Digital Choke Daynotes

 Sunday, November 28, 2004       mail    link   the story

The morning dawned bright and early at 2:30am when the alarm went off -- one hour early. Then it went off at 3:30am. As I pried my eyes open, I realized that although it was early, it wasn't bright. It was still dark.

You might wonder why. Stacy needed to be at the airport at 5:00am for her flight back to school. Since the chauffeur had the day off, I got to drive. But not much traffic that early in the morning.

So Stacy is back at school, and it's back to the normal Sunday. Church in the morning, a nap in the early afternoon, and dinner with the grandkids in the evening. Pam decided on marinated chicken breasts cooked on the BBQ. So at about 5:30pm, I turned on the back porch light (it's dark out there without the light), and fired up the BBQ. When the grill was hot enough, I put the chicken on the grill. About 5 minutes later, the propane tank was empty.

Oops.

Off to plan B. Fire up the oven to finish cooking the chicken. Grab the home made bread out of the bread maker. A bit of rice, some green beans. Good stuff.

And the grandkids got to put the sprinkles (tree-shaped) on the cake. (Aren't we all a bit spoiled?)

The usual Sunday activities. It just started a bit earlier than usual.

 Monday, November 29, 2004       mail    link   the story

Busy day today at work. I did two security audits of some new servers, a meeting about a new information security class being offered in-house, and the usual morning status meeting.

A couple of interesting items in the news. You'll be able to find more information about these stories on your favorite news site.

• There is a new cell phone virus making the rounds in Europe. It only affects PDA-type phones. One version will corrupt the PDA applications. I haven't heard any noises about it being in the US, but you should be aware of it. One way that it gets into your phone is by an email or web site that claims to include some new ring tones.
• The SCO site got hacked, with their main page text changed. It would seem that the hacker exploited an old PHP server problem. Which should remind you system admins to keep your patches current, even on Linux systems.
• A guy in Canada claims to have invented a system of that converts satellite images with GPS data to create 3-D images with a two-foot resolution. Sort of like a real-time three-dimensional Mapquest. It's not released publicly, but I suspect that they better have a high-bandwidth web site for it.

And a new link up in the "Reports" area. This one is related to keeping your home wireless network safe. You can send comments about any the reports here.

 Tuesday, November 30, 2004       mail    link   the story

Short post. Fixed the "Wireless" link (thanks for the alert, Dave). Got home late after picking up mother-in-law from the airport.

Nothing else to report. Go see the other Daynotes Gang posts. They probably have something more interesting.

(Later) Well, this might be helpful if you work with computers:

I found out about a "Boot and Nuke" program (from Robert Thompson, program available from http://dban.sourceforge.net/ ). It creates a bootable floppy that will wipe a hard drive. Free stuff. Have heard some good things about it.

Another program Robert mentioned: Ultimate Boot Disk (here: http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/ ) might also be useful. Has diag tests, and lots of other stuff. Also free.

Both tools should be used only as authorized by your job function. They should not be used for any hacking/destructive purposes. Even if your job function is a network administrator, a "get out of jail free" authorization from your big boss is very useful to have, along with having other security policies in place. You can find some sample policies at www.sans.org in the "Reading Room" and other places there. Very useful place.

Now I am done.

 Wednesday, December 1, 2004       mail    link   the story

Welcome to December. Now go shopping. There's only 24 days left.

Microsoft says: " Microsoft has released a cumulative security update that addresses a newly discovered issue in Microsoft Internet Explorer, a component of Windows. Information about this update and which software is affected is available on the Microsoft.com Security Web site." (link here)

This is the patch for the IFRAME vulnerability, most recently served up via hacked Linux servers on ad-banner servers. Recall that "The Register", "Comedy Central", and many other high-profile sites were using the FalkAG web-banner services that were hacked to give out this vulnerability. "Attack sites" are widespread, so caution is urged.

If you visited an infected site, or were given an ad banner from an infected ad-banner service, then your computer could be controlled by a remote user. This includes installing programs, grabbing data, or running any type of command. Typically, the infected computer is turned into a 'bot' for the purpose of relaying spam mail. A 'bot' could also be (and has been) used to attack a web site (a "Distributed Denial of Service" attack).

Users that have Windows XP with SP2 were not affected by this vulnerability.

The patch does apply to: Internet Explorer 6 SP1 on Windows 2000 SP3, Windows 2000 SP4, or Windows XP SP1; Internet Explorer 6 SP1 on Windows NT Server 4.0 SP6a; Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Service Edition SP6; Windows 98; Windows 98 SE; Windows Me; Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP 64-Bit Edition SP1. (Note that the patch is available for older Windows version.)

Best practice: upgrade to Windows XP with SP2. If you are not at that level, install this patch via Windows UPdate. Then update your anti-virus and run a full virus scan on your C drive.

Now, go make sure Automatic Update is enabled. And today is the McAfee virus update day. Did you get updated automatically?

 Saturday, December 4, 2004       mail    link   the story

Home sick on Thursday, the usual stomach problems. Nothing new, but a lazy day around the house.

Back to work on Friday, got a few things done. Friday night we got to be the babysitters. The kids came over and left us with Joelle and Liam while they went to dinner and shopping.

So we went to dinner with the grandkids. The usual place -- the Golden Arches. The kids ate well and had fun in the indoor play area.

Afterwards, we went driving through a nearby neighborhood to look at the Christmas decorations. It's a popular place each year; just about every house is decorated with lots of lights and various cartoon characters.

One house was quite clever. They put a 30 foot pine tree under their front porch, with the top of the tree breaking through the shingles of the porch roof. Very cleverly done, with broken shingles completing the illusion. I'll have to bring the camera for the next trip.

Joelle and Liam had a fun time looking at all the lights and characters. We'll probably make a few more trips over there this month.

Afterwards, it was back to the house to watch some holiday cartoons. Quite an exciting evening; we all had fun.

A bit of sleeping in this morning, then breakfast ("two scoops!") while reading the newspaper. Then some cleaning inside for Pam (the office looks much better, and got rid of the furry stuff in the refrigerator). I went outside and replaced the thermostat on the Camry. It had been acting up, even though it passed the boiling water test. So I got a better brand (not the cheap one) and put it in. Seems to be working OK.

Then a bit of outdoor decorations for our house. We don't get too fancy, just some icicle lights on the front, and green light bulbs in the outdoor lights on the garage. With that done, it was off for a bit of shopping.

First stop was Home Depot, where Pam saw a couple of small pine trees (about a foot high) that we'll place on either side of the fireplace. (It's a gas fireplace that we rarely use.) Then to Target, for some decorations (some tiny silver and blue bulbs for the little tree, along with a couple of short light sets) and a few other things. Then up the road a bit to a craft fair, where Pam found a couple of nice decorations. Quizno's for lunch, then to the local furniture store to pick up the small wooden table for the upstairs room.

Back home, where I got to put the table and chairs together, and then a bit of relaxing before dinner (meat loaf, baked potatoes, green beans with almonds). The evening looks quiet; just a bunch of phone calls that I needed to do.

So, an eventful several days.