Visual reps of encryption codes can be...

...unusual.

$ ssh -Cp2222 $HOSTNAME
Host key fingerprint is 77:56:7a:9c:d5:7e:9f:e0:79:74:2d:18:ce:0f:0f:c2
+--[ RSA 2048]----+
|                 |
|                .|
|            . . o|
|         . o * +.|
|        S E X.=.=|
|         . +.*+.=|
|             ooo.|
|              .  |
|                 |
+-----------------+

user@$HOSTNAME's password:

DeVeDe on Perfect Pangolin

This currently seems a little confused about the version numbering of the libblah-extra-number packages, so...

apt-get --ignore-hold install devede libavcodec-extra-53 libavdevice-extra-53 libavfilter-extra-2 libavutil-extra-51 libavformat-extra-53 libpostproc-extra-52 libswscale-extra-2
apt-get download libav-tools
apt-get download ffmpeg
apt-get download devede
dpkg -i --force-depends-version libav-tools_0.8-1ubuntu1_i386.deb
dpkg -i --force-depends-version ffmpeg_0.8-1ubuntu1_all.deb
dpkg -i --force-depends-version devede_3.21.0-0ubuntu2_all.deb

Software nesting

I’m currently amidst solving problems with a PERL script designed to send PDF-containing emails as faxes. Apparently, the command it invokes uses pdftk (which is a C wrapper around a Java library named iText) to translate each PDF into an image (or images) to send.

Pre-processing the PDFs with figjam, another set of PERL scripts working through LaTeX, reduced the damage in that the PDFs are correctly oriented so that pdftk only elides a little over a cm about ¹/₃ of the way along each page. Up to that point, most of the page would be blank.

The simplest way to send flawless PDFs seems to be disassembling the email into PDF components, then butcheing the PERL script to use ImageMagick’s convert command to turn each PDF into a set of TIFFs, then send those unaltered through HylaFax’s sendfax module (HylaFax is a set of C++ modules).

I really appreciate the “software Lego™”approach of Unix (in this case Linux), in that all of the pieces are included, so replacing one chunk or layer of your model isn’t the nightmare it so readily becomes on a monolithic proprietary system.

What do you do with it all?

Despite being a member of a group which reckons that the ideal situation is to own nothing yet to control everything, the financial adviser to a certain member of royalty is the second-wealthiest individual in the world.

Their personal nett worth is four hundred trillion (4E14) dollars.

If you spent that all on brass pins (as used in pin-up boards) at one pin for a dollar, the mass of your collection would roughly equal 2½ million of RMS Queen Mary 2, the world’s largest ocean liner.

You wouldn’t deposit that in a bank, you would buy several countries with it (banks included).

You (or I) cannot even comprehend that large a number, let alone how much money it represents, let alone spend it (if an average Australian citizen spent $150,000.00 every second, 24x7, from the instant they were born, they would not be able to spend it all in their lifetime).

Inequality?

Just a little... yet getting angry about it would be the very last thing you would do, as that would make you even easier for the top 0.000001% to control.

The best approach I’ve seen is reflected in the Tea Party protests: quiet, calm, legal (despite the morass of laws in place essentially to prevent just this) & almost painfully peaceful behaviour, yet totally non-compliant.

Problem? What problem?

Company acquires new PC from OfficeWorks for $388.00.

PC includes MS-Windows 7 Home Edition.

Company requires PC to use MS-Windows XP.

No problem. Push in Windows XP Black Edition CD, reboot PC, tell BIOS to boot from disc.

Installer bluescreens before asking any questions. Bummer!

Push in a Kubuntu Oneiric Ocelot DVD, reboot.

Fully functional PC five minutes later, set to auto log in.

Now select VirtualBox in the packages installer, & install. Start VirtualBox. Add an XP instance. Push in XP Black Edition CD, installer works flawlessly.

Add icon to desktop, including the option --fullscreen. Duplicate the windowsXPblack virtual disk file, mark the duplicate as read-only for the user.

From now on, user presses power button. Uses all facilities under Kubuntu. If they desperately need the MS-Windows XP feel, they double-click an icon, & 30 seconds later are facing XP. By tapping a LeftCtrl-S they can save a complete screenshot of whatever they're doing into the Kubuntu instance.

When XP guts itself (as it inevitably will one day), user copies backup disk image over primary disk image. Done.

Simple motivation, powerful solution

Jason Hall-Tipping describes the course of events which led from a Sudanese girl dying of thirst to the technology for solving many problems... I reckon that this is how engineering should more often be used...

Once again, we're showing that another "limit" isn't

The differences in this case are still relatively small, however once one realises that a conclusion is the enemy of learning, this event is a small symptom of mankind’s occasional willingness to deal with the reality that we really don’t know everything, in that we’re now ready to set aside the existing certainties in some places & return to discovering things afresh.

It ain’t actually progress by itself, what it represents is us as a race heading more in a constructive direction.

Just as you get to thinking...

...that everything worthwhile has been invented, a new way is discovered of producing constructive results when adult stem cells are deployed against 72 different diseases (so far).

Eddie doesn't miss many tricks, & seems to have hit on a brilliant way to improve your health... so... do what I'm doing — take a good, long, hard look at what has a 90-year-old bloke so interested in longevity.

