Author Archive for Odrakir
My last post worked like a kind of a trigger. Remembering all those cool toys and shows we had when we’re kids really brought back some strong memories of how much I loved some of that stuff. From all those toys / shows the one I was most fond of was definitely Masters of the Universe. To this day I still remember how I was introduced to He-Man and his buddies, a TV commercial showing the first figures, vehicles and what was probably the greatest playset ever made: Castle Grayskull. The commercial was very cool, with a strong voice behind singing “He-Man, He-Man” and kids playing in a huge diorama with all the figures… how could a kid not be instantly hooked???
My initial reaction was “WANT!!!” and there I went to ask my parents to buy me the entire collection… this was how advertising worked the kids on those days 
Curious, my parents went to the usual toy shop and found out that each figure cost, back in 1982, 2500$00 (in escudos our old currency), €12,50 on today’s “money”! WOW, talk about huge money back on those days! Guess that He-Man and company was out of the question for me, my parents told me thay couldn’t buy toys with those prices… I was sad, but it didn’t matter, I was a smart kid and understood this things, Christmas was almost there and I knew the usual Lego toys were there for me (yes, I loved Lego as well).
So, Christmas came, and by then I knew that I was going to get a Lego Space Station, I saw the big wrapped box stored on my parent’s dresser, I was already making plans on the ships I was going to build to play with it… I just didn’t know how wrong I was. At midnight we started to open presents, I went to the big box, my Lego Space Station, which was really Castle Grayskull! What a RUSH! My parents got me the most awesome toy of that year, I was nearly exploding with joy, my reaction was funny, still it wasn’t near the Nintendo 64 kid’s reaction.
But wait, there was more! With the Castle I also got Attack Track, He-Man’s all terrain vehicle and the mighty Battle Cat. But, (there’s always a but), the two figures I got were not from Masters of the Universe 
I got two bootleg figures from a cheap mock collection that were sold back then. So, I had the Castle, a vehicle, He-Man’s tiger, but no He-Man or Skeletor… or anyone else from the line
There was a reason for this. My parents bought all the toys from a Spanish shop that sold wayyyy much cheaper than it was sold in Portugal, but He-Man and Skeletor were sold out everywhere! That’s how big this line was back then! Years passed and I got a few more figures, real ones this time, but naturally I grew up and stopped playing with them, still I had them all stored in perfect conditions. Sadly, my mother gave all the Masters of the Universe toys to my cousins… I only manage to save He-Man and Battle Cat which I have until this day.
After the original MOTU line, two more followed, New Adventures He-Man, that changed all the universe of the line, He-Man went to the future followed by Skeletor, new heroes, new foes, crappy figures. In 2002 Mattel tried to resurrect the brand with a new cartoon and line of figures, this time more anime styled. The cartoon show was good, and they followed the classic line, including all the original characters and new ones, all with a new design. The line was well accepted by fans but not much by the real target audience, kids, and it lasted until 2007.
Back in October 2009 I was surfing the web and some how (can’t remember) I came across with Mattel’s Masters of Universe Classics line. A new line of figures had been started in 2008, this time only available through Mattel’s collector website – Mattycollector.com. Masters of the Universe Classics, MOTUC as it’s known among the fans and collectors, is a line for adult collectors, featuring figures from the original Masters of the Universe line, New Adventures He-Man and the 200x line. It’s an amazing line, the figures are sculpted by the Four Horsemen Studios, the same as the 200X line, but so far, no action features are included in the figures. They are highly posable, with 20 to 25 points of articulation and have very good paint jobs and extremely detailed.
I was very disappointed with one thing. I could get no figure whatsoever from Mattel’s site. You see, this figures are sold mainly through an annual subscription, which is only available to buy from July to August or when the figures are released, generally at the 15th of each month. This is a highly sought line, by collectors and scalpers alike, which means that if you want a figure for a low price, you have to get it from Mattel on the day it’s released. If you miss this window of opportunity, eBay is your destination.
