Vox populi = grunt

I went to a meeting of MIT guys last night in E-ville. It was a brainstorming session billed as the Mad Scientists Club held at Squid Labs. It featured a guy from NASA-Ames with modular robots, a hybrid bicycle, a guy with an idea to use vacuum capsules for lift (carbon-fiber seems to make it possible these days, and a software geek who talked about FPGAs. Wine, chees, crackers and Scotch (Scotch was untouched at the end of the evening). Surprisingly, the crowd was about 35% female. Tim O'Reilly and his wife (I assume; I didn't get her name) and daughter Arwen were there, as Make magazine was sponsoring the food and booze, and looking for material for the next quarterrly issue. I met Zach of Zach's Cool Stuff and got his card. He runs a little make-cool-stuff-for-kids outfit to supplement school. I'm going to try to get them into my kid's schools.

There was a fellow who showed off his handbuilt racecar (Pierre). Had a day job as a vice-president or something. Nice videos of the car in action. Saul from Squid Labs showed off their chinese-finger-puzzle-which-tightens-carbon-fibers-as-a-strain-gauge technology, which is pretty cool, too. I had a lot of fun speculating about what Squid Labs does, because it is not obvious from the facilities...also wondering where all their failed prototypes were. In most labs they litter the floors and walls and hang from the ceiling.

Funniest moment: Tim O'reilly did a presentation of changing monthly book sales and noted that Mac books sold better in Red states than Blue states. I had just a moment to think "Red staters are idiots who can't fix their PC software" when a fellow exclaimed "They need more help with their Macs".

Primarily a social session for MIT alums, but more cool than my class reunions ever were.

So I moved and divorced. Not pretty, and has kept me from my computer very completely. In the meantime, I had my computers savaged by having them inside an unprotected LAN, so all my former hard drive's executables were infected and deleted by an overzealous AV program (Note to self: RTFM). Now I'm behind a NAT LAN and all boxen in the house have ZoneAlarm and tricky VNCs for remoting.

I may never get back to LINUX again. Too busy with new family obligations (children are a joy and a drain). Still, you heard it here first, from a reasonably smart guy with time to kill and a real interest in solving computing problems using LINUX: it's not ready for stuff I do more easily in Win98SE.

'nuff said. Further use of this space will be as a brain dump for me personally, and likely will not be very useful to anyone else.

A simple test for San Francisco mayoral candidates.

XFdrake was a bit of a disappointment, to say the least. It not only failed to identify the video card, it refused to test for it or to offer any options. Many bugs. Now I think I will go back and try Knoppix again, now that I have learned something about LISA.

LINUX rules, man. I wonder if Microsoft needs a pitchman. Right now, I wouldn't even have to lie or anything.

LINUX update: I found the SuSE LINUX documentation shit, so I wiped the drive and loaded the latest Mandrake. At least I know I will be getting the latest builds and kernel. It should be noted that my copy of SuSE LINUX is a freebie from the Alameda County Computer Recycling Center, and is pretty much out-of-date.

Unlike Knoppix this install of Mandrake didn't install with KDE up and running, at least on my system. I suspect this may be due to misidentification of the video card, but I am not sure. Other hardware seemsd to be found correctly, however. Hard to tell, since I have a tough time using command-line interface in *NIX.

Next I will try to adjust with XFdrake (capitalization counts, just like in starting a business).

