Misc. Ramblings

Insert disclaimer here. WARNING: Political content.

US News and World Report has uncovered evidence that the Bush Administration has not only conducted what may be illegal warrantless surveillance of US citizens, but may have also have executed so called "black-bag" jobs. That is, government agents may have, and may be continuing to do, illegal break-ins (see the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution and case law pursuant to 407 U.S. 297 (1972)) of US citizen's homes and offices.

Please bear with me as I make a comparison that may, at first, seem to be far fetched. Be clear, however, that the Bush Administration would like to spin the choice as security or freedom. They are wrong. The choice is freedom or dictatorship. The choice is living under an emperor or as a republic. And if we choose dictatorship, rather than republic, then, we deserve what we will get.

In 2003, a poll of the Iraqi people found them optimistic about the future after the fall of Saddam. When asked: "Do you think that Iraq will be a much better country, somewhat better, somewhat worse or a lot worse five years from now?" Almost 70 percent responded somewhat better or much better.

Two years later, in 2005, a similar poll found the numbers shifting. When asked: "Is Iraq much better off, somewhat better off, somewhat worse off or much worse off than before the U.S. invasion?" Only 42 percent said somewhat better or much better.

I can't find a more recent poll of the Iraqi people, but I would be surprised if the numbers haven't dropped even farther.

The question is, why is post Saddam life less than Iraqis thought it would be? For many, I would guess the answer is lack of security. People seem to be living in fear. Random car bombs slaughter innocent people. Terrorist's bullets fly through the air indiscriminately killing those unlucky enough to be hit. Even life's necessities like access to clean, running water; reliable electricity; and gas to run their cars appear less available than before the war.

But even under these dire circumstances, in their recent elections, the Iraqis chose not to elect another Saddam. Yes, they may fear for their lives. But in so choosing, they were saying that whatever they have now is better than Saddam's security. This, even though their personal security suffers, they are living as a free people. Free of the secret police raids that came in the middle of night. Free of the kangaroo legal system where people simply disappeared. Free of a ruler who ruled absolutely.

If the Iraqi people can sacrifice so much, and stand so courageously against dictatorship and terrorism, why is it we seem to cower in fear? Why is it we support a ruler who feels he is empowered to repeal the Constitution? Why is that we meekly act like cattle to the slaughter?

The choice is republic and freedom or dictatorship and tyranny. The Iraqis have made their choice. What's yours?

Posted by DanS at 07:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, pair.com support reminded me that my account allows access to the server logs. In examining the error log, the only thing I could find that seemed out of place was the following:

www.seto.org [Tue Mar 21 2006] [error] File does not exist: /path/to/mt-diary/mt-site.js

This error made be pause. Pause. Okay, mt-site.js, by default, is found in the /~home/mt-static directory. Why is MT looking for it in /mt-diary? I don't know. But if it wants it in /mt-diary, that's where I'll put it. So I copied the file into /mt-diary. But. I still get a 505 error when I rebuild Categories. Sigh.

The error log doesn't indicate any error. So I download the raw log and find the following:

[21/Mar/2006:] "GET /path/to/mt-diary/mt.cgi?__mode=rebuild&blog_id=1&type=Category&next=0&offset=&limit=&total_entries=1230&is_bm=&entry_id=&is_new=&old_status=&old_previous=&old_next= HTTP/1.1" 500 535 "http://www.seto.org/cgi-bin/path/to/mt-diary/mt.cgi" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060124 Firefox/1.5.0.1"

For some reason, MT is looking for mt-cgi in /mt-diary. But. The default location for mt.cgi is in cgi-bin. Why is MT looking for it in /mt-diary? Clearly, something is misconfigured. I don't have the time this morning to follow up but I will check on things later tonight.

UPDATE: What may be misconfigured is my brain. I have to double check the paths in the error messages. I may have read them wrong so perhaps the paths are correct. If so, then the server log messages aren't very helpful and I need to keep looking for the answer.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You may have noticed that email, comments, and trackbacks have been having problems. Sorry, but I'm running into three road blocks.

