Re: [vox-tech] mutt, email, usb mini storage, dvorak...

[David Margolis]

On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, Jonathan McPherson wrote:

> 2. I am considering buying one of those USB keyring mini storage devices
>(they're getting cheap; 128MB devices run $30 or so) and storing my
>GPG private key on it.  This would let me both sign emails from any
>computer and keep the key off my potentially vulnerable networked PC.
>Do you think that this is a good idea?  The main drawbacks I can see
>is that if I lose the device, I would have to get a new key pair, and
>the fact that my key will be in the RAM of the machine I am using.
>How good is Linux support for these devices?  Is there a brand you
>would recommend?

I can't answer your other questions, but I can answer about USB keyrings.
I can't say this for every single one of them, but of the two that I've
tried, support has been just fine.

I don't own one, but I've played 'em at work...

I had to do:
/sbin/modprobe usb-storage (assuming usb-uhci already loaded)
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb (or whatever mount point)

The filesystem was something regular, I think vfat.  The process behaved
almost exactly the same as my compact flash card which goes in a compact
flash/pcmcia adapter (the cf card shows up as /dev/hde1).

I'm guessing on /dev/sda1, but I think that's what it is.  I know the
device shows up as a scsi drive in dmesg though so check there to be sure.
There are probably some clever things you can do with hotplug but I know
nothing about that...

A lot of them claim linux support:
http://www.diskonkey.com/
http://www.usbkeydrive.com/Mini_USBKey.htm
There was another one I used to get spammed by all the time that was
pretty cool looking...it was orange and black.

This is the one I got working:
http://www.lexarmedia.com/jumpdrive/

I just read a _no problem_ report on the iomega model.

Go for it.  I imagine it will feel pretty cool whipping it out and
sticking it in (what? that sounds terrible).



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Re: [vox-tech] Red Hat 9 doesn't recognize a SMB printer - help to a Linux novice

[David Margolis]

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003, Jonathan Stickel wrote:

> I've had little to no success using a SMB networked printers.
> Fortunately, the networked printers I use on campus are also networked
> as HP jet-direct printers.

apsfilter is VERY good at helping one set up an SMB printer, but:
1. I don't know if RH9 uses cups or some other different-than-lpr setup,
in which case trying to install/use apsfilter could be bad
2. apsfilter accepts your NT (SMB) username and password as clear text and
I don't know where it puts them, or how it stores them there.

>
> What type of printer is your printer?  How is it connected (ethernet
> cable, usb, parralel port)?
>
> Jonathan

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Re: [vox-tech] User with root privileges

[David Margolis]

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

>
> ps- i will state again: the thing that you said is not a bad idea is
> STILL not accurate.  UID != GID.  you say it will "largely have the
> desired effect".
>
> i don't know about you, but when i'm administrating my system, i want to
> have THE desired effect.  not largely the desired effect!
>

Well I have to admit I made an assumption about something that I've never
tried before.

I use sudo to get the exact desired effect I'm looking for which is this:
I put user davem (me) in /etc/sudoers and I say _davem can run these
six normally root only programs on this box_.  These include ifconfig and
some other things I use alot and don't want to have to login as root with
my very annoying to type (which is a good thing) root password.

Somebody mentioned putting a user in the root group and I made the
assumption that would allow non-root users to _execute_ certain files on
the system (achieving a similar affect to what I do with sudo).

Well I just went into /sbin and did and ls -l * to see if I knew what I
was talking about, and I didn't.  Most of the executables in there
(including the ones I would want to use) are owned by the group _bin_, so
I was way off base anyway.

So for all it's worth, you told me so.

I still maintain that sudo is the best way to do the sort of thing
described in the original e-mail, but I'm not 100% sure that's available
for Solaris.  I also maintain that making anybody but root uid=0 is a
hack.  If it's a clever hack that works, then by all means go for it.

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Re: [vox-tech] rpm that refuses to go away

[David Margolis]

Mark (and Jonathan too),

Thanks for the tips...

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003, Mark Street wrote:
>
> rpm -qa | grep hsfmodem
>
> If the package is returned try an rpm -e on it.
>
> rpm -e hfsmodem   NOTE - no version, just the name of the package... this is
> why rpm did not recognize your package above as not installed.
>

I believe this is the problem, I was trying to use everything but .rpm as
the package name.

>
> If that does not work bring out the big guns.
>
> rpm -ivh --force hfsmodem-1.2.3-athlon.rpm
>

This is one of the first things I tried, and that bombed out with a
slightly different error that I cannot remember.  I'll try to get it
uninstalled using the above tip.

Thanks!
Dave

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[vox-tech] rpm that refuses to go away

[David Margolis]

I'm helping a guy on a redhat 9 system get his modem working.  It's one of
those nasty winmodems, but is supposed to be well supported by the
hfsmodem driver.

He tried to install (and I'm making up the exact file name):
hsfmodem-1.2.3-i686.rpm

This didn't work, and I think it's because he was supposed to install
hsfmodem-1.2.3-athlon.rpm (the help files say the achitecture is important
for getting this particular driver running).

Anyway, I tried to run: rpm -e hsfmodem-1.2.3
and I get something like: sorry, hsfmodem-1.2.3 is not installed

So I go: rpm -ivh (or -Uvh) hsfmodem-1.2.3-athlon.rpm
and I get: hsfmodem-1.2.3 interfers with hsfmodem-1.2.3

The question is, how do I fool rpm into believing one package is not there
so I can install the other if it appears there seems to be something stuck
in rpm's database (or whatever system it uses to keep track of installed
packages)?

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Dave Margolis

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Re: [vox-tech] User with root privileges

[David Margolis]

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> >
> >On my SuSE box, I can make any user a member of the group "root" and they
> >will have full privileges.
>
> that's not quite accurate.  UID != GID.
>
> pete


Yeah, but that's still not a bad idea.  If files owned by root are also
owned by the group root, then adding joeuser to the group root would have
largely the desired effect (without messing with sudo or the root user
itself).

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Re: [vox-tech] User with root privileges

[David Margolis]

Assuming you have sudo installed, the safest way is to do a sloppy (in my
opinion) entry in /etc/sudoers that matches root's entry in that file.
'man sudo' for lots of good info...

A slightly better way is the way OS X does it. I've stolen this idea for a
couple Linux boxes.  Create an "admin" group, then add your user to the
admin group, and then give your admin group sudo privilages.

contents of /etc/sudoers:
# User privilege specification
rootALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

This requires prepending 'sudo' to almost any root-only command, but
that's just a nice safety check anyway.  For commands I use alot, I add
the above to /etc/sudoers and then I put this is my .bashrc

alias ifconfig='sudo /sbin/ifconfig'
alias iwconfig='sudo /sbin/iwconfig'
alias cardctl='sudo /sbin/cardctl'
alias blah, blah, blah...

You get the idea.

"Tricking" the permission scheme by swapping UID's is gonna
seem like it worked until some shell script calls root by name later and
bombs (or something...I just think it will eventually break).

