Welcome
- June 17, 2017
- Today is Mom's Birthday
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Today is Mom's birthday. She has declined to progress further in age, opting to remain at a nice even 21 because it suits her. I'm fine with whatever she wants to do in that regard because ... after all, it is HER birthday !
We went out on a little excursion. First thing we did was place a nice bouquet of flowers at the grave of her late husband and my stepfather, Johnny Pruett. It was quite a warm and humid day and we prepared the flowers on the tailgate and watered them with about a quart of cold water to which a flower preservative from the store had been added.
Then we went to Fatz Cafe and had some ribs. Mom had the barbeque and I had the dry rub. From the amount left over I'm fairly certain that nobody left the table hungry ... I know I didn't for sure.
When we returned we attempted our first serious try at doing selfies with her iPhone. I must say that the steadiness of my hand resulted in many blurry takes so we ended up taking a bunch in rapid succession to get a few which were "keepers".
Nonetheless it was pretty fun and we had been meaning to try and take a few pictures since she got the thing. We now feel that investment in a 'selfie stick' would be prudent at this juncture ... seeing as to how difficult a time I had with steadiness in the process of taking them turned out to be.
All in all it was an enjoyable time. When we returned we had a look at the yard. We decided that the generic herbicides we used on the weeds were not as good as the roundup product from a standpoint of effectiveness. I will be experimenting on a more concentrated solution next time to see if that improves things.
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- June 16, 2017
- WannaCry Ransomware Inspires Microsoft to Updates ...
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I kind of figured this would happen. Even told my Mom several weeks back we would probably be able to apply new security updates to her old XP box.
It's true. The WannaCry ransomware and other such exploits have put a bug in Microsoft's ear and they're releasing patches in an attempt to address vulnerabiities for cyberattack by governmental entities.
Who? Well ... I can think of North Korea, China, The Russian Republic, Ukrane, and Kazakhstan to mention a few I've interacted with in recent memory. I routinely firewall subnets from these places as a matter of security anyway because of the disturbing log entries and interesting querystrings and sessions I've caught dead to rights in real time.
And don't let the fact that we have supposed "allies" dissuade you from vigorous security implementations because South Korea and Japan are right on in there with them and the NSA has a lot going on the domestic front as well.
Then there are the little high school harrys from places like MIT who like to gang up on you and try their hand at SQL injection ... despite the fact that I use constructs specifically designed to thwart such shenanigans. I ended up firewalling the entirety of the school just to be done with the bother of it all. I enjoyed watching their connections drop like flies immensely. It seems that the .edu TLD is chock full of little banty roosters out to get over on someone ... anyone because they don't get anything else.
The bottom line here is you can't be too careful and I would get busy with the application of any critical updates you can for your own cyber well being.
Like I keep telling you, it's a cold cruel internet out there and people will try to get you each and every time you give them opportunity. Lessen those opportunities with security upddates such as these Microsoft will be pushing your way.
Besides, some of your worst threats are pimply faced wanna be coulda woulda shoulda been a playa on some residential node using a hack kit he bought on the dark web and wants to try on you. YES, amateurs.
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- June 15, 2017
- Anarchy is The New World Order: A horror story
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The United States of America has not been a constitutional Republic since the Eisenhour Administration. You can say I'm crazy. You can say you don't believe it. However, if you read the real histories available in the threads of documetation available — instead of the revisionist mess taught by the public educational system you too will understand that all is not as it might seem ...
We have murderers shooting at politicians engaged in ball practice near the capital. We have rampant murders of police officers in the line of duty. We have Mexican gangs taking over Compton and Watts in California and a local government helpless to do anything about it.
We have ex-presidents pardoning traitors. We have a military industrial complex and financial sector cabal which operate above the law and impose hazards on the taxpayers to rid the world of the baby boomers whom they feel are in numbers too great for their liking. What's worse, they utilize taxpayer funds which aren't even accounted for in any budget to harm those who pay them.
We have suppression of new technologies to maintain the status quo of petroleum based economy to keep those few in power because historically the government has been too weak to take charge as they should have with the Truman administration. Since that time groups assigned to oversee emerging technical aspects of the administration took it over and assumed control moving the role of President far down the chain of command from the top spot it SHOULD occupy.
