Techorator - A blog about tech and more

AirPrint Server with Ubuntu - The easy way

2011-07-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

With an AirPrint enabled printer, you can easily print over wifi from your Iphone, Ipad, and Ipod Touch.

If you don't have a printer, or your printer is on its last leg, the easy way is to buy a $69 HP Wifi Printer, Scanner, and Fax.

However, many of us like our printers and don't want to buy another. So here is the real easy way to make your old printer AirPrint compatible.

You need to have:

Ubuntu installed (10.10 was tested)
The printer working in ubuntu. Usually not difficult, but it is beyond the scope of this blog post.

Steps:

Copy and paste this line into the terminal. You can find the terminal by clicking applications, accessories, terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hughescih/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install airprint-daemon

This will ask for your password to continue. After entering the password, you will see hundreds of lines fly by.
Finally open your printing manager by clicking System, Administration, Printing
Open the printer server settings by clicking Server, Settings
Check the box for 'Publish shared printers connected to this system'
Check the box for 'Allow printing from the Internet'
Click Ok.

Thats it. You can now print from your iphone, etc.

This is based on the blog post here: http://gtk-apps.org/content/show.php/Apple+AirPrint+Support+for+Ubuntu?content=136756

Fuji FinePix x100 - The perfect walk-around camera?

2011-03-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

The new (not yet in the US) Fuji x100 camera has enthusiast and professional photographers chomping at the bit. I preordered mine from B&H Photo and I'm dying in anticipation of its arrival. This camera will provide high end SLR quality and control, in a light weight all in one package. There are a few similar options out there, but not one with all these features, such as the hybrid viewfinder, dials for all the manual controls, APS-C (large) sensor, and a classic look which is just gorgeous!

This camera will cost as much as an SLR with similar lens, or even a micro 4/3 with similar lens and viewfinder, so it's no break in price. But if you know what you are doing with a camera, the Fuji x100 is the camera to have when you don't want to look like a pro, or carry the weight of a full SLR kit.

My next best choice is the Olympus E-PL1 or 2 with a Panasonic 20mm 1.7 lens.

I'll post more about it once I get it. My wife took over the E-PL1 I had, but I'm not letting her take this one!

Finally, Block sites in Google search!

2011-03-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Experts Exchange!

I hate experts exchange. When looking for an answer to a technical question, I think I finally found a result in google. I click and wham, I didn't bother to see the link was for experts exchange. An annoying search result which wants you to pay to see answers. I have 2 problems with it. 1. I'm finding answers for my job, I'm not going to pay experts exchange for my employer's benefit. 2. I get paid no matter how long it takes me to find an answer.

Now, with google you can click on a search result you don't like, then click the back button and A new link will appear asking if you want to block the site from ALL future results!

BYE BYE Experts Exchange!

2D Light Depth Calculator

2011-03-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

Last time I talked about light depth and calculating it in one dimension, now I will add another dimension. The 2d depth calculator I have created lets you handle more complex scenarios and is more visual. The drawing is to scale, but the scale is whatever you want it to be. If you want to use centimeters, then each square represents a centimeter. If you want feet, then each square is a foot (a square foot more accurately). Each solid cintrifical line represents a full stop of light difference from the previous solid line. Dashed lines, available at greater distances represent 1/3 stops. The amount of light loss you are willing to accept from the front of the subject to the back of the subject is up to you.

To use the tool:
Determine an appropriate scale for your subject. ie. Shooting a car or group of people you may want to use feet. Shooting a lego design, you may want to use a lego standard, 1 stud. etc.
Measure your subject in the scale you have chosen. (A lego figure is about 1 stud deep, and 2.5 studs wide)
Using another piece of paper with the same grid on it, cut out your subject based on your measurements.
Place the cutout on top of the lighting calculator and move your subject around to find the perfect distance for your effect.