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003, Rob Rogers wrote:

> On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 13:13:49 -0800, Rod Roark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>
> > Having root privileges means your UID is 0 - i.e. you are
> > logged in as root.
> >
> > I have never tried this, but I suppose you could go into
> > /etc/passwd, etc/shadow and /etc/group and rename root to
> > some other name.
> >
> > But there is surely a better way to do whatever it is that
> > your friend wants to do.
>
> I'd suggest going with Tim's method. You can have multiple usernames with
> the same UID. The only confusion will be when programs will grab a name to
> match a UID, it will grab the first one, assuming there is no others. i.e.
> ls will show your files as belonging to root if your UID is 0 you're
> logged in under another name.
>
> I've seen the problem with renaming root... I had a friend who decided "I
> wonder what would happen if I renamed root to God" and all sorts of
> programs started getting confused. of course he may have just missed
> making the change in /etc/shadow or /etc/group, but I'm not sure I'd want
> to take the chance.
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Re: [vox-tech] dual booting with win2k woes

[David Margolis]

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> On Thu 20 Nov 03, 12:48 PM, David Margolis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> > Another solution is to install Win2K on a FAT partition instead of NTFS
> > (one of the choices in the Win2K install.
>
> lol!  that's hardly a solution for me.  i have no desire to reinstall
> the operating system!  :)
>

Yes quite right!  I should have added "assuming you don't have too much of
an invesment in the current state of the Win partition..."

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Re: [vox-tech] dual booting with win2k woes

[David Margolis]

Another solution is to install Win2K on a FAT partition instead of NTFS
(one of the choices in the Win2K install.

This does a couple of things:

1. Allows you to install Lilo for dual-boot they way a lot of the help
docs explain it (they are assuming that you have a Win9X machine).  With
not NTFS, there is also not NTLoader so Win2K becomes a little more
flexible about sharing the hard-drive.

2. Allows you to read/write to your Win2K partition without all the
undocumented, unsupported NTFS woes.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but Linux
FAT file system support is pretty solid, and NTFS support is still
considered read-only and/or experimental.  In my experience, if your other
OS is on a FAT file system, you don't even have to do anything to mount it
(i.e. RedHat and Slackware, from my experience, both detect and mount the
drive at boot).  No modules to load, or kernels to recompile or any of
that stuff...

Dave M

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[vox-tech] Apt for RPM based distros

[David Margolis]

A few days ago I mentioned Apt for RedHat (or any RPM based distro) and a
few people seemed interested.

Anyway, the article I read was in the 10/03 issue of Linux Magazine.
Unfortunately, this issue is off the shelves now, but you can read the
abstract here: http://www.linux-mag.com/2003-10/toc.html

A few people wrote in to the 11/03 issue saying stuff like "thanks for
introducing me to apt for RPM...it's so much better than up2date".  So if
anybody's interested, go check it out.

I also just read about slapt (apt for slackware).  I'm going to go look
that up right now!

Anyway, the Debian users on the list are probably rolling their eyes at
this, so let me just say I'm not endorsing either of these products but I
do think Apt for RPM might be a good answer for anybody worried about the
future of up2date with Fedora (which was the concern expressed in that
previous thread).

Adios,
Dave Margolis

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Re: [vox-tech] Qt/C++ libraries question

[David Margolis]

In case anybody cares, the answer to my question is this:

1. rebuild qt itself to support the static library (./configure -static;
make).  this adds a libqt.a where you have the various
libqt.so files.

2. once you have this in place you can just throw -static onto your g++
command line or into your makefile

3. since qt/mac is not the same as qt/x11 (qt/mac speaks directly to aqua)
you have to do the above steps on a mac.  for any other unix a
cross-compile would work.

4. now give your (obviously more bloated because of the static build)
application to your mac buddy.

5. if time/cleverness permits, bundle everything in the correct place
within a directory with a .app extension to bring
the double-clickable mac experience to your application (note: i haven't
figured this one out quite yet, but i'm doing some reading right now).

Thanks to everyone who replied!
Dave

On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, Matt Holland wrote:

> On Tuesday, November 4, 2003, at 01:22 AM, David Margolis wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I don't know if there are many Qt developers on this list, but this
> > seems
> > like it might be more of a C++/gcc question anyway.
> >
> > I have built a Qt app on my Linux box that _should_ run on Mac OSX.
> > To do
> > this I am supposed to statically link the qt library.
> >
> > 1. I don't know how I am supposed to move/compile/whatever this
> > library.
>
> Do you have a Mac OS X machine to play around on?  If so, the way to
> get open source libraries (and software in general) is Fink
> (http://fink.sourceforge.net).  Qt versions 2 and 3 are available in
> Fink.
>
> If you are planning to cross-compile, I know nothing about that.
>
> > 2. I don't know where to put it or how to call it _statically_ from my
> > app.
>
> The question isn't how to call the functions, but how to link the
> library.  I think (warning: I could be wrong) that gcc will generally
> tell the linker to use a dynamic library if it is available, and
> otherwise will link a static library.  I'm pretty sure that you can
> pass an option to gcc to change this behavior.
>
> You might check out http://fink.sourceforge.net/doc/porting/index.php
> for some tips on porting apps to OS X.  It covers some weird little
> details that you should be aware of.
>
> Good luck!
> Matt
>
> > Any ideas (or URLs or anything) would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Dave Margolis
> >
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> >
> --
> Matt Holland
> Population Biology Graduate Group
> University of California
> Davis, CA 95616
>
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[vox-tech] Qt/C++ libraries question

[David Margolis]

Hello,

I don't know if there are many Qt developers on this list, but this seems
like it might be more of a C++/gcc question anyway.

I have built a Qt app on my Linux box that _should_ run on Mac OSX.  To do
this I am supposed to statically link the qt library.

1. I don't know how I am supposed to move/compile/whatever this library.
2. I don't know where to put it or how to call it _statically_ from my
app.

Any ideas (or URLs or anything) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave Margolis

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Re: [vox-tech] sed question

[David Margolis]

Nevermind,

I used the '@' in my call to sed and it worked just fine.

Thanks for the help!
Dave

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, Bryan Richter wrote:

>
> On Wed, Oct 29, 2003 at 08:06:38PM -0800, David Margolis wrote:
> > How do I do: 'sed s/$i\\/$i/$i/g' when $i might have it's own forward
> > slashes?
>
> The / character is arbitrary in sed expressions. Maybe try using
> 'sed s#$i\\/$i#$i#g' ?
>
> -Bryan R
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Re: [vox-tech] sed question

[David Margolis]

Great idea!  I just read about that feature a minute ago and it didn't
even occur to me that that might be the solution to my problem.  Are there
any recommended characters that won't be interpreted by sed or bash?
'#' will be interpreted as a comment in my
bash script, correct?

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, Bryan Richter wrote:

>
> On Wed, Oct 29, 2003 at 08:06:38PM -0800, David Margolis wrote:
> > How do I do: 'sed s/$i\\/$i/$i/g' when $i might have it's own forward
> > slashes?
>
> The / character is arbitrary in sed expressions. Maybe try using
> 'sed s#$i\\/$i#$i#g' ?
>
> -Bryan R
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[vox-tech] sed question

[David Margolis]

Hello,

I'm having trouble with escape characters while trying to substitute with
sed.  Mostly it has to do with the forward slash itself.

Because of an automated process that generates webpages (but
misunderstands where some files are in relationship to roo), I end up with
some errors sometimes that look like this:

http://www.domain.com/somedir/somedir/page.htm";>link

What I really wanted, of course, was this:

http://www.domain.com/somedir/page.htm";>link

so i figured out by using 'sed s/somedir\\/somedir/somedir/g filename.htm
> tempfile.htm' does the trick.

