Diary of a Network Geek

Have you ever noticed what bathroom reading a host has?
I’ve often thought that someone’s bathroom reading was quite an interesting look into their psyche. Until just recently, I had a copy of Describing Morphosyntax : A Guide for Field Linguists next to the throne, but discovered that there was nothing short enough to read during my pitstop. So, I swapped that out for The Incredible Book of Vatican Facts and Papal Curiosities: A Treasury of Trivia, which is now out of date due to the new Pope being in place. I also have a copy of The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases which is an interesting collaborative fantasy fiction piece. And, of course, there are assorted tool and home furnishing catalogs, as well as the “Hobbit” issue of Scientific American and some obscure martial arts magazines. It’s a pretty eclectic grouping that, I think, accurately reflects the level of dilletante-ness. (Yes, I had to look that up the first time I was being accused of it by an old boss. Turns out, to me, it’s a bit of a compliment!)
So, now, when you have visitors coming over, have fun with this and throw down strange things in the bathroom. If Prison Life Magazine were still around, I’d reccomend that one to throw folks off. It always kept people on the airplanes at bay. Obscure magazines are best, of course, because people rarely have time to hunt them down to find out more. Also, foregin language newspapers have potential, too. Not to mention assorted phrasebooks. (Personally, I favor Southeast Asian languages or Basque for this, but your interests may vary.) Then, watch what happens after people use your bathroom during a party. The looks you get will be worth the little extra effort!

Oh, and thank you to the faithful reader who noticed I didn’t properly edit a timestamp. There was a post meant for next week Friday that showed up a little early. Whoops! And, now you know my secret. I queue the Friday Fun posts in advance. Often, weeks in advance. Guilty as charged!

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"In life, as in football, you don't go far unless you know where the goalposts are."
   --Arnold Glasgow

Just about breaks your heart, doesn’t it?
That’s the look I get every morning when I leave for work. Makes it really hard to leave, but it does give me an incentive to come back again. Funny, though, that I get more of that from a dog than I did from anyone else. She’s smarter than a lot of people I know, too.
For instance, she’s taught herself pig latin. No, really! The other day, I told her that we weren’t going to go for our “alkway” and she sat down, looking at me expectantly, just like when we’re getting ready to go for our walk. So, instead, I told her we were going for a ride in the car. After I got the leash on her and walked through the gate, she went right to the car. She still wanted me to lift her in, but she knew just what I meant.
She knows what “raisin” means, too. I eat raisin bran, of one kind or another, quite a bit. And, when I do, I always feed Hilda a raisin. So, now, in the morning, if she’s got her nose pressed against the glass watching for tree-rodent interlopers in our yard, I ask her if she wants her raisin. She always comes over and sits down like I make her do for her treats. Then, she gently takes it out of my fingers with her little, soft, black, puppy lips and happily chews it up.
She’s a good dog, and, somedays, that’s the best a guy can hope for.

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…)

Has the blog craze gone too far?
Or not far enough! Now, there’s a site that lists the “A”-list bloggers called Blogebrity. No, I’m not kidding. They also have the “B” list and “C” list, etc. Somehow, I don’t think I’m even on their “Z” list, but, still… Well, after all, Margaret Cho was on their “C” list, so, obviously they have high standards. And, with Wil Wheaton on their “A” list, well, I have no hope of reaching that height.

Still, it’s Friday, and it’s a fun link, if you like lists like I do, so, go ahead, click on it!

Yes, I read books without pictures. Sometimes.
Frankly, I do prefer the books with pictures. Preferably big pictures in color that illustrate the more complicated points in the text. But, I digress… Recently, I finished reading Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings and you can read that review at The Fantasist’s Scroll. And, today at lunch I started reading Airtight Willie & Me, which is a little different. It’s what be called “ethnic fiction”, if you’re being polite, or “ghetto writing”, if you’re being accurate. I’ve read about the first 45 pages or so and it’s surprisingly good. Of course, it’s a little gritty and filled with slang and poor grammar, but it’s no worse than reading the web these days. Oh, and the author is from Chicago, so there’s a lot of “local interest” in it for me. Though, I have to admit, Iceberg Slim’s Chicago is a whole lot different than mine!
So, there’s an upside to all this time alone after all. I get a lot more reading done these days with a whole lot less hassle. And, no one gives me hell about what I’m reading!

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…

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.

There’s a frightening, new people search engine in beta.
It’s called ZabaSearch, which is Greek for something. Frankly, I don’t care what it’s Greek for, but this thing rocks! I don’t know how long it will be free or in beta, but it’s frighteningly good. I always use certain people to search on as a test of the people searcher. Myself, of course, and a few old friends. And, yes, I have to admit it, an old girlfriend from college or two. But, here’s the thing. None of the other people finders have ever actually found some of these people. Until now.
So, now I’ve found an old flame. Someone that I would think about when relationships would get rocky. When I’d be sad and lonely, I’d find myself wondering what she was doing and who she was with. Now, I’ve found her. And, yes, I’m pretty sure it’s her because she has an unusual name and the address is in the general area where I heard from her last. How many “Gaylenes” can there be? Even in San Francisco?
So, I’ve found the girl I always thought of as “the one that got away”. Do I call her or not?

No, trust me, this is really cool.
Okay, Gizmodo had this on their site weeks and weeks ago, but now, you can actually buy it. And, I just may. It’s the VooDoo Knife Holder, and, as I said, it’s for sale, or it will be in June. You can get it here. Though, you have to put down a $20 deposit, according to the article, and you can contact the company who makes it, ViceVersa, at this page, if you can manage the Italian. The total is going to be $40, but, I think it’s worth it for the shock value. And, when I start dating again, it will be a good test of my future wife’s sense of humor. If she doesn’t find the VooDoo Knife Holder amusing, she won’t be my future wife.

Anyway, it’s been another crazy week and we all made it to Friday, so go ahead and click the link. You know you want to do it!

I’ve been blogging, in one form or another, for five years now.
Wow. That’s a lot of meaningless nonesense spewed, eh? Take a look back through the archives and see what I’ve babbled about over the years. It’s occasionally interesting. Do a search on “black helicopters” and see what turns up, for instance. Freaky.
We’ve seen a lot of changes over the years, this blog and I. I don’t really know how many readers I’ve had over the years, though I know some of you have followed my rantings for quite some time. I’ve changed just about everything on this site since I first started, including blogging software! And, I’ve made more than a few changes in my personal life, too. It really is interesting to look back over some of the archives to see what I was concerned with four or five years ago. Very different than my concerns today. Shoot, everything in my life is different now than it was five years ago. I never realized just how much could change in that short amount of time before. Freaky, indeed.
Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far. I’ve tried to keep it upbeat and interesting, if occasionally somewhat salacious. I hope you’ll stick with me for the next five years, at least. I promise, it’ll be just as crazy and strange as the last five have been!