So if you move your subject real close to the light source, you will notice the front of the subject will be 1 stop brighter than the back. Move your subject back and now your subject bay only have 1/3 stop difference from front to back. But this is a 2D calculator, so you also see where the edges and corners start to drop in light.

Attached is a low res version. It will still work fine. So go ahead and print it full page.

Handling Y-Cam Security Camera files on my FTP server

2011-03-11T23:21:00.000-08:00

The y-cam is generating hundreds of files a day. The files are very small (about 65K) but they become a mess to keep organized. To handle this I have developed a solution. It's still a work in progress and is not fully implemented, but here is what it does:

Every night at midnight my Ubuntu server will:

Clear a temp folder
Move all the pictures to the temp folder
Renumber the pictures in sequential order
Convert the pictures to an MP4 time lapse video
Email the video to my gmail account

I have two cameras so this process will happen for each camera. It takes less than a minute to complete the process. This gets the videos off site (gmail), and keeps the surveillance organized.

As I said, this is a work in progress. I don't actually have the script running automatically. Right now it does everything from end to end, except renumber the pictures. The Y-Cam has an option to automatically number the images sequentially, but it doesn't start over. I had hoped that the y-cam would start over once the folder was cleared.

Security Camera Follow-up

2011-03-08T23:26:00.000-08:00

I purchased a y-cam knight. It's just like the y-cam black except it is white. The knight offers Wifi and Cat5 connectivity, night vision with IR leds, web based interface and management, motion detection, automatic sending of pictures to email, ftp, etc, and more. The Y-cam costs about $260 and has an optional outdoor enclosure for $100 more. You can not simply aim this through a window because once the night vision turns on, the camera is blinded by glare.

I created an account on my FTP server which the knight logs into to upload pictures any time it detects movement. This has been working well and it gives me something to look back on.

I also purchased the Axis M101 to do a comparison. In general the axis cameras are more expensive, but they are supposed to be good cameras. However after some testing I have determined the axis is harder to tune as far as motion detection goes and has a worse picture. For the most part, it sends to the FTP server just the same.

Y-cam has also released a new Y-Cam bullet model which is supposedly even better at night, and comes in an outdoor weather proof enclosure. The bullet itself is smaller than the y-cam knight in the outdoor enclosure, but it has a rather thick bundle of cables which you will have a hard time getting through a wall. I have installed one of these at my parents house and it is working well.

What I like most about having cameras is I can check the status of my house at a moments notice via my iphone. I can see if my wife is home, or if the handy man has arrived. I can also sleep easier knowing that if anything happens I have a picture of it.

Next time I will discuss some of the home grown solutions I am putting in place on my FTP server to handle the hundreds of files I am generating daily.

Schlage Link iphone controlled door locks with z-wave

2011-03-05T23:47:00.000-08:00

I purchased the Schlage Link locks from Amazon so I can have better control of people with access to the house. Normally I would give the neighbor a key, my sister a key, my mom a key, the repairman, etc. All of these keys and no control of who copies them, who looses them, etc. In addition, even with all of these keys floating around, I still lock myself out.

Schlage makes a few doorlocks with number pads. I originally bought the model from home depot which handles all the situations above. It costs about $100 and you can assign up to 19 four digit codes. Thats about all it will do. The other benefit of this type of lock is once the door is shut, it's locked. There is no forgetting to lock the door or risk of someone trying to follow you in the house.

However I decided if I'm going to spend $100, I may as well go all the way and get better features. Schlage Link Locks operate identically to the lock above. However, the added feature is the locks can join a home automation network using Z-Wave. Schlage trys to sell you their automation solution but it has a $12 monthly cost and it's actually not compatable with all the neat z-wave products available. The product I have found is called Vera by Mi Casa Verde. It's more of an open solution which promises to not force a vendor lock in. You can use the locks without the Vera. Schlage doesn't include the stand-alone programming instructions, but I had a copy of them from the original locks. All the manual programming worked just fine. Then when you get the Vera you can use the automation.

