dead.letter http://deadletter.posterous.com Most recent posts at dead.letter posterous.com Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:06:00 -0700 Made in America - a personal accounting http://deadletter.posterous.com/made-in-america-a-personal-accounting http://deadletter.posterous.com/made-in-america-a-personal-accounting

All the employment suckage of late had me thinking of how many jobs we've (and by we I mean the corporate jackoffs) let go to foreign countries via outsourcing, NAFTA etc. In light of this I want to remind us of the "Buy American" movement of yesteryear. Yes it lost steam, but for the wrong reasons. We've got to remember quality of course! But buying products made in the U.S. and even better, locally (produce is a great example) will go a long way towards helping our economic recovery.


So, here are some products I have found are "made in America" that I like

  • KIND PLUS nature bars - these are super-yummy nature bars
  • More to come!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Thu, 08 Sep 2011 07:37:00 -0700 yo61.com » Blog Archive » Dell DRAC BBU auto-learn tests kill disk performance http://deadletter.posterous.com/yo61com-blog-archive-dell-drac-bbu-auto-learn http://deadletter.posterous.com/yo61com-blog-archive-dell-drac-bbu-auto-learn
Media_httpyo61comwpco_xiaex
via yo61.com

Just the kind of thing to bite us server guys in the ass. Nicely done though, with a ready-to-run puppet snippet.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Sat, 28 May 2011 11:45:00 -0700 Tsuna's blog: The "Out of socket memory" error http://deadletter.posterous.com/tsunas-blog-the-out-of-socket-memory-error http://deadletter.posterous.com/tsunas-blog-the-out-of-socket-memory-error
tcp_max_orphans
via blog.tsunanet.net

Great write-up of how to analyze and fix the "kernel: out of socket memory" error.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:03:07 -0700 LFNW is tomorrow! http://deadletter.posterous.com/lfnw-is-tomorrow http://deadletter.posterous.com/lfnw-is-tomorrow "LinuxFest Northwest is happening this Saturday in Bellingham Wa". I'll
be there (for my 6th year) with the BitPusher crew, helping run the
GameDen and even shmoozing a bit.

http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:36:00 -0700 Certification revocation is basically useless http://deadletter.posterous.com/certification-revocation-is-basically-useless http://deadletter.posterous.com/certification-revocation-is-basically-useless

Interesting article from Ars Technica about certificates being used for man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. The quote "Certification revocation is basically useless" sure hits home.

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2011/03/how-the-comodo-certificate-fraud-calls-ca-trust-into-question.ars/

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:57:39 -0800 Downtown 2011-02-09 http://deadletter.posterous.com/downtown-2011-02-09 http://deadletter.posterous.com/downtown-2011-02-09 More photography from my lunchtime stroll.

615628151_2197773877_0 615628325_2197774554_0
See the full gallery on Posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:47:00 -0800 Heart-shaped puddle http://deadletter.posterous.com/42416026-0 http://deadletter.posterous.com/42416026-0

Downsize

1st & jackson
Reminding me Valentine's day is soon.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Sat, 22 Jan 2011 09:32:00 -0800 iPod Touch Usability Gripes http://deadletter.posterous.com/ipod-touch-usability-gripes http://deadletter.posterous.com/ipod-touch-usability-gripes

Everyone seems to love apple ipod touch for their usability and design aesthetics. I'm not everyone.

Here are some details. Perhaps someone at Apple will see this and improve upon the flaws.

Texture

The swipe mechanism is discordant with the slick texture of the back. This means, when it is sitting flat on a desk or table, you cannot swipe (particular to unlock) without using a 2nd hand (or elbow, chin etc) to hold th device steady so that it does not rotate. The texture is also a bit slippery such that I've dropped my Touch on multiple occasions -- once even in the garbage can, how symbolic is that?

Shape

The biggest problem I find with the shape has an effect similar to above. If the device is laying flat and you press the home button (which is near the bottom) it "rocks" the device and the top comes up off the table, often careening to the side.  Apple could rectify this by making the back completely flat or at least below where the button lies.

VID00010.AVI Watch on Posterous

Power

The battery life is really so-so. I have to plug it in all the time or suffer the dissapointment if having it die while listening to music or racking up a new high score in Skee Ball. Sheesh!

Anyway, for a bit of positiveness, here are my favorite apps ...

