Hugo Jonker

Ubuntu update –> slow internet?

January 31st, 2011

Ubuntu logo I finally decided to update my ageing Ubuntu install (the one on the home computer) to 10.04(.1), Ubuntu’s latest-but-one release. So why not update to the latest and greatest in one go? Well, first things first: let’s see how this works out before taking the plunge further. On top of that, 10.04 is a Long Term Support release. Most of them aren’t but the long-term support releases are supported for 3 years instead of one year. Meaning you get all the security updates until you deserve a new computer :)

So, the update. I was somewhat worried, as my internet-via-usb-modem was hard to get working. In fact, it originally required a connection to internet to get it working… :s. In the midst of the update (which took several hours — Ubuntu: what gives?? I can understand it’s more than a 10 minute process, but hours?? where previously, there would be some poignant questions on keeping data at more or less random times during upgrade?!? but I digress…) the internet connection suddenly gave out. Note, I write “midst of the update”. That is actually a bare-faced lie — though I thought it was close to true at the time. I fiddled around, internet did not come back. Luckily, the upgrade process marched onwards without a connection (this happened after all packaged had been downloaded, but it still made me quite nervous). After the reboot, I kept my fingers crossed. Hoorah! Internet worked!

… or did it? Youtube broke, but that was easily fixed by removing and installing flash. Weird that that was necessary, it worked before. On top of that, Internet had lost its speed. It was as slow as a penguin in the desert. A quick google hinted that the problem might be related to IPv6. The easiest potential fix was apparently to tell the browser to not use that. I did (muck around in about:config, find the IPv6 setting and tell it to drop IPv6), and my internet got back into racing gear :)

So: updated, running a long term support release, and some of the important chinks have been checked and addressed. Still need to complete checking though… If I find more, I’ll let you know!

Posted in unix/windows | Comments Off on Ubuntu update –> slow internet?

Hacking the OV chipcard… again

January 25th, 2011

The Dutch OV-chipcard has been hacked. Again. First some clever guys at Radboud University (Nijmegen, NL) managed to hack the chip used in the card. They demoed their hack on their own university’s access control system, on the Dutch transport card system, and even on the London Oyster Card (which uses the same chip).

This led to questions in parliament, increased security in military bases (which used this system for access control), and questions on the Dutch OV-chipcard. Funnily enough, the OV-chipcard survived the storm (the company producing the chip, NXP, a Philips “spin-off” (it comprised about half the company when it spun out), also survived but had quite some PR fallout). Despite various researchers pointing out it would only be a matter of time before the system would be attacked by people seeking to travel for free (as opposed to researchers testing the security of the system), their arguments were washed away by a wave of “we’re paying attention”, “we’re monitoring things” etc..

Fastforward 2 years. PC-Active has found windows software online, which allows anyone with a windows PC and a reader to clone a card. They bought an anonymous card, put 5 euros on it, copied it, raced around, and then restored the copy. Et voila (as the French say), they were back to 5 euro credit. Most of their cards were not invalidated for any type of transport (apparently, two cards were refused entry on the train, but not on other types).

So where will this all go? I see two options:

Either the system is scrapped, OR
After strong words by politicians, and some public grovelling by the company implementing the card, nothing much changes.

Can’t the security be updated? Sure it can. But unless they actually diligently planned for that, all the readers at stations and in buses can’t speak new and updated security. And the point is not to prevent this one hack. There will be new hacks of new systems — there always have been. The point is that you cannot build an indefinitely secure system that’s open to public use. You need a way to update the security.

Perhaps the manufacturer included such a way. In which case, they should hire equally competent personnel for their PR department, because they’re not impressing anyone (case in point: they have an official response to this story, but on their site, under news, it right now says “no news”…).

Anyway, personally, I hope the system is scrapped. Remember: the traveller did not ask for this system. Not only does this electronic system have less options than the paper-based system (eg. someone else travelling on my “strips” when I’m done with them, getting off at an intermediate station while en route somewhere, buying three large “strippenkaarten” to travel a short distance with a large group, etc.), but it also enables tracking of travellers. Which I don’t like.

It is a pity that the politicians nowadays only discuss the security of the system. Perhaps I missed the discussion on the usefulness of the system, but it seems as if that discussion never occurred. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Posted in in the news | Comments Off on Hacking the OV chipcard… again

A comic on voting machines

January 21st, 2011

The other day I referred you to XKCD, a web comic I happen to enjoy occasionally. Sometimes, I enjoy myself while browsing through the archives. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I came across this strip on voting machines, which says so much about what is/was wrong on the commercial side of e-voting.

Enjoy.

Posted in fun, voting | Comments Off on A comic on voting machines

“Life was simpler when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits”

January 20th, 2011

Thanks to Ton for showing me the video, and to Ralph-Philip for the quote.
(PS: hope this works, youtube default embedding seems to upset the blog, so I’m trying another trick).

