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Det er muligt at forbinde til SDU’s netværk i Ubuntu via VPN. Denne guide er skrevet med henblik pÃ¥ brug af Ubuntu 8.04 og Gnome.

Der er nogle generelle oplysninger pÃ¥ SDU’s hjemmeside inkl. en installationsguide og en link til en Cisco klient der kan downloades. Det ser dog ikke rigtig ud til at der er nogen klient at downloade, men klienten skal heller ikke bruges her. I installationsguiden stÃ¥r der at man skal bruge et gruppenavn og gruppepassword, og at det kan fÃ¥es ved henvendelse i Helpdesken. Jeg har modtaget mit direkte fra mit institut, sÃ¥ jeg har ikke prøvet helpdesken, men man skal bruge begge dele for at guiden virker.

I Ubuntu skal man have installeret pakkerne “network-manager-vpnc” og “vpnc”.
sudo apt-get install vpnc network-manager-vpnc
Derefter er det nødvendig at genstarte network-manager og den nemmeste løsning er simpelthen at genstarte computeren.

Nu kan man konfigurere VPN forbindelsen ved at venstre-klikke pÃ¥ NetworkManager ikonet i statusbaren og vælge “VPN-forbindelse” og “konfigurer VPN”.

1. Vælg “Tilføj” og følg skærmene igennem.
2. Vælg Cisco VPN-klient.
3. Udfyld “Required” pÃ¥ det første faneblad. Mit gruppenavn er tekvpn, men det er afhængigt af hvilket fakultet man er tilknyttet.
4. Under “Optional” udfyld dit brugernavn (inkl. domæne pÃ¥ formen: “domæne\brugernavn”) og vælg “Brug domæne til brugerverification”. Mit domæne er “tek” men det er naturligvis afhændigt af fakultetstilknytning.
5. Sidst men ikke mindst skal man vælge “Enable weak single DES encryption”.

SÃ¥ er det muligt at logge ind ved igen at venste-klikke pÃ¥ NetworkManager ikonet i statusbaren og vælge “VPN-forbindelse” og klikke pÃ¥ den nyoprettede VPN forbindelse og udfylde gruppepasswordet og det almindelige password man bruger til at logge pÃ¥ domænet.

Det er OK at bemærke det ironiske i at man skal sætte flueben i “Enable weak single DES encryption” nÃ¥r der pÃ¥ SDU’s oplysningsside stÃ¥r “Benytter 3DES kryptering (168bit) og betragtes som den mest sikre protokol”…

To compile Delta3D it is necessary to first create a solution file for a IDE (or some other environment) and then build the project using that tool. Delta3D 2.1.0 does not come with pre-created VS2005/8 solution files like older versions of Delta3D did.

To create a VS2008 solution for Delta3D 2.1.0 first obtain the following programs/sources:

1. Download Delta3D 2.1.0 from Sourceforge.
2. Download Delta3D 2.1.0 dependencies from Sourceforge.
3. Download the open source C++ edition of Qt from Trolltech.
4. Download NMake build tool from Microsoft.
5. Download CMake build tool from cmake.org.

Now you have the resources you need to be able to start the build process. Please notice that the version of Qt to download must be the source code (src) version, not the MinGW version, which Delta3D can not use. Now you need to install nmake, cmake and the other tools. I am assuming that you already have VS2008 installed…

1. Install NMake – create a directory for NMake, for example C:\Program Files\NMake and move the NMake executable file to the new foldet. Run the file and it will unzip to a couple of files, among them nmake.exe.
2. Install CMake – just follow the instructions.
3. Unzip the Qt package to where you will want it installed, for example C:\Qt\4.4.3 (depending on version).
4. Install Delta3D from the executable – again just follow the instructions.
5. Unzip the Delta3D dependencies package to your Delta3D installation folder, for example C:\Program Files\Delta3D_REL-2.1.0. The package contains a single folder, ext, which you should overwrite the existing Delta3D ext folder with.

