The Golden Spot

Authentication redirects with iOS and Django

2011-11-25T16:05:00.001-08:00

I am writing a client/server application. The client is an iPhone; client requests are handled by a Django application. Below, I will demonstrate how an iOS device can respond to redirects for login credentials from a Django service when a session has expired. I have not found much written about this subject so I am publishing what I have learned. This assumes that you know how to store and retrieve the username and password on an iOS device via Keychain Services, make HTTP requests from an iOS client, and create basic Django applications.

There are several questions that arise when acquiring a new session id with the client:

How do we send username and password credentials to the Django service from the iOS client, such that we a) login to the server b) get forwarded to the original page we requested?
What happens when the client requests a Django view with an @login_required decorator if the client's session id is expired?
What happens to POST data in an original client request after the server sends login URL redirects while sending authentication challenges?

I hope the following post answers all of these. First, some definitions:

'session id' - this refers to the hexadecimal string sent from the server as a cookie value, after the a user has signed-in/logged-in. (eg. "2b1189a188b44ad18c35e113ac6ceead"). More info on Django sessions
'server' - in this case a Django app, hosted by Apache using mod_wsgi.
'client' - in this case an iPhone (3GS), running the application and sending requests over a LAN. But theoretically, it could be any iOS networked device.

I will demonstrate with a URL that requires the user to be 'logged in' on the Django app. If the client does not have a valid session id, Django will respond by forwarding to a login view. In our case we will challenge the iOS client with a WWW-Authenticate; the client will respond to the challenge in a delegate method and be redirected to the original URL requested by the client. Inside a delegate method on the iOS client, I will show how to preserve the original request's HTTP method and (NSData *)HTTPBody .

Let's make this a simple HTTP GET request. In this case the requested URL will be:

http://10.0.0.2/user/home/

When the client sends the above request, the Django view will detect that the client is not logged in because either the session id was not sent with the GET request or the session id was expired. The server will respond with a status code of 302. In this case the server will respond with the redirect URL of the login page. Here is the @login_required decorator in the requested view:

Before we look at the Django sign in view, let's have a look at the NSURLConnection Delegate in the class that sends the request:

The delegate method is sending a new request containing the redirected URL if the server sends a redirect. And it is sending the original request if no redirect has been sent by the server. It is also sending a version of the original( very first ) request ( HTTPBody, HTTP method, and the latest header fields), only if the redirected URL is the same as the original request; This is how we keep any POST data in the HTTPBody when login redirects have succeeded. More on that below. Let's first take a look at the Django login view:

Notice how we send an authentication challenge from the view if no credentials have been sent by the client? Also, note that within httpd.conf, WSGIPassAuthorization must be set to 'on' for mod_wsgi to forward the credentials to the Django view.

Upon redirecting to the login URL, the client is presented with an authentication challenge. The client should respond appropriately within the NSURLConnection delegate method:
- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveAuthenticationChallenge:(NSURLAuthenticationChallenge *)challenge

The client requests the redirected URL and sends the login credentials when receiving a WWW-Authentication challenge. Upon successful login, they are redirected to the original URL- which is stored by Django in the requests as

request.GET['next'] = "/user/home/"

In the redirect for the original URL, after successful login, the Django view sends the cookie containing the session id. In the NSURLConnection delegate

-(NSURLRequest *)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection willSendRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request redirectResponse:(NSURLResponse *)response;

all of the headers from the last request are copied to the newRequest; this includes the session id. If there was any POST data in the original request, it will also be copied to the newRequest, so that the original transaction data will be sent to the server after authenticating and acquiring a new session id.

I hope that this shed some light on how to keep your iOS app able to handle authentication redirects when the server session id expires.

NOTE: I did not cover displaying a login view that allows the user to enter in username and password in the iOS client if the server login fails. Also, I did not show how to use the

Forward LAN traffic to localhost web server on the same MacBook Pro

2011-09-21T23:38:00.000-07:00

Using a stock, early 2011 model MacBook Pro, I needed to access my secure webserver, which runs on localhost and the default port for HTTPS of 443 (127.0.0.1:443), with remote clients on the LAN. The LAN at my home office is 10.0.0.0/24.

The following assumes you have edited httpd.conf and have HTTPS configured correctly; that is, you are able to point a web browser to https://127.0.0.1/ and see the site you are serving with httpd.

