Diary of a Network Geek

Ah, the old days…
Yes, this past week or two sure has felt like the old days. Long, long hours that are appreciated only by a select few. Coming home to an empty house. Being at work late on a Saturday night. Yep, it sure seems like old times. The joys of being a Professional Network Geek. Well, at least I solved my little “issue” and, with the help of an equally dedicated co-worker, I have just a bit of testing to do tomorrow and we should be good to go for the mini-rollout.
In a nutshell, my last problem was getting the LILO information to update on the Linux-based ZENWorks Imaging partition on the local drive. Everytime I would get the damn thing installed, then added an image to the disk, the menu that let the user go into the recovery mode (ie. the Linux partition) would go away. So, after chasing my tail for a week, while sick as a dog, incidentally, I finally noticed something in the documentation that indicated a particular order to do things. Yes, once I read the “fine” manual, it was clear that I had to first enable the ZENWorks partition, then apply the updated LILO config that gave the user a boot option menu. Since I know that “once is luck, but twice is skill”, I tested this on a desktop and a laptop and a second time on a second desktop. All three worked like a charm. Yea! Now, I can go back to my regular 45 hour work week. And, maybe, I’ll get a little rest and get over being sick.
Just as soon as I finish the laundry and ironing and pay my bills and go grocery shopping.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
but I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.”
– Robert Frost

There’s been a couple of security “issues” lately.
As many of my regular readers know, security is near and dear to my heart. In the past couple of weeks, there have been several computer security notes that have come up in the news. First, there was the Big Browser Bug. Basically, if you haven’t read about this yet, it’s based on a “feature” called IDN (International Domain Name) which allows people to use special characters in non-English languages to resolve domain names. Well, phishers can use this to disguise their domain name even more to lure unsuspecting suckers into giving up their information. Bad news. Worse news is that this is mainly a problem for non-Internet Explorer browsers, like Firefox and Mozilla. So, what to do? Well, in Mozilla, type “about:config” into the URL bar and set “network.enableIDN” to false. Simple. Of course, it disables an interesting feature, but better safe than sorry.
Second, there is the “evil twin” wireless router problem. In a nutshell, a cracker finds an office or apartment near an unsecured wi-fi router. (Which isn’t that hard. I’ve been squawking about how insecure wireless is for years. I think it even contributed to my job change at that-damn-boat-place.) Then, the naughty person sets up a router that mimics the unsecured one and forwards all the traffic on to the “real” router. Of course, before it does that, the “evil twin” router logs all the info. In a way, it’s just a more aggressive and sneaky way of phishing. The end result is the same. All your personal data ends up in the hands of a crook. That’s one of the reasons I ran Cat 5 in my house instead of going wireless.

Now, for a more positive story, the Register is running a bit about how computer forensics have cleared teachers and students of illicit porn collecting accusations. Apparently, a folder of pornographic images was found on a school computer and was seemingly updated during regular class time. The school brought in an independant consultant who was able to show that it was, in fact, a piece of spyware that was doing the downloading and updating. So, sometimes, we geeks can come in handy, eh?

You know, in today’s world of crackers, hackers, phishers, virus-writers and disgruntled employees, we just can’t be too concerned about security. It’s a very, very big deal. Every single person in IT is responsible, to a greater or lesser degree, for some aspect of computer security in their business. Even the Receptionist has to be thinking about security these days. After all, if I can get physical access to a machine, I’ve just beaten a majority of the normal security measures most companies put into place. It’s something every one of us need to think about every day, both at home and at work.

Well, I’m trying to keep busy, anyway.
I went to a Lodge meeting tonight with a friend of mine. In fact, I sat in the South for his Third Degree, until I had to excuse myself because I was passing a kidney stone. That’s always a good excuse, by the way. I got there in time for dinner, which meant some good, heavy Texas BBQ. Masons sure know how to eat! Of course, now, I need to cut way back and try to lose the five pounds I gained while eating greasy food on the road last week. Curse you and your delicious food Applebee’s! And Olive Garden!
Okay, I probably could have eaten healthier than that, but the Messiah is a bit of a picky eater. I’m a bit more adventurous than straight “meat and potatoes”, but I made due. So, now it’s back to rice and chicken and tuna and other lighter fare. Hmm, maybe it’s time I started trying out those sushi and bento cookbooks….
Oh, I’ve also been in touch with H.O.P.E.. Apparently, they have to review your volunteer application before you can actually volunteer. It surprised me a bit, but I was glad they did. Of course, they were quite thorough when we adopted Hilda, too. I’m a bit of a shoe-in, though, because I’m a “big, strong man”, who are short supply amongst volunteers. Who knew? So, that’ll get me out of the house more often, too.
And, there’s always church. It’s nice to get out again and do these things I never felt I could do before. It’s really nice not being responsible to anyone for a change. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t feel like I had to “check in” with someone to let them know what I was up to, or where I was going. If I feel like it, these days, I just go. Like I said, it’s nice. And, I hope keeping active will help me keep the weight off, too!

