Fix for Schwab Site Tossing Users Out When Accessing Certain “Offsite” Areas

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Don

After my most recent upgrade to Linux Mint 11 (and the resultant upgrade to latest Firefox), I started running into an issue on the Charles Schwab site. I could log in fine and see my account info, but as soon as I clicked on something “outside” (news story links, or Morningstar research, etc.) then I would encounter a weird situation. The linked page would display for a second or two and then the screen would refresh and I’d find myself tossed out and back at the login page with a message
Your session has either timed out or has not been correctly established. Please sign on again.
This was extremely frustrating. Googling resulted in a couple of other folks having similar issues on another platform, but no solution. The few things that had similar reports back from earlier days talked a lot about cookies. I wondered, “is this a cookie problem”?

So I looked at my cookie settings and one thing stuck out for me: “Accept Third Party Cookies” was not checked. Where this was about going “off” the main Schwab site, I tried enabling this option. Bing! The issue is resolved and now I can load these other pages and stay logged in. I don’t like the solution, as it requires me to accept cookies for sites I am not specifically planning to visit. But at least I can stay on Schwab now when I want to. I’ll most likely simply turn this option on and off as I visit Schwab until there is a longer term solution. If I can find some sort of advanced cookie management plug-in for Firefox, then that might be a longer term fix.

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Using DeposZip Under Linux (Mint 11/Ubuntu 11.04)

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Don

Our new credit union provides the capability to do on-line check deposits using an application called DeposZip. Of course, their web site only mentions support/instructions for Windows and MacOS, not Linux. Well, the application is actually server-hosted and uses a Java applet (or some ActiveX thing if on Windows) to get things done.

If it goes as planned, the application can work with your TWAIN-enabled scanner to get the check images directly within the application. Sadly, this did not work for me – it produced a pop-up window saying only “SK.gnome.TwainManager.getDefaultSource()LSK/gnome/twain/TwainSource;”. I figure this is refering to a value that is supposed to be defined somewhere (and is not?), but in looking at the file system and googling I came up with nothing. OK, so the application offers two more options under the applet, copying the image from the clipboard (which also did not work – with no error this time) and loading an image file, which does work.

To create the image file, I scanned the front and back of the check separately using XSane and saved each as a .png (or jpeg) image. I then loaded these images as requested by the application. DeposZip took the 200 dpi color scans and further processed them to what looked like high contrast greyscale or B&W images shown in a preview. The rest systematically worked OK from there, the deposit was accepted for processing.

BTW, DeposZip also offers a “zero client” version as a link in the footer of the applet. This seems to load another page totally doing away with the java applet and using instead a standard web form with upload link for the image files. This works similarly to the above, but without the image preview you see in the applet happening until the next step in the process.

So long as you follow the endorsement instructions exactly (which unfortunately require you to write a whole lot of stuff on the reverse of the check) and the check is below $1500, the deposit will go through fine. Nice way to avoid a drive to the bank or ATM!

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Linux Mint 11 (was Debian/Xfce) on a HP Pavilion ze4600

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Don

My brother’s Win XP laptop died. He has limited computer needs, really just needs to use some web applications like Facebook, Yahoo mail, Hulu and Youtube. In the past he has had significant virus issues under Windows and I’ve been proposing to him for years to move over to Linux. This happenstance caused him to be finally open to it.

This HP laptop is fairly old, it has an old AMD mobile processor, USB 1.1 and no built-in wireless hardware. This meant that the operating system had to be fairly lightweight to make this solution work well. I personally use Linux Mint (currently Mint 11/Gnome) as my own desktop and was aware of the new Debian Edition of Mint, which is available in a version using the Xfce desktop (again, lightweight resource use) which I thought would be very suitable. Plus, I wanted to get more personal experience with Debian. ;)

So I launched a project to install Mint LMDE Xfce edition on this machine. This proved to be quite difficult. For some reason, the installer would run extremely slowly – but curously, would speed up if I kept the mouse moving. But seeing as I only discovered that the second time around, once the installer had run overnight the first time around, that was little help. I ended up installing LMDE twice, because the first time it would not work properly. The second time worked, and the machine was quite nice and snappy, despite the paltry resources of this machine.

