paul schreiber » tech http://paulschreiber.com tagline goes here Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:06:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 TurboVote at Harvard and Personal Democracy Forum http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/06/07/turbovote-harvard-pdf/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/06/07/turbovote-harvard-pdf/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:53:14 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=2165 On May 24, Seth Flaxman and I told the story of TurboVote Berkman Center for Internet & Society:

Yesterday, we talked TurboVote at Personal Democracy Forum:

]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/06/07/turbovote-harvard-pdf/feed/ 0 Mind WIND Mobile stick phones home http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/05/18/mind-wind-mobile-stick-phones-home/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/05/18/mind-wind-mobile-stick-phones-home/#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 17:20:12 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=2150 Continue reading →]]> I recently purchased a new internet stick from WIND. It’s a Huawei E1691. In addition to improving the device hardware, they also replaced the software.

Instead of a slow Java monstrosity, it’s now a Windows XP-clone written in QT. Ugh. Today I discovered it has a built in auto-updater. Every now and then, it checks in with update-america.huaweidevice.com.

192.168.001.102.62516-077.222.090.003.00080: POST /america/UrlCommand/CheckNewVersion.aspx HTTP/1.1 Content-Type: text/xml Content-Length: 476 Connection: Keep-Alive Accept-Encoding: gzip Accept-Language: en,* User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 Host: update-america.huaweidevice.com:80 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <root> <rule name="DashBoard">21.003.27.06.562</rule> <rule name="DeviceName">E1691</rule> <rule name="FirmWare">11.126.15.02.562</rule> <rule name="HardWare">CD98TCPU</rule> <rule name="IMEI">HEX:434D98558CE2B347B456..</rule> <rule name="IMSI">HEX:A7F1D92A82C8D8FE..</rule> <rule name="Language">English</rule> <rule name="Network">tele.ring</rule> <rule name="OS">MAC</rule> </root> 077.222.090.003.00080-192.168.001.102.62516: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 17:03:42 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727 Set-Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId=ac1su3ngww23xc2mouoosxfu; path=/; HttpOnly Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 69 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><root><status>1</status></root>

Checking for software updates is fine. Good, in fact. Apple does it. Google does it. Adobe does. But the software shouldn’t be sending private information such as my IMEI, and it definitely shouldn’t be sending those kind of details in the clear.

]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/05/18/mind-wind-mobile-stick-phones-home/feed/ 0 HOWTO setup multistage deployment with Capistrano http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/02/12/howto-setup-multistage-deployment-with-capistrano/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/02/12/howto-setup-multistage-deployment-with-capistrano/#comments Sun, 13 Feb 2011 01:24:29 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=2013 Continue reading →]]> When I wrote about deploying PHP sites with Capistrano, step 6 was a bit of a throwaway — hey, here's a quick hack for handling multistage deployment. I'd been using variants of that technique for quite some time but figured there must be a better way. There is: Capistrano multistage. There is even documentation for this. But it misses a few steps.

How to setup multistage deployment with Capistrano

  1. Install capistrano and capistrano multistage
  2. Capify your project
  3. Set up the deploy/ directory
  4. Create the deployment recipes

In my Rails-based example, we'll have two stages: staging and production. You can name your stages whatever you want. However, don’t name one of your stages stage — that's a reserved word. Call it staging.

Install capistrano and capistrano multistage

gem install capistrano
gem install capistrano-ext

Capify your project

capify .

Set up the deploy directory

mkdir config/deploy
touch config/deploy/staging.rb
touch config/deploy/production.rb

