CafeNinja - All Things Geek and Caffeine

Online vim tutor - web based

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000+01:00

For anyone who wanted to have the most very basic of commands to use in VIM in order to break into the command line world, there is a very good online tutorial which is nice for learning vim from a system that doesn't have it installed. The online version has a specific sub-set of commands which a person would learn from vimtutor, but it is a good start and offers step through video side-by-side.

This might spark the question of "why". The most impressive first reason to learn vim if you aren't using a linux system would be to log into a system as a user to make a text file in a hidden little corner of their home network. I have such a server in the house where there is the shared printer, file shares, media and all home servers are run.

Obviously, this is the gateway drug to wanting to learn more, to run vimtutor once logged into that system and then to go online and look up every key combination available. I still stick to my decision to use vim. I know the vim vs. emacs war is long and the history trails with the text file bodies of the innocent victims. I do personally think that emacs is probably much more extensible, but it is default included in 0 popular operating systems. While every Unix and Linux kernel have vi (vim's grandfather) included and you will never find a system without at least vi.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

MultiBoot LiveUSB - multiple iso + persistence

2012-01-22T15:23:00.000+01:00

I had found a usb multiboot solution some time ago and realized that I had not written about it. I would like to demonstrate an amazing piece of software that does exactly what it claims. It does it so well, that I have purchased two 8Gig USB keys to manage using this software.

The concept is the same as the Ubuntu USB-creator, or even the same as Unetbootin. Both of those tools are only loading a single disk image (.iso) onto a usb key (typically 1G). These tools are amazingly useful to try out liveCD versions of linux distributions without a full blown hard drive install, but also not at the mind-numbing slowness of a proper CD Burn as the CD-Rom devices are so much slower than disk access that you no longer get an experience for an alternative operating system that is enjoyable.

Both of the tools I have already mentioned have over the last year and a half come to incorporate also a persistence mode which means that unlike a burned CD, a usb key in persistence mode with extra space is able to maintain updates across reboots. So if you add an application to a livecd .iso on usb key using one of those tools with the addition of persistence mode then any application installed would be persistent the next time the usb key was used for a reboot.

Being a very demanding geek, the idea of a collection of usb keys with single unique linux distributions seemed too troublesome. One key for installing Ubuntu on machines of folks who are converting. Another key with rescueCD on it for diagnostics and data recovery. Another key for me to try out the latest version of distros. And so the list goes on, and then I end up with a small grocery bag filled with 1Gig usb keys each unlabeled and with unique purpose.

Enter the best usb boot tool I have found to date. MultiBoot LiveUSB. This software is truly amazing. Will manage as many distro's/livecd's that the usb key can store. Will let you load as just the live version or _also_ with persistence. There are some limitations to which distro's have persistence available. Most of those limitation have to do with the manner in which the .iso's are made. The tool also allows you to remove old distro's and add new ones. The tool also has a list of distro's known to work which looks like the majority listing of distro's from Distrowatch.

I can't say enough about this tool. An affordable 8G usb key can now be turned into a virtual "swiss army knife" of bootable linux distro's. It supports much more and my description of the software here is abbreviated. The website is in original french, but the application has been translated into many languages. Seems at this time there is no windows or mac port of this app, so you need linux to manage it. So just to be ironic, maybe you make a persistence install on a usb key with this application installed to manage all other usb keys.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 017

2012-01-21T20:30:00.001+01:00

Episode 17. I'm proud to present the latest entry into the Tin Foil Hat Show Archive :). Only a minor rant but I think a good discussion. I did hope to have more stuff for the interwebbing section of the show, maybe I'll do an extended segment on the next show.

This episode's Podcast review was of the The Command Line by Thomas Gideon. I've done a review of this podcast back in June of 2009. And I have to say that over the time the quality of the podcast is the same, the output much more regular than mine and I would recommend this show to anyone as much today as I would have back in 2009 if you had asked.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post from the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 016

2011-11-26T20:29:00.000+01:00

Episode 16. Well, the edits on this show were a joy (means there were none). But it did take me quite a bit longer to finally get back to my desk for this. I won't blame the recently soft-moded wii, but it sure didn't help

This episode's Podcast review was of the Jimmy Dore's political podcast. I think it's an absolute comedy gold mine. I smile if I don't laugh. I really enjoy it since it brings the comedy of the late night Comedy Network shows to an audio podcast. Those shows have quite a few visuals that don't translate the audio divide, but this one is all audio, all the time. And with all the difficult _real_ news out there, I'm happy to have one more comedy podcast to my mix.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post from the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 015

2011-10-22T20:17:00.000+02:00

Episode 15. Time to talk fast. After missing my release by a week I come to the mic with short and to the point format for the TFH. Trying to improve the output of the show and reduce the editing.

This episode's Podcast review was of the Hacker Public Radio Podcast network. Podcasts by the community for the community it is one of the truly listener driven podcast networks because if the listeners didn't do it, there wouldn't be any. It's a great forum for anyone to produce a one-off show that is important to the individual or even for a short series of podcasts on a single topic without the overhead of a complete podcast production payload. Make sure you go look at the list of shows they have, and if you would like for there to be a show on your favorite topic....well then there is no excuse, it's time for you to make it!

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Mobilize PGP - IOS vs. Android

2011-10-02T15:12:00.003+02:00

I have recently considered GPG quite a bit. I can imagine quite a few uses for which is it not generally used that could greatly increase the authenticity of the internet, while at the same time generating a real world "web of trust" which if were as common in the vernacular as "Facebook" then many of our issues today on the net could be resolved.

I've demonstrated with a Tin Foil Hat listener how easy it is to set up gpg and use it with one of several desktop email clients. I would have to say that I think desktop email support for gpg is a fairly common feature. But I then thought that for my work and personal emails, I tend to process quite a bit of that on my mobile devices. Mostly these messages are for consumption and processing and don't have a high security requirement. But with both my ipod touch and my andoid mobile phone I thought I'd run the two head to head to discover what might be available and at what price.

Please also understand that this comparison does not enter into commercial phylosophy, political alignments or any kind of sponsorship agenda. I just wanted to know which of the two device platforms would allow me to use pgp on a mobile device in the easiest manner.

On my IOS 4.3 iPod Touch 2nd Gen, I did find some application offerings for PGP (commercial version of gpg) which either cost ~$50 or ~$4 for decrypt only. I found no applications which used gpg, but that might be due to the gpl limitations in the iTunes App Store.

On my Android phone I had already installed the APG app which is free in price. This is the pgp portion of the solution since the native google mail app is great for the interface, it doesn't support pgp at all. Then I discovered the K9 mail applicaiton which is also free and works direclty with APG for encryption support and it really does work. I was impressed as well, K9 is very similar to the google mail app while maybe being even a bit more responsive.

So, in conclusion if gpg encrypted or signed email is critical to you or your work I would strongly recommending an Android phone with APG + K9 mail.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 014

2011-09-18T23:36:00.000+02:00

Episode 14. Back after family vacation and returning to the normal school schedule the Tin Foil Hat show returns with episode 14. Where topics turn into rants, errata galore, disclaimers are made and gpg is proven easy.

This episode's Podcast review was of the Jim Hightower Lowdown. From acclaimed author and political commentator Jim Hightower. Don't go looking for another Daily Show or Stephen Colbert, this is real commentary made with real supporting evidence and citations like real journalism.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Featured Interview on The Frostcast - Part Deux

2011-08-01T19:27:00.001+02:00

Oops, I did it again. With the help of Jonathan Nadeau, and making another appearance on the Frostcast. In this episode we had a very specific discussion on the personal cloud project that I'm working on at the house.

We talk about the hardware and the server applications being run up to present in more detail than I've covered on the Tin Foil Hat Show to date. So please, check out his podcast.

I did discover during this interview that the shownotes for the Tin Foil Hat show are handi-accessible which makes me very happy. As always I had a great time chatting with Jonathan, and I'm really looking forward to more from him in the future. I've linked to Jonathan's welcome announcement at the FSF's intern program. And make sure to stay tuned to all the Frostbitemedia podcasts to hear about his upcoming projects that he told me about off-line.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 013

2011-07-24T04:08:00.000+02:00

Episode 13. Glad I'm not superstitious. In this episode I try to cover a lot quick due to my personal interruptions. I'll try to be better, but raises a point. Would you rather hear CafeNinja in low quality recordings from the road, or wait for better quality recordings when back home? Write in, let me know. Also, a very brief update on the Personal Cloud.

This episode's Podcast review involved all the podcasts from Frostbite Media. If you don't know the man, get to know the content. Jonathan Nadeau star of his own network.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Featured Interview on The Frostcast

2011-06-10T17:22:00.001+02:00

Hey CafeNinja fans, yes there is one of you. I just wanted to say that I was interviewed on Jonathan Nadeau's podcast called the Frostcast in association with his entire Frostbite empire.

I have a lot of respect for Johnathan and try to treat him as any other of our geek peers as he has done an amazing job of standing on his own and being independent. If you want to know more about why that may or may not be impressive, please visit his blog site, store and 4 podcasts he produces and be as impressed with him as I am.

