From damon at controltier.com Thu Dec 1 17:37:39 2005 From: damon at controltier.com (Damon Edwards) Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 17:37:39 -0800 Subject: New Automation Project (ControlTier) Message-ID: Greetings, just letting everyone on the list know about our new open source project, ControlTier. http://open.controltier.com/ ControlTier automates application deployment and control. It combines both configuration management (configuring all of the various components of a distributed, multi-tier application) and process management (coordinates and sequences the various procedures that need to happen in order to deploy, configure, and control a distributed, multi-tier application). Designed to be a tool that automates other tools, ControlTier works with your existing scripts (Shell, Ant, Perl, Ruby, etc..) and can integrate your favorite tools into complex processes (cfengine, Kickstart/Jumpstart, Maven, etc..). ControlTier may appear to have a Unix slant to it, but is completely cross platform and has been used successfully in Windows-only environments The software has been in use at multiple large enterprises over the past 3 years (ControlTier, Inc. is an automation solutions provider), but has only been an open source project for a few months. Any and all feedback is welcome either here or on our mailing lists. Some of our developers will also be at the LISA conference in San Diego on Monday and Tuesday. Other links of interest: Overview of platform: http://open.controltier.com/documentation/developers/platform.html FAQ: http://open.controltier.com/documentation/faq.html Roadmap (the tools continue to evolve rapidly): http://open.controltier.com/development/roadmap/3-0.html Mailing lists: http://open.controltier.com/mailing-list.html --- Damon Edwards ControlTier Software, Inc. damon at controltier.com http://www.controltier.com CONTROLTIER: OPEN SOURCE DEPLOYMENT AUTOMATION From bill at wards.net Tue Dec 6 01:56:23 2005 From: bill at wards.net (Bill Ward) Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 01:56:23 -0800 Subject: PenLUG Meeting THIS WEEK - Thu 12/8 - TuxPaint, BlackDog, and free food In-Reply-To: <3d2fe1780512060154i64c1794dqe7bd69ca2fc1bf85@mail.gmail.com> References: <3d2fe1780512060154i64c1794dqe7bd69ca2fc1bf85@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <3d2fe1780512060156h7089b5fbsd493d2ba039336db@mail.gmail.com> Peninsula Linux Users' Group, Thursday, December 8, 2005 *** NOTE: New meeting location - we will be meeting at IHOP, not Oracle! *** We have a meeting of the Peninsula Linux Users' Group (PenLUG) this week! Here are the details about the meeting. For more information or directions go to http://www.penlug.org/ Date: Thursday, December 8, 2005 Time: 6:45 - 9:00 PM Location: IHOP restaurant, 510 El Camino Real, Belmont, CA 94002-2121 http://maps.google.com/maps?q=510+El+Camino+Real,+94002&spn=0.015132,0.037793&t=h&iwloc=A&hl=en Highlights (scroll down for details): - Free Food courtesy of Project BlackDog - please arrive before 7pm to place your orders. - Keynote presentation: Bill Kendrick, New Breed Software - Tux Paint, Technically - Short presentation: Project BlackDog (learn how you can win $50,000) - A discussion about the future of PenLUG (meeting location, volunteers, etc.) - Free Books courtesy of O'Reilly and/or Addison-Wesley/Prentice-Hall PTR. Free food This month's food sponsor is Project BlackDog, who will pay the tab at IHOP. So come fill up on pancakes or burgers or whatever suits your fancy. Please arrive before 7pm so you can get your order in before the presentations start. Thanks guys! Keynote presentation: Bill Kendrick, New Breed Software - Tux Paint, Technically Tux Paint is an Open Source, multi-platform drawing program for young children. It includes numerous graphical effects ("Magic" tools), has been localized to nearly 60 languages, and ported from Linux to Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD and Solaris. Bill will provide a very brief overview of Tux Paint, and then discuss some of the technical and project-management aspects of the project. Bill Kendrick is lead developer of Tux Paint. He has been writing games for Unix and Linux since 1997. http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/ Project BlackDog BlackDog is "the world's smallest Linux server that is 100% USB-powered and fits in the palm of your hand." I saw their booth at the LinuxWorld Expo (the one with the mechanical bull, if you were there) and was suitably impressed. They're doing a $50,000 contest to find a killer app for their product and will be talking about the product and the contest at PenLUG this week. And many thanks to them for underwriting the food at IHOP too! http://www.projectblackdog.com/ Future of PenLUG We lost our spot at Oracle, and so far have been unable to get it back. Meeting at IHOP is OK, especially when we have a sponsor for free food, but there's no Internet access and it's a hassle to bring in the projector and screen. Where else might we meet? Also, I can't do it alone - we need some more volunteers to help organize speakers and meetings... And finally, what else can we be doing? Installfests? Social events? Different topics? Please bring your ideas. Free Books Every month I receive a stream of free books. They're yours for the taking - you just need to write a review. Post it on Amazon or the PenLUG wiki or wherever, and let me know so I can make sure the publishers know about it. This month I have a lot of great titles to give away at the end of the meeting. (They make great Christmas gifts, too!) Bill Ward President, PenLUG -- Help save the San Jose Earthquakes - http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/ From alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com Tue Dec 6 21:40:58 2005 From: alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 21:40:58 -0800 (PST) Subject: secure data erasing Message-ID: hi ya baylisa-erz - to beat a dead horse ( secure data erasure ) some more ... - i'm looking to see if anybody here has a degausser floating around - we'll pay you for the rental time on those $3K or more puppies - erasing disks with freeware/proprietory commercial software is NOT an option - sledge hammer will be an option on a couple of the disks but not the other disks .. ( it'd be a "waste of disk" ) - trick question .. - how good are the degaussers .. can the magnetic waves get thru the metal (typically aluminum ) that forms the disk to randomly screw up the "itty-bitty magnets" on the platters if the case is steel .. it'd be a real good trick to erase the platters .. c ya alvin x> http://www.ibas.com/data-erasure/degausser x> http://www.degausser.info/ x> http://www.datadev.com/ x> http://www.periphman.com/gsa.shtml x> x> $ 3100 x> http://www.athana.com/ddequip/v91mHD.htm x> http://www.degausser.us/degaussers/91mhd.htm ( same as above ) x> http://www.garsonindustries.com/degauss/91mhd.htm ( same as above) x> http://asiastor.com/verity_v91mhd.htm ( same as above ) x> x> $ 860 - sorta worthless since the disk is opened already x> http://www.datalinksales.com/cgi-bin/shop/datstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=V85 From "Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" at wsrcc.com Tue Dec 6 23:01:30 2005 From: "Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" at wsrcc.com ("Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" at