Diary Import August 1998

31th august 1998

Made the stupid failure not to talk to this beautiful girl at
McDonalds yesterday evening. Damn, this is gonna drive me mad
!

Did some server-care on our AIX machines, cleaning coredumps,
logfiles, unread mail spools, etc.

Met with Gerd and Michael at O’Reillys, and had pretty much
fun
talking about girls and previous relationships, like the
woman
do usually.

30th august 1998

Updated another two of my new personal homepages.

Did a little bit fine-tuning on SSH.

Tried to set up hourly passwords on the system, but that’s
really
hard. You always have to watch out not to lock up yourself.

Gerd called for some Guinness, so, by4now !

29th august 1998

Successfully installed SSH on my system.
Fascinating, also the X-Session is lightning fast !

28th august 1998

The hardware internals page for the FFM server is completed,
and I’m very satisfied with the result. You wanna take a
look.

Received our 19 inch server case for FFM today !
Yep, time for big shopping next week ! Winking

Finally got my tax forms completed, so I hopefully can ignore
the reminder, which will come for sure in the next few days.

27th august 1998

Spent almost the whole day, resolving hostnames and IP
addresses
to complete a list containing all our unix machines. The
funny
thing is, how to lookup DNS without knowing IP nor hostname.
I guess, God knows why he created MAC adresses ?

Finally got a solution for our FFM virtual host problems:

The default webserver is
www.stun.de:80

links to all other webservers on the different ports are listed
on
/index.html

including virtual hosts
linux.stun.de:80
etc.stun.de:80

additionally we setup separated webservers for each
linux.stun.de:81
etc.stun.de:8x

Now, let’s see what our requests do:

HTTP/1.0 requests / from www.stun.de
www.stun.de replies /index.html from www.stun.de document
root

HTTP/1.0 requests / from linux.stun.de
www.stun.de replies /index.html from www.stun.de document
root

HTTP/1.0 requests /something/other from linux.stun.de root
www.stun.de replies 404 and may redirect to
www.stun.de/index.html

HTTP/1.0 requests / from linux.stun.de:81
linux.stun.de:81 replies /index.html from linux.stun.de:81
root

HTTP/1.1 requests / from www.stun.de
www.stun.de replies /index.html from www.stun.de

HTTP/1.1 requests / from linux.stun.de
linux.stun.de:80 replies /index.html from virtual host
linux.stun.de:80

HTTP/1.1 requests / from linux.stun.de:81
linux.stun.de:81 replies /index.html from linux.stun.de:81
root

Any questions ? Winking

26th august 1998

Collected some informations on digital still video cameras,
and tried to buy one, but every model I wanted was not
available at the moment.

Gone mad with Apache !!!
Talked to Netscape describing my Apache HTTP/1.1 problems
on Communicator 4.06. Damn, I can’t believe it, full 1.1
support will be available in 5.0 only. And MSIE 4 HTTP/1.1
support is so bad that it is disabled by default on most
web-servers.

HTTP/1.0 Request Principle:
===========================
Client: http://test.stun.de/index.html
DNS-Lookup test.stun.de -> IP
send request GET /index.html to IP
Server: reply http://www.stun.de/index.html (which is wrong)

HTTP/1.1 Request Principle:
===========================
Client: http://test.stun.de/index.html
DNS-Lookup test.stun.de -> IP
send request GET test.stun.de/index.html to IP
Server: reply http://test.stun.de/index.html (which is
correct)

So it seems we have no chance to enable name-only-based
virtual hosts with only one IP address. F**k It !
W3C has released HTTP/1.1 in 1994 and Netscape nor MS have
implemented it yet correctly. What’s up Mozilla-guys !

Hey Reyk ! Did some updates to the FFM-page.

25th august 1998

Upgraded my Apache to 1.3.1 to get the virtual hosts working
without the need for more IP adresses, but since that update
everything is forbidden.

Discovered a nice statement for the programmers of you:

while (! asleep()) sheep++;

As I guessed we’re only four at O’Reillys than the expected
seven. The first time, we didn’t get our meals. I hope
they’ll
change that in future.

24th august 1998

Fortified my Netscape Communicator 4.06 again, to do some
128-bit encrypted homebanking.

Compared some data sheets of digital still video cameras,
but I’m not satisfied with price and quality at the moment.

Called many people by phone, and the odds are good that we’ll
have a big gig at O’Reillys tomorrow evening.

Printed out the Securing RedHat Manual by Kurt Seifried.

