Today, I had the most peculiar experience. A (female, and pregnant, but that has no importance at all for this story) cousin of mine complained on Facebook about a virus infection on her Windows machine (I assume Vista, but I actually didn't bother to ask). Locked out by one of these ransom viruses. Worst part is that she did have an up-to-date antivirus sponsored by the Bank where here partner works.

I don't mind helping, but -of course- my first comment was. "Drop that crap OS and go to ubuntu.com and get a real operating system". I NEVER expected her to actually do that. Well, she jumped on the occasion. She was also very happy to hear what a live CD is and that she could recover her data from her current installation using the LiveCD and copy it to a USB disk. So, she managed to burn the ISO, boot to it, copy her data and install the whole thing. Basically without me helping except saying that it could be done. I also explained what dual booting was and she could do that.

She asked me one question: Why do you use Windows? My reply was: I don't, unless I want to play games (the non-Flash variants. I illustrated Flash games with FarmVille). The tipped her over: She'd go full Linux.

I was completely baffled... You have to imagine the frustration Windows had to put on her so that she would try something completely unknown, just because I say I use it.

First reactions were: Hey, this thing already has Firefox,,Thunderbird and an Office suite. Wow, I have four workspaces (she means virtual desktops). She found Ubuntu Cloud (5GB seems a lot to her, I wonder where else she has been?) and -while not Ubuntu specific- I explained her what Firefox Sync is. She also seemed to like the idea of the Software Store (I compared it to Apples App Store, I know not the same, but she has to understand what it is) and steered her to installing ubuntu-restricted-extras and explained it was to install Flash and similar.

Linux on the desktop... Yes, it can be done... She is non-IT, perhaps a bit geeky, but definitely non-IT.

Got myself 58% more screen real estate at 117.99€. The prime condition on a Full HD[*] monitor was that it must have integrated speakers. This is because it saves desk space. That's hard to find in my allocated budget of max. 149€.

Funnily enough, this is exactly the same model as my moms screen which I bought nearly two years ago. 149€ back then. I have cursed myself ever since that day that I didn't buy one for myself.

The integrated speaker isn't as great as the ones in my old Fujitsu-Siemens C17-2, but more than sufficient for the occasional youp...I mean youtube video.

On a related note, I start to have quite a few "spare" LCD screens now.

[*] As much as I'd love to have a 2560x1440 monitor, there is no way I want to spend 400€++ on a monitor.

I don't program much these days any more, but due to a not very important reason, I wanted to do a little something with Java Server Faces. Being a sysadmin by day, I thought that setting up such an environment would be easy-peasy, as long as I stick to the default packages, I'd get an environment that would be more than sufficient for my modest needs. Basically, my idea was that

aptitude install tomcat6 libjsf-impl-java

on a base Debian squeeze would do it. I mean change a config file left and right, drop the webapp in /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/ and point my browser to http://dusky.sharks:8080/megasuperextremewebapp

Well, apparently, it's not that easy. I took this as test web application, as it looked extremely simple. I immediately got greeted with a ClassNotFoundException on com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener. That seems to be one of the core JSF classes. No problem right? Just a classpath problem right? Well, I do remember that could get quite complicated. To make a long story short. The JSF jars are in /usr/share/java where you'd expect them. Superficially there didn't seem to be an entry to that in the classpath, so I added it manually. Didn't help.

Well, let's try adding a few symbolic links to the web applications WEB-INF/lib part... namely jsf-impl.jar and jsf-api.jar. Nope... Then I read something that can't do that but need to copy the jars to make it work. I do so. It still doesn't work, but the ClassNotFoundException is gone (replaced by another one). WTF?!? Java doesn't work with symlinks?

It's pretty much at that point that I decided to write this, because despite all my Googling, I found no references on how to do this (using default packages on Debian). All instructions basically are quite Windows centric, instruct you to download software here and there tell you to copy jars nilly willy, which would be okay if they explained why. I don't like "just do this" instructions.

I'm a big fan of the central repositories, but unless I have a blonde moment, server-side Java doesn't play nice at all...

So, is there anyone who ever tried using just the packages and have it work?

It's my full Raspberry Pi kit: I was lucky, the two high speed 4GB SD cards were 5€ each on sale, and the power adapters were on sale at 7.50€ each.
The RS Components Pi was 39,16€. The Farnell/Element 14 Pi was 42.05€ (including the t-shirt!).

The whole shebang was thus "only" 106,21€....
The SD cards are both loaded with the default Raspbian, with SSH enabled (just added links manually in /etc/rc[2-5].d)

Called them up Wednesday to ask why the order never shipped. They confirmed me that it was because of an expired card, and if I wished to cancel the order. HELLO NO!

