Visio 2007 Pro in wine

30.Jan 2010 - 20:57 | Tags: wine, visio

For a lot of people, visio 2007 professional immediately crashes when you try to open a .vsd file in wine.
Using those .dll overrides, it works like a charm:
visio overrides
Hope this helps somebody :)

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refreshing system environment variables in windows

19.Jan 2010 - 14:22 | Tags: windows, batch, vbs

It is impossible to simply tell a process to "refresh" the system environment variables in Windows. A running process will always have the ones present from when he began executing.
One thing you CAN do, is simply get the current System Environment using vbscript and set it as temporary variables. After the next login, the variables will be there anyway.

Just create a .vbs file:


Set oShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
filename = oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%TEMP%\resetvars.bat")
Set objFileSystem = CreateObject("Scripting.fileSystemObject")
Set oFile = objFileSystem.CreateTextFile(filename, TRUE)

set oEnv=oShell.Environment("System")
for each sitem in oEnv 
    oFile.WriteLine("SET " & sitem)
next
path = oEnv("PATH")

set oEnv=oShell.Environment("User")
for each sitem in oEnv 
    oFile.WriteLine("SET " & sitem)
next

path = path & ";" & oEnv("PATH")
oFile.WriteLine("SET PATH=" & path)
oFile.Close

And a matching batch file:

"%~dp0resetvars.vbs"
call "%TEMP%\resetvars.bat"
del "%TEMP%\resetvars.bat"

By launching the batch file, you'll get updated temporary variables in your current process.

found on stackoverflow

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How to change the APN on the Palm Pre

17.Jan 2010 - 21:09 | Tags: palm, pre, apn, nerdstuff

While in the beginning, you actually had to fiddle with an sqlite database, you now can simply edit the APN settings from within them phones menu system. Here is how:

  • select the phone icon (as if you wanted to make a call)
  • go to the menu at the top and select preferences:
  • enable the "manual settings" field and tap on "Edit Network Settings"
  • Insert your settings

It worked fine for me without any manual settings on simyo (german virtual provider using the eplus network), but I'm sure this will come in handy

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Event: Veranstaltung zur Architektur und zum Betrieb sozialer Netzwerke

14.Jan 2010 - 17:56 | Tags: hdm, event

StudiVZ, Xing und Co - Die Langsamen werden verlassen.
Veranstaltung zur Architektur und zum Betrieb sozialer Netzwerke

Soziale Netzwerke gehören mittlerweile zu den größten von Menschen erstellten IT-Infrastrukturen. Sie stellen enorme Anforderungen an die Architekturen sowie an den Betriebsablauf. Wie werden sie in der Praxis realisiert, damit Millionen von Usern problemlos und schnell kommunizieren können?

Bei der MediaNight stellen Studierende Projektarbeiten vor Das erfahren Interessenten am 22. Januar 2010 ab 12.30 Uhr an der Hochschule der Medien (HdM). Macher und Experten sozialer Netzwerke gestatten einen Blick hinter die Kulissen von StudiVZ oder XING. Gäste sind zu der Veranstaltung herzlich willkommen, die Teilnahme ist kostenlos.

Zum Auftakt stellen Studierende des Master-Studiengangs Computer Science and Media der HdM die Techniken zur Durchführung von Last- und Performancetests, Monitoring und Alarming, Caching und Parallelverarbeitung am Beispiel einer Wikimedia Installation vor. Sie gehen auch auf alternative Architekturen ein. Anschließend beschreibt Heiko Specht, Account Manager bei Gomez Deutschland, München, die Möglichkeiten externen Monitorings. Mit diesem Verfahren stellen die Betreiber großer Websites sicher, dass ihre Inhalte überall auf der Welt in der gewohnten Qualität verfügbar sind. Danach geht Johannes Mainusch, Vice President Operations bei XING, auf die Performance von Websites ein. Unter dem Motto: „Wer langsam ist, wird verlassen" lässt er hinter die Kulissen von XING blicken. Was Clients bei externem Monitoring besser machen können, stellt Jakob Schröter vom Master-Studiengang Computer Science and Media der HdM vor. Den Schlusspunkt setzt Dennis Bemmann, StudiVZ-Gründer und Informatiker. Er geht auf die Skalierbarkeit, den Datenschutz und die Geschichte der Plattform StudiVZ ein und freut sich auf eine rege Diskussion zu den Entwicklungsperspektiven der sozialen Netze.

