Some Security-Related Tidbits

While browsing on unix security topics, I ran across a few interesting sites containing interesting security tidbits. These tidbits could possibly serve nicely as additional layers of security on unix boxen...

• NOEXEC - Is a short-circuit library that introduces broken exec and system calls into your libraries on as as-needed basis. Prevents shell-escapes from the plethora of places they are possible. Haven't tried it, but looks interesting.
• sudosh - A recording shell meant as a companion to sudo, which records all I/O and timings to a log file, which can then be replayed by administrators for review. I've tried it. Very nice.
• Iron-Bars Shell - Is a restricted-access chroot jail that also limits what commands can be issues by users. Haven't looked at it in-depth, but deserves more attention...

You can buy me a soda...

Friday 29 JUL 2005 is System Administrator Appreciation Day. So make certain to locate your company's system, network, telephone, database, or other computer administrator and thank them for all the hard work they do. I do not recommend this just because I'm a long-time systems administrator, but because the work I and my colleagues do is often-times thankless. So buy your SA a soda, thank them for their hard work, then tell them to get back to it!

Knowing Your Geek Hierarchy

If one considers one's self as a fantasy/sci-fi geek, it is good to know the hierarchy of things when it comes to being a geek.

When I first read the hierarchy, at first I laughed. Then I giggled. Then I had a quiet moment of realization that the hierarchy was quite accurate of the dynamics of the fantasy/sci-fi communities.

So learn it...there will be a test later.

Weekends Busier Than Weekdays

I thought weekend days were meant to be relaxing and enjoyable. Well, this one has been hectic...and enjoyable. So I can't complain too terrible much, but I have to say I am sick of the heat.

Friday we went to the opening ceremonies of Lebowskifest 2005 at the Brown-Forman Amphitheater on the riverfront here in Louisville, KY. The Dude opened thing up and was given a key to the city by our pandering eternal-mayor. Then a guy named Corn Mo came on and dithered between boring, entertaining, and tolerable as he shrieked about all kinds of things from his life (of COURSE he played an accordion). Then They Might Be Giants. TMBG were enjoyable, and while I was never a huge fan I had fun because I knew Smacky loved them and was glad to take her there to see them. We closed the night with our friend Chad Thomas doing a karaoke of "The Humpty Dance" after the TMBG stage was torn down. So Corn Mo and TMBG opened for our friend Chad Thomas. Rawk! (It sure was hot, thought! UGH!)

Saturday was no less busy (and no less hot!). First thing in the morning we went aboout bought a second-hand teak table and chairs for cheap. Lovely table...looks to be 60s European design...six chairs...all teak. We love teak...have some other piece of furniture of the same wood (even the same 60s Euro style). Anyway, it needs some work, but it is a solid incredibly well-made table. That afternoon we went to see Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. Incredible movie...loved it...even though I do have trouble getting really deep into re-makes. Johnny Depp is an incredible actor, and Burton did an excellent job catching the off-kilter reality of Dahl's book. After the movie we quickly grabbed some spicy Thai food and then ran across the river to go to a booze-up to celebrate our friend Kim. It was nice to see everybody and the booze was tasty. Finally got home and crashed after reading some more of the latest Harry Potter.

First thing this morning, I went to meet Whiny Bitch and Mr. WB. We went to see The Devil's Rejects. Mrs. and Mr. WB love grody movies, and Smacky doesn't, so I was glad to have some friends to see it with. I admit that I enjoyed it more than RZ's first cinematic outing. In fact, it was a downright good shock-horror story, and the soundtrack was unbelievably well-picked and played. Love it. Now I'm back home long enough to cool off a little bit before heading out this afternoon to move furniture for my recently PHD'd friend. Lots of heavy lifting in 100 degree heat, lots of driving (to/from Lexington) in my truck with no air-conditioning, and other assorted fun! Ah well...that's what friends are for.

Web Of The Day #10

Political Whores Have Their Way With Rockstar
In a disgusting, flagrant move to suck the asses of the many and various political whores involved in the "hot coffee" furor, the ESRB has revoked its "M" rating for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and given it an "AO" rating. Gutless, feckless assholes on the political-whore side are claiming victory against evil. What's the difference between "M" and "AO"...ONE YEAR. Instead of 17+ you have to be 18+ to buy it. Most stores don't carry "AO" titles, however, so it means real harm to Rockstar. Nevermind that the ESRB and the political-whores involved simply increased the required age to legally purchase it by one year, giving specious "protection" of the youth all the while advancing their political aims. Fuckers.

