Lazarus iBook

Oh well, time for another link of one of those strange iBook repairs.
This time it is not as flamboyant as burning it down, in this case, they simply re-soldered one of the loose pins.

iBook G4 Motherboard Vreg Chip Solder Joint Repair

Servicio Paquete Uno

Last night installed the SP1 on the little laptop that could.
No problem at all it took about an hour, hour and a half, a few reboots, and presto.

Since this is a work's laptop, I don't particularly give a sh•t about the content, other the emails, so, I just made a copy of my Outlook stuff, and thats it, installed the sucker.

No horror story here, everything seems to be working fine at the install, even the HDD space doesn't seem to have taken a big toll, Vista is stealing as much HDD as it usually does :D ...

Foggy night week

It's been like this for a while, fine by me, what can I say...
Mostly because I don't have to catch a plane, if not, I'd be really pissed off, the temperature seems to be slightly high for my taste tho.

.

Trumbo

Yesterday got an email from a friend with a copy of the Salon.com's review of the film, certainly looks promising.

Trumbo

Music: right now (3)

I fucking love Patti Smith. Yes, you can say she is the faerie of punk, or what ever, Mapplethorpe's girlfriend, political activist, commie, etc, etc, etc; whatever, her records are amazing.

On this particular album, if I have to pick a song, I guess that would be 'Strange Messengers'

Internet blackout (Murphy rules!)

Last night lost internet access for about 3 hours or so.

What a complete and utterly drag that sh*t is, man...
It always, always happens on the least favorable moment, there is no other way, it is amazing.

All the ones I had this year effing always happened in the mddle of a crisis, or after agreeing to send an email ASAP, or while IMing with the CTO about the latest updates, or something that has to be done in the immediate future, like, now :)

At least, it doesn't happen pretty often, knock on wood, and so far, even tho getting thru to the call center, that is, until they pick up could take something like 10 minutes, the operators were sincere these last few times, and somehow the time table they had planned was firm.

70 plus

Just like that.

A little housekeeping

Today took a few minutes to get my trusty Trantor, my PowerBook beauty, to take a little care of her. I have been using her only for burning DVDs lately, not even connect it to the internet on a month or more.


So, after burning a couple of DVDs, connected it to the internet, downloaded and installed all the security and QuickTime fixes via SU, and also, sync'ed some programs that I have installed on Thor, but not on Trantor.
Those were: Nuclear Mouse and Keywurl.

Everything is kosher now.

Installing MIME::Parser on CentOS 5

Had to install the Perl module on a mail server, and I wanted to use yum to install everything, so here it goes...

First, I made sure I don't have it already isntalled:

mail rpms# perl -e 'use MIME::Parser'
Can't locate MIME/Parser.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi \
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6/i386-linux-thread-multi \
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8 \
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.5 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl \
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.7/i386-linux-thread-multi \
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.6/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi \
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.7 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.6 \
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl \
/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi \
/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8 .) at -e line 1.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at -e line 1.

No luck using yum, and no luck Googling, so off to the DAG route we go!

wget http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/perl-MIME-tools/perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm

No luck at all installing just the RPM package... No surprise here.

mail rpms# rpm --test -ivh perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
warning: perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
error: Failed dependencies:
        perl(Convert::BinHex) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::InnerFile) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Lines) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Lines) >= 1.108 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Scalar) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Scalar) >= 1.117 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::ScalarArray) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::ScalarArray) >= 1.114 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Stringy) >= 1.211 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Wrap) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(Mail::Field) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(Mail::Field) >= 1.05 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(Mail::Header) >= 1.06 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(Mail::Internet) >= 1.28 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl-MailTools >= 1.15 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch

So, the first things first... perl-MailTools:

mail rpms# yum install perl-MailTools
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Downloading header for perl-MailTools to pack into transaction set.
perl-MailTools-1.77-1.el5 100% |=========================|  13 kB    00:00
---> Package perl-MailTools.noarch 0:1.77-1.el5.centos set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
--> Processing Dependency: perl(Date::Parse) for package: perl-MailTools
--> Processing Dependency: perl(Date::Format) for package: perl-MailTools
--> Restarting Dependency Resolution with new changes.
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Downloading header for perl-TimeDate to pack into transaction set.
perl-TimeDate-1.16-5.el5. 100% |=========================| 7.7 kB    00:00
---> Package perl-TimeDate.noarch 1:1.16-5.el5 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 perl-MailTools          noarch     1.77-1.el5.centos  extras             91 k
Installing for dependencies:
 perl-TimeDate           noarch     1:1.16-5.el5     base               32 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      2 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 123 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): perl-TimeDate-1.16 100% |=========================|  32 kB    00:00
(2/2): perl-MailTools-1.7 100% |=========================|  91 kB    00:00
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing: perl-TimeDate                ######################### [1/2]
  Installing: perl-MailTools               ######################### [2/2]

Installed: perl-MailTools.noarch 0:1.77-1.el5.centos
Dependency Installed: perl-TimeDate.noarch 1:1.16-5.el5
Complete!

