Backward Incompatible

Dell SonicWALL NetExtender with upstart in Ubuntu

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:16:00 +0300

Small followup on my post netExtender, Java and the SonicWALL vpn on OS X Mountain Lion with an update about Version 7.0.741. NetExtender depends on pppd and so requires a few files in /etc/ppp. You can either run the installer or this gist:

For bonus points you may run NetExtender as an upstart managed service with this gist:

Barbunia in tomatoes and cilantro

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 01:25:02 +0300

Barbunia in tomatoes and cilantro

A very apple like unpacking experience. Thank you Jolien...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:00:14 +0200

A very apple like unpacking experience. Thank you Jolien @jolioriginals

Good movie season coming up #KathrynBigelow #ZeroDarkThirty

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 01:11:34 +0200

Good movie season coming up #KathrynBigelow #ZeroDarkThirty

Jewish heaven (at Katz’s Delicatessen)

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 06:46:07 +0200

Jewish heaven (at Katz’s Delicatessen)

netExtender, Java and the SonicWALL vpn on OS X Mountain Lion

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 04:25:00 +0200

Had to access a SonicWALL vpn from my mac today. Seems like the client the gateway provided me was really old and not Mountain Lion compatible, not to mention its designed to launch from Java JNI and the Java browser plugin has been removed from OS X by default and you have to install the Oracle version to have the browser plugin.

The bad news is i had to go through an entire registration on the Dell operated mysonicwall.com to get the latest, Version 6.0.726, of netExtender.

The good news is that neither the Java browser plugin nor Java in general is required to establish a connection. As it turns out, the entire Java thing is just a wrapper around a simple command line tool used to establish the connection.

I simply dug out the netExtener binary from the NetExtender app and placed it in ~/.bin and than added a zsh alias to start the vpn tunnel.

So executing:

netExtender --username <username> --password <password> --domain <domain> --auto-reconnect --mtu 1500 --ppp-async --dns-prefer-remote <server>

would give you:

NetExtender for Mac OS X - Version 6.0.726
Dell SonicWALL
Copyright (c) 2012 Dell

Connecting to <server>...
Connected.
Logging in...
Login successful.
SSL Connection is ready
Using SSL Encryption Cipher 'AES256-SHA'
Using new PPP frame encoding mechanism
Using PPP async mode 
Connecting tunnel...
Client IP Address: <local ip address>
You now have access to the following 2 remote networks:
    10.0.0.1/255.255.255.0
	192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
NetExtender connected successfully. Type "Ctrl-c" to disconnect...

and the vpn tunnel you wanted, without Java…

See also the ubuntu followup Dell SonicWALL NetExtender with upstart in ubuntu.

Serenity Movers Site

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 01:30:27 +0200

Serenity Movers Site:

First Wordpress website. I still hate PHP but i have to say i am impressed with the capabilities.

"I have never regretted my decision for I learned from my master much that was wise and good and..."

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 04:32:46 +0200

“I have never regretted my decision for I learned from my master much that was wise and good and true. When at last we parted company, he presented me with his eyeglasses. I was too young, he said, but one day they would serve me well. And in fact, I am wearing them now on my nose as I write these lines. Then he embraced fondly, like a father, and sent me on my way. I never saw him again, and know not what became of him but I pray always that God received his soul and forgave the many little vanities to which was driven by his intellectual pride. And yet, now that I’m an old, old man I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past the one I see most clearly is that of the girl of whom I have never ceased to dream these many long years. She was the only earthly love of my life, yet I never knew nor ever learned her name.”

- Name of the rose. Jean Jacques Annaud. 1986.

the TOEFL iBT and Internet Explorer in the Post-PC era

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 09:23:13 +0200

I just completed the TOEFL iBT sampler test. It only runs on Internet Explorer, which only runs on windows. Windows is not my, and potentially quite a few other academic candidate’s, choice of Operating System. Not necessarily surprising when you consider the fact that politicians think that Encyclopedia Britannica is where you find information today. The last question on the survey asked if i had comments so i put in the following:

We are now in the “Post-PC” era. Microsoft Internet Explorer consists of less than 45% of the browser market. The majority of users experience the internet on tablets and smartphones. Governments throughout the globe advise their citizen to refrain from using Microsoft Internet Explorer due to serious security threats. The federal government spent over a decade pursuing litigation against Microsoft for anticompetitive practices, culminating in claims that it leveraged its monopolistic control of the Operating System market to create another monopoly in the browser market. I am an avid Open Source advocate who has not been using Microsoft Windows in over half a decade. I was forced to waste my precious time to gain access to a legacy Microsoft operating system just so that i can run the TOEFL iBT sampler. Do you think you can find the time to make the TOEFL iBT compatible with more advanced browsers and join the rest of humanity in the 21st century?