1) Turn on Web Sharing in System Preferences/Sharing. This will open a port on the LAN for httpd to serve requests.
2) Turn on Remote Login in System Preferences/Sharing. This will start sshd to enable port forwarding with ssh at the command line.
3) Using a shell enter:
ssh -NL 10.0.0.29:8080:127.0.0.1:443 your_username@localhost

a ) 10.0.0.29 is the address of my laptop's interface on the LAN.
b ) 8080 is the port that ssh will listen to and then forward traffic to and from.
c ) 127.0.0.1:443 is the address:port on my laptop that ssh will forward traffic to, when it receives traffic on 10.0.0.29:8080
d ) your_username@localhost is the login for the local sshd service that was started by enabling Sharing/Remote Login in System Prefernces

By visiting https://10.0.0.29:8080/ on the 10.0.0.0/24 network with say, an iPhone, you will be able to see the website that is configured in httpd as 127.0.0.1:443 on the MacBook. This helps with local development since you don't have to create a new cert each time your dynamic LAN address changes; it is only a matter of changing the address and port that ssh will forward to localhost.

2011-05-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

My UITableView crashes when scrolling and dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier: is called, during the _second time_ - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath is called ( to re-use the cell, after creation ).

I was getting a EXEC_BAD_ACCESS at dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:

I realized that after initializing my custom UITableViewCell, I am setting cell = [myCustomCell autorelease] when I should be using cell = [myCustomCell retain].

after customizing a UITableViewCell, call retain, not autorelease, before returning it from tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath. I'll also mention that I am initializing my custom cell from a nib file by using

 [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"MyCustomCell" owner:self options:nil];

2011-04-17T12:01:00.001-07:00

I just learned how to replace newlines with other characters in Emacs. I found Jeremy's blog post from 2007.

I type:


M-x replace-string <return>
C-q C-j 
replacement_string_of_choice <return>

C-q is emacs' quoted-insert, which works for inserting control characters;
C-j is the function newline-and-indent which inserts a newline and indents to your major mode.

C-q also works in Xcode as described in this Stack Overflow question

2009-10-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

pg_dump fails:


$ pg_dump -o -U mydbuser mydb > backup.db.data

$ pg_dump: [archiver (db)] connection to database "mydb" failed: FATAL:  password authentication failed for user "mydbuser"

My /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf :


# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all         all                               ident sameuser
#
host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          md5

I thought that since I am logged into the postmaster machine, I would be able to enter the mydbuser database password and execute the command.

According to:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/interactive/app-pgdump.html

the option -h is the following:

-h host
--host=host

Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for the Unix domain socket. The default is taken from the PGHOST environment variable, if set, else a Unix domain socket connection is attempted.

Since I did not use -h flag in the command, pg_dump was using a Unix socket to connect the the database and therefore using the IDENT authentication option. I should could have said -h 127.0.0.1 in my pg_dump command- like so:


$ pg_dump -o -U mydbuser -h 127.0.0.1 mydb > backup.db.data

so that I could authenticate using the md5 database user password at the prompt.

2009-10-21T21:43:00.000-07:00

After I create a new frame by typing

M-x 5 2

in Emacs, my cursor color is black. But the color of my original frame is LimeGreen or lime green.

I found this site:
http://www.dansanderson.com/blog/mt/mt-search.fcgi?tag=NewbieEmacsTip&blog_id=1&IncludeBlogs=1

and added this line:

(add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(cursor-color . "lime green")

to my ~/.emacs file

2009-10-19T01:07:00.000-07:00

My first django snippet regarding 'very archive'. I am sure I spent too much time reinventing an archive view but I could not figure out how to display all posts in the template, the way I wanted, using generic views!!

The template logic:
http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/1765/

The view code:
http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/1766/

2009-09-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Can someone please leave a comment on my blog?

Pretty please?

Below, read about the importance of blog comments:

http://weblogs.about.com/b/2008/06/10/the-importance-of-blog-comments.htm

2009-08-18T01:29:00.000-07:00

The GPolyline.fromEncoded documentation has been misleading for a while. Read this:

http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=614#c1

When using GPolyline.fromEncoded, I must name the encoded string "points:" even though the documentation says "latlngs:". following example code may help someone:


  function initialize() {
    if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
      var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map_canvas"));
      map.setCenter(new GLatLng(37.42025942555, -122.0841121673), 17);
  map.setUIToDefault();

var plines = new GPolyline.fromEncoded({color:"3366FF", weight: 2, opacity: .5, points: "_|kcFbpchVfE`HQoElOT?gEyNCGuDwDzG", zoomFactor:2, levels:"pppppppp", numLevels:18});
map.addOverlay(plines);
    }
  }

Google Maps GPolyline.fromEncoded documentation

2009-05-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

There is a great article about how to set up logical volume management or lvm using the command line here.