Create the deployment recipes

You’re going to edit three files: deploy.rb, staging.rb and production.rb:

deploy.rb

set :stages, %w(staging production) set :default_stage, "production" require 'capistrano/ext/multistage'
default_run_options[:pty] = true
set :application, "myproject" set :use_sudo, false set :keep_releases, 5
set :repository, "https://somewhere/svn/myproject/trunk" set :scm, :subversion set :scm_username, "me" set :deploy_via, :export
# this is useful in a shared hosting environment, where you have your own JAVA_HOME or GEM_HOME. # otherwise, just set RAILS_ENV set(:rake) { "JAVA_HOME=#{java_home} GEM_HOME=#{gem_home} RAILS_ENV=#{rails_env} /usr/bin/env rake" }
# since :domain is defined in another file (staging.rb and production.rb), # we need to delay its assignment until they're loaded set(:domain) { "#{domain}" } role(:web) { domain } role(:app) { domain } role(:db, :primary => true) { domain }
namespace :deploy do task :start do ; end task :stop do ; end task :restart, :roles => :app, :except => { :no_release => true } do run "#{try_sudo} touch #{File.join(current_path,'tmp','restart.txt')}" end end
# for some reason, this isn't enabled by default after "deploy:update", "deploy:cleanup"
# here is an example task which uses rake, as defined above after "deploy:migrate", "load_sample_fixtures" desc "load sample fixtures" task :load_sample_fixtures do run "cd #{current_release}; FIXTURES=samples #{rake} db:fixtures:load" end

staging.rb

set :deploy_to, "/path/to/#{application}-stage" # My Rails app uses RJB, so it needs to know where Java lives set :java_home, "/path/to/java-6-openjdk" set :domain, "testing.myserver.ca" set :user, "paul" set :rails_env, "staging" # I am root on my staging server and have all the right gems installed # so I don't need GEM_HOME to be overridden set :gem_home, nil

production.rb

set :deploy_to, "/home/myuser/#{application}" set :java_home, "/home/myuser/sw/jdk" set :domain, "www.myserver.ca" set :user, "myuser" set :rails_env, "production" set :gem_home, "/home/myuser/ruby/gems/"
# in a shared hosting environment, you often need to specify your own passenger configuration desc "copy the .htaccess file (passenger configuration); setup_load_paths.rb (sets GEM_HOME)" namespace :deploy do task :copy_htaccess do run "cp #{current_release}/config/htaccess_production #{current_release}/public/.htaccess" run "mv #{current_release}/config/production_setup_load_paths.rb #{current_release}/config/setup_load_paths.rb" end end
after "deploy:update_code", "deploy:copy_htaccess"

Now, you’re set. You can deploy with cap deploy (for the default stage, production), or cap staging deploy. TextMate's Capistrano plugin handles this gracefully, presenting you with a dialog listing the available stages.

]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/02/12/howto-setup-multistage-deployment-with-capistrano/feed/ 3 Dear Adobe: please don’t crash while logging http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/02/03/dear-adobe-please-dont-crash-while-logging/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/02/03/dear-adobe-please-dont-crash-while-logging/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:31:35 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=1902 Continue reading →]]> I recently upgraded my copy of Creative Suite to CS5. When you install CS5 Design Premium, you don’t just get Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and the like. You also get a ton of other bits, like Adobe Help (despite the existence of a built-in Help Viewer), Adobe Application Manager and CS5ServiceManager.

Many of these strike me as unnecessary. But they’re also poorly written. Background processes like this shouldn’t crash. And they’re really shouldn’t crash writing log files.

Here’s the first of two crashes in six hours:

Process: CS5ServiceManager [9272]
Path: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CS5ServiceManager/CS5ServiceManager.app/Contents/MacOS/CS5ServiceManager
Identifier: com.adobe.csi.CS5ServiceManager
Version: ??? (5.0.1.137)
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: ??? [1]

Date/Time: 2011-02-01 20:19:32.291 -0500
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6.6 (10J567)
Report Version: 6

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 5

...snip...

Thread 5 Crashed:
0 ??? 0000000000 0 + 0
1 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x9783fd7a d_name + 164
2 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x9783f3f4 d_type + 657
3 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x97843189 d_demangle + 747
4 ...adobe.csi.CS5ServiceManager 0x00021094 vcfoundation::impl::UTF8Builder::Append(vcfoundation::data::IVCString*, vcfoundation::util::VCRange) + 174
5 ...adobe.csi.CS5ServiceManager 0x00014d92 vcfoundation::util::BackTrace::Describe(vcfoundation::data::IVCStringAppender&) + 34
6 ...adobe.csi.CS5ServiceManager 0x00021e09 vcfoundation::data::IVCStringAppender::AppendFormat(char const*, char*) + 143
7 ...adobe.csi.CS5ServiceManager 0x00021e5e vcfoundation::data::IVCStringAppender::AppendFormat(char const*, ...) + 34
8 ...adobe.csi.CS5ServiceManager 0x00014c90 vcfoundation::util::StdStreamLog::Log(vcfoundation::util::IVCLog::Level, char const*, char*) + 452
9 libSystem.B.dylib 0x937d4be8 free + 244

