The Joke of Airline Security

From Wired:

Security researcher Christopher Soghoian created the Northwest Airline Boarding Pass Generator in the hope of spurring Congress to look closely at the nation's aviation security policies, which he calls "security theater."

The site lets anyone create a facsimile of a Northwest Airlines boarding pass, with whatever name they choose.

On Friday, Congress heard Soghoian's message loud and clear. But instead of promising to reform broken airport security procedures, Rep. Edward Markey (D- Massachusetts), a member of the House Homeland Security committee known for his defenses of privacy, wants the site shut down and Soghoian arrested.

A warrant was submitted, and the Feds broke down his door taking computers, etc. I guess it is a crime to point out that the emperor has no clothes. This "fake boarding pass generator" had nothing to do with computer security. Any 6 year old that can type on a keyboard could edit the HTML of an internet issued "boarding pass" and reprint it.

My point here is that the government really doesn't care about security. A state of fear is to be instilled in the populace, and limited token steps are taken to give the impression of security. Not only does this create a cycle of dependence on the powers that be for security, it is a slow path to the elimination of freedoms of the public and empowerment of the establishment.

Maybe I am just a cynic and see pretense and dissimulation in the place of stupidity, shortsightedness, and incompetence.

Merchanthound.com

The Merchant Hound site is coming along quite nicely. Fun Ajax action, and very aggressive caching make for a fast enjoyable experience. I'd use the site myself if I bought anything online anymore. I am still working out some of the kinks in the page and database cache, so performance can be spotty at times, especially when I am committing changes for the day.

I fixed the XML product feeds today. They look beautiful on the Google feed reader.

Installing Java, the Ubuntu Way

sudo apt-get install fakeroot java-package java-common
fakeroot make-jpkg --full-name "My Name" --email "me@example.com"
sudo dpkg -i sun-j2re1.5_1.5.0+update05_i386.deb
sudo update-alternatives --config java

Italian Sausage Soup

Ingredients

• 2lb. italian sausage
• 1 onion sliced
• 2 cans stewed tomatoes
• 1 12oz can tomato sauce
• 3 raw potatoes julienne sliced
• 1 bag frozen vegetables (asian blend)
• 1 tsp. basil
• 3 tbs. parsley
• 1/4 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. onion salt
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 3 bay leaves

Directions

1. Brown meat
2. Combine ingredients in large pot
3. Add water to 1 1/2 in. of top of pot.
4. Bring to boil.
5. Simmer covered for 45 min. to 1 hr.

Serves …a lot of food

Quotes

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
-Theodore Roosevelt

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
-James Madison

Late Night Rambling

There is far too much information, and far too many ways of storing it. I have a local blog and wiki, for sake of data ownership, but I would like to push data to the wider net as well to give back.

Everything I could possibly care to know and more is available due to the work of others, and it is a small effort to return the favor.

Cannot Install any Ruby Gems

Problem: Error trying to install ANY gem.
Error Message:
ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::GemNotFoundException)
Could not find rubyzip (> 0) in the repository
Solution: Delete source_cache file (run gem environment to find the Gems install location)

Rails Setup With Mongrel and Apache mod_proxy

I set up Apache to proxy requests to the 3 Mongrel servers providing blogging, wiki, and todo list functionality.

This setup is for local access only.

• Create mongrel system group and user


• Place Rails applications in /var/www/mongrel


• chown -R mongrel:mongrel /var/www/mongrel


• Create mongrel initscript: /etc/init.d/mongrel and symlink to /etc/rc2.d/S99mongrel

