Tuesday, February 12, 2008

LAN VNC Password workaround

As an administrator of a large network, when I came on board, one of the first things I did was to install tightVNC on all the (then, Windows 2000 Pro) machines so I didn't have to walk everywhere for every little thing.

It worked wonders, and I had one password for all the machines... until I had a few machines that needed another password because I needed specific people to have access and remember a password. and then I promptly forgot it because I don't record passwords anywhere. First, because I am admin, I have no problem to change passwords on accounts and let my users know what happened. Second, I feel it does provide some positive mental vibe toward me as an admin that the users can keep their favorite passwords secret to themselves.

But you want to know about the title...
So I forget the VNC passwords. I don't have to know them, exactly. I just need to be able to get remote registry to the destination computer. I open up regedit and click File, Connect Network Registry... and type in the name/IP address of my other LAN PC. Then I drill down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORL\WinVNC3\Default and look at the Data Column of Password.
It might look like:
f3 36 15 94 f1 11 f8 a7

I create a text file remote.vnc as follows:

[connection]
host=remotemachinename
port=5900
password=f3361594f111f8a7

and now I have a file that I can double-click and connect to the remotemachine, assuming of course, that .vnc files are associated with tightVNC (default is yes).

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Preventing Global Warming is like ...

Clipping coupons to become a millionaire.

Yes, everyone can do his part. But we still need to survive in the way that we live, now. I realize that there are children, and children's children that will need to deal with whatever it is that they'll deal with.

The way I look at it, in a hundred years, there will be very little that can be done to save the populace from itself. The good part is that we've recognized where we are. The so-so part is that we've likely hit the highest part of our pollution percentages ... because we know them. Until the other countries start themselves to become industrialized.

Do we stop the other countries from so becoming?

I thought my teachers told me that plants like CO2

GE has an ad (Go here and click the "Tree" link.) which, inexplicably to me, has a tree hugging a house because it releases less greenhouse gases.

Trees like CO2, don't they?

Some other reading

Monday, February 4, 2008

Humanity has forgotten how to conquer

Well, let me equivocate a bit. If humanity has forgotten how to conquer, it is because it has either found enough resistance to therefore not be able to conquer, or it has no will to do so.

It is, perhaps, my ignorance of time required to conquer; but then again, I can give two examples resulting in much the same non-result.

First, conflicts in Iraq/Iran or Vietnam. A complete conquer could occur. A retreat by the occupying country and therefore victory claim by the holding country doesn't equate to a conquer by the original. Depending on how one perceives the issue, the time spent in these conflicts may be relatively short. The result is simple: failure to conquer.

In a longstanding, ongoing civil war, and/or the genocides in Darfur, one fines the struggle both sad and frustrating. In essence, a long drawn out process with no clear winner, and the aggressor simply can't succeed.

One might ask or assume that I am a warmonger with no heart for the people involved. On the contrary. However, it is in my estimation that when one attempts to conquer, one should consider doing it completely, quickly, and decisively. Anything less is simply a waste of time, money, and lives.

I wonder, seriously, if the problem people are having with any war is that nobody wins. In the pithy words of the movie "War Games", "The only way to win is not to play". OK. That's true when you play to a tie. But I'm not talking about Tic Tac Toe or even Global Thermonuclear War. I'm simply talking about winning completely. If you haven't come out to win, you have already lost.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Congratulations, New York Giants

I tip my hat to them for winning Super Bowl XLII. Well, there's always another year.

My StumbleUpon Visitors. They amuse me.

Not that they talk to me or anything. I am not female, for one. But I love to read people's profiles, especially when they use them for their own brand of intolerance.

Oh, I'm sorry. I can't say that and mean it, right? That's so much of a bigot, right? [/sarcasm]. Hey, you know what? I don't really care that you're a Secular Humanist and a Democrat. If that is all that defines who you are, you simply have chosen another path of conformity. As long as it makes you feel good, I guess.

What I'm getting at is that if you want to define who you are, define it in terms of you, not of in terms of a group. Hrm. OK, so it is "I" don't believe in .... Meh. So what? That doesn't make you unique. It doesn't make you that interesting, either. I guess I shouldn't be so interested. I just want to know what makes your, my, our place on this rock that hurtles through space that much more important. In the end, I guess, you, me, we don't matter much. In the grand scheme of things, we have the same viewpoints of the futility of existence, right?

I'm not advocating any bodily harm to anyone. However, I am asking what the point is of defining oneself in such broad strokes as being a member of a group. Is one a Democrat or Republican because one really hates the other party, or is one philosophically beholden to the tenets of the party to which they hold fealty? Really? All of those tenets? Do you know what they are?

Fine. Then we can talk civilly about life, the universe, and everything.

My Blog Layout stinks

I know it. But it does one thing that your blog probably doesn't do. It actually scales to your screen.

For Christmas, I purchased a 22" WXGA monitor,with a native resolution of 1600x1050. It's fun. Except when I StumbleUpon the websites that insist on having a single column for content fixed at under 800 pixels wide. Please, for the love of Pete, please consider that we large screen users can deal with both fixed width panel columns and variable width content columns!

Sigh.

Because it can be done. Part 2

The strange twist to me is that by the time I come up with a great idea, I don't always have a chance to implement it. Well, I guess like a lot of people, I have a desire to reinvent the wheel.

And, so I'm reading the man pages for beep and I realize beep is quite powerful in what it could do. Including different frequencies. Could MIDI be played through beep? ... Well, it appears, yes. Thanks to the MIDI Beeper.

What's all this obsession with beep?

It's pretty much so I could make an alarm, at first. Now I understand its potential to signal all types of things, including log warnings, etc. The other point is... without a sound card.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Because Linux can do it. That's why.

sudo apt-get install beep
sleep 5m;beep;beep;beep

My wife called. "Call the order in, but not for 5 minutes."

Sigh. So many different ways to handle this. I don't want to go to my microwave. or my stove. Besides, these things keep wanting you to turn off the beeper after they do it. I could open a calendar app. no. I just want to know when 5 minutes have passed.

And in 5 minutes, I get a beep. or whatever. And there ... it's done.

beep! beep! beep!

of course, I did it by intuition, not the right way. soo um.. beep -r 3 ok? fine.

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