Development Cycle » Uncategorized http://www.development-cycle.com Binary Bits & Pieces Fri, 04 May 2012 05:21:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Blocking VocusPR Spam With Iptables http://www.development-cycle.com/2011/07/blocking-vocuspr-spam-with-iptables/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2011/07/blocking-vocuspr-spam-with-iptables/#comments Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:02:43 +0000 Anthony Mills http://www.development-cycle.com/?p=429 VocusPR has a dubious reputation their main line of work is aggregating the contact details of journalists and bloggers and then selling access to that database so companies can contact them. Press releases from Vocus customers come with the required “unsubscribe” link down the bottom but the catch is clicking it will only stops the client from contacting you, but not the other multitude of clients spamming your from their database. Today I have had enough contacting them seems to get nowhere so its time for more effective measures. A WHOIS lookup for the IP address of one of their spam servers reports:

#
# Query terms are ambiguous.  The query is assumed to be:
#     “n 66.77.65.154″
#
# Use “?” to get help.
#
#
# The following results may also be obtained via:
# http://whois.arin.net/rest/nets;q=66.77.65.154?showDetails=true&showARIN=true
#
Vocus, Inc. QWEST-IAD-VOCUS1 (NET-66-77-65-128-1) 66.77.65.128 – 66.77.65.191
Qwest Communications Company, LLC QWEST-INET-12 (NET-66-77-0-0-1) 66.77.0.0 – 66.77.255.255
American Registry for Internet Numbers NET66 (NET-66-0-0-0-0) 66.0.0.0 – 66.255.255.255

 

Now for the blocking part, simply logged in to mail server add added the following to my firewall rules to block their IP range:

/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -s 66.77.65.128/26 -j DROP

 

Goodbye VocusPR have a nice life spamtards!

Update: VocusPR also own the IP ranges 209.3.118.0/24 and 63.232.227.0/26

]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2011/07/blocking-vocuspr-spam-with-iptables/feed/ 0 Changing an elements visibility with jQuery http://www.development-cycle.com/2011/07/changing-an-elements-visibility-with-jquery/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2011/07/changing-an-elements-visibility-with-jquery/#comments Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:34:23 +0000 Anthony Mills http://www.development-cycle.com/?p=410 Adjusting the visibility of element within a web page comes in handy from time to time for features like tool tips, extending content after a short excerpt etc. This technique adds greatly to the user experience of your site and has been around for a long time but the jQuery library makes this task a lot easier with the hide method.

To get started if you haven’t already load the jQuery library into the head of your page i.e

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript">

Then create the element you would like to hide, in this example I am just going to hide a simple div when a anchor is clicked.

<script type="text/javascript">
$("#hide").click(function(){
     $("#some_content").hide();
});
</script>
 
<a href="#" id="hide">Hide</a>
<div id="some_content">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin lacus libero, dapibus eget dictum in, laoreet non massa. Aliquam nec felis tellus, quis ullamcorper erat.
</div>

This works well for hiding the content contained within the element but what if the user accidentally clicked the hide link? They would have to reload the page to be able to see the content again, to avoid this sometimes it is better to use the jQuery toggle method instead allowing the user to change the visibility of the element back and forth.

<script type="text/javascript">
$("#hide").click(function(){
     $("#some_content").toggle();
});
</script>
 
<a href="#" id="hide">Change visibility</a>
<div id="some_content">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin lacus libero, dapibus eget dictum in, laoreet non massa. Aliquam nec felis tellus, quis ullamcorper erat.
</div>
]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2011/07/changing-an-elements-visibility-with-jquery/feed/ 0 Lucid Lynx Is On Its Way http://www.development-cycle.com/2010/04/lucid-lynx-is-on-its-way/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2010/04/lucid-lynx-is-on-its-way/#comments Sat, 17 Apr 2010 05:49:13 +0000 Anthony Mills http://www.development-cycle.com/?p=235 Time to start getting excited the next release of Ubuntu is almost here!

]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2010/04/lucid-lynx-is-on-its-way/feed/ 0 Firediff For Tracking DOM Changes http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/07/firediff-dom-changes/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/07/firediff-dom-changes/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:59:03 +0000 Anthony Mills A major problem with developing AJAX applications is trying to follow data flowing back and forth between the server and client and the changes being made to the DOM.

]]> A major problem with developing AJAX applications is trying to follow data flowing back and forth between the server and client and the changes being made to the DOM.

