All your secrets are belong to us

Nifty site ;)

Specially when people use their GPS enabled cams

Ze Frank in Amsterdam!

I am sure all who read this know Ze Frank and spent countless hours in awe and amassment . If you do not, shame on you! Go google the master. But do not take my word for it, read what Scot Trent has to say: "By the Keillor standard of diversity, intelligence, and talent, ze Frank sings, composes, has a depth beyond most of us and is more prolific than any one person."

So this week [Friday the 21st.] Ze Frank be in Amsterdam on the "Pluk de nacht" festival.

iPhone + redsn0w == Waiting for reboot SOLVED!

It took me the better part of a full day, lots of google hits, lots of options, lots of everything.

First, make sure you got the proper files [# openssl sha1 'filename']:
iPhone1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw SHA1 2afd3f8ede17390737f508473ed205506a0bd23f
bl39.bin SHA1 8ec565fe026d3f642dbe836c0fdc80f06844603b
bl46.bin SHA1 fd4825ffe5727dcc30e4c70dc78908838d498822
[not too many people care about these it seems...]

And the real solution was simpler then anything: While redsn0w shows the dreaded "waiting for reboot" screen, just unplug the USB cable and replug it. done. all fine. iPhone unlocked and updated to version 3.0.1

Thanks to iLeoMarc on the macrumurs forums.

Not found by google?

There are some queries that google has only one answer for, some are here.

"mokum's iphone" is one. In the [faint] hope that someone will once type "mokum's iPhone" in google after laying her|his hands on my phone and trying to find the original owner, now you got a change. Contact me and I am sure we will work out a deal that satisfies all involved parties.

Having said that, I would like a moment to thank Apple, GeoHot & the iPhone dev-team for letting me and many others use this amazing device, with any provider -I- like.

And another one, while messing with remote syslog on OSX:
syslogd 31783 FS_WRITE_DATA SBF /private/var/log/asl/StoreData
FS_WRITE_DATA SBF /private/var/log/asl/StoreData 13 (seatbelt)

OpenDNS, in Holland soon.

Some days ago I read something about OpenDNS [thinking of] getting a new location [AMS-IX] for their excellent DNS service. Since it is based on anycast, endusers need not to change any addresses in order to benefit from the added location. Silly me, I can't find the article anymore.

Last week I had some issues with slow dns lookups/slow Internet on Leopard again. It is plagued with issues. My setup with an Apple Airport and Apple iPhones, and an iMAC, a G4 & more [all running 10.5.7] is often experiencing issues with name resolving. Unfortunately, I am not the only one with this. I have googled my arse off and tried every 'tip' I found, from turning of ipv6 in Firefox & the Airport & on my laptop to moving the resolving from my laptop to the Airport. Nothing works reliable.

Last week however the issue was another:

My traceroute [v0.75] macbookpro-meij-net.local (0.0.0.0) Thu Jul 30 01:40:51 2009 Keys: Help Display mode Restart statistics Order of fields quit Packets Pings Host Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev

1. 10.0.1.1 0.0% 96 1.0 1.3 0.7 4.2 0.7

2. 10.15.158.129 0.0% 96 8.3 9.7 6.8 33.1 3.8

3. 212.142.21.161 0.0% 96 69.4 12.1 7.6 69.4 8.5

4. 212.142.32.65 0.0% 96 13.3 11.3 7.0 32.2 3.5

5. 213.46.183.93 82.1% 96 8.9 11.7 8.3 24.5 4.5

6. 84.116.131.6 87.4% 96 10.0 12.2 8.9 31.8 6.3

7. 213.46.183.93 80.2% 96 9.1 10.5 8.2 18.8 2.7

8. 84.116.131.6 95.8% 96 19.2 15.0 11.6 19.2 4.0

9. 213.46.183.93 82.3% 96 16.8 11.9 8.9 20.6 3.5

10. 84.116.131.6 93.7% 96 9.0 12.5 9.0 26.8 7.0

11. 213.46.183.93 82.3% 96 10.3 11.8 8.4 31.6 5.6

12. 84.116.131.6 95.7% 95 9.4 12.3 9.4 17.4 3.7

13. 213.46.183.93 76.5% 86 9.9 13.0 8.9 33.5 6.5

14. ???

15. 213.46.183.93 83.5% 80 11.8 10.5 8.7 12.3 1.2

16. ???

17. 213.46.183.93 82.9% 77 10.6 10.3 8.2 16.7 2.2

18. 84.116.131.6 95.7% 24 11.7 11.7 11.7 11.7 0.0

A simple routing loop at my provider. It took me over 30 minutes to find, focused as I was on the 'normal' DNS problems with OSX. Only after the reliable 'turn Airport off' & 'turn Airport on' trick did not work I checked the availability of the OpenDNS servers...

Other sillies with OSX:

- Calling an IP address in the 169.254./16 range 'self assigned' even if you get it from a DHCP server

- Falling back to 'old' IP addresses even if a new lease has been accepted and used

- Slow poke ethernet link setup [need to nail arp settings to flash routers fast enough]

Israel distributes libido-increasing gum, and I want some!

