Diary of a Network Geek

Oh, it just never ends!

Back in September of last year, I commented on internal “smart-card” passports. Well, there are still issues with internal documentation.
The first is an interesting case about the right to refuse to give identification. This WiredNews story talks about a man in rural Nevada who refused to give a police officer his identification, based on the fact that he had not committed a crime and was jailed for “impeding an officer”. He was released and all charges were dropped, except for the $250 fine for impeding an officer. The case is going all the way to the Supreme Court. Fascinating.
The second story, also on WiredNews, is about an ordinance being voted on in San Franciso that, basically, protects citizens from the prying eyes of the Patriot Act. I doubt it will pass, much less stand up in court, but it’s interesting that people are trying to do something about what they percieve as an injustice.

The link between these two is the right to privacy. Some folks would argue that we’re not garanteed that right in the Constituition, but the majority of us think we are. I feel that my privacy is protected by the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. What about you? What will you do when the fight comes to your door?

I wish it were better.

First, of course, there weren’t many new tech jobs created this past month. According to this article on WiredNews, the Labor Department was expecting a lot more than they got. That’s never good news for tech people. I used to say that a tech geek could always find a job, if they just had the right skill set. Now, I say that a tech geek can find a job if they have retail experience.
On the upside, for Australians at least, is the fact that unions are getting involved in the off-shore debate. According to this article on AustalianIT, the Australian workers for Equant are protesting against off-shoring of their jobs. What does that all mean? I’m not sure, but you can bet that when a union gets involved, things will happen. Hmm, maybe it’s time for an IT union….

Is this really a good idea?

If this were coming from anyone but Bill Gates, I’d say “yes”. But, according to this article on AustralianIT, it’s Chairman Bill that’s suggesting this. And, of course, trying to patent it. And, eventually, no matter what he says, charge for it. And, there lies the rub. It’s a great idea, but not if I’m going to be sending Micro$oft money everytime I send or recieve an e-mail.
Oh, I know, it’s only fair if they develop the system and everyone uses it. Sure, but is it right? It’s fair and legal, but is it moral? No. And, past experience has shown that Micro$oft will eventually charge for it, not matter what “it” is at the direction of Chariman Bill. Fact of life. So, please, please, don’t support a MicroSoft-centric, closed standard version of this. But, should some enterprising young Open Source developer come up with something….

Okay, so I’m still trying.

I may not be doing as well as I’d like on this, but I haven’t quite given up. Enlarging my spiritual life is very important to me, so even a little bit of improvement is worth the effort. I’m still managing to pray at least three times a day, though, I’d really like to be praying four times, like the The One Year Manual suggests. In any case, I finally made myself read the exercise for the month. So here it is…

Rythmic breathing. A simple extension of the first two exercises, really. It’s just what it sounds like, breathing in a even, rythmic pattern. Oddly enough, this one is easy for me. I’ve been “into” Zen for quite a while and rythmic breathing is one of the basic building blocks there, too. So, it’s basically just breath in for a certain count and then breath out for the same count. Regardie suggests using a mantra as an aid. Interestingly enough, he suggests, for the Christian, “My Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” So, it would be inhale saying, mentally, “My… Lord… Jesus… Christ…” and exhale while saying, mentally, “have… mercy… on… me…” Now, I wish I’d read this sooner, because rythmic breathing I can not only do, but really get into. It’s very, very relaxing.
In fact, several years ago, I read Science of Breath, which is a book on nothing but breathing techniques used by the Yogis. It’s a fascinating book, really, and one I need to read again. I remember using techniques from this book to completely calm my heart-rate and breathing in just seconds after marching up several flights of stairs. And, I remember the stilling calmness I would get from just a few moments of rythmic breathing when I was feeling even the slightest anxiety.

Well, slowly but surely I march ever forward on the Path.

I knew SCO and Micro$oft were in it together!

First, this article on AustalianIT added to the suspicions of the Open Source community regarding MicroSoft’s involvement in the campaign against Linux. I’d, personally, had always wondered if Chairman Gates hadn’t been encouraging SCO to pursue this very unwise course of legal action against Linux users. Well, guess what? Just yesterday, AustralianIT confirmed that there is, in fact, a link between SCO and Micro$oft!
Is it really paranoia when they are all out to get you? Micro$oft has been trying to kill Linux since it became a “blip” on the media radar, so it stands to reason that they’d help SCO down the path they took. Free enterprise, indeed. But, you know, I didn’t see any of this in the American press. Hmm, I wonder why that is?

Two odd ones.

One’s even in Houston! First, though, the Troll Museum. Yes, that’s right. Trolls. Not in the very-scary-big-monster variety, but the neon-hair-belly-button variety. Yes, those horrible, little figurines have their own museum. It’s like a car accident. It’s terrible, but I can’t look away.
The second museum is in my very own Houston! It’s the National Museum of Funeral History. Yeah, you read that right. It’s a museum dedicated to the way we bury our dead. And mourn them. It’s horrific, too, in a different way. But, I have to admit, it’s interesting. Now, if I can just convince the wife that she wants to go….

