Your to-do list is full. There are emails coming at you from all directions. You’re at home and hungry, but all you can do is eat a few pieces of cheese because your fridge is nearly bare. You get back to the computer and suddenly think of something funny or come across a link you want to share. But then panic strikes – if you post this, Person A and Person B will probably think you are ignoring them. What are you to do? Well you can’t do anything but get all of your obligations covered so you can be free to socially sparkle once again.

It is widely thought that social networks just waste time. But I think they offer more positive things. How about you? Do social networks give you an extra incentive to actually get work done faster? Maybe it’s the possibility of offending those you are friends with who are waiting on you for something. Or maybe you would like to get something done, especially something visual, so you can share your final work with everyone.

I haven’t posted here recently because I’ve been very busy. Not much has happened to post about besides the big Facebook hoopla over privacy concerns. I thought it about it so much I couldn’t bare to post about it. It made me crazy to read all of the articles and comments. Plus I’ve been trying to free my mind from the usual social and tech buzz to do something very important for me. This month marks the start of me becoming an Orlando photographer doing portraits and engagement sessions! This has always been my dream. UPS brings my camera upgrade tomorrow and I have to be at home to sign for it. The pure feeling of bliss is overwhelming and sometimes makes me a little too anxious. I can’t imagine what I’ll feel like tomorrow during the wait but I’ll hang in there!

I’ve spent a lot of time looking at sites of photographers in my area and I already have a few favorites. One photographer in Sanford is truly amazing and if I met her one day, it would feel like meeting a celebrity. That’s just how I feel about photographers – they are my kind of stars. Everyone has their unique style and story about how they became a photographer. I’ve noticed many of them have a similar story to mine. They always loved taking photos and people would tell them that they had such an eye for it. But other duties in life called and photography was not number one. Then one day, we all have our epiphany and send our dream out onto a comet of fire and spark.

I am happy.

In a previous article I wrote about iTunes, Lala and Pandora, I was trying to figure out why Apple purchased Lala.com. Posts like mine across the web pointed to the possibility of new iTunes features and rounding up the talent of Lala developers. This could all still be true to some extent, but today it is clear there was a much bigger reason.

Visit Lala.com and you’ll see nothing but a big shut down message. Apple has decided to nuke one of their number one competitors completely. Perhaps some of their developers are now with Apple to work on iTunes.

For now, searching Google for music artists still shows the same Lala gadget that has been up since December. Soon, this feature will disappear.

What do you think about all this? Are you truly ready for our Apple Overlords to continue their attack?

P.S. I think Flash is kind of old-school for mobile devices, so I agree with snub.

Too much time has passed since I made a post, so here is a short one on the best way to use IRC on a Mac: Irssi. This client allows you to use IRC via Terminal and it’s super easy to do. Why install something called IRC Duck or ChatWaffle and bloat your system with more apps? You’re not on an iPhone. Let’s keep something holy.

Irssi is a very configurable client and can be adapted to your needs using a wide variety of Perl scripts. Irssi calls their product “the client of the future” which doesn’t make sense to me, honestly. I just think of them as the client. But their slogan might make sense if you think all of the current application bloat will disappear eventually and everyone will go back to their turtle roots of being happy with shells. So with Irssi the future is constant. You could say the transformation is happening already, albeit very slowly.

Before you go any further with installing, I have to warn you. This is the real way of using IRC. While there are themes available for Irssi, this is still no candy land. If you need happy icons and things to make you feel like you’re “on a computer” then Irssi may not be the way to go. But if you want the real, old-school deal, then let’s get started.

So if you’ve visited this blog before and read my PuTTY on OS X install article, you may be familiar with MacPorts. Assuming you already have MacPorts installed, all you have to do is run this in Terminal:

sudo port install irssi

The compile begins automatically and once it’s complete, naturally you just type irssi and the program begins.

It can be a little confusing at first. When you first start Irssi, it will ask you about your window preferences. You probably don’t need to change anything, just make sure you type this setting though:

/SET autocreate_windows ON

To connect to a server, type this for example:
/connect irc.freenode.net

/join #yourfavoritechannel

You’ll be able to switch windows by typing esc+1 and esc+2.

If you have any questions, leave a comment!

