Backyard 2.1
October 27th, 2006 by ktula
Planted some ground covers over the weekend in my backyard.
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Archive for October, 2006
Jonathan Cook: Lieberman out of the shadows
October 26th, 2006 by ktula
Lieberman out of the shadows: Israel’s Minister of Strategic Threats
by Jonathan Cook
October 25 2006
Electronic Intifada
The furore that briefly flared this week at the decision of Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to invite Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party into the government coalition is revealing, but not in the way most observers assume.
Lieberman, a Russian immigrant, is every bit the populist and racist politician he is portrayed as being. Like many of his fellow politicians, he harbours a strong desire to see the Palestinians of the occupied territories expelled, ideally to neighbouring Arab states or Europe. Lieberman, however, is more outspoken than most in publicly advocating for this position.
Where he is seen as overstepping the mark is in arguing that the state should strip up to a quarter of a million Palestinians living inside Israel of their citizenship and seal them and their homes into the Palestinian ghettoes being created inside the West Bank (presumably in preparation for the moment when they will all be expelled to Jordan). He believes any remaining Arab citizens should be required to sign a loyalty oath to Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state” — loyalty to a democratic state alone will not suffice. Any who refuse will be physically expelled from Israel.
And, as a coup de grace, he has recently demanded the execution for treason of any Arab parliamentarian who talks to the Palestinian leadership in the occupied territories or commemorates Nakba Day, which marks the expulsion and permanent dispossession of the Palestinian people in 1948. That would include every elected representative of Israel’s Arab population.
These are Lieberman’s official positions. Apparently unofficially he wants even worse measures taken against Palestinians, both inside Israel and in the occupied territories. In May 2004, for example, he told a crowd of his supporters, in Russian, that 90 per cent of the country’s Arab citizens should be expelled. “They have no place here. They can take their bundles and get lost.” His speech could have had second billing with one by Adolf Hitler at a Nuremberg Rally.
Continue reading ‘Jonathan Cook: Lieberman out of the shadows’
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Fuck Sony
October 24th, 2006 by ktula
liksang.com, which has provided gamers around the world with hard-to-find foreign gadgets, is forced out of business by Sony when ‘UK High Court has ruled that noted Hong Kong-based electronics exporter Lik-Sang is in violation of Sony’s intellectual property rights when it sells the company’s hardware inside the European Economic Area.‘
According to Lik-Sang,
Hong Kong, October 24th of 2006 - Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang’s sales of PSP consoles unlawful.
As of today, Lik-Sang.com will not be in the position to accept any new orders and will cancel and refund all existing orders that have already been placed. Furthermore, Lik-Sang is working closely with banks and PayPal to refund any store credits held by the company, and the customer support department is taking care of any open transactions such as pending RMAs or repairs and shipping related matters. The staff of Lik-Sang will make sure that nobody will get hurt in the crossfire of this ordeal.
A Sony spokesperson declined to comment directly on the lawsuit against Lik-Sang, but recently went on to tell Gamesindustry.biz that “ultimately, we’re trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera; is not - in PS3’s case - backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software; will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs; and will not be covered by warranty”.
Lik Sang strongly disagrees with Sony’s opinion that their customers need this kind of protection and pointed out that PSP consoles shipped from Lik-Sang contained genuine Sony 100V-240V AC Adapters that carry CE and other safety marks and are compatible world wide. All PSP consoles were in conformity with all EU and UK consumer safety regulations.
Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe’s very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan’s official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). The list of PSP related Sony Europe orders reads like the who’s who of the videogames industry, and includes Ray Maguire (Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Alan Duncan (UK Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Chris Sorrell (Creative Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Rob Parkin (Development Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited), just to name a few.
“Today is Sony Europe victory about PSP, tomorrow is Sony Europe’s ongoing pressure about PlayStation 3. With this precedent set, next week could already be the stage for complaints from Sony America about the same thing, or from other console manufacturers about other consoles to other regions, or even from any publisher about any specific software title to any country they don’t see fit. It’s the beginning of the end… of the World as we know it”, stated Pascal Clarysse, formerly known as the Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang.com.
“Blame it on Sony. That’s the latest dark spot in their shameful track record as gaming industry leader. The Empire finally ‘won’, few dominating retailers from the UK probably will rejoice the news, but everybody else in the gaming world lost something today.”
I have already been boycotting Sony products since its refusal to apologize over the DRM rootkit incident late last year. Based on the number of angry comments that i have read here and here, looks like a lot of people will join rank with me in boycotting Sony.