The first one is that my mailbox ran out of space and I didn't know this until yesterday afternoon. I don't know why pair.com doesn't have some way of monitoring email space usage but, apparently, they don't. I also don't know for sure when the box got full but it may have been several days. In any case, I've expanded the space for email by six times so hopefully things won't fill up for awhile. But what is really weird is that I can delete recent emails (i.e., today) but older email refuses to be deleted. I don't know why and I guess I'll have to open another trouble ticket with pair.com.

The second problem is that the notification that I'm supposed to get when a comment is posted isn't working. I don't know why. It may be related to the problem with email being full but it may predate that. It could also be related to scripts not running correctly (as in the 505 error I get when rebuilding categories) or it could be something else.

Why be concerned about no notification? First of all, because I can't respond to your comments if I don't know you left one. Secondly, if a spammer leaves a comment, I also won't know its been left so I can't know to delete it.

So, I closed comments yesterday (and trackbacks a few days ago). I will try re-opening comments today but may close them again if I don't get consistent notices. You can still contact me via email (my contact if over there on the right column under "Links" and should be working...I hope).

Speaking of 505 errors. I've completed my test re-creation of my site on my local hard drive. By that I mean I installed MoveableType (and MySQL) on my PC. I then imported all my posts from pair.com to my local installation. Once done, I rebuilt the local site and had no problems with 505 errors. Although this may not be a perfect simulation, it's close enough for me. I believe my problems with 505 errors are located on the pair.com site. What is the cause of the these problems I can only speculate.

I opened a trouble ticket with pair.com and got a response back today. They say the server log has the following:

Useless use of private variable in void context at /link/to/home/page/mt-check.cgi line 318.

Wayne, from pair.com, pointed to the following link: http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/kb/known/useless_use_of.html

Question

When running mt-check.cgi under cgiwrap, it fails with the error Useless use of private variable in void context at mt-check.cgi line 318.

Answer

Open mt-check.cgi in a plain text editor and look for line 318:

$dbi_is_okay if $mod eq 'DBI';

and change it to this:

$dbi_is_okay = 1 if $mod eq 'DBI';

Save the file, upload it back to the server in ASCII, then try executing it again

This solves the 505 error with running mt-check.cgi (which is run only once during installation and is used to check to see if you have the required modules on your server. But, as far as I know, it is never run after that so it doesn't solve my other error with rebuilding categories. Sigh.

I've asked if I have access to the server log. If so, I will take a look at it and see if I can find anything relating to the Categories error (which is still occurring).

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been raining again. Yesterday it was O'ahu that got hit with torrential rain. Did I mention I live on O'ahu?

What may be of interest to tech people is the effect that the rain has on communications. For example, for the last three weeks, telephone service has been hit or miss. This, as a result of the rain filling the underground pathways that the phone lines run in. It takes days for the lines to dry out. During that time, the phone doesn't ring. Or at least, it doesn't ring as it usually does. What happens is it beeps. Once. If you happen to be near the phone when that happens, you can answer it and get a static filled conversation going. If not, you'll never know that the call came in.

Other communications are also affected. In fact, when it comes to satellites, there is a phrase for it - "rain fade" or sometimes "rain attenuation."

SWMBO and I went to breakfast yesterday morning. The restaurant we went to had background music and also several TVs showing a news channel. But every once in awhile, the music would drop out. We also noticed that when that happened, the news channel would pixelate. That is, the picture would turn into a series of large black blocks as the image degraded. Eventually, as the rain really started falling, the music and TV picture stopped and an error screen was displayed on the TVs saying the satellite signal had been lost. It seems that this restaurant got both its music and TV via direct satellite dish.

From there, needing to fill up our car with gas, we went to the service station. But when we tried to use a charge card, we found that their approval system uses yes, you guessed it, a direct satellite link. Said link was not operational so we couldn't get any gas. Sigh.

Even when we got home, some of our cable TV stations were affected because Hawaii gets its programs via satellite, which are then distributed via cable.

It is amazing to me that so many services rely on satellites, with no apparent backup. Yes, you need a LOT of bandwidth to transmit so much data. And yes, if the phone lines are affected its possible copper data links will be. But, does it make any sense to anyone to rely so much on satellites as a source of transmission without any kind of backup? What about all the miles of "dark" fiber that lay between here and the mainland? Why not use some of that?