As the results of this oligarchy who have assumed control, we have chemtrails, fake UFO incidents, maglev trains which travel at stupendous speeds underground and beyond the view — let alone USE by citizens. We have subterfuge and collusion by those who have assumed control against us. The development of energy sources which cannot be depleted and that do not compromise the biosphere ... yet we still must burn fossil fuels to enrich the military industrial complex and their partners in crime.
We have a number of small groups meeting in efforts to assume and maintain control of the entire world. The Bilderberg Group which holds an annual private highly secured conferencve of some hundred and a half so-called "North American and European political elitists" claiming expertise in the media, finance, industry, and academics.
Then there is The Committee of 300 aka known as "the Olympians" who consist of another bunch of elitists claiming to be an internantional council that organizes politics, the military media, finance, and commerce for centralized global control.
It is likely that in the rapidly approaching apocolypse the role of antichrist will be played by our own MJ12 or one of these small groups out to benefit the few at the expense of the many. These would be rulers of the world who have appointed themselves in charge of globalization and world control need to be stopped.
We need to take hold of our country and assume control once again. We haven't been in control since the Isenhower administration and it's past time to rout the scoundrels out of the picture and let the foreigners know where to get off as well. Now the military industrial complex operates as the strong arm of this oligarchy out to enslave everyone else or kill us if it suits them.
And we in our little lambish ignorance proceed blindly to slaughter. Too few understand the need to make their voices heard. Those we elect are quite happy to assume their place in the trickle down looting of the economy. That world of elected representatives, lobbyists, and special interests which are taking those spoils which are our futures.
We need to wake up. It's far past the time for action.
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- June 14, 2017
- Adaptation
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Sometimes it's difficult to write things as a diversion. In the 4 iterations of this blog I frequently find myself side-stepping the issues, changing the names ... ostensibly to protect the innocent but ACTUALLY to protect me. I also use the word "allegedly" in the presence of things I feel are totally factual.
It comes with the territory. One of those areas which should be avoided in the world of public speaking ... or writing if you will is the area of local politics even if you have an opinion. In an effort to remain employable I never delve into anything contentious or controversial in the area of local politics because I like my job and I need it a lot.
There's something very comforting about being able to eat and live indoors that I'd just as soon continue. Therefore I indulge things other than anything in the local government scene beyond a few innocuous whines now and then. It all leaves me feeling hypocritical at times when I "feel one way" and ignore those feelings because it is not efficacious to my work. Laying low in the fabric of any municipality is far better than opening one's mouth or expressing ideas which may not sit well with others in your midst.
Political expedience is far preferable to becoming the local curmudgeon out to way-lay anyone and everyone with my dissenting views if there are any. In my old age I find my politics can wait ... and that they have and will.
My duties are purely technical. They keep me around because I can do things and fix things because I know things. That has to be "good enough" at some base level of existence because early on I simply HAD to let everyone know where I stood on EVERYTHING. That didn't work out too well for me at all.
We don't have to agree for me to provide services to you and be grateful for that business.
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- June 13, 2017
- Tech News Woes
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Lots of cell phone and apple stuff in the tech news.
I hunger for more operating systems, networking, and security in the base feeds from mainstream providers. I have been forced to dig up my own interests anymore because they are no longer mainstream in the tech industry.
Having a penchant for keystrokes becomes a moot point when everyone wants to use a smartphone.
Much of the mainstream tech stuff is not really nuts and bolts so much as droll musings on what your gaming system or phablet can do for you, various mac maneuvers, and oh yes ...
let us not forget the ubiquitious object oriented drag and drop IDEs where "anyone" is a programmer.
Like Sinistar, I hunger.
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- June 13, 2017
- My Idiot List
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A while back I started maintaining an "Idiot List". It's a written list of items I frequently walk out the door and forget while departing for work.
Often times, I will remember one of these forgotten things as I'm crossing the bridge into the city. With a 4 mile commute one way I typically attempt not to return to the house to ammend the situation. However, I have likewise been known to depart for a quick run home to take care of business and return to work posthaste depending on the criticality of the need.
More often than not, I end up skipping vitamins taking pills much later in the day. I have learned by trial and error to omit the blood pressure pills if I'm very late as they can make for a very uncomfortable evening of running off to the "room".
My sister came by for a visit and thought the entire notion of a posted "Idiot List" was a riot. She laughed at it all and I'm fine with that. I sometimes need to review essentials prior to departing for my day.
