ManGeek Geekisms

phpicalendar and google calendars

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:14:44 -0500

If you're having issues using PHPicalendar with google calendar's ICS links, the problem is not in the software but in the URL. Google's calendar ICS link contains a %40 character to represent the at (@) sign and you need to replace that with the actual at sign for it to work in the config.inc.php. Happy calendaring!

Should I run Vista?

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:29:16 -0500

As a long running advocate of Linux, I know I'm stepping out of my usual terrain but I think it has to be said by a competent computer user: Yes, you can run Vista.

Don't get me wrong, I still have both desktop and server installations of Linux and love it dearly. I also have a desktop that runs Vista. In fact I took it a step further and run 64-bit Vista and other than Quicken 2008 which gets shut down by DEP occasionally (Quicken refuses to look into it, by the way, thanks Intuit) the system is running great.

Compatibility? You're probably unlikely to run into a complication. Unless your application is 6-10 years old it's most likely going to work even if it wasn't designed for Vista. Guaranteed? No, but the odds are in your favor. I ran into only one compatibility issue and that is Sony who refuses to support 64-bit with their Personal Voice Recorder (an ICD-P520.) I dropped $100 for it only a few months ago. Sony, you're a bunch of jerks.

That said, it had some stability issues when it first came out but Microsoft resolved those after about 3 or 4 months. It's been pretty good for me since then. YMMV but I'd say go for it.

Building a liquid cooled system

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:28:00 -0500

The latest addition to the ManGeek's computing power is a new PC. The old laptop, while quite capable, was just not satisfactory for geekdom. Anyone who's seen a ham radio operator today knows what happens when geeks get out of touch with the times. Thus I decided to push the limits on a reasonable budget and build a liquid cooled system.

Picture a radiator on your car and you have the same concept for a PC. The radiator mounts on the back and pumps coolant through tubes that are hooked up to critical components. (Processor, video card, north/south bridge...) It requires a bit of savvy and time. I needed a couple hours to do all the metal work and you have to think carefully about where each component will be installed and where plumbing will run. (Remember that the side cover has a lip on the back for the screws? Yeah. I had to get creative since I didn't.) Still after all is said and done, the system is quite quiet and the CPU runs at about 62 degrees fahrenheit.

The final specs? Intel q6600, nvidia 8800GTS 640MB, 4GB of RAM and everything on SATA. Nearly everything in Vista scores a 5.9 on the satisfaction index and it's peppy as can be. I'm running Vista 64bit as well which has actually been reasonably easy to work with. (Though I have a Logitech G15 keyboard hooked up to it and had to update the driver which was causing a blue screen.) Total cost including two 22" 2ms LCD screens? About $1750. Similarly built through an OEM? About $5k. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself.

EVD - The Chinese Job

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:14:00 -0600

I just read an article on MSNBC.com that discusses with some FUD, a move by the Chinese state and manufacturing industries to attempt to corner the media market and claim control over the licensing of media technologies.

Now of course while I see the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) in the article since it fails to identify how they will satisfy the requirements of the rest of the world, I certainly see it being something in line with the Chinese government's practices in the past.

I fail to see why it is better to adopt a pattern of isolationism and "my way or the highway" tactics. Manufacturing remains one of their only strengths and if they won't build it, I'm sure we can find someone else who will. The price may be higher but you have to play ball evenly or you won't be invited to the game.

I see no value in EVD. Nor in handing over control of media technology to the Chinese government.

Thank you for reading this post which would be likely to get me jailed in China.

The Internet, Privacy and your Kids!

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 19:37:00 -0500

If there's ever been a touchy subject to deal with parents, it's the raising of their children. Unfortunately in some cases it can be even worse if the parents know their own deficiencies but choose instead of facing them to let poor behaviors continue. (It's not hard to be an Ostrich with your head in the sand.)

...on that note, has anyone ever seen an Ostrich with its head in the sand? But I digress.

I'm going to do my best to avoid dwelling on my own thoughts about parenting. It would be particularly hypocritical since I am not actually a parent but I try my best to not ignore the things I see in life. With that in mind:

How well your kids trust you will reflect in if they resemble the Beav or your friendly local CIA agent.
Do not underestimate their intelligence simply because they can not properly form a sentence. There is a distinct difference between intelligence and knowledge.
Do not fool yourself into thinking you can stop them from doing something absolutely stupid. In fact they intend to. They just don't realize it yet.

