None of the Above

Merry christmas to me!

nospam@example.com (ra) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:02:00 +0000

So not only did I get a Motorola CLIQ this month, but I also got a new laptop! FINALLY! It does not exactly meet my stated criteria, but it's pretty damn close! (holy bang abuse, batman!!!)

I got a Dell Studio 14z. It has a 1600x900 LED backlit screen, a 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo and 3 GB DDR3 ram. It also weighs about half what my old laptop did (OK, not really, but including the power adapter it might be close) while easily besting it in processing power, noise, etc. So far I'm very happy with it.

you're being watched

nospam@example.com (ra) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:28:00 +0000

I've been experimenting with more and more IP cameras.

Some quick notes on image/video/audio URL's for the cameras I currently have:

ABS 311M
mjpeg:
http://camera_address/mjpg/video.mjpg?resolution=vga

Trendnet 312W
jpeg:
http://username:password@camera_address/cgi/jpg/image.cgi

mjpeg:
http://username:password@camera_address/cgi/mjpg/mjpg.cgi

pcm (amr?) audio:
http://username:password@camera_address/cgi/audio/audio.cgi

CLIQy CLIQy CLIQy

nospam@example.com (ra) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Yes, Virginia; I DID finally get a MOTOCLIQ!

And yes, I love it! I will have to withhold further comment until later because right now I'm too busy playing with my phone!

INsane[d]!

nospam@example.com (ra) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:28:00 +0000

I share my scanner on the network using sane but after reloading my server I found it was not being seen from the network even though it appeared to be working locally.

I saw this kind of stuff in the logs:

Dec 19 15:56:19 localhost saned[32422]: saned (AF-indep+IPv6) from sane-backends 1.0.19 starting up
Dec 19 15:56:17 localhost saned[32422]: check_host: access by remote host: 10.0.0.55
Dec 19 15:56:17 localhost saned[32422]: init: access granted to saned-user@10.0.0.55
Dec 19 15:56:19 localhost saned[32422]: saned exiting

I increased the verbosity but it wasn't any more helpfup:

[saned] check_host: access granted from IP address 10.0.0.55 (in subnet 10.0.0.0/24)
[saned] init: access granted
[saned] init: access granted to saned-user@::ffff:10.0.0.55
[saned] process_request: waiting for request
[saned] process_request: got request 1
[saned] process_request: waiting for request
[saned] process_request: got request 10
[saned] bailing out, waiting for children...
[saned] bail_out: all children exited

After much troubleshooting I realized that while local access worked file, saned was not working when running as user saned, but worked fine if run as root.

Obviously this looked like a permission problem, and it was. I checked the perms on the scanner device, /dev/sg2 and confirmed that saned had no access. But why? I checked the udev rules and found a rule that would give permissions to the scanner group, of which saned is a member. But this rule had set the permissions.

Then I realized that since I booted up with the scanner attached, and then installed sane, the new udev rule would not have had any effect until the device was replugged or the system was rebooted. I restarted udev and un/re-plugged the scanner and then saned worked fine again!

notsmartenoughphone

nospam@example.com (ra) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:30:04 +0000

I still have yet to own a smartphone. I carry a phone and a separate PDA, although the latter is kept in my wallet-case so I'm not really burdened by carrying an "extra" device or anything. But it does feel like a bit like I'm living in the past. When I pull out my PDA it seems like people are thinking "wow... that's quaint".

It wasn't until my first exposure to Android that I actually had any desire for a smartphone. I had finally found something that could truly replace both my phone and my Palm TX and give me more functionality rather than amounting to a frustrating compromise. It certainly doesn't hurt that's it's Android based and largely open-sourced either. So I am definitely decided on the Android platform, there's just one problem. I need to find some sexy Android powered hardware. And that's the problem.

Until now, that is. I will have to wait to see and touch it in person of course but I think the Motorola CLIQ could be my first smartphone. It runs Android, I love the look of it, I love the physical keyboard and I've had a lot of Motorola phones over the years and for the most part have been very pleased with them. The G1 was just too clunky looking for me, and the HTC Magic lacked the physical keyboard and I just didn't care for how it felt in my hand. But the Cliq... appears to be something entirely different. I can't wait!

openvpn routing

nospam@example.com (ra) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:21:17 +0000

I've recently started using OpenVPN's subnet topology. This requires OpenVPN 2.1 on both ends of the tunnel, but allows for one IP per client instead of a /30 block and works on all platforms, unlike the old (and now depricated) p2p topology.

