SixXS IPv6, Speedtouch 5×6 and Airport Extreme Base Station
So yesterday I decided it was time to make my homenetwork IPv6 enabled. Shouldn’t be too hard, since it’s a full MacOSX network, including the Airport Extreme Base Station (AXBS) that we use for connection. I requested a tunnel at SixXS, got it within 15 minutes and configured my AXBS to make the tunnel. That’s wasn’t really hard, only I forgot to request a subnet too, which made it IPv6 kinda stop at the AXBS. Also, since the AXBS doesn’t have any sort of status check, I was unsure if the tunnel was created correctly. Especially since the SixXS panel said it couldn’t ping me and I couldn’t ping myself from another IPv6 enabled server…
Some querying pointed towards the Speedtouch (which was actually quite obvious, in retrospect). I needed to put my AXBS in the DMZ behind the modem. Sure, no problem there. Let’s just select “Assign the public IP address of a connection to a device” in the interface and select the AXB… Ow, apparantly, the Speedtouch only wants to assign the public IP address to a device that gets it’s IP address from the Speedtouch’s DHCP server. No problem, let’s make the AXBS get it’s IP address through DHCP instead of stati… Ow, apparantly, the AXBS requires a static IP address to do tunneling… Now what?
As is usual with the Speedtouches, under the hood they have far more capabilities than advertised through their webinterface. However, searching through the CLI manual, it’s not very obvious how to add a device to the DMZ. So let’s take the lazy guy approach:
First, I made sure all the Speedtouch was in working order and made a backup of the configuration. Second, I added a device to the DMZ and made another backup. Thirdly, I diff’ed both backups and looked at the changes. You’ll notice a line starting with “lease add” that contains the MAC address of the device you just added. Easy-peasy from here on. Simply change the MAC address into the address from the AXBS and upload the new configuration to the Speedtouch.
All of a sudden, it works. And I have an IPv6 enabled home-network. Kinda boring after that, it just all works :S
Isoformat in Python 2.4
Sometimes I don’t like python. Just sometimes, I love it most of the times. But just look what hoops I need to jump through to get a current timestamp in ISO format:
from datetime import datetime, tzinfo, timedelta
import time
class TZ(tzinfo):
def utcoffset(self,dt): return timedelta(seconds=time.timezone)
def dst(self,dt): return timedelta(0)
a = datetime.now(TZ())
a= a.replace(microsecond = 0)
print a.isoformat()
That prints:
asterisk:~ tim$ python test.py
2008-03-24T13:38:06-01:00
Fugly…
PyQt4 on Windows
Yes, you read that correctly, on Windows. Wanted to make a .exe out of an app I’m working on, so I had to install PyQt4 on Windows. I never use Windows, so I was at a loss. But for those others who are looking for it:
You can change the env vars like %PATH% in Configuration screen > System > Advanced.
Finding that took me about 45 minutes. God, I hate Windows.
PyQt4 on MacOSX with Macports
Yesterday evening, I created a working py-pyqt4 Portfile for Macports. At least, it worked for me. You can find it in ticket #14744 on the Macports Trac. Hope this helps someone.
Comments Off
Moved to our new hosting setup
Finally took the time to move my hokkertjes.nl domain to our new hosting server. Let me know if something goes wrong here.
Alan Kay at TED.com
Lately my posts seem to be about TED almost exclusively. But it’s been so busy at work that it’s the only thing that I really want to put online these days. The only thing that’s actually worth it to share with the world.
People who know me, know my love for education and how I think we’re going totally the wrong way about it at this time. Just saw the TED.com presentation of Alan Kay and he totally hits the mark. It’s like my post a few months ago about Daniel Goleman’s presentation at TED, which I loved for the same reasons. Mr. Goleman goes a bit more theoretical, I believe (will have to watch that one again soon), but Alan Kay brings it to the front of my mind because of the practical approach. I love his example about the six-year-olds who learn the theorem of Pythagoras not by sitting and listening, but by doing. There is so much power in doing and feeling.
It so hits the right spot.
Edit: Although Daniel Goleman’s presentation is worth the watch too, I remembered it incorrectly. The one I wanted to reference was Sir Ken Robinson’s presentation at TED. Sorry for the mix-up!