Skee Ball

Angry Birds

iScrob

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Sun, 02 Jan 2011 21:40:29 -0800 Nostalgia takes hold, Descent 2 running in Linux http://deadletter.posterous.com/nostalgia-takes-hold-descent-2-running-in-lin http://deadletter.posterous.com/nostalgia-takes-hold-descent-2-running-in-lin After some failed attempts at getting Descent II installed using Wine
and running under a KVM guest (audio broken, meh) I turned to the
dxx-rebirth project, an open-source descendent of the Descent I/II series.

http://www.dxx-rebirth.com

This is how I was finally able to run Descent II on Linux.

I first compiled d2x-rebirth on Mint (Julia)

Satisfy pre-reqs.
mdf@sushi ~ $ sudo apt-get install scons
mdf@sushi ~ $ sudo aptitude install libsdl-dev
mdf@sushi ~ $ sudo aptitude install libphysfs-dev
mdf@sushi ~ $ sudo aptitude install nasm
mdf@sushi ~ $ sudo aptitude install libsdl-mixer1.2-dev

Download the source tarball and extract into /opt/games/dxx-rebirth/

Note the crucial flags to scons, without them it would not compile.
mdf@sushi /opt/games/dxx-rebirth/d2x-rebirth_v0.56-src $ scons use_ipx=0
sdlmixer=1
mdf@sushi /opt/games/dxx-rebirth/d2x-rebirth_v0.56-src $ sudo aptitude
install arj

From my Descent II CDROM, extract the files listed in INSTALL.txt to
/home/mdf/.d2x-rebirth/


Here we go!
mdf@sushi /opt/games/dxx-rebirth/d2x-rebirth_v0.56-src $ ./d2x-rebirth-gl

Sound worked great. I customized my keyboard controls and set mouse
sensitivity high. It's rolling good fun!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:44:00 -0800 Bands! http://deadletter.posterous.com/bands http://deadletter.posterous.com/bands

List of Bands I want to see live

  • Underworld
  • Crystal Method
  • Fischerspooner
  • Sigur Ros
  • The Thermals
  • Massive Attack

Other bands I would see if they were still around

  • The White Stripes
  • LCD Soundsystem
  • Big Black
  • Dead Kennedys
  • Husker Du
  • SPK
  • The Doors
  • Nirvana
  • Rage Against the Machine
  • Tool

Bands I Have Seen Live

  • Antlers ... Arcade Fire
  • B-52s ... Butthole Surfers
  • Circle Jerks
  • Dandy Warhols ... Damien Rice ... Dead Can Dance
  • Foals ... Florence & the Machine ... Frightened Rabbit
  • Godflesh
  • Head of David ... Helmet
  • Interpol
  • Jane's Addiction ... Japandroids
  • Laibach ... Liars
  • Machines of Loving Grace ... Meat Puppets  ... Metric (x2) ... Ministry ... Mogwai
  • Nine Inch Nails
  • Phantogram ... Pixies (x2
  • Radiohead ... Ra Ra Riot ... Robyn Hitchcock
  • The Shins ... Silversun Pickups ... Skinny Puppy (x2) ... Sky Cries Mary (x3)
  • Sound Garden ... Screaming Trees  ... Stars ... Surfer Blood... Salon Betty
  • They Might Be Giants (x2)
  • Unnatural Helpers ... Ursula Tree
  • We Were Promised Jetpacks
  • The Xx
  • Zola Jesus ... Zoviet France

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:39:00 -0800 Need work? Here are the best skills to know http://deadletter.posterous.com/need-work-here-are-the-best-skills-to-know http://deadletter.posterous.com/need-work-here-are-the-best-skills-to-know

Top50skills
From
http://www.donanza.com/blog/2010/10/25/work-from-home-market-trends-report-q3...
the chart shows what skills employers are looking for in the IT space.
PHP tops the list!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Sat, 01 Jan 2011 12:23:00 -0800 Reflecting on Linux Mint http://deadletter.posterous.com/linux-mint-dont-print http://deadletter.posterous.com/linux-mint-dont-print

Recently I installed Linux Mint (Julia) to give it a spin. Mostly I'm impressed, enough to use it over Ubuntu Lucid as my daily operating system.


A couple of things that didn't work but I've figured out work arounds for are as follows...

Skype - Mint uses PulseAudio and that was a show-stopper for some time as the microphone did not work. I use Skype almost every day to communicate with my clients. Worse, the breakage spilled over into my Lucid (dual-boot) install. (I put /home on it's own partition). Anyway, long-story short, installing Mint horked my Skype setup irreperably. Update: as of Dec 29 it started working again! I may have been re-installing pulseaudio I'm not sure.

