As of 2016-02-26, there will be no more posts for this blog. s/blog/pba/
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts

I just realized I hadn't had iptables for real for four days and four hours. It happened after I updated iptables to the newest stable version 1.4.16.3 on Gentoo, officially released on 10/18/2012):
$ sudo genlop -lu | grep iptables | tail -3
     Tue May  8 08:51:55 2012 >>> net-firewall/iptables-1.4.13
     Mon Nov 26 01:46:33 2012 <<< net-firewall/iptables-1.4.13
     Mon Nov 26 01:46:39 2012 >>> net-firewall/iptables-1.4.16.3
Yesterday, I noticed there was an error or warning during booting, but I just assumed that's some net device was about to be brought up, didn't read the exact message. Today, I read it:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/iptables start
 * Loading iptables state and starting firewall ...
WARNING: The state match is obsolete. Use conntrack instead.
iptables-restore v1.4.16.3: state: option "--state" must be specified

Error occurred at line: 26
Try `iptables-restore -h' or 'iptables-restore --help' for more information.                                    [ !! ]
 * ERROR: iptables failed to start
Four days, four boots, should've paid more attention.

The problem line was like:
[52:3148] -A INPUT -s ###.###.###.### -p tcp -m state -m tcp --dport ### -j ACCEPT
After I remove six lines with -m state, the rules /var/lib/iptables/rules-save were loaded successfully. Don't know why I had those and didn't use to match state actually.

If you used state match, then you need to change it to be
-m conntrack --ctstate [STATELIST]
with kernel configuration NETFILTER_XT_MATCH_CONNTRACK. See man 8 iptables-extensions.

SOPA is serious problem, please allow me stating that first before you are trying to scold me for taking this so silly in the post title.

You should've read one thing or two about SOPA already. But from what I have experienced, many people still do and not even heard of "SOPA" and they are US citizens.

I have heard of it a while back, but only really paid attention little before the boycott of GoDaddy, a nice episode. They stood by SOPA at first, then softened but calling customers. Finally, they changed side.

Microsoft and Apple are another episode. They were considered as supporter since they are behind BSA. But recently, they claimed against SOPA.

Sony, another one episode. They changed side, too, but it's after Anonymous threatened to take them down alongside other singers, such as Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, and Taylor Swift. I am not sure what they would be going to do with them.

I don't agree such action (threat, illegal action). It's using wrongdoing for wrongdoing, no matter how you justify your threat, it is wrong after all.

The same goes to SOPA. I can understand those big companies (music and film industry, even tech companies) want to protect the profit which should go into their pocket, but the reality is the money is lost to piracy. Whoever thinks they should not make not much money is wrong or they make enough money, therefore SOPA is bad is terribly wrong. How so? because their products are not necessity to your life, no one points a gun at your head to force you buying.

Free market is free (as in some sense), any company has right to name their product's price. You don't like, then you don't buy.

I would not say SOPA is entirely bad, but the bill can not justify its goal. It overdoes, too powerful. It will be abused eventually as people have foreseen it and I believe it will certainly happen.

Whoever started the bill either has own agenda or clearly does not understand the nature of piracy on the Internet and the Internet. Yes, you block one pirate website, that's just one of a million of websites, which owned by one pirate of one million pirates.

It's as if telling (blocking) your citizen not going to a marker on a sea map, but there are like 100 marks around that one. And the pirate will set up another two new markers! SOPA does nothing about piracy.

You gotta catch the pirate!

Since GoDaddy boycott, many companies have changed sides. It sounds great as if we have achieved something, but the truth is it's just what they are saying.

Moreover, I feel who swings is who you can not trust. They react to what people like not what they believe and that kind of people is dangerous.

People tend to forget. Watch them as hawk if you can.

I am interested in seeing famous singers and actors coming out against SOPA. Unfortunately, I haven't read any on Entertainment section. Come on, you guys, it's great to build up your public image. TMZ, send agents for their comments!

I also wonder why YouTube hasn't posted or changed its website. Maybe it has strong tie with music brands? Well, just speculation, don't quote me. I do use the question mark.

Now, 18th, January is the blackout day, let have some to checkout. As you can see, I put a script on. It looks like



The script was written by me, it seems to have slight issue, it only blacks out the first viewport, you can scroll down to see the rest of page. It should be open source, so it can get fixed quick.

The WordPress hosting:



Straight to the point! You can also see a WordPress plugin and this super fancy stop-sopa:


Well, I think that's overdo. But that's the creativity.

