Wintermute's Blog @ Nitemare Cafe

tircd

2009-01-13T08:21:00.004-05:00

The other day, I discovered a project called tircd, which bills itself as "an ircd proxy to the twitter API." Simply put, you set up tircd on your local machine (or a machine on your network), and you can then interact with Twitter via an IRC client. It is, quite simply, AWESOME!

FWIW, I am @wintermute740 on Twitter, and I mostly post one-word movie reviews on that account.

Twitter followers

2009-01-12T08:20:00.002-05:00

I woke up this morning to about a dozen new twitter followers. I don't know a single one of them, either online or IRL, and every single one has a profile which indicates that they are SEO experts or some such. I suspect they all discovered me when I started following @problogger, and figured that since I follow one expert at professional blogging, I might follow another. Well, guys (and gals), sorry to disappoint. I don't use twitter that much to begin with, but even if I did I would not be interested in following a dozen SEO experts. But thanks for following me. I hope you find my one-word movie reviews helpful ;)

Technorati tags: twitter

An interesting service... HARO

2009-01-09T08:04:00.001-05:00

I just stumbled across an interesting service for journalists called Help A Reporter Out. Basically, it functions as a mailing list composed of postings from journalists looking for experts. Mailings go out in digest form two or three times a day, but you can keep track of urgent requests by following on Twitter. If you're a journalist, you'll probably want to go to http://www.helpareporter.com/press/ instead.

Technorati tags: journalism, HARO, HelpAReporterOut

Need computer help?

2009-01-08T08:19:00.001-05:00

I know this blog isn't that well read, and mostly it's read by people who wouldn't need the help anyhow, but I thought I'd announce that I'm available for computer work. I have a full-time job, but I'm looking to supplement it with my considerable computer skills. I'm looking for side work involving computer repair, virus/spyware removal, computer networking, system and/or network administration, general computer consulting, web design, and even computer programming. With programming, I'm generally not interested in providing "works for hire" because people are usually not willing to pay for the time they take to develop. I'd prefer to retain copyright on anything I produce for you, and license the end result. But that's negotiable.

Other than being the ultimate computer geek and the very definition of the old-school hacker, my qualifications include several years as the head bench technician at the local Computer Renaissance, several more as the tech support manager at Greenapple (which included so much more - LAN/WAN network administration and system administration including both Windows and Unix servers), and the last several as the IT Manager at Fairfield Information Services, where I've also done a considerable amount of computer programming. I've also obtained my A+ Certification (as a computer technician) and my Cisco CCNA, though I've let the latter lapse. Certifications I'm currently pursuing include a renewal of my CCNA, both the Network+ and Security+ certifications from COMPTIA, and the CCISSP. I've also attended classes at Ohio University for computer programming, web design, and database administration.

If anyone is interested in my services, feel free to email me at rod DOT barnhart AT gmail DOT com. Some of my skills are only available to you if you're in the central Ohio area, obviously. But others can been provided from a distance. Rates are negotiable based on what's required and whether you require a one-off job performed (like a computer repaired or a virus removed) or if it's an ongoing project, like maintaining your computer network.

Technorati tags: jobs, services, computers, Lancaster, Columbus, Ohio

Mythbuntu edges out KnoppMyth

2008-12-31T03:36:00.000-05:00

I downloaded and installed KnoppMyth, and everything went well except one minor detail. My wireless card (an old Dlink DWL 520+) was not detected. I haven't run Cat5 to my living room yet, and downloading the kernel source, ndiswrapper, and the drivers for the wireless card did not yield the results I was hoping for (ie, a working network) after compiling and configuring and tinkering for a couple of hours. So, I went to download the latest Mythbuntu (8.10). Everything worked, again except for the wireless drivers. I realized that I had downloaded the 64-bit version, and the Dlink doesn't have any 64-bit drivers, so I went and downloaded the 32-bit version. This version will not boot all the way into the GUI on my system for some reason. The mouse pointer freezes, and the CAPS, SCROLL, and NUM LOCK keys start flashing. I downloaded and burnt a second CD, in case there was a problem with either my download or my CD, with the same results. So I revert to 8.04, which I believe is a LTS (long-term support) release anyhow. Everything just works, out of the box. So, for that reason alone, I'll stick with Mythbuntu for now. When I get around to wiring the whole house with Cat5 and set up additional frontends, I'll revisit KnoppMyth.