Some of the great features which are possible:

Adding and removing codes remotely
Unlocking, locking, and checking the status of the doors remotely (The Schlage deadbolt isn't motorized)
Getting (email, sms) alerts when certain codes are used.
Seeing a history of lock usage (who came in and when)

The Vera supports macros so I have the Vera turn on lights when the code is entered and turn off the lights when I leave or go to bed.

Professional Photogaphy Lighting Depth

2011-03-02T23:23:00.000-08:00

I have recently been thinking of lighting depth for use in photographing anything from a group of 40 to a shot of a toddler. When shooting an older child, adult, or small group you can get away with just placing the light and exposing. However when shooting a toddler, the risk is the little one will move closer and farther from the light as they squirm and do anything they can to not cooperate. When shooting a large group the issue becomes getting the people in the front and the back exposed the same.

Lighting depth works just like lens apertures, using the inverse square law. Because we are already used to aperture numbers (2,2.8,4,5.6,8,11,16), we can apply the same numbers to our distance calculation. For example. If our light is 4 feet away from the subject and our background is 8 feet away from the light, the background will be 2 stops darker. This is the same as the brightness difference between f4 and f8. If the background was 5.6 feet away it would only be 1 stop darker. Knowing this you realize you can do a bit of calculation in your head.

Something else to consider. Just to point out the relationship here, you can make your background darker by moving the light closer to the subject or by moving your subject closer to the light. If you move the light closer to the subject, it will also get closer to the background, but the background will actually get darker when you've properly exposed the subject.

This can be a bit to think about, so I will leave this here and follow up with my 2D Lighting depth calculator next time. I am going to try to make this available as a download for you to use.

Verizon FIOS default keys are terribly unsecure.

2011-03-01T06:15:00.000-08:00

I've suspected for a while that the Verizon FIOS WEP keys and SSID were correlated. The SSID is the ID your wireless router broadcasts out to any device with a Wifi chip. WEP itself is not very secure and can be cracked faster than I can write this, but it does keep the neighbors out and it's something you're not going to typically do on an Iphone.

However, Kyle Anderson took the time to publish the solution to figuring out the default WEP password on every Verizon FIOS router. WhatIsMyIP.org provides a free tool to automatically do the calculation too. However after reading Kyle's blog about it, the scary thing about the password is it's not some weak cryptography or scrambling which hides this key, its just in another base. So with a base converter app on your Iphone, you can get access to any FIOS internet your Iphone can see.

I tried Base Converter and Calculator Pro for just 99 cents and it worked like a champ. I can convert the SSID into a WEP key in seconds without any specialized tools and access a FIOS default WIFI.

Here is how: (Note, the steps I'm showing are simply a clarification on the sites referenced above. This should only be used to test or demonstrate the weakness in the default configuration of FIOS routers to encourage users to change their security)

Run Base Pro on your iPhone (Click the link above with your iPhone)
Change Base Pro to Base 36 by dragging the slider to the right.
Type in the SSID backwards. ex. “E3X12″ gets typed in as "21X3E"
Click the button at the top that says Hex (Don't drag the slider to Base 16, there is a small bug) ex. 21X3E becomes 349FCA
Append one of these two prefixes to the result: 1801 or 1F90. ex Try 1801349FCA or 1F90349FCA.
Try both keys to see which one works. (You can determine which key to use with more work, but its easier to just try them.)

That's it. A few easy steps with nothing more than a Base Calculator and you can determine the default FIOS WEP key with your phone.

Gaga for AppleGirl

2010-06-12T06:08:00.000-07:00

Ok. This video has a slow setup. But you have to watch this.

Amazing Startup and Shutdown Speeds of Ubuntu 10.04

2010-04-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

The following are videos showcasing the startup and shutdown speeds of Ubuntu 10.04 RC. What makes these videos even more impressive is that the computer used to demonstrate this test was a netbook pc.

Startup

Shutdown

Major surgery! My hack job on my network switch to make my life better

2010-04-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

My switch has always been noisy. However starting yesterday it has been ridiculously loud thanks to an aging fan.

