Hello World!

I’ve moved my blog to a new home. Its at http://blog.nm7.org.

Its been a while since I’ve been blogging there. But since I still get a few visitors here, I thought I should post a note here.

Hope you will visit the new site.

I’ve finally solved the Rubik’s cube. It took me some time to get the moves right. Its not so hard once you figure it out. Of course, I had a little help from http://www.rubikssolver.com/.

Its a great way to learn the moves to solving this puzzle.

A really good resource for anyone who is using Drupal to build websites.

Reference: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/ibm/osource/implement.html

Requirements:

1. PuTTY on local machine
2. Remote host running OpenSSH

1. Create a new PuTTY session
Run PuTTY and create a new session in PuTTY to connect to the remote host that is running OpenSSH. Fill in the hostname, the port (usually 22), make sure SSH is checked, give it a session name and hit Save.

2. Configure a secure tunnel
Click on “Tunnels” on the left and set up dynamic fowarding for a local port (e.g. 7070). Under “Add new forwarded port” type in 7070 for the source port, leave the destination blank, and check Auto and Dynamic. Then it the Add button. If you did it correctly, you’ll see D7070 listed in the Forwarded Ports box.

That’s it for tunnels, as there is no need to create more than one. Remember to save your session profile in PuTTY so you don’t have to set up the tunnel next time.

3. Connect to the remote SSH box
Double click on the connection profile and type in your username and password when prompted.

4. Configure Firefox
Go to Tools, Options, General, and then click on Connection Settings.

Check Manual Proxy Configuration, leave most of the fields blank, but fill in 127.0.0.1 for the SOCKS v5 host with a port of 7070 (or whatever you used in Step 2).

5. Enjoy
That’s it. From now on, as long as you first log into the remote ssh host with PuTTY, your Firefox and IM traffic will be routed over a secure tunnel to the remote host and then out to the Net. Good stuff.

Note:

• Use Pidgin with these settings for your IM needs.
• Use Thunderbird with these settings for email.
• If you’re using linux, skip the first three steps and run
  ssh -D 7070 username@host.com

Adapted from – Proxy Firefox through a SSH tunnel

Download the j2se SDK from http://java.sun.com. Download the “.bin” file. In a terminal window, run the following commands.

• Switch to root use by issuing
  $ su -
Password:

• cd to the directory where the file was downloaded.
  # cd ~nick/Downloads/
• Change the permission of the file and execute it.
# chmod +x j2sdk*.bin
# ./j2sdk-*.bin
• Make a directory under /usr/local (for example /usr/local/sun).
  # mkdir /usr/local/sun

• Copy the extracted java directory to this newly created directory.
  # mv j2sdk* /usr/local/sun

• Adjust the configurations to ensure that java works correctly. (This is because Debian/Linux uses different versions of java, that may not be reset when the Sun Java is installed.
  # update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /usr/local/sun/j2sdk*/bin/javac 120
# update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/local/sun/j2sdk*/bin/java 120

You should now have a working jdk environment, virtual machine and compiler.

You might need to change your /etc/profile adding the proper definitions of some environment variables (CLASSPATH, JAVA_COMPILER and JAVA_HOME) so that Java programs can find the kit you just have installed. Append the following lines to your /etc/profile. The following example show which settings you could add if you had installed Sun’s 1.4.2 jdk:


JAVA_COMPILER=/usr/local/sun/j2sdk1.4.2_17/lib:/usr/local/sun/j2sdk1.4.2_17/jre/libexport
export JAVA_COMPILER

JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/sun/j2sdk1.4.2_17/
export JAVA_HOME

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sun/j2sdk1.4.2_17/bin
export PATH

This should enable it for all users, except root. If you want to compile and run java programs as root, add the above lines to /root/.bash_profile.

Note: This has been tested only in Debian, although it should work in other distro’s too.

Press Windows Key + R (To open the run dialog).

Type in the following:

C:\Users\Nick Mathew\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Now create a shortcut (right-click on an empty space in the folder and select New-> shortcut). Add the following line.

RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

This creates a quick launch to the “Safely Remove Hardware” dialog. Now you can reduce the number of clicks to remove a USB drive.

Source : Create a Shortcut or Hotkey for the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog

Steps to create a password-less SSH login

These commands are executed on linux or on a pseudo-linux environment, like cygwin. It will not work under Windows.

1. Generate the encryption key. Do this on client machine.
   $ ssh-keygen -t dsa -f ~/.ssh/id_dsa -C "you@client.com"
   A passphrase is recommended, though not required. Enter a passphrase that you can remember. It need not be the same as your password.
2. Skip this step if there are multiple clients connecting to the server.
   $ scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa you@server.com
   Enter the password, when asked.
3. This step is required if there are multiple clients who need to connect to the server.
   $ cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa | ssh you@server.com 'cat - >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
   Now if you try to connect to the server, it won’t ask for your password. If you have setup a passphrase, you are required to enter that.Do the steps below to ensure a password-less login.
4. Edit your bash_profile to include the following lines. This is adapted to cygwin.
   $ cat >> ~/.bash_profile
SSH_ENV="SHOME/.ssh/environment"

function start_agent {
echo "Initializing new SSH agent..."
usr/bin/ssh-agent | sed 's/^echo/#echo/' > "${SSH_ENV}"
echo succeeded
chmod 600 "${SSH_ENV}"
. "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null
/usr/bin/ssh-add;
}
# Source SSH settings, if applicable
if [ -f "${SSH_ENV}" ; then
. "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null
#ps ${SSH_AGENT PID} doesn't work under cygwin
ps -ef | grep ${SSH_AGENT_PID} | grep ssh-agent$ > /dev/null || {
start_agent;
}
else
start_agent;
fi
5. Now type in the last password of this session.
   $ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_dsa

Ok, so we have a password-less login. This is done through the ssh-agent that hods, manages and responds to requests for private keys.

For more information, read An Illustrated Guide to SSH Agent Forwarding

Adapted from – Using ssh-agent with ssh

Hi! Welcome to the Tech Test.

This is where I’ll record my adventures with technology. I intend this blog to be sort of like a journal where I tell my experiences with various technologies. What makes this blog different from the others out there. Well, check out the upcoming posts and you tell me!