After searching for hours for the ASRock on board vga drivers by the wrong name "755vm800" I finally found the drivers at
ASRock -> Download
So yea, great accomplishment. :)
Friday, December 29, 2006
lost.... libgcc
What a quest.... the hunt for libgcc on solaris 10. The problem was to find if Solaris 10 ships with libgcc. Now anyone else would know that on top of their head, but not me! I have to make everything a challenge.
So I found the package listing for Solaris 10 sparc and x86 at
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-6399/6n8droaea?a=view Sparc
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-6399/6n8droaec?a=view x86.
that showed that gccruntime was included in the standard packages. However, that wasnt enough. I had to confirm that libgcc was part of the gccruntime. So I tried
pkginfo SUNWgccruntime
with no luck. Then my coworker suggested to get the vmware image and do a pkgadd or pkgrm and find out. So I could get around that when my system permitted (faced lot more problems before I could get the vmware running). Once I had the vmware I did a pkgrm SUNWgccruntime and it showed removing libgcc.so.
Which I believe confirms that libgcc is part of gcc runtime files.
So I found the package listing for Solaris 10 sparc and x86 at
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-6399/6n8droaea?a=view Sparc
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-6399/6n8droaec?a=view x86.
that showed that gccruntime was included in the standard packages. However, that wasnt enough. I had to confirm that libgcc was part of the gccruntime. So I tried
pkginfo SUNWgccruntime
with no luck. Then my coworker suggested to get the vmware image and do a pkgadd or pkgrm and find out. So I could get around that when my system permitted (faced lot more problems before I could get the vmware running). Once I had the vmware I did a pkgrm SUNWgccruntime and it showed removing libgcc.so.
Which I believe confirms that libgcc is part of gcc runtime files.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
I am in control
Hehe.. for the psychologists out there, the subject is not a statement of analysis of my mental state. Its more of the tool i've been searching for for a while and just couldn't remember what it was called or what to search for. Until, my co-worker said he had used it before and to search the web for "sourceforge keyboard mouse". And I got the link that I was looking for a while.
Synergy.
Here is how to configure it for two systems:
Layout:
System1 <---> System2
System1
IP: 10.0.5.96
OS: Windows
package: SynergyInstaller-1.3.1.exe
System2
IP: 10.0.5.97
OS: RHEL4
package: synergy-1.3.1-1.i386.rpm
I used Windows as the server and RHEL4 as the client. The key parts of the configuration are
Synergy.
Here is how to configure it for two systems:
Layout:
System1 <---> System2
System1
IP: 10.0.5.96
OS: Windows
package: SynergyInstaller-1.3.1.exe
System2
IP: 10.0.5.97
OS: RHEL4
package: synergy-1.3.1-1.i386.rpm
I used Windows as the server and RHEL4 as the client. The key parts of the configuration are
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
linux tips
Hmm.. cleaning my emails, I found this. Stuff I had saved up when I first started learning linux. dated 5/4/5 on my gmail... heh i remember the first days i started out at Edgence. Quite a learning experience! In many ways.
-------------------------------------------
#remove the annoying beeps on term
setterm -blengt disable beep
xset b 0 disable beep
#column modification
$ cat data
1 2 3
4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12
13 14
How to you get everything in 2 columns?
$ cat data|tr ' ' '\n'|xargs -l2
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
13 14
What's the row sum of the "three columns?"
$ cat data|tr ' ' '\n'|xargs -l3|tr ' ' '+'|bc
6
15
24
33
27
------------------------------------------
#Here's a quick way to edit all files whose contents contain a given string:
files=""; for i in `find . -type f -print`; do files="$files `grep -l $i`"; done; vi $files
------------------------------------------
#Move back and forth between files using vim:
:n -- move to the next file
:rew -- move back
:e #3 -- edit the third file in buffer
:ar -- list files status
------------------------------------------
#The escape characters make the regex hard to read/write (For me that is) ie to add index.html at the end of each href - replace /" with /index.html"
find . -name "*.html" -print0 | xargs --null perl -pi -e 's/\/\"/\/index.html\"/'
------------------------------------------
#who owns a perticular port?
fuser -v -n tcp 20020
------------------------------------------
#To move a text file into upper case letters, you can use Awk in the following way:
awk '{ print toupper($0) }' old_file > new_file
------------------------------------------
#defaultfile permissions....
umask 077
------------------------------------------
#Hack 4 Creating a Persistent Daemon with init
Make sure that your process stays up, no matter what
There are a number of scripts that will automatically restart a
process if it exits unexpectedly. Perhaps the simplest is something
like:
$ while : ; do echo "Run some code here..."; sleep 1; done
If you run a foreground process in place of that echo line, then the
process is always guaranteed to be running (or, at least, it will try
to run). The : simply makes the while always execute (and is more
efficient than running /bin/true, as it doesn't have to spawn an
external command on each iteration). Definitely do not run a
background process in place of the echo, unless you enjoy filling up
your process table (as the while will then spawn your command as many
times as it can, one every second). But as far as cool hacks go, the
while approach is fairly lacking in functionality.
What happens if your command runs into an abnormal condition? If it
exits immediately, then it will retry every second, without giving any
indication that there is a problem (unless the process has its own
logging system or uses syslog). It might make sense to have something
watch the process, and stop trying to respawn it if it returns too
quickly after a few tries.
There is a utility already present on every Linux system that will do
this automatically for you: init. The same program that brings up the
system and sets up your terminals is perfectly suited for making sure
that programs are always running. In fact, that is its primary job.
You can add arbitrary lines to /etc/inittab specifying programs you'd
like init to watch for you:
zz:12345:respawn:/usr/local/sbin/my_daemon
The inittab line consists of an arbitrary (but unique) two character
identification string (in this case, zz), followed by the runlevels
that this program should be run in, then the respawn keyword, and
finally the full path to the command. In the above example, as long as
my_daemon is configured to run in the foreground, init will respawn
another copy whenever it exits. After making changes to inittab, be
sure to send a HUP to init so it will reload its configuration. One
quick way to do this is:
# kill -HUP 1
If the command respawns too quickly, then init will postpone execution
for a while, to keep it from tying up too many resources. For example:
zz:12345:respawn:/bin/touch /tmp/timestamp
This will cause the file /tmp/timestamp to be touched several times a
second, until init decides that enough is enough. You should see this
message in /var/log/messages almost immediately:
Sep 8 11:28:23 catlin init: Id "zz" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
In five minutes, init will try to run the command again, and if it is
still respawning too quickly, it will disable it again.
Obviously, this method is fine for commands that need to run as root,
but what if you want your auto-respawning process to run as some other
user? That's no problem: use sudo:
zz:12345:respawn:/usr/bin/sudo -u rob /bin/touch /tmp/timestamp
Now that touch will run as rob, not as root. If you're trying these
commands as you read this, be sure to remove the existing
/tmp/timestamp before trying this sudo line. After sending a HUP to
init, take a look at the timestamp file:
rob@catlin:~# ls -al /tmp/timestamp
-rw-r--r-- 1 rob users 0 Sep 8 11:28 /tmp/timestamp
The two drawbacks to using init to run arbitrary daemons are that you
need to comment out the line in inittab if you need to bring the
daemon down (since it will just respawn if you kill it) and that only
root can add entries to inittab. But for keeping a process running
that simply must stay up no matter what, init does a great job.
------------------------------------------
RuBoard
#I've found it very useful to pipe the results of a
#MySql query. The below will execute
#an SQL select statement and pipe result to a textfile
mysql database_name -e "sql statement" > sql.txt
------------------------------------------
#startx with an error log
startx 2>&1 | tee startx.log
------------------------------------------
#to check the settings being used for your Xserver
#(like xinerama), use "whereis" to locate the startx script:
whereis startx
------------------------------------------
#then edit that shell script to add server arguments, like:
startx -- +xinerama
#to add Xinerama support, although this can be in the
#config file found in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
------------------------------------------
#to find out what package something belongs to:
rpm -qf /path/to/mysterious_file
------------------------------------------
#To modify font sizes, so that 12 points looks like
#you expect, you can specify the dpi for the Xserver:
startx -- -dpi 100
------------------------------------------
#to find what the Xserver currently thinks your dpi is:
xdpyinfo | grep resolution
------------------------------------------
#to list all fonts:
xlsfonts
------------------------------------------
#to fax under linux, assuming you have all the
#standard packages for this installed, and have
#printed your document to a postscript file:
fax send -v 123-4567 file.ps
------------------------------------------
#to make a pdf file from an HTML page, first view the HTML
#in a good browser and print to file(.ps). Then use:
ps2pdf file.ps file.pdf
------------------------------------------
#htmldoc is not standard in RedHat, but can be obtained from
#http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc.
#This is a graphical program but can also be run from the
#command-line. The below will convert an HTML document to pdf:
htmldoc -t pdf -f invoice012.pdf --webpage invoice012.html
------------------------------------------
#directory usage, list the size of directories
du -ch
------------------------------------------
#amount of swap space used
free
------------------------------------------
#convert a man page to a textfile
man command | col -b > command.txt
------------------------------------------
#change the prompt to the current directory and current time:
PS1="[\W \@]"
------------------------------------------
#tell me the date and time
date
------------------------------------------
#tell met the date as YYYY-MM-DD
date +%Y-%m-%d
------------------------------------------
#If I can't remember a command, you can search
#for all commands related to a term
apropos term
------------------------------------------
#when copying directories, hidden files are skipped.
#They can be copied by stipulating "cp .*", but then
#hidden directories aren't copied recursively. This is an
#issue when I backup my email folders (Kmail), because
#hidden files and directories are used. But there is a
#command to copy directories recursively, including
#hidden files and directories:
rcp -r original new
------------------------------------------
#If you're using a digital camera and download the images to
#a linux system, you probably have gphoto2 installed (this is
#standard on RedHat, the project URL is
#http://www.gphoto.org/).
#For the Canon Powershot G2, the below command will get all
#pictures from the camera (connected to the USB port):
gphoto2 --camera "Canon PowerShot G2" --port usb: -P
------------------------------------------
#Perl can be used to perform a regular expression substitution
#on a series of text files, making backups, using a single command:
perl -pi.bak -e 's/foo/bar/' filelist
#note: use with caution. Test your regular expression before applying it
#to a large group of files. In the example above, the backup files will
#have the extension ".bak".
------------------------------------------
#Make a man page from a perldoc:
pod2man Photos.pm > /usr/share/man/man3/Photos.3pm
#after that, "man Photos" will display the Photos module documentation
#in manpage format.