In this interview (which was long) we talk about a wide range of topics most of which are Tin Foil Hat related, so please go find his Frostcast feed or search for "Frostcast" in iTunes, and have a listen. Probably you should subscribe since I will be doing a follow up interview with him in regards to my personal cloud server experiment. Never mind that he has great content and has had some really good interviews.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 012

2011-05-30T23:17:00.000+02:00

Episode 12. In this episode there were updates on a few bits of legislation that are going through and I get on my soapbox a little bit more than usual. I gave a quick update on the Personal Cloud project and remind everyone to double check any extensions as new flavors of Firefox are coming up and just around the corner.

This episode's Podcast review was The Kernel Panic Oggcast. I also talk about oggcasts as well as ways to play them.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 011

2011-05-07T19:18:00.001+02:00

Episode 11. In this episode a visit to a few of the places online which have electively or by security failure offered up your personal and private information. A quick mention on how things are different in the attitudes over the generations and a few topics of recent notoriety.

This episode's Podcast review was donated to the SouthEast Linux Festival where I give a quick run-down and play their amusing promo.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

UPDATE: after file corruption reported by user, the uploaded file to the feed has been replaced. You may need to delete the file you have and download it again. I have confirmed that the Episode 11 file currently in the Tin Foil Hat feed is valid and not corrupted.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Podcast Review Promo material

2011-04-04T21:39:00.001+02:00

I'm a bad podcaster, but I have proven that I am a worse producer.

Here is all the promo material that was sent to me after I requested it. To the defense and credit of these podcasters they were replying to my message that I was ususally sending as recording or just before and none of them really had time to get back to me before post-production was done.

But I did want everyone to hear the promo material that I didn't have for podcasts that I have reviewed that WAS sent to me.

So first for Keith and the Girl, Chema (the glorious) sent me the link to their promo video.

Dann from The Linux Link Tech Show, who I caught on vacation with my request for promo material, sent me the intro music for the show as well as the newest and greatest audio promo for their podcast.

Again, my apologies to the the other podcasters out there that I have "snubbed" by not getting their promo material before I released my podcast, I will confess without exception, that this was always my fault and not theirs.

Enjoy these promo reels and I'll try to give the next "victim" advance notice. :)

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Home Server deployment - Part 1

2011-04-03T14:23:00.000+02:00

So I got a home server (nettop system dual core atom). I'm migrating my current server applications from the wife's desktop (always on) system to the new low power consumption system.

Here is what I ordered:
Shuttle XS35GT Barebones Nettop (No OS) (1.66GHz, 2GB, 500GB, No Monitor)

So I have already migrated dnsmasq (copy config and hosts files), ddclient to update the "way home", nzb grabber and samba which is the method I've gone to since my mythtv setup went bonkers in my 10.10 upgrade.

I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS server to ensure stability. I'm hoping it should prevent issues with stability.

I've got on the list to re-deploy mythtv, asterisk, openarena-server, a LAMP stack with some CMS system that will let the wife have/manage a website, statusnet and if possible I'll try to set up a server to receive the mozilla sync or xmarks in such a way that my "personal cloud" should be close.

I'm making a conscious choice to not migrate email as that system needs to be higher availability and accessibility than my home dsl and system can manage.

I'll try to chronicle my tales here. So far it's been pretty easy to migrate servers by installing the server and then moving the configuration file. The biggest issue so far has been me who forgets network orientation (one IP vs. another) or file permissions. Outside of that, it's been pretty easy.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 010

2011-03-26T19:54:00.001+01:00

Episode 10. In this episode a slightly geeky Tech Talk, as I talk about how to make a multi-boot USB key. Imagine your operating system and personal data in your pocket and able to use 80% of the computers on the planet to boot up and have all of your stuff. Make the "multi" part many, make it few, make it technical, make it fun. I talk about it in this episode of the Tin Foil Hat Show.

Fifth instalment of the podcast review segment. My favorite and only comedy podcast Keith and the Girl. This one is gritty, edgy outta NYC and I think it's a blast.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Indiana Linux Fest :: 25-27 March

2011-03-14T21:00:00.005+01:00

So it turns out that I know someone who is very involved in the organization of the Indiana Linux Fest and he asked me to let the community at large know.

This is their first year and while there is no way for me to cross the Atlantic to be there, this looks like one of the best organized inagural year linux fests I've ever seen. Doubt me, read on...still doubt then visit the site for the Indiana Linux Fest and then ... Believe!

I'm going to post their promotional material here. Please do try to attend if you are in the area, not only for awareness, not only for the cool speaker tracts they have planned but also just to show support. Remember, the more of us who show up at these the more likely things get kicked off for another one next year or more get scheduled and planned support the community by just showing up, being counted and having your voice and presence mean something.

Here are the words from our friends at ILF, make sure you read the notes on the Prizes, yep..Prizes.

Indiana Linuxfest is proud to announce our first annual Linuxfest on March 25th to March 27th in 2011. This event will be a conference put on by The Indiana F/oss Society.

Indiana LinuxFest is about community, information, and friends. We strive to bring the F/OSS Community together for more than just
information gathering, we want a place for people to network, communicate, and have a good time.

We want to give you and other members of the community a Linuxfest worth writing home about. The events being planned include community driven talks given by other great people in the Free Linux Open Source Software (FLOSS) community. A Professional Day where we will have talks geared more towards professionals in the Linux and Open Source world, a Hackerspace Village which will focus on all kinds of hacking, from lockpicking to various forms of hardware hacking as well as arduino hacking and a LPI Exam Cram class. This will be a first for any Linuxfest to feature something like the Hackerspace Village.. We will also feature Linux Professional Institute testing and a Drupal camp. At Indiana Linuxfest you will be sure to come away with new found knowledge, new friends, and a few good stories to tell.
===========================
A special promotion for all Supporter and LPI Exam Cram passes. Every 50th registered pass will recieve either a Nook Color or a Archos 70.
===========================

We are still looking for sponsors. If you or your company would like to sponsor our event just head over to our website and fill out the sponsorship form, it's that easy! Not only will you be helping us out but you will gain more exposure, come for the benefits, stay for the good times!

There you go! I can't get there. I'd appreciate it if you get there, let Lord_D know that CafeNinja kept his word.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 009

2011-03-14T01:31:00.000+01:00

Episode 9. The discussion of bringing your web services back to you along with a discussion of your information and what value it has.

In this episode I also offer my first support for a Linux Festival in the Podcast Review section of the show. The Indiana Linux Fest will be kicking off their inaugural event on the 25-27 March and I was asked to send out the word. I have the promo in the podcast and I'll make a special blog post tomorrow with additional details.

Forth instalment of the podcast review segment (I might have to stop counting soon). I discussed our friends over at The Linux Link Tech Show and talk about the crew over there.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Patriot Act, still?!?!

2011-03-06T03:05:00.000+01:00

I know that the Patriot Act has already received it's extension on life with only minor powers added. I'm releived that the normal extension time of two years was reduced a good deal.

Folks, I think most of you know where I might stand on this issue if you have read my blog at all for the last two years. I feel that the patriot act and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security were the two worst possible answers to the events of 9/11 than could possibly be imagined. I have my reasons for this and I didn't write this to debate them at the moment.

I just wanted to take a moment to ask that even if you disagree with me, stop and consider with a critical eye the Patriot Act legistation, why it was created and what purpose it serves today.

If you are one of the free-thinkers who already agrees with me and feel like I'm "preaching to the choir" please take this chance to grab one or both of these posters provided from the ACLU website and put it on your blog, email it to your favorite mailing list or post it in your community bulletin board as your active participation in awareness.

In my good book the meek inherit nothing because the pigs ate it all. Don't be one of the silent who lets the world spin on without knowing how YOU felt about the things that happened in your time. Find your voice for this if nothing else.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 008

2011-02-27T22:50:00.001+01:00

Episode 8. My first "Tech Talk" episode where I will dive into the Trucrypt software. I do hope that someone out there might actually discover that privacy on a personal computer does still exist and can be accomplished wihtout needing to be an elite hacker or a programmer. I would be remiss if I didn't confess that I hope to hear feedback on this episode to see how people besides myself use the software in their day-to-day and keep their personal private data secure and way from prying eyes.

Third instalment of the podcast review segment appears in this episode. I reviewed No Agenda and their political podcast which has it's own unique "tin foil hat" qualities too.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 007

2011-02-13T02:06:00.000+01:00

Episode 7. I had guilt as to my late release, so I made up for it in this and this episode is a little longer than usual. I'm thinking to bring up some of the topics that didn't make it into the show here in the blog. But I am also hesitant to do that since I really do want that in the show. I've more thinking to do on that.

Second podcast review appears in this episode. I reviewed my other partner in crime at The Fuzion Podcast network K5TUX and his QSK podcast.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Guest Appearance on The Linux Link Tech Show

2011-02-02T01:37:00.000+01:00

Hey CafeNinja fans. Ok, fan. In November of 2010 I was a guest host on TLLTS Podcast. Recently I was also a guest and was interviewed on the show. It ran so long that it got dropped into the TLLTS feed as a single episode.

