Alex Barger aka "Cruzinthegalaxie"

How To Setup Yubikey SSH On Fedora

Alex Barger — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:22:27 +0000

Here is a short ten minute video tutorial and howto directions. This is how to setup Yubikey authentication on Red Hat Fedora with PAM authentication. You can configure SSH to restrict access to your Linux box so that only Yubikeys you authorize can gain access. Therefore restricting access to anyone who does not.

# build libyubikey
wget http://yubico-c.googlecode.com/files/libyubikey-1.1.tar.gz
tar -zxf libyubikey-1.1.tar.gz
cd libyubikey-1.1
./configure
make
make install
cd ../

# build pam yubikey
wget http://yubico-pam.googlecode.com/files/pam_yubico-1.8.tar.gz
tar -zxf pam_yubico-1.8.tar.gz
cd pam_yubico-1.8
./configure
make
make install
cp libs/pam_yubico.so /lib/security/

# Setup keyfile
mkdir /root/.yubico/
vi /root/.yubico/authorized_yubikeys
root:{12char key}

# SSHD Config
PasswordAuthentication yes
ChallengeResponseAuthentication yes
UsePAM yes

# Pam module
vi /etc/pam.d/sshd
auth sufficient pam_yubico.so id=16 debug

This content was syndicated from: Alex Barger. If you are looking for help for your charitable organization's internet presence, or general I.T. related consulting... I may be available for virtual volunteer services.

How To Setup Yubikey SSH On Fedora

The Opening of the Yubikey

Alex Barger — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:30:17 +0000

Greetings! Finally got the first impromptu video up on the inter-webs. This is just a rough video of me opening my package from Yubico. I talk a little bit about what the device is and then plug it into my computer for the first time.
Also, I attempt to gain access to Yubico’s restricted user forum. Enjoy!

The Opening of the Yubikey

The YubiKey Has Arrived

Alex Barger — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:59:12 +0000

Just a quick note out that I just received my Yubico Yubikeys! I normally tear into packages like presents on Christmas morning, but I am trying to restrain myself. I have decided to do a video blog-casting series, detailing the entire life-cycle of my experiences with the YubiKey. So hopefully video shooting goes well. It is already 10pm, so we’ll seen how quickly I can wrap this up.

The YubiKey Has Arrived

Just Ordered Yubico YubiKey

Alex Barger — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:47:46 +0000

One of the great things I learned about at CPOSC this past Sunday was the Yubico YubiKey. I had not heard of this little device, granted I had heard of the RSA SecurID. (If you are wondering what a SecurID is, it is a portable device that allows you to add an extra layer of authentication and security to a computer system or interface.) It was interesting that I had just had a conversation with a colleague about the want to find an alternative to the RSA commercial solution. So I was at the conference and the one speaker mentions the Yubikey, and invites interested parties in joining him for a demo of the little devices over lunch. I was so amazed that I just ordered two devices. I will blog more as I learn more about them and what I do with them.

Have you had any experience with any secure token based authentication systems? Please drop a comment and let us know.

Just Ordered Yubico YubiKey

I hooked up my blog to twitter

Alex Barger — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:46:31 +0000

Hey tweeple!

I am now a twitter fanatic. I avoided systems like this in the past, but recently have found great uses for it. So now I too, am a twitter-holic. So shout out to the tweeple!

@galaxiecruzin

I hooked up my blog to twitter

Pic Programmer Schematics

Alex Barger — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:02:49 +0000

Here are a few schematics that I have collected. Thought I would share these out there on the net. They all have pros and cons. You can read more about my specific experience with each one over here on the robot kits page.

Willem Pic Programmer Schematics

Tait Pic Programmer Schematics

JDM Pic Programmer Schematics

Classic Pic Programmer Schematics

Pic Programmer Schematics

Lancaster Linux User Group

Alex Barger — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:27:17 +0000

Attention LUGers and LUGer-wannabes: I am helping reintroduce the Lancaster Linux User Group. With the rising cost of fuel, driving to the CPLUG meetings doesn’t fit everyone’s budget or busy schedule. So anyone who is interested, please visit the blog and post a comment stating your level of interest. I have spoken to several people already and feel that we could begin to form a great group in no time. BTW, we will plan on scheduling our meetings on a different day that the CPLUG does so that we do not create a conflict with their meetings.