------------------------------------------
#make an Xauthority file for user Chris
mkxauth -u Chris -c
------------------------------------------
#find files larger than 1 Megabyte modified less than 250 minutes ago
find / -size +1000k -mmin -250
------------------------------------------
#to convert a postscript file (.ps) to .jpg, thumbnail size, with ghostscript:
gs -sDEVICE=jpeg -sOutputFile=file.jpg -r20 file.ps
------------------------------------------
#if booting from a boot disk, and it's necessary for some reason
#to boot into a shell with only the "/" partition mounted (e.g. other
#partitions have errors), enter the below at the "boot>" prompt:
linux init=/bin/sh
------------------------------------------
#RedHat installations use "cups" for printing
#instead of lpd. The below command will print
#multiple copies of "class3.ps" collated (in this case, 14 copies)
lpr.cups -#14 -o Collate=True class3.ps
------------------------------------------
#to do a screen capture of a single window, saved as "file.jpg":
import file.jpg
------------------------------------------
#to make a tar file of all html files in /www
tar -czf pt.tar.gz /www*
------------------------------------------
#to list files in a gzipped tar archive:
tar -ztf pt.tar.gz
-----------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
#remove the annoying beeps on term
setterm -blengt disable beep
xset b 0 disable beep
#column modification
$ cat data
1 2 3
4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12
13 14
How to you get everything in 2 columns?
$ cat data|tr ' ' '\n'|xargs -l2
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
13 14
What's the row sum of the "three columns?"
$ cat data|tr ' ' '\n'|xargs -l3|tr ' ' '+'|bc
6
15
24
33
27
------------------------------------------
#Here's a quick way to edit all files whose contents contain a given string:
files=""; for i in `find . -type f -print`; do files="$files `grep -l
------------------------------------------
#Move back and forth between files using vim:
:n -- move to the next file
:rew -- move back
:e #3 -- edit the third file in buffer
:ar -- list files status
------------------------------------------
#The escape characters make the regex hard to read/write (For me that is) ie to add index.html at the end of each href - replace /" with /index.html"
find . -name "*.html" -print0 | xargs --null perl -pi -e 's/\/\"/\/index.html\"/'
------------------------------------------
#who owns a perticular port?
fuser -v -n tcp 20020
------------------------------------------
#To move a text file into upper case letters, you can use Awk in the following way:
awk '{ print toupper($0) }' old_file > new_file
------------------------------------------
#defaultfile permissions....
umask 077
------------------------------------------
#Hack 4 Creating a Persistent Daemon with init
Make sure that your process stays up, no matter what
There are a number of scripts that will automatically restart a
process if it exits unexpectedly. Perhaps the simplest is something
like:
$ while : ; do echo "Run some code here..."; sleep 1; done
If you run a foreground process in place of that echo line, then the
process is always guaranteed to be running (or, at least, it will try
to run). The : simply makes the while always execute (and is more
efficient than running /bin/true, as it doesn't have to spawn an
external command on each iteration). Definitely do not run a
background process in place of the echo, unless you enjoy filling up
your process table (as the while will then spawn your command as many
times as it can, one every second). But as far as cool hacks go, the
while approach is fairly lacking in functionality.
What happens if your command runs into an abnormal condition? If it
exits immediately, then it will retry every second, without giving any
indication that there is a problem (unless the process has its own
logging system or uses syslog). It might make sense to have something
watch the process, and stop trying to respawn it if it returns too
quickly after a few tries.
There is a utility already present on every Linux system that will do
this automatically for you: init. The same program that brings up the
system and sets up your terminals is perfectly suited for making sure
that programs are always running. In fact, that is its primary job.
You can add arbitrary lines to /etc/inittab specifying programs you'd
like init to watch for you:
zz:12345:respawn:/usr/local/sbin/my_daemon
The inittab line consists of an arbitrary (but unique) two character
identification string (in this case, zz), followed by the runlevels
that this program should be run in, then the respawn keyword, and
finally the full path to the command. In the above example, as long as
my_daemon is configured to run in the foreground, init will respawn
another copy whenever it exits. After making changes to inittab, be
sure to send a HUP to init so it will reload its configuration. One
quick way to do this is:
# kill -HUP 1
If the command respawns too quickly, then init will postpone execution
for a while, to keep it from tying up too many resources. For example:
zz:12345:respawn:/bin/touch /tmp/timestamp
This will cause the file /tmp/timestamp to be touched several times a
second, until init decides that enough is enough. You should see this
message in /var/log/messages almost immediately:
Sep 8 11:28:23 catlin init: Id "zz" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
In five minutes, init will try to run the command again, and if it is
still respawning too quickly, it will disable it again.
Obviously, this method is fine for commands that need to run as root,
but what if you want your auto-respawning process to run as some other
user? That's no problem: use sudo:
zz:12345:respawn:/usr/bin/sudo -u rob /bin/touch /tmp/timestamp
Now that touch will run as rob, not as root. If you're trying these
commands as you read this, be sure to remove the existing
/tmp/timestamp before trying this sudo line. After sending a HUP to
init, take a look at the timestamp file:
rob@catlin:~# ls -al /tmp/timestamp
-rw-r--r-- 1 rob users 0 Sep 8 11:28 /tmp/timestamp
The two drawbacks to using init to run arbitrary daemons are that you
need to comment out the line in inittab if you need to bring the
daemon down (since it will just respawn if you kill it) and that only
root can add entries to inittab. But for keeping a process running
that simply must stay up no matter what, init does a great job.
------------------------------------------
RuBoard
#I've found it very useful to pipe the results of a
#MySql query. The below will execute
#an SQL select statement and pipe result to a textfile
mysql database_name -e "sql statement" > sql.txt
------------------------------------------
#startx with an error log
startx 2>&1 | tee startx.log
------------------------------------------
#to check the settings being used for your Xserver
#(like xinerama), use "whereis" to locate the startx script:
whereis startx
------------------------------------------
#then edit that shell script to add server arguments, like:
startx -- +xinerama
#to add Xinerama support, although this can be in the
#config file found in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
------------------------------------------
#to find out what package something belongs to:
rpm -qf /path/to/mysterious_file
------------------------------------------
#To modify font sizes, so that 12 points looks like
#you expect, you can specify the dpi for the Xserver:
startx -- -dpi 100
------------------------------------------
#to find what the Xserver currently thinks your dpi is:
xdpyinfo | grep resolution
------------------------------------------
#to list all fonts:
xlsfonts
------------------------------------------
#to fax under linux, assuming you have all the
#standard packages for this installed, and have
#printed your document to a postscript file:
fax send -v 123-4567 file.ps
------------------------------------------
#to make a pdf file from an HTML page, first view the HTML
#in a good browser and print to file(.ps). Then use:
ps2pdf file.ps file.pdf
------------------------------------------
#htmldoc is not standard in RedHat, but can be obtained from
#http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc.
#This is a graphical program but can also be run from the
#command-line. The below will convert an HTML document to pdf:
htmldoc -t pdf -f invoice012.pdf --webpage invoice012.html
------------------------------------------
#directory usage, list the size of directories
du -ch
------------------------------------------
#amount of swap space used
free
------------------------------------------
#convert a man page to a textfile
man command | col -b > command.txt
------------------------------------------
#change the prompt to the current directory and current time:
PS1="[\W \@]"
------------------------------------------
#tell me the date and time
date
------------------------------------------
#tell met the date as YYYY-MM-DD
date +%Y-%m-%d
------------------------------------------
#If I can't remember a command, you can search
#for all commands related to a term
apropos term
------------------------------------------
#when copying directories, hidden files are skipped.
#They can be copied by stipulating "cp .*", but then
#hidden directories aren't copied recursively. This is an
#issue when I backup my email folders (Kmail), because
#hidden files and directories are used. But there is a
#command to copy directories recursively, including
#hidden files and directories:
rcp -r original new
------------------------------------------
#If you're using a digital camera and download the images to
#a linux system, you probably have gphoto2 installed (this is
#standard on RedHat, the project URL is
#http://www.gphoto.org/).
#For the Canon Powershot G2, the below command will get all
#pictures from the camera (connected to the USB port):
gphoto2 --camera "Canon PowerShot G2" --port usb: -P
------------------------------------------
#Perl can be used to perform a regular expression substitution
#on a series of text files, making backups, using a single command:
perl -pi.bak -e 's/foo/bar/' filelist
#note: use with caution. Test your regular expression before applying it
#to a large group of files. In the example above, the backup files will
#have the extension ".bak".
------------------------------------------
#Make a man page from a perldoc:
pod2man Photos.pm > /usr/share/man/man3/Photos.3pm
#after that, "man Photos" will display the Photos module documentation
#in manpage format.
------------------------------------------
#make an Xauthority file for user Chris
mkxauth -u Chris -c
------------------------------------------
#find files larger than 1 Megabyte modified less than 250 minutes ago
find / -size +1000k -mmin -250
------------------------------------------
#to convert a postscript file (.ps) to .jpg, thumbnail size, with ghostscript:
gs -sDEVICE=jpeg -sOutputFile=file.jpg -r20 file.ps
------------------------------------------
#if booting from a boot disk, and it's necessary for some reason
#to boot into a shell with only the "/" partition mounted (e.g. other
#partitions have errors), enter the below at the "boot>" prompt:
linux init=/bin/sh
------------------------------------------
#RedHat installations use "cups" for printing
#instead of lpd. The below command will print
#multiple copies of "class3.ps" collated (in this case, 14 copies)
lpr.cups -#14 -o Collate=True class3.ps
------------------------------------------
#to do a screen capture of a single window, saved as "file.jpg":
import file.jpg
------------------------------------------
#to make a tar file of all html files in /www
tar -czf pt.tar.gz /www*
------------------------------------------
#to list files in a gzipped tar archive:
tar -ztf pt.tar.gz
-----------------------------------------
just for fun
Here is a collection of quotes, msn ID's, signatures etc that I have come across and found worth keping with all respect to my sense of humor :) note none of it is my creativity...
the whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists
hai...jisne mujhe banaya hai, woh bhi mujhe samajh na paya hai
the real test of a choice is of makin the same choice again
The sum of the intelligence on the planet is a constant; the population is growing.
If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.
It is easier to get forgiveness than to get permission.
Valentine's Day is a cruel, evil holiday which exists solely to pour lemon juice on the paper-cut
hearts of the unattached.
"Not all who wander are lost."
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do
Real men don't take backups. They put their source on a public FTP-server and let the world mirror it. -- Linus Torvalds
People often find it easier to be a result of the past than a cause of the future.
"I'm lost! I've gone looking for me. If I should return before I get back, please have me wait."
"And in the beginning there was nothing. And God said, 'let there be light'. And there was still nothing, BUT you could see IT!" -Anonymous
2*b||!(2*b)
this signature being renovated ... excuse the mess
Unix IS user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
"Well, let's just say, 'if your VCR is still blinking 12:00, you don't want Linux'". --Bruce Perens, Debian's Fearless Leader
reportedly from an installation manual: 'ram disk' is _not_ an installation procedure...
the whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists
hai...jisne mujhe banaya hai, woh bhi mujhe samajh na paya hai
the real test of a choice is of makin the same choice again
The sum of the intelligence on the planet is a constant; the population is growing.
If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.
It is easier to get forgiveness than to get permission.
Valentine's Day is a cruel, evil holiday which exists solely to pour lemon juice on the paper-cut
hearts of the unattached.
"Not all who wander are lost."
