Monthly Archives: February 2005

Apache and IIS on Windows Server 2003

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I am working on a Windows Server 2003 box … it’s been a long
time.  I have to admit that I love and hate the whole graphical
UI.  Once I have spent a couple of days, I start to understand
where all of the options are at, which tabs to use for what, and which
buttons hide what functionality.

I got IIS working with three “virtual servers” for different services
that I was installing.  I’m adding IP addresses to the box so that
I can use SSL on each of these.  Then I ran into problems. 
I’m installing a Open Source project that was built around “JAM” –
Java, Apache, MySQL.

The installation on Windows went well, however I have run into problems
when trying to get IIS and Apache to work well together.  The core
hitch seems to be that when Apache is running, although I tell it to
“Listen 10.0.0.5:80”, it wants to open 80 on *all* of the IP addresses on the box.  Or at least it produces errors that it can’t open 10.0.0.5:80.

Now if I stop IIS, then I can start Apache.  Apache *says* that it
is only listening on 10.0.0.5:80 … however when I then start IIS it
complains that 10.0.0.1:80 through 10.0.0.4:80 are in use!

I’m going to continue to dig, and see if I can get these two technologies working.

AT&T CallVantage VoIP

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I have heard about this service from several friends and they indicate
that it is a really good deal.  They like it a lot better than
Vonage, and say that the web interface for managing your account and
phone number is well done.  I like the fact that it has many of
the features of the older “500” phone service that AT&T used to
offer.

Staples to sell AT&T’s Net phone starter kit. The office supply chain is selling a kit that includes a Linksys router and instructions on how to sign up for CallVantage. [CNET News.com]

Homeland security technologies to watch

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I have to agree with Phil Windley … he posted this on his blog, and I
really like the train of thought on these technologies to watch. 
I too have been watching several of these, but David has added some new
ones to my watch list!

Cost Effective Business Continuity.

David Stephenson writes a blog on Homeland Security. I met him when I was CIO for Utah. H recently published a story on the ten homeland security technologies to watch in 2005. But what caught my eye was his criteria for judging homeland security technologies.

  1. Also having day-in-day-out applications so that they will
    both be familiar in an emergency (i.e., not requiring users to have to
    learn something new when they’re already stressed) and will have
    economic and/or social benefits so their purchase and deployment are
    more easily justified.
  2. Decentralized, so they are less likely to be rendered inoperative by attacks on a centralized switching facility, etc.
  3. In the hands of the general public, so they leverage technology
    that is already in use (and, given the inevitable cost and procurement
    limits of government technology, more current) and that people are
    likely to have with them when disaster strikes, so they can get
    up-to-the minute information.
  4. Location-based, so that we can get away from lowest-common
    denominator evacuation and response plans that are likely to cause
    their own problems such as traffic jams.
  5. Empower the public, because authorities may themselves be
    incapacitated and our fate will be in our own hands, and because we may
    be more likely to listen to trusted friends and/or neighbors than
    distant authorities.
  6. Two-way, so that the general public and/or responders who may be
    the first to come upon an emerging problem can feed information back to
    authorities.
  7. Redundant, because various technologies have distinctive
    strengths and liabilities that may render them unusable, or, make them
    crucial fall-back options.
  8. Allow dissemination of information in advance so they can be
    quickly activated and/or customized in an emergency (instead of
    requiring massive data-dumps in the midst of a crisis).
  9. IP based, because packet-based information will require less bandwidth in a situation where conserving it is crucial.
  10. Foster collaboration, because multiple agencies and
    jurisdictions may be involved and will need to share information from a
    wide range of sources on a real-time basis.

With only a few word changes, this is also a great set of criteria
for judging any technology you put in place for business continuity.

The point about having day-to-day uses is crucial. If you can’t do
that, then you probably ought to outsource that function to a
specialist who makes it there business to test it. A good example is
back-up diesel generators. Just putting one in might make you feel
better, but you probably ought to have a regular maintenance contract
with someone who’ll come test it regularly.

[Phil Windley’s Technometria]

The Global Consciousness Project

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My friend Joe Skehan sent me a link today to this article – “Can this black box see into the future?” –  on The Gobal Consciousness Project. 
Amazing stuff.  I had no idea that anyone was working on anything
like this.  Yes, even the researchers are skeptical … however
they are also seeing patterns.

These researchers are digging deeper into the possibility that there
could be ways to monitor, or more specifically detect, the presence of
a “global consciousness” using a distrbuted set of monitoring nodes
they refer to as “eggs”.  These devices are designed to generate
random numbers, and yet the researchers are able to detect deviations
in these numbers that seem to coincide with major events on
earth.  The first set of quotes that caught my attention was:

Using the internet, he [Dr. Roger Nelson] connected up 40 random event generators from all over
the world to his laboratory computer in Princeton. These ran constantly, day in
day out, generating millions of different pieces of data. Most of the time, the
resulting graph on his computer looked more or less like a flat line.

