llongi's blog

It is possible! ;)
Instead of going through the "public" WLAN and then using the VPN, you can just connect to the "uzh" SSID and use its WPA2 encryption.
This usually works much better, on "public" I sometimes loose the connection or can't connect at all...
I found this out by just trying to connect to it using my UniAccess Login-Data and the same encryption-scheme I used for the "eth" network at ETHZ, which is basically WPA2 Enterprise with IEEE802.1x Authentication, and look there, it worked!
I have no idea why the ID (Informatik-Dienste) don't mention the possibility of using the "uzh" network, as it is clearly superior in its implementation and security. Here the WICD encryption-scheme file I use, based on the one by a friend of mine (Lukas Manser) for the ETHZ network.

/etc/wicd/encryption/templates/uzh

name = UZH Network WPA2
author = Luca Longinotti
version = 1
require identity *Identity password *Password
-----
ctrl_interface = /var/run/wpa_supplicant
network = {
    ssid="$_ESSID"
    scan_ssid=$_SCAN
    proto=WPA2
    key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
    pairwise=CCMP TKIP
    group=CCMP TKIP
    eap=TTLS
    identity="$_IDENTITY"
    password="$_PASSWORD"
    phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
}

One can probably extract the relevant information from here even for other OSes. Have fun!

Update:

It seems on the 20th of October (according to Google) UZH updated their pages to mention the possibility of using the "uzh" SSID and WPA2, and added instructions for it here. They also mention that in the future it's going to be the main SSID and to migrate to it, if possible. So now it's official!

I've bought lots of hardware in my life, some better, some worse...
But my last buy, a Samsung SP-H03 pico-projector really leaves me speechless.
I really didn't expect the tiny, low-cost LED projector to perform so well in practice...
The image is clear and very watchable, you just have to turn down the lights some, but that was to be expected. It also has a lot of features and connection possibilities, which all work very well, like just attaching a USB stick to play movies off. And the built-in speaker isn't that bad, you can clearly understand dialogue, but of course an external 5.1 system is better for sound. Attaching it to my PS3 worked without problems, and I tell you, playing Colin McRae Dirt 2 on a 60" screen is awesome! As is lying back on your bed and projecting the latest Castle episode on the ceiling of your room.
Being able to just project stuff anywhere using the battery is really cool, and the whole package just weighs 200-something grams; the fan is almost noiseless, you might hear it in a completely silent room while projecting without sound (during a presentation for example) but that's it, as soon as you have any kind of sound, speakers, a laptop-fan, whatever, you won't be able to hear it at all, and it doesn't disturb you any.
I'm really very impressed by the price-performance ratio of this product, it was the cheapest projector available and it works like a charm, and lots of other professional reviews pin it as one of the best pico projectors on the market. Samsung wins again!
To conclue a video I watched before buying it, I was a little skeptical, but now that I own it I can tell you, what you see on that video is 100% doable in reality.

I promised I'd blog this one... :P
The other day I was in Zürich with a friend of mine and she's a big Apple fan.
As we were exiting a store, a family passed us and the store alarm system went off for them, no idea why.
Still, my friend goes "I heard that can also happen if you've got an iPhone, together with some store security systems!", to which I couldn't resist replying: "Well, sure, I mean, the iPhone is a robbery!" :D
AHAHAHA epic comeback win! :P
(Yeah, I don't like Apple products that much ;) )
To conclude some photos from the ASTAZ Glows in the Dark party yesterday evening at Dynamo, the fluorescent light theme was really cool!

A day is about the time needed to recuperate from ESF 2010 (ErstSemestrigenFest, translates to FreshmanParty) at ETH Hönggerberg, so it's time to blog about it. ;)
It was a great party! The party itself was awesome, lots and lots of people (it is the biggest student party in Switzerland, with about 5000 attendees), several floors, lots of bars, great music and light effects, big screens et all. There even was a corner with PlayStations since Sony was a sponsor, where you could relax by playing using the remote controls, I actually didn't try that, but it was an interesting idea. HP also had some kind of game set up with model car races. All in all the party was really cool, but the external organisation (tickets, wardrobe, shuttle buses) sucked big time, interminable waits (>1 hour) for tickets and later cloaks, they mixed up a lot of clothing too, and the buses were incredibly irregular, like having three buses at once going one route, and no bus doing the other route for over half an hour, despite there being the same amount of people waiting on both... Same problems as last year to be honest... Only time I saw it working was two years ago, when they actually set up parallel ticket stands with multiple queues, same for the wardrobe, no idea why they don't do that anymore. And no idea why they don't just have 2-3 more buses doing the rounds and space them out evenly, it's not like there isn't capacity for it (at night the buses aren't used by normal public transport and VSETH has more than enough money for a few more as far as I know).
Still, big congrats for the party itself, it really was great, I'll be there again next year for sure!
Here two videos (FLV format) I took with my phone of the two floors to give you an idea:

