http:// jms1.net /

jms1.net

Apparently my beard is famous!

Instead of having a bunch of content on this page, I've decided to use this "index page" as an actual index of the content which is available here, or which may be available in other places and I think it's worth mentioning here.

Note

In January 2014 I had to migrate my web sites to a new server. At the same time, I have made all of the ".jms1.net" web sites only work when viewed using HTTPS.

The qmail stuff...

... has all been moved to a separate web site, https://qmail.jms1.net/. This includes the following items which used to be on this web site:
- https://qmail.jms1.net/courier/ is the information about courier-imap.
- https://qmail.jms1.net/djbdns/ is the information about djbdns.
If you found this page by following a link on some other qmail-related web site, or by reading somebody's email message, please inform the author of that site or email that the qmail stuff has been moved.

Other frequently visited pages

https://www.jms1.net/nt-unlock.shtml explains how to reset the domain administrator password for a Windows Active Directory controller.
https://www.jms1.net/ie.shtml is the page that people see when they visit this site (or the qmail site) using Internet Explorer.
https://www.jms1.net/ssh.shtml explains several things about SSH, including how to use keys instead of passwords to authenticate. https://www.jms1.net/ssh-record.shtml shows how to keep a transcript of your SSH sessions into other servers, or of other users' SSH sessions into your server.
https://www.jms1.net/code/ is a collection of code I have written over the years. Most of it will be useful to system administrators. Note that this is NOT the qmail scripts, those are on the qmail site (see the first link above.)
https://www.jms1.net/pgp_keys.shtml has my PGP public keys, which can be used to verify the digital signatures on pretty much every email that I send, as well as to send me messages which are encrypted in such a way that I am the only person who can read them.
https://www.jms1.net/xen/ is a set of pages I wrote about my experience setting up Xen on Centos. The machine which is serving the web page you're reading right now is actually a Xen virtual machine.
https://www.jms1.net/davical/ is a set of pages I wrote about my experience setting up DAViCal, an open-source CalDAV server, on my own server.
https://www.jms1.net/iPhone/ is a set of pages I'm writing as I learn about writing programs for the iPhone -- which is all kinds of fun, since I don't own an iPhone (but I do have an iPod Touch.)

Mac Stuff

https://www.jms1.net/osx-case-sensitive-fs.shtml explains an issue I keep running into with the case-sensitive version of the "HFS plus" filesystem introduced with OSX 10.4.
https://www.jms1.net/osx-pdf-services.shtml explains how I wrote a shell script which adds itself to the "PDF" button when printing, which automatically saves a PDF file to a specific directory, with a specific filename made up of the current date and the document's title.
https://www.jms1.net/osx-vpn-routing.shtml explains how to set up a VPN which routes some IP space, but not the entire internet, through the VPN tunnel. I need this when connecting to work, since I need to be through the VPN when connecting to my servers at the office, but not for general internet browsing.
https://www.jms1.net/iPhone/ is a new section of the site, where I will be writing about my experiences developing code for the iPhone. The first page is already written, it talks about issues I ran into while figuring out how to make Xcode and Subversion play nicely together. (It's mentioned above, but I figure I can mention it here as well, since many people consider the iPhone to be a smaller version of the Mac.)
https://www.jms1.net/mac-characters.shtml is a quick list of special characters which are commonly used when writing web pages about Macs.

Other useful pages

https://www.jms1.net/jabberd2/ has a better explanation of how to run multiple "domains" on a single jabberd-2 server. The documentation which comes with the software, and on the web site, doesn't explain this very clearly.

For those who may want to contact me using Jabber, my Jabber ID is made up of two parts- the first part is (obviously) "jms1", and the second part is (probably even more obviously) the same as the userid, with a dot and the word "net" after it... just like the domain name of the web site you're reading right now. (Doesn't it suck how spammers are preventing me from just putting the address directly on the web site? It happens to be the same as my primary email address, and I have no interest in receiving any more spam than I already do.)
https://www.jms1.net/svn-trac.shtml details how I set up a subversion repository with a "trac" web interface on my server. I've recently "seen the light" when it comes to source code revision control, as the page will explain. (added 2008-04-23)
https://www.jms1.net/grub-raid-1.shtml explains how to install the grub bootloader to both drives of a Linux software RAID-1 (i.e. "mdraid".)
https://jms1.net/Using-WKD-to-Publish-GPG-Public-Keys.md is a quick explanation of how to use Web Key Directory, or WKD, to publish PGP public keys on a web server, in a way which allows the `gpg` command to automatically find them, based on the email address.

