launchd: the best thing since sliced bread
Published on 2013-05-01
I am developing a home utility to index and backup my files (ook!) and while searching for an alternative to inotify I found an StackOverflow question aptly named ”Is there a command like “watch” or “inotifywait” on the Mac?” that sums it up.
The thing is that it doesn’t stop there. I always dreaded launchd and questioned Apple’s decision to use it instead of a System V init process.
But god, it can replace not only init but also cron and inotify. It really is one program to rule them all!
I’m sold. I only hope that this infatuation doesn’t end with me hacking up a launchd based distro.
Why RouterOS is crap: SSH server implementation
Published on 2013-04-28
RFC 4344 (2006):
6.2. Encryption Method Considerations
Researchers have shown that the original CBC-based encryption methods in [RFC4253] are vulnerable to chosen-plaintext privacy attacks [DAI,BKN1,BKN2]. The new stateful-decryption counter mode encryption methods described in Section 4 of this document were designed to be secure replacements to the original encryption methods described in [RFC4253].
You guessed it, RouterOS only supports CBC-based encryption methods. To wit:
- 3des-cbc
- aes128-cbc
- aes192-cbc
- aes256-cbc
- blowfish-cbc
Not a big issue unless you are using an SSH library that follows RFC4344 like the one in Go.
Baltasar Garzón
Published on 2013-04-17
You probably have read something about spanish super-judge Baltasar Garzón. A hero for the victims of dictatorships, he tried to extradite Augusto Pinochet in 1998 to put him on trial for several crimes against humanity like genocide, conspiracy to murder, kidnapping, hostage taking and torture.
Last year it was him the one put on trial over accusations of abusing power in a case related with bribery and corruption in the Spanish Government. Meanwhile he was also conducting an investigation about the victims of the francoist dictatorship investigating, you guessed it, several crimes against humanity like genocide, conspiracy to murder, kidnapping, hostage taking and torture.
You can read all about in the judge’s profiles in The New York Times, The Guardian and Wikipedia.
What you won’t find in those profiles is the fact that back in 1992 Garzón didn’t investigate the allegations of tortures made by a group of young Catalan independentists.
You won’t find it in Wikipedia. You won’t find it in mass media profiles. You won’t find it in the Spanish Justice Ministry website where they list the cases against Spain.
This lack of investigation constitutes a violation of Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as was ruled by the European Court of Human Rights in 2004.
So next time you hear about Garzón, keep this in mind. The super judge is not against tortures, and coaction of human rights when he is the one taking profit of them.
Genetic lottery
Published on 2013-03-20
Or for that matter, do you really think we enjoy hearing about your brand new million-dollar home when we can barely afford to eat Kraft Dinner sandwiches in our own grimy little shoe boxes and we’re pushing thirty? A home you won in a genetic lottery, I might add, sheerly by dint of your having been born at the right time in history? You’d last about ten minutes if you were my age these days, Martin. And I have to endure pinheads like you rusting above me for the rest of my life, always grabbing the best piece of cake first and then putting a barbedire fence around the rest. You really make me sick.
– Douglas Coupland - Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
Moving to Github Pages
Published on 2013-03-01
I am moving my site to Github Pages. Until now I was serving it from my virtual server at Textdrive, but for a static site living on a Github repository it makes no sense.
Also, with this I can edit my site from prose.io, which makes it even more convenient.