We need you to help over come the well funded lobbying effort to create these laws!  Some opponents of PIPA and SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX), Tim O’Reilly.

To find out how you representative is voting go to SOPA Opera to find out.  Then contact them and tell them how you feel about keeping the Internet a fair and open place to socialize and work.

Here are some of the people and companies that are working against your interests and for their own profit: RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, Time Warner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters, Rupert Murdoch, Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI), Michael F. Bennet (D-CO).

To create the signature file for a directory’s and sub-directories’ files use the following commands in a Linux or Mac OS X command window:

cd /usr/local/bin
cfv -C -rr -f bin.sha1 -t sha1
gpg -sab bin.sha1

To verify the file signatures use the following commands:

cd /usr/local/bin
gpg --verify bin.sha1.asc
cfv -M -f bin.sha1

The gpg command verifies the integrity of the signature file (bin.sha1).  The cfv command then verifies all the files originally tested when creating the signature file.

To use this service, I use a variety of tools including command-line utility called s3cmd, on my Linux systems to synchronize directories and upload/download files.  Synchronizing a directory is as simple as:

s3cmd sync /home/dirk/data s3://bta-bucket/dirk/

This will create a “directory” data in the S3 “directory” bta-bucket/dirk; upload the files that have changed or do not exist on S3 and store file metadata date/time information to make all this possible.  The only problem I have run into is s3cmd’s get and put commands do not use this file metadata to set the file modification time.  This prevents using get and put where you have used the sync command, because the file modification time will not be saved (in S3 headers) or set (on local PC) with get and put.  So to restore one file to a directory AND set the file modification time set during the sync upload use the following command:

s3cmd sync s3://bta-bucket/dirk/data/somefile.ods /home/dirk/data/somefile.ods

The local file date should match the original file’s modification date/time.  Note: the date/time shown by the s3cmd ls command is the upload date/time, NOT the file modification date/time.  The file metadata is stored in the S3 metadata headers with the Key  = “x-amz-meta-s3cmd-attrs” with a Value similar to: “uid:1000/gname:dirk/uname:dirk/gid:1000/mode:33188/mtime:1302623148/atime:1311007748/ctime:1302627027″ to hold the file information.

Other S3 utilities save file metadata in different and incompatible ways, so be careful in choosing your S3 backup software and remember that changing to another utility may cause problems with synchronization based on the file modification date/time.

For Windows users, there is a free client called DragonDisk that uses S3 for file storage.  I have not used it, so this is not a recommendation.

After tracing the strings through several libraries, I found the culprit.  The following SQL statement was the source of the text.

SELECT ID, CONCAT(sDescription, ' (', ID, ')') FROM ProdFamily;

Where ID is a integer key for the table and sDescription is a varchar column.  The result of the CONCAT function is a “binary string” because of the integer column as one of the operands.  The end result is that this “binary string” was treated differently than a regular UTF-8 string and characters outside the normal ASCII ones were not display correctly.  To fix this issue the CAST function must be added to set the type of the ID column to string as follows.

SELECT ID, CONCAT(sDescription, ' (', CAST(ID AS CHAR), ')') FROM ProdFamily

See MySQL CONCAT or CAST function documentation for more information.

CREATE TRIGGER `TableName_dtColumn_default` BEFORE INSERT ON `TableName`  FOR EACH ROW SET NEW.dtColumn = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;

Replace “TableName” with your table’s name and “dtColumn” with your date/time column’s name.  Also the trigger name, “TableName_dtColumn_default” in this example, must be unique within a schema.

MySQL triggers are a very versatile feature.  For more details about creating and using triggers see the MySQL documentation for CREATE TRIGGER syntax.

I am currently writing this post on my Delta flight from 36,000 feet, flying at 500 mph over Missouri using a service called GoGo Inflight Internet.  The service is a little pricey at $12.95 per flight, but other options are available and would be worth it if you fly alot and need to use the Internet.

Also Internet access was available for free at many restaurants that I frequented on my vacation, usually requiring a pass code, but in most cases free.  Denver International Airport (DIA, DEN) has provided free wireless Internet access for several years.  I was kind of surprised while waiting for a connection in Atlanta that they do not provide free Internet access.  The Atlanta airport does have several wireless access services available that will charge your credit card for 24 hours of access, but I only needed it for an hour or two between flights.  If the Turtle Bakery in Akumal, Mexico can provide free wireless Internet, why can’t Atlanta.  Come on Atlanta, try to keep up with Denver and Akumal!

So, from 38,000 feet over Grand Island, Nebraska, adiós for now.

I have tried several solutions to this device/adapter linking problem. First, I tried putting labels on the adapters and writing the device on the label. Just a month or two later the label would come off, mostly due to the heat of the adapter.

Well my most recent solution seems to work pretty well.  I found an Artline Paint Marker in white that I use to write the device on the AC adapter transformer block.  These markers are similar to a Sharpie marking pen, except they contain paint instead of ink and come in light opaque colors that contrast nicely with mostly black AC adapter transformer blocks.

Another benefit to this labeling, is when unplugging a device from a power strip, I do not have to guess or trace wire through a rat’s nest of wires to find the correct AC adapter to unplug.

I still have a box of orphaned AC adapters from devices that are obsolete or broken. At least now I have a chance to pair it up with a new device without hours of research.

I wrote a program for MS Windows for this purpose years ago, but since I mostly work on Linux and Macintosh computers today, it quickly became obsolete.  Today I use a program called KeePassX (www.keepassx.org) to keep track of my passwords.  I use it to keep track of hundreds of passwords that I have accumulated over the years.  Another great benefit is since I do not need to rely on my memory or have to write or type the passwords, because I can copy and paste them into the password prompts.   I can create long random character/number combination passwords that are very secure compared to your wife’s birthday or your dog’s name.  Even better, KeePassX will generate new passwords for me!

I can copy the encrypted file to a USB thumb drive and access it from my Linux, Macintosh, and even MS Windows computers.  You can even put the software on the thumb drive and access your passwords on systems that do not have the software installed.

KeePassX was originally a Linux clone of a similar software program called KeePass Password Safe (keepass.info).  KeePass Password Safe is for MS Windows only, but KeePassX currently uses the KeePass version 1.x (Classic) password database format as the native format.  So as long as you stay with KeePass v1.x then your encrypted password file can be opened with KeePassX on other platforms (Linux and Macintosh).

Both programs (KeePassX and KeePass) use either the AES (alias Rijndael) or Twofish encryption algorithm using a 256 bit key.  The AES encryption algorithm is currently used by the U.S. government for protecting it’s top secrets.

No password safe software program will protect you from every threat to someone getting your passwords, but they eliminate the greatest threats of weak easily guessed passwords and passwords written on paper that is easily obtained.

The default value of this preference is 1. Double click on this parameter and change the value to 2. Close configuration page and now open any page which has a text-box and check for wrong spelling.  In case the spell check is still not enabled, right click on the text-box to pop-up the menu and check the Check Spelling menu item.