The Journal of AUUG Inc. Volume 24 ¯ Number 3 September 2003
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The Journal of AUUG Inc. Volume 24 ¯ Number 3 September 2003 Features: Going 3D with Blender: A toy train 7 The Linux System Administrator’s Security Guide 12 2003 and Beyond (part 2) 18 AUUGN Book Review: Google Hacks 29 Linux and Open Source in Government: CfP 30 AUUGN Book Review: Essential CVS 31 UNIX and Bioinformatics 32 Tuning and Optimizing Red Hat Advanced Server for Oracle9i Database 35 AUUGN Book Review: Drive-by Wi-Fi 49 Play Encoded DVDs in Xine 5O Interview: Australian Sun HPC Team 52 AUUGN 2003: The Photos 58 News: Public Notices 5 AUUG: Corporate Members 31 AUUG: Chapter Meetings and Contact Details 63 Regulars: President’s Column 3 My Home Network 5 ISSN 1035-7521 Print post approved by Australia Post - PP2391500002 AUUG Membership and General Correspondence The AUUG Secretary Editorial AUUG Inc PO Box 7071 Con Zymaris auugn(~.auu.q.or.q.au Baulkham Hills BC NSW 2153 Telephone: 02 8824 9511 A few words on the power of words. I am a great or 1800 625 655 (Toll-Free) advocate of the need for technical people, AUUG Facsimile: 02 8824 9522 people, to get out and speak their mind, to make their Email: [email protected] opinions, ideas and ideals heard by the great AUUG Management Committee mainstream; by those whose utilisation patterns of Email: a u u,[email protected] u technology we have foreseen and whose lives we are helping to shape the digital future of. President Greg Lehey PO Box 460 Words have the power to anger, the power to inspire. Echunga, SA, 5153 They have the innate attribute of providing a conduit Bus. Tel (08) 8388 8286, Mobile 0418 838 708, Fax (08) 8388 8725 for sharing ideas and conveying a vision which may <[email protected]> not yet be in existence. Words, when sculpted by Vice-president talented hands, are a joy to behold and contemplate. I David Purdue came across one such pair of hands recently, Sun Microsystems belonging to one Ron Rosenbaum. Although not well Level 6,476 St Kilda Road Melbourne, Victoria, 3004 known here in Australia, he has been called the Phone: +61 3 9869 6412, Fax: +61 3 9869 6288 quintessential magazine non-fiction journalist in his <David.Purdue@auu_q.or.q.au> homeland. A native of New York, he has written for dozens of publications on a wide spectrum of topics. Malcolm Caldwell Bus. Tel (08) 8946 6631, Fax (08) 8946 6630 <[email protected]> One of his pieces appeared in a 1971 issue of Esquire magazine. Entitled ’"I’he Secrets of the Little Blue Box", Secretary it recounted Rosenbaum’s travels through the eerily Adrian Close ActiveSky Pty Ltd familiar geekscape of elite phone phreakers. Familiar, Level 1, Earle Plaza Cnr. Price & White Streets in the sense-that almost every aspect of the mind- Nerang QLD 4211 bending culture he found, interlinked globally by the Business Telephone: +61 7 5596 2277 public phone systems, eerily prophesied the global Business Fax: +61 7 5596 6099 Mobile: +61 417 346 094 <[email protected]> Internet culture which would follow two decades later. Everything from chat rooms, and security exploits to Treasurer geeks like the fabled ’Captain Crunch’, in search of Gordon Hubbard enlightenment through their joining with the system as Custom Technology Australia Pty Ltd Level 22, 259 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000 ’one’. Bus Tel: 02 9659 9590, Bus Fax: 02 9659 9510 <[email protected]> A few pearls spring to mind about this article. One is the use of the moniker 2600, which has been adopted Committee Members David Bullock +61 402 901 228 by hacker culture ever since. At some point, it was <[email protected]> realised that AT&T’s (Ma Bell to the inhabitants of this realm) technology had an unlocking mechanism which Jonathon Coombes made available access to the system functions of the Cybersite Consulting Pty Ltd 34 Newcastle Road, Wallsend NSW 2287 phone system, when a tone of 2,600 cycles per second Business Telephone: +61 2 4965 6989 was played into the mouthpiece of a phone. It just so <[email protected]> happens that this exact tone was generated by whistles thoughtfully provided by the cereal manufacturer Steve Landers Digital Smarties which produced the Cap’n Crunch breakfast cereal, PO.Box 717 Willetton WA 6155 thus. the appellation that John Draper donned to Business phone: +61 8 9313 6868 become a proto-hacker legend. Business fax: +61 8 9313 6077 <[email protected]> Now, what was so important about~ Rosenbaum’s Stephen Rothwell words that it’s worth focussing attention on these IBM Australia Linux Technology Centre handful of pages written over three decades ago? 8 Brisbane Ave Barton ACT 2600 Indeed, why should we, as technical people, take the Business Telephone: +61 2 62121169 <[email protected]> time