• ESF 2010 Upper Floor
• ESF 2010 Main Floor

While I was transferring them from the cell, I actually noticed I had a few pics from Energy 2010 @ StreetParade still on there, so I uploaded them too. They are all from David Guetta's performance, those light-guys with the laser pointers looked really cool. :D

I've been a long time advocate and user of Mozilla Thunderbird as email client, but with version 3 the already bloated software just got worse, and most of its new features were just useless to me, so I started searching for a much more lightweight graphical email client, and found claws-mail to be a perfect fit.
I now use it since a few months and am really happy with it, it's blazing fast and really only provides useful features at its core, while leaving more up to plugins.
One such plugin I use is RSSyl, which aggregates your feeds like a bunch of mail folders, and each entry is presented like an email.
There even is a Windows port of claws-mail (together with gpg4win), so even Windows users can try it!

Here are a few Mozilla Firefox extensions I've really come to appreciate in my years of browsing the web, they might be useful for you too:

• AdBlock Plus - you can't use the internet without it, as it blocks all those annoying banners and pop-ups
• NoScript - a must in today's age of malicious JavaScript & co., blocks the execution of scripts and other content until you approve it
• FAYT - get back the old "Find as you type" search-bar, with the prev/next buttons! No idea why they removed them ...
• Firefox Sync (formerly known as Mozilla Weave) - keeps your bookmarks, preferences etc. in sync while using differente computers, useful for us mobile students
• WebDeveloper - various tools of great value to website developers

A few computer & programming books suggestions:

• C Programming: A Modern Approach, 2nd edition, by K.N. King - awesome C book, it really goes over the whole language logically, is updated to the C99 standard, and is awesome as a reference too, I consider this my bible
• The Art of Multiprocessor Programming, 1st edition, by M. Herlihy & N. Shavit - all you ever wanted to know about parallel programming, including lock-free data structures, examples are in Java
• Digital Design and Computer Architecture, 1st edition, by D. Harris and S.Harris - great book about how your processor is actually designed, what it's made up of, ...
• Algorithms in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference, 1st edition, by G. Heineman, G. Pollice and S. Selkow - great reference book for most common algorithms
• Thinking in Java, 4th edition, by Bruce Eckel - great Java programming book, covers Java 1.5/1.6, a free version of the 3rd edition is available
• Effective Java: A Programming Language Guide, 2nd edition, by Joshua Bloch - tips & tricks to become a better Java developer, very recommended

And a few fantasy books suggestions, as we all like to relax from time to time and escape into slightly more adventurous and magical worlds:

• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien - seriously, if you've never read this, buy it immediately, it's one of the best books ever written
• The Mistborn Trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson - awesome, totally new supernatural way to do things, kick-ass heroine, and surprising twists at every turn of the page
• The Belgariad and The Mallorean, by David Eddings - 10 books total, a classic epic fantasy series, with magic, evil gods, a company of heroes, ...
• The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher - contemporary fantasy series, set in Chicago, lots of creatures populate our world here, currently book 12 is out, up to 11 in paperback

Went to the Warm-Up party at ETHZ's StuZ² yesterday evening, not that bad, but not really that great either, the place was a bit cramped at times and they really need to add some better ventilation system, it was stifling inside most of the time!
Now a study-laden week-end is awaiting me, yay...
Next week:

• Thursday, ESF 2010 at ETH Hönggerberg, biggest swiss students party, everyone who doesn't know what to do that evening, go there!
• Friday, Inkognito 2010 at Härterei, it's our students association's semester-party

Again this year I'll be present at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, along with a bunch of friends. I've been to 23C3, 25C3 and now it's time for 27C3. I really hope that it's gonne be awesome like the last times, the venue is really great, and the talks are usually very interesting and diverse. This year they changed how tickets are handled, but that shouldn't be a problem.

I've now been hosting my blog here on a Linode 512 vserver since January, and I'm really satisfied with it, I've never had any problems or outages, the performance is quite good, and their control panel and other resources really rock! Satisfied customer here, I'd recommend them to anyone searching for a good vserver offer.