Access an FTP server to upload a file. This is a daily job that was setup as follows:

#!/bin/sh

uname= h39dj31

passwd= jd83812

ip=172.16.247.36

# Opens ftp with auto-login turned off, and take input from the program until it sees EOF.

ftp -n << EOF

# Connects to IP address specified.

open $ip

# Turns passive mode off.

passive off

# Sends the user name and password in plain text!

user $uname $passwd

# ls’ a directory (you should be logged in by now.)

ls

# cd’s to specified directory.

cd daily-reports

# Uploads daily report.

send daily-report.csv

# Terminates ftp script/session.

EOF

Here’s the same script but using expect instead:

#!/bin/sh

uname= h39dj31

passwd= jd83812

ip=172.16.247.36

# Launches expect.

expect << EOF

# Starts ftp.

spawn ftp

# Connects to ftp server.

send “open $ip\r”

# Tells the program what to expect.”

expect :

# Sends the username.

send $uname\r

expect Password:

# Sends the password.

send $passwd\r

expect ftp>

# Sends a command.

send ls\r

expect ftp>

send “cd daily-reports\r”

expect ftp>

# Uploads daily report.

send daily-report.csv

send EOF\r

Here’s another example using expect, this is to connect to all cisco devices and get some info:

#!/bin/sh

uname= h39dj31

passwd= jd83812

ip=172.16.124.37

expect << EOF

spawn telnet $ip

expect Username:

send $uname\r

expect Password:

send $passwd\r

expect #

send “show version\r”

expect #

send quit\r

Some notes:

-          You need to add the return character “\r” at the end of each command you send in expect.

-          You only need to use double quotes “” in expect when you have a space in what’s send. For example, if you send ls you don’t need double quotes, but if you send “rm filename” then that will need to have double quotes.

Good luck!

Almost at the same time, GhettoBSD.org has completed 1 year of uptime. That might not sound like a big deal to most people, but it is for me. I knew it was possible, but when you’ve dealt with junk only, it was almost impossible. As stated in the about section, the junk that BSD ran on wasn’t too unreliable, but whether something went bad or the power went out or even the machines over heated, I never reached one year of uptime. I would be up against my friends on Win98 machines who would also run into the same problems. For the most part, the Win machine won! It was a Win98 SE that wasn’t used for anything, just left idle while my BSD’s would keep on chugging along with many websites, services and a few users.

But now with backup power, very nice low power consuming hardware and a little TLC I’ve easily reached 1 year. What’s next? 2 years – as long as the hardware holds up!

The one thing I try to tell everyone about, is the ports collection. It is simply one of the most useful things that can come on a system `by default.` (It can be installed or not at first install or later on). Many people don’t know about it, and more importantly, many in the linux world. The ports collection is a system of categorized directories that contain a lot of commonly used programs. For example, in /usr/ports/irc you can find many IRC and IRC related programs such as Irssi and BitchX. To install, you just cd /usr/ports/irc/irssi and make install clean. When that’s done, you should be able to rehash and fire up Irssi just like that.

I’ve tried many different systems over the years and have to say that for me, nothing compares to the BSDs. My favorite linux distribution is Suse, though I have tried RedHat in different times, as well as slackware, debian, mandrake and even ubuntu once, just to name a few. They’ve made real advances with their .deb and .rpm’s, but nothing compares to the ports collection. It’s also worth mentioning that the ports collection is not the only way to install programs (they’re compiled from source), you can also use pkg_add which downloads and runs pre-compiled binaries. Thus avoiding having to compile programs on your local machine.

Interestingly enough, PC-BSD is coming out with a system to rival the .exe’s of the Windows world. They’re pre-packaged ports in binaries that install on your system. What makes their way of going about it great is they use a sort of market to deploy them in. Need a graphical editor? Go to their graphics section. Word processing or editing? Head on over to that area. This is a major stride in useability because many people are scared of console (my primary way of working on BSDs). So maybe someday, that could be the default in the BSD OS’.

In the end, whatever works best for you and your situation is the best solution for you. From the beginning, FreeBSD just worked for me (no kernel panics like with RedHat lol). And throughout the years its proven to be just as reliable as they claim, Rock Solid. So head on over to FreeBSD or OpenBSD and give it a try. And with NetBSD, you just never know what you could end up putting it or FINDING it running on.

