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During yet another LaTeX project on my MacBook, I added some algorithms to my paper. After checking a couple of examples online, and discussing with a colleage I decided to go with algorithm2e over others such as algorithm, algorithmic, algorithmicx, program and pseudocode[1].

However I got the following error “! LaTeX Error: File `algorithm2e.sty’ not found.” Since I am using macport, to resolve this I needed to install the texlive-science package by executing sudo port install texlive-science, and all was good again.

QUT SAS allows QUT students and staff remote access to QUT resources securely. Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux are not supported. The instruction on the QUT ITServices are pretty clear [1]. But I have duplicated some of it here for my reference. I tested the configuration on Ubuntu.

Install VPNC

1. sudo apt-get install vpnc

Download or create the configuration file
The configuration file can be specified on the command line when executing vpnc, or /etc/vpnc/default.conf and /etc/vpnc.conf will be used. If you only using a single VPNC connection, then save the configuration file as /etc/vpnc.conf
Sample configuration file /etc/vpnc.conf. A sample configuration file is provided below. If you do not have a configuration and simple execute vpnc, you can still establish a connection by supplying the correct input at the prompts.

To connect to an OpenVPN server you need an appropriate OpenVPN client installed to establish the SSL link. For Apple Mac OS X systems, TunnelBlick (http://code.google.com/p/tunnelblick/) is a good graphical user interface. At the time of this blog the current latest stable version of TunnelBlick available was 3.2.7. These instructions were executed on an Apple iMac running Mac OS X 10.7.4. As with all other posts on this blog, the purpose of this post is not to provide a tutorial, but instead to documents the steps taken, for my own benefit.

This post is just an update of a previous post that used CentOS 5.7 and OpenVPN 2.2 (http://nkush.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/installing-openvpn-22-on-centos-57.html). The basic instructions are the same, however this post uses some newer packages which may have been relocated to new URLs. Again this blog and the posts are mostly for my own reference and not intended as step-by-step instuctions for other systems/network administrators

Install RPMForge or RepoForge as it’s now known[1]

Apple IU Software Update service allows uses to keep their Mac OS X machines updated with the latest software updates and security patched. In some controlled environments, the update servers are specified in the user profile. Sometimes there may be delays in the server updates, or problems with the local update server and users may desire to connect to Apple’s services directly. Here’s are some instructions that users may find useful. Please note that to make configuration changes you will need Administrative privileges on your Mac.

Following on from my previous post… I had the same issue when working on my Microsoft Windows desktop at home, i.e. got the following error “! LaTeX Error: File `llncs.cls’ not found.”. So had to download the “llncs2e.zip” file yet again from “http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0/”

1. Dowload and extract llncs2e.zip
2. Create a directory called splncs in C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.?\bibtex\bst
3. Move the extracted file splncs.bst, splncs_srt.bst, and splncs03.bst into the new directory C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\bibtex\bst\splncs
4. Move the extracted directory ?? into C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\tex\latex
5. Rebuild the filename database by Miktek - Maintenance - Settings, and click on the “Refresh FNDB” button (this may take a while depending on your computer)

When working on a recent paper for a conference, I was required to produce it using the Spring Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) style. Being naive, I assumed TeX would automatically download the required package… unfortunately I got the following error “LaTeX Error: File `llncs.cls’ not found.” So I had to install the class manually. Here are the instructions for installing it on Mac OS X for latex from macport.