So all was good, and I got things set up well and everything he would need to use was working. Delivered the unit, he was happy. Great. Project over…

Not quite. A few days later I hear he is having trouble. It is difficult to troubleshoot remotely because there seems to be some sort of permissions issue that is preventing him from running even the tools I would normally use to connect to the machine from my home. It was almost as if SELinux was somehow in play and blocking stuff, but it had all worked before and I did not create his account with privs to change anything sensitive.

I never did get LMDE back working on the machine. Instead I chose to reinstall from scratch using Linux Mint 11 LXDE. That went smoothly (and much quicker!) and the machine has been running trouble-free since. And I was smart enough to create an image of the install this time as a backup to slap back on the machine should he have any other problems. Everything will be right back to working state in just a few minutes.

In all fairness, Mint LMDE is new and “not for your average user”, so my having trouble is really not that unexpected. I’d hoped to be able to get it running and stable and then lock it down from any changes that would destabilize it, but that proved to be insufficient. I really do want to move to a Debian base to avoid the major reinstalls periodically required with Ubuntu-based systems (Debian systems have “rolling” upgrades which keep fresh without the need to reinstall) but I think that will be best attempted with my own desktop or netbook in the future. Best to keep the others I support on the more frequently traveled path.

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One Year of Mobile Phone Service for ~$120, with New Phone!

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Don

Yes, I’m frugal. Not so much when I’m giving a gift to someone else, but otherwise I really like getting only what I need for what I want to pay or less. So I grew disenchanted with standard monthly mobile phone service some years ago, as I was paying a lot but needed little. I discovered the world of pre-paid cell phone service, and specifically that provided by Tracfone, and never looked back.

Getting married a short time ago, my wife and I have been slowly moving to align our similar services and subscriptions. I have been wearing a very low tech but extremely reliable Nokia 2600 “candy bar” style phone since 2007 which has had GSM phone service via Tracfone. I was spending $29 every three months for service and got signal just about everywhere I’ve gone, as it would roam on the AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. networks (all within plan). She had a LG clamshell phone on a shared Verizon plan that cost about that much per month for just her portion and was happy with their network coverage (no roaming). Her phone had recently started to fail mechanically and that was the kicker to finally get this particular part of our merger completed.

So off I went in search of a solution which included:

  1. New phones for the two of us (hopefully something fairly full featured and even capable of browsing the web on the few instances we’d have to do so “on the go”)
  2. Minimal monthly cost (ideally no more than what I was paying)
  3. Keeping our existing phone numbers
  4. Neither of us are big talkers or texters, so low usage constraints might be OK

Long story short I ended up going for a deal from the Home Shopping Network, of all places. We got two LG 500g GSM phones, each with a little over one year of Tracfone service, including 1320 minutes, for $120 per, shipped. Both included a phone case, car and home chargers and a future “Triple Minutes for Life” bonus – when we add airtime purchases in the future, the minute values will be tripled automatically. I had my prior service balance ported over to the new phone (for even more time and service minutes) and was able to transfer my phone number very simply as it was all within Tracfone’s systems.

For my wife, the phone number situation was a bit more tricky – she actually gives out her cell number fairly frequently, so keeping her number was very important. Because we were moving her from Verizon to Tracfone and might want to move to another carrier in the future (and have heard you can’t port out from Tracfone), I wanted to ensure we’d have the most flexibility. As a result, instead of a straight port, we activated her new phone with a new number altogether. Her old phone number will now be ported over to Google Voice (for a one-time fee of $20). By going with Google Voice, people dialing her old number can be forwarded automatically to her new phone just like they’d expect – but that number can also ring our home phone or any other number she may be at so we don’t need to use mobile minutes in those instances. And she’ll also get automatic transcriptions of voice mails and other bonus features. If keeping her old number didn’t matter, then GV and their features would be free – I can get the same with a new number from them.

So bottom line, we ended up with way better phones, great coverage and more features for significantly less money in aggregate — roughly $260 total for a year+ of service for the two of us. Nice!

LG 500g

An example of our new cell phone

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Attention Blog Spammers!

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Don

OK, so you must be desperate for money. You spend your time and effort to post links to various types of crap, all while attempting to look like normal people just posting comments on my blog articles.

I wish you better times in the future.

However, you should know you are completely wasting your time if your employer pays you based upon your comments actually getting published. That’s because I read *every* comment on this blog before allowing them to appear for public viewing. I filter it all down to real, on-point, comments without links to your penile enlargement site, your fake sports jerseys or you-name-it other stuff.

So why not just move along and see if there is somewhere else you can go play?

