In addition to Robert Spotswood's show this Saturday the 26th on denyhosts and ipblock, there's one in the works for (estimated) August 9th: we're going for controversy on this one.
If Russell Adams is available, he has a video as well as demonstrations regarding the "org-mode" use of the Emacs editor. Some revile this editor and some revere it; the "org" mode makes use of Emacs not as an editor but as a personal organizer, and Russell has made use of Emacs this way in project management. I don't know how many others are willing to consider the pitch for this use, but I'm willing to, and I'm a VI user.
So barring changes in plans, it's quite possibly Emacs Org Mode on August 9th - stay tuned!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Underwhelmed
I played around for about 15 min. on a friend's 6-month-old Vista laptop and was presented with a consumer computing experience that almost produced a reappearance of what I had for breakfast a few days earlier.
First, Norton Internet Security's icon would not open when clicked, or even when "open" was chosen on the right-click menu. So that update wasn't done, at least not manually. Then, the Java update that was sensed failed to install. Then SP 1 failed to install. Then the flash player update was sensed, but also failed to install.
And routing wasn't the issue, since both IE and Firefox surfed fine. Actually, 3 security updates did get downloaded and installed automatically, so something's getting done somewhere. [Speculation: looks like a clumsy attempt at security through tight file permissions. That's a sound theory but perhaps implementation was screwed up.]
My fix for this (other than using a non-Redmond product) would be to do the scandisc/defrag equivalents, run the registry cleaner in Norton, then load SP1 from CD. And light a candle and face the east, then reboot again for good measure. How do people put up with such OS crap?
First, Norton Internet Security's icon would not open when clicked, or even when "open" was chosen on the right-click menu. So that update wasn't done, at least not manually. Then, the Java update that was sensed failed to install. Then SP 1 failed to install. Then the flash player update was sensed, but also failed to install.
And routing wasn't the issue, since both IE and Firefox surfed fine. Actually, 3 security updates did get downloaded and installed automatically, so something's getting done somewhere. [Speculation: looks like a clumsy attempt at security through tight file permissions. That's a sound theory but perhaps implementation was screwed up.]
My fix for this (other than using a non-Redmond product) would be to do the scandisc/defrag equivalents, run the registry cleaner in Norton, then load SP1 from CD. And light a candle and face the east, then reboot again for good measure. How do people put up with such OS crap?
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Coming Up: NEXT SHOW on July 26th
Robert Spotswood will bail me out (since I'll be out of town and Russell's still wrestling with his company's scheduling combooberations) and deliver a program on two useful security tools:
DenyHosts and IPblock!!
DenyHosts is a *nix script that acts like a shit list to protect from crack attempts over SSH.
IPblock (if I've got the right info here) is a part of the iplist suite and is a packet filter-er.
Thanks for the nice turnout to my book review last Saturday - and if you wish to relive the glory of that presentation, the video's already up at John's repository page, which is at
John's Repository Page
Go to the list link at "View the latest videos..." (and download VLC if your local player doesn't know about .ogg files; the latest Windows Media Player does that, though)
AND to promote Robert's article work, he frequently contributes to the Hal-PC Online Magazine. One of those articles is HERE and you can use the right-side menu to browse other months during which he probably contributed. If there's a way to search by author name, it slips my mind at the moment.
DenyHosts and IPblock!!
DenyHosts is a *nix script that acts like a shit list to protect from crack attempts over SSH.
IPblock (if I've got the right info here) is a part of the iplist suite and is a packet filter-er.
Thanks for the nice turnout to my book review last Saturday - and if you wish to relive the glory of that presentation, the video's already up at John's repository page, which is at
John's Repository Page
Go to the list link at "View the latest videos..." (and download VLC if your local player doesn't know about .ogg files; the latest Windows Media Player does that, though)
AND to promote Robert's article work, he frequently contributes to the Hal-PC Online Magazine. One of those articles is HERE and you can use the right-side menu to browse other months during which he probably contributed. If there's a way to search by author name, it slips my mind at the moment.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Upcoming Show(s)
This Saturday the 12th at 2pm at Hal-PC, my HLUG presentation will concern THE ART OF INTRUSION by reformed naughty person Kevin Mitnick (I HATE the term "hacker") with William Simon. Here's a little preview:
So these guys are fishing for ports with scripts and such. They find something that gives them a prompt that they've never seen before. After some research, they finally determine that they've gotten partway into a web-enabled Coke machine.
You outsiders thought all this stuff was exotic and James-Bond-ish, didn't you? No. Coke machine.
Actually, these people blundered into a major market test on the part of Coca-Cola to see if real-time stock information could be used by drivers to know to get to the busier machines earlier, and to produce useful metrics on what was selling where. All quite valid goals. Of course, there's a security problem with the web, as was evidently determined. The point is that once you're at the prompt, one needs a password and one of the... interested parties (I HATE the term "hacker") went for the dictionary attack and another one says "No; let's try to guess."
