Alan Wylie's Web Site

Lateral Cleft, Jingling Pot

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:37:00 +0100

Confusing Apache error message

Thu, 06 May 2010 19:46:00 +0100

If you get the following error message:

[crit] [client 10.0.0.1] (13)Permission denied: /foo/bar/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable, referer: http://example.org/

check that the permissions on the directory enable the web server user to read/access it, to fix it do something like:

find <dir> -type d | xargs chown <apache user> find <dir> -type d | xargs chmod u+rx

About me:

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:16:00 +0000

I'm a computer hacker (in the original meaning of the word), a caver, a fell-walker, an occasional astronomer and cyclist and an even more occasional Land-Rover owner.

mail me at alan@wylie.me.uk

Note that sending unsolicited marketing e-mail to an individual in the UK is an offence under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and that the collection and processing of personal information is regulated by the Data Protection Act.

I'm looking for a job.

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:56:00 +0000

(Updated April 2010)
I've found a new job.

Links

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:56:00 +0000

Weather maps

Some organisations I belong to:
The Vibram Mountaineering Club
The Karabiner Mountaineering Club
The Astronomy Centre

My excellent ISP: Zen Internet

A very nice Bed and Breakfast in Coniston:
Oaklands Guest House
and one in Robin Hood's Bay:
North Ings

And some of my favourite websites:
News:
Slashdot
SANS - Internet Storm Center
The Register
Linux Weekly News
ADSLguide
Cryptome
MelonFarmers
National Secular Society

Anti-Spam
RFC-Ignorant
The Spamhaus Project

Linux
ROCK Linux
Gentoo Linux

Comics
XKCD
Abstruse Goose
User Friendly
Dilbert
UNSPEAKABLE VAULT (Of Doom)
The Joy of Tech
Irregular Webcomic!
Questionable Content
Something Positive
Freefall
Full Frontal Nerdity

Misc
Astronomy Picture of the Day

Unsolicited Bulk Commercial e-mail from Janglemail / Blurbjangle

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Full story here

umount: /mnt/tmp: device is busy

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:33:00 +0000

If you are trying to unmount a device, you get the error "device is busy", but lsof/fuser don't show any process holding the device open, it could be that a file on the device is associated with a loop device.

try

# losetup -a
/dev/loop/0: [0821]:25280514 (image) offset=55273881600
# losetup  -d /dev/loop0 
# umount /mnt/tmp

Laser-Scan Fastrak

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:49:00 +0000

A photo of the Laser-Scan Fastrak display and digitiser, circa 1985

The Hine Line of Maryport

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Here are some scans from the Magazine "Sea Breezes", September 1959

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7

Briar Holme
Briar Holme Memorial
Henry Scholefield
Myrtle Holme
Rydal Holme Painting
Rydal Holme
Rydal Holme Officers

Mallorca photographs

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:56:00 +0000

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Cova Tancada

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:27:00 +0000

Transcribed from an old and faded printout, with map.

When driving to the Alcudia peninsula from Peurto Pollensa, in Alcudia go through the first set of traffic lights, at the second set you turn to go straight on, this is achieved by turning right then immediately left onto the Mal Pas road. This road is not signposted and is easily missed. At the roundabout (tree with a small wall around it) where the Bodaga Del Sol is, turn right and follow the road, it eventually becomes a track, carry on until you reach the hunting lodge, a white and yellow building, park here.

A track off to the right normally tapped (sic) off is followed up hill and into the open. The track then passes throught a wooded area, at a small dip a vague 'Y' where a track descends can be seen, go down and across the small stream (dry) follow the track to the cliffs and descend as the path dictates, there are steps in places, the cave entrance looks out over a beautiful turquoise sea. This old show cave is a very large chamber full of calcite, take your camera and <ends>

More Cova Tancada, Alcúdia, Mallorca

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:27:00 +0000

The Barque Robert Hine.

