Linux Owners Group In Newcastle

James McDonald: Encryption Overhead – Sometimes Good Ol’ FTP is the Answer

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:54:54 +0000

I just started copying some files from a Windows XP Pro VMWare VM to a Redhat 3.1 Server VM hosted on their own private network on a VMWare ESXi 4.x server. Using WinSCP from the XP Pro Client with SSH as the transfer protocol I was seeing ~5,000KB/s. So I stopped the transfer and selected [...]

David M. Williams: Set up your own Linux LAMP server painlessly as a Windows virtual machine

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:07:04 +0000

iTWire: Even the most Microsoft-ardent developer will know web hosts favour Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP over Windows, IIS, ASP.NET and SQL Server. Thanks to virtualisation the days of dual booting are over. Here is how to set up a streamlined LAMP development environment on any Windows PC.

Craig Voysey: Posting from HTC Desire!

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:23:28 +0000

Test post from WordPress app on HTC Desire…

Craig Voysey: Xperia X10 and HTC Desire

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:59:39 +0000

So my contract with Optus was over.. I went and re-contracted with them and got myself a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Great phone and awesome 4″ screen, but the battery life is terrible, and I had to charge mine atleast 2 times a day to get a full day out of it. After a few weeks of this, and terrible Optus coverage and endless problems – after many many phone calls and hair pulling I got out of my contract and went to Telstra and got the HTC Desire… They are awesome phones, I am still trying to work out some of the cooler parts of Android – and hanging out for the 2.2 Froyo update – but I am enjoying having the Android phone over having my old iPhone 3G..

Maybe when I get time I will upload a few reviews of apps etc.. but we shall see how we go!

James McDonald: Roof Restoration

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:18:08 +0000

Our humble timber cottage has an old tin roof. We can’t afford to get it replaced at the moment but have gotten it pressure washed and painted in Shale Grey Colour. So now we are waiting for Google Maps to update it’s satellite imaging to pick up the change.

James McDonald: Back to Ubuntu 10.04

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:19:34 +0000

I have for several months been giving Fedora 13 a go as my primary OS. Fedora is what it is— A beta release for a product that will be rebadged and released when it’s finished. As a distribution it’s not really playing in the same league as Ubuntu. The polish and completeness come when it [...]

David M. Williams: Linux wall warts – small on size, big on possibilities!

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:58:35 +0000

iTWire: Every geek and technology lover will undoubtedly have stumbled across online adverts for tiny headless Linux-powered devices that are barely larger than the power point they plug into. What can you actually do with them? Plenty, it seems!

SlashDotted! Yeah!

James McDonald: Bluefish for Windows

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:16:05 +0000

Attempting to install Bluefish on Windows XP Pro SP3 I went here http://code.google.com/p/bluefish-win/ Which sent me to here http://sourceforge.net/projects/bluefish/files/ Which gave me a download link here http://sourceforge.net/projects/bluefish/files/bluefish/2.0.0/Bluefish-2.0.0-1-setup.exe/download So far so good… Ran Bluefish-2.0.0-1-setup.exe Which did the following: Bluefish v2.0.0-1 Setup Downloading gtk-runtime-2.14.7-rev.a.exe Connecting… GTK+ Download failed: download incomplete http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/project/pidgin/GTK%2B%… It appears internap.dl.sourceforge.net is inaccessible at [...]

James McDonald: Separate Websites should be run under separate User Accounts

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:14:39 +0000

If you have an account with a webhost which allows you to run multiple domains (or even `unlimited’ domains ala Dreamhost). You may be tempted to run multiple websites under the default account that is provided by the hosting company. But while convenient, this has a pretty major security pitfall. For example with my webhost [...]

James McDonald: jQuery .find() on a namespaced XML node fails on Google Chrome

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:23:26 +0000

Ran into a problem with a jQuery AJAX script that parses returned XML. It wouldn’t work on Google Chrome when looking for a namespaced xml node using jQuery.find(). Apparently this (xml namespaces) can cause jQuery some minor heartburn but it’s not a show stopper. A namespaced nodename in XML has a name space prefix a [...]

