Thinking Aloud

One person accidentally bumps another and they both apologize and move on. One for bumping the other and the other for I don’t quite know what.

I used to think it was stupid that when one person would bump into another person they would both end up saying sorry. This is a classic scenario here in Canada maybe other places as well. Anyways, the point is that after a little more reflection on it I don’t think it’s stupid at all.

Having both parties say sorry makes it obvious that both parties want to put whatever just happened behind them and carry on with their lives. I like that attitude. It’s the attitude that says, I’m not sure if it was me standing in the wrong spot or you running into me, but let’s not dwell on it. Let’s move on. And that’s a great attitude.

Buckminster Fuller, what a guy. Take a few minutes to read his wikipedia page if you’re unacquianted, he’s an interesting guy. ANyways, my Dad bought this book to give to me over Easter, unfortunately or fortunately, I found it snooping around before he had the chance to give it to me and started reading it!

There is a lot in this book that I enjoy. He notes that the world resources are finite and points out that for a long time previous to industrialization no one really noticed this because there was always more world to explore, subdue and use/exploit/harvest. But as industrialization has come into full swing we’ve turned a corner where it seems that we’re able to use resources up faster than they regenerate. At this point the book has effectively defined Earth as a spaceship which we are the actors upon. And have the choice to act in the interest of reaching a place where we are living sustain-ably (although he doesn’t use that word) during this finite period of time where we have the benefit of relatively easily accessible resources.

He takes a few shots at people who resist automation, which is something I have thought about numerous times as well. The thought that always comes to my mind is that if automation is possible that frees the worker up to do more interesting work. The one trouble is that automation and capitalism is that putting people out of work definitely through automation rneeds to require some aspect of training for those people, so that they can continue to work at a job that is more interesting. ( I should think about that for a future post, I’m sure there are a ton of considerations I’m missing), but Fuller points out that this is a lack of faith in the creativity of humanity to find a way to survive and earn a living.

It is interesting to read predictions for what is going to be going on in 1985. Hint his predictions are certainly not all correct. But the admonition to do more with less and work towards a society and system of living that doesn’t require us to use the resources faster than the accumulate is still a VERY worthy goal.

I do have to say that the book uses quite an academic style of language to convey it’s points. And frankly I could do without that. I like plain language. Maybe it’s my vocation and training to not be terribly interested in complicating things with heavy language.

I haven’t read a lot of Fullers books but I have a hunch that there might be one that is out there that is a little more succinct but still captures his hey-everybody-get-out-there-and-do-more-with-less-while-we-have-the-benefit-of-our-current-resources attitude.

I got a mobile internet stick from Bell so that I could have a little internet on the go. And… it works really quite well. The model I got was the Bell U727 made by Novatel. It worked right away under Windows (as expected) but I was really hoping to get it working under Debian Linux as that’s my preferred working environment. And so my adventures began… A friend had said that he had got a similar stick working using KPPP. So that seemed like a good place to start.

After much futzing around with KPPP, I abandoned it on the strength of some forum encouragement that wvdial is the way to go being the way to go and if you’re going to mess around you may as well mess around on the command line.

How I made WvDial work!

You need to update the /etc/wvdial.conf file to read as below.  Provided that your modem is indeed located at /dev/ttyUSB0, easiest way to find out if that is the case.  unplug is, from the command line run “ls /dev/tty*” then plug it in and run the same command and see if what has changed, the new address is new stick.  (A lot of people on the Ubuntu forums have mentioned that this device gets mounted as a memory stick and that the mounted memory stick needs to be ejected first, this wasn’t the case for me running Debian.)

Here are the settings for the working /etc/wvdial.conf
[Dialer Defaults]

Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Username = ''
Password = ''
Phone = #777
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Dial Command = ATDT
Abort on No Dialtone = on
Carrier Check = on
Auto Reconnect = on
Check Def Route = on
Auto DNS = on
Idle Seconds = 0
Stupid Mode = on
Dial Attempts = 1
Ask Password = off

then you’ll need to close up that file and… at the command line type

~$ wvdial

Generally I get some output that looks like

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60
--> Cannot get information for serial port.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT#777
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT#777
CONNECT
--> Carrier detected.  Starting PPP immediately.
--> Starting pppd at Sun Feb 28 09:19:56 2010
--> Pid of pppd: 28980
--> Using interface ppp0
--> pppd: 0[02]n�
--> Q [10]�P [01]
--> pppd: 0[02]n�
--> Q [10]�P [01]
--> pppd: 0[02]n�
--> Q [10]�P [01]
--> pppd: 0[02]n�
--> Q [10]�P [01]
--> local  IP address 70.28.210.69
--> pppd: 0[02]n�
--> Q [10]�P [01]
--> remote IP address 68.182.192.100
--> pppd: 0[02]n�
--> Q [10]�P [01]
--> primary   DNS address 204.174.120.46
--> pppd: 0[02]n�
--> Q [10]�P [01]
--> secondary DNS address 204.174.120.45
--> pppd: 0[02]n�
--> Q [10]�P [01]

and then if I check my connections by typing at the command line

sudo ifconfig

I see a new entry, ppp0 and there is a small amount of traffic running on it.