I am doing some development work using Java and am using ant to build my code. Decided to post a copy of the build.xml file here… sorry about the formatting

<project name="TODO-PROJ-NAME" basedir="." default="main">
    <property name="username"    value="TODO-USERNAME"/>
    <property name="proj.name"   value="TODO-PROJ-NAME"/>
    <property name="proj.ver"    value="TODO-VER"/>
    <property name="proj.owner"  value="TODO-COPYRIGHT"/>

    <tstamp>
        <format property="TODAY" pattern="yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss" />
    </tstamp>
    
    <property name="src.dir"     value="src"/>
    <property name="build.dir"   value="bin"/>
    <property name="lib.dir"     value="lib"/>
    <property name="classes.dir" value="${build.dir}/classes"/>
    <property name="jar.dir"     value="${build.dir}/jar"/>
    <property name="javadoc.dir"     value="${build.dir}/javadoc"/>

    <property name="main-class"  value="fj.com.kush.ui.TODO-PROJ"/>

    <path id="project.classpath">
 <fileset dir="${lib.dir}">
  <include name="*.jar"/>
 </fileset>
        <pathelement path="${classes.dir}"/>
    </path>


    <target name="clean">
        <delete dir="${build.dir}"/>
        <delete>
            <fileset dir="." includes="**/*~" defaultexcludes="false"/>
        </delete>     
    </target>


    <target name="compile">
        <mkdir dir="${classes.dir}"/>
 <javac destdir="${classes.dir}" includeantruntime="false" debug="true" debuglevel="lines, vars, and source">
  <src path="${src.dir}"/>
  <classpath refid="project.classpath"/>
 </javac>
    </target>


    <target name="javadoc">
        <mkdir dir="${javadoc.dir}"/>
 <javadoc destdir="${javadoc.dir}">
                <fileset dir="${src.dir}"/>
        </javadoc>
    </target>


    <target name="release" depends="jar, javadoc" description="make a new release of the project"/>


    <target name="copy.properties">
 <mkdir dir="${classes.dir}"/>

 <patternset id="properties.files">
  <include name="**/*.properties"/>
 </patternset>

 <copy todir="${classes.dir}">
  <fileset dir="${src.dir}">
   <patternset refid="properties.files"/>
  </fileset>
 </copy>
    </target>


    <target name="jar" depends="compile,copy.properties">
        <mkdir dir="${jar.dir}"/>
 <jar destfile="${jar.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar" basedir="${classes.dir}">
            <manifest>
  <attribute name="Implementation-Title" value="${proj.name}"/>
  <attribute name="Implementation-Version" value="${proj.ver}"/>
  <attribute name="Implementation-Vendor" value="${proj.owner}"/>
                <attribute name="Main-Class" value="${main-class}"/>
  <attribute name="Built-By" value="${username}"/>
  <attribute name="Built-Date" value="${TODAY}"/>
  <attribute name="Class-Path" value="./"/>
            </manifest>
        </jar>
    </target>


    <target name="run" depends="jar">
        <java jar="${jar.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar" fork="true"/>
    </target>


    <target name="clean-build" depends="clean,jar"/>


    <target name="main" depends="clean,run"/>
</project>

At 08:59hrs this morning I got a call from a customer who was unable to receive e-mail. Logging into their server I discovered that there were indeed messages stuck in the Local Delivery queue. I checked the Application event logs and found the following event log

Event Type: Error

Event Source: MSExchangeSA
Event Category: MAPI Session 
Event ID: 9175
Date: 8/05/2012
Time: 9:12:31 AM
User: N/A
Computer: ***DELETED***
Description:
The MAPI call ‘OpenMsgStore’ failed with the following error: 
The attempt to log on to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer has failed.
The MAPI provider failed.
Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store
ID no: 8004011d-0512-00000000 


For more information, click http://www.microsoft.com/contentredirect.asp.

I had to do some maintenance work on a Linux based server. It was mainly just archiving some files around and updating packages and configurations. However, as part of the maintenance I took the opportunity to put in some simple technical security controls in place and documented some of them here for my reference.

MySQL Database
There was a MySQL server running that was only needed for the local host, but a “netstat -ltn” indicated that it was not bound to any specific IP, i.e. listening on 0.0.0.0, so I bound it to the localhost IP of 127.0.0.1 by editing the /etc/my.cnf file using the entry bind-address=127.0.0.1