IPv6 - now I'M confused

Ok, so I wanted to open an IPv6 tunnel from my laptop to my home Mac mini and I wanted to forward my web traffic over that ssh tunnel.

What worked:

ssh -l me -6 2002:4bbd:e752:1:211:24ff:fed6:ddb2 -L8080:127.0.0.1:8080
(plus setting my proxy in Firefox to ::1 over port 8080)
(NOTE: I could not access IPv6 only hosts via this tunnel, only IPv4 hosts. So it "half worked". I'm blaming Squid not being IPv6 aware)

What didn't work:
ssh -l me -6 2002:4bbd:e752:1:211:24ff:fed6:ddb2 -L8080:[::1]:8080
(Firefox set to either ::1 or 127.0.0.1)
A black webpage is displayed but I do not get a 404 error.

Looking at what worked I wonder if my tunnel was actually sending my 8080 bound traffic over my IPv4 loopback; it certainly looks to be configured that way and web pages do display. Using a loopback (during tunnel construction) of "::1" gives the following error "channel 2: open failed: connect failed: Connection refused".

Hum. Why. Why. Why. I'm missing something obvious.

Time Capsule is driving me CRAZY

This is driving me crazy. The Apple Time Capsule is home router with a nice, fat SATA drive built-in that allows Mac users to backup data to the device (among other uses). You don't have to use the Time Capsule as a route, in fact I do not. My Time Capsule lives behind my home firewall and is configured as an access point, a layer 2 device not a layer 3 device (router). The Time Capsule still backs the Mac data up and having had to restore a laptop completely from scratch I can say the device works as-advertised and does a good job.

What irks me is this device, out of the box, when configured as a router supports IPv6, IPv6 6to4, and participates well in networks that use IPv6 Stateless Autoconfiguration. Why, then, when the Time Capsule is configured as an access point, does the Time Capsule itself not support IPv6 Stateless Autoconfiguration? What does it matter?

I have three IPv6 networks and that total is growing fast. I want to be able to backup my Mac to the Time Capsule from any of these three networks and I don't want to use a VPN to make it all work**. All IPv6 devices on my LANs are able to communicate with one another via TCP and UDP. I should be able to simply point my laptop to the IPv6 address on the Time Capsule. But I can't. This irritates me to no end.

Apple, please fix this. Also please add IPv6 connectivity to the iPhone and iPod Touch while you're at it. But take care of the Time Capsule thing first, ok? PLEASE?

** - I might be able to do some port forwarding trickery but I'd prefer to make it work via IPv6. It would be so much "cleaner".

Asterisk and something else

I have two networks: point A and point B. A is the main network at home and B is on the Outer Baks. I want to pick up a VoIP phone at A and ring a VoIP phone at B. When at B I want to make calls through A so I only have to deal with one account. I do not care if my phones touch the hard wired POTS line at A or not. I assume this is simple, right?

As far as the other thing I want a collapseable keyboard like I had with my old iPaq and I want two usb ports on the same: one for a mouse and one for Ethernet. Could someone please invent this?

what is the name of all that is holy..

...is THAT?

So we finally get some weather rolling in..

..and I leave both the tri-band HAM radio and my XM Weather/GPS at home. Nice.

CNN reports that consumer confidence is at an all-time low

NO KIDDING! Or, alternatively, "you're telling me". Kelly and I have stopped all purchases deemed less than necessary to basic survival. Maybe the budget is not quite that restricted yet but it's getting close. Yesterday CNN listed quite a few chains that might not make it through this downturn. The list was long and varied. What a shame. What a mess!

Kelly and I had our eye on a used Mini Cooper S but even thinking about a purchase like that, even a used car, seems frivolous and irresponsible despite the fact that (knock wood) we are both still employed. How long our employment status stays like that is anybody's guess but I'm hoping for the ambiguous "a very long time".

Learn something every day

Today I learned that cosmic background radiation left over from The Big Bang is -270.45 degrees Celsius.