Now the tools are basically installed. The first step is then to compile Qt:

1. Add NMake to your path – For example add C:\Program Files\NMake to your path varialble if that is where you installed the NMake tool.
2. Add the Qt bin folder to your path – If you installed Qt to C:\Qt\4.4.3 then add C:\Qt\4.4.3\bin to your path.
3. Start a Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt, not the usual cmd but the VS2008 one so that Qt can find the compilation (cl) and linking (link) tools.
4. Navigate to the Qt folder, for example C:\Qt\4.4.3, and run “configure.exe -platform win32-msvc-2008″ which should create a file called “Makefile” in the Qt directory.
5. Run NMake by typing “nmake” and wait while Qt compiles… this takes a LONG time.

Now that Qt is installed you are able to create a VS2008 solution file for Delta3D:

1. Open the CMake tool. Select the CMake entry in your start menu (not the cmake-gui).
2. Open an explorer window and drag the CMakeLists.txt file from the Delta3D folder into the CMake window.
3. Click configure and wait while it checks your system. If it complains about QMAKE missing, find the relevant entry (some where in the bottom of the configurations in CMake) and point it to the qmake.exe in your Qt bin directory, and press configure again.
4. When successfully configured press OK.

Now you have a VS2008 solution file in the root of your Delta3D folder. Open that with Visual Studio and build as necessary.

IDA

• Tjek IDAs vejledende lønsats (32800 brutto inkl. pensionsbidrag) for civilingeniører.
• Spørg ikke om løn. Ikke som nyuddannet…
• Husk at lønnen variere efter branche/geografi/køn (hvis man ikke passer pÃ¥) og efter offentlig/privat arbejdsplads.
• Fax/mail ALTID kontrakten til IDA, før du skriver under. Deres jurister svarer altid inden 24 timer pÃ¥ spørgsmÃ¥l om løn, arbejdstid, ferie og klausuler.
• Der er andre vigtige ting end den udbetalte løn: pension, telefon, optioner, hjemmearbejdsplads osv.
• Arbejdstiden for ingenører er typisk 43-46 timer ugentligt. NÃ¥r det handler om arbejdstid/løn husk:
• Skiftende arbejdstider i projektstillinger.
• Husk meget transporttid, f.eks. ved eksterne kunder, konsulentydelser, regionale kontorer.
• Husk evt. vagtordninger i virksomheden
• De fleste har 5+1 ugers ferie.
• Pas pÃ¥ med klausuler. ALDRIG underskriv uden fagforening. Kan være MEGET restriktive.
• IDA tilbyder juridisk rÃ¥dgivning bl.a ved spørgsmÃ¥l om: forfremmelse, nyt job, udstationeringer, ophavsret, barsel og optioner
• Ca. 10% af nyuddannede bliver fyret i det første Ã¥r.

IAK

• Husk man ikke automatisk er garanteret ret til kontanthjælp, og at ved kontanthjælp kommer man i aktivering.
• Dagpengesatsen er højere end kontanthjælpen, og der er ingen aktivering.
• Normalt er ferie uden løn.
• Som nyuddannet er det MEGET VIGTIGT AT BLIVE OPTAGET I IAK INDEN 14 DAGE EFTER SIDSTE STUDEAKTIVITET (specialforsvar). Ansøg derfor altid pÃ¥ forhÃ¥nd.
• Der er en mÃ¥neds karensperiode. Husk at dagpenge er bagudbetalt, og man potentielt kan være uden indtægt i to mÃ¥neder.
• Dimittendsatsen er 12480kr og 8640kr i feriedagpenge.
• Man kan fÃ¥ dagpenge med til udlandet.
• Man kan fÃ¥ supplerende dagpenge i 30 uger ved deltidsjob.
• Ved selvstændigt arbejde søg altid rÃ¥dgivning.
• Husk at undersøg studiejob i forbindelse med karensperioden. Siger du op fra studiejob giver det karantæne!!! Feriepenge tjent ved studiejob modregnes i feriedagpengene.
• Hvis man har fÃ¥et job, og skal starte efter f.eks. en mÃ¥ned er det vigtigt overholder møder/aftaler med jobnet, rÃ¥dighedsforpligtelse osv. OgsÃ¥ selv om man HAR et job man bare ikke er startet pÃ¥ endnu.
• Man skal stÃ¥ til rÃ¥dighed for arbejdsmarkedet i karensperioden. OgsÃ¥ selv om man skal starte pÃ¥ job efter karensperioden!