I pulled the switch off the wall and tore it apart to dig out the fan and dust everything off. Turns out I only had one fan the right size but it was obviously not powerful enough for the job. My other choice was to step up to a fan I keep stocked... the standard 80mm case fan.

I grabbed my trusty drill bit from back in the days where I would put 80mm and 120mm fans on the side of my case (they didn't come on the side back in those days.) and got to work.

I made sure I found a spot on the switch cover where I would have enough clearance with the internal components to fit the new fan. Then I got a punch and hammer to make an indent for my drill bit.

Ouch. As soon as the inner drill bit made it through the amazingly thick sheet metal, the bit grabbed and spun it right out of my hand cutting me in the process. I'll live, thanks for the concern.

Well it took a few minutes of drilling to get the bit all the way though, then I took fan grill (I stock them too) and used that to mark the location of the screw holes. Using the punch once more I made my indents, then drilled all the holes. The holes can be bigger than the screws if desired because the fan grill will actually be there to hold the screw.

Finally I put the fan and grill in place, had to adjust the wiring order on the fan plug (the old plug was reversed in polarity) hooked it all back up and tried it out. Now the switch is quieter than ever before!

I know a few potential issues with what I did.

The airflow will not be identical to the old fan but I did close off the old fan hole with clear tape to try to keep it close to original. A baffle inside the switch could be easily constructed with duct tape to direct the air in the exact same path it had before but I think this is close enough.

The old fan was 5 volts and the case fan is 12 volts. From what little I understand this is not an issue, the fan will just turn slower than if it had all 12 volts.

The old fan was .24a @ 5 volts. The new fan is .13a @ 12 volts. I'm not sure what the final draw is though since the new fan isn't actually running at 12 volts. I'm more concerned about startup current.

Finally I know a larger fan moves more air at less rotations but I have no way of knowing if I am moving more or less air than before. I don't want to over heat.

That's all folks. And yes my network is a mess. I sure don't have time to clean that up.

DIY Personalized Email Marketing with OpenOffice.org for Free

2010-03-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

The Problem and a Marketing Tip:
When I photograph a wedding, I will place cards on the tables for guests to write in their name and email address. I tell the guests that I will notify them as soon as the pictures are online. So far, guests are happy about it and they actually thank me for the doing this for them. I make a point to only mail once to avoid being spam-y. Well, I like the messages to list their name in the salutation. 'Hi Joe' just works better for me than something less personable. Tools and online services for this are expensive. So digging around I figured out how to do it with OpenOffice.org for FREE.

Keep reading if you want the techie details. If not, Follow Me, to get more photography and tech tips. This will be a long one. EDIT: These instructions are made for Ubuntu / Linux. You may need to adjust for windows.

Setup:

Ensure your default mail client is configured to handle mail. If you use webmail, configure your email client to be able to send to the web account before continuing.
Setup Your Mail Merge Email account in OpenOffice Writer by choosing Tools, Options.

Then expand the OpenOffice.org Writer settings.
Finally click Mail Merge E-mail and fill in your values.

Create SpreadSheet:
Create spreadsheet with Row1 having column titles. Two columns you will likely need are Name and Email but feel free to have others.

Create Message Template:

Create a letter you would like to send without names or other merged values.
Put the mouse in the location you would like the first field.
Goto Insert, fields, Other or press Ctrl-F2
On the Database tab, select mail merge fields in the Type Box

Click Browse and locate your spreadsheet.
After choosing your spreadsheet, it should now appear in the list of databases.
Expand the database and sheet1.

Click on the field you want to use and click insert. the field should now appear in your document.

Without closing the Fields window you can click in other areas of your document and insert other fields.
You probably don't want to insert the email address into the message body. That will come later.

MailMerge Wizard:
Once you are done you can open the mail merge wizard. Tools, MailMerge Wizard. The wizard divides the task into 8 steps. Most of which you will skip.