Teen-agers create sustainable air-conditioning
Two teen-agers did over a couple of years what huge corporations have not over decades. They have produced a sustainable, efficient, and environmentally friendly method of air-conditioning that stands to save us billions in gasoline should all cars start using it. Yeah...I'm sure no one at these corporations would EVER have been able to develop this. I'm sure that corporations haven't been researching Peltier because it was impossible, not because it would harm their bottom line. Way to go, kids...we may finally have some fucking progress in the cooling industry.

The Freedom To Oppress
Now that we've been welcomed with open arms as liberators in Iraq, they can get on with oppressing their women-folk! YAY!

James Doohan Dies
This made me very sad. Doohan was one of my favorites from the original Star Trek cast, and was always such an amiable and caring man to all of his fans. Sure, he had a great life, and we shouldn't feel terrible when it is time for someone to go...but it still sucks that such a great guy is no longer with us.

My Best Friend Is A Doctor!

Just got the call last night...my best friend in the whole wide weird wonderful awful world just successfully defended his doctoral thesis. He is now Piled Higher, Deeper, and will soon have to be called "Doctor." SPECTACULAR!

He's worked incredibly hard this past decade to get his doctorate. From his studies at UF that started him out in environmental toxicology, to his work at UK, he's one of the most dedicated, hardest-working people I know. Nothing deterred him: the low pay, the near constant harassment from his "boss" slash "mentor". Nothing. He deserves homage for his perseverance.

Web Of The Day #9

Idiots Hospitalized For Their Idiocy
I think this is just a perfect example of the universe balancing itself. These morons not only were causing harm to a human being and his livelihood, but also to thousands/millions of bees. Maybe they'll learn something from this incident, but I don't hold a lot of hope.

Stolen Boobies
Sure, sure. Who wouldn't want boobies whenever one has the desire? But to steal them? And fake ones at that? And not in a form that is all that appealing? Oh, wait, maybe there is a monetary aspect to this. Is there a black-market for boobies?!

Hi. Is that lumber in your eye?
Preachy expert passes out in the grocery store while huffing nitrous from whipped cream cans. Um. I'll just leave it there.

Shame Those You Love!
So now, it isn't enough to judge those you know who engage in extra-marital coitus. Now you must shame them every time you correspond with them! Yay! A whole new way of spread fear, guilt, and hostility! Isn't religion a great thing?!

Thanks, Tom. You're such a dick!
Geez. Every time you think it couldn't get any worse in the whole brag-and-swagger unsheathed-sword foreign-policy/muslim-relations arena, along comes some other nutjob who somehow got elected. This time he wants to nuke Mecca. Yay! That sure is a great way to win over the Muslims of the world, Tom. What a jerk.

Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law Useless
It's good to know that those in great chronic pain and suffering only have huge hurdles to leap in Oregon to off themselves legally. Pandering to the religious zealots has effectively neutered the law to the point that it is useless (what few methods are allowed are blunt and not very successful). The result? And aged woman with unending pain and suffering who is tired and ready to go is starving herself to death...three weeks running now. That's great...let old women try to starve themselves to death because you won't let them have the right drugs/poisons to do it quickly. Yeah. That's humane. It makes me sick she can't have what she wants. I watched my grand-mother waste away from not eating. By the time she went, she was barely a layer of skin over tiny bones, and in constant severe pain. She wanted to go, yet could only do it by not eating. Why does this woman have to suffer the same fate as my grand-mother?! Fuck the zealots...let the woman go on her own terms!

Web Of The Day #8

Using Technology To Slack
Like a giant, life-sized Boss-Key. Not a shocking revelation, as work encroaches more and more into personal life.

Geek Monitors Home Power Usage
This is very cool, and likely very expensive. He got his hardware thanks to his affiliation with a similar project at work, so this likely isn't something a normal everyday geek can do in an affordable fashion. I'd be interested in reducing power usage, but I think careful planning and reducing known offenders will make a bigger difference than monitoring every breaker.