Hamas: Israel distributes libido-increasing gum in Gaza

Islamist group claims Israeli intelligence operatives transfer merchandise to Gaza dealers that increases sex drive, even encourage them to distribute them free of charge in order 'to destroy' young generation. Affair exposed after young girl chews gum, complains of bizarre side effects

Is Israel targeting the Palestinian population in Gaza by distributing libido-increasing chewing gum in the Strip? A Hamas police spokesman in the Gaza Strip Islam Shahwan claimed Monday that Israeli intelligence operatives are attempting to "destroy" the young generation by distributing such materials in the coastal enclave.

Shahwan said that the police got their hands on gum that increases sexual desire that, according to him, reaches merchants in the Strip by way of the border crossings. According to him, a Palestinian drug dealer admitted that he sold products that increase sex drive. The dealer said that he received the materials from Israeli sources by way of the Karni crossing.

A number of suspects have been arrested.

The affair was exposed when a Palestinian filed a complaint that his daughter chewed the aforementioned gum and experienced the dubious side effects.

Shahwan even claimed that Israeli intelligence operatives encourage dealers in Gaza to distribute the gum for free.

"The Israelis seek to destroy the Palestinians' social infrastructure with these products and to hurt the young generation by distributing drugs and sex stimulants," said Shahwan.

However, he noted that drugs reach the Gaza Strip by way of Rafah tunnels, and said that the police keep a close watch on the illegal activities going on in the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.

Shahwan added that the police have recently seized large amounts of drugs and alcohol attached to the underside of automobiles passing through Erez crossing. The automobile owners admitted receiving help for smuggling the materials from Israeli intelligence operatives.

Ali Waked

Israel News

Watson Research Center ssh scan

# grep "129.34.3.3" /var/log/messages

Jul 11 15:31:50 meij sshd[19894]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 35477 ssh2

Jul 11 15:31:51 meij sshd[19896]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 35702 ssh2

Jul 11 15:31:52 meij sshd[19898]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 35873 ssh2

Jul 11 15:31:53 meij sshd[19900]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 36003 ssh2

Jul 11 15:31:54 meij sshd[19902]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 36177 ssh2

Jul 11 15:31:55 meij sshd[19904]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 36332 ssh2

Jul 11 15:31:57 meij sshd[19906]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 36462 ssh2

Jul 11 15:31:57 meij denyhosts: Added the following hosts to /etc/hosts.deny - 129.34.3.3 (vserv.watson.ibm.com)

Jul 11 15:31:58 meij sshd[19913]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 36666 ssh2

Jul 11 15:31:59 meij sshd[19915]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 36795 ssh2

Jul 11 15:32:00 meij sshd[19917]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 36937 ssh2

Jul 11 15:32:01 meij sshd[19919]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 37086 ssh2

Jul 11 15:32:02 meij sshd[19921]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 37215 ssh2

Jul 11 15:32:03 meij sshd[19923]: Failed password for root from 129.34.3.3 port 37333 ssh2

Jul 11 15:32:04 meij sshd[19925]: Invalid user oracle from 129.34.3.3

Jul 11 15:32:04 meij sshd[19925]: Failed password for invalid user oracle from 129.34.3.3 port 37454 ssh2

Jul 11 15:32:05 meij sshd[19927]: Invalid user test from 129.34.3.3

Jul 11 15:32:05 meij sshd[19927]: Failed password for invalid user test from 129.34.3.3 port 37538 ssh2

Unfortunatly there is more amiss at IBM's Watson Research Center:

The original message was received at Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:11:05 -0400
from spamguru010.watson.ibm.com [9.2.250.70]

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
< nrt@watson.ibm.com>
(reason: 550 Host unknown)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
554 5.0.0 Service smokum@gmail.com unknown
550 5.1.2 <nrt@watson.ibm.com>... Host unknown (Name server: -f: host not found)

Final-Recipient: RFC822; nrt@watson.ibm.com
X-Actual-Recipient: RFC822; nrt@mailhub4.watson.ibm.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.2
Remote-MTA: DNS; -f
Diagnostic-Code: X-Unix; 550 Host unknown
Last-Attempt-Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:11:06 -0400

So I guess they'll need to read this blog to find out about their issues ;)

Good luck

USENET but then FASTER: tsunami-udp FTW!

Downloading data via USENET has become the default FAST track for most DSL|Cable users. The data is nicely placed 'locally' and for a small fee, one gets priority access for 4, 8 or however many connections. Nice. Much faster then the old single-sourced-http access or the newer multiple-source-bittorent [too many cheaters in bittorent country who who do not obey to the rule that one should at least have a share ratio of 1:1.20 or better].

Cool, so now we finally get to use all the bandwidth we pay the ISP for. But since the USENET servers are useualy close to the endpoint, the need for a connection oriented protocol like TCP is hard to make. UDP is a cheaper protocol and thus could increase the effective bandwidth since it requiers less 'overhead'. The old fasioned reasoning for using TCP over UDP is that UDP is only usefull for transmissions where order isn't important and you don't need all of the messages to get to the other machine.

