• Understands most unix commands. mkdir, ls, tar, cat, etc.
• Has a fake filesystem you can actually read/write to.
• Allows use of wget (!) and stores any files downloaded this way in a folder accessible by us.
• Of course, logs all commands.
• Cool tricks:  You can create commands that do nothing but output text. This can make an attacker very confused. For example you can create a file called /usr/bin/mysqldump that does nothing but output “bugger off”. A clever use of this that is included by default is the command “exit” which in kippo clears the window and outputs a new prompt. This makes it appear that you have disconnected from the server back to your machine when in reality you are still connected to kippo and it is logging all your commands!
• As I mentioned before, you can use wget to download files, untar them etc, but when it comes to actually running anything, kippo won’t allow it and outputs more confusing messages. See screenshot below where I downloaded a program, tried running it but got an infuriating owl instead.

Damn funny though. So far I recommend it, and I’m thinking of setting one of these up in amazon open to the world just to see what kind of people wander in. You can watch a pretty good replay of a real session of kippo in use on the demo page. Grab the popcorn.

I’ve never written a line of Ruby before, but it seems like there are some great AWS libraries for it, so I decided to give it a shot. There is a cool library out there called right_aws. You can install it using “#gem install right_aws”. Then simply copy this script:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'right_aws'

        S3ID = "Your AWS ID Here"
        S3KEY = "Your AWS secret key"
        SRCBUCKET = "Source Bucket"
        DESTBUCKET = "Destination Bucket"

        s3 = RightAws::S3Interface.new(S3ID, S3KEY)
        objects = s3.list_bucket(SRCBUCKET)
        objects.each do |o|
        puts("Copying " +  o[:key])
        s3.copy(SRCBUCKET, o[:key], DESTBUCKET, o[:key])
        end
        puts("Done.")

Make sure the file is executable and you should be able to run it via command line on any unix system. To make a generic ruby script get rid of the first line.

I know its pretty brutish, probably sucks in more ways than one, but for now it works. And I think I like Ruby

Font is terminus, btw.

This bash prompt displays a green smiley face or a red frowny face depending on the return status of the last command executed. To use it, insert the following code to the end of your ~/.bashrc file:

PS1=”\[\e[01;32m\]\u@\h \[\e[01;34m\]\W \`if [ \$? = 0 ]; then echo -e ‘\[\e[01;32m\]:)’; else echo -e ‘\[\e[01;31m\]:(‘; fi\` \[\e[01;34m\]$\[\e[00m\]”

Happy (or sad) computing!

http://www.austinriba.com/projects/mytime-time-keeper/

Dell Laptops with model numbers 1555, 1557 and 1558 have issues with suspend and resume on linux, there is a patch, but it has not been included in the latest kernel version yet.

I have sucessfully gotten my new Dell 1558 to sleep and wake using a patch I found here. The patch is for the linx kernel, specifically drivers/acpi/sleep.c It adds just a few lines.

For those of you using Arch Linux, I’ve uploaded the patched kernel packages here:

http://www.austinriba.com/misc/kernel-patched/

If you are using Ubuntu, you can find packages here.

If you are using another distribution, you must apply the patch to your kernel’s source and recompile. Follow the instrucions for whichever distro you use on how to do this. You can find the patch here:

http://www.austinriba.com/misc/kernel-patched/dell.patch

Enjoy your functional laptop!

http://www.fingel.com/misc/awesomedeb.tar.gz

Its a website where you can post scripts, dotfiles, config files, or anything else linux. Other people can comment and rate your stuff. Very cool for us people who love the hand crafted linux enviroment. Check it out! Its text based browser friendly as well!

Here is the breakdown.

The rebellious wallpaper comes from http://gangsterserver.com/ This guy makes some amazing stuff.

The stuff on the right is Conky. You can download my config here.

The embedded terminal on the right is just gnome-terminal with some special settings applied to it from compiz. You can find a howoto here.

Besides that its a basic ubuntu install using the murrina theme.

Mint Linux has some cool custom applications, one of them being mintUpload. It allows you to upload a file in 2 clicks to a FTP server and gives you the URL. Unfortuneatly, Mint doesnt make it easy to confugre the tool to use any service other than its own crappy one. But it is possible.

If you have your own server you want to use with mintUpload, just follow these steps.

1) Create a writeable directory on your webserver where you want the uplaods to go, ex. /httpdocs/uploads

2) Create a file in that directory named “space.html” and put a single line in it: 100000000/100000000 This will tell mintUpload how much space you have, but since its your own server and we dont really care to keep track how much space is left, it will be static.

3) Go to /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpload/services and create a file with the name of your server.

4) Put this in your file:

name=<YourName>
host=<YourHost>
user=<FTP Username>
pass=<FTP Password>
path=<Path to upload folder, ex httpdocs/uploads/>
space=<Path to space.html>
url=<URL to upload directory>/<TIMESTAMP/<FILE>
maxsize=1000000000
persistance=365

Note that <TIMESTAMP> and <FILE> are variables used by mintUpload and you should leave them as they are.

Save the file, and you should now have a working service in mintUpload! This works great, but there was one thing that still annoyed me. mintUpload places the files in subdirectories named from timestamps of the main upload folder. This is great if you are hosting a service that thousands of people will be using and the files will be deleted every so often. But I’m the only one using this service so it would be better if the files went directly into the uploads folder without and subdirectories so they can be easily viewed. To fix that:

1) change url=<path to upload directory>/<TIMESTAMP/<FILE> to url=<path to upload directory>/<FILE>

2) Open /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpload/mintUpload.py and comment out lines 155, 156, 157 and 162. To comment out a line, simply put a # in front of it. ex: #ftp.cwd(directory)

Save the file, now all uploads will go directly into the upload directory without any subdirectories. Cheers!

I plugged in the power and booted up the computer. To my dismay, the box did not pick up any wifi signal. Not even a trace. The computer was sitting in a complete dead zone. To be honest, I was not surprised. The signal had to travel up a floor, to the opposite side of the house, through a kitchen. Kitchens are notoriously bad for wifi, all the equipment tends to block the RF waves.

So I did some research on the net. What could I do to increase my routers power and thus give life to my new jukebox? Thats when this link, like an angel out of heaven, found its way to my eyes.

The EZ 12 from freeantennas.com

Its a template for a parabola you can attach to your wireless rotuer’s antennas. All you have to do is cut out the template, resize it to your liking, glue on some tinfoil and attach it. I made one for each antenna and it only took me about 10 minutes.

The thing worked much better than I would have ever thought! All of a sudden my jukebox could pick up signal, not that great, but better than nothing. I also noticed that the signal strength in my room with my laptop went from 80% to 95% +.

My D-Link router with the windsurfers attached.

The windsurfers work by focusing all of the RF waves in one direction, instead of all directions like the antennas without them. If you are anywhere in front of the direction of the router, you will see a significant increase in signal. From behind, not so much.

The directions on the site say that you need to use thick paper, but I found that regular printer paper works just fine. After you insert the tabs into the reflector, just bend the tabs up and use a piece of scotch tape to hold them there.

Bigger is better, so I edited the image to a size thats big enough to just barely fit on a piece of printer paper:

The Windsurfer Template (click for fullsize)

Enjoy the increased signal! I know I am.