So rather than locking them in their room and taking away their keyboard, I'd push people towards these do's and don'ts:

Do:

Know what your kid is doing and viewing!
Now understand, teenage boys... well, we are what we are. I do however know of one recently who was big into anime. His parents had no idea what it was and hadn't looked into the subject. For those who aren't in the know, much anime is paramount to porn and a lot of it gets pretty violent. Your child is going to seek out porn but you'd better talk to them before their friends at school do.
Recognize when their computer use dwells on anti-social behavior.
Some kids are not happy. Some of them are going to frequent very dark corners of the Internet and understand when I tell you that their are very dark corners. (I don't intend however to fall back on my first point.) I want to illustrate that sometimes this can have a very detrimental affect on their lifestyle and behavior. Those who don't ignore the warning signs can divert problems at school or potentially tragedy.
Do promote their interest in computers.
Draconian controls are something to fight against. It would seem that desire is in our genes. With this in mind, you should recognize the ways they use their computers and the information available on the Internet when it's valuable to their future.

Don't:

Do not leave them with an Internet connection and a license to kill.
If you don't know what's going on over the Internet connection you pay for every month then you are delinquent in your responsibilities. You need to monitor this connection. (I'll address this more below.)
Do not avoid opportunities to ask others who have been around.
If you see something or hear something you don't understand, research it. Talk to friends or perhaps teachers. Do searches on Wikipedia and try to keep as up-to-date as you can. In this digital age this is not easy but raising kids never is.
Don't show your cards!
If you learn something and you tell them how you learned it, they will figure out how to avoid letting you learn anything in the future. Once again, this goes back to my second point under the list of Do's.
Try to avoid being draconian.
Learning and innovation comes when people are allowed to think free and express themselves. With this in mind, if you are dealing with an issue don't lock the keyboard in the closet. They'll just borrow one from a friend and hide it under their mattress. The more responsibility you give them, the less they'll try to hide the things they do.

With all this in mind (and once again I do apologize for the potential hypocrisy of my very subjective comments) I want to give some actual advice on technical things you can do to take the upper hand.

Avoid anything that runs on the computer they use.

This includes key loggers, web control products, internet filters, IM loggers or any other type of local control. It's a waste of time. They are going to find a way around it. The ways are easy. They know them. For that reason alone, here's how you get around them (and how they WILL get around them):

Remove hardware key loggers. If they lock onto the case, get a USB keyboard and hook it up to an uncontrolled port.
Download a liveCD operating system from the Internet and boot off that CD. This will eliminate all operating system controls on the computer itself and leave no trace of what was done while under the liveCD OS.
Software-based control programs can be disabled in most cases provided you have local administrative access. And even if you don't, I know most home PCs aren't patched in time. Wait until a vulnerability is posted, crack the local machine and bust the control software. Install a backup admin user and use it only when necessary.

So parents, are you ready for the game of cat and mouse? If you're going to trust anything on the computer they use then that's the game you will be playing! You're probably not up to the task so don't subject yourself to it!

Do not use the same computer as them.

I understand it can be cost prohibitive but do what you can to have your own computer (preferably a laptop) and do not let them use it! Why do I recommend a laptop? It's harder to put a keylogger on a laptop without the person knowing it. (Of course by this I mean you use the keyboard on the laptop and not an external keyboard which would eliminate this strength.)

Also make sure you use strong passwords and you keep them in a safe place! (Preferably your head!) They will likely guess or figure out your password if it's easy. Also DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR PASSWORDS! Under no circumstances does anyone else need your password. I don't tell anyone my passwords... parents, girlfriends... anyone. Don't make exceptions and your life will be a lot easier.

Talk to your ISP about restricting access to your network connection.

This is mostly applicable to those who have high-speed connections (DSL or cable for example.) Understand that any controls you put into place can be easily by-passed when they (will) plug your line into their own computer or another piece of hardware borrowed from a friend. At that point they own the connection. Game over man, game over.

Hopefully your ISP will be helpful and set it up so that your modem or router cannot be disconnected and still allow the line to work.

Setup network monitoring and gateway control

This often means installing a piece of hardware which will cost money. Still you're talking about a one time charge to help you keep aware of what's going on with your Internet connection. I recommend not ever telling your kids what you're doing. Unless they run afoul of filters the rest should be transparent. Once again this goes back on not showing your cards but using a gateway or network monitoring tool, you can see into the details of what they are doing. This is not a free chance to tromp on their privacy and break their trust but it is good information. Like I keep saying, our government doesn't do unlawful wiretaps to prosecute people. They do it so that no one gets hurt. They're not going to slap a subpoena in your face and you should act th

What will a man do for a terabyte?