LOGIN Wiki Changelog: meetings_old

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 03:58:57 +0000

you can find slides and other material used at this site. ---------- 2010 21st June 2010 7:30pm Software Freedom Day Planning Tonight we'll be discussing our plans for Software Freedom Day activities 19th April 2010 7:30pm

LOGIN Wiki Changelog: home

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 03:58:39 +0000

Welcome to LOGIN, the Linux Owners Group in Newcastle. We are a LUG for people in the Newcastle and Hunter region of NSW Australia. The main focus of the group is Linux and FOSS. Meetings and Events Next Meeting 17th August 2010 7:30pm General question/answer, discussion night.

James McDonald: Fanboy Post Alert – Why can I run a secure modern operating system on a P4?

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:39:15 +0000

My home computer is a P4. P4′s are like 6+ years old. However it’s still suitable for what I use it for. In fact it’s performance has been improving of late. Why? Linux is maturing and the people who are designing the entire GNU/Linux eco-system are optimizing. Here are some recent improvements: Openoffice starts in [...]

James McDonald: Dia – Joining Lines where they Cross over Each Other

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:50:01 +0000

Dia is a great Open Source diagramming program that has extensive `shape’ libraries for a lot of different applications (I use it for drawing network diagrams and flow-charts). When using Dia one of the questions that arises fairly regularly is: Is it possible to create a node at line crossing points? or at arbitrary position [...]

James McDonald: XML POST Proxy Script using PHP and libcurl

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:58:08 +0000

This is the simplest answer I could find for a client needing to POST an XML SOAP message to a server in another domain. Not sure on the security because the POST isn’t validated so it just passes on whatever the client sends. libcurl has a lot of options <?php # # // [...]

James McDonald: jQuery – It begins

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:01:00 +0000

So most day’s I’m an infrastructure and apps guy. Which means a bit of: Cisco Windows ERP And a heap of general IT So then comes a long a project which requires coding… And because my ERP spits out and receives XML and Internet browsers are very friendly with the stuff. I have to learn [...]

James McDonald: Resolve Relative to Absolute Paths with readlink

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:06:10 +0000

Just wanted to resolve a relative file path so that I can pass it as an absolute path to a program. #!/bin/sh # script name: qcad ABS_PATH=$(readlink -f $1) cd /home/myuser/programs/qcad/qcad-2.2.2.0-1-prof.linux.x86 && ./qcad $ABS_PATH Credits: Andy

Gabriel Noronha: Brother HL-2142

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:23:37 +0000

Just purchased a B&W Brother HL-2142 Laser,

Ubuntu compatibility is plug in wait and print work out the box. (10.04)

$99 from office works.

Only fault does not come with a USB cable !

James McDonald: Cisco 877 Continual Reload

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:04:25 +0000

I used Cisco’s SDM to configure the stateful firewall component on a Cisco 877 but I let it add all the automatic Instant Messenger rules. That’s when things started going wrong. The Cisco crashed and reloaded… probably 10 times a day. Deleting the IM stateful inspection rules fixed the continual reload problem. The crashinfo file [...]

Craig Ross: Lame but mildly successful hacking attempt on my ubuntu 10.4

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:29:28 +0000

Ive seen this attack occur on a windows xp machine running realvnc a number of years ago but this time it hit my ubuntu 10.4 machine.

I am currently working away from an internet connection so i am using my phone tethered with my computer to get online (see my last post). This configuration gives my laptop my public IP address ( ie no network address translation).

I was sitting at my machine just about to start programming and all of a sudden my mouse starts moving.

I looked at the gnome to panel just as it flashed the “your computer is being remotely controlled” message from the VNC server vino built into ubuntu.

The remote connection then typed the following message as if it was trying to run that command.

You can see the command now in line 8 of my program. Windows users will recognize this as an attempt to open the windows command line.

The remote connection terminated a second later and the attack was over.

I then opened my remote desktop preferences to check whether or not I had turned it on

It doesn’t appear that anyone should have had access as the service was not really activated.

If you look closely you will see however that even though the options are greyed out the box for “allow others users to control…” was ticked and all the security boxes were unticked. I cannot remember what settings i had before the attack and its possible that as part of the attack the settings were changed but as all it tried to do was run a windows command (as far a i could see) i can only assume that the attack was probably not written to attack gnome.

All in all made for a good laugh seeing a windows attack play out on a linux machine. I just hope nothing else happened that i didnt see.