Step 1. Leave as Current Document.

Step 2. Choose Email Message
Step 3. Select your database for the address list.

Step 4. Skip. You have already completed this by inserting fields. This part of the wizard is clumsy so we did it a better way.
Step 5. Nothing to do here. It should be grayed out.
Step 6. Nothing to do here, but you can click the arrows and actually see your data in your message template.

Step 7. Nothing to do here, but at this point OpenOffice will create a new document with all your merged data. If you cancel now, it will close this temporary document, and take you back to your template.
Step 8. Select the last option, Send merged document as E-Mail.

For To: Select your email address field.
For Subject: Type any Subject
Send As: I leave as HTML, choose what you need.
Click Send Documents

If all goes well you will see a progress bar complete the sending. You should be able to check your Sent Items folder and see all the messages. If you mistyped any email addresses, you will probably get a failure notification by email just for the bad addressess.

Cleaning Up:
If you use this email marketing a lot, you may start to build a lot of databases. To remove databases from the OpenOffice list (this doesn't delete the database file):

Click on View, Datasources (or press F4).
Right-Click in the database box and click Registered Databases.

In the new window select the databases you created and delete them. Do not delete the databases the system created, such as Bibliography.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully it all went smooth for you. I wish I could have found instructions like these when I started... Enjoy!

Don't spam anyone and before sending a large list of emails ensure you follow the rules of your email provider or they may drop your account. For example, Gmail limits you to 500 emails per day. And if you get a large number of failed deliveries they may temporarily disable your account.

Ps. I've tried to include a small graphics in my emails, but they don't make it to the email system. If you are handy with HTML, it may be better to link to an internet hosted graphic.

Change Default Operating System at Boot for Ubuntu

2010-03-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

Suprisingly the solutions to this problem vary wildly. Ubuntu is using the new Grub2 for booting and not too many users know the proper way to change the boot order. However after digging through all the answers I have what I believe is the best solution.

My particular problem is because I just built a new i7 920 system for my grandfather. He paid for Windows 7, but at the last minute I talked him into trying an ubuntu dual boot. Part of this, however is I need windows 7 to be the default choice or he will get frustrated.

Well, here is the adventure. First, the old way to update the boot is by simply modifying menu.lst. This file no longer exists. Then the people who are used to this try updating grub.cfg, because it seems similar to menu.lst. However the system will build a new grub.cfg when it needs to and overwrite any changes.

The closest correct answer is modifying /etc/default/grub and changing GRUB_DEFAULT=0 to the correct number. However this will present problems if the grub list ever grows or shrinks, such as when a new kernel is installed.

I've seen a few other complicated, but unreliable options too. But I'm not going into all the the wrong ways. Lets look at the correct way to change the default boot item.

Step 1, Figure out the exact name of the OS you want to boot. Either write it down when you reboot or type this in a terminal

cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Scroll up to find the name. Mine is 'Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda1)'

Copy and paste it or just write it down. Just make sure you get it exact, even the capitalization.

Step 2, open the /etc/default/grub file for editing, here is my favorite command:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

If you are more of a point and click person try this:

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Step 3, find the line with GRUB_DEFAULT=0 and change the 0 to your OS. Be sure to use double quotes around your OS because it has spaces in the name.
Here is my GRUB_DEFAULT line for my grandfather's computer:

GRUB_DEFAULT="Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda1)"

If you are trying to do this for windows 7, chances are your line will match mine exactly. Be sure to save your file and exit your editor.

Last step! You need to update your grub menu (process the changes we made). Just type into a terminal:

sudo update-grub

That is it. Only 4 steps and a headache saver.

FYI, most of the wrong ways to update grub came from here: http://www.linux.com/community/blogs/changing-the-default-boot-with-ubuntu-910-grub-2.html, though this eventually led me to the right answer.

Get great prints locally in about an hour.

2010-03-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, you've seen this everywhere. Prints ready in an hour...