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:59:00 -0500

Some day a brilliant geneticist will discover a gene present in all masculine people that makes us want to do things bigger than before. That very gene drives us to the verge of insanity for goals that may not ever actually make our lives better. I think it also has something to do with why most redneck deaths begin with the words "Hey man, check this out!"

Still, in my quest to satisfy this genetic craving (oh yes, it's all the genes fault believe me!) I've undertaken the challenge... picked up the gauntlet... to build a fast affordable 1.5 TB (terabyte) RAID array. Since I work with graphics and am a file whore, I will actually put this to use although I expect it to carry me for about 6-8 years. Christening it was a particular challenge. Many names were recommended by friends because afterall, such a machine deserves a title worthy of a king. Well after much thought I came to my conclusion. Since this system represented almost limitless capabilities for storing knowledge and history, I had to respectfully name it after one of my favorite literary characters: Albus Dumbledore.

So back to the technology: In this quest I've learned a few things. One is that my trusty an faithful linux can actually let me down! (I'll explain.) Another is that it takes a long time to initialize a 1.5TB RAID. Are you as shocked as I was? Indeed:

Personalities : [raid5] md0 : active raid5 sdg1[7] sdf1[5] sde1[4] sdd1[3] sdc1[2] sdb1[1] sda1[0]
1465175424 blocks level 5, 64k chunk, algorithm 2 [7/6] [UUUUUU_]
[=>...................] recovery = 5.1% (12510368/244195904) finish=353.9min speed=10906K/sec
unused devices:

So while we patiently wait; the hardware for those *-philes:

550W Power Supply
New full tower chassis (with some case mods to support the hardware better and a number of spliced power connectors since a standard power supply only comes with so many)
7 new Western Digital 250GB SATAII drives
6 SATA power converters (since the PS only had one)
1 very old Maxtor 14.4GB hard drive for a boot devices
2 Promise SATA300-TX4 PCI adapters (a bear under linux at first, but we'll tackle this) which lucky for me come with 4 SATA cables each
A trusty (for the previous owner) Tyan Tiger-133 Dual-PIII 800 Motherboard, offered to the cause by said previous owner and long-time buddy for an amazingly low price of $50 (with 768MB of RAM!)

Now first thing I have to say is that I am quite annoyed with the Linux difficulties I ran into but I understand how they happened. The short is that somewhere along the line (after 2.6.11) support was dropped for this Tyan motherboard. (Inadvertently by a bright penny of a devevloper I'm sure.) I'll discuss the issus below. So as it is, I have to stick with 2.6.11 for now. This limits my distribution options because while I could do Gentoo and downgrade the kernel, I just don't want to take the time to jump through the hoops. So the result? Fedora Core 4. Hey, after these many years (my first distro was Slackware on 1.0.27) a distro is a distro is a distro.

So what's the problem with the Tyan you ask? Well basically it doesn't detect the PCI bus. I am not kidding, lspci outputs nothing. No PCI devices are detected. This will occur with any kernel between 2.6.15 and 2.6.18.

[jbly@albus jbly]$ lspci
[jbly@albus jbly]$

Now, if you were to run 2.6.12 you would actually get PCI bus enumeration. However your network card won't work. Believe me, strange as it may soundd I tried two different network cards, multiple cables, switch ports and ultimately concluded it was something in the voodoo of the kernel/driver. Still, 2.6.11 works beautifully.

So, now that we have that issue tackled here comes what I expected to be the real challenge: the promise controllers. Linux support is said to be minimal but I think that is novice users talking. Compiling a kernel is not that hard for me (as I said, I just hate how long it takes) so I downloaded the source tar ball from Promise. It came through with shining results. That is, with the exception of a momentarily cryptic error message:

ulsata2: Unknown symbol scsi_remove_host
ulsata2: Unknown symbol scsi_unregister
ulsata2: Unknown symbol scsi_register
ulsata2: Unknown symbol scsi_scan_host
ulsata2: Unknown symbol scsi_add_host

Ahh poor foolish me who compiled SCSI support as a module. "modprobe scsi_mod" and I was back on track. dmesg filled with a line of disks and I was off to create my 7 type fd partitions. In truth I gloss over that but it took some serious brain power to think through the situation and this is ultimately the whole reason I post this! I pray perhaps I can save one other the peril that is configuring this driver. Oh and btw, if you compile it on kernels later than 2.6.13, you should go into pdc-ulstata2.c and remove the line about scsi_set_device() because it's no longer needed apparently.

