stewart a.

Metro

Posted on Sat, 2011/01/22 - 3:10am

I was in the metro today and the train arrived at the stop as usual, but as it came to a complete stop the doors didn't open. The conductor was obviously trying repeatedly to open the doors because the red lights at the top of the cars kept flickering on and off (they usually stay on when the metro doors are open).

After about 2 minutes trying to get the doors open, the conductor shut down the metro train, so the air vents stopped and lights when out for a brief moment as she/he restarted the engines. It's perfectly logical that this is possible as after all, they have got to start the trains at the beginning of the day to get them moving along the metro lines but it was just bizarre to see a train in its powered down state.

The good news is whatever restarting the engines does fixed the problem - the doors opened immediately after the conductor "reset" the metro train.

Tags:

life

Brain pattern recognition

Posted on Fri, 2010/12/17 - 3:55am

Sometimes the brain just amazes me. On the way home a few days ago I was listening to Paul van Dyk - Complicated from his album In Between. I couldn't pinpoint it, but for some reason something about the song suddenly seemed very familiar... The best way I can describe it was like audio déja-vu. I knew that the familiarness wasn't just because I had heard the song a bunch of times before (I had, after all, bought the album).

Today I was thinking about it again but I still couldn't find out what made it seem so familiar. So I forgot about it, and then suddenly David Guetta vs The Egg - Love Don't Let Me Go got stuck in my head. Almost immediately, I realized "hey, that's the song!"

I think Paul Van Dyk has used a sample from it. Check it out:

Paul van Dyk - Complicated (In Between, 2007) -- sample appears throughout

David Guetta vs The Egg - Love Don't Let Me Go (Single, 2006) -- sample appears at 0:39

(Disclaimer: I didn't upload the videos, nor do I own the copyright. Sorry if the embeds break.)

I found it incredibly cool that just by thinking about a song, the brain can recognize a pattern and match it up with similar bits from other songs without you even consciously trying to do it.

Tags:

brain

random

music

Installing the Darwin Calendar Server 2.4 on Fedora 13 or Fedora 14

Posted on Mon, 2010/11/22 - 11:05am

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been playing with the Darwin Calendar Server (DCS) on Linux... Today I was able to re-test my setup notes to see if they worked properly, so below I've written a tutorial on how to get your own DCS server going on Fedora 13 or 14.

Installing Dependencies

Since we will be installing CalendarServer directly from the 2.4 branch subversion repository, the first thing to do is to install subversion and the dependencies for DCS:

su -
# Required to check out the source code from the repository
yum install subversion
# Dependencies
yum install patch memcached krb5-devel python-zope-interface PyXML pyOpenSSL python-kerberos
# Requirements for compiling xattr
yum install python-setuptools gcc gcc-c++ python-devel

Enable extended file attributes (xattrs)

DCS requires user extended file attributes so the user_xattr mount option must be enabled for the partition on which CalendarServer will be storing its documents and data (in this case, /srv). If you have not already enabled this option (it is disabled by default), edit /etc/fstab and add the user_xattr mount option after defaults, for example:

/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root /                       ext4    defaults,user_xattr        1 1

Grab DCS from SVN and run auto-setup

Once these packages have been installed and extended file attributes have been enabled, we will begin setting up the CalendarServer as your regular, non-root user.

# Directory to hold CalendarServer checkout and its dependencies
mkdir CalendarServer
cd CalendarServer
# Checkout the code from the repo
svn checkout http://svn.calendarserver.org/repository/calendarserver/CalendarServer/tags/release/CalendarServer-2.4 CalendarServer-2.4
cd CalendarServer-2.4
# Start auto-setup
./run -s

Auto-setup will now attempt to grab any missing dependencies for CalendarServer an will unpack and patch them accordingly. You may find that the download for PyDirector stalls - if so, hit to abort setup and download it manually:

pushd ..
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/pythondirector/pydirector-1.0.0.tar.gz
tar xfz pydirector-1.0.0.tar.gz
popd
# Resume unpacking
./run -s

Prepare for installation

Since DCS bundles a modified version of Twisted as well as a few other projects (such as pydirector), we will now prepare an installation root folder to avoid conflicts with system libraries (i.e., Twisted if it has been installed from the Fedora repos). This code will be run as root.

su -
# setup data & document roots
mkdir -p /srv/CalendarServer/{Data,Documents}
chown -R daemon:daemon /srv/CalendarServer/
# setup installation root
mkdir -p /opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd
mkdir -p /opt/CalendarServer/var/run/caldavd
mkdir -p /opt/CalendarServer/var/log/caldavd

Install DCS and configure the server instance

The last step is to install DCS from the Subversion checkout we made earlier into the installation root. Replace /home/regularuser with the actual path to the home directory of your regular user.

