Good Deed

This morning the SSH scan detector software that I run (DenyHosts) sent me an email indicating that it had detected a SSH scan and blocked the host.

The host name it reported did not appear to be a dynamic host (like those usually assigned by DSL provider), so did a little digging to identify who owned the system.

I notified Terry about the problem … and they replied …

I just checked the .100 address and found that I had (in an unbelievable amount of stupidity) left a test account on the system, and someone from Italy was actively engaged in running an SSH scan from that account. I contacted their ISP, hopefully they will do something about it. I removed the account, and will be taking the machine down momentarily to be rebuilt after I back some data off of it. How embarrassing. Thanks for letting me know. I suppose it is time for me to install that bridging firewall running snort I’ve been meaning to build… gah!

Glad I could help, Terry. Chalk one up for the good guys.

[tags]ssh, security, linux[/tags]

Now I’m a ‘Pod’ people

Yes, it’s true. I’m officially an IPODder.

For reasons I won’t go into, my good friend Steve gave Ginny and I a $500 gift card to ABT Electronics (he’s a VERY good friend).

Today we decided to go over to ABT to see what we could get.

Talk about a madhouse … I thought Frys was crazy, but ABT was insane.

Steve showed us some of his the kitchen appliances he’s getting for the house he’s building … and then left us to make our purchases.

After looking at various items, we decided to get the following …

  • IPOD Nano 4gb for me, including
    • Apple care 2 year warranty
    • Arm band & protective skin
  • Bluetooth headset for Ginny’s cell phone
  • Clock Radio IPOD dock for Ginny

I chose the IPOD because my current MP3 player only has 256mb of memory … and I find it quite frustrating that it runs out of space when I try to put more than a few songs on it.

I wasn’t too thrilled with the size of the nano … but with the skin it’s got enough bulk (and protection) to satisfy me.

Oh yeah … even if you’re not shopping for electronics, I do recommend at least one visit to ABT to see some of their art installations. They have a huge fish tank, a granite globe that floats on water, and this really cool piece that has marbles rolling around tracks. Ginny and I stared at it for about 10 minutes.

Let this thing DIE!

Paramount is breathing life into its “Star Trek” franchise by setting “Mission: Impossible III” helmer J.J. Abrams to produce and direct the 11th “Trek” feature, aiming for a 2008 release.

– Variety.com — Trekkies have a new leader

Oh please … will they quit already. They’ve beaten this franchise to death … let it go.

It’s clear the people who are in charge of the Trek movies just don’t know how to do a good story.

Let’s see how it stacks up …

  • The Motion Picture — Boooorrrrriiinnngggg
  • Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn — Probably the best of the lot … action, adventure, angst, and a great villain.
  • The Search for Spock — Not bad … but not great
  • The Voyage Home — Pretty good. Added a humorous twist
  • The Final Frontier — Lame.
  • The Undiscovered Country — Stupid.
  • Generations — So so … reasonable crossover. At least Kirk died. I kind of consider this the start of a new series of movies.
  • First Contact — Not bad. Good action, good villain, good resolution.
  • Insurrection — Fair to middling. Would have been better suited as a mini-series or 3-4 part regular series episode.
  • Nemesis — Dumb.

The Dog Rang

I was talking to my friend Steve today, asking him if he had gotten an email I sent him, when he responded …

Ah cr@p, I started to answer that yesterday, and the dog rang.

Most people, of course, would think that he mistyped and was saying that the Phone rang … but this would be wrong. The dog did indeed ring.

Steve & Ruth got a really cute dog a few weeks ago (photo forthcoming) … named Polly (short for Polygon, I think) … and they’ve trained her to ring a bell by the kitchen door when she needs to go out.

So while most people would more often get interupted by a phone ringing, Steve & Ruth will get interupted by the dog ringing.

Update: Added a picture of Polly.

The Gift of Compute

My mom needs a new computer … right now she has one of my old systems … a Pentium III 700mhz and a really junky 15″ monitor.

Since I no longer need theshire anymore (all the applications that were running on it have been moved to gondor), I figure I’ll give the system to mom.

Since her monitor is so junky also … I picked up a 19″ LCD display for myself, gave my old 19″ LCD display to Ginny, and took her 15″ LCD display for the servers (which frees up a lot of space on my computer workbench). Now I can also give mom a much nicer 17″ CRT display.

Dad just has to adjust her computer desk so the new monitor will fit. He groused about that when I told him what I was going to do.

Programmer Humor

You can always tell what language a programmer works with by the way they names their kids.

  • COBOL programmers give their kids long hyphenated names … like ANNA-MARIA, MARIE-CLAIRE, or HORATIO-ALOYSIUS.
  • RPG programmers give their kids short names … like BOB, SUE, JOE, or AL.
  • C programmers don’t name their kids … they just point to them.

If you’re not a programmer, you probably won’t get it.

Backup Everything

Yes, this posting is in both the Life and Computer categories.

It’s just a reminder that you should backup EVERYTHING!

Your computer files, your insurance policies (which I have to do), AND the contact information on your internet domain registrations.

Specifically, make sure the contact information on your domain registrations has a valid email address that will work even if your normal email address isn’t working.

Case in point: I have a friend who’s internet domain has expired … and I’ve been trying to contact him about it because he has a lot of mail queuing up on my server. Unforunately, I don’t know if he’s actually receiving the mail because I can’t send to the email address he normally uses, and the email address on his domain registration seems kind of old.

[tags]email, domains, backup[/tags]

Well Duh!

In news which is not likely to shock anyone, a new report finds that people who watch television show on their TiVos almost always skip over the ads.

– Surprise – TiVo owners skip ads

What the heck do you think people buy DVR’s for?

Will someone hit those people with a cluestick?

Another Article!

Heh … I’m going to be famous yet again!

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by a Neil Tardy of IBM Systems magazine about midrange.com.

The interview went well, and I was really pleased with the first draft Neil sent me.

Turns out the magazine wanted a photo of me for the article.

So, yesterday, they sent out a photographer to take the picture.

Since the article is about me and midrange.com, the best place to take the pictures was in the basement, Ginny and I had to actually CLEAN the basement up. Talk about a transformation. There’s actually ROOM down here.

Anyways the photographer, Chip, came by and took the picture. He tried a number of different setups … and found a few he liked. I liked working with Chip … he showed me a bit about using the histogram on the camera (although I’m not 100% certian I understood everything he told me, I am going to play around with it).

Obviously I’ll post a link (or at least a PDF) here when the article is published.

DST

Spring forward and fall back.

Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour (like I have on more than one occasion).

I’m off to change the clocks RIGHT NOW.