After fancy one, the Google's pathetic, barely noticeable link:


Where is dat creativity, Google? You can do better than that.

And the Wikipedia's:


It's the best one I have seen so far. News is all over about Wikipedia blackout, probably lots of people use it. By the way, don't forget to check out Twitter's Dick Costolo's comment on Wikipedia's blackout decision, that's another episode.

Reddit:



Nice countdown. It seems to really blackout, not using script to overlap.

Flickr, lol:


I don't quite get the point to darken photo as in per photo basis. You might as well as just put a Google-link-like to save the manpower for coding this.

FSF.org:
01000100010010010100011101001001010101000100000101001100
Not a screenshot but the page title. Gotta be nerd as in DIGITAL domain!

Craigslist:


It has Craigslist's spirit, don't you think? I love that PS.

Well, that's pretty much all I have seen on the Internet. Will this blackout day works? Could the bill be stopped? I am not sure, but one thing I am 100% certain:

No matter what will happen on January 24 and in February, the piracy will still be around.

I am using Ubuntu 9.10 right now, next to my laptop. The installation was easy, it only took up to 20 minutes to do first boot. But after that, I hit two problem.

First one, once again, NetworkManager, a bug. So I used pppoeconf to do the job. Commandline tool is more reliable. Second, my video driver, nVIdia 96 series. I guess this video card is really too old, GeForce4 MX. I had to manually setup a modeline, or my X would be stuck in 640480 (Correct one is 16801050), even worse than open source driver. These two are the problem I had had so far.

I actually had tried to resolve this resolution problem, but last time with 9.10 RC release. I enabled the restricted driver and ran nvidia-xconfig. I got Out-of-range message from my LCD monitor, I stuck. I think I was even trying to switch vc1, though I had no idea if there are virtual consoles available. I just quited. This time, I tried to get into runlevel 3. Well, I ended up with uninstalling gdm, no kidding! I tried to disable gdm from bringing up at booting with update-rc. However, it just didn't want to leave me, how sweet? (If you know how to correctly temporarily disable gdm or how to boot into so-called runlevel 3, please enlighten me!)

Anyway, un-installation did the trick. I fixed the resolution problem in console, then got into X and re-installed the gdm. The Visual Effect also works after I fixed the resolution.

I think I am going to use this new install for some of my daily routine until I get sick of it. I would be using it in a different way, I won't touch Terminal as much as I can, unfortunately, I already did. Work-out-of-box with GUI? In your dream only if you are lucky.

I have to give Ubuntu's graphical design a thumb up, the icons in notification area are simply elegant, same color scheme. And the notifying popup is already a well-known feature (I think it's been out for a least a year).

indicator

Its indicator-applet (the one with mail envelope icon) and indicator-session-applet (the one with your username on it) are quite interest, it can merge with some other program, e.g. Empathy. When I close Empathy, I tried to search for a new icon in notification area, but I couldn't find one. I thought I might accidentally end it because I wasn't familiar with it. But it actually is in the two applets. You can bring it back from indicator-applet and change your status to away from indicator-session-applet. That makes perfect sense, just need to get used to this new way.

empathy-in-applet

The login screen of gdm is definitely beautiful. But the entire Ubuntu scheme seems to be slightly dark. Wine rosy color. I wish it could be more cheerful. The sound effects are great, too. The logging sound and the popup/warning sounds are cute in my opinion.

Currently, it runs well. The memory usage is quite low, less than 200MB when I just boot it up and the boot time is about 45 seconds to the desktop without counting password typing time. I am satisfied with the performance and the result of install. You would be more happier with Ubuntu 9.10 if you have the better hardwares than I have.

I'd like a shoot, instead. Somehow the Internet are completely stalled for connections of outside of my country, unfortunately, I don't visit websites nearby me much. They are still accessible, but only at speed like few KB/s.

Under this situation, people can be categorized into two types. First one is good, they will convert the whole thing into a positive pulse. They may be finishing reading a book, doing house cleaning, or playing with their lovely cats I have an excuse, my cat is sleeping. They choose to look thing upside down, when time goes bad. They are optimist. Second type is bad, they blame. Of course, they do not cause the situation, but they turn it into a victim. So they can hopefully cover their worse personality.

I am the latter type. I have few new books on shelf, my room is just !@#$%, some coding improvements can be done, and many other things that I don't even need the Internet. But I just sit still and stare at the screen. If idling counts, hey, I have been doing so well!

I miss kitten cams, now they are just kitten snapshots.