Noter fra IDA/IAK/IEF dimittendkursus…

Jobsøgning

• Der skal være nær sammenhæng mellem jobannoncen og jobansøgningen. Det vil sige at en let modificeret standard ansøgning der sendes til flere virksomheder ikke er en god idé.
• Tjek for stavefejl. Det er mÃ¥ske ikke sÃ¥ vigtigt for sig, men nogen folk (der mÃ¥ske læser din ansøgning) gÃ¥r MEGET op i stavefejl og grammatik.
• Det er vigtigt at give en god motivation for ansøgningen.
• Sproget skal ikke være for formelt. Der er ingen grund til at bruge de og deres, bare hold det i et pænt sprog.
• NÃ¥r ansøgningen sendes elektronisk, sÃ¥ vær opmærksom pÃ¥ Words dokumentegenskaber / meta-data. De bliver gemt i dokumentet, inkl. dokumenthistorik, original titel, og information om hvor lang tid dokumentet har været redigeret. Altid kopier til en ny fil, eller brug PDF.

Jobsamtalen

• Den der skaber den bedste stemning til samtalen fÃ¥r jobbet.
• Husk at:
• Smile og virker glad.
• Vær positiv.
• Vær gennemført.
• Giv positivt indtryk hele vejen, ogsÃ¥ i receptionen og pÃ¥ parkeringspladsen. Du ved ikke hvem der kigger…
• Diskuter ikke dÃ¥rlige/kontroversielle emner, inkl. fodbold, bilmærker osv.
• Det er altid bedre at sige JA end at sige NEJ.
• Lad være med at spørge om te, hvis der kun er kaffe pÃ¥ bordet. Heller ikke hvis du bliver spurgt!
• Forberedelse inden samtalen er vigtig, du skal være klar til at tale om dig selv.
• Samtalen handler om dig fagligt, personligt og privat.
• Relater det personlige til det faglige… f.eks. jeg har altid været glad for kemi, allerede da jeg var barn eksperimenterede jeg med… osv.
• Fortæl det vigtige om dig selv privat: gift, børn, sport (klubsport er bedre end at sige man løber et par gange om ugen… det er sÃ¥ uforpligtende at sige)
• Til samtalen er din personlighed 60% og det faglige er 40%…
• Forbered et eller to spørgsmÃ¥l selv. Noget om arbejdsopgaverne eller kollegaerne. Ikke noget kompliceret, og ikke noget om løn!

7 gode råd før jobansøgning

1. Afklar personligt/fagligt talent.
2. Check jobindex/jobfinder (for ingeniører…) dagligt.
3. Læs erhvervmagasiner/sektioner. F.eks. Børsen eller JP.
4. Søg info om virksomheden. Google, Krak, osv.
5. Ring og spørg til annoncen. Det skal være et eller to konkret spørgsmål.
6. Ansøgningen skal være kort og engageret og på en side. Læg vægt på hvad man kan tilbyde virksomheden.
7. Send et målrettet CV. Dvs. det skal passe til jobbet. Som nyuddannet husk at nævne relevante fag og især projektarbejder.

Gode råd om jobsamtalen

1. Søg info om virksomheden.
2. Forbered en præsentation af dig selv.
3. Hav et par spørgsmål klar.
4. Kend 3-5 af dine stærke side og dårlige sider (kald dem ikke dårlige sider, men udviklingområder).
5. Din pÃ¥klædning skal passe til stedet. Udviklere gÃ¥r ikke normalt med slips…

Spørgsmål

• Hvor personlig skal ansøgningen være?
• Ikke mere personligt end at det er professionelt.
• Fødselsdato pÃ¥ CV, men ikke CPR.
• Husk relevante personlige egenskaber.
• Henvis til personlig hjemmeside, hvis den er relevant. Ikke hvis der er ferie/børne-billeder osv.
• Henvis gerne til relevante projekter under studietiden, hvis de er pÃ¥ en hjemmeside.
• Skal man søge uopfordret?
• Gerne, 10% bliver ansat pÃ¥ uopfordrede ansøgninger
• Husk at motivere hvorfor ansøgningen er sendt.
• Karrierevejviseren er en god guide til uopfordrede ansøgninger.
• Hvor langt mÃ¥ et CV være?
• Der skal ikke være for mange bilag.
• Skriv citat fra evt relevante udtalelser/anbefalinger og skriv at selve udtalelsen medbringes til samtalen.

