Myside's Spew - Blog of Spontaneous Combustible Spew

Lightweight WINS Server - LWINS

19 June, 2011 09:07 CST6CDT

I use a Cobalt RAQ (MIPS) for most of my general network services.  These services include DHCP, BIND (DNS), SMTP, NTP, and WINS.  I decided to look around to replace Samba's NMBD WINS service and came across the LWINS project.

LWINS is a lightweight WINS server capable of running on memory restricted devices and is independent from SAMBA. WINS implements the NetBIOS protocol over TCP/IP. LWINS also supports replication with MS-WINS servers. Robustness of the protocol stack is a very high priority so that malformed packets cannot be used to crash LWINS, or gain access to the machine running LWINS. However, the security of the network is limited as the protocols were not designed with security in mind.

The LWINS project states that the server is intended for OpenWRT (Linux), however it will compile on any platform with restricted resources making it a perfect candidate for my RAQ with 96MB of RAM running Debian Squeeze.  With a modification of the makefile, you should be able to successfully compile LWINS on ARM, MIPS, or any other architecture provided you have the basic general required libraries that are installed in most Linux, BSD, etc. operating systems and distributions.

Currently on my home network, LWINS is using a mere 708KB of RAM monitoring 6 computers or devices that take advantage of WINS and NetBIOS over TCP/IP.  My only suggestion would be to run this application as root commenting out the appropriate lines in the example configuration file provided as some OS installations prohibit management of privileged ports to unauthorized user accounts.

[http://www.lwins.org/]

A year ago I was writing...

Google Voice Call Me Button in Internet Explorer is Broken
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Essential Oils: Sage Dalmation & Bergamot

Software  Projects  Article & Comments (1)

Gallery3: ImageMagick (convert) using PHP-CGI (Fast-CGI) Patch - Bypass open_basedir, Fix for short_open_tag & Howto Disable eAccelerator Using htscanner

29 March, 2011 06:55 CST6CDT

I upgraded to Gallery3 from Gallery2 last night and had to make several accommodations for the new software with my current software systems which include: lighttpd (web server), fast-cgi (PHP), eAccelerator (opcode cacher), and htscanner (two declerations to modify PHP variables).

"I found an application, htscanner, which parses the php application directory for any .htaccess file and exports the php_value arguments. Lighttpd does not have any native .htaccess file support..."  - [read more about htscanner]

Gallery3's Gallery2 Import Module does not function fully using eAccelerator.  Also if you are using PHP-CGI (PHP Fast-CGI), the PHP variable short_open_tag is sometimes not passed to the application during installation.

The following is the .htaccess file that should be placed in the Gallery3's document root once you have installed the htscanner PHP module:

<IfModule mod_php.c>
php_value eaccelerator.enable 0
php_value short_open_tag On
</IfModule>

I was able to remove the .htaccess file and use eaccelerator after the Gallery3 installation and the Gallery2 Import.  The short_open_tag that was defined 'on' by default seemed to have started working again also after the install and import.

The following is a patch to enable ImageMagick if the 'convert' binary path is not listed in 'open_basedir' in your php.ini settings for the file 'modules/gallery/helpers/graphics.php'.  Note that you must add the path to 'convert' to the 'extra_binary_paths' and 'graphics_toolkit_path' lists in your Admin/Settings/Advaced Gallery3 web interface:

*** modules/gallery/helpers/graphics.php 2011-01-22 22:40:25.000000000 -0600
--- modules/gallery/helpers/graphics.php 2011-03-29 07:32:28.000000000 -0500
***************
*** 338,344 ****
$toolkits->$index->rotate = true;
$toolkits->$index->sharpen = true;
} else {
! $toolkits->$index->installed = false;
$toolkits->$index->error =
t("%toolkit_name is installed, but PHP's open_basedir restriction prevents Gallery from using it.",
array("toolkit_name" => $settings["name"]));
--- 338,344 ----
$toolkits->$index->rotate = true;
$toolkits->$index->sharpen = true;
} else {
! $toolkits->$index->installed = true;
$toolkits->$index->error =
t("%toolkit_name is installed, but PHP's open_basedir restriction prevents Gallery from using it.",
array("toolkit_name" => $settings["name"]));

Software  Projects  Article & Comments

FreeBSD 7.1 End of Life (EOL) - Update to FreeBSD 7.4-RELEASE

26 March, 2011 06:02 CST6CDT

My very trusty FreeBSD server, extserver.com, had been running a FreeBSD release that had reached its end of life (FreeBSD 7.1).  FreeBSD 7.4-RELEASE was made public and announced on 2/24/11 as the final release in the 7 branch with support available until an estimated date of February 28, 2013.

