Orb Home
Site Map
Current Week
Orb Designs Grafitti
July 09 through July 15, 2001
Last Week <-- * --> Next Week
--> Link to the Current Week <--
Email Brian Bilbrey |
Orb Home
|
Orb Designs Grafitti
|
Email Brian Bilbrey |
Orb Grafitti is sometimes a conversation, sometimes a soapbox. I use Linux most often, and I write about that and related software frequently. I also have a day job working as a dogsbody for a small manufacturing firm here in the SF Bay Area. Tom Syroid and I have co-authored a Linux Book. It was cancelled by $LARGE_PUBLISHER, so we're posting it online, here and here. Have a looksee! I'm glad you've come to visit, and always happy to hear from you.
EMAIL - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so, I'll pay attention to your wishes.
Good morning Sorry, I am in a bit of a rush - I was up late again futzing about with Perl. Then I read for at least an hour before dropping off to sleep... Marcia not only gets to go through the same travails, but in a bed that isn't ours. We both suffer from Not Our Bed Syndrome (NOBS), but not me this time. She called from her Atlanta office a few minutes ago just to let me know she was there and settling in to work.
For those of you that worry about such things, no I am not suffering through interminable cans of chicken noodle soup, boxes of mac-cheese, or case lots of ramen noodles... I cook, remember? For last night it began this way: sauté 4 peeled and broken up medium spicy Italian sausage and 1/2 large yellow onion diced in 1 tbs of olive oil (Bertolli Gentile al Palato) until browned and translucent respectively. Add a jar of Barilla Tomato/Basil pasta sauce and a 16 oz. can of plain tomato sauce. Simmer. Boil 1 pound penne pasta to al denté, drain, coat with sauce and serve. Garnish with Cherry Tomato halves and julienned Sweet Basil leaves (both garden fresh), a bit of cracked black pepper and Parmesan grated over to taste. Yum. Lots of leftovers, too.
Now, I am running late, which really shouldn't matter much, and doesn't except for what it does to my commute, so I'd best be going. Y'all have a lovely day - I'll be back later with some garden snaps and a Linux tidbit or three. Take care!
18:07 - Well, considering that my eyes are crossed and it's only 18:00, I am doing really quite well. I spent a few hours soldering boards at the wave solder machine today, and still tired from low sleep. Haven't got a lot of Linux progress to point to either - things are just working for the moment, which I really like a lot. So here are some snapshots from recent days to tide you over...
|
|
|
|
And let's not forget, the book that Tom and I wrote about Linux is there, right there, ready and waiting for you. Hope you find it useful. Shout goes out to David Griffin. Thanks! I'll get around to the remaining appendices soon, really. Then I'll tackle understanding the tools to generate generic PDF files from each Chapter's data. One time at a thing. Now to make me some supper. Have a good evening.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Good morning. Last night I managed to post a couple of garden snaps from recent days, but that was about it. I'm tired and not feeling particularly chipper - I don't remember what I was working on last night, but I stopped at about 7:45. I then had supper, did the dishes, set coffee for this morning, turned on PBS and vegged out for a couple hours.
Oh, I remember what I was doing - I've cut the work list for first round conversion on The Linux Book that Tom and Brian Wrote down to just one item... I put up Appendix A last afternoon and evening. In it's own right, Appendix A is a pretty boring beast. It's about a page of introductory text, then an 80 page table of all the software packages that come with the non-commercial release of COL2.4, along with version, package group and description information.
What was fun about that material was the way I went about generating it for the first time, more than a year ago. Somewhere on the Caldera CDR, there is a directory with a collection of files that defines which packages are in each of the package selection catagories, from Minimal Install to All Packages, and several steps in between. I wrote a set of sed scripts, and a perl script or two, to take all that data, generate a batch of new files, then from those, generate a single HTML table of four columns which I could import into Word, slap the name Appendix A on it, and call it our own.
I refered to this activity at the time as our Rapidly Inflationary Page Count Epoch...<WAG> Voilá. However, this doesn't help me much now, as the Word to Text conversion hoses tables - an 80 page ex-table is a daunting sight. Of course, all those scripts are lost in the mists of time. I was considering returning to first principles and recreating them, when I stumbled across a file in an odd place, called outtable.html. Wouldn't you know - the original output of those scripts. Plunk that into the Appendix, park the intro text above it, and we've just had another RIPC Epoch.
Now, to work with me, for a short day. I may even take a nap this afternoon - I am seriously under-rested. Meantime, enjoy yourselves. See you later.
18:25 - Afternoon. How y'all doin'? Good, good. That nap? I skipped it, thanks. I realized that while I might actually sleep, that would make it ever so likely that I not get to sleep at any decent hour tonight. So instead I did some more explorations on Linux GUI word processors, in the name of research (and exploring for the remnants of Appendix C, which appears never to have been written, somehow (although it must have done), mmmm).
OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/) the Open Source inheritor of the StarOffice codebase, has a new release out... the cunningly named Build 632 (aka 632 Snapshot). I have just one word... Wow! There's a bunch of stuff to go over here, and several tests I want to run, but I'm looking at a major milestone in the OpenOffice progress charts. Buried in the Release Notes for 632 Snapshot, you find an unassuming paragraph...
Printing: OpenOffice.org 632 includes a new psprint solution. This should function on all three supported platforms without any extra effort. For more information about this solution, please see: http://gsl.openoffice.org/psprint/index.html
Wooo-hoooo. If I've said it once ... anyway, it didn't matter to me how good an Office Suite we had in hand. Eventually the toner needs to get down with the dead treeware and without printing, Open office was just another implementation of the forgotten paperless office dream. Now we're talking rock and roll - the new psprint implementation is clean, and just plain worked for me... well, mostly.
The printing was fine, but there appear to be yet a few problems handling Word Documents. Even when a chapter rendered fine on the display, I couldn't get it to print properly - OpOff appeared to be befuddled by the table at the beginning of the document - I couldn't even delete that sucker. I have an idea or two, but need some extra test cases, so I'll return to that at a later date. Instead, let's talk about fonts.
Another feature of StarOffice 5.2, aside from the bloated interface, take over your screen metaphor, and weird features that no one understood, had the ugliest display fonts on the face of Linux - they made Netscape rendering look good. Well, the good news is, under a card and XFree version that can handle it, not only are TrueType fonts used, but they're used with Anti-Aliasing. Excellent. I don't currently have the capability to test outside of KDE here, but this looks REALLY nice - have a look at that screenshot at right (or here at the full 250K 1280x1024 version).
On very little time spent with this one, I have noted that several specialized characters still confuse OpOff, including the nearly ubiquitous "Smart Quotes", which I despise. Mmmmm, maybe have to come up with a translator for those. I'll be exercising OpenOffice more over the next couple of weeks, so you can expect sporadic reports from me on the topic. If I can write a document, email it and open it in Word, and vice versa, reliably, then I might could really dispose of Windows at work, at least for me.
Marcia's on her plane (I presume, since I haven't heard from her, and America West says the flight's in the air), and I'll be picking her up sometime after 11 tonight. Gonna be ragged around here for the rest of the week, but I've missed my lovely something fierce, and I'm very glad she's coming home.
Have a nice evening, see you tomorrow.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Well, there's light in the sky, and I'm sitting here in front of the machine, instead of sleeping, so this must be morning. Three days in a row up past midnight, and up before 6... This is one tired boy you're looking at here. The good news is that Marcia's safely home. It was about 10:15 when I punched refresh on the America West flight information page, which promptly told me that Marcia's flight was on the ground an hour early. Aaaack. Off I flew to the airport, where I was half an hour early meeting her plane. Feh! We got home a shade before midnight.
Still, apparently she had a nice trip, and a productive one. If you're interested, she's likely to talk about some of it right over here on her Musings page in the next day or so (Nothing since last Friday right now, so don't bother until late tonight or tomorrow, our time).
Nothing new to report on other fronts. I spent some time experimenting with output formats from Star Office and other tools. I want a minimum effort conversion to PDF for the book, if I decide to continue with that process. Right now, junky is the best output I can get, from anything. I might could cheat and use Acrobat, since I own a copy (corporately), but I don't want to, especially since it's both possible and easy to create PDF files that can't be read by non-Adobe tools. We'll see as time goes by.
So let's hit the mailbag, eh?
Subject: linux file server
From: "Tandon, Ashish"
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 11:36:42 +0530
hi,
i have a query....could u suggest a hw platform for a linux file server the only ones i've come across are sgi 1100 and ibm xseries (samba on Redhat)....thanks
bye
Any PC that you can load linux on can be a file server.
Depends on your system loads, but file servers usually aren't very busy. I'd go with an Intel CPU system, scsi HW raid system (see linux support for specific cards and more at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/DPT-Hardware-RAID-8.html)
Also, VA Linux is still taking orders through today... Compaq and Dell also sell pre-configured Linux boxes, but not (so far as I know) pre-configured for file servers.
If you're not very deep into Linux yet, then building, maintaining and securing a Linux File Server may not be the most cost-effective use of your resources (depends on how you value your time, and system reliability concerns and such) - In this case you might want one of the network attached storage systems sold by a variety of manufacturers, from Cobalt to Network Appliance.
Tell me, how did you come across me as a linux resource?
Subject: Re: linux file server
Thanks for the prompt reply.....