Feel free to go listen and I would highly recommend you listen to the show and add it to your podcast feed if you haven't already. They guys there are a lot of fun to listen to, but don't expect them to stay on topic, if you do, you will be disappointed. If you liked the interview with me be sure to send

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 006

2011-01-17T10:05:00.000+01:00

Episode 6. I feel this one was strong and I tried to use some of my "big words" when feeling like swearing. I do think this one was a slightly stronger showing than my last one. I really am sorry this one was late out, with business travel, holidays and small crisis at home I got delayed a lot more than I had intended.

First podcast review appears in this episode. I reviewed my partners in crime at The Fuzion Podcast network, that is the boys from Alt3red Egos and their comic book podcast, listen to the show to know what I had to say about them.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download by the time you read this. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

2010-12-21T19:29:00.000+01:00

Well, it turns out that I can read. I know, who would have thunk? I did a review of "Atlas Shrugged" with Dann Washko from TLLTS (look it up if you don't know). Stranger still is that Dann can read too!

So we were talking it over and decided to do a book review which wasn't really the content for either of our podcasts, so we recorded it and set it up to HPR and it got dropped!!!

If you are interested in hearing what Dann and I had to say then please go listen to the podcast and offer feedback for Dann and I who are actually talking about reviewing other books that we have both read.

CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 005

2010-12-04T15:03:00.001+01:00

Episode 5. Not my best work, but still appliciable. I'm just doing my best to keep my eye on the prize for the bi-weekly release date.

I have had no response to the call for feedback on the introduction of the "podcast review" segment of the show, so I'll start producing that with episode 6.

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download by the time you read this. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Let's start talking about keys

2010-12-01T21:28:00.003+01:00

I have received quite a few requests after the last Tin Foil Hat Show asking for gpg keys to be shared so that webs of trust could be built. While I won't be able to organize a key sharing party like the one described in "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow, I do believe in the security and trust levels that are supported by GPG keys.

I'd like to offer my key for the Tin Foil Hat Show as the contact point for key sharing. I would be happy to sign, read or verify anyone's key if you wish to share it. My key is "0x5110932D" and you should be able to import tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com from hkp://pgp.mit.edu:11371 or hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371 as I have uploaded them there.

If you have created a key based on Tin Foil Hat Show, make sure you export them to a keyserver so that it can be validated as a real key. I look forward to anyone who would like to test their keys or signatures out writing to tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com.

CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 004

2010-11-20T20:29:00.001+01:00

Success!! Well, my bar is low. I have made it to Episode 4. I've really appreciated the feedback and participation in the podcast so far. You guys are a real credit to "fans". Please find the link to the feed on the right of the blog or here.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Promo

2010-11-13T10:16:00.001+01:00

For promo's of the Tin Foil Hat Show, please feel free to download and use with authorization of the original artist the following mp3 files:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/396749/TFH-promo-1m.mp3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/396749/TFH-promo-29sec.mp3

Thanks for spreading the word, if you use the promo in your show please let me know in the comments so I can return the favor.

CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

CLI - Vim and Awk

2010-11-11T20:10:00.003+01:00

Vim and awk. It is great to make a list, then modify that list and save it out. These types of tools are why using any text editor on Linux is way more powerful than on the competition's operating system. Just like with most solutions in Linux is that the tools are probably too many and do too much so the first steps are overwhelming with choices.

While a use case that doesn't happen every day here is the quick geek-mode of explaining a recent use I had. Situation: home server runs dnsmasq (dns and dhcp server) for the home network. I needed to ping assigned IP's for a monitoring script. This is the geek-mode of explaining what I did. With the resulting screenshot.

$vim fake-hosts

This makes the new empty file.

:r !cat /etc/hosts

Fills the file with the current hosts file contents. I've cleaned up comments and lines that won't change by using "dd" to delete the self referring IP's and lines that start with "#" since they aren't really IP addresses

%!awk '{print "ping "$1}'

This takes the IP column and prints it as the second column while creating a new first column with only the word 'ping' and notice that there is the space included inside the double quotes.

Remember, if you make a mistake with one of these that while in the CMD mode of vim the keyboard command "u" does undo just as you might expect it should.

This process works differently than a search and replace where you need to change the subnet, it would make since to just do a search and replace of "168.0." -> "168.2." which would replace only that value.

This process works if you need to do transitive work on a text file that isn't a csv format. Note that with this tool it is easy to take a list of results and make a csv with something like %!awk '{print $1 ", " $2 ", " $3}' and the 3 column file turns into a csv. But wait, the original is correct, but in the wrong order, make your corrected csv with the following -> %!awk '{print $2 ", " $3 ", " $1}' with awesome results.

Play with it, have fun.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

MythTv troubles

2010-11-08T19:30:00.000+01:00

Well, I have had a couple of issues this month with mythtv. I should clarify that statement, not with mythtv so much per se as with the mythtv frontend builds.

On my home network during the run of Ubuntu 10.04 I had the server, 4 Ubuntu desktops and 2 Mac's all using the mythserver that was in the standard 10.04(.01) repo's without any issues.

When Ubuntu 10.10 was released I did a single clean install on my netbook to ensure the clean install went well and there were no other issues when I discovered that the 10.10 Ubutnu mythtv backend and frontend had been upgraded to 0.23+patches (build 26437).

While independently this gave me no worries since I knew once I upgraded all Ubuntu machines everything would jive up and be right with the world. And to their Apple-ish credit, as long as I did just that, everything worked out dandy and without issue. Five complete in-line upgrades of the server and desktops and all worked smashingly well.

Oh, save two. Turns out there haven't been any "nightly" builds of the MacOS version of the frontend of myth using the 26437 build, so any version of the mythtv frontend of MacOS just fails claiming the database is 9 versions too old.

This issue would normally not even raise an eyebrow since one of the two machines actually dual-boots to Ubuntu so I can watch from that side however the last machine in question would be the Mac Mini in the living room attached to the large screen TV. When it's easy, the family is good at managing the situation and watching their media in comfort, but now, I have no answer and only hope and pray someone updates the MacOS frontend.

I love open source and I know this is one of the perils of version control that isn't strictly released and maintained by some monster company. But I would like for this article to serve as advise for anyone deploying "systems" or "servers" on their own. Beware, there is a reason why SysAdmins and Network Eng get paid the money they do and it is very easy for a home user to forget to check such things and he/she should do their due diligence if they don't want to break things that they and their family depend on, which happens if you build it well :)

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 003

2010-11-06T18:09:00.000+01:00

As an additional appointment in the continuing saga that is the Tin Foil Hat Show, it would seem that episode 003 has been dropped in the feed. Please find the link to the feed on the right of the blog or here.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions shouldn't change.

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Fan Support

2010-10-28T20:03:00.001+02:00

I'd like to make a huge call out to Bernd, a Tin Foil Hat Show listener. He found the show notes interesting enough and made a plugin for gpodder to get the show notes out. I want to say a few things on this and they are not in order of priority:

1.) WOW man, that is frackin' cool! I am way impressed and good on ya!
2.) This is EXACTLY what "open source" and "community" are all about.
3.) I am moved by your engagement with the show and I hope to keep the goodness coming for as long as I have listeners like yourself.

In short, Thanks Bernd!!! In long, Bernd, you are awesome for coding this tool and more awesome for making it available. I hope this post makes you rock-star famous. And how you managed to find the username "Bread" to be free, I'll never know.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Update

2010-10-27T13:10:00.000+02:00

Thanks to the anonymous listener who commented on my Tin Foil Hat Show post for episode 001, who let me know there was an issue with the images in the files. While I have posted the files individually in the posts for episode 001 and 002 the files in the podcast feed have been replaced and you should be able to either download them again or use the images in those posts. This shouldn't be an issue moving forward since the production team are now aware of how/what I'm doing with that jpeg.

Enjoy the future shows and thanks again for the feedback.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 002

2010-10-26T18:25:00.003+02:00

As an additional appointment in the continuing saga that is the Tin Foil Hat Show, it would seem that episode 002 has been dropped in the feed. Please find the link to the feed on the right of the blog or here.

I'd like to thank Seawn from the Fuzion Podcast Network for the upgraded artwork. Thanks a bunch Seawn, really strong work.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions shouldn't change.

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

------------------------------------------UPDATE------------------------------
It seems that the mp3 file has ID3 tags processed during the workflow to get it in the feed. During these steps the original image becomes corrupted. Here is the original JPEG and I'll work with the production folks to make sure the original mp3 file gets fixed. Sorry for the problems with the commands, I hope that will work correctly in future episodes.

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 001

2010-10-24T13:35:00.002+02:00

Well to answer popular demands I am proud to announce my debut podcast episode on the Fuzion Podcast Network. This is my podcast where I will soap-box about digital human rights, personal security and the online age.

The intro show is the only one posted at the moment, and I won't say too much except to ask you all to be patient and give me a few shows to let it settle out.

I look forward to your feedback, you can send feedback for the show to tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog.

In the show I mention that there would be a couple of commands shared on this post. So in closing, I just want to say to use the following commands to get at the show notes. The number on the text file should change with each episodes, but it will be the only mystery text file in the directory after the other two commands.

eyeD3 --write-image=./ $Filename.mp3
steghide extract -sf FRONT_COVER.jpeg
less tfh-00X.txt

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

-----------------------UPDATE----------------------------

It seems that the mp3 file has ID3 tags processed during the workflow to get it in the feed. During these steps the original image becomes corrupted. Here is the original JPEG and I'll work with the production folks to make sure the original mp3 file gets fixed. Sorry for the problems with the commands, I hope that will work correctly in future episodes.