If that's not economically feasible, then why not use some of the available techniques to mitigate the affects of rain? I mean, it's not like it never rains here. In fact, the loss of signal is the main reason I haven't switched from cable TV to satellite. Otherwise, I would be there in a flash because satellite is cheaper and the signal is potentially sharper (depending on how much compression the companies use during transmission).

In any case, these are just a couple of examples of how high tech communications are affected by mother nature.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As you may have noticed, the style of my site changed again. I had not planned on doing so and that wasn't my main reason for working on the site. The problem is I'm still getting intermittent 505 errors when I try to post or rebuild the site. This keeps you from reading what I'm trying to post. Obviously, this is a serious problem.

So, yesterday I decided to try reloading the MoveableType (MT) software that stores and organizes my posts. I deleted everything in the directory, donwloaded the most recent release, expanded, configured and uploaded all the files in analog mode (except for the image files, which I uploaded in binary mode). I set the permissions on the cgi files to 755 and...Still had 505 errors when rebuilding the category files. Sigh.

Since a 505 is a general error that doesn't tell you much of anything useful, I have no idea what the problem is. I may try setting up a test Apache server and running MT locally to see if I get the same errors. If I don't, I would tend to believe the problem is with Pair.com, the host for my site. If that is the problem, I can either change software or change host. What I can't do is leave things as they are.

Posted by DanS at 06:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaking of not leaving things as the are, the Washington Post has a chilling story of how stealth keylogging software is becoming the pervasive. Formerly, viruses would simply cause problems with your computer. For example, they might delete files or pop-up ads, but bad as that is, the keyloggers are designed to surreptitiously record your login names and passwords. So, if you do online banking, buy anything via the Internet, or access any site that requires logging in, these program will capture the information required to login in. This information is then aggregated by country, and sold to the highest bidder. These people would in turn use the information to steal from you.

This is capitalism at its worst. The economic incentive to gather this information is so great that organized crime may now be involved.

But how to stop it? As with any computer security, it comes down to a layered defense. Keep your operating system and applications up-to-date. Use and update anti-virus and anti-spyware software (and be sure it is operating since the key loggers turn off these programs). Use a firewall that tracks outgoing as well as incoming traffic. I believe there is also a role for government to play. Law enforcement agencies world wide must work to identify the people behind these programs and put them in jail for a long, long time.

But having done all that, it's still possible to get infected because, as the story points out, trusted sites - like your business partners or places where you buy products via the Internet have been hacked. Thus, by simply visiting these trusted sites, you can become infected. It could be your bank, your favorite news or search site. In fact, almost any site that many people go to could be the source of infection.

That said, does that mean you shouldn't ever go on the Internet? You know, a year ago I would say the benefits outweighed the costs. But now, I'm not so sure. YMMV. Inset disclaimer here.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Many people have long held that one way to getting something done is to offer an economic incentive, such as a cash prize. Make the prize large enough, it is said, and enterprising individuals or organizations will find innovative ways to successfully solve many difficult problems.

For example, the DARPA Grand Challenge, in which an autonomous computer controlled vehicle successfully navigated a 130-mile desert course within 10 hours, points to what can be achieved in only two short years. Yes, the first year no one completed the course. But five were successful the next year.

Another example, albeit a much smaller one, is the effort to dual boot Windows XP on an Intel CPU-based Apple Mac. The site collected over $13,000 in donations to be given to the first person or persons who could:

1. Instructions must boot Windows XP (at least), not Vista or any other version of Windows.
2. Windows must be able to coexist with Mac OS X and each system may not interfere with the operation of the other (basically a traditional dual boot system where one OS is running at a time).
3. Your method, upon starting the computer, must offer the user to boot either OS X or Windows XP (hint: GRUB / LILO).

It was recently announced that the contest has been won and that details would be forthcoming. Assuming the solution is confirmed, this would be a great accomplishment because, it seems, both Apple and Microsoft have not been accommodating in making this (i.e., the dual booting) possible.

But what are the larger implications of solving this problem? It seems to me that many Windows users might be more comfortable in buying a Mac and trying OS X if they knew the could dual boot back into Windows. It could also make corporate buyers look at the Mac as an alternative. So, it seems to me, Apple is the net winner here.