Enter FireDiff to ease the pain! Firediff is an extension for Firebug that adds a change monitor, logging all changes made to the CSS and DOM. Which makes it a must for most web developers, FireDiff requires Firebug 1.4 or higher to work, and you can find the latest version to install from http://www.incaseofstairs.com/download/firediff/

]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/07/firediff-dom-changes/feed/ 0 Client Negotiations http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/06/client-negotiations/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/06/client-negotiations/#comments Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:33:52 +0000 Anthony Mills If you have ever done any freelancing or run your own business you have no doubt come across clients like this. For some reason they won't pay full fare but want full service and will hound you relentlessly for not allowing them to screw you over if you try and walk away!

]]> If you have ever done any freelancing or run your own business you have no doubt come across clients like this. For some reason they won’t pay full fare but want full service and will hound you relentlessly for not allowing them to screw you over if you try and walk away!

 

]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/06/client-negotiations/feed/ 0 Jailbreaking An Ipod Touch 2nd Generation http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/05/ipod-2nd-gen-jailbreak/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/05/ipod-2nd-gen-jailbreak/#comments Sun, 17 May 2009 17:30:49 +0000 Anthony Mills I have had my ipod touch (2.2.1 firmware) now for almost two months and i have found it to be a great little gadget. Although i have continually been annoyed Apple's efforts to cripple the applications available through the itunes app store eg no last.fm scrobbling, having to sync to itunes to retrieved episodes of subscribed podcasts.

]]> I have had my ipod touch (2.2.1 firmware) now for almost two months and i have found it to be a great little gadget. Although i have continually been annoyed Apple’s efforts to cripple the applications available through the itunes app store eg no last.fm scrobbling, having to sync to itunes to retrieved episodes of subscribed podcasts.

Last week i decided enough was enough and the only way around the limitations from Apple was to jail break the gadget. I found a lot of the guides on the net easy to follow but it still seems a bit of an inexact science and i ran into plenty of issues. After first trying i had to lived with a bricked ipod for a few days until i could find the time again to fix it properly. First i tried Quickpwn this technique seemed to give me an error of the #1600 variety when trying to restore my custom firmware in itunes.

Next up i went with the RedSn0w 0.3 beta, this script was pretty smooth although after running it the ipod just seemed to reset into recovery mode again with no forward progress. I then tried Voltage reading around the net people seemed to be saying good things about this one, but alas it also let me down due to a bug, so refused to find my original Apple firmware.

By this stage i had wasted a lot of time and was starting to lose hope in ever finding freedom from the itunes appstore, that was until Quick Freedom. I restored my ipod back to it’s default state for what seemed like the 100th time ready to have my hope crushed by another 1600 error. But this time it was different i glanced down at my ipod whilst itunes told me “preparing ipod for restore” only to see the pengiun wallpaper i had selected when i created the custom firmware.

Another 15 minutes later and the custom install had successfully completed offering me the “installer” and “cydia” applications after rebooting. For anyone hoping to jail break their devices i give two pieces of advice. First although most of the youtube videos are only 10 minutes long showing how to jailbreak an ipod by the time you get all of the software together and find a method that will works for you. Be prepared to spend a huge amount of time getting it done. Second if a method dosent work for you return right back to the start with the default firmware before trying again. I found trying to charge ahead and skipping this step will only lead to failure and more wasted time.

Happy jail breaking!

]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/05/ipod-2nd-gen-jailbreak/feed/ 0 Australian Pirate Party http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/05/australian-pirate-party/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/05/australian-pirate-party/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 01:34:16 +0000 Anthony Mills The Pirate Party in Sweden seems to be making waves after four men where found guilly of helping run the infamous bit torrent tracker site known as The Pirate bay.

]]> The Pirate Party in Sweden seems to be making waves after four men where found guilly of helping run the infamous bit torrent tracker site known as The Pirate bay.

It seems though Australian may not have to wait to long for a Pirate party of it’s very own! The domain has been registered and a basic site built to gauge support for the planned party, with the group currently working on a constition based on the Pirate manifesto which can then be submitted to the AEC.

]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/05/australian-pirate-party/feed/ 0 Google Torrent Search http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/04/google-torrent-search/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/04/google-torrent-search/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:02:23 +0000 Anthony Mills At the moment it may not look to good for the crew behind the Pirate Bay. Although for the site its self it still seems to be business as usual since most servers reside in the Netherlands but after finding this Google custom search for torrent files i am wondering if the Pirate bay is even needed any longer.

]]> At the moment it may not look to good for the crew behind the Pirate Bay. Although for the site its self it still seems to be business as usual since most servers reside in the Netherlands but after finding this Google custom search for torrent files i am wondering if the Pirate bay is even needed any longer.

