Mentally drained. Frustrated by people who speak in vague terms instead of just saying what is on their mind. Tired of being told what to do by people who think they have a clue. Ready to kill people who say one thing to my face and another behind my back.
Holy ICMP packet. In the day and a half I have not been paying attention, OpenBSD imported their very own stateful IP packet filtering software called pf. It supports NAT and is compatible with ipf which had to be thrown out. They also nearly seems to have completed Kerberos 5 support.
I wonder if this free software thing is going to take off.
Poured a pint of water over somebody. Snicker.
My IRC ignorelist is of a substantial size. One of the funny sideeffects of this is that at times people (answer questions I never saw asked and hence) say the strangest things for seemingly no reason at all. This alone is reason enough to put idiots on my list.
At the same time there's less than 15 intelligent people left on the channel that I consider worth talking to.
Oh my fucking god. This 49 year old idiot thinks he is Peter Pan.
I came across an old trojan warning issued many years ago by Virus Help Team. As you may know, I was part of an anti-virus organisation called SHI when I owned an Amiga computer. SHI and VHT were "rivals." I sold this computer to a muppet named Benny Pedersen, who decided it would be better for him if he did not stick to his part of the agreement (i.e. paying me).
I was a beta-tester for Xtruder the virus killer and I knew Benny was running Xtruder as a means of checking his system. I had my friend, Martin Wulffeld, the author of Xtruder, insert a special conditional statement in the code, should Xtruder detect a copy of my keyfile (which I now considered stolen). This was the result.
A lot of people were upset by this function. If I remember correctly, Martin had actually documented the feature so Xtruder was not a trojan. One argument in the danish Amiga software Fidonet conference for what we had done was wrong went something like: "This could have happened to me. I work professionally with my Amiga. I can't afford to take backups."
Exactly: uh?
This Internet thing is really catching on.
Threw up a couple of times last night. It seems bullshit makes me sick. Imagine that.
My PowerEdge is now working again. The problem appears to have been a BIOS problem and a magic .exe file from Dell solved the problem.
No salary review meeting today but my payslip gives me an idea of the increase. I was promised something different. Tomorrow the meeting will be a week late.
WOL seems to be slowing their network again, so I am goofing around in my living room and tending to my tummy.
Oops. Looks like my PowerEdge died again. Must call Dell.
Frustration caused by work is not a great source of divine inspiration. I am tired and annoyed. Proceed with caution.
Goodnight.
"You have to teach people how to learn." -- mudge
The Cure had not intended to play this summer, but when they were offered to close at Roskilde they changed their minds. Let us hope this year is indeed better than the last.
"99% accuracy, 100% of the time." -- thecure.com
Peter Van Der Linden kills me:
The more work you make one symbol do, the harder it is for the compiler to detect anomalies in your use of it. It's not just the kind of people who sing along with the Tiki birds at Disneyland who have trouble here. C does seem to be a little further out on the ragged edge of token ambiguity than most other languages.
Yes, I can hear you now: "How can someone switch from The Cure to C compilers in one diary entry?"
I cannot help it. It is in my nature.
My team's salary review was meant to take place on Friday but got postponed until today, and then "forgotten" so tomorrow (or the next day) will be interesting.
"Let's give this product to Alex's team for review 3 days before we want to go live. They are the security team, so letting them look at new products prior to deployment makes sense, and we don't need to worry anymore! Hm? His team is going to point out flaws which the original vendor need time to understand and fix? But.. WHAT!? His team wants to review the fixes the vendor puts in place to make sure they address the problem? But we don't have time for that! How can this be? What kind of teamleader runs a security team like that? Can't we just buy a firewall?"
(Answers to questions: Hm, yourself. Yup. Calm down. Damn right. Trust us. A good one. Nope.)
Those of you who follow dk.edb.sikkerhed may find amusement in this English edition of Bjarne the Muppet. His name is Paul Leach and some of his work can be found on attrition.org's microsoft quotes page.