Although these are just two examples of what is possible when you let everyone solve a problem, rather than funding a specific person or agency, I think it validates the premise that an open process can produce results (and do it relatively quickly).

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As if hurricanes aren't enough, the island of Kaua'i had a reservoir/dam fail yesterday due to recent heavy rains. Several hundred million gallons of water rushed through the breach clearing everything that stood before it. Entire houses, portions of the forest, telephone poles, and even underground water pipes were swept away. One person is confirmed dead and several are missing.

If that wasn't enough, it's not over yet. The rain continues to fall and other reservoirs could also go (including some on the other islands). Flash flood warnings and watches are extended into Friday so anything could happen.

It wouldn't be a bad thing to say a prayer for the people of Kaua'i.

The morning paper has the story, with pictures.

One example is the photo below. Between the foreground and the house in the back stood two homes. Both are completely gone, along with the people in them.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Insert disclaimer here. These are my personal views. YMMV.

One of the Republican memes is what they call the "liberal press" (they also use other terms to refer to the press but this is a family friendly site). If this were true, I wonder what happened to the coverage of recently retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's speech this past weekend.

I can't find a transcript of the speech, but a transcript of an NPR broadcast is quoting Justice O'Connor as saying

It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

As you may remember, Justice O'Connor is an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan. Hence, a flaming liberal she is not. That said, what Justice O'Connor was referring to, and is raising the alarm about, is Republican politician attacks on the Judiciary that "pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedoms." The Justice went on to say:

The nation's founders wrote repeatedly that without an independent judiciary to protect individual rights from the other branches of government those rights and privileges would amount to nothing. But, as the founding fathers knew, statutes and constitutions don't protect judicial independence, people do.

What is so astounding to me is that a former Supreme Court Justice is saying the the US is becoming a dictatorship, but the only national coverage (other than NPR) is from the United Kingdom's The Guardian. Where's the left leaning liberal press coverage? Heck, why isn't there any national media coverage of this speech?

I'm getting awfully tired of being the lone voice in the wilderness crying out warnings that our freedoms are being taken away. Now. That the Constitution is being shredded. Now. That is occurring because of the Republican President and Republican Congress so full of frenzy and self-righteousness that they believe they are above the law and the Constitution. Now.

You can debate whether the US is on the road to dictatorship (I've been saying it's becoming a monarchy), but if a Supreme Court Justice says it is, shouldn't this make the national evening news? Shouldn't there be a national conversation on whether her statements are true? Or was it because she was referring to attacks on the Court, and the press doesn't care if the Court is attacked, unless it is the one doing the attacking?

All I can say if you take away the freedom of the one, you take it away from the many. Down that road lays tyranny and, yes, dictatorship.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There are always two sides to every story. However, when the press reports on an issue, it is sometimes tempting to to shade things such that a situations appears to be one way, when it's actually something else.

I've seen this in the local headlines for our two major newspapers. One paper will say the story is one thing while the other says the opposite. For example, and these are just made up headlines but I think they portray what I am saying: "Hawaii Schools Near last in Achievement" vs. "Hawaii Schools Highest in Improvement." In this case, each may be accurate. Or not.

But in other cases, the headlines say the opposite of what the story actually is. I've seen this several times in the morning paper where the headline would lead to believe one thing, but their own story says just the opposite. This troubles me because many people don't get past the headline and even if they do, it's the headline they will remember, rather than the story that refutes the headline.

Given these caveats, a news report says a federal judge has has ruled that a teacher who allegedly filed "multiple frivolous" law suits against the school district he worked for must pay the district $270,000 in legal fees. The US District judge found that the teacher

transformed "every injustice, insult, or inconvenience, real or imagined," into a violation of his civil rights.

[The teacher]...alleged discrimination "of virtually every type (sex, race, national origin, age, and disability)"...

I don't know if the story is accurate. It could be. There are in fact people who try to use the legal system as a way to spread injustice. Whether this is one of those occasions, I cannot say. If it is, then perhaps the teacher deserves what he got because he denied justice to others.

But I wish the newspapers would spend a little more time digging into the story to figure out why someone might take things to extreme. Was he, in fact, wronged at some point? Did the school system, in fact, play a part in his behavior? What, in fact, was the other side of the story?