Posted in fun | Comments Off on “Life was simpler when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits”

New year’s resolution

January 16th, 2011

A picture reminding you of New Year Weirdly enough, I’m actually making headway towards my informally stated new year’s resolutions… all that while I’m not even inclined to take that sort of thing serious!

Life is weird, but then again, fun is to be had just around the corner :)

PS: Yeah I guess this is one of those posts that doesn’t make sense until I explain. So I intend to explain it — watch your mailbox!

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You know people read your stuff when…

January 11th, 2011

They actually go out and make crazy pictures based on one of your webcomics.

It’s an oldie, but it’s still fun. And thus, good enough to share with you :)

Posted in fun | Comments Off on You know people read your stuff when…

B5 done… more or less.

January 9th, 2011

Babylon 5 boxed set (ironically, of a season I have yet to see :) I just finished watching Babylon 5… more or less.
The cool thing about B5 is that the story was preconceived from the start. There is an overarching story, which spans the entire series. Well, as I found out, more or less. Originally, there was one nice, overarching storyline. Obviously this involved several plots — we are talking about a multiple-season series here. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the 4th season (or so Wikipedia tells us at the above link), it wasn’t clear if there would be a fifth season. In order to wrap up the story before cancellation, the main story thread was wrapped up early on in season 4. (To be precise, season 4 episode 6).

And so, having seen that, I feel kind of robbed. Not that it was bad, far from it. But: eventually they got another season approved, and apparently also some TV-movies. So they wrapped up their main story line, and had a sort of happily-ever-after-errr-what-do-we-do-now-the-future-awaits-us end. And then there’s a next episode.

That sucks. I’m not sure if I’ll continue B5 or not. Right now it is a nice done deal, and even though some story lines have yet to be resolved, 1 season (22 episodes) + 16 episodes seems like a ludicrous amount. Not to mention the movies, which apparently also carry part of the story.

In short: happy about the story so far, not happy that it didn’t end. Then again, not bad for a series that ran from ’93 till ’98 :)

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One small step for a man…

January 8th, 2011

You know, how sometimes something happens to you and you feel like it should be all over the news? I dunno, first kiss, you got your paper accepted when you didn’t think it would, you just made an amazing manoeuver a boat, you just bought your first house, whatever. And somehow, an enormous, exhilarating feeling swells up inside and you just feel good. Damn good, even.

Sometimes, when the feeling is powerful enough, you almost start to wonder: why aren’t other people smiling? Can’t they see how cool the world is now that I tipped it into its place?

Funny thing is, you’re always aware that it isn’t that special: other people kiss for the first time too (although probably slightly different), (different) papers get accepted, people sail, people buy (different) houses, whatever. Yet, somehow, it feels that this one instance is special because it’s you, and this one is unique — all the others are different. Silly huh?

So that’s how I feel right now. Rather high on dopamine, feeling a bit silly about that, on top of which I realise that in the end it’s nothing that doesn’t happen to the rest of the world.
But it feels good!

Too vague: feeling very good for a silly reason — yet still feeling very good :)

Posted in fun, personal | Comments Off on One small step for a man…

Nylon vs Steel

January 6th, 2011

Nylon string As some of you may know, I took one of my guitars (geez that sounds bad, let me restart…)

As some of you may know, I took my cheap-ass guitar with me during the Christmas holidays. Dragged it with me wherever I went, to annoyance of some and enjoyment of some others. Apologies to the former and blush and bow to the latter, by the way.

I played a lot. A lotlot, at that. Especially when I visited Ward and Sanne, and Sanne had a book with songs+chords. Turns out I’m still bad at playing guitar, but I do get triggered. That was the first time anyone ever tried singing to my playing — it was incredibly cool (although also really scary in a way because I was afraid to mess up playing :).

Steel. You push it, it don't bend. So when I came back, I figured that all this playing ought to have paid off a bit. Guitar Wednesday came, and I picked up the guitar confidently. Now, as I may or may not have mentioned, for various reasons, the guitar lessons were cancelled about 5 times in a row. And I had hardly played till the Christmas holidays. But with all the playing then, I figured I wouldn’t be in too bad a shape.

That was, until I picked up the steel-string guitar. Uh-oh. I tried to play my favourite quick-picking tune (the first few notes of GnR’s “Civil War”, basically fingerpicking Em and G), and while I had seriously improved my skill at doing so profoundly over the holidays on the cheap-ass guitar, now I found to my horror: I sucked.

We played for about an hour. I almost dropped the pick twice, I/my fingertips needed a break (talk about played it till my fingers blared…), and afterwards I still didn’t have the control I knew I should have. It was my due, dammit!

So I’ve been playing a bit more since. I’m trying to play a bit mornings and evenings, play through a couple of chords and some fingerpicking. Nothing fancy, just to get my fingers used once again to the feel of the steel strings. It’s getting better, but still nowhere near as good as the nylon strings.

Of course there is a plus side to this: this means that the converse also holds. Playing a nylon string is EEEEE-ZZZZZZ compared to playing a steel string. So next time I happen to come over carrying a guitar, rest assured: it’ll sound okay.