That said, the task of getting the 500 Gig HD mounted and the recordings transferred to the new 200G HD was not fun. I had to mount the drive, stop the MythTV backend server, move the old MySQL tables to the new drive and export the recorded filenames, then go about renaming all the mpg files under the MythTV recordings directory to something more sensible, deleting the ones that I didn't want to keep along the way. I then moved all of these files that I wanted to keep to the new drive's Videos folder (to be imported into MythTV when I'm done) and transfered all other videos and music to their proper directories on the new drive. I then restored MySQLs databases and tables to their new settings. Then, after unmounting the old drive, I formatted is as XFS and set it up in fstab to be mounted on boot under /var/lib/mythtv/recordings. After rebooting, I imported all of the videos and music and tested to make sure the recordings would work. Everything checks out, and I have about 80 Gig left on the new drive for music and videos, and a full 500 gigs for recordings. I also know how to export the recordings from the database and re-import them as actual recordings instead of videos, should I ever have to do this again.

I'm also keeping an eye on LinuxMCE, as it looks very promising. I tried it once before choosing MythBuntu, but it was not mature enough yet. I had issues with my wireless (yes, I know. I really need to go wired) and my MCE remote. I have a third drive I could hook up and play with before regular TV schedules resume.

Oh yeah, I also tried out the media center software in Vista. It seems promising, but I decided against it because a) the picture quality out of my Hauppauge 500MCE tuners, not to mention sound quality, was much lower than under Linux and b) native support for only 2 analog tuners. Registry hacking will allow as many tuners as I'd like, but the aforementioned picture and sound quality rule it out for consideration. I only looked at it as a possible replacement because of lack of Linux support for Netflix "Watch Now" movies. I did get approved as an alpha tester for Boxee, though, so there's hope on that front as well. I'll post my experiences with that later.

Technorati tags: mythtv, mythbuntu, knoppmyth

MythTV crash

2008-12-29T23:38:00.001-05:00

The other day, we had a brief (5 second or so) power outage, which caused my MythTV PVR box to lose power (I know. It should have been on a ups.) and, upon power-up, Mythbuntu appears to have forgotten all about my PCI bus (and the AGP as well) because sound, ivtv, video, and wifi drivers are all suddenly missing. I grabbed a second HD and trying out KnoppMyth again to see if there's any improvements since my last attempt at it, because I'm having trouble with getting the latest Mythbuntu build to boot (my fault, I'm sure). Once I get one or the other running a fresh install, I'll figure out how I want to mount the other drive and import the recordings from it. Good thing is, the crash occurred during the TV slow season, so I have time to figure it out. Wish me luck...

Technorati tags: mythtv, mythbuntu, knoppmyth

Election 08 as D&D Campaign

2008-10-27T07:20:00.000-04:00

Oh! My! GAWD! This is teh funny! WARNING: You may laugh so hard that you fall out of your chair, hit your head on your desk, and lose 20 HP. I will not pay for a new keyboard or monitor if you spew your morning drink all over it.

Technorati tags: humor, d&d, election08

Skydiving

2008-10-21T22:08:00.001-04:00

October 5, 2008, is when I did my first skydive. I enjoyed it so much that one week later, on the 12th, I did my second. Both jumps were tandem, which means I jumped with an instructor strapped to my back. Tandem skydiving is something I recommend everyone do at least twice.

Why tandem? Because the instructor is in control and has tons more experience. My first instructor has over 1400 jumps. My second has over 2500. That said, I plan to continue on to advanced free fall once time, weather, and finances allow it.

But why twice? Despite reading websites on skydiving or a general "I really wanna try that" feeling towards skydiving for as long as I can remember, I really didn't know what to expect. This made the first jump, while obviously enjoyable, seem to be over so quickly that I almost missed it. The second time around, I knew what to expect and had an instructor willing to teach me a little more since it wasn't my first time up.