Branch Release Type Release Date Estimated EoL
RELENG_7 n/a n/a n/a February 28, 2013
RELENG_7_3 7.3-RELEASE Extended March 23, 2010 March 31, 2012
RELENG_7_4 7.4-RELEASE Extended February 24, 2011 February 28, 2013
RELENG_8 n/a n/a n/a last release + 2 years
RELENG_8_1 8.1-RELEASE Extended July 23, 2010 July 31, 2012
RELENG_8_2 8.2-RELEASE Normal February 24, 2011 February 29, 2012

The upgrade procedure was painless with the exception of a couple configuration file diffs I needed to work with.  Systems running 7.[0123]-RELEASE, 7.4-BETA1, or 7.4-RC[123] can upgrade as follows:

# freebsd-update upgrade -r 7.4-RELEASE

During this process, FreeBSD Update may ask the user to help by merging some configuration files or by confirming that the automatically performed merging was done correctly.

# freebsd-update install

The system must be rebooted with the newly installed kernel before continuing.

# shutdown -r now

After rebooting, freebsd-update needs to be run again to install the new userland components, and the system needs to be rebooted again:

# freebsd-update install
# shutdown -r now

Users of earlier FreeBSD releases (FreeBSD 6.x) can also use freebsd-update to upgrade to FreeBSD 7.4, but will be prompted to rebuild all third-party applications (e.g., anything installed from the ports tree) after the second invocation of "freebsd-update install", in order to handle differences in the system libraries between FreeBSD 6.x and FreeBSD 7.x.

Total down time with the installation reboots and an additional custom kernel compile and reboot was between 30 and 50 seconds after an uptime of more than 153 days.  Thank you ##FreeBSD on http://irc.freenode.net/ for the small nudge that I needed to get this taken care of.

Software  Article & Comments

Android Essentials

12 February, 2011 08:40 CST6CDT

This post contains a list of Android essentials.  I will update this document as time permits.

updated 2012-04-05

Android IRC

Android's most advanced IRC client.The Premier Android Internet Relay Chat Client. Worlds better than the rest.

Supports:
* SSL
* SASL
* Multiple Servers
* Nick Completion
* Notifications
* Stays connected in background
* IRC/mIRC/ANSI Colors
* User List
* Supports BNCs (tested ZNC and PsyBNC)
* Individual Windows for Messages and Channels
* Timestamps
* Volume Keys Change Font Size

[$4.95 @ Android Market]

Astro

ASTRO File Manager helps turns your phone from a toy to a tool.

Ver 2.5.2

This new permanent version includes mobile ads. The ad free version, ASTRO Pro is available below (see 'View more applications)

Features: File Manager, Backup, Image and text viewers, Networking, SMB, Bluetooth, SFTP, Zip Tar, downloader, thumbnails, search files, application manager, task manager, attachments

[$3.95 @ Android Market]

Astro, the master of all Android file manipulators is a must have replacement application for the stock Android file manager.

Your choice of a file manager is often the core to your smart device management.  Astro provides what no other file manager on the Android Market that I have used or heard of otherwise:

As like most file managers, you may sort and search for filetypes and names.  Astro goes a step further by allowing you to find files and documents recursively throughout a filesystem hierarchy, text within files, size of files (greater than and or less than) in kilobytes, older than and or newer than in days, exclusion of files that contain a name of your choice, and the ability to include directory names in the search results.