# install DCS to installation root
cd /home/regularuser/CalendarServer/CalendarServer-2.4
./run -i /opt/CalendarServer
rm -rf /opt/CalendarServer/usr/caldavd/caldavd.plist
# copy sample configuration files
cp conf/servertoserver-test.xml /opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/servertoserver.xml
cp conf/auth/accounts.xml /opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/accounts.xml
cp conf/caldavd-test.plist /opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/caldavd.plist
cp conf/sudoers.plist /opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/sudoers.plist
# change permissions; passwords are stored plaintext!
chmod 600 /opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/*

I have reported bugs #390 and #391 about problems with the setup script on 64-bit machines as well as a problem if a custom destination installation directory is used (which we did). This bit of code works around both of the bugs:

# 64-bit fix - see https://trac.calendarserver.org/ticket/391
sitelib="$(python -c 'from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print(get_python_lib())')"
sitearch="$(python -c 'from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print(get_python_lib(1))')"
if [ "$sitelib" != "$sitearch" ];then
  mv /opt/CalendarServer"${sitelib}"/twisted/plugins/caldav.py* /opt/CalendarServer"${sitearch}"/twisted/plugins
  # PYTHONPATH fix for 64-bit - see https://trac.calendarserver.org/ticket/390
  sed -i.orig 's|PYTHONPATH="'"${sitelib}"'|DESTDIR=/opt/CalendarServer\nPYTHONPATH="${DESTDIR}'"${sitelib}"':${DESTDIR}'"${sitearch}"':|' /opt/CalendarServer/usr/bin/caldavd
else
  # PYTHONPATH fix for 32-bit - see https://trac.calendarserver.org/ticket/390
  sed -i.orig 's|PYTHONPATH="'"${sitelib}"'|DESTDIR=/opt/CalendarServer\nPYTHONPATH="${DESTDIR}'"${sitelib}"':|' /opt/CalendarServer/usr/bin/caldavd
fi

If you would like your server to use SSL (highly recommended), you will need to generate a certificate. If you have a certificate and key ready to install, place it in /opt/CalendarServer/etc/tls. If not, you can easily generate a free self-signed one:

# Generate SSL keys
mkdir /opt/CalendarServer/etc/tls
openssl req -new -newkey rsa:1024 -days 365 -nodes -x509 -keyout www.example.com.key -out www.example.com.crt

Now, edit /opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/caldavd.plist in your favorite editor and configure the server as follows:

    <!-- Network host name [empty = system host name] -->
    <key>ServerHostName</key>
    <string>example.com</string> <!-- The hostname clients use when connecting -->
# Data roots
    <!-- Data root -->
    <key>DataRoot</key>
    <string>/srv/CalendarServer/Data/</string>
         
    <!-- Document root -->
    <key>DocumentRoot</key>
    <string>/srv/CalendarServer/Documents/</string>
# Test accounts configuration
    <!-- XML File Directory Service -->
    <key>DirectoryService</key>
    <dict>
      <key>type</key>
      <string>twistedcaldav.directory.xmlfile.XMLDirectoryService</string>
          
      <key>params</key>
      <dict>
        <key>xmlFile</key>
        <string>/opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/accounts.xml</string>
      </dict>
    </dict>
# Sudoers configuration
    <!-- Principals that can pose as other principals -->
    <key>SudoersFile</key>
    <string>/opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/sudoers.plist</string>
# Delete this section
<!-- Wikiserver authentication (Mac OS X) -->
      <key>Wiki</key>
      <dict>
        <key>Enabled</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Cookie</key>
        <string>sessionID</string>
        <key>URL</key>
        <string>http://127.0.0.1/RPC2</string>
        <key>UserMethod</key>
        <string>userForSession</string>
        <key>WikiMethod</key>
        <string>accessLevelForUserWikiCalendar</string>
      </dict>
# logging
    <!--
        Logging
      -->
    <!-- Apache-style access log -->
    <key>AccessLogFile</key>
    <string>/opt/CalendarServer/var/log/caldavd/access.log</string>
    <key>RotateAccessLog</key>
    <false/>
    <!-- Server activity log -->
    <key>ErrorLogFile</key>
    <string>/opt/CalendarServer/var/log/caldavd/error.log</string>
    <!-- Log levels -->
    <key>DefaultLogLevel</key>
    <string>info</string> <!-- debug, info, warn, error -->
# a bit further down…
    <!-- Global server stats -->
    <key>GlobalStatsSocket</key>
    <string>/opt/CalendarServer/var/run/caldavd/caldavd-stats.sock</string>
# <snip>
    <!-- Server statistics file -->
    <key>ServerStatsFile</key>
    <string>/opt/CalendarServer/var/log/caldavd/stats.plist</string>
        
