For the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, a bunch of folks from No More Deaths went down to San Carlos, a bay about halfway down the length of the Baja Peninsula, but on the coast of Sonora, Mexico.

One of Shanti's lawyers has a condo on the beach. He said she could use it for the holiday. Although there was only supposed to be 4 people in the place at one time, about 15 people showed up. We made camp on the beach, and had 5 glorious days of sunshine, sailing, swimming, and assorted debauchery.

Walt brought his catamaran, the Walfin:

The bay has a mighty, volcanic looking set of peaks at one end called "Tetas de Chiva" or... "goat tits". They deserve a much more dignified name though. It was a treat to watch them in their many moods:

I managed to get most of a watercolour done. I keep telling myself I'm going to fill in a sunset, but I haven't yet:

The rocks really looked like that:

He died in the wee hours (why is it always the wee hours?) of November 12th. 12 years and 11 months after he came walking through the door of the art gallery where I was working in Tubac.

One of the first things he told me was that he had survived cancer twice, and that it could come back any time. It was all very romantic at the time, and as the years passed in good health, the 'c' word would only come out when we had a fight. Somehow he would be suddenly overcome with worry about a recurrence. The tactic worked for a long time... I would feel remorseful for my anger and realise that he could be gone any day... why waste our time fighting? Even now I look back over the things he wrote to me, and there's lines about "...I might not be here when you get back..."

So when he wrote to me (and everybody we knew) a couple of months ago and said he was going down for another round, I felt a tug at the same, well worn string. I knew fairly quickly that this was not a false alarm, but he said he was going to fight it, like he had before. I had no illusions about his chances, however.

This is all by way of saying that I let him go, the same way I eventually let Pred go. I did not tell him to fight. I did not tell him that he could beat this thing. I just told him, "I hope you have a peaceful passing and can rest knowing that you lived a full and special life, and made a very unique mark on this planet. Thank you for having shared some of it with me."

Because there's nothing that rips the wind out of your sails like fighting an invisible enemy. With cancer there's nothing to get angry about, there's no one you can complain to, there's no obvious outlet for the rage you feel at having no control. It would be kinda like owning a store, and having your stock disappear, little by little in the middle of the night, and nothing you try can stop it. You can see the end coming long before it arrives. Pred called it the "rabbit in the headlights" feeling... "...even a well informed rabbit."

I actually said 'goodbye' this time. I think the combination of things has left me in much better shape. I've spared my energy, I was as well prepared as I could have been, and I made my peace with him. I still feel sad, and like I've lost a big part of my life, even though we've been separated for 4 years. Memories still scamper across my mind, uninvited, and bring tears to my eyes. But I don't feel the same incredible emptiness and exhaustion that I felt for months after Pred died.

Here's some pictures of me with the old wolf. I'll probably post some stories later.

Catalyst Servers at September 2005. dia diagram file attached for future editing.

This document details how to setup an OpenSSL Certificate Authority that you can then use to create certificates for internal use, such as IPSec x.509 Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The steps below are specific for Debian or Ubuntu servers but may be adapted for other Linux distributions.

Firstly we need to edit openssl.cnf and change a few defaults: 

$ vi /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf

Change default_days from 365 to 3650 for 10 years of certificate life.

default_days    = 3650                  # how long to certify for

For internal use, this longevity does not present a great security risk and certificates can be revoked at any time. For convenience I like to set a number of fields below the [ req_distinguished_name ] section. The examples below are for a fictional company in Sydney, Australia, change or add these lines as required:

countryName_default             = AU

stateOrProvinceName_default     = New South Wales

localityName_default            = Sydney

0.organizationName_default      = Your Company Pty Ltd

organizationalUnitName_default  = Your Dept.

commonName_default              = Your Company Pty Ltd

emailAddress_default            = somecontact@yourcompany.com

Filling the above in will save a little typing time when generating certificates. Now you need to make a directory for your Certificate Authority and change into it. My preference is to create it under /etc/ssl as follows:

$ sudo mkdir /etc/ssl/YourCompanyCA
$ cd /etc/ssl/YourCompanyCA

At this point I would recommend copying the script /usr/lib/ssl/misc/CA.sh to /etc/ssl/CA.sh and modifying it to create a CA certificate that lasts more than 10 years - 20 years is a nice figure. You will also need to replace demoCA with the directory you created above. I make the following changes:

