- Roundtable - muug.ca

he'll test your website drunk
by Trevor Cordes 28 Mar '15

28 Mar '15

http://theuserisdrunk.com/?imm_mid=0cf2a0&cmp=em-prog-na-na-newsltr_20150328 Only $250! "Can I pay you more to choose what you drink? Very yes." I can think of a member or two who should get into this line of business!! ;-)

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Google warns of unauthorized TLS certificates trusted by almost all OSes
by Trevor Cordes 28 Mar '15

28 Mar '15

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/google-warns-of-unauthorized-tls-ce… Fun! Not. Though the current model may be less than ideal, we must grant them one thing: in the decades it's been in place, the number of these breaches have been exceedingly small. That's saying something. Perhaps users of browsers should get the option to block certs by country-of-issuance? I bet I could turn off all of .ru, .ro and .cn and never notice. (I'd probably need .tw though.)

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systemd - the saga continues
by Trevor Cordes 24 Mar '15

24 Mar '15

We all know about the systemd controversy. Whether you like it or not, if you use Linux, you're *all* going to be using systemd in the very near future. Only a few fringe protest distros will not be using it. I could write a whole diatribe^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H article about systemd, and I'm one of the few who doesn't actually hate it! I've been using it (successfully) on all my (20+) systems for over 3 years (forced into it because of Fedora)! Anyhow, I thought some would appreciate some insight into the systemd guy, Lennart, so you can make judgements about his character and whether he seems to a) understand UNIX philosophy and b) have the best of intentions (cheat sheet spoiler: no and no): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTdUmlGxVo0 Long video, but worth watching while you work on other things, to capture the spirit of the new malevolent overlord of Linux. FYI, Lennart is one big walking ad hominem and non sequitur. He relies on the fact that no one studies logical thinking anymore. No, I doubt Wolfgang hates handicapped people. In fact, I agree with almost everything Wolfgang says. I think Lennart a) really doesn't get it, or b) works for Microsoft. Did you know systemd has binary logs that are FORCED ON, and CAN'T BE DISABLED? You have to jump through hoops to beg systemd to let you have your logs *duplicated* out to syslog. Oh, want logwatch and logrotate to work on your binary systemd logs, tough luck. Read enough flamewars (both sides, they seem about 50/50) and listen to Lennart and you see that some Linux people *really don't get it*. They really don't understand why UNIX has worked well for 50 years. It's old? Must be bad! Don't like change, well you are an old fuddy duddy resistant to change and don't matter. Change is good. We're Microsoft now. The more you read/see of systemd and Lennart the queasier feeling you get. He's sly, he's done the boil a frog trick and turned up the heat (feature creep) so slowly no one noticed until we were fried (every daemon is in systemd). I think the one thing I love most about UNIX is that scripts I wrote in 1991 still work right now, today, on my brand new modern distro. And I use them. And they are useful, and no I don't want to change them or rewrite them. Try that with Windows. Every other OS not only has you throw away your scripts, but half your hard-earned knowledge and speed because they want you to use a gesture and a charm instead of a start menu. I want to repeat my efforts as little as possible: I want to always add new functionality. I want the new WITHOUT throwing away the old. THAT is the UNIX way. THAT is what Lennart doesn't get. And I'm one of the few who doesn't hate systemd! (Don't worry, though, I'm getting there...) Also, OMG, so true, so funny, so sad: http://adtmag.com/articles/2014/10/21/~/media/ECG/adtmag/Images/2014/01/sys… (Overly long rant... sorry. If you have any choice bits of Lennart antics, post them here in reply.)

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Removing old kernel images
by Kevin McGregor 23 Mar '15

23 Mar '15

I have a Ubuntu 10.04.3 (I know) system with many old kernel images. The problem (maybe) is I've been told the system is out of inodes. I thought I would try to get rid of at least one old kernel image, and this happens: $ sudo apt-get -y purge linux-image-2.6.32-28-server Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these: The following packages have unmet dependencies: linux-headers-virtual: Depends: linux-headers-2.6.32-66-server but it is not going to be installed or linux-headers-2.6.32-66-generic-pae but it is not installable vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-2.6.32-28-server: Depends: linux-image-2.6.32-28-server but it is not going to be installed E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution). Did I do something wrong, is there a simple fix, and/or is this related to running out of inodes? Kevin

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5TB - makes no sense
by Trevor Cordes 22 Mar '15

