Tags: caching, commuter, dns, gprs, internet, macosx, macports, proxy, train
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Looking for a desktop caching tool
So I’m in the train again and the internet connection over GPRS is horrific. Well, what can you expect, really. But still, I wish it was a bit better so I wouldn’t have to press reload so often when the connection to a server has been terminated because the signal hiccuped.
If the MacOSX desktop would do a better job at caching, all would be well. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t have a caching dns service, nor does it aggressively cache any content. Which is great in a normal, desktop-y setup, but not very good for the way I’m using the internet right now.
Maybe I should see if I’d get a better response from the whole web if I install something like Squid. It’s part of Macports, so shouldn’t be that difficult. Disk space isn’t a problem either, my Macbook has way more disk space than I ever expect to use.
That’s great for the content, but what about a caching dns server? Bind seems the logical option, but I’m not a big fan of that one. Macports has a package called pdnsd. No idea what that one is. Worth a shot, I guess. But I hope it has some sort of script to make sure it’s added to resolv.conf or something.
Something to work out once I’m home.
duplicity in MacPorts, backup to S3
Duplicity from MacPorts is currently broken. The problem is in the portfile, which wants to use Python 2.5. However, there is no OpenSSL package for Python 2.5 in MacPorts, which gives you this error if you try to backup to S3 through SSL:
File "/opt/local/lib/python2.5/httplib.py", line 1135, in connect
ssl = socket.ssl(sock, self.key_file, self.cert_file)
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'ssl'
The solution is to edit the Portfile (which lives in /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/sysutils/duplicity/Portfile on my machine) and change “python25″ in “python24″ and halfway through the file change the py25-* packages in py-* packages. Then install the port. That fixes it.
Don’t forget to *not* upgrade the port without changing the Portfile…
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.