Apple App store - Best news

2010-10-23T01:04:00.000+02:00

Well, there was an Apple event and the "Master -o- Disaster" opened that hole under his nose to my own personal delight.

While others rant on about the 2nd usb port on the new Air or the "Jobs Reality Distortion Field"™ I was resting, non-plussed. Then came my bombshell.

In the next iteration of the Mac OS X operating system they are going to include a lot of IOS4 features including an app store. Really?!?!?! An app store?!?!? I think only two things, both I mentally scream at the top of my lungs: 1.) No greater validation of an idea that was birthed in Ubuntu 9.10 (to much ridicule) and 2.) fantastic, they will just give me another avenue to speak to and convert mac-heads. I can already imagine the pitch line of "An app store, we have had one in Ubuntu for years!" only to see their eyes light up and beg me to install Ubuntu on their old Mac hardware.

Apple, if the best you can do with OS 10.7 is make an app store and copy Ubuntu, BRING IT ON! I truly used to hold Apple in high regard for their design and user interface features, but this single action has pushed them to the modest position of "even" with Ubuntu and truthfully, a step behind since they had to copy it and there is "prior art".

Long Live Ubuntu. Thanks Mac. You are no longer my hero, just my pimp.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Fun CLI uses

2010-10-09T18:21:00.000+02:00

So if nothing we have learned that command line interfaces are not for novice users, very efficient, loved by CafeNinja and usually very boring and never any fun.

Well that isn't quite true. I follow one my my favorite sites commandlinefu.com and have in the last few weeks seen some great fun uses of commands that can make anyone look to be a command line ninja with no further training.

The first command that I noticed makes use of a ncurses dialog box. The command reads like this:

"dialog --gauge "Processing..." 6 40 36" This defines a progress par that has reached 36 percent with the other numbers being the measure of the progress box. This doesn't "do" anything, it is stuck in this way and uses no resources, but can make you look quite busy "processing" something. It looks like the image I've put here. You make it go away by just pressing Ctrl+C.

The next one make the screen just spew gibberish from the random number generator. The only "problem" with this one is that it can drive even new processors to spike 100%, even worse than a run away flash page. I added the "timelimit" command portion to prevent this running on a system that I'm not watching closely. The command itself is 'cat /dev/urandom | hexdump -d |grep "25"', and will run crazy on your cpu. My version is : 'timelimit -t120 cat /dev/urandom | hexdump -d |grep "25"' This looks like this:

There are other commands that can actually make the progress bar count up like "for i in `seq 0 100`;do timeout 6 dialog --gauge "Install..." 6 40 "$i";done" which like the first command is only making a dialog box that ins't really doing anything besides counting. Look for your favorite and post them back here. I bet we can make a small collection that if launched and run in an individual Terminator tab could always make you look diligent and beat the crap outta any "Boss key".

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Distro Review: Crunchbang 9.04 + 10 Alpha 2

2010-09-29T19:30:00.000+02:00

My review of Crunchbang Linux (herefore referred to as "#!" for ease of typing). I did manage in the same 48 hour period try and use #! 9.04, 9.04-lite and 10-Alpha2.

The story begins with looking for a smaller footprint distro to put on my son's Asus eeepc 700 which has a dead SSD and is using a 4gb class 4 SD card as a hard drive.

Looked at a few and recalled "Crucheee" (I remembered the name being funny) so I went to look at the Crunchbang website. Where I read that the old CrunchEEE distro was based on 8.10 (following the Ubuntu numbering scheme for which the distro was based) and that the current #! 9.04 had all the support for the EEE built in. As I arrived at the download page I noticed the "lite" version and saw it was a smaller iso file. So I grabbed that, put it on a usb key and installed it.

It runs great. With the low memory footprint and smaller app selection the bottle neck of read/write speed to the SD card is not a huge issue once applications are open. So the verdict:

✔ #! 9.04 Lite on eeepc 700 = Awesome, Fantastic and more.

Then I saw there was a "full" version and though, hey, I have VM space. Let's take that for a spin.
I put it in, same experience with the wonder and grace of the full graphical install of Ubuntu, the software repo's available and a wonderful default configuration for Openbox I was very impressed. So the verdict was:

✔ #! 9.04 Full in VirtualBox = Way Cool. Great Interface, a real treat.

So, I'm realizing that these versions are based on a distro nearly a year old and I think to myself, what would be better would be a newer version, with more current repo's and all the other updates. So I return to the #! website to discover there is a "unstable" version. Enter #! 10 Alpha 2 "Statler". So I just did the sane thing and installed this over top of the #! 9.04 Full Vbox install. Of great importance is to know that the new version of #1 (10) is based on Debian Testing (Squeezy). This changed the rules for the installer (text and blah, but not impossible) and the first impression was the same as with #! 9.04, in fact the conky impression the menu's and most other things didn't change (in the Openbox version) from #! 9.04 -> 10. The #! team has done well to make that experience so similar that the difference is almost unnoticeable. Until you go to install chromium-browser from the repos which was removed 1 month ago from the "testing" branch of Debian. If you can't tell by the tone, that's a fail. There were 3 deb packages that I tried to install from the net (binary blob stuff) all failed on Debian that installed just fine under the Ubuntu 10.10 install I have right next to it. Verdict of #! 10 Alpha 2:

× #! 10 Alpha 2 in VirtualBox = meh.

Total Summary, I'm on a personal quest to install Ubuntu 10.10 add Openbox and "borrow" the default Openbox config files from a #! 9.04 Full install. That way I get the awesome interface on the software/distro platform that offers me a large software repo, comfort zone (used since 2006) and keeps me on the distro that I recommend to folks (eating my own dog food).

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Ubuntu Countdown to 10.10

2010-09-21T19:30:00.001+02:00

With the impending release of the next version of Ubuntu come the normal countdown banners. I'm no exception to the long list of folks who eagerly await each new release.

While at the moment I am not aware of any must have feature, I have been quite happy with the incremental improvements from version to version. I must confess though that the 10.10.10 countdown to so many things commercial is starting to wear on my nerves, but this is one countdown that I think is worth watching out for.

While I won't do a pre-release distro review of Ubuntu 10.10, I will be doing a post release since I have to upgrade all the systems in my home at the same time, so please come back for the full write-up.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

App Review (Update) : tty-clock - working on Ubuntu

2010-09-20T21:56:00.002+02:00

Previously I mentioned an app called tty-clock. I really do like it, but on Ubuntu it didn't quite compile nice so I thought I would give the quick "howto" get it working.

1.) Grab source code and unpack
2.) install the dependencies with "sudo apt-get install ncurses-dev ncurses-runtime ncurses-term"
3**.) Optional--Open the Makefile in the source code folder and change the $INSTALLPATH=/usr/bin/
4.) Terminal in the source code directory and do "make" (should have no errors) and then "sudo make install".

After that the tty-clock should be accessible. For your information I use the flags to display seconds, center the time and set the color to blue. Looks like "tty-clock -s -c -C 6" and I hope that might help you get it working on your Ubuntu system. I've added a screen grab of my clock so you can see what the command does output.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Podcast: Guest appearance on Kernel Panic Oggcast eps. 14

2010-09-19T21:10:00.000+02:00

I have been honored this last weekend to participate on the Kernel Panic Oggcast Episode 14. This podcast is one of the forked oggcasts from the former Linux Cranks Oggcast which I have reviewed previously. On the panel were Azimuth, threethirty, jlindsay, Dann, and the notorious Peter64.

The new Kernel Panic Oggcast keeps in a very similar vein as the old Linux Cranks Podcast by topics and discussions. It has been and still remains safe for work. I have to say that I have quite a bit of respect for everyone who was on the panel and I had a great time.

With most topics on the news and issues of the day there is good friendly banter with the nice mix of inter-cultural vocabulary and references to things being upside down in Australia. All taken in good fun it is always a relaxing conversation with this crew and on more than one occasion they have caused me to open a browser and download and try some new software package.

The panel was in good form, we had some great discussions on there and I really do hope to visit with the guys again in the future, even though it meant I had to be up at 04:00 on a Sunday morning. Tune in and listen for the hint of things to come.

Listen, enjoy, tell me what you thought of the show or the podcast overall.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tip: Googlemail -> Gmail

2010-09-17T19:35:00.001+02:00

If you were one of the folks who signed up at Gmail when the domain assignment was "@googlemail.com" visit your settings page right away. I found a link there that converted mine to a genuine "@gmail.com". You can find that link under Settings->Accounts and Import->Send mail as..->hyperlink to the right that asks "switch to @gmail.com"

While most of us knew that if you wrote to the @gmail.com domain with your @googlemail.com user it would forward and work, but your official login was always with the complete domain name. All of that get's fixed with this click and all the software and apps out there that aren't ready to read in the @googlemail.com domain will work for you.

Check your account and get your free upgrade to the @gmail.com domain today!

-- CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Distro Review - Arch Linux

2010-09-15T19:30:00.001+02:00

I have now given Arch Linux a "fair shake" and while I have not tried to use it as a substitute on my office workstation yet (I will be doing that in the coming week) I did spend a solid 4 days using it exclusively.

Verdict:

======

I would install this on a non-production machine or older machine and be very happy with it. I was completely impressed with it's speed which I blame on every bit of code being compiled on install. I was moderately impressed that between official repos and the AUR I was able to find 99% of the software I was looking for. I would not recommend this to any new Linux user but would happily recommend it to anyone with some Linux experience under their belt. The Arch Wiki was truly impressive for content.

I need to preface my tone with the declaration that I completely expected to not enjoy Arch very much. I am an Ubuntu user now for quite a few years and while that might upset some, it is my pragmatic step to ensure that I have ease of use, a vast repository, and an enormous community. This article is just my opinion. It is in layman's terms and isn't trying to be the technical digest of the Linux community.

It was after a phone call with one of my friends that has fallen completely in love with Arch that I thought to give it another try. I don't normally have a lot of time to review full blown distros just because to learn their quirks and getting to really know a system I feel takes more time than I normally have to spare for that kind of activity.

I like Arch, and that is my official declaration. Official repos plus community maintained. Automatic dependency resolution while compiling all apps in real time. This is a great cross of the speed/performance increases you normally see with a Slackware (custom compiled) system but with the software management ease of apt-get or aptitude.

In fairness, the repo's aren't as large as Ubuntu. But most of my needs were found in the official or community repos. There were only a few apps where source installation was needed. I also must give great credit to the Arch Wiki. While not the prettiest wiki I've ever seen, the documentation on it is accurate and complete. Any reasonably experienced Linux user could follow the guides that are online at the wiki and have no issue using the system (command line time required).

The speed is insane. On a VM using 1/4th of the system resources, large apps (i.e. OpenOffice.org) opened in order of magnitudes faster than on the native OS and hardware.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Command Line Time - tty-clock

2010-09-11T21:24:00.000+02:00

I was playing around with Arch Linux (another blog post soon to follow) and I found a neat little cli application. I should say "cute" instead of neat. I should also put this application find in the context in which I use it.

The find is tty-clock, it is a simple digital clock with only a few options. In my daily pattern I have terminator open with multiple screen sessions to multiple servers. In each of the screen sessions I'm using the byobu (formerly known as screen-profiles) to give myself a "taskbar" for the screen sessions. This app, is then just one horizontal and vertical split in a screen filled with terminator with many tabs and splits already. and it just means that without squinting, I can actually see the time.

This is what tty-clock looks like in action. With just large Atari 2600 generation 8-bit color and date display centered in the open terminator split it is simply understated and serves it's purpose. ->

I did also find binclock.py which is an executable script and while it serves the same purpose is the binary clock version. After downloading, just set the python script to executable and put it in your path (/usr/bin/ or so) and run it. So yet one more split with even more time telling fun.

I do want to give all the credit to the links I found these gems at, I was for the most part cruising and looking for Arch Linux stuff and I came across this stuff. So I found these apps by looking through K.Mandla’s blog, and Yu-Jie Lin's feedburner got me some other stuff. Seems they are cli junkies like me.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Gmail offers multiple account login

2010-08-08T22:42:00.000+02:00

I know I am not the first one to report this and I don't feel like I have "scooped" anyone. But, since I use Gmail quite a bit, and recommend it to many I found this new feature to be one of the most compelling in a while.

You are able to link 3 accounts to a single browser and switch between the 3 from the same browsing experience without closing the browser, playing with your cookies or any kind of hacking at all.

Here's what you do according to the Google Blog post. You need to sign into your "default" account first at http://www.google.com/accounts then you should click on the "Edit" link next to the "Multiple sign-in" feature listed in the first section. By default it should say "off". Then you need to read a few details and click checkboxes to make sure you understand and then you log into your second and 3rd.

I found this all worked, as advertized. One disappointment, is that it is only for the default account and 2 additional. I also, by chance discovered that it is information stored in the browser cookies. So on my dual booting laptop, multiple account sign on wasn't present in the second OS and I had to set it up again, which leads me to believe they are just managing this with a smarter cookie and it may even be on a per browser basis.

Of note!!!! I didn't find a way to remove one of the accounts, so choose your additional two wisely until that changes.

Happy Gmailing.

-- CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Even a Geek - Happy 18th Anniversary

2010-07-01T14:30:00.001+02:00

For those of you who didn't know that CafeNinja was married, it's true. I can now officially acknowledge it since we seem to have gotten over the probation period, the lab testing phase, the second development cycle process, the planning phase, the initial deployment, integration procedure, the alpha and the beta tests and find ourselves in full-blown "production".

After a short 17yr development cycle I call it "official". While I write this post with humor, I have the greatest respect for my wife, lover, confident, nurse, supporter, advisor, financial director, child bringer and best friend of 18yrs.

Love you honey!!! Happy Anniversary.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

sc - command line spreadsheet

2010-06-30T01:25:00.001+02:00

No surprise to folks who read my blog, I really dig on command line apps. Well, after another visit to my favorite web based list for cli apps (thanks Jared Lee) and started to play with sc (available even in Lucid 10.04 repos). This app is for command line spreadsheets.

Command line spreadsheets, well, yes. I actually have a few use cases where a sqlite database would be way over the top but there is some math I would prefer not to do by hand. That's what spreadsheets are good for. sc comes to the rescue.

While I'll confess there is no easy import/export via csv or some other stuff, it is very versatile and does offer a text export which calculates the formulas and shows the layout as if you were using the app. Let me show you a few quick shots.

First, using the app:

Second, the format of the file while being used by sc, bear in mind this is also clear text:

Lastly, this is what the text export of the same document looks like:

I hope this might give you some ideas on how to use this quick, simple and easy to use program in your personal workflow.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Click to support

2010-06-19T10:47:00.000+02:00

Our model isn't much different, it just for the right purpose. I have seen, reviewed and supported the AdBard network, which I have to confess while not actually earning me money, is doing better than the google ads on this same blog. I think it's like $2.00 vs. .36¢. The point I'm making here is the AdBard network actually do generate revenue. And by the two (very weak) metrics I have, it earns more faster than google ads.

Let's just take a moment to stop and think about how ad supported stuff works. This thought occurred to me when listening to some of my IRC buddies talk about the scripts and apps they were using to interface with ideni.ca. While I think the technical aspect of some of these apps are new, noteworthy and interesting, I'd just like to make sure that everyone takes the time to visit the identi.ca page, reload until they seen an interesting (or not) advertisement and click on it.

I remember when there was this new search engine out there. And my wife enjoyed it so much that she would visit the page and JUST click on the advertising links on the side in order to support them...and they are google. If service companies that we use like identi.ca don't get that revenue it means they must look for other ways, which could be invasive posts in your feed or could be the kind of stuff twitter (yuck) is doing.

Help your favorite open source movement, project, etc. by clicking on their ads to help them get the funding. If you enjoy opensource software and see a chance to help out, not by donations, but clicks, you will actually be helping! do it!

-- CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Discovered Nugget - nmon

2010-06-02T01:17:00.000+02:00

I have to confess that I picked up on this little command line gem as a result of my subscription to a paper magazine. Linux Magazine had a feature written by Charly Kühnast describing the application "nmon".

This app was a simple "sudo apt-get install nmon" away and was in my Ubuntu 10.04 repos with no further setting changes required. The application does need to be run in a terminal. It does not require root permissions and has a great many monitors that are available for viewing in both a real-time and a collection mode depending on how geek your statistic and performance needs are.

I have a screen shot here of the application running in a tall 1/2 wide screen with just a few (not all) of the monitors activated.

I was quite impressed with the monitors/sensors available and if I read correctly there is even a "plugin" system by which monitoring scripts might be plugged in to display monitors that are not predefined.

In my set up I have activated all except memory and processes and run the "htop" command in the a terminal adjacent which then shows almost all possible performance real-time data available in one manageable and comprehensible screen.

Enjoy this app and add it to your list of favorites to use while embracing the command line.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Gmail: mutt vs. web interface

2010-05-16T11:28:00.003+02:00

I am a very serious gmail user. I think it's a good service. I have already written on this blog that I am a serious fan of the mutt email client. Please understand that I don't feel that any other gui mail client competes for the speed with which I can process my email. So I don't want this to be a email client vs. email client war, I've already said my peace on that and if you don't like that please find another blog.

I do think it's important to check and see what the critical differences are in the two methods I use to access the service. Clear declaration, that I use imap with mutt so I am not caching or storing the email local (i.e. POP3) which might make a difference in this argument.

After using the web interface with the google labs on for keyboard shortcuts, and giving myself a solid two week time frame during which to become proficient with using the keyboard with the web interface. I have to say that is can be quite efficient on it's own and very usefull, so the below comparison has everything to do with web+keyboard vs. mutt and the efficiency with processing/managing emails.