Printing over CUPS - since day one I have had troubles printing to my wife's HP PSC-2410 printer which is shared over the home network via Windows XP. It seems a problem with samba4-clients package trumping smbclients, the latter has /usr/lib/cups/backends/smb soft-link to /usr/bin/smbspool. samba4-clients has no such files included. The end result is that printer breaks and I keep having to re-install smbclient then restart cups.

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:09:23 -0700 Untitled http://deadletter.posterous.com/29776138 http://deadletter.posterous.com/29776138
Downsize

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:57:59 -0700 The Moat http://deadletter.posterous.com/the-moat http://deadletter.posterous.com/the-moat The moat day 2

Downsize Downsize_1
See the full gallery on Posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:19:00 -0800 Killer Encryption Apps http://deadletter.posterous.com/2010/02/killer-encryption-apps.html http://deadletter.posterous.com/2010/02/killer-encryption-apps.html

Video of my talk last month at GSLUG

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:05:00 -0700 Photos from the Install Fest http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/09/mdf-this-message-was-sent-using-picture.html http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/09/mdf-this-message-was-sent-using-picture.html

Some photos from the Install Fest 2009. It really was fun and we had a number of library patrons drop in to chat and get free software! We also installed Linux on half-a-dozen different systems which were given away at the end of the event.

Media_httpmarkfosterc_zgeff
Media_httpmarkfosterc_ffqpl


Media_httpmarkfosterc_joeqg
Media_httpmarkfosterc_gexhy

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:22:00 -0700 What pathname should FreeBSD choose for the "internationalization" ports. http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/06/what-pathname-should-freebsd-choose-for.html http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/06/what-pathname-should-freebsd-choose-for.html Earlier this morning I had an idea to propose an online poll after following a discussion on the freebsd-ports mailing list about what to name the new category for internationalization ports.

Here are the results so far...

Voting goes through Saturday 8am PDT.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:33:00 -0700 check_zone nagios plugin published http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/04/checkzone-nagios-plugin-published.html http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/04/checkzone-nagios-plugin-published.html I have finally taken some time to polish off my DNS zone checker and upload to Nagios Exchange.

check_zone.pl will query each published nameserver for a domain, reporting any problem it finds. It checks for serial # mismatches, non-authoritative answers, unreachable or other lameness.

Please try it out and rate or review!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:12:00 -0700 Book Review: Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/04/book-review-mastering-freebsd-and.html http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/04/book-review-mastering-freebsd-and.html
Media_httpphotogoodre_wfvqf
Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security by Yanek Korff


My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
It was about what I expected. The sections on pf and osiris were the most interesting. It's due for another revision. There was no mention of portaudit or vuxml, which any FreeBSD user should know about. The was also no mention of IPF which surprised me - only ipfw and pf were discussed. There was no mention of monowall or pfSense which are based on FreeBSD.


View all my reviews.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:39:00 -0700 Performance boost for LAMP stack http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/04/performance-boost-for-lamp-stack.html http://deadletter.posterous.com/2009/04/performance-boost-for-lamp-stack.html This weekend I got around to benchmarking conshell.net and my own website using apachebench (ab). For some time I suspected conshell as having sluggish performance and ab showed it was only able to serve three requests per second for the home page.

So I added varnish and APC to the mix, the performance increases 3x. I recommend anyone with a sluggish LAMP server look into these two options.

Here are my #s from ab.

ab -n20 -c2 http://conshell.net/wiki/index.php/Special:Specialpageshttp://conshell.net/wiki/index.php/Special:Specialpagesnoapc-novarnish  Requests per second:    3.28 [#/sec] (mean)noacp-varnish    Requests per second:    3.43 [#/sec] (mean)apc-novarnish    Requests per second:    8.17 [#/sec] (mean)apc-varnish      Requests per second:    9.94 [#/sec] (mean)ab -n20 -c2 http://conshell.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Pagehttp://conshell.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Pagenoapc-novarnish  Requests per second:    2.77 [#/sec] (mean)noapc-varnish    Requests per second:    3.02 [#/sec] (mean)apc-novarnish    Requests per second:    8.26 [#/sec] (mean)apc-varnish      Requests per second:    9.65 [#/sec] (mean)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1120201/2494_53057844170_676949170_1311892_4257_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfA1jWsJSNj Mark Foster delimiter Mark Foster