wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/17069296/kxsldbg_3.5.10-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/17069294/kommander_3.5.10-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/17069293/klinkstatus_3.5.10-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/17069291/kfilereplace_3.5.10-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i k*.deb
sudo apt-get install quanta

Read First, open the Attachment second No peeking! We mean it!

We recently received news that is going to not only change our lives but
likely everyone who is included in this email. Due to it we have had to
cancel future plans we had on weekends and even a wedding in December.

It’s hard to understand what news could be so good, err great, that we can
be excited about even if it means having to miss a wedding in December.
To find out you will just have to look at the attachment (yes, we give you
permission, go ahead and look…wait! Just kidding, go ahead and look).

After opening the attachment, please scroll down below and read the rest.

With this wonderful news, we want to give everyone the opportunity to
receive announcements from us during this time. We also want to be able
to give everyone the control of whether or not they receive announcements
from us, so please, if you want to receive them sign up at

http://www.wilkin-family.net/announcements/signup.html

Likewise, you can unsubscribe at your convenience too. Bonus points go to
the first person to figure out why we selected the From Address we did for
the announcement emails (you’ll understand when you get your subscription
confirmation email from us).

Feel free to forward this email to any friends, family members, etc. so
that they too may receive the great news and be given the option to
subscribe to our announcements.

Thanks all,
Kami, Matt, Spunky, and Baby Wilkin

Baby Announcement

1. First look up the Printer Name on your Linux box, it is best if it is a single word and under 20 characters. You can typically find this by opening a document, selecting Print and it should be the name in the drop down.
2. Next you will have a script that call rdesktop like so:
   rdesktop -r printer:<YOUR PRINTER NAME ON LINUX>="WINDOWS DRIVER NAME AS IT APPEARS IN ADD PRINTER" <YOUR SERVER IP ADDRESS>
3. Run the rdesktop script and login
4. Go to Printers and Faxes
5. Right-click on the Printer that matches your Linux printer’s name and choose Properties
6. Print a test page!

Note: This only works if you are using a public/private key for authentication via SSH and on a user by user basis. To do this read my post titled, LinkStation Pro Duo, enabling SSH.

To get this to work from a Client machine that runs Linux, you need to install “sshfs”. In short, this allows you to mount a drive/share on your LinkStation Pro Duo onto your client machine. This in turn gives you the opportunity to run rdiff-backup locally which DOES NOT require rdiff-backup –server to be installed on the LinkStation.

Once you have sshfs installed, you will need to create a startup script for your username. Now this will vary depending on the distribution you use, but if you use Ubuntu or one of its derivatives, you can do the following:

1. Setup Directory for Mount Detection
   We need a directory setup on the NAS so that we can tell if the share has already been mounted. This is needed because every time you login via SSH, it will try to mount this drive, and if you are like me and you run your PC 24/7, this could be a problem.
   1. Remote into your NAS via SSH, using ssh <username>@<nas_ip_address>
   2. Create a directory on your NAS that you will put in as the CHECK_FOLDER value in the below script by running
      mkdir <path_to_your_new_folder>
2. Create a .bash_login script
   1. Open your favorite editor (gui, graphical user interface or cli, command line is fine), name it “.bash_login”
   2. Copy the following into the file:
      #!/bin/bash

      CHECK_FOLDER=/mnt/nas-backup/
REMOTE_FOLDER=<username>@<nas_ip_address>:/mnt/array1/Backup
LOCAL_FOLDER=/mnt/nas-backup

      # Check if the NAS Backup Share has been Mounted, if it hasn't mount it
if [ ! -d $CHECK_FOLDER ]; then
sshfs $REMOTE_FOLDER $LOCAL_FOLDER
fi

   3. Replace the values of CHECK_FOLDER, REMOTE_FOLDER, and LOCAL_FOLDER so it suites your setup.
   4. Save the file
3. Logout and log back in
   Your NAS share should be mounted automatically so long as you have a public/private key authentication setup.
4. Setting up your rdiff-backup
   For rdiff-backup, I simply run
   rdiff-backup --exclude-special-files <path_to_directory_to_backup> <mount_location_of_nas_share>
   
   To automate it, I put it as a cronjob that runs every night.

