Got Back Up?

Earlier today I was looking at a girl's Apple iBook that contains her only copy of an imminently due essay along with her photos and probably a bunch of other stuff she would hate to lose. This iBook has developed a fault and is no longer usable. (For the Mac savy, yes I did try the usual tricks. This is why I didn't try extracting the harddisk.) Hopefully the harddisk is OK and so a repair service will able to get her access to her files but it is going to cost her time, money, stress, hassle. If she had made a back up she could be working on that essay using another computer whilst her iBook gets sorted out instead of having to decide whether to start re-writing it from scratch now or wait to for someone to dismantle her iBook to get access to her only copy.

A friend of mine once went out on a call and found himself dealing with a woman who ran her business from one computer which had stopped working. She had no back ups of her files so her business was pretty much crippled whilst she waited a couple of days for an engineer to come out to fix her computer. Turned out the part of her computer which had failed was the harddisk. So even though my friend got her computer working again by replacing the harddisk she was still completely screwed because she didn't have any of her files. Apparently she cried a lot.

If you have a computer, be it a laptop or desktop, an Apple or a Dell or whatever, and you do not have a back up of all the files on there that you couldn't bear to lose then you could find yourself being one of those people. If you do not have a back up your files then go to Amazon or your online retailer of choice right now, buy yourself a USB flash drive or an external harddisk, take a copy of those files and make sure you keep making copies regularly, especially after you make important changes. You will never regret doing it, but you may one day severely regret not doing it.

Mike Willis : 27 Jan 2009 19:39 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

How to recover your wireless network WPA–PSK key from a Belkin router.

A few years ago I set up my parent's Belkin wireless ADSL modem/router to use WPA-PSK. I set the key to a randomly generated 64 character hex string. Over kill maybe, but it's as easy to use a string of the maximum allowable length as it is to use a shorter one. I gave the parents a copy of this key on paper along with other details and told them not to loose it. The location of this piece of paper is now unknown. I had a copy of the key on an old flash drive which turns out to be kaput.

Oh well I thought, just look at the relevant config page on the router and it'll show the key. Or so you'd think. But no. What is shows you is a text input field, (stupidly short I might add given the potential length of the key but such poor form design is sadly all too common),  containing a bunch of small black circles. (Or possibly * depending on your browser.) Nowhere does it display what your key is currently set to nor is there an option anywhere to display it. At least none which I or my brother in law could find. Which is mind numbingly unhelpful.

This left me stumped for a little while and I cursed the stupidity of people who would design an interface which allows you to change a setting but won't tell you what that setting currently is. I could just change the key, but that would mean reconfiguring my Dad's laptop and the wireless ethernet bridge on my Mum's desktop. Neither or which was appealing, especially the bridge which I recall as having a configuration UI created by either sadists or people who simply lacked the necessary skills or inclination to do the job well.

Then it occurred to me that the router knows the key, the field for the key contains 64 unknown characters and I recall the key I set was 64 characters long. So presumably what's in the field is the key I set. So it must be possible to find out what it is.  And it is. So now we arrive at the point of this rambling entry, how to see what the key is. Specifically how to see it using Firefox, but one of the methods should be easily transferable to other browsers.

1. Method one it the simplest. View the source. Right click near the field, and select  This Frame > View Frame Source. In the window that opens search for the string wpaPskKey= and there is your key.
2. Method two is to use Firebug to view the source.
3. Method three is to use Firebug to change the value of the field's type attribute from password to text, thus meaning the contents of the field is no longer obscured.
   

Mike Willis : 25 Jan 2009 21:52 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Interview with creator of curl

Writing about web page http://twit.tv/floss51

If you write *nix shell scripts you've probably used curl at some point. Even if you don't engage in such activity you've probably used some software which uses libcurl. If you find the idea of listening to the guy who created and continues to maintain curl appealing, check out the linked podcast.

Mike Willis : 25 Jan 2009 20:25 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Review of the 128K Mac

Writing about web page http://pcanswer.com/2009/01/21/larry-magids-1984-la-times-review-of-original-mac/

The Mac, which retails for $2,495 is about 14 inches tall and takes up about the same amount of desk space as a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. It is smaller and lighter than most of the so called “portable” machines. The entire system can be slipped into an optional ($99) padded carrying case to be hoisted over your shoulder or placed under an airline seat. The case and computer together weigh 22 pounds.

