Digitalquill

Having just posted a good write-up of Virtualbox I am having a strange problem with my Ubuntu Desktop. I decided to update it all, so ran the ‘apt-get update’ which was fine, but when I ran an ‘apt-get upgrade’ it decided it needed to download 150mb or updates. This was expected so I allowed to to go and get them, which was when the problems started.

The whole PC ground to a halt, task manager showed Virtualbox was using 100% of the CPU constantly.

I managed to get back onto the Virtualbox and cancel the upgrade which then released the CPU. However after repeating the upgrade the same thing happened.

Doing the same on the Virtual Debian works fine…

Very strange… Anyone else had any similar problems?

Following my recent re-install of my desktop machine I have followed the direction we are heading at work and setup Virtualbox with several environments each with a different OS.

The Desktop PC I am running is relatively old, Pentium 4 1.8Ghz with 3Gb of RAM.

I have the following running in Virtualbox

• Windows XP
• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Windows 7 Beta (more of that later)
• Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop
• Ubuntu 8.10 Server
• Debian 4
• Debian 4 with ISPConfig Installed (again more of that later)
• Ubuntu Studio.

I have been trying to get Mac OSX working, which apparently is possible, but as yet I have had no luck.

I want to get Windows 2003 Server up and running as this will then replicate my windows server.

The main idea behind this is so that I have have environments that I can test things in before implementing on my live servers. I have been playing with ISPConfig on a virtual environment to see if there is any mileage with utilizing it. It looks promising.

The main advantage of virtualisation is that firstly you are in an enclosed, non-live environment thus no real harm can be done, and secondly if a mistake is made you can roll back to a saved point in time. It also allows me to save a copy of a basic Ubuntu or Debian setup and quickly create environments from it, meaning that testing things like ISPConfig can be done easily.

In addition to testing software, I have environments setup that are exactly the same as my live web servers, each with a copy of any websites deployed on them, allowing me to check any changes work on the most critical sites before releasing them to the live server.

I would like to be able to ‘mirror’ at least my Linux server to a virtual environment, probably on a day-by-day basis using the rsync’d archive backup.

I have just taken out the British Gas Landlords Cover for one of our properties that is about to be rented. I will be trialing it over the next lease period (probably 6 months) to see how it performs.

It covers me for Gas, Gas Safety Cert, Plumbing, Drainage, Electrics and electrical safety. Which means that I am left dealing with general maintenance which suits me.

There is a monthly cost to the cover £29, however this is tax deductible and as things stand with how precious time is for us at the moment, this is  an investment to get time back more than anything else.

I will blog in the future about how it goes.

As a landlord I have been researching many aspects of property rentals, from legal requirements, to insurance, mortgages and agents who run fully managed services. I have noted that there are rather few sites with provide all these resources in one place that are also aimed at people like me who dabbles in this rather than someone who has 100′s of properties.

I am therefore wondereing if there is an opportunity to create such a resource.

I have suffered several computer failures in the past month or so, including a big failure of my web server. This has caused allot of problems for me personally and my businesses.

I have therefore been looking at online backup services which seem to have been popping up all over the place recently.

My first port of call was the most well known one from Amazon S3 however their payment options do not suit my requirements, so while searching I found Memopal.

After signing up for their free trial, I was quickly impresses and signed up for their 150gb service which should allow me to backup most of my important stuff.

The service comes with a client which you install, the windows client has a GUI which is easy to use and setup, you just choose the folders you want to backup and it just does it in the background, it monitors those folders for changes or new items and backs them up as well.

It also keeps revisions of your files, although I have yet to test this.

They also have a linux client, which can be run from command line. This is ideal for backing things up from my NAS drive and directly from my web servers.

The system is fairly quick althought I have asked it to backup my 60gb digital photograph archive which says it will take over 5 days, whcih I gues is not bad, and this will only be an issue at the start as it catches up with the archive of files.