My problem is that I don't know the value of 'somedir' as it is generated
from a shell script AND 'somedir' often has it's own '/'s in it like:
'/somedir/somesubdir'.

How do I do: 'sed s/$i\\/$i/$i/g' when $i might have it's own forward
slashes?

Or, if I'm way off base, please suggest an alternative approach (note: I
don't have access to PERL on the box in question).

Thanks,
Dave M.

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Re: [vox-tech] BLASPHEMY (i.e., removing Linux from a dual-boot system)

[David Margolis]

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003, Michael J Wenk wrote:

>
> You do this(as I recall) lilo -U
>

If I remember correctly, the _restore_ feature of lilo requires that you
backed up the original MBR somewhere.

My solution for this very same issue in the past was to boot back into
linux (a boot floppy will do), and then reinstall lilo with a profile that
ONLY boots windows with a delay of 0 seconds.  You'll never know lilo was
there.

This way you can't accidently hose your MBR in such a way that you'll
never get back into windows on that machine.

Dave M.

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Re: [vox-tech] OT: The Bouncing WAP

[David Margolis]

Richard,

I've read the other responses to this and agree (firmware, channel, etc.),
but my experience would lead me to suggest hardware.  These routers (and
access points) are mass-produced and are just flakey sometimes.  I'd try
the other suggestions and if you're still having the same problem, take
advantage of Linksys's excellent cross-RMA (where they send you the
replacement while you return yours).  You get stuck for the cost
of shipping yours, but it's still a good deal.

I had a netgear that did the same thing (with apple/linux laptops not XP
though).  I'd turn WEP off and it would work fine.  I replaced it with the
exact same product and the second one worked fine with WEP.

Dave M.

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003, Richard Crawford wrote:

> I have a Linksys WAP11 at my house, and I use it to connect our two
> laptops, which happen to be running WinXP.
>
> Every few minutes, the WAP seems to drop the connection; or, at least, a
> message appears on the laptop telling me that the link has been lost; and
> a few seconds later it comes back.  This is very annoying when I'm
> browsing the web or playing MP3's from my file server.
>
> Why might this be happening?  Any ideas?  Any way that I can make it stop??
>
>
> Sliante,
> Richard S. Crawford
>
> http://www.mossroot.com   http://www.stonegoose.com/catseyeview
> AIM: Buffalo2K ICQ: 11646404 Y!: rscrawford
> MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Howard Dean for America:  http://www.deanforamerica.com
> "It is only with the heart that we see rightly; what is essential is
> invisible to the eye." --Antoine de Saint Exupéry
>
>
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Re: [vox-tech] ripping video: wierd interleaving effect on fast motion

[David Margolis]

OK,

I'm jumping into this conversation late, but here are my  2 cents.

1. I have a KWorld el-generico TV tuner that works just fine with
bttv and xawtv.  I believe it is the same chipset that comes in the
Haupaggue (spelling?) cards. I love xawtv.  It is one of the _killer apps_
for sure.  I configured all the settings in .xawtv and got exactly the
TV in a window while I'm reading my e-mail I was looking for.

2. I've tried serveral combinations of recording with xawtv and mencoder
and ending up with nothing even remotely inspiring.  I always hoped I
could write scripts called by cron to do some serious command line
PVRing, but haven't gotten close yet.  It's got to be possible, right?
That's what TIVO is all about: Linux with a TV Card, a nice case, some
specialized software, and a remote control.

3. Here is the part I don't get!  These cards are supposed to do HARDWARE
MPEG 1 and 2 encoding.  Savign to AVI and then re-encoding into some MPEG
format seems like ripping MP3s into WAV and then back out to OGG.  I admit
I don't get how any of this works, but shouldn't it be more straigtforward
to just _catch_ the already encoded MPEG data and put it somewhere???

Dave M.

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> hi all,
>
> ok, i ripped a southpark video with:
>
>System: AMD Athlon 1.3GHz
>2.4.22 w/ low latency
>Radeon QD
>very unloaded machine
>
>name: southpark1.avi
>ripper:   xawtv -noxv
>audio format: 8bit mono
>sample rate:  44100
>video format: 24bit TrueColor (LE: bgr)
>fps:  30
>video size:   384x288
>
>
> the next step is to compress/encode it.
>
> however, i first tried to watch the avi with mplayer.  the quality was
> bad.  whenever there was fast motion, it looked like the areas with fast
> motion had white horizontal lines interleaved with the normal video.
>
> mplayer gave output which looks like it's related to this problem:
>
>badly interleaved AVI file.  switching to -ni mode.
>
> i'm not sure what to do.  i don't think it's a matter of my system not
> being powerful enough.  i did tests at low fps of a few seconds of
> video, and got the same "interleaved" effect.  it was actually worse at
> lower fps.
>
> and there really aren't that many options with xawtv.  i've played with
> fps, sample rate, and video format.  nothing seems to help.
>
> in xawtv, there are options to save as "single file raw video" and
> "apple quicktime" format.  i take it these are container formats that
> sam was talking about.
>
> any suggestions?
>
> thanks!
> pete
>
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Re: [vox-tech] wireless cards + Linux Redhat

[David Margolis]

Jonathan,

The official supported cards list is good, but watch out for _version_
releases of various wireless cards (two cards with same model number can
actually have different chipsets inside - argg!).
There are two VERY well supported wireless card chipsets in Linux,
one PRETTY well supported chipset, and serveral shoddily supported chipsets.
You definately want 802.11b as at this time there is no real Linux support for
any of the A or G stuff (although there is a few very beta G drivers
floating around).

Here is what I would look for (from my personal experience with several of
these cards):

1. The Cisco 340 series PCMCIA card.  The driver for this card is
phenominal.  Cisco wrote a nice proc interface
so you can find out what your card is doing/seeing at all times, and
iwconfig (part of the wireless tools) works well with the card too.
Driver should load automatically on any modern disto that has the
PCMCIA package installed (I use slackware, but I've tested it recently
on Debian too). Reception and WEP support are both great.
The only con is that you won't get it cheap - it's gonna cost you a
good $70-$80, but I think it's worth it.  If you don't want to hunt one
down, I know for a fact there is a stack of them at the Sac State bookstore in
their computer department (disclamier: I do work at Sac State, but I'm not
trying to make a sales pitch, I just know they have this card in stock as
of a few days ago).

2. The Orinoco GOLD series card.  You're likely to find this card at the
local Ma & Pa computer store (you probably won't see it at Best Buy).
Some of the other name-brand cards are based on this chipset, but be
careful, you can only trust the one that is really from Orinoco.  The
driver that comes with the PCMCIA package should also autodetect this
card.  Again, great WEP support, etc.  Good card.  The Orinoco Silver card
works just as well with the same driver but only supports 40bit WEP.  If
you know you are not going to rely on WEP and will be using VPN or
something else for security, save a few bucks and get a silver card if
they have one.

