on fixing Mondo's &quot;Cuckoo Mode&quot; (Windows-only 
backups). Stay tuned.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">You
know, the funny thing about mailing lists is that people spend more 
time bickering with each other than helping inquisitive newbies. This 
leads me to believe that the loudest voices in the Red Hat mailing 
list are not the wisest but the most insecure. It is pointless to get 
into arguments with individuals in private if the bone of contention 
is the accuracy of the information a person is giving; it is wiser, 
surely, to tell the person asking the question, &quot;Look, I think X 
is wrong, I think I'm right,&quot; then everyone else can chime in. 
Likewise, better to take long-winded, nit-picking discussions about 
Dell to - oh, I dunno, um - <I>a Dell</I></FONT></FONT></FONT><I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">-related
</FONT></FONT></FONT></I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK"><I>mailing
list?</I></FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">If
I return to England after my divorce (which I shall have to, because 
my visa runs out in 3 months) then the INS might not let me even 
visit America for up to ten years. Well, fine, I never liked your 
country anyway. You don't talk right and you can't spell. ;-) So 
there. :-)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
4th, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Dave
Granz has sent me a couple of neat bugfixes for the restore scripts. 
NB: These bugs are not present in the newer 'mondo-restore' C 
program. However, a lot of people still use the shell scripts, which 
is why I am so glad Dave found &amp; fixed the bug. The bug did not 
impede the proper restoration of data but it still needed to be fixed.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
am looking for ways to polish Mondo, before I get to work on the 
Windows-only side. It is pure procrastination.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Oh,
and the manual is doing nicely. I have been working hard to write 
more documentation of Mondo.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
have updated the front page to include references to a few sites 
that carry Mondo. I'm very excited to see that some sites are 
automatically picking up new releases by themselves. High praise indeed.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<I><FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">August
2nd, 2001</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">Mondo
v1.09 contains a few minor bugfixes to v1.08; Mindi v0.36 contains a 
couple of important bugfixes, too. However, both programs are 
entering maturity. If you cannot make Mindi/Mondo work, it is 
probably because your kernel is old, broken or esoteric.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">I
have installed Mandrake 8.0 on my first hard drive, Slackware 8.0 on 
my second and Red Hat 7.1 on my third. I have been testing Mindi and 
Mondo on all three and the latest versions work pretty well.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana,Arial,Times New I2"><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT COLOR="BLACK">As
for being &quot;Red Hat-centric&quot;, Mindi/Mondo would not be <I>anything</I>-centric
if the Linux disributions abided by a standard of some kind. If you 
have ever tried writing a program that runs on a dozen different 
distros, you will know what I mean. If you haven't, well, please 
don't whine if Mondo runs okay on Red Hat 7.1 but not on Dinky Dorky 2.3r4.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P>
<A HREF="gossip-til-July.html">Click here for pre-August gossip</A></P>
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