Tony Narlock Not just 'cause I say so.

17Mar/100

Add your user groups to sudoers file

sudo allows system administrators to delegate authority to other users on a server. In this post, we will show how user groups can sudo.

Sudo (su "do") allows a system administrator to delegate authority to give certain users (or groups of users) the ability to run some (or all) commands as root or another user while providing an audit trail of the commands and their arguments.

Some users mistakenly attempt to add themselves to the /etc/sudoers file directly. This doesn't work. Use the command visudo.

# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

You can have add a user called penguin to users: useradd -G users penguin

Then, you can add penguin to the admin admin group. usermod -a -G admin penguin

Now penguin can sudo.

You can also give users ability to sudo without a password (for cron-type stuff).

Type visudo in terminal.

Uncomment # %sudo ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL by removing the #, or add %sudo ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL

Now add penguin to sudo group.

usermod -a -G sudo penguin

For more information on sudo, you can see the manual pages at man sudo.

10Mar/100

Remove services (mpd) from system startup in Linux

I'm using MPD on Ubuntu and Debian and get annoyed by mpd starting at boot time under root.

Your startup services lie in the /etc/rc.d folder. You will observe that ls -l /etc/rc4.d for instance, will show you these files are weighted to run in order and symlink to their corresponding startup scripts in /etc/init.d.

To disable mpd, for instance, update-rc.d can help:

sudo update-rc.d -f mpd remove

Now you will be able to add mpd to a local user script on startup without having to sudo mpd --kill or sudo killall mpd.

5Mar/100

Troubleshooting locales in the cloud on debian and ubuntu

If you use Amazon EC2 or Rackspace Cloud Servers, you may end up running into this after your create your instance. I often get these on Debian and Ubuntu (since it's debian based also).

lennycloud:~# perl
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LANGUAGE = (unset),
LC_ALL = (unset),
LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").

You're missing locales.

Update your apt database. sudo apt-get update

Download locales. sudo apt-get install locales

Now configure it, and download what locales you need. dpkg-reconfigure locales

I pick en_US ISO-8859-1, en_US.ISO-8859-15 ISO-8859-15 and en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8.

And that solves it.

5Mar/101

Use s3sync.rb + screen to move your files to the cloud

Move to your s3sync dir.

screen ./s3sync.rb -r /home/tony/backups/ backup:backups -v

screen means you will be able to run the command as a screen process. ctrl-d to detach screen, screen -r to resume.

-r means recursive copy.

/home/tony/backups is where cron stores you backupps. You can replace this with whatever dir you want to sync.

backups is the name of the bucket. Do ./s3cmd createbucket to create your bucket

: is a seperator

backups is a prefix for the bucket.

-v means verbose, so you can see the progress in your screen.

If screen quits too fast, the command may not have worked.

If you detached and screen doesn't resume, your job may done, check your s3 to see if files transferred.

Also, make sure you have your s3config.yml file ready, you need to copy your key from your Amazon AWS account.

5Mar/100

Troubleshooting s3sync

Amazon S3 is a superb, cost-effective, scalable storage solution. It's been around for a few years. s3sync.rb is a well-maintained ruby script to backup your important files.

[07:02 AM][root@local ~/.s3conf]# ./s3cmd.rb
/usr/bin/env: ruby: No such file or directory

You don't have ruby installed. Easy.

sudo apt-get install ruby
or
yum install ruby

[07:02 AM][root@local ~/.s3conf]# ./s3cmd.rb
./S3.rb:14:in `require': no such file to load -- openssl (LoadError)
from ./S3.rb:14
from ./s3try.rb:26:in `require'
from ./s3try.rb:26
from ./s3cmd.rb:16:in `require'
from ./s3cmd.rb:16

Missing openssl libraries.

sudo apt-get install libopenssl-ruby

20Jan/100

3 hilarious british comedies: IT Crowd, Snuff Box, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace

If you heard of the Office or Monty Python's Flying Circus, you'd know that the British have a variable penchant for comedy, burlesque and satire.

Fun fact: Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade star cameo in all three of these shows.

These videos are not safe for work as they have a fair amount of vulgarity.

IT Crowd

2 IT guys and a ditzy female supervisor in this hilarious tech sitcom.

Indeed, similar to the UK Office, IT Crowd was at one time slated to be ported to the US (even taking along Richard Ayoade!). However, due to screen writer's guild strikes and the economy, it was called off. Sometimes the UK versions are the best.

