The Problem with wiki

Comic from Cyanide & Happiness series by Explosm.net.

Image copyright @ Explosm.net.

200 Impressions

This guy seems to have too much time on his hands, but that’s an understatement. Despite that, he’s quite talented and waggish.

htop: a dynamic command line process viewer

If you irritated with top’s inability to scroll and are looking to opt to an alernative- look no further than htop!

<|Shrinked to Fit column width-double click for a larger dimesion|>

What’s so unique and special about it?

1. Visual Load monitors are nice and help
2. Color schemed
3. The interface is can be modified: colors, view modes, columns and pretty much everything else not noted.
4. Very customizable-I can view processes in tree mode and view dependencies like in Gnome-System-Monitor
5. You can scroll!!!!!!! and works with your mouse
6. Nice Search feature
7. What else do you need? Pretty and functional in CLI.

Note Ubuntu users and others alike. If you use the apt package manager and have the right sources and you simply type in your broswer of choice(well I shouldn’t say that, Firefox in my circumstance)

apt:htop

Have fun htop.

-Larry

Sync your documents to Google Docs from OpenOffice.org

OO.org2GDocs.OpenOffice extension created by Przemyslaw Rumik. Very useful! Kudos to Rumik! This desktop-to-web integration seems like the ideal plugin to take your docs online with you and even if not, it can be an excellent source to keep local backups of important whatnot. This extension is Java based and Java 6 is required for its functionality.

• It supports the most common OO and Macro$0ft Office formats of all mediums(documents,spreedsheets,presentations) (.odt) (.sxw)(.doc, but not MS XML) (.rtf) (.ods)(.xls)(.csv)(.ppt)(.ppts)

It also has to ability to import a plain text file as OpenOffice Text.

Get at Google Code ooo2gd!

Have fun with ooo2gd!

-Larry

HowTo:Connecting to a wireless network via command line

This guide is only intended for those who implement WEP /WPA-PSK /WPA2-PSK encryptions

Before we begin the actual guide, a few preliminary things on the agenda:

Find your wireless card’s Interface Name; you must know the proper interface of the wireless connection. To find this you can use the lshw command Which lists certain hardware details. Since you only want to discover network interfaces you find that by executing the following command:

 

lshw -C network

 

the flag -C displays the alias for the given class of the hardware. I choose it over ‘lspci/’lsusb” as it prints me a more accurate description.You may see multiple interfaces, find the one that parallels the wireless device in question.

Also make sure you have the configured your wpa_supplicant. The package, look here: http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/

 

And here’s my output:

 

 

*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:17:3f:3c:b8:02
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ndiswrapper+netmw245 driverversion=1.45+Belkin,08/30/2006,1.0.1.8 ip=10.10.10.3 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g

Yes, the dreaded Belkin pre-N adapter using poorly written marvel chipset drivers, netmw254 being one of them. Currently using the g specification since I returned the corresponding Belkin route. In any event, I just should get back to topic.

For a WEP Connection(assumed you have your ASCII password or 64-bit/128-bit hex key)

To initiate connectivity you must execute the following commands in command line

sudo ifconfig <logical name> down

[<<this brings down the interface for the specified interface>>]

sudo dhclient -r <interface/logical name>

[<<Release IP address akin with specified interface>>]

now with the IP address released we bring up the interface

sudo ifconfig <logical name> up

[<<this brings up the interface for the specified interface>>]

Now the ESSID/Password entry, commands are as follows:

sudo iwconfig <logical name> essid "essid_must_be_entered_in_quotes"

Now for the ASCII password entry or hex key

sudo iwconfig <interface> key 's:ASCII KEY' [<< discern the s: prefix as it is needed, do not use quotes>>]

or

sudo iwconfig <interface> key HEXKEY

Now we specify the mode, by default my infrastructure mode is ‘managed’,but the modes aviable managed (default), ad-hoc or master. In managed mode, it forces the wireless to attempt and connect to the specified ESSID and nothing else.

sudo iwconfig <interface> mode Managed [<< ah-hoc and master is also aviable>>]

Now we request an IP address from our DNS server

sudo dhclient <logical name>

Same story with WPA-psk/WPA2-psk, just make sure you configure wpa_supplicant properly in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

In some cases you might need to run wpa_supplicant.conf. Also if you’re

sudo wpa_supplicant -w -D<drivername> -i<interface> -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

By doing this you are asking wpa_supplicant to wait for the interface to be added, if needed…Customarily,wpa_supplicant will exit itself if the interface is not present
Also it specifies the name of the driver and the interface to listen on.

Once all is executed it will append a path to the wpa_supplicant config file.
The value listed here is dependent on the driver you have installed.

Typing man wpa_supplicant will give you options for avilable drivers, just for a quick reference.

ndiswrapper=wext (use wext and not ndiswrapper despite what man page documentation might recommend)

In some instances, an atheros chip set would most likely have the madwifi(assuming you have it installed)

My input was: sudo wpa_supplicant -w -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Usually the output of a successful connection results in something like this. Here’s my output

body
{
font-family: Monospace, monospace;
font-size: 10pt;
}
.style_0
{
color: #000000;
background-color: #ffffff;
}

larry@larry-desktop:~$ sudo dhclient wlan0
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.pid with pid 134993416
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:12:17:35:17:10
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:12:17:35:17:10
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67     interval 4
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPOFFER from 10.10.10.3
DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 10.10.10.3
bound to 10.10.10.3 – renewal in 289233 seconds.