EDIT: I should note that while topology subnet works with all platforms and I have tested with Linux, Mac and Windows clients; I have only tested topology subnet and the routing solution below on OpenVPN servers running on Linux.

I quickly ran into a snag with the subnet topology, however. The routes in my server-side OpenVPN config file no longer got created when OpenVPN was started, so networks behind connecting clients were unrouteable. I checked the logs and found the following messages from when OpenVPN started:

OpenVPN ROUTE: OpenVPN needs a gateway parameter for a --route option and no default was specified by either --route-gateway or --ifconfig options
OpenVPN ROUTE: failed to parse/resolve route for host/network ...

If I changed back to topology net30, everything worked fine with the config as is, so the problem was definitely specific to the subnet topology. Googling led me to several unanswered queries and finally one solution:
http://openvpn.net/archive/openvpn-users/2007-08/msg00152.html

As the errors above indicate, you need to specify a gateway in the route command in the OpenVPN config file when using the subnet topology. But what should the gateway be? The person in the linked post chooses the obvious solution, the VPN IP of the client behind which the remote network resides. That works, but what if I don't have a specific IP set for that client? From the system routing table you really only have to get traffic destined for the remote network routed to the VPN adapter, because OpenVPN has it's own routing table and will take care of the rest. Therefore, simply using the VPN IP of the OpenVPN server as the gateway accomplishes this, and seems to me to be the best solution.

OpenVPN server config snippet:

# Configure server mode and supply a VPN subnet
# for OpenVPN to draw client addresses from.
# The server will take 10.8.0.1 for itself,
server 10.0.8.0 255.255.255.0

# ...if a connecting client has a private
# subnet behind it that should also have VPN access,
# use the subdirectory "ccd" for client-specific
# configuration files and the route command to
# specify the specific IP(s) or connected networks.

# route used with net30 topology
route 10.0.55.0 255.255.255.0

# route used with subnet topology
route 10.0.55.0 255.255.255.0 10.0.8.1

More configuration detail after the break...
Continue reading "openvpn routing"

and so they did

nospam@example.com (ra) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:45:00 +0000

It looks like someone at Palm was listening, and they've managed to hear AND respond to the lackluster response (like my own) to the Foleo announcement. Yup, the Foleo's been folded up. Canceling it flashes a glimmer of hope in my mind, that Palm may just be able to turn things around and get some positive momentum going. I would say it all hinges on their next Treo/smartphone-by-any-other-name offering.

the multihomed house

nospam@example.com (ra) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:49:00 +0000

I mentioned in a previous post that I had, for a time, both DSL and cable internet; but I didn't go into detail about how had my router hooked up to both lines, routing traffic over them concurrently. It's time to rectify that omission. Although this multihomed configuration did not last long, I'm still using pretty much the same tools/config to take advantage of the multiple IP addresses I've managed to snag from my ISP.

This is how I've setup my Linux 2.6-based router using 'ip route', 'ip rule' and iptables to get WAN-bound traffic coming from the local subnets to exit one of several WAN links depending on different criteria; mostly source IP.
Continue reading "the multihomed house"

electrical surprises

nospam@example.com (ra) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:40:00 +0000

After my last energy-related post, I bought a cool little device that allows me to measure power consumption of everyday electrical devices. I've been testing various computers, appliances and electronics that I have or have access to, in order to discover just how power hungry they are.

Some of the surprises included my Pentium 4 file server which uses only about 40 W, a dual processor Pentium III server which uses a whopping 175 W, and a small stereo system which uses about 22 W in standby mode! Just how much power do you need to watch for a button press from the remote control?!

Interesting statistics after the jump.
Continue reading "electrical surprises"

internet pwnership

nospam@example.com (ra) — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 22:39:00 +0000

Cringley's latest article about some guy named Frankston and his ideas about last-mile ownership reminded me A LOT of something I wrote here last October.

I really do think this is worth exploring. Not that I think it's guaranteed to work, but I wish someone would at least try it. However, privatisation is the rule here in the U.S. and I could see Telco-backed legislation outlawing the public-owned network idea. Sigh. Maybe it would be easier for us all to move to Japan, South Korea and Scandinavia.

what a googly day!

nospam@example.com (ra) — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 19:26:00 +0000

On the same day I finally got invited to join Google Pages, I also was accepted into the beta test for Gmail for your domain. Google is now master of my domain*! Hahaha.

