The stuff is written offline in Windows Live Writer and when there’s internet I commit it (publish it). Nice.

Stopping the Bluetooth and the wi-fi card on a mac adds like an hour to battery life. Amazing, until now I’ve never stopped them.

When one goes to an entirely unknown place one tends to take stuff that gives him some security and might help in case of emergency. That’s why I loaded my GPS with offline map of the US using the Garmin XT software.

The GPS device is a Nokia E71 mobile phone (there are some other articles in the blog about it I think, but can’t link to them – I’m in offline mode). It has a 1500 miliamperhour-battery, which is the most I’ve ever seen on a phone and a pretty small screen, so lot’s of time being online.

I had to buy a data plan (I chose T-Mobile, $77 sim with unlimited data) so naturally I decided to try Google Maps for Symbian S60. First of all it’s free as opposed to Garmin XT (even the software is not free, not to mention the maps).

Navigation

Google Maps has an outstanding navigation (by navigation I mean going up/down/left/right and zooming in/out), it’s always fast no matter if the map is loaded or not (shrinks/enlarges the image it has, then replaces that with the newly downloaded one). Garmin’s navigation is plain stupid – the cursor accelerates as one presses up/down/left/right, so one would never know where the cursor would end up.

Searching

Searching in Garmin is like this: Where to go? –> Address/City/POI –> Choose Country –> Choose City –> Choose number –> Choose street. And this takes a while. And it doesn’t always return a result or at least not what one would expect. Google Maps would give you a result if you type “Grand Central, NY”. With Garmin XT if it works it would be hard and time-consuming to do.

Speed

Garmin wasn’t very fast with a 20 mb map of Bulgaria. But it’s definitely slow with a 1.2 gb map of the US, even on “very low detail” setting. Google Maps is always responsive no matter how much it takes for it to load.

Routing

Currently I use trains or metro or just walk. Routing with with Google Maps is fast – three tabs (Public transport, Car, Walk) and then I have to give only start and end locations – that’s it. It gives me amazingly correct results. In Garmin one has to go to the settings and change the Routing to Pedestrian/Car. I don’t even think it has the public transport option.

No GPS option

Google Maps can work without a GPS – it uses the network cells and wi-fi routers to know where it stands. It’s not very accurate but it doesn’t drain the battery with the GPS. It’s very easy to start the GPS – a few clicks away.

The Nokia E71’s GPS is always very quick to find it’s location. I’m guessing the phone starts the GPS for short period once and a while to keep it’s internal clock synchronized. So this option of Google Maps is extremely useful.

Start time

Google Maps is faster and it doesn’t have the annoying warning in the beginning that one has to click on to continue using the Garmin XT.

Satellite view

Very useful in Google Maps. I think Garmin has something similar, but can’t remember how was it.

Maps

Google Maps works so good only in the States. The last time I tested it in Sofia the map was pretty low detail. And Google Maps obviously needs a data connection. The traffic is not that much though, the data flowing is pretty size-optimized it would seem.

Overall

Google Maps is fast, user-friendly and easy to use, but needs internet. It can do more in less time, but sometimes it’s maps are not as good as Garmin ones. Garmin XT is pretty unusable and slow but can work offline and the maps most of the times are the best one can find.

Garmin is a nice-to-have second option in case Google Maps fails somewhere or there’s no network coverage.

This is stealing. They are denying a taxpayer to post his vote (no voting section will be raised in NYC):

http://www.webhousing.biz/~bulgaria/news.php?id=148
(Bulgarian Embassy in the USA on the EP elections on 7th of June)

For such a voting section to exist for the local Bulgaria government, 100 voters have to register “either personally, via FAX or via a scanned document saying they want to vote”. So now I have to find a scanner.

The vote is on 5th of July.

http://www.webhousing.biz/~bulgaria/news.php?id=149

Idiots.

The cars are different, the pipes are different, the knobs are different.

The mobile internet

Today we were wandering for half a day in the local ghetto looking for an AT&T store.. They wanted $20 for 100 megabytes and we decided to turn to T-Mobile.

T-Mobile offers unlimited mobile data for $24.99s and 600 minutes for $39.99. So for a total of $77 ($5 for some tax) I’m now always connected. The connection sucks big time. It’s normally like 2-3 kb/sec and the max I’ve seen is like 20kb/s.

The knobs

After 20 something hours of travel (2-hour flight, 2-hour wait, 9-hour flight, 1-hour bus ride, 2-hour train ride, 20 minutes in a cab, and god knows what else) there were so many smells coming out of me, so the first thing I needed was a shower. It took me like a minute to figure out how to start the shower and a minute more how to get the hot water. The knob was like an arrow of a clock. Originally it pointed 11 o’clock. It could move only counter-clockwise and from 10 o’clock until 8 o’clock is the cold water. The hot water is at 3 o’clock. At first I moved it only a bit and had to move away pretty fast. The strength of water flow cannot be controlled – it’s always the same and it’s pretty well chosen.

Politically correct

The word negro MUST NOT be used in any conversation even one being taken in Bulgarian or at least I was told so. Otherwise one could get beaten up, or when being in a ghetto - get shot.