1) Establishing the tunnel to the outside in a terminal.

You want to use the following to connect to your filter free server:

• ssh -D local-port usernam@ip-or-domain-name -p 00000

The -D is used to specify a dynamic application-level port forwarding. This is the port on your local BSD machine that will be used for passing information through to and from the tunnel.

username@bsd-machine is self explanatory

-p 00000 is a non-default ssh port on the target BSD system. Why would this not be port 22? If you want to make it a little harder for people who don’t know what they’re doing.

So, a working example of this might look like: ssh -D 5923 wizard@pcbsd.org -p 2222

Once you have your tunnel set up, you’re ready to configure firefox!

2) Configure Firefox to use the proxy.

In my current version of Firefox, I go to: Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> network -> “Configure how Firefox connects to the Internet” Settings

Now in Connection Settings, you want to select “Manual proxy configuration:”

Go down to SOCKS Host: and enter 127.0.0.1, and for port enter the local -D port you chose earlier, 5923 in  our example. It should look like this: SOCKS Host: 127.0.0.1 Port: 5923

Hit OK, then Close and test it out! You can go to: www.whatsmyip.org to see what IP address you are using! If you set it up properly, you should see your remote BSDs IP.

3) Additional options.

Usually, that’s where most others will end.

Here are some other things you can do with your tunnel and Firefox.

In your tunnel, you can add these flags

• -f Requests ssh to go to background just before command execution.
• -N Do not execute a remote command.

So now your command could look like: ssh -f -N -D 5923 wizard@pcbsd.org -p 2222

This is good if you just want to establish the tunnel and forget about it. Without -f & -N, you can actively use the remote BSD machine while establishing a tunnel at the same time. So why not just use one or the other? Well, for example, maybe I have my ‘remote user’ for remote shell login, and I also have a ‘tunnel user’ just for establishing tunnels. This could be for ‘security’ reasons.

If you’re like me, you might need access to local resources. So, say for example, I want to connect to pcbsd.org without having to click “are you sure you want to proceed to this website.” I establish the tunnel and configure Firefox. Later on I want to connect to 192.168.1.35. I will be able to pull up pcbsd.org, but not 192.168.1.35 because that is on a local network, and my home connection isn’t routed back to my local network.

To fix this, go back to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> network -> “Configure how Firefox connects to the Internet” Settings. Towards the bottom there is a field named: “No proxy for:” and it will always have the default populated: “localhost, 127.0.0.1.” So, whatever local address you need, such as 192.168.1.35, you add it there. It should look like this: “localhost, 127.0.0.1, 192.168.1.35″ Now, click ok, close and test it out!

You can specify specific IPs or blocks/ranges of IPs in that field should you need access to MANY IPs (as I do).

Have fun!

I just recently found out they have a contest to design watches that they *could* make if they get good approval ratings. If they do, then they will be moved to technical assessment to see if and how they could be made.

If my design gets there, then it’s possible that it’s made. If it goes into production then Tokyoflash will offer $20,000 for my design, or royalties on a per-sale basis. Either way it’s pretty cool!

If you can, please check out the watch and vote yes if you like it!

Go here to vote: http://www.tokyoflash.com/blog/2010/10/cross-time-watch-concept/

Click on “Yes” (green button) under “Would you buy this product?”

Some of these discs are old and the drives are unable to read the files (yes, I’ve been buying music for a while now) So in windows when it was trying to copy a file over it would open a window and ask what to do. This is not good as it kept interrupting my other work. So I go to BSD to solve my problem.

1) I had to make sure that I can see what’s going on. So the copying had to be verbose.

2) I didn’t want to have to do a whole lot. The least amount of interaction possible is desired.

So I ended up making a script that:

• Closes the drive tray
• Mounts the cd drive
• Copies all the desired files to a specified directory
• Umounts the cd drive
• Ejects the drive tray

I’ll put the code and script on the forum for review & download.

So far I’m 1/2 way done and haven’t had a problem.

Sometimes BSD is just that great!

As to the reason I want them on my server… I am learning to program Android applications so I can stream my music to my phone via inet (since it’s a 4G Evo). It’ll take a while, but as always, I am sure I can do it.