I cam accross your name in a discussion thread when i was searching on google...i'm glad i did
I'd like to further consult you on this if you dont mind.
Cool.
As long as you don't mind that I generally hand out references, not answers. Consulting I reserve for paid jobs. As I said earlier, if you really don't know Linux at all, or just barely, then you might be better served with network attached storage modules rather than building your own box.
What are your goals for the project, and priorities. Is it personal or business? Etc, etc...
And with that, I'll wrap up this morning edition, and move on into my working day. Have a good one, catch you on the flip side.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Good morning. Much, much more rested, thanks. Nothing to report at all here as a result, but then, that goes hand in hand with the state of restedness. Let's have a quick look around and see what's going on...
Lessee here... nothing in the linux.sbay newsgroup except my events announcment. Ooooo - 67 new emails. In the Studio B Buzz newsletter (written by a close personal friend), the Microsoft licensing adjustments got good billing. This would be Microsoft's "Oh, not really, huh?" portion of the "We Won!" mantra they've been chanting over the last week or two... <grin> Here's the MS flackage on the topic.
Slashdot, which has been up and down like a yo-yo of late, is ... sorta up at the moment, but lots of lag in that connection. No news there about WHY the various OSDN sites have availability suckage problems, off and on. (I like the reference to the "evil OSDN keiretsu" in one of the items there this morning.
OK, I just followed a link that leads to a site that confuses Konqueror, so I think I'll call it a post and head in to work. Something more interesting than my snore tone poems is likely to surface during the day. Have a good 'un.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Good morning. Another gray morning around here. The fog moved in for an extended stay just after the Fourth, and it's been in, covering and keeping us cool until late morning each day this week. This moderates what are often otherwise debilitatingly high temperatures (common in July). How lovely.
Now for a couple of items interesting on the public system security front, and on the email/spam prevention front. First, Greg wanted to put in an FTP server - I started gently mocking him for wanting to install a service that requires username and password to be sent in cleartext over the Internet. I suggested that he just use scp (a part of both the OpenSSH and SSH suites of tools). The problem there, of course, is that you have to provide the user with a login shell capability to use ssh - you can't set their shell in /etc/passwd to /bin/false (which prevents logins). As a matter of fact, Greg said it was "impossible".
Well, one of my favorite phrases ends "...the impossible takes a little longer." I was sure I remembered some way to make this work. The goal: allow individuals to transfer files into the machine, without letting them have shell access. Another way of denying access is listing the user in the /etc/login.access file, although I've never used this, and I'm not sure it's supported by default in all Linux distributions. Finally, there's the .bashrc and .bash_profile scripts, which are variously sourced depending on which kind of shell you're instantiating.
.bashrc is always sourced for any shell, login or no. However .bash_profile is only sourced for login shells. (caveat: /bin/bash needs to be the listed shell for the user in /etc/passwd. If it's different, then you'll need to adapt this solution to the initialization scripts used by your shell of choice). So, here's the drill:
[root@mail /home/joe_user]# ls -al .bash*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 274 Jul 12 17:46 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 274 Jul 12 17:48 .bashrc
[root@mail /home/joe_user]# cat .bash_profile
# .bash_profile
exit
I've left off the other .bashxxx files, since they're unimportant in this case. Fundamentally, when joe_user attempts to login to the box using ssh, the login succeeds, then the exit line in .bash_profile pitches him right out again. However, scp simply uses ssh to validate the user and sets up a non-interactive shell to facilitate receiving the transferred data. This only invokes .bashrc, not .bash_profile. (If you put the exit in .bashrc, both ssh and scp fail). Finally, make these files owned and writable only by root, so that the user can't transfer in new versions of the login scripts. Voilá!
On the spam front, there's a change pending in the ranks of spam prevention. MAPS (the Mail Abuse Prevention System - http://www.mail-abuse.org/) is changing it's TOS - here's a copy of the email to news.admin.net-abuse.email - snag that newsgroup down and read the whole thread if you're interested...
Subject MAPS Subscription Policy Changes
From: Margie <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday 12 July 2001 04:45:11 pm
Groups: news.admin.net-abuse.email
Effective Midnight 7/31/2001, all non-subscription access to MAPS services will cease. Anyone wishing to transfer or query MAPS data must have a signed contract with MAPS, and have access enabled in our ACL. There are several reasons for this change:
1) The data in the MAPS files belongs to MAPS and is copyrighted. MAPS, RBL, RBL+, DUL and RSS are all service marks of MAPS. MAPS must have the ability to protect its assets from unauthorized use or disclosure by third parties.