Generelle råd

• Lav en personlighedstest, f.eks. pÃ¥ jobindex.dk.
• fÃ¥ studiekammerater til at lave en liste med stikord om personlighed, udvælg 3 relevante og uddyb dem pÃ¥ jobasøgningen.
• Sørg for at de personlige egenskaber passer til jobbet. Udavendt er ikke godt til et individuelt job.
• Tal ikke om dÃ¥rlige sider, men om udviklingsomrÃ¥der. Husk de mÃ¥ ikke være relevante for jobbet.
• Husk at nævne studiejobs, ogsÃ¥ hvis de ikke er studierelevante. Sammenskriv evt. til prosa hvis der er mange.

I just read a blog post on the Planet Gnome RSS feed by a guy who calls him self ChipX86 who said the new beta of VMware Workstation 6.5 was out. Being a major fan of Workstation since version 5.5 i decided it had to try it out immediately.

The new killer feature is obviously the Unity feature, which some might have seen in Fusion, which is VMware’s Workstation edition for MacOS X. Unity allows applications running in the guest operating system, to be accessed in the host operating system. So you could start Internet Explorer (if for example your workplace insists on using an intranet web-application that will only work in IE6… bastards), minimize the whole Windows OS, and enjoy your normal favorite flavor of Linux only slightly marred by the sight of IE6 running.

There’s lots of new stuff in version 6.5 as well, apart from just Unity. You can read them all at VMware’s documentation, but the most important ones are probably:

• support for 3D acceleration in Windows XP – good when your developing code using Delta3D for your master thesis
• GUI for manipulating virtual network settings on Linux hosts

There’s plenty of other new stuff as well. The blog post has a pretty good walk-through of the best features of Unity.

Installation and Configuration

The download is the usual 200+ MB .tar.gz file. Un-packaging the file results in the expected vmware-install.pl script which must be run as super user. Starting the installation process the first message received was a warning that my existing Workstation 6.0 installation would be removed first. Not exactly unexpectedly but still kind of annoying. It would have been nice to have been able to keep a non-beta version installed along the beta.

The installation ran smooth, and soon asked for permission to run the vmware-config.pl script. I can’t remember when I last installed a version of VMware that didn’t require the infamous vmware-any-any patch to work on my machine, so I was actually expecting this would prove problematic. But to my surprise everything ran quietly and perfectly.

Starting Workstation after the installation gave another pleasant surprise, when the program informed me that I had to run is as super user, to load some modules into my running kernel. Much better that the “thinking-for-while-and-then-not-starting” thing that happened in version 6 when there was a problem with the modules. After aborting and restarting the program with sudo, I got a very handy graphical window showing the loading of the modules. Nice touch.

But all is not well… because right after that a new dialoge informed me that the program would be running in debug mode, which could not be turned off, and that debug mode would result in significant performance loss. To bad… it was probably to be expected, but I would actually have liked a warning before installation, especially since I had to un-install my Workstation version 6 first. I’m pretty sure the documentation says something about this some where, but a bit more prominent warning would have been nice.

Running Workstation 6.5 beta 1

I have just been running this new version for an hour or two, so it’s hard to come with a solid conclusion about Workstation 6.5 beta 1. Most stuff seem to be working. Programs, networking etc. I can definitely say that I didn’t get any performance improvement, but that was to be expected with all this debugging stuff. But to be fair, I didn’t really get a huge loss of performance, so I guess I’m going to have some more testing to get a qualified opinion on that.

So… what about Unity? Well, it works. Sort of… It’s definitely not perfect, but it can be used. Lots of times moving around the windows will result in them not getting updated/redrawn, and other strange things. But it will mostly work. I used Visual Studio, which is one of my primary reasons for using Workstation in the first place, with unity on my normal desktop for a while, and it worked fine. No real problems using the programs, and you get used to using your normal Linux productivity tools along side of the Windows apps really fast. It’s fantastic to finally be able to use Windows programs on multiple desktops, for example. That’s one the features is miss the most, when I’m finally using Windows.