Other reasons for using TCP over UDP are that the upstream application needs less state awareness and since we like our coders dumb, we take that burden off of them.

But since our USENET servers are close, packetloss is not much of an issue. It is far more exceptional to loose packets. In the rare case we do, we could simply ask for a resent of that particular packet [or block].

So I went to BING [I have to admit I am impressed by the google-like results!] and asked "when is tcp better then udp" Hardly anything interesting showed at first glance. I repeated the same question to GOOGLE, more 'good' material was listed at first, but still not what I was looking for. BING has been setup to give me 100 results so I took a second look and found at hit 38 tsunami-udp.

In pseudo-code, the server and client operate approximately like this:

**Server**

start

while(running) {

wait(new incoming client TCP connection)

fork server process:

[

check_authenticate(MD5, "kitten");

exchange settings and values with client;

while(live) {

wait(request, nonblocking)

switch(request) {

case no request received yet: { send next block in sequence; }

case request_stop: { close file, clean up; exit; }

case request_retransmit: { send requested blocks; }

}

sleep(throttling)

}

]

}

**Client**

start, show command line

while(running) {

read user command;

switch(command) {

case command_exit: { clean up; exit; }

case command_set: { edit the specified parameter; }

case command_connect: { TCP connect to server; auth; protocol version compare;

send some parameters; }

case command_get && connected: {

send get-file request containing all transfer parameters;

read server response - filesize, block count;

initialize bit array of received blocks, allocate retransmit list;

start separate disk I/O thread;

while (not received all blocks yet) {

receive_UDP();

if timeout { send retransmit request(); }

if block not marked as received yet in the bit array {

pass block to I/O thread for later writing to disk;

if block nr > expected block { add intermediate blocks to retransmit list; }

}

if it is time {

process retransmit list, send assembled request_retransmit to server;

send updated statistics to server, print to screen;

}

}

send request_stop;

sync with disk I/O, finalize, clean up;

}

case command_help: { display available commands etc; }

}

}

It combines the strength of TCP [reliable data transfer] with the efficiency of UDP [no handshakes etc].

How It Works:

Tsunami performs a file transfer by sectioning the file into numbered blocks of usually 32kB size. Communication between the client and server applications flows over a low bandwidth TCP connection. The bulk data is transferred over UDP.

Most of the protocol intelligence is worked into the client code - the server simply sends out all blocks, and resends blocks that the client requests. The client specifies nearly all parameters of the transfer, such as the requested file name, target data rate, blocksize, target port, congestion behaviour, etc, and controls which blocks are requested from the server and when these requests are sent.

Peace Future School defrauding kids?

Someone thought it a good idea to help African people in & outside Africa and to do so, collect money from others. But how to get people to give you money? Well, one soft target are kids. So when you have a volunteer working for you who is linked to a school, why not use that opportunity?

So you register a site, copy the content [one page] of another site and sit back watching the kids donating money. Simple & potentially effective. Until a parent gets a little suspicious and decides to contact the school and ask them what this is all about. As it happens, the school knew as little as what the copied one paged website let them know: nothing really.

Another parent used some who is, some google-fu, some Maltego & some RL contacts in the fraud business. Everything found smells fishy, except the person who claims to be behind the Peace Future School. They go to extended lengths to assure the doubters that all is very legit, all is being done in good faith, there is no official registration YET, but surely that will be done one day, there is no content for the site YET but that too is on it's way, there are many trustworthy people behind the project but not one links from their site to the Peace Future School YET but that will surely come.

But what is the truth? Is it just a bunch of innocent people who do not know how to setup a reliable looking site or are they fraudsters? I leave the verdict up to you, but for my kids there is no way they are going to be giving money to this particular initiative. No matter how much private money the spokeswoman claims to have spend on it, no matter how many well connected people she claims are behind it, no matter how strange and surprising it was to all volunteers that people are doubting, no matter how sad it makes her Nigerian partners to be confronted with suspicion, no matter how many volunteers are emailing from free email addresses.

The people behind this will not make the same mistake again. They now will get some links to and from the site, and some content, change the graphics, list some names, do some more foot work and all that jazz. They learned from the incident and will not make the same mistakes. So for the next person who gets contacted and who does some online research, it will get harder to find in dices. That is worrying and reminds me of an experiment of the people behind Fake Trust.

... completely change the way you shop!

"Remember the story about how you are going to be able to order coffee at Starbucks through the iPhone and then pay at the counter? 2 Think bigger. The new iPhone 3.0 operating system and its push notifications and the in-app commerce features and abilities to pay through your account at the iTunes store, could completely change the way you shop. As you walk into any store, you could browse information about their products, order and pay and maybe have the goods delivered to your home, without having to stand in line and all the usual hassle associated with shopping. It is like on-line ordering with the added benefit of being able to squeeze, smell, and try out the products. The rumored improved camera with autofocus enables bar-code scanning. Sit in a comfy sofa at IKEA, order it, and that’s it. You just walk out. Or you could pick the goods up as you leave."

source

How is pronounced Twitxr?

