Ubuntu
Mxit Attempt packaging
Mxit released their open platform a while ago as part of this platform they created an plug-in for libpurple the library that both Pidgin and Adium.
I am very pleased that the code is available as well as deb’s for my ubuntu machine. When running the deb it was presented with
MXit libPurple Plugin
MXit libPurple Plugin
(Converted from a rpm package by alien version 8.72.)
I was under the impression that debs were easier to create then rpm’s? Also why are they making rpm’s as their primary packaging and trying to convert to deb’s also I find it odd that they have had more downloads for the deb platform
- MXit Pidgin Plugin v1.1.1 – Fedora 8/Red Hat (.rpm) (92.3 KiB, 364 hits)
- MXit Pidgin Plugin v1.1.1 – Debian/Ubuntu (.deb) (91.1 KiB, 387 hits)
- MXit libPurple Plugin v1.1.1 – Source Code (.tgz) (64.6 KiB, 446 hits)
Then again why are all those users downloading the source code? Is it because they don’t provide a 64bit arch package? Is it because they are removing the mxit promotional image at startup?
Who knows but I don’t really like to see my debs being created by Alien where there is a perfectly great Launchpad ppa’s Mxit.
Ubuntu-za-jhb Had a Cake
One of the members of the ubuntu-za inetpro asked his wife and daughter to bake a cake for the release party. I wasn’t at the release party but heard the turn out was far great then last year. So well done.
How awesome!
UPDATE:
Since being included on the Ubuntu weekly news letter. I thought it was only fair to link directly to inetpro who’s Wife and Daughter made the cake.
bloemfontein also had a belated release party which nuvolari was so kinds as to organize. They also had a Ubuntu Cake!! Check out his site for pics.
This really was a battle of the cakes. Place your votes now. 
Evolution missing attachment detector
Last year gmail posted about their Missing Attachment Detector I was surprised this afternoon when my Evolution alerted me i forgot to add the attachment 
It seems evolution has had this feature for quite some time. I couldn’t find the exact date when it was added but according to this bug report it has been there since at least 2007/09/03.
Go Evolution!!
Split Routing Local Access Restored
I recently followed tumbleweed’s split routing post (his post explains the odd reasoning why any one would go through all this effort) after doing this something/someone (me) removed complete and utter access to localhost. I have been struggling for a few days asking around trying to get local access back. I eventually asked in #ubuntuforums-beginners on freenode and bodhizazen quickly and with out effort asked me for the output of
iptables -L -v
then replied with
iptables -A OUTPUT -o lo -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
and with that I had access to localhost.I was amazed that I never thought it could be a firewall issue! The simplest solutions are normally always the best. I do still wonder which one of the numerous iptables configs removed my local access.
On a side note gnome doesn’t like to be started/logged into with out access to localhost. I was stuck in a tty till I worked out gnome has a safe graphics option.
All in all tumbleweed’s post was very well written and easy to follow nice one and thanks to bodhizazen for his help I would also like to thank Michael Gorven for his patience and help in getting this working.
Weechat Security Issues
At the start of the week my Weechat CLI Irc client segfaulted for the first time in the last year of using it. I reconnected to rejoin #weechat on freenode. I pinged FlashCode (The main dev of Weechat) and asked him if he wanted my bug report he replied It is a known issue and he was busy patching Weechat 0.2.6 (The current version in ubuntu[Gutsy,hardy,Itrepid,Januty]) later that day he released 0.2.6.1.
Debian has released a security update patch for this package. I filed this as a bug on launchpad but no response as of yet.
Since then people have been joining channels just to try crash Weechat more and more and my weechat continued to segfault. I had two choices. 1) Download and compile the patch 2) Install the devel version. I chose to go with the devel version!
The new devel version is pretty much a stable release with minor features missing here and there but the application isn’t buggy at all. The new version is under active development by FlashCode. The new almost complete re-write of weechat boasts a much fuller API for scripts and plugins. Script such as weetris(Inline tetris game) would never have been possible on the older version. I have been using for the last few hours with no issues. The TUI is much smoother and easier to use .
Missing scripts 
1) urlgrap.py Allows user to choose to open the last url in their browser i.e. /url 1
2) weenotify.py Uses libnotify to alert a user of private messages or highlights in any channel.
Screen shots and install instructions are located here hopefully there will be a patch released for 0.2.6 but either way I am staying on the Dev version.