Spam. Just what I need to find in my inbox early in the morning, when I have absolutely no complaints in the particular department for which the service is being advertised:
From: bizop434@flashmail.com To: hichiti@graffiti.net Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 20:14:52 +0800 Subject: Natural PENIS ENLARGEMENT...FREE INFO!!
Try not to choke.
I played Rogue Spear on the Dreamcast for 20 minutes. It pales next to Counter Strike. The gameplay is very restricted and trivial. Instead I ventured through some C code and found this comment:
Please note: these solutions use the Unix system interface, so they're not portable. Nevertheless, they're in K&R, so they appear here despite their inherent non-portability. In any case, they will become portable as soon as everyone's using Unix, as God intended.
Because so many programmers seem unable to write a correct "hello world" program in C, I did something about it.
Fucking hell! She listens to "Take That"! I commanded that she stop the silliness at once, and she countered that relationships consist of compromises. I laughed and explained that with respect to "Take That" and music of similar quality, the only compromise would be me letting her keep the CDs, on the condition that it was never played while I was around.
We drifted from the subject.
I have been reading Joel on Software as listed on my recommended page. He has an understanding of his area and related subjects which is extremely rare. I named the page "highly recommended" for a reason.
Woke up. Not feeling well. The spirited one is still sick so she is a little quiet today. I retrieved Gorm's phone number and called him at home. We chatted for a few minutes and he was saying that a co-worker was looking into why area51.dk had vanished. Excused myself to go get filthy food to combat my hangover.
area51.dk came back. The downtime was almost 24 hours. It seems the Checkpoint firewall in front of the area51 machines crashed. Checkpoint belongs on a LAN to enforce policy of where users can connect. It has no business on an Internet facing system -- but that's my opinion.
Went to Munchies for breakfast. Filthy Irish breakfasts can cure any hangover. Afterwards I took a walk around in the shopping centre. I purchased a copy of Radiohead's new album "Amnesiac", and I managed to locate a copy of "Heartbreak Ridge" starring Clint Eastwood. Lucky me, as the movie has been discontinued by the studio.
I also came across reduced copies of "Rainbox Six" and "Rogue Spear" for the Dreamcast which leads me to believe tonight will include relaxing while killing terrorists.
I have listened to Amnesiac, and it is the strangest and least accessible of all the Radiohead albums. Be prepared to put in an effort.
I find it funny how some people do not believe me when I tell them that they mean nothing to me. What is this obsession with "there is a good side in everyone"? Chances are, if I treated you like shit once, your value in my life probably equals that of a pile of dogshit.
Area51 became unavailable in the afternoon for reasons unknown and stayed unavailable for the rest of the evening.
Went to see Cheap Trick in concert. The venue was intimate Vicar St. and during the Cheap Trick concert I leaned that Alanis played a set only a few days ago. I would have loved to have been there.
After the concert I purchased a black t-shirt and a copy of Silver. Some woman standing around the t-shirt shack commented that I needed a size XL, not L. L fits me perfectly, thankyouverymuch! </dual-meaning>
Having had too much alcohol, I did not fall asleep until 5am.
Mercur guessed yesterday's song. He is a Depeche Mode freak, so it was to be expected.
I am going out with half the management in BSI Security tomorrow. If they can provide VIP protection for the Spice Girls, they should be able to look after me, no? My fanbase, although similar in size to that of the Spice Girls, is much more subtle so I expect no incidents.
784 hits to the Dominion yesterday. My fanbase may very well be slightly bigger than that of the Spice Girls.
If you know C programming well enough to write secure code, this CVS diff is funny.
Gorm seems to be as fed up with the IP connectivity skills of World Online as I am. He is looking for a new ISP to host area51.dk.
Piece of shit. The motherboard on my PowerEdge has gone. I left it powered on so I could work on it from home, and today it's completely dead. It just sits there with the attention light flashing at me like a cheap whore. £3150 does not stretch very far these days.
