Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Our Server Won't Go Down Either

Got a clue about the QSOL ad via a link from Obie Fernandez blog. Before you click the link consider that the number of women entering CS/Tech programs are down. Then number of women entering IT is declining. The question that everyone is asking, "Does sexism exemplified by the ad cause women not to enter the field?"

The ad is in this month's Linux Journal to which I subscribe. I hadn't even noticed it. I don't normally read the table of contents because I usually flip through the whole thing.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Y2K Climate Bug

Got this from http://slashdot.org. Apparently there was a Y2k bug in the processing of the climate data. The warmest year on record was 1934 and 5 of the 10 warmest years occurred before WWII.
http://www.dailytech.com/Blogger+finds+Y2K+bug+in+NASA+Climate+Data/article8383.htm

Wow, it sounds like the peer review process didn't really work.

Quote:

NASA has now silently released corrected figures, and the changes are truly astounding. The warmest year on record is now 1934. 1998 (long trumpeted by the media as record-breaking) moves to second place. 1921 takes third. In fact, 5 of the 10 warmest years on record now all occur before World War II. Anthony Watts has put the new data in chart form, along with a more detailed summary of the events.

Jim Cramer on the Colbert Report



Thursday, August 09, 2007

Cisco VPN on Fedora 6 & 7

Unfortunately, I have a need to access a network behind a Cisco VPN. I didn't really want to install the Cisco Linux VPN client. I found vpnc. There are rpms that can be installed using yum.

Here are the steps that I used to setup the connection. The assumption is that your logged in to your system as a userr and gnome is running.

You'll need the filename.pcf file, typically located in c:\Program Files\Cisco Systems\VPN Client\profiles

In Fedora, as root do:
yum install vpnc NetworkManagervpnc rdesktop

If NetworkManger is already running restart it.
service NetworkManager restart

If you don't have NetworkManager started do the following:
service NetworkManager start
service NetworkManagerDispatcher start

You should have a NetworkManager icon in the sys tray.
Left click VPN Connections->Configure VPN
Click Add in the VPN Connections box.

There should be a Create VPN Connection box.
Click Forward
Choose Compatible Cisco VPN client.
Click Forward
Click the "Import Save Configuration box "

You may get an error about TCP tunneling not being supported. I've gotten the same error and the connection still works.

In the Override username enter your username.
In the Optional tab, enter your domain name.
Click Forward, Apply, Close

Your connection should be setup now.

Left click the NetworkManager choose VPN Connections.
Choose the connection that you just started
Enter your password.
Enter the Group Password
Click connect.


The group password is typically encrypted in the pcf file on the line encGroupPwd. This password can be decrypted. The instructions for this are located here.

Update: Removed duplicate sentences.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Monday, August 06, 2007

Small Victories against big companies

I love it when things like this happen.

Warrant Issued For Verizon's Arrest

Verizon lost in small claims court for not correcting erroneous information on a man's credit report. He sued and won. They didn't take it seriously either.

Customer sends bailiffs in to seize bank's computers
In this case a man sued the bank of Scotland, won and they didn't take it seriously. He went to bank with bailiffs to take equipment including a cash drawer.

Update: Fixed formatting