Cygwin setup.exe fails during upgrade

Like Ruben, who provided the clues, I discovered that a corrupt/incompatible alternatives.lst.bz file in the C:\cygwin\etc\setup directory caused Cywin setup.exe to fail.

A few clues pointed to this file as the culprit:

1. First time through, the installer complained that some other Cygwin process had locked the readme file


2. the installer just looped indefinitely on extracting the README file from alternatives.lst.bz until I killed it


3. The only .bz file in C:\cygwin\etc\setup with today's date was alternatives.lst.bz.

Here's what the log file recorded, for several thousand lines:

2009/05/04 11:01:23 io_stream_cygfile: 
fopen(/etc/alternatives/README) failed 13 Permission denied
2009/05/04 11:01:23 Failed to open 
cygfile:///etc/alternatives/README for writing.

I renamed the file to alternatives.lst.bz.bak , then reran setup.exe to successfully upgrade Cygwin.

Now I suppose I should log a bug report...

Hollywood != Real World

This is why I boycotted Slumdog Millionaire:

Two months ago, the child star of the hit movie "Slumdog Millionaire" was worrying about what to wear to the Oscars. Now she has come home to a very different problem: How to get the fetid water out of her family's one-room shack.

Read the rest of the story.

THE most rational argument for global climate change action, period

I was a bit put off by Al Gore's fear-mongering, high-rise graphs. He tried to scare us into change, while peering pensively into his MacBook, or whatever model it was (p.s. - Al was an Apple board member at the time!).

Meanwhile, this anonymous guy makes the most compelling argument for action I've ever heard. No rhetoric, no fear, just listen to it & you'll be spreading the word, just as I am:

Help me help

OK, so in an effort to "monetize" this blog, I added a Donate button yesterday (lookey over yonder ->). I'd like to donate 50% of all donations to a worthwhile cause—the other half just helps keep this site, and my webbish ambitions, alive—assuming of course there's any whole to divide up in the first place!

So come on, make a donation, then convince me why I should benefact your favourite charity.

Pioneering?

According to an article in yesterday's Vancouver Sun, TNS Canadian Facts' survey on social networking revealed that "ten per cent of Canadians have a blog, ranging from a high of 31 per cent among the 13 to 17-year-old age group to three per cent among the 50-plus crowd". Only eight percent of my peers, the forty-something crowd, have their own blog. I guess that makes me a pioneer, even amongst all Canadians.

Why don't more middle-aged and senior Canadians have blogs? Services like Blogger.com make it as simple to write a blog as an email, so it can't be the technology. Even my 83 year-old great aunt has used email for the past 7 years!

Is it the fear of loss of privacy? Lack of anything to say? Perhaps older Canadians don't feel the need to let the whole world know their every thought. Would there be far less blogging amongst teens if they really realized that the whole world, not just the friends they trust, can read everything they put on Facebook?

What do you think?