And I really do wish you a better future. Why not think about applying your web skills to something more productive for the world?

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Reviving “Dead” NiMH Batteries

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Don

I prefer to use rechargeable batteries whenever possible. Recently I noticed that several of our AA cells were being reported as dead (“null” when inserted) by the charger. Some of them were rather new, so I was a bit miffed at the idea of them becoming unusable in such a short time.

I remembered a couple of colleagues in the lab at my former employer performing a trick to “revive” a dead NiCd battery pack — they charged a capacitor and then discharged it through the cell to blast away any dendrites that might have formed between the plates. Now these were NiMH, not NiCd, but I wondered whether there were any similar tricks to reawaken these.

It turns out the issue and solution are much simpler. The cells in question had depleted so far that they were below 0.9v, and the better chargers apparently view such cells as dead. There were all sorts of suggestions out there for hooking up larger batteries (or even arc welders!) to force the battery to a higher voltage that the charger would then view as “live”. I wondered about using one of the old style (a.k.a. “cook the battery”) chargers to boost the voltage instead (similar idea, but with much less risk), so I put the dead ones into the old charger I’d normally avoid – for just a 5 minute juicing.

That did the trick – the better (current sensing and limiting) chargers would now accept these cells and bring them back up to full charge without overheating them. This worked on all of the cells previously left for dead.

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Monster Desktop Renewal with Linux Mint 11

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Don

I’ve been having a spot of trouble with my Mint 9 desktop machine recently, where something would lock up Gnome/X periodically. Somehow it seemed related to running OpenOffice and Firefox at the same time with something “video” happening. (Now, to be honest, I’d done my Mint 9 installation in a “messy” way — I was too lazy to reconfigure stuff, so I just reused my home directory leaving all the “dot” (configuration) files in place — so I probably caused the problem myself.)

After having it happen to me several times in one day, I decided this was the perfect excuse to upgrade my 5+ year old hardware to more recent stuff. My pals at NewEgg were great in setting me up with some new gear I could swap into my existing box:

  • AMD Phenom II x4 925: 4-core processor
  • Asus M4A78LT-M Motherboard
  • 8 GB G. SKILL Ripjaws DDR3-1600 Memory

I was able to re-use all my other existing stuff, so I was able to jump up to a monster but energy efficient system for less than Netbook dollars.

I ended up choosing Linux Mint 11 (the release candidate version) as my OS to install. The great thing about Mint is their Mint Backup tool. Not only will it allow you to do simple home directory backups, but it provides an easy mechanism to move to a new installation and preserve your installed software packages selection. Even across architectures (which is what I was doing, moving from a 32-bit install to 64-bit).

The installation proceeded in a pretty much painless way, and in a short while I ended up with a system that can do pretty much anything I need with all my old files and applications in place. All my old HW worked without issue. Mint 11 includes Firefox 4 and the internet screams on this thing. Hulu/Flash worked out of the box. Only problem was needing to install the Gnome Alsamixer to mute the sound card capture until the TV tuner was started.

I’ll be continuing to make a few tweaks and bring back some of the old dot files for my prior customizations, but it looks like the sailing is going to be smooth. Especially notable given that this is not a final release. Thanks Mint Team!

Update 6/15/11: Mint 11 is now released, and all the packages updated automatically for me from the RC versions. Everything is still working smoothly but for one issue: my new Cyber Power CP1500 AVR UPS is apparently not playing well with the system.

Periodically I get a notification that the UPS battery is low and the system automatically hibernates. The battery is not low, and the UPS knows it based upon what shows on its built-in display. I did not install Cyber Power’s linux software previously because it appeared that everything was already working out of the box (there was an added tab under the GNOME Power Settings for what actions to take while on UPS power). I’ve now installed their SW to see if it makes any difference. My quick work-around was to unplug the USB connection so the system can’t get a power low signal and therefore doesn’t hibernate, but I’d rather use the automatic shutdown capability properly. So far the shutdowns seem to have stopped so the SW seems to be working, will see if it does so from here forward. Their documentation is clearly by a non-native English speaker so it is a bit tricky to understand, FYI.

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1-Wire/owfs on Seagate Dockstar under PlugApps Linux

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Don

This post is currently just a set of notes as I blaze the trail to get this working. Ignore for now, unless you like just reading random technical thoughts from someone puzzling their way through something they don’t know a lot about… I’ve started a true step-by-step description at the end below as I make my way through this for a second time. Hopefully this will be completed and cleaned up shortly.