Unity seems to be working quite good, event though it seems to suck a lot of resources from the machine when running programs. I managed to crash it a couple of times, and at one time it actually took down Ubuntu with it. But it’s almost worth it, being able to use those few essential Windows apps, without seeing that nasty little Start button.

Further Testing

So that was just the very first and very few impression from using Workstation 6.5 beta 1 for about one and a half hour. I’ll probably give some more work tomorrow, where I need to do some .NET development, and see where it leads. I have another machine running Workstation as well, so should the need arise to use version 6.0, I’m going to be able to use that one. If you’re not so lucky, and you need a stable Workstation, you should probably wait a little while before going 6.5. But don’t miss out on trying Unity if you get the chance. I’m already looking forward to enabling some of my desktop effects, and seeing what Unity are going to do about that.

Crusing around in Kattegatcentret’s big basin., originally uploaded by greencreek.

So, apparently it’s possible to post directly to a wordpress blog from flickr… just had to test it.

This a picture taken at Kattegatcentret in Grenaa, Denmark on the 16th of March. A friend of mine had arranged a trip where we had the opportunity to get our scuba equipment out of winter storage, and get the seasons first dive in Kattegatcentret’s main tank. For approximately 500 Danish kroner you got 30 minutes in the tank, and free access to the center. And best of all… the water is heated. A luxurious 10 degrees Celsius. You don’t get that kind of warmth many places in Scandinavian waters in March.

The basin is about 8×8 meters and 5 deep, and it holds a concentrated version of the life normally found in the Kattegat. A mix of sandy and rocky bottom, and lots of fish I don’t know the name for in English

The whole trip is definitely worth both to travel and pay for. It’s a nice way to experience the life and conditions found in the inner Danish waters, in a quick and controlled way.

There are additional pictures available on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39763163@N00/sets/72157604277770539/

Quick rant… if you, like me, use Ubuntu Hardy Heron or some other Linux distribution with SCIM enabled, and for some reason can’t use the ctrl+space auto-completion feature of Eclipse, check your SCIM key settings. In Hardy Heron SCIM gets input before other applications, like Eclipse, and ctrl+space is captured by SCIM and not send on to Eclipse. To get rid of that, simply delete that combination.

I don’t know why SCIM got enabled in the first place, but it’s pretty annoying. I know it makes you able to write Chinese characters ect. on the fly, but I don’t really need that! At first it had a bloody obnoxious input window pop-up all the time, but that’s easy to disable. For some reason the SCIM status icon in the panel can’t be removed. It has an exit option, but choosing exit only closes the program for a split second, after which it simply starts again. My best advice is simply to delete all keyboad shortcuts.

Really annoying!

Since I just started testing Evolution as my PIM, including mail, calendar, todo and contacts, I thought it would be in its place to write a short post on synchronizing Evolution with a Sony Ericsson K610i (and quite possible other SE phones as well).

My old post on doing the same with a Mozilla Sunbird can be found here: Synchronize Sony Ericsson K610i with Mozilla Sunbird on Ubuntu.

As in the previous try, I had no luck making the synchronization work with OpenML, but had to use IrMC instead. I have no idea if this is because of some problem with SE’s OpenML implementation, or perhaps it’s just that I have misunderstood what OpenML is all about. Anyway… IrMC works fine so far.

I had a few hiccups during the first synchronization, so a backup of your contacts and appointments might be a good idea if you value your data. I had to empty my phones calendar to get sync to work properly, even though you could just sort out the conflicts manually the first time. I also had to purge old appointments in my calendar to get the synchronization to work correctly. Initially my calendar file in ICS format was 121Kb, and that seems to be more appointments than the phone can handle. I purged all appointments older than 60 days, and that resolved the problem.

Installation

The required packages, not including Evolution, are:

• multisync
• multisync-tools
• bluez-utils
• opensync-plugin-evolution
• opensync-plugin-irmc

You can get them all with:

sudo apt-get install multisync multisync-tools bluez-utils opensync-plugin-evolution opensync-plugin-irmc


After installing the packages you just need to setup a synchronization group using multisync tools.

msynctool --addgroup EvoK610irmc

Here “EvoK610irmc” is the name of the group that will hold the synchronization pairs, you can choose anything that you feel is appropriate.