wsrcc.com) Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:01:30 -0800 Subject: secure data erasing References: Message-ID: <873bl5tmph.fsf@bonnet.wsrcc.com> alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) writes: > - sledge hammer will be an option on a couple of the disks > but not the other disks .. ( it'd be a "waste of disk" ) If you find a degausser strong enough to erase the disk data then you will also be erasing the tracking track's information, the spares / bad-block data, and perhaps the drive's second-stage firmware. Save yourself the trouble and hit it with the big hammer. The result is the same and you save yourself a lot of hassle. Personally I just fill my old drives with zeros using dd(1) to write to the raw device from /dev/zero. Anyone that has the technology to read once-erased data is also going to have the technology to read data from the computer using non-contact means, or do some B&E and just duplicate the disks still in the computer when nobody is around. -wolfgang From alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com Wed Dec 7 14:57:27 2005 From: alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 14:57:27 -0800 (PST) Subject: secure data erasing In-Reply-To: <873bl5tmph.fsf@bonnet.wsrcc.com> Message-ID: hi ya wolfgang On Tue, 6 Dec 2005 Wolfgang S. Rupprecht at wsrcc.com wrote: > If you find a degausser strong enough to erase the disk data then you > will also be erasing the tracking track's information, the spares / > bad-block data, that'd be okay ... one would hopefully lowlevel format a used disk before they use it > and perhaps the drive's second-stage firmware. that stuff should be in eeprom ?? magnetics should not erase it but uv will .. - if they used solid state flash instead .. that'd be another problem too as you say, strong magnetics might screw up the disk controller firmware > Save > yourself the trouble and hit it with the big hammer. The result is > the same and you save yourself a lot of hassle. they're tending toward a hammer for couple of disks .. other disks, can be recycled .. > Personally I just fill my old drives with zeros using dd(1) to write > to the raw device from /dev/zero. that'd be my bet too ... but not until they give up on the buying or renting the $3K or $10K degaussers .. :-) > Anyone that has the technology to > read once-erased data is also going to have the technology to read > data from the computer using non-contact means, or do some B&E and > just duplicate the disks still in the computer when nobody is around. yup ... all their disks is already pulled off/out of the systems, which makes it even easier for it to find legs - orders of magnitude less secure than using dd to erase data c ya alvin From jkavitsk at Brocade.COM Wed Dec 7 16:50:42 2005 From: jkavitsk at Brocade.COM (Jim Kavitsky) Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 16:50:42 -0800 Subject: secure data erasing Message-ID: <24BD2D5F3CEF4F4780606124741B48169995@hq-ex-7.brocade.com> Hi, Alvin. Are you going to be retaining possession of the disks, or do they have to go off site? I'm also curious as to why software erasure is not an option. Is it a matter of being too labor intensive for the number of devices that you have? The DoD has published data erasure standards for classified hard drives that specify bit patterns and number of passes required to eliminate residual data traces. Several of the software vendors out there claim to be DoD compliant, including this one: http://www.eraseyourharddrive.com You can also attach the drives to a unix box and write a C program to write across the entire device with the specified bit patterns for the required number of passes. The question boils down to how valuable is the information on the drives? Are you looking for an external degausser only because it will be faster for bulk erasure? If you are really concerned about the information on the drives, I would use a software package to erase it in addition to whatever other technique you decide upon. I also have my doubts about bulk electromagnetic erasers being effective through the HDA enclosure of a drive. When I worked for General Dynamics a long time ago, we had to erase failed drives containing classified information before they could be allowed to be returned to the vendor, as our support contract required. We had the option of purchasing the broken drives, or degaussing them. Degaussing them involved opening the HDA's, and running what amounted to a $1700 bar magnet over the surface of each platter for three revolutions. This also effectively destroyed those HDA's as far as future usability goes. Please let us know what option you finally select, and what factors affected your decision. -jimk -----Original Message----- From: owner-baylisa at baylisa.org [mailto:owner-baylisa at baylisa.org] On Behalf Of Alvin Oga Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 9:41 PM To: baylisa at baylisa.org Subject: secure data erasing hi ya baylisa-erz - to beat a dead horse ( secure data erasure ) some more ... - i'm looking to see if anybody here has a degausser floating around - we'll pay you for the rental time on those $3K or more puppies - erasing disks with freeware/proprietory commercial software is NOT an option - sledge hammer will be an option on a couple of the disks but not the other disks .. ( it'd be a "waste of disk" ) - trick question .. - how good are the degaussers .. can the magnetic waves get thru the metal (typically aluminum ) that forms the disk to randomly screw up the "itty-bitty magnets" on the platters if the case is steel .. it'd be a real good trick to erase the platters .. c ya alvin x> http://www.ibas.com/data-erasure/degausser x> http://www.degausser.info/ x> http://www.datadev.com/ x> http://www.periphman.com/gsa.shtml x> x> $ 3100 x> http://www.athana.com/ddequip/v91mHD.htm x> http://www.degausser.us/degaussers/91mhd.htm ( same as above ) x> http://www.garsonindustries.com/degauss/91mhd.htm ( same as above) x> http://asiastor.com/verity_v91mhd.htm ( same as above ) x> x> $ 860 - sorta worthless since the disk is opened already x> http://www.datalinksales.com/cgi-bin/shop/datstore.cgi?user_action=detai l&catalogno=V85 From alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com Wed Dec 7 17:11:43 2005 From: alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 17:11:43 -0800 (PST) Subject: secure data erasing In-Reply-To: <24BD2D5F3CEF4F4780606124741B48169995@hq-ex-7.brocade.com> Message-ID: hi ya jim On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Jim Kavitsky wrote: > > Hi, Alvin. Are you going to be retaining possession of the disks, or do > they have to go off site? I'm also curious as to why software erasure is > not an option. not my choice ( yet ) they want degaussing for whatever reason ... :-) > Is it a matter of being too labor intensive for the > number of devices that you have? The DoD has published data erasure > standards for classified hard drives that specify bit patterns and > number of passes required to eliminate residual data traces. Several of > the software vendors out there claim to be DoD compliant, including this > one: > > http://www.eraseyourharddrive.com it doesn't need to be dod compliant and if i was using sw to erase it, i'd just use dd if=/dev/random and loop it 10x or something c ya alvin From alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com Wed Dec 7 17:17:27 2005 From: alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 