After that, another test at installing the MIME::Parser package... I'm pretty sure it will not work...

mail rpms# rpm --test -ivh perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
warning: perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
error: Failed dependencies:
        perl(Convert::BinHex) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::InnerFile) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Lines) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Lines) >= 1.108 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Scalar) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Scalar) >= 1.117 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::ScalarArray) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::ScalarArray) >= 1.114 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Stringy) >= 1.211 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Wrap) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch

It doesn't so, off to yum to see what else is out there...

mail rpms# yum search perl-IO | less

Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files

perl-IO-Socket-SSL.noarch                1.01-1.fc6             base
Matched from:
perl-IO-Socket-SSL

perl-IO-Zlib.noarch                      1.04-4.2.1             base
Matched from:
perl-IO-Zlib

perl-IO-Socket-INET6.noarch              2.51-2.fc6             base
Matched from:
perl-IO-Socket-INET6

perl-IO-String.noarch                    1.08-1.1.1             base
Matched from:
perl-IO-String

perl-IO-Socket-SSL.noarch                1.01-1.fc6             installed
Matched from:
perl-IO-Socket-SSL

perl-IO-Zlib.noarch                      1.04-4.2.1             installed
Matched from:
perl-IO-Zlib

perl-IO-Socket-INET6.noarch              2.51-2.fc6             installed
Matched from:
perl-IO-Socket-INET6

So, I'll install those:

[root@mail rpms]# yum install perl-IO-String perl-IO-Zlib perl-IO-Socket-SSL
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Downloading header for perl-IO-String to pack into transaction set.
perl-IO-String-1.08-1.1.1 100% |=========================| 3.5 kB    00:00
---> Package perl-IO-String.noarch 0:1.08-1.1.1 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 perl-IO-String          noarch     1.08-1.1.1       base               13 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      1 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 13 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/1): perl-IO-String-1.0 100% |=========================|  13 kB    00:00
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing: perl-IO-String               ######################### [1/1]

Installed: perl-IO-String.noarch 0:1.08-1.1.1
Complete!

Only one was needed, the others were already installed... But, still, no luck at all...

mail rpms# rpm --test -ivh perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
warning: perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
error: Failed dependencies:
        perl(Convert::BinHex) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::InnerFile) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Lines) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Lines) >= 1.108 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Scalar) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Scalar) >= 1.117 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::ScalarArray) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::ScalarArray) >= 1.114 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Stringy) >= 1.211 is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch
        perl(IO::Wrap) is needed by perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch

On the mean time, I'll get the BinHex thing going on, no problems here:

mail rpms# wget http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/perl-Convert-BinHex/perl-Convert-BinHex-1.119-2.2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
mail rpms# rpm --test -ivh perl-Convert-BinHex-1.119-2.2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
warning: perl-Convert-BinHex-1.119-2.2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]

And, to wrap up the whole thing, the package I needed was 'perl-IO-stringy'... What can I say, I'm a shmuck.

mail rpms# rpm --test -ivh perl-IO-stringy-2.110-1.2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm perl-MIME-tools-5.420-2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
warning: perl-IO-stringy-2.110-1.2.el5.rf.noarch.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]

After that, test it, and you are done:

mail rpms# perl -e 'use MIME::Parser'
mail rpms#

I got the prompt back without any message, so it is installed.

The winter gets soft

We'll be hitting a few mild winter days towards the end of the week and during the weekend...
I hope the trend does not go over 20 C by any chance...

Music: right now (2)

About to crash, but I have to pay homage to this one :)
Their best album, or at least, the one I have that I like the most! From 1985, back when democracy was young (around here).

It just funciona, damn right it does! (at last)

I just saw the Latin American website for Apple, at last they gave us the models the rest of world is using :)
As I posted here It just funciona??? (well, sort of...) on January, every single model on the page on Spanish was a release old.

It was time they upgraded those pictures to Leopard, IMHO.

You gotta love the wiki

I love Wikipedia, it is one of the few places of the Internet where, I think, it is still true that of what was called, back in the lata 90's, "surfing the web" -what a stupidity that was... But never mind that-

Today I found out, by total chance, a really interesting article dealing with the unexplained slowing down detected on both of the Pioneer spacecraft, I have to say that I am an effing enthusiast of the unmanned spacecraft exploration of the outer solar system, as I have posted here: Voyager, so this is like a mirage :D

Pioneer anomaly

"The Pioneer anomaly or Pioneer effect is the observed deviation from expectations of the trajectories of various unmanned spacecraft visiting the outer solar system, notably Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. Both spacecraft are escaping from the solar system, and are slowing down under the influence of the Sun's gravity. Upon very close examination, however, they are slowing down slightly more than expected from influence of all known sources. The effect can be modelled as a slight additional acceleration towards the Sun."

Did the same thing happened -actually, it is happening!!- with the Voyager probes too??? Someone has to travel back in time and alert the writers of the script of "Star Trek, The Motion Picture", as V'ger might not be as far away as we like to think!

Currently reading

Started yesterday, seems rather nice, I just hope it doesn't go overboard with the gossipy stuff.

Although I'm not sure it will be as "scholar" -if you like- as Pierson's book: Spike, Mike, Slackers, & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema, but Pierson's deals mostly with the 80's, and it scratches the early 90's, while Biskind's goes on from the 90's.

There is also another one The Movie Brats: How the Film Generation Took over Hollywood (this one dealing with the birth of the author cinema on the US, and the death of the studio system, just like Biskind's own Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood), but I couldn't get ahold of it yet.

Play count (7)

Not much has changed... Except I have listened to all the Music Library file at least 6 times already... The anal iTunes Player/ Listener on me can't let this occasion pass just like that :D

Get rid of your Baywatch pr0n (& all the rest)

Just found this program, called DBAN, that seems rather cool to delete all the HDD data before selling it.

It is free, GPL licensed.

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely
wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely
delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an
appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.

One keyboard (& mouse) to rule them all

Installed Synergy, the server on Tango, and the whole thing -but executed only the client- on Thor.

Everything seems to be working nice and easy, I'm using Tango as the main one, because I like its keyboard, even tho it is in Spanish... And I can easily save more desktop space, because the keyboard is already attached to one of the two boxes :D

So far so good, no problem what so ever, will continue to use it, and post back if there is any problem; or post some screenshots from the Windows side of the configuration.

Lucifer's desktop?

Or "Back to basics screenshot". I got totally bored of the way the old & classic Windows looks like on Tango, it was literally a bit depressing.