Examining the crashed thread, we can make a few observations:

  • Adobe seems to have invented their own string-handling library
  • Appending strings can cause a crash
  • Adobe is using C++
  • This crash happening logging
  • This crash happening … writing a crash report?

The only way I’ve crashed a log call is with a format string error. And format string problems? They’re often security holes. Can anyone tell if this might be exploitable?

And did they really invent their own crash reporter? And is that what’s crashing?

Dear Adobe: the wheel is already round. If you’re going to litter my computer with crap, it better be rock solid.

]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/02/03/dear-adobe-please-dont-crash-while-logging/feed/ 3 WordPress batch upgrade http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/01/02/wordpress-batch-upgrade/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/01/02/wordpress-batch-upgrade/#comments Mon, 03 Jan 2011 06:45:37 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=1864 Continue reading →]]> If you run a web server and have multiple installations of WordPress, upgrading them all is a pain.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could update a dozen WP installs at once? Wouldn’t it be even better if you could update the Akismet plugin at the same time? (WordPress releases independently of Akimset, and their subversion tags doesn’t track Akismet’s trunk).

Now you can. Inspired by Scot Hacker’s WordPress Mass Management Tools, I created wp-upgrade.

Usage

$ cd /path/to/wp-upgrade
$ sudo ./wp-upgrade.py 3.0.4

Configuration

You need to configure two files before starting:

  • sites.txt a tab-delimited file with information about the sites you’ll be upgrading (path, url, email address of owner, userid of owner)
  • wp-upgrade.txt an email with instructions to your users
]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2011/01/02/wordpress-batch-upgrade/feed/ 1 GenerationX updated for Snow Leopard http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/25/generationx-updated-for-snow-leopard/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/25/generationx-updated-for-snow-leopard/#comments Sat, 25 Dec 2010 23:16:09 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=1845 Continue reading →]]> When you work on your family tree — or genealogy project — you’ll work with GEDCOM files. Sites like Geni and ancestry.com can export (and sometimes) import these files.

There are a few Mac programs for editing GEDCOM files: Reunion ($100), Heredis ($70), MacFamilyTree ($50) and GEDitCOM II ($65).

These are varying degrees of nice, but overkill if you just need to read a file or two. A while ago, Chris Hagedorn wrote GenerationX, a free GEDCOM reader.

But Chris ceased development on GenerationX. He left two versions: 2.4.1 and a beta of 3.0. GenerationX was PowerPC-only and crashed on launch under Snow Leopard. The version 3 beta had some expiry code in it; it was set to expire in 2006.

I downloaded a copy of the GenerationX source, fixed a bunch of the errors and warnings and put my fork on GitHub. It looks like this:

It’s definitely beta quality. Hopefully someone who’s a solid Cocoa engineer will fork the project and take it over.

Download GenerationX 3.0 beta. This is a universal binary that runs on Snow Leopard.

]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/25/generationx-updated-for-snow-leopard/feed/ 0 HP’s Epic DFS fail http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/14/hps-epic-dfs-fail/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/14/hps-epic-dfs-fail/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:41:43 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=1821

In hardware engineering lingo, DFS is “design for serviceability.”

]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/14/hps-epic-dfs-fail/feed/ 0 How to solve the “undefined method `deep_symbolize_keys’ for nil:NilClass” error in Rails http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/09/how-to-solve-the-undefined-method-deep_symbolize_keys-for-nilnilclass-error-in-rails/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/09/how-to-solve-the-undefined-method-deep_symbolize_keys-for-nilnilclass-error-in-rails/#comments Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:39:38 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=1813 Continue reading →]]> I was trying to migrate a table in my Rails app and got this error:
undefined method `deep_symbolize_keys' for nil:NilClass

It’s a strange error, and there weren’t very many hits on Google. A lighthouse ticket provided a clue.