The Astro application title bar shows your current working directory.  Underneath the title bar you will see a side scroll menu with the options to move into your 'home' directory, go up one level in the file-system hierarchy, multi-selection of files for editing (copy, delete, move, paste, rename), next and back functioning icons, an icon for the files view type (list or icons), a functioning icon to sort by name, date, size, and type (ascending or descending), a preference menu where you may adjust: the look and feel of the toolbar and its location, set your home directory, backup directory, edit mime types and application associations - a home icon and a network icon is also shown here and I will touch on these shortly.

Astro provides a patch for the default Android browser to download files of any type in the case that your phone provider or manufacturer has added data restrictions.

The Android menu button will bring up a secondary Astro menu from the bottom portion of the screen allowing extra functionality such as refreshing the current directory, selecting all files, create a directory, and a lovely utility to create zip archives.  Astro also handles tar archives in addition to zip type compression archives.

Astro does directory bookmarks!  This is located in the bottom menu for quick access to often used directories and network resources.

Astro has two modules available at this time.  The first provides network SMB/CIFS/SAMBA file share access and an SFTP (secure file transfer protocol) over an SSH (secure shell) remote connection access.  Gotta love this!  The second addon is a replacement Bluetooth stack which I have found to be much more efficient than the internal Android file push OBEX transfers.  On top of Astro's more efficient Bluetooth stack (or modified) for OBEX push profiles, it includes a Bluetooth FTP server.

Astro includes a utility to manage and backup installed applications.  For instance you could backup an installed file manager that you are currently using and then restore the application from the SD card used for backup data storage, and re-install if your needs do not fit in with Astro's features.

Another included Astro utilitiy is a graphing system for your SD storage use.  You can quickly find what is hogging your precious flash, in a flash.

An included Astro utility I appreciate is the process manager which shows load averages, CPU usage of applications, services, and processes along with its PID and memory usage.  You may kill an application, open an application, view application details, or ignore applications by selecting the process you wish to perform these functions on.

Buy it!  Cheers!

Bluetooth GPS

Now thanks to Bluetooth technology and Google's Android OS, you can easily transform your GPS enabled phone into a fully functional Bluetooth GPS receiver. Pair your Android phone or device with any Bluetooth compatible device for instant NMEA GPS coordinates. Pair with a laptop PC and your favorite GPS software (Streets & Trips, Garmin MobilePC) for a truely easy to read and use interface that doesn't restrict you to a tiny LCD screen. Plan long complex trips through these popular GPS software with greater ease. Save yourself the trouble of having to wire your car with an external GPS antenna, or having to remember to bring your bulky wired GPS accessories - use the phone you're already carrying!

  • Wireless solution for wired USB/Serial GPS receivers
  • Pairs with any compatible Bluetooth SPP (slave) profile device
  • Works with any Bluetooth enabled PC and most popular GPS software including:
    Microsoft's Streets & Trips
    Garmin's MobilePC
    Geolocational WiFi logging utilities (inSSIDer), and many other applications.
  • Takes advantage of your Android phone's built-in AGPS for shortest time to first fix.
  • Supports background running so you can use your phone uninterrupted.

[BTGPS Donation Supported]

I use this application for two remote bluetooth devices.  I have a Topo USA license on my netbook that utilizes the BT NMEA stream from this application when on the road.  In the past I had used a USB cable connected to an IDEN phone with integrated GPS, however the time it took to acquire a lock was displeasing.  BTGPS acquires a lock fast, runs in the background, and is very accurate using the integrated GPS.  I am uncertain if it even touches the AGPS position database on all occasions as most of the time I use the GPS systems, no cellular services are available.

I am an avid Geocacher and own a second smartphone; an international Windows Mobile device that has a Cachemate installation.  I now find myself using the BT GPS drivers on the WM device to directly navigate to a cache using the stored location database.  This works wonderful for getting a radius distance list of nearby caches also.  It will never replace my Motorola with Trimble Outdoors however.  I often find myself using the Motorola IDEN as a crutch climbing steep terrain, with a few industrial modifications take you.

c:geo

c:geo is simple yet powerful unofficial geocaching client for Android devices. In contrast with other similar applications, c:geo doesn't require web browser nor exports. You can just go geocaching with your phone and without any home preparation or worries. Of course, you can go without paying - it's free.

