2011-11-28 00:00:00
The BoKS database can be an interesting place to poke around, "mysterious" at times. For example, there's the enigmatic "FLAGS" field which resides in table 1, the user data table. Among the usual user information (name, host group, user class, password, GID, UID, etc) there's the "FLAGS" field which contains a numerical value. What this numerical value represents isn't clear to the untrained eye.
The "FLAGS" number is a decimal representation of a hexadecimal number, where each digit represents a number of flags. The value of each digit is determined by adding the values of the flags enabled for the user. You could compare it to Unix file permission values, like 750 or 644, there each digit is an addition of values 1, 2 and 4 (x, w and r).
Below you'll find a table of the flags that can be set for any given user account.
Max. valueF3E3
| Flag | MSD | LSD | ||
| User deleted | - | - | - | 1 |
| User blocked | - | - | - | 2 |
| Timeout not depend on CPU | - | - | 2 | - |
| Timeout not depend on tty | - | - | 4 | - |
| Timeout not depend on screen | - | - | 8 | - |
| Windows local host account | - | 1 | - | - |
| Windows domain account | - | 2 | - | - |
| Lock at timeout, no logout | 1 | - | - | - |
| User must change password | 2 | - | - | - |
| Manage secondary groups | 4 | - | - | - |
| Check local udata | 8 | - | - | - |
So for example, a value of 16386 equals a value of 0x4002, which means that the user is blocked and that BoKS is used to push his secondary group settings to the /etc/group file on each server.
kilala.nl tags: boks, sysadmin,
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2011-11-27 15:18:00
I can't even remember how I stumbled up on it earlier today, but I've so far wasted two hours reading through all the über-cool stuff at How to be a retronaut. The website gathers thousands of photographs of vintage architecture, adverts, technology and WTFs. The following four are part of the first Retronautic WTF collection.
There's just too much to read! Awesomely cool stuff, like a reproduction of a nazi stealth bomber, like the Parisian l'enfer "hell café", the lesbian erotica book covers from the fifties, the medicine adverts through the first part of the 20th century and a visit to 1960's Bell Labs. Or the photo collection of 1980's game arcades and the post-WWII monuments of Yugoslavia. Great stuff!
kilala.nl tags: wtf, internet,
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2011-11-26 16:29:00
I really enjoy Vote's MLP-FiM poster designs. The knock-offs of Obama's "HOPE" poster are absolutely great!
Recently I've been having an itch to do some creative work again, so I broke out Marli's old painting supplies. We still had plenty of acrylics lying around and one last canvas. My fave of the bunch is Princess Celestia's "OBEY" poster, mostly because of the brony opinion that Celestia isn't the benign ruler that she's made out to be.
In roughly four hours I made the copy shown on the left. It's not great, not even really good, but I like it nonetheless. My line work sucks and the original sketch was much better than the end result. But still: it gave me something fun to do and I got to try something completely new: acrylics.
Just now I noticed that I forgot to put in the final details on her robe and her crown. *facepalm* I'll need to add those :)
Today we went out and bought a few more canvases. I'd like to make four additional posters, to make a full set for my home office. Twilight's "READ", Applejack's "BUCK" and Fluttershy's "LOVE". And finally I'd like to turn angry Twilight's "Do your homework!" into a "HOMEWORK" poser as well :)
EDIT:
Started work on the "READ" poster. While working on "OBEY" I -thought- I was already watering down the paint enough, but boy was I wrong. Waaaaay too thick. This time around the blues and reds are much easier to work with! And the detailing on Celestia's crown was also much easier to add than I'd expected it to be.
kilala.nl tags: geeky, creative,
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2011-11-26 16:06:00
Sinterklaas is back. Or actually, he's been in the country for over two weeks now. But instead of going to the traditional reception of the "saint" in Almere, we visited the Frisian village of Sint Nicolaasga. Marli's mother Janny, an active politician for the Skarsterlan municipality, is deputy mayor and was appointed to welcome saint Nick on behalf of the town's 3300 citizens.
The saint was rowed into town by ten townsfolk and boy did they pick a huge guy to play the role! Marli and her mother are pretty tall by dutch standards, but this guy even towered over them! Dana enjoyed the small outing and was very happy to have shook the saint's hand. Like last year she wasn't afraid at all ^_^
kilala.nl tags: baby,
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2011-11-14 09:53:00
Little over a year after re-assuming our staff role for the Anime 200x festivals we have finally decided to call it quits. Forever.
It's been quite a ride, but by now it's lost all of its enjoyment value for the both of us. Dealing with the commercial and doujin vendors really isn't my idea of fun, as it's too much akin to what I do in daily life: parlay with happy and often unhappy customers, trying to give everyone what they want, while also making sure it fits in what -we-, the festival, want. After a few run-ins with both vendors and younger volunteers even the work at the festival site has become less than fun.
All things considered we recently asked our "manager" Mattijs to look for a replacement. Within two weeks everybody was happy to know that we will be succeeded by our volunteer Arianne, who has two years of experience dealing with our vendors.