Netflix and the Internet - what a great combination

Today I watched two movies via the Netflix streaming service: Storm Over Everest and Red Without Blue.

Storm Over Everest



Climber David Breashears was filming an IMAX documentary about Mount Everest in 1996 when disaster struck. A brutal storm trapped no less than tree separate climbing parties high on Everest on May, 11 1996 as the same parties pushed for a summit attempt on the world's highest mountain. During the two day storm Doug Hansen, Andrew Harris, Yasuko Namba, Rob Hall, Scott Fischer, Subedar Tsewang Samanla and Lance Naik Dorje Morup would perish on Everest with some bodies never recovered. Others, such as Beck Weathers and Makalu Gau, would survive enduring massive injuries. In Weather's case he would be left for dead not once but twice during the ordeal.

Breashears' interviews the parties involved with the notable exception of Jon Krakauer who was climbing that day with Rob Hall. Krakauer, an author, would later write the article Into Thin Air and a book of the same name sometime later (an excellent read, by the way).

In the end few answers are presented other than climbing Everset is no "yak trail" where any person with $60,000.00+ can pay a guide to literally drag them to the summit. It's a dangerous place, probably best left to the professionals.

Survivors Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa and Anatoli Boukreev would both later die in seperate avalanches.

Red Without Blue



A documentary following the lives of two identical twins over a three year period. Both brothers are homosexual and one decides to live as a male-to-female transsexual and debates the possibility of sexual reassignment surgery.

While this sounds interesting enough for some reason I failed to "connect" with this documentary. In fact I did the neigh unthinkable (for me) and skipped about 35-40 minutes of the movie and skipped to the end.

Don't get me wrong, the movie is well-made and the characters interesting but I just could not seem to "get into" the movie. Perhaps it was a timing thing.

I'll watch any documentary about any subject so it's not unheard of me to watch an alternative-lifestyle documentary, after all, everyone has a story to tell, right? That said, in this genre of films I found Small Town Gay Bar to be more engaging.

I might might this film another try another day. Someone spent a lot of money to put this film together and beyond that the real-life persons as the center of this story boldly bared their souls for all to see and judge and doing so is a lot harder than you might think it would be so don't discount these people immediately. The movie is well-made and I wonder about the specific production aspects of this film having had a 36+ month production period. What cameras were used? Was final production done with Final Cut or on a PC? For the record the only computers shown in use during the film were PCs (unless I missed something when I skipped forward).

In the end, *** out of *****. I did not dislike this film though I did not particular care for it either.

What the Apple iPod Touch is missing

The iPod Touch should have been built with an infrared doohickey. Why? I could replace 10,000 remotes with applets from various manufactures through the iTunes store. My touch goes with me everywhere and it's never far from my right hand at home. At least check I had seven remotes lying around the living room. It would be fantastic to combine all those into a single device and I think the touch would have served that role very effictively.

Now that's funny!

After dumping its $10 million contract with Jerry Seinfeld after just three ads (only two of which even aired) Microsoft has created new ad copy where regular people and a few celebrities say, “I’m a PC!” One problem with the campaign’s credibility: the ad work was created using Macs.

Neighbors

Neighbors, neighbors, neighbors
Have I got neighbors?
Have I got neighbors?
All day and all night

Neighbors
Have I got neighbors?
Ringing my doorbells
All day and all night

Ladies, have I got crazies?
Screaming young babies
No piece and no quiet
I got T.V.'s, saxophone playing
Groaning and straining
With the trouble and strife

Is it any wonder
Is it any wonder
Is it any wonder
That we fuss and fight

Neighbors, do unto strangers
Do unto neighbors
What you do to yourself, yourself, yourself

Is it any wonder
Is it any wonder
Is it any wonder
That we fuss and fight

Neighbors do unto strangers
Do onto neighbors what you do to yourself
Yourself, yourself, yourself
Neighbors, neighbors, neighbors

Neighbors, neighbors, neighbors
Do yourself a favour
Don't you mess with my baby
When I'm working all night
You know that neighbors
Steal off my table
Steal off my table
And doing alright, alright, alright

Neighbors do unto strangers
Do unto strangers
What you do to yourself

My IPv6 Company Presentation

My presentation went pretty well! When I give a technical presentation that's not a sales pitch I always walk away thinking I wasted everyone's time and they hated it but I'm getting positive feedback. I'm a very self-critical presenter, at least when it's all said and done.

