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The problem, with facts

15-May-08

Well, things have finally calmed down regarding the OpenSSL problems. Not that it’s necessarily bad to see that many posts and news. One can actually think it’s a good thing problems are addressed and discussed, but I was starting to get tired of reading nothing more than a bunch of complaints.

News flash: Shit happens!

I actually had a big text about the package maintainer, the severity of the problem, etc, etc, etc written, but it’s better to just be quiet, since I can’t do it any better.

Exploitation

After reading so much about it, I was intrigued on how super-easy-because-of-the-32,767-possible-outcomes to crack attack would work, and hdm (from Metaploit) answered them on a great paper:

http://metasploit.com/users/hdm/tools/debian-openssl/

The keys were generated and made available:

http://sugar.metasploit.com/debian_ssh_dsa_1024_x86.tar.bz2
http://sugar.metasploit.com/debian_ssh_rsa_2048_x86.tar.bz2

And a script to use them has been published to Metasploit:

http://milw0rm.com/exploits/5622

After giving it a try on a unpatched virtual machine, I understood the real severity of the problem.

Filed in Debian, Planet, Security, Ubuntu | | Comments (2) »

Debian Day PT

12-May-08

My hat is off to the Portuguese Debian Community! Even though it’s still on it’s early stages I’m really happy to see a national Debian event take place. +

Let this be a lesson the the Portuguese Ubuntu community.

To all involved on the project, thank you and congratulations! I’m available to help in case it’s necessary.

Filed in Debian | | Comments (0) »

Choose how to read our Planets (Update 2)

09-May-08

Can you tell I’m bored and unemployed?!

Yesterday I blogged about the Jabber bot, which, by the way, has more available feeds, including Planet Gnome and Planet Debian (rss-list to get a complete list). Today I decided to keep playing with the Planets and decided to implement an idea Joey had for Planet Debian.

I installed and configured rss2email and set up two different mailing lists; one for Planet Ubuntu and another one for Planet Ubuntu Users.

Screenshot

You can subscribe using the web-based form at: rss2email.ubuntuweblogs.org

Even though messages can be in HTML format, I decided to go with plain text. I would really like to hear someone else’s opinion on which format to use.

If you have any recommendations, please, let me know. Comments are open again, but only if people start behaving. If you’re going to say something stupid please don’t write anything at all.

P.S.: Stephan Hermann, thanks buddy! ;)

Update: rss2email started to freak out, for some unkown reason. It appears to be a problem of feedparser, who unfortunately, has been dead for quite some time. I’ll contact the author to see if he can help me out.

Filed in Debian, Planet, Ubuntu | | Comments (13) »

debian-administration.org

27-Apr-08

There has been a discussion going on on Planet Ubuntu and that reminded me of a JavaScript made by Steve Kemp to hide certain posts from PlanetPlanet; he actually used it in Planet Debian and it certainly made my life easier (I’m a regular reader).

On the emails we exchanged, he reminded me of one of the best sites for any Debian user/administrator which I haven’t visited in a while.

After a quick look, I already found something to play with: OpenLDAP

OpenLDAP + Samba can be a great substitute for Active Directory Directory Service, supporting Remote Profiles.

Filed in Debian | | Comments (3) »

restore-backup

20-Apr-08

I’m always finding good uses for my ‘old’ laptop! I just wish I had more old computers laying around so I could come up with ideas on how to use them.

I’ve always wanted to have a good disaster recovery solution implemented at home, who would also take care of my Internet hosts. After several attempts of using custom scripts with rsync, I finally gave up and decided to go with a much easier solution.

Restore-Backup - The reason backup was invented

After some planning, I now have a effective solution. It backups the content of my NSLU2 (file server), all my Internet sites (from Dreamhost), the database for this blog, and our home computers (including Gi’s Vista machine).

Screenshot

restore-ee or restore-dc (enterprise and data-center) can be downloaded from their repositories or as a custom Xubuntu LiveCD with restore-backup pre-installed.

Filed in Software | | Comments (0) »

The lonely gay crusade w/ pics

10-Apr-08

I had reports of ‘weird’ (as in gay) content being displayed on this blog’s feed when using Google Reader.

No, I’m not posting it. It’s probably just a frustrated, lonely guy, who has a big collection of gay porn and doesn’t know what to do with it.

Whoever did it, congratulations. Hats off to you, lonely gay.

Warning, this is GAY content and NOT safe for work: Screenshot

Filed in Personal | | Comments (5) »

Be nice, asshole!

27-Mar-08

Like I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I started to get involved in GNU. One of the things I noticed (I won’t mention names or teams) is how people (the ones responsible) talk to the ones trying to get involved.

Remember something:

- No one is obligated to do anything for any free software project! However, people work on these projects because they want to. They want to contribute because they believe they can be helpful.

- The project needs everyone’s help! It doesn’t matter if it’s something as ’simple’ as translations. It’s important to the project. If you don’t want it, don’t ask for it!

- You will push them away! No one wants to send an application for a position (say translator) and receive something along the lines of: You think you know, but you don’t know shit!

- You’re not GOD! Dude, you’re not even close! Do you have a high position on a project. Well, that’s great. I’m sure you worked hard to be put in charge, but remember one thing, you don’t have to be an asshole. Actually, you have to give an example! And telling someone to ‘fuck off’ is not a good example.

You will win allot more by being nice. If you don’t think your a people person, go to some basement1 and do some code. But having these types of people being the first line of communication for something as important as GNU, is NOT, in my opinion, a good idea!

There are exceptions. I say this to prevent someone mentioning it on the comments. I know patience has it’s limits, and I’ve been tested lately for a submission to UbuntuWeblogs.org. You don’t have to be a saint, hell, I even told the guy to stop emailing me otherwise I would block his email, but try and be helpful.

The world is full of pricks already, let’s try and keep the free software community assholes-free and an example of how geeks are nice (good luck with that)

  1. don’t read basement as offensive [↩]
Filed in GNU, GNU/Linux | | Comments (1) »

linux-cell on Ubuntu mailing list

25-Mar-08

After a long month of waiting, we finally have the mailing list. It will be used mainly for the PS3 Port of Ubuntu, however, any other topic related to linux-cell is welcome.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-cell

Filed in Ubuntu | | Comments (3) »

GNU category

15-Mar-08

From now on, this weblog will have a GNU category. I’ll be writing mostly about my contributions to the GNU project. I plan on documenting the process of getting involved/active on the GNU community, which, in my opinion, can be difficult for new-comers (it has been, for me).

I expect to write mostly about translations and how to work on the project. The website is very informative, but sometimes, you have to follow some links to actually get where you want to go.

From where to start, to what it needs to be done. My personal opinion about GNU.

Getting involved in GNU and FSF was something that I wanted to do for a long time. Becoming an Associate Member of FSF was the easy part, now let the hard work begin!

Filed in GNU | | Comments (0) »

Amazon is having a busy week

23-Feb-08

Another two great findings that were delivered yesterday:

/me has allot of reading to do for the next months

Filed in Personal | | Comments (3) »