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As many of you know, the so called Prescott core Intel processors run very hot. How hot? We have a 2.8GHz that idles at 72-73 degrees Celsius (with the stock fan) with a maximum designed temp of about 75 degrees. Obviously, such a high idle temperature is not conducive to CPU long life nor high speeds since it only needs to heat up by a few degrees before it hits it maximum temperature.

Intel announced and demonstrated this month one solution to this heat problem - the Intel Advanced Liquid Cooling Technology (link goes to the Hardware Secrets site since I can't find an Intel page).

Intel's technology uses only two parts: a combination pump/permanently sealed reservoir and a heat exchanger/fan. Connecting the two parts are metal, rather than flexible plastic, tubes. The system is designed to require no maintenance and reportedly runs at about 4dbA (in most rooms, this would be essentially silent).

Although I'm sure this works, I'm not too thrilled about mixing water and electricity.

Yes, you can use other ways of cooling the CPU, such as the Zalman line of fans. And a good job these fans do. But, if you don't have the space to fit one of these huge and heavy fans, such as when you are building a small form factor PC, the choice is AMD.

Hence, I won't be buying any Intel processors until they figure out how to control the heat better. Until then, I'm quite happy to use AMD processors that run substantially cooler than an equivalent Intel chip.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the areas that Linux still lags behind Windows is in the support of peripherals. This may be because most drivers are written by the manufacturer of the peripheral and, over the years, most drivers were written for Windows. In addition, giving credit where due, Microsoft spent a lot of time and money on writing their own drivers and, perhaps more importantly, also made available to developers, kits to help them write their own.

Still, why don't more manufacturers support Linux?. Especially those who call themselves high technology companies. I mean, how much does it cost to write a driver relative to the revenues they can generate by selling their products (e.g., printers, scanners, keyboards, mice, graphics tablets, etc.) to Linux users?

For example, let's look at Hewlett Packard. Among other things, HP makes a line of laser printers. For many years, HP LaserJets were the standard in office laser printers. These printers were admired for their ability to just keep on running. They were even compared to military tanks in their ability to take abuse, but keep on running. Year after year.

But as the environment changed, and competition began to eat into profits, HP seemed to loose its way. It seemed to become stand-offish or haughty. That is, it began treating its customers like the enemy. Or at least marks to be fleeced.

Although change has come to HP (some would say change has been forced on it, but I digress), it still doesn't support Linux.

So, if you buy, for example, PC Magazine Editor's Choice HP 2600n, which is one of the cheaper color laser printers currently available, you shouldn't be surprised that HP doesn't include a driver for Linux.

I recently bought one of these printers. But since I use Linux, and this printer does not use Postscript or, for that matter, PCL, I had to find another solution.

Fortunately, a guy by the name of Rick Richardson has created a Linux driver for the HP2600n. As with many Linux drivers, you may run into problems getting it to work with your distribution.

But in using Xandros Deluxe 3.x, the only problem I had was having to configure CUPS to enable color printing (it printed fine in black and white but I couldn't seem to get it to print in color). Before you do the following, you must first install the driver as indicated on Rick's site. Only after you have done so, and you are otherwise printing with the driver, should you do the following (assuming you can print black and white but not color). Note that there may be other ways of doing the following. All I can say is it worked for me. YMMV. Use at your own risk. Insert disclaimer here:

1. Use your web browser to go to your CUPs config page by typing in the following: http://localhost:631/admin

2. Login as root and enter the password for the root user.

3. Across the top of the screen you should see a menu list like the following: Administration Classes Help Jobs Printers Software.

4. Click on Printers

5. Click on Configure Printer

6. Change the default to color mode and click on Continue.

7. Done.

If all went well, you should now be able to print in color. If not, sorry but you are on your own. You can contact Rick but before doing so, please contribute to his effort (I did) before emailing him. He deserves full credit for doing what HP should be, but isn't. Thanks Rick.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've long said, when it comes to computers and software, that you should choose the tool that best meets your needs. Whether that tool is Windows, or Linux, or whichever, choose the one that works best for you, regardless of what others may say.

So, it is interesting to see that Linus Torvalds, in a December emailto a Gnome listserver, apparently said the following:

I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE.