Lancaster Linux User Group

Ahhh Ohhh, Web 2.0

Alex Barger — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:02:02 +0000

So I added the glassy looking Web 2.0 icons to my sidebar the other day and was actually surprised of the result. Yesterday I ended up with a few extra twitter followers, a new facebook friend and I even had some decent stumbler action. Not bad for a few minutes of work. Of course I linked the icons to my profiles on those respective sites. This is the place I got the icons from if you are interested [iconarchive.com].

I am not real big on all the social sites, and stay far far away from mysapce. Can you recommend any other sites worthy of holding a spot in my sidebar?

Ahhh Ohhh, Web 2.0

No related posts.

How I Use BlogExplosion

Alex Barger — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:44:07 +0000

First off, let me say I have no affiliation with BlogExplosion and just a blogger who signed up on BlogExplosion.

Basically what I have been doing is surfing for traffic every couple of days so that I can spend 15 - 20 credits each day on traffic to my blog.
(Earn Blog Traffic -> Surf Member Blogs) I use Firefox and just pop this in a separate tab, and do other things while “surfing”. Also while surfing, I keep an eye out for interesting blogs and topics that are related to mine. When I find blogs like that, I post a comment. Sometimes they will let you do your site url when posting. This engages the other blogger. I also try to find a way to relate their post back to a post at my blog and refer them to what I have posted. So this creates extra traffic sources, unrelated to BlogExplosion itself.

Unless you have a blog with wide appeal and topic nature, it would seem like paying for a billboard ad in an unrelated space. Granted, the people who are all using this site all have blogs so some people will actually do what I do while surfing. Many of the visits I receive are people that just bounce from one blog to another. So the key here is to have content and “bait” if you will, as close to the top as possible on your blog so that when the people look to the surf bar, they see something to become engaged with. You are not going to capture everyone… but obviously the goal is as many as possible. Take a look at the top of my site [ http://www.cruzinthegalaxie.com ], and notice how I have my top area setup in such a way to be unique and personal. I wanted my site to be remembered and stand out from the crowd.

The other thing that I do is BlogRocket. Sometimes twice a day. For one credit you can get 4 - 10 visits rather then one. Also you can visit a site on the blog rocket page, to be entered into a credit contest. So if you do that once a day, you will have the best odds at winning that pool.

If you sign up with BlogExplosion, your site will eventually get approved, so you could start doing these things now and build up some credits. I don’t do auto-assign of credits. I go in and manually assign about 20 per day. That keeps a nice steady stream of visits to my site. It felt like it took a long time before my blog was approved in their system. The first time they gave me a message about non-english or non-us site, so I deleted it and reentered it. But eventually it was approved.

I am also building referrals. So far that is not working out for me. The referrals that you get would theoretically help you build your credits. The problem is getting the referrals to surf for traffic.

How do you use BlogExplosion?

How I Use BlogExplosion

Link Contest Results

Alex Barger — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:41:33 +0000

Prize Unique Referred Traffic: www.endureonline.com
Prize Quantity of Links: tidbitsandtreasures.blogspot.com
Prize Highest Google PR: Tie Between endureonline.com and tidbitsandtreasures.blogspot.com, so the winner is determined by the most unique referred traffic so the winner is endureonline.com

Congradulations to C.McComsey of www.endureonline.com, B.Sanders of tidbitsandtreasures.blogspot.com, and to all others who participated. Way to get off your duff and help a dude out. Thanks again!!

If you would like to see more detailed information I have provided the data that the winners were determined by. This pdf is a snapshot of the google analytics report of referring traffic for the contest period. Here is a csv file that contains all of the links as far as yahoo has indexed. The highest PR link, I had to manually go through all the registered links.

Link Contest Results

Drama at the Beach and New Pics from Vaction

Alex Barger — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:29:21 +0000

We got back last night from our trip to Ocean City, NJ. The little guy is at that age where he wants to do everything, touch everything, and always have his way so that made for a challenge. We hit the beach a few days, hit the boardwalk others. I think I gained about 10 pounds with all that good food! I uploaded some of the pictures to my Flickr account.

