Installing VNC Server on Linux

December 27th, 2009

There isn’t a very automatic way to install vnc server on Debian or any linux distro for that matter. This install is specific for Debian based distros but should work for others providing you use the distro specific startup/service config application and package manager.

For debian:

First, install vnc server:

sudo aptitude install x11vnc

This will install all the required packages for VNC

Next we will configure the vnc server
To comply with the current standards, all config files should be stored in ~/.config/{appname}/ so:

mkdir -p ~/.config/vnc
vncpasswd ~/.config/vnc/passwd

Insert your desired VNC password, then verify.
Next create your init script

echo "x11vnc -ncache 10 -nap -bg -many -rfbauth ~/.config/vnc/passwd -desktop "VNC ${USER}@${HOSTNAME}"|grep -Eo "[0-9]{4}">~/.config/vnc/port" > ~/.config/vnc/vnc-server

sudo ln -s ~/.config/vnc/vnc-server /etc/init.d/vnc-server

sudo update-rc.d vnc-server defaults 99

This will create the service and set it to start on system start, and exit on system reboot/shutdown. To manually start or restart the service, do:

sudo /etc/init.d/vnc-server start | restart

You can connect to this server using the many popular vnc clients such as Ultra VNC, Win VNC, Tight VNC, etc.

Posted in Linux | No Comments »

Wolf Shirt

August 22nd, 2009

I was reading something about T-shirts and followed a link to a review of a T-shirt with 3 wolves on the front on Amazon. The sad thing is, I used to have this shirt as a kid, I think it was a gift but I did wear it.. I had no idea it possessed this kind of magic. You can read the review below.

This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that’s when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women. The women knew from the wolves on my shirt that I, like a wolf, am a mysterious loner who knows how to ‘howl at the moon’ from time to time (if you catch my drift!). The women that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called mehth. I told them no, because they didn’t have enough teeth, and frankly a man with a wolf-shirt shouldn’t settle for the first thing that comes to him.

I arrived at Wal-mart, mounted my courtesy-scooter (walking is such a drag!) sitting side saddle so that my wolves would show. While I was browsing tube socks, I could hear aroused asthmatic breathing behind me. I turned around to see a slightly sweaty dream in sweatpants and flip-flops standing there. She told me she liked the wolves on my shirt, I told her I wanted to howl at her moon. She offered me a swig from her mountain dew, and I drove my scooter, with her shuffling along side out the door and into the rest of our lives. Thank you wolf shirt.

Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women
Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the ‘guns’), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Pilates and pain

August 15th, 2009

Pilates is a pretty interesting type of exercise and just watching someone do Pilates, one would think its pretty easy…

One would be sorely, SORELY mistaken.

It is amazing the amount of pain just slowly moving an extremity will inflict on the body. The strain and extended time of stress just lifting an arm or leg and moving it back and forth will cause…

15 minutes of Pilates yesterday, and I still feel the burning…

I commend thee, regulars of the pain of Pilates, men and women alike.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

WordPress Funk

August 14th, 2009

Waoh so I had an RSS email from one of the blogs I read on a semi-regular basis and she had posted something interesting that lured me to click through and check out her site….

Lo and behold, her site was throwing an error and none of the content was displaying. The error went something like this:

Warning: Unexpected character in input: ''' (ASCII=39) state=1 in /home/public_html/xxx/index.php on line 17

I check her other sites..they are all throwing the same error, with the same exact information aside from the index.php path as they are all hosted in different directories. How can that be???

My logical mind says it must be a server change that caused the problem because all the sites use a different index.php file right?

I was right in a way, it was a server change that caused the problem. The index.php files were all different but they had all been changed in the exact same way. Some bogus code was added to the bottom of each of them, in the exact same format and style that removed part of the database declaration and left an open code block on line 17.

The origin of the bogus code is somewhat unknown but from the looks of what that code was, I have a guess. The hosted server most likely had a breach allowing someone to run a script that edited all found index.php files in the same way. The same code was added to every instance of index.php on the server, removing a few lines prior and leaving the same open block following the bogus code.

To fix the problem, I backed up the databases and reinstalled WordPress for each of the sites. I wasn’t quite sure to the extent of what files were edited so this would take the sites back to a clean slate as far as WordPress files went. The database was luckily untainted and so were most of the WordPress theme files (one has some bogus code in it but was easily fixed).

After about 2 and a half hours, the disaster was averted. The sites were back up and none were the wiser aside from me and the site owner.

Lesson learned? Backup early and often!

Posted in Hacking | No Comments »

Convert NEF to JPG – VSO Image Resizer

July 30th, 2009

My post about resizing and converting NEF images has become my most popular post, which doesn’t say much as this blog is pretty small and neglected ;) but I thought I would follow up as I found a great Windows utility to convert and resize NEFs so those that visit seeking a Windows option have something to see now.

The solution is VSO Image Resizer. There are a few other options out there but the reason I think this is the best solution is that you have a massive amount of control over your image conversion including setting resolution, quality, watermark, destination format, destination naming convention and on top of all that, you can do bulk conversions right from your Windows context menu. (select all that you want to convert, right click and select VSO Image Resize> )

Depending on the size of your initial NEF image (usually quite large) and how many images you convert, the conversion can take some time but the program will actually warn you when it thinks the conversion will take an exceptional amount of time so you will at least be warned.

This works really well for those who aren’t geeky enough to have a Linux install ;)

You can download VSO Image Resizer here: http://www.vso-software.fr/products/image_resizer/

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Windows | No Comments »

Death and Taxes

July 15th, 2009

I was driving for work today, and all the work vehicles were being used so I had to take my own car. I was a bit sour about it only because I was out of gas and had to fill up to take the somewhat long trip. If I wasnt going on that day trip, I could have made that nearly empty tank at least last through the weekend.