2) As MAPS popularity grew, the demand on our resources grew. We have continually upgraded systems, software, and added servers where necessary. The end result is our systems and connectivity are sufficient enough that providers have no incentive to pay for zone transfer subscriptions. When MAPS began to offer paid subscriptions, we believed that allowing access based on the ability to pay would allow the largest percentage of the net to access the services, while permitting MAPS to sustain itself with subscriptions from the large users of the services. What we have found instead is that we are our own worst "competition".
3) The economic conditions in the industry have hit everyone, including MAPS. MAPS' purpose is to stop spam on the internet. That purpose can only be achieved as long as MAPS can maintain itself as a corporation. Like any corporation, that takes income. There is very little debate about the effectiveness of the MAPS lists. This effectiveness saves its users time, bandwidth and other resources as well as giving them an added value to their customers by reducing the amount of spam the customer sees in their inbox. MAPS can simply no longer afford to foot the bill for the bulk of the internet community.
It is not our intent to put the use of the MAPS lists out of reach of the individual or hobby site. We will still offer some reduced fee or free query contracts under limited circumstances.
As usual, please direct requests for contracts to [email protected], questions and comments to [email protected] and flames to dev/null. ;)
More on this topic at a later date, as I learn more. Yes, this data is also on the MAPS website, though apparently not directly coincidental with the issuance of this message. That made people momentarily suspicious of a hoax. Ah, well - they have good reason, but there are a number of valid opposing viewpoints being expressed in the thread in the newsgroup. Interesting stuff.
I am running late, have a lovely day. See you later, or tomorrow, depending on my day. Ciao.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Good morning... Happy Saturday. Got lots of sleep last night, which is a good thing. I feel a bit washed out, but from too much sleep, rather than not enough, which is a good thing. On the .plan for today:
It's a very quiet morning on the email front, but I've already been on the phone with Tom regarding more potential solutions to his TOC Overflow problem. Now for a little browsing and surfing, then I'll get into my day. See you later, perhaps. Depends how things go...
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Hello. Good afternoon. Been busy already today, from Costco and Safeway, to a spot of BIND debugging up on Hydras. And there's more to come. But first, here's some updating on the activities from yesterday...
As the last shall be first, so the Salsa, third on yesterday's list, was the first chore I tackled. On the left you see the accumulated ingredients - from our garden came the Cherry tomatoes and the Cilantro. Add one large yellow onion, Jalapeño peppers, and just a bit of garlic, all to taste. The result, a salsa worthy of chips or over most Mexican dishes (I like Salsa, can't you tell?) I generally only have fresh salsa, either at restaurants or at home. Salsa from Safeway just isn't the same!
Next comes the Pesto sauce. I am a big fan of pesto, and I don't generally even mind the store-bought kind. However, home built, with fresh basil is SO much better... So I started off with all the basil we had. It's really in too shallow a planter anyway, for our needs - it was drying out 3 times a day. So I ransacked it. In the second picture you can see the pile of cleaned leaves on the counter, along with the rest of the ingredients. These are Olive Oil, Parmesan cheese, Garlic, a pinch of Cilantro, and Pine Nuts (about a cup and a quarter here).
 |
 |
 |
 |
In both of these recipes, I don't have any firm measures for you, since I don't measure usually, except when baking. For instance, when combining all the ingredients for the Pesto, I add the Basil, Pine Nuts and Parmesan in stages, because it's too much to fit in the Cuisinart all in one go. With each stage I add just enough Olive Oil to provide emulsification. I explicitly don't want a runny sauce. In the third picture above you can see what I've done - Most of the sauce is spread out in ice cube trays. I'll pop them out this afternoon and bag for frozen storage. Much more convenient, as about 4 cubes is enough to coat a pound of pasta. I'd hate to have to chisel out some from a frozen block, or put the sauce through multiple thaw/freeze cycles.
Along with the long-term storage, I have a batch for use tonight - more on that in one moment. The final snap above is of the forlorn stalks where the Basil once stood. A good small crop - we have enough Pesto now for a few months of once every other week or so.
Both Salsa and Pesto are to accompany us to a pot-luck tonight with 4 of Marcia's cohorts from work before we all traipse off to the Michael Flatley dance show this evening: Feet of Flames. Flatley was the principal Male dancer for the original Riverdance show, before a contractual dispute (read "Flatley has a snit") caused him to leave the company shortly before the second opening of the show in Dublin, the year after Riverdance first opened. He went on the road with his own show shortly thereafter, Lord of the Dance. Feet of Flames is his second big touring show. Should be fun.
I didn't get around to cleaning yesterday, and I may not today, either. But soon, soon. Meantime, I need to water the rest of the Patio Farm, and get some other chores done. Have a lovely rest of your weekend.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.
All Content Copyright © 1999-2001 Brian P. Bilbrey.