Discovered the Bastard User from Hell release, but it is far
from
being half as good as the original BOFH, therefor it isn’t
linked
either.

Urgently have to find out how to install differnt desktop
themes
for Gnome from the GTK+ packages.

23rd august 1998

Time to say goodbye to some good friends and there dog,
which will move to spain the next days.
So this will be a barbeque-only day.

22nd august 1998

An aweful day, started with an emergency call at 1:30 AM,
the backbone had problems, fortunately everything went OK
just 40 minutes later, so I get back to sleep, just to
get into the same situation at 7:30 AM.

I hate those saturdays.

Tried to do the volume changes on a netware server, that I’ve
planned a few days ago and had to learn, that some stupid
users have filled additional 600 MB’s of the first volume.
The bad thing is thess are 400 MB too much.
Now I’ve got to do a full backup and restore someday to get
the
changes affect, instead of simply copying on the same
harddisk.

Got the new Netscape 4.06 but don’t know how to use the
internet
keywords yet. Also my 128 encryption support has gone with
this
update. Time to get a new fortifier.

Tried to update gnome from 0.13 to 0.28 but missed to
download
one or two essential libs. Also gnotes, ee-0.2 wont work.

Analyzed the 2.0.36pre6 patch, but there’s nothin of interest
for me. Just Linux ROSE updates (X.25 PLP) some 3com
netdriver,
pci, processor and smp update stuff.

21st august 1998

Did I mention the Netware server crash yesterday evening ???
Mirroring wasn’t even completed this morning.

But I now know why the discport doesn’t connect in the last
days.
Just plug it into a neighbour network, so that a router
answers
the GNS-Queries instead of the server, and you’ll never
experience
timing problems.

Processed all our AIX’s and deleted logfiles and error
reports.

Got some great lyrics from Tom, Beatles for Sysadmins.
I’ll put them right here tomorrow.

Payed the bill for my second ISP.

20th august 1998

Did some cost calculation for our FFM stuff and had a
phonecall
with Gerd who is designing the first LINUX.STUN.DE logos.

Get very angry when trying to reconnect a Microtest Discport
to a Netware server. Damn, I hate those graphical interfaces.

19th august 1998

Had a workshop day and got introduced into Newbridge
Mainstreet
Multiplexers. Really fascinating, especially how easy it must
be
for the secret service agencies to spy out phone and data
connections, without need to be in range. Just copy timeslots
and send them round the globe. Wow….

Yesterday we founded the Linux User Group LINUX.STUN.DE,
so I’ve picked up all the various penguins available on
the web to design our new logo.

18th august 1998

Touch down ! Hey ya I don’t want to see that Maestro
statistics,
this time a Netware-GPF occures when loading servman.
Who said there’s a running Netware 4 server available for
Linux.

Thought about the next saturday reorganization of Netware
volumes.
Could be very easy if nothing stupid happens.

Identified the crying harddisk in our management-Sun, which soon
will
only be good as a sonic stunner for mosquitos.

Tried to get all the Admin-Gurus under one hat, but could
only convince Gerd and with big luck (thanks SUN) Reyk.
See ya at 20:30 at O’Reillys guys.

17th august 1998

Played around with the pilot tools for linux.
Really nice features, you’ll never see somethin’ on MS.

Yet another three CD’s converted. Now my archive is almost
1GB of MP3 audio, which is equal to 1000 minutes or 67 hours
of CD quality music.

Let’s play with DVD-RAM values:
5.2 GB on one DVD-RAM media would be equal to 347 hours or
14.4 days and nights or 2 weeks of audio. Hey that’s a jukebox,
babe.

16th august 1998

A boring day. I think I’ll do nothing today.
Except of converting some more CD’s.

15th august 1998

Faxed some high grade security stuff about Cisco’s IOS to
Reyk.
So if anyone of you is using a public accesible Cisco, get
the
latest security information from CERT.

Converted 5 CD’s today. Time to get the DVD-RAM drive with
5.2GB.
The media-price is just amazing: 70.-DM ! The drive itself
1200.-DM.
This way you should be able to store 130 hours audio in MP3
format
on just one DVD-RAM and you can delete and overwrite it as often
as
you want.

14th august 1998

Today our whole team got introduced into ATM and how to
handle
a faulty backbone, fast-uplink, trace etc…
Great presentation, thanks to Ecky !

Got the answer from C2000, that the BIOS on the harddisk
itself
has some serious bugs and that they should be upgraded before
used for the first time. Great, so if you have an IBM 9 or
18GB
harddisk check for revision 01c0 or later to get lucky.

Mucky is doin’ a 15 hours job today, and don’t seem to be
that
delighted when calling him on the phone. I think I’ll visit
him now, to ease his pain.

And another day comes to an end with a cool Guinness and a
really tasty 8 oz sirloin at O’Reillys.

13th august 1998

Just a more private day…

Opened another case at Computer 2000 to check if there are
problems to Compaq-BIOS or Netware-OS when using 18GB
harddisks.

Yet another CD in MP3 format.

12th august 1998

Got the bill for our domain-registration today.
(Hey, thanks Peter, pretty nice offer.)

Created the first version of the STUN.DE logo
but remember, it’s the first version, just an idea.

Tried to find a web-based notepad for multiuser usage, but
the guestbook applications arond, don’t fulfill these
requirements yet. So I fear we’ll fall back to MS-Access.
(1:0 for World-Domination 99)

Tried some of the ciders, Woody’s drinks , a rusty nail
and Guinness together with Tom in my favourite Irish pub
“Shanannigans”.

11th august 1998

Another day our biggest netware machine crashed.

Did some shopping with Reyk, who will try to install
RedHat 5.1 tonight on his laptop, I guess.
I just hope there are already updates on the new powertools
CD.

It seems that Alan’s 2.0.36pre3 is out.
Damn, if I only would get the time to test the last one.

10th august 1998

Tried to wrote a letter in Kanji, but gave up after the
first sentence. Huhhh… it’s really hard….
I guess, I’ll just try writing a few words in Kana and
the rest of it in english.

Heard some serious critics about RedHat 5.1, for those who
installed it from scratch, which changes my plans running
RH 5.1 on our FFM-box. Maybe we should first install 5.0
and after that upgrade to 5.1.

For myself, I’ll try Debian 2.0 the next days.

9th august 1998

Coverted another three CD’s into MP3 to get my Blues Brothers
Monster Album completed. (est. 3 hours of music on one CD)

Just wait for my Monster Boogie Woogie CD, 13 hours music
on one CD !

Discovered someone holding my PPP-dialup link up for 23 hours
!
Hey, I don’t want to see that bill. God bless you. 0:-]

8th august 1998

Made some important advances in playing boogie piano,
listening to Peter Heger’s CD “Na endlich !”.

Updated my newly designed personal homepage.
I’ll change the layout again, because it’s not really
my style in its curent form.

7th august 1998

Again, updated the boogie pages with Christian Bleiming’s
bio.
Called Henning Pertiet by phone, and in a few days will
receive
some bio too.

Converted CD’s from Alanis Morisette and Eros Ramazotti into
MP3 files.

6th august 1998

Moved to a new system in determining my lottery numbers for
cracking the 35 mio. DM Jackpot this saturday.

Printed out the Linux Gazette august issue.

5th august 1998

Registered our domain stun.de today.

Did a lot of updates to my RedHat system with all the
latest published RPM’s.

Played around with some of the new Gnome applications
and found the useful gicq, gpgp and xwhois.

Downloaded the 2.0.36pre2 patch and discovered 1 MB
new isdn diffs in it !
Maybe this one becomes essential in a few days.

4th august 1998

Install WWWThreads at work, and they were fascinated by it.
So we think about using it as a ToDo list or better as an
case management archive.

Investigated some free domains to register for FFM,
and found one, I’ll register it tomorrow.

Experimented with SAINT, the next generation of SATAN !

3rd august 1998

Installed UFP-Terminal from Ronald Bieber, to enhance my
Intranet
content, for my StarTrek fascinated mailbox-users.
This one is created from UFP-Info and is completely designed in
HTML.

Set up the phone line in Tom’s new appartment. Lot of work to do
Tom,
better start working today than tomorrow, lot of work !!!
Unbelievable lot of work.

2nd august 1998

Just enjoyed the day, lying lazy on my bed and watching TV.

1st august 1998

Bought the Pro-Pilot flightsimulator today and I’m totally
fascinated by its authentic behaviour. The bad thing is,
that this software needs Win 95, the good news: the simulator
itself is from Sierra not MS !
Maybe they’ll port it someday ??? Winking

Sabre for Linux is just too far away from Pro-Pilot, but who
knows, Sabre developement is still in progress…

Received Christian Bleiming’s boogie CD’s, many thanks !!!
Updated the boogie pages.