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do
Real men don't take backups. They put their source on a public FTP-server and let the world mirror it. -- Linus Torvalds
People often find it easier to be a result of the past than a cause of the future.
"I'm lost! I've gone looking for me. If I should return before I get back, please have me wait."
"And in the beginning there was nothing. And God said, 'let there be light'. And there was still nothing, BUT you could see IT!" -Anonymous
2*b||!(2*b)
this signature being renovated ... excuse the mess
Unix IS user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
"Well, let's just say, 'if your VCR is still blinking 12:00, you don't want Linux'". --Bruce Perens, Debian's Fearless Leader
reportedly from an installation manual: 'ram disk' is _not_ an installation procedure...
another filesystem sshfs
Although I don't know enough about file systems to say how secure this is. But since its running on ssh, I am assuming its secure enough for my humble earthly file sharing. So I found sshfs while looking for alternative for smbfs as it really was giving me quite a bit of problems. Here are the steps involved in getting it working.
Firstly, it only needs to be installed on the guest system. i.e the system where you are going to mount to.
You will need the following packages.
fuse-2.6.1.tar.gz (if your OS is not compiled with fusefs support)
sshfs-fuse-1.7.tar.gz
Just the standard should do.
./configure
make
sudo make install
Once the above two packages are compiled and installed, we now need to set up the system. Follow the steps below:
First you need to load the fuse module into the system.
sudo modprobe fuse
lsmod should show you fuse to be loaded.
fuse creates a device /dev/fuse on the system. Change the permissions on this device to allow read/write/execute as you see fit.
sudo chmod user:group /dev/fuse
Now you can create a local directory where the host OS will be mounted. I keep my smb mounts and sshmounts in /SHARES
mkdir /SHARES/hostname
Now you can mount the host system using sshfs
$sshfs -h
usage: sshfs [user@]host:[dir] mountpoint [options]
sshfs rohan@gandalf:~/sources /SHARES/gandalf
I would suggest to take a look at sshfs -h. It has a lot of options that can be configured.
Note: I had the error below when I tried to run sshfs
"check /etc/ld.so.conf for a line containing '/usr/local/lib'. If it's missing, add it, and run ldconfig afterwards." at
fusefaq
Firstly, it only needs to be installed on the guest system. i.e the system where you are going to mount to.
You will need the following packages.
fuse-2.6.1.tar.gz (if your OS is not compiled with fusefs support)
sshfs-fuse-1.7.tar.gz
Just the standard should do.
./configure
make
sudo make install
Once the above two packages are compiled and installed, we now need to set up the system. Follow the steps below:
First you need to load the fuse module into the system.
sudo modprobe fuse
lsmod should show you fuse to be loaded.
fuse creates a device /dev/fuse on the system. Change the permissions on this device to allow read/write/execute as you see fit.
sudo chmod user:group /dev/fuse
Now you can create a local directory where the host OS will be mounted. I keep my smb mounts and sshmounts in /SHARES
mkdir /SHARES/hostname
Now you can mount the host system using sshfs
$sshfs -h
usage: sshfs [user@]host:[dir] mountpoint [options]
sshfs rohan@gandalf:~/sources /SHARES/gandalf
I would suggest to take a look at sshfs -h. It has a lot of options that can be configured.
Note: I had the error below when I tried to run sshfs
foofs: error while loading shared libraries: libfuse.so.2:I found the solution
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
"check /etc/ld.so.conf for a line containing '/usr/local/lib'. If it's missing, add it, and run ldconfig afterwards." at
fusefaq
Monday, December 18, 2006
installers on os's
Alright.. so, trivial for a lot of people, but jsut so I dont forget the usage here are the different installers in different OS
linux: rpm
rpm -ivh pkg.rpm #install an rpm package
rpm -qa | grep pkg #search for a package
rpm -e `rpm -qa | grep pkg` # erase a given package... use with care .. grep may matche more than one package..
hp-ux: swinstall
swinstall -s source.depot pkgname #install pkgname form the source.depot
swinstall -s source.depot.gz pkgname #also deals with gz archive
solaris: pkg-*
pkg-add -d #add a package
pkg-rem # remove the package
grrrr forgot already... memory is just not my thing...
debian: apt-get
apt-get install "exact name"
okay will update when i find the right info...
linux: rpm
rpm -ivh pkg.rpm #install an rpm package
rpm -qa | grep pkg #search for a package
rpm -e `rpm -qa | grep pkg` # erase a given package... use with care .. grep may matche more than one package..
hp-ux: swinstall
swinstall -s source.depot pkgname #install pkgname form the source.depot
swinstall -s source.depot.gz pkgname #also deals with gz archive
solaris: pkg-*
pkg-add -d
pkg-rem
grrrr forgot already... memory is just not my thing...
debian: apt-get
apt-get install "exact name"
okay will update when i find the right info...
Thursday, December 14, 2006
time and again
I was listening to a gazal, "Woh kagaz ki kashti". An excellent gazal, and i heard the line
"Na Duniya Ka Gham Tha Na Rishton Ke Bandhan
Badi Khoobsoorat Thi Wo Zindgaani"
and that made me think (I won't say realize, as i believe you really don't know when you realize), Where I stand. Where I was, where I will be. To elaborate, I am probably in a situation where I am understanding relationships. Their value. How its hard to keep ties. Life's been great to me so far, but why does it have to make me choose? Why do I need to be in a position where I will hurt someone or another? Why can't we all just get along? Being in a position to make a decision is bad, well probably not as bad as not having right to make decisions. And then I think, how great it was to be young, small, little!! Had no worries, didn't need to worry about keeping everyone happy. And thats exactly what the song fits in.
I've always loved gazals, and felt them. Felt them, to my experiences. And after hearing a gazal for years, suddenly, someday, I see the beauty in them that I missed out every time I heard it. Like the line I quoted above. Didn't mean much to me. Well, I liked it. Nothing too exceptional, until while driving home from our Christmas party it struck me. Beautiful! And that led me to write.
Its funny, how I feel grown up. Grown up. Those words resonate. And make me think, how this is absolute nothing compared to what others face. What I am going to be facing some day. I am doing what I think is the right thing for me to do now. Prepare for that time when I will be in a crises. Lucky, as I consider myself (lucky enough to hope for a Jack of Hearts on the last card in poker and get it :).. yes DAMN I rock.. Okay, tad bit of my self there) to have not been in any situation that I consider taxing my emotions. I believe I have lived a very sheltered life. Sheltered by luck. I believe I will some day be in a situation where I will breakdown. What does one do to prepare oneself? I was, and am again (with a short break in between), a risk taker with a plan for worst case. So whats the worst case that life's going to throw at me? And how will I take it? How do I prepare myself for that? Practically, I think there is no point worrying about it till its there. And then deal with it whole heartedly.
I don't know what am I. I've always thought I know myself. Been confident and believed myself. Trusted myself over anyone else, and had complete faith in my decisions. But.. now I begin to "realize". I am not bigger than life. I understand what they would mean when they would say that.
Ego. I, apparently have a huge ego. But where is the line between Ego and Confidence? I dont mean confidence in oneself. Confidence to show, is what i mean. A little of show is needed to get anywhere. Sales is the key. And confidence is the first and foremost aspect of that. But how do I curb the ego leave the confidence intact?
Guess, on the whole, this post doesn't really appear to make much sense. But an trained mind will tell you that this really doest. :) Well, things that have been on my mind are out there. If any one can answer the questions that I didn't ask, I'd like to hear it. Although, comming back to my ego. I really don't think that there are many people out their that are better than me. So that would mean, I don't think many people can guide me. That lead me to ever really go to many classes in high school, lectures in university, T.A's at university.
Now atleast I am willing to accept that there is intelligence out that thats higher than mine. And I think thats a good start.
Dil-e-nadaan tujhe hua kya hai
Just a song I like. I love ghazals. To the extent I have may be 2-3 CD's I've bought with multiple songs repeated. Just so that I can have all the ones I like in the best quality in one place! Bad Excuse? Love knows no reason. Sorry.
"Na Duniya Ka Gham Tha Na Rishton Ke Bandhan
Badi Khoobsoorat Thi Wo Zindgaani"
and that made me think (I won't say realize, as i believe you really don't know when you realize), Where I stand. Where I was, where I will be. To elaborate, I am probably in a situation where I am understanding relationships. Their value. How its hard to keep ties. Life's been great to me so far, but why does it have to make me choose? Why do I need to be in a position where I will hurt someone or another? Why can't we all just get along? Being in a position to make a decision is bad, well probably not as bad as not having right to make decisions. And then I think, how great it was to be young, small, little!! Had no worries, didn't need to worry about keeping everyone happy. And thats exactly what the song fits in.
I've always loved gazals, and felt them. Felt them, to my experiences. And after hearing a gazal for years, suddenly, someday, I see the beauty in them that I missed out every time I heard it. Like the line I quoted above. Didn't mean much to me. Well, I liked it. Nothing too exceptional, until while driving home from our Christmas party it struck me. Beautiful! And that led me to write.
Its funny, how I feel grown up. Grown up. Those words resonate. And make me think, how this is absolute nothing compared to what others face. What I am going to be facing some day. I am doing what I think is the right thing for me to do now. Prepare for that time when I will be in a crises. Lucky, as I consider myself (lucky enough to hope for a Jack of Hearts on the last card in poker and get it :).. yes DAMN I rock.. Okay, tad bit of my self there) to have not been in any situation that I consider taxing my emotions. I believe I have lived a very sheltered life. Sheltered by luck. I believe I will some day be in a situation where I will breakdown. What does one do to prepare oneself? I was, and am again (with a short break in between), a risk taker with a plan for worst case. So whats the worst case that life's going to throw at me? And how will I take it? How do I prepare myself for that? Practically, I think there is no point worrying about it till its there. And then deal with it whole heartedly.
I don't know what am I. I've always thought I know myself. Been confident and believed myself. Trusted myself over anyone else, and had complete faith in my decisions. But.. now I begin to "realize". I am not bigger than life. I understand what they would mean when they would say that.
Ego. I, apparently have a huge ego. But where is the line between Ego and Confidence? I dont mean confidence in oneself. Confidence to show, is what i mean. A little of show is needed to get anywhere. Sales is the key. And confidence is the first and foremost aspect of that. But how do I curb the ego leave the confidence intact?
Guess, on the whole, this post doesn't really appear to make much sense. But an trained mind will tell you that this really doest. :) Well, things that have been on my mind are out there. If any one can answer the questions that I didn't ask, I'd like to hear it. Although, comming back to my ego. I really don't think that there are many people out their that are better than me. So that would mean, I don't think many people can guide me. That lead me to ever really go to many classes in high school, lectures in university, T.A's at university.
Now atleast I am willing to accept that there is intelligence out that thats higher than mine. And I think thats a good start.
Dil-e-nadaan tujhe hua kya hai
Just a song I like. I love ghazals. To the extent I have may be 2-3 CD's I've bought with multiple songs repeated. Just so that I can have all the ones I like in the best quality in one place! Bad Excuse? Love knows no reason. Sorry.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
eth0 has different MAC address than expected, ignoring.
