From: Abigail Date: 23:31 on 10 Mar 2006 Subject: Reason #1781 to hate Mosa^H^H^H^HNets^H^H^H^HMozil^H^H^H^H^HFirefox. --QRj9sO5tAVLaXnSD Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline So, you're the son of the son of the son of Mosaic, and half the geeks think you're the best thing since sliced bread. And you're supposed to be able to surpress popups - a feat you display prominently each and every time *you display a popup*. Not only do you annoy me with the popups, you also lie to me, claiming you did something you didn't. Too bad Internet Explorer doesn't run on Linux. Abigail --QRj9sO5tAVLaXnSD Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFEEgw3BOh7Ggo6rasRAlRfAKCfgYNNb72hAHGshCF2iB5UbIiVFACgwyRq w5NRI56XddRP5V3eSjusp18= =fKuh -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --QRj9sO5tAVLaXnSD--
From: Abigail Date: 19:54 on 15 Feb 2006 Subject: Locked user --1SQmhf2mF2YjsYvc Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable So, there's this AIX box I've to work with. And on this AIX box, there's a user account I often need to work with. So, I want to be able to ssh to that user directly, instead of using ssh & su. I add my public key to the users authorized_keys file, and try to ssh. Failure. Checking the logs, it turns out that permission is denied because there are to many failed attempts. Now I have root on the box, but it's been more than a decade since I=20 last did any administration on an AIX box. Hence, I dive in the manual pages to find out how to fix this. After some digging, there's the command 'chkusr' that looks promising. Indeed, it reports the user has too many failed login attempts, and there's even an option to fix this. So, I run chkusr with the repair option, and it's fixed. Except that it now reports that the account is locked, and it can't fix that. And of course, ssh still doesn't work. Back to the manual pages. Ah, there's SMIT with the 'chuser' argument - for changing user parameters. Just what I need. And there it is, "account locked" is set to true. I switch it to false. Save and quit. Try ssh again. Failed. Too many failed login attempts. WTF? Run SMIT again. The account isn't locked. 'chkusr' says the user has too many failed login attempts, but it can fix that. And so it does. But that results in the account being locked again. Each time when I run 'SMIT chuser' to unlock the account, it starts thinking that the account has too many failed login attempts, and when I use 'chkusr' to unset this flag, the account becomes locked. Only later I learn that if you run SMIT with a different command, you can set even more user parameters, including both the 'locked' and the 'too many failed login attempts' flags. Abigail --1SQmhf2mF2YjsYvc Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFD84cFBOh7Ggo6rasRAhQ4AKCr9qiUu5WOSNVKJkRx0DLj5lWnqACgpDrf bJJq5UXIFKsJvAz9uVCXYa8= =+smE -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --1SQmhf2mF2YjsYvc--
From: Abigail Date: 00:51 on 21 Sep 2005 Subject: File::Copy --wRRV7LY7NUeQGEoC Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Another of those Perl modules that should never have been made. A favourite of the perlmonks crowd (perlmonks is to Perl what slashdot is to computer geeks in general -- the shine attracts the teenagers,=20 but it ain't very useful); it has worked itself into the main Perl distribution, and someone has had a lot of success in passing the kool-aid. Nowadays, if you dare to write: system cp =3D> $src, $dest; on most Perl forums, Perl nitwits pop up their heads from under their rocks and flame you for not being 'pure perl', and for writing code that doesn't run on their Billware. No, they say, you ought to use File::Copy. Now, this rant isn't about File::Copy's rather limited capabilities compared to 'cp'. Using a directory as a destination is beyond its capabilities, and File::Copy::copy ($file1, $file2, $dir) will complain, but destroy your $file2 anyway. Not to mention it doesn't have support for equivalences of 'cp -r', 'cp -p' or any of the other options you'll have with 'system'.=20 Nor is this rant about the fact File::Copy also provides a 'syscopy' routine, but doesn't actually export 'syscopy'. No, I hate File::Copy because when copying a executable, it loses the=20 execution bit. Having been bitten by that 'feature' in the past, I haven't used File::Copy for a long, long time. But I'm not the only person using Perl at the company I work for. Had a long debugging session today -- which ended with replacing File::Copy with 'system "cp"'. Abigail --wRRV7LY7NUeQGEoC Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFDMKCMBOh7Ggo6rasRAvwYAJ9SGtY7mMdGSliZN7aN2ztZgwoUdQCeIeSD nmqNlNg+wjFgXMGCshb3WaU= =kj08 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --wRRV7LY7NUeQGEoC--
