After decoding the server type ID and building SASL and TLS authentication into Postfix, I added the script to cron. But I wasn’t sure it was running, and while on most servers there’s a cron log, there wasn’t one on my Mac Pro. How to get it there…
My first thought was syslog. So I looked at /etc/syslog.conf:
# Note that flat file logs are now configured in /etc/asl.conf install.* @127.0.0.1:32376
Well that’s not helpful. What’s this asl.conf? I sure didn’t know, but a little digging found me this gem:
It looks like aslmanager first appeared in OS X 10.5.6. It also looks like the asl facility is Apple’s replacement for syslogd, created to make it easier to quickly search system logs. From the asl(3) man page: “This API permits clients to create queries and search the message data store for matching messages.”
So asl is the OSX way to manage log files. Great! Let’s learn it.
## # configuration file for syslogd and aslmanager ## # aslmanager logs > /var/log/asl/Logs/aslmanager external style=lcl-b ttl=2 # authpriv messages are root/admin readable ? [= Facility authpriv] access 0 80 # remoteauth critical, alert, and emergency messages are root/admin readable ? [= Facility remoteauth] [<= Level critical] access 0 80
What is this sorcery?!? I kid, it’s actually a well organized configuration language. The meat of it is the leading character of each line. From the asl.conf man page:
The files contain several types of lines, described below. Each type is identified by the first non-whitespace character in the line.= Parameter settings ? Query-action rules > Output file or directory configuration options # Comments
So lines that start with a “>” deal with files that will be used for logging, and lines that start with an “=” indicate what syslog entries go into what files. That’s all I needed. So here’s what I added to my asl.conf:
# Cron! > cron mode=0640 format=bsd rotate=seq compress file_max=5M all_max=50M ? [= Facility cron] [<= Level info] file cron
That’s it! Then I restarted both syslog and aslmanager, not knowing which one (or both) needed to re-read the asl.conf:
sudo launchctl stop com.apple.syslog sudo launchctl stop com.apple.aslmanager sudo launchctl start com.apple.syslog sudo launchctl start com.apple.aslmanager
And now things are working just the way I like.
Now I’ve got it working where I can get the latest token for any of these services on my Mac in Quicksilver and copied to my clipboard in no time flat. You can have it working for yourself in just a few minutes.
First off, requirements:
Once you’ve installed everything, put this code in a file named “otp” in your ~/bin/ folder and make sure it is in your path.
It isn’t the most secure implementation but it gets the job done. I considered putting the keys/config into a Keychain item and use /usr/bin/security to access them, maybe more securely.
Now run it!
And the result.
Enjoy!
]]>Luckily some kind soul had already figured out how to rename your OSX Mavericks short username and posted it on the web. I followed “The full monty” instructions with great success.
But after reboot and subsequent login, Dropbox failed, complaining about permissions on my old Home directory. I didn’t save the error message, but it looked like it didn’t have permissions to the directory (because it no longer existed). I tried re-installing Dropbox, but that didn’t reset things.
After creating a symlink from /Users/peterbeckman to /Users/pbeckman (ln -s pbeckman peterbeckman) I was able to get Dropbox to start, but it annoyed me that it was still looking at my old $HOME. So I tried under Dropbox > Preferences > Account to change the parented home dir, but it complained that the Dropbox folder already existed. Well duh.
So finally I unlinked the account, removed the symlink, re-linked the account, and Dropbox found the existing files that had already been copied onto my host and all was seemingly well again.
Short version:
When I first hit the product page I was surprised to see 56 Reviews already posted. My first thought was that people got preview devices to try out and review via the Vine Program.
Nope.
None of these people own the Amazon Fire TV or have used it. None of the 1 Star Reviews are Amazon Verified Purchases either.