So, got the Vista theme up & running once again, and also setup one of the built in wallpapers that came with the laptop; the combination of red with the mostly black of the Vista default theme seem to go along pretty well, as least, for my totally untrained eye.

Music: right now

I think this is one of my favorites, if not, the favorite one.

More on the ARD thing

Just a couple of links I have found while searching more info on the ARDAgent security flaw.

Mac OS X Root Escalation Through AppleScript
neutering the apple remote desktop exploit
ARDAgent setuid allows root access, but there's a sort-of fix
Workaround for the ARDAgent 'setuid root' problem
Local Privilege Escalation via ARD

To this point it seems like it is real (doh!) but there are reports on which the exploit does not work, on my Quicksilver, for instance, it does not seem to be working the way that it should.
How long would Apple take to release a fix? I just hope they don't take as long as they took to release the Time Zone Data fix for Argentina... That is, never.

Comatose iBook extravaganza

And old thread from a friend's blog, with lots of iBook DIY repair tips, all most of them tried and failed on my little iBook friend.
Haven't tested the "fire" one, I'm afraid it could end on a far more bigger disaster than a dead iBook :D

Technical Problems (Or the 26 Cent Solution)

Ze vinter ist here

At last, truly unbelievably, but, yes...
The winter is here!
The shortest day of the year is just starting, and if everything goes the way it should be, we are not going to be bothered by any hot weather.
Humidity, well, that's another thing, but I settle for cold, give me any day with less that 14 C, and I'm a happy person; no matter if there is the usual 99% humidity that Bs As gives you for free :D

Current widgets

With the world famous (and free) Harmonic Widget, fetching lyrics as you listen to them! We live in the future!

The Sisters of Mercy joyfully sets the tone for the evening :D

ARD My God!!!!

Being covered with work lately, so catching up a bit on favorite news links, just read that there is a pretty nasty security flaw for Os X.

Mac OS X root escalation through AppleScript
Flaw in Apple Remote Desktop exploited via trojan
AppleScript.THT Trojan Horse

This is the second big one this year, man, what a hell...

Life Extension for the iBook (?)

I have been looking for any way of recycling the hardware of my late iBook (G3 @ 700 MHz).

It died the Logic Board Death on September 30ht. 2005, I did pull out the HDD, to use it on another crappy laptop, but the thing is, I have invested a lot of money on the little bugger (an extra battery, a new keyboard, RAM, Airport Card); I guess I can easily sell the parts & pieces on the local version of Ebay, Mercado Libre, but I prefer, if possible to find a way to re use the components... Use the LCD, perhaps even the whole case to "hold" a new box... It does not matter if it can't have Os X again.

If anybody knows, and stumbles across this, plese post any useful link.

Cold worthy of a birthday

In the end, it rained, a lot, and also, it is winter cold.
What else can I ask for my birthday?

Snow, f*ck the hell, another ice "storm" around here.

37 today

At least it is not the temperature...
Where the f*ck did my youth go, I don't particularly miss it, but I would like to know.

Amazing weather ahead

Looks like we are heading for a nice, cold, little bit of rain... Cool, it is simply not raining as much as it used to around here.






Of course, and as usual I should add, for Apple, the thing goes a little different, specially regarding the lows.

Mail server migration (yet another one)

Yep, the second one this month, this time, for a different country for one of the offices for the place I'm working for.
So far, zero problems.
Certainly doing the last one less than 10 days ago helps a lot :D

Hasta la init, siempre

I found this Linux distro, an argentine one, for which the motivating idea for their latest release is to pay an homage to El Che, it is called, keeping sync with the whole thing Red Star

Personally I find the whole thing simply a riot; everybody knows that a real revolutionary will have no use for a mouse; as in the right hand has either a machete or a Venezuelan made AK-47; and with the other hand, using only use a console with 80x25 chars, is using elinks to test the just finished defacing on Fort Bragg's homepage :p

Keyboard & touch pad joys

Being using the Compaq laptop for a little over two months now... One thing I really like about this laptop is its keyboard.

Nice, big enough, klicky and responsive; the same thing goes for the touch pad and their two buttons, specially the two touch pad buttons; I haven't seeing another laptop with such natural and clunky (in the good sense) buttons.
Most of the laptops tend to have touch pad buttons that are as far away as 'real buttons' as they can (they barely click, and there are certainly not bouncy), this laptop doesn't.

Also, it is a real plus how easy is to shutdown the touch pad, specially, given the size of it, and since I use a regular mouse more than 90% of the time, I tend to have the touch pad shutdown a lot of the time.

The only drawback -a major one, really- is that the keyboard's layout is in Spanish, I did change it to English.

Threads anyone?

We had a long week end around here, zero work, zero Nagios alarms, zero problems with any server anywhere.
So, given the effing sh*t my country is running into once again, I decided to watch -once again- 'Threads'.
Bad, bad, choice, matte.

This should be, I guess, the fifth time I see the film in my life, this time on DVD (don't ask how I got it on DVD, but I should say that I'm really grateful to a certain IchiKiller)

The movie is tough, no matter how many times you see it (specially since it has no subs, not even English, and its spoken in British English), but also, to me it is rather easy to compare the pre war situation to all the f*cked up things we are having a ball with in Argentina right now.

Of course, we are not going to start a nuclear war anytime soon, but, if we keep f*cking stuff like we do, will be back to steam power and hand crops in a jiffy.

Weather geek nirvana

Last night I found a new service that the local weather forecast agency if offering, they call it Estación Meteorológica EMA ORTUZAR

It seems they bought a new toy to play with: a Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 weather station.

The page has a ton of trend graphs, the only drawback, is that the trends are not that old, I wish they could offer a greater history on the trends; say a month and a year, to see the variations.

