samba: running swat from xinetd

(swat - the web-based tool for managing samba servers and accounts)...well, on some (possibly most these days) linux distros it's run out of xinetd, which makes it pretty manageable: After you install your 'samba-swat' package, edit /etc/xinetd.d/swat to enable & configure it.

the critical lines being:
only_from = IP addresses/ranges you want access from
disable = no # the default being 'yes'

Now, less commonly-know it seems is the xinetd directive (ie. would work for all the apps you can wrap with it):

server_args = as-read-from-the-man-page

The server_args in this case being '-P' which limits swat to really only showing the password-change page by hiding the server config and monitoring elements. I don't want normal users to be able to see any of those items.

atypical web applications

on reflection, there's probably no such thing as a 'typical web app' - they all bring their challenges. I often seem to get the slightly off-centre ones. Not that I'm complaining really but people get told either that something is 'impossible' or is going to cost them 8 grand (which is another way of telling the client to go away).

It often seems that there's a lot of software waiting to be written in the small-business, web/print design space - apps that will encapsulate someones workflow in building or maintaining a complex website, converting images en mass or pulling data into some useful order or interface. Some of these would just be scripts & some real, hosted web applications.

How do you bring these opportunities together? the prospective client and their requirements (and some cash too I hope) and someone who can do the work - to the point where it's complete and actually does what the client wants? It's pretty hard, as I've been finding out. I'm wearing out the opportunities I can see in my network of contacts right now...

***
Actually, I really just want to write about data persistence in the context of work I've performed for clients recently - and crucially - the tech (ie. programming languages, web hosting) I've had little choice but to employ... because this aspect has been really central to even small projects.

I keep coming back to the same thought: Java Servlets(& JSP, JSF kinds of teck built on top of the spec) was the only half-way elegant, well thought out web app framework - and they were more or less complete by 2000. Given the rise of scripting in the intervening decade & the decline of Java outside of enterprise systems we are are actually worse off now than then...

Simple Rails app

All you want to do is to get up & running

on OSX Snowleopard (Ruby 1.8.7 - included with the OS & Gem 1.4.2 - after runnning gem update --system) , the sequence of steps to get a simple Rails application up & running:

> rails new app_path/app_name

cd into the  app directory & add anything special  to the Gemfile - which specifies Ruby gems to add to the apps library

> bundle install

>rails server

you should see the WEBrick test server start up

This post is necessary as using this built-in server seems to be really out of favour in Ruby-land (the Mongrel webserver is suggested) & what docs there are about it - well some paths & commands have changed...

gnu screen keyboard commands

tipsheet

I don't know what I did before I discovered Screen but I sure forget the keyboard commands all the time:

OSX SnowLeopard: switch audio

someone just told me: if you have the volume icon in your menubar (ie. this can be turned on/off in the audio preference panel) option-click the speaker icon & it will show you a menu to change input/output on all your audio devices.

this is something I've always wanted. Someone even created a little menubar app to do the same thing (well, it does a bit more really) - so I imagine it's a recent Mac addition. Apple have a long history of additions to the UI like this, stretching basic into System 7 days & it often makes 3rd-party accessories no longer relevant or necessary. I guess it's a risky market - adding functionality that is sort of 'obvious' (but is missing) - your app might suddenly become obselete.

Centos 4: install Ruby, gem & mechanize

what's out there 'in the field' is rarely the latest & greatest version of anything. Given the necessarily arcane ways that software is packaged for varieties of linux (wtf is irb a separate package?) - having 'the latest' version of your OS distro usually only means that you can actually get packages for it:

anyway -  you want to install Ruby & gem on an older centos box.

1. Use the instructions here to get ruby & gem. These are GOOD instructions - as they seem to work across several Centos versions.

2. update gem: 'gem update --system'

you want to install the 'mechanize' gem for some web-scraping, first install libxslt using yum - this should pull in all the dependencies like libxml2 etc.

There's a set of discussions about installing mechanize on ubuntu here.

Apple annoyances : you downloaded this file from the internets

note: that this 'hint' doesn't appear to work - it may have but certainly not with Snowleopard 10.6.4. Sigh, OSX becomes less & less functional as a server platform (that's where this 'security' feature will really screw you around).

- and snowleopard decides to show a dialogue asking permission to do anything when you try to open a file. It's an idiot feature in an otherwise OK operating system ESPECIALLY as it affects programs that try to open other programs & things start to silently fail.  I've suffered long enough & decided to stop it.

open a terminal and type:
sudo defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool NO

reboot & it should stop happening

This was from the article: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10425093

with further ideas at: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20071029151619619

you downloaded it from the internets: does it contain cats?