I looked around and found this to be really good for demonstrating how to name and resize the logical volumes. The lvm2 manual page helped as well.

2009-01-21T23:40:00.000-08:00

I read this from Hacker News:

http://jdconley.com/blog/archive/2009/01/19/dont-hire-a-programmer-if-they-dont-code-for-fun.aspx

What if their idea of fun is taking slime samples from ancient damp caves in Northern California and graphing the mold contents compared with other similar caves in Oregon?I am just joking.

I think any employee that you hire should be questioned regarding what project they have been inspired by. I would ask something like: "Talk about the last 2 or 3 projects you worked on ( personal or work-related ) where you felt 'extremely' to 'incredibly' inspired"

Would this technically apply as a double post- if I posted the same content on the ycombinator site as my own blog?

2008-11-08T22:07:00.000-08:00

How to configure Postgresql with Django for localhost development with Apache 2.2.10

Debian Etch build of Postgresql(8.1) and Django subversion(9370)

I compiled psycopg2, Apache 2.2.10, mod_wsgi from source as mentioned here and here:

Installing Postgresql with Synaptic creates a user named postgres in the /etc/passwd file. Login as root or sudo and change the password for the system user named postgres:


# passwd postgres

. . . change the password to your favorite color password ( write it down! ( like all the others))


$ su postgres

. . . login and now


$ psql template1

this will bring up the postgresql shell using template1 ( read the postgresql docs regarding template1 database ) where I can change the postgresql password for the role ( or user ) postgres.


postgres# ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'secretuberpassw' ;

create a role for Django to use while editing the Postgresql database:


postgres# CREATE ROLE djangopguser WITH LOGIN ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'djangosecretamazing' ;

create the database and assign ownership to the djangopguser


postgres# CREATE DATABASE djangositedb OWNER djangopguser ;

my pg_hba.conf file:


# IPv4 local connections:                                                                                                                     
host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          md5 # this is here by default on Etch

my djangosite settings file:


DATABASE_ENGINE = 'postgresql_psycopg2'     
DATABASE_NAME = 'djangositedb'           
DATABASE_USER = 'djangopguser'           
DATABASE_PASSWORD = 'djangosecretamazing'
DATABASE_HOST = '127.0.0.1' # I have to be write the IP address here. If I leave it blank I can not authenticate to postmaster from Django

edit the /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/postgresql.conf file and uncomment


listen_addresses = 'localhost'
password_encryption = on

I am going to use virtual hosts so I can have multiple django sites at http://djangosite1.localhost and http://djangosite2.localhost as urls in my web browser.

first I will configure /etc/hosts and add the lines


127.0.0.1       djangosite2.localhost
127.0.0.1       djangosite1.localhost

this will allow url resolution of these domains to my localhost IP address ( this helps when looking at these urls in my web browser )

Now for the fun part of configuring Apache's httpd.conf. This has worked for me so far:


Listen 127.0.0.1:80
ServerName 127.0.0.1
DocumentRoot "/usr/local/www/public_html"
LoadModule wsgi_module /usr/local/apache2/modules/mod_wsgi.so 
NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80
<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
ServerName djangosite2.localhost
WSGIScriptAlias / /usr/local/www/public_html/djangosite2/apache/django.wsgi
<Directory /usr/local/www/public_html/djangosite2/apache>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
Alias /media/ /usr/local/www/public_html/django-media/media/
<Directory /usr/local/www/public_html/django-media/media>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

In addition to a bunch of httpd.conf directives that are included in the file by default, I left out the mod_wsgi file that is referenced here and placed in the directory as written in httpd.conf above. Also, some other information regarding the Django specific installation procedures that you can find yourself in the django documentation will make things more clear if you are having problems.

2008-11-07T23:40:00.000-08:00

Python 2.6 and latest Django with Postgresql on Debian Etch.