This morning while searching for some other "More Information" links using this google search I found a fantastic IPv6 website I want to share with you: The IPv6 Portal. I've only been browsing this website today and I am thoroughly impressed with the quality, quantity and presentation of information. Had I known this website existed my presentation would have been more complete, I think.

Go now, all you. Embrace IPv6. Configure your IPv6 broker tunnels or run 6to4 networks. Or obtain your own IPv6 address space and help turn the crank of a technology now ten years old but still in it's infancy.

Run IPv6 on your OpenWRT router

Better believe I'll be trying this out tomorrow.

I hope I don't screw it up. It's not like I can run out to the Outer Banks and "quickly rebuild" the unit. But I need a second test until that I can ssh to directly, etc. It's not ideal because the device is itself a routeable IPv4 host when I'd prefer to have another IPv6 device behind an IPv4 NAT firewall. But beggars can't choosers so I'll probably SSH to this device first then ssh back the Mac Mini which IS behind a NAT firewall.

Oh, the fun of it all! Instructions for running IPv6 on your OpenWRT router can be found here. If you get this running tonight please share you experiences with the world.

IPv6 is *NOW* working from home

(funny what a single typo can do to a story. IPv6 is NOW working, and has been.)

I've had IPv6 working at the Outer Banks for some time now and now I'd like to announce I'm successfully running IPv6 at home using good, old IPv6 6to4. The difference between the two networks is at the beach I'm running IPv6 over a dedicated router (that will soon disappear) while at home I'm running IPv6 using everybody's favorite firewall: m0n0wall.

You didn't know m0n0 supported IPv6 using 6to4? Officially it does not, at least not yet. You have to run beta code to make it work but so far it seems stable. Having completed this little project the IPv6 Internet is wide open and waiting and believe me, it's mostly waiting. For who? YOU! Throw away that NAT mess young man or woman and get on the bandwagon.

Next up: my plans to host Time Machines and other dedicated IPv6 hosts at my undisclosed (and get unidentified) location in Wilson. Ah to build, perchance to dream. I've not yet figured out where the money is coming from but I've found the bandwidth and it's ripe, plentiful and inexpensive. What more is a kid to want? You want your own 10/10 meg server with bi-directional 100 meg burst window running IPv6, don't you? Heck, why not?

***

traceroute6 to ipv6.l.google.com (2001:4860:b002::68) from 2002:4bbd:e906:1:216:cbff:febc:6a62, 30 hops max, 12 byte packets
1 2002:4bbd:e906:1::1 2.526 ms 1.991 ms 1.95 ms
2 2002:82f4:21::1 102.334 ms * *
3 2a00:800:0:1::2:2 125.428 ms 124.444 ms 124.737 ms
4 pr61.ams04.net.google.com 127.144 ms 123.32 ms 121.244 ms
5 * * *
6 * * *
7 2001:4860:b002::68 225.418 ms * *

Movies watched this weekend

It was cold, cold, cold at the beach and, for the most part, I stayed inside where it was warm. Thankfully I had a functioning high-speed Internet connection and my Roku to keep me company. Here is a few of the movies I watched:



Girl 27.

Girl 27 is a documentary about Patricia Douglass who in 1937 worked for MGM. During a drunken sales party at the MGM ranch she was raped by a party-goer and MGM employee. Patricia sued and MGM fought tooth and nail to keep the case out of court and their name in good standing. The film pulls no punches and digs up re-election contributions paid by MGM to the District Attorney. Amazingly MGM prevails and the case is all but dropped.