Not all places are the same and few offer professional results. Currently my favorite place is Sam's Club. Yep. Odd as it sounds, they offer oustanding print quality thanks to their Fuji Frontier Printer.

I have completly stopped using an inkjet as the quality wasn't there and it actually costs more to print at home. I had an Epson R1800. One of the better professional Epson printers. I constantly had headaches with that printer and it's need to clean itself more than my cat.

There are many places to get prints, I've tried them all and I am not happy with the in an hour quality. But next time you are in a jam, try a Sam's Club or possibly WalMart.

If you are in a huge rush, upload ahead of time and get them printing on your way there. You can also checkout at the photo station meaning you don't have to get in the long lines.

Enjoy.

How to keep your eye balls

2010-03-13T04:56:00.000-08:00

This is something new I've started doing to all my cameras. Fast and simple. All my camera straps seem to have about an inch of strap which tends to poke my eye when I rotate the camera. Ouch. I know this sounds silly, but it happens.

Finally it frustrated me enough. I grabbed my Gaffers tape and went to work. For a 2 second fix, I don't know why I didn't do it earlier.

Here is a picture of the fix.

BTW: if you don't have any gaffers tape, buy some now. It's the best stuff in the world. It tears easy so you don't need scissors, its super strong like duct tape, and it's removable and reusable without leaving a residue. Duct tape used to be my tape of choice, but not any more.

Loving my new camera... Olympus E-PL1

2010-03-12T04:40:00.000-08:00

My friend ditched his rebel and bought an Olympus Pen. I told him he was crazy. Then he started a blog about his camera (Though he is slow to add content sometimes). His images looked great with no editing.

So life goes on and I buy a Canon s90 for my 'casual' shooting. My problem was although the s90 provides the best image you can get in that pocket size, I am too used to SLR quality. I was never happy. Finally I am at a shoot and another photographer was using a Leica Point and Shoot. It got me excited when he touted the quality. However after some research it's no better than the s90 unless you get the $2000 fixed focal length P&S leica. My wife would kill me.

Well after a lot of research, Micro 4/3 options ended up being the best option. Noise, image quality, hot shoe, it's all there. There was a trade in size, as it's not as micro as it sounds, but still not an SLR. Here is a picture of the Micro 4/3 camera with kit lens vs. a 30D with 50mm 1.4

As you can see, I went out and bought the camera right away. This has the wife pissed at me, but at least I'm not dead. I had to look for a while to find the Olympus E-PL1 camera locally. It's hard to find right now, in fact all micro 4/3 stuff seems to be hard to get so don't expect any deals, even online. I checked dozens of stores and only Ritz of all places had one in stock.

The quality of the camera's images are great. I don't want to post process this kind of casual shooting, I just want to take pictures. I also don't believe in getting a lot of lenses for this camera as that would destroy the portability. However I do plan to get a lens that I will leave on somewhat permanently (the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7) This lens is even smaller than the lens above and with a lens this fast I should not need any flash.

The E-PL1 has it's downsides, no view finder, no knobs and dials for fast adjustment, not yet compatable with adobe, etc. However it does have Image Stabilization in body, outstanding image right out of the camera, and a low cost (relative).

Well, I'm cutting this off as I always ramble. Here is a link to some sample pictures.

How to get a leg up in photography

2010-03-11T04:13:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it helps if you could just shoot over the crowd, or get slightly higher than your subject.

In comes my best find ever.

A 9" high collapsible step which holds up to 300lbs. I've used this one for two years now and it's still going strong. Looks like they come in red or black as well.

Here is the stool collapsed:

It's very nice and the 9" boost really helps me. I have also used it as a posing tool. Here are all the uses I have found.

Have todlers sit on it
Have the model put a foot on it to shift the body.
Get above the model's eye level to get them to lift their chin a little.
Get above the crowd surrounding the bride and groom to get cool wide angle shots.
Get a little higher to avoid heads in the shot
Use it to reach a little higher to hang a backdrop, adjust a light, etc.
And I'm sure there are more.