17:17:27 -0800 (PST) Subject: another tape drive problem Message-ID: hi ya anybody out there have a exabyte mammoth drive for 160mXL 8GB tapes we'll buy the drive if the client hasn't found one yet ( doubtful since it's past 5pm now ) c ya alvin From npc at gangofone.com Wed Dec 7 17:40:22 2005 From: npc at gangofone.com (Nick Christenson) Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 17:40:22 -0800 (PST) Subject: another tape drive problem In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <200512080140.jB81eMtQ088916@prometheus.gangofone.com> > hi ya > > anybody out there have a exabyte mammoth drive > for 160mXL 8GB tapes Note, unless I'm terribly mistaken, Mammoth drives (Exabyte 8900s) are not supported to read or write from 160m XL media. The Mammoth supports 170m and 225m AME media. The three drives that support the 160m XL media are the Exabyte 8705, Exabyte 8700, and Exabyte 8505 (but not the 8500). Whether you can read from the tapes or not also depends on what form of compression was used when the tape was written. You can trivially find these tape drives on eBay. I've got a couple 8700s lying around, but since I'm outside California these days, you can get drives faster (and better motivated) from eBay that you could from me. -- Nick Christenson npc at gangofone.com From alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com Wed Dec 7 17:54:25 2005 From: alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 17:54:25 -0800 (PST) Subject: another tape drive problem In-Reply-To: <200512080140.jB81eMtQ088916@prometheus.gangofone.com> Message-ID: hi ya nick On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Nick Christenson wrote: > Note, unless I'm terribly mistaken, Mammoth drives (Exabyte 8900s) are > not supported to read or write from 160m XL media. it's the 160m XL tapes we need to read ... they're tired of tapes and will be wanting to put it onto dvd :-) ( too many drive problems :-) > You can trivially find these tape drives on eBay. yup.. presumbaly that's what they're going to be doing, but i thought i'd rattle somebody's cage in here for some xmas $$$ for stuff that's been laying around i have a 8200 laying around .. along with other tape drives but not what i need for this particular instance .. c ya alvin From pf-baylisa at freret.org Wed Dec 7 09:52:37 2005 From: pf-baylisa at freret.org (Payne Freret) Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 09:52:37 -0800 Subject: secure data erasing Message-ID: 9:49 am Wed 7 Dec 2005 Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote > If you find a degausser strong enough to erase the disk > data then you will also be erasing the tracking track's > information, the spares / bad-block data, and perhaps the > drive's second-stage firmware. Save yourself the trouble > and hit it with the big hammer. Whatever is wrong with erasing tracking information, spare data blocks, and even the drive's second-stage firmaware if the alternative is to crush the drive with a big hammer? PF From alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com Wed Dec 7 18:35:58 2005 From: alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 18:35:58 -0800 (PST) Subject: secure data erasing In-Reply-To: Message-ID: hi ya payne On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Payne Freret wrote: > Whatever is wrong with erasing tracking information, spare data blocks, > and even the drive's second-stage firmaware if the alternative is to > crush the drive with a big hammer? if the plan is to destroy the disk/data ... hammer is good if the hammer is used on the platters since not everyone hits the body of the disk drives hard enough to destroy the data on the platters the itty-bitty section ofthe disk under the head at the time of the hammer might get destroyed, but the rest of data on the platter is still intact the hammer approach has to hit the platters if the plan is to recycle the disk for people to take home the drives or giveawy to non-profits, than as was previously posted, destroying some low level tracke ( servo ) info can be bad thing .. but uv erasable eeprom "should be immune" to some magnetics but if the beam is strong enough, who knows what north pole will do under the extra strong magentic beams/pulses c ya alvin From Alison at wsrcc.com Wed Dec 7 21:09:56 2005 From: Alison at wsrcc.com (Alison at wsrcc.com) Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 21:09:56 -0800 Subject: secure data erasing References: , Message-ID: <8664q0fa3f.fsf@capsicum.wsrcc.com> alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) writes: > but uv erasable eeprom "should be immune" to some magnetics but if > the beam is strong enough, who knows what north pole will do under > the extra strong magentic beams/pulses I don't expect an arbitrarily high magnetic field to do much to flash, which is an entirely electrostatic memory. What a high magnetic field can do is "upset" the read/write head. A read/write head has "biasing" magnets in it that set the operating point on the maximum slope part of the response curve for highest possible sensitivity. A head also has stabilization magnets in it that keep the sensor in a single magnetic domain state. If either the biasing or stabilization magnets in the head get screwed up, that would be the end. > the itty-bitty section ofthe disk under the head at the time of the > hammer might get destroyed, but the rest of data on the platter is > still intact As suggested above, destroying the heads (perhaps with tweezers) is a lot easier than denting the platters with hammers. Damaged heads won't prevent someone from putting the platters in another system and reading them, but then we're talking about a fairly motivated and sophisticated snoop. In my previous job in Washington DC, armored trucks would arrive from an unknown agency with discs to be erased on a 20 tesla magnet. (By comparison the earth's field is about 0.3 G = 3x10-5 T.) My lab was unfortunately directly over this magnet, and naturally "they" would never warn me in advance when they were coming. -- Alison Chaiken "From:" address above is valid. (650) 236-2231 [daytime] http://www.wsrcc.com/alison/ Predators fail often; prey fail only once. -- Tom Evslin From david at catwhisker.org Wed Dec 7 22:09:38 2005 From: david at catwhisker.org (David Wolfskill) Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 22:09:38 -0800 Subject: secure data erasing In-Reply-To: <8664q0fa3f.fsf@capsicum.wsrcc.com> References: <8664q0fa3f.fsf@capsicum.wsrcc.com> Message-ID: <20051208060938.GL23187@bunrab.catwhisker.org> On Wed, Dec 07, 2005 at 09:09:56PM -0800, Alison at wsrcc.com wrote: > > alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) writes: > > .... > > the itty-bitty section ofthe disk under the head at the time of the > > hammer might get destroyed, but the rest of data on the platter is > > still intact > > As suggested above, destroying the heads (perhaps with tweezers) is a > lot easier than denting the platters with hammers. Damaged heads > won't prevent someone from putting the platters in another system and > reading them, but then we're talking about a fairly motivated and > sophisticated snoop. >... For at least some consumer-grade drives, applying force (at room temperature & pressure) is very unlikely to "dent" a platter. I disassembled a drive that was to be thrown away. (I believe it was an IBM drive that was retired