I can have up to 10 users on my domain for free. The interface they use when they log in looks just like GMail except is has user @mydomain at the top instead of @gmail.com. Curiously, my domain users seems to be allocated 2048MB of storage space instead of the ~2707MB allocated to GMail subscribers.

Having gmail power your own domain email is an attractive proposition. I can't see doing it for my domain just because I like having flexibility in configuring things and having unlimited numbers of accounts. But for small groups/families/business it could be very nice.

I wonder what the pricing will be like when it graduates from beta. Perhaps they will continue to offer up to 10 accts for free? They wouldn't be able to charge much for 10 users since you can get that from a lot of hosting companies for $5-$10 a month. I'm guessing it will be free up to 10, and they will start charging from there. It seems not worth the overhead to bother billing for such a little amount.

*I'm using it with a test domain I registered a while back.

a tasty mobile

nospam@example.com (ra) — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 01:28:00 +0000

So despite the fact my new phone is somewhat generic, it really is quite nice! Although I've always liked Motorola phones, it has been my opinion for some time that Motorola's US-centric (specifically CDMA/Verizon-centric) products really lag behind their cross-market GSM phones. I think the latter have better software, are better designed and probably get a lot more testing and refinement than their CDMA models.

First and foremost... it charges! More than I can say for my POS v710. The v190 uses a standard mini-USB charging and data port, which has a connector that firmly snaps into place. The v710 on the other hand has a weird three-conductor, exposed charging interface which when plugged-in, will become disconnected or interrupted if you breathe too deeply near it. My third v710 (replaced twice already for charging problems) has already begun fucking up. The other night it told me "Unable to charge" after I plugged it in.

Next, the ringer, or call notification, is very versitile. That's because this phone offers audible, physical and visual incoming call/message notification. It has more ring/vibe options than my v710, plus it has bright blue glow which pulses on and off underneath the Motorola 'M' logo when I'm receiving a call. This glowing blue LED also pulses periodically while the phone is charging; making it look like it's somehow alive. It's actually kind of cute.
Continue reading "a tasty mobile"

don't tell me what not to do

nospam@example.com (ra) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:36:00 +0000

Why do we put up with corporations restricting what we can do with shit we buy?

DVD restrictions... I LOVE movies, and I love DVD's. SO much nicer than the age of VHS. No rewinding, no ffw'ing. I've been buying DVD's since the days that only a couple dozen movies were even available on dvd at BestBuy, etc.

But over the past few years I've noticed a disturbing trend. More and more often, the movie studios are creating DVD's that restrict your ability to navigate the damn disc. Nothing pisses me off more than a disc programmed to not allow me to go to the menu screen because the studio wants me to watch their fucking previews first. BULLSHIT!

Some discs even disable both menu keys and chapter nav keys and then politely suggest that you FAST-FUCKING-FORWARD through the previews if you don't want to watch them. Like Harry Potter says; RIDICULOUS!

I am going to start a list of which movies attempt to force the viewers to watch something that may not interest them (previews) by disabling the menu and/or chapter nav keys. For those movies, I might have to look into some of the software out there that allows you to copy a dvd while leaving out select parts of it (like the PREVIEWS!) and/or disabling the navigation restrictions.

Or; if I want a movie that has those restrictions, maybe I'll just download it from a p2p network instead of buying it. That should score me a copy without previews. Although I've purchased a ton of DVD movies over the years, and never once downloaded one illegally, why should I support the release of these restricted discs by continuing to purchase them?

begin again

nospam@example.com (ra) — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 14:42:00 +0000

A new year, a fresh start.

However, I'm going to start with a retrospective detour. Looking back at 2005, I averaged almost 10 posts per month. Not too bad. Especially considering the odd "crater" in the May to June timeframe, due to the server losing a hard drive and me losing 5 weeks of blog entries.

Now if only I had 10 interesting posts per month. That would really be impressive.

Anyway, I predict my 2006 average will fall. I start school again in two days and it's going to be... fun. But I will certainly have less time than ever to do anything but school and work. Goody. Well, here's hoping that fewer posts will mean better posts, but I can't promise anything.

Happy New Thing, people.

up +1 year

nospam@example.com (ra) — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 01:25:00 +0000

uptime entry from the backup server:

05:18:19 up 368 days, 8:20, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

yea!

web hosting nostalgia, pt.2

nospam@example.com (ra) — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:18:00 +0000

I left off last timeat the point I had just sold my first Internet domain to an ISP.