60 and still kicking

60 glorious days

Amazing degrees

Today, if we were on December, I bet my ass we would eventually top 40 degrees Celsius.
It reached past 20 C during the afternoon.

Birthday wish list, more like "research"

My birthday is close, so I have been web window shopping for my present.
I have been looking for a long time for a book, not a sci-fi one, that would deal with the repercussions on humans after a nuclear war, sort of like Threads so "wonderfully" did (extra link 1 extra link 2)

I read (lost it on a moving, I guess) A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race and I have The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear War, but both of them are pretty much centered around the climatic, the weather changes on the subject.
Whilst the subject it is really interesting (I b*tch a lot about the regular weather...), I would like to read something that is primarily aimed towards what would happen to society, or whatever remains that resembles it.

Found these two, but I don't know what to expect.

The Long Darkness: Psychological and Moral Perspectives on Nuclear Winter

Nuclear Winter: The Human and Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War

Play count (6)

More music! Being listening a lot to Casiotone for the painfully alone lately.
I simply love it, electronic, and yet, really melancholic too.

Nice lows ahead

Ahh... The winter, what can I say? I simply wish the whole effing year would be like this.

Installing the Oracle module for Perl

Actually, the install it is pretty straight forward, provided that you have Oracle installed on the given server.

First off, test if you have it installed:

[dbserver ]# perl -e 'use DBD::Oracle'
Can't locate DBD/Oracle.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6/i386
-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.3/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/pe
rl5/site_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.5 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.3 /usr/lib/perl5/site_p
erl /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.7/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.6/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor
_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.4/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.3/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl
5/vendor_perl/5.8.7 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.6 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.4 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.3 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.
8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8 .) at -e line 1.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at -e line 1.

If you get all that gonk of data spilled at the prompt, it is not installed at all on the server, so let's get going on, first download it:

wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/P/PY/PYTHIAN/DBD-Oracle-1.17.tar.gz

Then, untar it:

tar -zxf DBD-Oracle-1.17.tar.gz

move yourself inside the new directory:

cd DBD-Oracle-1.17

And then execute the make file:

[dbserver DBD-Oracle-1.17]# perl Makefile.PL 
Using DBI 1.40 (for perl 5.008008 on i386-linux-thread-multi) installed in /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI

Configuring DBD::Oracle for perl 5.008008 on linux (i386-linux-thread-multi)

Remember to actually *READ* the README file! Especially if you have any problems.

Using Oracle in /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0
DEFINE _SQLPLUS_RELEASE = "1002000100" (CHAR)
Oracle version 10.2.0.1 (10.2)
Found /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/demo/demo_rdbms.mk
Using /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/demo/demo_rdbms.mk
Your LD_LIBRARY_PATH env var is set to '/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/lib'
Reading /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/demo/demo_rdbms.mk
Reading /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk

Attempting to discover Oracle OCI build rules
gcc    -c -o DBD_ORA_OBJ.o DBD_ORA_OBJ.c
by executing: [make -f /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/demo/demo_rdbms.mk build ECHODO=echo ECHO=echo GENCLNTSH='echo genclntsh' CC=true OPTIMIZE= CCFLAGS= EXE=DBD_ORA_EXE OBJS=DBD_ORA_OBJ.
o]
Oracle oci build command:
        [true -L/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/lib/ -L/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/lib/ -o DBD_ORA_EXE DBD_ORA_OBJ.o -lclntsh   `cat /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/lib/sysliblist` -l
dl -lm  ]

Found header files in /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/public.

Checking for functioning wait.ph
Constant subroutine __USE_POSIX undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 8.
Constant subroutine __USE_POSIX2 undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 9.
Constant subroutine __USE_POSIX199309 undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 10.
Constant subroutine __USE_POSIX199506 undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 11.
Constant subroutine __USE_XOPEN undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 12.
Constant subroutine __USE_XOPEN_EXTENDED undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 13.
Constant subroutine __USE_UNIX98 undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 14.
Constant subroutine __USE_LARGEFILE undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 16.
Constant subroutine __USE_LARGEFILE64 undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 17.
Constant subroutine __USE_FILE_OFFSET64 undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 18.
Constant subroutine __USE_BSD undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 19.
Constant subroutine __USE_SVID undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 20.
Constant subroutine __USE_MISC undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 21.
Constant subroutine __USE_GNU undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 22.
Constant subroutine __USE_REENTRANT undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 23.
Constant subroutine _POSIX_SOURCE undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 48.
Constant subroutine _POSIX_C_SOURCE undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 50.
Constant subroutine _XOPEN_SOURCE undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 52.
Constant subroutine _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 54.
Constant subroutine _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 56.
Constant subroutine _LARGEFILE_SOURCE undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 98.
Constant subroutine __USE_ISOC99 undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 102.
Constant subroutine __GNU_LIBRARY__ undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/features.ph line 147.
Operator or semicolon missing before &__inline at (eval 148) line 1.
Ambiguous use of & resolved as operator & at (eval 148) line 1.
Constant subroutine __need_size_t undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/stddef.ph line 148.
Scalar found where operator expected at (eval 221) line 1, near "'int'  $__val"
        (Missing operator before   $__val?)
Unquoted string "typedef" may clash with future reserved word at (eval 224) line 1.
Operator or semicolon missing before &typedef at (eval 224) line 1.
Ambiguous use of & resolved as operator & at (eval 224) line 1.
Number found where operator expected at (eval 226) line 1, near ") 0"
        (Missing operator before 0?)
Number found where operator expected at (eval 227) line 1, near ") 1"
        (Missing operator before 1?)
Number found where operator expected at (eval 228) line 1, near ") 2"
        (Missing operator before 2?)
Constant subroutine __need_timespec undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/time.ph line 48.
Constant subroutine __need_schedparam undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/bits/sched.ph line 37.
Constant subroutine __need_timeval undefined at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/bits/time.ph line 23.


