Posts filed under Tips'n Tricks

Splunk> Making Sense of Logfiles

My area of expertise in the professional world is Network Security. This includes protecting network from intrusions, but also delivering reports about the network status. For the latter we use SIEM(like) environments like the Cisco CS-MARS and the Juniper STRM.
The 'problem' with these devices is that they are great in reporting incidents and creating awesome reports about everything, but they lack the functionality to do some serious investigating.

I have several customers with a SIEM, and most of them still use (Linux) commandline tools like awk, grep, etc. these tools work, but you need to scrape everything together yourself, and building queries can be quite challenging. This is where Splunk> comes in.

Posted on July 13, 2010 and filed under Security, Software, Tips'n Tricks.

Slow Open Directory on OS X Server

Ever since I've been playing with my Mac mini with OS X server 10.6.4 I have had on-and-off problems in the authentication/Open Directory area.

  • Some accounts authenticate really quick, while others take minutes to authenticate.
  • Accessing the Open Directory through the Workgroup Manager is as slow as a slow boat to China. Changing users (just by selecting them) takes another boat along the Pacific.

So it was time to start digging into the phenomenon called 'Open Directory'.

The manual from Apple isn't much help in troubleshooting a slow Open Directory, so it was time to search the interwebs and start experimenting. If it didn't work, I can always reinstall the entire server from scratch.

Posted on July 12, 2010 and filed under Annoying, Apple, Tips'n Tricks.

Installing Adobe Coldfusion 9 on OSX Server 10.6.4

After Apple updated the Mac mini to it's current form (mid 2010), I decided that it was time to start replacing my 'faithful' Windows 2003 server with something a bit less power consuming. The original Mac Mini was basically a consumer device, but a while back, Apple released a server version of the device. The main differences are:

  • Only 1 CPU model available (2.66GHz at this moment)
  • No DVD drive
  • 2 * 500GB internal disks
  • OSX 10.6.4 Server edition (unlimited clients)

Basically everything you could ever need for a server with a very small footprint.

The installation of Coldfusion is not straight forward. Not that I expected it to be [1], [2], [3], but one keeps hoping on an installer that actually installs the complete package, and where you don't have to edit files yourself to get it to work. It's not that it's the very first version of the scripting engine......

Anyway, the installer guides you through everything needed to INSTALL the software. Getting it to work comes next....

Posted on July 1, 2010 and filed under Apple, Software, Tips'n Tricks.

DIY Porn on the iPhone

Most of the regular iPhone / iPod Touch users already know that there's no sign of porn or erotica to be found in the Apple App Store. Reason for this is (according to Steve Jobs);

You know, there’s a porn store for Android. You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go – so we’re not going to go there.

So no porn for the iPhone (at least not the jailbraked versions), or is it? It seems that Apple facilitates the biggest 'app' for getting your porn 'fix'. The app is called 'Safari'. The good old browser. The application that made the Internet for what it is today. As an alternative you can use iTunes to provide you your 'fix'.

Note that eventhough I'm talking porn/erotica here, you can project this to any piece of content.

Before continuing, I must warn you. The complete article might have some explicit pictures, so continue at your own risk. I can't and won't be held responsible for the consequences.

Posted on April 20, 2010 and filed under Apple, Browsers, Tips'n Tricks, iPhone.

Installing & Configuring CentOS 5.4 (Day 2)

Oké. Day 2. After the successful installation and configuration of CentOS with Adobe Coldfusion, I needed to install MySQL as a database. So, I started the virtual machine, and found out why Linux will (probably) never cut it as a common desktop environment.

X11 - No DesktopYesterday I (properly) shutdown the system (which had the GNOME Desktop), and today it started with some back to the 60's desktop. Every icon gone. All that I'm left with was a terminal window, clock, and a FireFox window. This environment is the basic X11 desktop.

Posted on April 2, 2010 and filed under Annoying, Linux, Operating Systems, Personal, Tips'n Tricks.

Adobe Coldfusion 9 on CentOS 5.4 (x64)

A while back I figured out how to install Adobe (could have been Macromedia back then) Coldfusion MX on an Ubuntu linux server. This config still runs as it should, but in the mean time several things have changed in the world of software. I've been leaning towards Centos 5.4, and Adobe released Coldfusion 9 somewhere in 2009. These two 'events' made me decide to combine the two.

Before I continue, I must warn you that the Coldfusion installer is still broken..... So there's some manipulation of code involved.

Since the new 'server' is going to run in a virtual environment I started in a VMWare Workstation. This way I could make snapshots of my progress. This made it easier to start from scratch. The problem with Linux and me is that I tend to reinstall the OS when things go haywire. So VMWare is a safe way out in this case.

Posted on April 1, 2010 and filed under Annoying, Linux, Software, Tips'n Tricks.

Point & Shoot Off-Camera Flashing

The general consensus on flashing is that you should take the flash of the camera (take the flash off the damn camera). It just results in better (more flattering) photos In some cases this is impossible. Especially when the flash is integrated. But there's hope. There are several point & shoot camera's (P&S) that feature a hot-shoe. The Panasonic Lumix LX3 [1] is one of those camera's.

Posted on February 18, 2010 and filed under Gear, Photography, Tips'n Tricks.

Lens and Focal Length Statistics

Have you ever wondered which lens you used the most? Or what focal length is your favorite? The results of these queries can be used to decide what new lens to get; a (ultra)wide-angle, normal, or telephoto lens.
Well, there is an answer for both questions. The first (which lens) is relatively easy when you're using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Just select the metadata filter in the library view and examine the results.

Posted on February 11, 2010 and filed under Photography, Software, Tips'n Tricks.

iPhone 3GS Tethering with Firmware 3.1.3

With the release of firmware 3.1.3 the tethering option is back on the iPhone. After the reboot of the iPhone you get additional fields in the 'Cellular Data Network' section in the 'Network' menu (Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network). Just enter the appropriate information in the APN field (for KPN in the Netherlands enter internet in the APN field) and the Internet Tethering option is back (w00t) in the 'Network' menu.

Posted on February 3, 2010 and filed under Apple, Tips'n Tricks, iPhone.