Good Guys and Bad Guys
(my war stories)

http://www.dont-spam.us/ is a web site and domain that I use as an anti-spammer weapon. I really, really, REALLY hate spammers, especially now that they've teamed up with the people (and I use that term very loosely) who write viruses. (I was using the domain "delete.net" for this, but I sold it in January 2008.) The idea is this: the spammers send their garbage to as many "@dont-spam.us" email addresses as they can, and my server automatically adds the IP addresses from which they send the messages, to a blacklist. I've been doing this for several years now, and it has proven very successful as a way to avoid receiving spam.
http://www.monkeys.com/wpoison/ is the home page for wpoison, a program which feeds random junk email addresses into the databases of the "harvester" programs which crawl the web looking for email addresses. This link is meant to be used by the harvesters, not by humans.
http://www.projecthoneypot.org/ is the home page for Project Honeypot, a distributed system for identifying the IP addresses used by "harvester" programs which crawl the web looking for email addresses on behalf of spammers. I have several harvester traps on the web sites that I run (including this one.)

They also offer their list of IP addresses as a DNS-based blacklist, called http:BL. I have written up some notes on how I use it in my own scripts.
http://www.donotcall.gov/ is a web site run by the US federal government, which allows you to sign up for the national "do not call" list. Three months after your number is added to the list, it is AGAINST THE LAW for most telemarketers to call your number (of course political messages are exempt- you don't really think they would pass a law which prevents them from calling you themselves, do you?) The site also has an option to file a complaint if it becomes necessary.
https://www.jms1.net/mmjb.shtml tells about how I caught MusicMatch Jukebox spying on me. If you are using this program (I've seen it pre-loaded on some new machines) you should be aware that even if you tell it that you don't want to participate in their program of tracking your music listening habits, the software IS still collecting this data and sending it to them.
https://www.jms1.net/planet-smoothie.shtml tells the story of how I got kicked out of a Planet Smoothie store on 2007-01-25 because I had the nerve to insist that my full credit card number not be visible to every other customer who walked into the store. (The owner did email me back a few days later and tell me that I am allowed in the store.)
https://www.jms1.net/fourtentech.shtml (warning: language not suitable for the easily offended) shows a series of abusive emails I have been receiving from somebody named Jonathan Corbett, apparently the CEO of a company called Four Ten Technologies. I've never spoken to him, I've never knowingly done anything which should hurt or offend him, apparently he just feels the need to email me and call me names.

Random Stuff

http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.htm is a short story called "And Then There Were None" by E.F. Russell, which gives a very good description of what the word "anarchy" really means. Not quite what I thought when I was in high school listening to Dead Kennedys tapes, but still an interesting concept.

Service Flags

I am proud to tell people that my brother is serving in the US Army. He has done three deployments (each a year long or longer) to Iraq, as a helicopter crew chief with a "medevac" company, and has since transferred to another unit.

I am also proud to display the Service Flag on my web site, on my car, and in the front window of my home.

In addition, I have prepared a set of flag graphics like the one you see here, which may be used on any web site or other publication to show pride for your family members in the service.

And for anybody with a chip on their shoulder like this idiot, let me make it very clear that I support MY BROTHER, and I respect him for doing the best job he can in a difficult situation, although I don't believe that the USA has any legitimate reason to be in Iraq in the first place. I honestly believe that the whole "war in Iraq" is nothing but an excuse for the oil companies to take the Iraqi oil, as well as the contracts to rebuild the infrastructure (wells, refineries, pipelines, etc.) which we destroyed in the first place. Do you really think it's just a coincidence that the current President and Vice President just happen to be "oil men" themselves?

It's also a way for the Federal Reserve (a privately owned bank which exists only to loan money to the US Treasury) to force Congress to borrow more and more money to pay for this so-called war (no, not "war", let's call it what it really is- the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.) Think about it, where do you think the billions of dollars they keep spending on the "war" every day are coming from? Taxes haven't gone up by much, so seriously- where are they getting the money? Answer: they're borrowing it from the Fed, and expecting our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to pay it back thirty years from now. This is the model used by every "central bank" on the planet, all modeled after the Bank of England.

At the risk of using a "Forrest Gump" cliché, That's all I have to say about that. Please don't email me to argue about this, or to say anything about my brother for doing his duty and following orders... it's getting really old. If you truly believe you know better than me, then DO SOMETHING about it. Contact your elected officials and work through them to stop the madness. Or maybe join the Army yourself- THEN you might have some idea what my brother is going through, and MAYBE you'll have some credibility with me... but arguing with me isn't going to change anything.