Hey Sony, see this shiny penny that i have between my fingers? Well, you can kiss that penny goodbye because you ain’t getting a fucking penny from me.
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GeeXboX uShare module for Thecus N2100
October 24th, 2006 by ktula
Someone is kind enough to send me a module he created out of GeeXboX uShare, a free UPnP A/V media server compiled by tyz.
According to the GeeXbox uShare site, the uShare UPnP A/V media server should work with Xbox 360. I have a Xbox 360 but i cannot see any of the songs i have in my N2100, so i am not sure how well this module works. But i do see the “ushare” processes running in shell after enabling and configuring the module. The screenshot of the configuration screen for the menu is shown below:
I believe the Port setting is supposed to set the port number for the HTTP server for uShare. The default one is 4920 but no matter what i change it to, running a port scanner from another server always indicate that uShare is listening to the following two ports (marked in blue):
PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 139/tcp open netbios-ssn 443/tcp open https 445/tcp open microsoft-ds 548/tcp open afpovertcp 631/tcp open ipp 3689/tcp open rendezvous 49152/tcp open unknown 49153/tcp open unknown
So that portion of the module might not be working.
Download the module here (get either the gzip or zip version):
ushare.mod.gz
ushare.mod.zip
Update: 10/27/2006
The module has been updated so that the default Port in the configuration screen is now 49200 instead of 4920.
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Backyard 2.0
October 20th, 2006 by ktula
Hired Greg Tiffany of Calyx Landscape Design to pave my backyard with some Pennsylvania blue stone. Trust me, my backyard, as tiny as it is, was a jungle prior to being landscaped.
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Logging module for Thecus N2100
October 13th, 2006 by ktula
Sundevil requested a module that will allow him to see the Apache and FTP logs for troubleshooting purpose. Well, you asked for it, so here it is.
When i tested this module initially, i had tons of problem getting the N2100 web admin to respond after enabling logging or restore the default settings using the module. I finally figured out that if i use shell_exec to launch a shell script from PHP, PHP will make sure that all the child processes spawned by the main shell script have ended before continuing. That explained the irresponsiveness of N2100 web admin. Also, having to cycle the Apache webserver while using the N2100 web admin did not help, duh!
I tested this module on a Thecus N2100 with firmware version 2.1.01. The screenshot of the module is shown below.
Download either the gzip or the zip version:
MYMORELOG.mod.gz
MYMORELOG.mod.zip
This module is written based on the FANCTRL module by mshapf.
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Temperature logging module for Thecus N2100
October 12th, 2006 by ktula
Update 10/28/2006 - Version 1.1
- Log file destination of “usbhdd” will now write to an external drive (for example, an USB thumbdrive), instead of writing to the /raid/ushhdd directory.
- Removed the need to run ckauth.html.
This is my first module that i have written for the Thecus N2100. This module is pretty simple and basic, all it does is to log the system and HDD temperature to a file, by mean of a cron job. I have added options for logging the CPU and memory utilizations as well.
Installation instruction:
- Download either the gzip version or the zip version.
- Unzip the downloaded file. The content of the uncompressed file should be mylogtemp.mod. I have to add “my” in front of the logtemp.mod filename because for some reason during the module installation process, the first two characters of the file will be stripped.
- In the Module Management page for the N2100, choose the mylogtemp.mod file and click on Install.
- Enable the LOGTEMP module.
- Click on the LOGTEMP module to configure it. The screenshot for LOGTEMP configuration here:
- If the configuration process is successful, you should see this:
- Here’s what the log looks like:
logtemp.txt
I am going to repeat the slightly modified version of OnBeat’s N2100 disclaimer:
DISCLAIMER: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO GUARANTEE THAT THIS MODULE WILL WORK ON YOUR N2100! IF YOU (FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER) END UP WITH A BROKEN N2100, IT’S YOUR PROBLEM! I WON’T TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY AT ALL!
A related module that might be of some use to those concern about the temperature in the N2100 is OnBeat’s fan control module.
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Cowfish
October 3rd, 2006 by ktula
According to cowfishes.com,
“Cowfish have another unusual talent to aid them in their search for food.. They can perform hydraulic jetting, which allows them blow a stream of water into the substrate. It is an effective method for uncovering hidden prey in sandy lagoon areas. In captivity, cowfish transfer this behavior to spitting water at the surface. This is because they associate feedings with the surface of the water, the place from where aquarists typically feed their fish. In fact, it is not uncommon for cowfish to develop good aim and shoot their keepers, giving them a face full of sea water.”
For more cowfish pictures, check out my slideshow.