Some links before I forget:Genomic Visualization [very cool] : http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/circos/
Britain from Above: http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/
Visualizing email : http://flowingdata.com/2008/03/19/21-ways-to-visualize-and-explore-your-email-inbox/
HP has a free recycling program (limit 5 computers), but you have to pay for shipping:
https://h20212.www2.hp.com/recycle/canada.asp
Dell doesn’t really show pricing:
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/services/en/form_ars?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs
IBM/Lenovo recycling seems to be missing from their website now.
OQO issues and peculiarities
Platform:
OQO 1.6 ghz , 1 gb ram, Vista business with service pack 1
- Keyboard takes getting used to and needs a fair bit of pressure on the keys to type
- Do not update the display driver to the Feb 2008 version from Microsoft Update
- Network driver – do not install from Microsoft update
- Do not bring brightness down to total black – reason: when it starts back up from sleep with lockout password , you won’t be able to see what you’re typing
- I was told that when pushing the screen up to reveal the keyboard, you should push it from both left and right sides.
- The docking station is a very tight fit… not very easy to put in and take out
- Extra accessories like power adapters are very expensive
- Wifi doesn’t always start properly after sleep mode – may need to disable power down network device on demand
-
- Multiple video output does not let you change monitor positions relative to each other
- Cannot boot from Gparted and Parted Magic cds , they either crash or is unable to see the cd drive after kernel loads its’ modules.
- It doesn’t boot from cd on a warm restart. Only cold start will boot from cd. Must hold down fn-f2 to boot from cd
- Vista has a built-in repartition program in the disk management. Can install xp on second partition, but Microsoft does not allow you to use copied media. Must use oem media.
- Once xp is installed, vista will fail to boot, as xp overwrites the vista master boot record (MBR) Must use the free software called easybcd to restore the vista mbr. Or use the vista reinstall cd. Easybcd is better though because one can control a lot of boot parameters.
- XP on the oqo is much much faster. Everything is more responsive and snappy. However, there’s one major bug with xp and the docking station… the cd/dvd fails to show up on bootup… contacting oqo didn’t help …
Solution to a CD docking station that does not read cd’s.
Symptoms With an OQO O2 docked into the docking station, you’ll try to insert a CD. It accepts the CD, but nothing shows up in “My Computer” . In fact, the CD drive itself does not show up in My Computer. Eject button works. You may see a “unable to install hardware” error after you log in as administrator. Multiple reboots does not work. Booting a linux CD does work however. But windows does not acknowledge existence of cd hardware.
Solution : Shut down OQO, and unplug the power from the docking station. Attempt to insert a CD into the docking station slot… push it in all the way. With the power off, it will not accept the CD, which is good! The cd should spring right out. Remove the cd, and plug the power back into the docking station (OQO should be docked in too) . You may hear a loud “THUNK” sound when plugging in the power, or after you’ve turned on the OQO. This is good. Once the OQO is booted up, your cd drive should be working fine now.
One other note, never turn off OQO with a CD inserted inside the docking station. You may get a case of not being able to eject the CD. When I had this problem, the only solution was to unplug the power, plug it back in and press the eject button on power up. If that doesn’t work, shut down power and try again. You may need to do this multiple times and in 6-12 hours intervals.
Summary - it sucks. The fingerprint scanner can only recognize the finger swipes maybe 1 out of 5 times. I’ve often needed to resort to a regular password. Also, the fingerprint software seems to have a bug in that the scan is interlaced with blank bars - the problem seems to be independent of computer or operating system version.Discussion - the kanguru fingerprint scanning usb memory stick is a device that restricts access to the usb memory contents by using the built-in finger scanner to scan your fingerprint as you swipe your finger across it. An incorrect fingerprint will be greeted with an access denied error. If for some reason it doesn’t recognize your fingerprint (which happens a lot), you can alternatively key in a previously set password. The software appears to work without crashing, and does not need admin access to install. However, the interface appears to use some seriously god awful colour combinations - this is usually evident when the software has been produced by an inexperienced junior programmer or by some asian software house (sorry man - I know I’m bashing my own race… But I can’t understand why asian programmers have a really bad eye for design… )
Using the device is quite straightforward. Upon inserting the device into the usb , the computer mounts 2 drives, one is a virtual cd drive (which contains the fingerprint software, and the other one is the usb storage (which shows up with no files). To access the encrypted portion, you have to click into the virtual cd drive and start the fingerprint access software. Note, it is required to insert the usb key and run the fingerprint software in order to access this key, which means that mac os x and linux users will not be able to use thise device. A cd of the fingerprint software is included.