Note on 12/08/2008: I have now started to use rsync as it does not require me to mount the NAS Shares onto my personal computer. It also supports public/private keys allowing me to run it via cronjob daily.

That’s it!

IMPORTANT NOTE: I made a few corrections to the below by adding item 3.6, and updating items 4.4, 5.11, and 5.12. Please read those items over again. If you needed to perform items 5.11 and 5.12 for two PCs, it is important that you use the updated commands.

1. Enable Telnet (temporarily)
   1. Download the acp-commander
   2. Run the .jar file by running
      java -jar acp_commander.jar -t <IP ADDRESS> -o
   3. Login to your LinkStation Pro Duo using (username and password are found on the above link)
      telnet <IP ADDRESS>
2. Enable SSH at Startup
   1. Create an SSH Startup script by typing vi /etc/init.d/sshd.sh
   2. Type ‘i’ to enter Interactive Mode (this enables you to type), then proceed to type the following code:
      #!/bin/sh
test -f /usr/local/sbin/sshd || exit 0

      ACTIVE_FILE=/var/run/active_sshd

      case "$1" in
start) echo -n "Start services: sshd"
/usr/local/sbin/sshd -f /etc/sshd_config 2>/dev/null &
touch $ACTIVE_FILE
;;
stop) echo -n "Stop services: sshd"
killall sshd
rm -f $ACTIVE_FILE
;;
restart) $0 stop
$0 start
;;
*) echo "Usage: $0 start | stop | restart"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0

   3. Press the ESC key and type “:wq” to Save and Exit
   4. Make the file executable by running
      chmod +x /etc/init.d/sshd.sh
   5. Backup the original script startup file by running
      cp /etc/init.d/rcS /etc/init.d/rcS.bak
   6. Modify the rcS file to contain the SSH startup script by typing the following:
      vi /etc/init.d/rcS
   7. Press “i” to enter Interactive Mode
   8. Page Down till you see
      echo "** step3 **"
   9. At the end of the next line, add
      sshd.sh
   10. Your change should now look similar to the following:
       for cmd in diskmon.sh drivecheck.sh ftpd.sh atalk.sh httpd.sh smb.sh clientUtil_servd.sh bonjour.sh lsprcvd.sh daemonwatch.sh logrotate_init.sh cron.sh checkconfig.sh ups.sh pwrmgr.sh sshd.sh
   11. Save your changes and exit by pressing the ESC key and typing :wq
   12. Add your SSH script to the Daemon Watch, so if it crashes/closes, it will be started again automatically. Run the following code to edit the list
       vi /etc/daemonwatch.list
   13. Type “i” to enter Interactive Mode
   14. Add the following line to the file
       /var/run/sshd.pid /var/run/active_sshd /etc/init.d/sshd.sh restart
   15. Save your changes and exit bt pressing the ESC key and typing :wq
3. Configure SSH
   1. Backup your original sshd_config file by typing
      cp /etc/sshd_config /etc/sshd_config.bak
   2. Modify the sshd_config file by typing
      vi /etc/sshd_config
   3. Press “i” to enter Interactive Mode
   4. Remove the # in front of the following lines (you need to use the backspace key to do this; you may also need to change some of the ‘no’ values to ‘yes’)
      Port 22
Protocol 2,1

      HostKey /etc/ssh_host_key
HostKey /etc/ssh_host_rsa_key
HostKey /etc/ssh_host_dsa_key