Firstly you should log in as root, and run `date`. This will show you the current time, date and timezone and then backup your current timezone setting

mv /etc/localtime /etc/localtime-old

Create a symbolic link the timezone you want from /usr/share/zoneinfo to /etc/localtime.

For example:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime

Following the disaster that I has with the web/mail servers I have taken an additional step to secure the servers as I am still not clear what the causes of the failure were.

I have disabled direct root ssh login (which in debian is allowed by default) so you have to login as a non-privileged user and then su to root

to do this edit sshd_config

vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config

then find the line:

PermitRootLogin yes

and change it to

PermitRootLogin no

the restart ssh

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

Remember to make sure that you have a non-privileged account that works and you can su from that account to root before you do this.

Serves: 4

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

4 turkey escalopes
1½oz butter or margarine
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1 red pepper, de-seeded and thinly sliced
1 tbsp flour
200ml lager
150ml chicken stock
½ tsp dried thyme
1 tsp sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tbsp single cream
chopped parsley to garnish

Instructions:

1. Cut the escalopes in half through the centre
2. Season the turkey with salt and pepper.
3. Heat butter or margarine and oil in a pan until melted, then fry the turkey for 3 – 4 minutes each side until golden brown.
4. Remove the turkey from the pan.
5. Fry the onion and pepper in the same fat until soft and lightly coloured.
6. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute, then gradually add the lager and stock and bring up to the boil.
7. Add thyme, sugar and seasonings.
8. Replace the turkey and simmer for about 8-10 minutes until tender.
9. Stir in the cream, adjust the seasonings and reheat gently.
10. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Serve with:

Mash potato and Veg

Having been on the council allotment waiting list for 8 months now (I know exactly when it was because we decided to go for one when Eva was born) I have acquired a plot of land that has been gardened as an allotment for many, many years.

The Owner of this land is now poorly and can not attend to the allotment and knowing that we are looking for one has offered it to us for the same price as the council allotment rent.

This is ideal for me, the land is tucked away and is therefore very private. I have lived in this area for 20 years, passing the location of the land almost every day and I did not know it was there! This is great as it will mean that as Eva grows up, she can join us on the allotment and even have a plot of her own.

We want to make sure that Eva know what vegetables are and where they come from and not just those orange things you get from Sainsburys. Also we want to be able to provide good veg that we know the origins of, not that we are paranoid about pesticides, but if we are in control of what we grow then we know what we are eating.

I would not say that I was an expert gardener, in my previous property I had a veg garden and I used to get some good results from what I planted, however I was always hampered by the size of that plot.

This new allotment will certainty be a learning curve, the soil is perfect and allot of the hard work of preparing the ground has already been done as it has been in use for many years.

I have bought yet another domain name to add to my collection, OnTheAllotment.co.uk. I will be setting up a blog on the domain and I will blog about my progress on the allotment with the hope that I can post as I learn, what worked what did not, and perhaps even keep a record of produce year on year.

It is the perfect timeof year to get hold of the land as int he next couple of weeks is when the season starts to kick off.

I have been adding a number of recipes on this blog, and looking at the stats they have been getting a fairly high proportion of the search engine traffic to this site. I am therefore considering setting up a site specifically for my recipes and cooking posts.

Perhaps you dear readers might give your opinions on this. Should I move the recipies off onto a separate site or should they remain here?

I am laid in nice deep bath, soaking my aching muscles after a hard morning clearing gardens and garages at a rental property. Hopefully Monday will see it going onto the market and we will again have a tenant in the property very soon.

I wonder where other people blog from. I usually blog in my office at home, sometimes sat in front of the TV, but I don’t see why with today’s technology why one needs to be limited. I do have an Orange Mobile broadband dongle which I use quite often when I am out and about.

I was recently searching for domain names,  someone suggested ontheblog.com a play on words… unfortunately it i taken, although there is no site there.

I wonder where the stranges place anyone has blogged from is. Post a comment if you have any strange blogging habbits!