Gmail web Pros:
Search speed: very fast and process all headers and body.
Open Access: any OS, any PC commands and interface available

Gmail web Cons:
No gpg support: not for key verification, not for encryption.
Conversation presentation: does invite confusion about where messages are

Mutt pros:
More refined searches: the limit statements are crazy specific
GPG support: completely, inline.
Closed Access: w/ssh access offers only encrypted channel

Mutt cons:
Software requirement: somewhere there must be software installed
Complete searches: if you do a search of body content takes a long time

I have to confess, that with multiple accounts, I have a serious need for some features on some accounts and needs for other features with others. I actually have one account that I use both interfaces with often.

Find you comfort level, be realistic about access and real needs, if you would like to have high security and choose mutt, it might be very uncomfortable to use a mobile phone for access with a crampped keyboard.

Be practical, pragmatic and safe.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Mythtv - wow, why didn't I do that before?

2010-05-13T07:27:00.001+02:00

MythTv. I think most of us have heard about it, but have put if off since it sounded too difficult, or complicated or required a bunch of hardware we didn't have.

Well, this changed slightly for me once I had enough of a media library (don't ask me where I got it from) that it was just becoming silly to manage on one computer connected to the TV in the living room. With some shows for the oldest son only, some shows for the wife only and then some shows that really should have all of us together in a room at one time, it was becoming too restrictive to tie the media to a dedicated machine, with single user and single space access.

So I dropped in mythtv. Standard repo stuff from Ubuntu 10.04. I added all the additional repos that looked interesting and that gave me the server "backend" and the player "frontend" on the house server which had all the media. I then installed the frontend on 2 mac's, and 4 other Ubuntu systems. And now everyone can connect and watch their shows without needing to be in the living room.

I had a few glitches, the mac binary frontends were the easiest to set up. But once done, it's running great. I will be taking the time to push over the photos and the music since that just makes since as well as it's working for video.

-- CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I was h4cked - episode 38

2010-05-10T20:19:00.002+02:00

For those new readers of my blog, I had written podcast reviews of most of the stuff I have in my podcatcher. One of those shows was h4cked.com. The guys over there asked me to join their "oval table" review panel of Ubuntu 10.04. Since I already had it installed, I joined in.

I'l like to give fair warning to anyone who might go over there to hear the show. It is not safe for work, and unless of a mature age, I would not recommend you play this for your kids. But if that doesn't scare you off, go over to h4cked.com and play the episode that I took part in.

Enjoy.

-- CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Dnsmasq for your personal domain and access list needs

2010-05-03T20:25:00.000+02:00

With the addition of the dnsmasq server to my LAN (preferably wired) based server, I am able to manage dhcp myself. To what benefit you may ask, I'm glad you asked. First is that I can actually set the IP of computers connecting to my network, and group as needed/preferred. I can also use MAC address to authenticate, so hardware address filtering is not limited by small cheap routing equipment (I discovered a limit of 30 known hardware addresses to put in my wifi router).

So the most minor feature is that when I connect via ssh to my server from the internet back to home, I can use proper hostnames which I know will always resolve to those computers. No more ssh'ing to one IP after another, just use the name of the computer and if connected will always work.

Simple "sudo apt-get install dnsmasq" and edit the dnsmasq.conf and hosts files. It is heavy with comments in language which is moderately clear. There are many guides on the open internet to follow if you have questions. Turn it on for the safe host name resolution of your internal network.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Mutt - the cool kid's RC file

2010-03-09T13:34:00.000+01:00

I've gotten quite a few recent requests in regards to my muttrc file. I blame notKlaatu for that. For those who don't know, it's the file that sets all the preferences in the most awesome text based email reader, mutt.

So I'll keep the post short since the file speaks for itself. It has comments in it. As a disclaimer this one is being used with mutt 1.5.20 (2009-06-14) patched with the sidebar patch (see previous posts).

Get a zip of my Gmail prepared muttrc file here.

Enjoy everyone. Tell your friends to come by and have a peek.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Ubuntu New Branding - "Light"

2010-03-03T23:46:00.000+01:00

I saw in an interview with Mark Shuttleworth, that Canonical was planning to change the branding of Ubuntu. The new generation of branding would be called "Light" vs. the now 6 yr old branding of "Human" which brought us the famous brown for which Ubuntu has received much critizism in the past.

I have to say that looking at the shots that are available at the Brand page at the Ubuntu Wiki, I think it looks sleek, professional and clean. All art will have it's critics, and in our community I think quite a few of them are too vocal when you can change any/all of the artwork that you don't like. I mean really, Suse fans don't give them this much grief over the chameleon.

Anyway, again I keep coming back to the fact that Canonical is not the project, it's the company. And honestly, every company on the planet without exception (besides the ones that don't make money) spend time and money on marketing and branding. They should be no exception.

I would just like to put in my vote of "thumbs up" and best of luck. I truly think it is much more professional looking and as an advocate, with the product looking this slick, I'll have less selling to do than with the previous "Human" theme.

Chime in, let me know what your thoughts are. And no matter what anyone tells you, this was not Alan Pope's idea.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Backup! Backup! Restore!

2010-02-28T23:16:00.000+01:00

I'm sure many of my fans probably think that I only use the command line. While true that I do use command line considerably. I also use gui tools. As I just set up yet another virtual machine in Virtual Box, I thougth I might explain how I add the world of text to gui.

So, I've written about my gpg encrypted password file. I leave it in my dropbox account as well as a the gnupg.vim plugin. Of course, dropbox is primarily a gui application, which has a command line element that can be used after the gui has been launched. So the first thing I do is set that up my password file. Then also from dropbox I have bashrc and bash_aliases. I soft link those to the home directory as well as the bin/ folder where I dabble in scripting.

After my last install, I started making my list of apps that I install on my Ubuntu systems knowing they are in the repos. Basically I just cat that file and paste and wait.

While that's going, I get the firefox up and running where I add my xmarks extension and run it. This brings by browser up to speed more or less. Once my chromium is installed, I just have it import the settings from firefox (google chrome the same). Again, that's a matter of a gui application that I do rely on and use on many different systems, even cross platform.

This puts me in very familiar teritory and within a short time after a fresh install, I have my bash shell restored with my comfort zone of aliases, my browser set up with bookmarks and the odds and ends that I keep in my Dropbox. The single behaviour modification that I keep on is making sure that anything I "might need later" I put in my dropbox or my Ubuntu One (gui). Included in that would be the most recent .deb for skype, google chrome beta, and anything else where just having it arrive in the dropbox/Ubuntu One sync keeps me from having to hunt it down online.

This kind of file syncing actually has made system restore or first set up quite easy. I have done this a few times and now it feels quite "normal" and I have no worries at all if any one (or truth all) of my systems were to die, I could still recover in short order. Working directly out of my backup system/service keeps me always on the spot should anything go wrong.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

AdBard - FOSS advertising

2010-02-27T13:14:00.000+01:00

I read Thomas Gideon's blog post about advertising using a FOSS based advertiser. I was as usual impressed on a personal and moral level with TheCommandLine's choices and one who truly supports, through actions and works, his support of digital liberties and Open Source.

So, as mimicry is the best form of flattery, I applied with AdBard to apply their adverts for FOSS companies using FOSS software on my blog too. As Thomas points out in his blog post, they are even "endorsed" by the FSF which is the closest thing to a "golden seal" as there is by my measure.

The process includes a human review of your site to ensure that your content aligns with the views of AdBard. They have a different payment model for the ads, than the popular AdSense from Google, and approval process for those companies as well. They have a very hands-on approach to both the ads going out and where the ads are seen, which I feel is good since it means there will be relative ads where the relevant content is. Feel free to show your support for Adbard by applying to display ads on your site, and if you don't have a site, click the advert from them you see on the right of this blog just to show your support for the whole idea.

I'll be leaving the AdSense on my blog as well, in the hopes that one day they might show pertinenant links. As a quick disclaimer at the time of this writing I have not been paid by any advertiser as a result of having this blog. But I felt that this was a step in the right direction and with motivation I could get behind.

Kudo's and much respect as always to Thomas Gideon who's podcast I've reviewed. I am always impressed with the maturity, insightfullness, leadership and critical thinking that goes into his productions both on his blog and in his podcast (yes, I'm a fan).

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Jared Bernard - CLI user

2010-02-21T17:31:00.000+01:00

I heard on HPR episode a short talk given by Jared Bernard at the Utah Open source conference on his use of the command line. I had absolutely no disagreement with what he said and was amazingly impressed with his list of command line application alternatives.

Really, this blog post is to promote Jared's site. I think it's a great resource and found it educational if for nothing other than the list of CLI Applications.

If you would like to hear what he had to see please listen to HPR Eps 0518 "Live without a GUI" and visit his site.

Honestly, with the long list of applications he has listed there, I might be busy for quite a while reviewing the applications he has on the list. Thanks Jared, and keep up the great work.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Maybe Linux is not for everyone

2010-02-18T20:30:00.002+01:00

Well, I've been giving quite a bit of thought to the ongoing discussion of 1.) Year of the linux desktop and 2.) Commercial decisions of Canonical for yahoo search and the music store.

I just wanted to dialog here some of the internal discussions and my point of view on the subject. That seems to split irc channels the way the American Civil War split families so many years ago. Of notice just like with the Mono debate it seems this conversation has no one "on-the-fence".

I don't want to in any way imply by my blog post that opinions on the matter aren't important, or that anyone should just "be quiet". Like with any points of disagreement, listening is as important as stating.