[c:geo Home Page]

Catch Notes

Catch Notes is a feature-packed notepad app that allows you to capture text, voice, images, and locations, all with free sync & backups to Catch.com. Passcode-protect your notes, set reminders, share content, and keep organized with easy #tags and a homescreen widget!

New for Catch.com users: email in your notes to note@catch.com and they appear in your account automatically. Sign up now, it's free!

[Catch Notes @ Android Market]

DoggCatcher Podcast Player

Find, manage, and play your podcasts with DoggCatcherManage your podcasts and RSS/news feeds with the most highly rated Podcatcher in the Market.

Highlights

  • -Android Central's Editors' Choice podcatcher of the year
  • -Android Central's Readers' Choice runner up podcatcher of the year
  • -Lifehacker recently (Nov-2011) finds DoggCatcher to be "The Best Podcast Manager for Android"
  • -Easy to find new podcasts/feeds
  • -Fully automated download and cleanup of media files
  • -Offline playback of audio and video
  • -Categories for feeds
  • -Updated frequently - 30+ updates during the past year
  • -Active user community - 5000+ forum posts
  • -Highly configurable
  • -Variable speed playback (this requires the purchase of a third party audio library named Presto)

Add feeds by

  • -Browsing Top 100 DoggCatcher feeds
  • -Getting recommendations based on your feed subscriptions
  • -Searching podcast and news directories
  • -Importing for Google Reader/Listen
  • -Importing from OPML

Integrated Audio/Video Player

  • -Plays downloaded audio/video
  • -Streams audio over network (wifi/cell)
  • -Remembers play position of media file
  • -Plays video formats supported by Android

RSS/News feeds

  • -Supports RSS 1.0, 2.0, and ATOM
  • -Displays inline images

Automation

  • -Automatically updates feeds on a configurable interval
  • -Automatically download new media
  • -Automatically deletes media that has been listened to

Community and support

  • -Frequently updated
  • -Very active user community in forums

Playlists

  • -Audio playlist for continuous play of new media
  • -Video/News playlists for easy navigation of new media

Other

  • -Battery/data plan friendly - can limit downloads based on network/power connections
  • -Media download queue can be viewed and managed
  • -Bluetooth support (A2DP/AVRCP)
  • -Supports authenticated feeds (username/password)

[DoggCatcher Home Page]

Evernote

This award-winning app lets you remember and recall anything that happens in your life. From notes to ideas to snapshots to recordings, put everything into Evernote and watch as it all instantly synchronizes from your phone to the Web to your PC.

[Evernote Home Page]

iSilo

iSilo™ is a highly versatile document / ebook reader available on more platforms than any other reader. The supported platforms include Windows® Phone, iPhone/iPod touch, Android™, BlackBerry® Touch, BlackBerry®, Palm OS®, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Smartphone, Symbian S60 3rd Edition, Symbian Series 60, Symbian UIQ 3, Symbian UIQ, Symbian Series 80, and Windows® CE Handheld PC handhelds, as well as for Windows® and Mac OS X computers. You can find thousands of ready-made documents downloadable immediately for reading with iSilo™ or you can create your own documents from HTML content using iSiloX. Some of the major features that will win you over to iSilo™ include:
  • High text compression in iSilo™ format documents result in a 50% to 60% decrease in size, which is about 20% better than the Palm Doc format, allowing you to store more and larger documents on your handheld.
  • Hyperlinks make it much easier to navigate through a document.
  • Images add visual richness to documents, especially photo-quality color pictures.
  • Tables allow the display of tabular data.
  • Formatted text gives style to text for controlled emphasis.

[iSilo Home Page]

KeePassAndroid

What is KeePass?
Today you need to remember many passwords. You need a password for the Windows network logon, your e-mail account, your website's FTP password, online passwords (like website member account), etc. etc. etc. The list is endless. Also, you should use different passwords for each account. Because if you use only one password everywhere and someone gets this password you have a problem... A serious problem. The thief would have access to your e-mail account, website, etc. Unimaginable.

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish). For more information, see the features page.

