Digital Choke Daynotes

"Daynotes" are popularized by a Internet Web site called the "Daynotes Gang" (http://www.daynotes.com or http://www.daynotes.org), a collection of the daily technical and personal observations from the famous and others. That group started on December 29, 1999, and has grown to an interesting collection of individuals. Readers are invited and encouraged to visit those sites for other interesting daily journals. You can send your comments to us by clicking on any mailbox icon.

Reports

Today's entry was attacked by triptophan. It was a long-lasting version. I can't think of any other excuse.

Back to work today. Interesting news: the CIO is quitting due to personal reasons, the head of IT network services is reassigned to some special (high-visibility) projects, the communications dept head is taking over the network services section, and wireless networking is beginning to get on the radar screen.

All of those are interesting developments for a Monday. I need to cogitate on them a bit. I've never been one to play (or pay attention to) corporate political games. But this one might be interesting to watch.

Pam and I went out to dinner tonight to celebrate her birthday. We went to a Chinese restaurant ("P.F. Changs"), and had a lettuce wrap (think of a plain meat burrito with lettuce instead of a tortilla), chow mien, and lemon chicken. I'm not really a fan of Chinese cuisine (I like my bait well-done), but it was OK. Pam enjoyed it, and that was the whole point of the exercise.

I spent the evening playing around with a new look to these pages. They are not ready to show off yet, though. But it was fun to play around with html code a bit. I use Macromedia Dreamweaver MX to create these pages. I still need to work on my CSS style knowledge.

I spent most of the morning updating my test installation of Windows 2000 Server. It lives on a slower laptop, so the updates took a while to get installed. But I got it all done by about lunchtime. I also installed anti-virus, and a few security programs. One was the Languard Network Security Analyzer from GFI. You can download a 30-day full evaluation with the link back there (the link opens up a new window; that's common practice around here so you won't get lost). It does a pretty good job of analyzing a Windows computer, looking for common vulnerabilities, installed/missing patches, user information, open ports, and other stuff. It can work on a single or range of IP addresses. It produces a pretty good report of things that need to be fixed. It's a good tool for a security dweeb like me.

Tools like that program can get you into trouble if you are not careful where you are poking around. It's probably OK to run on your home computer, since that one is yours. But don't run it at work, or anywhere without permission. Unauthorized scanning of a network can be a felony here in the States, and probably elsewhere....as I explain in my report "Is That a Felony on Your Computer?".

After work, Pam and I met Christine and the grandkids at a Golden Arches restaurant near her house. Her husband is taking a night class two nights a week, and we thought it might be good for her and the kids to get out of the house for a bit. It was, as you might expect, quite enjoyable. After our dinner, we went to Walgreens to pick up some holiday lights, then to Sam's Club for the "Pirates" DVD and a few odds and ends (like a big jar of ginger snaps cookies). On the way out, we grabbed a berry sundae (they are quite good, with a very tasty low-fat yogurt ice cream and real berry sauce).

Tomorrow is the monthly network administrator's meeting. I don't expect much excitement in that meeting, although there will be a bit of information about the staff changes in the IT department. And a trip to "Barber Bill" after work is in order...the locks are getting a bit shaggy.

A nice day outside today, once the morning fog burned off. Sunny and almost shirtsleeve weather. But the days are too short; the commute home will be mostly dark.

I did a bit of reading some various security articles at work today. Wednesday (along with being McAfee Virus update date) is when the "SANS Newsbytes" newsletter arrives in my email box. There are usually several interesting stories each week, and comments from the 'editors' of the newsletters. (You can subscribe at http://portal.sans.org .)

Another related newsletter is the one from SecurityFocus (you can subscribe at www.securityfocus.com . ) This one talks about vulnerabilities, security tools, and hacking (and anti-hacking) techniques. Both are recommended.

Wireless networking is getting a lot of press, and a lot of interest. Wireless seems to be everywhere, as indicated by this story about using wireless in Nepal. But there are risks with wireless, as we have discussed before in these pages. If you have wireless in your house (or your business), are the neighbors snooping?

Pam and I seem to be in the group of "Trading Spaces" fans. Then we watched "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" tonight, which was also interesting. Not sure of our taste in television, though. Or at least mine. Because I also find the various "Poker" shows strangely addicting. I'm trying to resist...

An early post today; still at work. I spent just about all of the morning, and part of the afternoon, (after the morning mail run) setting up Bindview on the other laptop at the desk at work. (Bindview is an auditing tool for Windows and Netware OS, see www.bindview.com .) It's a slower machine, and it does take a while to install and configure things. But I got it all working, and was able to run a few quick scans to make sure all the pieces were in place.

