While trying to check the vhost configuration on my Kubuntu dev box, I had to run httpd -S. Of course, since ubuntu renamed httpd to apache (a bit like calling a Veyron a Bugatti), I had to run apache2 -S. This however led to the following error message:
apache2: bad user name ${APACHE_RUN_USER}

Last week, I noticed that my computer was becoming really sluggish and the fans, extremely noisy. Seeing as to how I had an inkling that this was due to my CPU heating up or rather, not being cooled enough, and the fact that Windows wasn't telling me what the temperature was, I was in the hunt for a utility to report CPU temperatures in real time. I could, of course, check it via my BIOS. But I wanted a utility to be able to run under load.

Windows 7, much as I enjoy using it (although the shine has worn off a li'l bit), has a few niggles. One of these, which really annoyed me was the sudden seemingly random spike in CPU usage that, once it occurred, never went away until I rebooted the system. The task manager did not list any application as consuming any significant attention from the CPU. However, the resource monitor (which can be reached from the performance tab in the task manager) provided the answer as I found the innocuous sounding "system interrupts" process consuming a steady 40-45% CPU.

If you, like I was, are alarmed at the number of console-kit-daemon-s being listed by htop, calm yourself. It is a misrepresentation of threads as separate processes. To get a better view of what's going on, select "Setup" in htop and under "Display options", check the "Tree view" and "Display threads in a different colour" boxes and save the changes.

Compiling KTorrent 3.3 RC1 on Kubuntu 9.10 Karmic with KDE 4.3:

Update 1: This works with 3.3 final as well.
Update 2: This works with 4.0 beta1 as well.

1. Install cmake and related tools:
   sudo apt-get install cmake automoc build-essential gettext
2. Install other required libraries:
   sudo apt-get install kdelibs5-dev kdebase-workspace-dev kdepimlibs5-dev python-kde4 libboost-dev libtag1-dev libqca2-dev libgmp3-dev

Seeing as to how I listen to a lot of classical music, I was asked earlier to identify the classical piano pieces used in episode 12 of the anime, Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (a recommended watch, btw)... I'm posting this to help others who are trying to find out the same thing...

The first piano piece played by Eugenie is Rachmaninoff's Piano concerto no. 2.

I watched Pixar's Up last week and I must say that it was a big disappointment considering all the hype surrounding it. Even though it was released in May, it is currently ranked #39 in IMDb's Top 250 list which I find rather flabbergasting.

The following are a bunch of Anna Russell videos that showcase some of her wonderful wit. While, the older videos (especially the analysis of the Ring cycle) were taken when she was well past her prime, they are still very entertaining, if not as good as the audio version recorded much earlier.

Analysis of the Ring Cycle

The original audio versions:

I'm pretty sure that this wasn't happening with the 9.x releases. But, I found that when I middle-clicked in Opera to get the scroll icon and scroll up/down a page, all that happened was that whatever was in my clipboard got pasted into the page, with the page trying to navigate to the clipboard text. In Opera's defence, the paste action is generally the default action across all applications in Linux. However, this also made this behaviour inconsistent across different platforms and even across other browsers on the same platform.

I came across an interview with Marty Friedman (look for edition 18) on the BOSS website. It covers a variety of topics including how he got together with Jason Becker, how he got the Megadeth gig and so on.