after it reported read errors.) I thought it would be amusing to deform one of the platters to a hyperbolic paraboloid (a "saddle curve"); I proceeded to do that (by hand). The platter resisted deformation; I pressed harder. It shattered. I was surprised -- and I am thankful that no shards struck my eyes. I am reasonably confident that reconstructing any data that may have resided on that drive would not be worth the effort -- if, indeed, it might be possible. (We were picking shards out of the carpet of that office for months....) Peace, david -- David H. Wolfskill david at catwhisker.org It is courteous to reduce quoted text to just that needed to establish context. See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key. From "Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" at wsrcc.com Thu Dec 8 00:13:35 2005 From: "Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" at wsrcc.com ("Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" at wsrcc.com) Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 00:13:35 -0800 Subject: secure data erasing References: <873bl5tmph.fsf@bonnet.wsrcc.com>, Message-ID: <87pso8ovkg.fsf@bonnet.wsrcc.com> Hi Alvin! alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) writes: > On Tue, 6 Dec 2005 Wolfgang S. Rupprecht at wsrcc.com wrote: >> If you find a degausser strong enough to erase the disk data then you >> will also be erasing the tracking track's information, the spares / >> bad-block data, > that'd be okay ... one would hopefully lowlevel format a used disk > before they use it >> and perhaps the drive's second-stage firmware. > > that stuff should be in eeprom ?? magnetics should not erase it > but uv will .. > - if they used solid state flash instead .. that'd > be another problem too as you say, strong magnetics might > screw up the disk controller firmware There is vital data in tracks that are inaccessible to users and can't be rebuilt by users. Modern disks have "system tracks" on the outside of the disk, slightly further out than track-0 where they keep the defect lists and sometimes the second-stage firmware. Erasing the this second-stage firmware with a degausser will turn your disk into a brick, just using more cumbersome methods than hitting it with a hammer. Tracking data will also be erased by any degausser that is strong enough to erase the data. Tracking info is either on a dedicated surface that the user can never write to, or located between the disk blocks as another sort of sector header. Erasing either kind of tracking data will also turn the disk into a brick and require a trip to the factory for recreating it. The only reference I could quickly find is this one. (Search for "4.1.2 Replace the Firmware".) http://www.actionfront.com/ts_whitepaper.asp -wolfgang From wingedpower at gmail.com Thu Dec 8 11:15:13 2005 From: wingedpower at gmail.com (Wing Wong) Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 11:15:13 -0800 Subject: secure data erasing In-Reply-To: <7097bd8c0512071746h6c42bf72i4ffa19bd6aef26d0@mail.gmail.com> References: <24BD2D5F3CEF4F4780606124741B48169995@hq-ex-7.brocade.com> <7097bd8c0512071746h6c42bf72i4ffa19bd6aef26d0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <7097bd8c0512081115s4c39b0e2w751cd30b13979e85@mail.gmail.com> Huh.. original got munged: http://www.spectrumwest.com/Attach2.htm Degaussing risks not only wiping the track data, but also damaging the perm magnets as well as the servo coils themselves. All of this risks rendering the hard drive unusable. If the purpose is to reuse the hard drives(as data devices), then degaussing is a bad idea. As others have noted, the hammer approach would do limited damage to the actual platters. The disk won't be usable afterwards, but the data can still be recovered, etc. Btw, has the decision maker decided where this degausser would operate so that it won't damage/affect devices not slated for wiping/destruction? Wing. > On 12/7/05, Alvin Oga wrote: > > > > > > hi ya jim > > > > On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Jim Kavitsky wrote: > > > > > > > > Hi, Alvin. Are you going to be retaining possession of the disks, or do > > > they have to go off site? I'm also curious as to why software erasure is > > > not an option. > > > > not my choice ( yet ) > > > > they want degaussing for whatever reason ... :-) > > > > > Is it a matter of being too labor intensive for the > > > number of devices that you have? The DoD has published data erasure > > > standards for classified hard drives that specify bit patterns and > > > number of passes required to eliminate residual data traces. Several of > > > the software vendors out there claim to be DoD compliant, including this > > > one: > > > > > > http://www.eraseyourharddrive.com > > > > it doesn't need to be dod compliant > > > > and if i was using sw to erase it, i'd just use dd if=/dev/random and loop > > it 10x or something > > > > c ya > > alvin > > > > > > > > -- > Wing Wong > wingedpower at gmail.com -- Wing Wong wingedpower at gmail.com From hans.jacobsen at gmail.com Fri Dec 9 06:28:43 2005 From: hans.jacobsen at gmail.com (Hans Jacobsen) Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2005 06:28:43 -0800 Subject: secure data erasing In-Reply-To: <7097bd8c0512081115s4c39b0e2w751cd30b13979e85@mail.gmail.com> References: <24BD2D5F3CEF4F4780606124741B48169995@hq-ex-7.brocade.com> <7097bd8c0512071746h6c42bf72i4ffa19bd6aef26d0@mail.gmail.com> <7097bd8c0512081115s4c39b0e2w751cd30b13979e85@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <781c83e0512090628uf3489edg85132a8145923759@mail.gmail.com> It sounds like re-using the drives is not the objective. Frankly, I gave a couple of drives to a very trusted employee. He took them to a target range an shot them with a high-powered rifle. Not a handgun - not enough to go through... A rifle went through - a few holes will give a good challenge to recovery. If that isn't enough: dd first, de-gauss, then shoot - that should guarantee it can't ever be read again. -hej On 12/8/05, Wing Wong wrote: > Huh.. original got munged: > > http://www.spectrumwest.com/Attach2.htm > > Degaussing risks not only wiping the track data, but also damaging the > perm magnets as well as the servo coils themselves. All of this risks > rendering the hard drive unusable. If the purpose is to reuse the hard > drives(as data devices), then degaussing is a bad idea. > > As others have noted, the hammer approach would do limited damage to > the actual platters. The disk won't be usable afterwards, but the data > can still be recovered, etc. > > Btw, has the decision maker decided where this degausser would operate > so that it won't damage/affect devices not slated for > wiping/destruction? > > Wing. > > > On 12/7/05, Alvin Oga wrote: > > > > > > > > > hi ya jim > > > > > > On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Jim Kavitsky wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > Hi, Alvin. Are you going to be retaining possession of the disks, or do > > > > they have to go off site? I'm also curious as to why software erasure is > > > > not an option. > > > > > > not my choice ( yet ) > > > > > > they want degaussing for whatever reason ... :-) > > > > > > > Is it a matter of being too labor intensive for the > > > > number of devices that you have? The DoD has published data erasure > > > > standards for classified hard drives that specify bit patterns and > > > > number of passes