So... 2002 was my first festival visit. In 2003 I gophered. For 2004 I was team manager and 2005 - 2007 I was staff member in charge of events and the dealer room, while Marli gophered. In 2008 Marli is staffer in charge of the dealer room and I volunteer. 2009 - 2010 we were visitors with some gophering thrown in. 2011 we were back to being staffers.
What will 2012 bring? Marli will probably not attend at all, opting to visit Dana's grandparents. I'll be attending as a visitor, possibly bringing along some new people from kendo class and our neighbors. And in the mean time I'll keep bombaring Kaj's mailbox with questions for The Quiz(tm). ^_^
It's been quite a ride, with its ups and downs. Quite a rollercoaster really. I'm glad I got on, but now (weak in the knees) I'm also glad to get off.
kilala.nl tags: anime200x, anime2012,
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2011-11-13 13:14:00
As I wrote before I bought a number of omamori when we were in Japan: amulets purchased at temples, for various purposes. For example: the one I bought for Marli is for a happy marriage, but there's plenty of other kinds. Good luck, aid in studies, good health, and plenty, plenty more.
For my dojo's sensei and trainers I bought charms from the Hakozaki shrine, dedicated to Hachiman (a god of war and harvest). The ones I bought were for success in sports and seeing how Hachiman is protector of warriors I reckoned that was appropriate for kendoka and kenshi. It gladdens me that my teachers were happy with the token of appreciation and at least two of them now wear their omamori on the inside of their do.
Now it's time to delve a little into the one I bought for myself. Bought at the Todaiji temple in Nara the origin is a bit of a contrast with my teachers' amulets. Hakozaki's shrine is shintoistic and dedicated to a god of war, while Todaiji is a buddhist temple; we all know the buddhist's take on violence.
The creature, or person, depicted on my omari is Misshaku Kongō (密迹金剛), also called Agyō (阿形), one of the two Nio: wrathful and strong guardians of the Buddha. To quote Wikipedia:
"They are manifestations of the Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi protector deity and are part of the Mahayana pantheon. According to Japanese tradition, they travelled with the historical Buddha to protect him. Within the generally pacifist traditions of Buddhism, stories of Niō guardians like Kongōrikishi justified the use of physical force to protect cherished values and beliefs against evil."
Agyō is a symbol of overt violent, as oppsoed to Ungyō who symbolizes latent strength. I reckon both make great deities for a bit of backup in kendo ^_^
Funnily enough, Flickr user GreenTea has the exact same omamori on his (or her?) do. The fine people at Miyako Kendogu also sell an omamori specifically for success in kendo, however Andy Fisher later told me this is not actually a blessed amulet, but instead "rather they are more of a novelty/souvenir type omamori". Of course the best places to buy omamori for budo sports is from the Katori and Kashima shrines, origin of budo. Those shrines were out of our way though, being east of Tokyo.
Interestingly I've learned that Amsterdam is home to Europe's only shinto shrine: Guji Holland Yamakage Shinto Shrine. At least there's a place close to home where we can safely (or at least in a traditional fashion) dispose of the omamori once they have served their purpose.
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2011-11-12 15:22:00
I've had a headcold all week, but decided to go to kendo practice anyway. I've been missing waaaaay too many classes, between our holiday and last week's absence (Dana and Marli were ill). Aside from my kiai lacking severely (slimy vocal chords) it was a very educational class.
Warmup was different, with a few less stretches than normal and no footwork or running at all. On the other hand, before that the group did longer kata practice than usual. We immediately went into kihon, doing kirikaeshi, various men strikes and kote-men sequences. After that the groups were split between bogu wearing folks and those without armor. My smaller group practiced maki waza (where you gain center by spinning your opponent's shinai in a loop) and hiki-men (where one strikes men on a backwards lunge).
Lessons to take away from today's class:
Class was finished with kakari geiko and uchikomi geiko: basically, each of us gets to attach the teacher as often and as fast as possible for X amount of time.
Sadly I can't partake in tomorrow's "central training" where a few dozen kendoka from all over the Netherlands gather. Full armour is a requirement, so that's it for me. I hope to have my kendo glasses completed by january, so I can attend the next practice. Speaking of, you can see the glasses in the photograph.
kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,
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2011-11-11 21:03:00
Another year, another Sint Maarten. Luckily, unlike last year, we had good weather.
We took Dana past a few doors, only a few, then went back for dinner and to hand out candy to other kids. And now? We're watching Ink Heart, which I'm enjoying quite a lot :)
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2011-11-05 22:46:00
I've been reading more and more of Jinju Ito's works, not all of them as scary as Uzumaki. This awesome, special delivery comes courtesy of Gyo ('the fish'), about a sudden infestation of biomech fish zombies ^_^
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2011-11-04 12:03:00
So, the state of Michigan passed a "no bullying" law recently. Good going, right?! Sure! Except that it contains the following:
(8) This section does not abridge the rights under the First Amendment of the constitution of the United States or under article I of the state constitution of 1963 of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil's parent or guardian. This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil's parent or guardian.
Basically: it's not bullying if what you say is brought on by your religion. Your classmates, and teachers can all call you an evil fscking faggot, as long as they claim that this is what the bible teaches them.
Read more here. Or over here, for the Reddit discussion about the law.
In the Reddit thread Fswizz rightly asks why this is a big deal. Why are we even having a "no bullying" law and isn't is part of the first ammendment? "So we're for free speech, but against certain types of speech?"
To which CandyStripedlegs replies: "This bill is about children in school. if you are an adult and you bully someone, they will either shrug it off [or sue for harassment]. School children don't have the same options, and most of them aren't emotionally mature enough to just ignore what people say."
EDIT:I stand corrected, it's not a law yet. The bill has been passed, but hasn't been signed into law yet.
kilala.nl tags: meh,
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2011-11-04 00:00:00
Another fun one!
Case: Customer attempts to login, succeeds, then gets kicked from the system immediately with a session disconnect from the server. The BoKS transaction log however does not show any record of the login attempt.
Symptoms:
Troubleshooting:
Debugging:
Trace shows failure when forking shell for customer.
debug2: User child is on pid 495766
debug3: mm_request_receive entering
Failed to set process credentials
boks_sshd@server[9] :369851 in debug_log_printit: called. Failed to set process credentials 15 12 12
boks_sshd@server[9] :370000 in debug_log_printit: not in cache, add
boks_sshd@server[9] :370092 in addlog: add Failed to set process credentials 15 12 12 (head = 0x0)
boks_sshd@server[9] :370233 in addlog: head = 0x20332b28
Cause:
After doing a quick Google search, we concluded that customer's shell could not be forked due to a missing primary group on the server. Lo and behold! His primary group had not been pushed to the server by BoKS. This in turn was caused by corruption in AIX's local security files, which can be cleared up easily enough using usrck, pwdck and grpck.
This however does not explain why there was no transaction log entry for these logins. Because by all means this was a successful BoKS login: authentication and authorization had both gone through completely.
Hypothesis and additional test:
We reckon that the BoKS log system call for the "succesful login" message is only sent once a process has been forked, so on authentication+authorization+first fork. As opposed to on authentication+authorization as we would expect.
To test another case we switched a user's shell to a nonexistent one. When the user now logs in this -does- generate the "succesful login" message. This further muddles when the BoKS logging calls get done. FoxT is on the case and has confirmed the bug.
kilala.nl tags: boks, sysadmin,
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2011-11-03 21:38:00
Recently Tofugu (one of the many blogs on Japanese culture which I follow) ran the article Junji Ito, master of Japanese horror (Junji Ito on Wiki). Let me tell you, Junji-san writes some fscked up stuff! So far I've read The Enigma at Amigara Fault and Uzumaki. While the prior is simply mysterious and eerie, the latter is creepy, unsettling and contains plenty of gore >_> It's the first time for me reading stuff like this and... It really is like H.P. Lovecraft has started drawing comics.
In March I read Dragon Head, which is completely realistic in the horror it portrays and that was just about as eerie as this stuff. The scariness feels the same between all these titles, it's just that the source behind it is different. With Dragon Head it was about the human mind and how 'bad' humans can be. With Uzumaki it's all supernatural and gore.
I'll honestly say that I can only recommend reading Junji Ito's stuff if you're really into horror. If you're still in doubt, just read Tofugu's article, which I linked at the start of this post. It provides some examples.
kilala.nl tags: manga,
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2011-11-01 20:42:00
This evening I was greeted with a great surprise! Absolutely wonderful to be challenged in such a way on short notice! Can you tell I'm being sarcastic?
Next to the washing machine I found two sodden pieces of clothes. "Odd", I thought to myself "Marli must've dropped them when putting stuff in the dryer." Which is when I noticed the puddle. And the crooked flooring. And the moist concrete below our central heater. And more water behind the washer and dryer. Joy. =_=
Checking a few things I quickly determined that this did not involve hardware failure of either piece of hardware. Nor were any of the tubes leaky. So where the heck does the water come from? Turns out it was the drainage pipe into which the washer's pipe feeds. Waste water was flowing back up the pipe and thus down onto the floor again. Judging by the state of the floor (wood) this crap has been going on for at least a week, while Marli was doing catch-up laundry after our holiday. I just wish we'd caught it sooner.
One might recall I've griped about our house's previous owner before. And it's that time again! I expected to find a clog in the drain's trap, so wanted to open it up. Lo and behold! The screw cap had been painted over, with the same gritty paint that's been applied to all the walls. =_= After chipping at it with a screwdriver for a few minutes I got the cap to open.
There we go! A ball of lint was stuck in there, but what's worse: so was a piece of rubber piping! WTF? o_O
I've no clue where the tube came from. Either it was already in there when we bought it, or it fell off our washer's hose somehow. Took all that stuff out and now everything seems to be okay again. Keeping an eagle's eye on it though.... >_>
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All content, with exception of "borrowed" blogpost images, or unless otherwise indicated, is copyright of Thomas Sluyter. The character Kilala the cat-demon is copyright of Rumiko Takahashi and used here without permission.