So following my previous post where I got kernel 2.6.9 finally running on my desktop, I had problem with eth interface.
Error said "eth0 has different MAC address than expected, ignoring."
So google search gave me some things that I treid and failed. One thing that worked was a nice link on how to spoof your mac address.
http://whoozoo.co.uk/mac-spoof-linux.htm
In summary:
1. set bootproto=none
2. ifconfig down eth0 (if it isnt already down)
3. ifconfig eth0 hw ether 11:22:33:11:22:22 (your choosen mac address)
4. service network restart
5. now you can go back and set the bootproto to dhcp
(Although step 1 and 5 don't make sense. I dont want to go back and narrow it all down right now. Have some deadlines to meet and so needed this pc running with 2.6.9 asap. Will update later, hopefilly :))
Error said "eth0 has different MAC address than expected, ignoring."
So google search gave me some things that I treid and failed. One thing that worked was a nice link on how to spoof your mac address.
http://whoozoo.co.uk/mac-spoof-linux.htm
In summary:
1. set bootproto=none
2. ifconfig down eth0 (if it isnt already down)
3. ifconfig eth0 hw ether 11:22:33:11:22:22 (your choosen mac address)
4. service network restart
5. now you can go back and set the bootproto to dhcp
(Although step 1 and 5 don't make sense. I dont want to go back and narrow it all down right now. Have some deadlines to meet and so needed this pc running with 2.6.9 asap. Will update later, hopefilly :))
kernel woos
Alright, so I have compiled the linux kernel 32485902483 times, and failed. Big deal! So I took it upon my hands to explore this uncharted territory that I've always feared.
Okay now I am too bored to continue giving a background and how I sucked at that for last 3 years. Lets jump right to the point.
The problems I faced and solutions are below. All though you can search the same error string on google and get the same results that i am posting (thats what I did :)).
linux 2.6.19:
error: kernel panic saying "enforcing enabled but no policies"
fix: disable enforcing. add enforcing=0 in /boot/grub/grub.conf at the end of the line "kernel..."
linux 2.6.9:
kernel panic:
Cannot open root device "LABEL=/" or unknown-block(0,0)
fix: this has lots of fixes covered at
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=269230
What worked for me was increasing my block dev ramsize! Apparently sometimes ramdisk is too small for initrd to fit in (or so I understand). So solution,
grep BLK_DEV_RAM /usr/src/linux/.config
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=8192
Add the above 2 lines to your kernel config.
Okay now I am too bored to continue giving a background and how I sucked at that for last 3 years. Lets jump right to the point.
The problems I faced and solutions are below. All though you can search the same error string on google and get the same results that i am posting (thats what I did :)).
linux 2.6.19:
error: kernel panic saying "enforcing enabled but no policies"
fix: disable enforcing. add enforcing=0 in /boot/grub/grub.conf at the end of the line "kernel..."
linux 2.6.9:
kernel panic:
Cannot open root device "LABEL=/" or unknown-block(0,0)
fix: this has lots of fixes covered at
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=269230
What worked for me was increasing my block dev ramsize! Apparently sometimes ramdisk is too small for initrd to fit in (or so I understand). So solution,
grep BLK_DEV_RAM /usr/src/linux/.config
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=8192
Add the above 2 lines to your kernel config.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
MS-DOS 6.0 appears to be on Google Code Search
http://www.google.com/codesearch?hl=en&q=show:uvMvZl8QdjU:RGjelm1iA90&sa=N&ct=rdl&cs_p=http://center.cie.hallym.ac.kr/~yuko/cgi-bin/ez2000/system/db/linux/upload/45/1070214716/MS-DOS.6.0.Source.Code.zip&cs_f=/access
Linux: Harnessing The Über-Powerful Find Command (+xargs)
http://dmiessler.com/study/nix/commands/find/
find is one of the most useful Linux/Unix tools around, but most people use only a fraction of its power. Many Linux/Unix questions seen online can be solved using the find command alone; it's simply a matter of becoming familiar with its options...
find is one of the most useful Linux/Unix tools around, but most people use only a fraction of its power. Many Linux/Unix questions seen online can be solved using the find command alone; it's simply a matter of becoming familiar with its options...
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Software Horror Stories
Here are 107 software horror stories where making a programming mistake can cost you your job or even your, or even somebody elses life. Many of these listed provide links to stories about the horrific event while others contain book or magazine references where you can read more about them. (source at the bottom)
1. The Mars Climate Orbiter crashed in September 1999 because of a "silly mistake": wrong units in a program. Story Story Report
2. The 1988 shooting down of the Airbus 320 by the USS Vincennes was attributed to the cryptic and misleading output displayed by the tracking software. Story More[br]
3. Death resulted from inadequate testing of the London Ambulance Service software. Story
4. Several 1985-7 deaths of cancer patients were due to overdoses of radiation resulting from a race condition between concurrent tasks in the Therac-25 software. Report Report Story More More More More
5. Errors in medical software have caused deaths. Details in B.W. Boehm, "Software and its Impact: A Quantitative Assessment," Datamation, 19(5), 48-59(1973).
6. An Airbus A320 crashes at an air show. Story
7. A China Airlines Airbus Industrie A300 crashes on April 26, 1994 killing 264. Recommendations include software modifications. Summary
8. The British destroyer H.M.S. Sheffield was sunk in the Falkland Islands war. According to one report, the ship's radar warning systems were programmed to identify the Exocet missile as "friendly" because the British arsenal includes the Exocet's homing device and allowed the missile to reach its target, namely the Sheffield. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 48.
9. An error in an aircraft design program contributed to several serious air crashes. From P. Naur and B. Randell, eds., Software Engineering: Report on a Conference Sponsored by the NATO Science Committee, Brussels, NATO Scientific Affairs Division, 1968, p. 121.
10. An Air New Zealand airliner crashed into an Antarctic mountain; its crew had not been told that the input data to its navigational computer, which described its flight plan, had been changed. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 52.
11. The Ariane 5 satellite launcher malfunction was caused by a faulty software exception routine resulting from a bad 64-bit floating point to 16-bit integer conversion. Report Story StoryStory Story
12. During the maiden flight of the Discovery space shuttle, 30 seconds of (non-critical) real-time telemetry data was lost due to a problem in the requirement stage of the software development process. Story
13. A train stopped in the middle of nowhere (London' Docklands Light Railway) due to future station location changes after the software was deployed and reluctance to change the software. Story
14. The Dallas/Fort Worth air-traffic system began spitting out gibberish in the Fall of 1989 and controllers had to track planes on paper. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
15. Several Space Shuttle missions have been delayed due to hardware/software interaction problems. Story
16. An airplane software control returned inappropriate responses to pilot inquiries during abnormal flight conditions. Story
17. The Pathfinder reset problem. Story More
18. An Iraqi Scud missile hit Dhahran barracks, leaving 28 dead and 98 wounded. The incoming missile was not detected by the Patriot defenses, whose clock had drifted .36 seconds during the 4-day continuous siege, the error increasing with elapsed time since the system was turned on. This software flaw prevented real-time tracking. The specifications called for aircraft speeds, not Mach 6 missiles, for 14-hour continuous performance, not 100. Patched software arrived via air one day later. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol 16, #3. See Story More More More
19. Bug-infested [air traffic control software] was scoured by software experts at Carnegie-Mellon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to determine whether it could be salvaged or had to be canceled outright. Story
20. Were a missile to approach at a certain tricky angle (all) 27 programs would fail to shoot it down. Story
21. The Apollo 8 spacecraft erased part of the computer's memory. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
22. Eighteen errors were detected during the 10-day flight of Apollo 14. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
23. A 1963 NORAD exercise was incapacitated because a software error caused the incorrect routing of radar information. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
24. The U.S. Strategic Air Command's 465L Command System, even after being operational for 12 years, still averaged one software failure per day. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
25. An error in a single FORTRAN statement resulted in the loss of the first American probe to Venus. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
26. On June 3, 1980, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) reported that the U.S. was under missile attack. The report was traced to a faulty computer circuit that generated incorrect signals. If the developers of the software responsible for processing these signals had taken into account the possibility that the circuit could fail, the false alert might not have occurred. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 48.
27. The manned space capsule Gemini V missed its landing point by 100 miles because its guidance program ignored the motion of the earth around the sun. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 49.
28. Five nuclear reactors were shut down temporarily because a program testing their resistance to earthquakes used an arithmetic sum of variables instead of the square root of the sum of the squares of the variables. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 49.
29. In a 1977 exercise, when it was connected to the command-and-control systems of several regional commands, the WWMCCS had an average success rate for message transmission of only 38 percent. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 51.
30. Aegis was installed on the U.S.S. Ticonderoga, a Navy cruiser. After the Ticonderoga was commissioned the weapon system underwent its first operational test. In this test it failed to shoot down six out of 16 targets because of faulty software; earlier small-scale and simulation tests had not uncovered certain system errors. In addition, because of test-range limitations, at no time were more than three targets presented to the system simultaneously. For a sizable attack approaching Aegis' design limits the results would most likely have been worse. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American , vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 51.
31. On June 19, 1985 the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization performed a simple experiment: The crew of the space shuttle was to position the shuttle so that a mirror mounted on its side could reflect a laser beamed from the top of a mountain 10,023 feet above sea level. The experiment failed because the computer program controlling the shuttle's movements interpreted the information it received on the laser's location as indicating the elevation in nautical miles instead of feet. As a result the program positioned the shuttle to receive a beam from a nonexistent mountain 10,023 nautical miles above sea level. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American , vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 51.
32. The first operational launch attempt of the space shuttle, whose real-time operating software consists of about 500,000 lines of code, failed because of a synchronization problem among its flight-control computers. The software error responsible for the failure, which was itself introduced when another error was fixed two years earlier, would have revealed itself, on the average, once in 67 times. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 52.