They guess the password on the third try. Think about it. A machine owned by Coke?
Right. The password was "Pepsi".
Now there's no show planned for the second meeting (fourth Saturday) which is the 26th, at least not at the moment. I'll be out of town, and both Aaron and Russell Adams are being lobbied for the August shows (the 9th and the 23rd of that month).
Stay tuned to this channel for who and what gets scheduled for the 26th (two weeks from a few days from now or so).
So these guys are fishing for ports with scripts and such. They find something that gives them a prompt that they've never seen before. After some research, they finally determine that they've gotten partway into a web-enabled Coke machine.
You outsiders thought all this stuff was exotic and James-Bond-ish, didn't you? No. Coke machine.
Actually, these people blundered into a major market test on the part of Coca-Cola to see if real-time stock information could be used by drivers to know to get to the busier machines earlier, and to produce useful metrics on what was selling where. All quite valid goals. Of course, there's a security problem with the web, as was evidently determined. The point is that once you're at the prompt, one needs a password and one of the... interested parties (I HATE the term "hacker") went for the dictionary attack and another one says "No; let's try to guess."
They guess the password on the third try. Think about it. A machine owned by Coke?
Right. The password was "Pepsi".
Now there's no show planned for the second meeting (fourth Saturday) which is the 26th, at least not at the moment. I'll be out of town, and both Aaron and Russell Adams are being lobbied for the August shows (the 9th and the 23rd of that month).
Stay tuned to this channel for who and what gets scheduled for the 26th (two weeks from a few days from now or so).
Sunday, July 6, 2008
THE DATE APPROACHES...
... when former HLUG President Aaron Estrada will return for a presentation. But that'll be after he moves.
... when water will be synthesized on Mars from your home moisture condenser. But that'll be a few years.
... when true stories of bureaucratic ineptitude and stupidity will be revealed to all who have not yet read "The Art Of Intrusion" by Kevin Mitnick.
But first, massive kudo's (or whatever those accolades involve) to Allan for last week's show on Myth TV, the open source manner of making a TiVoid-type storage repository for media files out of an unused but reasonably fast computer. He ACTUALLY DOCUMENTED his presentation here, which disqualifies him for employment in the IT Project Management field, since documenting anything is expressly forbidden (beyond say, 10 min. worth of lame CYA attempts). So go to that link for a better article than I could have written on the procedure.
(Oh, and Donna: I'll have those discs on Wednesday...)
COMING UP - this SATURDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY at 2pm - since I didn't get Russell or Aaron or anybody to do a presentation, it's a book report. So sue me. BUT WAIT!! It's a good one! It's not about hacking, though.
See, a Kevin Mitnick book is supposed to be about hacking. It even says so on the cover. Bullpoop.
It's about the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert. And the minions lower down that make Mr. Pointy Hair look like management material. That's my theory. Experience my nonstandard opinion about this tome at the HLUG bi-monthly knowledge extravaganza. Usual meeting place at Hal-PC.
... when water will be synthesized on Mars from your home moisture condenser. But that'll be a few years.
... when true stories of bureaucratic ineptitude and stupidity will be revealed to all who have not yet read "The Art Of Intrusion" by Kevin Mitnick.
But first, massive kudo's (or whatever those accolades involve) to Allan for last week's show on Myth TV, the open source manner of making a TiVoid-type storage repository for media files out of an unused but reasonably fast computer. He ACTUALLY DOCUMENTED his presentation here, which disqualifies him for employment in the IT Project Management field, since documenting anything is expressly forbidden (beyond say, 10 min. worth of lame CYA attempts). So go to that link for a better article than I could have written on the procedure.
(Oh, and Donna: I'll have those discs on Wednesday...)
COMING UP - this SATURDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY at 2pm - since I didn't get Russell or Aaron or anybody to do a presentation, it's a book report. So sue me. BUT WAIT!! It's a good one! It's not about hacking, though.
See, a Kevin Mitnick book is supposed to be about hacking. It even says so on the cover. Bullpoop.
It's about the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert. And the minions lower down that make Mr. Pointy Hair look like management material. That's my theory. Experience my nonstandard opinion about this tome at the HLUG bi-monthly knowledge extravaganza. Usual meeting place at Hal-PC.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Great Meeting!
Several things to report:
1. HLUG "election" "results"
2. Donna's show and CD giveaway
3. Hal-PC election progress
Since there seemed no escape (and I'm actually honored to accept), by acclamation and procedure - and a show-of-hands vote which was done on the required date with quorum although I forgot to announce it - I have been elected to a second term as Special Interest Group leader and President of the Houston Linux Users' Group. You've got Lightsey to thank for bringing it to the floor, as well as myself for having asked Allan "When are we supposed to do that?"
