Posts

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Secure MTB’s e-mail notification de-spamming feature

A blog-spam notification e-mail sent by MT-Blacklist conveniently contains a link to de-spam the according comment. Unfortunately, all URLs start with “http://”, meaning that the request (and hence your credentials) are sent as plain-text. To force using HTTPS (encrypted HTTP) for anything related to MT-Blacklist, you can add the following line to your Apache configuration (this is an example, adjust it to match your server layout):

<VirtualHost 192.168.1.6:80>
  # other redirects here
  Redirect permanent /cgi-bin/mt/plugins/Blacklist https://news.numlock.ch/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/Blacklist
</VirtualHost>

and restart Apache (for Apache2 on Gentoo: “/etc/init.d/apache2 restart”)

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Last but not least: GMail and GMailFS

Addendum: Opened a GMail account a couple of weeks ago (thanks to Moritz for the invite – pretty clever marketing on behalf of Google, BTW :) My add is mettlerd@.

Note: Please do not send any mails to that account yet as first I’ll have to define what I will use it for.. actually, I have an account with much more free space already (read: my private own mail server ;)

[*LOL*. Addendum to the addendum: Forgot to mention – The reason for posting this entry was actually the fact that Moritz made Gentoo ebuilds for GMailFS . Unfortunately, the Gentoo policy regarding libgmail/GMailFS ebuilds is very strict.]

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goScreen rocks :)

Praise to Andrei Gourianov, the creator of goScreen, the only really usable virtual desktop manager for Windows. He recently managed to send me my license key within a couple of hours.

The not-so-good precursor: On that said day, my trial version of goScreen (or rather, a very central part of it, the desktop maps) stopped working without prior warning (very unusual for shareware) – unfortunately in a very bad moment for me! There was no way to make it temporarily work again (e.g. by prolonging the trial period), so I had to wait for my license to arrive to continue using goScreen. The good outcome: Andrei was very understanding, responsive and co-operative and sent me my key within exceptionally short time. That saved my day and work, Andrei! Thanks again!

Kudos also to Attila who told me about goScreen the first time. I always missed something like this on Windows.

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New blogs added to blogroll

BTW I’ve just added the blogs of Jo, Stef and Huebi :)

If any other friend of mine is having a blog without me noticing it, just tell me :)

[Addendum: Note that a blogroll is only about blogs, not good old homepages.. so better get yourself a blog if you don’t have one already ;)]

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Mouse Modding II – The Ultimate Gamer Mouse

After Mouse Modding I, there’s Mouse Modding II – The Ultimate Gamer Mouse :) Heavily inspired by Heeszel’s posting on ExtremeTech:

Another point is the MX weighs more than the MS mouse. The MS weighs 3.0 oz, and the MX510 4.3 oz. I opened up the MX mouse and found a small steel weight screwed to the top cover, approximately where the logo is. This weight is exactly .5 ounces. Why would they put a weight in their mouse? I believe this is done to make the mouse appear more “solid” or “quality” to the prospective buyer in the store. It certainly would do nothing for any other purpose, such as balance.
Below is a picture of the weight, which I removed from my mouse to reduce weight. http://home.comcast.net/~heeszel/mx510weight.JPG

With the extra-weight removed, the Logitech MX510 Performance Optical Mouse is The Ultimate Gamer Mouse :) Highly recommended! :)

Disclaimer: You probably void your mouse’s warranty when doing this. You do everything at your own risk – do not blame me if something goes wrong. Unplug the mouse before opening its case.

Older entries on the MX510:
Logitech MX510
logitech mx510 optical mouse supported in linux 2.6.6
ergonomically nice mice

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FBSplash for Gentoo

For the logs and Google (I use FBSplash for quite a while already):

(Inofficial) Gentoo FBSplash Howto
(Inofficial) Gentoo FBSplash in 5 steps Howto

Upgrading a FBSplash kernel once you’ve already installed one (procedure for a laptop/desktop or workstation -> you don’t want to use fbsplash on a server, do you?):


1. # emerge -u gentoo-dev-sources

2. # cd /usr/src/linux-{your new gentoo-dev-sources}

3. # make mrproper (just to make sure everything is clean)

4. # cp ../linux-{your previous gentoo-dev-sources}/.config .

5. # make oldconfig

6. verify the new kernel config (if required): # make menuconfig

7. # mount /boot

8. # make && make install modules_install

9. adjust /boot/grub/grub.conf to boot the new kernel. keep the old section as a fallback. a valid section for my box (with a 1400x1050 screen) would look like (don't copy this as it probably won't work for you. just take it as an example. note that the "kernel /boot/vmlinuz .. theme:emergence" line is very long.):

default 0
timeout 5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.8-r4 (new fbsplash)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda4 video=vesafb-tng:ywrap,pmipal,1400x1050-32@60 splash=silent,theme:emergence
initrd /boot/fbsplash-emergence-1400x1050

10. adjust the /usr/src/linux link:
# rm /usr/src/linux
# ln -s /usr/src/linux-{your new gentoo-dev-sources} /usr/src/linux

11. # reboot

12. after rebooting, make sure that the correct kernel has been booted (see # uname -a)

13. remerge any kernel-dependent ebuilds.
if you use the binary x11 driver by nvidia, do:
# emerge nvidia-kernel
if you use the ndiswrapper (wlan; intel pro wireless bg 2100/2200 etc.):
# emerge ndiswrapper
if you use alsa you might need to remerge alsa-utils:
# emerge alsa-utils

14. if anything had to be emerged in step 13, do
# reboot

15. if everything works fine, you might want to remove the following things:
- previous kernel sources (# rm -rf /usr/src/linux-{your previous gentoo-dev-sources}/)
- previous kernel modules
# rm -rf /lib/modules/{your previous gentoo-dev-sources kernel modules}
- previous kernel in /boot:
# mount /boot
# cd /boot
# rm vmlinuz.old
# rm vmlinuz-{your previous gentoo-dev-sources kernel}
# rm config.old
# rm config-{your previous gentoo-dev-sources kernel}
- adjust /boot/grub/grub.conf accordingly (remove the section of the previous kernel)

have fun :)