It’s time yet again for everyone to update Apple OS X to the latest version OS X 10.6.3. If you go to the previous link you can see an entire list of all of the fixes. Most of the applications are ones that I never use while others relate only to Mac OS X Server. With that said, the most important features of the update to me relate to recent security vulnerabilities discovered due to Tipping Point’s Zero Day Initiative:

“Apple’s Safari browser got hacked on both Snow Leopard and the iPhone during the first day of the annual Pwn2Own contest, where security specialists can win the hardware they successfully attack. As CNet reports, security analyst Charlie Miller won $10,000 after remotely exploiting Safari on a MacBook Pro.”

It’s not for certain if 10.6.3’s patches related to those hacks were already in the works of being fixed, or if they were only brought to light from the contest. All security fixes can be found on this Apple Support KB article. Credits to different sources were given on the article and while many did point to participants of Pwn2Own, Charlie Miller is not mentioned. The important Safari fix is pointed out here:

ImageIO
Available for: Mac OS X v10.5.8, Mac OS X Server v10.5.8, Mac OS X v10.6 through v10.6.2, Mac OS X Server v10.6 through v10.6.2
Impact: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may result in sending data from Safari’s memory to the website
Description: An uninitialized memory access issue exists in ImageIO’s handling of TIFF images. Visiting a maliciously crafted website may result in sending data from Safari’s memory to the website. This issue is addressed through improved memory initialization and additional validation of TIFF images. Credit to Matthew ‘j00ru’ Jurczyk of Hispasec for reporting this issue.

Some fixes were for X11, which you may have read about in our How to Install Putty on OS X article.

X11
Impact: Viewing a maliciously crafted image may lead to the disclosure of sensitive information
Description: libpng is updated to version 1.2.37 to address an issue that may result in the disclosure of sensitive information. Further information is available via the libpng site at http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html

X11
Impact: Displaying maliciously crafted data within an xterm terminal may lead to arbitrary code execution
Description: The xterm program supports a command sequence to change the window title, and to print the window title to the terminal. The information returned is provided to the terminal as though it were keyboard input from the user. Within an xterm terminal, displaying maliciously crafted data containing such sequences may result in command injection. The issue is addressed by disabling the affected command sequence.

Other most notable security fixes for the update:

AFP Server
Available for: Mac OS X v10.5.8, Mac OS X Server v10.5.8, Mac OS X v10.6 through v10.6.2, Mac OS X Server v10.6 through v10.6.2
Impact: When guest access is disabled, a remote user may be able to mount AFP shares as a guest
Description: An access control issue in AFP Server may allow a remote user to mount AFP shares as a guest, even if guest access is disabled. This issue is addressed through improved access control checks. Credit: Apple.

Apache
Available for: Mac OS X v10.5.8, Mac OS X Server v10.5.8, Mac OS X v10.6 through v10.6.2, Mac OS X Server v10.6 through v10.6.2
Impact: A remote attacker may be able to bypass access control restrictions
Description: An input validation issue exists in Apache’s handling of proxied FTP requests. A remote attacker with the ability to issue requests through the proxy may be able to bypass access control restrictions specified in the Apache configuration. This issue is addressed by updating Apache to version 2.2.14.

There’s a brand new way to get a free shell account. Their name is Devio.us and their job is simple: They provide a secure and stable box running OpenBSD 4.6 and if you behave well, you’ll get a no-strings attached free shell account to use. It includes 100MB of space, 1 MySQL database, plus a mail account. They even do the rsync ritual nightly. It’s basically all you could ask for from a free shell provider, and you’ll never have to worry about them disappearing either.

For those who know what a shell account is, this is great news. If you are unsure of what you could use it for, here’s a little background. Now look up free shell providers—you’ll see a lot of hackeresque looking websites and links you’ll be unsure about clicking. There is nothing illegal or mysterious about Devio.us.

All commands and activity of account holders are routinely checked since their admin brigade is continuously growing. For the people behind Devio.us, participating in running a shell account provider and keeping things squeaky clean is a fun hobby that simply celebrates nerdery. If you’re interested, you could even become an admin if you’ve held an account in good standing for long enough. Devio.us strives to be an open community to those who sincerely have fun participating in administration.