This "users are idiots, and are confused by functionality" mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do.

I'm not here to evangelize for or against KDE. I happen to use KDE but that is probably more because that is what the first Linux distribution I ever used (I think Caldera) had and so that is what I am familiar with.

That said, if people are more comfortable using Gnome, why not use it? From Torvalds email, he says he doesn't use Gnome because it doesn't work for him. So? Does that mean it doesn't work for everyone? Although I'm not a Gnome user, I do not believe a single way of doing things is the best way for everyone. Although I could be wrong, I cannot imagine that Torvalds ever meant to say there is only OneTrueWay and KDE is it. But, who knows?

In any case, I still believe you have to decide for yourself what works best for you, regardless of who may be saying otherwise.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 05:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't think this is a new idea but the great state of Oklahoma's legislative House of Represenatives passed a billthat allows judges to carry guns in the courtroom. There are many ways of looking at this question, but I'll only ask what kind, if any, of court security do they have. By that I mean security screening to get into the court house and security in each courtroom that may need it.

Whatever Oklahoma decides to do, what message are we sending to those that must go to court? If we are saying the judge is so concerned about his or her safety that they must carry a gun, how should, for example, witnesses react? Would you, should you, feel safe in such an environment? What other solutions are there to increase safety?

I dunno, this is not an easy question to answer. All I can say is we sure appear to be living in dark times. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here. These are my personal views.

Disclosure: I own several target rifles and used to be, but am no longer, a member of the National Rifle Association.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mepis is a Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution founded about two years ago. As with some others, it comes in several versions. There's SimplyMEPIS, MEPISLite, SoHoServer, and Desktop OnTheGo.

SimplyMEPIS is the general desktop distribution and tries to balance stability with being up-to-date. The latest version, 3.4-3, released last month, includes the 2.6.15 kernel, KDE 3.4.3, OpenOffice 2.01, Firefox 1.5, and 900 or so other packages. You Debian gurus out there could probably guess that Mepis is built on the Debian testing (Etch) pool. This is so you can get relatively stable packages but also the more current versions. Conversely, if they had used the stable pool (Sarge) of Debian, you would very quickly end up with very dated programs. This is not a GoodThing when it comes to security updates. It is less a problem with regular program updates but if you want to have a secure, leading edge distribution, Debian stable may not be the way to go. So, to me, it is well that they went with Etch.

MEPISLite is targeted at people running Windows98 PCs. That is, relatively old computers with limited capabilities. Hence, the Lite version of Mepis is supposed to be less taxing on such hardware. One of the differences is that KOffice is used, rather than OpenOffice and Konquerer rather than Firefox. Otherwise, it is very similar to SimplyMEPIS.

SoHoServer is designed for the small business that needs to have server that is easy to setup and administer. As such, stability is more important that being leading edge. That is, you don't want your server going down because the latest version of some package has a bug. Hence, this distribution is based on the Debian stable pool (Sarge, mentioned earlier). It includes pre-configured server software such as "Apache2, PHP4, Perl, Mysql, Proftpd, Bind, DHCPd, Postfix, Dovecot, Shorewall, Squid, DansGuardian (love that name-ed.), Webmin, and Usermin." With a minimal background in *nix, you should be able to install and have running a server for your business. That said, it probably takes years to master the details needed to securely run a Internet facing server. So, it would be wise to get yourself some training or at least a book or two before you try this. YMMV. Use at your own risk.

Desktop OnTheGo is a "USB-key"-based technology that apparently shrinks things down to fit a desktop that you can take with you. I don't have much information on how this works and haven't tried it myself. I'm not even sure what they are referring to when they talk about a USB-key. Maybe they are talking about USB flash drives. I dunno. But if you have a need to take your desktop with you, without carrying a laptop, you may want to check into this. As for me, I'm thinking I may try it to see if this can connect to our Netware network. We shall see.

In any case, there are many distributions based on Debian. This popularity, perhaps, reflects the ease of use of Debian. Which distribution is best for you, only you can determine. But so far, Mepis looks like a pretty good one to me.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry , no post today. But I should have something tomorrow. I've been testing Mepis Linux as an alternative to Xandros Linux. So far, so good. I still have to see if it will work in a Netware environment and I would still need to buy CrossOver Office so I could run MS Office. Still, it doesn't seem to have the chicken dropping attitude that Xandros has (e.g., artificially lowering the speed of CD burning until you buy their "Deluxe" version).

