My Blog

I don't know how Tik Tok does it and honestly I don't know how its algorithm works. It can't be algorithm though.

I just went to get a quick bite outside and got myself a $2.99 Jamaican beef patty. I paid with cash, didn't use my credit card. By the way, I also didn't bring my cellphone with me since it was just a very short distance, just a short walk. I had no electronics with me at all. Somehow, when I opened Tik Tok on my wifi-only tablet with no cellular connectivity, which I left at home, a few minutes later it displayed a video about a Jamaican beef patty. It's really strange... can't be a coincidence.

GitLab is a complex piece of software. If you are planning on upgrading your self-hosted GitLab machine to a new major version, you need to follow this documentation: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/update/

Also, use the Upgrade Path Toolbox from here: https://gitlab-com.gitlab.io/support/toolbox/upgrade-path/?edition=ce to ensure that the upgrade is smooth and safe.

For instance, if you currently have gitlab-ce version 15.11.10-ce.0 and want to upgrade to version 16.10.1, you have to perform the following upgrade one-by-one:

• apt-get install gitlab-ce=15.11.13-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.0.8-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.1.6-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.2.9-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.3.7-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.4.5-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.5.8-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.6.7-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.7.7-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.8.5-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.9.3-ce.0
• apt-get install gitlab-ce=16.10.1-ce.0

See - https://gitlab-com.gitlab.io/support/toolbox/upgrade-path/?current=15.11.10&edition=ce&downtime=true

 

To reduce a guest machine before you perform a backup, first set the discard flag on the guest machine (while turned off), then do a TRIM inside the machine.

Run this command inside the guest machine (assuming it's running Linux): fstrim -a -v

What it does is it emulates SSD TRIM facility, which blanks out free space, since deleting a file only removes a file but doesn't mark the space as free.

If somehow you have Proxmox & CSF for blocking outside traffic vmbr0 (WAN), and have a vmbr2 LAN interface, check your ETH_DEVICE abd ETH_DEVICE_SKIP settings in /etc/csf/csf.conf and add vmbr2 in ETH_DEVICE_SKIP so it won't block internal LAN traffic.

Today I got a scam text message from +1 (604) 339-2192, telling me to deposit email money transfer at et-lnterac-xxx (see screenshot). Notice how the scammer changed the letter I to lowercase l (L). I am not sure if the number is spoofed or not, or if the cellphone is compromised and used as a bot. Basically the scam message claims that CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) has sent me $297.00 and that I should deposit the money.

Then I checked the whois data, but it seems to be fake.

The address is in Toronto but the originating number is from Richmond, BC.

I'm usually too lazy to check it because I already know it's a scam. But this time I checked it because I'm bored, and when I checked the address, it goes to this site. Now, the only time somebody can create a subdomain record on a CPanel-based server is when they have access to the CPanel itself, so even if the application (e.g. Wordpress or any other script hosted there) is compromised, unless the person has the username & password for CPanel, they won't be able to create a subdomain record. Another possibility is if the scammer has compromised the whole server and got himself a root account. Who knows.

Then I proceeded to check the index files. Ahh, I can see now what the scammer has uploaded because he forgot to disable index in .htaccess.

Then I tried clicking the INTERAC e-Transfer_fichiers folder as I was just curious to see what's there.

Very interesting. Then I clicked td, rbc2, bmo, sco. Here's what came up - a fishing page trying to get users to post their credentials for TD, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal, and ScotiaBank.

Here's the Scotia one (check out the URL in the address bar):

Here's the TD scam (check out the URL in the address bar):

There you go.

If I go to the main domain, apparently the site is from India (country code +91):

Hope this can help some people. Be careful and stay safe.

 

Recently, CPanel has been providing domain validated SSL certificate for free. However, it is quite intrusive that it replaced my own Wildcard certificate with theirs. To disable it, login as root and type these two commands:

root@servername [~]# touch /var/cpanel/ssl/disable_auto_hostname_certificate

root@servername [~]# touch /var/cpanel/ssl/disable_service_certificate_management

 

 

I've been wanting to download the latest version of Windows 2012 but for some reasons I keep getting errors so if anyone is experiencing the same thing here's the direct download link.

This morning I received a scam spam message from (917) 690-6874. Becareful because this is not a legitimate text from BestBuy.ca. It tries to fool the receiver by adding "BestBuy.ca" subdomain.