The drama of the story was the B&B that we stayed in was having some issues with the next door neighbor. We were in the middle of a feud. The neighbor was making noise and causing disturbances by cranking the radio, honking horns, and banging on things. It was kinda comical in one aspect, but did make it hard for Luke to take a nap. She apologized to us the next day, and hooked us up with a stack of tickets to the amusement rides. Whoo-hoo free rides!

Friday everyone was cleared from the water, as medical syringes washed up on the beach. Luckily for us, we already had packed up to head home. I feel bad for all the others on their way to the beach this weekend. COME ON PEOPLE!!! Stop ruining this earth. Keep your sh*t out of the water.

Drama at the Beach and New Pics from Vaction

2nd Weekend In August Party Returns

Greetings from my new office

Alex Barger — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:17:35 +0000

Dear friends, I am writing to inform you that I will be continuing work from my new office. It is a bit noisy here at times, but it can be drowned out by the calming sounds of an ocean waves mp3 I have on my phone. When the tide is out, I’ll get some work done.

Now where did my laptop get to ???

Cheers!

Greetings from my new office

Update 2 - Microchip PIC Programming

Alex Barger — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:49:13 +0000

I added some more information on the programming the Microchip PIC resource guide that I have been working on. I have added links to the pic programming software I have used. Also, I now have a list of compilers that will take a program in traditional C or Basic, and compile it for the Microchip PIC line of chips. If you have any special request for sample projects, let me know. The next section will be building an actual circuit and programming a chip.

Update 2 - Microchip PIC Programming

Linux Lancaster PA

Alex Barger — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:02:41 +0000

If you are looking for an experienced Linux consultant in Lancaster, PA. Don’t fret, I am here for you. I understand that the number of Linux implementations continue to grow nationwide, but little old Lancaster PA sometimes is forgotten about. Growing up in this area and working for many companies, most I have seen utilize Microsoft based computer systems. In my seven plus years in the industry, I have started to see more and more Linux use right here in our backyard. If you have a business and wondering what the heck it is, or if it is a good fit for your business model now local schools are priming students with Linux as well as Windows administration. Be on the lookout for a penguin powered system near you!

PS - Let me know if you spot one. I’d love to hear.

Linux Lancaster PA

Lancaster Linux User Group

Some New Luke Pics

Alex Barger — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:02:15 +0000

So we were out to the photo studio the other day. Got a handful of new pictures of the little dude. We wanted to get some summer photos before the summer was over.

Some New Luke Pics

Free Blog Traffic - BlogExplosion

Alex Barger — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:37:25 +0000

I have been using BlogExplsion to get free traffic to my site for over a month now and hit over 1000 visitors. I have the BlogRush widget on this site and be lucky to have seen 25 visitors from that tool. If you run a blog, and are looking to increase your average visitors to your site, then check it out. One way you can get people to come, is by surfing through other blogs by members of their site. They call it “surf member blogs” and as you go to each site you earn credits that you can use to participate in the surf or other activities. I think I’ll be giving blogrush the boot, and putting a BlogExplosion widget in it’s place.

Free Blog Traffic - BlogExplosion

Linux Consulting

Alex Barger — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:31:54 +0000

If you are in need of a Linux consultant - I’m your man. I have over seven years experience with various Linux distributions (aka “flavors”). Redhat, CentOS and similar versions are my strongest operating systems, however I am also familiar with Debian, Ubuntu and FreeBSD along with their directives. Experience with LAMP stack installation, configuration, and development. Familiar with the most common hosting and enterprise software.

Feel free to post your Linux related questions, and I’ll answer them in a follow-up blog post. If you would like a private answer, that can be arranged as well.

Post your linux questions here.

This content was syndicated from: Alex Barger. If you are looking for help for your charitable organization's internet presence, or general I.T. related consulting... I may be available for virtual volunteer services.

