Author Topic: Fettled any computer stuff today? (Read 218821 times)

Morat · « **Reply #400 on:** 29 September, 2015, 03:37:50 pm »

Installed a Centos 7.5 VM and Zimbra server. I'm more used to SuSE but at least using the "Minimal" Centos install has forced me to do things properly with just a command line

Phil W · « **Reply #401 on:** 02 October, 2015, 11:35:20 am »

Created a shared folder between my Windows 10 host and a guest CentOS 7 OS running in Hyper-V. Makes it a bit easier to share stuff between them, rather than emailing stuff to myself!

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #402 on:** 02 October, 2015, 12:12:39 pm »

Persuaded the old XP box in the kitchen to mount the new NAS. Still waiting for the videos to copy from the old NAS to the new desktop; it's currently on Eddie Izzard and next up is Fortitude. All twelve episodes. In HD.

Afasoas · « **Reply #403 on:** 02 October, 2015, 01:46:07 pm »

Plugged a breakout board <- bread board <- DS18B20 temperature sensor into a spare Raspberry Pi.
And wrote out some "given-when-then" statements for a central heating controller system.

Plug1n · « **Reply #404 on:** 02 October, 2015, 04:24:36 pm »

Quick run to Maplins for an overpriced new ATX power supply. The old one died last night 5 minutes before the end of the newly downloaded B0nes episode on my DLNA server. All is well again.

GraemeMcC · « **Reply #405 on:** 02 October, 2015, 11:33:41 pm »

+1: the 230W PSU to my DELL Dimension 3100 expired last Sunday - did well to survive 10yrs with the last 24months running a second HDD, but it may well have been too much KScope Records podcast listening and photo editing (simultaneously) that probably overstressed the whole system. It was a bit sluggish - at least the music streaming got priority!

Anyway, this was another of my rare forays inside the case to establish a fix. I was impressed enough with the DELL case to see plenty space for the ATX layout and once I'd learned about MOBEX, 24pin, SATA and other needed connectors, sourced a suitably cabled mid-range CIT 350W PSU from scan.co.uk for ~£30 and fitted it myself.
Success (so far, but product built in PROC so for how long?).

Next repair to the DELL should be to its misbehaving DVD drive - it has a mind of its own when requested to open/close the disk tray. I frequently need to resort to the paper-clip-in-the-hole recovery method.
So, question - is it possible to reset the opening mechanism or is this a chuck-and-replace-whole-unit job? Its a Philips +/-RW DVD8701.

Biggsy · « **Reply #406 on:** 03 October, 2015, 02:42:34 pm »

Quote from: GraemeMcC on 02 October, 2015, 11:33:41 pm

Next repair to the DELL should be to its misbehaving DVD drive - it has a mind of its own when requested to open/close the disk tray. I frequently need to resort to the paper-clip-in-the-hole recovery method.
So, question - is it possible to reset the opening mechanism or is this a chuck-and-replace-whole-unit job? Its a Philips +/-RW DVD8701.

I don't know, but a replacement could cost as little as £12. Any PC DVD drive with the right interface will do, ie. SATA or IDE/PATA.

The drive may still refuse to open when a program keeps it closed.

Afasoas · « **Reply #407 on:** 04 October, 2015, 05:55:00 am »

Blog now has a favicon, an XML sitemap and a custom error page.

Then I got side tracked. I was saddened to find emails sent from my mail server to Windows Live Mail/Outlook.com/Hotmail were getting spammed and emails sent to OpenSRS' Hosted mail get bounced.

This is despite using SPF, DKIM, having a static IP (dedicated), reverse DNS correctly configured, not featuring on any blacklists etc. Turns out for these hosts, you need a +very reputation, even when sending one mail to one recipient. The answer? Either switch back to using one of the large mail providers or, give 200 dollars to ReturnPath and hope they believe you aren't a spammers. If they don't believe you, you don't get your 200 dollars back either.