So there I was, with a windfall, but suddenly domain-name-less. Since I had been using the domain for my email (and provided accounts for others too) I had to quickly come up with an idea for a new domain name to register. It had only been a year since I registered it, but already it was much more difficult to find a short but appealing domain name. This time it took me a lot longer than a day.
Continue reading "web hosting nostalgia, pt.2"

Topper

nospam@example.com (ra) — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 08:35:03 +0000

Did you understand what the clue was about? It wasn't exactly mysterious.

We got a dog!

She is a 6 year old yellow lab, named Topper. (that's actually an abbreviation of her show name, something "Showstopper" I think) We just got her last night and she's very sweet and we love her already.

that sucked

nospam@example.com (ra) — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 11:33:00 +0000

My main server went down early last Thursday (2005-06-16) because of a disk failure. I've never liked Maxtor drives-- and that was what we lost. The replacement is a Seagate which I like a little better. Although my provider replaced the drive in a resonable amount of time, I wasted two and half days fucking around with Fedora and getting no where. The server gets Fedora Core 2 by default, which is inadequate for numerous reasons. Anyway, the previously successful upgrade didn't go so well this time and I ended up with an unbootable server and much, much more downtime than anticipated.

Continue reading "that sucked"

web hosting nostalgia, pt.1

nospam@example.com (ra) — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 20:25:00 +0000

Sigh... do you remember back when Geocities was cool?

I had several Geocities sites over the years (those years being 1996-1998). I can't even remember what the addresses were, or even what I put up on those sites exactly. Though I do remember using one for a school project once. They used to have a "Neighborhood" concept going where you would choose a themed neighborhood and then you would be assigned a numerical "address" in that neighborhood. The URL for your site was made up of geocities.com, the neighborhood name, and your address number. It was actually kind of a neat concept. The service was free, so there was ads integrated into all your web pages hosted at Geocities, and if I remember correctly, you were allowed only a limited number of pages and a rather small bit of disk space on their server.
Geocities is now owned by Yahoo, and it appears that the neighborhoods may have given way to new developments.

Continue reading "web hosting nostalgia, pt.1"

nix rules

nospam@example.com () — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 09:48:46 +0000

This is from a FreeBSD box at work:
2:40PM up 510 days, 21:14, 1 user, load averages: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

I would like to see a Windows box go that long without a restart. Not really though, it would probably be unresponsive by that point.
The server above is a mail server that handles all outgoing mail for ~35 users, and it also gets some use as a web, file and db server.

These are the secondary and tertiary dns/mail servers: (running Debian Linux)
18:42:53 up 159 days, 23:47, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
18:43:10 up 131 days, 57 min, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Also interesting is that the last one doesn't even have a UPS

server move progress

nospam@example.com () — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 18:37:09 +0000

Transition to the new server has been slower than planned. The new server is up and running, apache, php and mysql are all ready to go, but I am still configuring email. Bind is setup to test it out before I move DNS for the other domains to the new box.

CRAZY

nospam@example.com () — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 22:40:20 +0000

What I wouldn't give right now to have ... nothing.

Anyway, the upcoming move of sites to the new server is being held up by my crazy life. What I do know is that we need to complete the transition by 2005-03-11.

I have a paper to finish, a crapload of homework/studying todo, a couple labs to do (I'm one behind on them) and I'm T.A.'ing this quarter so I have some papers to grade as well. Add the usual array of friends/family members with computer problems that want my help, a little sleep (not enough), some meals, and some time with Christie, and you have 24hrs/7days a week!

laptop unexistium

nospam@example.com (ra) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:18:00 +0000

I've been shopping for a new laptop and it's becoming a thoroughly frustrating experience.

I know what I want... but NO one makes it. I'm considering either purchasing a 15" laptop that would be my primary workstation at home and away, or buying a 13" small, convenient, portable machine that I would use mostly on the go. I would even go for a 14" if I could only find one with the right features, even though it's not what I really want.

This is my requirements list for each size laptop:

15" LED backlit WUXGA (1920x1200) screen
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4+Ghz
DDR3 ram

14" LED backlit WSXGA+ (1680x1050) screen
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2+Ghz
DDR3 ram

13" LED backlit WXGA+ (1440x900) screen
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0+Ghz
DDR3 ram

I don't think I'm really being that picky. My budget is at most about $2500 for my new laptop, so I am willing to pay for something that meets my criteria. Plus there are all kinds of other components not listed on which I'm willing to be flexible. Alas every notebook on the market falls short. I don't know what to do, so for now I'm just waiting for a new product to come along and impress me.