#!/bin/bash
case $1 in
    start)
        port="12000" 
        for appdir in `ls /var/www/mongrel`; do            cd /var/www/mongrel/$appdir ;           echo " * Starting $appdir on port $port." 
           mongrel_rails start -d -e production -p $port                --user mongrel --group mongrel -a 127.0.0.1 ;            port=`echo "$port + 1" | bc`
        done
    ;;
    stop)
        for appdir in `ls /var/www/mongrel`; do            cd /var/www/mongrel/$appdir ;           echo -n " * Stopping $appdir..." 
           mongrel_rails stop ;         done
    ;;
    restart)
        for appdir in `ls /var/www/mongrel`; do             cd /var/www/mongrel/$appdir ;            echo -n " * Restarting $appdir..." 
            mongrel_rails restart ;         done
     ;;
esac

• Start mongrel service and test


• Add entries for 127.0.0.3 blog.localhost, 127.0.0.4 wiki.localhost, etc. to /etc/hosts


• Enable mod_proxy (sudo a2enmod proxy)


• Allow local proxy requests by modifying the /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/proxy.conf (Allow 127.0.0.0/255.255.255.0)


• Add Listen 127.0.0.3:80, etc. to /etc/apache2/ports.conf


• Create VirtualHosts entries for the servers in a new sites-enabled file (I used proxy)

NameVirtualHost wiki.localhost:80
<VirtualHost wiki.localhost:80>
    <Directory "/">
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
    ProxyPass / http://localhost:12000/
</VirtualHost>

• Restart Apache

Ruby on Rails

...but still here.

My latest interest is Ruby on Rails. From a complete Ruby on Rails n00b to a custom, from scratch, multiple bank account balancing web app in less than 9 hours. Yeah, thats 9 hours INCLUDING reading, learning, debugging, etc. WOW!

The framework seems to be worth the hype.

VNC Server Setup on Ubuntu 4.10

VNC Server Setup on Ubuntu 4.10
=====================================
$ sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.lst
# uncomment the unverse repository
$ sudo apt-get update && apt-get install vnc4server
$ sudo vi /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config
# change
allowed_users=console
to
allowed_users=anybody
$ sudo vi /etc/vnc.conf
# change
$XFConfigPath = "/etc/X11/XF86Config"
to
$XFConfigPath = "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
$ echo "gnome-session &" > vi ~/.vnc/xstartup
$ vncpasswd
# set password here
$ vncserver -geometry 1024x768 -depth 24 :1
$ vncserver -kill :1
# to kill vnc

VMware Error

"Unable to change virtual machine power state: Failed to connect to peer process."

chmod o+x /opt/vmware/lib/bin/vmware-vmx

Perl Script to Convert CSV to Tab Delimited

Converting commas to tabs is trivial: print s/,/\t/g;

Now, handling quoted commas makes it interesting, especially when the quotes are only present when necessary. I wrote this today as an exercise. Perl r0XX0r5!!!!


###
# csv2tab.pl
# Converts comma delimited text to tab delimited text
# Input from STDIN, output to STDOUT
# Note: any pre-existing tabs are converted to commas

while (<>) {
s/,/\t/g;
while (m/"[^\t"]+\t[^\t"]*"/g)
{ s/("[^\t"]+)\t/\1,/g; }
print;
}

###

Video Problems

Apparently, there is a bug in old AMD implementations of the AGP specification, leading to instability and crashes. For example I have an ASUS A7M266 mobo with the AMD 760 Northbridge and the VIA VT82C686B South Bridge and an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4Ghz processor. This hardware combination prevents 3D games from working properly or at all without driver updates.

To fix, install: the latest BIOS, the VIA 4-in-1 chipset drivers (do not install the AGP driver), and the AMD AGP Miniport Driver.

This fixes problems in Windows, but in a linux install, you seem to be out of luck.

Parthenogenesis

The Roslin Institute announced the creation of a human embryo without male genetic material.

Keep up the good work! It is a pity that so many people see an ethical problem with genetic and reproductive research.

Culpability

Many people are blaming President Bush for the bungled response to the Katrina disaster for really stupid reasons. Here is a real one: his appointment of Michael Brown as FEMA director, a man with absolutely no disaster management experience (he was formerly the "Judges and Stewards Commissioner" of the International Arabian Horse Assoc). Mr. Brown resigned today in the face of his incompetence.