Even with the list I have been known to walk off and forget something. Like today I had departed and left the air conditioning turned off. When I arrived home the temperature was rather high but not enough to incur "thermal runaway" of the circuits in all the equipment I maintain in an operational state:
Switches
Routers
Server Cluster
Cameras
... and the lovely Himalayan Salt Lamp my Mama just gave me.
Though I don't really feel this is the prodrome of Alzheimer's or anything — I still want (and need) an edge on the activities of daily living.
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- June 12, 2017
- Adventures in Bitcoin Full Node
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After much in the way of procrastination and what turns out to be entirely insufficient reading I took a foray into the setup of a bitcoin full node ... what was I thinking ?
The operating system install was a cinch as was the initial setup — or so I thought. As I proceded through the mechanizations voila! I ended up with a fully functional operating full node.
However, the wallet was another matter. My reading lead me astray with the addition of Multibit HD ... which did not permit me to attach to my own node nor use it as the full node wallet as I had read earlier.
Dropping back to punt I ended up trying to use the actual full node wallet and was fine until I got to the encryption phase whereby everything pretty much came to a screeching halt.
I was unprepared for the bandwidth utilization of the full node
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I was unprepared for the inability to configure the desktop software wallet to interoperate with the full node I had set up precisely for that purpose.
I was unprepared for the need to read massive amounts of documentation to glean the facts required which were as elusive as getting a straight answer anywhere within the subject matter available on the topics.
This left me pondering the efficacy of operating a full node in light of the other things I require of my network and I am surely disappointed with the support mechanisms available to me which appear clique and cryptic at best.
So ... I suppose I'll delve into another stab at it after another spate of reading ad nauseum to see how things go. Heck, even the software wallet sucked up my resources like a black hole until I found the runtime switch to make it limit itself to a single gig of whatever memory I was limiting; be it VM or core.
Suffice it to say that I'm not as thrilled as I was regarding bitcoin after this first run even though I had the thing operating fine and dandy as far as I could tell. All of the benchmarks were quite satisfactory.
I just need more precise control over things on the network. After all I gave bitcoin it's own machine with fast processor, 16 gigabytes, and 8 cores.
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- June 11, 2017
- Security Mistakes and Me
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Read an interesting tidbit on cnet.com by Matt Elliott regarding seven common security mistakes you're probably making with the slug line of Don't put your privacy at risk. I always find matters of security intriguing because of a failure early in my career when my machine required a low level format to lose the "laughing virus" and another time when something even more nasty took over my machine.
Suffice it to say that some operations require isolation behind a router or you may find yourself blacklisted as I did for a week or so while I straightening things out and apologized for a very amateur mistake.
Being the hyper vigilant security conscious but social galoot I am I decided to run down the list to see where I stand therein. Those results were surprising from the standpoint that I didn't get the stellar security warm and fuzzies I anticipated up front. I dare say that it all left me somewhat humble.
The items were:
1. Using weak passwords 2. Not using a password manager 3. Not using two factor authentication 4. Making online purchases with your credit card 5. Clicking links, opening attachments from sketchy emails 6. Treating public Wi-Fi like it's private 7. Not updating your OS
7 common security mistakes you're probably making
Matt Elliott
cnet.com
1. Using weak passwords is definitely not an issue with me. I try to maintain at least a strength of 64 random characters in a stream including letters, numbers, special characters ... and I change them every 30-60 days. 2. Not using a password manager. Guilty. Somehow I think I'm sufficient to the task of managing my own passwords in a text file and this has yet to embarass me. 3. Not using two factor authentication. Guilty. Computer resources who think they need to utilize my cell phone for any reason aren't likely to remain in use for long. I resent the devil out of surrendering a cell phone number for a text back to me from some email or any other clod out there thinking they need this level of access with me. They don't. 4. Making online purchase with a credit card. I understand the inherent fraud protection aspects of using credit cards for ecommerce. I'm afraid the tokenization of epay companies hasn't really attracted me and perhaps I should reconsider ... 5. Clicking untoward links in any email or on any web page is pretty much anathema to my existence and has been for years now. 6. Treating public Wi-Fi as though it's private. Nope I don't use public Wi-Fi as a rule because I simply don't trust my fellow man that much. The differentiation in public and private networks by windoze was not my first clue in that direction either. 7. Not upgrading my OS could likewise never be a problem in a world of obsessive compulsive distro maintenance ... being a Unix head and all. I think it simply goes with the territory !