And the final number? 1,442,184,636 1K blocks.

Would anyone argue that the most lovely thing about this is that it has actually gone over df's ability to do pretty formatting? I believe that's a success! So raise your glasses.. here's to the next 6-8 years!

(Well, at least when it finishes bringing up the parity disk... 11.2% now)

Network Neutrality

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:35:21 -0500

CNN has published two competing commentaries regarding "Net Neutrality". The first one argues that this debate comes from telecom companies wanting to squeeze companies for more money. The second commentary argues that the Internet is in need of upgrades and that this bill should be footed by the companies that use it.

It should be no surprise that I agree with the first commentary. The Internet is a scientific creation. Science is built on fact and not speculation. Here are the facts: If google or another company want to do video streaming, they must buy enough bandwidth to support it. That money gets carried back to the telcos to keep their equipment up to date to support the bandwidth needs of the company. It is a fact that companies like Google and Vonage already pay for the "upgrades" supposedly needed on the Internet.

Only a few days are left before this issue is voted on in the Senate. I've called my Senators. Have you?

Government Wire-Taps

Mon, 22 May 2006 11:20:00 -0500

There's so much huff and puff lately about "government wire-taps". So many people are freaking out about the erosion of civil liberties or discussing how it's simply "illegal". Well the facts remain:

Any evidence found in a tapped call where there was no warrant is not admissible as evidence in a court of law. This means if someone does admit to committing a crime, they can't be charged with that being used as evidence.
People are losing their minds worrying that their weekend phone call to Granny or another call to the local red press is going to put them on a government watch list. Watching for what? We survived McCarthyism. We haven't forgot it and it's unlikely to happen again.
Since instituting these measures, there hasn't been another large-scale terrorist attack on US soil. There have been attempts. Does this add up in a mind other than my own?

I see a great deal of corruption in our world but I'd much rather see people screaming for patent reform in the US than worrying about whether the government knew that I called my sister the other day. Speaking of that, I should call my sister.

Telcos huff and puff

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 10:57:00 -0600

Recently the CEO of BellSouth made some rather strong comments regarding data flowing over the Internet. To summarize, he said that companies are using their data lines to send people information and they aren't paying for it. (For more details, look at this article.) I know many people don't think about the money that funds Internet operations but lets put it together, shall we?

1) The end user (or company) pays an ISP for a data line. You do NOT pay for Internet access. Your software takes care of that. You pay for a data line.
2) The ISP leases high speed lines from various telco providers. That money comes from the end user of course.
3) Those telco providers pay money to regional telco services to handle buiding the physical data lines and connecting everything together.

BellSouth is in that #3 bucket. Obviously the money being paid to them is coming directly from the #1 bucket. In an example scenario containing your home high-speed connection and say Google search results, both you and Google are in that #1 bucket.

Obviously they are being paid. Still lets go further down the rabbit hole. They are upset that voice over IP is stealing customers. They are upset about things like Skype which eBay now owns and the fact that they are losing their telephone customers to these services to companies who aren't paying for their lines.

Here's the issue: the customers ARE paying for those lines. What we are seeing here is large companies with control of a valuable market losing that control to services for whom their own company has set a foundation. Now they are trying to use that control to retake that market and mightily abusing the consumer in the process.

If you know anyone in Congress, now would be a great time to educate them on this issue. Just like the media industry and the broadcast flag, this will probably be appearing on their doorsteps shortly.

Browser Flare-Ups

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 10:55:00 -0600

All the rage has lately centered around the recent escalation of a "Denial of Service" Internet Explorer vulnerability that has suddenly without warning become a "remote-code execution" vulnerability.

Ok, patch your systems, lock your windows and post a dog at the front door. All that aside, this raises again the issue of software patching response times and best-practice software coding. There are a number of people who are very upset at this, not because it's yet another browser-directed exploit or even because it's a Microsoft exploit, but because it was not fixed when it should have been!

Indeed, Microsoft has known about this bug for over 6 months. It was set as a low-priority issue because no one had yet found a way to exploit it. Now knowing programming and many programmers who have written "interesting" code, I know that any competent programmer could have looked at the code and seen the potential.

I suspect that Microsoft simply saw what someone was able to do with it and classified it as such. After all, they don't make more money of their patches so leaving it low priority frees up their programmers to do things that do make money. However at a terrible cost to the rest of us.

Theories aside, at least the last Firefox Denial of Service vulnerability was patched 7 days before the vulnerability was even announced.