*grin*

I'm not a Windows fanboi... Far from it. Yet, Windows 8 might not deserve the bad rap it gets in the tech world.

I think this because I remember how the tech community reacted to Unity on Ubuntu. Hey, I did react violently too, because Unity in 10.10 to 11.10 definitely sucked. I continued to use it and I have to admit that in 12.04 it has become good. Sure, perhaps a bit dumbed down for the average power-user, but I can live with that.

If you read here more often, you might think "why for hells sake did you continue to use it if you didn't like it". The reply to this is that I use Ubuntu (LTS) for a "drop and forget" for non tech users. I was utterly dreading giving them Unity.

My worries were unfounded. When my dad had to go to the hospital (twice) earlier this year (He has COPD as we've now been told and has been on the brink of death twice), I provided him with a low-weight dumpster-diven laptop (CoreDuo/4GB RAM, if you must know) on which I quickly installed Ubuntu so he could surf and email. Not a single question was asked... None. Sure, my dad is Windows power user, but really, no question at all.

I upgraded my Mom's computer to 12.04 LTS in May.. Not a single question either... My mom is no tech...

I will say it how it is: Mark Shuttleworth was right, and the tech community wasn't.

What has this got to do with Windows 8? Simple: the interface is radically different, just like Unity. It's radically simplified, just like Unity... We techs all hate it, just like Unity. However, has anyone ever bothered to sit down a real non-tech user in front of it? That will tell us the success of failing of it. Normal, non-tech users, will probably like the simplicity.

I predict that, if Windows 8 doesn't have other problems, it might not be the disaster we techs think it will be.

To my complete and utter astonishment, I got my Raspberry Pi today. Not the one ordered at Farnell, but the one ordered at RS Online on 23 May 2012. Very quick. (Okay, for a piece of hardware with these kind of waiting lists) They never sent me an email that it was shipped. Nice surprise though.

Downside: the Farnell one should have shipped with a t-shirt. I like t-shirts... My wife doesn't, at least not the geeky ones.... So we'll just put this up as a draw ;-)

So sometimes, betting on two horses, does work.

Given Farnell promised them for end-June, I really don't expect them to deliver next week (no email, no nothing), I bothered to go through my credit card statements. The money was never booked. I have no idea why...

It could have to do with the fact that my credit card expired in April (this means, in April it was still valid) and I ordered the 4th of April 2012. Should still have worked, but if for some reason they delayed the transaction, the credit card they had from me was expired. Just a little email to update my details would have sufficed, but I guess with the demand, why bother with a single order, right?

So my bet is: I won't get it. Not from Farnell. The RS Electronics one was booked, but the order was made much later on my new credit card.

I think I know what to do with my Raspberry Pi, when I finally get it.

Well, some might have noticed that I got an Ask Slashdot through on the front page. Nice, but really, for some commenters you really need tough skin. Some of the commenters really think you're a complete idiot for just asking something because you don't have the experience and just want to tap into the pool of knowledge present here.

Sure, I could have a bit more precise, that I have a European style house and not the masses of space many in the US have, I also should have specified why I wanted a rackmount at home: basically, neatness and centralizedness (is that even a word?) because tell me what you want: a neat rack has higher WAF than a couple of desktops scattered around the house.

Oddly enough, I'm not sure I found a good answer. Best suggestion was this. I'll try to see whether my electrician can get a full rack, but if he can't, it will be this. Given my geographical location, using eBay for these things is impossible and people selling these new don't seem to want to bother with non-company entities (aka "real people"). So, starting off with the mounted one, extending to an on-roll half rack for future extensions seems a good compromise.

I've been tasked to look into full disk encryption for the company I work for. We're talking just five laptops running Windows XP or Windows 7 that will need it. The other branches are going with TrueCrypt and I do have experience with TrueCrypt. It works fine, but only requires a password. I investigated it and I thought I could "emulate" a two-factor authentication by having a password plus providing a USB stick with a keyfile. Turns out that this is not possible with Truecrypt and full disk encryption.

I did Google around a bit, but I have no real comprehensive overview of "good" products. So, I ask the crowd here: what full disk encryption with two factor authentication do you use. Are you satisfied with it? Pitfalls to avoid.

Those who "follow" me on G+ or Facebook, know that I was surprised to find an ARM based netbook featuring Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in a local supermarket. It was 169€ and I talked a bit with the salesman about it and when I told him I wanted one, he was nice enough to suggest me a returned model for 20% off. Nice... 135.20€ for what is quite something exotic.

