2009-08-21

vim + gnupg = password manager

After finding that there are very little native password managers for linux, I decided to see if I could find a way to open my encrypted password file using a console-based editor without putting any plain text onto the disk at all (ie. transparent editing of gnupg encrypted files).

I stumbled onto the vim website (by way a Google search) and found a nice little script (plugin) that does all this for me!

Initially, I had some issues with getting it working but that was mainly due to exporting $GPG_TTY incorrectly :-P

However, as I use screen to manage everthing I do from the one terminal window/ssh session (vim incuded), the plugin works fine but fails to decrypt files when vim is invoked as a new screen.

I suspect that it's attributed to the $GPG_TTY variable, but my knowledge of screen and some other aspects of Linux are limited.

I now use vim + gnupg for my encrypted password file.


UPDATE 21/08/2009 @ 13:15
There seems to be an issue where the the GPG_TTY variable needs to re-exported every time you change to a another screen/pts. I have made myself a workaround, whereby I run a simple script that first exports the variable and then opens vim with the encrypted pwd file, but then vim removes the standard UDLR keybord controlls and falls back to classic vi mode. *sigh*

2009-08-12

iPhone battery fail

My iPhone 3GS seems to be working well but with one small problem. Battery life sux.

The stupid thing lasts anywhere from about ½ a day to about about 1 day, which doesn't seem right at all.

I had also already jailbroken the the thing within the first few weeks of owning it, but since the latest firmware (3.0.1) came out recently, I thought I would update it in the hopes that Apple had silently fixed a possible power issue and to remove any jailbreak packages that could be causing this problem. No luck here folks.

About a week later I discovered that the phone was constantly emitting RF as a cheap set of speakers that I had turned on, would pick up the RF as interference and damn was this phone was being noisy!

After calling the Virgin Mobile iPhone hotline to get some support (which still didn't help mind), I stumbled onto apple's own iPhone battery information page and went through the troubleshooting steps, I seemed to have found the answer! Push mode notification. Turning it off has quietened it and the battery bar has stopped draining quicker than a cold beer in summer.

I am happy the problem is fixed and the battery is still in reasonably good condition, but this begs the question: Why is it on by default?

 
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