Crap-Head Coach Pays Player To Hurt Another Player
That's right. A coach of a little league baseball team paid a kid 25 USD to intentionally hurt a mentally-handicapped fellow teammate. Why? So the coach would not be forced to allow the handicapped kid to play. Way to teach about teamwork, hustle, and best effort. What an asshole! I think every kid who ever qualified for being on the Bad News Bears should rise up and kick the shit out of this coach...

Work Projects Moving Along

So my work projects that have basically been stalled by hurdle after hurdle these last few weeks, have finally started to come together. I've continued to learn a HELL of a lot about SANs, EMC Symms and DMXs, SRDF, hot-site disaster recovery methods, and more.

Am I nervous that I'm on point for ensuring the replication and recovery of nearly 8 terabytes of data for a global mega-corporation's most critical financial systems? Naw. All in a day's work.

Sure, it seems daunting at first, but then you remember that no matter how complex, all of it is built of very simple technologies. Understand the technologies, and you understand the complex structure. I'm confident it will go well (even if we are a bit behind schedule right now).

Web Of The Day #7

Fujitsu Announces Bendable Electronic Paper
Rawk! I've been following this in the tech news for years...this is a Great Thing and has all sort of potential. I can't wait until it is affordable at the consumer level.

R.I.P. OS/2
That's right, IBM fans...OS/2 is officially dead as of the end of this year. Sure, it had a good run, and was a Good Thing while it lasted, but it hasn't been a serious contender in years.

SCO Has No Case
As if it is any surprise to anyone...SCO doesn't have a case. Maybe this whole fiasco can end now. I'd like to remind everyone that the only people who benefited from this grand-standing melodrama were the lawyers. Do we really need to make lawyers richer? Think about that the next time you attempt to squash competition because your product sucks.

If (Iraq != Vietnam) Then You=Crazy;
Hey...they're different! Different I say! One is four letters and starts with an 'I.' The other is seven letters and starts with a 'V.' I mean, it's clear as day!

Enron Board Takes Lead From Congress
In a "is this really happening" sort of way, the NEW Enron board of directors has voted itself massive increases in salary. Hey...it's hard sitting in plush chairs doing nothing.

Average Wedding Costs Sky-Rocket
Costs for average weddings in the United States have shot to the moon in the last several years. I would like to say, my wife and I paid less than half the average for the wedding, reception, AND honeymoon. And we have a LOT of guests, three bands, great food, custom-made outfits, and a week-long stay at a private villa in the USVI (including several thousand in spending money so we could buy thank you gifts for our parents). You don't have to spend that much money, you idiots!

OLED Customizable Keyboard
I'm speechless. I want several. But I want them with a split keyboard style. Yum.

Hot Coffee Causing Controversy

I was going to spend a lot of time working up a big rant about the "hot coffee" controversy regarding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the recent uproar with a gamer-produced modification that allows explicit sexual content to be viewed in the game.

Then I realized it was fucking pointless to get all worked up over some political windbag trying to advance his moronic agenda against video games. Fuck him. In fact, make a video of fucking him and put it in a video game. Fucker.

That's all the bile I can work up on this particular "controversy." Long story short, there is no story here...and I hope the ESRB realizes that and tells Yee to go jump off a cliff.

Web Of The Day #6

Ratzie On Harry
Gee, Ratzie don't like that Harry Potter shit. Poor crazy Ratzie...

Century-Old Gin Surfaces In A Church
Apparently a vicar was a bit of a tippler! Heh.

Stupid French Company Sues Working Women
Stupid stupid stupid french transit company. That's right...they are trying to sue some cleaning women who car-pool together because they no longer ride the bus. Uhhhh. Wow. That's stupid even for the French.

I Miss My Friends
Some friends of ours moved away a while ago...and Smacky and I have been very sad ever since. We miss them a great deal...but luckily they're geeks like us. Which means they have a website, and a blog! Hoo ray! Now we can get the virtual AnitAlan experience whenever we want!

Coddling Stupid Drivers

So yet again, people are bitching about Highway 22 in Louisville.

Their summary? The gorgeous, country-inside-the-city two lane road is too dangerous because there are so many wrecks. Their solution? PAVE EVERYTHING OVER. That's right, they want to widen a narrow essentially country road into a minimum of three lanes. Why? Because they think it will be safer. Hey, jackholes! Here's a tip! It could be seventeen lanes, and it would still be dangerous! Why? BECAUSE PEOPLE DRIVE LIKE STUPID FUCKING ASSHOLES! That's why!

