The modern-xiafs kernel module for Linux kernel 3.16.4 still works, with no modification, for the 3.18.11 and 3.19.3 kernels. Presumably it will work with other 3.18 and 3.19 series, along with 3.16 and 3.17 kernels, but that hasn’t been tested yet.
Equipment: 102mm Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope, 32mm, 25mm, 15mm, 12.4mm eyepieces, tabletop mount, AstroMaster 76’s mount. New objects observed: none Previously viewed objects: Messier 44, Messier 45, Messier 42, NGC 1981, Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Trapezium New equipment! A 102mm Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope from Orion with a tabletop mount, suitable for packing in one’s luggage and taking on a trip.
I’ve been busy with work and goiardi lately, but I recently checked to see how modern-xiafs did against the 3.16.4 and 3.17.0 Linux kernels. The file ops functions changed subtly again, so there’s a small update to modern-xiafs to work with those kernels. The same update fixes it for both kernels, at least, so there’s only one version of the module for both kernels. Usual warnings and statements from before, as always, still apply.
Equipment: 16” Dobsonian, 55mm, 12mm TeleVue eyepiece, Paracorr. New objects observed: NGC 6756, NGC 6802, NGC 7086, NGC 7128 Previously viewed objects: Messier 13, NGC 6755, Coathanger This was only the third night I was able to get out this year. It sucks, but I did get some new objects at least. Messier 13 is, of course, not a new object. My six year old son had expressed a desire to look at something in the telescope though, so I went and got it in view before I went to try and wake him up.
Equipment: 16” Dobsonian, 55mm, 12mm TeleVue eyepiece, Paracorr. New objects observed: Sadly, none. Previously viewed objects: Messier 13, NGC 6229, NGC 6207, NGC 5866 (aka “Messier 102(?)”) This has been a terrible year for observing. Last night was the second night that I’ve been able to get out and observe anything. It was only a so-so night on top of it, and I started getting kind of sore while I was out there.
Another kernel version, another uneventful update. Once again, the modern-xiafs module needed no update to build, load, and mount filesystems with the 3.15.3 kernel. As before, the README has been updated, but that’s it; all previous warnings still stand, just like last time.
I’ve been a busy bee as of late, except for posting updates on what I’m doing here. There were two more goiardi releases in June: v0.5.2 - Block of Dirt, adding import/export of data, and v0.6.0 - Order of the Elephant, adding Postgres support and a lot of other fun stuff. I also turned my hand to knife plugins for goiardi with knife-goiardi-reporting, forked from the official Chef knife-reporting plugin for a goiardi reporting extension, and knife-goiardi-event-log for the goiardi event logging facility.
Version 0.5.1 of goiardi has been released. From the CHANGELOG: Add log levels (from debug to critical). This makes -V/–verbose useful. Add an easier option in the config file to specify log levels by name. ipv6 already worked, but accidentally. Now it works in a more deliberate fashion, preventing mishaps with addresses, colons, and port numbers. Authentication protocol version 1.1 now supported. Remove a sort on run lists that was there for some reason.
Version 0.5.0 of goiardi, the chef server written in go, has been released. From the CHANGELOG: MySQL support added No longer redirect /environments/NAME/roles/NAME to /roles/NAME/environments/NAME Update documentation, reformat godocs Split actors apart into separate user and client types, made new Actor interface that encompasses both users and clients. Full announcement here.
Equipment: 16” Dobsonian, 55mm, 12mm TeleVue eyepiece, Paracorr. New objects observed: NGC 4435, NGC 4443, NGC 4419, NGC 4450, NGC 4350 Previously viewed objects: Messier 89, Messier 90, Messier 87, Messier 86, Messier 84, Mars, NGC 4478, NGC 4438, NGC 4458, NGC 4477, NGC 4459 This was the first night I got any telescope since last September, ugh. The weather the entire winter was not at all cooperative. I didn’t have high hopes for the evening, since the fence between my neighbors and I got replaced over the winter because it fell over, and it’s letting more light into my yard.