For under $15 it's gotta be one of the cheapest photographic tools that you can throw in your trunk.

How to control the orange.

2010-03-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

When photographing indoors we are faced with many challenges. One of those challenges is low lighting. This is where the flash comes in. However this flash presents another challenge... Orange backgrounds.

Various lights output different colors. Florescent lights output green, and your typical incandescent light bulb puts out orange. The flash on your camera is designed to be closer to natural daylight, but even that is variable.

So when you take a picture using flash in a room with a lamp, you have to make a choice. The surfaces being lit by the lamp can look orange, or the surfaces lit by the flash can look blue. If your camera is set to auto, it will automatically favor the flash.

So how do I fix it?

Use one type of light.

Turn off the lamps and just use flash (the space that would have appeared orange will now be close to black.)
Turn off the flash and just use the lamps. You will need a good fast lens and high ISO settings.

Make the flash match the lamps

You can put orange plastic on top of the flash to make it match the lamp color. Then you force the camera to use tungsten (usually a little light bulb icon) The orange plastic sheet is called a gel.

If you are dealing with florescent lights all the same applies but you will use a green gel instead.

Here is a photograph of my flash with the Gel on it.

I made the gel myself. (sorta) I bought the plastic in a large sheet. I cut it to fit and I put Velcro on it.

Here is a photo of how I store my gel so it is always ready to go.

That's it. When I need it, I put the Gel over the front of the flash. On my flash I have a velcro strap for attaching accessories. Its not glued to the flash so it is easily removed if needed.

There are many more pictures showing my equipment here including close-ups of the gels, and other configurations.

Stay tuned. Over the next several days I am posting practical photography tips.

1024bit RSA cracked in 100 hours. What is coming next?

2010-03-09T04:32:00.000-08:00

Here is a very technical read on the attack used on RSA http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~valeria/research/publications/DATE10RSA.pdf. I made it about half way though, see how far you can go... lol. Anyways the summary is by messing with the voltage supply they are able to introduce single bit errors into the RSA algorithm, then they can take these bad outputs and analyze them to reveal the secret key.

They are able to do this without modifying or accessing the internal system components. So in effect the attack leaves no signs of tampering. They performed this particular attack against linux and OpenSSL.

WOW. Just remember security isn't about how strong your front door is.

Two ways to find out who is selling your info.

2010-03-01T05:07:00.001-08:00

Gmail has two features which will allow you to monitor who is selling your information. Nearly everyday I find a site that requires registration and it gets annoying. More annoying is revealing my email address to these sites. I used to use multiple addresses but it became annoying to check all of them. So here are two tips for giving out multiple email addresses via Gmail. These addresses can be later filtered if they become too spammy.

Plus Addressing
I've seen this one mentioned alot. Plus addressing allows you to append anything you want to your email address by using a plus sign. So if my name is john@gmail.com, I can sign up to a site with john+somesite@gmail.com. The plus sign is a valid email character. Unfortunately many site registration forms don't allow it. However this is the first thing I try to do every time. If I start getting spam from other companys to john+somesite@gmail.com, then I know who sold me and I can filter that address from going to my inbox.

Dot Addressing
Not as flexible as plus addressing and harder to know which site sold you. However this can be a great way to filter spam. Gmail ignores periods (.) in email addresses. You can't start or end your address with a period and you can't have two in a row, but you can have as many as you want. The best part about this method is I have yet to find a site that won't accept a period in an address. So jo.hn@gmail.com is valid, jo.h.n@gmail.com is valid as well. Obviously longer email addresses have more choice. You are limited here but I would suggest grouping sites by level of trust. So some site you randomly visit that you feel you must sign up for to post a comment and you know you will never be back, put the period in the first position, j.ohn@gmail.com. A site you plan to use all the time would perhaps get a period in the last position. Or whatever you decide. If you have a 6 character email address you have 31 alternates available. An 8 character email address has 256, but then with so many choices you will need a way to keep track. I would just use three or four at a time and change them as they start getting abused.

