Linux is never perfect. One has to tweak it hither and tither to make it comfortable for daily use, to make it YOUR OS. In this post are kept the tweaks, hacks and fooling around recorded on my Debian journey. Read more »
How to mount Samba share under Linux
I have a West Digital MyBook box serving as a file server for my home LAN. I can locate and use its samba share under Nautilus sometimes, but for some unknown reason, the share doesn’t show up occasionally. I decided to mount it via /etc/fstab and put it into /media, so that I can directly access it on Gnome desktop. Read more »
Install Debian Lenny on HP DV2000t
I experienced a slump over the past two days, and it appears nothing could better /dev/zero my grudge than tinkering with Lenny on my HP laptop. Here are the notes I summarize for the installation and tweaking. Read more »
The Shanzhai Phenomenon in China
Shanzhai (山寨) can be literally translated as “camp on a mountain”. It also carries overtones as an outlaws’ camp on the mountain. Anyone who have read one of the Four Classic novels — the Outlaws of the Marsh — will get an idea what an outlaw’s camp is like.
How to replace virus-infected svchost.exe file
MS Windows is a patchy OS, and you have to constantly maintain it, both manually and automatically using its slow live update, to keep the system relatively secure. Here are the instructions on how to replace the infected svchost.exe under Windows XP and patch your system to close the loophole. Read more »
Is Chinese difficult to learn?
Some Oxford-educated English man claims in his blog that China should use an alphabetical writing system, and China’s failing to do so in history partly resulted in the high level of illiteracy. He goes like this：
[China failed to invent stuff] Like an alphabet. Really, how hard is that? The Koreans managed to transform their character-based system into a very serviceable syllabic alphabet nearly 600 years ago. Amongst the reasons why China still hasn’t achieved a high level of literacy….
Interpreting the Grass-mud Horse
The sudden popularity of the phrase Cao Ni Ma (草泥马) or Grass-mud Horse in the Chinese cyberspace perplexed many non-Chinese speakers. If you can understand it, you will gain such penetrating insights into the cyber culture in China. Read more »
Will China’s economy pick up in 2009?
No.
Yes, everybody’s confidence seems to be boosted up by the sheer amount of 4 trillion yuan to be injected into China’s economy. Plus the investment from the local governments, the total boost package would probably amounts to 10 trillion yuan, some say. Read more »
Debian CN99 is back!
The fastest debian mirror site in China has just come back online. The once long standing debian.cn99.com went offline a few months ago without any notice or explanation from its administrators. Many Chinese debianers had been guessing when it would come back or if it ever would. Read more »
Big fish in a small tank
I have fish.
They are in the new fish tank at my home merely by coincidence. One day on a daily walk to the neighbor shop, I noticed the small pond at its entrance was no longer maintained and the water in it was very dirty. The four fish inside were obviously in the ‘troubled water’ and on the verge of dying. Then I asked a shop assistant why the shop didn’t change water and perhaps feed the fish. He relied “We don’t want them anymore. Anyone can take them home”. Read more »