"If you want information today you go to Encyclopedia Britannica"

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 06:08:55 +0200

“If you want information today you go to Encyclopedia Britannica”

- Charles Krauthammer. Fox news. October 23, 2012.

#Hoboken is so European (Taken with Instagram)

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:50:10 +0200

#Hoboken is so European (Taken with Instagram)

Philosophy (Taken with Instagram)

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:20:17 +0200

Philosophy (Taken with Instagram)

They didn’t really leave out any adjectives… (Taken...

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:09:24 +0300

They didn’t really leave out any adjectives… (Taken with Instagram)

Heaven (Taken with Instagram at Ninth Street Espresso)

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 23:46:51 +0300

Heaven (Taken with Instagram at Ninth Street Espresso)

Regardless of the existence of absolute, objective, truth.

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:27:58 +0300

Faith is to have a strong feeling that what you though was true , is indeed true. Not to be confused with the truth.
Love is to have a strong feeling that what you feel is true.
Science is to, for the time being, assume to be true what you observed and measured as most likely to be true. until observed and measured to be otherwise.
Patriotism is to assume what someone else thinks is true, is indeed true, because he inspires confidence in you.
Arrogance is to express that you have faith (see No. 1) in your superiority.

Morning coffee at 9th street (Taken with Instagram)

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:22:05 +0300

Morning coffee at 9th street (Taken with Instagram)

Fish (Taken with Instagram)

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 03:09:42 +0300

Fish (Taken with Instagram)

Anti-Misleading Talk Also Misleads

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:19:07 +0300

Anti-Misleading Talk Also Misleads:

parislemon:

Here’s the thing. Everyone seems to want to rush to point out that Microsoft’s first quarterly loss was misleading because of a one-time $6.2 billion write-down.

No shit.

I mean, does anyone think anyone else really doesn’t understand that? But that anti-misleading talk is also misleading, in my opinion (still with me here?).

Yes, overall, Microsoft’s quarterly numbers were fine. A record for the quarter when it comes to revenue, even. That’s great. But there are several not-so-subtle points bubbling just under the surface (not to be confused with the Surface — though that may end up being one of them) that point to some very big changes already underway within the company.

Points like this one get quickly shot down by folks because people have been wanting to be the first to call Microsoft’s downfall for years. But this time, I think we’re actually seeing it. You can disagree, of course. But I’m not writing this out of some misguided hatred for Microsoft. I’m writing it to have it on record because I believe I’m right. Time will tell, obviously.

I think what we’re seeing in Microsoft’s numbers right now is the full-on shift of the company towards enterprise. To be clear, I think the company will remain alive and probably even thrive in that regard for a long time. I just think the time of their consumer dominance is already over. And within the next decade, it will be completely over.

I think at that point, Microsoft will be an enterprise software and services company with a strange, but successful gaming sub-division that will probably be spun off by then.

Over the next two quarters, everyone will rush to say that I’m wrong and point to big Windows 8 numbers. But that will also be misleading. The computing world has already changed. The Windows PC is over. OEMs will juice the numbers out of the gate for a bit, but then they’ll quickly go back on the decline. Microsoft’s money, increasingly, will come from Office and Services.

Are the children of today going to grow up to buy Windows-based PCs? Microsoft hopes they will, but all kinds of numbers are already showing the opposite happening. And if you look at even Microsoft’s current, seemingly strong fiscal numbers the correct way, I believe you can see it.

While the quarterly loss is being overblown in the short-term (it’s a one-time hit), it still matters. It shows just how bad of a mistake the company made in the Online Services division (already a constant mistake itself). And for the first time, such a mistake couldn’t be covered up by Windows and Office numbers. Some will say it was just a one-time mistake. But what if Microsoft had bought Yahoo for $50 billion? The lack of mistakes isn’t for a lack of trying.

It’s all related to the problem. But that’s another post…

I agree so much with the line of thought that I just had to reblog this

The Time Life building (Taken with Instagram)

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:23:51 +0300

The Time Life building (Taken with Instagram)

Keep your hands and feet inside the plain (Taken with Instagram...

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:16:16 +0300

Keep your hands and feet inside the plain (Taken with Instagram at TLV Tarmac)