My little corner of this place called the World Wide Web
Andrew Fore Just like a car’s VIN number, a cell phone has a number or two that contain interesting information about the device.
There’s the IMEI number, the SIM card number and the phone number itself. Ever wonder what pieces of information are related to those numbers? If you go to the International Numbering Plans website you can enter those numbers in and see what you get.
Over the weekend I setup a Ubuntu 8.04 installation in my apartment. The main purpose was to have a box to use to connect to my Tivo, but I am also going to use it to play with Java servlet and jsp development.
Of course none of this is any fun without Internet access. So I started configuring my Linksys pci wireless adapter. Turns out that the longstanding bug that affects the WPA2 passphrase store in Gnome Network Manager is still not fixed.
What happens is that you go in to Network Manager and configure your network, enter the SSID, and passphrase. Everything looks great right? But when you reboot the machine the connection doesn’t come back up.
And when you go look at the properties of the connection it doesn’t remember that you set it for WPA2 Personal instead of just WPA. You have to re-configure it two more times before it begins working again.
There are couple of ways to fix this
I chose to use the second route, since I really didn’t feel like hand configuring the stuff. I must be getting lazy in my old age.
The replacement that I found recommended by several others is called Wicd. One of the nicest features is this “No Gnome dependencies (although it does require GTK), so it is easy to use in XFCE, Fluxbox, Openbox, Enlightenment, etc.”
Recently we acquired a new firewall to place in between our datacenter and the rest of our network. This is a fairly standard security procedure used to isolate the servers from the rest of a network that can be loaded with all kinds of nasty spyware, malware and viruses, not to mention really nifty people that want to violate the security of the data.
Security is a two-edged sword for many systems folk. Firewalls are really great security tools, yet they can also get in the way of nice tools that provide access into the servers for remote administration.
Prior to the placement of the new firewall, I often used XDMCP sessions to access my unix servers from the comfort of my office, rather than traipsing to the data center to use the console. While these servers do have iLOM ports, there are some interface issues that make their use less elegant that I would wish.
After the new firewall entered the equation, I found that my normal XDMCP setup using Xephyr on my iMac no longer worked for some reason. It appeared that some of the rulesets were blocking either the particular TCP or UDP traffic necessary for the communication to work. Rather than worry our firewall administrator with troubleshooting the issue, I decided to find another way in via ssh.
It turns out that I could easily tunnel an X11 login session through an ssh session. Given that I have sshd configured to allow for TCP forwarding I was able to use an Xnest session that was initiated after logging in via ssh. Here’s the process I used:
First you need to initiate the ssh session while enabling X11 TCP forwarding. Depending on your particulars this can be done by one of the following commands:
bash-3.2$ ssh -X server.example.com
bash-3.2$ ssh -Y server.example.com
The next command is executed on the server, but the X11 session is actually running under the X11 installation on the local workstation:
Xnest :1 -geometry 1280x1024 -query localhost -terminate
Here’s a breakdown of the command parameters:
determines the X11 screen to be used on the local workstation, screen 0 is the default screen used for X11
set the screen resolution to use for the X11 window on the local workstation
determines which host to actually make the connection with
closes the XDMCP session once the user logs out
All of this can actually be accomplished with a single step, by chaining the ssh login command with the Xnest command:
ssh -X REMOTESERVERNAME Xnest :1 -geometry 1280x1024 -query localhost -terminate
This entry was posted in geeky, work and tagged system administration, X11, xdmcp. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
In the application selection process for 10.5, the X11 maintainers elected not to include Xnest.
While most users will probably not need this, since you can export X11 application through a SSH connection, sometimes it is quite handy to have the entire gui session available from a remote server.
I use this when managing some of my Solaris servers. With X11 on 10.4 this was readily available, but after installing 10.5 I found that it had not been included. Initially I just copied the binary from my 10.4 install into the expected location and tried to use it. However, as I expected, the results were not particularly satisfactory, given that the binary was built against a different X11 source tree.
After posting some of my compile issues to the X11-Users mailing list (archives are here), the code maintainer released a patch to the xorg code that fixed the symbol issues that had reared their ugly heads.
For those who are interested in making it work here’s what you need to do:
./configure --prefix=/usr/X11 --enable-xnest=yes --with-mesa-source=`pwd`/../Mesa-6.5.2sudo cp hw/xnest/Xnest /usr/X11/bin/sudo cp hw/xnest/Xnest.1 /usr/share/man/man1/Now you have a nicely patched install of the latest fixes for Xquartz as well as the Xnest binary.
If only compiling Xpehyr was working now…sigh.