Bah. Frustrating. Especially so when I am hosting email for someone else too.
PM me if you use either Hotmail/Yahoo Mail or any email service with advanced spam filtering capabilities. You might be able to help me improve the reputation of my mail server

GraemeMcC · « **Reply #408 on:** 04 October, 2015, 10:44:01 am »

Quote from: Biggsy on 03 October, 2015, 02:42:34 pm

Quote from: GraemeMcC on 02 October, 2015, 11:33:41 pm
Next repair to the DELL should be to its misbehaving DVD drive - it has a mind of its own when requested to open/close the disk tray. I frequently need to resort to the paper-clip-in-the-hole recovery method.
So, question - is it possible to reset the opening mechanism or is this a chuck-and-replace-whole-unit job? Its a Philips +/-RW DVD8701.
I don't know, but a replacement could cost as little as £12. Any PC DVD drive with the right interface will do, ie. SATA or IDE/PATA.

Correct - playing around with fiddly mechanisms is sometimes too much effort: whilst replacing the commute bike's rear hanger/mech/cables [stripped hanger thread, somehow] the cable wouldn't come out of the Rapidfire Shifter - frayed ends [probably that what was making the whole system sticky, rather than sloppy 20yr old Dura-Ace parts] - so I ended up taking the whole shifter to raw parts. Fiddly? Flat springs, rachet springs, brass washers, sharp teeth, etc, etc, and best part of 5 hours cursing/swearing/bleeding later, job done. But with hindsight, I could have nipped along to Evans and just bought a new shifter...

Also, whilst upstairs digging out some DVDs [to try full Win-7 backup pre Win-10 upgrade on the laptop] I've found an ASUS CD drive - perfecto.

Afasoas · « **Reply #409 on:** 05 October, 2015, 01:59:03 pm »

Trying to ensure mail from my mail server gets delivered, I've set-up my own name servers so that I can return a DNS record with a 1024-bit DKIM key.

Next I need to procure a signed SSL certificate. Any suggestions? I've seen the post to LetsEncrypt, but I need the likes of of Microsoft etc. to trust the certificate I use*

*I appreciate this might still be a waste of time and Microsoft will continue spamming emails I sent to hotmail/outlook.com etc.

Phil W · « **Reply #410 on:** 05 October, 2015, 04:58:09 pm »

My understanding of DKIM is that you can use self signed certificates. You do not need a trusted third party such as a CA used in the signing chain for SSL certs. I use AWS to sign my outgoing email with DKIM so just added DNS records pointing at their DKIM settings and certificates.

So in summary, start with self signed certs for DKIM and see how you get on.

Afasoas · « **Reply #411 on:** 05 October, 2015, 05:27:46 pm »

The cert is for the smtp server itself, not for DKIM signing.

Sorry I rambled from one thing to another without making that clear!

Phil W · « **Reply #412 on:** 05 October, 2015, 08:14:24 pm »

Quote from: Afasoas on 05 October, 2015, 05:27:46 pm

The cert is for the smtp server itself, not for DKIM signing.

Sorry I rambled from one thing to another without making that clear!

In which case let's encrypt will be perfect for that but not till November when general availability launches.

Phil W · « **Reply #413 on:** 05 October, 2015, 08:16:55 pm »

Just checked as I've used these guys for s/mime years back. This will sort you out for the next 3 months / till let's encrypt can provide your cert.

https://ssl.comodo.com/free-ssl-certificate.php?key5sk0=1907&key5sk1=b4d75df1ebd076c8cd42b041786a595c41c7e632

Afasoas · « **Reply #414 on:** 05 October, 2015, 11:11:10 pm »

Thank you for that. I should have checked here earlier! I've just bought a GoDaddy cert for the princely sum of £4.25, taking care to ensure it's not automagically renewed.

The good news is SRS hosted mail is no longer bouncing email sent to their servers. The bad news is Hotmail still spans. SPF and DKIM fail. Although I read they use a DNS cache that is only updated twice a day and causes problems for most people. Gmail seems sound as a pound.