Gotchas

One possible gotcha I found is that if you attempt this while my wireless is on (not even connected, but just on) it still connects fine but my browser doesn’t connect to the internet.  The solution for me was to switch the wireless off then run wvdial. I’ve only had to do this on 1/3 machines that I’ve set up my Bell internet stick for.

U727 Performance

An interesting side note, is that another friend of mine was visiting a fairly remote part of BC and tried a newer model side by side with the U727 and found that the newer model (Sorry I don’t know the model). The newer model was unable to maintain a service signal but the U727 worked without problem. I guess the external antenna really does improve reception!

I’ve used the stick in a number of remote areas where the reception is really quite weak. 1 or two bars on a cell phone and had reasonably good success. Sometimes it is quite slow, but in general it has been perfectly adequate for what I need and in places that aren’t remote (one bar of reception areas) its relatively zippy.

This trip up the island highway is like an old friend.  Been with me for many many years.  I don’t really begrudge the time that it takes.  The 1-5 hours that it takes to get to where I’m going have been and will no doubt continue to be host to some great moments of talking, thinking, laughing at the radio, watching the sun rise and the rain fall.

Heather and Jon have inspired me to try my hand at making fresh pesto from my basil plants.  So tonight was the night!  I cut my basil plants down to their lowest leaves and managed to collect 3 cups of basil.  One recipe, and a blender later we have home made pesto.  On first taste it is a wee bit salty but on second taste it is delicious.  Now to make some gnocchi…

The picture doesn’t do it justice, it is intensely green. So GREEN

The Pesto Recipe

• 2 cups packed fresh basil
• Just over a 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (bulk section type stuff)
• 3 tblsns pine nuts or blanched almonds
• 2 tblspns freshly grated pecorino romano cheese (or fresh parmesan from a chunk of cheese)

Blend it all together, taste, alter to what you like, but that is how we do ours!

I didn’t have any pecorino romano cheese so I just skipped that part. Of course I haven’t eaten all the pesto so the plan is to preserve it in the freezer in a yogurt container. That said I hope to eat it very soon.

This moment is coming to each of us. This video said a few words to me.

Looks like Royal Wood is coming to Victoria with Hannah Georgas October 7th , I’d like to take in that show. Anyone want to come?

Sunday afternoon I made the excellent decision to sit outside and enjoy a simple lunch.  It’s 4 days later and I’m still thinking about how good it was.

Entertainment is a double edged sword that I think about from time to time. Whether its reading a book or watching TV, I spend an awful lot of time putting other people thoughts and work into my vision and into my mind. Often I don’t ever take the time to make a response to what I’ve seen or heard. And I can’t help but wonder if that cheapens the experience. Is there something truly human about responding. If it’s true that watching TV puts peoples brains at a lower state of activity then sleeping is that something that we as a people should really be striving for?

It’s so easy to make life about consumption and inputs. But what are we putting out? What are we adding to the world or our society?

Certainly, there is a time for enjoying those things that others have worked hard to create! That’s art! And art is made to be shared and enjoyed. But I have found that concerts are better when I’m able to stir the courage to be a dancing and plays are best when I am able to shake hands with the players or clap loudly to encourage them. There is a big part of me that wonders if when there is a lack of ability to have that kind of feedback if there is something missing. I recognize that reading a book is a passive consumption and I wonder if the reason that schooling forced us through book reviews was to help us engage the work. At the end of the day I think that’s what is at stake here, engagement. Where input/entertainment is taken without engagement I feel like there’s something amiss. Input deserves output. Even if its just a status update, sharing something with a friend over a beer or a full blown blog post.

Two new-to-me techniques for keeping your server free from SSH brute force attacks by tuning up your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. I know that using IP Address based security is probably more secure, but I wanted to find a solution that could yield higher security without limiting IP addresses. I like to be able to access the machines I need to access without having to be at a specific location, or have a vpn, or ssh through a couple machines before I can access the machine I need. I recognize those solutions are likely more secure but, I’m trying to avoid, IP based security restrictions if possible.

Stop people from attempting to login as root

Add (or find and modify the this line:
PermitRootLogin no
This simply doesn’t allow people to login directly to your box under the root user. Simple enough. Not letting people log in directly as root takes away one of the well known users that people will attempt to login as. This means that everyone who wants to gain root will first have to login as another (more obscure) user on the system, which leads me to.