The problem wasn’t one of my plugins or gems — it was i18n itself. Upgrading from 0.4.1 to 0.5.0 solved my problem. (I am using Rails 2.3.10.)

Here’s the full stack trace:

$ rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production –trace
(in /home/loranaw/apply/releases/20101210024212)
** Invoke db:migrate (first_time)
** Invoke environment (first_time)
** Execute environment
rake aborted!
undefined method `deep_symbolize_keys’ for nil:NilClass
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/backend/simple.rb:34:in `store_translations’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/backend/base.rb:215:in `load_file’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/backend/base.rb:215:in `each’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/backend/base.rb:215:in `load_file’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/backend/base.rb:21:in `load_translations’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/backend/base.rb:21:in `each’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/backend/base.rb:21:in `load_translations’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/backend/simple.rb:57:in `init_translations’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/backend/simple.rb:40:in `available_locales’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n/config.rb:38:in `available_locales’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/i18n-0.4.1/lib/i18n.rb:35:in `available_locales’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:226:in `valid_locale?’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:243:in `parse_extensions’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:233:in `split’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:118:in `initialize’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:92:in `new’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:92:in `create_template’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:87:in `templates_in_path’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:86:in `each’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:86:in `templates_in_path’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/template.rb:69:in `load!’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.10/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:173:in `to_proc’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/paths.rb:40:in `each’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.10/lib/action_view/paths.rb:40:in `load!’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.10/lib/initializer.rb:402:in `load_view_paths’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.10/lib/initializer.rb:194:in `process’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.10/lib/initializer.rb:113:in `send’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.10/lib/initializer.rb:113:in `run’
/home/loranaw/apply/releases/20101210024212/config/environment.rb:9
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require’
/usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.10/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:182:in `require’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.10/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:547:in `new_constants_in’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.10/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:182:in `require’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.10/lib/tasks/misc.rake:4
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:in `call’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:in `execute’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:in `each’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:in `execute’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:597:in `invoke_with_call_chain’
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/monitor.rb:242:in `synchronize’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:590:in `invoke_with_call_chain’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:607:in `invoke_prerequisites’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:604:in `each’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:604:in `invoke_prerequisites’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:596:in `invoke_with_call_chain’
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/monitor.rb:242:in `synchronize’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:590:in `invoke_with_call_chain’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:583:in `invoke’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2051:in `invoke_task’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `top_level’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `each’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `top_level’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in `standard_exception_handling’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2023:in `top_level’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2001:in `run’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in `standard_exception_handling’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:1998:in `run’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/bin/rake:31
/usr/bin/rake:19:in `load’
/usr/bin/rake:19

]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/09/how-to-solve-the-undefined-method-deep_symbolize_keys-for-nilnilclass-error-in-rails/feed/ 0 The FCC just sold you out http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/02/the-fcc-just-sold-you-out/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/02/the-fcc-just-sold-you-out/#comments Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:40:43 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=1811

]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/02/the-fcc-just-sold-you-out/feed/ 0 Fixing the mysterious “Element script is missing required attribute src” error http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/02/fixing-the-mysterious-element-script-is-missing-required-attribute-src-error/ http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/02/fixing-the-mysterious-element-script-is-missing-required-attribute-src-error/#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:33:09 +0000 paulschreiber http://paulschreiber.com/?p=1797 Continue reading →]]> Suppose you're using the W3C validator to validate HTML5. Here's a sample document:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<title>Hello</title>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
//<![CDATA[
var foo = 1;
//]]>
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Everything looks right, but you get this mysterious error:

Line 6, Column 48: Element script is missing required attribute src.
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">

But you don't want or need an src attribute, because your JavaScript is inline. The solution is not to add the src attribute, but to remove the charset attribute.

(Note: a bug has been filed and this will be fixed in a future release.)

]]> http://paulschreiber.com/blog/2010/12/02/fixing-the-mysterious-element-script-is-missing-required-attribute-src-error/feed/ 1