PlugApps is based on Arch Linux, follows their start-up sequence – which is loosely based on BSD’s. The file /etc/rc.conf is where a lot of the main settings are made. Daemons are initiated based on an array entered at the bottom of that file. The daemons exist as bash scripts in the directory /etc/rc.d . Config files and similar stuff appear to be are normally set/stored in /etc/___. See here and here for the Arch info.

The owfs package now created for PlugApps includes the owfs core application/commands PLUS temploggerd but only creates the related option and template files for temploggerd. No similar files are created for the core owfs stuff. Currently have verified that owserver and owhttpd can be started with the applicable options from command line and those basically work.

Next steps:

  • figure out the option/config files for owserver, etc. under PlugApps based on prior work with NSLU2 (these were in /opt/etc/owfs there)
  • does my application require FUSE and the sensor array to be mounted as a file system? (A: YES, it is handy and by using owserver as a front end it does not cause a burden.) if not, skip owfs itself, otherwise script creation of /tmp/1wire and do related stuff to make the array available (A: will need to script this, it will be part of the rc.d script).
  • figure out temploggerd operation – can it be verified without web server access at start? (A: Yes, but web server is now set up)
  • determine what web server to use – thttpd? something light weight but secure! (A: Cherokee is available, installed easily and works well with little load on server. Plus is it has a GUI for admin!)
  • generate temploggerd templates (reclaim from NSLU2 installation?), or do I want to use another prettier graphing toolset like http://dygraphs.com/? (A: stay with temploggerd for now)
  • make the system survive a power outage -> install (what?) to NAND? or simply configure a static IP locked to MAC address on router and reboot from pogo OS if stuck?

Misc. Info:
From default installation of the owfs package on PlugApps:

[root@chicago /]# find . -name *emplog*
./usr/share/temploggerd
./usr/share/temploggerd/templates/README.temploggerd.templ
./usr/bin/temploggerd
./usr/lib/temploggerd
./usr/lib/temploggerd/temploggerd.conf.wrt54g
./usr/lib/temploggerd/temploggerd.conf.coldfire
./usr/lib/temploggerd/temploggerd.conf.default
./usr/lib/temploggerd/temploggerd.conf.ewrt54g
./usr/lib/temploggerd/temploggerd.conf.openwrt
[root@chicago /]# find . -name owfs*
./usr/include/owfs_config.h
./usr/share/man/man5/owfs.conf.5.gz
./usr/share/man/man5/owfs.5.gz
./usr/share/man/man1/owfs.1.gz
./usr/bin/owfs
./var/lib/pacman/sync/aur/owfs-2.8p7-1
./var/lib/pacman/local/owfs-2.8p7-1.2
./var/cache/pacman/pkg/owfs-2.8p7-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
./var/cache/pacman/pkg/owfs-2.8p7-1.2-any.pkg.tar.xz
[root@chicago /]# find . -name owft*
./usr/share/man/man1/owftpd.1.gz
./usr/bin/owftpd
[root@chicago /]# find . -name owht*
./usr/share/man/man1/owhttpd.1.gz
./usr/bin/owhttpd
[root@chicago /]# find . -name owse*
./usr/share/man/man1/owserver.1.gz
./usr/bin/owserver
[root@chicago /]#

How to Install PlugApps Linux on a Seagate Dockstar and Enable owfs and temploggerd

  1. Obtain ssh access for your Dockstar
  2. Perform basic installation of PlugApps
  3. Update pacman itself:


    4. [root@Plugbox ~]# pacman -Syu
    :: Synchronizing package databases...
    core 35.5K 172.4K/s 00:00:00 [######################] 100%
    extra 382.1K 457.7K/s 00:00:01 [######################] 100%
    community 371.6K 489.2K/s 00:00:01 [######################] 100%
    aur 5.9K 146.4K/s 00:00:00 [######################] 100%
    :: The following packages should be upgraded first :
    pacman
    :: Do you want to cancel the current operation
    :: and upgrade these packages now? [Y/n] Y
    resolving dependencies...
    looking for inter-conflicts...
    Targets (1): pacman-3.5.1-1.2
    Total Download Size: 0.79 MB
    Total Installed Size: 2.72 MB
    Proceed with installation? [Y/n] Y
    :: Retrieving packages from core...
    pacman-3.5.1-1.2-arm 804.7K 583.5K/s 00:00:01 [######################] 100%
    checking package integrity...
    (1/1) checking for file conflicts [######################] 100%
    (1/1) upgrading pacman [######################] 100%
    >>> The pacman database format has changed as of pacman 3.5.0.
    >>> You will need to run `pacman-db-upgrade` as root.
    >>>
    !!!!!! SERIOUSLY! Run pacman-db-upgrade or PACMAN WILL NOT WORK! !!!!!!
    [root@Plugbox ~]# pacman-db-upgrade
    ==> Pre-3.5 database format detected - upgrading...
    ==> Done.

