Running DHCP Server on Slackware 14

Running DHCP server on Slackware 14 is quite trivial. Just run pkgtool from the command line and enable the dnsmasq service. Dnsmasq is in the services to start on start-up category. What is not very clear is the configuration file for this service. You will find /etc/dhcpd.conf file in Slackware but this is not the configuration file used by dnsmasq. Dnsmasq uses /etc/dnsmasq.conf as configuration file. You only need to uncomment one line in this file to enable the DHCP server, i.e. the line that contains dhcp-range option, for example:

dhcp-range=192.168.137.2,192.168.137.10,48h 

The configuration above assumes the DHCP client are given address between the two IP addresses shown and a lease of 48 hours. If you have Windows computers running as client, you might want to uncomment this line too:

dhcp-option=vendor:MSFT,2,1i

This tells Windows to release the DHCP lease when it shuts down. Well, now you can restart dnsmasq and see the result.

Preventing Trivial Malicious Access to Your Linux Server

One of the problem haunting Linux server installation on the internet is malicious accesses, such as port scanning. One of the lightweight option to run in your Linux server to provide protection against "trivial" malicious activity from the internet is the psad (http://cipherdyne.org/psad/). This solution uses iptables as the source for analysis.

When did human know to make nano structures?

Well, it's far longer than what you might think.

The Damascus steel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel) already contains nano structures in it. The steel making process to make the Damascus steel started as early as the 3rd century.

You can read details of the nano structure here: http://www.crystalresearch.com/crt/ab40/905_a.pdf

Until now, the process of making Damascus steel has not been rediscovered. The process itself was lost probably due to various reasons. Read the Wikipedia entry above for that.

What is interesting from this, is that we are not as advanced as we thought compared to older civilization. Are we starting to rediscover what ancient human did thousands of years ago?

Mediterranean Missile Test Detected by Voronezh-DM Radar?

This news: http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20130904/183151257/Russia-Defense-Ministry-Israel-Playing-With-Arms-After-Israel-Launch.html
mentions that the missile launch (which was described as a test launch by both Israel and USA) was detected in Armavir region of Russia. This is the relevant news quote:

The launch was detected at 10:16 a.m. Moscow time (6:16 a.m. GMT) by radar in the southern Russian city of Armavir

Now, if you look at what radar installation is in Armavir, you would find this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronezh_radar. This means that the Voronezh-DM radar is working as "advertised". It's powerful enough to detect ballistic object(s) thousands of miles away. Feel free to disagree in the comment section :-)