3. Anything based on Intersil's Prism II chipset.  This includes cards
from Netgear, Linksys, D-Link, and (believe it or not) Microsoft.  You
REALLY have to watch out here.  I've seen a card from D-Link called the
DWL-650 that has housed as many as three different chipsets, so even
though the card looks similar and has the same box, only one will work
with Linux.  For this reason, stay away from D-link and look for cards
from Linksys or Netgear.  Watch out for anything that promises 22Mbps
(those cards don't work with Linux at all).  One of the best ones is the
Netgear 16-bit MA401.  This is important if you have an old laptop that
doesn't support CARDBUS.  Redhat users beware: there are two drivers
(actually 3, but I haven't had good luck with the ng_lan driver):
the Wavelan and the Orinoco. Orinoco supports WEP with these cards, the
Wavelan driver does not.  For some reason Redhat (as recenlty as 8 - I
haven't tried 9) changed the default PCMCIA config so it loads the Wavelan
driver, and you'll never get WEP until you do some hacking on the PCMCIA config file.
This is the chipset that most of the Compact Flash cards use, and you can
actually get these cards working in a laptop with a $15 CF2PCMCIA adapter.

Once you've got your card inserted and 'lsmod' shows the driver is loaded,
all you have to do is tweak the settings in /etc/pcmcia/network.opts and
/etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts (comments in both of these files are very
helpful and straightforward).

One thing to watch out for is your other network card if you have one.
Some distros have their own custom networking configurations that will
cause PCMCIA to get confused over who is eth0 and eth1.  This oddity is
distro specific and so I can't really offer any help except to say that
your system will be happier if the wired ethernet is eth0 even if you
aren't using it.  I think (but haven't tested) Suse will call your
wireless card wlan0 (this was the behavior of older verions of the PCMCIA
package and I think some distros are hanging on to that).

That's about it.  Good resources are at the pcmica pages (listed in the
URL below) and Wireless tools:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/.  There are a few
card specific tweaks at mobilix.org, but I haven't seen that site updated
with any reliable regularity.

Good luck,
Dave M.

On Tue, 7 Oct 2003, ME wrote:

> Assuming you have the latest install of the pcmcia-cs (or other addition)
> a list of supported cards with pcmcia-cs is here:
>
> http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/SUPPORTED.CARDS
>
> Enjoy,
> -ME
>
>
> Jonathan Anderson said:
> >
> > Hi I was just wondering if a Siemens 802.11 b wireless card would be
> > compatible with Linux?  What cards are compatible?  thanks
> >
> > __
> > McAfee VirusScan Online from the Netscape Network.
> > Comprehensive protection for your en

Re: [vox-tech] looking for a decent < 20GB HD

[David Margolis]

I just got a 7200/ATA 100 80 Giger for a little less than $50 at Fry's.
It was Western Digital and came with a full 3-year warrantee.  The other
option would be something like this: the local little computer shop in
my neighborhood (Circular on 28th and T in Sac) they always have a box of
pulled HDs.  4-6Gig run about $30, so it's cheaper, but not that cost
effective in the long run.

On Sun, 5 Oct 2003, dylan wrote:

> hi --
>
> I am currently looking for new ( < 20GB ) IDE drive for a small scale linux
> server that we are setting up. realistically, we don't event need 5Gb of
> space, however it would be nice to have a little breathing room for future
> expansion.
>
> I have heard numerous *not so great* things about a lot of the new high
> density drives (> 40Gb) such as a 1 yr warranty, and tendency to die
> unexpectedly.
>
> any input would be greatly appreciated.
>
> thanks,
>
> dylan
>
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Re: [vox-tech] one of the most pernicious spams i've ever seen.

[David Margolis]

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003, Rob Rogers wrote:
>
> Name
> CC#
> CCV (that 3 digit number at the end of the signature panel)
> Pin #
> Mother's maiden name.
> MSN Acct name
> MSN password
> Social security #
>

My wife and I got some phone calls like this a few months ago.

When they'd call, they'd say that they were from wells fargo (we don't
have wells fargo, but 50% of californians probably do) and they'd say
there was a problem with my
account, and they needed to verify some information.  They'd ask for my
mother's maiden name, last four digits of SSN, etc.  They'd say _are you
still living at 123 front st._ hoping you'd say, _no, i live at XXX
whatever street_.  It was all very strategic and well done.  Any stupid,
optimistic, or gullible, person would just start spouting out personal
info.  My wife and I talked about how tragic it would be if an elderly
person answered, or a mentally disabled person, or anybody else who
otherwise might be a bit easier to take advantage of.  They were very good
at the scam.

The lady (it seemed like the same lady everytime) even left a phone
number.  When you called the number, it would be her on an answering
machine telling you to _go ahead and leave your name and social security
number_ at the tone.

We reported this all to the police and never heard back from them (what do
you expect?).

Us security minded folk are probably not very sucepible to this type of
scam (if you use SSH or GPG, you're probably smart/paranoid enough to be
safe), but think how many people online are.  Sometimes I want to say
_screw 'em if they aren't smart enough to not get scammed_ but then I
think of my dad who calls me to complain about the button on his webpage
that says _speed up you internet connection by clicking here_ not
working, and I guess I have to be a little more forgiving of the technically
challenged (not to say that tech-saavy folks are always security-saavy,
but whatever).

For what it's worth, from an HTTP/URI and JavaScript point of view, this
scam is clever, especially when it redirects the parent window back to the
REAL citibank site (that is just an excellent touch).

Dave M.

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Re: [vox-tech] backing up DVDs (was Re: [vox] fair use / DVD questions)

[David Margolis]

Jonathan,

I'd like to know more about this card.  I've seen USB 2.0 PC-Cards at the
various computer stores and always wanted to look into that for my laptop
I have an external CD-burner that works well (but slow) in my ThinkPad's
regular USB port.

If you don't mind and have time:

1. Which PC-Card USB 2.0 adapter did you get?
2. Run me through the basic setup (what module, config, etc.)
3. What was the _work around_ you mentioned?
4. Any way to test the throughput that you know of?

Dave Margolis

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003, Jonathan Stickel wrote:

> I actually used an external DVD+/-RW drive (and an external HD)
> connected to my laptop through a PMCMCIA USB2.0 card.  As far as I could
> tell, no problems with byte transfer there at all, after I got it all
> setup.  My 2.4.20 kernel liked to crash when I ejected the card, though,
> but I found a work-a-round.

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Re: [vox-tech] minimalist debian?

[David Margolis]

Dylan (and Henry, for the previous message),

A _crippled_ net install sounds like exactly what I need.

I'll try to avoid dselect altogether and just apt-get exactly what I want
(and of course, the required dependancies).

Thanks!
Dave

On Sat, 13 Sep 2003, Dylan Beaudette wrote:

> i like the minimal install CDs found here: http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/
>
> i boot the machine with the CD, install the base system, then reboot and
> use tasksel to install the barebones servers and whatnot... then from
> there you are just an 'apt-get install' away from anything else that you
> might need.
>
> and if you would like to do it on PPC hardware, here are some of my notes:
> http://fungus.ucdavis.edu/~dylan/
>
>
> good luck!
>
> dylan
>
>
>
>
> > On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 07:19:49PM -0700, David Margolis wrote:
> > [...]
> >> Here's my question: What's the easiest way to install a very-barebones
> >> Debian?  The thing I've always really liked about Slackware is
> >> that it makes no assumptions whatsover about the kind of installation
> >> you'd like to do, so while certainly being less user-friendly, the
> >> intaller allows you to really whittle your system to a few hundred megs
> >> of
> >> essentials (that's with X and KDE and quite a few other goodies) as
> >> opposed to a few gigs of libraries and dependancies for redundant
> >> programs
> >> I'll never use.
> >
> > This is certainly possible on Debian. After you install using floppies or
> > CD-ROM and boot the newly installed system, you will be prompted to select
> > tasks and to run dselect. If you decline to do either then you may run
> > apt-get install manually for whatever specific packages you wants. Of
> > course,
> > dependancies must be met, but you will still only end up with those extra
> > packages that are needed to support the ones you request.
> >
> > The package catalog at http:/;/packages.debian.org is you friend.
> >
> > --
> > Henry House
> > The unintelligible text that may follow is a digital signature.
> > See <http://hajhouse.org/pgp> for information.  My OpenPGP key:
> > <http://hajhouse.org/hajhouse.asc>.
> >
> >
>
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[vox-tech] minimalist debian?