So, for the purposes of this article "we" shall refer to the Linux/OSS community, I fancy myself one of these and will include myself in the possessive plural pronoun. And I think that we should stop and consider the overall situation and view.

So the "Year of the Linux Desktop" seems to ever evade us. And on one hand I sigh as I feel many (if not most) distributions are up to snuff and completely usable, even by grandma. Someone has to make the "labeling on the box" up to par with the commercial options, which is no exception in any other OSS application we try to offer for buy-in by the general public. It has to do at the very least what the other one does. I mean, none of us suggested Firefox until it was baked enough to stand up. No one got an office manager to use OpenOffice in the first version after StarOffice since it was junk then.

I can appreciate vocal concern over the commercial decisions of Canonical, but I would argue two points. 1.) They *are* a company and need to make money. 2.) If they don't do things like a music store, Linux will never have buy-in on the Desktop everywhere since people expect the "iTunes" experience. To the gist of it, if Canonical doesn't make this kind of commercial decision, who will? We hated Novell for making deals with Microsoft, but it has come to serve them since some server business comes there way when server customers "downgrade" to Novell.

I say good on Canonical and may the force be with them. They stated quite clearly in their early days was to make a linux that anyone could use and I see these steps as logical in the progression of that goal and not in conflict with anything they "promised" to the community.

I have now decided for myself, and myself alone, that I'm quite glad that everyone isn't using Linux. I would prefer that Linux stay lean and svelte, and always retain focus on what made it a better functional operating system since it's beginning. If losing even one ounce of that to gain "market share" is what is needed, then I would prefer not to do it at all. My Linux, the one I came to know and use worked fast and better than any other one out there, if we have to make the entire OS bloated to anticipate every non-thinking end-user action, then we will just end up with a different version of Windows.

So, in conclusion. Yes, I'm an elitist. I don't want grandma to use Linux unless she is willing to learn enough to use the command line without releasing a shoulder dropping sigh. She can use windows.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Paranoid security or just modern Privacy?

2010-02-13T15:05:00.000+01:00

As many of you have noticed I'm posting in my social networking streams using base64 decode statements. I just wanted to explain that I will be doing this even for the mundane. I have had the ephifany that "some is good, more must be better" is maybe not the way I intended for my social live to be.

I should explain that I expected that these would be mostly walled gardens with each social networking service offering it's unique and special approach to the broadcast communication issue. As more of these services have started integrating, using back door API's and making it a giant collective, that while my single voice is not important, it adds to a logarithm of what is the collective whole.

I am not foolish, I don't think that my posting the command to decrypt what I post keeps my messages "secure", and that is not my intention for them. What I do hope to succeed in is that my messages aren't being grokked for the commercial, financial and statistical benifit of corporate entities for whom I hold no allegiance, holding or care. It's mine, and I made it for public consumption. As I see venture capitalist investing millions of dollars in companies who scrub what is the internet collective for profit and gain, I am saddened. I would understand if doing this created a benefit for the consumer or the internet as a whole.

My goal is to allow me, my family and my friends to continue using the tools as they were originally designed without offering my portion of mind-share away. I feel that, especially in the case of the base64 posts, I achieve the goals of:

communicating with family and friends with miniumum tech overhead.
make it easy for someone to ignore me on a broadcast stream.
upset the machines on the far side of the services I use from gaining profit over my ideas and opinions.

I would be lying if I didn't see the added benifit of this preparing myself and family for secure communications in the case we feel corporations or the state care far too much about what we say or limiting our freedoms. This is just an advance warning that it only escalates from the base64 posts. It is my humble opinion that what used to be called "paranoid" measures, by todays standards, can at best be referred to as moderate privacy.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Friend of the Show - Frostbitesystems.com

2010-02-12T01:32:00.000+01:00

I'd like to promote a friend who I have come to know via IRC and identi.ca named Jonathan Nadeau (a.k.a. frostbite). I first heard of Jonathan on HPR radio being interviewed by Klaatu. Jonathan is visually impaired. Jonathan does however run a computer store. He has with renewed conviction started to sell computer systems preloaded with Linux (multiple distros) pre-configured and installed for visually impaired computer users.

I have tremendous respect for Jonathan, who has not only overcome his handicap in a area of expertise where vision is a seemingly obligatory sense, but he has also gone out of his way to try alternatives to the expensive proprietary systems which are marketed to people with the same special needs. Jonathan seems to have done away with thousands of dollars of software from companies who's only customers are handicapped and discovered free software which is comparable.

Jonathan has recently turned up his new site for selling computer systems which is Frostbite Systems and has been quite active on it's companion blog which he calls the Frostblog. He is quite the vocal open source advocate and should be an inspiration within our community. I would strongly encourage in the same way as a company like System76 to support Jonathan and the open source community by buying your next linux original install system from him if possible. I would say that even if he weren't blind but to advertize for any company that has the nuts to install linux and support it.

Your doing great work Jonathan keep it up. You are, at the very least an inspiration to me and I am not handicapped. You are the picture in the dictionary next to "handicapable".

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Twitter is dead to me

2010-02-10T19:48:00.000+01:00

This is my official blog post to explain my reason for migrating from Twitter to Identi.ca. I have to say up front that both of these services do about the same job and I have very nearly the same list of folks I follow on both.

Let me just get these points out there and you may all comment as you wish. I hope that maybe you will consider that my dive into social networking has been quite telling to me in that I still hang with the same geeks in the same IRC channels and some of them have basically become my social network. I realize that maybe being on every service, and feeling an obligation to make different posts isn't the right way. I feel that this step will not reduce the number of people who will see my stuff or make suffer anyone who follows me on either network. This is also just one more step for me to try and reduce the number of social networking interfaces I have to deal with.

Open source. I should put my money where my mouth is and promote the service that is open source.
The commercialism of services that scrub Twitter and have profits from the words of the masses bothers me. You may feel different, and this is not a condemnation of you. My "boycott" will not make/break Twitter.
Function: I enjoy that I get an email to direct reply to my posts on identi.ca
Function: I enjoy that conversations are now visible in context.
The community on identi.ca seems to be populated with folks who are more like me. Twitter has just gotten too big for my tastes. It is too mainstream and I probably won't hang out there.

With all that being said, I think it important in this internet age that I keep my presence and moniker present in the Twitter system therefore, I will be keeping the Twitter account, but all of my posts will be made to identi.ca where there is a "connect" feature that will forward posts to Twitter. The poor part is that I will never know about folks who @cafeninja me on Twitter. I would ask that if you don't have an identi.ca account, please DM me in twitter so that I receive an email. Again, I won't be logging into twitter directly anymore.

If my choice has managed to sever some sort of communication channel for any of you, please post a comment. I'm human and fallible, maybe there is something/someone I haven't considered.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Steganography - Some new fun

2010-02-07T01:31:00.000+01:00

After reading an article in Linux Magazine, I've been playing with the steghide program available on most linux distros and popular repos. I am quite impressed with this programs ability to insert quite a bit of information into an image or wav file.

The word steganography is of Greek origin and means "concealed writing" (citation wikipedia). Really, as a word it is just describing covert messaging. It offers no context in which it must occur or any kind of standard. This technique is designed to put the message in a quite public place, kind of like the symbology clues you might have heard about in "The DaVinci Code". The concept of security through obscurity is primary here.

The program recodes color codes in a jpg file to replace a shade of color with another and then uses the digit difference to insert the message. The steghide program actually takes the image and the message and shuffles them together on the level of the data. The receiver would NEED to know to look for the message since there is no visible indicator of a hidden message.

The application steghide is a command line tool. There is a gui tool called steg-gui, but I didn't feel like compiling it, and since not in my repos I didn't use it yet. So I won't offer any opinion of it here, maybe in the future if it can manage to be included in the repos.

As another example. The image of Bettsy above, is also a steganograph. Feel free to have a go and treat the image like a captcha. After steghide is installed the following will produce the message that is this blog post, give it a try.

wget http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_G7rEKBT_L3s/S24IB-RIzFI/AAAAAAAAAUA/aIZAVsJLfeE/s320/steg-post.jpg && steghide --extract -sf steg-post.jpg

Enjoy,
--

CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Inx 1.1 review

2010-01-03T04:03:00.000+01:00

After listening to TiT Radio Episode #15, I found the link that was suggested by Azimuth. This is really, really cool if you want to get some serious command line goodness.

The distro is called inx 1.1 and it is based on ubuntu 8.04 LTS. It is also only a live distro, currently there are no simple install methods. There is a Virtualbox image that you can download and just run without any burning/rebooting/hacking involved. I am going to request that any and all geeks who would like to see this project continue to send feedback to the project. I think it's fantastic and think it would be a great idea for a meta-package to make sure all the cli/ncurses apps that are used in his menu scripts are there, and then have this as an option from gdm to boot into (saving even more resources).

I am VERY taken with this. There are just enough tools to do 98% of what people do with their computers and brings it down to the lowest common denominator. I'm going to be trying to send as much feedback as possible to try and help those guys prepare for a new release using 10.4 when it comes out since there have been some dramatic improvements in the package selection since 8.04 (like screen-profiles a.k.a byobu). Here is an example of some of the cli goodness you get with this tiny and non-resouce intensive distro:

I will be following this distro closely as it will help me also to have multiple VM machines which actually have some applications in them and do more than reply to ping when testing network apps on my host and home network. If you look close at that screenshot the RAM footprint was almost 50mb! Again, that is loaded with apps that are useful if you only take some time to make yourself familiar with them.

