Downside of driving a train
So I’m in Geldrop and the train stopped. The conductor of the train just informed us that the train has hit a person. The man next to me is talking to his wife that he believes the train should just continue. I do not agree. Just imagine you were driving the train and you saw the person get hit. I don’t think you’d want to drive that train anymore.
Tags: caching, dns, gprs, internet, macosx, pdnsd, proxy, squid, train
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Desktop caching, continued
So two days ago I started fiddeling with Squid and pdnsd. I only just got it all working correctly and I must say, I’m not disappointed. The only gripe I have is mostly my own fault: I cannot grasp the correct usage of Mac OS X’s “locations” with regard to networking. I cannot imagine that the idea behind that is that you need to change the location every time in the system preferences. However, that seems to be the only way I can get it to work correctly. What am I missing?
Anyway, after I installed both Squid and pdnsd from Macports, I set up Squid to use the pdnsd service that I have running on 127.0.0.1. I uncommented the OpenDNS lines and the root dns server lines (sorry, but I can’t seem to find another solution for that one). After that I changed the proxy settings in Mac OS X and only added the http and https proxy. Pointed them towards 127.0.0.1:3128 and… well, that’s it, basically. Everything works and my internet is more or less usable at this time. It’s still not faster of course, but I can easily switch form site to site. I came to the realization that I mostly visit only a few sites, so those are speeded up quite okay.
So, if you’re surfing through GPRS like I am now and you want to speed things up a little, make sure you check out Squid and pdnsd.
Seen in Eindhoven
Saw my mother at Eindhoven train station. Just 15 minutes ago. Kinda strange, considering I haven’t seen nor talked to her in over 10 years or so.
I think she recognised me, but she didn’t show it clearly. I think she did.
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.
A week on the train
So I’ve been taking the train for a week now. Each morning from Sittard to Eindhoven, each afternoon back to Sittard. I kind of expected the most problems in the morning, but so far as I can see, that’s going quite alright. Not too crowded, it usually gets a bit crowded at Roermond, but then I’m already sitting, so I’m not bothered by it a lot.
Getting back is a bigger problem. Lots of delays, lots of people. I don’t mind a lot of people on the train (let’s face it, most commuters ignore the world around them), but I really hate it when I can’t find a decent place to sit. Bought an upgrade ticket twice this week, both times in the afternoon, to get back home. But even first class was very crowded.
Today it’s okay, but I left later than usual. Not sure how this will develop. I do hope this will get better in the next years, because I’ll be commuting this way for a loooong time.
From the train
So this is my first full week of train-travel from home to the office. Second day now (well, done this a few times last week too), heading home and already a very crowded train. Not a nice thing. At least I upgraded my ticket from second to first class, so I have a seat.
I hope I’m going to be able to keep this up for several years 
It’s nice being at the office.