[David Margolis]

Hello all,

I'm a Slackware user and I came across an exrtra machine that I thought
I'd use to play around with other distros and/or one of the BSDs.  Debian came
to mind as a good place to go next for two reasons:

1. I've been playing around with Fink on an OS X machine at work, and that
program has really turned me on to the idea of apt-get and it's family
members.

2. I like to keep myself as well-rounded as possible and I've done enough
playing around with RedHat, Mandrake, and their brothers, so Debian seems
like the other major _family_ of distro that I'd like to know more about.

Here's my question: What's the easiest way to install a very-barebones
Debian?  The thing I've always really liked about Slackware is
that it makes no assumptions whatsover about the kind of installation
you'd like to do, so while certainly being less user-friendly, the
intaller allows you to really whittle your system to a few hundred megs of
essentials (that's with X and KDE and quite a few other goodies) as
opposed to a few gigs of libraries and dependancies for redundant programs
I'll never use.

I've been through the Debian installer a few times (though not for a year
or two) and I just remember being kind of an observer as dselect did its
work installing the programs assosiated with a chosen configuration.
Since there seems to be plenty of Debian heads on this list, I
thought maybe someone could throw down a quick 1, 2, 3 or even point me to
a URL about how to install the least amount of Debian possible and then use
apt-get to install whatever I feel like later.

Thanks,
Dave

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[vox-tech] Modem Questions...

[David Margolis]

2 Nics and a crossover cable is a nice cheap solution.  But I'd spend 100
bucks and get two wireless nics (my recomendation is Linksys or D-Link).
Set them up Ad-Hoc mode and then do the same internet sharing you'd have
to do with the two wired-nics.  You might spend more money up front, but
there are plenty of ways/places to use the wireless nics otherwise.

Also, I just started receiving the messages in digest mode to try and
unclutter my inbox.  Is this message messing up the threaded mail
client users on this list?  Let me know what I might do to fix that
problem if so.


Dave

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[vox-tech] easy httpd.conf question

[David Margolis]

hello, i need to know where to specify in httpd.conf
that http://www.somedomain.net/directory
should be read teh same way as http://www.somedomain.net/directory/

bascially what's happening is when the former is called, the server looks
for a root level file called directory, finds no such file, and reports a
lovely 404 error.  when i type the remaining front slash, apache says oh
that directory and displays index.php (.htm, or whatever) as expected.

i remember fixing this before was easy, but i really don't remember ...
is this behavior controlled by a module, or simply a directive?

thanks,
dave

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Re: [vox-tech] mindstorms

[David Margolis]

On Sun, 7 Jul 2002, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> i'm teaching a class on robotics this summer, and we have them stocked.
> so i cheated.
>

Hmm, well I just took the plunge and purchased a version 1.0 set off eBay
so it looks like I'll be getting the serial tower.  Good or bad, I'm not
sure - I can always upgrade, firmware or hardware (if need be) later.

Flipping through eBay, it looks like a lot of the parts are available
seperately.  I haven't seen the tower, but lots of motors/sensors are
available there and know you can get lots of individual parts from online
vendors.  Ebay has some interesting _my dog ate half of the pieces_ type
as is sets that might be good for someone looking to find extra parts cheap.

> i'm wondering - maybe you can purchase it mail order from lego?  i mean,
> surely there's got to be a way to replace lost or broken parts.  they
> prolly don't expect you to buy a whole new $200 set if you accidentally
> step on the tower.   at least, they better not!  :-)
>

I think I read that if you step on it, they cover it, but if you sit on
it, you have to buy a whole new set. :]

>
> no, not without a driver.  i read specifically in dave baum's book
> "definitive guide to lego mindstorms" that the protocol used is a
> simpler version of irda, but not irda itself.

It's too bad that's not standardized.  I've got two laptops with never
before used IR ports.  It would be nice to take advantage of that.  But
both said laptops also have unused serial ports so ...

It would also be pimping to use a palm or zaurus or some other ir enabled
handheld as a programmable remote control.

>
> the word "simpler" might be encouraging that someone, somewhere might
> write something.  the "hard part" of reverse engineering the lego IR
> protocol may have been done by the lego linux usb people, unless the
> tower is simply a device that reads raw data and converts it to the lego
> IR protocol using hard firmware.
>
> at this point, i'm starting to walk on shaky ground, so i better back
> off from saying anything else.   :-)
>
> pete
>

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Re: [vox-tech] mindstorms

[David Margolis]

Was obtaining the serial (which I presume is the "old" IR tower)
difficult?  Where did you find it.  I suppose you could buy the
old set on eBay or off the shelf of a store.

Here's another question: Do you suppose one could configure the built
in IR port on a laptop to talk to the RCX?  It would be neat if I could
type little bits of code and beam them over that way!

Dave

On Sat, 6 Jul 2002, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> ok, i obtained the serial IR tower.
>
> i plugged the tower into my server, satan (the 2nd serial port).  After
> putting batteries into the RCX and downloading the Mindstorm 1.5
> firmware from katherine's website, i ran:
>
> nqc -S/dev/ttyS1 -firmware firm0309.lgo
>
> in the console, it printed:
>
> .draining
> .draining
> .draining
> .draining
> .draining
> .draining
>
> a whole bunch of times.  "0" appeared on the RCX and it began to
> increase.  presumably, "draining" means the process of writing data from
> an output buffer to the tower and the numbers on the RCX are almost
> certainly the number of bytes read by the RCX.
>
> finally, the following appeared on the console:
>
> Current Version: 00030001/00030009
>
> and the RCX sang a pleasant tune.  i take this to be a good sign.
>
> pete
>
> ps- there is now a linux usb tower kernel driver.  i'll try it out
> tonight.
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Re: [vox-tech] Sound Trouble with trident module

[David Margolis]

Rusty,

The way that you did is definatley the better way to do it.  The chmod 666
/dev/soundstuff is a quick way to do it.  Since my laptop doesn't run any
services of have any users besides myself, I think it's the easiest for
me.

If you have any users, it's a bad idea.  Maybe I'll reconsider doing it
the group way!