Edit: I had a bit of a flip through my system logs and it looks all clean.

James McDonald: Shock! Horror! Shock! No wait I said that already – Youtube Unavailable

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:11:22 +0000

OK so it happens so rarely that I had to post about it. On Wed 14 Jul 2010 06:38:24 PM AEST I got this when attempting to put on some tunes to shower by:

James McDonald: Cisco Network Topology Icons

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:11:24 +0000

If you use Dia or another open source diagramming package you may need some network infrastructure icons. Cisco publishes some here http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac50/ac47/2.html Note: Dia already includes most of these which were converted several years ago when the licensing was favourable but the recent licensing doesn’t appear (IANAL) to allow Dia to package them now.

James McDonald: Circular Reboot due to Harddisk Removal

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:12:57 +0000

Until yesterday I had two hard drives in my Fedora 13 box. Hard disk 1 – /dev/sda was a 200GB Western Digital and hard disk 2 – /dev/sdb is a 500GB Samsung containing my Fedora 13 installation. The Western Digital, after many years of faithful service has died, and so I removed it because it [...]

James McDonald: Remember the Name

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:00:35 +0000

This post is another one of my memory jogger posts. After posting this I stumbled upon, in the original sense, not the http://www.stumbleupon.com/ sense. A link to http://www.site5.com/hosting/ which seems to have a better approach to hosting than some other hosting companies in that it has normal cheap as chips shared hosting, but also some [...]

James McDonald: It’s not You! It’s Me!

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 01:12:21 +0000

This is a handy site if you want to check if a web site you can’t access is unavailable to just you or to everyone else as well. Just append the URL to the end of http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ e.g. http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/en.wikipedia.org

James McDonald: Renovations

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 08:12:15 +0000

A blog post from the Android Phone. We are nearing completion. Just have to install Stainless Steel Wire Balustrading from All Things Stainless (incidentally they use Joomla and VirtueMart so nice to see a bit of open source being used in a nuts and bolts style of business). And fitout the laundry and then paint… [...]

James McDonald: Google Android HTC Desire Phone

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 07:54:26 +0000

I’m posting this from an Android based phone. Very featureful. A little difficult for my big fingers to type with, but I’m getting better with practice. Battery life is about a day if you use the apps on the phone and keep the phone screen running. Overall I love being able to access the web [...]

James McDonald: What sort of Webhosting should I use? An Introduction to the Options.

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:57:41 +0000

You can’t have a website without a web host. It’s like having a house without having any land to build it on. Until you get that virtual real estate, all you have is a design and a plan. Before you go shopping for a web host, you should be aware that there are different kinds [...]

James McDonald: Youtube – Tutorials

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:21:33 +0000

Besides wasting copious amounts of time, which could be better spent communicating with your family. YouTube can also be a fantastic training resource. Tor example despite me being red/green colour blind I still occassionally want to edit images and the Open Source Tool to do that with is the GIMP. So doing a search on [...]

Craig Ross: Tether your Sony Ericsson Aino or U10i on Linux / Ubuntu

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:32:15 +0000

My carrer is Optus in Australia and i’m using Ubuntu 10.4 and i want to be able to connect to the internet via my sony ericsson aino also known as the U10i

Heres the quick how to.

Plug in your phone with the usb cableIt will then try to connect to your computer and look for the windows software (this default can be changed)

Click cancel on the phone and then choose the linux option

Now on your ubuntu desktop click the network manager icon in the system tray

Now disconnect from the USB wired network this appears to take priority over the 3G connection so the easiest way to get around it is to disconnect from the wired PC-Phone network.

Now Right click the network manager icon

and choose edit connections

Select the Mobile Broadband tab and edit the connection

The phone number shown is generally accepted as common for most carriers but the APN will come from your phone.

On your phone go to Settings–> Connectivity –> Internet Settings

It should look something like this

from here the APN is “internet” as that is what is written under the Connect using heading.

Now click Ok to all the open windows and click on the network manager icon again and now select “Optus” or the name of your carrier and you will be connected

James McDonald: Turning off the smbclient mget prompt

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:42:50 +0000

Problem: Just tried to use mget to get all the files in a remote directory and it prompted me to accept each file with a y/n. This is because by default smbclient prompts to accept each file when using the mget command. smb: \> cd PDFs smb: \PDFs\> mget * Get file 20100615135815.pdf? # to [...]