33. "The change was so simple he didn't feel he had to inform anyone that it took place and the mistake he made was so stupid. He had no idea of the damage it would caused." The day after the product shipped 50 beta testers called and reported that all the paychecks were being printed at zero dollars. Story
34. The Sendmail security bug. Story
35. INTEL processor bugs galore. List Pentium discussion
36. A computer-monitored house arrest inmate escaped and subsequently committed murder. This was caused by the reporting software not re-trying when it received a busy signal at the main computer number. Story
37. The clock in the video camera indicated a customer had withdrawn his money at the same time as a fraud occurred, so the bank forwarded his photo to the authorities. The clock had been off by about one hour. Story
38. The nine-hour breakdown of AT&T's long-distance telephone network in Jan. 1990, caused by an untested code patch, dramatized the vulnerability of complex computer systems everywhere. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
39. On July 1-2, 1991, computer-software collapses in telephone switching stations disrupted service in Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Once again, seemingly minor maintenance problems had crippled the digital System 7. About twelve million people were affected in the crash of July 1, 1991. Said the New York Times Service: "Telephone company executives and federal regulators said they were not ruling out the possibility of sabotage by computer hackers, but most seemed to think the problems stemmed from some unknown defect in the software running the networks." Within the week, a red-faced software company, DSC Communications Corporation of Plano, Texas, owned up to glitches in the signal transfer point software that DSC had designed for Bell Atlantic and Pacific Bell. The immediate cause of the July 1 crash was a single mistyped character: one tiny typographical flaw in one single line of the software. One mistyped letter, in one single line, had deprived the nations capital of phone service. It was not particularly surprising that this tiny flaw had escaped attention: a typical System 7 station requires ten million lines of code. From The Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling, 1992. Story More More More
40. During a payday rush in 1989, a faulty program shut down 1,800 automated-teller machines at Tokyo's Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
41. When an airline's reservation system went down in 1989, 14,000 travel agents had to book flights manually. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
42. In the early 1980s, Buick had to give 80,000 V6 cars a chip transplant to fix flaws in their microprocessors. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
43. The New York Stock Exchange opened one hour late on Dec. 18, 1995 due to a communications problem in the software. Story
44. Chemical Bank went down for 5 hours on July 20, 1994 due to a file update overloading the computer system. Story
45. There was a San Francisco 911 system crash of over 30 minutes on Oct. 12, 1995. Patched but not fixed, it still misses between 100-200 calls per day. Story
46. The hole in Ozone layer over Antartica left undetected for extended period because data was considered anomalous by software because it was out of the specified range. Story
47. The Denver airport stayed closed for over a year due to software glitches in the automated baggage handling system. Story More
48. Bell Atlantic Corp. failed to bill approximately 400,000 AT&T customers in parts of Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., and West Virginia for their long-distance calls on their January 1998 bill. AT&T stated that their Operations Support Systems provided Bell Atlantic with the correct billing data for three of the twenty billing cycles, customer's billed on the 2nd, 4-5th, and 7th of the month, and that a Bell Atlantic computer error failed to produce the AT&T portion of the bill. Bell Atlantic has stated that the problem was a "systems glitch", "processing error", and/or "data processing error". [Supposedly, computer tapes were used to transfer the billing details between AT&T and Bell Atlantic.] From an AT&T press release, dated 16-Jan-1998, reprinted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 17 Jan 1998, p. C10.
49. Oodles of software will fail in the year 2000. Story More More Lots more
50. The IRS uncovered an unintended side effect of its effort to eliminate the Year 2000 computer bug: About 1,000 taxpayers who were current in their tax installment agreements were suddenly declared in default due to a programming error. [There are 62 million lines of source code to check; the error was caused by an attempted Y2K fix.] From the Associated Press newswire (AP US & World, 23 Jan 1998, by Rob Wells).
51. An alert to all National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts (NAME) members: A member recently called the office to find out why she hasn't received her Houseparty Gazette. She discovered that the computer has deactivated ALL members whose memberships expire in the year 2000 and beyond. Kim ... said she had no way of knowing who those folks are unless they call her and let her know. From the rec.arts.dollhouses newsgroup.
52. One production line shut down when the laser-driven printer putting "sell-by" dates on products couldn't handle the 2000 date. Industry Week, Jan. 5, 1998, p. 26.
53. Many programs err in, or simply ignore, the century rule for leap years on the Gregorian calendar (every 4th year is a leap year, except every 100th year which is not, except every 400th year which is). For example, early releases of the popular spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3 treated 2000 as a non-leap year, a problem eventually fixed. But, all releases of Lotus 1-2-3 take 1900 as a leap year; by the time this error was recognized, the company deemed it too late to correct: ``The decision was made at some point that a change now would disrupt formulas which were written to accommodate this anomaly''. Excel, part of Microsoft Office, has the same flaw. From Calendrical Calculations , N. Dershowitz and E. M. Reingold, p. xviii.
54. The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission chose March 1, 1996 as the start date for a new, higher fare structure for cabs. Meters programmed by one company in Queens forgot about the leap day and charged customers the higher rate on February 29. The New York Times, March 1, 1997.
55. A computer software error at the Tiwai Point aluminum smelter in Southland, New Zealand at midnight on New Year's Eve 1997 caused more than $AU 1 million of damage. The software error was the failure to account for leap years (and considering a 366th day in the year to be invalid), causing 660 process control computers to shut down and the smelting pots to cool. The same problem occurred two hours later at Comalco's Bell Bay smelter in Tasmania (which is two hours behind New Zealand). The general manager of operations for New Zealand Aluminum Smelters, David Brewer, said ``It was a complicated problem and it took quite some time [until midafternoon] to find the cause.'' The New Zealand Herald , January 8, 1997, and The Dominion, in Wellington, New Zealand.
56. A "computer error" is blamed for a false report of three death by an incurable disease when a woman killed her daughter and tried to kill her son and herself. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 10, no. 3
57. A Norwegian class gets a pornographic image because of cache problem, when a recycled link leads to a pornographic site. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 47.
58. Computers were blamed when, in three separate incidents, 3 million, 5.4 million, and 1.5 million gallons of raw sewage were dumped into Willamette River. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 13, no. 3.
59. The U.S. national EFTPOS system crashed on 2 Jun 1997 for two hours and 100K transactions were "lost". One central processor failed and backup procedures to redistribute the load also failed. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 21.
60. Computer blunders were blamed for $650M student loan losses. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes , vol. 20, no. 3.
61. An Internet routing "black hole" cuts off ISPs; MAI Network Services routing table errors directed 50,000 routing addresses to MAI; InterNIC goofed, as well, 23 Apr 1997. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 22, no. 4.
62. Votes were lost by a computer in Toronto. The Toronto district finally abandoned computerized voting, leaving a year-old race unresolved. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes , vol. 15, no. 2.
63. A cat was registered as a voter to demonstrate risks (no pawtograph required). From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 20, no. 1.
64. A "read-ahead" synchronization glitch and/or an eager operator caused a large data entry error, and the wrong winner was announced in a Rome, Italy city election. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 15, no. 1.
65. In a German parliament election, the program rounds up the Greens' 4.97%, which was less than the 5% cutoff; when corrected, the Social Democrats attained a one seat majority. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 17, no. 3.
66. An Oregon computer error reversed election results. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 18, no. 1.
67. A (CTSS) raw password file was distributed as message-of-the-day, due to an editor temporary file name confusion. See Morris and Thompson, CACM 22, 11, Nov 1979.
68. The U.S. Social Security Administration systems could not handle non-Anglo names, affecting $234 billion for 100,000 people, some going back to 1937. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS) , vol 18, issue 80.
69. Software prevented the correction of a recognized Olympic skating scoring error. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 17, no. 2.
70. A computer scoring glitch at an Olympic boxing match causes the evident winner to lose. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 17, no. 4.
71. A man's auto insurance rate triples when he turns 101 (= 1 mod 100). From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 12, no. 1.
72. A Montreal life insurance company dies due to software bugs in its integrated system. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 17, no. 2.
73. A computer test residue generates a false tsunami warning in Japan. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 19, no. 3.
74. Chicago cat owners were billed $5 for unlicensed dachshunds. A database search on "DHC" (for dachshunds) found "domestic house cats" with shots but no license. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 12, no. 3.
75. The Korean Airlines KAL 901 accident in Guam killed 225 out of 254 aboard. A worldwide bug was discovered in barometric altimetry in Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS). From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 23, no. 1.
76. A "computer error" affected hundreds of U.K. A-level exam results. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 40.
77. The Paris police computer mismatched a Corsican city code with postal code, and was unable to collect motorists' fines. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 41.
78. Netscape Communicator 4.02 and 4.01a allowed disclosure of passwords. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 34.
79. A bank robbery "wanted" poster of the wrong person was due to an unchecked match. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 29.
80. The Soviet Phobos I Mars probe was lost, due to a faulty software update, at a cost of 300 million rubles. Its disorientation broke the radio link and the solar batteries discharged before reacquisition. From Aviation Week, 13 Feb 1989.
81. An F-18 fighter plane crashed due to a missing exception condition. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 6, no. 2.
82. An F-14 fighter plane was lost to uncontrollable spin, traced to tactical software. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 9, no. 5.
83. A Parisian computer transforms traffic charges into big crimes. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 14, no. 6.
84. CyberSitter censors "menu */ #define" because of the string "nu...de". From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 56.
85. In a heavily loaded computer system, a steady stream of high-priority processes can prevent a low-priority process from ever getting resources. Generally, one of two things will happen. Either the process will eventually be run (at 2 A.M. Sunday, when the system is finally lightly loaded), or the computer system will eventually crash and lose all unfinished low-priority processes.... Rumor has it that, when they shut down the IBM 7094 at MIT in 1973, they found a low-priority process that had been submitted in 1967 and had not yet been run. From Silbershatz and Galvin, pp. 142-143.
86. GTE Corp. mistakenly printed 50,000 unlisted residential phone numbers and addresses in 19 directories that were leased to telemarkteters in communities between Santa Barbara and Huntington Beach. GTE blames the problem on a software snafu. The company faces fines of up to 1.5 billion dollars, if found guilty of gross negligence. From comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup (27 Apr 1998); X Telecom Digest, Volume 18, Issue 60, Message 4 of 7.
87. On Sept. 19, 1989 an overflow (of a 2-byte integer) at a Washington, DC hospital caused a computer to collapse and forced them to do things manually.
88. On Nov. 16, 1989 an overflow (of a 2-byte integer) in the Michingan Terminal System caused a computer crash in Newcastle, followed by crashes all over the U.S.
89. Midwest Telephone Company had a program toassign telephone numbers with a $5 million annual maintenance budget. In 1981, they reported: "No more than 15 known errors remain unsolved at the end of each month." In fact, people had stopped using the program and were entering numbers manually, leaving the database hopelessly outdated.
90. Bank of America was forced to write off a $60 million investment in a new software systems and reverted to its 15-year old predecessor.
91. Due to a software error, Continental Airlines consistently undercharged for plane rentals by one day.
92. SRI International's computer reset the time by averaging 11 clocks, though one was 12 hours off.
93. In 1980, the ARPAnet shut down on account of a self-propagating error.
94. Rumor has it that a military plane flipped over when crossing the equator.
95. Rumor has it that an Airbus plane crashed into its hangar, since its onboard computer interpreted a bump as turbulence in the air.
96. Software reboot during the Apollo 11 landing forced Armstrong to manually land the lunar lander. Story
97. In 1989, Swedish Gripen prototype crashed due to new software in the fly-by-wire system. Story
98. In 1995, Swedish Gripen fighter plane crashed during air-show. Story
99. Soldiers killed. Story
100. Roundup of US government Y2K bugs.
101. French ticket reservation software took 4 months to get working. Story
102. In October 1995, 200,000 French civil servants were paid twice.
103. On May 3, 2000, Paris area telephone service collapsed. Story
104. Software error causes patients to be declared dead. Story
105. Shuttle simulator bug. Story
106. Software suspected in 1994 Chinook helicopter crash, killing 29. Story Report
107. For two days during the summer holidays in 2004, the French national railroad company's reservation system was disorganized, due to a faulty patch. Report
http://forums.programming-designs.com/viewtopic.php?pid=3354
1. The Mars Climate Orbiter crashed in September 1999 because of a "silly mistake": wrong units in a program. Story Story Report
2. The 1988 shooting down of the Airbus 320 by the USS Vincennes was attributed to the cryptic and misleading output displayed by the tracking software. Story More[br]
3. Death resulted from inadequate testing of the London Ambulance Service software. Story
4. Several 1985-7 deaths of cancer patients were due to overdoses of radiation resulting from a race condition between concurrent tasks in the Therac-25 software. Report Report Story More More More More
5. Errors in medical software have caused deaths. Details in B.W. Boehm, "Software and its Impact: A Quantitative Assessment," Datamation, 19(5), 48-59(1973).