Enjoy CLI Geeks, and even if you don't use the whole distro, dig in there and check you the apps that come with the distro to see what you can add your command line arsenal.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Bit of Humor

2009-12-08T15:48:00.000+01:00

I heard the audio from this video on one of my podcasts. Found it on Youtube and just felt I needed to share.

Enjoy!
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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Podcast Review: H4cked.com

2009-12-08T00:32:00.038+01:00

H4cked Podcast is a great tech show. It's the batter of two brothers Seawn and Steve who discuss the way that real people talk about tech. This podcast runs 45 min to just over an hour long, comes once a week.

Unique to this podcast is the fact that these two bring the perspective of supporting windows to feed the family while using linux and mac at home. This brings a "better here, better there" exposure to the conversation that not many podcasts have. Unfortunately most tech podcasts get carried away bashing the operating system of others. I'm impressed that while they are each a little biased one way or the other, they have conversations that are engaging about it with some good humored nature.

I have to confess that there is some adult language in this podcast. By no means is it enough to turn me off, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys hearing REAL dialog on the leading tech issues of the day while remaining light-hearted.

I'd suggest that you add this to your podcaster by getting the feedburner RSS feed directly to iTunes or gpodder. Due to recent issues with the fruit named computer company, their podcast has been currently delisted. But the feed is up and working great.http://www.h4cked.com

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Mac Vs. Linux, My opinion : Part II

2009-11-04T20:00:00.004+01:00

I felt that it was time for me to follow up on my previous article "Mac Vs. Linux, My opinion". I do still, day-to-day use a mac next to two linux systems. I feel in this regard, I have justification for my opinion.

Again to preface, I have used linux for much longer than mac (everyday). As a result I learned over the years to use my linux in a windows heavy environment without much disruption or laments from my co-workers in regards to interoperablity.

For work purposes, both efficiency of activity and for productivity within the applicaitons I still find that linux is my prefered environment. I should say that the gap that is software, which once was very wide, is no where near that wide anymore. Much of that may have to do with my office's adoption of open source software.

I have to say that I prefer linux more now still for the double ease of use of the clipboard and having two available. One accessible via highlight and mouse-wheel click and the other using the classic ctrl+c and ctrl+v.

The second point that keeps me on a linux desktop is the ease of use and speed of virtual desktops in linux. Mac does now have spaces (same function) but there is no customization available and it is sluggish in comparison to my linux system.

The third aspect of linux that I still prefer to mac is that it is much easier to migrate information to the lowest common denominator: TEXT. Mac works fine with text and is useful in the terminal app, but on linux the transition from terminal to a gui application requires very little effort on the part of the user.

Lastly, of no consequence to efficiency, would be theme customization. With the new Ubuntu (9.10) and following the additional themes I installed using the instructions at this long post on "The Silent Number" (new fav is 'Night Impressions') I have found the view of my linux system is something that I can change to easily based on tasks or system and with something like NBR (netbook remix) I can completely alter the function of my desktop any time I care too. This is not an impossible task on the mac, but for sure isn't as easy.

The ace in the hole that mac still has is that the performance of VMware Fusion is great on the mac. Like that I can still have access to any other operating system that I need/prefer since I am very much about using the correct tool for the correct work. I won't use this as a "freedom" platform, this is just a direct 1-to-1 comparison while I have both systems side-by-side in my life.

Both will continue to be in my workspace and work-flow. I hope in the future to have relevant follow-ups to this series of articles.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Podcast Review: Podiobook.com - Author Scott Sigler

2009-11-03T20:00:00.001+01:00

While I listened to this book as a podcast, via Podiobooks, as the name describes they are audiobooks delivered in podcast format. I have found quite a few great books at Podiobooks so I wanted to feature not each book, but rather authors. I say this because there are a few authors like Scott Sigler who have a small catalog that would take me many posts to review all of the books I've read from him. So this podcast review is for the author and his collection of works available at Podiobooks.

First point would be the presentation. I mean to say the voice acting, audio production and the ability to create the setting though voice which by old school definition might be described as "story telling". On this, Scott would get an 11 out of 5. I have to say that it is very clear that Scott is pumped about his own material and it comes across in his work. There are many authors who should NOT read their books, in this case I would suggest that they should get Scott to read it for them. Amazing voice characters, fantastic pacing and just enough background sound effects to bring the edge of dept to a two dimensional presentation.

Scott has written quite a few books, some not available at Podiobooks. I would recommend you visit his website to get details on his complete works. I cannot rave enough about how great his work is, a few of his books are actually available in print. I am personally waiting to get the collection of books I've read in hardback series. If paperback makes you happy, go for it. I really strongly suggest Scott Sigler's works to anyone who is looking for a high energy fiction "listen".

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Dropbox on a Headless Server

2009-11-02T20:00:00.008+01:00

I know there are a few guides for Dropbox on a headless server. I noticed that my experience wasn't 100% as advertised, so I wanted to post here on what my process was (repeated on 3 servers for accuracy)

First the requisites for this activity. You must have a ssh account and my advice is to make sure you have the same disk space free on the server that you are using in your Dropbox account. For the free version, that means 2Gb of disk space.

Next I need to install the application, this is done on the server account. I had in all 3 cases to launch the "nautilus" application one time. So I connect with the "ssh -X" for allowing X11 export over the connection. Once connected the next thing was to get the dbcli.py script from the Dropbox Wiki. On the server I used:
   wget http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/43645/dbcli.py
   chmod 755 dbcli.py
This gives the application in the home dir with executable permissions. Now run the script with:
   python dbcli.py install <--- mine was x86 the other is x86_64
This step will download the tarball and start to set things up. Mine hung after it downloaded everything and put it in the right place. I then escaped with ctrl+c. I then launched nautilus with:
   nautilus
This brought up the view of the home folder and then the splash screen for setting up the Dropbox account. I entered my account details and let the folder sync the first time. Once done, I closed nautilus and disconnected from the server to forcefully break the 2nd Dropbox icon it put in my computer's systray. I then reconnected WITHOUT x11 forwarding and launched the daemon in the background with:
  ./.dropbox-dist/dropboxd &
This should fire up the daemon to run in the background. After that you can check the status of the daemon with the dbcli.py script with:
  python dbcli.py status
That should report "up to date" as long as it is running and healty.

You might need to restart the daemon if the server machine reboots. But for my headless servers that doesn't happen very often. I have seen this work perfectly with the syncing that Dropbox does and works just as expected and seen with any other desktop machine. I really enjoy this idea since there is a disk space use limit built into the account. Also, this provides a truely off-site backup storage to ensure against any disaster recovery issues. So with my last post about using gpg to encrypt files and edit them, it means that even if the server security is compromised, they won't get any data from my files unless they have a supercomputer and 20 years :)

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

CafeNinja - All Things Geek and Caffeine

Online vim tutor - web based

MultiBoot LiveUSB - multiple iso + persistence

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 017

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 016

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 015

Mobilize PGP - IOS vs. Android

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 014

Featured Interview on The Frostcast - Part Deux

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 013

Featured Interview on The Frostcast

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 012

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 011

Podcast Review Promo material

Home Server deployment - Part 1

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 010

Indiana Linux Fest :: 25-27 March

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 009

Patriot Act, still?!?!

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 008

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 007

Guest Appearance on The Linux Link Tech Show

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 006

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 005

Let's start talking about keys

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 004

Tin Foil Hat Show - Promo

CLI - Vim and Awk

MythTv troubles

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 003

Tin Foil Hat Show - Fan Support

Tin Foil Hat Show - Update

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 002

Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 001

Apple App store - Best news

Fun CLI uses

Distro Review: Crunchbang 9.04 + 10 Alpha 2

Ubuntu Countdown to 10.10

App Review (Update) : tty-clock - working on Ubuntu

Podcast: Guest appearance on Kernel Panic Oggcast eps. 14

Tip: Googlemail -> Gmail

Distro Review - Arch Linux

Command Line Time - tty-clock

Gmail offers multiple account login

Even a Geek - Happy 18th Anniversary

sc - command line spreadsheet

Click to support

Discovered Nugget - nmon

Gmail: mutt vs. web interface

Mythtv - wow, why didn't I do that before?

I was h4cked - episode 38

Dnsmasq for your personal domain and access list needs

Mutt - the cool kid's RC file

Ubuntu New Branding - "Light"

Backup! Backup! Restore!

AdBard - FOSS advertising

Jared Bernard - CLI user

Maybe Linux is *not* for everyone

Paranoid security or just modern Privacy?

Friend of the Show - Frostbitesystems.com

Twitter is dead to me

Steganography - Some new fun

Inx 1.1 review

Bit of Humor

Podcast Review: H4cked.com

Mac Vs. Linux, My opinion : Part II

Podcast Review: Podiobook.com - Author Scott Sigler

Dropbox on a Headless Server

Maybe Linux is not for everyone