Syn rants here. ARGGGHHH!

25Feb/111

Nothing to see here.

move along.

Filed under: quip 1 Comment
16Oct/102

Good bye Comcast. Hello EPB.

I've used Comcast as my ISP ever since they started providing Internet access in my area. We've been through some rough times together, but nothing in comparison to the nightmare that was BellSouth DSL. Recently EPB started offering fiber access. Hesitant to switch as I've grown rather fond of my IP address, I waited as long as I could before jumping ship to swim to the new ISP.

Filed under: quip Continue reading
4Oct/100

DDWRT vs. TOMATO

Having used a WRT54GS (v1.1) since my old BEFSR41 died, I've been around the block when it comes to firmware for this little powerhouse. First, an example of my home network.

28Sep/103

wpadminbar vs godsyn.com

I play around with wordpress nightlies because I like living on the edge, breaking my own site, and fixing buggy code. Recently, in the latest nightly release wordpress decided I need an administration bar along the top of my pages. This only displays when logged in, but destroyed my theme. I do not know the official name of this bar, but it has an ID of "wpadminbar". After seeking plug-ins and settings to no avail and being let down by google, I turned to grep. The resolution is simple. To remove the bar, open wp-settings.php and comment out the following line:

require( ABSPATH . WPINC . '/admin-bar.php' );

becomes

//require( ABSPATH . WPINC . '/admin-bar.php' );

Note: If you know of an official way to disable "wpadminbar" or make it more theme friendly, please share.

Filed under: quip, scripts 3 Comments
22Aug/100

WD20EARS 4096 HDD vs fdisk

Western Digital GreenHaving purchased a new WD20EARS 4096 (2 terabyte hard drive) I was anxious to put the new beast in my home server, format the drive, and get to moving files around.
so I sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc as I normally do..

Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
 
Disk /dev/sdc doesn't contain a valid partition table

I tore everything apart, ensured the bios would handle the drive, and exhausted seemingly every resource.. until I found that these drives no longer start at sector 63.. they start at sector 64.
http://wiki.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1456251 -- Thanks guys.

Breakdown:

syn@synserv:~$ sudo fdisk -u  /dev/sdc

Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x962f53fb.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.
 
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)
 
WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to
         switch off the mode (command 'c').
 
Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p

Partition number (1-4): 1

First sector (63-3907029167, default 63): 64
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (64-3907029167, default 3907029167):

Using default value 3907029167
 
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
 
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Then just mkfs.ext4 and mount.

Filed under: Technology No Comments
30Jul/100

Bash script to show WAN and LAN network IPs.

Following is a bash script I wrote to show my lan and wan IPs.
The script will loop every 10 seconds. Seeing as my ISP has a less than desirable up time, I use this to see when I'm finally reconnected.

#!/bin/bash
#  -/oss+:`  `-/o/.
#     `-omMmy+.  +Md/
#        -MMMMMNdhMMMyos+:
#   .:odmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMo
#   .yNMMMMMMMMNyNMMMMMNsoo-
#  odo::NMMMMMM/`s-MMMMMMmMMds/
# -.  `NMMMMMMMd+- -ooo/-..-oNM-   `++ /+`++  //
#     +MMMMMMMMMMMMmhyssss-  `-     .ddh. mdd/yy
#     sMm`oMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNmdy+`      -M.  m+`sMy
#     .M/  `+hNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMs`    `.`  .`  ..
#      /`     `.:+oo..-/yMMMMMMMN-
#        -+yo:`          +MMMMMMMN`
#     :yNMN+so  -so`     :hyMMMMMM/
#   /mMMMMMMMNhdMN`   ://+hMMMMMNN:
# `hMMMNdhyydMMMMMMdyssdMMMMMMMN`.
# hMmm-   /osMMMNosNMMMMMMMMdNM+
#`Ms`/  ..-smMNs.oNNho+/++:` sM/
# h/    `:++/- -my-           +s`
#  .          .s`
echo "Press ctrl-c to exit at any time."
while [ 1 ]; do
    WAN_ip_addr=`wget --timeout=10 --tries=2 -qO - http://cfaj.freeshell.org/ipaddr.cgi`
    LAN_ip_addr=`ifconfig | grep 'inet addr:'| grep -v '127.0.0.1' | cut -d: -f2 | awk '{ print $1}'`
    echo $(date)
    echo -ne "External IP: "
    if [ -z $WAN_ip_addr ]; then
        echo -e "Disconnected"
    else
        echo -e $WAN_ip_addr
    fi
    echo -ne "Internal IP: "
    if [ -z $LAN_ip_addr ]; then
        echo -e "Disconnected"
    else
        echo -e $LAN_ip_addr
    fi
    if [ -n "$WAN_ip_addr" ]; then
        echo "Found external IP"
        exit 0
    fi
done
exit 0
Filed under: scripts No Comments
14Jun/100

Escape plan

I have one more year before I have to run.

Filed under: quip No Comments
6Jun/100

Meh

Yep, no real complaints. The sun is evil.

Filed under: People No Comments
14Apr/100

US government finally admits most piracy estimates are bogus

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/us-government-finally-admits-most-piracy-estimates-are-bogus.ars
Well.. duh.

Filed under: People, quip No Comments
2Apr/100

PS3: Laws? pfft!

"It only does everything."
Not any more. In a rather bold move by Sony, they have removed the "Other OS" feature from their console with the latest update of their firmware.

I'm not happy about it, as it was a selling point in my purchase. Now a feature I bought has been removed, and I have to comply with the removal should I wish to play games. I'm not alone in the disgust.