What can you expect? Having never been skydiving before, I didn't know what to expect. Not only from the skydive, but from the entire experience. I called to book the first jump for noon on Sunday, and they told me to be there 30 minutes early. I thought "Cool. Noon on Sunday is when I'll do my first jump."

How wrong I was! I showed up 30 minutes early, signed a bunch of papers and watched a short video, then waited. And waited. And finally my name was called. My instructor handed me a jump suit and helped me with the harness, then told me what to expect and gave me a quick course on what I needed to do. Also, having the only videographer on the drop, he told me we'd be first out the door.

When we were boarding the plane, I was introduced to a skydiving tradition - there is no "good luck" or "break a leg" or any other spoken well-wishing for a good jump. There is a handshake. At this particular drop zone, it's a quick shake followed by a fist-bump. I'm told it's different at different drop zones. As we board the plane, everyone sits on the floor between the previous person's legs, facing the back of the plane. It taxis and we start climbing to altitude. At one point during the quick flight, I raise myself onto my instructors legs so that he can fasten himself to my harness and adjust everything one last time. I put on my goggles, then the door is opened and I'm told "OK. We're up." The roof is the plane is fairly low, so I have to stand in a crouching position to get through the door. I'm still lining up my feet at the door, which was right beside me, when we jump.

This is the only time I'm worried at all, but not because I'm afraid of equipment failure or anything like that. In the first couple of seconds outside the plane, I realize that I'm upside down, and I'm thinking "Oh great. I screwed something up." But my instructor releases a small chute called a "drogue" and it stabilizes our fall, and we enter free-fall, or drogue-fall if you want to be 100% accurate. My instructor taps my shoulders to signal me to spread my arms, but I don't feel it and keep my arms crossed almost the entire time we're in free-fall. After about 40-50 seconds, he opens our main canopy, and we glide back to the ground as he teaches me how to control the canopy. We come in and land on our backsides, then get some pictures, wait for everyone else to land around us, and go inside and remove the equipment. He hands me a certificate and offers a discount for my second tandem if I pay for it that day. I do, and book it for the following Sunday.

The entire experience of the first jump was very zen-like for me. Despite being excited, I stayed amazingly relaxed the entire time. I was enjoying taking everything in and enjoying every moment of it. Also, despite having a vague fear of heights, I never once felt it. And there was no feeling of "falling." It really is an indescribable feeling - one that must be experienced to fully understand.

My second jump was mostly the same zen-like experience, except I knew a little more about what to expect. Also, maybe because my second instructor knew I had already experienced my first jump a week prior, we mixed things up a bit. There was an even longer wait for my name to be called, possibly because the unseasonably warm weather brought out more skydivers, but it was worth every minute of waiting.

This jump was a little different, starting with the exit. We were second out of the plane, and sat in a second isle (beside the first tandem pair who were first out). Instead of squatting and walking to the door in that position, we slid across the floor of the plane until our right legs were hanging out the door. Then, we simply leaned to our right and went straight into our free-fall positions, as we had discussed on the ground. This exit was, by far, one of the most awesome things I've ever experienced (once our canopy opened, my instructor commented on how awesome it was, wishing he had pictures of it, and he has over 2500 jumps!) Then, he guided me through some free-flying maneuvers. At the proper altitude, he signaled to me to pull the ripcord. Once the canopy opened, I adjusted my harness and we did some acrobatics (mostly tight turned left and right) until was made the same type of landing as my first jump. The overall experience was even more enjoyable (if possible!) than the first jump.

Technorati tags: skydiving

My first skydive

2008-10-07T23:24:00.003-04:00

This is my first tandem jump!

Music - "Fallen" by Oh Crap! Ninjas
Videographer - "Kritter"
Tandem Master - Thys
Additional editing - Wintermute

www.startskydiving.com

Technorati tags: skydiving

Last site move

2008-09-28T17:13:00.002-04:00

Google's hosting service is just a bit too restrictive, so for now the site has been moved over to my registrar of choice, GoDaddy. After a bit of tweaking, it looks like everything is working again :)

Technorati tags: hosting

One-word movie reviews

2008-09-26T12:26:00.000-04:00

Awhile back, my wife and I signed up for a Netflix account. We chose their 2-DVD at a time/unlimited monthly. Prior to that, I had signed up for a Twitter account, but rarely used it. I have written a couple of "one-word reviews" of movies I had gone to see, so I thought that I'd use my Twitter account primarily for that, and include movies that I've seen on DVD (or via streaming) thanks to Netflix.

