binarybadass.com

I LOL’d

lukin1983 — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 21:21:50 +0000

I really don’t read Digg, but I found this little gem:

And heres the appropriate lolcat:

moar funny pictures

Proxification

lukin1983 — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:50:23 +0000

Because of my parents recent ~~sellout~~ merger with a larger company, I had to make sure that my Internet activity went unnoticed for the time that I am still here. I have a server at home already. The rub is that I recently upgraded to the Tomato firmware because of some issues I have with DD-WRT. In my haste to upgrade, I forgot to set up port forwarding to my server and forgot to set up the ssh daemon on my WRT54G. Thankfully, my friend Tesseract has a server at Drexel University that I have an account on. So with a little:

ssh user@remote.host.com -C -D 1080

And configuring my applications to utilize a SOCKS5 proxy server through localhost:1080 and configuring Firefox to tunnel the DNS requests through the ssh connection, we go from:

Unproxified:

Proxified:

This, coupled with passwordless ssh login and a brief entry into your .profile / .bash_profile file to set up a command alias, you have a very powerful, secure and easy solution to utilize anywhere you may be using your laptop on an unsecured wifi access point at Panera or the like. Or to simply get around corporate firewalls. One caveat on the latter; your company’s sysadmin may become interested at the sudden increase of encrypted traffic on his/her network and become suspicious as to what exactly you are doing. So happy holidays and safe hacking!

Boxy Is Officially Mine

lukin1983 — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:41:28 +0000

As of Friday, November 30, 2007, Boxy, my beloved 2005 MMEX4WDAUTO Honda Element officially belongs to me with approximately 53,200 miles on the clock. Boxy is still going strong!

“Hey Check Out My Site!” “No.”

lukin1983 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:27:48 +0000

With the advent of the new Web 2.0 business and website model, more and more people are trying to cash in on the new content creators of the Internet; you and me. It has become easier for “professional” bloggers to bring in enough money to sustain themselves through advertising revenue just by driving enough traffic to their website. This is not a rant that I do not get a lot of traffic; this is not a rant that I am better than everyone else because I do not succumb to the commercialization of blogging. Lets face it; theres a lot of subpar blogs and websites out there, many run by so-called “professional bloggers” or “professional reviewers”. Please note that I do not call myself a professional blogger because quite frankly, I am not a professional blogger and I know that most of the time, I rant and merely present my opinion on an issue. I know my place and I will not pretend to be one of these people. Please read on…
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Ohio Linuxfest 2007

lukin1983 — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:56:11 +0000

Ohio Linuxfest 2007 is just around the corner! This is the place to be if you’re in the Northeast and you’re an avid Linux user looking to converse with other avid Linux users. For the past two years, I have been making the short trip between Pittsburgh and Columbus in order to participate in this event. The past two years has seen the number of attendees that I have been bringing climb. In the past, it was easier for us to manage who was coming and coordinate transportation and lodging. Last year, it was very challenging and frustrating because some people wanted to come along but wanted to contribute absolutely nothing to getting there. It’s simple; if you want to go, plan to go! Don’t rely on others to plan around you! This year, I am officially stepping down from that post and leaving my fellow attendees make their own transportation and lodging arrangements. I am still attending the conference, but I have planned for myself and myself only. Simply put, if you want to go; we will see you there!

Debian, Ubuntu, “Open”SSL and “Free”RADIUS

lukin1983 — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:03:40 +0000

I recently attempted to set up FreeRADIUS to act as an authentication server for a wireless network at my place of employment. Unfortunately, I had to jump through more hoops than required because of some incompatible legal red tape. You see, the Ubuntu package for FreeRADIUS comes from the Debian distribution. Unfortunately, this version of the package cannot link against the OpenSSL library because of some arbitrary interpretation of the GPL license. This whole frame of mind has to stop. As I have done in the past, I am releasing a version of the package on binarybadass.com that has this compiled in; regardless of what the license pundits say. If you are aware enough of the problem to require these packages, I’m sure you’ll know how to install them and configure them. The usual caveats apply; I’m not responsible if you manage to turn your computer into a molten pile of plastic, metal and silicon. I do not provide technical support for this package, yadda yadda yadda. This package was built for Ubuntu Linux 7.04 “Feisty Fawn” so your mileage may vary with other Debian and derivative distributions.