And while several of the 5 Star Reviews are verified purchases, we still have bozos posting reviews:
This is getting ridiculous. I’m starting to question whether there is value in the Amazon Review System. People use it like a forum where they can freely discuss their perceived view of a product they have never used, and Amazon Customers get the shaft in not being able to know what reviews are bull and which ones are valuable. Amazon has the data to filter out reviews that are voted as not helpful, but they don’t — they just add up the numbers, leaving you to sift through the often atrocious reviews to figure things out on your own.
My Top 3 Reasons to Distrust Amazon Reviews:
UPDATE: An hour later there are 68 reviews. I’m sure they are amazingly detailed and awesome.
]]>But with Dropbox, I rarely use the web interface, and the computer I had set as “trusted” got wiped after I left AWS. So I emailed Dropbox Customer Service this morning and they got back to me just now.
Another easy way is through the Dropbox desktop application. If the application is running and linked to your account, just click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac) and then click Dropbox.com (or in
older versions of the application, click Launch Dropbox Website). This will take you straight to the website, where you’ll be signed in automatically and can disable or update two-step authentication from here.
Ah ha! Logged me right in and I was able to edit and re-enter my authentication information for Two-Factor Auth!
I’m still ticked off at Google for screwing this up. There are a bunch of other TOTP (Time-based One Time Password) protocol-supporting iOS Apps, such as DuoMobile but I don’t yet have a level of trust for any of them. If you do, post in the comments!
]]>The copy is as follows:
“Man: I’ve been taking a multivitamin for years, Centrum Silver. Woman: Both of us actually. Our pharmacist recommended it. Man: Yeah, that makes me feel pretty good about it. And i heard about a study looking at multivitamins and the long-term health benefits, and what do you know, they used Centrum Silver in the study. Makes me feel even better. That’s what I take. Sorry, we take. Voiceover: Centrum. The most recommended, most preferred, most studied. Centrum. Always your most complete.”
I take issue with this ad. First off, I have my doubts that my pharmacist has more or better information about the health benefits of multivitamins than my 8-year-old daughter. OK, maybe a little bit more, but my General Practitioner is way more likely to understand the impacts of a multivitamin on my health than my pharmacist. From what I’ve read, pharmacists know more about drugs and medicine than my GP might, but I’m not sure they study multivitamins. And I don’t really even trust my GP much anymore either. Nor do I trust the Internet, yet here I write.
Anyway, I call bullshit that the pharmacist is a trustworthy source for the healthfulness of taking a daily multivitamin. The impact or dosage of a drug or medicine? Absolutely, but not vitamins. Which leads me to that nagging study.
Second, the guy mentions a study on long-term health benefits where they used Centrum Silver. But he doesn’t mention the outcome of the study, only that they used Centrum Silver in the study. Why? Because it wasn’t a good outcome.
“New findings from a long-term study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, for example, suggest that multivitamins do not protect against heart disease in men. The study, which included nearly 15,000 male physicians over age 50, found that those who took a daily multivitamin for more than 10 years did not reduce their risk for heart attack, stroke or death.” — ABC News: Mixed Results on the Benefits of Multivitamins
So the study that shows that Centrum Silver has no positive impact on our lives, and yet this guy “feels good about it” because they used Centrum Silver in the study.
I used to be in the ad business, and I used to like ads. But ads really are piles of crap being sold as The Emperors New Clothes. I’m not taking any stupid multivitamins.
]]>At least now some mod I’ve never heard of but seems to be popular is coming to Steam, with the team getting access to the original game engine code to make it co-op friendly. Sounds like fun!
]]>Most EV companies say you pay about 2c/mile for an electric vehicle to run. Power that from solar or wind sources, and you have ZERO emissions. For our estimates, lets assume DOUBLE that estimate, or 4c/mile for an EV.
Take a gasoline car. Average fuel economy is about 22mpg. Though US average for regular was put at $3.69 yesterday, I’m going to use $4, because that’s what it will be in a month. Assuming you have an average car, you are paying 18c/mile for your petrol sucking car. Plus you are spewing CO2 emissions in the air; not as much as your parents were, but there are emissions.