required to eliminate residual data traces. Several of > > > > the software vendors out there claim to be DoD compliant, including this > > > > one: > > > > > > > > http://www.eraseyourharddrive.com > > > > > > it doesn't need to be dod compliant > > > > > > and if i was using sw to erase it, i'd just use dd if=/dev/random and loop > > > it 10x or something > > > > > > c ya > > > alvin > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Wing Wong > > wingedpower at gmail.com > > > > -- > Wing Wong > wingedpower at gmail.com > > From sigje at sigje.org Fri Dec 9 16:51:10 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2005 16:51:10 -0800 (PST) Subject: FAST Discount Message-ID: I will have a FAST discount for BayLISA members soonish.. so if you were planning on going, just an FYI. Additionally, if you are interested in volunteering let me know! This is the Storage conference held in San Francisco this year. Anyone interested in volunteering to help put together the BayLISA Spring conference in late March, additionally let me know. We do have BayLISA _next week_! Check out the website for the list of topics.. we have a lot!! LISA has been incredibly fun.. next year it's in DC. We will have to put together a contingent to go out that way :) Jennifer From wingedpower at gmail.com Sat Dec 10 01:19:38 2005 From: wingedpower at gmail.com (Wing Wong) Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 01:19:38 -0800 Subject: secure data erasing In-Reply-To: <781c83e0512090628uf3489edg85132a8145923759@mail.gmail.com> References: <24BD2D5F3CEF4F4780606124741B48169995@hq-ex-7.brocade.com> <7097bd8c0512071746h6c42bf72i4ffa19bd6aef26d0@mail.gmail.com> <7097bd8c0512081115s4c39b0e2w751cd30b13979e85@mail.gmail.com> <781c83e0512090628uf3489edg85132a8145923759@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <7097bd8c0512100119h56af0a0an7e53f3769cdf0612@mail.gmail.com> If the drives were not to be re-used: - DD 5-8 times(xor, 0, 1) - Dismantle - Melt platters or sand blast the coating off of the plates. - Makes nice modern art, especially with the sanded bits used as glitter. Wing. On 12/9/05, Hans Jacobsen wrote: > It sounds like re-using the drives is not the objective. > > Frankly, I gave a couple of drives to a very trusted employee. He > took them to a target range an shot them with a high-powered rifle. > Not a handgun - not enough to go through... A rifle went through - a > few holes will give a good challenge to recovery. > > If that isn't enough: dd first, de-gauss, then shoot - that should > guarantee it can't ever be read again. > > -hej > > > On 12/8/05, Wing Wong wrote: > > Huh.. original got munged: > > > > http://www.spectrumwest.com/Attach2.htm > > > > Degaussing risks not only wiping the track data, but also damaging the > > perm magnets as well as the servo coils themselves. All of this risks > > rendering the hard drive unusable. If the purpose is to reuse the hard > > drives(as data devices), then degaussing is a bad idea. > > > > As others have noted, the hammer approach would do limited damage to > > the actual platters. The disk won't be usable afterwards, but the data > > can still be recovered, etc. > > > > Btw, has the decision maker decided where this degausser would operate > > so that it won't damage/affect devices not slated for > > wiping/destruction? > > > > Wing. > > > > > On 12/7/05, Alvin Oga wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > hi ya jim > > > > > > > > On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Jim Kavitsky wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Hi, Alvin. Are you going to be retaining possession of the disks, or do > > > > > they have to go off site? I'm also curious as to why software erasure is > > > > > not an option. > > > > > > > > not my choice ( yet ) > > > > > > > > they want degaussing for whatever reason ... :-) > > > > > > > > > Is it a matter of being too labor intensive for the > > > > > number of devices that you have? The DoD has published data erasure > > > > > standards for classified hard drives that specify bit patterns and > > > > > number of passes required to eliminate residual data traces. Several of > > > > > the software vendors out there claim to be DoD compliant, including this > > > > > one: > > > > > > > > > > http://www.eraseyourharddrive.com > > > > > > > > it doesn't need to be dod compliant > > > > > > > > and if i was using sw to erase it, i'd just use dd if=/dev/random and loop > > > > it 10x or something > > > > > > > > c ya > > > > alvin > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Wing Wong > > > wingedpower at gmail.com > > > > > > > > -- > > Wing Wong > > wingedpower at gmail.com > > > > > > -- Wing Wong wingedpower at gmail.com From sigje at sigje.org Mon Dec 12 12:28:46 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:28:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: FAST discount information, North BayLISA, other comments Message-ID: I've heard from Anne, and as soon as they have information onsite they will get me a discount code. (So day of the event starting.) I talked to some people with regards to North BayLISA this past week. We may have a location in Emeryville for North/East Bay BayLISA folks. I know there was some discussion a few weeks back about doing this.. if the people who were interested in this could poke me again that would be helpful in getting this organized with the first few speakers and announcements. We are evaluating the bylaws to make them more clear, and improve the voting process. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please do let us know at blw at baylisa.org. We are also working on figuring out what services to provide BayLISA members. We are working behind the scenes to get this going, and should have some news to announce soon(ish). We did replace the camera in November, and started recording meetings again. The great thing about this camera is that it's direct to hard disk and so can hold the whole meeting in one recording. We've been looking at how to host these recordings so that people could browse the library, and discovered video.google.com. The nov9 meeting has been uploaded, and as soon as Google verifies the content I'll be posting the link so anyone who missed the presentation will be able to view it. Bob Camors/Jennifer Granick's presentation will be uploaded as well. We welcome comments about services to blw at baylisa.org. If you are interested in volunteering in helping make these services happen that would be great. We always welcome volunteers :) Rick Moen, and Jim Dennis will be presenting a BayLISA Tools of the Trade - Security Seminar coming up in the new year. Many thanks to Elizabeth Zwicky, Strata Chalup, and Jim Hickstein for serving on the BayLISA Board. Welcome to Alan Horn, Jim Dennis, and Guy Purcell to the new Board. This year I will be serving as the President of Board of Directors, Rick Moen will be returning as Treasurer, and Guy Purcell will be serving as Arch/Secretary. Many thanks to these individuals for serving the organization. Jennifer From sigje at sigje.org Tue Dec 13 09:11:42 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 09:11:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: FAST discount code Message-ID: You can request the BayLISA discount at the registration desk at FAST or use BayLISA05 when registering. Jennifer From sigje at sigje.org Tue Dec 13 11:04:14 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 11:04:14 -0800 (PST) Subject: December 15: BayLISA Short But Cools (THIS THURSDAY) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Date: Thursday, December 15 2005 Where: Apple Campus 4 Infinite Loop, Cupertino California in Garage 1 (room upstairs) Free and Open to the General Public! 