Youtube links (Unfortunately Channel4 blocks embedding these):

Snuff Box

Hilarious, surreal. UK meets US.

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Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Feels like ER in the 80's mixed with a horror twist.

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5Jan/100

FLOSS on gaming handhelds: The GP2X Wiz and Dingoo A320

Dingoo A320

The Dingoo a320 is comparable to a Nintendo DS in price. It's bundled with a proprietary OS with an SDK (Software development kit). Hardware is nice. It even has an FM Player and a mic. It charges via a normal USB connector (the one you may already use with your cell phone or G1). Screen is backlit.

The stock emulators have poor performance.  ThinkGeek's featured photo of Super Mario World on the dingoo is pristine, but the truth is mario's face may meet that rocket because of the choppiness of the emulation.

Linux support comes to the rescue on the Dingoo with Dingux. Implementing it however involves some clever hacks. Sadly, Dingux doesn't support the FM player or the mic yet.

Gamepark GP2X Wiz

The GP2X Wiz by Gamepark is in my opinion superior. The display is brilliant. It runs Linux natively. Think of it like a gameboy advance with a Lithium ion battery, backlight, OLED screen. It even has the specs and software to play MAME games.

GP2x also supports a bustling homebrew community featuring emulators. After all, that's what an open handled is all about: Giving developers the rights to create their own open source applications.

GP2x is a handheld done right. Unlike the DRM-imprisoned PSP, Gameboy and iPhones the wiz actually gives you freedom. It's an textbook instance of how FLOSS can make a seemingly ordinary piece of hardware into an enterprise-class super device . Look at DD-WRT and OpenWRT. Look at Cyanogenmod for Android. Look at Linux on the desktop.

If you paid your rent and have 200 bucks lying around, grab one of these things.

My opinion: Dingoo Digital in China needs to understand their overseas niche is in homebrew. They should make their operating system Linux-based. If you have moderate knowledge of computers (Can put files onto an attached storage device) and want a handheld, grab the GP2x. You won't regret it.

1Jan/100

Success

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;  to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I wish my friends and colleagues a successful and prosperous 2010.

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30Dec/090

WP Theme: DarkBlue 2: Electric Boogaloo

DarkBlue 2 (Electric Boogaloo) is based off the GPLv2 theme DarkBlue.

Backstory: This theme was on Wordpress.org at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/darkblue but removed because the original theme violated wp's guidelines. Original author was William Sutanto.

However, before hand I tried these theme for my blog. As of Dec 28, 2009 I'm using it on this very site. Because the theme is derived from DarkBlue and is different, I'm appending "2" to it.

Links:

Changes since the original DarkBlue:

Dec 30, 2009

  • Add fixes for wordpress.org acceptance (adding wp_page_links, wp_footer, rm'ing tags
  • Add language_attributes to HTML tag
  • Changed link in README and footer.php to link to this blog

Dec 29, 2009

- Fix h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 sizes
- Make sidelinks on sidebar 11px -> 12px

Dec 27, 2009

- 960px width for site
- 550px width for content
- Line height added to content for readability
- Menu list item font changed to Verdana
- Title and description redesigned.
- Widget titles now have CSS class
- Widget titles now is 16px
- Widgets are now seperated with a padding for readability
- Footer note changed to new author, spam/ad link rm'd to correspond with wp.org guidelines

loper from Chicago with a love of open source software. I'm a ubuntero, a bsd user, a rails scaffolder, a drupaller, and a new python programmer. I can currently be found reading VIM tips, python books, and spe
26Dec/090

10-plus essential applications for Windows 7

As a full-time Linux user, I'm not a very big Windows fan. However, I'd like to present some apps I zealously adhered to over my old days as a poweruser.

When a friend or colleague has a bogged-down system (be it by viruses, badware or general oldness), I often ask if they're willing to Backup their Documents/Music and reformat. This means installing applications over again, but the improvements are always substantial.

Updates

  • March 20, 2010 - Dress up article with some screenshots / images.
  • March 17, 2010 - Added Sumatra PDF, a free, open source PDF viewer.

A note

The install wizards on these programs may bait you into downloading Yahoo! or Ask.com software. If the Terms of Service/Privacy policy in the install wizard says "I agree to xxx and to Installing Yahoo!/Ask.com", Don't check it. Just click next/Install. If you accidentally do, go to Add/Remove apps and uninstall, you don't want them.