Resources:
This entry was posted in work and tagged mac os x 10.5, operating systems. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
Finding the right case for you iPhone can be a challenging and somewhat frustrating process. Not only do you have to contend with the sheer number of case types, but you also have to balance the needs of your particular listening and working environments. If you are like me you may have found that you actually need more than one type of case. While it would be nice to have the ultimate iPhone case that I could comfortably and easily use in any situation, I have yet to discover it.
Recently I purchased an Otterbox iPhone 3G Defender case for use with my iPhone 3GS. The main motivation behind this particular purchase was the ruggedness of the case. Next summer I am going to be riding a self-supported bike tour with a couple of friends in Pittsburgh, so I was in the market for a case that could handle the shocks, drops and dust that I would encounter both on the tour and while training for it (man, do I ever need to start the training).
My daily driver of a case to this point has been a red and black (Goooo Dawgs!) iFrogz Luxe. This is a very nice case that adds minimal bulk to the iPhone design while providing a basic level of protection from scuffs and bumps that can occur during average daily use.
While the iFrogz Luxe turned out to be great for a daily case, it became rapidly apparent that it was not going to withstand the rigors of an extended bike tour and training process. After determining this, I turned to the Otterbox. Otterbox is known for making very rugged cases, waterproof cases, and water proof equipment boxes.
Otterbox states that the iPhone 3G Defender is not intended for protection against water intrusion, due to it’s openings for the microphones and speakers of the iPhone 3G design. This being said a friend that also has one said that it will protect your phone from an occasional spill, like when someone knocks over a coke on the table at a meeting. I can personally attest to the drop and bump protection, having purposefully dropped my phone while incased onto a concrete sidewalk from a height of three feet. (Not recommended for the faint of heart!)
I really liked the additional grip that the case provides. Sometimes the slick plastic back of the iPhone 3G and 3GS can be a little hazardous. The buttons are fairly easy to operate even while incased in the poly-carbonate shell and silicon rubber cushioning. All of the ports with the exception of the speakers and microphone are firmly covered with silicon rubber flaps that interlock into the plastic shell when not in use. This is great, since the water sensors on the 3G and 3GS are located in the headphone jack and inside the dock connecter port. With the openings firmly covered and protected it is possible to fudge a little on reporting water damage when attempting to get a warranty or AppleCare replacement.
If you want to dock your phone while in the 3G Defender, however, you maybe out of luck depending on the dock connector design. Due to the nature of the case design, there is a fairly deep recession that has to be navigated in order to connect anything to the dock connector. A cable or two won’t be a problem, but if you use a device like the iHome or a car mount then you will most likely be out of luck, unless you buy something like the iStubz from CableJive.
Another problem you may run into has to do with the sheer extra bulk added by the case. I frequently use my iPhone while in my 2007 Toyota Tundra, both for music and for navigation. I mounted my iPhone on the console in place of the ashtray using a mount and device holder combination from ProClip. While the combination is a bit pricey, I like their product choices. Fortunately my device holder is adjustable enough to hold the 3G Defender case, but unfortunately the dock connector plug does not extend high enough to connect with the iPhone while in the case.
Beyond those two issues, which are fairly easy to overcome, I am still having trouble getting used to the confinement of the screen itself. The 3G Defender enclosure leaves all of the screen itself usable, but some functionality is tricky when using the onscreen keyboard and sliders. This will be especially noticeable by those of us that don’t trim our fingernails all the way to the quick. I know that many of my female friends, as well as some males, will find the edges of the case get in the way. The one application feature I am having the most trouble with is the address bar in mobile Safari. When using Safari and trying to get the browser to re-display the address bar, I find myself having to use the side of my finger tips instead of end of the finger.
I would judge that the 3G Defender is a great case for use in a physically demanding environment. I am not completely sold on its use in an average daily environment that doesn’t involve lots of physical abuse.
Pros
Cons
Overall I would say this is an excellent case and well worth the price being charged for it. Paying $50 to protect your $400 investment is a no-brainer.
This entry was posted in general and tagged apple, iphone, otterbox. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
UPDATE (2009-04-26 7:06PM EDT): Apparently I was mistaken. When poking through the preferences of ClamXav in order to restructure my watch folders, I noticed a checkbox that I had overlooked. Apparently you can add the login item from within the main application. However, it still doesn’t start the Sentry app when adding the item. You have to manually click the “Save settings & Launch Sentry” button.
Recently I have bowed to the necessity of installing antivirus software on my Mac, both at work and at home.