Technorati tags: movies, twitter, netflix

WTF? "Portscanning" port 80?!

2008-09-25T11:16:00.005-04:00

The geniuses over at Time Warner have "quarantined" my cable modem because of "port scanning." When pressed, that "port scanning" is only occurring on port 80, and not to any sequential IP address block. And "we don't have to reveal those IP addresses to you." They cannot tell me how these "portscans" are any different from my normal http traffic. My guess, I visited a website that they don't like, since they cannot provide any further information.

Update: After talking to a rather rude woman in TW's security department, apparently, they received a complaint and placed my modem in quarantine, which causes a notification page to come up when you visit any website. Because I am using DNS from a third-party provider, they effectively kicked me off the internet without following up on the complaint ("I don't have time to confirm 300,000 complaints a day" was her exact words... Sounds like a staffing problem to me...) And the kicker is that the source of the complaint appears to be a malware company themselves. Yes. I appear to have been disconnected from the Internet for "portscanning" port 80 (still don't know how that's different than visiting their website, without the actual packets to inspect) of a malware company. Let's hear it for irony! And asshat security personnel who just don't get it.

Update2: During my initial conversation, I was almost immediately given the number for TW's "abuse" department and told to call them (no transfer option!) However, they answer as "Tier 3 Support," so if anyone's interested in bypassing tier 1 & 2 support to talk to someone who has an inkling of an idea of what's going on, the number is 866-561-6724. They eventually transferred me to "security" from there.

Update3: Did a fairly full scan of the Windows boxen on my network. The only malware I found was in other anti-malware detector quarantine folders. Checked Linux boxen on my network. No rogue processes that I can find. Will be putting a sniffer on the network to verify that it's not something I'm missing. Lazy-man's security is cutting off customers before actually investigating a complaint.

Technorati tags: timewarner

Site move

2008-09-24T07:19:00.003-04:00

A recent power (and, by extension, Internet) outage has prompted me to finally move the blog over to a custom domain on Google. My reliance on server-side php for some custom widgets has caused some features of the site to be broken. I am working on fixing or removing those features that no longer work. In the meantime, I may move back to a stock template.

Technorati tags: hosting

Large Hadron Collider

2008-09-10T17:26:00.001-04:00

For those worried about the Large Hadron Collider destroying the earth, here's a handy website to find out if it has yet: http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Technorati tags: lhc, funny

Beale cipher 3 cracked?

2008-09-04T17:10:00.002-04:00

I stumbled across a webtie while doing a little research into the Beale ciphers which quotes a little bit of text from a now-defunct forum:

A testable claim to have cracked 3 - " If you will go to Code #3, Line 37, 38 & 39 You will find the numerals: 34,127,139,34,128,129,74,63,120,11,54,61,73,92,180,66,75,101,124,265,89,96,126, If you will take the Adams/Onis Treaty l8l9 and number it correctly starting with the third article and number each word as you did with the DOI, except now you take the third letter of each word instead of the first letter of each word. If a word has less than three letters you use the last letter of the word [...] decipherment: SECOND EXCAVATION OR VAULT FOUND"

(Apparently from a message which used to be at http://www.treasurehunt.org/forum/messages/3951.htm. My best-guess at dating the quote, using the Wayback Machine, is sometime near Feb 17, 2004.)

Since the source with the original claim is no longer available, I sent Mr. Pryke an email with a quick debunking of this claim, which I will also share here.

According to the quote, the third cipher is a modified book cipher, much like the second one (just a little more difficult because of where the key starts within the text and which letter of each word is used for the key). This means that each number within the ciphertext will decipher to one, and only one, letter.

