So I finally got the confirmation email for my security training. Below is the course:
Agenda
———–
* theory on hacking
* port scanning
* packet sniffing
* Hax0r a box…l33t
Sounds like it’s being run by the right sort of guy.
So I took a strange call just now. There’s this tape drive that failed out in Geneva or some shit for a company, we’ll call them Covaance to protect their identiy. This chick from some parts place that was going to supply the drive wanted to know if “a black drive is ok”. I don’t know how many server rooms they’ve been in before, but color is seldom on the short list, long list, extended list, or even Christmas list for just about any item. Save cables. And tape drives are usually exiled to some corner of the server room, surrounded by other machines. I told them I didn’t think black would be an issue, but I would check anyways.
After I got off the call I asked the SRO (Service Request Dude.. O is for Dude), and he said they requested fushcia. Failing that, puce. Looks like we have an issue.
What the hell?
Not even kidding. It really exists. Don’t get me wrong… I like bacon. But it belongs in ice cream just like steak belongs in a milkshake. Seriously, wtf.
So I was setting up a spam filter/tarpit on my firewall, and came across this snippet from an example in the manual for the program:
For example, if spamd.alloweddomains contains: @humpingforjesus.com The following destination addresses would not cause the sending host to be trapped: beardedclams@humpingforjesus.com However the following addresses would cause the sending host to be trapped: peter@apostles.humpingforjesus.com bigbutts@bofh.ucs.ualberta.ca
I checked, and the domain is actually registered. Gotta give it to nerds, they manage to keep a sense of humor about dry things like filtering spam.
This weekend was good times. Saw Transformers. Go see it. If you don’t like it, there’s something very very wrong with you. Check your brain for worms.
Erica had picked me up tickets to see the American Le Mans Series at Limerock in CT. Apparently the crowd was among their record largest. I can’t say I’m surprised, it was packed. The race was good times. It’s always cool to see something other than NASCAR in America. The Audi TDI cars were eerily quiet, almost like a normal car going by on the highway. The Corvettes were so loud they literally made my pants shake. Not even kidding. While the race was going on we walked around the circuit. Erica took some sweet pics:
Clicky
Please don’t hotlink these, or it will hurt my server’s soul.
We were in position to see one of the spectacles of the race. One of the Audis crashed coming around the last turn (see pix). It took them what seemed like forever to clean the car up. They must have done 7 laps or so under the caution flag.
Sunday was good times too. We were at an auto-x most of the day, and there was actually shade for once. After watching all the racing this weekend it makes me wish I still had a beater to play with. But until I have a garage to maintain such a thing, I won’t miss having one all that much.
Also, go see Transformers.
So I put down a bid today for some new firewall hardware (the one I found is used and about $13,750 cheaper). The Pipboy has served me well, but it has some shortcomings. Mostly this concerns the age of the its hardware. It’s not that it is flaky or failing (aside from the screen starting to get too dim to read, but I rarely administer locally), it’s that the PCI revision is too old for modern communications hardware. It has uses PCI 2.1, which has 5v signaling. Any wireless ethernet or gigabit ethernet cards pretty much all use PCI 2.2, which has 3.3v signaling. So poor pipboy is stuck in the dark ages of wire-only, 100-speed ethernet. It’s not that I want to use wireless heavily or that I have devices with gig-E interfaces… it’s that I’d like the option. I can fit 2 ethernet and one wireless, and still have room to spare. Reading up on the specs at the first link on this post, it seems to be very well geared towards robustnesswhich greatly interests me in a device that I need to remain on 24/7. The current pipboy is this thing’s older brother, and I’ve been very happy with the Dolch brand so far. BTW if any of you bid on that, Igg will become a sad panda.
Eventually I’d like to get myself a Soekris net5501. These portable-desktop type machines I’m using and looking into are a great flexible solution but are also overkill. the net5501 was built specifically for BSD operating systems for the purpose of being a router/firewall. They are solid state, silent, and operate at very low power levels (~20 watts). It also comes in a nice slim case that’s only slightly larger than a consumer linksys router and is easily hidden, unlike Pipboy. Note that in the pic it’s a rear-facing open box sitting on top of a front facing closed one. The empty space in the box is room for a PCI card, typically wireless networking. For something as small and simple as it is, it’s a very sophisticated machine. But for the board and box it’d run upwards of $400. The one I found is slightly (read: a lot) cheaper than that. So for now I’m going to stick with what’s free/cheap. but when I’m doing less tinkering and I want something to run silently and cheaply for extended periods with little interaction needed, I’ll be looking into a net5501. With 4 ethernet ports, wireless, optional hardware encryption acceleration (via mini-pci), and running openbsd it’s pretty much all the hardware I’d ever need for firewall/routing purposes.
Ok, done nerding for the time. carry on.
I finally got summer tires onto the mighty civic. Well, they’re all-season tires… but they’re GOOD all-seasons, and they’re summer tires for me since I have snows. They were a birthday present from the parents. Tires are given more often for birthday/xmas than you’d think, but typically I genuinely need them so it’s much appreciated. The gift of not skidding off the road and dying a flaming death is always a good one. I was on RE-92s for a long time, then snow tires till just now. I’d pretty much forgotten what it’s like to be able to point my car where I want it to go, and have it go there with little or no protest. Also now wind noise is louder than road noise, something else I’m not used to. New tires = good times.
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