Start a new website with no-cost marketing techniques and get results fast with this plan! Marketing on a budget is always possible with determination.

1. Define purpose.
What is the goal of your new website? Try to define it in one clear sentence. This will help you focus. After you’ve got your sentence, ask yourselves these questions:

• What kind of website should I create: a static HTML site, a blog or forum?
• Do I absolutely need to hire someone to make a design, or can I start out without spending money?
• How will I attract people to my website/service?
• How will I communicate with my visitors? Is there a medium that my unique audience would prefer (email updates, phone, Twitter, etc.)?

With the answers to those questions in mind, read on.

2. Use free website designs.
Browse through a site like OpenDesigns and find a look suitable for your needs. By the time you are done editing the CSS files and adding images, the site will really start to come together. In the end it may not even look the way it started. This takes patience though, a free night or two, and a lot of coffee. But if you want to do it bad enough, you will!

And if you’ve worked with free templates before but never found something good, take a look again. In the past year especially, free designs have improved by leaps and bounds. One of my favorites from OpenDesigns is this blue and black template. It could be used for many different website categories.

The run-down:

• If you choose to make a static HTML site, there are many websites that offer free or low cost templates. Choose something simple that is easy to edit. Remember to make your brand and your service stand out.
• The best choice for a blog is definitely Wordpress. With the largest user community out there, the amount of free Wordpress templates is comparable to a tiny kingdom. But depending on what your website is about, a blog might look unprofessional. If you don’t foresee yourself getting a lot of comments and making good use out of a blog, opt for a static site.
• A forum is a great way to get your visitors talking. Their posts can even drive in search engine traffic. A good choice to start with is from the makers of Wordpress: bbPress
• Do not forget to list any statistics you have on how many people you have helped and the results they’ve had from using your service. Design isn’t everything – results, stats and proof are.
• If you do not know how to edit a website template, it is not an issue to just use your Facebook profile in the beginning. You can post your services, examples and even pricing on your profile. Some people may even view this as a more professional and serious way to connect. Post a link to your profile whenever you leave comments on blogs or participate in forums.

3. Need additional help? Barter.
Don’t know how you’re going to pay for a logo but know someone who is great with graphic design? Make a proposal to them. If they create a logo for you, you’ll offer them your service for free. Maybe you’re a writer or a cook, give them a good incentive to help you. And even if you think they may say no, try anyway – you could be surprised.

Remember, if you don’t know someone that has what you need, sites like BarterQuest actually connect people who prefer bartering, so check that out.

4. Use free website tools.
Use Twitter and Facebook to build the first visitors to your site. Leave thoughtful comments on blogs and profiles. Make sure before you do this that you have posted your own site and any articles you’ve written to your own profiles. When others come to reply to you, they’ll see your links and click them.

5. Communicate!
Whether your visitors have added you on Facebook, Twitter or are leaving you blog comments, always reply to every single one. Never leave anyone feeling ignored. You worked too hard to get them to listen, now don’t let them get away.

6. Contests.
Once your site is up and you have some steady visitors, announce a contest. Give away something for free, such as your own service. The best way to get word out about how good you are is to give others an example. It will be hard work at first, but anything helps to get your “word of mouth” level up.

If you have any other ideas that I’ve missed, please leave them in the comments below!

OpenBSD, I’ve loved you for a long time, but over the last few years, me and you have grown apart. Not due to choice, but due to my career path being deeply entangled with everything associated with Linux.

Thankfully, I recently had the opportunity to bring up an OpenBSD box and set it up from scratch with OpenBSD 4.6.

One of the first issues I encountered had to do with my favorite editor – vi/vim. The problem? The backspace and the arrow keys weren’t working properly and while this is a simple .vimrc fix, I wanted to place the fixes in a global vimrc. On Linux (at least RHEL based distro’s), this can be accomplished by dropping your settings into /etc/vimrc. On OpenBSD though, this is not the case – it is read from a different location.

Being used to ’strace’ on Linux and my general laziness with looking through documentation, I much rather prefer to just skimp through a process trace to find out what it’s doing during start-up. OpenBSD doesn’t have ’strace’ though, instead, it has ‘ktrace’ and ‘kdump’. Really, you can’t call it an equivalent either, as they are vastly different, however, they can both achieve roughly the same task, which in my case, was to find where the global vimrc was getting loaded from.