With that said, does anyone see the problem with the proposed decipherment? According to the quoted text, "34,127,139,34,128,129" should decipher to "SECOND." In case you don't see it, this would require that S and O both be represented by the number 34 within the ciphertext. This is not possible using a book cipher modified as explained. The encryption algorithm would have to be more complex than that.

I wish the source of the original quote were available. It is possible that the quoted text is only part of the explanation that this individual originally gave. This is entirely plausible, as another problem with the quote is that the length of the quoted ciphertext is too short for the quoted plaintext. This is probably done for brevity, but I would be interested to know if the original author is still around to address these issues. If you recognize the quote as your work, please contact me via wintermute@nitemarecafe.com. Make the subject meaningful, such as "RE: Beale Ciphers" or somesuch, and I'll be much more quick to respond.

Technorati tags: encryption, beale, cipher

The Beale Cipher

2008-09-03T06:48:00.002-04:00

One of my (many) interests has always been word games such as anagrams and cryptography, but I've never been what you'd call a cypherpunk. I mean, I've done my share of simple code breaking, anagram solving, and base conversion for ARGs, but I typically do so with help of automated tools to take some of the tedium out of it. And what I haven't used automated tools on has always been pretty simple stuff. That is, until now. I picked up a copy of The Code Book (affiliate link) by Simon Singh while at a local bookstore the other day. In the second chapter or so, the author introduces unfamiliar readers (such as myself) to the Beale ciphers, a set of three ciphertexts allegedly mapping out the location of a treasure containing gold, silver, and jewels worth millions of dollars. The ciphers were published in 1885 in a pamphlet called "The Beale Papers" and included a solution to the second cipher based on the Declaration of Independence. The first and third remain unsolved. I figure this might provide a nice diversion for my spare time (what little I have) so I may eventually set up a separate page for it, as I recently did for another interest of mine, the Tandy CoCo.

Technorati tags: beale, cipher, cryptography

Dr Horrible

2008-07-19T20:14:00.001-04:00

I just discovered this, and it's only staying online for free until July 20, but it's the funniest thing I've seen in awhile:

Technorati tags: drhorrible

Twitter, Life, Wii

2008-06-20T22:15:00.002-04:00

I know I haven't posted much lately, but for anyone interested, I've set up a twitter account that I also fairly faithfully neglect... I was considering using it and my also-neglected flickr account, and combining them into a mobile blog, which I can also neglect. Or not. Depends on what life throws my way.

Speaking of life, it's been pretty busy, which accounts for the neglect mentioned above. Work has been a bit stressful, and there's lots to do around the house, so when I'm not busy with one of them, I tend to just want to veg in front of the TV to unwind. And if I'm not just vegging, I'm probably on the Wii.

It's been awhile since I've owned a current gaming rig. My desktop is ancient, my laptops are under-powered for games, and I got my wife a PS2... for Christmas of last year, so it's not exactly current. But after hearing some good things about the Wii and Wii Fit, I talked with my wife and we bought both. I'm glad we did, because it's the best exercise investment I've made in a long time. The cost was on-par with some equipment which is currently gathering dust in a closet, waiting for us to decide which room to set up as a home gym, but the Wii is getting some serious use within the first couple of weeks. I absolutely love the boxing that comes with the included Wii Sports (though there's an annoying flaw in the scoring routine. Sometimes I'll win a match by KO but lose six points. I'll fight a similarly-matched opponent, get knocked out myself, and lose seven. How can a win by KO only be worth 1 point more than a loss by KO? And how can a win cost points in the standings? I think the scoring algorithm needs tweaked a bit in future revisions, as it takes away from the enjoyment of the game.) Between that and the games bundled with the balance board in Wii Fit, I've been slowly working towards getting in shape.

Technorati tags: twitter, wii

Wil Wheaton Rules!

2008-06-09T17:52:00.000-04:00

Make no mistake, Wesley Crusher may have sucked... but Wil Wheaton rules!

Technorati tags: comics

Best. Site. Ever.

2008-05-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

Things that are younger than John McCain.