6. An Airbus A320 crashes at an air show. Story
7. A China Airlines Airbus Industrie A300 crashes on April 26, 1994 killing 264. Recommendations include software modifications. Summary
8. The British destroyer H.M.S. Sheffield was sunk in the Falkland Islands war. According to one report, the ship's radar warning systems were programmed to identify the Exocet missile as "friendly" because the British arsenal includes the Exocet's homing device and allowed the missile to reach its target, namely the Sheffield. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 48.
9. An error in an aircraft design program contributed to several serious air crashes. From P. Naur and B. Randell, eds., Software Engineering: Report on a Conference Sponsored by the NATO Science Committee, Brussels, NATO Scientific Affairs Division, 1968, p. 121.
10. An Air New Zealand airliner crashed into an Antarctic mountain; its crew had not been told that the input data to its navigational computer, which described its flight plan, had been changed. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 52.
11. The Ariane 5 satellite launcher malfunction was caused by a faulty software exception routine resulting from a bad 64-bit floating point to 16-bit integer conversion. Report Story StoryStory Story
12. During the maiden flight of the Discovery space shuttle, 30 seconds of (non-critical) real-time telemetry data was lost due to a problem in the requirement stage of the software development process. Story
13. A train stopped in the middle of nowhere (London' Docklands Light Railway) due to future station location changes after the software was deployed and reluctance to change the software. Story
14. The Dallas/Fort Worth air-traffic system began spitting out gibberish in the Fall of 1989 and controllers had to track planes on paper. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
15. Several Space Shuttle missions have been delayed due to hardware/software interaction problems. Story
16. An airplane software control returned inappropriate responses to pilot inquiries during abnormal flight conditions. Story
17. The Pathfinder reset problem. Story More
18. An Iraqi Scud missile hit Dhahran barracks, leaving 28 dead and 98 wounded. The incoming missile was not detected by the Patriot defenses, whose clock had drifted .36 seconds during the 4-day continuous siege, the error increasing with elapsed time since the system was turned on. This software flaw prevented real-time tracking. The specifications called for aircraft speeds, not Mach 6 missiles, for 14-hour continuous performance, not 100. Patched software arrived via air one day later. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol 16, #3. See Story More More More
19. Bug-infested [air traffic control software] was scoured by software experts at Carnegie-Mellon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to determine whether it could be salvaged or had to be canceled outright. Story
20. Were a missile to approach at a certain tricky angle (all) 27 programs would fail to shoot it down. Story
21. The Apollo 8 spacecraft erased part of the computer's memory. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
22. Eighteen errors were detected during the 10-day flight of Apollo 14. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
23. A 1963 NORAD exercise was incapacitated because a software error caused the incorrect routing of radar information. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
24. The U.S. Strategic Air Command's 465L Command System, even after being operational for 12 years, still averaged one software failure per day. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
25. An error in a single FORTRAN statement resulted in the loss of the first American probe to Venus. From G. J. Myers, Software Reliability: Principles & Practice, p. 25.
26. On June 3, 1980, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) reported that the U.S. was under missile attack. The report was traced to a faulty computer circuit that generated incorrect signals. If the developers of the software responsible for processing these signals had taken into account the possibility that the circuit could fail, the false alert might not have occurred. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 48.
27. The manned space capsule Gemini V missed its landing point by 100 miles because its guidance program ignored the motion of the earth around the sun. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 49.
28. Five nuclear reactors were shut down temporarily because a program testing their resistance to earthquakes used an arithmetic sum of variables instead of the square root of the sum of the squares of the variables. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 49.
29. In a 1977 exercise, when it was connected to the command-and-control systems of several regional commands, the WWMCCS had an average success rate for message transmission of only 38 percent. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 51.
30. Aegis was installed on the U.S.S. Ticonderoga, a Navy cruiser. After the Ticonderoga was commissioned the weapon system underwent its first operational test. In this test it failed to shoot down six out of 16 targets because of faulty software; earlier small-scale and simulation tests had not uncovered certain system errors. In addition, because of test-range limitations, at no time were more than three targets presented to the system simultaneously. For a sizable attack approaching Aegis' design limits the results would most likely have been worse. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American , vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 51.
31. On June 19, 1985 the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization performed a simple experiment: The crew of the space shuttle was to position the shuttle so that a mirror mounted on its side could reflect a laser beamed from the top of a mountain 10,023 feet above sea level. The experiment failed because the computer program controlling the shuttle's movements interpreted the information it received on the laser's location as indicating the elevation in nautical miles instead of feet. As a result the program positioned the shuttle to receive a beam from a nonexistent mountain 10,023 nautical miles above sea level. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American , vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 51.
32. The first operational launch attempt of the space shuttle, whose real-time operating software consists of about 500,000 lines of code, failed because of a synchronization problem among its flight-control computers. The software error responsible for the failure, which was itself introduced when another error was fixed two years earlier, would have revealed itself, on the average, once in 67 times. From "The development of software for ballistic-missile defense," by H. Lin, Scientific American, vol. 253, no. 6 (Dec. 1985), p. 52.
33. "The change was so simple he didn't feel he had to inform anyone that it took place and the mistake he made was so stupid. He had no idea of the damage it would caused." The day after the product shipped 50 beta testers called and reported that all the paychecks were being printed at zero dollars. Story
34. The Sendmail security bug. Story
35. INTEL processor bugs galore. List Pentium discussion
36. A computer-monitored house arrest inmate escaped and subsequently committed murder. This was caused by the reporting software not re-trying when it received a busy signal at the main computer number. Story
37. The clock in the video camera indicated a customer had withdrawn his money at the same time as a fraud occurred, so the bank forwarded his photo to the authorities. The clock had been off by about one hour. Story
38. The nine-hour breakdown of AT&T's long-distance telephone network in Jan. 1990, caused by an untested code patch, dramatized the vulnerability of complex computer systems everywhere. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
39. On July 1-2, 1991, computer-software collapses in telephone switching stations disrupted service in Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Once again, seemingly minor maintenance problems had crippled the digital System 7. About twelve million people were affected in the crash of July 1, 1991. Said the New York Times Service: "Telephone company executives and federal regulators said they were not ruling out the possibility of sabotage by computer hackers, but most seemed to think the problems stemmed from some unknown defect in the software running the networks." Within the week, a red-faced software company, DSC Communications Corporation of Plano, Texas, owned up to glitches in the signal transfer point software that DSC had designed for Bell Atlantic and Pacific Bell. The immediate cause of the July 1 crash was a single mistyped character: one tiny typographical flaw in one single line of the software. One mistyped letter, in one single line, had deprived the nations capital of phone service. It was not particularly surprising that this tiny flaw had escaped attention: a typical System 7 station requires ten million lines of code. From The Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling, 1992. Story More More More
40. During a payday rush in 1989, a faulty program shut down 1,800 automated-teller machines at Tokyo's Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
41. When an airline's reservation system went down in 1989, 14,000 travel agents had to book flights manually. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
42. In the early 1980s, Buick had to give 80,000 V6 cars a chip transplant to fix flaws in their microprocessors. "Ghost in the Machine," Time Magazine, Jan. 29, 1990. p. 58. Story
43. The New York Stock Exchange opened one hour late on Dec. 18, 1995 due to a communications problem in the software. Story
44. Chemical Bank went down for 5 hours on July 20, 1994 due to a file update overloading the computer system. Story
45. There was a San Francisco 911 system crash of over 30 minutes on Oct. 12, 1995. Patched but not fixed, it still misses between 100-200 calls per day. Story
46. The hole in Ozone layer over Antartica left undetected for extended period because data was considered anomalous by software because it was out of the specified range. Story
47. The Denver airport stayed closed for over a year due to software glitches in the automated baggage handling system. Story More
48. Bell Atlantic Corp. failed to bill approximately 400,000 AT&T customers in parts of Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., and West Virginia for their long-distance calls on their January 1998 bill. AT&T stated that their Operations Support Systems provided Bell Atlantic with the correct billing data for three of the twenty billing cycles, customer's billed on the 2nd, 4-5th, and 7th of the month, and that a Bell Atlantic computer error failed to produce the AT&T portion of the bill. Bell Atlantic has stated that the problem was a "systems glitch", "processing error", and/or "data processing error". [Supposedly, computer tapes were used to transfer the billing details between AT&T and Bell Atlantic.] From an AT&T press release, dated 16-Jan-1998, reprinted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 17 Jan 1998, p. C10.
49. Oodles of software will fail in the year 2000. Story More More Lots more
50. The IRS uncovered an unintended side effect of its effort to eliminate the Year 2000 computer bug: About 1,000 taxpayers who were current in their tax installment agreements were suddenly declared in default due to a programming error. [There are 62 million lines of source code to check; the error was caused by an attempted Y2K fix.] From the Associated Press newswire (AP US & World, 23 Jan 1998, by Rob Wells).
51. An alert to all National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts (NAME) members: A member recently called the office to find out why she hasn't received her Houseparty Gazette. She discovered that the computer has deactivated ALL members whose memberships expire in the year 2000 and beyond. Kim ... said she had no way of knowing who those folks are unless they call her and let her know. From the rec.arts.dollhouses newsgroup.
52. One production line shut down when the laser-driven printer putting "sell-by" dates on products couldn't handle the 2000 date. Industry Week, Jan. 5, 1998, p. 26.
53. Many programs err in, or simply ignore, the century rule for leap years on the Gregorian calendar (every 4th year is a leap year, except every 100th year which is not, except every 400th year which is). For example, early releases of the popular spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3 treated 2000 as a non-leap year, a problem eventually fixed. But, all releases of Lotus 1-2-3 take 1900 as a leap year; by the time this error was recognized, the company deemed it too late to correct: ``The decision was made at some point that a change now would disrupt formulas which were written to accommodate this anomaly''. Excel, part of Microsoft Office, has the same flaw. From Calendrical Calculations , N. Dershowitz and E. M. Reingold, p. xviii.
54. The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission chose March 1, 1996 as the start date for a new, higher fare structure for cabs. Meters programmed by one company in Queens forgot about the leap day and charged customers the higher rate on February 29. The New York Times, March 1, 1997.