In taking care of someone who has Alzheimer’s, I’ve discovered something a few years back that is VERY useful. Here’s some background first.

Those who take care of people with Alzheimer’s, more specifically those who have them in their homes (like family members) know that the night time can be VERY difficult. It’s not unusual to say my loved one walks like a ghost in the night only to frighten anyone who sees them because they creep so quietly that you have no idea they’re there until they’re on top of you!

Leaving a light on can be a problem because it can keep other family members up. Leaving no lights on can be dangerous as the person with Alzheimer’s could wake up and walk around (as they all do) and fall and hurt themselves. Many will just put a night light in the socket and hope for the best. Those lights generally don’t provide enough light to get around safely (especially if the person has cataracts). So I looked for a better solution. You could always put a stronger bulb in the night light… But that bothers those who are sleeping (and caring/watching the person at night).

I came across a motion sensor for about $20 at Harbor Freight & Tools one day. I didn’t expect it to work well for the price, but it did surprisingly well! I plugged the stronger bulbed night light into the motion sensor and Voilà! Now there is enough light to safely see a ghost walking around in the middle of the night AND it’ll only turn on when it detects motion. But as you can imagine, this can still bother others sleeping in the same room with the constant on and off. So I had to come up with another device…

A few years ago I bought some lamps that had a translucent blue glass shade with an additional transparent glass shade outside of that. It’s a modern looking lamp, and the shades look like a cylinder in another cylinder. So when you turned the lamp on, it looked awesome! So awesome, that the light blinded you because the blue glass wasn’t thick/dense/dark enough to diffuse the light enough to not hurt your eyes. So I ended up modifying it. I cut some aluminum foil to the exact size of the inside cylinder and wrapped it around about 1/4 – 1/3 of the way around. This in effect blocked the light from coming at you directly and actually made the lamp look better as the lamp really lit up blue instead of blinding sky blue. This also helped with more directional light as the foil served as a reflector. (A friend even told me I should try to sell the design hah!).

So using that experience/knowledge, I bought some Japanese style paper lamps (the round ones). I hung the blue paper lamp (can you spot the trend?) just off from the corner of the bedroom. I cut some aluminum foil to size of the supporting metal bracket (a little frame that props the paper lamp “open”) and wrapped that around the bulb about 80%-90% so that only a little light comes out the back. I purchased a very low watt soft florescent bulb (like 8 or 10 watts) and threw that in there.

The motion sensor I mounted in the very top corner of the bedroom and angled it downward. It helps that the person with Alzheimer’s bed is in direct line of sight (this is useful). So whenever they move *in* bed, the light goes on. Just seeing the light is on puts them at ease and actually prevents them from getting out of bed to “see where they are.” Obviously, when they DO get out of bed (naughty!) they’re safe as they can see well enough to make out where to walk and what to avoid.

The best benefit of this set up, is because of the way the sensor is mounted and the lamp is hung, the person who sleeps in the same room and takes care of them can’t trigger the motion sensor because the lamp is blocking them from it. So they can move about (even use their laptop when they should be sleeping! Naughty!) and not worry about turning the light on and waking up the sleeping person.

You would think such a thing would be the first thing that comes to mind when dealing with a person who has Alzheimer’s, but it’s not. Alzheimer’s is something that can happen so quickly to some, that you really never have time realize/learn how to manage it until it’s too late. You would also think that it’d be easy to find some sort of device that works just like this but isn’t such a hassle. There isn’t.

While searching for night lights that have motion detectors, day light sensor, battery back up and other random features I noticed that nothing like that exists. So for those of you who are hardware hackers, theres a freebie for you. Contact me if you want the designs!

Hopefully, someone somewhere will be able to use my ideas here and help make their life easier and safer for both them and their loved ones.