When I visited Mattycollector.com they had He-Man announced to be re-released on November, along with two new other figures. I booked the day on my calendar and in November I ordered He-Man… and learned that in December Skeletor was being re-released… and booked the day and got the sucker. And that’s it. I said to my self that I was going to stop there. I just need the main guys, the good and the bad. This was until 31st December, when He-Man’s figure got delivered (yes, Matty’s packages take forever to get here).
Wow… The figure was even more amazing that I thought it was, bringing back that 80’s feeling I was so fond of . That was the He-Man I played with as a kid, adapted to the 21th century action figure standards. In January, Skeletor came, and I was even more amazed. The figure is probably one of the best of the line.
I decided to collect the line, and by now I already have eight figures, all amazing and that I will review here in the next days. This line has the best action figures for adults available out there, and if you were / are a fan of the old Masters of the Universe line, you need / you have / you owe it to yourself one of this figures.
Closing this post, that’s going very very long, there’s a rumor that with the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie, Mattel will release this line on retail, still it’s just a rumor. For now, if you want to score a few figures, your best chances are Matty’s website on the 15th each month (16th this month and it’s Battle Cat day ), eBay or the He-Man.org forums, where all the collectors and fans unite to discuss and trade / buy / sell figures and other merchandise MOTU related. You can even find some of the old figures there 
I’m 31 years old. If you’re somehow like me, in your 30’s, there’s a big chance that we share some common memories of our childhood. The toys, the cartoons, the TV shows, the video games, stuff that most of us, as kids enjoyed and remember fondly to this day. Looking at today’s entertainment market it’s cool to see, that the ones that were kids on the 80’s and 90’s are now pulling the strings and resurrecting the stuff that made our dreams back then. Check this:
- The Transformers – Huge cartoon on the 80’s as well as a huge line of toys. Now there’re two big motion pictures on the brand with a third one on the way, a cartoon series as well as two toy lines that were created for both movies and cartoon series.
- V and Battlestar Galactica – Two of the most rememberable sci-fi TV shows from the 80’s are back with brand new shows (I know Galactica is over but it’s a good example).
- He-Man and The Masters of The Universe – If you’re a kid back then you probably had a MOTU figure. It was that big! A new cartoon was made in 2003 along with a new toy line but it wasn’t so successful as the original. Now Mattel is creating a new line of figures just for collectors inspired in the classic line. Oh, and there’s a new movie being made!
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Another cartoon and toy line that were everywhere. The brand completes it’s 25th Anniversary this year and to celebrate they’re made a new animated movie named Turtles Forever, as well as a re-issue of the original action figures. A new cartoon was made in 2003 and a CGI movie in 2007 along with a toy line for both.
- Fame – One of the biggest TV series back then was graced with a motion picture this year.
- Video Games – Well, I’m not even starting a list here. Remakes from classic games are born every day. Retrogaming is really catching up among developers and it brings the opportunity to new players to play old games.
So, are we running out of ideas or are we just resurrecting our passions from the past? Are we that nostalgic or are we just trying to make old successful formulas work again?
My take is that it’s a little bit of both. What’s your’s?
Yup, in my house since yesterday! One of the greatest titles of the series. It’s like Nintendo mixed all the classic Mario titles from the NES and SNES into a brand new game. Expect a full review on 8-Bit Revolution!
Recently I needed to integrate a Squid Proxy server in an Active Directory environment. The main objective was to grant / deny access to the Internet by user / group validation, using single sign on.
The solution might not be the most elegant, but it’s a working one. You’ll need to install the Kerberos, Samba, Squid and NTP packages.
In this solution will be allowing all users in the InternetOn AD group to have access automatically. Any users outside this group will be denied access. Computers outside the AD trying to use the proxy will be prompt for username and password.
