IPv6: Still "beta" quality

Over the last month or so, I've been playing with Internode's IPv6 offering. My platform of choice is my Linux-based gateway.

I'm fast coming to the conclusion that IPv6 just isn't ready for prime-time yet. Support in some of the key components is unstable, and feels rushed.

PPPD, the daemon used to facilitate an ADSL connection for example, doesn't set a default IPv6 route when the "defaultroute" option is specified. Of course, it works for IPv4. To get a default route when the connection is brought up, you need to employ scripting that should really be unnecessary.

Windows 7 on an ancient laptop

Not wanting to buy a new laptop, I thought I'd give Windows 7 a whirl on my 6-year-old one. Windows XP just wasn't cutting the mustard anymore. It had become sluggish, and the wireless drivers had started playing up.

Here's the specs on my 2004-vintage beast. It's a Sony Vaio VGN-T16SP:

  • Pentium M 1.1 Ghz
  • 512MB RAM
  • Onboard Intel 855GME graphics
  • 40GB 4200rpm hard disk

Not much to work with, huh. Two things were the most worrying: The miniscule amount of RAM, and the archaic graphics card.

X.org modeline for Panasonic TH-50PX80A

Sure, the brochure says your panel runs at 1366x768. But pick a 1366x768 mode in X, and you'll get a two black bars on either side of the image.

Turns out the panel actually is 1384x770. Go figure. Here's a modeline for your media centres:

# 1384x770 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 47.82 kHz; pclk: 86.84 MHz

Modeline "1384x770_60.00" 86.84 1384 1456 1600 1816 770 771 774 797 -HSync +Vsync

Hollandaise Sauce

Ingredients
2 egg yolks
80 grams butter melted
60ml vinegar
3 peppercorns
1 teaspoon lemon juice (or one squeeze of a wedge of lemon)

Put the vinegar and peppercorns in a small pot and bring to the boil. Immediately reduce the heat and let simmer until it reduces to half (it won’t take very long). Take off the heat and let it cool

Fraiche Prawn Pasta

Ingredients
500g green prawns (shelled and deveined)
Lots of garlic (about 3 cloves is good), finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
Olive oil
Butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 slices bacon, diced
1 tin of tomatoes
1/3 cup white wine
A fistful of basil, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons crème fraiche
Parpadelle, cooked al dente, to serve
Parmesan

Three reasons Kindle trumps iPad

Apple's recently announced a new gadget for fanboys to jump at. The "iPad".

It's really the bastard-child of the Apple family, with no market segment to fill. An unimaginative name, with an unimaginative design (it's literally just an oversized iPod Touch).

So what's the iPad supposed to be? A glorified ebook reader? If that's the target market, then here's three reasons to buy a Kindle instead:

Dell sold your email to spammers

Ever wonder why you get so much spam in your inbox?

Next time you give your email address out to a company, think what they might do with it. Dell, for example, sells your email address to spammers to make a buck.

Most of you already know I obsessively create a new email address for each organisation I deal with. This serves two purposes: