http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog Users.JasonHill's blog en-us Copyright 2008 by contributing authors Webmaster [webmaster@qbfreak.net] Webmaster [webmaster@qbfreak.net] QBFreak.net http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/TWiki/TWikiLogos/T-logo-140x40-t.gif http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/BlogAbout <p /> JasonHill 2008-05-31T06:41:00Z JasonHill http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry5 The faucets in my shower don't shut off all the way, so they drip constantly. Currently the money is not there to get them replaced. Simple fixes have been tried before, but the entire faucet simply needs to be replaced. <p /> I'm not in the bathroom enough for the dripping to bother me, however as the droplets reach the bottom, they splash all over the floor and sides of the tub. Because the tub is constantly damp, it is prone to growing things. I don't like things growing in my shower :). It is time for a solution!<p /><a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/drip_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/drip_small.jpg"></a> <p /> Initially I tried streching a balloon over the faucet, thinking it would fill up and I could empty it daily. The force of the balloon was stronger than the weight of the water in it, and it just ran out around the faucet after only a few minutes. So if I can't capture the water, what can I do? I can direct it. <p /> The plan was to purchase some small tubing and a plastic funnel. The funnel would hang from the faucet to collect the water, and the tubing would run down through a hole in the drain to reduce the amount of water in the tub. <p /> <strong>The location</strong> <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/shower_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/shower_small.jpg"></a> <p /> <strong>Supplies required:</strong> <ul> <li> A small plastic funnel. It should be just slightly larger than the faucet head. Mine had a very handy tab that I used to mount it </li> <li> Some tubing, I chose clear plastic. It needs to fit snugly over the end of the funnel. It also needs to be long enough to reach from the faucet to the drain </li> <li> A hose clamp. Just large enough to slip over the faucet </li> <li> Some rubber sheeting. I used crafting foam-rubber sheets that I had lying around </li></ul> <p /> <strong>Tools required</strong> <ul> <li> Nutdriver or screwdriver for the hose clamp </li> <li> Scissors to cut the tubing and rubber sheeting </li></ul> <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/funnels_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/funnels_small.jpg"></a> <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/hose_clamp_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/hose_clamp_small.jpg"></a> <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/tools_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/tools_small.jpg"></a> <p /> My funnels came in a set, so I laid them out and choose one that fit the tubing the best. In this case it was the smallest one. I then carefully attached the hose to the funnel by pushing it over the end. Sadly I cracked my funnel, but it hasn't affected its performance. <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/funnel_with_hose_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/funnel_with_hose_small.jpg"></a> <p /> Next I created the mount for the funnel. Because my funnel had a nice plastic tab on one side I knew I could use a hose clamp to attach it to the faucet. Even better, the faucet shrinks as it reaches the end. This means that when tight, the hose clamp still will leave some room towards the opening that I can just slip the funnel into. This makes it easy to remove when I take my monthly shower. The hose clamp would not grip the faucet on its own, so I used a piece of foam rubber to keep it from slipping. <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/clamped_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/clamped_small.jpg"></a> <p /> Here you can see the underside of it, where the tab on the funnel will go: <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/clamped_drip_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/clamped_drip_small.jpg"></a> <p /> Once the clamp was in place, I slid the funnel tab between it and the bottom of the faucet. It worked beautifully. <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/funnel_attached_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/funnel_attached_small.jpg"></a> <p /> I then cut the end of the tubing to be slightly longer than required to reach the drain, and pushed the end through one of the drain holes. <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/hose_in_drain_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/hose_in_drain_small.jpg"></a> <p /> Once I was complete, it worked exactly as expected. As John "Hannibal" Smith says, I love it when a plan comes together. <p /> <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/finished_product_large.jpg" target="_top"><img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/Main/ShowerDripPictures/finished_product_small.jpg"></a> JasonHill 2007-05-21T20:00:00Z Hacks JasonHill http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry4 I don't remember how I got here, but I started playing around with <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://widgets.yahoo.com/" target="_top">Yahoo <nop>Widgets</a>, formerly known as Konfabulator. Judging by the number of widgets available, they didn't look like they were too hard to write, so I downloaded the SDK. Today, I announce my first widget.<p />Ok, so its not a huge deal, and its not the most useful widget either. I'm not very good at naming things, so its named 'Process It'. When you drag a file onto the gear in the center of the widget, it runs a program and passes the file on the command line. There is a preference that allows you to change the command line. You can find the widget over in <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Programs/ProcessItWidgetProg" class="twikiLink">Programs.ProcessItWidgetProg</a>. <p /> <p /> JasonHill 2006-08-17T11:36:00Z Tech JasonHill http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry3 Its official, I'm crazy. I'm finally going through with my idea to stuff a PC inside of my bookshelf stereo.<p />This is not a new idea, it has come up several times in the past. Recently I acquired an 700Mhz Celeron Gateway. The system was tiny, and opening it up revealed a mini-ATX board and an equally small power supply. <p /> The plan is to replace the all of the stereo electronics with the PC, interface the existing buttons and display, and connect the dual-cassette deck to an audio input. The non-functional 3-disc CD changer will be replaced by a single CD-ROM drive or possibly a CD-RW drive. An LIRC-compatible infrared receiver will be used to provide remote control functionality. The whole system will have little hard-drive space, relying on a network server or streaming stations. Network connectivity will more than likely be wireless, I recently purchased a USB wireless network adapter. At some point I'd like to find a cheap PC-based FM tuner (PCI or USB) that is GNU/Linux compatible. <p /> The most frustration problem with the board I'm using is that it with virtually no ports other than USB. External connections consist of 5x USB, VGA out, Line out, Line in, Mic, and Modem. Internally there are three audio headers (CD-ROM, Video and one other), and one RS-232 serial header. This leaves USB for keyboard (which will not normally be used), display/front-button interface, and network. The serial port will be used for the infrared receiver. The internal CD-ROM drive will connect to one audio header, the cassette deck to another, and an external audio input will possibly connect to the third. <p /> From a software standpoint the system will run <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://www.zenwalk.org" target="_top">Zenwalk <nop>Linux</a>, formerly <nop>MiniSlack Linux. I've used it before for a few different systems, including a automatic CD/DVD duplicator. All control will happen either over the network (whether through a web or other interface), or by infrared remote control. <p /> The goal is to build a complete replacement for my ailing stereo, with additional functionality to integrate it into a networked environment. This goal can be met with the hardware I currently have, with two exceptions. Currently there will be no FM radio support and there will be no internal amplifier. I may be able to correct the second exception by either building a new amplifier out of the old components (outside of my expertise), or by including a small amplifier inside of the device (pulled from a set of PC speakers for instance). <p /> The biggest obstacle currently is constructing a USB interface for the VFD display and the front-panel buttons. After some research and reverse-engineering I have determined that I will be able to control the VFD display with a custom controller. I talked to a friend who took a number of electronics classes and we have developed a rough plan and selected the needed hardware. Hopefully interface construction can begin next week. <p /> This has a lot of potential to be a fun and extremely useful project. I'm hoping there will be no major setbacks with hardware compatibility or simply making it all fit in the existing case. JasonHill 2006-05-12T23:24:00Z Tech JasonHill http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry2 Every so often I receive PayPal and Citibank phishing messages. A quick look around with google didn't turn up a whole lot. There are a few sites (such as <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://www.antiphishing.org/" target="_top">http://www.antiphishing.org/</a> ) to report phishing, but I found next-to-nothing on what the ordinary person can do beyond filing a report. Generally when I get a phishing message I'll report it to the proper authorities and then fill out the fake "Paypal" or "Citibank" form with snide comments in all the fields. This got me to thinking, what if we filled in so much false data that they couldn't find the good data? It could be called stuffing, sort of like stuffing a ballot box such that the ballot counters can't tell which votes are real and which aren't.<p />Using this idea, I put together a shell script that could post to the standard Paypal phishing site. After a little research I was able to write a perl script that could generate credit card numbers with the appropriate check-digit to pass the MOD10 test. Soon I had wget posting a new bogus number (and accompanying bogus email address, pin number, etc) every 10 minutes. <p /> After sharing my script and swapping site URLs with another user in #utah (on <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://freenode.org/">Freenode</a>) we discussed the idea of building a system to allow others to easilly share and stuff garbage data into phishing sites. <p /> The idea is to design some sort of XML spec that could describe a phishing site. It would list the fields to be filled in, what type data goes in them, etc. Using a web interface, people could report the phishing sites they come across. Once reported, duplicates are thrown out, sites are checked to ensure that the system isn't being abused, and an XML description is generated. Remote clients for various platforms would be available to download the XML descriptions and periodically post data to the phishing sites. The more machines posting good-looking data at random intervals, the harder it will be to sort out the good and bad data. <p /> At some point between job hunting and work I really need to work on this. I'm surprised I havn't found a group of people already doing this. JasonHill 2006-04-18T19:44:00Z Tech JasonHill http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry1 QBFreak.net is being taken over by <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://twiki.org/" target="_top">TWiki</a>!