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thewayneA little back story. Fall '04 I was planning on taking an advanced computer security course which required heavy use of Red Hat Linux. So I downloaded it, burned a couple of CD images, and installed it on my laptop. This made my laptop dual-boot so that I could continue using my Win XP installation.
Naturally the class was cancelled.
I've had an interest in learning LAMP, an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. The AMP portion of it powers a HUGE number of web sites, I can't give you the exact number, but it's impressive. So I used the Red Hat installation to work with AMP, largely unsuccessfully. Time passes, and I forget my Linux passwords! Yes, I should have put them in an encrypted note in my Palm Pilot, but I shouldn't have needed to as I was using a formula that I use for generating passwords, but somehow I screwed up.
And since a lot of people on my flist have probably zero interest in Linux, I'll hide the rest under a cut!
Well, since the installation was over 18 months old and I really didn't feel like trying to hack the system with a Knoppix cd or something, I decided to order a new Linux DVD. At first I tried to download it via BitTorrent and another program, but we have such a slow DSL circuit that it just wasn't viable. Since I was going to be out of town from Monday night until Wednesday night this week, I went online to the WONDERFUL PEOPLE (never to be sufficiently praised) AT MADTUX.ORG and ordered a DVD set of the latest build of Debian.
It was pretty cheap, something like $15 with $1 going to the Debian organization to help them with their web hosting. I immediately recieved a confirmation and a USPS tracking number. Tonight I checked it from work (got some stories there to tell!) and it said it was sitting in my post office box, so I picked it up before heading to the observatory to see me wifey.
Arrive at the observatory, open envelope, see nice little holder with two DVDs. Look at the first one, it says Disc 2 of 2. Turn it over. The second disc is also 2 of 2.
Just a slight problem. Kind of hard to install when the core of the OS is on disc 1.
Sigh.
So I can't reinstall Linux on my laptop tonight, and I really wanted to get this done this weekend. I send the following email:
Unfortunately you have a very unhappy camper on this end.
Exasperated is probably a better word. I picked up my order tonight, drove out to my wife's observatory, and went to install. Pulled the two DVDs out of the packaging, noticed the first disc said 2 of 2, so I turned it over. That disc also said 2 of 2. Neither disc boots, so it would appear to be correctly labeled.
I really needed to reinstall my system this weekend, and now I'm hosed.
What can be done about this? To save you a moment of looking up the order though you'll still have to look it up anyway, it was for the latest build of Debian, 3.1r1 i386. I wanted to just download it,
but our DSL connection is something like 180k and big downloads, such as DVD images, simply sucks.
I sent this at about 12:30am, New Mexico time. I received a rather prompt reply as follows:
We can reship this order tomorrow morning via express mail and refund your payment. Is that ok? I am at a loss to explain why both DVDs are the same. We use an advanced robotic manufacturing system that has never made a mistake yet!"
THE REPLY CAME SEVEN MINUTES AFTER I SENT MY MESSAGE!
I am just blown away by how fast they replied. I would have no problem with them just sending me a replacement, the refund just totally blew me away! Now I'm going to take the refund and donate it to Software in the Public Interest.
SO, if you ever need a Linux distribution, CHECK THESE GUYS OUT! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
(And for those with the least little interest in Linux, I'm not a fan of Red Hat. I've always considered their hardware support to be rather anemic, I usually have better out-of-the-box experiences with other distros such as SuSe. I just wanted to try Debian, I hear it's a pretty good distro.)
Naturally the class was cancelled.
I've had an interest in learning LAMP, an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. The AMP portion of it powers a HUGE number of web sites, I can't give you the exact number, but it's impressive. So I used the Red Hat installation to work with AMP, largely unsuccessfully. Time passes, and I forget my Linux passwords! Yes, I should have put them in an encrypted note in my Palm Pilot, but I shouldn't have needed to as I was using a formula that I use for generating passwords, but somehow I screwed up.
And since a lot of people on my flist have probably zero interest in Linux, I'll hide the rest under a cut!
Well, since the installation was over 18 months old and I really didn't feel like trying to hack the system with a Knoppix cd or something, I decided to order a new Linux DVD. At first I tried to download it via BitTorrent and another program, but we have such a slow DSL circuit that it just wasn't viable. Since I was going to be out of town from Monday night until Wednesday night this week, I went online to the WONDERFUL PEOPLE (never to be sufficiently praised) AT MADTUX.ORG and ordered a DVD set of the latest build of Debian.
It was pretty cheap, something like $15 with $1 going to the Debian organization to help them with their web hosting. I immediately recieved a confirmation and a USPS tracking number. Tonight I checked it from work (got some stories there to tell!) and it said it was sitting in my post office box, so I picked it up before heading to the observatory to see me wifey.
Arrive at the observatory, open envelope, see nice little holder with two DVDs. Look at the first one, it says Disc 2 of 2. Turn it over. The second disc is also 2 of 2.
Just a slight problem. Kind of hard to install when the core of the OS is on disc 1.
Sigh.
So I can't reinstall Linux on my laptop tonight, and I really wanted to get this done this weekend. I send the following email:
Unfortunately you have a very unhappy camper on this end.
Exasperated is probably a better word. I picked up my order tonight, drove out to my wife's observatory, and went to install. Pulled the two DVDs out of the packaging, noticed the first disc said 2 of 2, so I turned it over. That disc also said 2 of 2. Neither disc boots, so it would appear to be correctly labeled.
I really needed to reinstall my system this weekend, and now I'm hosed.
What can be done about this? To save you a moment of looking up the order though you'll still have to look it up anyway, it was for the latest build of Debian, 3.1r1 i386. I wanted to just download it,
but our DSL connection is something like 180k and big downloads, such as DVD images, simply sucks.
I sent this at about 12:30am, New Mexico time. I received a rather prompt reply as follows:
We can reship this order tomorrow morning via express mail and refund your payment. Is that ok? I am at a loss to explain why both DVDs are the same. We use an advanced robotic manufacturing system that has never made a mistake yet!"
THE REPLY CAME SEVEN MINUTES AFTER I SENT MY MESSAGE!
I am just blown away by how fast they replied. I would have no problem with them just sending me a replacement, the refund just totally blew me away! Now I'm going to take the refund and donate it to Software in the Public Interest.
SO, if you ever need a Linux distribution, CHECK THESE GUYS OUT! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
(And for those with the least little interest in Linux, I'm not a fan of Red Hat. I've always considered their hardware support to be rather anemic, I usually have better out-of-the-box experiences with other distros such as SuSe. I just wanted to try Debian, I hear it's a pretty good distro.)
