Backup Failure

Creating backups. Something everyone with a computer should do. Not only to preserve the items of (sentimental) value, but also to minimise the time and effort to recreate what went to the eternal data fields.
But even if you create backups, things can go wrong.

Many believe that storing the data on an external device is a backup. Well, it is, but only if you have the original data on another device. Backup means that you store the same thing (at least) in two places. If one of the devices (your computer with internal hard drive, or the external backup device) should fail, you have still one copy of the data, which you can restore or backup (depending which device went up in smoke).

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Junos Pulse, Apple iOS, and Split-Tunneling

When you create (SSL)VPN access for you employees, you might enable split-tunneling to save corporate bandwidth. No split-tunneling means that all traffic is forwarded into the VPN tunnel. So if you browse the internet with an active VPN, the traffic goes through the VPN, and accesses the Internet through the corporate Internet connection. This isn't a big problem with a couple of employees, but with hundreds on the road or working from home, this might frustrate the employees in the building.

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Changing SSL Certificates in a ISPConfig v3 Configuration

When you install a Perfect Server based on Centos and ISPConfig v3.x, the system / 'installer' creates for the components self-signed certificates. All these certificates will generate different warnings in your browser, mail clients etc. So time to eliminate those warnings.

First I needed to find out where all those certificates are located, and what there formats are. In my case, there are three services that use SSL/TLS in some form;

1. Postfix SMTP service
2. Courier IMAP service
3. http / Apache2 webservice

Checking the configuration files will reveal their locations.

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Getting ISPConfig to Work on Centos

This is not a manual describing the installation (pre-requisites) of ISPConfig software on a Centos platform. An excellent manual can be found online. It's just that I ran into a problem when I tried to connect an e-mail client to the (IMAP) mailserver (controled by ISPConfig). All the appropriate ports / listeners were up and running, so it had to be a configuration issue.

Googling around didn't solve my problem. My collegue, Xander (@xmoments / xmoments.nl), cam eto the rescue with the solution;

yum install cyrus-sasl-plain-2.1.23-13.el6.x86_64

Software that handles cleartext passwords between mail processes. After the installation, the mail went flying across the Interwebs.

Upgrading Splunk on Ubuntu Linux

Just a small post with the instructions on upgrading Splunk on Ubuntu Linux.

First download the Splunk update. The Splunk website also gives you the wget command, which you can use directly on the Linux commandline.

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Unofficial iOS5 upgrade

After reading the iOS5 upgrade on the Lifehacker website, I decided to upgrade my iPad2 to iOS5. It's unofficial, because iOS5 hasn't been released yet. The version mentioned on the Lifehacker websites is considered to be the Gold-Master version. Meaning that it's the final version, waiting to be released somewhere this month.

First I installed the iTunes beta version as mentioned and downloaded the appropriate iOS versions for my iPad and iPhone. The upgrade went extremely well. Just remember to backup your device before the 'upgrade' proceding.
After the iPad upgrade, I decided to upgrade my iPhone3gs. This went as smooth as the iPad upgrade.

The biggest new feature for me so far is the possibility to use custom text/notification tones. The iPhone3gs also feels more responsive.

There was one annoyance with the initial configuration of the iPad;
My Apple ID was a basic username, and not an e-mail address. This is NOT accepted by the initial iOS5 configuration wizard. Your Apple account NEEDS TO BE an e-mail address. It took me a while to set that up properly in my online account settings.

Unable to Upgrade Firefox on OS X

Today I tried to upgrade Firefox 5.0.1 on my iMac to version Firefox 6, but it failed with some 'weird' error;

The operation can't be completed because the item libsmime3.dylib" is in use.

Weird because I didn't have FireFox running at the time. Removing Firefox didn't work either, since I couldn't remove it from the Trash (same error).

Turned out that I had the Cisco AnyConnect VPN installed on my system (process name: vpnagentd). To 'unload' this process enter the following in Terminal:

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.cisco.anyconnect.vpnagentd.plist

Install Firefox, and enable the vpnagent again by entering the following in Terminal:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.cisco.anyconnect.vpnagentd.plist

And all should be well.

Burn OS X Lion Installation Package to DVD

The moment you download OS X Lion, you'd better have a copy of OS X Snow Leopard, because by default the new Apple OS can only be installed on a previous installed Operating System (upgrade). So if you need to reinstall your Mac in the future, you need to install OS X Snow Leopard first, and then upgrade to OS X Lion. Also, there's no way of ordering an OS X Lion copy on DVD..... Well, that sucks.

Fortunately, there's a way of creating the installation DVD by extracting the actual disk image from the downloaded OS X Lion installation package.

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Manipulating EXIF Info

The Leica M9 has no means of determining foreign or old lenses. The newer Leica lenses have a 6-bit (visual) coding mechanism for determining the lens. Problem is that this is only for (relatively new) Leica lenses. There is the possibility to manually select the lens in the menu of the M9, but that's only limited to the Leica brand lenses. No option for Carl Zeiss lenses.

For certain characteristics, and in-camera processing of the RAW image it's handy to manually select a Leica lens even though you've attached a Zeiss lens. This can be automated by coding the lenses yourself (or have Zeiss do it for €100 a lens).

All this is nice, but it still generates photos with faulty EXIF information, because you shot the photo with a CZ C-Sonnar 1.5/50mm and not with a Leica 1.4/50mm Summilux ASPH....

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Where can I find the iTunesHelper App?

The iTunesHelper application is used to automatically detect iPod's/iPad's and iPhones, when you connect these to your Mac. The application launches iTunes, and (if configured) synchronizes stuff. Very handy, but it can be quite annoying.

E.g. I have an iMac (main 'PC' around the house), and a MacBook. All the synchronization stuff is done on my iMac, and I don't sync anything on my MacBook. But when I attach my iPhone to my MacBook for Internet access (tethering), it launches iTunes and wants to synchronize with an empty iTunes. Something I definitelly don't want.

This feature can be turned off by removing the iTunesHelper application entry from the Login Items in your account settings, but turning it back on is something completely different. I accidentally removed it from my iMac, which wasn't supposed to happen....

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