7:15 pm Socialize 7:30 pm Introductions and announcements 7:35 pm SBCs from JS Riehl - Novell and Linux Steve Hand - Xen Andre Stechert - Splunk Ben Rockwood - OpenSolaris Satish Dharmaraj and Anand Palaniswamy - Zimbra Matthew Dillow - DragonFly Project It's a packed evening.. so be on time or you _will_ miss parts of the presentations. Food and drink will be provided! We also have some give aways, and books for review from Apress, O'Reilly, and Addison Wesley. Remember, these are shorter style presentations.. Times will be monitored closely. If you really enjoy any (or all) particular talk let us know and we'll schedule a longer talk. For detailed information about the topics please look at the BayLISA website http://www.baylisa.org. rsvp at rsvp at baylisa.org. From sigje at sigje.org Tue Dec 13 12:53:43 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 12:53:43 -0800 (PST) Subject: google video service Message-ID: any google engineers on the list that I can chat to about the google video service? Jennifer From sigje at sigje.org Tue Dec 13 13:06:02 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 13:06:02 -0800 (PST) Subject: Upcoming Board meeting Message-ID: We have a Board meeting on Monday, December 19. If you are a BayLISA member, and interested in talking about services for members, and direction of BayLISA please do send a message to blw at baylisa.org expressing interest. This would be the place to voice your opinions, and interests, and volunteer. Jennifer From sigje at sigje.org Tue Dec 13 15:31:56 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 15:31:56 -0800 (PST) Subject: Google Video! Message-ID: The first BayLISA videos from the November 9 meeting are up. http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=baylisa&btnG=Search+Video I can't tell whether the sound is actually any good in the upload. It's fine on the original. (I have no sound on my work system). Jennifer From sigje at sigje.org Wed Dec 14 12:33:25 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 12:33:25 -0800 (PST) Subject: Camp Sys Admin update Message-ID: January 14, 2006 Diablo Grande Wine Gallery 669 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 www.diablogrande.com/winegallery * Brian Aker, Director of Architecture for MySQL, and Robert Lefkowitz, VP Research & Executive Education for Optaros, will lead the open source vs. proprietary discussion. * Ethan Galstad, the father of Nagios, will lead the ops collaboration discussion. * Eric Allman, Chief Technical Officer of Sendmail Inc., will lead the discussion on troubleshooting messaging systems. * Richard Whitehead, Chief Techincal Officer of Clarus Systems, will lead the discussion for troubleshooting VoIP. * The J2EE troubleshooting session facilitator will be announced soon. To register and for more information: http://www.splunk.com/index.php/camp From sigje at sigje.org Wed Dec 14 14:28:27 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 14:28:27 -0800 (PST) Subject: Bob Camors and Jennifer Granick video.. Message-ID: I won't be announcing video uploads in the future as please just assume that they will be uploaded, and linked in from the main website, but as this is a new feature, I want to make sure people have access (and awareness). If you missed the excellent presentation on November 17 you can now enjoy it by browsing to (sorry .. no beer or pizza included, you had to be present for that :): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-649641472513250176&q=baylisa For members we can actually burn selected videos to DVD so you don't have to worry about network access (and the quality is a bit better since it doesn't get transformed by Google's engine). Many thanks to Mirapoint, Bob Camors, and Jennifer Granick for their support. If you watch the presentations you will see that they were excellent topics, and very relevant. Jennifer PS. Don't forget, BayLISA tomorrow at 7:30pm in Garage 1, Apple Campus 4 Infinite Loop, Cupertino California From sigje at sigje.org Tue Dec 20 12:19:09 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:19:09 -0800 (PST) Subject: Passes to O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference Message-ID: I have possible passes to the http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etel/ conference. Anyone interested in going? Jennifer From sigje at sigje.org Wed Dec 21 15:10:44 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 15:10:44 -0800 (PST) Subject: Tools of the Trade Seminar series Message-ID: Hey guys... New BayLISA type meeting coming in the new year.. It will be a series of Saturday afternoon 11-5pm seminars. The first one will be on security, and will be mid February. We are thinking a Virtualization one would be good too (with Sun, VMWare, Xen, and whoever else contributing content/presenters). What other topics would you like to see, would attend? The goal here is focused topics. If you are interested in particpating in one of these and presenting, or moderating a topic let us know at blw at baylisa.org. Jennifer From stripes at tigerlair.com Wed Dec 21 16:23:17 2005 From: stripes at tigerlair.com (stripes) Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 19:23:17 -0500 Subject: Paging Julia.. :) Message-ID: <20051221192317.A5397@tigerlair.com> Hi Julia, I hope you remember me.. I'm the crazy person who spoke at Baylisa in September. I misplaced your contact information. Please email me privately when you get a chance. -Anne -- I get plenty of exercise- jumping (\`--/') _ _______ .-r-. to conclusions, pushing my luck, >.~.\ `` ` `,`,`. ,'_'~`. and dodging deadlines. -Anonymous (v_," ; `,-\ ; : ; \/,-~) \ stripes at tigerlair dot com `--'_..),-/ ' ' '_.>-' )`.`.__.') stripes at brickbox dot com ((,((,__..'~~~~~~((,__..' `-..-'fL From sigje at sigje.org Fri Dec 23 11:57:20 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 11:57:20 -0800 (PST) Subject: [PenLUG] Camp Sysadmin (fwd) Message-ID: Just forwarding on the announcement from Patrick McGovern to the PenLUG list.. if you were planning on going, better sign up now before there is no room. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:31:19 -0800 From: Patrick McGovern Reply-To: christine at splunk.com To: members at penlug.org Subject: [PenLUG] Camp Sysadmin Hello, My name is Patrick McGovern and I am with a company called Splunk. (I use to manage SourceForge.net). We are doing a very cool event in San Francisco called Camp Sysadmin that I want to let you know about. (hosted by Splunk, BayLisa, SysAdmin Magazine, and USENIX). It's being held at a wine bar on Saturday January 14th. Speakers include: Eric Allman CTO Send Mail Ethan Galstad Project lead/founder of Nagios Brian Aker, director of architecture at MySQL Robert Lefkowitz, VP Research & Executive Education for Optaros Richard Whitehead, Chief Techincal Officer of Clarus Systems More info here: http://www.splunk.com/index.php/camp Mmmm...Wine and computers. A day in paradise! We have very limited room since it's in a wine bar, but I'd love love to have folks from PENLUG be apart of it. Let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing you there. Pat- -- Patrick McGovern pat at splunk.com splunk> The ultimate troubleshooting machine. _______________________________________________ PenLUG-Members mailing list PenLUG-Members at penlug.org http://jeffk.com/mailman/listinfo/penlug-members From sigje at sigje.org Fri Dec 23 16:01:42 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 16:01:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: Tivoli support Message-ID: Anyone have to support Tivoli currently? Jennifer From alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com Fri Dec 23 18:30:38 2005 From: alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 18:30:38 -0800 (PST) Subject: old 17" - 21" crt's In-Reply-To: Message-ID: hi ya anybody out there want some CRTs ?? ( to put to good use ) - i'll be inheriting about a dozen of um next week ( dell, and other brandnames ) - you'd/we'd have to plug it in to see that it still works ( all should be working when it went into storage ) hh alvin - ever wonder why mulims take time off for xmas holidays :-0 From pmm at igtc.com Fri Dec 23 19:18:37 2005 From: pmm at igtc.com (Paul M. Moriarty) Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 19:18:37 -0800 Subject: old 17" - 21" crt's In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20051224031837.GE24812@igtc.igtc.com> Many schools will take flat screens, but not the cheapo rounded ones. Alvin Oga writes: > > hi ya > > anybody out there want some CRTs ?? ( to put to good use ) > > - i'll be inheriting about a dozen of um next week > ( dell, and other brandnames ) > > - you'd/we'd have to plug it in to see that it still > works ( all should be working when it went into storage ) > > hh > alvin > - ever wonder why mulims take time off for xmas holidays :-0 From alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com Fri Dec 23 21:20:20 2005 From: alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 21:20:20 -0800 (PST) Subject: old 17" - 21" crt's - pc's too In-Reply-To: <20051224031837.GE24812@igtc.igtc.com> Message-ID: hi ya paul On Fri, 23 Dec 2005, Paul M. Moriarty wrote: > Many schools will take flat screens, but not the cheapo rounded ones. yup.. to me it's odd that they take only 14" or larger lcd that is still under warranty ... guess they have to be careful .. they don't take PCs that are slower than P4-2.4G either :-) ( and i'll have a bunch of them slower PCs too ) tooo many crt may cause brain tumors ... :-) -------- since lots of people are trying to donate old PCs to schools and/or computer history museum, i'm thinking why dont "we" volunteer to take it in, clean it up and recycle these "unacceptable throw aways" ... i'm sure that we can find some low income folks that would die to get these freebies, esp if the various cities does in fact offer free wifi to get to the rest of the world "clean it up" in my case, means i'm planning to put these old PCs into a custom made rackmount case .. one thought was even make non-conductive plastic rackmount cases since it'd be like $5.oo each at that point, but the plastic tooling is too much ( $25K+ - $50K ) -------- from what i hear ... in europe, you cannot throw away PCs because it has "electronics" ( aka lead in the solder ) ... the originating manufacturer has to provide a means to reclaim(receive) the old PCs, old tv's etc and dispose of it properly... a good thing to enforce c ya alvin From dan_bethe at yahoo.com Fri Dec 23 21:48:07 2005 From: dan_bethe at yahoo.com (Dan Bethe) Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 21:48:07 -0800 (PST) Subject: old 17" - 21" crt's - pc's too In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20051224054807.65952.qmail@web51710.mail.yahoo.com> > why dont "we" volunteer to take it in, clean it up > and recycle these "unacceptable throw aways" ... > i'm sure that we can find some low income folks that > would die to get these freebies, esp if the various Ahoy there. Check out http://isfisf.org in the east bay and/or ask them what other such orgs exist in SFBA. __________________________________ Yahoo! for Good - Make a difference this year. http://brand.yahoo.com/cybergivingweek2005/ From bill at wards.net Sat Dec 24 10:06:19 2005 From: bill at wards.net (Bill Ward) Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 10:06:19 -0800 Subject: old 17" - 21" crt's - pc's too In-Reply-To: <20051224054807.65952.qmail@web51710.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20051224054807.65952.qmail@web51710.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <3d2fe1780512241006h1bae9ec6yb4faefbe258c52c7@mail.gmail.com> On 12/23/05, Dan Bethe wrote: > > why dont "we" volunteer to take it in, clean it up > > and recycle these "unacceptable throw aways" ... > > i'm sure that we can find some low income folks that > > would die to get these freebies, esp if the various > > Ahoy there. Check out http://isfisf.org in the east bay and/or ask them what > other such orgs exist in SFBA. A lot of "computer recycling" is really just shipping the stuff in containers to 3rd world countries with poor environmental laws where they are crushed, poisoning the local population with lead, mercury, etc. Building Linux boxes and giving them to poor people locally would be a much wiser plan. And if they have wifi then the people can even go online if they live in Mtn View, Sunnyvale, or any of the other cities that are putting up free wifi... -- Help bring back the San Jose Earthquakes - http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/ From cos at indeterminate.net Sat Dec 24 10:30:24 2005 From: cos at indeterminate.net (John Costello) Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 10:30:24 -0800 (PST) Subject: old 17" - 21" crt's - pc's too In-Reply-To: <20051224054807.65952.qmail@web51710.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: On Fri, 23 Dec 2005, Dan Bethe wrote: > > why dont "we" volunteer to take it in, clean it up > > and recycle these "unacceptable throw aways" ... > > i'm sure that we can find some low income folks that > > would die to get these freebies, esp if the various > > Ahoy there. Check out http://isfisf.org in the east bay and/or ask them what > other such orgs exist in SFBA. There's also Alameda County Computer Resource Center . ----- John Costello - cos at indeterminate dot net "You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back."--Unknown From cos at indeterminate.net Sat Dec 24 10:35:42 2005 From: cos at indeterminate.net (John Costello) Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 10:35:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: old 17" - 21" crt's - pc's too In-Reply-To: <3d2fe1780512241006h1bae9ec6yb4faefbe258c52c7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: On Sat, 24 Dec 2005, Bill Ward wrote: > On 12/23/05, Dan Bethe wrote: > > > why dont "we" volunteer to take it in, clean it up > > > and recycle these "unacceptable throw aways" ... > > > i'm sure that we can find some low income folks that > > > would die to get these freebies, esp if the various > > > > Ahoy there. Check out http://isfisf.org in the east bay and/or ask them what > > other such orgs exist in SFBA. > > A lot of "computer recycling" is really just shipping the stuff in > containers to 3rd world countries with poor environmental laws where > they are crushed, poisoning the local population with lead, mercury, > etc. See my last post about Alameda County Computer Resource Center. They do not ship items to the third world. > Building Linux boxes and giving them to poor people locally would be a > much wiser plan. And if they have wifi then the people can even go > online if they live in Mtn View, Sunnyvale, or any of the other cities > that are putting up free wifi... In Portland, OR and Olympia, WA there is an organization called FreeGeek that reclaims the components. Additionally, they ask people to volunteer a few hours of time, during which time they teach the volunteers how to take apart and put together computers. After so many hours, the volunteers get to build their own computers from the parts at hand. > -- > Help bring back the San Jose Earthquakes - http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/ > ----- John Costello - cos at indeterminate dot net "You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back."