September 2007

Why I'm glad MIT rejected me

MIT Kerberos is a steaming pile of shit.

"What critical functionality can we break in this release?"

"I know! Let's make it so you can't initialize a kadmin interface out of a credential cache!"

"Brilliant!"

UPDATE 9-27-2007: While this remains an issue, it turns out that what I'm trying to do is an uncommon scenario. By default, the kadmin/admin principal has the attribute DISALLOWTGTBASED, which specifically prohibits instantiating a kadmin interface using a TGT (a credential cache containing a ticket for kadmin/admin will work, and that is not affected by this bug). However, at ACM, we have for a long time created user accounts using a script which initializes the interface using a TGT out of a credential cache, so that it can perform AFS operations without having to reprompt for a password, and as a result removed the DISALLOWTGTBASED attribute from the kadmin/admin principal. This works fine with the MIT Kerberos 1.3 client, but fails with newer clients.

At any rate, we will likely be switching to kadmin-remctl.

Posted Sunday, September 02, 2007 14:20:22 UTC in - Permanent link

Blackjack!

About a year-and-a-half ago, I had the good fortune to win a Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone as a door prize at a Microsoft tech talk at UIUC. I grew to love that phone - I had an Exchange account at UIUC since I worked for CITES OnSite, and by setting up Exchange ActiveSync I could get my email, calendar, and contacts synced over the air. And when I came out to Microsoft for my internship last summer, I was able to use it here as well. Several people remarked that I had arrived at Microsoft already bearing the "corporate phone," as the SMT5600 was ubiquitous at Microsoft.

Alas, when I returned full-time to Microsoft, I found out that I would not be able to use my SMT5600 to get my email much longer. It only ran WM2003, and didn't support the new security features in WM6 and WM5 with the Messaging and Security Pack. I needed to get a new phone.

So I started looking for new phones. Originally I was considering the T-Mobile Wing, the only WM6 phone as yet available from a US carrier. However, a couple of things put me off about that:

So in the end I went with the new "corporate phone," the Samsung Blackjack on Cingular/AT&T. Because it only runs WM5, I purchased a refurbished unit, expecting to upgrade at some point.

I do like the Blackjack - it's a nice phone, and the voice quality is first-rate. Also, the camera is decent - for samples, see my gallery album that I took with it. The SMT5600's camera had a maximum resolution of 640x480, which was pretty useless.

That said, there are some things I miss about my SMT5600 - namely its small size. The SMT5600 was a very slim phone, in the candy-bar style. Plus, it came with a nice reinforced fabric holster with a magnetic clasp, which fit nicely on my belt. On the other hand, the Blackjack did not come with a holster. I don't like carrying my phone in my pocket, so I purchased the Samsung OEM holster online. I received it tonight, and I hate it. It's of the plastic snap-in type, and it doesn't cover the face of the phone. Plus, the top part that clips on is very flimsy - I can imagine having to replace this thing regularly. But the biggest problem is that the Blackjack is just so wide. Wearing this thing on my hip is uncomfortable, and makes me look like a dork (though not as much as a hiptop would). I've seen 3rd-party holsters for the Blackjack, but they can't solve the problem of just how large this phone is.

I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll just have to start wearing shirts with pockets. At any rate, I'll make sure that the next phone I buy doesn't give up being compact in order to accomodate a QWERTY keyboard.

UPDATE 2007-09-02: I just broke the holster, in a totally different way than I'd anticipated.

Posted Saturday, September 01, 2007 13:12:45 UTC in Personal - Permanent link
Matthew Loar
matthew@loar.name
Last modified and spun 2009-06-19