This is how I did it:

1. Run ‘ktrace -f vimtrace.out vim’
This generates a logfile with the process trace, that you can then parse with kdump.
2. Run ‘kdump -f vimtrace.out | grep vimrc’
3. Results:

root@wolfman $ ktrace -f vimtrace.out vim
root@wolfman $ kdump -f vimtrace.out | grep vimrc
9649 vim      NAMI  "/usr/local/share/vim/vimrc"
9649 vim      NAMI  "/usr/local/share/vim/vimrc"
9649 vim      NAMI  "/usr/local/share/vim/vimrc"
9649 vim      NAMI  "/root/.vimrc"
9649 vim      NAMI  "/root/.vimrc"
9649 vim      NAMI  "/root/_vimrc"

Voila! Unfortunately, the result didn’t really come as a surprise – OpenBSD has always been very proper about file placement / separation of distribution related files and user based additions.

And finally, if some of you are experiencing the same key problems on OpenBSD (I’m locally on an OS X terminal), this is what you place in your vimrc’s:

set nocp
set backspace=2

Easter at CVS brings you the normal candy selection: your chocolate bunnies, jellybeans and Peeps. But you know, Peeps just weren’t exciting enough anymore. CVS wanted to dominate the chewy marshmallow market with a new breed all their own.

A few weeks ago we noticed a very strange candy at CVS. There was only one like it, the rest were mysteriously purchased. We weren’t sure what to make of this “thing” as we stood there, holding it by the plastic stick, seeing its sugar glisten in the fluorescent light. After twirling it around a few times with confused looks on our faces, we put the blue guy back.

Today Daniel surprised me when we stopped at CVS again. I stayed in the car and when he came back, he brought the marshmallow pop with him. The poor guy looked like someone squished his head with their fingers. He was already in bad enough shape. Even though he was abused, it was important that we got it. Just because.

His eyes are strikingly different. One is brown with a black pupil while the other is brown with a yellow rim. His teeth are quite ferocious and from the looks of his dislocated limbs, he probably had a few sticky situations while in his homeland of China.

Our dog was very alert when we brought this new kind of treat home. He tried to nibble it but eventually declined any further involvement.

That pretty much says it all. I won’t really go into how the marshmallow pop tasted. It was terrible. Peeps taste 20% better by comparison and even that may be too generous.

I tried to find the inspiration for this squishy creature but nothing looks quite like him. I did find these cute clay monsters though which would be great desk toys. (Thanks, Super Punch!)

We’re really into sci-fi movies, books and ideas. No, not Star Wars. More like the advancement of people and technology. At first when I saw a Scottevest being marketed as having a special pocket that can hold an iPad, I thought it was silly. There’s a lot of things that could fit into that pocket (such as all of the other digital reading devices, or a pack of beef jerky). But when I read that this clothing is dubbed TEC, Technology Enabled Clothing, I thought it sounded pretty cool actually.

An interesting thing about their clothing is Clear Touch Fabric which allows you to see and touch your devices through the material. See for yourself on the Scottevest travel page. Though there’s a similar effect when using mesh and that’s been around since the middle ages. And another silly sort of thing: PAN – Personal Area Network, the inner workings in their clothing for managing wires. If we’ve got PANs, we’re one step closer to robots. And the robots will have won. (No!)

I don’t see myself wearing this kind of stuff, I’d have to be a real supernerd. But I can see the benefits of it especially if everyone who traveled wore jackets with these pockets inside. It would be odd seeing hundreds of people wearing a khaki fishing jacket but there would be no more dumping your phone, keys and everything else into one bin, then going through the detectors only to find out you forgot one other thing in your back pocket. Having a coat with so many pockets would be, well, convenient. And these look a lot better than fishing jackets. But hey, another industry had to get the wheels turning on pocket advancement, right? Scottevest jackets have a minimum usually of 22 pockets. Fishing jackets usually only have 4. None of those can even fit a trout.

For more info on technology enabled clothing, check out the Talk2MyShirt blog. Recent news there is that Apple has hired a wearable technology expert. Plus there’s a lot of other things on their blog worth checking out from what I can see!