Dave

On Tue, 2 Jul 2002, Rusty Minden wrote:

> I added the user (myself) to the /etc/group file under audio. It is working
> fine now. I didn't want to mess with the security too much.
>
> Thanks for your help with this Dave. I was worried about just changing
> permissions without knowing at least 50% what I was up to. The laptop (woody)
> is coming along really nice I must say and I am learning how to do things
> without yast and yast2 (SuSE). I have to say I don't miss them anymore :-)
>
> Rusty
>
> On Sunday 30 June 2002 04:13 pm, you wrote:
> > Rusty,
> >
> > I've read that this isn't the most secure way to do this, but I don't know
> > why sound would necessarly be a security issue (anyone out there pipe in
> > if you have an opinion on this)...
> >
> > chmod 666 /dev/dsp*
> > chmod 666 /dev/audio*
> > chmod 666 /dev/mixer*
> >
> > also, for convenience of playing audio cds
> > chmod 666 /dev/cdrom* (this one is probably a bad idea if you ever intend
> > to have priate files on a cdrom).
> >
> >
> > The other method for dealing with giving sound to users was only
> > slightly more involved and I believe it had to do with creating a group
> > that had ownership to these devices and adding appropriate users to this
> > group.
> >
> > Dave
> >
> > On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Rusty Minden wrote:
> > > I have compiled the trident module and as root it works sound is fine,
> > > but as a user it will not work. It has to be a permission thing or
> > > perhaps a group membership, but I am not sure.
> > >
> > > ALi Sound Card (tridentt.o module)
> > > I noticed that the /dev/aidio has owner root and group audio should I add
> > > myself to the group?
> > >
> > > Rusty
> > > ___
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[vox-tech] ATA 100

[David Margolis]

I've been using hdparm call for some time now: hdparm -X66 -d1 -u1 -m16
-c3 /dev/hda with no problems.  I originally go this from a really nicely
written oreillynet.com tutorial which can be found here:
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2000/06/29/hdparm.html

Anyway, my question is: what is the similar call appropriate to an ata100
drive?  I didn't look very hard, but I didn't find anything that answered
this question.  I wonder if the version of hdparm I'm running supports
ata100?  I'll have to look that up too.

To make it simple: what's the best way to maximize performance of an
ata100 drive hdparm, or otherwise?

Dave



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Re: [vox-tech] kernel questions (2.4.18)

[David Margolis]

This is just me answering my own question.  I compiled a 2.2.21 kernel and
it seemed to deal with the two problems I was having.


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Re: [vox-tech] Sound Trouble with trident module

[David Margolis]

Rusty,

I've read that this isn't the most secure way to do this, but I don't know
why sound would necessarly be a security issue (anyone out there pipe in
if you have an opinion on this)...

chmod 666 /dev/dsp*
chmod 666 /dev/audio*
chmod 666 /dev/mixer*

also, for convenience of playing audio cds
chmod 666 /dev/cdrom* (this one is probably a bad idea if you ever intend
to have priate files on a cdrom).


The other method for dealing with giving sound to users was only
slightly more involved and I believe it had to do with creating a group that had 
ownership to
these devices and adding appropriate users to this group.

Dave

On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Rusty Minden wrote:

> I have compiled the trident module and as root it works sound is fine, but as
> a user it will not work. It has to be a permission thing or perhaps a group
> membership, but I am not sure.
>
> ALi Sound Card (tridentt.o module)
> I noticed that the /dev/aidio has owner root and group audio should I add
> myself to the group?
>
> Rusty
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[vox-tech] kernel questions (2.4.18)

[David Margolis]

Hello everyone.  I have a funny issue.

When I go to mount a cdrom (either /dev/hdc, Philips CD-RW or /dev/hdd,
El Cheapo DVD), my system tries to
mount the cd for a momemt, and then locks up to the point that nothing
short of the reset button gets me out of the situation.  This all started
happening when I recently upgraded to 2.4.18.  When I reboot into 2.2.19,
no problem.  Are there any known issues with 2.4.18 that would cause this
kind of issue?  I doubt _can't mount a cdrom_ is what you'd normally
call a known issue, so I suspect it's an incompatibility with the IDE
chipset or something on the motherboard (all VIA).  I would use 2.2.19
indefinatley, but the newer NVidia drivers don't like that kernel for some
reason (which was never a problem with older versions of the NVidia
driver), so now I'm kind of stuck.

Is there a lower-numbered 2.4.x that is more reliable than 2.4.18?
Is now the time to start shopping around for 2.5.x (I'm not
a very bleeding edge kinda fella).

I also thought about compliling a 2.2.20, seeing how I've always been
happy and confortable with 2.2.x, but I want to try and take advantage of
USB Mass Storage, which I believe (correct me if I'm wrong), is what I
need to get the pics off my new digital camera (a USB-interfaced Kodak,
which is supposedly supported).  Don't I need a 2.4.x for that?

Also, on an unrelated note, 2.4.18 pics up my soundcard differently.  It
finds it as an es1371, which it is, but calls it something differnt, a
Tritech TR28023, and the sound is a slight bit pingier.

I realize this is a lot, so help if you can.  I'm mostly concerned about
the cdrom issue, USB stuff and sound can come later.

Here's a relevant breakdown of the hardware involved:

Important stuff:
Celeron 1 ghz
Shuttle AV18E VIA VT82c694t/VT82C686B
DMA 100 ...

Less important stuff:
320 MB PC100 SDRAM
G-Force2 MX 400
SB 16 (es1371)

All of this is run by a fairly modified install of Slackware 8.0
which has been running fine for some time...

Thanks in advance for your input,
Dave Margolis

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Re: [vox-tech] robots and mindstorm

[David Margolis]

tell me more about sacrobotics.  URL?


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Re: [vox-tech] robots and mindstorm

[David Margolis]

I own and have read O'Reilly's Unofficial Guide to Lego Mindstorms.  I
haven't forked over the $200 bucks to get the kit yet, but I saw this book
on sale for $17 at borders and it looked so neat that I took it home.
Well I read the whole book in two sittings because it was SO DAMN
INTERESTING.  The book is very good, and covers Not Quite C along with a
way to program in (gasp) Visual Basic.


So here are my reasons for not plunging in.  1. Time 2.
Money 3. I don't know how I can hide such fun toy stuff from my 3-year-old
in our little house.

But I'm ready when you guys are.  I think we should have a meeting about
this topic.

The only Linux downside is I don't know the status of whether or not the
little infrared beamer (which zaps your code, firmware, or whatever else)
to the lego _brain_ (RCX).  This infrared device connects to the serial
port, so it shouldn't be impossible to get working.  I don't remember if
I've read any linux success stories or not.

I think it's amazing that this post went out because I was basically on my
way to buy the set.

Who on this list is working with this stuff?

One of the things I want to work with is the audio component.  You can
program it's little 8-bit sound engine with some cryptic sound language
that looks kinda like cell phone ring programmable gibberish.  I think it
would be fun to have it play little songs while it did whatever it was
doing that you told it to do.