--Unknown From david at catwhisker.org Tue Dec 27 14:39:49 2005 From: david at catwhisker.org (David Wolfskill) Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:39:49 -0800 Subject: Any experience with siliconvalleytechs.com (aka bayareacomputerman.com)? Message-ID: <20051227223949.GW83635@bunrab.catwhisker.org> My current laptop appears to have a problem with the DC power jack, and it's been out-of-warranty since April (2005), so I'm looking for alternatives for repair. I found a link to www.siliconvalleytechs.com on Craigslist; any experience anyone's willing to share (privately or otherwise)? Alternatively, I'd be interested in (contra-)recommendations. (The laptop in question is a Dell Inspiron 8200.) Thanks! Peace, david -- David H. Wolfskill david at catwhisker.org It is courteous to reduce quoted text to just that needed to establish context. See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key. From sigje at sigje.org Thu Dec 29 14:20:08 2005 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 14:20:08 -0800 (PST) Subject: Frappr! Message-ID: Borrowing a page from LOPSA, I've created a Frappr group for BayLISA: http://www.frappr.com/baylisa It would be good to see where people are localized around the Bay area so we have a better idea as to where it's good to have meetings/events. All it takes is a name and a city to add yourself to the map, so please do. Thanks! Jennifer From DO_NOT_REPLY at frappr.com Thu Dec 29 14:12:22 2005 From: DO_NOT_REPLY at frappr.com (The Frappr Team) Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 16:12:22 -0600 (CST) Subject: You have been invited to join 'BayLISA' Message-ID: <20051229221222.61A5573C070@frappr.com> Hi, You have been invited to join the 'BayLISA' Frappr Map. Please come to: http://www.frappr.com/baylisa Sincerely, The Frappr Team From holland at guidancetech.com Sat Dec 31 13:15:00 2005 From: holland at guidancetech.com (Rich Holland) Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 16:15:00 -0500 Subject: Remote power management solutions? Message-ID: <002901c60e4f$4496da20$6500a8c0@hackintosh> I'm looking for a really cheap remote power management solution for use at home. I have a handful of external USB drives that I need occasional remote access to, but generally they can be powered down (they get REALLY hot!). I'd like to find a fairly inexpensive power port or power strip that I can use to toggle their power on/off remotely via VNC, e.g. by running some local program on the server at home. Has anyone seen anything like this, or built one, or have plans for building one? I don't mind cobbling something together using an OTS power strip, but I'm trying to avoid spending hundreds of dollars if possible. Thanks! Rich Holland Principal Consultant Guidance Technologies, Inc. Cell: 913-645-1950 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From npc at gangofone.com Sat Dec 31 14:49:21 2005 From: npc at gangofone.com (Nick Christenson) Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 14:49:21 -0800 (PST) Subject: Remote power management solutions? In-Reply-To: <002901c60e4f$4496da20$6500a8c0@hackintosh> Message-ID: <200512312249.jBVMnMib091154@prometheus.gangofone.com> > Has anyone seen anything like this, or built one, or have plans for building > one? I don't mind cobbling something together using an OTS power strip, but > I'm trying to avoid spending hundreds of dollars if possible. You can probably get an APC MasterSwitch that will do what you want on eBay for about $100. IIRC, the interface is designed to be more human interactive than automated but is easily scriptable with Expect. -- Nick Christenson npc at gangofone.com From alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com Sat Dec 31 15:39:16 2005 From: alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com (Alvin Oga) Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 15:39:16 -0800 (PST) Subject: Remote power management solutions? In-Reply-To: <200512312249.jBVMnMib091154@prometheus.gangofone.com> Message-ID: On Sat, 31 Dec 2005, Nick Christenson wrote: > > Has anyone seen anything like this, or built one, or have plans for building > > one? I don't mind cobbling something together using an OTS power strip, but > > I'm trying to avoid spending hundreds of dollars if possible. you(anybody) can "build one" - use dtmf circuits if you want to dialin with a phone - use embedded tcp/ip ( $25 ) microcontroller for ethernet control - use an SCR to turn on/off the 110v devices .. but it'd be lot cheaper/easier to use 12v control circuits to control the (12v/5v/3.3v) atx power supply - problem is the required UL approvals when playing with 110v ac off the shelf ones run $100 - $1000 but averaging $500 or more - less $$ for less controls and less features :-) c ya alvin From a-baylisa at deleons.com Sat Dec 31 17:32:06 2005 From: a-baylisa at deleons.com (Arnold de Leon) Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 17:32:06 -0800 Subject: Remote power management solutions? In-Reply-To: <002901c60e4f$4496da20$6500a8c0@hackintosh> References: <002901c60e4f$4496da20$6500a8c0@hackintosh> Message-ID: <3e9a6fd20512311732j2a4ac977k4f0aa5d7c3042d8@mail.gmail.com> On 12/31/05, Rich Holland wrote: > > I'm looking for a really cheap remote power management solution for use at > home. You can go the X10 route: A computer module: http://www.smarthome.com/1135.html and an appliance module: http://www.smarthome.com/2001tw.html You can find examples of folks building home automation software that interface with these kinds of products. arnold From dannyman at toldme.com Sat Dec 31 18:58:03 2005 From: dannyman at toldme.com (Danny Howard) Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 18:58:03 -0800 Subject: Remote power management solutions? In-Reply-To: <002901c60e4f$4496da20$6500a8c0@hackintosh> References: <002901c60e4f$4496da20$6500a8c0@hackintosh> Message-ID: <20060101025803.GQ98315@ratchet.nebcorp.com> On Sat, Dec 31, 2005 at 04:15:00PM -0500, Rich Holland wrote: > I'm looking for a really cheap remote power management solution for use at > home. I have a handful of external USB drives that I need occasional remote > access to, but generally they can be powered down (they get REALLY hot!). > I'd like to find a fairly inexpensive power port or power strip that I can > use to toggle their power on/off remotely via VNC, e.g. by running some > local program on the server at home. Cheapest solution may well be to replace your little one-off buggers with a newer, cheaper, internal disk that can spin down via power management. -danny