Only Allow Logins from specified users

Add (or find and modify the this line:
AllowUsers username1 username2
This means that only these users are allowed to login. Every other user cannot. This is handy because it eliminates all those other user accounts that are created on the system, which probably aren’t but might currently have ssh access.

Neither of these techniques strike me as silver bullet solutions, but as I’m realizing there are no silver bullet solutions in keeping a machine secure. So consider these two more possibilities for further guarding the machines. Like a moat around the castle walls.

Simple problem. I have a bluetooth keyboard, I want to use it at work (Thinkpad T61) and home (eeePC 1001P), both machines running Debian (hardware and OS details). I want to find a good way to get this keyboard connected and running full time. Here goes.

Bluetooth Doesn’t Seem To Be Working At All!

First I install blueman. Start it up, most everything is disabled (greyed out). Ok, why is that?

hmm… maybe hcitool will tell me something different
$ hcitool scan
Device is not available: No such device

ok… I guess that means there is no device available, check the startup via
$ dmesg | grep Blue
lots of Bluetooth entries there.

next check the bluetooth kernel module is loaded
$ lsmod | grep blue
bluetooth 41795 6 sco,bnep,rfcomm,l2cap
rfkill 13012 4 bluetooth,cfg80211

Looks like the module is loaded. Time to Google my error message
http://forum.soft32.com/linux/Bluetooth-ftopict440233.html
Provides a hint that I need to install the userspace package, in Debian this means
$ sudo aptitude install bluetooth
that installed a bunch of packages. Trying my tests again
$ hcitool scan
(same result)
Blueman (same result)

$ /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart
(maybe it’ll help… nope)
Hmmm.. sort of feels like the bluetooth adaptor is turned off. The 1001P doesn’t really have a hardware switch that I can see for turning bluetooth on.

Further Googling is talking making me feel like I should really have an entry in the output of lsusb that says something pretty clear about bluetooth, and I’m not seeing that. This really makes me think it isn’t on.

I know I shouldn’t have to… but I”ll try a reboot to get a fresh dmesg to look at and this laptop has been in and out of suspend a lot, I see that has fouled others up in that past. Nope that didn’t help.

eeePC Gotcha: Bluetooth is Controlled in the BIOS

Okay, Got a tip from a site that bluetooth on the 1001P can only be controlled via the bios (are you serious!?!) So I boot into the bios and sure enough under Advanced -> Onboard Settings (I think) there is Onboard Bluetooth and it is disabled. Enable that, save and exit. Reboot.

$ lsusb
now has an extra line in it… promising.
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0b05:1788 ASUSTek Computer, Inc.

Bluetooth is Working, Now for the Keyboard

Straight for the throat, starting blueman, YES we have an adapater. Double checking with hcitool.
$ hcitool scan
Scanning....
alright!!

Now just to get the keyboard working. Put the keyboard into discovery mode.

Into Blueman, and searching for the device. It shows up! Good sign. Attempt to pair with the device. My secret code is requested. I enter it. “1111″ (the usual) and I go to the keyboard type “1111″ Enter. Looks like we’re paired. Uh oh it looks like it disconnected. Hmm… reconnect, which works, and then click on the trust icon. Still connected good, good. Start typing, it’s working!! (I’m sure this could all be done from the command line with hcitool as well, I’m not exactly sure how.)

Awesome.

Testing, The Use Cases

Now the two remaining tests. At work I’m doing some frustrating hack using
hidd --connect MAC ADDRES GOES HERE
and if I leave the computer for 10-20 minutes the keyboard dies. It totally sucks. Secondarily, if I restart the computer the keyboard isn’t connected. Both of these things didn’t weren’t a problem in the past, but they are now. So let’s see if the problem is the same here.

1. Coming back the next morning and it is still working!!
2. Suspending and restoring and it is still working.
3. And it even works (with a minor delay after a reboot) in the gdm screen.

Hurray!! Complete Success.

Bonus: killing the Blueman applet doesn’t kill the connection, I suspected this would be true but just wanted to confirm.

Bluetooth Files

I previously had attempted to edit a bunch of files in the /etc/bluetooth/* and /etc/default/bluetooth, but none of those files appear changed in this case and the keyboard is working fine. Being curious I snooped around and found that the specific device information related to the connection with my keyboard can be found in /var/lib/bluetooth/* but looking at a few of the files. I can see that they are definitely not meant to be editted by hand. AKA leave it to the tools in this case blueman. I’m sure hcitool also refers to and edits these files although I have not confirmed that.

Hardware and Operating System Details

• Keyboard : Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Keyboard 7000
• Debian squeeze (pre stable release)
• Linux Kernel Linux 2.6.32-3-amd64
• And of course my eeePc 1001P

Now to see if I can get it working on my work computer! Thinkpad T61.