Sixty-five years later a writer researching another story stumbles upon the headlines from the case while looking through old newspapers. Digging deeper he finds no information - it's as if Patricia Douglass vanished into thin air, which she did. Writer/Director David Stenn wants to tell this story to the world and sets out to find what became of Patricia Douglass and the accused. Could Patricia, who would now be 85 still be living somewhere? If so how would she feel about someone digging up this old secret after 65 years?

**** out of *****



Lonely? Looking for marriage? Contact "Cowboy Cupid" Ivan Thompson who specializes in the business of introducing marriage-minded American men to marriage-minded Mexican women. This documentary could have easily been an absolute train wreck but somehow it works. We follow Ivan and a three of his clients on individual trips into Mexico with the hopes of finding true love.

How does it work out for all parties involved? Watch and find out.

*** 1.2 out of *****



Why oh why did I watch Snuff: A Documentary About Killing On Camera again? Why? This is not for those of "weak constitution" among us. In fact it's not really recommended viewing for anybody. That said it is a well-made documentary about a gruesome subject and it is handled with a great deal of respect and the material is well-researched. The film makers even go so far as to interview experts in the field of law enforcement, both local and federal investigators, as well as experts on film.

As well-made as the film is be prepared to view a lot of footage that really sicks with you, and not in a good way. The film takes the high road and is not a series of gruesome "Faces of Death" playbacks, though you do watch someone plummet to their demise in faulty parachute. I think the interviews are the harshest part of the movie and I especially didn't like the inclusion of the notorious Leonard Lake/Charles Ng footage (two serial killers who videotaped the torture of captives before they killed them). The animal footage was worse. Thankfully the film contains little footage of anything dying but you don't have to see a lot to be affected long after the final scene goes black.

I have no idea how to rate this one. The film is exceptionally well-made but I don't think I'll ever watch it again.

? out of *****

After Snuff I bailed on any more documentaries. I started up a new favorite: Cashback.



This movie did not fare well with critics. For the life of me I can't figure out why not. Sure, it's kind of creepy - a art college insomniac who takes a job working nights in a grocery store who discovers he can stop time. That's not creepy? Well he disrobes the female shoppers while time is stopped she can draw and paint them (mostly) nude. Granted he only does this one but it is kind of creepy. Plus he is supposed to be working the graveyard shift in the store which is, apparently, when all the young, fit people of England go shopping.

The whole drawing people nude who aren't aware thing aside it's still a good movie.

**** out of *****

There were a lot more movies watched but these were the top four - all for different reasons.

Weird compliment?

Told to me today: "Greg, when you type fast the sound makes me think of a ballet on your keyboard or a jam session played by a good fusion jazz band."

Gee. Um. Thanks! I think.

Patrick McGoohan, star of The Prisoner, dies at 80

Wow. It's a rough week for actors having lost Ricardo Montalban yesterday and today Patrick McGoohan. If, by some chance, you have not get seen the series The Prisoner by all and any means please do.

Let's hope the series one day make it to Netflix where it can be viewed on demand.

Apple

Steve Jobs is stepping down as Apple CEO to take a medical leave of absence. After hours trading of Apple was halted as a result. Mr. Jobs will be stepping down until June.

Morning vs. afternoon workouts

Morning workouts are the only way to go, for me at least. If I get up early and get on the bike I feel more awake, mentally dexterous and in general more friendly than I do if I sleep in with the *intention* of working out in the afternoon. In short, it's a win for everyone!

Try as I am to workout in the afternoon/evenings when I get home there is always "something else" to do: clean the house, dinner, work that comes home with me, play with the dogs, the list goes on and on. I still manage to do my evening workout, most days that is, but I find that I tend to ear a larger dinner following my workout than I would had I exercised that morning.