Yes, I'm typing this review on it. It's extremely light, and virtually silent (Probably literally silent). The keyboard is small, chiclet style which doesn't allow quick typing. It has no windows button but a "home" button. There is one key that is weird, because it gets a double functionality where I've never seen such a thing on any keyboard. I won't go into details, because it obviously is layout dependent. What is also weird is that the screen folds over the keyboard between two raised "sides". Looks nice when closed, weird when opened.

The screen itself is crisp and clear with the classic 1024x600 resolution. Not much, but surprisingly well used by the software

Classic, also, three USB ports, VGA webcam, RJ45, 802.11n and an external SD card reader. Surprisingly, it also has an internal SD card reader in a little bay. This bay also features two dip switches. One to disable the internal (non-replaceable) battery and one labeled INT/EXT... It's actually interesting what that one does.

There is also a mini-USB port, which I assume, can be used to connect the netbook to a "real" computer. The manual talks about some sync software, but I didn't bother with that.

Now, of course, this machine was used, probably for one evening, but still. I expected it to come with a CD or something to be able to reset it. Well, no, but you can download an SD card image from the Hercules website and it's a matter of dd-ing that image to an SD card. Now, why they omitted that from the instructions and concentrated on creating the "rescue" SD card from within Windows is a complete mystery to me. Now, the question was: how do you boot from the newly created SD card? That's what the INT/EXT dip switch is for: set it to INT and the device boots from the internal device, which is technically also an SD card as I could see in mount:

jorg@jorg-laptop:~$ mount | grep ext4
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
jorg@jorg-laptop:~$

I think it's amusing as this means the device has three SD card readers, and no real hard disk.

Set the dip switch on EXT and the device boots from the external SD card reader. That confused me a bit, because I hadn't noticed the SD card reader on the side, and used the one inside the bay where the switches are located. That didn't work. Realizing my mistake, it quickly booted from the rescue SD card and restored the initial state. The system does promise easy hacking on it. Prepare SD card, boot...

The software is a customized Ubuntu LTS 10.04 ARM which uses their own repositories (http://package.ecafe.hercules.com/). The repositories seem to be kept updated for now. At least, there were quite some patches to download.

The interface is the now abandoned Netbook Remix interface and it does actually work well for this form factor. Noteworthy is Chromium being the default browser and the webcam application is from Hercules itself. Probably proprietary, but seems fair enough. As everybody here knows, there is no Adobe Flash for this platform, so they have a YouTube viewing application called "Minitube". Works fine with a caveat: When running it and you switch applications, the video overlays in a half-transparent way over your new Window. I guess a special decoder chip is used. When playing a 720p youtube video -which runs smooth, I must admit- the CPU usage is at 50%.

Oh, yes, CPU... Here is what Linux has to say about it:

jorg@jorg-laptop:~$ uname -a ; cat /proc/cpuinfo ; free -m
Linux jorg-laptop 2.6.35.4-ecafe-v4C #36 PREEMPT Mon Oct 24 17:18:51 CEST 2011 armv7l GNU/Linux
Processor : ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7l)
BogoMIPS : 799.53
Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp thumbee neon vfpv3
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0x2
CPU part : 0xc08
CPU revision : 5

Hardware : Hercules MX51 eCAFE 20110630
Revision : 51130
Serial : 008ea27ec4c91336
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 406 282 124 0 13 93
-/+ buffers/cache: 175 231

The packaging said that the CPU should be an ARM8, but cpuinfo says it's not. I don't know all that much about ARM versions, so I'll abstain.

I'm a bit torn whether this is strong enough. When I used the system before the restore, I consistently had loads over 4 (which means, 4 processes were waiting for CPU in average). I don't know why it did that, after the restore, it seems gone. The load is now at a consistent 0.55 while I was typing this. It sometimes does feel slow, but then so does my Atom D525/4GB RAM with 120GB SSD as disk. (That one, I really don't get: No idea what it has, except it runs Ubuntu 12.04 Beta) CPU usage is pretty moderate, even when the system features high loads. It does play 720p perfectly well (I should try Big Buck Bunny or similar)

The 512MB might or might not be enough. (Seems to use 100MB for framebuffer though, that's a bit steep) That said, in my EEE PC 701 4G, I never needed more.

For the price, it's a nice toy. I guess, on a vacation, I could do with it.

This is obviously just a quick overview of first impressions. For example, I have no idea what the run times are. The battery applet tells me I have another 2h30 of battery. Of course, I have no idea what the capacity is of the battery and whether that's any good. I mean, ARM CPUs should sip energy, right?

Well, that's it... My first ARM-based computer... Yay!