The page then redirects to Ziinga.com. Read the following about fraud by Ziinga

http://www.scambook.com/company/reports/59339/Ziinga.com

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?332397-ziinga.com-Help-Needed

The WHOIS information for ziinga.com:

Domain: ziinga.com
Registrar: Eurodns S.A.

Registrant:
Company: Flamingo Intervest Ltd.
Name: Nikdar Masih
Address: OMC Chambers, Road Town
City: Tortola
Country: VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH
Postal Code: P.O. Box 3152



Administrative Contact:
Company: Flamingo Intervest Ltd.
Name: Nikdar Masih
Address: OMC Chambers, Road Town
City: Tortola
Country: VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH
Postal Code: P.O. Box 3152
Phone: +35625572557
Fax:
Email: nodomainnames@gmail.com

Technical Contact:
Company: Flamingo Intervest Ltd.
Name: Nikdar Masih
Address: OMC Chambers, Road Town
City: Tortola
Country: VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH
Postal Code: P.O. Box 3152
Phone: +35625572557
Fax:
Email: nodomainnames@gmail.com

Original Creation Date: 2009-09-30
Expiration Date: 2015-09-29

Status:
clientTransferProhibited

Nameserver Information:
Nameserver: ns1.mydyndns.org
Nameserver: ns2.mydyndns.org
Nameserver: ns3.mydyndns.org
Nameserver: ns4.mydyndns.org
Nameserver: ns5.mydyndns.org

59QMY8Y3PY9G

I've been curious about Oracle VM Server and wanted to try it for my own home lab. I've had the VMWare ESXi 5, OpenVZ, as well as Xen but not the Xen-based Oracle VM Server.

So I downloaded Oracle VM Server 3.0.3 (and a few weeks later upgraded to v3.1.1) and the initial experience was quite pleasant and the whole thing was easy to install. I've also installed the Oracle VM Manager 3.1.1 and the v3.1.1 in general is night and day compared to 3.0.3 (no silly "refresh" thingy).
You'll have to use Oracle 11g database and also if you use the Express version you can't convert it to the full version.

A couple of high-level observations:

• I'm using Lenovo W520 with i7-2860QM and 32GB RAM as well as Seagate XT Momentus 750GB x 2 (Intel soft-Raid). Everything went smoothly, unlike the newest Ubuntu 12.04 distribution who failed at everything and was just in general buggy.
• I could not find an option to do a snapshot from the GUI like I did in VSphere. There is a "Clone" option though. I haven't tested this on a live Oracle database
• If I want to export the virtual machine .img files is done with qemu. Nothing in the GUI.

So, what's the benefit of using Oracle VM Server compared to VMWare?

• Well, it's XEN-based and it's free
• There's a bunch pre-built Oracle templates such as Oracle Enterprise Linux, PeopleSoft, 11g, etc. With VMWare
• The overall licensing is cheaper for Oracle Database. There is a price difference if you use Oracle database server and your virtual machine uses VMWare.

A few screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

I think Ubuntu 12.04 is a big failure. It's unstable and buggy to the point where I think it just deserves rm -rf /*. I can't believe an unstable product like this is labelled as "LTS". I've been reading Ubuntu forum and found too many issues regarding lockups in this version. Separating the install into "desktop","alternate","server" just so that it fits into a CD doesn't make sense. This is 2012 and even on the racks there's DVD-ROM. The price difference between CD-ROM and DVD-ROM is so minimal it is just not worth it to separate the contents. Also, regarding the lockups, don't blame it on X Window - it's the whole package that matters. Last year when I tried 11.04, the partitioning tool in the installer never work properly (GPT, MBR issues) I had to use Redhat's Anaconda installer to partition it and then use Ubuntu. A year later it's still the same and it's even buggier!!

The installer also failed to detect my RAID and yet it said "Installation is complete". This release is so bad it makes Windows Vista looks so much better. If I want a buggy, unstable OS with nice eye candy, I'd install Windows ME or Vista, not Linux.

On the other hand, Oracle VM Server (derived from Redhat Linux) installed just fine on Lenovo W520 and it perfectly detected the RAID configuration and everything was smooth sailing with no lockup whatsoever.



Executing 'grub-install' /dev/mapper/isw_BLABLABLA failed. This is a fatal error. Then it said "Installation is complete. You need to restart the computer in order to use the new installation.

FAIL.