In addition, if I get my morning bike ride completed I can always do a second "light" workout with weights, which is really want I want to do anyway. I've give up on the heavy weights for the year; my 350 pound bench press "past 30 record" will have to wait, and likely stand. I really wanted to bench 405 once more in my life but I'll have to do that past 40, I think. Right now I need to use low weights (145 on the bar) and work on high reps (multiple sets of 10). I'm trying to tone up, not bulk up.

What of the exercise and diet, is it doing anything? I think so. I refuse to step on the scale, at least until my next visit to the doctor. Why? I don't want to get discouraged. In the past I've noticed it takes me longer than most to get the weight loss thing really moving. Sure, I can drop a pound or two, three even ten but I plateau *really* quickly and it takes a lot of determination to keep me going in the right direction. So no scales. I'm going off how my clothes feel, crap like that until I know things are going the way I want.

In closing, for those who like bikes but hate exercise bikes, or haven't found one you like, I highly recommend the Schwinn Airdyne. You can find them on Craigslist used fairly often for much less than the new price and I just can't say enough positive things about this bike. I like the mechanical simplicity, upright ride, and the resistance which is not belt and friction based but based off air resistance depending on how "hard" you are riding (and working your arms). I had previously owned a massive, room-dominating computerized recumbant bike and I find the Schwinn superior for cadiovascular/aerobic workouts. Your mileage may vary.

That is all. Good morning.

Happy 17th Birthday, HAL

Today is HAL's 17th Birthday.

90 Minute

Tyler's Taproom in Durham has Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA on tap once again!!!! A rumor is floating around that 60 Minute is on tap as well. This is a F-I-N-E start to 2009.

Could Randall the Enamel Animal 2.0 be far behind?

wokka wokka wokka

Goodbye, Pacman.

You won't be missed.

Wokka wokka wokka wokka.

A new car in 2009?

Don't count on it, at least not in my garage. I did, just before Christmas, have a weak moment when I thought to myself "perhaps Kelly would be better served by a smaller car to use as a daily commuter". Her Infiniti G35x has been paid off for some time and my Suburban has only another year or so of payments left. Forget the fact that if I actually ran the household financial numbers it would be plainly obvious that there is no way another car payment could be absorbed. Car dealers are hurting, right? I mean, they are desperate to move new cars, aren't they? If you are looking to buy a new car, now is the time, right?

Not if you are in the market for a Mini Cooper. Yeah, yeah. Sling your arrows and call this a chick car but the fact is a Mini S is a phenomenal vehicle and a hell of a fun car to drive. The supercharged 180 hp engine gets this little car up and moving and with the wheels so far apart there is almost no understeer or body roll even in the hardest or corners. In short it drives like a go-cart on steroids and I wanted one.

So I called. I spoke to Kyle, who sounded like a 20-something fresh out of college, and we had a very brief conversation.

Kyle: "This is sales, my name is Kyle. What can I do for you today?"
Greg: "Kyle, my name is Greg and I'm interested in a Mini S."
Kyle: "That's fantastic, we have a large inventory right now and I'm sure we can find the car you want with the options and colors you desire."
(sounds good so far)
Greg: "Well, do tell Kyle, what kind of end-of-the-year incentives is Cooper offering?"
Kyle: "First and foremost Minis hold their value better than any other car on the market."
(here we go)
Kyle: "And Mini has *NEVER* offered any incentives because that would harm the resell market."
(bull shit)
Kyle: "That's why you are protected in your investment when you purchase a Mini."
(a car? an investment? that's a laugh. Maybe a 428 Corbra, but new cars devalue and that does not an investment make.)
Greg: "What about the dealership? Times are tight, right? How many cars do you have to move before the end of the year to make quota?"
Kyle: "We don't have quotas here. In fact why don't you browse the inventory on the website, find the car you are interested in purchasing and we'll set up an appointment. You can arrive, test drive the very car that has caught your eye and we'll have you on the road in less than 90 minutes."
(actually, in terms of how long it takes to buy a damn car that sounds kind of nice, but I'm not biting.)
Greg: "Well I'd like to finance through my credit union at work, so there would be a bit of extra paperwork to complete."
Kyle: "Oh that's no problem, since the prices are advertised on the website I can simply take that price, add the taxes, tags and other fees so you can have the check with you when you arrive."
Greg: "So, wait, there MSRP on the sticker is what you're willing to sell the car for and nothing less?"
Kyle: "That's right. It helps your resell value. Can we set up an appointment now?"
Greg: "I'll call you. Thanks, and have a great day."

