Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Vague laws?


The court held that a law is unconstitutionally vague if it fails to give a person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to know what is prohibited, if it fails to provide explicit standards to those who enforce it, or if it operates to inhibit the free exercise of First Amendment freedoms by chilling such exercise by its uncertain meaning. 93 F. Supp. 2d at 59 (citing Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108-09, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972)).

Thursday, November 4, 2010

kernel: bio too big device md6 (248 > 240)

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=498162


dmsetup reload luks-md2 --table "`dmsetup table --showkeys luks-md2`" dmsetup suspend luks-md2; dmsetup resume luks-md2 Does appear to fix the issue - although it's pretty scary (md2 is the root fs, so this only works because of caching).

----

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9401  as well


Also if crypt device mapping table is reloaded (to force new restriction to
apply),
it will work correctly:

echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
dmsetup suspend crypt-punchbag
dmsetup reload crypt-punchbag --table "`dmsetup table --showkeys
crypt-punchbag`"
dmsetup resume crypt-punchbag
sha1sum /mnt/punchbag/junk

Problem is now fully understood but solution is not so simple.
This problem can happen with arbitrary block devices stacked mapping.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

FlexAuth FTW

Want to back up your battle.net mobile authenticator?  Sorry, can't.

http://bnetauth.freeportal.us/specification.html  is the reverse engineered protocol.

FlexAuth android app (author) lets you fetch and see your Token Secret, and copy it to another device.
 Sweet.

Friday, September 17, 2010

host a jabber server for yahoo bridging

http://wikibin.org/articles/list-of-jabber-component-software.html
http://code.google.com/p/typhoonae/
http://psi-im.org/wiki/Tutorial#Signing_up_with_a_Transport

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

gosh cacti sucks, it wants to install php?

I just want an interactive graph explorer for rrd data files... how hard could that be?

meh

http://aplawrence.com/Girish/gv-rrdtool.html

what worked quickly:

rrdtool graph --start end-1w --width 800 /tmp/mygraph.png -a PNG --title="test" --vertical-label "Deg F"  ' DEF:probe1=my_rrd_filename.rrd:ds0:AVERAGE' 'LINE1:probe1#FF0000:FrontProbe'

Saturday, September 11, 2010

nfs4 mount on osx

port forwarded over ssh using -L5555:nfsserver:2049 option, then


mkdir /Volumes/nfsserver
mount -t nfs -o vers=4.0alpha,nolock,proto=tcp,intr,port=5555 127.0.0.1:/ /Volumes/nfsserver

Friday, August 27, 2010

debian backup script love

from tso:


cat /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list | sort -u > /tmp/all-dpkg-files
cat /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.conffiles | sort -u > /tmp/all-conf-files
comm -23 /tmp/all-dpkg-files /tmp/all-conf-files | perl -n -e "chomp;" -e 'print "$_\n" if -f;" > /tmp/exclude-files
echo /var/cache >> /tmp/exclude-files
echo /tmp >> /tmp/exclude-files
echo $HOME >> /tmp/exclude-files
tar -c -v -f - --exclude-from /tmp/exclude-files / | bzip -9 > ~/my-machine-backup.tar.bz2
dpkg -l > ~/my-debian-packages.list

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

mr merlins home automation solutions

First, I asked for help here in the past in finding a remotely
controllable power strip with 12V input.

This was a cheap option, and it can work from 12V if you add a 150 ohm
1/2w resistor in series:
http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKPS01&Show=ExtInfo

In the meantime, I have one plugged in my 8 Channel IO 1-wire board and
it's an easy way to control 120V from a 1-wire signal (although
admittedly, in most cases you'd be better off using Insteon).

Anyway, in the DYI home monitoring stuff, I have this if it's of
interest to others (mostly for the reusable code).

