Roundtable

roundtable@muug.ca

2555 discussions

Attempted murder of sysadmin
by Hartmut W Sager 10 Jul '17

10 Jul '17

Adam wrote: > (Oh, and it's not just sysadmins. Remember "visual programming"? Each time > it gets reinvented, it's going to let business users do their own programming > and get rid of all those overpaid programmers. Yeah, right. I still see lots > of programmers. Just, hardly any of them write in assembler or COBOL anymore. > Although 4GLs haven't exactly taken over the world...) > Trevor wrote: > Nice reply, Adam, guess the rest of MUUG is off to the cottage, or not > an admin, or too busy shaking in their boots to reply :-) As we both > said, no reason for anyone to get scared about any of this stuff as > long as your skillset is deep and wide. No cottage for me. I'm still here and enjoying this whole thread, which strikes a real chord with me. I've made many similar observations in my IT life. Even as far back as circa 1988-1990, I remember an IT journal article entitled "The End of Programmers (Again)". Non-programmers generally don't even understand or appreciate the concepts of algorithms and processes, and seem to think that a simple script without conditional logic/branching can do everything. Hartmut W Sager - Tel +1-204-339-8331

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No Starch books on sale today
by Adam Thompson 09 Jul '17

09 Jul '17

FYI. Peter N. M. Hansteen (@pitrh) tweeted at 11:35 AM on Sun, Jul 09, 2017: For #DayAgainstDRM, all @nostarch ebooks are now 50% off at https://t.co/95Xm5QtBDv! https://t.co/PzC3V2TvB8 (https://twitter.com/pitrh/status/884088701969715200?s=09) -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

1 0

Linux "write"
by Trevor Cordes 07 Jul '17

07 Jul '17

Can someone else confirm this bug on another Linux system, preferably a modern one that uses systemd? In X, as non-root: open a term (call it term1) open another term (term2) type "tty" in term2, not your tty number/string in term1: type "write <your-login> <tty-string-from-above>" replace your-login with the output of "who" if you don't know who you are logged in as please try both /dev/pts/42 and pts/42 format for the tty part of write example: write trevor pts/42 When I run this I get: write: trevor is not logged in on pts/42 Even though I clearly am. This used to work perfectly up until last year (I think), and I think systemd changed something (big surprise). No chatter about this anywhere that I can see. Probably the last person on earth to use write (at least on F24). I found some other things to test that indicate that something is really amiss: >write trevor write: trevor has messages disabled >mesg is y >mesg y mesg is y >write trevor write: trevor has messages disabled >ll /dev/pts/42 crw--w---- 1 trevor tty 136, 42 Jun 28 02:48 /dev/pts/42 If someone else can confirm this bug on a non-Fedora (or a newer one) that would be great. If someone can also confirm that the above behaviour is insane, that too would be great. If anyone has some ideas on what to try next, shoot away! Then I'll file a bz. Thanks!

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Re: [RndTbl] Linux "write" (testing Konsole)
by Bradford C. Vokey 04 Jul '17

04 Jul '17

Output from term1 (pts/3) using Konsole (Version 16.12.3) on fsi-linux2 (4.10.17-100.fc24.x86_64)... > write brad /dev/pts/4 > write: you have write permission turned off > mesg y > write brad /dev/pts/4 Works. Message is sent to term2 (pts/4). "write brad pts/4" also works. Who also shows all terminal windows open: > who > brad tty1 Jun 7 11:40 > brad pts/0 Jun 7 11:41 (:0) > brad pts/1 Jun 9 13:59 (:0) > brad pts/2 Jun 9 14:09 (:0) > brad pts/3 Jul 4 11:52 (:0) > brad pts/4 Jul 4 11:53 (:0) > brad pts/5 Jul 4 11:58 (:0) --- As for your other req's for a new terminal program: > /Absolute requirements: //////must be able to CTL-click (or > something-click) urls to open them in a browser; / Yes. CTL-click works (and dynamically underlines the link before clicking). > /must have either sane or user-configurable double-click-select > characters; / Yes: > /configurable long scrollback buffer. / Yes: > /Gravy g-t has I can live without if I must: rewraps long lines when > window is resized. / Yes, confirmed. > /Probably more things I can't immediately think of but use every day :-)/ KDE for the win? === Bradford C. Vokey Treasurer Manitoba UNIX User Group === On 2017-07-04 2:17 AM, Trevor Cordes wrote: > Can you test konsole on your system as per my muug emails re: write and > wall? See if it has the same bug? > > Can you also check if it can do my 3 req's? > > Thanks! >