I built and installed Python 2.6 from source but I used Debian Etch build of Postgresql from Synaptic. I needed to use Postgres instead of MySQL because the Python bindings to MySQLDB do not work with Python 2.6 as of today ( so I hear ). I decided to build the latest version of psycopg2, which is the Python binding for Postgres because the Synaptic version of psycopg2 might be configured for the Debian default version of Python 2.4.4. First, I had to get libpq-dev and libpq4 from Synaptic. Then I got the source of psycopg2-2.0.8. Next, build/install:


$ python2.6 ./setup.py build
$  sudo python2.6 ./setup.py install

( python2.6 is named as such because I made altinstall when running make for Python 2.6 )

I was able to test that this is working so far


$ python2.6
Python 2.6 (r26:66714, Nov  3 2008, 01:27:29) 
[GCC 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import django
>>> django.VERSION
(1, 1, 0, 'alpha', 0)
>>> import psycopg2
>>> psycopg2.apilevel
'2.0'

It works so far; now I simply have to get Django and Apache working.

2008-11-07T01:05:00.000-08:00

mod_wsgi
Apache 2.2.10
Python 2.6
Django latest from subversion
on Debian Etch ADM64

compiling mod_wsgi, Python 2.6 and Apache 2.2.10 worked for me by configuring Python 2.6 with


--enable-shared

then after make and make install:


$ ln -s /usr/local/lib/libpython2.6.so.1.0 /lib

Next, link the python shared object to a place that mod_wsgi will use it.


$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libpython2.6.so /usr/local/lib/python2.6/config/

I compiled Apache successfully by building it with


./configure --with-included-apr --enable-ssl --prefix=/usr/local/apache2 --enable-so

then configure mod_wsgi using


$ ./configure --with-python=/usr/local/bin/python2.6 --with-apxs=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs

I checked that the /usr/local/apache2/modules/mod_wsgi.so was compiled with the python shared object by doing this

$ ldd /usr/local/apache2/modules/mod_wsgi.so

It shows that it was compiled with


       libpython2.6.so.1.0 => /lib/libpython2.6.so.1.0 (0x00002b99a1f1d000)
       libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00002b99a21c8000)
       libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002b99a22dd000)
       libutil.so.1 => /lib/libutil.so.1 (0x00002b99a23e0000)
       libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002b99a24e4000)
       libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x00002b99a2721000)
       /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x0000555555554000)

The test on

http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/QuickConfigurationGuide

worked; So, off to my Django web development.

P.S. Thanks to Graham Dumpleton for help on

http://groups.google.com/group/modwsgi

from last year when I was trying to get this working with python 2.5 and an older version of Apache. Back then, I never got it to work and ended up using mod_python instead.

2008-09-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

Zlib on my AMD64 machine causes problems with compiling software sometimes. This is because I am using Debian but tried to compile zlib from source; when I installed it, something did not work very well with the rest of my system. So, occasionally, I will have a zlib error.

I recently tried to compile wireshark and Make complained that zlib.a returned a bad value. I noticed that wireshark was looking for zlib in /usr/local/lib/. My Debian stock system put zlib in /usr/lib/ (I think).

"usr/local/lib/libz.a: could not read symbols: Bad value"

Fortunately, `configure` for wireshark had --disable-usr-local option. Everything worked out with that option and it compiled fine.

2008-08-24T02:19:00.000-07:00

Is Delicious simply a search engine that is sorting and indexing pages in slow motion, at the whim of the collective intelligence of it's registered users?

Will Delicious become google if given enough time and enough users?

Is there a mathematical limit that describes Delicious' capacity to become Google?

Delicious searches contain the sum of relevant pages that people found on search engines and, at the same time, lack the sum of relevant pages that people have not yet found on search engines. Wow; that nearly blew my mind.

If my friend is going to be interested in a subject- would it be easier to have a friend widget appear in my browser(when *I* visit sites that correlate to my friends 'tags') that, when clicked, compared the link with the current Delicious bookmarks of my friend; and if he/she had not bookmarked the link by that time, the widget would add the link to the friends bookmark collection.

My friend would be best to have a 'sent from friends' Delicious bookmark folder and a separate personal folder. [wearing a dunce hat, and speaking with a lisp] Also, the friend could even copy bookmarks from one folder to the next.

2008-05-26T01:20:00.000-07:00

After updating Django subversion to 7549 mod_python was expressing an error- not able to find the django modpython module:
django.core.handlers.modpython

so I finally realized that I changed /home/my/location/DjangoSubversion-XXXX to end in 7549. I had to change the link in /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django to the new directory name.

I just learned what

unlink

does- since I had to unlink the old link and make a new one.