Dave



On Tue, 25 Jun 2002, Matthew Holland wrote:

> Pete,
>
> No firsthand experience, but I can tell you that your assumption is
> correct.  There is a language called Not Quite C by a guy named Dave
> Baum .  This guy has published a
> couple of books on Mindstorms, though I don't know if they're any good.
> I also have a book that you may have heard of -- Robot Builder's
> Bonanza, 2. ed, Gordon McComb -- which has a couple of of chapters on
> Mindstorms, including a cursory treatment of NQC.  The book is pretty
> hokey in places, but it has some useful info.  You'd be welcome to take
> a look at it if you'd like.
>
> Matt
>
> On Tuesday, June 25, 2002, at 08:01 PM, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
>
> > does anyone here play with lego mindstorm?
> >
> > let me rephrase that -- does anyone here play with lego mindstorm *under
> > linux*?  i assume there are open source tools to download the firmware
> > and program the RCX.   i'd like to chat about your experiences.
> >
> > pete
> >
> > --
> > GPG Fingerprint: B9F1 6CF3 47C4 7CD8 D33E  70A9 A3B9 1945 67EA 951D
> >
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Re: [vox-tech] Woody NVIDIA X Setup

[David Margolis]

On my nvidia tnt2 m64, I had to install nvidia's drivers even for proper
2d.  I got really sketchy misalligned windows and flakey graphics with the
normal xfree nv driver.  Installing those drivers is mighty easy, and it's
also the easiest time I've had getting gl working (which is an ugly affair
with mesa and glx).

On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, ME wrote:

> On Mon, 10 Jun 2002, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > BEGIN rUSty Minden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > I have not been able too get either working. I have tried to use xf86config
> > > and xf86cfg. I have always had trouble with X and this was supposed too be a
> > > learning experience for me (and it has, but it is getting a bit frustrating).
> > > I have figured out that I had to change /etc/apt/sources.list over to woody
> > > to get updates and load packages. That really threw me for a loop, but no
> >
> > updates and load packages only for woody.
> >
> > > luck yet with X. I was thinking about getting my settings from SuSE and
> > > trying them, but have not yet.
> >
> > i can't see why that wouldn't work.  the only possible flaw i can think
> > of is in the font paths.   that should be standardized, even across
> > operating systems...
> >
> > give it a try.
> >
> > also, post any errors or warnings from your X log.
>
> (Agree: logs from the x server make guessing possible problems easier as
> would copies of your XF86Config file(s))
>
> To get mine working with X v4.x, I was bad and went with the nvidia
> drivers/modules to be loaded with X so that I could get wolfenstein to
> play. I think it was the TNT2 32, but cant be sure right now.)
>
> The files I found were:
> NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-1541.tar.gz
> NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-1541.tar.gz
>
> If I recall, non accellerated 2d support worked fine without these, I just
> needed them for the 3d accellerated stuff and GLX support for wolf.
>
> -ME
>
> -BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-
> Version: 3.12
> GCS/CM$/IT$/LS$/S/O$ !d--(++) !s !a+++(-) C++$() U$(+$) P+$>+++
> L+++$(++) E W+++$(+) N+ o K w+$>++>+++ O-@ M+$ V-$>- !PS !PE Y+ !PGP
> t@-(++) 5+@ X@ R- tv- b++ DI+++ D+ G--@ e+>++> h(++)>+ r*>? z?
> --END GEEK CODE BLOCK--
> decode: http://www.ebb.org/ungeek/ about: http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html
>
>
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Re: [vox-tech] [web-dev] Setting website icons?

[David Margolis]

The lugod.org tux graphic worked for me in IE 6 for win98,  along with
Mozilla 1.0 under linux.

I'm gonna go make some for myself.  Just to add to the discussion, I just
got irfanview (recommended in the article someone else here mentioned)
running under win4lin).  It converts gifs to icos.

d.

On Mon, 10 Jun 2002, Matt Holland wrote:

>  > Anyone happen to know if any other 'favicon.ico'-supporting browsers
>  > have problems?  (Does Moz support icons?)
>
> Mozilla does support icons (works with redhat.com, newegg.com, and
> others), but I don't see them on lugod.org, billsgames.com, or
> newbreedsoftware.com.  I'm using a debug-free version of Mozilla 1.0_rc1
> under Linux, so it's possible that the official release of 1.0 behaves
> differently.
>
> Matt
>
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Re: [vox-tech] [web-dev] Setting website icons?

[David Margolis]

There is a utiltiy called icon editor in kde.  I know it makes .xpms;
maybe it makes .icos too.  I'll play with that when i get home.

Thanks,
Dave

On Mon, 10 Jun 2002, nbs wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 10, 2002 at 12:26:35PM -0700, David Margolis wrote:
> >
> > so what tools can be used to create this ico?  can you just create a 16x16
> > gif and convert it with something?
>
> Like I said, it's been a while.  I believe KDE comes with an editor or
> converter or something.
>
> I also think there's a NetPBM-style tool available, too, so you can
> do something like:
>
>   giftopnm icon.gif | _something_ > favicon.ico
>
>
> I forget what the "_something_" part is. ;)
>
>
> I can check when I get home, if you'd like.  I'm fairly sure I've got
> that stuff installed there.  (Debian/Woody w/ KDE)
>
>
> -bill!
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Re: [vox-tech] [web-dev] Setting website icons?

[David Margolis]

so what tools can be used to create this ico?  can you just create a 16x16
gif and convert it with something?

dave

> On Mon, Jun 10, 2002 at 11:34:45AM -0700, Mark K. Ki>
> You need to throw a "favicon.ico" file in the root of your domain.
> (You CAN override/change it via HTML for particular files... I don't know
> the syntax offhand.)
>
> A .ico is, of course, a MICROS~1 WINDOWS icon file.  Getting one that
> works just right can be a little tricky.  I use some NetPBM tool or
> something to tweak mine.  (It's been a while.  BillsGames.com, LUGOD.org
> and NewBreedSoftware.com all have their own icons.  The latter two are
> ones I whipped up in The GIMP and then converted.)
>
> Konqueror supports icons, too.  It's actually kind of a nice feature.
> Gives extra feedback when browsing a list of URLs in history/pulldowns/etc.,
> as well as when looking at your taskbar.  (The program with the "/." icon
> is Konqueror visiting some page on Slashdot.  The one with the penguin is
> a LUGOD.org page.  And so forth)
>
>
> -bill!
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Re: [vox-tech] php security (was: another php question)

[David Margolis]

I don't understand these security concerns.  The apache user (www, or
apache, or whoever he is) should be in a group that can't look in any
system sensitive files ...

Am I being naive?  Let me know.
Thanks,

Dave

On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> begin Matt Roper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > On Thu, Jun 06, 2002 at 11:04:19AM -0700, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > ...
> > > is there a way to pass a variable to a php3 href so i can have one file
> > > that does a reading, but with an argument of which data file to read?
> > > something like:
> > >
> > >
> > >Click on your favorite car:
> > >
> > >mustang
> > >beetle
> > >...
> > >
> > >
> > > can i do this sort of thing with php3?
> >
> > I think what you want is
> >
> > 
> > mustang
> > beetle
> > ...
> > 
> >
> > After doing this, your display_stats page can read the argument from
> > $arg.  Note that you still need to do some checking to make sure people
> > don't craft a url like "display_stats.php3?arg=/etc/shadow" -- this can
> > be a security hole if you use the filename directly without checking it
> > first.
>
> that's really cool -- i didn't know you could do this sort of thing.
> it's ... "cgi-like".
>
> your warning sends chills up my spine, though.
>
> i'd check which files are allowed to open, rather than which files are NOT
> allowed to open (too many files to protect).  something like:
>
>if ($arg != "beetle.dat" && $arg != "mustang.dat" && ... ) {
>   system("mail -s "funny business on the php page" [EMAIL PROTECTED]");
>   blah blah blah
>}
>
> btw, what should "blah blah blah" be?   just an empty return statement?
> would that be secure?
>
> if someone tries something evil, i'd like to be sent email notification.
> maybe even blacklist the ip address that was doing the monkey business.
> anyway
>
> it never occured to me to check for this.  the prospect of someone
> forging an url and gaining access to something like /etc/shadow is
> frightening!
>
> actually -- even better -- is there a directive to tell php "you're only
> allowed to open files in /www/p/Adventuring" or something like that?
>
> pete
>
> ps- thanks for the warning.  i never would've thought of this!
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Re: [vox-tech] another php question

[David Margolis]

Peter,
I don't know about php3 vs php4, but it should be the same.  You just do
this.

mustang
camero

then, in the display.php page, you simply parse this guy.

