Upgrading Perl in Linux Mint

WARNING: don’t do this – it could hose your system like it did mine… details to follow once i figure out how to undo it.

Figured I’d share this since it was a PITA to figure out. Linux Mint 11 ships with Perl 5.10. I was trying to install icinga and it needs Perl 5.12.4 or greater.

To make it happen I had to:

  • add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list: deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian wheezy main
  • install/upgrade with this: apt-get install gcc perl -o APT::Immediate-Configure=0 (from linux mint forums)

and Bob’s your uncle.

AND…. to put 5.10 back in place…

  • remove the entry you put in /etc/apt/sources.list and replace it with deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian squeeze main
  • sudo apt-get install perl=5.10.1-17ubuntu4 perl-base=5.10.1-17ubuntu4 perl-modules=5.10.1-17ubuntu4

upgrading to 5.12 caused lots of problems – Pidgin wouldn’t work and most importantly, my VPN stopped working – it would disconnect after about 30 seconds.

French press coffee – attempt #1

I couldn’t handle not having coffee any more and the coffee at work is horrible so I bought a French press from Amazon and it arrived yesterday. This morning was my first attempt at making French press coffee. It looked weak and it is a bit on the weak side, but it’s still pretty darn good. I’ll tweak the steps a bit for tomorrow – I think within a week I will have the recipe/ratios/steps figured out.

Blog you should be reading: The Surfing Pizza

If you are not reading http://thesurfingpizza.com you should be. The first time I found the site, I read maybe 12 articles and laughed so hard I was crying. Unfortunately, I didn’t make note of the ones that made me LOL, so here are a few that are entertaining (but the PEZ story *did* make me LOL multiple times):

Much of his writing is LOL funny, but today he wrote this brilliant piece about being good at something (anything). Check it out.

English lesson: Word

For some reason, teaching my Indian co-workers 80s rap lingo is hilarious to me.

Today:

(04:46:59 PM) COWORKER: Hey Brian
(04:47:07 PM) ME: word
(04:47:17 PM) COWORKER: ?
(04:47:47 PM) ME: heh
(04:48:01 PM) ME: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=word
1) well said
2) said in a agreement
3) can be used as a greeting, hey whats up
(04:48:10 PM) COWORKER: :)
(04:48:12 PM) COWORKER: ok..
(04:48:12 PM) ME: means "hey what's up" in 80s rap lingo :)
(04:48:16 PM) ME: word
(04:48:23 PM) COWORKER: cool..

and this was a month ago:

(02:38:52 PM) COWORKER: Hi Brian
(02:38:56 PM) ME: word
(02:40:10 PM) what's word ?
(02:40:42 PM) ME: word - an 80s rap greeting - also
synonymous with yes
(02:40:57 PM) COWORKER: ok
(02:41:23 PM) ME: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=word
(02:41:31 PM) ME: 1) well said
2)said in a agreement
3) can be used as a greeting, hey whats up
(02:42:01 PM) ME: I expect you to greet me with "word" next time I see you
(02:42:21 PM) COWORKER: word