A Dell engineer will be out to fix the machine on Friday or Monday. No word on my PC either. Small yay: got my name in the OpenBSD CVS repository. Yes, I know I am sad.
Want a reason to work for an ISP? Here is one:
11756854 bytes received in 16.13 seconds (711.88 KB/s)
Stayed late in work again, and went to dinner with my evil coder. The spirited one called me during dinner and said she was going to bed. She has not been feeling well, so the rest is required. I am feeling weary so a re-charge will be very welcome tomorrow. Confused? Take a read through the 30 May entry.
Guess a song.
It's only when I lose myself in someone else That I find myself
It is 4am and I am going to bed.
Oh pain, oh suffering. I am sinking into the realm of ignorance and as I suspected it happened so slowly I did not take notice. This prompted Mick to write email:
My friend,
to ensure your almighty knowledge is not questioned I feel I must point out the
following.
Quoting your diary - " PS: Lots of The Cure and Type 0 Negative can cure
anything. Carlos Santana says it pretty well; "Give me your heart, make it real
or else forget about it." "
Itaal Shur and Rob Thomas wrote "Smooth" and Rob Thomas sang it. So in theory
Carlos didn't say it at all, he just played the solo.
Michael.
So there you have it from an authorative source on quality music.
Fakta er pokers interessant!
Worry not, young one. I do not understand what this means either.
Placed an order for a game PC. Custombuilt. It contains an AMD 1Ghz CPU, 512 MB SDRAM, 40GB 7200rpm Quantum disk, 12x DVD drive, nVidia GeForce 2 Pro with 64 MB DDR memory, Soundblaster Platinum Live Kit. I did not ask for a price, I just pointed. No floppydrive.
Also, I expect the mongers.org situation to change soon.
miracle# hostname miracle.mongers.org
My employer has been sold. I am still not certain what this means for me.
Uh oh. Remember what I said about my experiences with national power grids that engage in poor information security practises? Cute Alex was right again.
It seems the girlfriend of someone else I mentioned the other day is no longer the girlfriend of this someone else. Why are you looking at me? I am just the messenger. I do not know either of the involved parties. Although I am not one to find joy in the misfortune of others (HA!), it is a good thing I still have what I want.
"..the weather changes as I look at your face.."
PS: Lots of The Cure and Type 0 Negative can cure anything. Carlos Santana says it pretty well; "Give me your heart, make it real or else forget about it."
Horror, horror. The transmitter for my infrared headphones died! With 40 minutes left until the stores closed, the remedial action was to rush in the direction of the shopping centre and find replacements for my listening pleasure.
I purchased a pair of Technics RP-F200 headphones. 102dB sensitivity, goldplated 40mm plugs and a 4 meter cord. They will do nicely. To celebrate my continued ability to listen to music, allow me to quote a song to you:
they flutter behind you, your possible pasts some brighteyed and crazy, some frightened and lost a warning to anyone still in command of their possible future to take care in derelict sidings the poppies entwine with cattle trucks lying in wait for the next time do you remember me? how we used to be? do you think we should be closer? she stood in the doorway, the ghost of a smile haunting her face like a cheap hotel sign her cold eyes imploring the men in their macs for the gold in their bags or the knives in their backs stepping up boldly one put out his hand he said, "I was just a child then, now I'm only a man" do you remember me? how we used to be? do you think we should be closer? by the cold and religious we were taken in hand shown how to feel good and told to feel bad tongue tied and terrified we learned how to pray now our feelings run deep and cold as the clay and strung out behind us the banners and flags of our possible pasts lie in tatters and rags
Added a 'stuff' page to the splash screen from where I will link to things I have completed. Due to popular demand, today's entry is slightly more personal than yesterday and on the splash screen you have the option of getting intimate with me.
World Online (the ISP that hosts area51.dk) are spectacular fools. Below you can see how their network looped, meaning my sessions to and from f-control.area51.dk died. This happened repeatedly. How the fuck these idiots are still in business is far beyond my level of comprehension.