Update: Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mihail.stoynov

It’s been one day since I landed at JFK International Airport in New York. Here’s one picture from Grand Central Station:

I’ll be staying in the US for a month.

Update: Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mihail.stoynov

Matrixtunnel is a small http wrapper that adds ssl on top of plain http. Small memory footprint.

Here’s how to start it:

user:~# matrixtunnel -A /etc/ssl/domain.com.cer -p /etc/ssl/domain.com.key -r 80 -d 444

Print help screen:

user:~# matrixtunnel -h
usage: [-c] [-v] [-d localip:port] [-r remoteip:port]

    -A      Certificate Authority file
    -p      private key and certificate chain PEM file name
    -c      client mode. remote is ssl, local plain
    -v      validate certificate
    -d      listen locally on this [host:]port
    -r      connect to remote machine on [host:]port
    -P      pidfile
    -f      foreground mode
    -D      syslog level (0...7)

If one wants to test, one can use –f (start on the console, not as a daemon).

Note: don’t use –v, sometimes it fails. I don’t know why.

This is an addendum to http://mihail.stoynov.com/blog/2009/03/12/CertificatesKeystoresJavaKeytoolUtilityAndOpenssl.aspx 

Key file is a format that keeps the private key in unencrypted format. It does not keep the certificate.

Converting pem –> key

openssl rsa –in mycompany.pem –out mycompany.key

Check out a certificate (pem, key)

openssl x509 –in mycompany.pem -text –noout
openssl x509 –in mycompany.key -text –noout

Output the private key

openssl rsa –in mycompany.key
openssl rsa –in mycompany.pem

(if they’re the sam certificate, they output the same thing).

Output the private key in readable format

openssl rsa –in mycompany.key –text
openssl rsa –in mycompany.key –text –noout (omit the binary part)
openssl rsa –in mycompany.pem –text
openssl rsa –in mycompany.pem –text –noout (omit the binary part)

Update:

Launch small https server to test a certificate

# on one host, set up the server (using default port 4433)
openssl s_server -cert mycert.pem –www

Check the speeds to that server

# on second host (or even the same one), run s_time
openssl s_time -connect myhost:4433 -www / -new -ssl3

Skype today refused to receive messages. I could see the balloons, but the message-boxes were empty.

Rebooting failed.
Updating Skype failed.

I got tired and removed my account’s local db (history and other stuff) and it all worked as a charm.

Local db located at ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/[username]

The article is written based on Windows Server, CollabNet Subversion 1.6.1, Apache 2.2. Windows XP or Vista would do as well.

Subversion comes with it’s own server – svnserve. By default there is no security. One can install svn+ssh, but on a windows server and windows client that is a bit stupid.

The other option is to setup an Apache server with mod_dav and mod_dav_svn. Fortunately the CollabNet Subversion binary comes with Apache pre-bundled with those modules. The binary even installs viewvc, which is rather nice.

Installation steps.

After installing the bundle, however, there are a lot of things to do. Most of them manually. I’ll try to describe most of them here.

Download Collabnet Subversion Server binary from CollabNet (no other place to download it from). Registration required.

So we decided to use Apache instead of svnserve, so while installing one doesn’t have to make it a service. Only Apache should be installed as a service. Another pro for Apache is that it can host multiple SVN repositories as opposed to only one by svnserve AFAIK.

Now is the time to suggest that one make the Apache server run with limited credentials. By default the service would be running with Local System account which has more privileges than God the users in the Administrators group. The concrete steps would be to create one user with compmgmt.msc. Remove it from the Users group (which removes all the default privileges) and give this user Modify right for the httpd directory (one will most probably find it in C:\Program files\Subversion\httpd) and all the repositories.

The configuration. When installing Apache asks where is the repositories basedir. Using a basedir means that all the repositories are subdirectories of the basedir:

Subversion/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

<Location /svn>
  DAV svn
  SVNParentPath "D:/SVN Repositories/"    <— put the qoutes. installer does not do it
</Location>

Note: by default the installer does not put quotes around the dir, so if there are space characters, the server will not start. One should put the quotes himself/herself.

Now is the time to say that the Apache server is very verbose. Every error show up in the Event Viewer in the Applications tab. There are always pretty good descriptions of what is wrong. I definitely like this feature of Apache. Unfortutely one has to use Google to figure how to fix it.

Another place to look for errors is httpd/logs/errors.log. Pretty readable. I’m positively surprised.