Die Veranstaltung wird aufgezeichnet. Der Mitschnitt wird auf der Webseite des Studiengangs Medieninformatik bereit gestellt.

PROGRAMM

12.30 Uhr
Begrüßung und Einführung ins Thema
Prof. Walter Kriha, Studiengang Medieninformatik der HdM

12.45 Uhr
Wikimedia - Ausmessen des LAMP Stacks mit Werkzeugen, Studierende des Master-Studiengangs Computer Science and Media der HdM

13.30 Uhr
Externes Monitoring
Heiko Specht, Account Manager Gomez Deutschland

14.45 Uhr
Wer langsam ist wird verlassen - Performance großer Websites, ein Blick hinter die Kulissen von XING
Dr. Johannes Mainusch, Vice President Operations XING

16.00 Uhr
Client-side Optimizations
Jakob Schröter, Master-Studiengangs Computer Science and Media der HdM

16.30 Uhr
Skalierbarkeit, Datenschutz und Geschichte von StudiVZ - Technik und Diskussion
Dennis Bemmann, StudiVZ Gründer

17.45 Uhr
Ende der Veranstaltung

Wann?
22. Januar 2010, 12.30 Uhr

Wo?
HdM, Nobelstr. 10, 70569 Stuttgart, Raum 056 (Aquarium)

UPDATE: Videos sind nun hier verfügbar.

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Alternative Infrastructure

12.Jan 2010 - 23:17 | Tags: csm, hdm, my_life, paper, presentation

Just a short presentation for a lecture. hacked together, nothing really original :)
PDF [here]

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starting batch files from UNC paths

12.Jan 2010 - 09:29 | Tags: cmd, nerfstuff

If you want to execute a batch file from an UNC Path, windows will first tell you that "CMD does not support UNC paths as current directories" and it will switch to some other directory instead.
If you still want to be able to do your stuff without copying everything to your local drive: use pushd and popd.

pushd will automatically connect the given path as a network drive and popd will disconnect it again.
By using %~dp0 as a paramter, you're using the path of the batch file and handing it over to pushd :)

pushd "%~dp0"  
[...]  
popd

happy scripting :)

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Communitygetriebene Android Systemerweiterungen

10.Jan 2010 - 20:43 | Tags: android, hdm, csm, paper, my_life

A short (German) presentation of an upcoming paper :)
Slideshare:

PDF available here

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Nigerians apparently still active

05.Jan 2010 - 16:30 | Tags: lol, ebay

I just tried out "eBay Kleinanzeigen" (apparently they bought kijiji) and this is the first thing I recieved (it's german... sorta):

Hallo, Ich werde beim Kauf Ihres Artikels für meinen Kunden in Nigeria als ein Geschenk und ich Jahreszeit interessant werden Sie von Bank zu Bank Überweisung oder PayPal zahlen, so werde ich, wie Sie zu mir zurück Mail für weitere Diskussionen zu Zahlung und Versand des Artikels. Danke James Smith

Oh Mr. Smith... :)

Update, next one:

Hallo, wie Sie tun Sie akzeptieren, 450 EUR für diesen Artikel auch die Portokosten zu meiner Frau in Großbritannien

Update 2; WTF?:

hallo Ich bin der Mrs Rose Mary Lopez, ich bin am Kauf der Artikel bei Ihnen interessiert sind, so möchte ich den aktuellen Status dieses Problem kennen und auch die letzte price.and die Methode der Zahlung per Überweisung auf das Bankkonto, geben Sie dies bitte zurück zu mir so bald wie möglich an meine E-Mail-Adresse (rosemarylopez2001@gmail.com). Ich warte auf Ihre Antwort. Mit besten Grüßen. Mrs Rose Mary Lopez

Update 3:

Nachricht: Hallo Verkäufer der Saison ergänzen i bin sehr an diesem Titel und ich interessiert sind, möchten Sie mich wissen lassen, wenn ihr noch Avaialable zum Verkauf email me back asap .. bis janet.linda20009 @ gmail.com

Update 4:

Ich will gerne wissen, ob dieser Position ist noch verfügbar zum Verkauf Zurück zu mir auf: - mrs.marysandra@gmail.com

Update 5:

Hallo, Ich bin am Kauf dieses Artikels bitten lassen Sie es mich wissen, die Gesamtkosten für diesen Artikel und den Versand nach Nigeria mit DHL interessiert. Und auch senden Sie mir Ihre Bankverbindung, damit ich die Zahlung kann am Montag Morgen, nachdem die Artikel dringend erforderlich Danke (godwinc81@yahoo.com)

Update 6:

Hello You still have this item for sale? you can get back to me with the total cost payment via bank transfer or paypal so kindly reply me back to this email directly: stefaniebrown.aw@googlemail.com

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Linux on the MSI Wind U115 with the GMA 500

03.Jan 2010 - 19:25 | Tags: ubuntu, msi wind, gma500, linux, netbook

The GMA500 chipset which was licensed by Intel but originated at PowerVR has a pretty bad Linux support.
While there IS a driver, it is mostly closed source, shippes its own DRM module and is basically a big bag of hurt.
While there was some stuff to make it run on Ubuntu, I was never really able to have any success with following those guides.
Turns out, the driver used had a bug with the MSI Wind series of netbooks.
Luckily, linux-tipps.blogspot.com had an perfect how-to and a prepatched driver available over here.
I'm now running a fully functional Ubuntu 9.10 with the latest kernel updates and a bunch of applications at about 50% the size of the previous Windows 7 installation. This has the advantage that it actually fits perfectly on the netbooks SDD.

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Setting up prosody to authenticate against LDAP

30.Dec 2009 - 12:53 | Tags: prosody, hdm, messi, xmpp, jabber, ldap, sasl

A few years ago, I set up a Jabber server at my university. It worked pretty fine in the beginning, but a lack of updates and a horrible java-overengineering led to the point where the server needed 400 MB of RAM and didn't even consider talking to LDAP anymore.

Since I had no intention of setting up openfire again, I decided to look for other tools.

There is ejabberd, but since I can barely read erlang, let alone write, I decided that I don't really want to deal with ejabberd :)

There also is Tigase, an open-source java based xmpp-server. Since I had bad experience setting up the whole java-enironment, I'd rather not try it again. There also is no support for authenticating against LDAP with Tigase at the time of writing.

The next contestant was Prosody. By simple looking at the website, you see the difference. Where as Tigase and ejabberd are basically a huge, ugly wall of text, prosody is a clean and simple lightweight design.

Prosody is written in Lua. While lua wasn't all thaaat slow to begin with (for a scripting language), since luajit came up, it is only arround 2 times slower than C, according to the benchmarks.

My problem with prosody in the past was the missing LDAP authentication feature. It wouldn't have been all that hard to implement it for somebody that actually knew lua, but I decided that I have other things to do at the moment. This is why this commit cought my eye:

first working version with Cyrus SASL support.

To quote from the ?official website?:

SASL is the Simple Authentication and Security Layer, a method for adding authentication support to connection-based protocols.

Cyrus SASL is a matching library. Here is a quote from its freshmeat page:

The Cyrus SASL library is a generic library for easy integration of secure network authentication to any client or server application. It supports authentication via standard plaintext methods as well as CRAM-MD5 and DIGEST-MD5 shared secret methods and KERBEROS_V4 and GSSAPI Kerberos methods. The SASL protocol framework is used by SMTP, IMAP, ACAP, LDAP, and other standard protocols.

Prosidy uses lua-cyrussasl (which basically can't be found using google) to communicate with the library.