FreeRADIUS:

freeradius_1.1.3-3ubuntu1_i386.deb

FreeRADIUS Extensions:

Pertinent Links:

Time For A New lolnimal

lukin1983 — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:32:15 +0000

The lolcat meme is getting quite popular; some would say too popular. That is why I propose a new lolnimal; the lolcrab. To introduce the lolcrab, here is Peentshy:

MINIs, Bikes and Conspiracy Theories: Oh My!

lukin1983 — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:55:03 +0000

JD and I have started to ride after work because we both want to try to lose a little weight and because it sure beats paying $3/gallon to maneuver through the streets of downtown Pittsburgh. Plus, it’s not a hassle to park bikes. Unfortunately, I have not been able to bike to work as much lately because I have to play “driver” for my mother for a few weeks. In the meantime, that chore got a little more interesting as my father just bought a 2007 Mini Cooper S Convertible. Whenever he isn’t driving it, I usually am. Pics and vids will be posted soon. In the meantime, stay tuned for a series of articles on the conspiracy that is Big Oil, Big Insurance, the TSA, law enforcement agencies and PennDOT.

Ride to Leetsdale Giant Eagle

lukin1983 — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:12:58 +0000

After replacing my rear wheel, installing new tires and tubes and my GPS unit, I decided to go for a slightly longer haul ride than my test rides. I rode from my home to the Leetsdale Giant Eagle to return several rental DVDs. According to the GPS, roundtrip distance was 9.70 miles. On the downhill portion of the trip, I achieved a new personal speed record; 39.9 mph. The new tires on the bike enabled me to get back up that hill in much less time than my knobby tires did (30 minutes on road tires vs. 45 minutes on knobby tires). Some may ask why I biked it instead of just driving it. The answer is simple really; gas.

My Honda Element achieves real-world fuel mileage of between 20-21 miles per gallon, which is great for a vehicle it’s size, but is still fairly inefficient. To buy 1 gallon of gas these days costs approximately $3.10 per gallon. $3.10/gal * 12 gal. = $37.20 (to fill the 12 gallon tank). At 20 mpg, for me to drive 9.70 miles burns slightly more than one-half gallon of fuel. Burning .5 gallons of gas which costs $3.10/gal. costs me $1.55. So the bottom line is, do I really want to pay $1.55 just for the privilege of being able to return my rental DVDs? Not particularly.

New Sprockets

lukin1983 — Wed, 23 May 2007 12:59:00 +0000

My Trek 800 with mostly all factory original parts has taken quite a beating over the years, from 15-20 mile daily runs through downtown Pittsburgh to offroad adventures with Tesseract. Tesseract had a problem several years ago where the rear sprocket cassette on his rear wheel was failing to engage properly. Rather than pay a lot of money to replace the cassette, he just simply replaced the bike. I was facing a similar situation, the Trek’s rear derailleur was not shifting smoothly and wouldn’t hold some of the middle gears. Fortunately for me, when my parents purchased this bike for me in 1998 or 1999, they also purchased three additional bikes of identical make and model for their use and my brothers. I politely asked my mother if I could swap rear wheels with one of those bicycles. I chose my brothers Trek 800 because it has rarely been used and most of the parts on it are still in brand-new condition and furthermore, he has outgrown it at this point.

Removing the rear wheel is an easy process, as is reattaching it. Before I could attach the new wheel to my bike, I had to mount my new rear tire on it. This was a 5 minute job. Upon mounting the new rear wheel and going for a brief test ride, I noticed that shift quality had drastically improved. I will be updating this post with pictures of the old and new sprockets.