22 Mar '15

Once again the drive manufacturers have me scratching my head. My business can sell a new Seagate 5TB USB3.0 external hard drive (5400rpm) for $159! 5TB!! What's baffling is that the cheapest 4TB (not even 5TB!) bare drive is $200! How does one explain the extra $41? Dunno... In fact, it's even crazier because by *not* paying the extra $41 you are given the bonus of a usb3-to-sata adapter and a power supply! Scratching your head? So am I. Just so everyone knows, you can buy this unit, pull the plastic shell apart and take out the normal, everyday 3.5" SATA drive inside and put it directly in your computer!! (This will void all warranties!) I should note, though, that this is almost certainly one of Seagate's infamous "not supposed to be on 24/7" garbage drives, like all of their low-end drives. But, still, 5TB for $159 is awful compelling. In fact, just for sheer size and backup possibilities, I'm going to grab one for an extra, more frequent, onsite backup system. The cheapest 5TB "real" drive you can actually use for something other than occasional use is the WD Red for $270, nearly double the price! The duopoly hard drive manufacturers are "pulling an Intel" now and differentiating by offering 4-6 different drives in each size, causing SKU explosion. And the price difference between the cheapo ones and the (supposed) enterprise-grade can be 300% (and we're not even talking SCSI/SAS here)! It used to be they all just made 1 drive of each size that was good enough for all things (and almost always 7200rpm). Also, note how the price of a quality 7200rpm 2TB drive has not dropped from where it was over 2 years ago! I know, I just checked. Gotta love a duopoly. P.S. If you want one, let me know! But, sorry, I don't price compete on the low-end so if it's cheaper at <insert etailer here> you can get it there. :-) (Prices subject to change. Tax not included, blah blah blah.)

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Re: [RndTbl] Inventory software?
by Bradford C. Vokey 21 Mar '15

21 Mar '15

On 2015-03-20 10:31 PM, athompso(a)athompso.net wrote: > I'm looking for recommendations for good IT inventory tracking software. > It must track not only hardware assets (those are a dime-a-dozen) but also > software, licenses, and support agreements. > It doesn't have to be free or open-source, if it's reasonably-priced and > good value. > It should definitely run on UNIX, at least the back-end stuff. > I do *not* need automatic inventory-gathering capability. > > Anyone know of anything that works for that? I am assuming you need a user-land friendly facing interface? Why not just use mysql and an html-based front end (intra or inter) like what I demonstrated with Xataface at the October 2013 meeting? It beats having to try and shoe-horn the fields/records you *actually* want to track into someone else's idea of what is important in inventory software. -- Brad Vokey

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Inventory software?
by Adam Thompson 20 Mar '15

20 Mar '15

I'm looking for recommendations for good IT inventory tracking software. It must track not only hardware assets (those are a dime-a-dozen) but also software, licenses, and support agreements. It doesn't have to be free or open-source, if it's reasonably-priced and good value. It should definitely run on UNIX, at least the back-end stuff. I do *not* need automatic inventory-gathering capability. Anyone know of anything that works for that? (BTW, for those that don't know yet, yes this is my new full-time gig, and yes I'm still available for paid work through Avant. Gratuitous plug: we also sell & support JIRA, Confluence and all the other Atlassian software. Call us for all your DevOps needs.) [image: Avant logo] *Adam Thompson* Senior Systems Administrator *voice:* 204.789.9596 x24 | *email:* athompson(a)avant.ca | *web:* avant.ca

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The SSD Endurance Experiment: They're all dead - The Tech Report - Page 1
by Adam Thompson 18 Mar '15

18 Mar '15

http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-… -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

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Free Hadoop ebook
by Trevor Cordes 12 Mar '15

12 Mar '15

This showed up through an affiliate of O'Reilly MAPR and I thought it might appeal to some club members. It's a totally free 130pg professionally done ebook. You have to register your name/email to get the link (honor system). It looks like it's an overview of the technology for beginners who may want to learn more. I doubt it's of much use to those already experts using these technologies. It's only free until the end of the week (and I'm not sure how O'Reilly defines "end") so get it by Friday if you want it. https://www.mapr.com/real-world-hadoop?imm_mid=0ce2ce&cmp=em-data-na-na-new…

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Another reason to use ECC memory...
by Gilbert E. Detillieux 11 Mar '15

11 Mar '15

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/cutting-edge-hack-gives-super-user-… http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/10/rowhammer/ http://www.google.ca/search?q=rowhammer -- Gilbert E. Detillieux E-mail: <gedetil(a)muug.mb.ca> Manitoba UNIX User Group Web: http://www.muug.mb.ca/ PO Box 130 St-Boniface Phone: (204)474-8161 Winnipeg MB CANADA R2H 3B4 Fax: (204)474-7609

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