Manually add account to Google Authenticator - Enter key in Base32 Encoding

wanted to use OpenID with Multi-factor authentication as a Single Sign-On (SSO) for online services; in particular, i wanted to combine a regular password with a One-Time Password namely, a TOTP token.

Google Authenticator supports TOTP, and not only for their own 2-step verification but one can "Manually add" other accounts.

The bridging part from TOTP to OpenID, in my case, comes from Clavid (cf. OTP@Clavid).

Now to the tiny bit of information that might save you quite some minutes: when entering your secret key into these two locations to set-up an account

• Google Authenticator expects the string to be RFC4648 Base32 encoded
• Clavid expects the string to be hex encoded

personal reminder: rfkill to toggle bluetooth

toggling bluetooth (on a Lenovo ThinkPad X200s / Ubuntu 10.x) via rfkill:

rfkill list

rfkill block 0

rfkill unblock 0

until https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+source/linux/+bug/395358 is fixed...

personal reminder: Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO

not brand-new but not completely outdated:

Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO

Online Tasks Service for Thunderbird/Lightning

Thunderbird/Lightning has been working with Google Calendar for a while now [cf. link]. however, Tasks are not supported as can be seen in this thread and also here.

now, is there another service for Tasks available?

for some time i have been using Chandler but with recent developments TB/Lightning+Chandler stopped working (and they haven't quite figured out who's to blame...).

ironically, Yahoo comes to the rescue: following this post and going further here Tasks with Yahoo actually work.

Reverse Tethering an Android Phone via USB

until recently i was stuck with a stock android 1.6 - and USB tethering was somewhat adventurous (Tetherbot was an option, connectbot another... both worked best, i.e. without restrictions, when there was a VPN tunneled 'over' either of them.) 

android 2.2 comes with USB tethering: in 'Wireless & network settings' - just need to turn it on... and a network interface will be 'exposed' via USB, network-manager (e.g. in ubuntu) will show the new device, and go.

now, this set-up can also be used the other way around (i.e. use the computer's internet connection the mobile is connected to). however, android's ConnectivityManager does not recognize this connection in such a way that services like Contacts Sync would get going.

startUsingNetworkFeature() in http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/frameworks/base.git;a=blob;f=services/java/com/android/server/ConnectivityService.java will choke on android.net.NeworkInfo.isAvailable():
D/ConnectivityService( 166): getMobileDataEnabled returning true
D/ConnectivityService( 166): special network not available

...let's see.

aptitude or apt-get - only update security updates

two quick possibilities to update security updates only (via apt-get and/or aptitude in debian, ubuntu, ...):

1. uses a dedicated sources file: http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/241#comment_20
2. uses a search pattern: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9161314&postcount=3

Dell & Linux - Links to Remember

BIOS updates for Dell computers under linux:

The Dell Linux Wiki Page

Extracting the BIOS image from the Windows .EXE file

Dell's info on RAID & Storage (aka. PERC thingthings...)

Android Market on SDK/Emulator

wanted to use an android emulator to grab a screenshots of google goggles but had to realize - as many before - that the Android SDK comes without 'the Market.' a possible solution is described here: Android Tips for Developers: Android Market on Emulator; at least, for the 1.6 system it worked for me (however, i had to grab the ADP1 image as mentioned in this comment.)

instead of 'head | tail' to delete the first lines of file

from the tail man page:

-n, --lines=N
output the last N lines, instead of the last 10; or use +N to output lines starting with the Nth

...note the +N option!

blind text generation for LaTeX testing

...nice!

How to access Time Machine files from Linux

here a crude helper to restore a 'Time Machine.app' backup on a linux system (well, a non-OSX system...)

starting from How to access Time Machine files from Linux the steps are somewhat automated.

ARG1: directory from where to descend and restore files
ARG2: destination directory
ARG3: directory whith the dir_* files

eg.:

sudo restoretmbackup.py /media/osxbackup/Backups.backupdb/nikki/Latest/nikki foo/ /media/osxbackup/.HFS+\ Private\ Directory\ Data^M

(you might not need to sudo...)

personal reminder: links to SATA hotswapping issues

• http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1041574.html
• http://www.dufault.info/blog/hotswap-a-scsi-sas-or-sata-drive-in-linux/
• http://serverfault.com/questions/5336/how-do-i-make-linux-recognize-a-new-sata-dev-sda-drive-i-hot-swapped-in-without
  

in short:

rescan:
echo "0 0 0" >/sys/class/scsi_host/host/scan
remove:
echo > /sys/bus/scsi/devices/:0:0:0/delete

threading prefs for TB

...just a reminder about threading prefs in TB (might only apply to >=V3.0):

https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Message_Threading
http://www.thunderbird-mail.de/wiki/FAQ:Aw_statt_Re

git via http proxy

it is supposed to work-like-a-charm - git via a http-proxy - but then again, sometimes it just doesn't.
in case, changing git clone git://... into git clone http://... does not help this might:

socat TCP4-LISTEN:9418,reuseaddr,fork \
PROXY:proxy.hostname.dom:gitrepo.host.dom:9418,proxyport=3128 &
git clone git://localhost/GITREPOPATH

references:

• http://limlian.blogspot.com/2008/08/use-http-proxy-for-git-client.html?showComment=1221973140000#c6839850601346705219
  

by no means a Telecommunications Provider - but still...

so far, my system still works - and supposedly less buggy:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/08/04/24/1334234/Patch-the-Linux-Kernel-Without-Reboots
let's see how this continues...

cf. http://www.ksplice.com/