scadblog

Sometimes when I diagram a problem I develop more insight into potential solutions. Here’s my perspective on calendaring thus far.

A while back I posted about authenticating your Linux boxen to PU’s kerberos server allowing a local user to use their Kerb password as valid authentication. I forgot to extend this method to the Mac and explain how to configure it there. It couldn’t be easier and and its definitely worth a look as it will save you a little time. It means your users can jump right onto a machine without you taking the time to establish their local account password. With the Mac, you can combine this configuration with this macosxhints hint describing how to remotely create users, and you’re set.
(more…)

I’m giving myself major props today. I rock! Times two.

The first major feat of the day: a motherboard with water damage needed to be replaced in a Thinkpad 600E. IBM wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for the part, so with the help of the user we acquired the necessary part from eBay for $50. After about 45 minutes of making sure every screw was accounted for, the new board is in place and booting. Hooray!

My second feat was bootstrapping kermit onto a Tru64 UNIX machine with only a serial cable. The terminal work really brought me back to my BBSing days, and who would have thought I’d be working with kermit again (I always preferred Zmodem anyway). More importantly, who would have thought I would actually find a use for my install of HyperTerminal on Windows. I always hated that program as opposed to Telix; here it really came in handy.

That’s enough self-adulation for one day.

It has been my experience with Dell Computer that they are hesitant to reprocess returns. They just don’t like to go through all the hassle of restocking, and they even have post-sale ‘counselors’ that will try to assess your situation and convince you otherwise. This would bother me if not for the way in which they try to sweeten the pot. Most often Dell will try to get you to keep the item by providing a signficant discount. I have personally been offered up to 10% discounts if I were willing to reconsider, or even find someone else at my institution that might want to take the item instead.

So let’s you’re using an archaic browser like Netscape 4.79. Or better yet, let’s say you’re using a modern browser like Internet Explorer 6.0, all patched up. And let’s go one step further and suppose you are surfing the Princeton web, innocently looking for a schedule for the Pagoda Tennis Courts.

Would you expect a virus circa 1995-1997 would be able to infect your computer without any intervention on your part? What’s more, would you expect that virus to be one of the first Word macro viruses to ever spread in the wild, one written specifically to infect Word and not the browser?

Keep in mind that this isn’t 1997. But that’s exactly what happens if you visit the address provided at the end of this entry. If you remember 1997, it was about that time that the WM.Concept.A virus was able to run through the wild via our Word document macros as a proof of concept for macro viruses. But the page linked below makes clear that the virus is also able to infect a machine via the web browser, even in this day and age. Its all thanks to a user on Princeton’s network, so take it for a spin and see if you can infect your own machine!

Make sure your virus defs are up to date if you want to test this for yourself, otherwise you might not catch this sucker. Click through at your own risk of course. I’ve mirrored the page in an undisclosed location that won’t be snatched by bots if anyone cares to try it after its been taken down.

[EXAMPLE OF THE WM.Concept.A VIRUS - Will infect IE6 or Netscape 4.79 - click through at your own risk!] http://www.princeton.edu/~pfeil/html/schedule.htm

I registered a Dell TrueMobile 1150 wireless card today in a new Dell Latitude 640C with Windows 2k installed. I went about my business and waited a little while until the registration went through on the network. Once registered, I had to go through an odd little process to get the card to detect the network. The card shipped ‘enabled’ so I had to disable it via Network and Dial-up Connections. Once disabled, I launched the Dell TrueMobile software and clicked on ‘Enable Radio’. Then I went back into Network and Dial-up Connections to make sure the card was enabled. Only after activating it in this manner did it detect the wireless network properly. I’ll review this process if I get any more 640Cs, but very odd indeed.

I’ve been looking high and low for the Apple System Profiler command via the terminal. The site macosxhints comes through again as a great resource for information. This recent hint describes the albeit limited, yet present functionality of the command system_profiler. This is beautiful because I can get a complete hardware inventory of all my Macs (and Linux/UNIX machines with a little more leg work) without leaving my seat. Sysinternals’ PSTools provide some of this ability utilizing the command psinfo for the Windows machines, unless I want to utilize the Windows ‘Computer Management’ tools. I’ll be on the lookout for more commands as I complete my remote hardware query toolset.