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Fwd: O'Reilly online shop no longer selling individual books and videos
by Hartmut W Sager 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

Huh??? I am stunned! And, it's "as of today". No prior notice? What happened there so suddenly? I am also somewhat confused by the alternative ways of buying O'Reilly books. I don't know what this Safari thing is all about for buying books - I thought Safari is an alternate browser. Hartmut W Sager - Tel +1-204-339-8331 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: O'Reilly Media <oreilly(a)post.oreilly.com> Date: 28 June 2017 at 17:57 Subject: Changes to the O'Reilly shop To: hwsager(a)marityme.net [image: And important things about your O'Reilly account] Hartmut W, Things are changing at the O'Reilly online shop—as of today, we are no longer selling individual books and videos via shop.oreilly.com <http://post.oreilly.com/rd/9z1zgfkjioneh7iokn0pr9j4vufbndd548d8vlvbg38>. Of course, we'll continue to publish books and videos on the topics you need to know, like data science, product management, and leadership—and you'll still be able to buy them at Amazon and other retailers. And these important things about your O'Reilly account are staying exactly the same: - You'll still have access to every ebook and video listed in "Your Products" on your O'Reilly account page. - We'll alert you when those products are updated, and you can download the revised version from the "Your Products" page. - You can still send the O'Reilly ebooks you've purchased to Dropbox and/or Google Drive. Of course, *every O'Reilly book and video (including O'Reilly conference sessions) is available instantly on Safari*, plus: "Safari turbo-charged my learning. Instead of limiting myself to a few good books a year, I now have access to a dream library." – Arthur Burkhardt, Digital Analytics Consultant, Accenture - *thousands more* from other great publishers like Packt, Pearson, and Wiley - *early access* to upcoming O'Reilly books - *training* in TensorFlow, Python, JavaScript, and more—delivered live, online, by real experts in real time, and only available on Safari - *on-demand Learning Paths* on data science, people management, design thinking, etc. "Safari turbo-charged my learning. Instead of limiting myself to a few good books a year, I now have access to a dream library." – Arthur Burkhardt, Digital Analytics Consultant, Accenture If you like Spotify and Netflix, you'll love Safari (1.8 million people already do)! And for the cost of seven books a year, you'll have access to the *entire* O'Reilly catalog. *Sign up for an annual membership today—for one week only, we'll throw in a $100 Amazon gift card* to spend on whatever you want. And Safari membership has a 14-day money-back guarantee, so what do you have to lose? GET STARTED WITH SAFARI <http://post.oreilly.com/rd/9z1znvuii7aq6st99cl687k3p8bldslk2qj3npnl36o> O'Reilly reserves the right to cancel fulfillment of this promotion in the event of a participant's apparent fraud, violation of law, or cancellation of membership. Void where prohibited. Gift card will be issued via email after 30 days' continuous membership. This offer is not transferable and does not apply to current Safari members, multi-user, or enterprise accounts. Offer applies to annual memberships for individual subscribers only. Offer expires July 6, 2017. You are receiving this because you're a customer of O'Reilly Media, or you've signed up to receive email from us. We hope you found this message to be useful. However, if you'd rather not receive future emails of this type from O'Reilly, please manage your preferences or unsubscribe here. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add *oreilly(a)post.oreilly.com* <oreilly(a)post.oreilly.com> to your address book. O'Reilly Media, Inc. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472 (707) 827-7000

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laptop HD's
by Dan Keizer 10 Jun '17

10 Jun '17

OK, so first off, thanks for all your guys feedback on my prior posting about a young guy's interest in a computer gaming system. I passed along the info - not sure where/how far it went ... good info anyways. on another front, the laptops i've purchased for myself/house I've replaced the spinning metal with SSD's. I've then given some of these spinning metals away. Now, there's an interest to get a couple/few spinning metal drives to put into laptops for casual use for some other peoples ... Does anyone have any source for older laptop hd's ... even as small as 20gb or so would be fine (they are probably hard to find too) ... there's a couple i'm looking for in the next while ... Thanks. Dan.