Afasoas · « **Reply #415 on:** 12 October, 2015, 08:20:08 pm »

PowerShell script to query and delete rows from a Microsoft JET* database. The joys of Desired State Configuration.

*knee Microsoft Access

Phil W · « **Reply #416 on:** 14 October, 2015, 06:10:05 pm »

Written a line intersect algorithm. Can do 2 million intersects per second, so not too shabby. Borrowed from gaming ray tracing algorithms.

Downloaded OS contour data and converted and loaded into a MySQL database , just under 700,000 contours for UK.

Performances tuned a process that took 3 mins down to 0.1 seconds. Mix of tuning database queries, and changing db cache setting.

Satisfying day.

tiermat · « **Reply #417 on:** 14 October, 2015, 06:15:18 pm »

Tried, and failed, to fit 4 days of roll outs into one day of 8.5 hours. I am just shit at my job!

Feanor · « **Reply #418 on:** 14 October, 2015, 06:17:12 pm »

Quote from: Phil W on 14 October, 2015, 06:10:05 pm

Written a line intersect algorithm. Can do 2 million intersects per second, so not too shabby. Borrowed from gaming ray tracing algorithms.

Downloaded OS contour data and converted and loaded into a MySQL database , just under 700,000 contours for UK.

Performances tuned a process that took 3 mins down to 0.1 seconds. Mix of tuning database queries, and changing db cache setting.

Satisfying day.

Interesting...

Might the intersections and contours be related?
Are you trying to build an app that can produce a contour-counted elevation gain for any GPX file?
Independent of the GPS or mapping site's DEM model?

An AAA man's Holy Grail, so to speak...

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #419 on:** 14 October, 2015, 06:25:12 pm »

Started teaching a Kindle Fire HD about Life, the Universe & Everything

Phil W · « **Reply #420 on:** 14 October, 2015, 09:23:39 pm »

Quote from: Feanor on 14 October, 2015, 06:17:12 pm

Quote from: Phil W on 14 October, 2015, 06:10:05 pm
Written a line intersect algorithm. Can do 2 million intersects per second, so not too shabby. Borrowed from gaming ray tracing algorithms.

Downloaded OS contour data and converted and loaded into a MySQL database , just under 700,000 contours for UK.

Performances tuned a process that took 3 mins down to 0.1 seconds. Mix of tuning database queries, and changing db cache setting.

Satisfying day.

Interesting...

Might the intersections and contours be related?
Are you trying to build an app that can produce a contour-counted elevation gain for any GPX file?
Independent of the GPS or mapping site's DEM model?

An AAA man's Holy Grail, so to speak...

I couldn't possibly comment!

Vince · « **Reply #421 on:** 16 October, 2015, 03:34:16 pm »

I didn't think that contours could intersect.

Feanor · « **Reply #422 on:** 17 October, 2015, 09:43:09 am »

They intersect with a gpx track, when you ride up hills...

Afasoas · « **Reply #423 on:** 18 October, 2015, 06:46:34 pm »

Finally got around to writing a bash script that will shutdown the firewall when my UPS reaches it's battery low level. I used curl to manipulate the WebGUI. And that meant working out how to deal with CSRF Magic.

If anyone else here uses pfSense and would like the ability to shut it down with a script, there's a copy on GitHub:
https://github.com/biscuitNinja/bash/blob/master/shutdownPfSense

Kim · « **Reply #424 on:** 18 October, 2015, 06:59:31 pm »

Swapped barakta's pair of decent-if-oldish Iiyama monitors for a couple of mismatched crusty Dells that were doing menial duties elsewhere, to what she reports is a vast improvement.

So, does anyone make decent matte displays in the Century of the Fruitbat? Word on the gamerwebs seems to be Eizo. I blame Steve, who will have lived in a world of impeccable lighting design and probably enjoyed fastidiously polishing his monitor every morning.