The Last Ephor

I know this is like the third one in a week but bear with me. I've installed Ubuntu on the ancient tower I have and have been having trouble with tarballs. I've downloaded some .gar and .gpz files but I cannot unpack them. The download window shows them but I cannot double click to launch the unpacking utility I have to navigate there but I can't find "there". Do I have to do this through the admin console? Also, do I have to recompile the kernel after installs? I've been RTFMing but haven't found an answer on when I have to recompile let alone how I do that. -N00b Update: Ha! It appears I'm in good company. Linux is making me insane.

OK, I've been seeing serious performance drain of late on my aging PC. I've cleaned the hard drive and registry which seemed to help but mostly the lag is for the interweb. It's plugged into the modem directly so it's not a question of a crappy wireless connection. Is it possible that my modem itself is the problem? (PC is several hundred years old and modem is standard crap given to you when you sign up from Evil Incorporated Comcast.)

One thing about working "in technology" or "with computers" means that like any doctor in the family, people call me for free advice. My parents who are about as technically literate as a Masai tribesman. They are currently using a circa 2000 eMachines minitower machine. The thing is a dog. Runs like crap and is probably drowning in malware. They've finally decided to give up and get a new one. I suggested a laptop with a wireless card. My elder brother (who does not work "with computers" said that was a bad idea. According to him, printing is almost impossible with a laptop. Rather than argue the point, I said, "that's fine, whatever you want to do." I must be getting better at this because my parents went laptop shopping the next day and showed me the two models they were looking at. One was a Dell and one HP. Both lower range machines but considering they read email, look at pictures of the kids and print the occasional w...

A seminal work on trolls. I question the story though. Is the whole story one big troll? I think the guys in question are, in fact, trolls and rejoice in it. That doesn’t mean the rest of the article lines up. The bit about making $10 MM a year doesn’t pass the smell test. Identity thieves can be brazen but anyone jacking that kind of cash isn’t going to poke their head up like this. The Rolls Royce thing is a bit of theater too if you ask me. There are undoubtedly people online who are sociopaths who hurt others for fun. Hell, I went to high school with people like that. Fortuny’s claim of abuse could well be true and would explain his pathological need to lash out and hurt anyone he can. Anyone with deep seated issues like that is bound to react in the same way until they get some very serious help. (Forgive me for straying into club chair psychoanalyst mode) I think the there are two things here that stand out as worthy of mention: 1. Trolls only go way when you ignore ...

Everything is coming around full circle. But Liu is investing $10 million in the Palmetto State, building a printing-plate factory that will open this fall and hire 120 workers. His main aim is to tap the large American market, but when his finance staff penciled out the costs, he was stunned to learn how they compared with those in China. Liu spent about $500,000 for seven acres in Spartanburg -- less than one-fourth what it would cost to buy the same amount of land in Dongguan, a city in southeast China where he runs three plants. U.S. electricity rates are about 75% lower, and in South Carolina, Liu doesn't have to put up with frequent blackouts. About the only major thing that's more expensive in Spartanburg is labor. Liu is looking to offer $12 to $13 an hour there, versus about $2 an hour in Dongguan, not including room and board. But Liu expects to offset some of the higher labor costs with a payroll tax credit of $1,500 per employee from South Carolina. So the high labo...

So I went to the Big Box 'puter store. I was buying an external hard drive. I knew what I wanted and basically walked in and directly to the item I wanted and went to the desk to pick it up (they had them in the back and you had to bring an empty box to them). Conversation with sales dork as follows: Sales Dork: Will that be all for you today sir? Duffy: Yes, thanks. Sales Dork: Do you need this professionally installed? Duffy: ... Sales Dork: Sir? Duffy: It's an external drive Sales Dork: Right and we can dispatch a tech to make sure everything is installed properly so you don't have to worry Duffy: (thinking: I'll play along) And just how much is that going to cost me? Sales Dork: We're having a special so we can do it for $29.99 Duffy: So, $30 to "install" an external hard drive. Does anyone say yes to that? Sales Dork: (somewhat deflated) Sometimes...(looks around to see manager has departed) sorry, we have to do that with almost everyt...