Leonardo da Vinci is usually credited as a painter, sculptor, architect, polymath, and inventor. Hacker is an appropriate designation to add to the list. The techniques he used were so far ahead of his time that we still marvel at his insight. For example, his art was shaped by his study of optics, perspective, anatomy, and even psychology. He solved problems by adding knowledge from unexpected places. One fine example of a Leonardo hack is his journals. Most of them are written in mirror image cursive. This has often been credited as a type of “security by obscurity” since it would be difficult for a casual glance from an apprentice to reveal the master’s secrets. However, a hacker would look at this result and see a great example of mental and physical dexterity. Someone who is left-handed knows the problem of writing left-to-right. The result is generally smudged script and ink-stained hands. So why not change the rules and write right-to-left? The key to the solution is to ignore the rules.

For more visit this link: http://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc-speakerscorner.html#wiseman-street

After downloading these files

• Get the Android SDK: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
• Download Java 6 SDK: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
• Get Eclipse IDE for Java: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

do this:

1) Install Java JDK. I have the following file: jdk-6u20-windows-i586.exe

2) Unzip the Android SDK. I have the following archive: android-sdk_r06-windows.

Go into the newly created file and run: SDK Setup.exe

If you see an error message like: “Failed to fetch URL https://dl-”… It’s ok, don’t worry. Hit the close button. Another window pops open: “Choose Packages to Install.” Cancel that one as well.

In the main window “Android SDK and AVD Manager” go to Settings. Click under Misc: “Force https://”…

Go to “Available packages”

Click on Accept All then click Install.

It’ll now start downloading a lot of stuff! So wait a bit. When it’s done click on close.

3) Unzip the Eclipse archive. I have this file: eclipse-java-galileo-SR2-win32. Go into the directory and run eclipse.exe

Next, taken from: http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html

In Eclipse, open the help menu, then click on “Install New Software.”

Click “Add.”

For name enter Android plugin, and url enter: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

In the check box item that appears, click a check in it! Then hit next, then next again. Check “I accept the terms of the license agreements” and hit Finish. This might take a little while! During the process you might get a message asking if you want to continue with unsigned content. Click ok! Accept the certificates and continue. Just like that, you’re done. Allow the program to restart itself.

Go to Window -> Preferences.

Go to Android and browse to the location of the Android SDK step #2. Hit apply and then ok.

You should now be good to start a new android project!

Trying to find out how to start wasn’t as simple as I’d like. It seems like you have to go through the trenches and most don’t want to make it easy. So forget all that stuff, this is what you do:

• Get the Android SDK: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
• Download Java 6 SDK: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
• Get Eclipse IDE for Java: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

Unzip both Android and Eclipse. Install Java 6. Then let Java update itself.

Fire up the Android SDK, fire up Eclipse.

Check out this site for how to get started:

• http://www.vogella.de/articles/Eclipse/article.html
• http://www.vogella.de/articles/Android/article.html

Those might not be as easy as I’d like, but it’s better than I’m prepared to offer myself (for now).

A word of caution, it may seem that part of the reason there isn’t such a direct way of explaining how to go about getting, installing, creating everything android is because it’s really not for just anyone. Not in the same way it was with html.

Some might have the assumption that you can just buy a book and get going. Most who have tried and are seasoned in different languages have said they’ve had problems when their backgrounds wasn’t in Java. As for me? I have been working with ActionScript for many years which is a comparable OOP. As a matter of fact, taking a quick look on the web showed that they go hand in had as far as languages go. Even so far as to be able to write in Java and have an interpreter compile flash files! Now that’s pretty bad ass.

So we’ll see where I end up. Having read the reviews on amazon about android books hasn’t been helpful. Most say the books weren’t good, but also that they didn’t have Java experience. Others who are Java geeks say they were good books, it’s just that they needed introductory Java first, THEN beginning android. Well, as has been with other languages/systems/problems, no better way than to jump in and see if I can indeed swim!

My goal: make a program that’ll just turn the light on and off. So far I’ve learned to add color, text, buttons and fields. Now where do I put the graphics?

Still working on ironing out themes for the forum and blog.

Also the new home page is up at www.ghettobsd.org

Update: Looks like I might have damaged the forum. Will have to reinstall db to correct problem. That means I might lose all posts thus far. Trying to avoid it. I messed up and I don’t even know where!

There seems to be a bug where when you type, for example: “I’m” it posts “I/’m” No idea why. If you know, shoot me a line. Fixed!

But now, when you use the <code> tags, it gets nutty sometimes with random characters. So I guess <blockquote> will have to do!

Give up!