  4. The Dockstar does not have a hardware clock, so it will always be off at start up unless you take action to fix that. The easiest way is to set up a network time protocol client. Install openntpd (automatic time sync client) and start it before the password change below, to avoid lockout due to password aging (30+ years will seem to have passed between the default date in 1970 and now).
  5. Change ssh login password for security (optional: install ssh public key in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys for more security [+ disable password authentication in /etc/sshd_config for even more security & to avoid having to type in your (long, strong) password])
  6. Install ddclient if you are going to want to access the machine over the internet with a DHCP address.

Now that we have the Dockstar basically set up and functioning under PlugApps, we can move on to the 1-Wire and owfs related items. (more to come…)
[root@chicago ~]# owserver -F -s 4304 -d /dev/ttyUSB0
[root@chicago ~]# owhttpd -F --readonly -s 4304 -p 3001
[root@chicago ~]# mkdir /tmp/1wire
[root@chicago ~]# owfs -F -s 4304 /tmp/1wire
[root@chicago ~]# ls /tmp/1wire

Post-install: disable telnet under pogoplug os, in case of PlugApps reboot failure (provide details here – did enabling ssh via pogoplug portal already do this?)

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A Frugal Shopper’s Bonus: Ebates

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Don

One of the earliest sites I joined on the internet was this one, way back in 2002 – wow, 2002! Seems like things have changed so much, so quickly!

OK, back to the real point of this post. I’m frugal, I admit it. When I buy something significant, like a new car or computer, I research them and strive to find the best one and to get the best price. So when I’m done, it annoys me if I find out later I missed an obvious chance to save more. When buying stuff on-line, Ebates is frequently that chance.

Ebates is a referral/rebate system for on-line shopping. They have selected partners that will give you cash back – in most cases on top of any other coupon or deal – for items you purchase after going through the Ebates site to get there. You get the cash back as a total accumulated through Ebates, paid quarterly. Their partners are ones you likely already are looking at, you just don’t know otherwise about the rebates! Examples of their 1200+ store partners are HP, Dell, Godiva, JC Penney, Sears, Macy’s, LL Bean, etc., including my favorite computer/electronics store: NewEgg.

Generally, the only thing you have to do is remember to visit Ebates first, then follow the link from their site to the place you’d otherwise shop already! After that, it is all automatic (in a few cases, you need to enter a discount code or similar). Generally, you get 1-6% cash back, but I’ve also seen ones as high as 15% or fixed dollar amounts like $60. For stuff you were already going to buy.

So now you know why I kick myself if I forget about using Ebates. Don’t kick yourself – join and start saving now. If you follow my link here to sign up, I’ll possibly get a small reward for referring you and you’ll still get the same great deals – so please click below to join for yourself (and me). And remember to use them afterwards!

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Great Customer Service Sells!

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Don

I’m a firm believer in being an assertive customer when a product does not live up to your expectations. Great companies know how to handle that and turn your relationship with them to an asset.

Just concluded one such experience with Richard Green at TofuXPress. My wife had purchased one of their devices for me after seeing the Rube Goldberg method I had previously used for pressing the moisture out of tofu in preparation for frying. They make a device that does this neatly, without the stacks of plates and various heavy items from the kitchen that I’d used before. My only problem was that a tab on it broke, very quickly after I’d received it. I put the broken piece aside with the intention of following up, but of course life intervened and I didn’t get around to finding the box to get the contact information until after the warranty was up.

So I tried contacting them, told my story, and offered design change suggestions to address what I’d seen. Richard, their Operations Manager, responded nicely and a conversation continued from there. Long story short, they made an out-of-warranty exception and sent me not only that part, but also two others that mated with it. The new part had a design change just like what I had suggested. Now I have nothing but appreciation for them and we have drier tofu again without the gymnastics!

I highly recommend tofuXpress.com.

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