Linux Consulting

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Stats for Link Contest 1

Alex Barger — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:27:52 +0000

It looks like sandystyl.blogspot.com is currently in the lead for unique referring traffic. If you read the rules, I stated that it would be the site with the “most unique visitors”. So I am using Google Analytics to track that at this point. Feel free to join in the contest, with only 5 unique visitors sent, you still have almost 2 months to top that.

At this point, I am not going to go through the sites for the other two gift certificates. If I have time over the weekend, I’ll see what I can do.

In the mean time. Get out there and post some more links for the link contest

Stats for Link Contest 1

Internet Safety Tips

Alex Barger — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:42:45 +0000

This information is useful to anyone who is new to the internet as well as parents who’s children are now online.

General Internet Safety Tips

Rule number 1: Don’t download free software. There is a reason why it is free. Open source software is an exception to the rule because it is free for the communal good of the project. Many Windows programs can be found by simply searching for “free whatever program”, ie a search for “free pdf creator program” returns eight million results many of which are out there waiting to cause harm to your computer. So stay away from free software. Instead, find a trustworthy computer geek like me, and ask them for a recommendation
Rule number 1: Don’t download and run email attachments from people you don’t know, especially if you are not expecting it in the mail. There are a multitude of email viruses that can cripple your computer, and send you off to the fix it shop. Play it safe and use an anti-virus program. I can personally recommend this free version of AVG. They try to up sell you on the paid version, but just go ahead and skip the pro version and run the basic. [AVG Free] (I know these are both rule number 1, but they kinda go together.)
Internet Firewall - Do you lock the front door of your home at night? Internet prowlers are active 24-7. An internet firewall locks the open doors of your computer, to keep unwanted guests out. The firewall inside of WindowsXP works fairly well, and is better then nothing so at least turn that on. I recommend a hardware router with a firewall. There are several vendors out their with products in the $60 - $80 range. This device will also allow you to share your internet connection with multiple computer is your home. Additionally, a router with a wireless access point will give you the ability to connect via a wireless expansion device. When installing the router, please make sure to disable the wireless if you do not plan on using it, or turn on the wireless encryption. Most routers come with the wireless wide open, leaving a door open within range of the radio transmitter.
Are you feeling safer yet? Well you should! Now you are feeling comfortable and bullet proof while surfing the net — easy there fella! Be careful before entering your personal information on any random site that asks for it. If you re interested in making an online purchase or financial transaction, be on the lookout for suspicious sites. Here is what I like to tell people: If you are not sure how to tell if a site is safe… then don’t do it. Reputable sites, especially ones that have traditional retail stores typically run a legitimate online store. If it is an online only business, see if they list a phone number and call it - see if someone answers. Do a search for their company name in a popular search engine and see if other people online are posting negative experiences with the site. Once you are comfortable with a site and ready to enter your information in, make sure the address says https rather then http. The “s” makes the connection encrypted as long as the lock icon is not broken. If you are not sure how to determine this, have a friend show you. It is a simple thing that can prevent issues. And lastly make sure to use a regular credit card as apposed to a check card. It is no fun having money automatically removed from your bank account without your permission!

Additional Safety Tips for Parents

Be involved in your child’s internet usage. I can speak from experience, that when not watched kids will attempt to get pornography, illegal music and software, or meet the wrong person online while your not supervising. Kids need to be monitored.
Limit the amount of time your child is allowed to use the internet. Don’t let them stay up all night online (refer to the previous tip)
Until you trust your son or daughter, I recommend not allowing the child to have their own computer in their private bedroom - see the first parent tip. Keep the computer in a place in the house where you can walk past and casually peek at what they are doing.
Feel free to ask your child what they do “online” as if it were a tangible place. Just like asking what they did at school today, what did they do online today. There are many different sites, be sure to check it out after they tell you about so you can speak about it in future conversations.
Offer to help find fun sites for your child to visit. Consult your favorite search engine, and enjoy the surf time together!

I hope you find these internet safety tips helpful. Please drop a comment and let me know.

Internet Safety Tips

Robot Chicken Clips

Alex Barger — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:49:59 +0000

Check out this short video clip of robot chicken. It is a new series from Adult Swim. Looks like it will be a hoot.

More Robot Chicken Clips Here

Robot Chicken Clips