System: perl5.008008 linux build-i386 2.6.9-42.0.3.elsmp #1 smp fri oct 6 06:21:39 cdt 2006 i686 i686 i386 gnulinux 
Compiler:   gcc -O2 -g -pipe -m32 -march=i386 -mtune=pentium4 -D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-statement -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_O
FFSET_BITS=64 -I/usr/include/gdbm
Linker:     /usr/bin/ld
Sysliblist: -ldl -lm -lpthread -lnsl -lirc 
Oracle makefiles would have used these definitions but we override them:
  CC:       $(COMPDIR)/bin/gcc
  CFLAGS:   $(GFLAG) $(OPTIMIZE) $(CDEBUG) $(CCFLAGS) $(PFLAGS)\
        $(SHARED_CFLAG) $(USRFLAGS)
           [$(GFLAG) -O2 $(CDEBUG) $(CCFLAGS) -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/demo -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/public -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/plsql/public -I/usr/l
ocal/oracle/product/10.2.0/network/public -DLINUX -D_GNU_SOURCE -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE=1 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE=1 -DSLTS_ENABLE -DSLMXMX_ENABLE -D_REENTRANT -DNS_THREADS $(LPFLAGS) $(USRFLAGS)]
  LDFLAGS:  -o $@ $(LDPATHFLAG)$(PRODLIBHOME) $(LDPATHFLAG)$(LIBHOME) $(LDPATHFLAG)$(LIBHOME)stubs/ -L$(COMPDIR)/lib -lirc
           [-o $@ -L/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/lib/ -L$(LIBHOME) -L$(LIBHOME)stubs/ -L/usr/lib -lirc]
Linking with OTHERLDFLAGS = -L/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/lib/ -L/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/lib/   -lclntsh   `cat /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/lib/sysliblist` -ldl -lm   [fro
m 'build' rule]

Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
LD_RUN_PATH=/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/lib:/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/lib
Using DBD::Oracle 1.17.
Using DBD::Oracle 1.17.
Using DBI 1.40 (for perl 5.008008 on i386-linux-thread-multi) installed in /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI
Writing Makefile for DBD::Oracle

***  If you have problems...
     read all the log printed above, and the README and README.help.txt files.
     (Of course, you have read README by now anyway, haven't you?)

Now, all you have to do is just make it happen :) :

[dbserver DBD-Oracle-1.17]# make
cp Oracle.pm blib/lib/DBD/Oracle.pm
cp oraperl.ph blib/lib/oraperl.ph
cp dbdimp.h blib/arch/auto/DBD/Oracle/dbdimp.h
cp ocitrace.h blib/arch/auto/DBD/Oracle/ocitrace.h
cp Oraperl.pm blib/lib/Oraperl.pm
cp Oracle.h blib/arch/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.h
cp lib/DBD/Oracle/GetInfo.pm blib/lib/DBD/Oracle/GetInfo.pm
cp mk.pm blib/arch/auto/DBD/Oracle/mk.pm
/usr/bin/perl -p -e "s/~DRIVER~/Oracle/g" /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/Driver.xst > Oracle.xsi
/usr/bin/perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/ExtUtils/xsubpp  -typemap /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/ExtUtils/typemap -typemap typemap  Oracle.xs > Oracle.xsc && mv Oracle.xsc Oracle.c
gcc -c  -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/public -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/demo -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/public -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/plsql/publi
c -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/network/public -I/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI -D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-st
atement -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -I/usr/include/gdbm -O2 -g -pipe -m32 -march=i386 -mtune=pentium4   -DVERSION=\"1.17\" -DXS_VERSION=\"1.17\" -fPIC "-I/usr/l
ib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/CORE"  -Wall -Wno-comment -DUTF8_SUPPORT -DNEW_OCI_INIT -DORA_OCI_VERSION=\"10.2.0.1\" Oracle.c
In file included from /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/DBIXS.h:31,
                 from Oracle.h:13,
                 from Oracle.xs:1:
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/dbipport.h:227:1: warning: "PERL_UNUSED_DECL" redefined
In file included from /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/DBIXS.h:19,
                 from Oracle.h:13,
                 from Oracle.xs:1:
/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/CORE/perl.h:163:1: warning: this is the location of the previous definition
Oracle.c: In function `XS_DBD__Oracle__db_ora_lob_append':
Oracle.xs:201: warning: unused variable `startp'
gcc -c  -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/public -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/demo -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/public -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/plsql/publi
c -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/network/public -I/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI -D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-st
atement -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -I/usr/include/gdbm -O2 -g -pipe -m32 -march=i386 -mtune=pentium4   -DVERSION=\"1.17\" -DXS_VERSION=\"1.17\" -fPIC "-I/usr/l
ib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/CORE"  -Wall -Wno-comment -DUTF8_SUPPORT -DNEW_OCI_INIT -DORA_OCI_VERSION=\"10.2.0.1\" dbdimp.c
In file included from /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/DBIXS.h:31,
                 from Oracle.h:13,
                 from dbdimp.c:20:
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/dbipport.h:227:1: warning: "PERL_UNUSED_DECL" redefined
In file included from /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/DBIXS.h:19,
                 from Oracle.h:13,
                 from dbdimp.c:20:
/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/CORE/perl.h:163:1: warning: this is the location of the previous definition
dbdimp.c: In function `dbd_discon_all':
dbdimp.c:142: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
dbdimp.c: In function `ora_db_login6':
dbdimp.c:264: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
dbdimp.c: In function `ora_db_disconnect':
dbdimp.c:712: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
dbdimp.c: In function `ora_db_destroy':
dbdimp.c:749: warning: unused variable `my_perl'
dbdimp.c: In function `pp_exec_rset':
dbdimp.c:1218: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
dbdimp.c: In function `ora_st_execute':
dbdimp.c:1596: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
dbdimp.c: In function `ora_st_finish':
dbdimp.c:1803: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
dbdimp.c: In function `ora_st_destroy':
dbdimp.c:1895: warning: unused variable `my_perl'
gcc -c  -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/public -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/demo -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/public -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/plsql/publi
c -I/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/network/public -I/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI -D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-st
atement -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -I/usr/include/gdbm -O2 -g -pipe -m32 -march=i386 -mtune=pentium4   -DVERSION=\"1.17\" -DXS_VERSION=\"1.17\" -fPIC "-I/usr/l
ib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/CORE"  -Wall -Wno-comment -DUTF8_SUPPORT -DNEW_OCI_INIT -DORA_OCI_VERSION=\"10.2.0.1\" oci8.c
In file included from /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/DBIXS.h:31,
                 from Oracle.h:13,
                 from oci8.c:11:
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/dbipport.h:227:1: warning: "PERL_UNUSED_DECL" redefined
In file included from /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBI/DBIXS.h:19,
                 from Oracle.h:13,
                 from oci8.c:11:
/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/CORE/perl.h:163:1: warning: this is the location of the previous definition
oci8.c: In function `fetch_cleanup_rset':
oci8.c:582: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
oci8.c: In function `fetch_func_rset':
oci8.c:606: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
oci8.c: In function `ora_st_fetch':
oci8.c:1550: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
oci8.c:1557: warning: unused variable `Perl___notused'
oci8.c: At top level:
oci8.c:563: warning: 'fetch_func_nty' defined but not used
Running Mkbootstrap for DBD::Oracle ()
chmod 644 Oracle.bs
rm -f blib/arch/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so
gcc  -shared -L/usr/local/lib Oracle.o dbdimp.o oci8.o -L/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/lib/ -L/usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/rdbms/lib/   -lclntsh   `cat /usr/local/oracle/product/10.2.0/lib/
sysliblist` -ldl -lm   -o blib/arch/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so   \
        \
  
