Diary of a Network Geek

Okay, here’s a cool way to waste time at work (not that I’ve had time for that sort of thing myself):
Brilliant Button Maker Yep, it makes buttons, like these:

This is what I used to make the fancy, new button for subscribing to Diary of a Network Geek over at Bloglines that you see on the menu to the right. See? If you’re a web designer, it’s almost like actual work…. Almost.

Ah, who cares, it’s fun and free and this is, after all, Friday! Go ahead, click the link. I won’t tell anyone.

Oh, this is a little sick.
Okay, so you’ve heard people talk about those little USB memory sticks, right? Well, when they first came out, we called them thumb drives, because they… Er, well, just because. Yeah, I can’t remember why, exactly, right now, but that doesn’t matter. Why? Because someone has created an actual thumb drive. Yeah, a USB drive that looks like a thumb. An actual, realistic thumb. It’s down-right creepy!

Aw, c’mon, you know you want to click on the link! Go ahead, it’s Friday, no one’s looking!

Linux Distro, that is.
What else would I have meant, you children of the “Summer of Love”? Yeah, like anyone besides me reading this has any idea what the “Summer of Love” was.
Anyway, for those of you who are geeks and not flower-children, or, at least, those who are both, if you’ve ever dreamed of having your very own Linux distribution floating around out there, now you have help. From Big Blue, ironically. No, really! IBM has a page called How to Build Your Own Linux Distribution.
This is a little better than the infamous Linux From Scratch, and, in fact, includes links to that very site. But, it also has some thoughts about what to put into a distro and why. It’s a starting point at most, but I think the article presents a fairly good first look at what you need to consider before trying to “roll your own”.

Now, put the “doobie” down and spark up your mind instead of melting it. Go forth and spread the the word: Linux!
Hey, if you’re a network geek like me, this is your idea of Friday Fun! (Man, I need to get out more…)

Today is the birthday of UNIVAC.
According to Writer’s Almanac, it was on this day in 1951 the world’s first commercially produced computer was unveiled. UNIVAC, as it was known, weighed eight tons, used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and cost a quarter million dollars. But it could perform a thousand calculations per second, the fastest rate in the world at the time. The first one was bought by the U.S. Census Bureau. Not a big surprise, I guess, considering that no one else at the time had any idea what to use a computer for, besides quickly tabulating large numbers.
I remember a Troop Leader in Boy Scouts who worked on computers like this. He talked about the first “portable” calulators which were the size of laptops today, were filled with vacuum tubes, and could only add, subtract, multipy and divide. We’ve come a long way, baby! Now, we’ve got pretty graphics, free operating systems, and giant multi-national corporations all focused on selling us the next machine and suite of applications to go with it. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry and has almost generated a whole new economy. Heck, it’s what makes it possible for you to even read this.
I wonder what the next fifty years will bring in the computer world?

Yes, it’s true!
Today is National Donut Day, at least at Krispy Kreme. Today, to celebrate National Donut Day, which was established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much-needed funds during the Great Depression and to honor the work of World War I Salvation Army volunteers who prepared doughnuts for thousands of soldiers, Krispy Kreme is giving out one free donut to their customers. I assume you have to buy something to get the free donut, but, still, a free donut is a free donut! Sounds too good to be true? Read the Krispy Kreme Press release.

Happy Friday! And, enjoy your free donut!

Not quite universal, but close.
Ever worry about your cell phone getting stolen? Well, if you have the serial number from it, you can get it turned off quickly and easily and keep the crooks from reenabling it. Here’s what to do:
First, entering the sequence * # 0 6 # on your cell phone’s keypad will produce a display showing a fifteen-digit code or serial number unique to your phone. Write that down somewhere safe.
Now, keep in mind that this doesn’t work with every phone, but, surprisingly, to me at least, it does work with most of them. Go ahead and try it yourself.
Now, shhould your cell phone be stolen, you can report its serial number to your service provider and have the phone disabled. This will prevent the thief from using your phone with a different wireless number or a different service.
Pretty cool right? Guess where I read about this… Snopes.com, the urban legend website. Interestingly enough, this “urban legend” turns out to be true. Who’d a thunk it?

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself."
   --Abraham Maslow

Just a random collection of thoughts.
Earlier this week, Frank Gorshin, the original “Riddler” died. He was always my favorite character. So wild, so creative, and always the mad genius who seemed one step ahead of the Batman. Yet, somehow, the writers always managed to make him trip up in the end. Never did figure that part out. And, interestingly enough, the Batman cartoon, which is the only reason I wake up before noon on Saturdays, featured a new villian today. You guessed it, the Riddler. He was good, but, he was no Frank Gorshin.