Still a little rough around the edges, but who knows.

  

Dictated but not dead

Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone.  Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside. 

There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor. At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, "Goodbye, Daddy!" and I frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!" Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. 

As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive-and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father! Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? 

When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped. You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightended with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs. 

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding-this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years. And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed! It is feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy-a little boy!" I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. 

I have asked too much, too much.

My blog blog crashes Firefox

I can not access the page you are looking at with my most favorite browser: Firefox. It crashes Firefox v3.0.10, released April 27, 2009. 

When you search for blog crashes firefox, the second link points to a story about Rob Levin's Spinhome blog crashing FF 1.5.0.2. In 1.5.0.3 it seemed to be fixed.

For me it happens not to be FF itself, but the addon NoScript, that I can not browse without anymore.

BlackHat Europe drinks anyone?

Who's there? I know I am, I know Craig Balding is and Roelof Temmingh & Chris Bohme are, but will you?

This action packed and kick ass conference will show you where the community is at and what to expect in the [not so] near future. A -must- for IT [security] people who take their jobs serious.

Not just the presentations but the informal meeting opportunities in & out side bars and rooms make BlackHat Europe so special. It's much smaller and more intimate then Los Vegas etc. This is one important reason speakers like it here so much. Not to mention the opportunity to explore this magical city with is struck by a wave of the best weather in a loooong time.

View Larger Map

Kidney, anyone?

One of my best friends is due to get a 'new' kidney, today. Just like hosting a new service. New is relative here since the market for new grown kidneys is not that big so he gets one second hand, from his wife. Like using that compiled distributed application. While they spend time unconscious under the capable hands of one team of doctors, their 3 year old spends time at our house. Like having freelancers watching over your databases.

There is a lot of risk involved in the whole kidney transplantation deal. He will get a 'strange' organ implanted and his immune system will fight it to its or their death. Like your antiviral software battling a smartly written Trojan. To prevent this from succeeding he will be taking medication to reduce the effectiveness of his immune system, which in itself opens him up to a whole range of new dangers. Like placing a very large do not scan mask. See it as DMZ's or even extranet connectivity.

But before he gets anything, she will have to give. Like opening up your tightly secured local network. She's a healthy woman in the flowering ages and has absolutely 0 health issues. Like your internal NetWare file server. She's taking a statistically small risk, kidneys get removed and people operated by the 1.000 everyday. Like hosting your own domain. Still, statistics mean little in individual cases since either you live or you die, a rather back and white situation. Like the compromise of your network with a 0 day.

The risk person in us [we do sort of the same kinda work] made us prepare for the worst. Like a BCP for an earthquake in a country like Holland. They have officially made me guardian of the little them. I have full control over all their assets. Like having the root passwords. Just in case. You never know. The scenario of him kicking the bucket, they both not waking up and whatever other terrible scenarios have been discussed, face to face and measures have been taken to assure live will be as good as possible for friend 2.0.

What can and needs to be arranged officially has been done. A will has been made, signed and sealed. List with invites & a formal chain of command have been made. Famous last words have been written. Religious & family matters been taken into account. Everything has been encrypted and securely distributed. The key hidden in Google's cache.

We also have friends over from a country where we lived for a couple of years.

Black Hat Europe will start for me tomorrow and my youngest daughter will go on her first real school holiday trip.

Later today the operation's team leader will call me to inform me of the preliminary results and I have been assigned the task to inform the selected family members, friends & colleagues.

Unless something goes dramatically wrong: then the phone will ring earlier.

Business as usual, nothing to see here, please move on.

Safe browsing at google.com?

Google hosts a great club of smart people who do all sorts of groovy things. One of them is the "Safe BrowsingDiagnostic". You can check sites yourself to [use this]

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 2709 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 1 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-04-10, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-04-10.

Malicious software includes 1 scripting exploit(s), 1 trojan(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 8 new process(es) on the target machine.

Malicious software is hosted on 3 domain(s), including v3i9.cn/, nvi3.cn/, said7.com/.

2 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including 74.125.77.0/, said7.com/.

This site was hosted on 4 network(s) including AS15169 (GOOGLE), AS26230 (TOTTAWA), AS6130 (ADN).

browsing google.com is not a safe idea anymore!

ING Internet payment site down again

ING is not doing too well, not to say bad. Lots of hocus pocus with your [and mine] money of the past couple of years have led to the current drama unfolding. This whole 'financial turmoil' might look far away from decent people's beds but it is not.

Since 2 hours the internet site for money transfers is not working, and greets you with "Welcome Null" what a great way to show your customer something 'technical' is wrong!



When I spoke to the helldesk for normal customers the lady told me there was a power issue in Amsterdam caused by the NUON. My [former] colleages told me the power issue is in Rotterdam and the IBM mainframes & access switches went of the radar about 2 hours ago.

The largest local newspaper quoted an ING spokesperson saying "We do not know what the issue is at the moment"



All of this is not so bad if the issue happened 'any other normal day' but ING's luck or mismanagement make things look extra scary since they released a press note stating they are dropping 10 of the 12 [!!!] business units not directly related to banking.



Killing the super successful no nonsense Postbank right in the middle of the financial crisis was a bad stroke of luck, but as so often, when things start going wrong, they go very wrong. I hope for you you have taken measures that the actions of the management of this bank will not affect you and your loved ones too bad, because more news is in the making...

EDIT:
And of course things that 'go wrong' can be hilarious too. Here rally champion sjeik Mohamed Bin Sulayem in the ING sponsored F1:

Nmap to find Conficker infected hosts

Get latest nmap (4.85BETA6 at the moment of writing) from:

http://nmap.org/dist/?C=M&O=D

run:



sudo nmap -sC --script=smb-check-vulns --script-args=safe=1 -p445 \
-d -PN -n -T4 --min-hostgroup 256 --min-parallelism 64 \
-oA conficker_scan

It is important to note that scanning for Conficker has the small chance of crashing an unpatched host. Patched and infected hosts won't be crashed though. Note that if Conficker scans unpatched hosts they are even more likely to crash than with this check so the benefits probably outweigh the drawbacks.

Find the source here.

nothing.. compares... to you

It's been... seven hours... and fifteen.. days
since you took... your love away
I go out... every night... and sleep all.. day
since you took... your love away
since.. you've been gone... I can do... whatever I want
I can do... whatever.. I choose
I can eat.. my dinner.. in a fancy.. restaurant
but nothing... can take away.. these blues
nothing compares
nothing compares.. to you

It's been.. so lonely... without.. you here
like a bird... without.. a song
nothing.. can stop... these lonely tears...
tell me baby...  where did I. go wrong?
I could.. put my arms... around every girl I see
but they'd all... remind me. of you
I went.. to the doctor... guess what he.. told me
said you'd better have some fun
no matter what you do,
nothing compares
nothing compares... to you

All the flowers.. that you planted..
in the backyard
all died.... when you went.. away
I know that.. living with you.... was sometimes hard
but I'm willing.... to give it a try

nothing. compares
nothing compares... to you
nothing compares
nothing... compares... to you
nothing compares
nothing.. compares to you
nothing compares
nothing compares... to you
nothing compares
nothing.. compares... to you

Dutch Chocolate == drop

For years I have been an addict and huge fan of the best chocolates in the world that are locally produced and sold in... Amsterdam. The company is called Puccini and has two shops. One conveniently located 5 minutes cycling from my home. Luckily the route to work does not take me past that shop so we have enough money left to buy real food too.

As I am on an assignment in Istanbul, I like to bring some 'typical' dutch presents with me to break the ice and compensate for all the presents and gifts I get from my colleagues when abroad. Stroopwafels are a safe bet, no matter where you go, as long as care is taken in warm climates in regards to transportation and the stains the syrup leaves.

Much to my surprise I was offered 'dutch chocolate' today while at the coffee break. For me, Dutch chocolate == Puccini. Nice! What an excellent start of the day!

Even more surprised I was when I found that the 'Dutch chocolate' was actually drop!

Drop makes me drool [Pavlof sends his greetings] but I am not that much a fan of it, but it is fun to see how not Dutch people react to it. Like haring, it is something you have to grow up with to like.

♫♫♫ ♫♫♫ Ton Lebbink ♫♫♫ ♫♫♫

De nederlandse pop dichter Ton Lebbink is een held, tenminste, dat vind ik en een groeiend aantal andere. Ik heb natuurlijk al zijn platen, maar mijn pogingen om er fatsoenlijke mp3's van te maken zijn schromelijk mislukt. Gelukkig zijn ze te koop bij Fonos.

Nog toffer is dat veel van Ton Lebbink's werk nu ook op YouTube te vinden is om eens te luisteren voor het geval je het nog niet kent.

Boodje Brood is ook actief bezig met Ton Lebbink [en nog meer interesants].

Dus bijdeze mijn luister tip:

RAPED once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as Management deems appropriate.

Dear employees,

Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown of the economy, Management has decided to implement a scheme to put workers of 40 years of age and above on early retirement. This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early).

Persons selected to be RAPED can apply to management to be eligible for the SHAFT scheme (Special Help After Forced Termination). Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under the SCREW programme (Scheme Covering Retired Early Workers). A person may be RAPED once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as Management deems appropriate.

Persons who have been RAPED can only get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependants & Spouse) or HERPES (Half Eamings for Retired Personnel Early Severance).

Obviously persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by Management.

Persons who are not RAPED and are staying on will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity Training) as possible. Management has always prided itself on the amount of SHIT it gives employees. Should you feel that you do not receive enough SHIT, please bring to the attention of your Supervisor. They have been trained to give you all the SHIT you can handle.