OK, so this is technical in the non-IT sense...

I know Eddie, & he’s always very careful & very effective in what he chooses to become involved with...

This neat system will likely do much more than help you to discard excess mass!

There is more than one way to skin a printer

Issue: reinstalling MSWinXP on a workstation, driver to operate hp 1022n printer over the LAN required, staff don’t know if the printer arrived with a disc — & if it did, have no clue where it would be.

Remedy, download 2MB driver file (.EXE) from hp, run it. “Turn the device on & plug it into the USB socket.” Oops. [Cancel]

Consider downloading the 370MB full driver suite over a slowish ADSL link with limited quota. Hmmm.

Try adding a printer anyhow (after defining a TCP port on 192.168.42.25) in case a LaserJet II or the like is close enough to start with, discover that the EXE had installed a 1022 driver anyhow. Wow! It’d accidentally done something useful!

Tethering an AmaySIMmed phone on Linux

Tethering one’s Nokia E5 to take advantage of the 4GB of Internet traffic included in AmaySIM’s $39.90 plan (for 30 days) is quite simple, once all of the knowledge is in place.

Switch your phone to “PC Suite” mode...

Press [Menu]
Select [Ctrl. Panel]
Select [Settings]
Select [Connection]
Select [USB]
Select [PC Suite]
Select [OK]
Select [Back] until Menu closes

...at which point a serial device appears when you plug it into your PC (in this case, a laptop running Natty Narhal Kubuntu) at /dev/ttyACM0.

Now follow AmaySIM’s instructions:

Press [Menu]
Select [Ctrl. Panel]
Select [Settings]
Select [Connection]
Select [Destinations]
Select [Access point]
Press [No]
Select [Packet data]
Enter amaysim Internet and press [OK]
Select [Internet] as the destination
Select [Internet]
Highlight [Optus Internet], press [Options] and select [Edit]
Ensure Data bearer is set to [Packet Data]
Select [Access point name]
Enter or change to internet and press [OK]
User name and Password should be left blank [set to None]
Ensure Prompt password is set to [No]
Ensure Authentication is set to [Normal]
Ensure Use access point is set to [Automatically]
Press Options and select [Advanced settings]
Ensure Network type is set to [IPv4]
Ensure IP address is set to [Automatic]
Ensure DNS addresses is set to [Automatic]
Ensure Proxy server address is set to [None]
Ensure Proxy port number is [0]
Press [Back] until you return to the main menu
Select [Internet]
Select [Web]
Press [Options] and select [Settings]
Select [General]
Select [Access Point]
Select [Internet]
Press [Options] and select [Exit]

All well & good. Now (you will need to be SuperUser/root) make your /etc/wvdial.conf file look like this:

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Modem Type = USB Modem
Baud = 460800
New PPPD = yes
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = AT+cgdcont=1,"IP","internet"
Carrier Check = no
Dial Command = ATDT
Phone = *99#
Username = *
Password = *
Ask Password = 0
Auto Reconnect = yes
Stupid Mode = yes
ISDN = 0
Auto DNS = on
Check DNS = on
Check Def Route = on

Depending upon your Linux distribution, you may need to (as SuperUser) mark the pppd file as SUID. In my case, finding the executable file was done with which pppd & ensuring the setting with chmod u+s /usr/sbin/pppd.

You may need to make your user(s) members of the groups dialout & dip by (as SuperUser) editing the /etc/group file, then logging them out & back in.

As one of said users, type wvdial & press Enter. Ten seconds later, the world appears. The command “ping ii.net” is a simple way to verify that DNS & traffic are both afloat.

Problem:

download a stack of MP3 files listed in a web page.

Solution:

SaveAs the web page (as music.html) then...

for x in $(gawk '-F"' '/\.mp3"/ { print $10; }' music.html); do
wget -c $x
done

Hit the Enter key, wait about 3 minutes, all finished.

Yay! Software as a toy!

Unravelling layers of issues

We have two copies of an app, one running on SCO Unix, the modified version running on Linux.

The SCO version depends upon the num-pad sending «esc»OS, however putting PuTTY into NumPad mode means all of the numpad keys send «esc»whatever so are useless for keying numbers (yes, I could remap them, in the Linux version, however a few features have not yet been ported enough to swap versions yet), so...

Run PuTTY in numpad mode, download KeyTweak, remap the numpad keys to non-numpad keys, all functional!

Is time weighing heavily on your hands?

Visit YouTube & search for “vimanas” or “vailixi.”

Not only does mankind not even know what we don’t know... we seem to’ve corporately forgotten some of the stuff we once knew...

Digital playing blocks, a positive consequence

One required feature (limiting the width of table columns, requiring the use of CSS) was/is absent from htmldoc v1.8*, however CSS support will be present in 1.90 when it’s released, so... use SVN to download the source, compile... it almost does what’s needed.

A bit of debugging (of others’ code), a bit of editing, my name up in lights, & presently that digital plastic block will be precisely the correct shape for the job at hand — & still respect the HTML4 standards to the letter.

Having the code written (in part) by the people who will be using it works extremely well, as an individual (myself, in this case) can focus on one or a few small details to refine the result to perfectly fit their needs, however the overall designers, heavy-code implementers can stick to principles, get the big things correct, & not worry over-much about each tiny detail.