Both of these schemes work out of the box with gmail, though the dot technique does not work for gmail for your domain addresses. There is no pre-registering the addresses you plan to use. Go ahead, mail something to yourself at some random plus address. Keep in mind there is a maximum length to an email address, so don't go crazy. Other email providers allow plus addressing or other choices as well. You can get more specifics here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_address

My favorite online comic - xkcd

2010-02-24T04:38:00.000-08:00

I don't read it everyday, but I'll check it out and read backwards to catch up. Well while going through all the recent comic strips, I found one that applies well to linux. Enjoy.

http://xkcd.com/694/

I'd like to share my annoyance with Ubuntu

2010-02-23T04:39:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu is a superb replacement for windows. The hardest part about using a new system though is getting used to it's quirks. Windows has a ton of quirks but we've all had it for so long we are used to them. So I use Ubuntu on a daily basis and I'm used to the quirks, there aren't that many. When I am forced to use windows (@ work) the quirks I was once used to and accepted now annoy me more than anything Ubuntu may put me through.

So to say the least, I'm not giving up Ubuntu, but just sharing some of the what to expect.

I use an internal USB card reader to get my digital files off my camera and into the computer. A few days ago I had several memory cards to copy. I got through the first one, right clicked on the card and chose eject. On to the next one, when finished I ejected it too. On the last card my mouse slipped and I clicked 'Safely Remove Hardware'. Wow, this 50 pixel slip caused the entire card reader to be removed from the system. The only way to recover after this is a REBOOT.

It seems that this 'Safely Remove' Option was added here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/404185

Now it's causing more bug reports to show up:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/525190
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bug/504440

I don't see the point in allowing the entire reader to be disconnected. I mean there is no data to loose on a reader. The original solution seems to be about making ipod and kindle users happy. They also seem to be focused on determining if the drive/reader is internal or external as a solution. Even if it was external, I wouldn't want to unplug and replug the reader every time I switched cards.

A suggested solution (perhaps easier said then done).
Have a single Eject option. Don't completely remove the hardware/reader from the USB bus. However allow devices to be identified in the USB manager or nautilis to be flagged as 'Remove Completely' on a user preference basis. And automatically flag the kindle and the ipods, but still allow the user to unselect this as the option later for these devices. Any flagged device should then be completely removed when 'Ejected'. Then the majority of devices are simply unmounted without causing the user a lot of pain.

Well, that's my Ubuntu pain of the month. Surprisingly while trying to find the solution, I came across windows users with a similar problem. It surprised me to find windows problems in the first page of google results although I included 'Ubuntu' as a keyword.

Slow times. Or Not.

2010-02-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

I have not posted in a week due to so much happening in my life at the moment. I am hoping to get right back into the daily blog posts to keep both of my readers informed :).

Coming up in the linux/Ubuntu world I plan on discussing

MP4ize script which easily converts videos to MP4 files. This is great if you have an Apple device.
Media Server solutions and what I ended up with.
Nightly FTP Off site backup solution
My efforts with the Ubuntu MD team and our upcoming free workshops to introduce the locals to open source software.

For photography I am mostly going to show some of my results from recent shoots.

Cub Scouts team shots at a local elementary school
Modeling Shots at A. Salon in DC
Children in my home studio
And perhaps some pregnancy shots in my home studio

So stay tuned, there is a lot to come. I'm also open to suggestions too.

Introduction Of Guest Writer: Dr. Watson

2010-02-17T05:38:00.000-08:00

As a guest writer on Techorator I will hopefully be adding value to this blog by incorporating my own flavor and style of writing. Like John, I am huge tech geek who loves to try new things and share the experience with others. So not to bore you will more useless background information, I will get right to the meat: I have decided to spend my time reviewing Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. As 10.04 is a work in progress (currently Alpha 2), I will share my journey into this release exposing the changes as they are made and hopefully enlightening followers, guests, and passersby along the way.