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OpenBSD In Azure
by John Lange 09 Jun '17

09 Jun '17

As a bit of an update to my presentation last month; I can't recall if I mentioned that OpenBSD was on the Azure road map or not (I meant to), but in any case, both OpenBSD and FreeBSD images are now available: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/09/open_bsd_support_comes_to_azure/ -- John Lange

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MUUG Meeting, June 13, 7:30pm -- BSDCan 2017 Report
by Gilbert E. Detillieux 06 Jun '17

06 Jun '17

*** Please note the updated meeting location below *** The Manitoba UNIX User Group (MUUG) will be holding its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 13. The meeting topic for this month is as follows: BSDCan 2017 Report Adam Thompson will be reporting on his recent visit to the 14th annual BSDCan. BSDCan, a BSD conference held in Ottawa, Canada, quickly established itself as the technical conference for people working on and with 4.4BSD based operating systems and related projects. The organizers have found a fantastic formula that appeals to a wide range of people from extreme novices to advanced developers. Daemon-Dash: rsync In the Daemon-Dash segment, Wyatt Zacharias will demo the rsync daemon. When run as a daemon, rsync allows clients to directly connect and retrieve files, without the need for SSH encapsulation or shell access. The group usually holds its meetings at 7:30pm on the second Tuesday of every month from September to June. (There are no meetings in July and August.) Meetings are open to the general public; you don't have to be a MUUG member to attend. ****************************************************************** Please note our *NEW* meeting location for this month: *Room 2L17* Lockhart Hall, University of Winnipeg, entrance on Ellice Ave. between Spence St. and Balmoral St. Parking is available on the surrounding streets and in the lots on nearby streets. Look for signage once you're at the building, or ask a security guard. ****************************************************************** For more information about MUUG, and its monthly meetings, check out their web server: https://muug.ca/ Help us promote this month's meeting, by putting this poster up on your workplace bulletin board or other suitable public message board: https://muug.ca/meetings/MUUGmeeting.pdf -- Manitoba UNIX User Group E-mail: <gedetil(a)muug.ca> c/o Gilbert E. Detillieux Web: http://muug.ca/ University of Manitoba Phone: (204)474-8161 Winnipeg MB CANADA R3T 2N2 Fax: (204)474-7609

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Small switch recommendation.
by Sean Cody 03 Jun '17

03 Jun '17

Can anyone recommend a small switch (say 8 ports, reasonably priced) with the following properties: - Gigabit - Port Mirroring (at least 3 sets of 2 port mirrors) - SNMP (for bandwidth monitoring) - Management (SSH or Web is fine especially if SNMP is available as well). - Native IPv6 (nice to have, since my env is fully dual-stack) Was looking at the netgear 8 port thingies but I don't think they support SNMP and I'm too lazy to manually check usage with a web-ui. I've also experienced some issues with older netgear switches (purple ones) where MAC address per-port assignment was horribly broken (same MAC applied to all ports in MGMT & SNMP interfaces). Originally looking at the Ubiquiti switches to replace a 24 port unmanaged switch but realized I could just deploy this tactically with a smaller separate switch instead. The use is to be able to monitor usage as well as being able to tap specific points without futzing with cabling. I may end up just going fully managed (for device location hunting) but could use some product suggestions from the above described scenario. -- Sean

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big Intel bug with SMT firmware
by Trevor Cordes 17 May '17

17 May '17

Intel has announced a big (VCSSv3 8.4 and 9.8 critical) bug in their AMT/ISM/SBT technologies, which are mostly only in their business lines. Most consumer desktops will not be affected. It seems more laptops than you would think are affected so if you have an Intel-based laptop from 0-6 years old you might want to check this out. If you have a desktop with a "Q" chipset (aka vPro) then you also are probably affected. I'll repeat this so as to not cause undo alarm: MOST HOME DESKTOP SYSTEMS ARE *NOT* AFFECTED. Looks like this flaw could let an attacker take full control of the system, probably including remote BIOS/desktop and/or OS image control (not sure about file system?). Not sure if exploits are actually in the wild yet, but once they are, just using any public wifi could get you hosed. And this isn't just a Windows user problem like all the RansomWare: this one is at the hardware/BIOS level so it affects all OS users. Patched firmware coming soon, or are already out. https://security-center.intel.com/advisory.aspx?intelid=INTEL-SA-00075&lang… Here's direct links to the list of affected systems for brands relevant to my customers (other brands are at the link above): https://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/product_security/len-14963 https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000024181.h… https://www.asus.com/News/uztEkib4zFMHCn5r Note, for Lenovo laptops: W series W520 and up are affected, and most T and X series. There are Windows (and maybe Ubuntu) programs you can d/l to check if you have an affected system. Check the firmware site for your system often until a fix is posted and then apply it. -- Your friendly neighbourhood MUUG security announcer

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Roundtable