krb5.conf
[logging] default = FILE:/var/log/krb5libs.log kdc = FILE:/var/log/krb5kdc.log admin_server = FILE:/var/log/kadmind.log
[libdefaults] default_realm = YOURDOMAIN dns_lookup_realm = false dns_lookup_kdc = false ticket_lifetime = 24h forwardable = yes
[realms]
YOURDOMAIN = {
kdc = yourpdc
admin_server = yourpdc
default_domain = YOURDOMAIN
kpasswd_server = yourpdc
}
[domain_realm] .yourdomain = yourdomain
[kdc] profile = /var/kerberos/krb5kdc/kdc.conf
[appdefaults]
pam = {
debug = false
ticket_lifetime = 36000
renew_lifetime = 36000
forwardable = true
krb4_convert = false
}
#####################################################
smb.conf
[global] workgroup = YOURDOMAIN server string = SQUIDPROXY (or any other name you want) security = ADS auth methods = winbind encrypt passwords = yes idmap uid = 70001-90000 winbind enum users = yes winbind gid = 70001-90000 winbind enum groups = yes client use spnego = yes winbind separator = \\ load printers = yes cups options = raw log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log max log size = 50 password server = yourpdcIP realm = YOURDOMAIN dns proxy = no
[homes] comment = Home Directories browseable = no writable = yes [printers] comment = All Printers path = /usr/spool/samba browseable = no guest ok = no writable = no printable = yes
#####################################################
squid.conf
http_port 8080 hierarchy_stoplist cgi-bin ? acl QUERY urlpath_regex cgi-bin \? no_cache deny QUERY hosts_file /etc/hosts refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080 refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440 refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320 access_log /var/log/squid/access.log squid emulate_httpd_log on
auth_param ntlm program /usr/bin/ntlm_auth --helper-protocol=squid-2.5-ntlmssp auth_param ntlm children 5 auth_param basic program /usr/bin/ntlm_auth --helper-protocol=squid-2.5-basic auth_param basic children 5 auth_param basic realm Squid proxy-caching web server auth_param basic credentialsttl 2 hours
external_acl_type ADS %LOGIN /usr/lib/squid/wbinfo_group.pl acl interneton external ADS InternetOn acl blocksites url_regex "/etc/squid/squid-block.acl" acl all src 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0 acl manager proto cache_object acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255 acl to_localhost dst 127.0.0.0/8 acl SSL_ports port 443 563 # https, snews acl SSL_ports port 873 # rsync acl Safe_ports port 80 # http acl Safe_ports port 21 # ftp acl Safe_ports port 443 563 # https, snews acl Safe_ports port 70 # gopher acl Safe_ports port 210 # waisacl Safe_ports port 280 # http-mgmt acl Safe_ports port 488 # gss-http acl Safe_ports port 591 # filemaker acl Safe_ports port 777 # multiling http acl Safe_ports port 631 # cups acl Safe_ports port 873 # rsync acl Safe_ports port 901 # SWAT acl purge method PURGE acl CONNECT method CONNECT
acl AuthorizedUsers proxy_auth REQUIRED
http_access deny blocksites http_access allow interneton http_access allow manager localhost http_access deny manager http_access allow purge localhost http_access deny purge http_access deny !Safe_ports http_access deny CONNECT !SSL_ports http_access allow localhost http_access deny all http_reply_access allow all icp_access allow all coredump_dir /var/spool/squid
#####################################################
Start samba, winbind and squid by this order.
Synchronize your squid server with the AD
ntpdate yourprimarydomaincontroller
Initialise Kerberos
kinit administrator@YOURDOMAIN
Test Kerberos connection
klist
Join Squid Server to AD
net ads join -S yourpdc -U administrator
Validate Trust
wbinfo -t
Validate if the wbinfo_group.pl script is working
echo "youralloweduser InternetOn" | /usr/lib/squid/wbinfo_group.pl -d (it returns OK or ERR if the user is in the InternetOn group or not)
You might have some problems with the winbindd_privileged directory. If that’s the case:
cd /var/cache/samba chgrp squid winbindd_privileged chmod 750 winbindd_privileged
The problem with this setup is that when you change the InternetOn members, Samba / Winbind aren’t aware of the change until the cache clears, so I made a small script you can run in cron or manually.
clearcache.sh
#!/bin/bash /etc/init.d/smb stop /etc/init.d/winbind stop rm -f /var/cache/samba/*.tdb /etc/init.d/smb start /etc/init.d/winbind start /etc/init.d/squid reload
Test this at your own risk. 
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