[KeePassAndroid] [KeePass]

KeePass is a cross-platform highly secure password manager using AES, Twofish, a passphrase and an optional private key.  KeePass 1.x runs on the operating system platforms: Windows 98 / 98SE / ME / NT / 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista / 7 / Wine, each 32-bit and 64-bit, including native Unix binaries using the QT graphical toolkit.  KeePass 2.x runs on the operating system platforms: Windows 98 / 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista / 7, each 32-bit and 64-bit, Mono (Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, ...).  Mono is an open source cross platform implementation of .NET.  KeePass provides a portable version of the application you may install on a flash/key drive and run the software without installation while you are using a remote machine.

With KeePassAndroid you are able to create a strong encrypted password database on the phone.  In addition, if you are using KeePass 1.x versions on any of the mentioned compatible computer platforms, you may copy the database to your Android Smartphone and use it as normal including the ability to decrypt your current database using a private key.  KeePassAndroid at the time of this writing will only open KeePass databased created remotely with the 2.x releases in read-only mode.

Their are a multitude of Android password managers available on the Android Market.  However, compared to the platform versatility of KeePass and KeePassAndroid, both free and retail versions of alternative software look silly in most situations.  I have seen a couple applications that may fit the need for others better with features like remote database destroy ability, and on-line synchronization.

I have been using KeePass for ~4-5 years on Linux, and later on Windows platforms.  After playing with numerous password management applications, both native to the OS or cross-platform, KeePassX (Linux)/KeePass(generic) ended my lengthy search for a feel-safe password management system.

ProxyDroid

ProxyDroid is an app that can help you to set the proxy (http / socks4 / socks5) on your android devices.

TIPS: Press MENU button to find a "Recover" option that would help you to recover / reset the proxy settings when you get something wrong.

** FEATURES **

  1. Support HTTP / SOCKS4 / SOCKS5 proxy
  2. Support basic / NTLM / NTLMv2 authentication methods
  3. Can choose which app go through the proxy
  4. Multiple profiles supported
  5. Bind configuration to WIFI's SSID / Mobile Network (2G / 3G)
  6. Widgets for quickly switching on/off proxy
  7. Low battery and memory consumption (totally written in C and compiled as native binary)
  8. No proxy for intranet ip address
  9. DNS proxy for those guys behind a firewall which disallows to resolve external addresses

Tags: proxy, socks4, socks5, iptables, http, https, redsocks, cntlm, NTLM, NTLMv2, ASProxy, TransProxy, iptables, Transparent Proxy

[ProxyDroid @ Google Market]

Unified Remote

Easily the most feature-filled Android-PC remote. Turns your Android device into a WiFi or Bluetooth remote control for your Windows PC. Control your favorite programs, mouse, and keyboard.

FEATURES

  • WiFi (TCP/UDP)
  • Bluetooth
  • Easy server and app setup
  • Comprehensive server manager
  • Automatic server detection
  • Clear connection troubleshooting
  • Custom/Android keyboard support
  • Single/Multi touch mouse
  • Hardware volume control
  • Quick Switch using swipe gestures
  • Quickly change servers
  • Auto-pause media for phone calls
  • Homescreen shortcuts to remotes
  • Wake On Lan
  • Server password protection
  • 256-bit AES encryption

REMOTES IN FREE AND FULL VERSION

  • Basic Input
  • File Manager
  • Keyboard
  • Media
  • Power
  • Slide Show
  • Spotify
  • Start
  • Task Manager
  • Windows Media Center
  • Windows Media Player
  • VLC (Keyboard)
  • YouTube

COMING SOON

  • Customize remotes and layouts
  • Develop completely custom remotes
  • Improvements for tablets

[Unified Remote @ Myside's Spew]

WiFi Analyzer

Shows the Wi-Fi channels around you. Helps you to find a less crowded channel for your wireless router.

[WiFi Analyzer @ Google Market]

XBMC Remote

Full-featured remote control for XBMC Media Center, brought to you by Team-XBMC.

An open source, full-featured remote for XBMC. It features library browsing, direct remote control and a slick interface.