Then it is time to add the participants to the group. First the evolution plugin, which need no further configuration, if you are using the standard calendar and address book:

msynctool --addmember EvoK610irmc evo2-sync

Then add the IrMC plugin by writing:

msynctool --addmember EvoK610irmc irmc-sync

That’s pretty straight forward so far.

Configuration

The evo2-sync plugin does not need any further configuration, as long as you are using the default calendar, address book etc. If you want to see, and possibly change the configuration, this can be done with the following command:

msynctool --configure EvoK610irmc 1

which allows you to view and change the settings of the first member in the EvoK610irmc group. The configuration is XML syntax, and is opened in the default editor, which is Nano in my terminal. My default configuration look like this: evo2-sync.config.

The second plugin configuration need to be set up with your phone’s address and IrMC channel. The first part is to find your phone’s address. Write:

hcitool scan

and note your phone’s MAC. Then proceed to write:

sdptool browse yourphonesmachere

and look for the “Service Name: OBEX IrMC Sync Server” section. Note the channel number, on my phone it’s channel 8.

Then it’s time for configuring the second member of the sync group, the irmc-plugin. Write:

msynctool --configure EvoK610irmc 2

The configuration should be like this: irmc-sync.config. Then it’s time to synchronize your data.

Usage

To synchronize your phone and Evolution simply fire up multisync with the command:

msynctool --sync EvoK610irmc

That’s at least what you should do, ideally. My experience is that you need to exclude some parts of the synchronization, and perhaps split it up in pairs. There are five types of objects available for synchronization: event, todo, contact, note and data. First, the note object type does not seem to have any effect on my synchronization. Notes on my phone are not synced to memos in Evolution, or the other way round, so I leave the note object type out of my synchronization. Secondly the data object must be included. If it’s exclude the synchronization can not connect to Evolution. Finally, my experience is that it’s best to split synchronization in two steps, since there is a tendency that the sync will hang and/or fail if you try performing a synchronization with all object types together.

So let’s start out with the calendar and todo list:

msynctool --sync EvoK610irmc --filter-objtype note --filter-objtype contact

I filter out the note (which does nothing) and the contacts. This leaves event, todo and data. To sync the contacts and the address book write:

msynctool --sync EvoK610irmc --filter-objtype event --filter-objtype todo --filter-objtype note

which filter out everything but contacts and data.

During synchronization conflicts might be encountered. You will be asked to resolve these conflicts, selecting either side 1 (Evolution), side 2 (the phone), duplicate, the newest etc. If you are certain how you want to resolve conflicts, it is possible to include the –conflict option when synchronizing. For example:

msynctool --sync EvoK610irmc --conflict n --filter-objtype note --filter-objtype contact

always keeps the newest event or contact. Possible options are: Resolve all conflicts as side [1-9] wins, [d]uplicate, [i]gnore, or keep [n]ewer.

That’s it. All you need to synchronize your phone with Evolution.

Notes

So, it’s been really long since I last put a new post up, and I’m going to try to remedy that in the near future, after my exams. I have a couple of post in queue right now:

• Part 2 of the Sokoban robot post, detailing the construction of a Sokoban game parser, an A* routine for finding paths written in Java, and a translator routine for the route, so the robot can follow it.
• A new AI post about implementing a Neural Network in Java. Used for playing LUDO, but probably general enough to be used for other things.

The post about using Sunbird and a SE phone generated a lot of traffic, so I’m going to try to follow up on that to, since people apparently like those kind of cookbooks. So more Ubuntu experiences coming up as I get my notes sorted out.

I’m going to start on my master thesis in a few weeks, and I’m going to use this blog as a sort of project journal. So hopefully I’ll have lots of stuff to post during the next 12 months   This also means that I’m about done with the approximately one million projects we have undertaken during the years, so I’m going to try to sort through my archives, and see if there’s something that worth making publicly available, and commenting a bit on that.

Finally I just wanted to point to a small very intriguing game Cursor*10, which was also featured on digg a little while ago. Just goes to show, that as all computer gamers know, game play can be so much more important that graphics. I mean… it’s even in mono-chrome. Fantastic…

And lastly, the blogroll has been updated, since Lars has moved his blog, now that he was finally pressured into handing in his thesis. Congrats, Lars.