More tomorrow.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have an early meeting this morning that I need to prepare for so I gotta go.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When things go horribly wrong, the standard bureaucratic response is to say "How could anyone have anticipated this? It is unprecedented. We did everything that a prudent person would do." But my warning to this is that there is always someone who not only could predict it, they did.

As a Democrat, I'm no fan of many policies supported by President Bush (insert disclaimer and disclosures here). But I have to say that the video clip released yesterday that shows the warnings the President received before hurricane Katrina hit confirms why I feel that way in a particularly stark and devastating way.

The President is told that the hurricane could breach "top" the levees (which it did); that there would be wide spread, severe damage that would overwhelm resources (which it did); and that the New Orleans Superdome, the site used to house evacuees, would be inadequate (which it was). To this, President Bush reassuringly responded "We are fully prepared." He promised federal help not only during the hurricane, but also immediately after.

As events actually unfolded, it became clear that all of the worst case predictions were coming true. Tragically, the federal response fell far short of being "fully prepared." Not only wasn't assistance provided during the hurricane, there was none immediately after (except for the magnificent and courageous services of the US Coast Guard).

In this case, the people who should have been providing the warnings did so. Clearly. Directly to the President. But rather than attending to the timely warnings and putting all resources on the alert, the Bush Administration apparently did nothing.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, I almost got to a point where I could try to install the AVG anti-virus software I posted about yesterday (skip this post now if you don't want a heavy dose of cynacism). Unfortunately, as with many *nix programs, AVG requires certain libraries and in this case, a kernel module. This is understandable and perfectly logical in the reality distortion *nix world. And as far as I can tell, I have all the required libraries.

The problem I have is getting the Dazuko kernel module to compile. What is the Dazuko module and why do I need it? As the Dazuko site says, Dazuko is "A common interface across all platforms...for 3rd party file access control. With such an interface, focus could be redirected from OS hacking to solving real problems." In this case, AVG would apparently use the interface to provide real-time (as opposed to Sjon time) on file access anti-virus scanning. This is a good thing since most command line scanners do not do on access scanning (which means they can detect that you have been infected, but not necessarily keep you from getting infected in the first place unless you stop to scan all new files as they come in).

But getting back to my problems. I keep getting errors from the installer saying it can't find the kernel source code, it did find the kernel source code but it's not configured, and/or it can't find the kernel headers. Since Xandros, like many distributions, give you the kernel in binary form, and assume you will never, ever, compile a program much less the kernel since *sips some kool-aid* they provide everything you need, it's difficult, but I don't think impossible, to configure the kernel source to reflect the compiled binary. Maybe. If you face in the right direction and chant the magic phrase: [deleted due to national security]. Unfortunately, my BS detector was set very low yesterday so I said, forgedaboutit. Maybe someday I'll take a look at how I can get the Dazuko module compiled. Until then, I'll use F-Prot.

Posted by DanS at 06:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You've probably had this dream (some might call it a nightmare). You know, the one where you are yelling as loud as you can but no one seems to hear you. Sometimes, I feel like that when a survey finds that more people know the names of the cartoon Simpsons family than the freedoms protected in the US Constitution. Marge? Yes. The First Amendment? What's that?

I don't know how reliable this survey is and I don't know who/what is the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum. But if the survey is accurate, what does this say about us? What does it say that people know the names of the American Idol judges but can't name a single US Supreme Court justice or their state's justices?

I wonder if you don't know what your freedoms are, why would you get upset about loosing them? I mean, if you don't know what they are, you won't miss them. Right? Until you want to express your opinion on a subject and the government arrests you and puts you in jail without charge, for as long as they want. Until you want to go to church but you find that it is now illegal to worship in any way other that the One True Way the government orders you to. Until you no longer know how your tax money is being spent because the government is no longer required to tell you and the press because of, you know, September 11th.

I hope people wake up soon. At least, before we no longer have the freedoms most people apparently don't know they have.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)