Author: AlekZ

CAPTCHA’s and phpBB

“Easy for bots, difficult for humans”. Not that it was the idea behind Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart. The proper test should:

  1. work properly out of the box
  2. work regardless of language settings
  3. be solvable for almost all humans
  4. and few Bots

But what about the implementations? Read about CAPTCHA’s here.

SqueezeCenter again. Testing v7.3

SqueezeCenter 7.2 is officially out and not interesting anymore 😉 Let’s have a look at version 7.3 which has a new streaming service. In this test I downloaded SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975.ZIP from here.

The first attempt to start the server (after unpacking and “chmod“-ding) gave me this error:

# ./slimserver.pl
The following modules failed to load: YAML::Syck

To download and compile them, please run: /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Bin/build-perl-modules.pl YAML::Syck

Exiting..

The “built-in” build-perl-modules.pl failed to install the CPAN module:

# /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Bin/build-perl-modules.pl YAML::Syck
Welcome to the Slim Devices perl module installer.

These packages are needed for SqueezeCenter to function.
You will need a C compiler (gcc), make, and perl installed.

You will need development libraries for MySQL. eg: libmysqlclient

You will need development libraries for expat. eg: libexpat1-dev

*** Ignore any warnings about AppConfig. ***

Please enter a perl binary to use (defaults to /usr/bin/perl)
This must be the same perl binary that you ran this program with –>
Please enter a directory to download files to –>
Downloads will use lwp to fetch tarballs.

Downloading YAML-Syck-0.64.tar.gz to: /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975
Something looks wrong – I couldn’t read /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/YAML-Syck-0.64.tar.gz, which I just downloaded.
Uncompressing..
sh: YAML-Syck-0.64.tar.gz: cannot open
tar: blocksize = 0
Couldn’t change to YAML-Syck-0.64 : No such file or directory at /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Bin/build-perl-modules.pl line 226, line 2.

So, I decided to go the old way and get rid of the supplied with SqueezeCenter CPAN directory.

# mv CPAN CPAN-orig

… update YAML::Syck just in case…

# perl -MCPAN -e shell
. . .
cpan[1]> install YAML::Syck
YAML::Syck is up to date (1.05).
#

… and start the server again …

# ./slimserver.pl
Can’t locate Encode/Detect/Detector.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/CPAN/arch/5.8/i86pc-solaris-64int /opt/csw/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/CPAN/arch/5.8/i86pc-solaris-64int/auto /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/CPAN/arch/5.8.4/i86pc-solaris-64int /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/CPAN/arch/5.8.4/i86pc-solaris-64int/auto /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/CPAN/arch/5.8/i86pc-solaris-64int /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/CPAN/arch/5.8/i86pc-solaris-64int/auto /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/CPAN/arch/i86pc-solaris-64int /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/lib /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/CPAN /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975 /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975 /usr/perl5/5.8.4/lib/i86pc-solaris-64int /usr/perl5/5.8.4/lib /usr/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4/i86pc-solaris-64int /usr/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4 /usr/perl5/site_perl /usr/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.4/i86pc-solaris-64int /usr/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.4 /usr/perl5/vendor_perl .) at /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Slim/Utils/Unicode.pm line 40.
BEGIN failed–compilation aborted at /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Slim/Utils/Unicode.pm line 40.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Slim/Utils/Prefs/Namespace.pm line 30.
BEGIN failed–compilation aborted at /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Slim/Utils/Prefs/Namespace.pm line 30.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Slim/Utils/Prefs.pm line 81.
BEGIN failed–compilation aborted at /usr/local/SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Slim/Utils/Prefs.pm line 81.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/slimserver/slimserver.pl line 146.
BEGIN failed–compilation aborted at /usr/local/slimserver/slimserver.pl line 146.

This error looks familiar. And after commenting line 40 in SqueezeCenter-7.3-22975/Slim/Utils/Unicode.pm (#use Encode::Detect::Detector; ) the server came alive and immediately updated the firmware of the Transporter to version 62.

Gonna buy Shunyata Hydra? Wait a bit…

Read this article first.

Summary:

“After using the two power conditioners with different components  (both tube and solid state) and at different times of day and night, I reached the conclusion that the “DIY Hydra” was a sonic twin to the production Shunyata Hydra 4, taking into account the additional purity provided by eliminating the varistor in my “DIY Hydra”. I found that similar performance to a $700 manufactured product could be obtained for an expense of roughly $100 and some time and effort. The downside is that the “DIY Hydra” has a resale value of effectively zero. The well-reviewed – and deservedly so – Shunyata Hydra 4 will retain its value far better.”

Notes:

  • New Hydra Model-4 costs between $800 and $1300.
  • 2nd hand one can be found for $500-600

Conclusion:

  • Do not buy new
  • The DIY one costs less than the difference between “new” and “old”

Something to think about …