Month: June 2008

  • Tunnel to locally running mysql server using ssh

    Running and administrating mysql can sometimes be a hassle especially if you’re running a semi-secure environment. This usually means that your mysql server will not accept connections from outside and only localhost connections are allowed. There is a quick way of getting around this if you’re stuck somewhere and really need to use that graphical…

  • Four little Security tools you should install in Ubuntu

    These should probably also be installed under other linux distros (might already be). But for the sake of completeness here they are: 1) denyhosts: great little package that’s already 98% configured after apt-get install process. It runs as a daemon and monitors /var/log/auth.log file for unsuccessful ssh logins and takes measures to ban the originating…

  • Twitter from Unix/Linux/OSX command line

    Yep, you can. Here is the recipe: 1) You need to install “curl” for your OS. OSX comes with it by default which is nice. Most unices out there also have it installed or have it available for download (Ubuntu, Debian users can use “sudo apt-get install curl” to install).2) Edit a text file using…

  • Some Unix/Linux Coolness…..

    I think every admin must do something stupid atleast once….right? Well my brain fart happened during a System upgrade (another story I’ll be ranting about later). I made backups of all the files I thought were important (/home, /etc, /var/lib/mysql and other userdata we had on the system) and installed Ubuntu 8.04 on the server.…

  • Google Reader Easter Egg…..

    For those of you using Google Reader…..here is a neat little distraction……type the following while google reader is the active browser window (up/down/left/right are cursor keys): up up down down left right left right b a fun stuff…..thank G :-).

  • It’s time to switch….

    If you ever needed a reason to switch to a mac and you were thinking to yourself, “well maybe I’ll wait a bit longer, after all, the malware/virus/trojan scene hasn’t caught up to me yet”, you might want to think again. Today marks the re-release of Virus.Win32.Gpcode.ak virus for the PC platform. This sucker was…

  • Portrait Session – Fruits and Flowers

    Just finished adding the final touches to the pics from a recent fashion/portrait shoot I attended/organized at Ryerson. The shoot actually happened on May 24, 2008, but since I was in Vancouver for a week I didn’t get a chance to work on them. The theme was loosely based on flowers and fruits, but once…

  • Lego-mania

    Came across this earlier on flickr….Very creative work done by Mike Stimpson. This guy is fantastic and his Lego recreations of important moments in history are really neat. definitely worth checking out.

  • G rocks!!!…Linux users rejoice.

    Yeah, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I LIKE GOOGLE. I like their spirit and I like the way they do their business. They just made my day (again) by releasing their desktop based google gadgets for linux for free and totally open sourced under Apache License 2.0 to boot. This is fantastic…

  • Go to Disney World for Free…..

    Is google ever going to stop doing cool stuff? Can you imagine doing this type of thing for a living? Well, like it or not, the next time you decide to dive down the rabbit hole, you can turn to your computer and GE instead. Yep, Disney’s wonderland has been ported to google earth. Just…