    <!-- Server process ID file -->
    <key>PIDFile</key>
    <string>/opt/CalendarServer/var/run/caldavd/caldavd.pid</string>
# SSL  
    <!-- Public key -->
    <key>SSLCertificate</key>
    <string>/opt/CalendarServer/etc/tls/www.example.com.crt</string>
            
    <!-- Private key -->
    <key>SSLPrivateKey</key>  
    <string>/opt/CalendarServer/etc/tls/www.example.com.key</string>
# Privilege drop
    <!--
        Process management
      -->
    
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>daemon</string>
    
    <key>GroupName</key>
    <string>daemon</string>
        
    <key>ProcessType</key>
    <string>Combined</string>
# iSchedule server-to-server settings
      <!-- iSchedule protocol options -->
      <key>iSchedule</key>
      <dict>
        <key>Enabled</key>
        <false/>
        <key>AddressPatterns</key>
        <array>
        </array>
        <key>Servers</key>
        <string>/opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/servertoserver.xml</string>
      </dict>
# Communication socket
    <!-- A unix socket used for communication between the child and master processes.
         An empty value tells the server to use a tcp socket instead. -->
    <key>ControlSocket</key>
    <string>/opt/CalendarServer/var/run/caldavd/caldavd.sock</string>
# Twisted
    <!--
        Twisted
      -->
         
    <key>Twisted</key>
    <dict>
      <key>twistd</key>
      <string>/opt/CalendarServer/usr/bin/twistd</string>
    </dict>
# Load balancer
    <!--
        Python Director
      -->
    <key>PythonDirector</key>
    <dict>
      <key>pydir</key>
      <string>/opt/CalendarServer/usr/bin/pydir.py</string>
      <key>ConfigFile</key>
      <string>/opt/CalendarServer/etc/pydir.xml</string>

<key>ControlSocket</key> <string>/opt/CalendarServer/var/run/caldavd/caldavd-pydir.sock</string> </dict>

...Profit!

Try starting the server!

/opt/CalendarServer/usr/bin/caldavd -T /opt/CalendarServer/usr/bin/twistd -f /opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/caldavd.plist -X

If all goes well, press to kill the process and then daemonize it:

/opt/CalendarServer/usr/bin/caldavd -T /opt/CalendarServer/usr/bin/twistd -f /opt/CalendarServer/etc/caldavd/caldavd.plist

Tags:

Apple

fedora

linux

Playing with the Darwin Calendar Server

Posted on Sat, 2010/11/20 - 2:16am

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been caught up with school and updating my FOSS on the side whenever I have some spare time.

The server that runs this site as well as diffingo.com and a few others is almost always idle - the load averages rarely exceed 0.5, and are most often sitting somewhere around 0.2 (it's a 1U/Core 2 Quad Q9550@2.83GHz/8GB RAM/2x1TB RAID 1). I have bigger plans for it in the future, but at the moment there just isn't a great deal for it to do since it handles everything so quickly.

I have been wanting to see how KVM VMs perform on it as well as try out the Darwin Calendar Server (DCS)... Seeing as DCS requires Python 2.5 and I didn't want to mess around with the live server's configuration (CentOS 5.x ships with Python 2.4), I installed Fedora 13 in a virtual machine so I could test the calendar server safely.

To my surprise, KVM works really, really well... I wasn't expecting that seeing as the versions I had used in Fedora were so much more recent. The performance is good - I haven't performed any stress-testing yet (which obviously will show a gap between the VM and running natively) but the DCS is running very smoothly and feels very responsive, so I'm confident that the difference in performance is not so large.

How I got the DCS running on Linux is a whole other story... I'll save that another post (F13/F14 DCS installation guides coming soon) but is it ever handy to have a CalDAV server! Previously, I was only able to sync calendars manually (with the USB cable) which made checking for homework assignments extremely annoying, as half of the information was always my iPod and the other half on iCal and I had to sync all the time. Now it's all over-the-air, so as long as there's Internet connectivity the calendar events can be pulled in or pushed out.

Tags:

Apple

fedora

linux

A fun little script

Posted on Wed, 2010/10/20 - 9:07pm

#!/bin/bash
if [ "$1" == "-h" ] || [ "$1" == "--help" ] || [ "$1" == "-v" ] || [ "$1" == "--verbose" ];then
  echo -e "http://xkcd.com/149\n"
fi

if [ $UID -eq 0 ];then echo "Okay." else echo "What? Make it yourself." fi

Tags:

xkcd