chmod 755 blib/arch/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so
cp Oracle.bs blib/arch/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.bs
chmod 644 blib/arch/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.bs
/usr/bin/perl "-Iblib/arch" "-Iblib/lib" ora_explain.PL ora_explain
Extracted ora_explain from ora_explain.PL with variable substitutions.
cp ora_explain blib/script/ora_explain
/usr/bin/perl "-MExtUtils::MY" -e "MY->fixin(shift)" blib/script/ora_explain
Manifying blib/man1/ora_explain.1
Manifying blib/man3/DBD::Oracle.3pm
Manifying blib/man3/DBD::Oraperl.3pm

After all that, there no other thing than install it:

[vms-dbserver DBD-Oracle-1.17]# make install 
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBD/Oracle/ocitrace.h
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBD/Oracle/mk.pm
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBD/Oracle/dbdimp.h
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.bs
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.so
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.h
Files found in blib/arch: installing files in blib/lib into architecture dependent library tree
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/Oraperl.pm
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/oraperl.ph
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/DBD/Oracle.pm
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/DBD/Oracle/GetInfo.pm
Installing /usr/share/man/man1/ora_explain.1
Installing /usr/share/man/man3/DBD::Oracle.3pm
Installing /usr/share/man/man3/DBD::Oraperl.3pm
Installing /usr/bin/ora_explain
Writing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/DBD/Oracle/.packlist
Appending installation info to /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/perllocal.pod

Test once again, if you get your prompt once again after executing it, without any spilled error messages, you are all done.

perl -e 'use DBD::Oracle'

My kind of winter

Well, at least, and leaving aside the problem with the server at the NOC, the weather is with me all the way.
We had a rainy morning, a very, very nice rainy morning, followed by a little sun during the evening; but cold thought the whole day.
Real cold.

One thing of the weather forecast page form Argentina is that they don't seem to have an icon for the Moon, even if it is dead of night; yes a starry one, but certainly without a Sun around.

NO(C) problems

Being with a semi emergency since Saturday afternoon, with one of the servers on the NOC.
Luckily, it didn't blow my plans to go to my best friend's wife birthday during Saturday night, but it surely put a chain on Sunday and most of Monday.
I have having to go to the NOC, but I specially hate all the bureaucracy involved with the thing, they all act like they were holding the meaning of life in there; today I had to go thru a 2 and fucking half hours of nothing but wait till they let me in.
Sometimes, not many, I hate life.

Enable SSL certs on dovecot

Edit the dovecot configuration file, /etc/dovecot.conf, make sure to uncoment the lines:

ssl_disable = no
ssl_cert_file = /etc/pki/dovecot/certs/dovecot.pem
ssl_key_file = /etc/pki/dovecot/private/dovecot.pem

Then you need to modify the files 'dovecot.pem' to match the hostname of your mail server, to do so, you have to regenerate those files, dovecot provides a shell script to do so '/usr/share/doc/dovecot-1.0/examples/mkcert.sh' and a simple configuration file to load the values to that file '/etc/pki/dovecot/dovecot-openssl.cnf'.