In investigating the possibilities I decided to try out the open source antivirus solution ClamAV. While I tend to gravitate towards commercially supported security products when possible, I currently don’t have the extra money to spend on the Intego VirusBarrier product, and the budget at work is quite strained, as are budgets for most people.
I like the ClamXav frontend for the ClamAV engine. I know that I can do all the scanning functions from the command line, but I am fan of gui frontends do to the fact that they are often more user-friendly.
The ClamXav is a nice frontend. The only problem I have with it is that there is inherent mechanism to launch the sentry program at user login. The ClamXav Sentry application is contained in the Resources section of the Contents of the ClamXav application bundle. Below are the steps to add the application as a login item.
1. Open System Preferences from the Apple Menu
Open System Preferences
2. Open Accounts Preference Pane
System Prefences
3. Select Login Items
Login Items
4. Click the Plus sign button at the button of the Login Items list.
5. When the dialog window comes up, hit the Command + Shift + G keyboard combo.
6. In the window type the following:
/Applications/ClamXav.app/Contents/Resources/”
then click the Go button.
Enter the file path to the Resources of the ClamXav bundle
7. Select ClamXavSentry.app from the list and click the Add button.
Select the Sentry app
8. Congratulations, you have successfully added the ClamXav Sentry as a login item.
Login Item Added
I also wrote an Applescript application that will add the login item for you. The benefit of using my utility is that it launches ClamXav Sentry after adding the login item. You download a zipfile containing both the application and script file.
This entry was posted in work and tagged apple, arfore.com, mac, security, software. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
So, PayPal has thrown down the gauntlet on the safe browser war. According to an InfoWorld article, they have declined to add Apple’s Safari browser to their list of safe browsers due to the lack of native anti-phishing technology.
I find it interesting that one of the features they explicitly mention in the InfoWorld article as being a reason behind this is the use (or lack thereof) of the Extended Validation Certificate (EV).
Firefox 2 does not currently support this, however the possibility of having the browser warn you to a possible phishing attack is apparently enough for PayPal. According to the Mozilla developer’s, FireFox 3 will support the EV technology.
Personally I think that the automated protection schemes are great, when they work. One of the first things I did when installing IE7 on my virtual machine was to disable the anti-phishing filter. It is nice to have the automated systems, but there is nothing like a little user education to make the world a safer place. According to a NetworkWorld article:
In one study, three groups of 14 participants each received e-mail messages that included spam and phishing attacks as well as legitimate mail. Two of the groups were presented with educational material about how to prevent being phished; but only one group received the material after having fallen for the phishing e-mails and entered personal information into a fraudulent Web site.
The group that was given educational materials but hadn’t been phished were no better at spotting phishing attacks that the third group, which received no educational materials at all, researchers say.
Besides, who is to be the arbiter of whether or not the site really deserves being declared a phishing site? Sure sometimes it is patently obvious, like when the site is dressed up to look like Citibank, but the URL is really something like “www.citibank.secure.orangecrush.cz”. However, there is no such thing as a perfect system, and we don’t need to train the users to rely completely on the built-in safeguards.
This entry was posted in geeky and tagged privacy, research, security. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
I found this really cool moon photo at the AstroMeeting.
I love all the detail that he goes into about taking the photo.
This entry was posted in fun and tagged photography. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
There is an AP story out about a Minnesota college student attempting to sell his vote on eBay. He is being charged with a felony under an 1893 law that makes it a crime to sell your vote in Minnesota.
Seems to me that if the teenager is going to be charged and prosecuted for selling his vote, then maybe there needs to be some investigation of the politicians while they are at it. How many of them could be guilty of violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the same law?
This entry was posted in general and tagged politics. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
As I keep browsing the App Store to find more interesting applications, I find my self wondering exactly what criteria Apple is using to place the various applications in each category.
It’s not the actual application category or sub-category that I find strange, but the generic categories:
Some of the sortings make sense. For instance, the application AirMe shows up in the All Free Applications and the All iPhone Applications groups, yet it fails to show up in the New group. Since this application is only listed as compatible with the iPhone it makes sense to not be listed in the iPod Touch Applications group, but it doesn’t seem to make any sense to not be listed under the New group, especially since there are older applications that are listed.
The application Firebox, shows up in the All iPod Touch Applications group and the All iPhone Applications group. This is appropriate, since Firebox is listed as compatible with both platforms, however it doesn’t show up in the New group, which is quite odd since it has a release date of today, July 18, 2008.
I really hope that this gets sorted out soon, since it is making it more difficult to find interesting applications and may be costing developers if the applications aren’t free.
This entry was posted in geeky and tagged iphone. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.