After pining and lookup for 127.0.01:

TCP Table
0 listening 0.0.0.0 1847 0.0.0.0 37 Time
1 listening 0.0.0.0 2087 0.0.0.0 16431
2 listening 0.0.0.0 2122 0.0.0.0 224
3 listening 0.0.0.0 2125 0.0.0.0 53293
4 listening 0.0.0.0 2156 0.0.0.0 24713
5 listening 127.0.0.1 1846 0.0.0.0 32819
6 connect 127.0.0.1 1846 127.0.0.1 1847
7 connect 127.0.0.1 1847 127.0.0.1 1846
8 listening 127.0.0.1 2088 0.0.0.0 28769
9 listening 192.168.1.101 137 0.0.0.0 53325 NETBIOS Name Service
10 listening 192.168.1.101 138 0.0.0.0 37076 NETBIOS Datagram Service
11 listening 192.168.1.101 139 0.0.0.0 16555 NETBIOS Session Service
12 connect 192.168.1.101 2087 216.239.33.104 80
13 connect 192.168.1.101 2122 64.41.146.214 80
14 connect 192.168.1.101 2125 64.41.146.214 80
15 time wait 192.168.1.101 2148 66.102.15.100 80
16 time wait 192.168.1.101 2150 66.102.15.100 80
17 time wait 192.168.1.101 2151 66.102.15.100 80
18 connect 192.168.1.101 2156 192.149.252.43 43 Who Is
19 115.32.97.110 25632 109.98.101.114 8202

UDP Table
0 127.0.0.1 2088
1 192.168.1.101 137 NETBIOS Name Service
2 192.168.1.101 138 NETBIOS Datagram Service
3 0.0.0.0 512 Notifies users of new mail



After pinging and lookup for 0.0.0.0

TCP Table
0 listening 0.0.0.0 1847 0.0.0.0 37 Time
1 listening 0.0.0.0 2087 0.0.0.0 16431
2 listening 0.0.0.0 2122 0.0.0.0 224
3 listening 0.0.0.0 2125 0.0.0.0 53293
4 listening 0.0.0.0 2137 0.0.0.0 4200
5 listening 127.0.0.1 1846 0.0.0.0 32819
6 connect 127.0.0.1 1846 127.0.0.1 1847
7 connect 127.0.0.1 1847 127.0.0.1 1846
8 listening 127.0.0.1 2088 0.0.0.0 28769
9 listening 192.168.1.101 137 0.0.0.0 53325 NETBIOS Name Service
10 listening 192.168.1.101 138 0.0.0.0 37076 NETBIOS Datagram Service
11 listening 192.168.1.101 139 0.0.0.0 16555 NETBIOS Session Service
12 connect 192.168.1.101 2087 216.239.33.104 80
13 time wait 192.168.1.101 2115 66.102.15.100 80
14 connect 192.168.1.101 2122 64.41.146.214 80
15 time wait 192.168.1.101 2124 128.194.106.6 80
16 connect 192.168.1.101 2125 64.41.146.214 80
17 connect 192.168.1.101 2137 192.149.252.43 43 Who Is
18 2.0.0.0 52300 0.0.0.0

UDP Table
0 127.0.0.1 2088
1 192.168.1.101 137 NETBIOS Name Service
2 192.168.1.101 138 NETBIOS Datagram Service
3 88.28.77.95 15485

What nettrace taught me:

TCP Table
0 listening 0.0.0.0 1847 0.0.0.0 37 Time
1 listening 0.0.0.0 2087 0.0.0.0 16431
2 listening 127.0.0.1 1846 0.0.0.0 32819
3 connect 127.0.0.1 1846 127.0.0.1 1847
4 connect 127.0.0.1 1847 127.0.0.1 1846
5 listening 192.168.1.101 137 0.0.0.0 53325 NETBIOS Name Service
6 listening 192.168.1.101 138 0.0.0.0 37076 NETBIOS Datagram Service
7 listening 192.168.1.101 139 0.0.0.0 16555 NETBIOS Session Service
8 connect 192.168.1.101 2087 216.239.33.104 80
9 0.0.0.0 512 144.73.120.0 24585 Notifies users of new mail

UDP Table
0 192.168.1.101 137 NETBIOS Name Service
1 192.168.1.101 138 NETBIOS Datagram Service
2 0.0.0.0 0

I found here a list of what happens on what port. File this for later thought.

I had _no_ luck finding the software I had used to trace traffic a awhile back. Darn.