For about 2 minutes I thought there was backward incompatible changes in subversion.

2008-01-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

Mysql 5.0 and Django Subversion 6917.

I switched from sqlite3 to mysql 5.0 midway through development, First, I edited settings.py to reflect the database changes. Next, I had to run


$ python manage.py reset auth --noinput

first, in order setup a new admin user by executing


$ python manage.py flush

Finally, I made all the tables in settings.py by running


$ python manage.py syncdb

2008-01-13T01:02:00.000-08:00

Debian Etch AMD64 MySQL(current) root password setup

first view /etc/mysql/debian.cnf

use the user name to login to mysql


$ mysql -u debian-sys-maint -p

Enter the password in the file. To set the root password type:


mysql> USE mysql;

then


mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR root@localhost = PASSWORD('specialSAUCE');

where specialSAUCE is your bullet proof password.

Now continue to use and learn MYSQL.

2008-01-06T01:26:00.000-08:00

Debian Etch AMD64 fsck e2fsck

Using my motherboard and net install cd I have to type:

rescue pci=nomsi

to get rescue mode started.

after that I can execute a shell in the installer environment; then type at the prompt


# e2fsck -v -y /dev/mapper/hostname-partition

where hostname is my computer's hostname and partition
is a partition name like home, var, usr or boot.

2007-12-08T00:36:00.000-08:00

useful links for Django site development:

How to allow an optional field in a Django data model; but do not use null=True for string
based fields, unless you have a deliberate reason.
http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2006/jun/28/django-tips-difference-between-blank-and-null/

why admin will not edit character primary keys
http://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/2259

make apache user process write to your database file using sqlite3; what I did while developing was to change the group of the data file to the Apache users group and make it group writable; next do the same for the parent directory of the database file. This way Apache can write data to it with mod_python. The error you get can be: Unable to Open Database http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/NewbieMistakes#DjangosaysUnabletoOpenDatabaseFilewhenusingSQLite3

2007-11-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

I got tired of seeing a unicode character:

U+00E2

or:

â

in my xterm when I am looking at man pages and info pages in xterm; at hyphens and other points in the text of these pages there would be a â instead, making it impossible to understand some parts of the pages. I knew something was wrong with either xterm or Xorg and the interpretation of Unicode characters or fonts. After reading the man page of xterm I saw that:

"When using an ISO-10646-1 font and the wideChars resource is true, xterm uses the Unicode glyphs which match the VT100 line-drawing glyphs."

So I recompiled the latest version (xterm-229) with the configure option:


./configure --enable-wide-chars --with-x --enable-256-color

Problem solved. I do not see those pesky â's.

2007-10-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Wow I had a tough time getting Flash to work on my new Etch AMD64 box.

I tried Gnash only to give up and wait for better versions on the way.

So I ended up doing a chroot by following:

http://alioth.debian.org/docman/view.php/30192/21/debian-amd64-howto.html#id292281

Next I downloaded Firefox from:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

chroot into whatever you called and installed the 32bit sid,
So I follow the instructions on installing, which places it in /usr/local/ (in the 32bit chroot, of course)


chown root:root /usr/local/firefox

etc.(read the directions)

Now download the non-free flash plugin for linux at Adobe.

manually place
flashplayer.xpt in /usr/local/firefox/components/
and
libflashplayer.so in /usr/local/firefox/plugins/

finally set up sound by installing ALSA (in AMD64) and running


alsaconf

What I left out was some swearing, disbelief, glory, and trying so many things it was crazy. I hope I did not leave anything out but if you run into firefox not finding shared libraries, install them in the chroot using 32 bit aptitude.

I would like to try it again to see if it is as easy as it sounds here; and because I might have forgotten something.

2007-10-12T01:16:00.000-07:00

After compiling Emacs 22.1 I could not open it in an xterm I got

emacs: cannot open termcap

or something like that.

After installing libcurses I was able to 'make clean' and recompile Emacs successfully.

I found the answer here

webusers.npl.uiuc.edu/~yangrz/Emacs.html

2007-10-12T01:07:00.000-07:00

AMD64 Debian Etch

Tried to compile software but configure says I do not have gcc.

I have to type

CC=gcc-4.1 ./configure

this is what my gcc is named.

2007-10-12T00:35:00.000-07:00

New AMD64 3.0 ghz processor and a MSI K9A Platinum mother board; Debian Etch and a SATA 320 gig hard drive:

Problem: Debian net installer is not finding my SATA hard drive.