So, first of all, you have to edit the file to suit the values of your own mail server, so make a copy of the file first:

cp /etc/pki/dovecot/dovecot-openssl.cnf /etc/pki/dovecot/dovecot-openssl.cnf.ORIG

And then edit it with your favorite text editor, once you are done, you can execute the shell script, the only thing that you might want to change is the default duration of the generated cert, 356 days, for something longer, to do so, edit the file '/usr/share/doc/dovecot-1.0/examples/mkcert.sh', specifically the line 36, like this:

## -----------------------------------------------                                                                                          
## $OPENSSL req -new -x509 -nodes -config $OPENSSLCONFIG -out $CERTFILE -keyout $KEYFILE -days 365 || exit 2                                
## -----------------------------------------------                                                                                          
$OPENSSL req -new -x509 -nodes -config $OPENSSLCONFIG -out $CERTFILE -keyout $KEYFILE -days 3650 || exit 2

But, before, editing the file, as usual, make a copy of it:

cp /usr/share/doc/dovecot-1.0/examples/mkcert.sh /usr/share/doc/dovecot-1.0/examples/mkcert.sh.ORIG

And then, execute the script:

sh /usr/share/doc/dovecot-1.0/examples/mkcert.sh

The script won't run if you have the built in cert and key, so make a copy of those first, and then delete the originals:

cd /etc/pki/dovecot/private/
mv dovecot.pem dovecot.pem.ORIG
rm -f dovecot.pem <- No need to really

cd /etc/pki/dovecot/certs/
mv dovecot.pem dovecot.pem.ORIG
rm -f dovecot.pem <- No need to really

As a side note, upon executing the script '/usr/share/doc/dovecot-1.0/examples/mkcert.sh' I got this error:

[root@webs10]# sh /usr/share/doc/dovecot-1.0/examples/mkcert.sh
Generating a 1024 bit RSA private key
......................++++++
..............++++++
writing new private key to '/etc/pki/dovecot/private/dovecot.pem'
-----
problems making Certificate Request
19201:error:0D07A097:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_mbstring_ncopy:string too long:a_mbstr.c:154:maxsize=2

The problem was the country code, since I was trying to incorrectly use 'USA', instead of 'US'.

The day e-commerce stood still (???)

Apparently, Amazon is down???
Haven't seeing this before.

Here is an update from CNET: Amazon suffers U.S. outage on Friday

Sidenote, the outage, dear CNET, it is for outside the US too, but we monkeys don't count :p

Today went for real

It happened for real, yesterday's was just a rehearsal...
My ISP left me without internet access for something close to an hour and half this morning, A "problem on the area", according to the Tech Support drone that got my call.

Being left without internet sucks, but it specially sucks when you loose it first thing in the morning.

Cold turkey for an hour +

The God damn LinkSys crashed on me and left me for an hour without internet access ARRRGHGHG!!!!!!!
And the worst was that I didn't even thought the cause of all that crap was the dreadful WiFi router piece of shit! So I have spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get someone on the technical support side to see if the ISP was having a problem on my neighborhood.

The modern world!

One drag to rule them all

I just found another program that will allow you to mimic the "Alt + drag" of X 11 on Windows, that is, to move or resize a window like you can do on X Window. Like this one and this one does for Os X.

It is called "Taekwindow" and it does this:

"is a simple, lightweight and free program that allows you to manipulate floating windows in Microsoft Windows in a way similar to many X11 window managers."

It is good to see that there are more of them, I was aware of only for Windows.

Installing Rootkit Hunter on CentOS 5

Actually, it is pretty much the same for any other Linux.
Download it, untar it, cd' inside it, and then:

[root@webs10 rkhunter-1.3.2]# ./installer.sh --layout default --install
Checking system for:
 Rootkit Hunter installer files: found. OK
 Available file retrieval tools:
    wget: found. OK
Starting installation/update

Checking PREFIX /usr/local: exists, and is writable. OK
Checking installation directories:
 Directory /usr/local/share/doc/rkhunter-1.3.2: creating: OK.
 Directory /usr/local/share/man/man8: exists, and is writable. OK
 Directory /etc: exists, and is writable. OK
 Directory /usr/local/bin: exists, and is writable. OK
 Directory /usr/local/lib: exists, and is writable. OK
 Directory /var/lib: exists, and is writable. OK
 Directory /usr/local/lib/rkhunter/scripts: creating: OK.
 Directory /var/lib/rkhunter/db: creating: OK.
 Directory /var/lib/rkhunter/tmp: creating: OK.
 Directory /var/lib/rkhunter/db/i18n: creating: OK.
 Installing check_modules.pl: OK.
 Installing check_update.sh: OK.
 Installing check_port.pl: OK.
 Installing filehashmd5.pl: OK.
 Installing filehashsha1.pl: OK.
 Installing showfiles.pl: OK.
 Installing stat.pl: OK.
 Installing readlink.sh: OK.
 Installing backdoorports.dat: OK.
 Installing mirrors.dat: OK.
 Installing os.dat: OK.
 Installing programs_bad.dat: OK.
 Installing programs_good.dat: OK.
 Installing defaulthashes.dat: OK.
 Installing md5blacklist.dat: OK.
 Installing suspscan.dat: OK.
 Installing rkhunter.8: OK.
 Installing ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: OK.
 Installing CHANGELOG: OK.
 Installing FAQ: OK.
 Installing LICENSE: OK.
 Installing README: OK.
 Installing WISHLIST: OK.
 Installing language support files: OK.
 Installing rkhunter: OK.
 Installing rkhunter.conf: OK.
Installation finished.

After installing it, the first thing you have to do is update it:

[root@webs10 rkhunter-1.3.2]# rkhunter --update

Now, you have to edit the Root Kit Hunter config file -on the newer Rootkit Hunter versions, it is the /etc/rkhunter.conf file, the older ones, /usr/local/etc/rkhunter.conf- in order to use the Package Manager of your Linux distro, for Redhatish distros, use:

PKGMGR=RPM

And now, you must create the rkhunter.dat file, it is very important to create and only create this file if you know for a fact that the box you are installing Root Kit Hunter has not been compromised.

