WWF
Forgotten passwords…
A buddy of mine in the fire department forgot his password on Windows XP. Turns out he mistyped it twice when he changed passwords. Since I need to fix this type of problem reasonably infrequently, I thought I’d put in a blog post so that I could remember the program I used for the password recovery, ophcrack. This could even be run off a memory stick!
Setting up wview on Ubuntu
I decided, mainly for myself, to document my setup of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron running with a weather station, the inexpensive WS-2310. I built this computer setup for a buddy who wanted to run a weather station, but didn’t want to buy a Davis Vantage Pro2. The machine is a Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 80G HDD, 1 GB of RAM.
- Download ISO for 8.04 Hardy Heron SERVER EDITION.
- Use PowerISO (Nero, Roxio, ISORecorder, etc.) to burn CD.
- Plug computer into network (needed for below step)
- Boot to this CD, in install mode (IF you have Windows or remnants of Windows on the target HDD, be sure to boot CD as a LiveCD, in interactive mode, and run the partition editor GParted to delete the remnants of Windoze, which WILL stop the installer from working).
- Select Automatic, Use Entire Disk in the options.
- Configure to taste, include Apache, MySQL, etc., then install Server Edition.
- Remove CD, boot, type in user name and password. you set above
- Type:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop, type password when prompted. - When done, reboot into GUI (
sudo shutdown -r now), login. - Apply updates when prompted. Reboot.
- Go into Synaptic Package Manager. Install:
- build-essential
- libcurl4-openssl-dev
- libgd2-noxpm-dev
- libmysqlclient15-dev
- Download radlib and wview. Put them in your home directory
- Open a terminal window:
- Reboot. Should be all
tar xvzf radlib-2.7.5.tar.gz cd radlib-2.7.5 ./configure --enable-mysql make sudo make install
tar xvzf wview-3.9.0.tar.gz cd wview-3.9.0 ./configure --enable-mysql --enable-station-ws2300 --enable-http make sudo make install-env sudo cp examples/Debian/wview /etc/init.d sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/wview cd /etc/rc.d/rc2.d sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/wview S98view sudo apt-get install tnftp sudo /usr/local/bin/wviewconfig sudo /usr/local/bin/wviewhtmlconfig mysql -u root -p [password] CREATE DATABASE wviewDB; GRANT ALL ON wviewDB.* TO wvwuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY "wvwpasswd";
Let me know if there’s any errors above, or you’d like me to detail some of the substeps better.
Booting Ubuntu installer off flash
I was trying to setup a buddy’s old laptop to run Ubuntu and wviewweather, and having no luck because his CD-ROM drive was flaky. So i found this great utility (OK, google found it) that sets up a USB flash drive so that it will boot as if it were the CD-ROM. This is: UNetbootin. Tell it where to find the ISO, tell it where your flash is, and ta-dah! Great utility.
No, copying the files from the ISO onto blank USB memory stick doesn’t work, in case you were wondering…
To give a little more detail, wview now supports a very inexpensive weather station, the La Crosse 2310 (I bought it for $120 including shipping off eBay). This is great for those who want to participate in CWOP and can’t afford or don’t want to spend the money to get a $400+ Davis Vantage weather station, and have an old PC with a serial port lying around.
Funambol for Blackberry-Outlook OTA synchronization
I’ve been working on getting Over-The-Air synchronization working on my BlackBerry using only SyncML, Blackberry Internet Services (BIS) and Funambol. All with no luck! If anyone reads this and knows what’s going on, please drop me an e-mail or leave a comment.
Wiping a Blackberry
Well, who’d have thunk it. Wiping a BlackBerry is very difficult. From my previous post, it should be apparent that I left my previous employer, and I have a Blackberry Curve 8310 (personal property). Well, the IT department at my previous employer had imposed a IT Security Policy (that required a password, etc.). It turns out that invoking the Wipe Handheld command does not remove this policy. This is a bad thing, as I do not have access to my new employers BES server to overwrite the policy. SO, here’s two ways of doing it:
- Upgrade your Blackberry to OS 4.5 and then run the JL_Cmder utility to perform a real factory reset. (I used the Beta OS 4.5.0.37)
- Follow the regedit procedure in the documentation here to install a “blank” policy into a Blackberry.
Gainfully unemployed
With mixed feelings I left Seagate, with my last day of work yesterday, and my last official employment day on June 13.
I really enjoyed working at Seagate, and getting down and dirty with hard disks, and I wish all my colleagues the best (and beat out that there W company).
I’m moving (first day June 30) to a new company. It’s a small company with unique technology.
Funny pics
Redneck swing
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Gallery
Date: 09/17/2006
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Weight
Now Reading
Planned books:
- All the Presidents’ Pets : The Story of One Reporter Who Refused to Roll Over by Mo Rocca
- Voice of Reason : Why the Left and Right Are Wrong by Ronn Owens
- Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News by Tucker Carlson
- 1491 : New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
- The Original Turtles Trading Notebook by Russell Sands
Current books:
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Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
Recent books:
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke
- The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn\’t by Robert I. Sutton