One must ask oneself how concerned our President is with the security and well being of the American people when he appoints such incompetents to important posts. Obviously Bush relies completely on the suggestions of his advisors. The blantant corruption and pork-barreling of the Administration is sickening and should be frightening to everyone. As they say: "If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention!"

The culpability of the President of the actions or inaction of his appointees needs to be addressed.

A few words on the political spectrum...

On one side lies the liberals, who want a federal government that cares for them, provides for them, and tells them no when they make fun of their friends, graciously relieves them of their dirty evil money to fund massive social programs, and has laws on the books for just about everything. The interests of individuals trump business, and the state always knows best regulating every last minuitae of business and private doings.

On the other side lies the conservatives, who want a government with few laws but those laws are enforced in a severely draconian fashion. This is a government with low taxes, but spends freely in overseas military and police action to impose the freedom of "Democracy." Business interest trumps individual, and in practice business runs the state.

Somewhere completely off on a tangent lies the libertarian who wants a very small government. One with minimal involvement, existing merely to facilitate the contruction of infrastructure and organize a militia to defend life, property, and borders. Taxes are negligible. In practice, business trumps all.


Of course this is theory and idealism. A more pragmatic point of view incorporates a little of all three.

Myself...I lean toward the latter.

Hurricane Katrina

New Orleans is in chaos. I can't say that I wouldn't be looting for supplies and guns myself, stuck in a flooded city without water, electricity or other means to acquire food. I would rather be out there than in the Superdome packed like sardines with 25,000 other people. The reports coming out of the Superdome seem quite dire as well. Not enough food, 2 bottles of water a day, no electricty or running water. One can only imagine the stench of 25,000 people in the humid New Orleans summer heat. It has been about 4 days these people have been stuck there. Gunfire has stalled evacuation from the Superdome.

Gas Prices

Premium is over $3/gal. now, and unleaded at $2.95.

I told all my friends at the beginning of the year that we would be seeing this by years end. I wish I hadn't been right, I didn't think I would be right so soon.

Economically and politically, the United States is experiencing a "perfect storm." I just wonder how worse it will get, and I don't want to know. I am hating driving my V8 truck 20 miles to work and 20 miles back every day, it really hurts the wallet.

Where is our nuclear/hydrogen economy? That is the only sustainable solution for energy, as far as I see. I see banks of wind generators at sea powering the electrolysis of sea water supplementing nuclear power plants. Electricity for the home, hydrogen fuel cells for autos. Ship the nuclear waste to Antarctica.

Opera

Opera was having their 10 year "anniversary party" and offered free registration codes for their browser. I took up the opportunity and installed Opera in Windows and Gentoo. WOW, I am a convert! This a a brower for a power user! The functionality built into this app is quite impressive. Normally I would consider this bloat, but the memory footprint of Opera is actually the same or less than Firefox!

The email client can be confusing at times, but I am now using it on my Gentoo box to check system mail, I am not fond of KMail. (Side Note: Opera does not support local maildir or mailspool so installing a local IMAP server was necessary. Courier-IMAP would not give me joy and I had little patience to fiddle with it, so Dovecot saved the day. Courier-IMAP is a powerful and extremely flexible IMAP server, but Dovecot "just works" with very very little configuration)

I never bothered trying Opera because I hate ads, I see now that I really wouldn't have cared.

From a Whitewash to Finger Pointing...

A highly classified report was released detailing failures within the CIA before 9/11. At last there is some semblance of accountability, but who knows if the fingers are pointing in the right direction. More misdirection as I see it.

"...But a former intelligence official close to Mr. Tenet said Mr. Helgerson's team had failed to interview policy makers and intelligence officers outside the agency or to note that the agency was more focused on Al Qaeda than any other arm of government was before 2001." (article)