$filename = "$carname.dat"; (is interpolation supported by php3???)
or
$filename = $camero . ".dat"; (concantination is supported)


then

 fopen("$file", 'r+') or die("Couldn't open file!");  /*or whatever you
want to do with the filename */


Dave Margolis

On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> suppose i have a set of data files -- for example, "mustang.dat",
> "camaro.dat", "beetle.dat", "jeep.dat", etc.
>
> the data files are all in the same format:
>
>
>car name
>years of production
>dry weight
>blue book value
>
>
> and i have an html document:
>
>
>Click on your favorite car:
>
>mustang
>beetle
>...
>
>
> mustang.php3 and beetle.php3 are basically the same thing.  they simply
> read a file and display its contents, formatted in html.
>
> is there a way to pass a variable to a php3 href so i can have one file
> that does a reading, but with an argument of which data file to read?
> something like:
>
>
>Click on your favorite car:
>
>mustang
>beetle
>...
>
>
> can i do this sort of thing with php3?
>
> pete
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Re: [vox-tech] php question - strict variable declarations?

[David Margolis]

Peter,

Check this out:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.error-reporting.php

You can call this function, error_reporting(args); at the top of your page
with any of the various described constants as arguments.
By tweaking the level of error reporting manually, you may be able to
acheive the desired effect.  If this is your server and your running your own 
implementation of php, you
might also be able to adjust php.ini to reflect some of this behavior as
well.

from php manual:
// Reporting E_NOTICE can be good too (to report uninitialized
// variables or catch variable name misspellings)
error_reporting (E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE | E_NOTICE);

Dave Margolis


On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> php is a very forgiving language -- a bit too forgiving.
>
> is there a directive to generate an error if uninitialized variables are
> used?
>
> i know there's a concept of declaration for arrays:
>
>$array = array()
>
> is there a declaration for other data types?  if so, is there a way to
> have php force declarations of variables?
>
> i guess i'm looking for an equivalent to perl's "use strict" or
> fortran's "implicit none".
>
> pete
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Re: [vox-tech] book recommendation: php

[David Margolis]

I second Rod's opinion.  Of the two PHP books I've tried (Professional
PHP by Wrox and the PHP Blackbook) I've found the content to jump from
basic programming to not-very-helpful-yet-complecated examples.  I started
mostly with the manual, and I still use it every day.  The only downside
of the manual is that if you don't know it exists, you don't know to go
looking for it, and you might find it easier in a good "in a nutshell"
style book ...

Here's an example.  I spent way more time than I needed to writing a
string parsing routine that stipped ascii returns and replaced them with
 ("\n" to "").  After struggling with it not quite doing what I
wanted, I found that php has a function that does just that.

So it all depends on how you work/search.

Dave


On Tue, 4 Jun 2002, Rod Roark wrote:

> I've always just used their on-line manual.  It's very good.
>
>   http://www.php.net/manual/en/
>
> -- Rod
>http://www.sunsetsystems.com/
>
> On Tuesday 04 June 2002 08:49 am, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > if i were to have just *one* book on php, what would people recommend?
> >
> > i'd prefer to have a book that assumes i know what a if/else do/while
> > constructs are.   i know what arrays and strings are; i just want to
> > know how to do them with php.   :)
> >
> > so maybe a good reference book.   i've found o'reilly's html book to be
> > precisely what i'm looking for (for html).
> >
> > any recommendations for php?
> >
> > pete
>
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Re: [vox-tech] External IDE Drive Converter

[David Margolis]

yeah, i pretty much agree with your opinion of usb.  i've had stupid
problems with usb devices on the os it's supposed to work on.

i did however, get my usb gamepad working, and i've never had any luck with a
regular gamepad (sound card/midi connector).  so it was fun to
steer around in heretic 2 using a usb device all under linux, but i've
wasted countless hours messing with a webcam that only sort of works.

i'd just love a way to make use of either my extra hd or my extra cd-rw in
a portable way (the interface doesn't concern me).  so i'll play around
and report back if i get anything working.

dave

On Sat, 1 Jun 2002, Micah Cowan wrote:
>
> I've been less than impressed with the current state of the USB stuff
> - it's gotten very good, but it's still got a few too many bugs for me
> to get comfortable with it. It is actively progressing, so it's
> entirely possible that the chief problems I'm aware of have been fixed
> in the last month and a half...
>
> My most recent experience with it was in using a USB Mass
> Storage Device camera.  I could mount it and transfer files from it,
> but there was some frequently occuring situation which the drivers
> handled incorrectly, resulting in a permanently zombied, unkillable
> kernel thread. I couldn't close even close the xterm running the
> program which was reading from that mount point. And all further
> attempts to access the device would fail.
>
> -Micah
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[vox-tech] External IDE Drive Converter

[David Margolis]

Has anybody had any success using a USB or parallel IDE drive converter.
I've got both an extra hard drive and an extra 4x2x24 CD-RW I'd love to
do something creative and portable with.  One or both
of those would go nicely in one of several available external drive kits.

So I guess this is a few questions.  Has anyone pulled off using an
external USB drive kit?  If not, what's a good parallel one?  Has anyone
pulled off burning CDs in a converted IDE CD-RW (USB or parallel)?

Thanks,
Dave M.


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Re: [vox-tech] Broken K-Mail-Kongueror Connection

[David Margolis]

Rob,

Try this.  I don't know what version of KDE you're using.  I'm using KDE
2.1.2, so this might be a little different.

Go into the KDE Control Center.
Under File Browsing, choose File Associations.  In there you'll find
groupings of file types.  One is text.  Under text is the html file type.
You may be able to do something here.  The default should be Konquerer
(or Netscape or Opera or whatever).  I didn't see a File type for type URL
in here which is what you're looking for more than html, but give it a
whirl.

I've looked all around for settings in both Konq. and KMail.  You might
try backing up .kderc by renaming it, and seeing if it generates a new
clean one (but looking in that file, I don't see anything relevant.  But
there has go to be something along those lines.

Dave Margolis

On Thu, 30 May 2002, Robert G. Scofield wrote:

> In my personal account on my system the connection between K-Mail and
> Konqueror is broken.  Here's what I mean.  If I receive an email with a URL
> in the body of it I can no longer click on the URL and bring up Konqueror.
>
> However, the connection is not broken in my business account.  There I can
> still click on URL's in the body of an email and bring Kongueror up.
>
> Is there a simple way to fix this problem?
>
> I suppose I could open up a new personal account, move all of the files in my
> personal account to the new personal account and then delete the old personal
> account.  But I was wondering if there was an easier solution.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Bob
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