Out of the seven items I fail to do two of them. I'm not making any excuses, only that I feel I manage these aspects to my satisfaction. I suppose as in all things I can use a little work on the security implemention of my cyber existence. Regardless, security is important to me and should be to you as well.
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- June 10, 2017
- The Reality Plot Thickens
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I've pretty much been wanting to leave this alone as yet another misguided millenial gone astray due to the orientation imparted by an educational system populated largely with left wing twits influenced by the democrats tax and spend ideology in conjunction with the so-called "progressives" who simply want to take from the worker and give to the shirker ... or worse the ne'er-do-well Bernie Sanders 'socialist' utopians who simply don't have a foot in reality nor clue at all.
It seems this kid 'Reality Winner' is in far deeper than she originally appeared allegedly having downloaded sensitive NSA data to a USB drive and apparent written intimations that she wanted to burn down the White House and go to Afghanistan for the purpose of swearing alliegiance to the Taliban of all things.
If she had any inkling as to how the extremist adherents to the false implementation of Islam indigenous to the Taliban and ISIS treat their women ... if she understood the violent nature of their orientation to life; she would certainly not make such foolhardy assertions anywhere.
Much like her, at that age I was a similar fool. Luckily I had no designs on any of the mess she has pursued, much less the total lack of discretion she has utilized in her pursuit.
Rather than indulge some evaluation of comparative idiocy in American youth I prefer to stick to this particular matter because this is both a crime and a tragedy as well as a statement on the futility of wasted potential.
She told her sister that during her bond hearing she intended to play the "pretty, white and cute" card up front. First of all, given the fact that she was denied bond she may be white; but that seems to be about it in that department.
Secondly, one should consider the consequences PRIOR to the commission of a crime. Not how to get out of the mess after the fact.
Finally, with revelations of additional problematic events which are characterized as "more disturbing" in conjunction with a set of parents who appear every bit as naive as she does I don't feel this will end well for this little girl who tried to be slick but didn't even know how to play the game.
This is a sad tale indeed already — and it's not over. I hope that I don't cultivate the contempt for her that I have for Bradley Manning and his ridiculous pardoned criminal ass.
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- June 9, 2017
- Web Cam Password Flaw
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I remember years ago when I was initially contemplating my camera server and how I would provision it that various vendors came to mind. Indeed I did audition several software company offerings but kept to the research until I was comfortable with a specific camera line.
I'm happy to say that my research and my trials were a success story for I now have eight cameras online with a cam server which supports 64 and the cams may not be accessed by the outside because I only route them internally and present them on a web page referentially.
Today I read in Ars Technica about web cams having "hard coded" passwords which can never be changed to something only known to the owner. This issue is indigenous to the Chinese Foscam line and those subsidiary downstream brands which utilize Foscam devices.
Foscam was one of those brands which made it to the finals in my pursuit of suitable hardware.
My first set were Trendnet which I noticed were accessed frequently from Asian IP addresses back when my configuration included routing to individual cameras. Now that I route ONLY to my web server configured to limit anonymous access even those would not be a problem ... now.
Suffice it to say that I had the solution in place prior to the problem becoming publicly known and I'm an obsessive compulsive for firmware and security updates on everything so I don't forsee any problems here at the crib — though I wil remain vigilant nonetheless. It just seems that my lack of trust has not been misguided since the mid 90s when it all went to hades in a handbasket for I'm a stickler for locking everything down as well as I can.
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- June 8, 2017
- Peter Sallis (1921 - 2017)
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One of those television programs I used to watch as a younger adult was "Wallace and Gromit," an Oscar winning 'claymation' animation comedy featuring the adventures of Wallace and his dog Grommit.
Peter Sallis
(1921 - 2017)
I was always taken by the plot details as well as the humor of each of the pieces I viewed. It was a guaranteed laugh during a dark time when little was funny in my existence.
Mr. Peter Sallis, the actor who provided the voice of Wallace died last Friday, June 2, 2017 — after a period of declining health.
He also played other British sitcom characters and was a fixture on some of the most popular British television of the era.
I know little of those but the interludes of levity he provided to me were an essential part of keeping my sanity in a difficult workaday world I found myself in at that time.
