Serpentine just doesn’t cut it for me when it comes to creating audio CDs, so I installed my favorite CD burning app, K3b and fired away.
To install: # sudo apt-get install k3b
One of the features I like in K3b is the ability to preview audio tracks within the playlist editor, but if you haven’t installed and started artsd, you’ll get the following error:
“Could not initialize Audio Output plugin k3b Arts Audio Output Plugin (can’t connect to aRts soundserver)”
To solve this, you’ll need to install and start the aRts soundserver:
# sudo apt-get install arts
# artsd &
Now, audio preview will work correctly in K3b.
Another hurdle you might run into is K3b’s lack of built-in mp3 decoding software. To solve that, install the K3b mp3 plugin:
# sudo apt-get install libk3b2-mp3
Otherwise, you’ll receive this error when trying to add an mp3 to the playlist:
Problems while adding files to the project. Unable to handle the following files due to an unsupported format:
You may manually convert these audio files to wave using another application supporting the audio format and then add the wave files to the K3b project.
Flipping through the channels in my area, I came across this and paused for a moment trying to figure out what possible rule would mandate its removal from the air.
(forgive the crappy image)
I was unfamiliar with channel 74 in my area — It’s Cox Sports, or MASN2, referring to George Mason University. After a little digging, I found this post on another cable carriers page that seems like it may relate. Here’s a relevant snippet:
FCC regulations state that when there is a local full power broadcast station within a market … then that broadcaster has the right to enforce two FCCs rules: 1) network non-duplication and 2) syndicated exclusivity rules…
These FCC rules require that cable operators can not carry duplicate stations and that the cable operator must blackout any and all duplicated programming if it exists, on other stations.
On the other MASN channel, a game is in progress. Does this blackout rule cover the cable company’s own duplicate programming as well? What other types of broadcasting, aside from sports, are affected by these rules?
A coworker passed on this tool to install on your own server that provides AJAX ssh access to your box. From there, of course, you can ssh to any other server accessible via the intarwebs.
I’ve often seen the cool web based terminals that some VPS and other server control panels give you and wondered how to set one up for myself. Anyterm is the answer.
Using a custom apache module and some AJAX magic, anyterm allows you to set this up on your own box.
They also offer a hosted version if you’d prefer not to run it on your own production servers. To quote their own slightly veiled disclaimer, “Although Anyterm is now reasonably well tested it is still fairly new code, and loading its module into your HTTP daemon is not going to make it more reliable.”
That said, I’d probably be nervous about putting this module on any machine in serious production use, but they do offer instructions on setting it up with its own apache instance to mitigate the danger of crashing your main web server.
Part of being a hacker is using what you have to achieve what you need. If you have a Linksys WRT54G, for example, and just want to add wireless capabilities to your existing router, it’s not always attractive to buy a dedicated access point.
It’s easy to set up any wireless router as an access point for your network — the steps are similar no matter which router you’re using.
Basic Setup
Plug in the wireless router and connect to it via ethernet cable or its default wireless network.
Navigate to its admin page and login.
Set its management IP to a static IP on your network outside of the DHCP range of your existing router (your DHCP server). I normally choose 192.168.0.2, for example.
Turn off the wireless router’s DHCP server.
Configure the wireless network. Set your desired ESSID and encryption scheme. I recommend at least WPA.
Connect your existing router to one of the 1-4 ports of the wireless router. Do NOT connect your router to the WAN port of your new access point.
That’s it! When your computer now attempts to connect to the wireless router, the DHCP request is sent on to your previously existing router and you receive an IP. The wireless router is now acting as nothing but an access point for your network.
If you’d like a step by step with screenshots from the WRT54G, just leave a comment below and I’ll consider doing a more in depth howto.
Sometimes, you just need to break through a troublesome gateway. Or perhaps you need to test a connection from a remote location. If you’re like most geeks, though, there’s already ample reason to do any of this — because you can.
Method 1: ptunnel
Esoteric, novel, and perhaps even useful: ptunnel allows you to tunnel TCP connections over ICMP packets — pings! Set ptunnel up on a server of your own, and connect from a client anywhere that allows ICMP traffic through. Sometimes a wireless access point will block TCP and UDP, but allow pings through to the outside. ptunnel is your ticket to freedom in this circumstance. It even allows for multiple connections and authentication.
Method 2: IP over DNS
The NSTX project (Name Server Transfer protocol) allows you to tunnel IP traffic wherever DNS is allowed to the outside world. Similar to ptunnel above, you need to set up a listening server on a machine under your own control first — then, the wifi-world is your oyster. Or at least, your access point. Here is an excellent NSTX howto.
Method 3: SSH SOCKS proxy or tunnel
OpenSSH is the Swiss Army knife of the *nix world. I couldn’t give an overview of tunneling without mentioning my favorite method. Simplest of all methods, as most of us geeks have an SSH server of our own available, this is the quickest way to browsing freedom. From the ssh manpage:
-D port
Specifies a local ``dynamic'' application-level port forwarding.
This works by allocating a socket to listen to port on the local
side, and whenever a connection is made to this port, the connec-
tion is forwarded over the secure channel, and the application
protocol is then used to determine where to connect to from the
remote machine. Currently the SOCKS4 protocol is supported, and
ssh will act as a SOCKS4 server. Only root can forward privi-
leged ports. Dynamic port forwardings can also be specified in
the configuration file.
To create a local SOCKS proxy, it’s as simple as this:
$ ssh -D 8080 myhost.example.com
Now, you would simply point your browser (for example) to 127.0.0.1:8080 as a SOCKS proxy, and you are in business. Of course, OpenSSH can be used to proxy and tunnel more than just web traffic. Anything from MySQL to Samba can be tunneled in this manner. See this Google search, and the -R and -L options to the ssh client.
When testing deployment of sites or updating IP addresses in /etc/hosts , sometimes it’s useful to force a DNS cache flush. Sometimes, a stale DNS entry can remain cached and a site will appear to be down when it’s really not. It’s easier to flush the cache than wait and wait for it to expire on its own, which can take upwards of 24 hours, depending on settings.
Here’s how to do it with Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux.
Windows
In Windows, flush the DNS cache using the ubiquitous ipconfig command from the Run dialog box, or from a shell.
ipconfig /flushdns
Mac OSX
In 10.4 and earlier, DNS cache is handled by lookupd. Leopard (10.5) replaces it with dscacheutil. Execute the following in a terminal to clear your DNS cache.
# 10.4 and earlier:
$ sudo lookupd -flushcache
# Leopard (10.5) and later:
$ sudo dscacheutil -flushcache
Linux
Some distributions run a caching nameserver in the background out of the box while some do not. To clear the cache if you have such a daemon running, simply restart the service. Location may vary by distro, but here are two possibilities:
#sudo /etc/init.d/nscd restart
or
#sudo /etc/rc.d/nscd restart
or possibly
# service nscd restart
A friend tipped me off today to this. Facebook appears to be blocking searches for ‘Google’. It throws the following error, purporting to be a temporary problem.
Perhaps more interestingly, is that a search for Microsoft or Yahoo goes through fine. I also attempted to user their ‘Advanced Search’, entering Google in the Company field. The search returns the same result. We can only conclude that Facebook is filtering for the keyword Google and refusing to return results.
This comes in the wake of Facebook’s recent Microsoft deal. I don’t know how long searching for Google has been disabled, but one has to at least allow fo the possibility that it is somehow related.
Don your tinfoil hats, and come up with your own theories. Has anyone noticed other keywords that elicit a similar response from Facebook’s search?
January 22, 2008 
Posted in blog entries 
3 Comments »
content rss
Recent Comments