So, folks, the good people at your local Mini dealership are NOT hurting one bit, at least Kyle doesn't think so. Goodness, here Dodge is selling two trucks for the price of one if you purchase at sticker price and everyone else has "employee pricing" and 10,000 other incentives to get you in the door and Mini is willing to do nothing?

Meh. I can do without very well, thank you very much. The last thing I need is a new car anyway.

Well shucks.

Apple's last keynote is over and done with at Macworld and there was no announcement of a new Mac Mini. Darn.

break out the tye-dye

The Dead are coming to Greensboro April the 12th.

Movies!!

It was a big movie weekend at the old Brown household. Let me start by giving a mini-review of a movie we actually watched in a theater.



Kelly has been wanting to see Four Christmases for a while now so we decided to head out to the Saturday matinee. The movie itself centers around Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, a married, childless couple who want nothing more over the Christmas holidays than to escape the families (you can't spell 'families' without 'lies') over the holidays by jetting off to exotic locations for scuba diving and relaxation. Just to keep everyone from getting too upset about their absence they tell the families they are helping third world children, building schools, voluteering at clinics, that sort of thing.

I don't want to spoil the movie for you (everything I've said so far can be learned from watching the trailer) but I did want to share some interesting thoughts. This movie contained a fairly large well-known cast. In addition to the aforementioned main actors other Hollywood notables were featured including Robert DuVall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight and Kristin Chenoweth appeared as well as country musicians Dwight Yoakam (who I recogizned from Slingblade) and Tim McGraw who I couldn't have picked out of a police line-up (mostly because I don't list to country music).

Two very interested castings came in the form of Jon Favreau (director of Elf and Iron Man) as Vince Vaughn's extreme fighting brother (Jon hit the gym for this role and sported what I think are a lot of fake tattoos). The real bizarre person to make an appearance was number two worldwide ranked Donkey Kong player and star of King of Kong Steve Wiebe. Granted Steve didn't get any lines but it was strange for who I think is a non-union non-actor to be given a role in a union Hollywood movie. As it turns out the movie director, Seth Gordon, also directed King of Kong so the two had worked together perviously.

Overall I'd give this movie a 2 and-a-half out of five stars. Middle of the road picture. Well made but predictable in places, not to mention fraught with a few major continuity problems. If you are dying to see a movie, yeah, go ahead and catch it while you still can but if you, like me, are a fan of Christmas movies I'd wait until it rolled around via Netflix.

Next up: my new Blu-Ray player!!

I have joined the Bill Vinson's of the world and gone Blu-Ray. We also purchased a new 47 inch Sony Bravia HD TV but that's not the story here. The wickedly cool Blu-Ray player comes with built-in Netflix streaming capabilties! Very cool. We tested the Netflix streaming out and it works splendidly. What about the Roku player? The Roku player is heading for a life at the beach.

Work calls. Bye.

New Mac mini rumors are kind of cool

If the rumors are true the new Mac mini will have a black top (to bring it in line with current Apple color codes), a "lip" much like the Time Capsule has, and a SATA optical drive that can be deleted and replaced with a second internal hard drive supporting RAID 1. That's kind of cool. If you need to install software or back data up to an optical disk you'll have to connect one via USB 2.0 or use Apple's Remote Disk from another Mac much the same way you would with the Macbook Air.

The so-called lid lip will hide the optical drive slot so it won't be obvious if the drive has been deleted or not. Kind of cool. I guess.

I need to replace my aging yet still running splendidly 1.5 Ghz G4 mini. A mini sporting internal RAID 1 would be a compelling replacement.