Entries from geek stuff

  • August, 2005
  • Moving the MySQL's datadir directory.

    By default, MySQL's datadir is placed in the /var/lib/mysql directory. However, if you are planning on using MySQL tables to store a lot of data and your /var partition is small, it might cause you problem at a later stage. In such a scenario, it is better to move the MySQL's datadir to another partition (like /home.

    The steps are

    1. Stop your mysql server before starting this operation
    2. Create the directories that will be new datadir
    3. chown the directory to the mysql:mysql user
    4. copy the files from the old datadir to the new location. However, make sure that the files named ib_arch_log_0000000000, ib_logfile0 etc. are not copied to the newer location.
    5. Make sure that the files and directories are owned by mysql user
    6. Make changes in the my.cnf to point the new datadir.
    7. Restart the MySQL database
    8. You might need to do varying degree of troubleshooting to get the server working if there is some problem
    9. Create a new database and verify that the files for this database are getting created in the new datadir
    10. After the server is running for a few days properly, get rid of the old data.
    11. Sleep
    I tested these steps on MySQL 4.0.24 and all my tables were MyISAM type.

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  • Fuck cisco

    Fuck cisco for this. Here are the notes from Lynn's presentation.. Unsurprisingly, a small list of mirrors for Lynn's presentation is here.

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  • April, 2005
  • ingenious social enginering to know when your network traffic is being watched

    from Tao of security blog, I came across this

    One of the details that emerged from Curt's monitoring of the Invita Security network involved a password used by Alexey Ivanov. When accessing one of his drop sites, Alexey's FTP password was www.pidor.com (Internet Archive available). Think of what an unwary analyst might do with that information. Only someone who is monitoring Alexey's actions might know about www.pidor.com. Say that unwary analyst decides to visit www.pidor.com to learn more about the site. If Alexey or a friend is monitoring Web accesses to www.pidor.com, they could learn that they are being monitored. This case demonstrates how important it is for analysts to not "touch" remote or foreign sites involved in intrusions. You may tip your hand to the attacker and ruin an investigation or recovery effort.

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  • Vendorwear

    Vendorwear - a piece of clothing with a vendor's logo on it. Usually it is a t-shirt.

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  • shift to s9y

    I have moved my blogging software from Wordpress to Serendipity. It was able to import the entries from Wordpress without any problem. I needed to create 3 additional files to make the transition complete i.e. wp-atom.php, wp-rss.php, wp-rss2.php . These were needed so that people who were using the rss feeds from the Wordpress did not have to change their feeds again.

    These files do nothing more than redirecting the users to the new feed url. For example, the content of the file wp-rss2.php is just

    <?php
    // For redirecting users who are lost 
    header("Location: http://rajshekhar.net/blog/feeds/index.rss2");
    ?>
    

    Beyond this customization, I did not have to do any more labor to migrate to Serendipity

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  • March, 2005
  • You will not understand the below paragraph until you are well versed in geek culture :-) . I am keeping it here, since it is another Frequently quoted quotation

    After seven and a half million years of pondering the question, Deep Thought provides the answer: "forty-two". "Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?" "I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."

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  • the meaning of moo

    One of the FAQ on the IRC channel (#linux-india at irc://freenode) is "What is the meaning of moo". I have added a page to my main website where I will try to answer that question.

    The meaning of Moo

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