[CentOS] CentOS 6.2-x86-64

Sat Jun 23 19:55:24 UTC 2012
Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>

On Saturday 23 June 2012 15:12:58 Nate Duehr did opine:

> On Jun 20, 2012, at 3:27 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > As for partiality, no way, synaptic, adapted for rpms is by far the
> > best package manager I've used in the last 5 years since I bailed on
> > fedora at about 6 or so.
> 
> Understand that sentiment, Gene.  I like aptitude myself for
>  Debian-based systems, but everyone has a favorite.
> 
> It sounds like you have much of your repo problem for RPM sources for
>  the tools you want understood now.  I would caution that some repos out
>  there are set up by individuals who are interested in fixing something,
>  they make a few packages, and then they disappear when they lose
>  interest.
> 
> I suggested EPEL because it's a large project, based off of an even
>  larger one (Fedora) and there's probably not going to be any major
>  disruptions in it as far as interested-parties goes, so security and
>  version updates of most packages in it should keep flowing unless
>  upstream sources abandon them.

I believe EPEL is enabled, but will check as soon as I've recovered from 4k 
air miles in a Cessna 414, and 2 days crawling all over an old Harris 50KW 
tv transmitter that wasn't transmitting.

> > I just pulled the clamav stuff, not terribly complete unless the utils
> > are part of the main package, but have not attempted an rpm -ivh on
> > that kit yet.  I got the huge majority of the stuff with FF, at
> > <http://choonrpms.mirror.choon.net/centos/6.2/choonrpms/x86_64/>
> > which I found via a google search.
> 
> Highly recommend adding reputable repos to your local system and then
>  using yum search [packagename] or similar... I haven't seen the name
>  choonrpms before, but I'd kinda want to know who they are before
>  installing their packages.  Just a thought.  Take or leave.  (Someone
>  who knows who they are, may be chuckling at that... I don't know... I
>  haven't researched it.)
> 
> > I'm getting close to that in N. Central WV, phone and internet are on
> > the local cable, getting about 385k/sec dl speeds on average.  But I
> > have kept my own email corpus here since 1998, over 7Gb of it now, and
> > old, probably bad habits are hard to break.  Old being relative of
> > course since I'm only slightly younger than dirt at 77.  Retired
> > (almost, I take a small plane ride tomorrow to go look at a
> > transmitter that is off the air) from the local CBS affiliate as the
> > CE from 1984.9 to 2002.6.
> 
> I will add my vote that even though running ones own mail server is a
>  fun challenge, at some point in the past I decided to leave it to
>  younger pros who get paid to wrangle with spammers and what-not, and
>  now only run mail servers I'm paid to deal with.  (GRIN!)
> 
> I migrated old mail that I thought I couldn't live without to the IMAP
>  account and said goodbye to the time-suck that a modern mail server has
>  become.  (I still operate mail servers for my employer, but at home...
>  it's nice to just forget about it and read my mail. GRIN...)

Yeah boy, right as rain.
 
> Neat to run into another RF "geek".  Never made my living at it, but I
>  maintain some Amateur Radio FM repeaters and some Public Safety FM and
>  P-25 systems.  Nothing high power, broadcast or TV, but as things are
>  generally co-located on mountains... have seen many broadcast systems
>  up close, and had the "5 cent tour" from the Station Engineers in the
>  area.

I used to charge 50 cents.  I never got paid either...
 
> Be careful with that high-power stuff... but you know that already.  No
>  tower climbing at 77... let one of us young whippersnappers do that
>  silly stuff.  I'm about half your age, and I still don't really like
>  it.  Just a necessary evil in volunteer organizations... strap on the
>  safety gear, and get going.
>
And make sure your safety gear is up to code these days.  My old linemans 
belt would get me a police escort off the site today, but I've been several 
hundred feet up in a 50-75 mph wind in it.  I felt safe enough cuz I had no 
intentions of doing anything more stupid that tying myself down, and 
sticking out an arm to catch 330' of 3.125" rigid coax a tower crew from a 
major name had last worked on, and only put the line mounts cap bolts back 
in finger tight.  I wanted the owner to sue the bsrtds, but had to settle 
for making that outfit personna-non-grata for the rest of my term as the CE 
there. 330' twice, it was a 2 line phased setup.  I had yelled at the 
monkey who was doing the tower lites & charging me too much, he came up, 
wasted a pint of black jack for courage before he started up.  The wind was 
beginning to settle, but by the time he got to me at 280' feet, he was a 
white as a sheet and froze hisself to the ladder about 4 feet below me.  So 
I had to quit, nearly out of the bolts I had picked up off the ground 
anyway, and concentrated on getting him back down without being forced to 
break some fingers.

Now, get this, I am the one afraid of heights!  I guess everything can be 
measured in degrees.

> You mentioned a small plane... I do small planes for fun these days, and
>  I'd much rather be doing that, than climbing a tower. (GRIN!)

Small is relative, a Cessna 414 with all the dashboard toys, including a 
radar we had to use going up when we found that after they'd put a pair of 
brand new extra power engines in it last winter, we only had deicers on the 
left wing.  So we had to nose up and jump over it, letting the radar steer 
us for a while.  Those fresh engines never broke a sweat.  Sweet even. :)
 
> > Thanks, I'll see if I can google that when I get back from the trip &
> > get over my aches & pains from crawling around in that elderly Harris
> > 50kw transmitter.
> 
> CBS does love their Harris stuff, eh?

Nah, CBS except for an earth station package we bought in '88, never forced 
us to buy any particular brand.  We aren't a CBS O&O, we're an affiliate.

> I got to see the new solid state
>  beast out here in Denver in person... 1KW modules, pop one out, pop one
>  in... touch screen to gracefully fail one if you want to pull it...
>  pretty amazing stuff.  Paul (the Engineer here) really enjoys his
>  broadcast radio and other radio toys.  That was one of the "five cent
>  tours", seeing his new setup in a shared building with various other
>  DTV systems co-located.  Newest site I've ever been in.  Nice setup. 
>  Always interesting to see waveguide bigger than most sewer pipes and
>  the associated filters.  Looks like an old steamworks for a steamship,
>  but all "filled" with RF instead of water vapor...

Yup, except that here in the hills, we all pressured the commish to keep 
our old VHF stuff, but generally, there's not many of those left now.  The 
NRAQZ boundary is about the south city limits here, and UHF stuff inside 
that zone is quite verboten.  The commish when they made the initial 
channel assignments didn't consider that, & gave the lot of us channels in 
the 50 & up range.  On the #58 they gave us, our power output limit would 
have been 4.78 _watts_.  Hello?

> Enjoy your "retirement"... and 73 if you're a Ham... WY0X here.

Never made it past cow barn radio.  I was one of the sneakier outlaws, 
making about 70 watts pip (sideband only, dead legal on ancient mary) that 
sounded like your living room hifi.  But I sold that radio 25 years ago.  
If I could find it again, I'd buy it back, it would by now be a true 
collectors item, like an original apple.

A HiGain 623, turned into a 640.  Front end noise figure was about 2.1 db 
when I got done with that, and it was a frequency std when the FT dial was 
straight up.  Golden Eagle lollipop, serial #1772.  This was in '76 and I 
was looking for serial number 1776, but 1772 was as close as I could get.

Last I knew it was someplace around Ashland KY.

> Nate
> 
> p.s. Apologies to the list for the personal notes and digressing a
>  bit... I don't think I know Gene well enough to send him private
>  messages.  All the best.

I'll second that, PM's are fine too.

Cheers, Gene
-- 
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My web page: Is down till I get it going on Centos again.

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