<p />As you can see, I finally converted my site to use <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://twiki.org" target="_top">TWiki</a> instead of my custom-hacked PHP scripts. I'm hoping this will help me learn more about <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev.TWikiApplications" target="_top">TWiki applications</a>. I also finished the upgrade over on <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://mare.qbfreak.net" target="_top">TWiki <nop>MARE</a>. Between the two I have several minor bugs I need to post over on develop.twiki.org. <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://twiki.org" target="_top">TWiki</a> seems to be slowly invading my little corner of the internet <img src="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/pub/TWiki/SmiliesPlugin/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" border="0" /> <p /> A big thanks to everyone on <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev.TWikiIRC" target="_top">#twiki</a>, without them I wouldn't have gotten this far. JasonHill 2006-03-22T00:55:00Z Tech JasonHill http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry0 This is a <b>blog</b>ging set<b>up</b> for TWiki. <p />Visit the <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://jojowiki.dyndns.org/Blog/BlogDev" target="_top">BlogDev</a> to track latest news on the development of this setup. <p /> First steps to complete this Blog: <ul> <li> The _BlogPlugin web is the template web for a set of blog webs on your <nop>QBFreak.net. Use <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/TWiki/ManagingWebs#Adding_a_New_Web" class="twikiAnchorLink">ManagingWebs</a> to create a new web. </li> <li> unfortunately not everything is adjusted to derive some NewBlog from the _BlogPlugin template: you need to copy templates/_BlogPlugin to templates/NewBlog; edit NewBlog.WebPreferences and replace _BlogPlugin with NewBlog; edit the <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/BlogAbout" class="twikiLink">BlogAbout</a> to describe your blog </li> <li> Revise the access rights on <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/WebPreferences" class="twikiLink">WebPreferences</a>. By default commenting is open to everybody. You might restrict it to registered users only by adding TWikiGuest to the DENYWEBCHANGE variable. </li> <li> Revise the two blog related groups <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Users/BlogAuthorGroup" class="twikiLink">BlogAuthorGroup</a> and <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Users/BlogAdminGroup" class="twikiLink">BlogAdminGroup</a>. </li> <li> The WebHome and all other <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/FrontPage" class="twikiLink">FrontPages</a> have a specific way of selecting which articles are to be displayed, which of them as in full or only as teasers. You may edit <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/WebHome" class="twikiLink">WebHome</a> and the other <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/TopicFunction" class="twikiLink">TopicFunctions</a> to match your needs. Think of the BlogUp more of a blog construction set. </li> <li> Recent comments are listed in the sidebar as long as they didn't get too old. So your blog will only show comment activities within a recent time period. Edit <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/RenderRecentComments" class="twikiLink">RenderRecentComments</a> and change the "age" parameter (epoch seconds) to your needs. </li> <li> The sidebar is divided into several sections to be displayed on different levels of the application. You might want to adjust them to fit your needs, e.g. show recent visitors using <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/RenderVisitors" class="twikiLink">RenderVisitors</a> which uses the <a class="natExternalLink" target="_blank" href="http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins.UserInfoPlugin" title="'Plugins.UserInfoPlugin' on TWiki.org">TWiki:Plugins.UserInfoPlugin</a> to display the visitors of today or add your technorati code to the <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/WebPreferences" class="twikiLink">WebPreferences</a> to display your technorati connection in the sidebar </li> <li> There's a set of <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/AdminTool" class="twikiLink">AdminTools</a> which are displayed using the <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/RenderAdminTools" class="twikiLink">RenderAdminTools</a> TopicFunction and displayed in the sidebar if you are member of the <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Users/BlogAdminGroup" class="twikiLink">BlogAdminGroup</a>. </li> <li> Finally, set the state of this BlogEntry to "disabled" to prevent it to be published on your blog. </li></ul> <p /> Use <a href="http://qbfreak.net/twiki/bin/view/Blog/TestBlogEntry0" title="permalink to <nop>TestBlogEntry0">Let's get blogged (13 Aug 2005)</a> to test aspects of this blogging application. <p /> <p /> MichaelDaum 2005-08-20T11:38:00Z BlogDev TWikiAdminGroup