and effort to cement our ideas in writing and invite others to read and contemplate them? When the Michael Still ............... - ............... piece in Esquire was published in 1971, a couple of 12 Bushby Close Gordon ACT 2906 guys in far-off California read it. They were blown away Phone: +61 414 382 568 <[email protected]> by what the geeks highlighted in the article had done, AUUG Business Manager and decided that they too wanted to hack phone Elizabeth Carroll systems and electronics. They set about trying to AUUG Inc manufacture these illicit devices in their parents’ PO Box 7071 garages. Who were they and why did it matter? Oh, Baulkham Hills BC NSW 2153 <[email protected]> just a couple of guys called Steve... Cheers, Con AUUGN Vol.24 ¯ No.3 - 1 - September 2003 Contribution Deadlines AUUGN Editorial Committee The AUUGN Editorial Committee can be reached by sending email to: for AUUGN in 2003 auu~n@auu~.or~.au Or to the following address: AUUG Inc PO Box 7071 Volume 24 * Number 4 - December 2003: November Baulkham Hills BC NSW 2153 15th, 2003 Editor: Con Zymaris Volume 25 ¯ Number 1 - March 2004: February 15~h, 2004 Sub-Editors: Frank Crawford, Mark White Contributors: This issue would not have happened without the transcription and editorial efforts of Gary R. Schmidt" <[email protected]>, Rik Harris AUUG Incorporated gratefully acknowledges <[email protected]>, Raymond Smith <[email protected]>, David Lloyd the support of its corporate sponsor: <[email protected]>, Peter Sandilands <peter(~.sandilands.vu>, Grahame Bowland <[email protected]>, Cameron Strom <[email protected]>, Steve Jenkin <[email protected],q.org.au> Public Relations and Marketing: Elizabeth Carroll AUUGN Submission Guidelines Submission guidelines for AUUGN contributions can be obtained from the AUUG World Wide Web site at: http://www.auuq.org au/ Alternately, send email to the above correspondence address, requesting a copy. AUUGN Back Issues A variety of back issues of AUUGN are still available. For price and availability please contact the AUUG Secretariat, or write to: AUUG Inc PO Box 7071 Baulkham Hills BC NSW 2153 Conference Proceedings A limited number of copies of the Conference Proceedings from previous AUUG Conferences are still available. Contact the AUUG Secretariat for details. Mailing Lists Enquiries regarding the purchase of the AUUGN mailing list should be directed to the AUUG Secretariat. Disclaimer Opinions expressed by the authors and reviewers are not necessarily those of AUUG Inc., its Journal, or its editorial committee. Copyright Information Copyright © 2003 AUUG Inc. All rights reserved. Portions © by their respective authors, and released under specified cences. AUUGN is the journal of AUUG Inc., an organisation with the aim of promoting knowledge and understanding of Open Systems, including, but not restricted to, the UNIX@ operating system, user interfaces, graphics, networking, programming and development environments and related standards. Copyright without fee is permitted, provided that copies are made without modification, and are not made or distributed for commercial advantage. AUUGN Vol.24 ¯ No.2 - 2 - September 2003 wants it to, of course, but everybody points at somebody else. The uneducated users blame President’s Column Microsoft. Educated users fix their installations, Greg Lehey <[email protected]> either by installing Microsoft security updates (not the spurious ones circulating as part of yet another DEATH OF THE INTERNET~ FILM AT l0 exploit), or better, by installing a real operating system. For many of us, the Internet has been part of our lives for years, even decades. During that time, it Microsoft points to the difficulty of fixing security has made the transition from a tool for privileged problems, since there will always be new ones. It’s researchers to a playground for the general public, amusing to compare the resources available to them including kinds of people many of us never knew with those available to the OpenBSD project, .arguably existed. one of the most secure operating systems available. The OpenBSD project has very little money and only a The change has been interesting, and it hasn’t been little over 100 developers, nearly all unpaid, but they without problems. The lawmakers initially ignored it, produce a system incomparably more reliable than cheered on by the old-timers in the assumption that Microsoft’s offerings. It’s difficult to take Microsoft’s the lawmakers, knowing nothing about technical claims seriously. matters, would legislate badly. One problem remains, of course: Microsoft can issue l~ooking back over the last couple of years, things have as many security frees as it want, but they won’t have changed. Yes, we have had our legislation, some of any effect until they’re installed.