Restricting access to a .ssh key for a specific command
The following example shows how to restrict a public key in the authorized_keys (.ssh directory) file to only run the specified command, along with other restrictions on the connection. The limitations must be listed on one line, prior to the lengthy public key data.
command="rsync --server -v --timeout=999 --delete-excluded . backup/client",↵
no-port-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-agent-forwarding,no-pty ssh-rsa AAAAB3Nza…
Bosch 4000-09 10" Worksite Table Saw
I just ordered my new tablesaw! It is a Bosch 4000-09 10" Worksite Table Saw with Gravity-Rise Wheeled Stand. I hope that this one will surpass my old one in the quality and accuracy because I'd love to build some nicer pieces of furniture! After I put it to use, I'll let you know how well it works!
Handling moles in the yard...
While there are directions on the packages of 'Scoot Mole' and 'Mole Med' to follow, I also found a recipe in a newspaper. This formula uses substantially less castor oil than called for on the package, but as I said, it seemed to work for me. I'm going to do it again this spring.
The formula and instructions are - [quote]
Ingredients:
From this concentrated solution, add water at a ratio of two ounces of concentrate to one gallon of water. This means that your 18 ounces of concentrate will make nine gallons of mole deterrent, which will cover 5,000 square feet.
Instructions:
You are urged to spray the perimeter of your property rather than the whole yard. A 4 to 6 foot band around your lawn will keep new families of moles away for six years. [note: I think this was supposed to say six MONTHS.]
You must "water in" the castor oil to get it into the soil. Don't apply this solution when there is a threat of heavy rains, as the oil may wash away with the excess water runoff. Don't be alarmed if the moles cross the barrier after you apply the solution. It takes time and water to get the oil to penetrate the soil to a depth where the moles tunnel.
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Installing drivers for a Highpoint RocketRaid card in Fedora.
Doctor Who
Lord of the Rings Symphony
When I heard that the amazing work behind the music of the Lord of the Rings trilogy has grown into a full orchestral concert, and that it was selling out all over the world, I had to jump on the bandwagon! Before I could put down my burning visa card, I had ordered two tickets to the performance in the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in downtown Baltimore.
After having fully experienced the concert, I have to admit, I was a bit let down. The music was, actually, excellent. Johan De Meij did a great job in his composition, and on that merit alone I would say the symphony was worth it. There was also a companion video, done in earthy tones and hilighting the story from the epic movie, that played along with the concert, and that was also well done. So what was the problem? The two elements together, at least in my opinion, left the listener submerged in an onslaught of visual and audio images that together distracted them from the whole. The orchestral concert tried too hard to be both an orchestral piece AND an epic movie in short. The end result was that I was less then satisfied as the visual told too little of the story to be truly satisfying, and the symphony itself showed a weakness in appeasing the visual needs of the presentation, leaving what should be some recurring themes throughout the synphony as a one hit wonder, and other tunes that played constantly throughout the epic trilogy should only have been played in the beginning, and perhaps the end of the symphony.
At the end of the performance, I didn't feel like I quite listened to what the symphony should have become, and was saddened, because I felt that the musical themes from the movie were strong enough to actually be pulled together into a symphony on their own merits without having to tie themselves so close to the plot and timeline of the movie. The result was an orchestral concert for the massess, with so much paid in the lifeblood of the symphony to appease the listeners that very little is left to truly enjoy over time.
If you are interested, you can buy the orchestral CD here.
Upgrading your TiVo
For those of you who are seeking to upgrade your TiVo, and are seeking information as to how to perform such a task, the internet is ripe with information. What is harder to find but just as useful is the answer to the question of what can go wrong, and perhaps, what more could be added to what you have read online.
My first warning is not to increase your TiVo storage by adding another hard drive without first backing up and them expanding your archive on the new hard drive with the -s 127 option. This will expand the amount of swap space on your new larger hard drive. Do not do what I did and just throw in another hard drive, blessing it. Why? Well, if you do not, the most likely possibility is that your TiVo will start crashing more and more over time, as it cannot handle processing the larger capacity of your hard drives in the memory of your TiVo, and without the swap space as backup, bad things happen.
With this first bit of learning, I set my feet on the path of a true, powerful upgrade... adding networking capability, repairing the crashing, and speeding up the aging device.
Part 2, network card etc.
After some careful research, I set out to buy the TiVo CacheCard from 9th Tee Enterprises. I also had to buy some RAM, in my case, 512 MB for just under $100. Yep, in a few years someone will read this and laugh at how expensive it was, but believe me that in todays market it was a pretty damn good deal! I then properly removed the hard drives, backed the data up on a linux machine, installed the cachecard drivers from the site, as well as the TivoFlash utility (in my case from an older build, because the most recent drivers caused a failure in the drive), and placed the new drives carefully back in the TiVo unit. After some careful working in the tight space, I reassembled the case and plugged it all back in!
Green Screen of Death
Yes, that what came next. A most unhappy me seeing the "GSOD". However, after some thought it occured to me that TiVo wouldn't come up with such a thing unless it was surprisingly common, so I went back online, and the "GSOD" only apparently means that there were some file corruption issues that TiVo was repairing, and that things should be back to normal within 15 mins to 24 hours. Sure enough, when I returned downstairs to check on my TiVo again, it was playing TV like nothing had happened!
Playing with the new installation
The first thing I did was the ",#401" prefix to test the TiVo dial up over the network. And it worked! No more POTS for the TiVo! Yes, I do plan on switching my POTS to an internet phone, and TiVo was my last holdout. Now no more baby bells! The second was to telnet into the box and "peek around". Again, no problem. And the navigational speed of my TiVo is "zippy", or another way of saying it was that it is not the happy side of fast!
So what did I install on my TiVo? First, I installed the tivo-bin.tar.gz files in /var/hack/bin. That gave me all the linux commands I needed with the possible exception of a good text editor... yes you have to ftp for now! Second, I followed the advice of this site for downloading your TiVo programming to your mac to burn to DVD from this web page. Now, if there ever is a crash again, I can determine the cause from the logs, edit my TiVo online, and overall have a very enjoyable time with it. If you have any questions in your own upgrade, feel free to email me. Glad to help!
Color Electronic Paper
A fantastic announcement today that will possibly lead to a revolution in print is from Hitachi. Apparently, in as early as 2006 we will have color electronic paper commercially available! Yes, just imagine a single sheet of paper, eventually flexible, with the same resolution and clarity of regular paper, and not needing a backlight to view. An interesting news release detailing the invention of black and white electronic paper is from New Scientist.
Some of the things I look forward to are:
