I have a machine which is running an up-to-date Ubuntu Feisty Fawn installation on which I wanted to run Squid. Installing it was a snap - just run sudo apt-get install squid3, and you’re set … or are you? Trying to use the proxy I get an unexpected "Connection refused" message. Investigating a bit further, I see that there’s nothing listening on port 3128 (the default Squid port), nor is Squid runninng. Strange! /var/log/messages reveals a string of messages of the following form:

squid[18518]: Squid Parent: child process 18536 started
squid[18518]: Squid Parent: child process 18536 exited due to signal 6

After a few tries, Squid just dies. /var/log/squid/cache.log contains only
Creating Swap Directories
/var/spool/squid3 exists
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/00
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/01
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/02
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/03
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/04
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/05
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/06
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/07
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/08
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/09
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/0A
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/0B
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/0C
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/0D
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/0E
Making directories in /var/spool/squid3/0F

Squid had no problems starting and doing some initial housekeeping before stumbling. Running squid3 -d 10 produced a ton of debug output, but also this telling error message:

FATAL: Cannot open '/var/log/squid3/access.log' for writing.
        The parent directory must be writeable by the
        user 'proxy', which is the cache_effective_user
        set in squid.conf.

Ah ha! The default Ubuntu-packaged Squid (3.0.PRE5-5 with MD5sum d11df3af2e309f5b989a520e3cd50d55) is configured to run as the user ‘proxy’, but the associated log-directories are not writable by the user ‘proxy’. That’s easy enough to solve.

cd /var/log/squid3
sudo chown proxy cache.log .
sudo /etc/init.d/squid3 start


This time Squid was able to start successfully. Another few seconds were needed to configure the proper ACLs, but after that and a Squid restart later, we’re good to go!

And here is a gadget introduced today by Google to enable easy entry of Sinhalese text, without having to switch your keyboard layout or install special software: The Sinhala On-Screen Keyboard iGoogle Gadget!

The text in the previous post was actually created within seconds, through the use of this gadget.

Unfortunately, both Firefox and Internet Explorer have issues with rendering Sinhalese Unicode text correctly. Again, you can follow the instructions from here to get Firefox to render Sinhalese Unicode properly. This Sinhala Wikipedia entry also has useful information on how to configure Internet Explorer to correctly display Sinhalese text.

The important question is, how long will it take for Sinhalese websites to switch to using Unicode, instead of using proprietary and non-standard fonts like Kandy, Padma or Kaputadotcom?

Go forth and start blogging - in Sinhalese!

Here’s a test to see what happens when you search for රොෂාන් (Roshan) and සෙම්බකුට්ටිආරච්චි (Sembacuttiaratchy) via Google Sri Lanka. Actually, that last search should eventually be a GoogleWhack. If you use Firefox, the pages might not render correctly. Make sure you have a font like Kaputa Unicode installed. If you use any flavour of Linux, you’ll have to follow the instructions from here to enable proper support and rendering.

I’ve just discovered Flock: A browser based on the Mozilla code base, but providing lots and lots of interesting new features.  For example, it integrates very well into your blog.  This post, for example, using the Flock browser’s BlogBar functionality.  It makes it very easy to blog about things you might find while surfing. 

Another excellent feature is the fact that Flock integrates quite well with Del.icio.us!  Your bookmarks are automatically posted to Del.icio.us, and get tagged as well.  Or browse your del.icio.us tags from within Flock.  It also integrates into Flickr, but since I don’t have a Flickr account, I’ve not played around with that. 

The search box on top is nice too.  It can be compared somewhat to what the Google Desktop Search does with your Internet history, but in this case, it’s integrated directly into the browser, and you get a dropdown suggestion box as you type, suggesting possible search results from your favourites, your history, and finally lets you do a web-search with the text. 

Whee!

It’s still very beta (or is that alpha?), but it’s very usable. 

The BBC has an article about Internet telephony, which compares Skype and Vonage. Yes, Vonage have quietly introduced their services in the UK. I’d initially thought to myself that if Vonage ever were to start operations in the UK that I’d sign up with them, but I think they’ll find it hard to match the value-for-money you get with an unlimited GossipTel account. This push to VoIP is surely a good thing, but it shouldn’t happen indiscriminately. KPMG has recently released a white paper discussing the risks of VoIP (PDF Article from KPMG). Yes, the risks. Picture for a moment, that all your phone calls are going to be routed in an open format across the very hostile Internet. If you want to do any phone-banking, your account codes and PINs are being transmitted over the Internet which anyone could sniff! Or simpler, less hostile possibilities: you lose electricity, your internet provider has a failure, whatever: you instantly lose your phoning capabilities - no more 911 or 112 or 999. Beware where you tread.

Many of my friends have recently discovered that I have gone SIP crazy. I’d known for quite some time that SIP existed, but had never really got around to trying it out. After reading a post and associated comments at Slashdot, I finally decided to go and see what all the hype was about. I signed up initially with GossipTel for their Free, pay-as-you-go package. With this, you also get a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) number with an 0870 prefix that other people can use to call you. Coupled with a soft-phone such as X-Lite from X-Ten, this means that your computer will ring when people call you.

I’ve already been on Skype for some time and had been using its SkypeOut service to make calls to PSTN phones, but the quality you get with SIP seems to be significantly better than that of Skype. This superior phone quality, combined with the fact that GossipTel are offering a package where you pay �20 a month and have unlimited minutes to call 35 countries, convinced me to become a subscriber with them. For signing up for a package, you have the additional benefit of receiving a local-area PSTN number, so that people no longer pay more for calling on an 0870 number. So now I have an 0207 number for London that people can call me on. I’ve also subscribed for SIP gateway services in USA and Germany, and have corresponding PSTN numbers in both countries, which are routed (for FREE) to my standard GossipTel account. Since GossipTel automatically forwards your incoming call after a certain number of seconds to any other number you might provide, my standard BT phone now rings even if you dial my US or German phone number. Whee!

I’ve also started investigating the technical aspects of SIP, and have already set up Asterisk (which is open-source and runs on Linux) as my VoIP server. Imagine the possibilities you have in being able to call into your Linux server with any standard phone…. *mad gleam*!