“The question isn’t ‘Am I paranoid?’, but ‘Am I paranoid enough?'”
Ever heard that before? If you’ve dealt with computer security, it should be your damn mantra. But, too, if you just use the internet to send e-mail or blog, you should think about it. Why? Well, are you sure that all your e-mail is safe? And, do you know who reads your blog? If you wouldn’t want to say something in front of your mother or child, you might not want to put it up for the entire world to see. Also, did you know you can get fired for blogging? Yep, not only is there the famous Heather at dooce.com, but also the Delta Airlines incident and there’s this story on Register.com about two, unrelated incidents of people being fired for blogging. It’s even gone so far that Blogger has guidelines on “how not to get fired because of your blog“.
But, back to e-mail. I can remember on many occasions rebuilding e-mail files so that we could find out who sent what to whom and when they sent it. At least one time, I had to rebuild an entire e-mail server and system to replicate data that was taken by a U.S. Government agent. (No, not the IRS, thankfully, just the FBI and EPA. The IRS agents are really tough, from what I hear, when it comes to data collection.) Oh, but don’t think that simply deleting the mail is enough. No, siree, there are plenty of ways to get that back. For one thing, many internet enabled systems have a cache that can be poked and prodded back into a mail database. Or, perhaps someone forgot to delete their sent mail. Sometimes that’s even better because it will capture not only the outgoing mail, but part of the e-mail to which the “target” is replying. That’s two birds with one stone, there! Oh, and don’t think that a wireless device will protect you either. According to this story on Slashdot, even the messages sent Blackberry-to-Blackberry can be retrieved by your employer.

Of course, this works in reverse, as well. I often send copies of my work e-mail to my home account so that I have “backup” in case something goes tragically wrong with the work e-mail, I still have a copy to print out and present to a nice judge. Never know when that’s going to come in handy. Believe me, I’ve seen strange stuff when it comes to lawyers and e-mail. Don’t forget, I’ve worked through at least two sales and one bankruptcy. Trust me on this one, it’s nice to know you have proof of what you promised people!
And, if you want something to “vanish” you’d best get to know all about any purge functions you have available to you or look into getting a PGP-based “eraser”. Better yet, if you plan on defrauding the Federal Government, don’t talk about it in an e-mail to anyone. Hell, just don’t talk about it at all. Better yet, just be honest and pay your taxes like the rest of us.

Remember, in the end, the best thing is to just not do anything that you’d get fined for or do time for later. Barring that, don’t make a damn record of it where some vengeful prick might get their hands on it. And, above all, be careful who you cross. (Yeah, this is the sort of thing I think about on airplanes and sitting in hotels after working on new servers all day long. It is my entire life these days.)

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Never tell your girlfriend that her diet's not working."

Okay, so it occurred to me that there had to be a better way.
Yeah, sure, I could talk about the evils of free porn until I’m blue in the face. I could even rant about how terrible it is to manipulate searchengines. Instead, I’m going to try and do it. Again.
Yes, again. I did it once back in 2000/2001 to get my site ranked so highly on Google for the search terms “CNE resume” that it was the number one hit. I did all sorts of crazy things, not the least of which was start this blog, incidentally. One thing I did was look at both the Google Zeitgeist and the Yahoo Buzz Index and try to use those terms in my site. So, for instance, according to Google’s Zeitgeist, I should talk about: how I felt about the Golden Globes and who won; the fact that Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day; what Teri Hatcher was wearing at the Golden Globes; who Teri Polo is and what she wore at the Golden Globes; what NASA has thrown into space lately; what “naughtiness” Prince Harry has been up to over in the UK; detailed specs on the iPod Shuffle; the super-model antics of Naomi Campbell; the fact that Mariska Hargitay also won a Golden Globe; and how the movie “Elektra” was doing in the box office. As you can see, that first hit, the Golden Globe Awards, was a really popular one, since it was repeated in, or was effected by, several later searches.
Last week, I should have been talking about: Amber Frey, the adulterous whore who was banging Scott Peterson; the terrible damage done by the tsunami in India; how terrible it is that Ashlee Simpson was caught lip-synching; Delta Airlines for some reason; the Weather Channel coverage of that tsunami in India; Heidi Klum, because it’s always a good time to talk about Ms. Klum (and she got married to Seal); NFL player Randy Moss, presumably because he sprained his ankle; the Orange Bowl, because it’s still football season; the fact that Brad Pitt is single again; and all the cool concept cars at the Detroit Auto Show. Crazy stuff, right?