Enjoy: Prissy women, taking all the fun out of established slashdot memes. They should stay in their kitchens where they belong instead of polluting male bastions like slashdot.

Political correctness can go screw itself.

Yes, I'm angry... Exactly what she wanted, I'm sure.

You probably remember the Dell L502x, I bought for 525€ in June last year. Well, during my days off at Christmas I finally got around setting the Windows 7 installation (100GB partition, the rest goes to a real OS) to my tastes After the initial horror of actually installing Windows 7 (Topic only tangentially touched in the second paragraph), most of it went well. I even managed to find out how to make default profiles without using sysprep. I'm running Limited User (Standard User in Win7 lingo), and all works well as generally software is now behaving correctly without rights.

There is one thing, though, that irritated the hell out of me. For this you first have to understand my network infrastructure. I have no consumer end router and a Soekris net5501-70 running OpenBSD does all my routing needs, including DHCP and bind. The works. As I like to limit the spread of bare IP adresses over the system, I basically configure my own bind serving up the "sharks" domain (at my parents it's "jungle"). Everywhere, where it's allowed, I use the names of the machines and this includes DHCP. So, for example the entry for wobbegong (my PostScript printer) looks like this:

host wobbegong { # Wired:
hardware ethernet 00:00:74:91:10:62;
fixed-address wobbegong.sharks;
}

This means that the device with MAC address 00:00:74:91:10:62, receives the IP associated with wobbegong.sharks, which is currently 192.168.2.193. If I want to reorder my private IPs, I just need to adapt the zone file and I'm pretty much done. (This has happened, I used to have the same subnet as my dads network, but I changed it so I can get a VPN running between our networks someday)

Traditionally, I have used fixed IP addresses for all my machines, but once I learned DHCP, I switched to statically assigned IP addresses for all non-guest machines. This is useful in the sense that I don't need to do dynamic DNS internally. For example, I want to take a file from tiger.sharks, while at work? No problem, ssh to jawtheshark.com, ssh from there to tiger.sharks and I can get what I need. It doesn't happen often, but it's damned useful.

Now, what happens when you have two NICs in a device which is very common for laptops: wireless and wired. Well, I do something that most people do not expect, but it works and makes no problems whatsoever. I simply assign the same IP address to both interfaces. It looks like this:

host requiem { # Wired
hardware ethernet 14:fe:b5:b4:d4:6f;
fixed-address requiem.sharks;
}

host requiem { # Wireless
hardware ethernet bc:77:37:c8:c2:fb;
fixed-address requiem.sharks;
}

This is no problem when you're only on wireless, you get an IP address and it works. This is also no problem if you're on wired and have wireless disconnected, because, well, there still is only one single interface used with one IP address. Now what happens if you allow both to connect. Mayhem? Cats and dogs sleeping together?

No, it also works and the reason is that the wireless is slower than the wired interface. At that point something called "Metrics" are used. Basically, the system says "look, I have two NICs, both with the same IP address and I'm simply going to use the quickest one".

Well, I say this works, because it does work on Windows XP, it also works on OS X and it works on Linux. Windows 7, simply refuses to assign the IP to the wired interface. I guess this is pure chance, because I first connected using the wireless interface.

Manually setting the IP or forcing DCHP to give out another IP address works and it then even detects it's basically the same network. In that stupid "Network and Sharing Center": they get grouped.

Okay, I understand, I do something weird. My mistake, I'm stupid. Someone who thinks like me will now say: "No problem, you want to use wired, so disconnect from wireless and let it take the IP address on the wired, it's just Windows 7 acting up and being prissy". That's where the big surprise came.... I did exactly that, disabled the wireless, plugged in wired and.... nothing... It did not want to take the IP address the DHCP server gave it (which was the same as the one on the -now disabled- wireless interface). It stubbornly kept telling me it was an "unknown network".

Seriously? I do understand I do something weird and it's some fringe case (but, hey, seems to be technically 100% legal) However, not accepting the same IP address on a different interface that is NOT active is simply not acceptable.

Seems that due to Windows 7, I will now have to re-engineer my network. Bah, it's only for the occasional game. Probably won't bother too much. Still, in my eyes, this is a bug. A big, big bad bug.

Update 2012-01-06@22:21CET
If you wonder, for now I just set the wireless interface to full dynamic. It gets a different IP and then it works. Well, not 100%. It wouldn't want to be fixed during runtime, I was forced to reboot. Well, not that Windows told me to, but after waiting and waiting and clicking "Diagnose" half a dozen of times, it still wasn't working. Reboot? Instant fix! I retried then with identical IPs and rebooted but that resulted in the same problem. So for now, dynamic wireless and fixed wired.