[XBMC Remote @ Android Market]

XiiaLive

Feel the power of more than 40,000 live radio stations in the palm of your hand.

Use XiiaLive™ to stream music and internet radio. Explore more than 40,000 radio stations from all over the world!

Search, organize, tag, and save your favorite stream for easy access any time you want to rock out!

Supported formats: aac, aac+, m3u, pls, mp3, mp4, m4a and mpeg. Ogg, asx and wma streaming comming soon!

Features:
- Surf easily more than 40,000 radio stations.
- Easy to use application with fast UI that is car friendly!
- Notification sounds for connecting, buffering and signal drops. Something no other app has!
- Easily tag songs you like. No more post its!
- Sleep timer with volume fading.
- Buffering length controls.*
- Easy favorites organization. Rename, remove, edit links and give it a category.
- Easily add your own URL.
- Create custom radios station SHORTCUTS on your home screen!
- Customizable user experience settings.
- Bluetooth controls. Skip through your favorites.*
- Bluetooth connect and disconnect auto start and stop streaming.*
- Backup and restore your favorites, history and tags.*
- Filters for your search results
- OPEN APIs. Allows other apps to plug in to the power of Streaming!*
- ...and a lot more!

[$3.99 @ Android Market]

A year ago I was writing...

Rsync for Windows

Software  Article & Comments

Samsung Intercept (SPH-M910) Reviewed

10 December, 2010 00:48 CST6CDT

Samsung Intercept M910The Samsung Intercept is a mid-range Android OS phone for the Sprint network.  The boxed phone from Sprint includes a 1500 mAH capacity battery, 2 Gigabyte micro SD card, a micro USB cable, and an AC outlet to USB adapter.

The M910 ships with Android 2.1 Eclair, 256 Megabytes of RAM, 180 Megabytes of internal storage.  Samsung is quoted in saying that their will be an Android 2.2 update for the Intercept on Sprint's network.

Reviews of this device for functional ratings are mixed, and have a majority of discontent owners.  I believe this is related by its price range being affordable to users whom have not purchased or used a smartphone in the past or are identified as an entry level user that may not be familiar with general computer operations.

The included 1500 mAH battery will easily allow you to operate the device consistently throughout the day using moderate phone operations.  I can not keep my hands off the phone to browse the Internet or other data services, and the battery on many nights does not need to be re-charged.  The Intercept can be charged using a computer's USB port or the included AC adapter.

The Samsung Intercept screen size is 3.2 inches with a WQVGA screen and a dimension of 400x240 pixels.  The intercept has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that feels solid and responsive.  In addition to the touch sensitive screen and Android menu controls, a optical mouse is also embedded to the bottom of the front face between the call and end-call buttons.  Many have mentioned that the optical sensor is too sensitive.  These reviews of the optical controller have been announced by first time impressions of the unit.  While it does take a good week to learn the Samsung's intercedes, the productivity improvements of this addition outweighs any learning curve time-span.

The M910 boasts a 800 MHz ARM 11 processor.  Android 2.3 recommends a 1 GHz processor, so this hardware gives Samsung a strong excuse to not include this update in the future.  However, a Gingerbread update may not be out of the realm of possible upgrades.

The M910 has several communication radio technologies.  It operates on a CDMA 800/1900 spectrum with CDMA EVDO rev. 0.  This revision of EVDO is thought to be slower than the more common rev. A 3G connectivity.  The phone has integrated 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and an integrated GPS receiver.

The 3 megapixel camera and video recorder takes amazing photos for close up objects.  I would have liked to have seen at least a 5 megapixel sensor however.

The Samsung Intercept uses USB 2.0 for computer connectivity.  It uses a 3.5 mm jack for stereo headphones and hands free headsets.  An accelerometer is included standard in this Android device along with a magnetic compass for orientation changes.  The micro SDHC capacity is 32 Gigabytes.

I am overly pleased with my purchase of this phone and brush off all first impression reviews of this smartphone.  In addition I hope that readers will brush off inexperienced reviews of this product.  It is very responsive, feature rich, sturdy, and functional.  Cheers!

Technology  Software  Article & Comments (1)

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