Donna's show on the TRK boot disk was a compact primer on how to get yourself or others out of some very serious jams. The Trinity Rescue Kit is a purpose-built Linux distribution featuring NO GRAPHICAL INTERFACE and tools intended to aid in repairing Windows machines (Vista compatibility being enhanced now; general assumption is XP and back). She provided 3 or 4 burned disks for those who wanted one; I seized my copy back before anyone else made a move toward it.
Also, I understand that the online system for voting in the Hal-PC election is up and running. Use the numbers on your member Magazine label to log in, vote early and often.
Coming up in two weeks (fourth Saturday of the month - June 28th) will be Allan's show on MYTH TV, the way to get a computer to run a Linux-based Tivo-type entertainment repository!
1. HLUG "election" "results"
2. Donna's show and CD giveaway
3. Hal-PC election progress
Since there seemed no escape (and I'm actually honored to accept), by acclamation and procedure - and a show-of-hands vote which was done on the required date with quorum although I forgot to announce it - I have been elected to a second term as Special Interest Group leader and President of the Houston Linux Users' Group. You've got Lightsey to thank for bringing it to the floor, as well as myself for having asked Allan "When are we supposed to do that?"
Donna's show on the TRK boot disk was a compact primer on how to get yourself or others out of some very serious jams. The Trinity Rescue Kit is a purpose-built Linux distribution featuring NO GRAPHICAL INTERFACE and tools intended to aid in repairing Windows machines (Vista compatibility being enhanced now; general assumption is XP and back). She provided 3 or 4 burned disks for those who wanted one; I seized my copy back before anyone else made a move toward it.
Also, I understand that the online system for voting in the Hal-PC election is up and running. Use the numbers on your member Magazine label to log in, vote early and often.
Coming up in two weeks (fourth Saturday of the month - June 28th) will be Allan's show on MYTH TV, the way to get a computer to run a Linux-based Tivo-type entertainment repository!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
"Audacity, Audacity! Always audacity!" - von Clausewitz
At least I think it was him that said that. His phrase has nothing whatever to do with the open source recording program Audacity, but it sounded like a good title for the post. I'm happy to report that my program describing Audacity last Saturday was mostly successful...
in that I was able to demonstrate that an incoming signal from an Ion USB turntable was received and recorded within the Audacity program. Now, my craptop, er, laptop, was not sufficiently powerful to record without dropouts (should have used the 16 bit setting rather than the 32 bit) BUT when the mistake occurred, the dropouts were visible on the spectrograph (the readout that looks like something in a hospital), demonstrating how that graphical readout worked. I also was able to field a question about eliminating LP ticks and pops, which also uses the graphical readout to locate them (as single-line perpendicular excursions above or below the zero point). I brought along the CD I successfully burned on Audacity for Mac (my Linux craptop having been the site of the failed attempt), but since I burned the disk incorrectly (selection transferred as a file), I was not able to demonstrate the success on that other computer (no dropouts on that recording, though). In other news, I mentioned that a USB wireless antenna for laptops which had traditionally not supported Linux is now doing so, shipping with a "driver CD" serving Windows, OSX and Linux (source: ccrane.com, being the C. Crane company).
NEXT SHOWS: First show next month (second Saturday of June) will be Donna on the TRK forensics toolkit, and the second show of June (fourth Saturday) will be Allan on Myth TV, which is a way to transform a spare machine into some kind of Tivoid-MediaCenter-esque storage area for video product - but under Linux. Since it's more complicated than text, I don't understand it, but perhaps you will. Newfangled shenanigans... hmpf.
in that I was able to demonstrate that an incoming signal from an Ion USB turntable was received and recorded within the Audacity program. Now, my craptop, er, laptop, was not sufficiently powerful to record without dropouts (should have used the 16 bit setting rather than the 32 bit) BUT when the mistake occurred, the dropouts were visible on the spectrograph (the readout that looks like something in a hospital), demonstrating how that graphical readout worked. I also was able to field a question about eliminating LP ticks and pops, which also uses the graphical readout to locate them (as single-line perpendicular excursions above or below the zero point). I brought along the CD I successfully burned on Audacity for Mac (my Linux craptop having been the site of the failed attempt), but since I burned the disk incorrectly (selection transferred as a file), I was not able to demonstrate the success on that other computer (no dropouts on that recording, though). In other news, I mentioned that a USB wireless antenna for laptops which had traditionally not supported Linux is now doing so, shipping with a "driver CD" serving Windows, OSX and Linux (source: ccrane.com, being the C. Crane company).
NEXT SHOWS: First show next month (second Saturday of June) will be Donna on the TRK forensics toolkit, and the second show of June (fourth Saturday) will be Allan on Myth TV, which is a way to transform a spare machine into some kind of Tivoid-MediaCenter-esque storage area for video product - but under Linux. Since it's more complicated than text, I don't understand it, but perhaps you will. Newfangled shenanigans... hmpf.
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