Sincerely, The Management

Process hacking

When people I know start talking about 'hacking' in the original mean of the word [making things happen by means that it was not designed for], we most of the time stick to some technical mumbo jumbo, as the boss likes to call it.

That is something our whole industry likes to do. Did and does. No matter how many times we get bitten in the arse by people doing things wrong, we like to forget about the art of social engineering, simply because it is too difficult to do something about and because it does not sell boxes that smell nice because they are new.

I have spend quite some time working for|in|with large organizations and these are the places where social engineering works best. Employees do not know each other, low raking employees have been given a bullucking by their 'superiors' for sticking to the rules, etc.

The bigger the organization, the larger the piles of documentation with rules and exceptions. Fertile ground for those who want to get things done, their way :P

Getting access to buildings is easy, specially with the no smoking inside. Every company has a percentage of people who are addicted and these people -will- find ways to get out & in without too much hassle. Be it the emergency exit, be it a rooftop, but like water: they will find a way.

A novel trick I found lately was that after some of the smokers who used to leave via the front door but where called into the managers office after he'd seen the in-out time table, is getting a visitors pass for walking in & out unregistered. Smart. Of course I had to try to see how difficult it was to get one of those: frighteningly simple. Since so many had explained the situation with the security people, showing a packet of cigarettes was enough to trigger the knee jerk reaction of handing out a temporay access badge.

The same happens with the ordering process. Since all has been 'centralized' and 'standardized' it might take up to 6 months to get an order through [correct, this is a very bad and seldom example]. Because the supplier knows and has been trained to deliver orders before the paper work is 'completed', it is trivially simple to get any kind of hard & software shipped without passing the regular process. Most of the time the supplier will get his formalized order some time later but when he doesn't he just faxes the delivery notification to the ordering department and since they are used to things to go wrong, will send him a proforma so he will be able to bill.

More of the same is with changes to infrastructure. Since all self respecting organizations have CABs [Change Advisory Boards], where as we all know the most anal & inexperienced people waste their time, that take forever to approve the most basic changes but will happily waver changes with impact beyond the minimal description. This is how 'the insiders' get things done: there old an trusted social network.

In the role of PM or as auditor I do the same. I spend a large part of my time setting on desks, hanging around the coffee machine, lunching with [key-] people from the departments that actually do things. By constant name dropping and revering to 'john from RM', by reinforcing the well known fact that the official processes 'do not work' and 'the last reorganization undid the one before', confirming that 'the management' costs & wastes money, this way I get my rules, my connections, my targets met and implemented.

So if you get all exited when you find company xyz is still running that well knows bugged version of the Internet facing software, remember that I get the same happy feelings when I see people with ties and temporary badges :P

EDIT: Found people who actually give classes http://secinmotion.blogspot.com looks good.

Oh that thing from yesterday? It was just a tiny little bug…

You gotta love the importance of the infra and the huge dependency on everybody playing nice, or better, knowing what they are doing.

Yesterday a tiny little outlet called SUPRO, spol. s r. in the middle of nowhere called Hradiste CZ, who manage AS 47868, blacked out part of the oh so crucial Internet. This was done [for all we know] without any bad intentions but Fast Fingered Freddy did manage to cause a stir in the smooth user experience our beloved browsers are so used to.


As shown here there where a couple of countries suffering of their outdated routers but users of all countries might have traffic passing these.

A Basterd's Work is Never Done

Ah, nice! Time to get some laughs and warm feelings about 'bad' things.

The movie lifting [insider story of a friend of mine who worked over at a video rental and who told me he hired movies that he never brought back] Quentin Tarantino makes a new movie.

Chopping up Nazi's is a cool thing, in whatever way, shape or form so I am looking forward to the torrents in May :P

L’Chayalim B’Ahava!

It's easy to sit back and watch TV, read a newspaper and forget about the hardship real people have to go through to [attempt] to bring peace & safety to a young nation.

There is a simple way to express your worldly appreciation to those that do the work.

Working in IT? Read this!

Note: this is NOT written by me, you can tell, too well worded and it even makes sense. This is all written by Cormac O'Reilly and published at the world famous TheRegister.

As Sodor wakes to a new year, Thomas and his friends notice some very disturbing things...

The end of the IT world train is arriving at platform one

Cheaper hardware and software prices in 2009 means that IT becomes an increasingly throwaway business. We're there with printers, and other plug-ins: expect much the same with PCs, small servers, most storage and productivity software.

Software has gone from purchase, to rental, to free open systems and is now rapidly moving to online service. But the growing mindset is to load up on low-cost standby equipment, and scrap the original when it goes wrong. In this environment, the clever IT specialist and expensive performance monitoring tools have less and less to do.

Forget complex processor technology or clever storage solutions. Install massive redundancy of cheap commodity gear. Google pioneered this approach in building its (and the world's largest) IT infrastructure, and established that this pays big dividends and provides incredible performance. Expect this express train to arrive in 2009 and pick up more and more passengers. Don't be surprised if Google is not just the driver, but owns the railway company.

