Advogato: Personal info for mchirico

mchirico is currently certified at Journeyer level.

Name: Mike Chirico
Member since: 2003-07-09 00:34:25
Last Login: 2008-09-09 21:08:25

Homepage: http://souptonuts.sourceforge.net/chirico/

Notes:

Spread the Word: Write How-to Articles or Write Code

Google Gmail on Home Linux Box using Postfix and Fetchmail If you have a Google Gmail account, you can relay mail from your home linux system. It's a good exercise in configuring Postfix with TLS and SASL. Plus, you will learn how to bring down the mail safely, using fetchmail with the "sslcertck" option, that is, after you have verify and copied the necessary certificates. You'll learn it all from this tutorial. And you'll have Gmail running on your local Postfix MTA. There is also a follow-up article Postfix 2nd Instance for Sender-based Routing: Multiple Gmail and Comcast Accounts.

Breaking Firewalls with OpenSSH and PuTTY: If the system administrator deliberately filters out all traffic except port 22 (ssh), to a single server, it is very likely that you can still gain access other computers behind the firewall. This article shows how remote Linux and Windows users can gain access to firewalled samba, mail, and http servers. In essence, it shows how openSSH and Putty can be used as a VPN solution for your home or workplace.

Create a Live Linux CD - BusyBox and OpenSSH Included : These steps will show you how to create a functioning Linux system, with the latest 2.6 kernel compiled from source, and how to integrate the BusyBox utilities including the installation of DHCP. Plus, how to compile in the OpenSSH package on this CD based system. On system boot-up a filesystem will be created and the contents from the CD will be uncompressed and completely loaded into RAM -- the CD could be removed at this point for boot-up on a second computer. The remaining functioning system will have full ssh capabilities. You can take over any PC assuming, of course, you have configured the kernel with the appropriate drivers and the PC can boot from a CD. This tutorial steps you through the whole processes.

SQLite Tutorial : This article explores the power and simplicity of sqlite3, first by starting with common commands and triggers, then the attach statement with the union operation is introduced in a way that allows multiple tables, in separate databases, to be combined as one virtual table, without the overhead of copying or moving data. Next, the simple sign function and the amazingly powerful trick of using this function in SQL select statements to solve complex queries with a single pass through the data is demonstrated, after making a brief mathematical case for how the sign function defines the absolute value and IF conditions.

Lemon Parser Tutorial: This article explains how to build grammars and programs using the lemon parser, which is faster than yacc. And, unlike yacc, it is thread safe.

How to Compile the 2.6 kernel for RedHat 9 and 8.0 and get Fedora Updates: This is a step by step tutorial on how to compile the 2.6 kernel from source.

Linux System Admin Tips: There are over 200 linux tips and tricks in this article. This article is updated weekly.

Virtual Filesystem: Building A Linux Filesystem From An Ordinary File. You can take a disk file, format it as ext2, ext3, or reiser filesystem and then mount it, just like a physical drive. Yes, it then possible to read and write files to this newly mounted device. You can also copy the complete filesystem, since it is just a file, to another computer. If security is an issue, read on. This article will show you how to encrypt the filesystem, and mount it with ACL (Access Control Lists), which give you rights beyond the traditional read (r) write (w) and execute (x) for the 3 user groups file, owner and other.

Working With Time: What? There are 61 seconds in a minute? We can go back in time? We still tell time by the sun?

Projects

Lead Developer on souptonuts
Lead Developer on Delcom

Articles Posted by mchirico

Recommended Reading: (Request for Comments) 14 Sep 2004 at 15:04 UTC

Recent blog entries by mchirico

Syndication: RSS 2.0

29 May 2008 (updated 29 May 2008 at 14:46 UTC) »

Google App Engine

Anyone can sign up and use the Google App Engine. It works nicely on Linux.

You have to have Python 2.5, and you download their Software Development Kit. The applications that you build are in Python. After testing the application locally, it can be uploaded to Google. Of course, you can also point your own domain name to where the application lives as well, so no one will know that you're using Google.

Yeah, they do limit the amount of content to 500MB, which is enough for development. They're talking about increasing the content for a fee. So, you have plenty of space for development; but, when you land a contract, for your work, you'll have the option to increase the amount of space and pass the expense along to the client.

25 Jan 2008 (updated 25 Jan 2008 at 03:45 UTC) »

Wikipedia - Trigger Happy Censors?

Is it true you cannot link to an article on your own site, even if the content is relevant and helpful? That strikes me as a form of prejudice.

Okay all I wanted to do was link my SQLite Tutorial on the Wikipedia SQLite page so that someone could find some useful information. Careful, that "MY" is a crime.

Apparently, I cannot link it to my own site because it's me doing it - ad hominem

I thought the purpose of Wikipedia was to give out information. I'm okay with someone telling the content isn't relevant. That would certainly be a valid reason for not linking it. But, as I understand it, I'm somehow associated with the SQLite project, therefore, I'm not fit to judge the content?

Anyway, I hope your experiences with Wikipedia are better. I'm not too positive on it. My intend was only to distribute information. Please see for yourself.

19 Jan 2008 (updated 19 Jan 2008 at 15:27 UTC) »

Poker

"The Mathematics of Poker", by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman. (2006)

An excellent book on poker especially if you're into programming poker bots. The book explains the math, leaving no missing steps; yet, these guys know their math (Chen has a a PhD in Mathematics from Berkeley, and works at a well known Susquehanna International Group, that specializes in financial analysis). These guys know their poker too. Chen has 2 world series bracelets in a subdivision of hold'em.

Programming Texas Hold'em Bots

If you're interested in programming Java poker bots, you may want to checkout Poker Academy. You can plug in your Java coded bots and use these bots to play against other players on line for PAX (poker play money).

A quick note, don't be fooled by the term play money - you'll have to earn that money with hard work against other good players. Time is money. It takes time to earn PAX; therefore, PAX is equivalent to money.

11 Jan 2008 (updated 11 Jan 2008 at 17:02 UTC) »

Recommended Books:

"Introduction to GCC for GNU Compilers gcc and g++", by Brian Gough, Foreword by Richard M. Stallman. (2004).

This book is a good read with an emphasis on simple but relevant content. The book is published under the GNU Free Documentation License, and copy can be found here.

Information on purchasing a copy can be found at http://www.network-theory.co.uk/gcc/intro/. Since part of the purchase price goes to raise money to improve and create more free software and documentation, I purchased a copy to read on the train. The book is small enough to fit inside any cargo pants side pockets.

You may also be interested in the following book:

"Comparing and Merging Files with GNU diff and patch; for Diffutils 2.8.1 and patch 2.54", by David MacKenzie, Paul Eggert, Richard Stallman. Edited for publication by Brian Gough. (2002).

If the above free download doesn't work, since I'm not sure it will work outside the United States, try the following Souptonuts downloads

30 Nov 2006 »

Robert Morris of the NSA proposed the following problem:

What is the next series of numbers?

1 11 21 1211 111221 ...

64 older entries...

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