Well, either way, they might make a fun vactation stop, depending on your sense of humor! Happy Friday!

I finished The Hiram Key: Pharoahs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus last week.

It was, er, well…. “Interesting”, to say the least. I’m not sure I agree with everything they claim, but it sure made me question what I thought I knew about my own faith and Freemasonry. In a nutshell, the authors claim that Freemasonry is the repository of the “secret” teachings of Joshua ben Joseph (aka Jesus Christ), by way of the Knights Templar. Now, the idea that Freemasonry is derived from the suppressed Knights Templar is not new, and, frankly, one I believe. Too much just fits together too well for that part to not be true. Where it starts to get a little sketchy for me is that they claim the Knights Templar got ahold of some secret, forgotten scrolls that were hidden under the Temple in Jersualem at it’s building. And, that the knowlege in those scrolls goes back to ancient Egyptian kingship rites which themselves may be derived from ancient Sumerian religious beliefs. It’s all a kind of a stretch to me, but the authors make it seem frighteningly plausable.

It’s an interesting book, but probably not the best place to start if you’re interested in Masonic history. But, since this book got me so interested in the history of Freemasonry again, I’ve set myself the goal of reading at least one Masonic book a year. So, keep an eye out for other reviews!

Some tools for thought for security auditors…

Some time ago, I speculated on what a network “rescue” kit should contain. Well, the other day, I was cleaning up around the house and found an old copy of Information Security that had an article about security audits. They included a sidebar of suggested tools for performing an audit.
Some of them were fairly obvious: ping, traceroute(tracert), nslookup, and grep. Then they listed several free tools that were, well, a little bit more “robust”:
First, there was Nmap, which is an OS fingerprinting tool that is well-known to the Linux community.
Next, there was Crack, which is a well-known password cracker, as well as John the Ripper. There were two that I was not familiar with, namely which is apparently a BIND version checker. (That can be good to know, considering how many pesky security problems have been found with old versions of BIND/) And, finaly, ghba.c, which is a tool for extracting machine names and IP addresses for a class B or C subnet. (Those last two are actually links to source code that has to be compiled before it can be run.)

The article went on to talk about several commercial and Open Source scanners that check for security vulnerabilities. I won’t bother to mention the commercial ones, since they have big advertising budgets. But, I will list off the high-powered open source tools. I’m familiar with the first one, Nessus which has gotten very good reviews in several Linux magazines. The second one is a relative of SATAN, which got press right about the same time Linux really started to get going, Security Auditor’s Research Assistant (aka SARA). I’ve just started hearing about the next one, Whisker, which scans for CGI script vulnerabilities. That’s a nice one to know if you do as much CGI stuff as I have lately! And, finally, Hping2, which I’ve never heard of but seems to be a generic port scanner.

In any case, my point is that there are lots of tools out there that don’t cost a thing, but time, to use in your pursuit of a more secure environment. And, if you’re just reading this wonderint what a security audit is, or why it should be done, it looks like it’s time to get out there and start reading! (I’d start with a free subscription to Information Security magazine.) Happy hunting!

It’s beyond me today, but…

Well, let’s just say this gives me something to shoot for in my PERL goals. I found Advanced Perl Programming on the discount shelf of a local bookstore, so I snapped it up, but it’s going to take me a while to “get” everything in this book. I mean, they’re talking about really advanced database access, incorporating C programs, and making GUI interfaces with Tk. That’s way, way beyond the little bit of text processing that I’ve managed with my own PERL efforts. Still, I’ve always felt that getting in “over my head” and fighting my way to the top, so to speak, is the best way for me to learn anything of value. And, it does tend to keep me challenged. So, while I love where this book is going, I probably need to stick with the PERL Cookbook. But, I’ll get there eventually. I swear it.

Yet another “legal action” from SCO.

Man, when the decision finally comes down from judge that these guys were wrong, and I firmly believe that it will, they’re going to be hip-deep in lawsuits from people trying to recoup their “licensing fees”. Yet, according to this article on Australian IT, they’re still at it! Now, it seems, they’re bringing suit against not only Autozone, but Daimler-Chrysler “to enforce the contract points agreed to by our end users,” according to Darl McBride, SCO’s chief executive. I just can’t believe that they don’t see how stupid this is. I guess because some folks actually paid their questionably legal licensing fees, they figure they can just keep rolling over everyone else. Frankly, I can’t imagine who’s doing business with them anymore. Oh, wait, maybe that’s the problem! No one was doing business with them, so they had to raise revenue, and…. Duh! I guess I get confused when people do things that seem willfully wrong, for lack of a better word. I guess it’s the Polly Anna in me. Oh, well, at least it generates some press for Linux. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?