1-wire/owfs house monitoring:
http://marc.merlins.org/perso/linuxha/post_2010-08-06_Temperature_-moisture_-humidity_-and-UV-monitoring-and-graphing-with-1wire-devices_-owfs_-and-cacti.html

and fine grained house power monitoring
http://marc.merlins.org/perso/linuxha/post_2010-08-13_Fine-grained-house-wide-power-monitoring-with-Brultech-ECM1240_-ecmread_py-_with-net-metering-support_-and-graphing-with-cacti.html

I'm also using the 1-wire 8 Channel IO board to do some HVAC work:
http://marc.merlins.org/perso/linuxha/post_2010-08-06_Booster-Fans-and-Heating-Cooling-with-Outside-Air-with-Misterhouse.html

awww yeah - focus follows mouse goodness for Mac OS X

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/04/settling-osx-focus-follows-mouse-debate.html

Monday, July 26, 2010

tynt sux0r

http://dropsafe.crypticide.com/article/3343#comment-23746

The way Tynt works is fairly simple. They attach a listener to the browser’s copy event that creates a hidden div with your selected text + two line breaks + attribution + sponsorship and they select the new text using either setBaseAndExtent for Safari, selectNodeContents and addRange for FF/Opera, or moveToElementText and select for IE. The browser copies the new hijacked selection to your clipboard. The script then reselects the range of text you had selected originally to make it look as if nothing is going on behind the scenes — using Tamper Data or Firebug’s Net panel will easily tell another story though, as you’ll notice requests going out whenever you Ctrl+C.

Monday, July 19, 2010

super quick openwrt upgrade from WhiteRussian RC3 -> backfire 10.03

Downloaded 10.03 for brcm47xx : http://downloads.openwrt.org/backfire/10.03/brcm47xx/openwrt-wrt54g-squashfs.bin

http://downloads.openwrt.org/backfire/10.03.1/brcm47xx/

convert .bin download to .trx - instructions at https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=12248

basically:
dd bs=32 skip=1 if=linksys.bin of=linksys.trx


confirm file now begins at byte 0 with HDR0::

$ hexdump -C openwrt-wrt54g-squashfs.bin | grep HDR0


then uploaded bin using scp

then installed using mtd:
http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/installing#via.the.openwrt.command.line

mtd -r write firmware.trx linux





by default it's configured to bridge lan and wireless.
i just disabled DHCP, gave it a static IP, DNS and default gw.

configured wireless SSID + auth same as the other router in the house.

profit!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

never feel the need again to source .bashrc

export BASHRC_MTIME=`stat -c%Y ~/.bashrc`
auto_update() {
if [ ! $BASHRC_MTIME ] || (( "`stat -c%Y ~/.bashrc`" > $BASHRC_MTIME )); then
source ~/.bashrc
fi
}
PROMPT_COMMAND=auto_update

of course this comes at some cost - a call to stat() every prompt.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

thank you last.fm

I've been looking for a copy of a CD I lost a long time ago in a foreign country.
Human Beings - For The Time Being -- was its name.

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Being-RARE-Human-Beings/dp/B001SLM0GC - is a $40 copy being sold on ebay.

I still have the album case/liner notes... but no plastic disc.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Human+Beings - discography

Enter last.fm:

http://www.last.fm/music/Human+Beings/For+The+Time+Being

"Free Download" -- what's that you tell me? omg.


Sorry to hear about the band member... 41 and done in by a stroke.. so talented, so young.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://3voor12.vpro.nl/artikelen/artikel/21186543&ei=ejo1TNjFM4vWtQPlzpjEAQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB8Q7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3DBert%2Bvan%2Bde%2BGrift%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den

His website: http://www.bertvandegrift.nl

---------------

Update (2011-07-12):

Allert has a nice profile with links to his band's music at: http://www.last.fm/user/allert#shoutbox
and his website with links to bandcamp for free play/download of all the albums:
http://www.bigtimeconcepts.nl/Human-Beings/Downloads/Downloads.html

Full album:  http://humanbeings.bandcamp.com/album/for-the-time-being

And another band for a good cause: http://waitwhat.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-real-life

Thursday, June 10, 2010

how netflix runs their talent pool

netflix culture presentation

dirvish duplicity hashbackup oh my

thread and
post

That looks interesting from the standpoint of compressed backups. I
worry that the diff between one backup and the next will be so great
that the solution is invalidated (for this particular project) due to
the bandwidth requirements.

I can, however, give an update on where I'm going with my push backups
so far.

The key in my instance is going to be a file based loopback device that
can be encrypted. Follow the rabbit trail with me for a second.