      PermitRootLogin yes
StrictModes yes

      RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes

   5. Save the file by pressing the ESC key then typing :wq
   6. Start the SSH Server by running /etc/init.d/sshd.sh start
4. Create new Home folders for each user
   You will need to do the following for every user you have created!
   1. Create the users via the Web Interface first, once the users are created, start Step 2 for each user
   2. Create a directory for the user by typing (replace <username> with the actual username)
      mkdir /home/<username>
   3. Give the user permission to that folder by typing
      chown <username>.<group> /home/<username>
      Now this is a bit tricky, depending how you setup the groups. You want to give the permission to a valid user and a group the user is part of. For example, if you have a user named “matt” and a group named “contributor”, then your command would be
      chown matt.contributor /home/matt
   4. Finally, make sure the directory has the correct permissions by running the following command
      chmod 0755 /home/<username>
   5. Set the user’s home directory by running
      usermod -d /home/<username> <username>
5. Create public/private key pairs for each user
   You will need to do the following for every user you have created!
   I am only going to go over the commands you would use in Linux as I haven’t tried this with PuTTY yet. You will need to do these steps as “each user”. In other words, you will have to logout on your PC, login as the next user and repeat the commands (advanced users can use su <username> to login as an additional user without logging out as their own).
   1. Run the following command in Terminal or Konsole on YOUR PC
      ssh-keygen
   2. Leave the file name as “id_rsa”
   3. If you want a passphrase enter it here, otherwise, leave it blank (I left mine blank)
   4. Next run the following command to generate a SSH 2 key
      ssh-keygen -t dsa
   5. Leave the file name as “id_dsa”
   6. If you want a passphrase enter it here, otherwise, leave it blank (I left mine blank)
   7. Next copy the files to your LinkStation by running
      scp .ssh/*.pub <username>@<IP ADDRESS>:/home/<username>
   8. Next login to the LinkStation via SSH using
      ssh <username>@<IP ADDRESS>
   9. Once login run the following command to create your SSH key directory
      mkdir .ssh
   10. Make sure the permissions are set properly by running
       chmod 0700 .ssh
   11. Load the public key for SSH 1 by running
       cat id_rsa.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys
   12. Load the public key for SSH 2 by running
       cat id_dsa.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys2
   13. Make sure the public key entries for SSH have the correct permissions by running
       chmod 0600 .ssh/authorized_keys*
   14. Exit out of the LinkStation by typing “exit”
   15. Try step 8 again and make sure it did not ask for your password this time (if you entered a passphrase, you will be prompted for your passphrase)

Download the sshd_config.zip

However, let me state, that I do want to see Flex Builder 3 ported to Linux. I could then ditch my Windows Virtual Machine and run things natively, but that is my only complaint at this moment.

So why do I love Flex?
Flex is just easy to use, the components built it are amazing and you have the ability to build components on your own too! Much like Server Controls in .NET, .NET gives you a TON to begin with and you can create your own as well. However, this is for Flash! That is extremely important to acknowledge, as I do not have to have Macromedia Flash MX or whatever the latest version is on my PC to build a Flash application now.

Not only do I love being able to build a Flash application without Macromedia Flash, but I also love how it can work with an infinite number of backends without a lot of effort. Got a web service you want to plugin to? No problem, how about an RSS feed? Again, No problem. Well how about just a plain HTTP stream with a custom format? No Problem! I mean literally, you can plugin to any service that can send back a response. If it is a custom type of response, then you can write a routine to read your custom format. However, if you are using a Web Service, be in written in .NET and it returns an XML stream, then you literally have to do nothing! It will read it without any custom code from you, the developer. And that my friends is the “cream of the crop”.

So where do we go from here?
I am going to be doing a lot of things with Flex fromt his point on. I was just totally amazed by the simplicity and yet the complexity you can have within it. I still have a lot to test. Updating the grid’s data when it has changed, and similar events. But time will tell and so far Adobe has bought me back with this wonderful technology. Just bring it to Linux and I will move right next to your head-quarters Adobe!

This week, I thought for sure I would be working diligently on the major rewrite project I am doing and have been doing for the past month or two. However, that wasn’t the case, at least not for a few of the days. This week, I had to handle requests I thought I would never be asked to do, plus a request that whose last contact I had was nearly three months ago.