/etc/ssl/YourCompanyCA $ sudo cp /usr/lib/ssl/misc/CA.sh /etc/ssl/CA.sh
/etc/ssl/YourCompanyCA $ sudo vi /etc/ssl/CA.sh

DAYS="-days 7300"

CATOP=./MyCompanyCA

Now we need to create the CA Certificate. Apart from setting the certificate password, you can take the defaults because you set them earlier:

/etc/ssl/YourCompanyCA $ sudo /etc/ssl/CA.sh -newca
CA certificate filename (or enter to create)

Making CA certificate ...
Generating a 1024 bit RSA private key
.......++++++
...............++++++
writing new private key to './YourCompanyCA/private/./cakey.pem'
Enter PEM pass phrase:
Verifying - Enter PEM pass phrase:
-----
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:
State or Province Name (full name) [New South Wales]:
Locality Name (eg, city) [Sydney]:
Organization Name (eg, company) [Your Company Pty Ltd]:
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) [Your Dept]:
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) [Your Company Pty Ltd]:
Email Address [somecontact@yourcompany.com]:
/etc/ssl/YourCompanyCA $

Now we will need to create a CRL file which will be needed on any VPN gateways you might have. This will need to be updated any time a certificate is revoked:

/etc/ssl/YourCompanyCA $ openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem

Now you have a your very own functioning Certificate Authority and you're ready to generate certificates for what ever purpose you may have.

Cat@lyst is a non-hierarchical non-profit venture aimed at delivering net access to anarchists, greens, gays, feminists, activists and other interested persons or groups.

Established with visions of freedom and independence in mind, Cat@lyst acknowledges that issues of access and equity to technology are crucial for those who feel they need and want to connect with the world.

A strong individual or group presence on the net can be used as an effective means of communication, debate and solidarity. Cat@lyst aims to encourage all who wish to learn and develop skills in information technology and new media and to understand their processes.

This an Indymedia theme for the Gnome Desktop Manager (GDM) as used in Linux based systems. This has only been tested against Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger). Screenshot ought to be below:

This an Indymedia theme for the Gnome Desktop Manager (GDM) as used in Linux based systems. This has only been tested against Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger). Screenshot ought to be below:

If you really, truly don't want to use this list anymore and you have sudo access, You have a two options:

1. Delete the list and KEEP the list archives:

   $ sudo rmlist listname

2. Delete list and DELETE all list archives:
   

   sudo rmlist -a listname

If in doubt, write the list/ list admin first and check what they'd prefer. Particularly when dealing with lists created for specific events, such as rallies or conferences.

Originally by safari (at) cat.org.au

                Sending and retrieving files across the web is best done
                with the data being encrypted. This prevents "packet
                sniffers" or nosy people sussing out what your personal
                details are, and the exactly what the files you are moving
                contain.
                There are many scp clients. I just chose this one 'cos it
                was the first google spat out at me. BTW: This is for people
                using a windows computer at home.
                There's a great shpiel on the site where you can download
                WinSCP 2.0 Beta from: http://winscp.vse.cz/eng/
                If you have any problems, feel free to email catgeek and ask
                questions.
                Once you've downloaded (and unzipped if you downloaded the
                .zip file) you should be ready to use this program in the
                same way you would ftp.
                The Basic page is where you enter the hostname
                (conway.cat.org.au), username (your login) and passwd (your
                passwd :) Don't worry about the private key file.
                click on the login button and you should see your local
                files and remote server (conway) files in your home
                directory. (assuming you're using the norton commander
                interface)... check out the interface tab on the login
                screen if you're not sure what i mean.
                safari (at) cat.org.au

         
              Andy slapped this together and I reckon it's worth putting on
              our funky clunky cat-faq :)
              some dodgy notes about setting up procmail, qmail, pine on
              CAT.
              1. Get a copy of a procmail rc file (rc = resource). See

           To allow a hosted domain to have a less clunky name (ie blah.cat.org.au instead
           of www.cat.org.au/blah), you could try the following:

           1.On conway:

           In the file: /etc/apache/httpd.conf

           #copy a slab of code there and edit:

           <VirtualHost 203.53.14.41>
        ServerName blah.cat.org.au

           ServerAlias www.blah.cat.org.au

           DocumentRoot /www/blah/

           ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html

           /VirtualHost

           #save

           restart with:

           sudo /etc/init.d/apache restart

              To retrieve email for an email account with a virtual domain
              use the following format:
              username: username@virtualdomainname password: passwd server:
              CAT - pop3 <important
              safari@cat.org.au

                How does one publish a BIG multimedia file on sydney
                indymedia?
                At the moment, to do the following, you'll need to have
                access on stallman and know the administrators password to
                edit articles.For big files it is best to scp the file into
                stallman. drop the files into
                /www/sydney/local/webcast/uploads. Then you need to write a
                little story in the standard manner on the front page of
                indy-syd (http://sydney.indymedia.org/publish.php3) DON'T
                specify or include any files yet. Once this text article is
                published go to the "full story" link for that article and
                click on it. You've arrived at this full story page, scroll
                down and you'll see an edit field to the right. Enter the
                passwd, click enter. Scroll down until you've come to the
                multimedia stories section. It is here that you can link the
                file you uploaded (you remember the file name, don't you :)
                with the article you've posted. There's this really handy
                list of mime types for particular file extensions. It's just
                above the box you're looking to edit... or here's the link:                  
                http://sydney.indymedia.org/local/mimetypes.inc. Anyway...
                just type the part in ""'s after the "=" sign... phew.
                almost there. eg: if it's an mp3 $mimetypelist["mp3"] =
                "audio/mpeg"; so you'd type audio/mpeg Click the commit
                changes to article button. It may take a while. To see
                changes you may need to type: refresh.php3 and shift refresh
                if you want to clear the cache.
                [New Answer in "Publishing BIG multimedia files on
                sydney.indymedia.org"]
                safari (at) cat.org.au

   This document is: http://www.cat.org.au/cgi-bin/fom?file=44

Having completed my tenure as coordinator at Justice Action, I have been doing some life modelling work for extra cash.  Life modelling entails doing *nothing*, and doing it gracefully.  For up to 30 minutes at a time, and up to 4 hour shifts, I must keep absolutely still, in a position which artists will find inspiring to draw, paint, sculpt, or just perv on. Yes, it's in the nude most of the time.

There is a certain amount of pain involved, when muscles get tight or limbs fall asleep.  I have to concentrate on holding the pose, and not letting anything drift, and trying not to fall asleep.  Sometimes models will sleep, but I try not to for several reasons: 1) everybody looks like an idiot when they sleep.  The muscles relax, and the pose tends to be boring, not to mention the druel, and 2) when you wake up, it really is your worst nightmare of being naked in a room full of strangers staring at you.

         How do I convert from Majordomo to Mailman the LONG way?
         Do it like so, at the command prompt on conway::

         1. Comment out the entries concerning the list in /etc/aliases
         2. Run "sudo newaliases" - the list is NOW NOT FUNCTIONING - MAIL WILL
         BOUNCE! Majordomo no longer runs this list.
         3. Run "sudo newlist listname" . This setups the list internally for

 
              Check the aliases file (/etc/aliases) as that is where the
              Majordomo lists email aliases are kept.
              Technically, the mail aliases for majordomo lists point to
              wrapper scripts that trigger certain actions for a particular
              list, like subscribing for the geton.XXX@cat.org.au alias, or

               
                Subcategories:
                Answers in this category:
                (Answer)How do I digitise, edit, and encode video using
                Cat's video computer?
                (Category)How do I upload multimedia to active.org.au and

               
                C@talyst was involved in webcasting a number of events over
                the years. There was an upload-station on King Street during
                one of the early Reclaim the Streets parties. I wasn't
                involved in those so I'll let the protagonists talk about

           From: predator@cat.org.au
           To: catkore@cat.org.au, catgeek@cat.org.au
           Subject: [catkore] We need the history.
           Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 14:03:15 +1000 (EST)

           PROPOSAL down the bottom, to host this email as the germ of an evolving
           document on this history of the Cat.