The Design and Implementation of laffer1

Google is leaking the names of users of their popular GMAIL service. 

I did an experiment while streaming video on netflix.  I set iexplore to use processor affinity + above normal priority.  The result was a 10% cpu usage drop at first, and periods at 10%.  Prior to that it was constant 60%. 

It's interesting the performance difference.  I wonder if it's cpu cache or changes in the scheduling.

I've been looking at cell phone plans. They all suck.

This is from a recent security advisory:

CoreImage Examples
CVE-ID:  CVE-2008-2304
Available for:  Mac OS X v10.5.x
Impact:  Opening a Fun House document may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
Description:  Xcode tools contain an example application called Core Image Fun House that handles content with the ".funhouse" extension.

A buffer overflow may occur in this application when processing ".funhouse" files. Opening a maliciously-crafted ".funhouse" file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved bounds checking. Credit to Kevin Finisterre of Netragard for reporting this issue.
 

I ordered a pizza today for lunch. I haven't bought a Jet's Pizza in months. The guy was very busy and cut me off during my order. Then, the pizza wasn't even started when I got there! They told me after I paid of course. They did throw in a free coke, but I wasn't very happy about the wait time.

The pizza was good at least.

Even my Apple TV had a bad day. It sounds like Apple is catching up the apple tv on quicktime updates.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2304

I've been working on getting into the office network at home. I have ssh access to one machine, a FreeBSD based server. The other end is a MidnightBSD desktop at home.

I found this tutorial:
http://tengu.us/vpn-ppp-ssh/vpn-ppp-ssh.html

It's quite nice. I decided to log my setup so far in my blog. You never know when another site like that will go down and there are a few ambiguities with the directions there.

Client setup:

Add this to /etc/ppp/ppp.conf

work-vpn:
set escape 0xff
# using ssh port-forwarding to connect
set device localhost:6669/tcp
set dial
set timeout 600
set log Phase Chat Connect hdlc LCP IPCP IPV6CP tun
# specify ip addrs for both ends.
set ifaddr 10.8.0.1 192.168.0.1


Now the first address is "made up" for my local machine and the second is a "made up" ip for the tun interface on the other end "server".

Also create a file /etc/ppp/ppp.linkup
in it, put this:

work-vpn:
add 192.168.0.0/24 HISADDR

Now the client is ready. You will need to setup a ssh tunnel between the client and server.

ssh -L 6669:localhost:6669 youruser@yourservermachine.whatever

The next step is setting up the server system. You'll need root to do this.

First, configure /etc/services

ppp-in 6669/tcp # Incoming PPP connections over TCP (ppp-vpn)

Next, /etc/inetd.conf
ppp-in stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/ppp ppp -direct ppp-in

make sure inetd is running and send HUP if you need to

/etc/ppp/ppp.conf

ppp-in:
set timeout 0
set ifaddr 192.168.0.1 10.8.0.1


/etc/ppp/ppp.linkup:
ppp-in:
# route traffic to home lan thru the connection.
add 192.168.2.0/24 HISADDR

start ssh tunnel as described above and then ppp on the client
sudo ppp -background work-vpn

verify it's up:
sudo tail -f /var/log/ppp.log
ping 192.168.0.1

This will get you in, but you'll still need to setup nat on the server using natd + ipfw or some other solution.

Last night, I caught Larry King Live on CNN. The topic was high oil prices . He interviewed the CEO of Chevron, as well as several others. There were several points of interest in this show.

1. The raw crude price is around $3.30 before refined or shipped to gas stations.

2. Price variations in the US are largely due to taxes in different states.

3. Gas is sold to stations at around $4 right now. The remaining cost is taxes, etc.

4. It would take many years to extract oil if we started drilling in the north pole or offshore leases. It may benefit us in the future, but unlikely to help with our current price points.

5. He encouraged the use of alternate energy sources, but thinks that we'll be dependant on fossil fuels for most of my lifetime.

I received a B- in statistics 360. Anyone who's familiar with my luck in math courses, will appreciate how difficult that was for me to achieve. Some would call that a miracle. It was not my first attempt at this course either. It brought my cumulative GPA from 2.97 to 3.14. (Pi lol)

I'm writing this on an experimental client for jj. Let's hope for the best.

Only two classes left and the semester is over. I couldn't be happier about that. No class on Thursday. I've got to write some scripts for work. Having trouble deciding on a language to use for the mac side. I could use php, perl or C to access mysql. I'm leaning toward php as I'm more familiar with it than perl.

Jewel's second video from the new album is out... it's I Do.

I just the album today.

test

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/11/0213244&from=rss

This bill allows anyone to lose their computer.  How?  It makes copyright infringement a crime.  If you have copyrighted works on your system, you are screwed.  That doesn't just mean a MP3 file from your buddy or a less than legal copy of some software, it means anything in the cache of your browser from a website.  You go to a website and you can break the law! 

I've been trying to figure out how to map novell edir to os x in leopard. Our solution for 10.4 does not work. I was pointed at this:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7321642

So far, it saw the UUID = uid 500 for one time and then on reboot mapped to nobody! This is on 10.5.3. I'm not happy

Caryn and I went out to lunch at seva's today. Gotta love that place. I'm working on a big problem with my new backup server os setup.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9094118&source=rss_news10

"The Senate legislation, unveiled today by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), would allow foreign national graduates of U.S. universities to receive green cards, or permanent resident status, as long as they have a job offer."

Boxer and Gregg don't care about american computer scientists. There are qualified people in the united states. Google wants cheap labor.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/wcStory?contentId=8118850#story=8205096

I don't get this.  He got them very far each year and they fire him?  Maybe the players can't handle the finals.  Maybe other teams were better. 

I'm rather sick of companies using the word unlimited to sell services. Clearly, they do not mean unlimited. It is common practice for Internet access and cell phone plans.

During a discussion today, we talked about what unlimited means. I decided to look it up in the dictionary.

unlimited:

not limited or restricted in terms of number, quantity or extent
(mac os x dictionary which uses OED as a source)

So clearly, unlimited means no limits, yet there are limits on service. I wish someone would file a lawsuit for false advertising.