That laptop is split into three partitions (currently), with Win2K Server, Win2003 Server, and Windows 2000 Pro installed on those partitions. The Win2K server is for testing security settings and policies, as is the Win2003 server. The Win2KPro is the Bindview installation, which will be used for security scans.

The Win2K Server was used in the SANS security class I took a couple of months ago, and the settings aren't quite right for the network here at work, so I need to blow it away and do a reinstall (much simpler and cleaner than trying to fix all the goofy things I did with it in class). I am going to do a default installation, then document the procedures for making it secure. This will include removing any unused services, and configuring the security policies and settings. That document, and the associated policy and script files, will be used on the other Win2K servers around here to get them in compliance with our standards.

I'll also do the same process on the Win2003 server, but there is much less to be done to that installation, as it is much more secure "out of the box" than Win2K. The last time I did it, I just needed to tweak some of the password policies, and turn on auditing. That can easily be done with a policy 'inf' file.

So, all of this occupied most of my day here at work. And I am still here (it's almost 6pm as I write this), as Pam is tied up on a priority project at her department. But I hope to be out of here by 7pm.

Good news on the "Daynoter" front: it looks like Tom Syroid will soon be back in action. I've been reading his pages for a couple of years; I forget how I found him. And it was through his pages that I found the other "Daynoters", who were the inspiration for these blatherings. It looks like he will be back next week; I look forward to adding him to my daily 'net rounds.

It's turning a bit rainy and colder here in the "Governator-land". The forecast is for showers through the weekend, with temps ranging between 45-65 degrees. Typical weather this time of year, but it may put a crimp in my plans for putting up some holiday lighting at home. I suspect that there will be some breaks in the rain that will allow enough time to get it done. There are no elaborate plans, just some lights along the rain gutters, and perhaps around the windows. I'll connect them to a light sensor for automatic lighting during the night.

Stayed home from work today; woke up a bit under the weather (not because of anything similar to what John Dominik went through last night). But I felt better by lunchtime, so was able to get a couple of things done.

One of them was the haircut that I meant to get done last Wednesday. I've been going to a place called "Barber Bill's" for years. I always get a decent haircut there, and they do give out Tootsie Roll Pops if you are good (I was, so picked a cherry one). Barber Bill has been around town for a very long time. It's a three-chair place, with an old pot-bellied stove (just decorative now), and about 1000 hats tacked to the ceiling. It's quite a collection.

Then I stopped by Home Depot for a couple of things for today's project: putting up some lights outside. We got some colored icicle-type lights, and some nice plastic gutter clips. The clips made it quite easy to hang them up. I got the ones above the garage done. Not sure whether to do the ones on the gutter above the front living room. They are about 15 feet up, and I only have an 11 foot (I think) ladder. The house has a tile roof, and with the damp weather, I'd think that it wasn't too safe to be tramping around on the roof, leaning over the edge to put up the lights. I may just put some lights around the bushes in front of the front room window, and maybe some around the door.

The lights out front look nice. We're thinking that it might be nice to put some on the back porch patio cover. Then we could see them from the family room and kitchen. They would also be visible by others, since the back porch is on a bit of a hill, with the houses in back of me lower than my house. And it would be much safer than climbing around on the tile roof.

Since I was home today, I got to fix dinner. Pork chops, pork-flavored stuffing, dinner rolls, and green beans. Quite tasty, and easy to fix (Shake&Bake, StoveTop Stuffing, pre-built rolls, canned beans). But tasty enough.

Then Pam and I watched "Joan of Arcadia", which we've really been enjoying. Some good writing in there, and believable characters. After that, we watched "Pirates of the Caribbean". Great show, some funny references to the Disneyland rides, and believable special effects. And I always like a good swashbuckler story. I may take some time out tomorrow to look at the bonus features, which I understand are also good.

It looks like tomorrow's activities will include shopping at the mall (a command performance required by my wife), over to the in-laws to help them put up their tree, some more lighting around here, and a few other things. I'll be sure that you get all the details tomorrow, so that once again your eyes will glaze over while reading this.

And if you want to spend some time looking at some great landscape photography, take a look at this place. He takes multiple shots of scenes, then stiches them together to provide very high resolution shots. You should probably have a broadband connection to look at them, but they are quite impressive. I spent about an hour last night looking at his collection. And he claims to have made the worlds largest and most high-resolution image. I found the link on Dan Seto's page, where he says:

Dan lives over in Hawaii, and his post today reminds us of the incident that happened on December 7, 1941. That little excercise allowed my father to spend a bit of time in the Phillipines. He returned safely from that effort to build his family of three -- and I am number three. I only know a few stories from his experiences there, told to me by others, since he died in a motorcycle accident when I was short of three years old. So, a short moment of silence for those that served, and those that are serving.

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