The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Friday, July 26, 2002

It's open source, so at least I got it working

Yet more exploits against OpenSSH according to Mark so I should upgrade. Thanks to a suggestion from Mark, I was able to get OpenSSH 3.4p1 compiled and running, with privledge separation under Linux 2.0 (technically, 2.0.36 and 2.0.39):

#ifdef HAVE_MMAP_ANON_SHARED
#  ifdef USE_MMAP_DEV_ZERO
	{
	  int fh;

	  fh = open("/dev/zero",O_RDWR);
	  if (fh == -1)
	  	fatal("mmap(`/dev/zero'): %s",strerror(errno));
	
	  address = mmap(NULL,size,PROT_WRITE|PROT_READ,MAP_PRIVATE,fh,0);
	  if (address == MAP_FAILED)
	  	fatal("mmap(%lu,%d): %s",(u_long)size,fh,strerror(errno));
	}
#  else
 	address = mmap(NULL, size, PROT_WRITE|PROT_READ, MAP_ANON|MAP_SHARED,
 	    -1, 0);
 	if (address == MAP_FAILED)
 		fatal("mmap(%lu): %s", (u_long)size, strerror(errno));
#  endif
#else
 	fatal("%s: UsePrivilegeSeparation=yes and Compression=yes not supported",
 	    __func__);
#endif

modified openssh-3.4p1/monitor_mm.c:87-109

I had to define USE_MMAP_DEV_ZERO and BROKEN_FD_PASSING in openssh-3.4p1/config.h to get this working. But working it is, thankfully.


Did the RIAA kill WorldCom?

For example, traffic might have grown faster than it actually did if the recording industry had not put the legal kibosh on Napster. Some say that if it were legal to trade video files a la Napster, it would be so popular that we wouldn't have any overcapacity. In fact, we'd have to install new long-haul capacity. If this is right, the most effective short-term fix to the overcapacity situation would be to reform intellectual property laws to be more consistent with how people want to use the Internet.

Via InstaPundit, CRISIS AND REVOLUTION IN TELECOM (as quoted in Redwood Dragon)

An interesting look at a possible cause of the recent telecommunications problems and why a dumb network is “A Good Thing.”


“It's been tough. I'm unemployed, but I'm coping.”

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone—
Losing your job, quitting school, going broke and moving back home with your mother after living abroad for years would be tough on anyone.

It's even tougher when you're a former military dictator who once had the power to execute opponents at will.

Via InstaPundit, Ex-Dictator Broke, Living With Mom

Reading this makes me feel better about not having a real job. At least I'm not living in my parents' basement, sleeping till noon and wearing nothing but a bathrobe …

Ahem …

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