Green Moss

Green Moss, originally uploaded by marcn.

Backgrounds are tricky. They can make a subject stand out or distract from it. Make a photo with a good background today.

Evil Eye

Evil Eye, originally uploaded by marcn.

An old adage in photography says if you want to improve your photographs, move closer. Fill your frame today! #ds97

sshguard on Debian/lenny

The sshguard documentation is correct, but a little lacking.

Here are my notes of what is needed in case I ever need to re-do it:

• Download sshguard-1.4.tar.gz from http://www.sshguard.net/
  



• Unpack and compile (see the stock documentation on sshguard.net)



• In /etc/rc.local add the following lines before the "exit 0". This sets up iptables with a filter for ssh connections:
  
  

iptables -N sshguard

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j sshguard


  
  You should run those commands before you edit the syslog configuration. Or reboot.
  


• 
  In /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf add around line 190 the following lines:
  
  

filter sshlogs { facility(auth, authpriv) and not match("sshguard"); };

destination sshguardproc {
program("/usr/local/sbin/sshguard"
template("$DATE $FULLHOST $MESSAGE\n"));

};

  
  And down near the end of the file, add:
  
  
log { source(s_all); filter(sshlogs); destination(sshguardproc); };

  


And finally restart syslog-ng (sudo killall -HUP syslog-ng) and read the sshguard faqs: http://www.sshguard.net/docs/faqs/

Photos from Granite State Regional FIRST Robotics Competition

Here is the complete photo set:
NH Regional FIRST Robotics Competition

Ubuntu/lucid on hp2133

Tonight I wiped my hp2133 running Ubuntu/karmic and installed lucid.

The only pain was of course getting the wireless card to work. That simply meant getting the Broadcom firmware into /lib/firmware/b43

The instructutions on http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 were right on. You will need to build b43-fwcutter from source pulled from the git repo, but the commands are provided.

Are you a Linux or Java geek looking for a phone?

If so, then you *need* to get a Droid.

I think of the Motorola Droid as an "always on portable computer with G3, WiFi, GPS, Blutetooth, audio in/out, microSD, compass, accelerometer, keyboard and a reasonable size touch screen." Oh, and you can make phone call with it too.

The open source dev tools for Linux/Windows/Mac integrate with eclipse and includes the can't-say-Java-but-that-is-what-it-is compiler & runtime. Nice desktop phone emulator for debugging and on the phone there is a reasonable USB-based debugging tool. It was straight forward to compile some of the sample projects and put it on my phone.

My top 10 Android apps

Everyone seems to have a top 10 list of Droid apps, so here is what is currently installed on mine:


Useful, go get:

• Advanced Task Killer Free -- very simple way to kill of apps that are left hanging around


• AppManager -- nice way to manage your apps includes info on space used and can uninstall apps


• Barcode Scanner -- used by other scanning apps


• Battery Graph -- track battery level


• Book Mobile -- scan ISBN from a book and have it added to your google book list. Sometimes it can't add to the list on google.


• Color Blindness Test -- I'm red/green deficient


• ConnectBot -- ssh client


• Divide and Conquer! -- fun game


• DroidLight -- handy flashlight replacement, turns on camera flash


• Foursquare -- silly GPS location 'game'


• GDocs Notepad with Sync -- little note taker that stores up on google docs


• GDocs -- not written by Google, but lets you get to your google docs


• GeoBeagle -- Excellent geocaching app, highly recommended,


• Goggles -- Take a picture of something and google will try to identify it, works best with books, logos, etc. By Google.


• Google Sky Map -- Very cool reality enhancement. Go out at night and hold the droid up to the sky to see names and info about stars, planets, etc. By Google.


• Hypnotic Spiral -- silly toy


• Maps (Google) -- Excellent interface. By Google.


• Moon Phases -- handy


• My Tracks -- Notes GPS tracks and uploads to both Google Docs and Google Maps, very handy for tramping around in the woods


• NetCounter -- track network traffic on 3G network vs WiFi network


• Network Discovery -- Sort of a nmap port to the android that lets you find out what else is on your network. Integrates with ConnectBot to ssh to servers.


• Oblique Strategies -- a Classic.


• Places Directory (Google) -- Show lists of what is nearby you. By Google.


• Ringdroid -- create ringtones from any mp3


• Sand Blaster -- physics simulation game similar to Powder


• Seesmic -- Nice twitter client


• Show Accelerometer -- toy to show off the accelerometer


• Spark -- toy


• The Weather Channel -- nice weather app with widget interface too.


• ThinkFree Mobile


• tickr -- surprising handy Flickr slideshow app that needs a bit more polish


• Voice Recorder -- Excellent free voice recorder, integrates into email to send or upload audio recordings


• Waze -- fun mapping/directions tool that also has a game element (munch dots on untraveled roads)


• WiFi OnOff -- widget to turn on/off the Wifi from the homepage

Handy, will likely stay on the phone

• androidVNC -- VNC to linux boxes. Servicable, but tricky connecting to a 2 monitor system.


• AK Notepad


• Banshee Remote -- requires downloading and running a little python server on the Linux box running Banshee. Could be handy, but may not fit how I listen to music.


• Bluetooth File Transfer


• Documents To Go


• Dolphin Browser


• Evernote


• Favorite Recipes


• iSilo -- I use this on my palm pilot, may be useful.


• NPR News


• Photoshop.com Mobile


• Pandora


• Qik


• SAT Vocabulary

Not fully evaluated

• Aldiko


• Amazed


• Androbex


• Android Network RSS


• Beelicious


• CompassNavi


• Contact Owner


• Craigslist


• Flickr Photo Frame


• Gmote


• GPS Status


• Hyperspace LITE


• Layar


• Listen


• MeteorLiteWVGA


• NewRob


• On Air


• OpenLoopz for Android


• Opera Mini


• Owner


• PalmBookReader


• Plasma Puddle


• RaySpy


• Reader


• ScoreNinja


• Shot


• Simple GPS


• Slacker


• SmartTraining


• SnapPhoto


• StreamFurious


• SwiftTweets


• SystemMonitor


• Trap!


• Ustream Broadcaster


• Ustream Viewer Beta


• Where