I drive this road every day, multiple times a day. Sometimes only twice. Others as much as six or eight if I'm running errands, visiting friends, et cetera. Sometimes during rush hour only. Other times at all hours. Yes, it is a vital access road to different sections of town. Yes, I am a resident of the surrounding area. NO, I do NOT agree that it needs wholesale widening.

What would widening do? Nothing, except encourage speeders to continue speeding. At best, it would reduce wrecks by around 30 percent (roughly the number of rear-end accidents on Hwy22). 30 percent. So, we're going to wreck an entire scenic corridor because of a few dozen non-fatal wrecks a year? All because people drive too carelessly? How about enforcing speed limits? How about HOLDING DRIVERS AT FAULT WHEN THEY SLAM INTO SOMEONE'S REAR-END AT 45 FUCKING MILES AN HOUR?!

Three lanes does what? Provide turn lanes at every road? What else? Who the fuck cares about turn lanes (except maybe at the busiest intersections)? The third lane doesn't allow MORE traffic to get through, all it does is potentially REDUCE NOT REMOVE less than a third of the wrecks on that road, while completely destroying the character of the road and surrounding neighborhoods. That is not a solution.

Put in turn lanes at the largest intersections. ENFORCE the speed limits. ENFORCE other driving laws. But do not further cripple an already over-developed area of town by futher development. Fuckers!

San Fierro Is Mine

So after two lengthy days of minivan XBOX time... San Fierro is mine! I opened up the mission strands all the way to the introductory missions in Las Venturas. This freed up all the schools (motorcycle, boat, airplane) which allowed me to clear all the school missions, which allows me access to the airports and gives me a variety of all forms of transportation in permanent respawn points (two bikes at the motorcycle school, three boats at the boating school, plane and jetpack at the airfield). This variety of transportation allows me to more readily travel around the entire state of San Andreas taking care of odd jobs, girlfriends, et cetera. Overall, a great bit of fun...one of my favorite games ever.

Stuff I did...

• Rail cargo missions: you steal a train, and deliver cargo to all five rail stations within the allotted time. Not exciting, not difficult, but a fun diversion.
• Trucking: You make various deliveries. Some timed. Some must arrive without damage. Some attract police attention. Intense. Had to plan the best roads to take. The last one with a four-star wanted level was just brutal.
• Hippy Shopper Deliveries: You use a chopper to drive around San Fierro and deliver packages of goods with a limited amount of time. Much more fun that the rail cargo missions. I love driving motorcycles in GTA, and having all those hills in San Fierro makes for some fun times with the bike.
• San Fierro/Las Venturas Street Races: These races are FUN, once you get past the frustrating "must learn the course" aspect of them. I really enjoyed them for the most part. Occasionally I got really frustrated with the "one wrong move and you're screwed" aspect of them, but it just forced me to drive better. LV Ringroad was INTENSE...high-speed highway driving in full traffic.
• Missions: Sneaking into Area 69 is still fun...stealing the jetpack was a blast. Taking out the San Fierro Syndicate was easier this time since my weapon skills were maxed. The higher driving skill made the monster-truck mission easier, but the car-theft missions were still difficult.

Long Holiday Trip

I was without computer, cell phone, and internet the whole holiday weekend. We left early Friday morning with my in-laws to visit my mother and step-father at their summer home on the Big Sandy River in Tennessee. Lovely area, lovely river, lovely summer home. I wish I could've stayed longer, because no sooner did I get relaxed after the long drive there, we were packing right back up for the long drive back. But it was enjoyable, and despite the long drive was well worth it. We got back home early yesterday evening, just in time to cook some dinner, relax for a while before bedtime, and hang out with our upset kitties (almost four full days away and they were downright pissed off).

Got some play time in on GTA: San Andreas. Took the XBOX in the minivan with me. I hate minivans...they make me uncomfortable both in the this-seat-is-never-comfortable sense, as well as the oh-my-goodness-we're-all-going-to-die sense. So I got a good quality inverter, and a portable DVD player, and used those to run the XBOX during the trip. Got quite a lot of missions and odd jobs done during the hours of uninterrupted gameplay. The DVD player also came in handy when I needed a break from the gaming, as Smacky and I used it to watch some DVDs we had rented just before leaving town.

A good time. I wish I had more vacation time from work, and the money to take advantage of it. I could sure use the break.