affiliate
HP Color LaserJet Pro Multifunction M479fdn Laser Printer
Tue, 05/12/2020 - 18:25 — Alexis Wilke
Click to get this printer on Amazon.com where I'm an affiliate.
Not too long ago, I ordered a new color drump for my old printer and replaced it. Not very long after that the print simply decided to not print at all anymore. Literally, it would pass the page through just fine but it had nothing on the page. I know it was working since it was printin
g just fine the day before and there was still plenty of black ink (it would have had the light on if the black was not enough.)
I'm thinking that may have been a ploy by the manufacturer to push me to buy a new printer...
In any event, ...
How small are computers getting?
Wed, 03/18/2020 - 20:37 — Alexis Wilke
Click on picture to see on Amazon.com (which I'm an affiliate of).
Computer Stick
Looking at Mini Computers, I found this Fanless Mini PC based on the Intel Atom Z8350 processor by SmallRT. The picture includes a mouse to give you an idea of the size of that thing. It's tiny! Maybe not what you want, but you can already do a lot with that little one.
The connector on the left side is an HDMI plug which spits out 4K of video graphics. It's just totally amazing to me. Of course, we had the Pi3 and now we have the Pi4... but those are computers for hackers. Here we're ...
Docker, an advanced chroot utility
Fri, 11/29/2019 - 19:09 — Alexis Wilke
SECURITY WARNING
Before installing Docker and containers with services on your Linux system, make sure to read and understand the risks as mentioned on this Docker and iptables page. Especially, Docker will make all your containers visible to the entire world through your Internet connection. This is great if you want to indeed share that service with the rest of the world, it's very dangerous if you are working on that container service since it could have security issues that need patching and such. Docker documents a way to prevent that behavior by adding the following rule to your firewall:
iptables -I DOCKER-USER -i eth0 ! -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j DROP
This means that unless the IP address matches 192.168.1.0/24, the access is refused. The `eth0` interface name should be replaced with the interface name you use as the external ethernet connection. During development, you should always have such a rule.
That has not worked at all for me because my local network includes many other computers on my LAN and this rule blocks them all. So really not a useful idea.
Instead, I created my own entries based on some other characteristics. That includes the following lines in my firewall file:
*filter :DOCKER-USER - [0:0] -A DOCKER-USER -j early_forward -A DOCKER-USER -i eno1 -p tcp -m conntrack --ctorigdstport 80 --ctdir ORIGINAL -j DROP -A DOCKER-USER -i eno1 -p tcp -m conntrack --ctorigdstport 8080 --ctdir ORIGINAL -j DROP -A DOCKER-USER -i eno1 -p tcp -m conntrack --ctorigdstport 8081 --ctdir ORIGINAL -j DROP
My early_forward allows my LAN to continue to work. These are my firewall rules that allow my LAN computers to have their traffic forwarded as expected.
Then I have three rules that block port 80, 8080, and 8081 from Docker.
Docker will add new rules that will appear after (albeit not within the DOCKER-USER list) and will open ports for whatever necessary service you install in your Dockers.
Note that the only ports you have to block are ports that Docker will share and that you have otherwise open on your main server. If Docker opens port 5000 and your firewall does not allow connections to port 5000 from the outside, then you're already safe. On my end I have Apache running so as a result I block quite usual HTTP ports from Docker.
Docker
As we are helping various customers, we encounter new technologies.
In the old days, we used chroot to create a separate environment where you could have your own installation and prevent the software from within that environment access to everything on your computer. This is particularly useful for publicly facing services liek Apache, Bind, etc.
Icecream Locks?!
Thu, 11/21/2019 - 13:34 — Alexis WilkeI like technology, but I think that at times, it just goes too far.
Today I found out that a company is actually selling an Ice Cream Lock. Yes! A lock so people can't easily open your ice cream, at least not without either picking the lock or breaking the ice cream box.
It's a simple lock with a combination and if you don't know that combination, you just won't be able to open the ice cream box. Here are some pictures:
Click the image to see more on Amazon.com
(Note that I'm an affiliate)
Now, I really think technology is going too far! 
Enjoy!
Alexis
Best C++ Books
Tue, 05/07/2019 - 09:21 — Alexis WilkeOnce in a while someone will ask me which book is best to start learning programming. The fact is that I do not know because I'm already an advanced programmer and it's rather difficult for me to get back to the basics (it feels like a waste of my time, sorry...)
That being said, at Made to Order Software, we've mainly been a C++ shop. We also do a lot of C, PHP, JavaScript and touch many other languages as required by the tasks we perform (bash, cmake, perl, C#, Java, etc.)
That being said, I wanted to underline some of the best C++ books available today. Especially, in the last ...
Terms & Conditions
Terms and Conditions for the Online Services
offered by Made to Order Software Corporation
This Agreement ("Agreement") is by and between Made to Order Software Corporation ("m2osw") a Californian Corporation and You, your heirs, your agents, successors and assigns ("You" and "Your"), and is made effective as of the date of electronic execution, which is when you register for an electronic account to use the Web site of m2osw. This Agreement sets forth the terms and conditions of Your use of the Online Services ...
Order Made!® version 1.7 featuring Google Maps™
Fri, 11/30/2007 - 01:00 — John CodlingThe software engineers at m2osw have been hard at work developing and testing the next major release of Order Made!®, version 1.7 that has an incredible new feature! Order Made! is a premier turn key website for patrons of restaurants to place their orders online.
Recently, Wayne Mok of the New Rice Bowl Restaurant in Carmichael, CA told us that the best thing about Order Made! is that it keeps he and his wife off the phone. They love to cook, and talking on the phone is often difficult and time consuming. But for delivery orders, Wayne told us they were still spending time on the phone ...
