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July 31, 2006

Unblobking attachments in Outlook

Opening Attachments Blocked by the Microsoft Outlook E-mail Security Update

Outlook 2003, Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2000 SP3 (but not Outlook 98 or earlier Outlook 2000 versions) allow the user to use a registry key to open up access to blocked attachments. (Always make a backup before editing the registry.) To use this key:

1. Run Regedit, and go to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security (change 10.0 to 9.0 for Outlook 2000 SP3 or to 11.0 for Outlook 2003)
2. Under that key, add a new string value named Level1Remove.
3. For the value for Level1Remove, enter a semicolon-delimited list of file extensions. For example, entering this:

.mdb;.url

would unblock Microsoft Access files and Internet shortcuts. Note that the use of a leading dot was not previously required, however, new security patches may require it. If you are using "mdb;url" format and extensions are blocked, add a dot to each extension. Note also that there is not a space between extensions.

If you are using this registry entry, a glance at Help | About Microsoft Outlook will show Security Mode: User Controlled above the license information. See OL2002 You Cannot Open Attachments for more information on this registry entry.

To force users to save *.zip files to the hard drive before opening, add .zip to the extensions step 3. See How to configure Outlook to block additional attachment file name extensions for more information.

If you prefer not to edit the registry directly, you can use one of these tools to make the change; not all support both Outlook 2002 and 2000:

July 29, 2006

Using Imutability for disk backups

Protect harddisk-based backup from accidental removal

Use chattr command changes the file attributes on a Linux second extended file system so that you will stay away from accidentally removing your backup files with rm -rf.

type the following command to write protect directory /backup (only root can set or remove these flags):

# chattr -R +i /backup

To remove immutable flag, type the following command:

# chattr -R -i /backup

apt utilities

Little-known APT utilities for Debian desktop users

apt-cdrom and apt-spy
apt-cache and rdpends
apt-listbugs
apt-watch

July 27, 2006

A nice review

Book review: Linux® Troubleshooting for System Administrators and Power Users by David Carmichael, et al is a nice review of the book I co-wrote. Check it out..

July 25, 2006

PC laxative

The PC De-Crapifier

The PC De-Crapifier is designed to remove a specific list unwanted software in an unattended fashion. Before running, the user may select exactly what software should be removed.

July 20, 2006

Warning!

Warning sign generator is one of those sites that you see and wonder why I didn't think of that. 


July 18, 2006

Useradd fails

I was receiving an error on an NFS booted RH linux system.

# userdd -m foo
useradd: cannot rewrite password file.

The lock files in /etc looked ok. Specifically /etc/.pwd.lock was empty. I verified I was logged in as root, and I ran pwck and grpck to confirm that the passwd and grp files were FUBAR.

This turned out to be caused by SElinux. SElinux can't cope with ReiserFS, JFS, or NFS. I am sure there are probably others as well. It can handle ext2/3 and XFS. I would bet it works on GFS but I haven't tested. Look at the extended entry for more details.

You can see how to disable SElinux here.

strace showed the following error:

fgetxattr(6, "security.selinux", 0x61e200, 255) = -1 EOPNOTSUPP (Operation not supported)
open("/selinux/enforce", O_RDONLY) = 10
read(10, "1", 19) = 1
close(10) = 0

It was closely followed by:
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/shadow.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, "useradd: cannot rewrite password"..., 38useradd: cannot rewrite password file
) = 38

The open errors on shadow.mo are spurious.

I found additional information at The Binary Cult Blog:

Sure enough, here is the Unofficial Fedora FAQ read this:

At the installer prompt, type this for ReiserFS:
linux selinux=0 reiserfs

How to disable SElinux

Edit /etc/sysconfig/selinux
Change the SELINUX variable to disabled.

SELINUX=disabled

Now you can reboot and run:

# selinuxenabled ;echo $?
-256


Fromo the man page:
       selinuxenabled Indicates whether SELinux is enabled  or  disabled.  It
       exits  with  status  0  if  SELinux  is  enabled and -256 if it is not
       enabled.

VMplayer retreivable via apt-get

From VMTN Blog

...VMware Player is now available in Ubuntu Dapper repositories. Reading the comments, it looks like your mileage may vary, but for most, a sudo apt-get install vmware-player will do the trick. "No tarballs, no compiling kernel modules, no banging rocks together."

Junctions

Junction is a windows utility comprable to ln under *nix. It is very handy.

nlite

I ran across a great tool nlite:

Have you ever wanted to
remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook
Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger...


How about not even to install them with Windows ?


nLite
is a tool for permanent Windows components removal and pre-installation
Windows setup. After removal there is an option to make bootable image
ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. With nLite you
will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn't
include, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.


nLite Features



- Service Pack Integration

- Component Removal

- Unattended Setup

- Driver Integration *

- Hotfixes Integration **

- Tweaks


- Patches ***

- Bootable ISO creation


July 17, 2006

San Diego using goats to fight fires.

San Diego and other CA cities are using goats to prevent forest fires. This is a great and environmentally friendly way to help Smoky the bear....

read more | digg story

LinuxCOE

LinuxCOE SystemDesigner HOWTO