Thanks to a faithful reader, BleuCube, I took a quiz this morning. (My apologies, incidentally, for not spelling your site’s name correctly all this time! My very English oriented mind simply “corrected” the exotic French spelling on the fly.)

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. Cultural Creative 94% Idealist 75% Romanticist 56% Postmodernist 56% Existentialist 50% Fundamentalist 38% Materialist 31% Modernist 6%

What is Your World View? (corrected…again)
created with QuizFarm.com

And, finally, in security geek news, there’s a new version of nmap. The new version is not only faster, but uses a less invasive technique for scanning networks that leaves no trace. In other words, for you WinDoze admins who leave IIS out on the network, exposed, this bad boy can do a port scan on your network and you wouldn’t know it by reading the logs. Oh, but good news for you, there is a WinDoze version, so you can test your own network and try to plug the holes. If you can manage it between applying patchs, fixes and anti-virus updates. I’m so glad we’ll be moving to Linux soon at my office!

Well, it’s time to go play with my dog. It’s a nice sunny day here in Houston, and the grass seed I planted is starting to grow, so I’m off to water, feed the fish, and play some fetch with Hilda. Maybe I can finally get her to drop the ball when she brings it back…

Actually, I think it’s a prop plane, but, you get the idea.
Well, the boss told me we’re off to the New Orleans office tomorrow to work out some of their computer issues. Mainly, it seems like they need to get their anti-virus software automatic update more, er, automated. And, of course, they need to get all their machines cleaned of spyware. And, while I’m there, I’ll do a bit of inventory. Since they seem to have a Windows 2000 server, I have a script that claims it will gather all the information on all the machines in the domain. We’ll see. If it works, I’ll post about that tomorrow.
So, it’s off to bed with me, since it’s an early morning tomorrow flying with the boss. Oh, didn’t I mention? The boss has his own plane. I’ll be flying in a single-engine prop plane and my boss is the pilot.
Pray for me.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Unhappiness is in not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it."
   --Don Herold

I love Dr. Suess, but all he did was inspire the title.
I have two concerns this week: Linux servers and security. I’ve installed a test RedHat server and configured Samba on it, so now I can start testing how the accounting system will run from a mapped Linux drive. And, I’ll be testing the custom, in-house app that gives us our competitive edge. I’ve got server spec to get to the boss, when he’s in the office again, but I’m still waiting on pricing for a Linux-based backup system. It was actually much easier to get setup than I thought it would be. Though security may be an issue, since, essentially, Samba emulates Windows sharing on a Linux platform.
Security is my second issue. There’s a basic firewall in place on the router, but I don’t think that’s enough, especially if we want to block “adult” sites. And, since we do actually have a policy against that sort of thing, we do. So, eventually, I need to get that all spec-ed out and installed, too. And tested. Yeah, a little scan against our outside link would be interesting to look at, especially if I do it before and after. Ah, well, that’s down the line. First, I have to get the server upgraded.
Oh, and I still need to evaluate Novell’s Open Server on Linux before I decide which way to go for an OS on the new server. I know I want to avoid a Microsoft product, if at all possible. Frankly, it looks like it should be a real possibility. It all depends on how testing goes this week, so we’ll see. That and getting a CD burner at the office so I can burn the demo ISOs and install them.
Then, there are all the “little” projects that everyone keeps bringing me, not to mention all the nice G4s and assorted Macintrash… Ah, the work of a one-person IT department is never done. But, somehow, having easily defined goals makes the work more fulfilling. I know where I’m going and how I’m going to get there, so it’s all okay.
(The Suess book, by the way, was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and a childhood favorite.)

Test your skills!
Well, since it’s hacking IIS 6, I’m not sure how much of a “challenge” it will be, but, still, the “Hack IIS 6 Contest” sounds like a bit of fun. The goal, obviously, is to crack a publicly available Internet Information Server 6 that the contest organizers have setup. They claim to have set it up as they would expect the “average” Windows Admin would have configured it. The goal is a simple defacement or the reading of a “hidden” document. The prize is an XBOX.
If I had more time, it might be fun. Of course, I’m not really a hacker, nor have I ever claimed to be a hacker. My “skillz” are so out of date that the last time I did any “security testing” was back in the days of the BBS. Remember those? Ah, the good old days… And, to be honest, even then I was little more than a clever script-kiddie. (On the other hand, there have been those who accused Kevin Mitnic of being little more than a well-connected, persistent, script-kiddie, too, so I guess I’m in good company!) But, for you young’uns that might be a little bit more spry than Old Man River, it could be a fun challenge.
The contest runs through June 8, 2005.