Back a few years ago when the Pirate bay shot to fame as they where able to aggregate the large amount of torrent files out there and categorise them but i cant help thinking the present day situation for torrents mimics the mid – late ninties for web pages normally one would surf through directories etc rather than search, is the same happening for torrents?

]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/04/google-torrent-search/feed/ 0 Debian with a FreeBSD Kernel? http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/04/debian-freebsd/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/04/debian-freebsd/#comments Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:32:44 +0000 Anthony Mills It was announced today that the Debian distribution has added support for the FreeBSD kernel to the Debian archive with supporting both x86 and amd64 architectures. Allowing users to choose between running a normal Linux kernel or a FreeBSD based one.

]]> It was announced today that the Debian distribution has added support for the FreeBSD kernel to the Debian archive with supporting both x86 and amd64 architectures. Allowing users to choose between running a normal Linux kernel or a FreeBSD based one.

Which begs the question why would you want to run a FreeBSD kernel? BSD offers some very good security features such as BSD packet filter (pf) and jails which allow the imprisonment of processes and their children to certain parts of system.

I personally can’t wait to get some free time in order to take for a test drive. I have always loved FreeBSD, but never the greatest fan of the “ports” system of application management at least this way i will be able to handle packages with convienance of apt.

FreeBSD Daemon Mascot

Further Reading:

kFreeBSD Why? – Debian Wiki

]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/04/debian-freebsd/feed/ 0 Three Mobile Broadband http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/03/ubuntu-3-mobile-broadband/ http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/03/ubuntu-3-mobile-broadband/#comments Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:08:31 +0000 Anthony Mills After a long battle i finally have my vodafone branded Huawei K3715 3g modem working with my eeePC 701. Since i mainly use my eeePC for the commute to work, i missed having a internet connection. 3G has been around for ages but until recently all of the Australian telcos wanted you to sign a 24 month contract to get a resonable bandwidth quota at a price that wasnt prohibitive.

]]> After a long battle i finally have my vodafone branded Huawei K3715 3g modem working with my eeePC 701. Since i mainly use my eeePC for the commute to work, i missed having a internet connection. 3G has been around for ages but until recently all of the Australian telcos wanted you to sign a 24 month contract to get a resonable bandwidth quota at a price that wasnt prohibitive.

All this changed a few months ago when i found out Three was offering prepaid broadband, my mate worked in an office that had surplus Vodafone branded 3G modems so i just figured i would grab a Three sim card and i would be happily able to surf the net whilst travelling to an from work.

First pain was getting the sim activated and credit on the account Three seem to run their website and phone service in a style fashioned on “amatuer hour”. After jumping those hurdles i upgraded my version of eeebuntu to Intrepid Ibex as i knew this release had focused on mobile connections so i figured it would make it easier especially with a newer model modem than the standard Huawei E220.

Upon ugrading i booted up and was pleased to see Ubuntu acted like it knew what it was doing, it spotted the modem okay olthough it reported it in the logs as an E620. Because it knew i was located in Australia it gave me a list of telecommunications companies to chose my provider from. So i selected three and tried to connect but alas no luck, looking in /var/log/syslog i saw:

Mar 10 22:22:11 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (ttyUSB0) starting connection ‘Three’
Mar 10 22:22:11 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  (ttyUSB0): device state change: 3 -> 4
Mar 10 22:22:11 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (ttyUSB0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled…
Mar 10 22:22:11 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (ttyUSB0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started…
Mar 10 22:22:11 eeelap NetworkManager: <debug> [1237375331.265910] nm_serial_device_open(): (ttyUSB0) opening device…
Mar 10 22:22:11 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (ttyUSB0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Mar 10 22:22:11 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  (ttyUSB0): powering up…
Mar 10 22:22:11 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  Registered on Roaming network
Mar 10 22:22:11 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  Associated with network: +COPS: 0,2,”50501″,0
Mar 10 22:23:12 eeelap NetworkManager: <WARN>  dial_done(): Dialing timed out
Mar 10 22:23:12 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  (ttyUSB0): device state change: 4 -> 9
Mar 10 22:23:12 eeelap NetworkManager: <debug> [1237375392.001454] nm_serial_device_close(): Closing device ‘ttyUSB0′
Mar 10 22:23:12 eeelap NetworkManager: <info>  Marking connection ‘Three’ invalid.

