Beware the Mathematician

Archive for 2011|Yearly archive page

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Two-Hop SCP

In Geekery on June 16, 2011 at 12:34 AM

The University of Otago has a fairly anally-retentive firewall configuration. SSH in or out is strictly verboten. However, mail servers do allow incoming SSH connections, and once in, it’s easy to SSH into my machines in my office. The problem comes, however, with trying to use SCP. The mail server won’t let me copy files to outside the otago.ac.nz domain, and I can’t SSH into my machines directly.

After much hunting, I have found the solution. This will work for any two-hop SCP.

scp -Cp -o "ProxyCommand ssh gatewayuser@gateway nc remotehost 22" remoteuser@remotehost:/path/to/file/on/remote /path/to/file/on/local

Here, I use the term ‘gateway’ for the mail server, and ‘remotehost’ for the machine in my office.

Problem solved.

The State Is Not Your Friend

In Liberty, Videos on June 12, 2011 at 5:33 PM

I’ve been informed, in no uncertain terms, that I need to blog more. I’d like to claim that I’m too busy, rather than too lazy, but the reality is that I have the motivation of a doped up sloth at the moment. Thus, to appease my reader(s?), I though I’d put pen to paper* and write something.

I’m fortunate enough to have friends who link me to interesting articles and videos on a regular basis, two of which have really caught my attention in the last few days. The videos are very clear, and somewhat self-explanatory, which is something that appeals to my innate laziness. It’s not immediately apparent that the themes of these two very different videos are at all related, yet upon some closer inspection, they are making the same point in two different ways. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dulce et decorum est…

In Uncategorized on April 25, 2011 at 12:11 AM

It’s not often that I’m proud to be a student. It seems like every night they stand around for hours in the cold doing nothing, then walk across town to studentville and stagger into their flats at 5am, all under the banner of ‘having a good night’. On one day a year, however, they do the opposite: they stagger out of their flats at 5am to walk across town to stand for an hour in the cold doing nothing. This time, however, they do it to honour the fallen. And for one day, I get to be proud to be a student.

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WordPress, Google Apps and Liberty

In Liberty, OUSFL on April 23, 2011 at 3:47 PM

Some time ago, I had an idea to found an organisation for Libertarian students at Otago University. I’m already the Otago Region President of ACT on Campus, which is a group of students who agree with and promote ACT policies. However, I’ve always maintained that my allegiance so not to ACT, but to Liberty. In recent times, ACT has come out with a few things, of which I don’t particularly like the look, especially the social conservatism represented by figures such as John Boscawen. Fundamentally, the issue with ACT is that it’s a political party in a democratic system, unavoidably burdened with the need to get votes. That’s all well and good for ACT, but what I want is Liberty, not politics, and I think a lot of students feel the same.

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Why Indiana Jones would beat Batman in a fight

In Just for Fun on April 19, 2011 at 10:35 AM

Having argued with Liz Roberts on this topic and given her a verbal mauling, Liz underhandedly decided to take the fight to the blogosphere. Well, my dear Liz, to such skullduggery there can be but a single response:

Challenge Accepted

Read the rest of this entry »

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The Philosophy of Liberty

In Liberty, Politics on April 19, 2011 at 4:07 AM

I’m probably going to end up talking about Liberty quite a lot on this blog, so for the sake of clarity, I should probably define here what I mean by Liberty. There are many fine essays out there that present beautifully the concept of Liberty and fundamental rights. One of the best is On Liberty by John Stuart Mill. From Wikipedia:

Perhaps the most memorable point made by Mill in this work, and his basis for liberty, is that “over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign”. Mill is compelled to make this assertion in opposition to what he calls the “tyranny of the majority”, wherein through control of etiquette and morality, society is an unelected power that can do horrific things. Mill’s work could be considered a reaction to this social control by the majority and his advocacy of individual decision-making over the self. The famous Harm Principle, or the principle of liberty, is also articulated in this work: people can do anything they like as long as it does not harm others.

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Hello world!

In ChrisLaing.net on April 18, 2011 at 10:47 PM

Bet you thought this was the default WordPress post, didn’t you? Ah-ha! Already you are falling blindly into my well-laid trap!

Actually, I just think it’s a good title for an introductory post. This is the latest iteration of ChrisLaing.net. The site began as a playground for me to try out xhtml and css, then PHP and finally WordPress. After some time spent as a simple landing page, ChrisLaing.net has settled into comfortable old age as a personal blog.

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