Here are some of the apps I download after a fresh OEM install:

Grab all your essentials in one sitting: Ninite

Type (License): Freeware (Proprietary)

Website: http://ninite.com/

This program is a deliverance from the almighty himself. Check the boxes for the programs you want to install and it will create a batch installer. You need internet access to do this. It includes everything from Java and Flash to Dropbox, to VLC, to steam, Open Office, Abiword, Skype, etc.

I could end this post right here, but I'll go on.

Tweaking: TuneUp Utilities 2006-2010

Type (License): $49.00 / Demo (proprietary)

Website: http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/

The king of all system control apps. Has full features for performance tweaking, removing junk files, optimizing network settings and even theming. The 2010 version even has a turbo mode that removes system services to make your computer zip. It has so many features I can't fit them.

Privacy / Performance: CCleaner

Alternative to: TuneUp Utilities

Type (License): Freeware (proprietary)

Website: http://www.ccleaner.com

This is a free registry/cache/junk file cleaner.

Tip: Make sure you go into settings and choose to "Secure delete". Choose the DoD 3-pass clean.

Tip 2: Consider checking the box to erase "Free space" too. Not all the time because it's time-consuming.

Privacy: Eraser

Type (License): Freeware (Open Source)

Site: http://eraser.heidi.ie/

Description: Delete means delete. Microsoft considers hard drive encryption to be a feature you pay for and its filesystems are extremely insecure (FAT32 has no security, anyone can view anything, NTFS has little). Microsoft is very deceptive that Windows doesn't notify you that you're not really permanently deleting your files until you overwrite them.

Read more about eraser at Stanford's SLAC: http://www.stanford.edu/services/encryption/desktop/windows/securedelete.html

Tip: Make sure to erase any free space on your hard drive as well.

Tip 2: You can also right click your Recycle bin and securely erase your bin.

Privacy: Truecrypt

Alternative to: Microsoft Bitlocker

Type (License): Freeware (Open Source)

Site: http://truecrypt.org

Even though you'll never need it. You never know when you'll get blindsided. You could lose your laptop, have it stolen, etc. Even having one layer of weak encryption will throw off thieves and give you great peace of mind.

Lite, Effective Antivirus: NOD32

Type (License): $40/yr Subscription (Proprietary)

Website: https://www.eset.de

ASM-based virus scanner. Very low memory footprint. Fast.

It also works great when using Windows 7 as a guest (a la VirtualBox)

Free Antivirus Alternatives

AVG Free

Type (License): Free (Proprietary)

Website: http://free.avg.com/de-en/homepage

ClamAV

Type (License): Free (Open Source)

Website: http://clamwin.com

Micro$oft Security Essentials

Type (License): Free (Proprietary)

Website: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

Audiophiles: Foobar

Type (License): Freeware (License)

Website: http://www.foobar2000.org/

Simple, playlist-based music player with a low memory footprint.

Torrenting: µtorrent

Website: http://www.utorrent.com

Type (License): Freeware (Proprietary)

Torrent client with tons of features, oddly small size and low-memory footprint. Very stable.

Office Essentials: Open Office

Alternative to: Microsoft Office

Website: http://www.openoffice.org

Type (License): Freeware (License here)

Get all your essentials with OpenOffice. Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint are too pricy.

PDF Viewer: Sumata

Alternative to: Adobe Reader

Website: http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html

Type (License): Freeware (Open source)

This is a very lite, stable PDF viewing solution.

Gaming: Steam

Alternative to: Greedy retailers like Best Buy and Gamestop

Type (License): Freeware (Proprietary)

DRM gaming. But steam takes the pain out of it. No limits on redownloading the software you purchase. Stable. Time-tested. (You can grab this with Ninite too.)

You have to pay for the games, of course. However the long-term benefits of using Steam make it worth it. It saves you from scratched CD's and managing all your cd-keys.

Steam store also offers generous software bundles of related games (Civilization, Valve, etc) and can save you tons of money.

Virtualization / Guest OS: Virtualbox

Alternative to: VMWare Workstation, VirtualPC

Type (License):  Freeware (License details here)

Website: http://www.virtualbox.org

If you want to try out Linux or keep a sandbox'd operating system to do programming on, VirtualBox is will accept Windows, Linux and *BSD as guest OS's. It'll run on Linux too.