Naturally i looked around the internet to try and find a solution, and learnt most people where using wvdial to connect just same as dial up connections in the good old days. So i used the settings from network manager to configure wvdial but still no luck connecting:

–> Starting pppd at Wed Mar 11 18:10:25 2009
–> Pid of pppd: 6349
–> Using interface ppp0
–> Authentication (CHAP) started
–> Authentication (CHAP) successful
–> Disconnecting at Wed Mar 18 18:10:30 2009
–> The PPP daemon has died: A modem hung up the phone (exit code = 16)
–> man pppd explains pppd error codes in more detail.
–> Try again and look into /var/log/messages and the wvdial and pppd man pages for more information.
–> Auto Reconnect will be attempted in 10 seconds
–> Cannot get information for serial port.
–> Initializing modem.
–> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK

Looking at the log gave more details and for awhile i thought i just didnt have enough reception but i though this couldn’t be the case when i was at work in the middle of the CBD!

The syslog entry for wvdial:

Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: pppd 2.4.4 started by henry, uid 1000
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: using channel 2
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: Using interface ppp0
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: Connect: ppp0 <–> /dev/ttyUSB0
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: Warning – secret file /etc/ppp/pap-secrets has world and/or group access
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x3 <asyncmap 0x0> <auth chap MD5> <magic 0x7e4576> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [LCP ConfRej id=0x3 <magic 0x7e4576>]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x4 <asyncmap 0x0> <auth chap MD5> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [LCP ConfAck id=0x4 <asyncmap 0x0> <auth chap MD5> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [LCP EchoReq id=0x0 magic=0x0]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [LCP DiscReq id=0x5 magic=0x7e4576]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [CHAP Challenge id=0x1 <52aca456ee672d55f26502182eff7245>, name = "UMTS_CHAP_SRVR"]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: Warning – secret file /etc/ppp/chap-secrets has world and/or group access
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [CHAP Response id=0x1 <1a3a1563c31a9092d75fc73d3361a8a9>, name = "a"]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [LCP EchoRep id=0x0 magic=0x7e4576 00 00 00 00]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [CHAP Success id=0x1 ""]
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: CHAP authentication succeeded
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: CHAP authentication succeeded
Mar 11 18:33:25 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x1 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns2 0.0.0.0>]
Mar 11 18:33:26 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x1 <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns2 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins 10.11.12.14>]
Mar 11 18:33:26 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns2 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins 10.11.12.14>]
Mar 11 18:33:27 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x2 <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns2 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins 10.11.12.14>]
Mar 11 18:33:27 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x3 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns2 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins 10.11.12.14>]
Mar 11 18:33:28 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x3 <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns2 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins 10.11.12.14>]
Mar 11 18:33:28 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x4 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns2 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins 10.11.12.14>]
Mar 11 18:33:29 eeelap pppd[6349]: rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x4 <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns2 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins 10.11.12.14>]
Mar 11 18:33:29 eeelap pppd[6349]: sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x5 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns2 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins 10.11.12.14>]
Mar 11 18:33:29 eeelap pppd[6349]: Modem hangup
Mar 11 18:33:29 eeelap pppd[6349]: Connection terminated.
Mar 11 18:33:29 eeelap pppd[6349]: Exit.

I thought this was weird as it kind of looked like it was connected and the modem was just hanging up with no explanation. More hours were spent googling the issue and trying many modifications to my wvdial.conf file, only to still have no luck.

Finally when i was about to throw the project in i found a forum post that referred to the Three APN in Australia being 3services rather than 3netaccess which is what it was repeated as everywhere else i had looked. I decided one more try wouldn’t kill me so i changed the APN in my wvdial.conf file and tried to connect again:

–> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60
–> Cannot get information for serial port.
–> Initializing modem.
–> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
–> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
–> Sending: AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”3services”;
AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”3services”;
OK
–> Modem initialized.
–> Sending: ATDT*99***1#
–> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT*99***1#
CONNECT
–> Carrier detected.  Starting PPP immediately.
–> Starting pppd at Wed Mar 15 20:11:06 2009
–> Pid of pppd: 6485
–> Using interface ppp0
–> Authentication (CHAP) started
–> Authentication (CHAP) successful
–> local  IP address 10.173.110.201
–> remote IP address 10.64.64.64
–> primary   DNS address 10.176.65.70
–> secondary DNS address 10.156.38.134
–> Script /etc/ppp/ip-up run successful
–> Default route Ok.
–> Nameserver (DNS) Ok.
–> Connected… Press Ctrl-C to disconnect

It seemed i finally had a working connection and it had nothing to do with the modem or drivers after all. So a tip to those wanting to use Three 3g internet in Australia, use the APN 3services not 3netaccess. Also you may want to check out the Vodafone Betavine site they have their own Linux client which you can use for SMS functionality, i found it a bit on the heavy side but their site is full of open source programs and info related to mobile computing so is well worth a look!

]]> http://www.development-cycle.com/2009/03/ubuntu-3-mobile-broadband/feed/ 0