We're moving the filestore today. That means it will be off line. I've decided to keep this information secret by emailing my users, their managers and contractors for the past two weeks. I've also hidden it on a scroll on the main page in 36 point font. Herewith is the message I sent: Hi All, This is to inform you that the file store (K-drive) will be unavailable Friday, April 11 2008 beginning at 2 PM. The outage is scheduled to last (36 hours) through Saturday, April 12. During this outage, users will be able to refresh reports stored locally. However, [redacted] web reports (both [redacted] and [redacted]) will be unavailable. The outage is scheduled to allow us to migrate to a better performing server with more storage than the current K-drive. Should you have any questions related to this outage, please contact me at the numbers below or [redacted] (by Sametime). Thank you for your patience and understanding while we upgrade our hardware. Bold in original. We to...

So the dishwasher saga continues. Repairman #2, who does not look like a Bears Superfan arrives. I give him the part and he sets to work in grim silence. Upon dismantling the door to the thing he pulls out the fried circuit board with a grim expression. He gives a harumphing noise that doesn't really sound like that but that's as close as I can get onomonpedically (I made a new word, take that Freeberg!) Him: "That's melted pretty bad." Me: "...." Him: "The door handle is melted too." Me: "um..what?" Him: "The closing mechanism for the handle is right behind the circuit board so you couldn't see it and I guess the first guy didn't take it out so he wouldn't have seen it either." Me: "And how much is that going to cost me?" Him: "The part is nine dollars and twenty seven fifty for labor" Me: "So, because the first guy didn't diagnose the whole problem I'm going to get hit w...

OK, actually weekly roundup because blogging has been light First up, Peggy Noonan asks if New York's Junior Senator can lose gracefully . I think we're seeing the answer is going to be "no". From the Department of Unforeseen Consequences, Biofuels cause global warming. Mark Steyn speaks to CPAC as only he can. Humor and insight in one package. If any GOP candidate spoke half as well as he did, he's be unbeatable. Everything I've ever needed to know I learned from LOST. I particularly agree with point #4. I think I'm legally bound to mention Berkley's support for the Marines .... If this doesn't amuse you , you must be Vulcan or something. This one is red meat for the Techies out there. Behold, when server cabling becomes art Remarkably, I've had 5 of these and the first four in the list are really awesome. Lambic is, admittedly, like sausage. Delicious but you really don't want to see it made. The uber-hopped IPA's by Dogfi...

Perhaps the title of the post is a misnomer. Intrepid infosec blogger Dancho gives a great analysis of the Global Islamic Media Front's boasting about their security toolset. See here and here for more. I confess to having missed this one entirely. I've not even heard of GIMF. However, as someone with a passing familiarity with encryption tools and network security, I can say that the key phrase in the article is this: "If you perceive the Technical Mujahid magazine as a threat to the national security of any country, old issues of Phrack magazine must be giving you the nightmares." I snarfed my Red Bull when I read that one. I used to be an avid reader of Phrack , 2600 and cDc's various white papers. In full nerd fashion, I went to HOPE twice and once even bamboozled my company into paying for it. At H2K one group emphatically decided I was an FBI agent and despite my protestations gave me a wide berth and breathlessly warned anyone I spoke to that ...

So...I've told you before about work related strife. We're passed stressful and into laughable. Part of my job is global support. Not a big deal, I've done it before but in the past it's been for largely English speaking people and usually, expats. Now I'm getting emails like this: "Proszę wysłać (jak najszybciej) do Rabena 5 palet przekładek 1046260 z PL0112 do PL0306. Jak zwykle będę wdzięczna za potwierdzenie dokumentu, którym przekładki będą wydane z fabryki." I am not making this up. I'm pretty sure that's Polish (but it could be Czech). Neither is available for translation in Babelfish so now I have to find somebody who can translate this or find a website capable of doing so. In addition, I had a conversation with my manager about training my new counterpart. He asked how I "feel about travel". I asked him where and how long and with an evil grin he said, "two weeks at least, probably three." Now if any of you a...

Completely. I mean if it were a cartoon it would have it's tongue hanging out the side of it's mouth and X's over the eyes. The DBA's called in UNIX and Oracle support guys almost immediately. Each blamed the other. Either way, my users had no data which tends to make them grumpy. After much ado, everyone agreed to blame the hardware since they were outnumbered. It took two days to move everything over to another box on another frame while the original frame hardware was swapped out. My job of late has been to reassure people that yes, we know about the problem and yes, someone is working on it. I've referred a great many users to my boss since that's what he gets paid for. One key event: A callout email/page went out around 3:30 AM on Wednesday morning. Oddly, my phone didn't ring so I didn't find out about the complete failure of our critical system until 7:00 when I logged on. I asked my boss why I wasn't called (not angry mind you, ju...