Well, according to Yahoo Buzz Index, I should have talked about some very different things this week. If I wanted to get Yahoo hits, I should have talked about: OJ Simpson’s daughter, Sydney Simpson, getting arrested; Playboy Playmate Alicia Rickter, for obvious, pornographic reasons; those nuts over at Jibjab, who made another hit animation; Enter Location, because, uh, people were travelling a lot?; actress Elisabeth Harnois, possibly for the Golden Globes again?; O.J. Simpson, because his daughter got arrested, of course; the fact that Julian Ozanne got married to Gillian Anderson and no one knows who he is, but everyone knows her from the X-files; anything and everything about actress Lucy Liu, just because, she’s Lucy Liu; the Tennesse-based music and arts festival, Bonnaroo; “How We Do” almost anything, from the sound of it; eating “Breakfast and Brunch”? Or is that more travelling stuff?; how cheap Costco Wholesale pricing is; soap-opera star Annie Parisse, most likely because she moved on to something better; the fact that Japan had another big earthquake; and Jimjab.com, which is most likely a mistake for “jibjab.com”.

Wow, those are totally different things, aren’t they? Are people who use those two different searchengines that different? Have I been losing out by optimizing for Google?
Oh, I don’t know, but I think I’m going to go have a bit of a lay-down. This whole experience has been exhausting.
(And, yes, I’ve posted this same thing on my other blog, the Fantasist’s Scroll, for the same reason as the last post.)

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Every experience that involves one of us, involves others who also need what the experience may teach. We are not alone, ever."

WHAT?!?
What the devil am I doing talking about free porn on this very non-adult blog? Simple, talking about free porn is the fastest way to get hits. Sad, but true. In fact, John Dvorak has written an article about this called Free Porn Magic For You.
I used to think that the Internet had improved with age, that we’d finally gotten past all the free porn, or “pron” if you’re one of the hip, out-of-work webdesigners from the 90’s, and had moved on to something more meaningful. I guess I was wrong. If you read the article, you’ll see that what holds true from the earlier days of the Internet still, sadly, holds true today. People are looking for free porn on the Internet. Now, the hits I generally get via searches on Google, and company, aren’t filled with porn terms, movies, or “performers”, so I’m not really expecting a lot of traffic boost, but, well, it can’t hurt. Can it? You know, I’m already starting to feel a bit slimy with all that. And, yes, I admit that I have actually searched for that sort of thing in the past. The distant past. But, I don’t do that anymore. Why? Because, the pornography industry is a generally degrading, dehumanizing industry that devalues human interaction and relationships. Not, it’s not illegal, but, it is, in my opinion, immoral. I’m doing my best not to be immoral anymore. (Hey, for a guy with a degree in Marketing, that can be a challenge!) So, is it immoral to use porn in the title of a post to simply boost ratings? Maybe so. Well, I never said I was perfect! This whole “better person” thing is new to me. (See previous reference to Marketing degree.) Internet advertising is hell.
So, how else can I boost ratings on this site? For pity’s sake, I know hundreds of people hit this site on a daily and weekly basis, but I have only six sad, lonely Bloglines subscribers. Just six. Did I mention that Bloglines is a free service? And they have nice, FREE tools that let you keep up with your favorite blogs? (Aw, c’mon, subscribe to the Diary of a Network Geek with Bloglines!) Oh, I suppose I could always just produce more content here. Yeah, that might work, too. But, well, I’d rather go with the sure thing. So, for those of you who are websurfers that got here looking for free porn, I apologize. I was just using you to drive my stats up. I hope you don’t hate me too much. And, I promise to respect you in the morning. Honest.
(Okay, yeah, I have this whole post, in condensed format, on my other blog, the Fantasist’s Scroll, too. Hey, it’s hard to generate this content stuff. So, I “recycled” the post, sue me!)

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Shallow men believe in luck.... Strong men believe in cause and effect."
   --Emerson

Okay, I admit that I’ve been blogging as an escape.
Cut me some slack, allright? I’ve got a lot of crap to escape right now. So, anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of blog reading and I saw that a new XML site syndication standard has been developed, and adopted, that’s supposed to be really sweet. Really, the fact that two aggregators have allready adopted it speaks quite highly of the new standard, I think. But, what really got me was the fact that I know the guys who did it! Yeah, I know these two XML developers who have just released the hot new standard for site syndication.
Sean B. Palmer and Christopher Schmidt, the developers, are guys that play on an interactive world-creation game that I’m a part of called the Ghyll Encyclopedia. How cool is that. I feel like I’m somebody now. Er, well, at least, I know somebody. Anyway, it’s cool.

