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Weather-Studying Warthog: A Fixed-Up A-10 Will Fly Into Thunderstorms – A-10 Thunderbolt II – Popular Mechanics

samuel_trassare — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:01:49 +0000

The U.S. military’s veteran A-10 Thunderbolt II is built for battle: a titanium-armored cockpit protects its pilot from explosive projectile hits, and it can carry weapons like a 30-mm nose-mounted cannon to take out enemy tanks. Now the National Science Foundation (NSF) plans to arm a retired Thunderbolt not with bombs, but with scientific instruments, and use it to study the inside of violent thunderstorms—where winds, hail, and lightning would take down lesser planes.

Weather-Studying Warthog: A Fixed-Up A-10 Will Fly Into Thunderstorms – A-10 Thunderbolt II – Popular Mechanics.

U.S. Military To Scrap COIN; Focus on Pacific, Says Vice Chairman

samuel_trassare — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:35:58 +0000

Omaha: The United States, which rushed to replace and rebuild its ability to wage counter insurgency warfare over the last decade, must plan for a new future in the Pacific and leave COIN behind.

via U.S. Military To Scrap COIN; Focus on Pacific, Says Vice Chairman.

Feds investigating Illinois ‘pump failure’ as possible cyber attack – CNN.com

samuel_trassare — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:29:55 +0000

Feds investigating Illinois ‘pump failure’ as possible cyber attack – CNN.com.

Iran Working to Control Duqu Virus Attack | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

samuel_trassare — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:22:40 +0000

Iran Working to Control Duqu Virus Attack | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

Ilya Zhitomirskiy, co-founder of Diaspora, dies at 22 – Nov. 14, 2011

samuel_trassare — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:16:40 +0000

Ilya Zhitomirskiy, co-founder of Diaspora, dies at 22 – Nov. 14, 2011.

OpenConnect on SliTaz

samuel_trassare — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:47:30 +0000

OpenConnect is an excellent replacement for Cisco’s AnyConnect VPN client. After a lot of frustration trying to get AnyConnect to work on SliTaz, I finally jumped ship and got OpenConnect working with SliTaz Cooking in no time.

First, open a terminal, switch to root, download OpenConnect from the Debian repository and install it:

wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/o/openconnect/openconnect_3.02-2_i386.deb tazpkg convert ./openconnect_3.02-2_i386.deb tazpkg install ./openconnect-3.02-2.tazpkg

OpenConnect requires VPNC which is found in the SliTaz repository:

tazpkg get-install vpnc

This VPNC script works right out of the box:

wget http://git.infradead.org/users/dwmw2/vpnc-scripts.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/vpnc-script mv ./vpnc-script /etc/vpnc/vpnc-script

Now that OpenConnect and VPNC is installed, you can create a script to connect to your VPN. I named it vpnconnect. My script resembles the following. You may find that you need to add or remove some of the options I’ve shown here. Read the documentation for OpenConnect’s option list. Change the stuff in caps to fit your needs.

#!/bin/sh openconnect REMOTE.HOST.COM \ --no-dtls \ --auth-group=GROUP_NAME \ -u USERNAME \ --no-cert-check \ -s /etc/vpnc/vpnc-script \ -b

Now run the script, still as root:

./vpnconnect

At this point, you’ll be prompted for your password on the remote system. Once the VPN connection is established it will background itself (the -b option in the script above).

All done!

One note: I originally tried doing all of this on SliTaz 3.0. OpenConnect complained that libssl.so.1.0.0 and libcrypto.so.1.0.0 were not found. I created symlinks to libssl.so.0.9.8 and lib.so.0.9.8 and OpenConnect carried on happily but this isn’t a recommended solution.

Slow Atheros ath5k in Lubuntu 11.10

samuel_trassare — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:53:29 +0000

I switched my old Toshiba Satellite A105 from Windows XP to Lubuntu 11.10 and used the Update Manager to make everything current. The kernel is 3.0.012 and the wireless card is an Atheros 5000 series. The wireless card was working fine in Windows but after the switch to Lubuntu the apparent speed of my connection went down to almost nothing. I googled the problem and came across a workaround in this thread.

Though the workaround given was for the 9000 series, I found it solved my problem too with just a simple change for the 5000 series drivers. Add or create /etc/modprobe.d/ath5k.conf and add the following:

options ath5k nohwcrypt=1

I rebooted the system and now my connection is back up to par.

Customizing your own Trinity Rescue Kit | ToniBlogs

samuel_trassare — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:14:10 +0000

Customizing your own Trinity Rescue Kit | ToniBlogs.

National Strategic Narrative

samuel_trassare — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:08:35 +0000

This paper was written by two senior military members. I recently heard one of them, Captain Wayne Porter, USN, speak at Naval Postgraduate School about the need for a strategic narrative that promotes investment in education, health care and social services and encourages the United States to be a positive influence instead of a dominant force on the global stage.

National Strategic Narrative

Join Diaspora

samuel_trassare — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:01:58 +0000

I have been avoiding Facebook like the plague. I’ve been receiving invites from friends since 2005 but I had real concerns over privacy. Due to recent press over Facebook’s privacy woes it turns out I was justified.

The feature set of Facebook is hugely impressive and I do admit I’ve long wanted to sign up and share my pictures, status updates and more with family and friends – but only family and friends.

While reading about alternatives to Facebook I came across Diaspora. This is the first piece of software I’ve been genuinely excited about in years. The idea is that you host the open-source server running your social profile. That means you have complete comtrol over what you share. I even have a computer waiting for the task.

I’ve pledged $10.00 to support Diaspora and I can’t wait to see the final product.

You can make your own contribution to Diaspora using the Kickstarter widget in my sidebar.