The boss suggested that the reason my network is acting hinky is that several boxes are contending for LAN manager. Ordinarily a low-overhead process, he suggests something may have gone haywire and is polling for LAN manager very frequently.

He also susggested I check for UDP package (broadcast, vs TCP/IP direct) traffic.

[Turns out this is unlikely, as the contention for network managaer is a NetBEUI thing, and we are straight TCP/IP. Nice try, boss.
Also, the IT guy here (who seems competant enough) tells me I am gonna really regret attempting to make a server to solve this problem. I fear he is correct. 9-3-2003]

I found this (editing for typos only from a post by Quinton Delpeche (quintond_at_knowledgefactory.co.za) ) while Googling. Must try this with the Knoppix version, which I still like better than SuSE LINUX:


1). In KDE Control Center, select 'Lan Browsing' under the 'Network' option. Click the 'Guided LISa Setup...' button and follow the instructions. This will configure the LISa Daemon for your local network settings. At the end you will be prompted for your root password if you are not already root.


2). In YAST2 Control Center, select 'Run Level Editor' under the 'System' option. Select the 'Runlevel Properties' button and ensure that the lisa service is running and that it starts up at the required runlevels (mine is set to start up on runlevels 2, 3, 5, although I only really have to use it on runlevel 5).


Now when you use Konqueror, you should be able to browse the network like normal.


To set your default Username, Password, and Domain select the 'Windows Shares' option under the 'Network' section in KDE Control Center, and fill in the required fields.

This morning I did a little Googling and found here a little solution, maybe. I can't try this until I get home, anyway.

startx no longer works as a user under XFree86 4.0

Support knowledgebase (switchxf86)
Applies to SuSE Linux: Version 7.0
This article refers to an older version of SuSE Linux. Therefore some of the informations given in this article may be outdated or the article may contain stale links.

XFree86: Version 4.0



Symptom:
Previously you used to employ XFree86 3.3.6 on your system. Now you would like to try version 4.0, which is included in SuSE Linux 7.0. However, when you enter the command startx, the following message appears and the X server does not start:

Fatal server error:
xf86OpenConsole: Server must be running with root permissions
You should be using Xwrapper to start the server or xdm.
We strongly advise against making the server SUID root!

When reporting a problem related to a server crash, please send
the full server output, not just the last messages

X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).

Cause:
When shifting from XFree86 3.3.6 to 4.0, a few files need to be initialized.

Solution:
The simplest way to do this is to use SaX2 with the parameter -f:

sax2 -f

However, if everything had already been configured with SaX2, just enter the command

switch2xf86-4

with the root identity. If you want to continue using XFree86 3.3.6, there is a similar command:

switch2xf86-3x


I just can't wait to try it out.

Not that I think it will make the slightest difference. It might be cheaper to get the wife her own DSL line.

More in the continuing LINUX server saga. The previous incarnation was so unsatisfactory I felt the need to re-install. I have a copy of SuSe LINUX 7.0 (I know, I know, it's old) so I installed that, this time with four network cards. Took forever compared with Knoppix, and didn't boot to KDE. In fact, KDE is unreachable from the first install screen. Xwindows likewise, unless you know how to create a link between /bin/X11R6/x and /usr/X11R6_xxxx (I left out a few directories)...and the man page for "link" is helpful, but the default is a bash shell, which doesn't recognize "link" as a command...if it is one.

Call me crazy, but trying to get rookies to choose LINUX as a replacement OS in this version is nuts. There is not a shred of documentation for command-line fixing of this problem in the SuSE manuals that came with.

I know, I know, 7.0 is old. Doesn't matter; the criticism is still valid. And I am no closer to resolving my problem than I was yesterday. Perhaps I will look this up tomorrow and work on it some more; perhaps I will re-install Knoppix, which is at least fast and boots to KDE by default, which makes me less uncomfortable, somehow. It is time I consulted with *reverent, hushed whisper* the net geeks I know, and others I don't.

We shall see.