Centroid.EU Blog
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March 24th, 2012
A long time ago, the centroid.eu blog featured my idea of a venus glider.
It's not even in the archives anymore but I wanted to touch on the idea
again. Basically the planet venus rotates very slowly around its axis.
This makes a glider possible that can loiter around the terminator
(line between night and day) of venus. It could have payloads such as
radar and UV and IR spectrometers. It would likely be somewhat high in
the atmosphere due to the atmospheric pressure and more updraft higher
in the atmosphere. It may even have a backup propeller that is foldable
into its fuselage, this is when mistakes are made in catching sufficient
thermals. Solarpanels that are embedded in the wing area can then
recharge the batteries when the glider is high above the clouds and on
the day side. One good thing about a glider that is falling on venus is
that the atmosphere becomes so dense that its rate of descent will slow
as it gets lower towards the surface. This
venus glider would not be
carrying astronauts but rather be entirely electronically and computer
driven.
0 comments
Checking Randomness on Debian
March 23rd, 2012
I noticed that /dev/*random on Debian and Ubuntu were mode 666. I found a
bug report about this too in the debian archives. But I wasn't convinced
to prove a point you have to do some work. So I remembered
this article on XOR encryption and I thought it could help
me with my randomness plotting as well. If there is a pattern I'll see it.
Basically randomness should be evenly spread out in a X,Y,Z plot.
So I wrote the program to get the random data from Debian but I first write
a string to its /dev/urandom before waiting 10 seconds and reading 512
bytes, here is the program for this:
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int
main(void)
{
char buf[512];
char *string = "OrpheanBeholdersCryDoubt!";
int len;
int fd, output;
fd = open("/dev/urandom", O_RDWR, 0);
if (fd < 0) {
perror("open");
exit(1);
}
len = write(fd, string, strlen(string));
if (len < 0) {
perror("write");
exit(1);
}
sleep(10);
output = open("cryptfile", O_APPEND | O_CREAT | O_WRONLY, 0644);
if (output < 0) {
perror("open");
exit(1);
}
len = read(fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
if (len <= 0) {
perror("read");
exit(1);
}
if (write(output, buf, len) < 0) {
perror("write 2");
exit(1);
}
close(fd);
close(output);
exit(0);
}
On OpenBSD then I did the same program with the write to the device disabled
since its permissions are mode 644. The data I gathered I then put through
another program that looks like this:
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char buf[512];
char *file;
int fd, len;
u_int16_t *array;
if (argc != 2) {
perror("arguments");
exit(1);
}
file = argv[1];
fd = open(file, O_RDONLY, 0);
if (fd < 0) {
perror("open");
exit(1);
}
while ((len = read(fd, buf, 6 * 2)) > 0) {
array = (u_int16_t *)&buf[0];
printf("%d, %d, %d\n%d, %d, %d\n%d, %d, %d\n",
array[0] - array[1],
array[1] - array[2],
array[2] - array[3],
array[1] - array[2],
array[2] - array[3],
array[3] - array[4],
array[2] - array[3],
array[3] - array[4],
array[4] - array[5]);
}
close(fd);
exit(0);
}
The instructions on the math involved I got from the article I mentioned
above.
I then ran it through gnuplot with the data by calling splot, like so:
gnuplot> splot 'cplot.dat'
And here is the graphs this produced:

OpenBSD (above)

Debian with write to /dev/urandom (above)
All in all this was a very educational event for me, I hope you like the
article too!
0 comments
Bought Saturn (ACER Aspire One)
March 16th, 2012
It's my birthday. I bought an Acer Aspire One 722 for my family and me. It has
4 GB of RAM and an AMD processor (C-60 1 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache). I named it
saturn. It'll be running windows 7 for a while until next year perhaps when
I give it a facelift. Guess what OS I have in mind for it? :-).
0 comments
Equinox in 5 days
March 15th, 2012
Equinox is a terrestrial
event. It is on this day that the earth's equator is exactly aligned with the
sun in a perpendicular fashion. Read more about equinox in the previous
mentioned link.
0 comments
OpenBSD pre-orders are up!
March 14th, 2012
I just pre-ordered my 5.1 CD set from
OpenBSD Europe. Here is the
OpenBSD 5.1 Release page, it's a work in progress. The artwork and
lyrics for the song are out but I haven't heard the song yet, I can't
download it for some reason. Oh well in due time. This time the theme
of OpenBSD seems to be Ghostbusters. Only they are Bugbusters. If memory
of cartoons serves me right Ghostbusters had a pet ghost called slimey or
slimer...guess the OpenBSD team have a pet bug called ... I dunno.
0 comments
Looking for work
March 2nd, 2012
I got notice today that I won't get a contract extension come April 30th, of
this year. So I'm looking for work again starting May 1st, 2012. I'm willing
to do remote sysadmin work for *NIX systems and/or programming on *NIX systems.
Why remote? Because I'm unwilling to move away from my family and they never
heard of *NIX around here (it seems). Please have a look at my
resume. If you know
of companies hiring remote employees it would be nice if you let me know.
Due to health issues I'm only able to work 20 to 30 hours weekly max.
0 comments
Free the General
February 29th, 2012
If you follow Reggae Music you may have heard that
Buju Banton
was jailed.
For a long time I have carried these words with me and I don't know if I
shared them yet, but the resistor codes in electronics stand for:
Buju Banton, Rasta Of Young Generation, Became Victorious, Glorious & Wise
following this is the Electronic Resistor Codes as taught by Canadian
Colleges.

I know Buju Banton is a resistor! Hang in there sir! Free Buju Banton!
0 comments
article test
February 27th, 2012
When searching some articles appeared duplicate, with one not having content.
This should fix that.
0 comments
100+ Euros donations to some *BSD's
February 26th, 2012
The Marakesh Express came through. Just Kidding! I donated 50 euros to
the OpenBSD project and 57 Euros (75 dollars) to the FreeBSD Project.
I use both Operating Systems at home and at work and am very satisfied with
both projects and their individual directions. I'm still looking to purchase
OpenBSD 5.1 when it's up for preorders, so this is a big spend!
0 comments
Jupiter and Venus really bright
February 19th, 2012
Today I saw Jupiter and Venus really bright in the South-West-Western sky.
I couldn't take a photo but I got a clip of xephem for the memories. Jupiter
is in Aries and Venus is in Pisces, and Uranus in Pisces too but it can't be
seen with the naked eye.
0 comments
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