It attained the IP address of 10.10.10.3 in my output.

This guide was heavily referenced from kevdog from ubuntu forums

Cheers! You never know when the GUI might fail you.

-Larry

ChhChhChhannnggees.

The theme of the presidential election made clear to everyone

via Youtube by Hugh Atkin
Music:feat. Bowie

Poincaré Conjecture Rap!

Here’s a video clip of Prof. Steve Sawin of Fairfield University rapping about Perelman’s Proof of the Poincaré Conjecture [wiki], to the tune of Snoop Dogg and Pharrell William’s “Drop it Like it’s Hot.” Link [YouTube] | Steve’s website

Diz be the words n’ shit, graciously provided in .pdf format yo’: Words

Check it that shit out B!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Your Grade: A

98% You Passed with an Excellent Score!

 

I could pass an 8th grade science quiz! Yay.. congrats to me.-_-.. This couldn’t be made possible without the educationally stimulating support of MY own 8th Grade Science teacher. The renowned Pete Accardi! Give him props, without him This ‘achievement’ wouldn’t be made possible! Other people that deserve honorable mention; not limited but including Gregory

Here’s to you Mr.Accardi!

Celebrity currency

If you fold a bank note and obscure it in a way where it matches onto a photo of a Celebrity, for instance, President  Grant over Pitt, never mind that doesn’t sound too promising. Anyway the outcome looks really witty.  You can glance at more on  freakingnews.

Photo: freakingnews

Distinctions between a FLILF and a non-FLILF

For all of those in their head in the gutter, FILF stands First Lady Intent on Liberties and freedom; Coined from The Daily Show.

NOT FLILF

Janet Huckabee 

 

 

Elizabeth Kucinich

 Confirmed FLILF

 

 

Thoughts-Opinions-Questions-Ramblings-Rants-Complaints-Suggestions-Proposals

-Ideas-Recommendations?

 

 

Guake revisted

Remember how I said Guake might have some issues? Well it does, but I don’t blame it, it’s still in alpha stage. When I attempt to run Guake, I get the following error message:

"Guake can not init! Gconf Error. Have you installed guake.schemas properly?"

Since I didn’t compile this from source, but instead install a packaged .deb(deb can be found from the official Guake site,.deb this causes a few conflicts. A few reasons being

1) It doesn’t comply with the Debian policies in where configuration files should be placed. There are two ways to fix this. The long counterintuitive but simple way using Synpatic(or whatever package manager you use) . For all practical purposes I’ll show how it’s done in Synpatic. We’re looking for what directory the guake.schemas file was installed. Search guake in synpatic(Edit>), or ctrl+F.Navigate to properties of the package, look under the Installed Files tab. That way you’ll find exactly what and where the package placed the files. Look for guake.schemas. A command line way, a much quicker way if you don’t want to opt the synpatic mess, is searching it with the slocate/locate/find command. It might take a few instances to index all the files,but it’s my preferred way.

In root type

updatedb

After you’ve indexed your files, search for for guake.schemas, I used slocate:

Contacting the Guake dev, he issued me this command to properly install the schemas file(assumed you’re using GTK)

gconftool-2 --install-schema-file=/usr/local/etc/gconf/schemas/guake.schemas

My guake.schemas wasn’t located in

/usr/local/etc/, but /usr/etc/gconf/schemas/guake.schemas.

Have fun with Guake!
There are other alternatives of Guake, check out Tilda(Added true transparency!) and Yakuake(Yet Another Kuake)for KDE. Guake is just a GTK+ of all these.

Cheers!

-Larry

Brute force a car’s keyless entry pad!

Everything2.com explains how to crack a key less entry pad on a vehicle

.

Car key less entry pads usually consist of 5 buttons, each with 2 numbers. Using a little math you can find out the number of combinations needed. Simply put: the sum of the factorials’ of X buttons and X numbers of digits on one button: 5^5+^2!= combination of 3129 pushes.You could crack the car’s keypad within ~15-20 minutes(I wouldn’t know exactly, heh).

Returned from my 2 month 20 day hiatus.

There’s no real excuse as to why I haven’t been active on ma blag; moreover, the readers. I’ve reached an all time low hit traffic, ~53 visits in 15 day intervals, that’s comparable to… ± 4 visits a day.That’s a little beside the point. The point is I’m back! Came across a really neat utility, Guake, a drop down terminal for GNOME. Quake+GNOME, kind of…. It shares the same drop down functionality you’ll find in a traditional drop-down consoles of first person shooter games..What’s so special about Guake is it gives you the ability to work in terminal without switching in between windows. Saves a great deal of time, especially if you use CLI on a regular basis. Still in alapha, so don’t be shocked if you encounter issues. I’ll be watching this project closely.

 

 

http://site.guake-terminal.org/