Craig Ross: How to use an Xbox1 controller on your PC

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:24:10 +0000

I wanted to be able to use my old Xbox1 controller to play racing games on my pc.

I found here http://fury-tech.com/en/Guides/Xbox-Controller-Pc-Conversion-Mod/

Some basic instructions but i did not want to cut up my controller cable but I had an old bricked Xbox in the cupboard that i could pull the ports out of and cut them instead.

Xbox socket out of the bricked Xbox

Cut the end of the USB cable

Usb cable with the unneeded end cut off

Line up the colours (the extra yellow from the Xbox socket is not required

USB cable and the Xbox socket ready for solder

Solder and heatshrink

Post solder and heatshrink

Final product

Result of “lsusb” command on Ubuntu

Command line showing success under Ubuntu 10.4

I’m still trying to sort out the driver situation for windows 7 64bit and windows vista 32bit.

I will update this post when i have more info but just two links for now…

http://kmdriver.com/

and

http://www.redcl0ud.com/xbcd.html#download

James McDonald: Using Google Maps to Roughly Determine Your Distance from the Local Telephone Exchange

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:32:40 +0000

ADSL performance is predicated on a number of factors. Of primary importance to the potential speed of ADSL is the distance of your house from your local Telephone Exchange. Using Google maps you can roughly calculate your distance from the exchange: You need to know your home address. If you don’t know your address seek [...]

James McDonald: The Linux `at’ command

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:15:21 +0000

Cron does repeating jobs at runs one off jobs. So can be handy You need the `at’ package yum install at The at daemon must be running ps -ef | grep atd root 2496 1 0 Mar18 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/atd If not. Use chkconfig (redhatian) or update-rc.d (debian) to set it to start automatically [...]

James McDonald: Apple.com Trailers for Linux

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:14:41 +0000

Just installed Fedora 13 and was getting a “Get QuickTime” prompt when trying to view trailers at www.apple.com/trailers: Apple.com/trailers Get QuickTime Popup The Fix: yum install gecko-mediaplayer mozilla-vlc Caveats: Works with Firefox. Google Chrome, although it looks at /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins doesn’t pickup and use the Gecko MPlayer plugins for some reason. Update: Google Chrome (version 5.0.375.55) [...]

James McDonald: Facebook – The data persistence specialists

Mon, 31 May 2010 10:57:42 +0000

So tonight my better, no I mean much better half, goes to log into facebook and it prompts her to register her computer. Huh? Seeing as you can pretty much individually identify a computer simply by examining the default information that the browser passes over when you connect. I would say this wonderful new feature [...]

James McDonald: F13 Installer – Oh what a wonderful mess

Sun, 30 May 2010 12:06:58 +0000

So Ubuntu 10.04 is a thing of beauty and typically I use it above other distributions…. However my spiritual Linux home is Redhat/Fedora I started out with it and even bought the Sybex RHCE book. I even think that the Redhat style of system-config-blah provides a better way of admining a box than the Debian [...]

James McDonald: Backup Linux to a Windows Box

Fri, 28 May 2010 07:09:22 +0000

Been having a look on the web for options that allow backing up a Linux box to a Windows box without first having to create a massive file on the Linux box. Found a good FTP option at http://www.squidoo.com/linux_backup namely under point 4: # login ftp TheFTPServersIPAddressHere # set the transfer mode to binary [...]

James McDonald: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process

Fri, 28 May 2010 06:55:22 +0000

Annoying problem “The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process” trying to delete a directory. Didn’t want to reboot because I was running a VMWare VM at the time and well real operating systems don’t make you reboot every time something untoward happens. Tried filemon from sysinternals.com and couldn’t [...]

James McDonald: Windows 7zip Fails to Extract a Tar Archive created on Linux

Fri, 28 May 2010 05:33:13 +0000

Just had an error in Windows 7-Zip 4.6.5 trying to extract a Linux tar archive. A reasonably large tar archive of 3.76 GB. Got this error: Can not open file C:\path\to\tarfile.tar as archive So fell back to using Cygwin Using tar -tf archive.tar allowed me to list the contents of the archive just fine. But [...]