There exist guides innumerable for this, but I recently went through this somewhat of a hassle and figured more documentation certainly wouldn’t hurt the situation. This is for a server located at trac.yourdomain.tld with multiple projects located in the the folders trac.yourdomain.tld/projectname1, trac.yourdomain.tld/projectname2.

Replace $projectnameX with your project’s name. Use the defaults for the trac-admin installer, except where it asks for your SVN Repository folder.

# apt-get install subversion libapache2-svn trac
# mkdir -p /var/local/svn/$projectname1
# mkdir -p /var/local/trac/$projectname1
# mkdir -p /var/local/svn/$projectname2
# mkdir -p /var/local/trac/$projectname2
# svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs /var/local/svn/$projectname1
# svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs /var/local/svn/$projectname2

# trac-admin /var/local/trac/$projectname1 initenv
# trac-admin /var/local/trac/$projectname2 initenv

# htpasswd -c /var/local/svn/$projectname1/conf/passwd $proj1username
# htpasswd -c /var/local/svn/$projectname2/conf/passwd $proj2username

//Additional users
# htpasswd /var/local/svn/$projectnameX/conf/passwd $addUser

Next, we need to configure Apache, this assumes you have SSL on port 443 configured. If not, you can just run over port 80 without the redirect.

Read the rest of this entry »

As a note to myself and any other DDWRT-wielding Namecheap subscribers, the correct format for the dynamic DNS setup page is this:

• DDNS Service: Custom
• DDNS Server: dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com
• Username: makesomethingup
• Password: [your really long Namecheap DDNS password (click the Dynamic DNS button on the left side of the Namecheap management page to grab it) - this isn't your Namecheap account password!]
• Hostname: mythirdleveldomain -a my2ndthirdleveldomain -a my3rdthirdleveldomain
• Url: /update?domain=mydomain.net&password=lotsofnumbers&host=

Keep the url blank after host! You can also set the update interval to 1 (updates everyday). Click Apply Settings and watch it go!

Edit: I recently found that the -a parameter in the hostname field allows multiple host updates.

I found myself always wanting to trade albums with others. However, this can become time consuming and difficult to arrange. A solution I found was to use Google’s Gmail as a server to hold albums and others could download them. An application has been developed to facilitate easy file transfer, called Gspace. This post is meant to be a guide on joining the Musictide community that has been established on Gspace. It will outline the software installations needed, how to receive emails when others upload albums, and how to send emails once you have uploaded an album.

Get Gspace running:

Step 1) Get firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Step 2) Get Gspace: http://www.getgspace.com/

Step 3) Make sure everything is installed and updated etc. If you click on the “tools” drop-down in firefox, there should be an item called “Gspace” in that menu.

Step 4) Login. Go to http://www.gmail.com/
Ask the person who referred you for the login and password.

Step 5) Use Gspace. Click Tools>Gspace. Wait a few seconds and it should log you on. You should see a bunch of files and folders appear on the right. These are all of the files hosted by gmail. On the left is your computer. Use the arrows in the middle to move files from your computer to Gspace or from Gspace to your computer.

Adding Yourself to the “Upload Updates” email List:

This is a list of Gspace users. It is used to notify everyone when an album has been uploaded.

Step 1) Go to Gmail

Step 2) Click “Contacts” on the left.

Step 3) Click “Upload Update” in the first pane.

Step 4) Click the “+ person” icon above the pane.

Step 5) Add your info to the right pane. (Include email address and alias at the least)

Uploading an Album:

Step 1) Find the folder. You can navigate the folders in the left pane of Gspace, or click “Browse” above this pane.

Step 2) Prepare for upload. Select the folder in the left pane (your computer). Make sure you are in the root Gspace directory (the one with all of the folders)

Step 3) Begin the transfer. Click the Right Arrow between the two panes. You can see the status of each file as it uploads in the bottom pane.

Step 4) Contact the masses. Once all files have successfully uploaded, go to the normal Gmail page (if you’ve followed these directions, there should be a tab open in firefox with the normal Gmail page).

Step 5) Find the list. Click “Contacts” on the left of the page. Click “Upload Update” in the left pane. Click “select:All” at the bottom of the middle pane. Finally, click “Email” in the right pane.

Step 6) Compose the Email. It’s suggested that you put:

• Name of folder on Gspace (usually album title)
• Name of artist
• Your name/alias
• Possibly some info about the artist/album.

This might sound complicated, but you’ll get the hang of it very quickly.

Out of necessity and a fair bit a curiosity, I created this script to import our old Cutenews database into Wordpress using the Wordpress Extended RSS file format.

