Static in the Ether

Recently I had need to produce pdf files of some man pages simple because the are far easier to print and review onscreen. The following snippet added to my .bash_profile does the trick.


# Convert man pages to pdf
man2pdf()
{
m2pfile="/tmp/${1}-m2p.pdf"
if [ ! -s $m2pfile ]; then # is it there and > zero bytes 
     man -t "${1}" | ps2pdf - > "$m2pfile"
     fsize=`du -k $m2pfile | awk '{print $1}'`
     echo "Created PDF file in $m2pfile ($fsize KB)"
fi
}


It can trivially be extended to check for things like a $DISPLAY variable and pop up a viewer or request to print. The caching is admittedly crude, but works since /tmp is cleared out periodically. Output looks like:

[bvi@starburst ~]$ man2pdf ls
Created PDF file in /tmp/ls-m2p.pdf (20 KB)

At 12hr 34 minutes and 56 seconds on the 7th of August this year, the time and date will be:

12:34:56 07/08/09

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

This will never happen our lives again!

• PDFreaders.org – Get a Free Software PDF reader!
  Get a Free PDF reader alternatives to Adobe Acrobat
  (tags: tools software opensource acrobat pdf privacy)
• Ride The Lightning: SCRUBBING A MAC'S METADATA: A BIT OF A PUZZLER
  It's always good to be humbled by conference attendees and have to admit, "I don't know." That happened last week as we were lecturing for the Virginia State Bar and someone asked, "How do you scrub metadata on a Mac?"…
  (tags: Security mac document-security metadata privacy)
• Project RainbowCrack – Crack Hashes with Rainbow Tables
  version 1.4 features:
  This version focus on more effective rainbow table file format. New features:

  * New compact rainbow table file format (.rtc) reduce rainbow table size by 50% to 56.25%
  * New rt2rtc utility convert rainbow table from raw file format (.rt) to compact file format (.rtc)
  * New rtc2rt utility convert rainbow table from compact file format (.rtc) to raw file format (.rt)
  * The rcrack/rcrack_cuda program support both .rt and .rtc rainbow table file format
  * Conversion from non-perfect to perfect rainbow table is supported by rt2rtc utility

  Smaller rainbow table significantly improve table lookup performance!

  (tags: cude GPU password Security hacking crack tools)

• CONFidence 2008 – konferencja bezpieczeństwo sytemów, security
  (tags: conference Security infosec)
• 0×90.org // [Absinthe :: Automated Blind SQL Injection] // ver1.3.1
  sql injection data extraction
  (tags: sql injection too tools hacking web)
• Linksys by Cisco Network Defender
  Home Network Defender (HND) powered by Trend Micro is designed to protect you and your family against cybercriminals and online predators by stopping threats before they get into your home network.
  (tags: Security education training kids)

• "The Cable Guy: How to network a continent" – Wired | Seacom Blog
  views from a sea going cable monkey
  (tags: seacom bandwidth networking)

• Index of /pub/IPDSLAM/DAS-3248
  documentation od stuff for dlink 3248 DSLAM
  (tags: documentation dsl Dlink)

• The “Bulldust” Audit Findings Generator /  The Security Sangoma
  helps you fill out those blank spaces in audit reports
  (tags: audit humour Security)
• 27062201.jpg (JPEG Image, 1476×1101 pixels)

NMAP officially went to version 5.0 today, being described as the most significant release since 1997. I find it hard to believe I’ve been using this for 12 years. and will hopefully be around for many more.

FreeBSD ports are still holding 4.90RC1 form 10 days ago, but are likely to get updated soon.