Fruit-picking robots closer to reality making an end run around the illegal labor market in California. Add to that improvements in the robot mowers and the trend continues. In all seriousness, automation of cheap labor has been the norm for centuries and will only continue apace. Update: Reader Alan Coffey asks: "Did they imply that the fruit picking robots would actually have an impact on the illegal situation anytime soon? The other major areas of illegal employment are janatorial, agriculture (livestock), landscaping and construction. See any automation posibilities there?" No there was no implication that the robots would have any sort of impact on illegal labor markets. Given that they won't be ready for deployment for another 10 years or so, we can similarly assume the cost will be (initially) high which narrows the market further. However, like everything else the cost will eventually come down and be available on a mass scale. Any effect on labor markets ...

Things I know about software: I used to work with a program called Paradox . Never was there a more apt name for any piece of software I also used to work with Easytrieve the most inapt name for any piece of software. I know that "hotfixes" and "patches" are things that fix a known problem and create all sorts of new and unknown ones. I know that technical writers are liars and weasels. I know that when a customer signs off on code review and testing, they have neither reviewed the code nor tested it. I know that marketing and sales guys are delusional sociopaths. I know that sales reps will offer to pay your mortgage before they make a sale and don't recognize you 9 seconds after one. I know that software has bugs not "undocumented features" Nobody reads the manual Installation is never easy Uninstallation is even worse If you have a server available for use by certain software, it will be the wrong file system Clients will install multiple versions...

I've often said that Hollywood hates it's customers. It's not hyperbole or exaggeration. They hate them but want their money. They're like the Carnies of old that referred to everyone as "marks" and "rubes". They placate us with tripe in hopes of wringing cash from us. Now they're wondering where the audience went . The broken monopoly of ABC, NBC and CBS haven't been able to keep up with the changing landscape. Viewers no longer see TV as a set time and place thing. Now it's viewed as a block of entertainment that ought not to be on anyone's schedule but our own. You can thank/blame Tivo and DVD's for that. Full disclosure, I'm a TiVo early adapter. I got it as a gift and have nearly wept with gratitude every day since. I may watch TV more frequently but I watch it for less time. Changing schedules doesn't usually affect me. I hardly know when my shows are on anyway. (Noted exceptions: LOST, The Shield, BS...

I've been skeptical of wind power in the past. Largely my concerns rest with scalability and consistency of supply. There are ways of mitigating the latter somewhat but the former is a barrier created by physics not will. This idea , however, might have some merit. If that's going to be used to power lights along the highway and possibly suppliment some service stations it would be a start. Even if this only does a small amount, that's a good thing. It won't drive the price of oil down but we need to move to renewable energy wherever possible.

Reader(s): I currently have a Dell 3K series w/ a 70 Gig drive which is almost full. I'm going to add a second hard drive exclusively for data. Then I'd like to create a logical partition on C: to allow for an XP and Ubuntu dual boot. Question: Can I partition C: and install the second OS without having to reformat?

Hapless User: hi Duffy: Hi Hapless User: this outage that's planned for tomorrow - will it affect the processing servers/CMS? Duffy: tomorrow? That's today mate Duffy: and, yes, everything is down from 5:00 pm tonight until Sunday morning Duffy: (or whatever 5:00 is in your crazy metric time you guys use) Hapless User: whaaaaaaaaaaaaat Hapless User: total panic Duffy: I cleverly disguised the outage time in bold type in yesterday's email Hapless User: yeah I read the mail this morning - so "tomorrow" was Saturday ;) Duffy: Here in the US, Friday follows Thursday Duffy: Irrespective of when one reads their email Hapless User: so it's starting 5 pm this evening EST (that's 11 pm for us) and ending 7 am EST - that's 1 pm for us) Duffy: right

Navy develops 8-Megajoule railgun, Nukem bows down The mere mention of the word brings back visions of the original first-person-shooters to grace our now-antiquated machines, and now the US Navy is getting real personal with a realized version of the pixelated railgun we all love and adore. Presumably ripped straight from the (admittedly lacking) storyline of Quake, an 8-Megajoule railgun has been officially created, fired, and deemed worthy of flanking our naval ships, which should strike fear in the hearts of anyone wishing us harm. The gun was showcased this week at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren, Virginia, and utilizes massive quantities of electricity rather than gunpowder to propel "nonexplosive projectiles at incredible speeds." The weapon is powerful enough to equal the damage inflicted by a Tomahawk cruise missile, and the device's project director compared the impact to hitting a solid object "going 380 miles-per-hour in a Ford Taurus." ...