The first request I got yesterday, was to restore a quote done by an agency in April. Now let me explain what makes this so difficult. First off we purge our quotes every 65 days, and April is definitely over 65 days. Second, I am not in Tech Systems, so I do not have knowledge on how long our backups are kept on site, when they are off site, and how far back we keep our SQL tables backup tapes. Finally, I didn’t really want to be the one to ask those questions to Tech Systems and cause them to scramble and cringe at my request, but I did.

The answers were great to learn. The tape was on site and we keep backups for an entire year, so I could go back to July of ‘06 and be just fine. Lucky for the agent, the restoration completed late this afternoon. I had tech restore the database on our development server as overwriting production with April data seemed like a bad idea. Spending about 5 minutes, I was able to find the two quotes the agent asked about and will be restoring those to production on Monday morning.

Who would have imagined that I would have to do this, this week. Who would have guessed it would have been this easy? And of course, I got to learn our backup procedure which is free knowledge, and that is always something to celebrate!

Beyond that, I also had to deal with a three month old issue. An issue I subsequently closed three months ago, because the user never contacted me back. At first this was frustrating, as if the problem was still happening, why did it take them three months to contact me? Should I take three months in responding back? Is this something that I should be accustomed to from this user? Were they on vacation for three months? Seriously, three months?

The issue is quite annoying and they are the only ones to receive such a problem. The problem is an infinite loop of an alert box in JavaScript. Quite annoying indeed, so why would it take three months to re-report this bug to me so I can attempt to make further progress on correcting it? The only way this user knew how to get rid of the infinite loop, was to restart their PC. So we are talking about a fairly non-computer-geek user here. They know how to do their daily tasks, which involves using our website repeatedly throughout the day, so why three months?

The issue is related to the onkeydown event, which if you ask me is buggy as I’ll get out in every browser and should never be used by any application! I personally hate that event, but I didn’t write the initial JavaScript causing the error, and everyone who uses it, likes the functionality the JavaScript provides. In short, it validates the user input on three text boxes to ensure only numbers are entered for a phone number. On top of that, it also auto tabs to the next field once three digits are entered, then another three, then the final four.

So why are two computers in one agency having a problem with this JavaScript? I haven’t a clue. They are using an odd browser or browser version, they are using Internet Explorer 6 for goodness sake. Any hints on where to look for answers or ideas on how to recreate such an issue would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, I want to tip everyone off to an excellent email. This is truly a work of art, and I am can fully understand the frustration of a broken build.

America’s Got Talent? When it is talent to dance like fools, or a guy dressing like Shikira and no where near the looks or the dancing capabilities! Where is the talent in that BS.

Bah! I can’t watch this show any more.

Time has been good to me. I have been writing several articles for Search-This, primarily focused on Object Oriented Programming, but I have had a few others here and there, and am always looking for suggestions for upcoming articles. On top of that, my wife and I bought a house in Lima, OH. We have been living it for a little over a month now (actually 41 days, but who’s counting?). Then if that weren’t exciting enough, we got a dog!

The dog’s name is Spunky. It’s primarily a name to describe his personality than anything else, as he is one spunky pup who feels he owns the house I just bought! But we love him. He is a Papillon (pronounced pap-i-on, the l’s are silent) and will get anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds (I’ll try to put pictures up at a later time).

Finally, work has been keeping me extremely busy as I rewrite one of our biggest applications to correct all of it’s XML flaws. See, as an insurance company we try to follow the ACORD standard, and this application was written as the first .NET project for the company. With that said, no one really knew what ACORD was, and we just try to mimic what we felt it was. This is now biting us in the end, and its my job to correct it and I am getting close to having a product ready for testing. I am just now getting the UI finished up and then it’s off to testing by me, then our “QA” department if you will call it that (other individual in tech asked to do specific sets of tests). Well this project has been consuming a LOT of hours from me, roughly 320 hours right now, and I projected about 450, so I am doing good.

In short, that is the time between my last post and today. Hopefully, I can keep my promise and I expect everyone to harass me when I miss a week.

My wife, knowing me entirely, bought me several more DVDs for my constantly growing collection. I believe I am now close to 130 Movies/Seasons, not counting my all 10 seasons of Friends.