I just got a call from 0121 7084055. The guy on the other end wanted to speak to my partner Lou and then just abruptly hung up when I explained she was at work. The manner of it was such that I Googled the number which apparently belongs to a company called Ocean Communication Ltd.… Continue reading 0121 7084055
Broken Debian Openssl
It’s been a day since news emerged of the long-term issue with the Debian packaged openssl. As demonstrated by the feedback to Ben Laurie’s Blog entry, this is a very high profile issue with plenty of opposing points of view. Hardly surprising, considering the impact it has on the security of the OS. There is… Continue reading Broken Debian Openssl
Who do I trust?
I recently read an excellent article by Ben Laurie that proposes methods that evil companies like Phorm could use to intercept SSL communications. This got me thinking about whom I actually trust when I’m using the Web. Most people install an Operating System and simply trust whatever Certificate Authorities it happens to come with. A… Continue reading Who do I trust?
Domestic 3-Way (or more) Lighting Circuit
Sometimes you might want more than two switches on a lighting circuit. For example, one switch at each end of a hallway with another at the top of the stairs. If you have a big landing, you might even want four switches! Here’s how you do it. The third switch is referred to as an… Continue reading Domestic 3-Way (or more) Lighting Circuit
Domestic Switched Light
The following diagram shows the most simple of lighting circuits, a single lamp on a single switch. In this instance I’ve shown it with an incoming and outgoing supply as this can be achieved without breaking the rule of not putting more than four cables into a single junction box. The next diagram shows a… Continue reading Domestic Switched Light
Domestic 2-Way Lighting Circuit
The following diagram shows my preferred method for wiring a domestic 2-way lighting circuit. In this context, 2-way implies that two switches attach to the same light. In the above diagram, the Supply and Light cables are standard 3-core (Live, Neutral and Earth). The Switch cables are special 4-core used specifically for this type of… Continue reading Domestic 2-Way Lighting Circuit
Upgrading Moin
I manage the St Mellion Village Wiki which runs under MoinMoin. At the moment a new release of Moin comes out quite frequently and every time I run into problems with upgrading it. In an effort to ease my pains I decided to document my process for it. Download the release to /usr/local/share and extract… Continue reading Upgrading Moin
Moved the Blog
Today I moved my Blog from it’s old address blog.bananasplit.info to its new address of blog.stmellion.org. The old name still works for the time being but hopefully over a period of time my few readers will make the switch and Google will notice the change. By then I might have moved to a different village,… Continue reading Moved the Blog
Remind, the mother of all calendar applications.
Remind is a truly lovely little application for doing just as it’s name suggests; reminding somebody as forgetful as me about important things. As with many apps, the power of Remind does in some cases lead to complexity in configuration. To me, and not doubt many others, this makes it challenging to write recipes for… Continue reading Remind, the mother of all calendar applications.
Soekris Computers
I’ve fancied a Soekris solid-state computer for some time now. The idea is to load it with pfSense to make a multi-port firewall. Soekris released their 5501 model in June2007 and I’ve been waiting ever since for the price to fall to a point where I can afford one. At the moment the 5501-70 with… Continue reading Soekris Computers
Nobody owns a name!
On the Internet a name is just a handle, in no context is it a proof of identity. Virtually on a daily basis I get abuse complaints from disgruntled people complaining that someone on Usenet is using their name. Usually I try to explain to them that it’s a big world we live in, with… Continue reading Nobody owns a name!
Spamcop
Today I encountered the wrong end of SpamCop. My encounter was indirect in that I was contacted by my upstream provider informing me that a user had submitted a complaint. After a bit of frantic investigation to avoid conflict with my provider, I reached these conclusions:- It wasn’t spam. The SpamCop user had complained about… Continue reading Spamcop
The Ex Factor
A couple of years ago I got hooked on a series of The Apprentice and wrote a Blog Entry on it. At the end of that series I felt a bit disappointed with the outcome as it wasn’t representative of the skills the participants had demonstrated throughout the series. Now I find myself feeling the… Continue reading The Ex Factor
Terracotta Tiling
As part of our home refurbishment, Lou and I chose Terracotta tiles for our living room floor. This proved such a success with us that we went on to lay them in the hallway and are now doing the kitchen. Part of the attraction of Terracotta is the quirkiness of the tiles, with no two… Continue reading Terracotta Tiling
Badger Principles
Just so I don’t forget when the next election comes around. I will not vote for any political party that supports the eradication of 80% of the badgers in the South-West of England, where I happen to live. This will be regardless of any other agenda that party may have, because I feel strongly about… Continue reading Badger Principles
Examining X509 Certificates
I have to look up these commands far too often! Issuer openssl x509 -noout -in cert.pem -issuer Common Name openssl x509 -noout -in cert.pem -subject Validity Dates openssl x509 -noout -in cert.pem -dates Hash Value openssl x509 -noout -in cert.pem -hash SHA1 fingerprint openssl x509 -noout -in cert.pem -fingerprint MD5 fingerprint openssl x509 -md5 -noout… Continue reading Examining X509 Certificates
Sold as seen
When it comes to cars, there’s no such thing as “Sold as seen”, but there should be a term which says “Buy at your own risk”. Lou (my partner) recently bought a Mitsubishi Pajero which turned out to be a dud. It was a private sale from a friendly family in a place called Frogwell… Continue reading Sold as seen
Is it me or is it Linksys?
Well my project has stumbled at the first hurdle because I can’t get PPPoE to authenticate through my AM200 Modem. I suspect this is an issue with the AM200 itself rather than the PPPoE clients I’m using to do my testing. My reason for saying this is that I’ve tried WindowsXP, pfSense and Linux clients… Continue reading Is it me or is it Linksys?
SOHO Firewall
It’s probably reasonable to say that the average home can no longer manage on a single PC. In my home there are seven of them in regular use, two of which are switched on 24x7x365 delivering various services. To support all this demand for Internet connectivity, we all turn to the home router. It’s easy… Continue reading SOHO Firewall
news.mixmin.net
Today, for the first time, my Usenet server crossed the 1.000 mark, according to Top1000. I believe that means it now takes a roll in the delivery of approximately 1% of all Usenet traffic. It’s currently ranked at position 135 worldwide which is pretty pleasing considering all the ISP’s and professional Usenet services there are.… Continue reading news.mixmin.net