2006 December Archive at elwoodicious

Archive for December, 2006

Music Collection, Amarok Style

Published by james on December 19, 2006 in Music. Closed

I’ve been slowly working on re-tagging my collection as well as improving its organization on the server. Working it old school with cut-and paste in Nautilus for moving tracks into sub folders by artist and album and then editing the tags with EasyTag and Amarok.

Tedious and arduous would be the best adjectives for this process as I have only managed to take care of some 23,000 tracks since October and am only two-thirds of the way done. I am cursing my laziness over all these years as well as eMusic’s sloppy ass tagging between 2001-2003 when I acquired the bulk of my collection.

Well, at least I’ll have something to do with all those forthcoming sleepless nights.

Taut and Tenuous

Published by james on December 18, 2006 in Random. 6 Comments

High strung would be an understatement as I am thrumming like a piece of twine stretched too tight. A buzz has settled over my mind rendering my thoughts a touch incoherent, making my movements twitchy and nervous, and leaving a sour knot in the bottom of my stomach. We stand only six days from our due date but I feel wound as if we are six days past it and the well meaning of others has not helped either.

“You’re still here?!”

“What? No baby?”

“She’s so big! I’m sure it’s a boy and not a girl!”

“Ha! In a couple of weeks you’ll wish you didn’t do this!”

“Oh no! Watch that doctor because when the baby is that big they can make mistakes and your baby could end up with a palsy of some sort.”

How do I put this nicely? Shut-The-Fuck-Up. The last thing I need is to hear your theory on how the sex of the baby is different, especially after we and our family have sunk thousands of dollars into girl’s clothing, toys, and items. On the same line, no I do not think we’ll wish we made a different choice in a couple of weeks, though I am wishing I had made a different choice with regards to engaging in a conversation with you. As for telling me that something could happen to my baby during delivery, you don’t think I don’t already know that? Do you really believe that I want to even entertain that discussion at this moment, let alone with you? Seriously, what is the matter with you.

Today’s song is “The Message” brought to you by GrandMaster Flash & the Furious 5.

Photographic Proof That Sendmail Works!

Published by james on December 14, 2006 in Linux. Closed

Though I was filled with doubt Mike posted a comment this afternoon which confirmed that my sendmail configuration indeed worked. Yay me!

Surprise! McCain is an asshole!

Published by james on December 14, 2006 in Shout. 3 Comments

Should it come as any surprise that Republicans and Democrats alike hate free speech? File this one under “Politician, Fucktard” right next to Hillary.

Sendmail, Ubuntu, Yahoo, and You!

Published by james on December 13, 2006 in Linux. Closed

One of the main benefits of sympathetic pregnancy insomnia is that I am able to get a jump on all these little projects that I had been meaning to take care of but never had the motivation. Configuring sendmail to use Yahoo Mail as a relay to handle outbound mail from Apache is one of those projects I’ve put off for far to long. Thanks to two HowTos I managed to knock this out in a couple of minutes.

sudo apt-get install sendmail

sudo /etc/init.d/sendmail stop

sudo nano /etc/mail/authinfo and add the following:

AuthInfo:yahoo.com “U:babydaddy@your_ATT_Domain” “I:babydaddy@your_ATT_Domain” “P:password_here” “M:PLAIN”
AuthInfo: “U:babydaddy@your_ATT_Domain” “I:babydaddy@your_ATT_Domain” “P:password_here” “M:PLAIN”

sudo chmod 660 /etc/mail/authinfo to lock it down.
sudo makemap hash /etc/mail/authinfo < /etc/mail/authinfo to make the map file.
sudo nano /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and look for or add the following lines:

define(`confAUTH_OPTIONS’, `A’)dnl
define(`confAUTH_MECHANISMS’, `LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5′)dnl
TRUST_AUTH_MECH(`LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5′)dnl
FEATURE(`authinfo’,`hash -o /etc/mail/authinfo.db’)dnl
define(`SMART_HOST’, `esmtp:[smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com]‘)dnl

sudo cp /etc/mail/sendmail.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf.bak because you can never to too sure.

sudo make /etc/mail/sendmail.cf -C /etc/mail to rebuild your sendmail.cf.
sudo /etc/init.d/sendmail start

To test your set up create a text file that at least includes a To and a Subject:To:ServerMonkey@foo
Subject:Linux Rules Windows Drools

sudo sendmail -Am -v -t < your_text_file to shoot a copy out to yourself.

You should see something like this:

babydaddy@your_ATT_Domain… Connecting to smtp.sbc.mail.yahoo4.akadns.net. via esmtp…
220 smtp110.sbc.mail.re2.yahoo.com ESMTP
>>> EHLO your_domain
250-smtp110.sbc.mail.re2.yahoo.com
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN XYMCOOKIE
250-PIPELINING
250 8BITMIME
>>> AUTH PLAIN xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
235 ok, go ahead (#2.0.0)
>>> MAIL From: AUTH=root@your_domain
250 ok
>>> RCPT To:
>>> DATA
250 ok
354 go ahead
>>> .
250 ok 1166057377 qp 49511
babydaddy@your_ATT_Domain… Sent (ok 1166057377 qp 49511)
Closing connection to smtp.sbc.mail.yahoo4.akadns.net.
>>> QUIT
221 smtp110.sbc.mail.re2.yahoo.com

sudo nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini so that it knows where sendmail hangs out.

Find the line with sendmail_path, delete the ; and edit it to read:

sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail -i -t

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload to make the changes stick.

Sendmail is now configured to use Yahoo as a relay! Now, ideally you should be able to massage this to use any external SMTP server that allows plain text authentication.

Gratefully cribbed from here and here.

The Twelve Days of Pregnancy

Published by james on December 12, 2006 in Random. 6 Comments

My thumbs are sore from the amount of twiddling that I have been doing this past couple of days and at this point the remaining days seem to be stretched out in from of me like so many hills to be climbed. Sleep still remains an elusive creature always remaining just out of grasp as the alarm clock glows an unsympathetic red shaving off minutes from when the next day will start. Granted my burdens are less than Management’s, particularly watching her struggle to pull herself out of a seated position or attempting to lower herself gently into a chair, but this closing days seem so much longer than any other I have watched tick by.

Since there is nothing left to do with Gabriella’s room I have begun obsessively organizing things around the house and have developed a nervous tic with regards to dishes in the sink needing to either wash them immediately or put them right into the dishwasher, “Are you done with that glass? Give me that spoon. I don’t care if you are still eating your cereal!” Very likely next on my list will be vacuuming every time I walk across the living room and dusting the wood stacked near the fireplace. At the very least it will give my thumbs a rest from working feverishly over each other.

I’ve managed, during this wait, to move beyond the anxiety of becoming a father to the anxiety of not being a father yet. Interesting transition that and I find myself looking very forward to celebrating our fist Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (Hallmark must love that, a curmudgeon converted). The idea of being called “Dad” has great appeal.