But then on September 6, 1997, something quite extraordinary happened: the
graph shot upwards, recording a sudden and massive shift in the number sequence
as his machines around the world started reporting huge deviations from the
norm. The day was of historic importance for another reason, too.

For it was the same day that an estimated one billion people around the world
watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey.

The article goes on to give other examples, and the web site
has even more information about the research.  What is even more
interesting is the blend of both scientific and artistic personalities
that are joining on this research.  All of this exploring the
possibility that there are forces at work – detectable forces – that
might indicate that humans have more abilities then we are taught to
believe.

Cool stuff …

Amazing paper on Identity … bodynets …

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Funny what you find on the net!  While reading through some links related to wearable computer research I cam across this great page with some thoughts by Ana Viseu
about “bodynets” and Identity.  Besides that fact that I really
like the look of the web site, I like this train of thought:


Identity, loosely defined as the way we see and present ourselves, is
not static. On the contrary, identity is primarily established in social
interaction. This interaction consists, in its most basic form, of an
exchange of information. In this information exchange individuals define
the images of themselves and of others. This interaction can be mediated-through
a technology, for example-and it can involve entities of all sorts,
e.g., an institution or a technology. I am investigating this interaction
through the study of bodynets.



Bodynets can be thought of as new bridges or interfaces between the
individual and the environment. My working definition of a bodynets
is: A body networked for (potentially) continuous communication with
the environment (humans or computers) through at least one wearable
device-a computer worn on the body that is always on, ready and accessible.
This working definition excludes implants, genetic alterations, dedicated
devices and all other devices that are portable but not wearable, such
as cell phones, smart cards or PDAs.



Besides the matters related to identity, bodynets also raise serious
issues concerning privacy, which in turn feedback on identity changes.
Bodynets are composed of digital technologies, which inherently possess
tracking capabilities, this has major privacy implications.

If you like this, continue reading … there is a lot of additional material.  Whenever I see the University of Toronto, I have to guess that Steve Mann is involved.  These are all important directions to look at.

Problems Installing Fedora with RAID 1

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I have been planning on upgrading my web server for a long time. 
I have the last of my Novell NetWare servers that I am getting rid of,
and I am replacing them with a series of Linux servers running Fedora
Core.  I completed the first of these migrations a while back when
I installed my Linux box with qmail and replaced my old Mercury mail
server on NetWare.

Last night I began the process of installing Linux on a new
system.  I picked up the parts to assemble a nice system in a 19″
rack mount chassis.  2.4Ghz Intel Processor on a Intel 865
Motherboard.  1GB of RAM, and dual 250GB hard disks.  I got
the dual 250GB disks so that I can “mirror” them using RAID 1.

Everything went well … almost.  I spent four+ hours last night
installing over and over again since everything would appear to go
well, and the the server just would not boot.  I read a lot of
posts on-line, but nothing offered seemed to solve my problem.  I
finally noticed that when the system had been assembled, the first hard
disk was “master” on the primary IDE channel, and the second hard disk
was “slave” on the secondary IDE channel.  There was no master
device on the secondary IDE channel, so this morning I opened the case,
and changed the second hard disk to “master” … and everything worked!

So my experience is now:  When installing, have your two hard disks both be masters on the two IDE channels and things go a lot easier!

So what did I do to configure the RAID?  It was actually pretty easy except for the problem above.

  1. Using the Disk Druid tool,
    I created three “Software RAID” partitions on my first hard disk by
    clicking the RAID button.  I created the first one for the /boot partition at 100MB, the second one for swap at 2000MB, and then the third for the / (root) partition that used the rest of the disk.
  2. Next, I did the same to the second hard disk.  So now both
    of the disks each had three “Software RAID” partitions that were the
    correct sizes.
  3. I then created the RAID 1 devices one by one.  I first
    created the md0 partition with a mount point of  “/boot” and a
    file system type of “ext3”.  Also, make sure to select RAID
    1!  I then selected the two 100MB partitions.
  4. Second was the “swap” partition.  I set it to md1 and
    selected the file system type of “swap”, and again set this for RAID1
    and then selected the two 2000MB partitions.
  5. Last, I created the root “/” partition by setting that as the
    mount point, setting it to be md2 and RAID 1, and then selecting the
    remaining two partitions.
  6. Upon completing this, Disk Druid showed the three RAID Devices – md0 (/boot), md1 (swap), and md2 (/) and I was done.

As I proceeded through the rest of the installation, it went smooth
with no other problems.  The server installation completed and
rebooted just fine!

I got the system installed in my rack at the office, and immediately
came home to ssh in and apply updates.  The up2date session is
completing as I type this.  I have a few more things to tweak, and
then adjust some services, and then I can begin the process of
installing a bunch of new code!