Nathaniel McCallum

systemd Rocks My World

Nathaniel McCallum — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:54:23 +0000

In the spirit of giving credit where it is due, I had my first foray into systemd last week. It is well designed, implemented and documented. Kudos! If I have one complaint, its that in the documentation many subject matters that are related are divided into different areas (for example systemd.socket, systemd.service and systemd.exec). I’d love to see a single page version of this documentation so you can search through it for relevant things.

Testing Needed (MongoDB)

Nathaniel McCallum — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:27:51 +0000

I’ve built packages of MongoDB 2.0.2 for f15, f16 and f17. This should be a drop in replacement for your 1.8.x server. See http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/2.0+Release+Notes#2.0ReleaseNotes-Upgrading for further details.

However, I had to rewrite the patch providing js 1.8.5 support. So I’d like some hands on testing before I push out this update.

The builds should appear shortly in updates-testing and you can provide here:

https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/mongodb-2.0.2-5.fc15
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/mongodb-2.0.2-5.fc16

Thanks!

Q: What do you call a Ruby programmer?

Nathaniel McCallum — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:24:55 +0000

A: A rube

Arrived at FUDCon Blacksburg

Nathaniel McCallum — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:09:30 +0000

I arrived at FUDCon this evening at about 5pm after picking up tdfischer and codeblocker from the airport. We went out to dinner with Colin Walters and John Palmieri and a bunch of others. It was a lot of fun. It was also great to meet up with Dan Walsh again and to meet Dave Jones and Josh Boyer.

I’m looking forward to the workshop tomorrow on Fedora multi-factor authentication and I’ll be proposing BarCamp-style talks on my Kerberos OTP work and libql. If you’re on your way to Blacksburg, see you there!

I’m Boycotting GoDaddy

Nathaniel McCallum — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:12:36 +0000

This is just a short note to let people know that I’ve moved all my domains away from GoDaddy.com for their support of SOPA. Piracy is a problem, but breaking the internet is not the solution. For more information: http://godaddyboycott.org/

Galaxy Nexus on Verizon – A Theory

Nathaniel McCallum — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:33:03 +0000

I am one of the many people waiting to switch to Verizon for the Galaxy Nexus. If you’ve not been following the story, the timeline is roughly something like this:

Oct 19th – Announced by Google/Samsung
Nov 17th – Released in Europe
Dec 8th – Released in Canada
Dec ?? – Released in USA on Verizon

You may notice the phone has not yet been released in the USA. Most news outlets are suggesting that this is because Verizon just released the Motorola DRIOD RAZR and the HTC Rezound and doesn’t want to compete with them. I’d like to offer an alternative theory. Before I do this however, I should mention that I have no inside knowledge whatsoever. This is entirely speculation on my part from publicly released news.

My theory is that the Galaxy Nexus was originally scheduled for a launch simultaneous with/close to Canada on the 8th as a Verizon exclusive and Verizon, for whatever reason, lost the exclusivity contract. Perhaps Google stipulated the exclusive release on Google Wallet functionality or no carrier apps; to be clear, these are just guesses. However, if Verizon lost the exclusivity for the Galaxy Nexus in late October/early November, Verizon may not be permitted to release the phone until at least one additional carrier is ready. This would mean that in spite of the fact that Verizon has the phones sitting in stock, they cannot sell them until another carrier is ready. This theory is based upon this timeline:

Oct 19th – Announced by Google/Samsung; Verizon identified as the carrier in the US
Oct 27th – “Exclusively from Verizion” removed from advertisement material
Nov 15th – Verizon extends return policy to January 9th; perhaps to account for a late Galaxy Nexus arrival?
Nov 15th – Verizon Galaxy Nexus approved by FCC
Nov 17th – Released in Europe
Nov 17th – AT&T polls customer interest in Galaxy Nexus
Dec 2nd – GSM Galaxy Nexus is FCC approved (AT&T or T-Mobile)
Dec 8th – Released in Canada
Dec ?? – Released in USA on Verizon (and AT&T? and/or T-Mobile?)

If my theory is correct, Verizon may not be to blame for the delay at all and we could be facing delays up to the end of the year due to Verizon’s two week head start with the FCC and the devices arriving in stock this week. Anyway, that’s my guess. Take it or leave it.

Dish Network Goes Back on their Word

Nathaniel McCallum — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:35:20 +0000

Earlier this year I cancelled my Dish Network account. I found I really didn’t watch TV much anymore and had no interest in continuing my service. At first the cancellation process seemed to go smoothly. The representative was quite nice on the phone. After offering to give me a special deal, she promptly agreed to close my account and even offered to wave the shipping fee to return the receivers. The boxes came and I shipped back the equipment. Within a week I even received a refund from Dish Network since I had over-paid my service. ”Wow!” I thought, “that was easy.”

Until November 16th, when I received a call from a debt collector attempting to collect outstanding Dish Network charges of $31 and change. The only correspondence that I had previous to this from Dish Network was a bill clearly outlining my balance at $0 and the refund. At first I thought this must have been a simple mistake, one that could be easily fixed by a simple phone call.

So the same day I called Dish Network support to inquire about these strange charges. I was informed by the representative that the cancellation agent did not have the authority to waive the shipping charges for return of the equipment and that these had been applied after the refund check had already been issued. I told the CSR that she may not have had the authority to do so, but that I was nonetheless told that I would not have to pay them and that Dish Network needs to honor this, especially since I had never received notification of any charges. The CSR replied that she did not have the authority, so I escalated to the floor supervisor. After taking some time to listen to my request, the floor supervisor agreed with my complaint and offered to credit my account for the amount of shipping and to rescind the amount from collections. I of course agreed.

Today, November 30th, I received a call again from the same debt collector. I again repeated that I am disputing the charge and called Dish Network. The first Dish Network agent I spoke to reiterated the old line: “you have to pay these charges.” I again escalated to the floor supervisor. Not only did the floor supervisor refuse to honor the word of, not one, but two previous Dish Network agents, she also told me that there was no record of my escalation to the floor supervisor on November 16th and therefore no record of her agreeing to credit my account!

Dish Network, if you are listening, do the right thing. If a customer representative tells you that something will happen, do it. If they misspoke in violation of your internal policy, respect your customer enough to bend the rules and honor your word. And, for God’s sake, if you promise to credit someone’s account, do it!

Vacationing in Style

Nathaniel McCallum — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:09:22 +0000

Concerned About Google

Nathaniel McCallum — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:11:59 +0000

Like many people I use a bunch of Google services. And while many people have privacy concerns, that is not really one of my concerns. I have, I think, a bigger concern: Google has figured out the things I would like to buy, but cannot afford! And they keep showing me the ads for these things! Perhaps Google thinks me to be susceptible to temptation… Perhaps they are correct…

Start Them Young

Nathaniel McCallum — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:13:35 +0000