[root@webs10 rkhunter-1.3.2]# rkhunter --propupd

You can now test it, like this:

[root@webs10 rkhunter-1.3.2]# rkhunter -c

And then, when you are thru playing with it, create a shell script like the one below, so you can invoke it from a cronjob, it will send an email to the root account on the server, if problems arise when executed (root's emails are forwarded, right?):

#!/bin/sh

/usr/local/bin/rkhunter --update
/bin/nice -n +19 /usr/local/bin/rkhunter --cronjob --report-warnings-only --createlogfile | /bin/mail -s "RKH daily run `/bin/hostname`" root

# EoF #

Then, make it executable:

chmod 0700 /path/to/script/script.sh

If you get an email with a message like this:

Warning: Hidden file found: /usr/share/man/man1/..1.gz: gzip compressed data, from Unix, max compression
One or more warnings have been found while checking the system.
Please check the log file (/var/log/rkhunter.log)

You can actually add that file to the Root Kit Hunter config file, so you won't get that same notification via email every day (of course, make sure it is a valone data and that it is not reportin
g you that your server got 0wned :p )

ALLOWHIDDENFILE=/usr/share/man/man1/..1.gz

Current widgets

My current Dashboard setup, haven't post it in quite a long while.

The ones that stayed behind

I was browsing thru my CDs the other day, I have all my CDs ripped and on iTunes, looking for any that perhaps escaped the ripping.

Found out two:



Real Live - Bob Dylan

Autobahn - Kraftwerk



I really don't remember why I skipped those when ripped the CD collection, about 2 years + ago... Specially the Bob Dylan one.

She turned 50

Judith got to her 50's without a scratch on it.

The iTunes Library is hopeless

The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error ocurred (-51)

This is a first timer for me... Popped up about an hour ago.
Clicked Ok on it, and continued to listen to my music with out any problem whatsoever.
Closed iTunes, re opened it, no problem at all.

There are a lot of Google pages dealing with this, all of them with different error codes, the most common seems to be the number 50.

Google: The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error ocurred (-51)

Os X love & joy, after all this time

Haven't made an Os X post in a while, specially a screenshot one, in quite a while, actually, all of it because of the crappy Tango and it's wobbly and corporate Windows Vista.

I've been trying to start to use more and more my beloved Os X boxes again, and leave the Vista for all the email and related stupid stuff from work.

Ironic because from Windows, I specially hate Outlook, because sometimes -many times- it simple hangs (or sort of hiccups itself, for not saying sh*ts itself, while laughing at you, with no apparent pattern) leaving you with a white Outlook window for a couple of minutes.

Bunk buddies (sort of)

Tango on top, and Trantor on the bottom.
My current setup for file sharing and DVD writting, the piece of crap of Tango does not have a DVD burner, only CDs.
On the back, always a little shy, Judith, the OpenBSD beauty.

iptables on the go

I usually use a shell script that loads the rules to the iptables on the Linux box, but, if I'm in hurry, and have to close down the access of a newly acquired server, hosted somewhere, I make a copy of the default rules, the one that they created during the install, and then edit those rule to make it easier on the eyes, and then close down what ever I don't want open, or limit the access to the IPs/ network that I want to.

This gives me time till I can really close things on the server,


Default rules:

# Firewall configuration written by system-config-securitylevel
# Manual customization of this file is not recommended.
*filter
:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:RH-Firewall-1-INPUT - [0:0]
-A INPUT -j RH-Firewall-1-INPUT
-A FORWARD -j RH-Firewall-1-INPUT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p icmp --icmp-type any -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p 50 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p 51 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p udp --dport 5353 -d 224.0.0.251 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 631 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 21 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
COMMIT

Custom rules:

# Firewall configuration written by system-config-securitylevel
# Manual customization of this file is not recommended.
*filter
:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:RH-Firewall-1-INPUT - [0:0]
-A INPUT -j RH-Firewall-1-INPUT
-A FORWARD -j RH-Firewall-1-INPUT

#############################################
## Loopback
#############################################
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT

#############################################
## Ping requests
#############################################
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -i eth0 -p icmp --icmp-type 8 -j ACCEPT

#############################################
## Established connections are maintained
#############################################
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -i eth0 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

#############################################
## SSH
#############################################
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.0/255.255.255.0 -d 192.168.12.11 -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 --syn -j ACCEPT

#############################################
## HTTP/ HTTPS
#############################################
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -d 192.168.12.11 -m tcp -p tcp --dport http --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -d 192.168.12.11 -m tcp -p tcp --dport https --syn -j ACCEPT

#############################################
## NTPD server
#############################################
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.12 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport ntp --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.12 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport ntp -j ACCEPT

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport ntp --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport ntp -j ACCEPT

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport ntp --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport ntp -j ACCEPT


#########################
## BEGIN Samba - WinBox01
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport netbios-ns --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport netbios-ns -j ACCEPT

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport netbios-dgm --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport netbios-dgm -j ACCEPT

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport netbios-ssn --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport netbios-ssn -j ACCEPT

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport microsoft-ds --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.13 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport microsoft-ds -j ACCEPT
## END Samba - WinBox01
#######################

#########################
## BEGIN Samba - WinBox02
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport netbios-ns --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport netbios-ns -j ACCEPT

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport netbios-dgm --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport netbios-dgm -j ACCEPT

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport netbios-ssn --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport netbios-ssn -j ACCEPT

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p tcp --dport microsoft-ds --syn -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -i eth0 -s 192.168.12.14 -d 192.168.12.11 -p udp --dport microsoft-ds -j ACCEPT
## END Samba - WinBox02
########################

#############################################
## Close down
#############################################
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -i eth0 -d 192.168.12.11 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
COMMIT

Weather Nirvana (once again)

This last few days were completely amazing, weather wise (actually, they were amazing in every other aspect as well :D )
If everything is OK, this time will really -for good- mark the start of the winter, once and for all.