*Use 'dd' to create a file. (100gigs let's say.)
*use losetup to assign that file to a loopback device.
*Encrypt the loopback device with the deprecated cryptsetup or the new
dm-crypt
*Format the loopback device
*Mount the loopback device as a dirvish bank.
*make your initial backup to the dirvish vaults on the encrypted device
*umount your encrypted loopback device
*perform your initial rsync of the file that is your encrypted loopback
device

----Now starts the nightly backup procedure--

*Mount the encrypted loopback device to your dirvish bank
*run dirvish to update your vaults
*dismount the encrypted loopback device
*rsync the updated loopback file with a -c (for checksum) so that only
the delta changes cross the wire.

TADA

I realize that this has the added step of having to find extra disk
space or convert existing disk space to a file for use as a loopback
--BUT-- it does allow for one to 'push' a secure dirvish bank with its
vaults to a remote location.

another idea

spin up an EC2 instance, rsync our host to an EBS volume that's appropriately sized... and then shut it down when rsync is done.

$0.10 /mo /GB + $0.10/million IO requests ( EBS + pricing )

volia - instant offsite backup.

aha - we're not the first to think of this:

http://www.johnandcailin.com/blog/john/never-lose-your-data-again%3A-backup-remotely-using-rsync-ssh-and-rdiff-backup

which references rsynccrypto - not a likely option but interesting.

ooh more interesting stuff with dirvish and duplicity to come next...

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

working from: build-a-rpm-of-python-25-on-centos-5-redhat-enterprise-rhel-5/

to get python2.5 installed on a Centos5 box.... so I can run google-docs-fs on FUSE

and to get started, we'll grab a src rpm from here .

today's potential fun:

==========================================================================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
==========================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
bzip2-devel i386 1.0.3-4.el5_2 base 38 k
db4-devel i386 4.3.29-10.el5 base 1.9 M
expat-devel i386 1.95.8-8.3.el5_4.2 base 132 k
gcc-c++ i386 4.1.2-48.el5 base 3.4 M
gdbm-devel i386 1.8.0-26.2.1 base 36 k
gmp-devel i386 4.1.4-10.el5 base 522 k
tix-devel i386 1:8.4.0-11.fc6 base 135 k
tk-devel i386 8.4.13-5.el5_1.1 base 809 k
Updating:
cpp i386 4.1.2-48.el5 base 2.6 M
db4 i386 4.3.29-10.el5 base 909 k
expat i386 1.95.8-8.3.el5_4.2 base 77 k
findutils i386 1:4.2.27-6.el5 base 294 k
gcc i386 4.1.2-48.el5 base 5.2 M
glibc i686 2.5-49 base 5.2 M
glibc-common i386 2.5-49 base 16 M
glibc-devel i386 2.5-49 base 2.0 M
glibc-headers i386 2.5-49 base 601 k
libX11 i386 1.0.3-11.el5 base 796 k
libX11-devel i386 1.0.3-11.el5 base 661 k
libgcc i386 4.1.2-48.el5 base 95 k
libstdc++ i386 4.1.2-48.el5 base 362 k
mesa-libGL i386 6.5.1-7.8.el5 base 9.6 M
mesa-libGL-devel i386 6.5.1-7.8.el5 base 461 k
nscd i386 2.5-49 base 163 k
openssl i686 0.9.8e-12.el5_4.6 base 1.4 M
openssl-devel i386 0.9.8e-12.el5_4.6 base 1.9 M
popt i386 1.10.2.3-18.el5 base 74 k
readline i386 5.1-3.el5 base 223 k
readline-devel i386 5.1-3.el5 base 146 k
rpm i386 4.4.2.3-18.el5 base 1.2 M
rpm-build i386 4.4.2.3-18.el5 base 301 k
rpm-devel i386 4.4.2.3-18.el5 base 1.2 M
rpm-libs i386 4.4.2.3-18.el5 base 927 k
rpm-python i386 4.4.2.3-18.el5 base 59 k
sqlite i386 3.3.6-5 base 213 k
sqlite-devel i386 3.3.6-5 base 257 k
tar i386 2:1.15.1-30.el5 base 747 k
Installing for dependencies:
libstdc++-devel i386 4.1.2-48.el5 base 2.8 M
tix i386 1:8.4.0-11.fc6 base 329 k

Transaction Summary
==========================================================================================================================================================
Install 10 Package(s)
Update 29 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 64 M


uh... I think I'll update rpm separately first

and a good place to get a 3rd set of hands

http://www.instructables.com/id/Third-Hand-A-multi-use-helping-hand-for-electro/step1/Getting-Started/

build a bike

http://www.americanspeedster.com/index.htm

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/bridge#Can_I_do_bridging_in_combination_with_netfilter.2Fiptables.3F

saved my butt yesterday:

# cd /proc/sys/net/bridge
# ls
bridge-nf-call-arptables bridge-nf-call-iptables
bridge-nf-call-ip6tables bridge-nf-filter-vlan-tagged
# for f in bridge-nf-*; do echo 0 > $f; done

Friday, June 4, 2010

radios - cheap and AM

http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/radio/three_penny/three_penny.html
mmm radios
http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/radio/am_transmitter.html
and more radios

Monday, May 10, 2010

Stuff I like:

org mode:
http://emacsworld.blogspot.com/2010/05/all-new-compact-org-mode-guide.html

diving regs:
http://www.diverite.com/downloads/diverite_118.pdf

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Todays favorite sc2 opener

7 scv
8 scv
8 barracks
9 scv
10 scv
11 scv
11 depot
12 marine
12 orbital command
13 marine
14 marine
14 engineering bay
15 marine
16 scv
16 refinery
16 refinery
(rush possible with 4 marines)
17 marine
18 scv
18 depot
(18 reactor possible)
19 scv
20 marine
(rush possible with 6 marines)

RocketAware - programmers webliography and index

http://www.rocketaware.com/profiles.htm

JERRY

People depend on the services I control. I can't be playing "upgrade of the week" or "try this, try that" games. I want stuff that just works. Zero downtime, low load, 24x7 uptime, low maintenance.
Picks: Established, Integrated, Workhorse, Servers


don't forget low latency!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Urchin - Candlelight

http://www.spiderbytes.com/ambientrance/urc-u.htm

thinking about ordering this album...

The big, muffled orchestra hits and retro-violin strands of Candlelight blend so nicely with the modern electro-breakbeats and other light effects

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Education reform - et tu bathwater ?

amazing first post/comment at : http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/02/19/utla-choice/

serflo1
53 minutes ago
For public school educators in Los Angeles, and California in general, the bidding for public schools in LAUSD has brought tragedy, shame, and a powerful warning to all other districts in the state. In a political atmosphere saturated with misinformation and false premises and promises, public schools are offered as if they were cast-off commodities to the best bidder. After years of living in unfair scrutiny and infamy, thousands of students, parents, teachers, administrators, and communities go through an ignominious path which leads most of them towards an even more uncertain future.
The LA Times reporter couldn’t have chosen a most adequate language to describe and give meaning to the news --the language of the free-market. If there ever was any teacher among us who believe the reformers premises of “choice” and “accountability,” this news and its wording exhibit the cold hard truth behind the rhetoric of the education reform: dismantling public education.
Thirty public schools are up for grabs; eighteen in a competitive political bid supervised by Superintendent Cortines. The bidders are groups of teachers and administrators, who are constrained by laws and are not liked by the Superintendent Cortines, versus the charter school operators, which are exempted from most of the laws, and Mayor Villaraigoza’s non-profit group.
This whole episode in the public schools saga is nothing but the same travesty employed by the reformers in order to distract everybody from the real (not so long term) goal of privatizing public education. Let’s be clear about it: empiric evidence and academic research show that the takeover of public schools has not given significant positive results. For that alone, this option would have to be discarded altogether.
If the reformers’ main point is to improve education by fostering more local power, the whole concepts of charter schools or mayoral control are unnecessary and ineffective. Public schools can achieve such goal for less money and without dividing the community or undermining democracy. It is absurd to correct the problems of a large school by creating “smaller” schools inside it. First of all, the division does not solve the problems; it just creates a selected and privileged group and another relegated to a default second class education. Secondly, this measure undermines the efforts to determine the real problems. Instead of finding the main causes of the problems in each school, stakeholders are busy trying to implement unproven formulas. Finally, the whole idea of improving schools by destroying them is plainly ludicrous. The trade of something real that can be improved for a fantasy does not even deserve consideration. It is ironic that reformers argue against public schools asking for empowerment of local communities and schools while proposing alternatives that divide them and remove their democratic fabric.
Who wins, who loses, who cares?
In solidarity
Sergio Flores

#RSFtalks with Edward Snowden

What an intelligent, thoughtful individual. I find it difficult to forgive 44 for failing to pardon this patriot and instead pursuing him ...

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