Technorati tags: links

Reliability issues

2008-05-15T18:51:00.000-04:00

I'm seriously considering moving my domains completely onto Google's free services, because I've been having some major reliability issues with Time Warner's RoadRunner service. Any time I download anything large-ish, such as a perfectly legal Ububtu iso, my connection seems to stall and I have to reset my modem, sometimes several times before the download completes. Then, sometimes, the connection drops after days of being stable with little to no activity. It's unpredictable and driving me nuts. I live in the city now, so DSL is a sorta-option other than the no POTS line and intense hatred of all things AT&T and their TOS which would prevent it. (I believe TW's TOS allows it. If not, they don't enforce it via technology. Unless that's what's causing my stalled connections...) I could take Brandon up on his offer to host me, but I hate to take advantage of a friend who does web hosting as part of their living. I could also pay for co-location somewhere. Or I could talk to my boss about hanging the server off of work's T1. None of the hosting solutions solve my connectivity problems, though, so maybe the solution is to write a script that monitors connectivity and uses an opto-isolated relay off the parallel port of the server to momentarily cut power to my cable modem, thus resetting it, whenever the connection stalls. That seems to be the funner, more geeky, solution anyhow :)

Technorati tags: connectivity

Better late than never...

2008-05-14T19:05:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to get my thoughts together, but here's my Penguicon 6.0 report. Hope everyone enjoys it...

Penguicon was a last-minute thing for me. My wife stumbled across the website after work on the week of the con while my boss and I were standing in her office, she mentioned it being something I'd probably be interested in, and my boss asked if I wanted to go. That was probably Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, travel arrangements were made, a hotel room was booked (at the overflow hotel), and I had Friday off. The drive up to Troy, Michigan, was pretty uneventful other than I-75 being closed in Detroit. The Penguicon website maybe should have mentioned that ;)

I arrived at the con a little early and asked about registration. I was pointed to one table and told 3:30. 3:30 came and went with no one at the table, but a line was forming at a table on the opposite side that I had been pointed to. So I jumped in line and waited. And waited. And eventually it was confirmed that I was in the correct line, but there was some confusion at the registration desk. Jokes were made about registration computers running Vista, but it turns out that the paper registration forms just weren't there yet. Lovely. So, closing in on 5 or so, I was finally registered. Unfortunately, it was a little to late to make it to one of the talks that I had hoped to attend. Instead, I just sort of hung out until opening ceremonies, which were a bit uneventful for such an event-packed con.

At 8 PM on Friday, I saw "I Stopped Sleeping (How to Succeed in Webcomics)" followed by "A Murder of Crows" at 9. Both were interesting discussions, and I met Randall Munroe (of xkcd just before the webcomic panel. I tried not to go all fan-boy on him. I simply introduced myself, shook his hand, told him how much I loved the comic, at which point he beat me within an inch of my life. Apparently, he likes to do that to people who approach him about how much they love his comic. If only I had overheard his comment a moment earlier...(OK. Only he and the three people who heard him joking around will probably get that joke, but it's funny, dammit. Trust me.) From there, I sorta hung out until deciding to call it a night and walk back to my hotel.

I started Saturday with Jason Scott's talk on Interactive Fiction. At this point, the lack of organization was already apparent (from registration the night before), but the bed on the stage pretty much sealed it. It was a good talk, though, even though Jason was surprised be the lack of video in the room for his presentation.

Even with the lack of organization, Penguicon was very enjoyable as an attendee. I won't bore anyone with further details, other than to mention a couple more highlights of the event. The panel discussion "Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse" on Friday night was an absolute riot. And if you ever get the chance, you have *got* to see the giant telsa coils in concert.

All in all, I had an excellent time. Next year, I'm dragging the wife along :)

Technorati tags: penguicon

Email accounts...

2008-05-07T18:02:00.000-04:00

If any of my old BBS users are reading this and would like a nitemarecafe.com email address, drop me a line and I'll set you up.

Technorati tags: email, nitemarecafe

Penguicon 6.0

2008-04-18T15:12:00.002-04:00

I'm currenly in Troy, MI, at PenguiCon 6.0, patiently waiting for registration to start. If anyone happens to notice the guy with the Tux tattoo on his right ankle, that's me!