Things I still need to investigate: Verify that it has aes encryption. My guess is that it does not.
Speed tests needed.
Because of the thicker dimensions of the device may impede or prevent other usb devices
Procedure is based on CentOS 4.6, and if noted , Fedora 7.
First - download pam_mount from sourceforge. - use source whenever possible!!! must match kernel! My attempts to use pre-made rpms resulted in much frustration - you have been warned.
However, I’ve found the Fedora 7 pam_mount rpms, and it seems to work well. Wrong, stupid rpms don’t automount properly. Use version 0.18 sources! Later versions use xml for the configuration files, which I don’t have time to figure out at the moment. I tried to get the new version to work with Fedora 7 with little success. Try at your own risk.
- Get kernel headers update
- Kernel-headers-2.6.18-8.1.3.el5.i386.rpm
Make install
- important note, Pmvarrun is in the wrong location. Should be in /usr/sbin/ not /usr/local/sbin/
- mv /usr/local/bin/pmvarrun /usr/sbin/
- the fedora 7 rpm does not have this pmvarrun location problem.
-otherwise passwords do not get passed to other modules properly , i.e. does not auto mount properly
-activate winbind authentication
- join domain YOUR_DOMAIN (in capitals) winbind Security model – “ADS” Winbind ADS Realm - ad.yoursiteroot.com
Template shell - /bin/bash
Make sure it’s set to the correct time!
use command:
net ads join –Uadministrator
to join to domain
Also use:
net ads status
net ads info
to check if it joined properly.
- Must start smb service in order for communication with ADS to work properly
configure /etc/pam.d/login and gdm, or kdelogin appropriately
-use_first_passconfigure pam_mount.conf
- particularly “use first domain” modify mount point lsof is referenced incorrectly
– should be /usr/sbin/lsof, not /usr/bin/lsofconfigure smb.conf
-must sometimes reboot in order to see if changes worked
- restarting winbind/smb service does not work all the time
- make backups of all .conf and pam.d files- backup /etc
In PAM_MOUNT.CONF
- disable debug mode in /etc/security/pam_mount.conf
Comment out options_allow nosuid,nodev ………. In volumes section:
Volume * cifs your_cifs.server.address computing /home/&/labdata8 uid=& - -
Or group specific:
Volume @adsgroup1 cifs servername adsgroupsharename /home/&/labdata8 uid=& - -
Change cifsmount /bin/mount to /sbin/mount.cifs
/etc/pam.d/gdm
#%PAM-1.0
auth required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
auth required pam_nologin.so
auth sufficient pam_timestamp.so
auth optional pam_mount.so use_first_pass
account required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
password required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
session required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
session required pam_loginuid.so
session optional pam_timestamp.so
# session optional pam_selinux.so
session optional pam_console.so
session optional pam_mount.so
———————————————————————————————-
/etc/pam.d/login
#%PAM-1.0auth required pam_securetty.soauth required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
auth required pam_nologin.so
# note pam_mount must be in /lib64/security
auth optional pam_mount.so use_first_pass
account required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
password required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
# pam_selinux.so close should be the first session rule
# session required pam_selinux.so close
session required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
session required pam_loginuid.so
session optional pam_console.so
# pam_selinux.so open should be the last session rule
#session required pam_selinux.so open session optional pam_mount.so
#============================ Share Definitions ==============================/etc/samba/smb.conf
idmap uid = 16777216-33554431
idmap gid = 16777216-33554431
template shell = /bin/bash
template homedir = /home/%U
winbind use default domain = yes
# 250.31=activedirectoryserveraddress
password server = 192.168.250.31
realm = youractivedirectoryrealm
Edit /etc//pam.d/system-auth last!!
In /etc/samba/smb.conf
Must add this in “Share Definitions” section
template homedir = /home/%U
SMB.CONF (internal note - make changes or copy from another preconfigured computer)
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