Base-line IT services hit the buffers

Talking of Google the Tank, expect a corporate flight to its Apps and productivity tools (like Gmail) in 2009.

Google has positioned itself to be in this business, just as Amazon did in running other companies' electronic shops. Many of the big corporate names have been tire kicking Google services for months. It's obvious that they are well run, highly reliable and accessible. Commodity "dial tone" services offer better quality, performance and capability that anything the traditional legacy players can supply, and make in-house provision of these services economically laughable.

Clever old Google provides ever better tools to migrate corporate services to its platform. These tools get easier to use, introduce stellar security and avoid the need for - gasp - overpaid IT people, complex software and expensive infrastructure. Expect these services to go the way of payroll. This was once a must in-house application, now it is a must outsource.

The trains leaving for Asia is loaded with bundled back office services

Expect Asian outsourcers to climb over the European and US traditional outsource players (like EDS/HP and Accenture) and in-house IT organizations, and sell directly to administrative corporate functions in 2009. They already provide the people-centric intellectual IT engines of the world. So why should they not get as much of the margin as possible?

Call centers are a thing of the past - application software maintenance is increasingly low margin, so expect pressure for bundled back office operations - that's transaction touch, rather than customer touch. I expect 2009 will be the beginning of the end of in-house IT services.

Remember, if you are not adding clear value, then you must be adding pure cost. And the tolerance for this will be thinner than atomic particles in 2009 and beyond.

I suspect few legacy IT companies or old world IT Departments are ready to cope with this uncomfortable scenario, even though they know it is on the horizon. With the global economy providing the heat, and businesses laser-focusing on cost, expect this little chemical reaction to drastically speed up 2009.

The passengers are revolting

Just about every major company funds a junkyard of application systems and technologies attached to them. Few have had the incentive to fix this, much to the consternation of corporate IT departments. Remember the IT cost justification for that ERP system - all those systems that it would replace, but somehow never did. And recognize the fact that this residue of junkyard legacy counts for a big part of the IT budget, and generates lots of operational inefficiency.

Depression-level economics will force line managers to actually take charge of this expense they unknowingly caused. Expect systems on which the company is apparently so dependent to go, and with them much of the IT junk. As a result, expect a lot of high margin break/fix work that propped up the cash flow of legacy IT companies to disappear.

The Fat Controllers lose patience

Senior managers have moved from being in awe of IT's potential, to deep disappointment at its lack of pay-off. About now, expect them to figure out that process engineering etc. needs to go - see Asian Back Office above. Once this mindset starts, expect to see a whole different senior management attitude.

Google and Microsoft, both at their core, are people productivity-centric, and will likely play a much bigger front office productivity role - look at Google's Gears and Microsoft's front office re-emphasis. Watch the gathering rush to bundle solution technology between front office (which these guys own) and back office (which Asian outsourcers will increasingly own). What's left is innovation and application - good luck with that, IT boys and girls. That's a whole different world, and one that few IT grunts have ever lived in.

Finally, the wrong kind of snow on the lines

Expect high margin networking equipment companies to fall to earth. Increasingly, when dealing with procurement departments, expect them to fail to explain that products from the likes of D-Link that cost a fraction of their price, but have the same specs, are inferior. Hey, we all know they have the same basic building block components, work to the same standards and are already at throwaway prices.

And don't expect our pals at the telephone companies to hold the line. They are up to their ass in fiber, broadband and shortly WiMax, while consumers drain the landline and traditional phone services swamp. If you don't believe it - then use Magic Jack to provide your unlimited telephone and fax services in the USA for $20 a year. YES - TWENTY BUCKS A YEAR!

And as night falls on the Island of Sodor, Thomas and his friends worry about the scrap heap....

End of the year, show me the stats!

This little vanity blog is getting at least some hits from you guys [thanks!] and I thought it would be nice to share with you what you are looking for, at least when you are using your google fu:

1. google street view amsterdam
2. mokum von amsterdam
3. amsterdam iphone
4. street view amsterdam
5. firefox fullscreen os x
6. "put your mouth where your money was"
7. google street view netherlands
8. failed keyboard-interactive/pam for invalid user
9. amsterdam street view
10. forgotten hope 2.0.rar

And from google you came:
1. google 2,257
2. yahoo 19
3. aol 17
4. search 13
5. altavista 4
6. msn 2
7. lycos 1
8. netscape 1

You love my root and it shows:
1. / 2,629
2. /2008/07/google-car-in-amsterdam-holland.html 293
3. /2008/01/sound-noise-good-neighbours.html 280
4. /2008/08/best-things-in-life-are-free.html 188
5. /2007/09/bring-it-on.html 182
6. /2008/05/ssh-brute-force-botnet.html 147
7. /2008/08/pdps-older-mailbox-volumes-compromized.html 114
8. /2008/03/firefox-fullscreen-on-osx.html 110
9. /2007/09/full-body-scan.html 99
10. /2008/07/battlefield-2-new-patch-15-and-3-new.html 86

Your tools? As expected:
1. Firefox
2. Internet Explorer
3. Safari [iPhone's I am sure]
4. Opera
5. Mozilla
6. Chrome
7. Mozilla Compatible Agent
8. Netscape
9. Camino
10. HPiPAQ910

Your OS:
1. Windows 3,340 77.19%
2. Macintosh 745 17.22%
3. Linux 175 4.04%
4. iPhone 41 0.95%
5. (not set) 14 0.32%
6. FreeBSD 5 0.12%
7. SunOS 3 0.07%
8. SymbianOS 3 0.07%
9. Nintendo Wii 1 0.02%

Hope this satisfies your never ending lust for facts & figures.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to me!