Mike Willis : 22 Jan 2009 17:47 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Hotspot VPN vs Asus Eee PC

Writing about web page http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wireless

I've recently got my hands on an Asus Eee PC 901. I got the version which ships with Linux (Xandros heavily modified by Asus) on it since I'm that way inclined. I found that whilst it is possible to use the pre-loaded software to connect to the University's Hotspot VPN, doing so doesn't result in connection that is actually usable.

The reason for this turns out to be because the default behaviour of the included VPN client is to re-use the IP address that the Hotspot network has assigned to the machine's wireless connection for the VPN connection. The VPN server doesn't like that.

The solution is to tweak the configuration file for the VPN connection so that it uses the IP address assigned by the VPN server. Assuming there's only one VPN connection set up on the machine then the config file is /etc/ppp/peers/vpn1 and the option noipdefault needs to be added as an extra line at the end.

There's various ways to edit the file, arguable the fastest being to tap Ctrl-Alt-T which brings up an xterm window in which you can run

$ sudo kwrite /etc/ppp/peers/vpn1

After which the last few lines of the file should look like:

/home/user> tail -5 /etc/ppp/peers/vpn1
lock
noauth
nobsdcomp
nodeflate
noipdefault

Full connection guide with screenshots and such like can be found here.

Mike Willis : 20 Jan 2009 15:56 |  Tags: Eeepc Hotspot Linux Vpn |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

53

Pleasing

• Ladyhawke

Displeasing

• Banana FRijj

• Banana FRijj mixed with chocolate FRijj.
  

Mike Willis : 19 Jan 2009 22:17 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Zimbabwe rolls out Z$100tr note

Follow-up to Who wants to be a quintillionaire? from Mike's blag

Zimbabwe is introducing a Z$100 trillion note, currently worth about US$30 (£20), state media reports.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7832601.stm

Bear in mind that according to xe.com the currency was re-valued with ten zeros chopped off the end. What's 100 trillion with ten zeros added? Somewhere between 100 sextillion and 100 septillion I think, though I'm basing that on two minutes on Wikipedia.

Mike Willis : 19 Jan 2009 22:11 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Adding wallpapers in KDE 4, the metadata.desktop file and X–KDE–PluginInfo–Name attribute

Google bait-ish title as this is something I worked out through trial and error when I couldn't find any information about it.

Whilst poking around in KDE 4 I noticed that some wallpapers are supplied in multiple resolutions. E.g.

mike@continuity:~$ rpm -ql kdebase4-wallpapers | grep Fresh
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/contents
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/contents/images
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/contents/images/1024x768.jpg
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/contents/images/1280x1024.jpg
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/contents/images/1280x800.jpg
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/contents/images/1440x900.jpg
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/contents/images/1600x1200.jpg
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/contents/images/1920x1200.jpg
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/contents/screenshot.png
/usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/metadata.desktop

Presumably KDE 4 picks the one that's most suitable for your screen resolution.

When I put my own multiple resolution wallpaper in to /usr/share/wallpapers I found that KDE 4 did not list it in the drop down list of available wallpapers. Eventually I worked out that it wasn't showing up because the value of the X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name attribute in the metadata.desktop file has to match the name of the directory the wallpaper is in. E.g.

mike@continuity:~$ grep X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name /usr/share/wallpapers/Fresh_Morning/metadata.desktop
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name=Fresh_Morning

Once I made them match my wallpaper appeared in the list.

Mike Willis : 11 Jan 2009 23:13 |  Tags: Kde Kde4 Linux Wallpaper |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Phony iPhone Nanos

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7816243.stm

It was rumoured that Apple might be announcing a new, smaller iPhone at this year's Macworld conference. As a result, counterfeiters in the Far East started producing replica iPhone Nanos, replete with Apple logo. However, other than a 17" Macbook Pro, there was no other hardware announced during the keynote address, meaning the only iPhone Nano you can buy is fake.

Silly counterfeiters. Evidently they are now part of the Apple Product Life Cycle.

Mike Willis : 08 Jan 2009 13:22 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

My favourite episode was the one with the chocolate biscuit factory

I've just finished watching the latest episode of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe which is all about children's TV. The last ~5 minutes are something of a contrast to the rest of the show being a nostalgic look at the creations of the recently deceased Oliver Postgate. If there are small children in your life whom you have yet to buy a Christmas present for then buy them some DVDs of Oliver Postgate shows. Give them something to watch that doesn't look like it's the result of numerous focus meetings and couldn't be aired until the marketing tie-ins were in a lorry on the way to the shops. Amazon have the complete the complete Bagpuss for under £3 and Ivor The Engine for under £4.

Mike Willis : 17 Dec 2008 18:04 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem