pitr.net

To get Perl to work with the Windows Scripting Host, use the 32 bits version of perl. Make sure you have IIS (Internet Information Server) installed as a pre-requisite, as you will miss out on the file associations!

To test if perl works with the windows scripting host run: cscript.exe dummy.pl. cscript should recognize the extension and try to interpret it using the PerlScript engine.

Also, MySQL for Perl on Windows (through PPM) is broken in version 5.16. Use version 5.14 instead.

The recipe for Perl in Homeseer is: 1) install IIS 2) use perl 5.14 3) install MySQL with ppm

When you want a fresh calendar, and need to re-sync all data with your exchange/zarafa server, you will have to manually delete all appointments.

There is an easy hack on how to remove all appointments from your pocketpc calendar:

1. Disconnect smartphone from PC.

2. Open ActiveSync on the smartphone.
3. Go to Menu, Options.
4. Untick “Calendar” from the list of items to synchronise.
5. It will prompt you to delete all calendar items (synchronised with your PC).
6. Check your calendar is empty.
7. Close and re-open Activesync (on the smartphone).
8. Re-tick the calendar item on the sync list.

Other keywords:

• remove appointments
• windows mobile calendar erase or delete

I have hooked up my online banking to munin. Whenever the amount on any of my accounts drops below $0 I receive warning. When it drops below -$800 it becomes an alert.

15-04-2009:
localdomain :: localhost.localdomain :: abnamro saldi
WARNINGs: Saldo on account XXXXXXXX is -377.87 (outside range [0:]).

16-04-2009:
localdomain :: localhost.localdomain :: abnamro saldi
OKs: Saldo on account XXXXXXXX is XXXX.XX.

This week my virtual ran out of diskspace. I had mysql query logging enabled and a distributed attack on the login and self-register modules of gallery2.

Because I rarely login through the admin-interface and I have disabled the user self registration, I created this htaccess filter to deny any requests to those
modules. Keep in mind that if you want to login yourself, you need to add a rewrite condition for your own ip:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} g2_controller=core.Logout [OR]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} g2_view=core.UserAdmin&g2_subView=register.UserSelfRegistration [OR]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} g2_view=core.UserAdmin&g2_subView=core.UserLogin
RewriteRule .* - [F]


(click for amazon link)

Deep within the walls of a gloomy castle in the equally gloomy land of Draxsylvania, the young, gifted opera singer Mona De Lafitte is held captive by her tormentor, vampire Baron Shrowdy von Kiefer. Ever since she was transformed into a vampire by Shrowdy and whisked off to Draxsylvania, her greatest wish has been to return to Paris, continue her singing career, and one day become a star at the Paris Opera. When Shrowdy fails to return from a nightly foray, she at last sees an opportunity to flee. Together with her only friend and confidant, a cheeky bat named Froderick, she escapes from her prison and tries to find her way back to Paris. During her flight through Draxsylvania, where she encounters some strange inhabitants and some even stranger challenges, Mona must learn not only to accept her vampire nature, but also to use the abilities she has acquired to her advantage.

“In Java, int x = 5; x += 2.5; works (x is now 7), whereas int x = 5; x = x + 2.5; gives a type error.”

The first one to explain this wins a free beer ..

If you really need to keep your sshd running on a publicly accessible port and IP, this is a piece of configuration

that adds a tiny bit of extra security to your server. By specifying which usergroups are allowed to actually use ssh, you are guarding the default (system) accounts (which shouldn’t have easily guessable passwords in the first place!) with an extra layer.

Add a new group:

addgroup sshusers

Add the users which are allowed to connect using ssh:

vigr (and add the users to the group)

Add the following line to /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

AllowGroups sshusers

And restart sshd. Make sure that you have a working ssh session when testing out the changes!

Wat doet Steve Jobs in deze Ikea-keuken? 8)

After having encountered this issue several times, I’m glad I have found a solution on the osdir site.

http://osdir.com/ml/gnu.screen.user/2005-04/msg00051.html

This solves:

• irssi screen hangs
• ssh timeout hang screens

The workaround for this issue: kill all “old” ssh connections to that screen that are no longer connected.  According to strace, it seems screen is trying to write to the client, which is no longer connected:

write(1, “[22;1H\33[1L\33[1;24r\33[?25l\33[24;11H\33″…, 235 <unfinished …>

In a previous post, I wrote about the release of Open Panel and OpenCLI.

OpenCLI is going to change the way we maintain systems – for too long many repetitive steps have been automated hundreds of times by different sysadmins without having produced a standard. I think OpenCLI will become the standard that covers 99% of the tasks you perform while maintaining your systems.

See OpenCLI in action: http://blog.openpanel.com/2008/04/28/the-openpanel-cli-in-action/