He was born on February 1, 1921 in Middlesex England. After a stint as an amateur he trained formally at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and debuted as a professional in London in 1946. He retired in 2010.
Thanks for everything and rest in peace.
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- June 7, 2017
- Reality Winner's Alleged Reality
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It's difficult to release sensitive NSA documents when you are compelled to leave as many trails pointing back to yourself as possible. Case in point, one Reality Winner (really?) sharing online jokes with her sister regarding Moscow attempting to influence the US presidential election and weight lifting becoming a national sport in the US.
She knew she was in hot water when she contacted her folks in Texas some seven months later to report that she had been arrested by the FBI and couldn't really talk it up.
It is alleged that young Ms Winner, who was working for the defense contractor Pluribus International Corporation printed an NSA document which entailed the Russian hacking of a voting equipment vendor in Florida with subsequent attempts at breaching the local election systems til late in the actual voting there. This document is further alleged to have been provided to individuals outside of the agency.
The young lady was on social media expressing hate and discontent over recent political developments and these were likely contributory to the alleged compromise of the NSA documents.
Her family remains confused regarding the details and do not appear to understand the nature of technical breach of security and document compromise as alleged in the case before Ms Winner.
It seems that her downfall was found on those pages from the NSA's printers — which included invisible tracking dots known as a DocuColor pattern which simply is an encoded grid containing information regarding the printer and when it was used. The code on the leaked documents revealed the date and time of printing as well as the printer's serial number.
The authorities used this information to track her down then charge her with leaking a classified NSA report by following the hidden prints.
Gee, I believe that using company resources to divulge company resources is somewhat backward thinking. At the most it's pretty unsophisticated skullduggery. Given the other idiocy in social media allegedly attributed to this person such as tweeting to the Iranians how the people of the US are "with you" if you are attacked by the government ... it is surprising to me how she ever qualified for enough security clearance to gain access to sensitive documents anyway.
I attribute this entire debacle to the poor management we have come to know in the security agencies in general.
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- June 6, 2017
- Say what you need to say
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Over the years my life has been marked by episodes of silence which should have been filled with conversation. I can't count the times that I failed to say things to others only to have them pass away without making something significant known to them and allowing them to hear it from me personally.
During that ensuing time I also cultivated a "TMI" approach to others whereby I said too much or made things known that others didn't really care to hear. Far be it from me to overcompensate ... but I feel this is the result of those previous failures to communicate — and speak my heart when I really should have but for one reason or another didn't. Luckily some of that which was said was done so with actions which on occasion are known to speak louder. But still it would have been nice to say "I love you" to a few more people than have heard it from me.
That sadness for those failures which punctuate my soul are a constant reminder of that which should have been done never happening. All I can really do is remember those no longer around me and try to meld something more from that silence which was. To fill that silence with something which is meaningful ... and to mark those mistakes I made so many times.
Say
Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put 'em in quotations
Say what you need to say ...
Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you'd be better off instead,
If you could only ...
Say what you need to say ...
Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You'd better know that in the end
It's better to say too much
Than never to say what you need to say again
Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open (a wide heart)
Say what you need to say ...
John Mayer
The Bucket List soundtrack
Aware, Columbia
November 20, 2007
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- June 5, 2017
- Game of Thrones thy name is Fickle
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Winter is coming ... in due time.
As is the hurry up and wait nature of Game of Thrones, it appears that there is talk of the final installment arriving sometime in 2019.
Now then, being quite the fan initially; there has been a lot of water under the bridge on several fronts but the most limiting factor of it's remaining in my life has absolutely nothing to do with the drag ass pace of production.
Having withstood the various cliff hangers and cheered for Tyrion Lannister as he shot his father with a crossbow twice whilst his majesty was perched upon the can ... not to mention the ecstatic jubilation of seeing the cruel King Joffrey bite the dust in purple poisoned glory ... and the dragons, oh the dragons charcoal broiling various villans hither thither, and yon.
HOWEVER, with all of this came the revelation that HBO was acquired by AT&T and thus ended my pursuit of Game of Thrones and all else on HBO as just another scumbag sellout to some criminal empire on the internet. I simply no longer care about dragons, mothers of dragons, or any of it all anymore. Funny how something so important could become absolutely meaningless to me with a simple buy and sell transaction.
You are who owns you.
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