55. A computer software error at the Tiwai Point aluminum smelter in Southland, New Zealand at midnight on New Year's Eve 1997 caused more than $AU 1 million of damage. The software error was the failure to account for leap years (and considering a 366th day in the year to be invalid), causing 660 process control computers to shut down and the smelting pots to cool. The same problem occurred two hours later at Comalco's Bell Bay smelter in Tasmania (which is two hours behind New Zealand). The general manager of operations for New Zealand Aluminum Smelters, David Brewer, said ``It was a complicated problem and it took quite some time [until midafternoon] to find the cause.'' The New Zealand Herald , January 8, 1997, and The Dominion, in Wellington, New Zealand.
56. A "computer error" is blamed for a false report of three death by an incurable disease when a woman killed her daughter and tried to kill her son and herself. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 10, no. 3
57. A Norwegian class gets a pornographic image because of cache problem, when a recycled link leads to a pornographic site. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 47.
58. Computers were blamed when, in three separate incidents, 3 million, 5.4 million, and 1.5 million gallons of raw sewage were dumped into Willamette River. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 13, no. 3.
59. The U.S. national EFTPOS system crashed on 2 Jun 1997 for two hours and 100K transactions were "lost". One central processor failed and backup procedures to redistribute the load also failed. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 21.
60. Computer blunders were blamed for $650M student loan losses. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes , vol. 20, no. 3.
61. An Internet routing "black hole" cuts off ISPs; MAI Network Services routing table errors directed 50,000 routing addresses to MAI; InterNIC goofed, as well, 23 Apr 1997. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 22, no. 4.
62. Votes were lost by a computer in Toronto. The Toronto district finally abandoned computerized voting, leaving a year-old race unresolved. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes , vol. 15, no. 2.
63. A cat was registered as a voter to demonstrate risks (no pawtograph required). From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 20, no. 1.
64. A "read-ahead" synchronization glitch and/or an eager operator caused a large data entry error, and the wrong winner was announced in a Rome, Italy city election. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 15, no. 1.
65. In a German parliament election, the program rounds up the Greens' 4.97%, which was less than the 5% cutoff; when corrected, the Social Democrats attained a one seat majority. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 17, no. 3.
66. An Oregon computer error reversed election results. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 18, no. 1.
67. A (CTSS) raw password file was distributed as message-of-the-day, due to an editor temporary file name confusion. See Morris and Thompson, CACM 22, 11, Nov 1979.
68. The U.S. Social Security Administration systems could not handle non-Anglo names, affecting $234 billion for 100,000 people, some going back to 1937. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS) , vol 18, issue 80.
69. Software prevented the correction of a recognized Olympic skating scoring error. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 17, no. 2.
70. A computer scoring glitch at an Olympic boxing match causes the evident winner to lose. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 17, no. 4.
71. A man's auto insurance rate triples when he turns 101 (= 1 mod 100). From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 12, no. 1.
72. A Montreal life insurance company dies due to software bugs in its integrated system. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 17, no. 2.
73. A computer test residue generates a false tsunami warning in Japan. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 19, no. 3.
74. Chicago cat owners were billed $5 for unlicensed dachshunds. A database search on "DHC" (for dachshunds) found "domestic house cats" with shots but no license. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 12, no. 3.
75. The Korean Airlines KAL 901 accident in Guam killed 225 out of 254 aboard. A worldwide bug was discovered in barometric altimetry in Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS). From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 23, no. 1.
76. A "computer error" affected hundreds of U.K. A-level exam results. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 40.
77. The Paris police computer mismatched a Corsican city code with postal code, and was unable to collect motorists' fines. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 41.
78. Netscape Communicator 4.02 and 4.01a allowed disclosure of passwords. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 34.
79. A bank robbery "wanted" poster of the wrong person was due to an unchecked match. From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 29.
80. The Soviet Phobos I Mars probe was lost, due to a faulty software update, at a cost of 300 million rubles. Its disorientation broke the radio link and the solar batteries discharged before reacquisition. From Aviation Week, 13 Feb 1989.
81. An F-18 fighter plane crashed due to a missing exception condition. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 6, no. 2.
82. An F-14 fighter plane was lost to uncontrollable spin, traced to tactical software. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 9, no. 5.
83. A Parisian computer transforms traffic charges into big crimes. From ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, vol. 14, no. 6.
84. CyberSitter censors "menu */ #define" because of the string "nu...de". From Internet Risks Forum NewsGroup (RISKS), vol. 19, issue 56.
85. In a heavily loaded computer system, a steady stream of high-priority processes can prevent a low-priority process from ever getting resources. Generally, one of two things will happen. Either the process will eventually be run (at 2 A.M. Sunday, when the system is finally lightly loaded), or the computer system will eventually crash and lose all unfinished low-priority processes.... Rumor has it that, when they shut down the IBM 7094 at MIT in 1973, they found a low-priority process that had been submitted in 1967 and had not yet been run. From Silbershatz and Galvin, pp. 142-143.
86. GTE Corp. mistakenly printed 50,000 unlisted residential phone numbers and addresses in 19 directories that were leased to telemarkteters in communities between Santa Barbara and Huntington Beach. GTE blames the problem on a software snafu. The company faces fines of up to 1.5 billion dollars, if found guilty of gross negligence. From comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup (27 Apr 1998); X Telecom Digest, Volume 18, Issue 60, Message 4 of 7.
87. On Sept. 19, 1989 an overflow (of a 2-byte integer) at a Washington, DC hospital caused a computer to collapse and forced them to do things manually.
88. On Nov. 16, 1989 an overflow (of a 2-byte integer) in the Michingan Terminal System caused a computer crash in Newcastle, followed by crashes all over the U.S.
89. Midwest Telephone Company had a program toassign telephone numbers with a $5 million annual maintenance budget. In 1981, they reported: "No more than 15 known errors remain unsolved at the end of each month." In fact, people had stopped using the program and were entering numbers manually, leaving the database hopelessly outdated.
90. Bank of America was forced to write off a $60 million investment in a new software systems and reverted to its 15-year old predecessor.
91. Due to a software error, Continental Airlines consistently undercharged for plane rentals by one day.
92. SRI International's computer reset the time by averaging 11 clocks, though one was 12 hours off.
93. In 1980, the ARPAnet shut down on account of a self-propagating error.
94. Rumor has it that a military plane flipped over when crossing the equator.
95. Rumor has it that an Airbus plane crashed into its hangar, since its onboard computer interpreted a bump as turbulence in the air.
96. Software reboot during the Apollo 11 landing forced Armstrong to manually land the lunar lander. Story
97. In 1989, Swedish Gripen prototype crashed due to new software in the fly-by-wire system. Story
98. In 1995, Swedish Gripen fighter plane crashed during air-show. Story
99. Soldiers killed. Story
100. Roundup of US government Y2K bugs.
101. French ticket reservation software took 4 months to get working. Story
102. In October 1995, 200,000 French civil servants were paid twice.
103. On May 3, 2000, Paris area telephone service collapsed. Story
104. Software error causes patients to be declared dead. Story
105. Shuttle simulator bug. Story
106. Software suspected in 1994 Chinook helicopter crash, killing 29. Story Report
107. For two days during the summer holidays in 2004, the French national railroad company's reservation system was disorganized, due to a faulty patch. Report
http://forums.programming-designs.com/viewtopic.php?pid=3354
Monday, October 02, 2006
Careers: Couples Who Run the House for Others
Is there enough Cristal? Is the plane ready? The right pair will know.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/business/yourmoney/01couple.html?ex=1317355200&en=4f9c5da4f642f196&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/business/yourmoney/01couple.html?ex=1317355200&en=4f9c5da4f642f196&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Take your very own pictures from outside Earth's atmosphere
Here is a pretty cool gallery which shows how these guys 'launched' a device to take pictures from outside Earth's atmosphere.
http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cuspaceflight/nova1selected/
http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cuspaceflight/nova1selected/
Awesome programming forum
"I stumbled upon this great programming forum a while back. It has tons of information and help on lots of different programming languages. Excellent place to get help when you are stuck on a problem while writing code."
http://www.programmingforums.org/forum/
http://www.programmingforums.org/forum/
Library requirements for Flash 9 Player for Linux
Is your Linux distribution ready to run the upcoming Flash 9 Player? Check out this list of libraries that are required.
http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2006/09/librarian.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2006/09/librarian.html
Five Great Fonts Designed For Programmers
This article presents five great fonts designed for programmers to ease their long code-writing habits and put the eyes at ease. Pictures of each font along with their description is provided and download links are attached. So enjoy =)
http://forums.programming-designs.com/viewtopic.php?pid=3338
http://forums.programming-designs.com/viewtopic.php?pid=3338
Got 15 minutes? Give Ruby a shot right now!
Ruby is a programming language from Japan (available at ruby-lang.org) which is revolutionizing the web. The beauty of Ruby is found in its balance between simplicity and power.
http://www.irintech.com/x1/blogarchive.php?id=450
http://www.irintech.com/x1/blogarchive.php?id=450
Friday, September 29, 2006
PC World's 100 Fearless Forecasts
here's our definitive list of technologies we're looking forward to seeing.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127152/article.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127152/article.html
C++ Optimizations
"A few C++ code optimizations, we should be reminded of from time to time. "These optimizations are fairly easy to apply to existing code and in some cases can result in big speedups. Remember the all-important maxim though, the fastest code is code that isn't called." -digg
http://www.custard.org/~andrew/optimize.php
http://www.custard.org/~andrew/optimize.php
500+ Computer ebooks are all FREE
"Free 500+ ebooks include free ebook VB.NET, free ebook PHP, free ebook MySQL, free ebook Java/Javascript and many free programming ebooks and free computer ebooks. All ebooks are free, no registration, no email, no login." --digg
http://www.ebooklobby.com/index.php?cid=6
http://www.ebooklobby.com/index.php?cid=6
geek tips!
Geek to Live: The 100th installment
by Gina Trapani
It was a little more than a year ago that we decided to make Lifehacker into something more than just a link blog: a source of original feature articles on software and productivity that you won't find anywhere else. I chose the title "Geek to Live" for my twice-weekly feature post because it embodies what Lifehacker's all about: a tech-centric approach to solving common every day problems. (Oh yeah, and it's the site tagline, too.)
Right now you're reading the 100th installment of Geek to Live, which has spanned every one of my personal nerdy obsessions over the past year: from home networking, Firefox, and data security to personal finance, netiquette and web publishing. A lot happens in the course of a year, so today I've gone back and updated the dustier GTL installments and rounded up a giant look back at the series so far.
Home servers
How to set up a personal home web server (Sept 2005) - The debut of Geek to Live prompted the most reader questions (which I still get via email today) of them all. Updated the text for Apache version 2.2 and added further reading links. Enabled comments.
Control your home computer from anywhere (Sept 2005) - Using VNC, you can drive your home PC or Mac from any internet-connected computer. Comments now enabled.
Tech support with UltraVNC SingleClick (Sept 2006) - Remote control Mom's computer using a standalone VNC client you can email to her.
Host a personal wiki on your home computer (Sept 2005) - Using Instiki, a great beginner's wiki. Comments enabled.
Set up your personal Wikipedia (March 2006) - Using MediaWiki, a more advanced wiki package. Comments enabled.
Access a home server behind a router/firewall (Sept 2005) A primer on port-forwarding through a home router/firewall. Comments enabled.
Assign a domain name to your home web server (Sept 2005) - Use a dynamic DNS service to register a memorable domain name for your home server (be it VNC, FTP, Web or Instiki.) Comments enabled.
Finding free stuff
6 ways to find reusable media (Aug 2006) - Homage to the public domain, Creative Commons and the Free Documentation License.
Find free music on the web (Nov 2005) - Your mostly-legal MP3's await.
Networking
Fast, one wire network (IP over FireWire) (May 2006) - This won't work in Vista, so enjoy it while you can.
Create your own virtual private network with Hamachi (Sept 2006) - Free VPN for secure file-sharing.
Set up a home wireless network (March 2006) - Send this to your brother-in-law who wants to set up wifi.
Web publishing
Improve your web site with Google Analytics (Sept 2006) - Diving into the web stats package you want on your site.
Have a say in what Google says about you (Feb 2006) - Create the online legacy you control.
Write effectively for the Web (Nov 2005) - Physician, heal thyself.
Netiquette
The art of asking (August 2006) - Applies IRL as well as online.
How to deal with Internet Meanies (March 2006) - Develop troll immunity.
Lifehacker's guide to weblog comments (Sept 2005) - On being a good commenter.
Passwords and Security
Choose (and remember) great passwords (July 2006) - A few methods.
Securely track your passwords (July 2006) - With KeePass.
Secure your saved passwords in Firefox (Feb 2006) - Without Firefox saved passwords I wouldn't be able to login to anything.
Encrypt your data (June 2006) - Lock up your USB thumb drive or simply your pr0n collection.
Money
Automate your finances (May 2006)
Send and receive money with your cell phone (May 2006)
Year-end money moves (Dec 2005)
Avoid New Year's credit card debt (Dec 2005)
Firefox
My favorite Greasemonkey user scripts (Dec 2005) - Still my favorite Firefox extension EVER.
Turn Firefox into a web writer (Nov 2005)
Fifteen Firefox Quick Searches (Oct 2005) - Don't miss Adam's follow-up take on Firefox Quick Searches.
Backup
Automatically back up your hard drive (Jan 2006) - Set it and forget it. One of the most popular GTL's ever published.
Automatically email yourself file backups (April 2006) - Somewhat hacky (in the bad way) command line automated self-email with file attachments.
Effective data capture
Develop your (digital) photographic memory (April 2006) - Put that ubiquitous cameraphone to good use.
Take study-worthy lecture notes (Sept 2006) - An overview of the Cornell note-taking method; especially geared towards students.
Quick-log your work day (July 2006) - Track what you did all day long without tiresome interruptions.
Save and annotate the Web with Scrapbook (April 2006) - Pre-Google Notebook, Firefox-based web clippings. Still outstanding from a feature set perspective.
Personal organization
Organizing "My Documents" (Feb 2006) - A simple folder scheme.
Extreme makeover, filing cabinet edition (Feb 2006) - Taking the "work" out of "paperwork."
The Usable Home (Oct 2005) - Your apartment is just like a software interface. How easy is it to use?
Tickle yourself with Yahoo! Calendar (Sept 2005) - Pre-Google Calendar email/SMS reminders about Mom's birthday.
Mental focus
Firewall your attention at the office (Jan 2006)
Ban time-wasting web sites (Jan 2006)
Command line
Mirror files across systems with Rsync (Aug 2006)
Plain text calendar with Remind (July 2006)
Mastering Wget (March 2006)
Introduction to Cygwin: part 1, part 2, part 3 (June 2006)
Operating Systems
Format your hard drive and install Windows XP from scratch (March 2006) - When the last resort is your only one.
Windows Vista RC 1, in screenshots (Sept 2006) - A photo gallery of what's to come on new PC's in 2007.
Rescue files with a boot CD (August 2006) - Start up your unbootable PC with a Knoppix CD.
Future-proof your email address (Dec 2005)
Essential email filters (July 2006)
Empty your inbox with the Trusted Trio (June 2006)
Knock down repetitive e-mail with Thunderbird's QuickText (Nov 2005)
Train others how to use email (Jan 2006)
Best tools
Top 10 free and cheap productivity tools (July 2006)
Lifehacker Pack (Jan 2006) - My answer to Google Pack.
Top underrated apps of 2005 (Dec 2005)
Best apps of 2005 (Dec 2005)
Phew! At a few thousand words a pop, I must admit I never thought 100 articles later it'd still be full steam ahead. But Geek to Live's been the most fun I've ever had in a textarea. I hope it's been good for you, too.
Got any topic requests for future Geek to Live installments? Lemme know in the comments. And as always, thanks for reading.
Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, looks forward to writing the next 100. Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
Definitely NSFW: These Women Can Sell Any Power Tool on the Planet
Benny Benassi is well known for his music videos, probably more than he is for the music itself. In his video for Satisfaction, a few scantily clad well-endowed women are demoing power tools in a late night infomercial style setting. If you’re not a fan of techno, this may just be the best reason yet to start. Warning: Definitely NSFW
News Feed Source
Home Page: http://digg.com/view/technology
Feed Title: digg / Technology
Feed URL: http://digg.com/rss/containertechnology.xml
Article
Title: Definitely NSFW: These Women Can Sell Any Power Tool on the Planet
Link: http://digg.com/gadgets/Definitely_NSFW_These_Women_Can_Sell_Any_Power_Tool_on_the_Planet
Author: ~
Publication Date:
Good Agile — Development Without Deadlines
BigTom writes, "In a recent blog entry Steve Yegge, a developer at Google, writes a fascinating account of life at possibly the coolest development organization in the world. Steve lays out some of the software development practices that make Google work. Go on, say you are not even a little bit jealous. ;-)" From the article: Developers can switch teams and/or projects any time they want, no questions asked; just say the word and the movers will show up the next day to put you in your new office with your new team. There aren't very many meetings. I'd say an average developer attends perhaps 3 meetings a week. Google has a philosophy of not ever telling developers what to work on, and they take it pretty seriously. Google tends not to pre-announce. They really do understand that you can't rush good cooking, you can't rush babies out, and you can't rush software development. Yegge also does a fine job of skewering what the author calls "Bad Agile."
Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/28875290/article.pl
TinyXP - 55Mb WinXP client
This TinyXP not only runs fast, but takes up only 400Mb total space on your system hard drive. Thats the "WINDOWS" folder, "Documents and settings" and "Program Files." By using only 40Mb of RAM, this allows your PC to run fast, I mean VERY fast!
Link: http://digg.com/software/TinyXP_55Mb_WinXP_client
Link: http://digg.com/software/TinyXP_55Mb_WinXP_client
Bigger, better CrossOver adds WoW to Linux
Would-be Windows-on-Linux gamers got a very early Christmas present today, with the release by CodeWeavers of the first public beta of CrossOver, with support for World of Warcraft and other "steam-based" games such as Half Life 2 and Counterstrike.
Link: http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS3460199439.html
Link: http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS3460199439.html
Thursday, September 28, 2006
A Quantitative Analysis of Online Dating
imjustatomato writes "Never before has something so human and primitive as dating been reducible to such discrete values. A study analyzes the data of an online dating service. When do you like someone like yourself? Among online dating members, "marital status" and "wants children" are the two most influential characteristics to match. Other interesting findings are: men initiate 73.3% of messages, but their initiations are 17.9% less likely to be reciprocated; 78.2% of messages are never responded to."
Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/28745001/article.pl
Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/28745001/article.pl
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
VOIP - The Details Kill The Fun
A bunch of VOIP services have launched to help people make cheaper calls from normal phones. None of them are compelling for the mass market.
VOIP is great when you initiate calls from VOIP phones or software (Skype, Vonage, etc.). These VOIP networks can call other VOIP phones, or patch into the normal telephone networks to make relatively inexpensive calls. Vonage long ago replaced my normal telephone service, and an increasing number of people are using VOIP solutions instead of a normal telephone.
But a new crop of companies have a launched that are trying to let people make free or cheap VOIP calls from a normal POTS (plain old telephone service) phone (often a cell phone) to another POTS phone. If someone gets it right, there’s a huge market out there to destroy. The problem is that no one has gotten it right. And the mass market won’t adopt these services until they are dead simple to use.
These services generally take one of two approaches to allow people to make VOIP calls. One approach is to tell the service what number you are calling from and what number you would like to call. The service then calls both parties and connects them. The second approach is to assign special phone numbers to use instead of the normal phone number. These special numbers are controlled by the VOIP service and bypass the POTS system for the most expensive parts of the call.
Neither approach allows people to make quick calls on the fly to someone. Both require multiple steps to make a call, usually involving the use of a website as well (meaning you have to be at a computer or try to access the services via a mobile browser).
Here are a few that we’ve been tracking:
Jajah: Go to the website, tell it your phone number and the number you want to call, and a call is initiated to both phones. Call rates are very cheap, sometimes free. But you have to be at your computer to use it, and have a billing relationship with jajah if you are making non-free calls. They have some big news coming out this week, however, that will be worth noting.
Rebtel: We first covered Rebtel here. They just announced a whopping $20 million in venture funding. Rebtel has an extremely confusing method for making calls. The basic fee is $1 per week. They then assign local phone numbers for each of your friends. You call that number instead of the normal number for that friend. Your friend picks up the phone, hangs up and dials the number that just called them to connect to you. The call is then free. If that wasn’t clear, you can see the instructions here. You can also use Rebtel without the person hanging up on the other end, but you will be charged for the call (rates are lower than normal phone rates).
Hullo: We covered Hullo here. Very similar to Jajah, with slightly better features.
ConnectMeAnywhere: Sam Sethi wrote about ConnectMeAnywhere on TechCrunch UK. Like Rebtel, ConnectMeAnywhere assigns local numbers to your contacts, and you use those local numbers instead of their normal phone number. Unlike Rebtel there is no free option where the person hangs up and calls back. Instead, CMA just charges a lower rate than your phone company does. Their rates are here.
None of these services is good enough to change user behaviors in the mass market. Having to be at your computer, or call special phone numbers, is too much trouble for most people. Certainly forcing the person receiving the call to hang up and call back isn’t very attractive. And traditional POTS rates continue to fall fast, meaning the incentive to go with a hard-to-use VOIP provider is lower.
We’ll monitor new services as they launch, of course. And perhaps someone will come up with a better solution. Until then, I’m not betting on any of the current crop of companies.
Author: ~Michael Arrington
LINUX: See changes word by word with dwdiff
Unix text utilities were designed primarily for programmers and admins, but here's a little secret: the utilities also work well for writers. Instead of using diff to see changes between programs, I often use diff utilities to see what has changed between one version of an article and another. A few weeks ago, I found dwdiff, and found it works eve
first post
okay.. finally I am in the blogging game... well almost when its over... quite slow of a start, all the same better late than never.
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