Solution: after some searching, some people try using

install pci=nomsi

at the boot prompt of the net install disc

it worked for me too.

2007-05-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

Some serious biological animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8NHcQesYl8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjexZ88wIno

2007-04-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

making "caps lock" or "capslock" be the "control" or "ctrl" key (same thing) with Debian Etch PPC and AMD64 (probably applicable to many linux distributions)

type: "man xmodmap" at the terminal and read the parts about finding the key codes using the command "xev". The following page explains how to do it well:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=420705

So after some playing around with my .Xmodmap file and .xsession file in my home directory I have this in my .xsession file:


xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

this in my .Xmodmap file:


keycode 66 = Control_L
add Control = Control_L

remember to use xev to find the keycode for your caps lock key. 66 is mine on a G4 mac.

So when you are done to get this working type


xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

This way you can start using this immediately; otherwise, it should work if you restart X.

2007-04-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

building Python 2.5.1 on PowerPc with Debian Etch PPC

I have a new install of Etch PPC and I downloaded the Unix source.

I decompress and untar the source.
I cd into Python-2.5.1 and type "./configure "
. . .
I get an error about how "c compiler cannot create executables"
So I do some searching and find out that I need to install the build-essentials package
"apt-get install build-essentials" as root and try again. . .
cd into Python-2.5.1 and type "./configure "
looks good so far. . .
type "make"
as I type make is grinding away on my dual 450 mhz processors (probably only using one of them). . .
seems to have worked.
"make install" as root. . .
more grinding. . .
done
type "python" at the prompt and get:

Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Apr 21 2007, 08:31:56)
[GCC 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Great! And I was skeptical.

2007-01-14T22:45:00.001-08:00


Google Tech Talks November 8, 2006 ABSTRACT In 2004 Mark Brecke travelled for 5 weeks to Darfur and the refugee camps of Eastern Chad to photographically document the Darfur genocide. He will be presenting his photos, and sharing his remarkable stories.

2006-12-03T23:48:00.000-08:00

python syntax highlighting with emacs in Mac os X

mac os x 10.4.8
python 2.5
emacs 21.2.1

tried to get python syntax highlighting with emacs working tonight- succeeded:

downloaded:

- python-mode

- copied all files from download in ~/.emacs.d/
- opened python-mode.el in emacs and typed "M-x byte-compile-file"; file was compiled.

- added the lines in the comment section of the python-mode.el file to my ~/.emacs file
"""
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.py$" . python-mode) auto-mode-alist))
(setq interpreter-mode-alist (cons '("python" . python-mode) interpreter-mode-alist
))
(autoload 'python-mode "python-mode" "Python editing mode." t)
(global-font-lock-mode t)
(setq font-lock-maximum-decoration t)
"""

-added this line to ~/.emacs file
"""
(setq load-path (cons "~/.emacs.d" load-path))
"""

now when I open .py files there is syntax highlighting.

YAY!

2006-11-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

generic cadd is working in dosbox but I can not get my .keylayout files to work.

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=13896

2006-11-23T22:37:00.000-08:00

control-l (ctrl-l or C-l or ^l) will clear the screen using the Python 2.5 command line interpreter just as 'clear' does in linux bash shell

2006-11-23T20:35:00.000-08:00

I spent much of my time watching Television as a child.

I could have been reading books.

2006-11-13T00:15:00.000-08:00

a song:

I see things I want
I no have the cash

I see things I want
I no have the money

I want I want
no money no money

You have no stuff
but I want more stuff

You have no stuff
but I want that stuff

I want things I want
no money no money

I want things I want
no money no money

2006-11-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

NyQuil headache. Nyquil Hangover. Nyquil Sucks.

Oh this is not not funny: went to the 24 hour grocery store that is 15 minutes out of downtown(why the crap there is not one nearby-? I can only suspect pure reason and logic that baffles my tiny brain).

The time is 1:45AM.
I cannot sleep, only lie down and cough in the dark.

Get to said store and realize that I have not a $ in my ass pocket (forgot wallet). Drive back home to get $ and drive .3 blocks to nearby gas-station/food-mart where I purchase 12 liquiCaps for $7. Take 2; the time is 2:15AM.

Sleep in until 4pm the next day.

Now I have a headache and a neck ache that I attribute to my decision to take 2 instead of 1 liquiCap.

Apparently others have had similar luck

2006-11-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

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