***BEFORE YOU START: MAKE A COPY OF YOUR CUTENEWS FOLDER AND RUN THIS SCRIPT ON THE COPY OR BE READY TO RESTORE FROM A BACKUP***

First, change your date format in Cutenews to “Y-m-d H:i:s” in the Options, System Configuration, News menu. The time format for comments should also be “Y-m-d H:i:s”.

Make sure:

• “Show comments when showing full story” is set to Yes.
• “Full story in pop-up” is set to no.
• “Show full story when showing comments” should be set to Yes.
• Disable all character limits.

Now, make a copy of your Cutenews database file (./cutenews/data/news.txt) to your desktop, open up the file in a plain text editor (my favorite is Notepad2), and strip it down to a comma separated list of the 10-digit id numbers (e.g. 1099442233, 123002233, etc.).

Next, open up  wp_export.php on your desktop with a plain text editor, and copy your comma separated values from the file you just recently edited in the brackets between $id_array = array ( and ). You need to delete the old values in this file and fill it with your own.

Finally, upload your modified wp_export.php and the other files in the .zip to your Cutenews directory.

Now run the script by typing it into your browser (e.g. http://mysite.com/cutenews/wp_export.php). Save the output (the source) as an .xml file and import this file in wordpress like you would a Wordpress export file.

Future versions of the script will automate the $id_array creation process. I just didn’t have time yet.

Download Cutenews to wordpress

Today I bring to you what many of us already have broken down and picked up at our local Best Buy… the tried-and-true Bose Triport over-the-ear style headphones. If you already have a pair of these, you probably already recognize that Bose designed these headphones from the ground-up with ergonomics prioritized above sound quality, but more on the latter later.

Do you remember the first time you saw these headphones? If you’re like me, you saw them at a local Apple store, hooked up to an iPod. Being particularly drawn to the Bose label on a pair of headphones, you immediately slipped these on your head. Bliss… before the music even starts, you know you love the headphones. That’s because the most outstanding quality of the Triports is the comfort of the skin-soft, leathery cushion-molding around your ears.

The pressure exerted on your head by the headphones is exquisitely balanced – these headphones are snugly attached to your head while not causing any pressure points that would otherwise lead to headaches. The shape and placement of the cushions can fit large and small ears equally well (disclaimer, we had no seven foot tall test subjects to test this claim) and provides for a nicely quieted soundstage.

Enough with the fluff, let’s get to the weaknesses. In a side-by-side comparison with a comparable Sennheiser set, Bose’s ergonomic focus comes into light – while these headphones offer superior “wearability” over great lengths of time, they simply do not compete on the soundstage. The drivers in the Triports provide for an almost tin-can like experience, and the distortion levels at high volume is noticeable even to my ears. Yet, in comparison to Altec Lansing boomsets, the Triports are incredibly superior. Altec’s focus on ear-rattling bass easily drowns out any mid-frequency details that the Triports can offer in spades. The Triports do manage to pull ahead in the level of ambient noise they knock out when you put them on. While the noise-filtering capability is impressive, it’s still “just passive,” so active-noise canceling fans (I’m looking at you, Benn) might want to upgrade to the Triports with this capability.

Build Quality

At first glance, you may think the Triports would be flimsy and prone to falling apart even under moderate usage. This is, in fact, partially true. What I can’t understand about the engineering of the headphones is the flimsiness of the headphone cord – it is so thin in diameter that it wreaks “cheap!” I’ve been rather careful with my ‘ports for over a year now, and the cord hasn’t sheered or frayed yet, but barring actually sitting on the headphones, I just know that the first thing to go out on the Triports will be the headphone cord.

Beyond the weaknesses of the headphone cord, the set is held together by rather durable plastic and a strong steel band that lends tension to keep the phones tight around your ears. The construction is simplistic in nature and thus quite lightweight.

The skinny

These headphones almost lend themselves to LAN’in. You can sit in one place for hours on end with these on your head and you won’t get a headache (at least, not one caused by the ‘phones). And while the sound quality leaves something to be desired and you have to be careful with the headphone cord, you will probably enjoy these headphones enough to justify the cost.

Have some old hardware lying around? Odds are you do – and it’s not being put to good use. You’re also probably stuck behind a consumer-level router that’s not doing your broadband Internet connection much justice.

You might not have thought about it before, but that router is a special-purpose computer. It might even be running a flavor of Linux. But in the quest for profit (and ease of use, as we’ll see) the power of your regular router is without-a-doubt inferior to even Pentium II era hardware.

Read on to learn how the Debian Linux distribution can easily be turned into a Linux router in matter of a few hours.

This is not much of a how-to but rather an important note. When upgrading from a single core to a dual core processor several games, especial Command and Conquer: Generals and games based on the same game engine such as Battle for Middle Earth may not run correctly if at all. After a lengthy search no standard solution was found other than to reinstall windows and the games. This ensures that they are installed and configured correctly for your hardware.