Blowing out candles is sooo 2007!

Mantra from the Dalai Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three R's:
Respect for self
Respect for others and
Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

A geek mind is a joy forever!

/dev/tty.PL2303-00001004
==
http://osx-pl2303.sourceforge.net/
+
Prolific PL2303 USB serial adapter

Panorama by Calico

Made possible by Calico. What a kick ass tool!

Faruk Yazicilar is king!

WOW! Was my first impression when I coincidentally walked into [read 'Paradise Lost' for some history on the name] the work of the Istanbul based artist Faruk Yazicilar.

WOW! What a strong image, such constrained but strong expressions.

I would really like to meet this man and see more of his work and if all works out: get one as a present to my beloved.

If only there was more of his work online, till the time I meet him...


And on a site note: why the sudden interest late october from telia stofa a/s, opal telecommunications internet service provider and the arts institute at bournemouth for my domains do know evil?

I want a Nixie Watch

Forget the slick and expensive gold bling bling crap!

The Nixie Watch is the real deal and the only thing one can give a true geek.

Made by a super geeky dude who is into cathodes like a tornado is into trailer parks, this watch is something I can no longer live without.

New MacBook Pro, now what?

It is the same on all new machines: it takes a while to get it look & feel like you like it most.

The patches
FireFox plus noscript & adblock
xcode
darwinports
wget
nmap
mtr
unrar
wireshark
Skype
iWork
Picasa Web Albums Uploader
Crossover
Visio
Google Earth
fugu

And then some, but by the time this is done... man!

More:
vmware
roxio toast
wow
rEFId
BackTrack

And more later.

More like:
tuntap
HandBrake

Time to go home

BU SİTEYE ERİŞİM ENGELLENMİŞTİR

Eskişehir 2. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, 23.11.2007 tarih ve 2007/1705 nolu kararı gereği bu siteye erişim TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI'nca engellenmiştir.

Access to this web site is banned by "TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI" according to the order of: Eskişehir 2. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, 23.11.2007 of 2007/1705.

---

Hip Istanbul, a hot view & good people.

So let's talk about the good stuff in Istanbul. The free people. The scene that has [a little more] money and knows where to go.

The evening started of at a friends place. He rents an apartment in the groovy district Cihangir. It has everything one could want from a [temporary] place. Lovely old paintings on the stairways, where the teeth of time have left there marks, the stains of water leaking and many a dent of all the people and goods going up and down in the never ending struggle for life and security.

The details in the apartment all tell a story or two. About the original intent and the good & the bad. The attempts to improve or to restore. All have left their traces.





Later that night I went to a place called 5.Kat [in English: the fifth floor]. What a lovely view! Great view over the Bosporus and an even better crowd. Then enters the owner: Yasemin Alkaya. She just to work as an actress and now runs one of the hottest bars|restaurants in town.

She cooks, waiters, hosts and entertains her guests with such ellegance and style that it was love at first sight for me. I will be back here, as often as I can.

Other places:
Sabahattin Fish!
Develi Kebab
Changa International
Ulus 29 see and be seen

With thanks to Erdal Gökyıldırım for his tips and comments :D

So, how was your holiday?

Put your mouth where your money was.

Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.

How difficult a message is that? Well it seem really really difficult. The investor eveybody loves to love, Warren Buffett, is making a bundle and screaming on the top of his lungs that he does and so should you. Buy equities.

The challenges @ Dagobert Duck

Because my ties with a couple of people who work for @ at SURFnet, I accepted an invitation to do a presentation. The audience consists of mainly university students and technical employees of universities so the question was if I could share some light on the differences of working at really big companies.

I tried :P

The differences are so extreme that sometimes it seems as if our methods and challenges have no shared needs or issues. This is not true. We fight the same monsters, technically, we just have a different landscape.

Think of it like BF2 & CoD.

A fun day with some excellent content brought by very capable people so I am happy to say that these where 2 days well spend. Since this is a university environment, speakers where much more encouraged to give some juicy details, details you would normally not out with a mic in your face. The questions are of such relevance to the issues discussed and not aimed at getting quotable 'bedroom secrets' so many a PR person would feel uncomfertable with the intemicy of details exchanged.

Exectly the kind of details & environment I like and can actually use in my day to day job.

SURFnet at all: thank you!