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:38:00 +0000

Scanned images of a pamphlet describing my great great grandfather's experiences in Patagonia in 1873

More Google Goofs

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:24:00 +0100

Another google goof: Previous google goofs:

Angus Dei

(updated 29-Sep-2009)

beastfeeding

Google Goofs

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:54:00 +0100

Another google goof:

Halley's cornet

(update 10-Apr-2009) Having just been using a makeshift marlinspike to undo a knot in my SRT footloop, I came across

Caving Knife

(previous goofs)

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:26:00 +0000

Netgear DG834 hints

Enable Telnet

Enable SNMP

Stop iptables blocking the snmp port:

$ telnet 192.168.0.1
Trying 192.168.0.1...
Connected to 192.168.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.


BusyBox v0.61.pre (2006.08.31-06:27+0000) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(for 4.01.20)

# iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy DROP)
target     prot opt source               destination         
DROP       udp  --  anywhere             anywhere           udp dpt:161 
ACCEPT     udp  --  anywhere             anywhere           udp dpt:161 
ACCEPT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere           
ACCEPT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere           

....

# iptables -D INPUT 1

(for 4.01.28)

# iptables -I INPUT -p udp -s 82.68.155.88/29 -j ACCEPT
(you will need to modify the IP mask for your own allocation)

# exit

Walk the MIB tree: (short)

$ snmpwalk -Os -c public -v 1 192.168.0.1 system
sysDescr.0 = STRING: NETGEAR DG834 ADSL Gateway
sysObjectID.0 = OID: enterprises.4526.3.2
sysUpTimeInstance = Timeticks: (4620667) 12:50:06.67
sysContact.0 = STRING: alan@wylie.me.uk
sysName.0 = STRING: alan
sysLocation.0 = STRING: alan
sysServices.0 = INTEGER: 4

(long)

$ snmpwalk -Os -c public -v 1 192.168.0.1
...

Generate an mrtg config

# /usr/bin/cfgmaker --global 'WorkDir: /var/lib/mrtg' --global 'Options[_]: # bits,growright' --output /etc/mrtg-netgear.conf public@192.168.0.1

Alum Pot photos

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:52:00 +0100

Photos of the Vibram M.C.'s trip down Alum Pot and Long Churn/Dolly Tubs

Videos are now up on YouTube

The UK law on Spam

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:58:00 +0100

For the benefit of the clueless and wilfully ignorant (Donald Knox-Richards, this means you), the section of Section 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 that regulates the sending of bulk e-mail states:

(3) A person may send or instigate the sending of electronic mail for the purposes of direct marketing where -

(a) that person has obtained the contact details of the recipient of that electronic mail in the course of the sale or negotiations for the sale of a product or service to that recipient;

(b) the direct marketing is in respect of that person's similar products and services only; and

(c) the recipient has been given a simple means of refusing (free of charge except for the costs of the transmission of the refusal) the use of his contact details for the purposes of such direct marketing, at the time that the details were initially collected, and, where he did not initially refuse the use of the details, at the time of each subsequent communication.

My emphasis on the word "and": section (c) applies in addition to the previous sections, and any bulk marketing e-mail sent to a UK individual where there is no prior relationship is illegal, whether or not a means of refusing to be spammed in future is provided.

Donald Knox-Richards, Elius Books and spam

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I've just received (in contravention of Section 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003) a (google groups archive) spam e-mail from someone purporting to be "Donald Knox-Richards", mentioning books and John Thaw. The advertised web site was Elius Books, for which the whois record is:

$ whois  elius-books.co.uk

    Domain name:
        elius-books.co.uk

    Registrant:
        Elius Books (Internet) Limited

    Registrant type:
        UK Limited Company, (Company number: 6163685)

    Registrant's address:
        6A Wellgreen Road
        Childwall
        Liverpool
        L25 1QP
        GB

    Relevant dates:
        Registered on: 15-May-2008

It's an unusual name, so I googled for it, and turned up this BBC news report about someone of that name being jailed for fraud relating to a book he wrote about John Thaw.

There's also a press release from the DTI, headlined JUDGE THROWS THE BOOK AT BANKRUPT PUBLISHER.

Satellite Direct getting bad publicity again

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:04:00 +0000

this time a BBC Watchdog report

previous mentions: July 2007 Jan 2007 Dec 2006 Dec 2006 Nov 2006