From: Abigail Date: 00:27 on 30 Jul 2005 Subject: Fedora installer --jh06fhy6YTawvwPV Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline So, I have this new HP box, and for some reason, I decide to install Fedora on it. The installer asks a few preliminary questions, and then whether I want to do a custom install. I do. So, it lets me partition the disk. Being an old fashioned person, I don't create one large partition, no, I slice and dice myself a /, /opt, /tmp, /var, etc. Fine. Then it asks me which packages I want to install. I select everything - disks are large enough and I can't be bothered wading through the list of packages. A few more questions, and off it goes. It starts creating the file systems. Only after it created them it figures out it doesn't have enough space, claiming it needs slightly more space in / than the partition I created for it. Ok, I think. Nice to tell me now. Why don't you let me select the packages first, then tell me how much space I need so I can partition with the space requirements in mind? Alas, I decide, I now know how much space is needed, and this installer has nice back buttons, so I go back to the partitioning screen and repartition. No way buddy. I can go back a long way, but it stop just before the screen with the partition options. "I already partition the disks, and I'm not letting you do it again, nananana! If you want to partition differently, reboot and start all over again, you sucker!" So I do. Now giving / lots more space, much more than it claimed it needed. Select all packages again. Answer the other questions again. And off it goes. Creating file systems again. And again finding out / isn't large enough. Despite it being much larger than it claimed it needed the first time around. So, did I try a third time? No. Before I could, the disk decided that it hard worked for an hour or so and that it was time to start developing read and write errors. Abigail --jh06fhy6YTawvwPV Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFC6rtqBOh7Ggo6rasRApg3AKCPX9yub8tHlhBS6L+5IHrboxykgwCdEIR8 NJO30pcu9yiZOYa9Y7lzQcQ= =/eZj -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --jh06fhy6YTawvwPV--
From: Abigail Date: 22:14 on 26 May 2005 Subject: Peppercorn --5I6of5zJg18YgZEa Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I do a lot of development for a small box, which doesn't have its own keyboard or monitor.=20 So I use a "management card" (whose vendor I shall not mention, because I already did so in the Subject line) - which allows you to control the box remotely. Using a web based interface, you can turn the box on and off, reset it, and, using a Java applet, it gives you a remote console as well. It gives you what's on the console, and allows you to use the keyboard (and in theory the mouse as well). Nice principle. But, it being software, there's hate. I hated the old card because the applet allowed you to type all characters, except the '-' and the '_'. To type a dash or an underscore, you had to pull down a menu and select a "soft keyboard" in some submenu. This popped up a small window consisting of a keyboard with tiny keys. In this window, you could select the dash. Hate. But now a days, I use a newer card. It doesn't have the problem I mentioned above. It has its own hate. The box I work on, I reboot a lot. And the bloody applet thinks "Hey, the box is booting, let's grab the focus". But don't think that grabbing the focus back is the end of it, oh no. Three seconds in the boot process, it grabs the focus again. And a few seconds later, it grabs it a third time. Three times. For each reboot. Which I can easily do 30 times a day. Hate. Hate. Hate. Abigail --5I6of5zJg18YgZEa Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCljwcBOh7Ggo6rasRAv/8AJ9y1bXfyFo0+gDSq7vZ8j5e/EVNkACgsFYV a3pfc9jhjzlkyoPpQabgSI4= =qpga -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --5I6of5zJg18YgZEa--
From: Abigail Date: 02:08 on 02 Apr 2005 Subject: mutt/GPG --GvXjxJ+pjyke8COw Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline So, I have GPG installed. And I use mutt, which can deal with GPG. By default, it will sign your mail. To do so, it needs your private key - which is protected by a passphrase. So, if it needs the private key, it will ask for the passphrase. And to avoid having to type the passphrase over and over again, it will remember your passphrase, until you either quit mutt, or a timeout happens. Sounds useful, this caching of the passphrase, doesn't it? It is. Until you mistype your passphrase. GPG will refuse to unlock the private key (rightly so), but oh, so helpful mutt, it will remember the passphrase you typed in. So GPG will fail. Again, and again, and again. You'll have to quit mutt and restart it to get out this state (or wait for a timeout). And if there's a keystroke to invalidate the cache, they've managed to hide what the keystroke is. Abigail --GvXjxJ+pjyke8COw Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCTfCEBOh7Ggo6rasRAuSwAKDFYu2AwreMqGK6TbjyGngpAhazPQCeKf3A Iiy00eOITdFnhn/wuRaXazA= =oObu -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --GvXjxJ+pjyke8COw--
From: Abigail Date: 21:33 on 27 Jul 2004 Subject: mkdir mkdir has a -p option, to make it create any necessary parent directory. Cool. mkdir has a -m option, to set the mode of the newly created directory. Cool. But "mkdir -m <mode> -p <dir>" only sets the mode of the final directory - not of any created parent directory. Hate, hate, hate. Abigail
From: Abigail Date: 22:10 on 28 Apr 2004 Subject: Registration webforms I really hate webforms with 'required' fields, typically used for registration of some kind. They insist on getting all kinds of information from you - that they don't really need to know - and they just can't cope with the fact that sometimes, there just isn't a good value to put in. Take for instance the registration form for YAPC::NA. It assumes everyone has a first and a last name, and just can't deal with the fact not everyone has one. It's the "whole world is a VAX" all over again. Abigail
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