Now look at biking, cycling or generally using a bicycle. Using a few different sites on the web, they average about 1000 calories for biking 15mph for 1 hour. I don’t know if this assumes hilly or flat terrain, but I don’t care — the number seems reasonable. For healthy food, not power bars but actual food with health value, I’m guessing you pay about $4 for 1000 calories. The calories have got to be sustainable over 8 hours of biking, and I’m guessing 32 power bars (at 230 cals per bar) isn’t the ideal consumption for long term performance. At $4/1kcal, you are paying an astonishing 26c/mile. And you’d like to think that biking is emissions-free, but it isn’t. All of your food is shipped and carted around this great country on diesel trains, trucks and boats, spewing more CO2 into the environment, just to process your healthy food for you to burn 26c/mile, forcing you to breathe all that pollution along the way, stupid bike.
But for skeptics, let us say $2 for 1000 calories. you are still at 13c/mile, 3+ times more expensive than our DOUBLED estimate per mile for an EV.
And on top of that, YOU are spewing CO2 into the environment!!! At a much greater rate than if you were sitting in a nice, quiet, efficient and ZERO EMISSIONS EV.
Bottom Line: Stop biking, you pollution loving hippies, and get yourself an EV.
Where to get an EV? The Aptera does 85mph for 40-60 miles on pure electric, and you can get up to 120mpg for longer drives, all for $29,900 (or the pure EV for $26,900 with 120 mile range). Or consider the Triac that does 80mph for 100 miles, and only costs $19,995. Or my favorite and future vehicle, the Venture One that does 0-60 in 7 seconds, goes 100mph, with all three types (1 EV, 2 gas-hybrids) doing better than 100mpg, and does it all while you feel like you are flying a fighter jet. Pricing between $18,000 and $23,000. Excellent.
PS — I guess you could almost say that food these days isn’t really green. So stop eating America! Save the environment!
PPS — Just kidding.
Apple Logo surrounded by razor wire used without permission; From the cover of Wired 16|04. © 2008 Wired Magazine.
]]>Don’t wanna read my blatherings? Add this to your ~/.ssh/config:
Voila, no more delays. No server config changes either. Hope you don’t have to use Kerberos!
Read on to see how I got to this solution.
So a new hosting company set up two fresh from ISO FreeBSD 6.2 installs and enabled sshd for me. Using my trusty MacBook Pro running OSX 10.4.9, I attempted to connect to my brand-spanking new servers. When I ssh‘ed to the boxes, there was a 30-60 second delay before I got the password: prompt. Believing it to be the standard reverse DNS problem, I mucked with the nameserver entries in /etc/resolv.conf, but to no avail. I started playing around with __ UseDNS yes or no __ settings in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config, but still no luck. It’s starting to piss me off, and my red wine levels are dwindling.
I google, I yahoo, I search mailing lists on FreeBSD.org and the MacOSXhints.com Forums but I still fail at finding the issue. I can see the problem:
I make an educated guess that it is something Kerberos-related, so I disable anything Kerberos related in my servers sshd_config, but that doesn’t help. So I keep searching. Finally I discuss the issue with my genius geek friend Jay and he says he’s having the same problem, but had given up trying to solve it.
“well – I’ve given up… I tried for a couple hours and then said ‘screw it, nobody’s paying me for this.’ and that was pretty much that.” – Jay Kuri
Jay did mention something about Kerberos, which I had tried and seen mentioned with the whole “credentials” thing, but passed over when I tried disabling it on the server. I finally came across this blog entry and it suggested to add some GSSAPI config vars to your sshd_config. Well I already tried that, but, hey, let’s throw them in the /etc/ssh_config on my OS X MBP.
Poof! No more delays. All I added to my ~/.ssh/config was:
Stupid, stupid OpenSSH sucked 2 hours of my life. Damnit.
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