Getting sasl to run and auth against LDAP

While I don't remember everything I installed, here are some packages that seem appropriate:

cyrus-sasl-2.1.22-5.el5
cyrus-sasl-plain-2.1.22-5.el5
cyrus-sasl-lib-2.1.22-5.el5
cyrus-sasl-devel-2.1.22-5.el5
cyrus-sasl-md5-2.1.22-5.el5
cyrus-sasl-ldap-2.1.22-5.el5
cyrus-sasl-ntlm-2.1.22-5.el5

This will also install programs such as "testsaslauthd", "sasl2-sample-client", "sasl2-sample-server", "sasl2-shared-mechlist" and "sasl2-static-mechlist". They are very useful to see if your configuration is actually ok.

Now, set up your /etc/saslauthd.conf:

# cat /etc/saslauthd.conf  
ldap_servers: ldap://ldap1.example.org    
ldap_search_base: ou=userlist,dc=example,dc=org

After this (and maybe a /etc/init.d/saslauthd restart), the testsaslauthd command should work:

# testsaslauthd -u existing_user -p thepassword  
0: OK "Success."  
# testsaslauthd -u blabla -p narf  
0: NO "authentication failed"

This just set up the connection info for the saslauth daemon. To be able to auth against this, you'll need to set up a matching service.
This is basically just a config file that tells the cyrus-sasl library which service to auth against. For this, you'll have to set up your /usr/lib64/sasl2/xmpp.conf (or /etc/sasl2/xmpp.conf )

# cat /usr/lib64/sasl2/xmpp.conf  
pwcheck_method: saslauthd  
mech_list: PLAIN

This means that the service called "xmpp" (from the filename) only accepts plain passwords and uses the saslauth daemon to check them.

Check if this works by starting the sample server:

# sasl2-sample-server -s "xmpp" -m "PLAIN"  
trying 10, 1, 6  
trying 2, 1, 6  
bind: Address already in use

and connect to it using the sample client (probably in another terminal session):

# sasl2-sample-client -s "xmpp" -m "PLAIN" localhost  
receiving capability list... recv: {5}  
PLAIN  
PLAIN  
please enter an authentication id:  
please enter an authorization id: YOURUSERID  
Password: YOURPASSWORD  
send: {5}  
PLAIN  
send: {1}  
Y  
send: {22}  
youruserid[0]youruserid[0]yourpassword  
successful authentication  
closing connection

So far so good. You've set up a proper saslauthd and configured a service called xmpp.

Now:
Getting Prosody
There are installers/packages available for Debian/Ubuntu, Windows, Arch Linux, FreeBSD and Windows. The problem is that, at the time of writing, the sasl support hasn't made it into a stable build yet. That's why I decided to go for the current development version. I simply checked out the git mirror of their official repository (didn't have hg installed):

git clone http://github.com/bjc/prosody.git

As for other libraries, those are the ones:
liblua5.1, libssl (OpenSSL), libidn11

And the lua stuff you need (as far as I can remember):
lua-luasocket, lua-luasec, lua-expat, lua-cyrussasl (see above), lua-filesystem

You can get the them using your distributions package manager, luarocks (for the lua stuff) or download and compile them yourself.

After everything is installed, just do the usual:

./configure --ostype=linux   <-- can be "debian" or "macosx" too  
make    
make install

Configuring Prosody
In my case, the config file was copied to "/usr/local/etc/prosody/prosody.cfg.lua". After you configured the usual stuff (hostname, TLS/SSL, admins, ...) you have to put in the config option for the cyrus support to use the proper service to auth against:

cyrus_service_name = "xmpp"

Currently, there also is a problam that should be fixed within a couple of days: In the file /util/sasl_cyrus.lua, you have to edit line 34.

pcall(cyrussasl.server_init, "prosody")

the "prosody" string has to have the name of your service (e.g. xmpp) for it to work.

This should allow prosody to authenticate against LDAP using cyrus-sasl.
Have fun :)

Update fresh from the prosody chatroom:

(11:35:35 PM) darkrain: One minor thing, is that with the release of 0.7, you'll need to put sasl_backend="cyrus" in the config file
(11:35:41 PM) darkrain: and the default value of cyrus_service_name is "xmpp"
(11:35:54 PM) darkrain: (and the pcall thing has been fixed)
(11:36:01 PM) darkrain: s/One/three/

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