Their network fails in similar ways on a regular basis. (Between 3 and 10 times a week.)
[holsta@eo holsta]$ traceroute a.area51.dk traceroute to F-Control.area51.dk (213.237.108.10), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 as3.adl.dublin.eircom.net (159.134.238.215) 77.271 ms 76.205 ms 79.881 ms 2 fa1-0.tr1.adl.dublin.eircom.net (159.134.238.1) 62.62 ms 75.256 ms 70.940 ms 3 fa1-1-0.core2.adl.dublin.eircom.net (159.134.240.12) 78.238 ms 75.285 ms 70.926 ms 4 s6-0-0.core1.cra.dublin.eircom.net (159.134.192.233) 70.671 ms 75.192 ms 70.840 ms 5 pos0-0-0.core1.thn.london.eircom.net (159.134.191.98) 79.831 ms 83.672 ms 79.853 ms 6 fe3-0.lon0.nacamar.net.uk (195.66.224.32) 88.598 ms 94.162 ms 88.782 ms 7 so-1-0-0.ffm2.net.tiscali.com (213.200.81.246) 97.558 ms 102.295 ms 79.806 ms 8 so-1-0-0.ffm19.net.tiscali.com (213.200.81.13) 88.661 ms 93.298 ms 88.910 ms 9 so-0-0-0.col2.net.tiscali.com (213.200.81.125) 97.601 ms 102.269 ms 97.552 ms 10 pos4-0.cop1.net.tiscali.com (213.200.81.154) 124.147 ms 128.788 ms 115.313 ms 11 wol-dk-gw.nacamar.net (62.26.84.6) 106.531 ms 113.124 ms 97.747 ms 12 ATM1-1-0-1.cr0.kh.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.33) 106.258 ms 112.773 ms 106.577 ms 13 lo0.cr0.vaer.worldonline.dk (213.237.127.68) 106.156 ms 112.805 ms 115.401 ms 14 lo0.cr0.fm.worldonline.dk (213.237.127.107) 106.356 ms 112.741 ms 106.599 ms 15 * * ATM0-1-0-1.cr0.sk.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.2) 115.720 ms 16 fe2-0.cr1.ski.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.195) 121.581 ms 121.785 ms 115.454 ms 17 lo0.cr0.oer.worldonline.dk (213.237.127.79) 124.95 ms 130.699 ms 115.176 ms 18 ATM0-1-0-1.cr0.sk.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.2) 124.217 ms 130.710 ms 115.233 ms 19 fe2-0.cr1.ski.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.195) 124.188 ms 130.791 ms 115.297 ms 20 lo0.cr0.oer.worldonline.dk (213.237.127.79) 133.99 ms 139.478 ms 124.278 ms 21 ATM0-1-0-1.cr0.sk.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.2) 132.978 ms 130.460 ms 115.546 ms 22 fe2-0.cr1.ski.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.195) 132.918 ms 139.493 ms 124.247 ms 23 lo0.cr0.oer.worldonline.dk (213.237.127.79) 124.25 ms 139.478 ms 142.38 ms 24 ATM0-1-0-1.cr0.sk.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.2) 142.39 ms 130.514 ms 133.142 ms 25 fe2-0.cr1.ski.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.195) 133.10 ms 130.453 ms 133.179 ms 26 lo0.cr0.oer.worldonline.dk (213.237.127.79) 133.122 ms 148.650 ms 124.301 ms 27 ATM0-1-0-1.cr0.sk.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.2) 141.852 ms 130.616 ms 142.48 ms 28 fe2-0.cr1.ski.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.195) 159.819 ms 166.215 ms 133.161 ms 29 lo0.cr0.oer.worldonline.dk (213.237.127.79) 142.85 ms 148.527 ms 142.74 ms 30 ATM0-1-0-1.cr0.sk.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.2) 150.874 ms 148.550 ms 142.9 ms 31 fe2-0.cr1.ski.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.195) 195.123 ms 210.657 ms 159.728 ms 32 lo0.cr0.oer.worldonline.dk (213.237.127.79) 195.229 ms 166.339 ms 151.121 ms 33 ATM0-1-0-1.cr0.sk.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.2) 149.150 ms 157.179 ms 150.913 ms 34 fe2-0.cr1.ski.worldonline.dk (212.54.86.195) 166.843 ms 157.311 ms 150.834 ms 35 lo0.cr0.oer.worldonline.dk (213.237.127.79) 141.990 ms 157.336 ms 150.947 ms ^C
I am really looking forward to getting the financial details around mongers settled. Still no timeframe.
I want to beat Steve Gibson to a bleeding pulp. He is widely recognised as a Internet security guru but he is absolutely clueless when it comes to security. He is a very skilled storyteller and should probably work in a marketing department somewhere. He has no business telling people lies about Internet security.
I have no inspiration at all tonight. I am going to bed. Goodnight.
Threw a minor fit on the misc@openbsd.org mailing list: some muppet posted a program with the purpose of exploiting a known security flaw in OpenBSD's FTP server, and he challenged the OpenBSD team to ship their product with all services running if they claimed it to be so secure. I had to explain a few things to him.
Having crawled over a number of technical difficulties, the powers that be decided Mick and I will go for dinner at Ming Court again. Wish us luck! I had actually anticipated a long day in work but this was not to be.
A seemingly important document was signed, sealed and delivered.
The most organised man on the planet!?
My evil coder asked me if I had noticed many referrer logs from targum.net, and a quick grep revealed that my site gets linked to from http://targum.net/greymatter/archives/00000120.php3 which is a web site belonging to the girlfriend of someone who calls me Mr. Holst.
This young lady does not understand why I use Netscape Navigator as my browser. Believe me there are worse things I could use Netscape Navigator for, but this is a family show. She also seems to type "can" when she means "call", she thinks "emails" is a word and her webdiaryjourlogthingy uses JavaScript for navigation -- how dare she question my standards?
While I was going through some security stuff Rain Forest Puppy wrote, I noticed he linked to desktopgirls.com as the source of his website graphics. The view is absolutely unreal so I linked to a few of the girls from my recommended page.
Today's vague security lesson: desktopgirls.com use JavaScript for navigation and annoying popups, the thought being: if you want to browse the site you will need JavaScript enabled, and hence you will suffer the popups. A quick glance at the HTML source showed this:
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/list_thumbs.asp?category_id=1"> <INPUT TYPE="Button" NAME="list_PagingMove" VALUE=" << " style="background:#EBA529; color:maroon; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;"> <INPUT TYPE="Button" NAME="list_PagingMove" VALUE=" < " style="background:#EBA529; color:maroon; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;"> <INPUT TYPE="Submit" NAME="list_PagingMove" VALUE=" > " style="background:#EBA529; color:maroon; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;"> <INPUT TYPE="Submit" NAME="list_PagingMove" VALUE=" >> " style="background:#EBA529; color:maroon; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;"> <!--<INPUT TYPE="Submit" NAME="list_PagingMove" VALUE=" Requête ">--> <INPUT TYPE="Hidden" NAME="ListAbsolutePage" VALUE="1"> <INPUT TYPE="Hidden" NAME="category_id" VALUE="1"> </FORM>
So, having disabled JavaScript, all I had to do was add &ListAbsolutePage=N to the URI in my browser, and I was able to navigate the site without being spammed with popup windows.
Today's important words are: "... and I don't mean maybe."
News just in: the above-mentioned girlfriend of someone else thinks I am grumpy. This is my good side. Ask anyone. Really.
I am home again.
I met two sexy birds this weekend. One approached me only seconds after I walked in the door, and quickly crawled all over me and kept rubbing against my chest, and did not seem eager to move away from me. The other had a look that just begged for a warm touch. So I did. I wanted both.
Unfortunately, parrots are expensive animals so I decided against buying one.
2.9 is out and it is as sexy as always.