As I was driving, I saw a guy standing on the side of the road watching traffic. He had an orange vest on, and his Incident Response vehicle was parked a few yards away on the shoulder but I didnt quite realize what he was doing and when I did, I was pretty scared for the guy.

He was watching traffic so he could find a gap in the cars and run out to get a piece of tire that was in the road. I watched him in my rear view mirror gauge traffic, then sprint across two lanes of traffic, grab the tire and sprint back. He made it look pretty easy, but I was sweatin’ for the guy.

Then I realized how much I love my line of work, desoured and went on my way. I dont have to worry about death on a daily basis. Can you imagine of that man had tripped, or didnt gauge the traffic properly? That orange vest wouldnt have saved him…

I salute you, traffic workers

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hacker Manifesto

July 13th, 2009

I stumbled upon this site with the hacker manifesto by “The Mentor”. “The Mentor” was a hacker by the name of Loyd Blankenship, arrested back in 1986 for hacking. I really liked this piece and was disappointed/surprised in myself for never having read it before ;)

by
+++The Mentor+++
Written January 8, 1986

Another one got caught today, it’s all over the papers. “Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal”, “Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering”…

Damn kids. They’re all alike.

But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950’s technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?

I am a hacker, enter my world…

Mine is a world that begins with school… I’m smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me…

Damn underachiever. They’re all alike.

I’m in junior high or high school. I’ve listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. “No, Ms. Smith, I didn’t show my work. I did it in my head…”

Damn kid. Probably copied it. They’re all alike.

I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it’s because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn’t like me… Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I’m a smart ass.. Or doesn’t like teaching and shouldn’t be here…

Damn kid. All he does is play games. They’re all alike.

And then it happened… a door opened to a world… rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict’s veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought… a board is found. “This is it… this is where I belong…” I know everyone here… even if I’ve never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again… I know you all…

Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They’re all alike…

You bet your ass we’re all alike… we’ve been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak… the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We’ve been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

This is our world now… the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn’t run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore… and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge… and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias… and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it’s for our own good, yet we’re the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can’t stop us all… after all, we’re all alike.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hacking | No Comments »

Google Voice At Last

June 27th, 2009

I heard about this awesome product called Grand Central just a few months after the service was gobbled up by the big G (oogle) and the public beta was closed :(

One could still go through the motions and reserve a number via the homepage but even if one reserved a number, there was no guarantee that the service would ever open back up, though anyone that had an invitation to the service and hadn’t used it when the service’s public beta closed could still sign up.

There were still some of these invitations floating around the net, but buying them on ebay for a few hundred dollars just didn’t seem like a good idea especially since there were also rumors of the service being closed.

Well, it looks like me signing up for a reserved number so long ago has paid off. Google officially opened up Grand Central, rebranded as Google Voice, and are gradually sending invitations out to those that signed up for a reserved number.

I assume they are taking them in groups based on first come first serve, and if I am getting an invite based on my signup over a year ago, anyone signing up today could be waiting quite a while.

But the service is well worth the wait!

  • Some of the awesome features include ringing all phones, or specific phones on a schedule you define when someone calls your Google Voice number.
  • Voicemail left for your GV number is transcribed and emailed to you in plain text!
  • Gmail contacts automatically imported to Google Voice
  • Free SMS from the web (yea its already included with Gmail but the interface for GV is much better than Gmails)
  • The list goes on and on, if only I could erase any memory of my real phone number and replaced it with my GV #

For me, for many reasons, this service will get its fair share of use from me.

If you havent already signed up for Google Voice, you better get in line, but I would not pass up an opportunity to get a number in your area code, or get a number in general for this incredible and one of a kind service.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Innovation | No Comments »

Italians are vain according to Facebook

June 23rd, 2009

A while back I was setting up a Facebook profile and had to put in a Captcha. To my surprise, the Captha displayed an anti-Italian phrase. It read, “vain Italians”

vain Italians

vain Italians

At first I thought I was reading it wrong, I mean Captchas are meant to be a bit hard to discern but I read it a few more times, took a screenshot for the record ;) and typed in what I thought it read there and it took “vain italians” as the Captcha answer.

Was this coincidence? Perhaps…

Are Italians “the target of a systematic process of intimidation and manipulation” by those behind Facebook?

I guess we will never know, but I just think its a bit odd that out of the 170+- thousand words in the English language, those two would come up in the Captcha, in that order, “I” in Italians capitalized as if the Captcha knows its insulting an ethnicity…

Tags: , , ,
Posted in faux-pas | 2 Comments »

Invisibility Cloak

June 17th, 2009

I wanted to talk today about a different type of design. There have been movies that feature invisibility cloaks of some sort for many years, but while I was listening to my classical music station on the radio, the guy was talking about some advances in science that make invisibility cloaks a reality!

I think thats pretty amazing so I did a little research. This has actually been around for a few years! The first that I could find was in 2007 when Duke University cloaked a small piece of metal. Yea thats pretty cool, but the more recent advances are actually able to cloak a person!

The latest is called a carpet cloak and isn’t restricted by the viewing angle like the previous Japanese invisibility cloak which only works when viewed from a certain angle in a certain setting.

Pretty awesome, but can you imagine if this was available to the public? or worse, to those with authority like police or government officials?

What will they come up with next…

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Innovation | No Comments »

« Older Entries