I don’t like the basedir approach – repositories with me are in different dirs. I do it like this

<Location /svn/mycompany>
   DAV svn
   SVNPath "D:/My Company/Repository"                   <— put the qoutes
</Location>

Authentication. Very shortly – http basic and http digest. Http basic is very insecure (only base64). Http basic looks like this:

<Location /svn/mycompany>
   DAV svn
   SVNPath "D:/My Company/Repository"
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName "MyCompany subversion repository"
   AuthUserFile "C:\Program Files\Subversion/httpd/conf/svn_auth_file"
   Require valid-user
</Location>

Now, how to make the user’s file (svn_auth_file). Use htpasswd (only for http basic):

C:\Program Files\Subversion\httpd\bin>htpasswd -cm ..\conf\svn_auth_file mihail
New password: ******
Re-type new password: ******
Adding password for user mihail

C:\Program Files\Subversion\httpd\bin>htpasswd -m ..\conf\svn_auth_file ivan
New password: *****
Re-type new password: *****
Updating password for user ivan

The first time –c is used to create the file. Any subsequent user is with –m only (which stands for MD5 as far as I remember).

svn_auth_file:

mihail:$apr1$AzWq5tu5$k554PODb79n9TZwBxBDh..
ivan:$apr1$hlr9s6gK$oFLP1WtwvOLczyUSiP10v/

For http digest the configuration first the module has to be uncommented in httpd.conf:

LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so    <—uncomment this line

the configuration for the location is the following:

<Location /svn/mycompany>
…
AuthType Digest
…

And users are made with htdigest:

C:\Program Files\Subversion\httpd\bin>htdigest.exe –c ../conf/svn_auth_file "MyCompany subversion repository" mihail
Adding user mihail in realm MyCompany subversion repository
New password: ******
Re-type new password: ******

C:\Program Files\Subversion\httpd\bin>htdigest.exe ../conf/svn_auth_file "MyCompany subversion repository" ivan
Adding user ivan in realm MyCompany subversion repository
New password: ******
Re-type new password: ******

The file svn_auth_file looks a bit different now:

mihail:MyCompany subversion repository:3d16aced3eac2fc74ce5663df86d145b
ivan:MyCompany subversion repository:3ff20546c01028d5008651445b62d2e0

Note: keep in mind that the realms in svn_auth_file and the <Location AuthName should match.

Note: do not confuse htpasswd and htdigest. They produce users for http basic and http digest respectively and are not interchangeable.

For now there is a pretty usable svn server that supports multiple repositories and digest auth. But the communication with the server is plain and unencrypted http.

The svnbook is available here (most up-to-date version 1.5): http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn.serverconfig.httpd.html. The chapter for servers is Chapter 6.

The next part is how to setup a SSL on top of Apache.

The blog just said:

You were pinged back by
http://mihail.stoynov.com/blog/2009/05/10/TestBlogPostWithWindowsLiveWriter.aspx
on your weblog entry 'Usability of the blog'
(http://mihail.stoynov.com/blog/2009/05/05/UsabilityOfTheBlog.aspx

I’ve linked myself in the past but I guess this feature was off or broken.

I’ve heard of Windows Live Writer but I’ve always thought that it only works for Blogger and Sharepoint. A comment to the blog (here) made me investigate whether dasBlog would support WLW. It does. This is the first blog post with WLW.

While installing WLW in my virtual Windows XP (I’ll write about that later if WLW works) I decided to update the blog. The update can now be installed with something called Web Platform Installer 2.0. It installs crap directly from the internet especially crap for IIS:

(Wow, WLW can inline the image in the text. I’ve always missed that.)

So, let’s see how this blog post would look like.

Submit... (in this case “Publish”)

Update: this cannot be true. WLW has live preview that embeds the post in the blog, this is so f*cking cool. Look at it:

Image thumbnails, resizing. Categories. Everything seems to work seamlessly. So let’s finally submit it and see what happens (I may start using this a lot).

$cd /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion

$sudo ./boot.sh --stop



Let's suppose vmnet8 is 172.16.57.1 and vmnet1 is 172.16.163.1.


I would like to change the network from 172.16.57.1 to 172.16.16.1 and I would like to specify a virtual machine with a specific IP.

We're still in /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion

Then:
$ grep 172.16.57 *
locations:answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 172.16.57.1

Then all files in the list must be changed.
Then we go into /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet8/

Then the same: 

$ grep 172.16.57 *
dhcpd.conf:subnet 172.16.57.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
dhcpd.conf:    range 172.16.57.128 172.16.57.254;
dhcpd.conf:    option broadcast-address 172.16.57.255;
dhcpd.conf:    option domain-name-servers 172.16.57.2;
dhcpd.conf:    option netbios-name-servers 172.16.57.2;
dhcpd.conf:    option routers 172.16.57.2;
nat.conf:ip = 172.16.57.2
nat.conf:# or ip = 172.16.57.2/24



All of them must be changed.

If a specific VM must have a specific IP we go to:
/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf and we add the following:
(get the mac from the VM (ipconfig, ifconfig eth0))

host myhost {
    hardware ethernet 00:0C:29:B2:C9:69;
    fixed-address 172.16.16.16;
}


Then to renew the ip (ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew for windows):
sudo ifconfig vmnet down
sudo ifconfig vmnet up


The last thing is to start the vmware networking:
sudo ./boot.sh --start



Then to renew the ip inside the VM (ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew for windows):
sudo ifconfig vmnet down
sudo ifconfig vmnet up

1. Click Start
2. Double-click Control Panel
3. Double-click Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab
5. Check off the circle next to Do not cache thumbnails
6. Click the Ok button