Oh, but I’m going to anyway!
I have seen the coolest computer desk with a computer built into it. These are the most incredible, fantastic, and beautiful creations I have seen. In a way, they are the ultimate case-mod. “They”, in this case, are Truvia Luxury Computers, as seen at Gizmodo. I mean, the desks themselves are just gorgeous, but to have built in computers… Now, if I just had a spare $55,000. Right, anyone want to donate one to a good cause (ie. ME)?

Click on the link! It’s Friday and the boss isn’t looking, so go for it!
(And, here are the rest of the Commandments, just in case…)

Hmm, that’s a good quesiton….
A friend asked me why I blog the other day and it really got me thinking. Why do I blog?

Well, the reasons have changed over the years. Originally, I started “blogging” to chronicle my search for a job here in Houston. Well, it was also a way to try and drive traffic to my website so that the search engines would find my resume. That was almost five years ago, back before there was such a thing as blogging software. In the early days, I hand-coded every page and uploaded it. As one might imagine, I tried to make every “post” count back then. It was a real hassle! But, I kept posting things about my work. Often, I found myself out on the road doing strange things or going odd places for my work and I wrote about it. I tried to focus on the technical side of things, but every so often, I would throw in something strange about my personal life, like getting married.
Then, back in September of 2002, I heard about Moveable Type, which was the first really good blogging application. It ran on PERL and MySQL, which were things I wanted to learn, so it seemed like a good choice. And, it was. I was able to post more often and more easily than ever before. And, I was out of work, again, so I moved from work war stories back to the seemingly endless search for work. It was the Summer after Enron and IT work was hard to come by, so I started posting more and more about my own personal thoughts, hopes and dreams. The blog started to become much more personal. It was a place to vent my frustrations, though I did so carefully as I was ever mindful that a future employer might read my postings.
Somewhere in there, I also started my other blog on Fantasist.net. There I posted things that were purely fun for me. Nothing but cool science and fantasy stuff, some of my fiction and poetry, and just plain cool or weird things. It was there that I originally started posting my “Fun Friday” links. That carried over here and I’ve done my best to maintain that to this day.
Now, I’ve upgraded to WordPress and blogging couldn’t be easier or more fun. I’m still carefull about what I post. I have a fairly varied audience, some of which include family that might be under the age of 18, so I do my best to be intelligent without being insulting to too many people. I do my best to keep the profanity and “adult material” to a minimum, too, for the same reasons.

So, why do I keep posting? Well, I can always use the traffic, even if I am the #1 hit for “CNE Resume” on Google. But, mainly, it gives me a place to think out loud when no one is around for me to talk to about things. Blogging let’s me share my thoughts and dreams and, sometimes, fears with a larger world. A larger world that often responds with surprising kindness and sympathy, I might add. It’s my way of reaching out to fellow geeks who are stuggling with their own careers or lives and offer a bit of hope that they’re not alone.
Also, it’s a way for me to create a bit of immortality. To feel like a part of me will go on beyond my own limited life. To get my words and thoughts out into a larger world so that I might be remembered and understood.
So, why do you all read my blog? And, if you keep one, why do you blog?

Okay, so it occurred to me that I might have lost some subscribers.
That’s why there was a bit of finagling to get to this page for some of you. See, a whole bunch of folks who read this blog use aggregators, of one kind or another, and not all of them may have corrected for the format change. Well, that only occurred to me last night while I was futzing around with other stuff. So, I hurried about and made some changes that should not only let everyone know that I’ve changed things here, but how to get to the “new” site. At least, that’s the idea. In a couple of days, or weeks, I’ll get rid of the index.html page that redirects folks to the main blog. Before that, though, I’ll get rid of all the other faux indexes (indexii ?) which should let all my faithful readers find their way to my new home. (You know who you are!)

Actually, that brings up a point. How many readers do I have here? I have no idea. I average somewhere between 2500 and 3000 hits per day, depending on the measurement tool used, but I only show two subscribers via Bloglines. Now, I know my future-ex-wife watches this blog, even though she seems to have dropped her subscription to it via Bloglines, so that makes three of you. And, allowing for the fact that I probably only have 250 to 300 “unique” visitors per month, according to another reporting tool, that leaves somewhere in the neighborhood of 247 readers, of some kind, unaccounted for running around out there. (See, I not only managed mathmatics, but I didn’t end the sentence with a preposition!) So, where are you all? What are you all doing here? What brought you here? Why do you come back? Inquiring minds want to know! And, I do, too.