Since I couldn't get the amd64 version of Ubuntu running under VirtualBox OSE I tried the i386 version. The installation went fine but when rebooting into the system I got this message, "PANIC: CPU too old for this kernel." I was hoping to have Ubuntu running under VirtualBox to spare me from always using my system for tests. It looks like it might take some research to accomplish that goal.

There is a place for Ogg Theora but it’s not going to be the best quality video codec. I will do my best to support it but it is a competitor with MPEG-4 ASP (like xvid) not with MPEG 4 AVC (like x264). This article, Theora vs. h.264 has some screenshots comparing the two. Like many, I’m looking forward to whether Dirac or Snow (2 wavelet based codecs) can compare favorably with the proprietary codecs.

One interesting aspect of this one though is that it benchmarks filesystem with noatime on and off:

• Serverwide Performance Benchmarking

The conclusion is that noatime doesn’t improve performance under the set of benchmarks used which are meant to be representative of a website with a database backend.

While I'm not sure of the value of page counts I tend to enable them in Drupal. To do so I set "Administration - Logs - Access log settings - Count content views" to "enabled".

While this is no means an exhaustive list it is a point of reference for what tags to consider allowing on a website that allows user contributions in html.

<a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <b> <i> <tt> <big> <small> <ins> <del> <blockquote> <q> <img> <pre> <table> <tr> <th> <td> <p> <br>

• DebAWeek: flashrom
• Setting the colors for cssh terminals
• Thoughts on Xen filesystem configuration with regard to backups
• How to repair crashed tables in MySQL
• Time for Ubuntu users to update their kernels

more: http://ubuntumagnet.com/

I just tried to install a 64-bit OS (Ubuntu Server) under VirtualBox OSE 1.5.0 and received the message, "Your CPU does not support long mode. Use a 32bit distribution. I tried toggling the "Enable VT-x/AMD-V" setting but that didn't help. I haven't investigated this yet but I will be disappointed if this is a limitation of VirtualBox OSE.

I often get asked for recommendations on monitors. These days I’m a fan of widescreen LCD monitors. I think 20 and 22 inch are generally the sweet spot for best price. I was doing some research on the status of different types of panels (IPS, PVA/MVA, TN) and came across these:

• LCD Panel Technology Explained
• TFT LCD (Wikipedia)

It seems like xbitlabs.com currently has the best reviews for LCD’s for 20”, 22”, 24”, and more.

I was just going through the CD’s in my toolkit and thought I’d share the useful CD’s I carry around these days.

• Ubuntu - Desktop/Server/Kubuntu i386/amd64 (6 CD’s)
• Debian - multi-architecture net install CD
• SystemRescueCd
• Ultimate Boot CD
• Knoppix
• OpenDisc

I think some of the images from Bad Astronomy Blog’s Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2007 would make for some good desktop backgrounds or perhaps the background for something else.