Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:37:49 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/ eWall.org weblog en-us http://www.ewall.org/images/ewall_logo_greybg.png http://www.ewall.org/ webmaster@ewall.org http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=341 I'm not dead yet. To prove it, I'll quote from somebody else who hasn't been writing much lately: Think of how much better the world would be if everybody—young and old, black and white, American and Russian, Time and Newsweek—spent part of each day playing with an Etch-a-Sketch. Think how great it would be if they had public Etch-a-Sketches for you to use while you were waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles. And imagine what would happen if, instead of guns, our young soldiers carried Etch-a-Sketches into battle! They would be cut down like field mice under a rotary mower! So we can't carry this idea too far. -Dave Barry, from "Making the World Safe for Salad," as published in Dave Barry's Greatest Hits ©1988 Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:37:49 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=340 ...and skip one or two of the "summer blockbuster" movies, and go see Once, if you can find a theatre playing it. It's so worth it! A beautiful little film about people trying to be understood—particularly through music—yeah, it's all about the music. With Glen Hansard (of band The Frames) and Markéta Irglová as the leads and songwriters, music just flows in and through the whole movie. Er, it's also about the relationships. Yeah, it's got the whole guy-and-girl-meet,-have-troubles,-and-work-it-out kinda-thing goin' on. But I'm not gonna spoiler it for you. I'll just say this: if you communicate through music, than you will understand this film. Just listen, and I'm sure you'll appreciate it. Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:00:40 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=339 Sometimes the new euphemisms and metaphors (nudge-nudge, wink-wink, knowhatimean?) of rock-n'-rock escape me these days. I mean, it wasn't hard to miss "Puff the Magic Dragon" (although my darling wife has yet to be disillusioned). But a recent song from a Paste Magazine sampler leaves me open-mouthed—nevermind that the guy's voice sounds like Bob Dylan, Victoria Williams, and nails-on-a-chalkboard in trio. Take a look at these words, which are the entire lyrics to the song! Are they flattering to the presumably-female "you" subject of the song? Do they make any sense whatsoever to you?!? I wanna go out but not really Keep droppin' the bucket until it's dry, until it's dry I wanna go out but not really I keep stuffin' the musket until you cry, until you cry You could be my diamond ring I say you you could be my diamond ring —Joseph Arthur "Diamond Ring" from Let's Just Be Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:43:10 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=338 I finally decided to get more serious about learning the Ruby programming language. My thoughtful and Internet-savvy mother-in-law got me the Ruby Cookbook off my Amazon Wishlist back at Christmastime, but it's been sitting on my shelf, just itching to be touched. Still, I don't know why I chose now in particular to get into it, when I'm about to take Part One of the CCNA test, but hey... Finally managed to fit a meeting of the local Ruby User's Group this week, too—lots of fun, in a geeky sort of way. Nicholas Stuart presented to a ragtag handful of misfits on some random features of the language, while we toodled on our laptops and tried them out or asked inane questions. (BTW, why don't they call the user group a RUG? I think that's a great acronym!) Then, to stem off boredom the past couple evenings, I've read some of Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. I must say: perhaps I didn't take enough hallucinogenic substances as a youth, because much of the author's randomness seems waaaaaay out there to me, but it does keep you reading. And the theory says that maybe I'll remember it better that way, rather than skimming a very dry programming manual and forgetting it almost immediately. The Guide is probably aimed at less-informed programmers, in that in tries to explain concepts that you would already know well if you've programmed before; but it is entertaining and, uh, possibly psychotic. So anyway, I'm enchanted with Ruby nonetheless, and looking forward to much lazy, impatient, hubric scripting in the future. Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:26:10 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=337 Once again, I must say, in the words of Mark Twain: rumors of my recent demise have been greatly exaggerated. I'm still breathing (barely, sometimes); I just haven't posted in a while... Anyway, I recommend you read the following article, even if you're not interested in InfoSec software: How Security Companies Sucker Us With Lemons. That's all for now. Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:23:51 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=336 Attn: Security Wonks If you have not already checked out version 3.0 of the Metasploit Framework, it is high time you did so. It is pretty darn amazing, even just for the fancy interface! To see it, you don't even have to install: just check out these intro vids at EthicalHacker.net: Part 1 and Part 2. (Oh, and while you're there: you may enjoy Tom Liston's latest "Skillz Challenge": Microsoft Office Space: A SQL With Flair.) Tue, 01 May 2007 20:59:26 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=335 One of the smartest things that Ainsley & I have done was to take a class from Dave Ramsey on managing our money. The more we follow the advice, the better off and more peaceful we are. But—wouldn't you know it?—just recently I've found an even easier system. You can learn about this remarkable financial management system from this short commercial they showed during Saturday Night Live. Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:01:37 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=334 I've been studying for the CCNA lately, and it inspired me to create the following nerd joke: Question: What do you call a 100Mbit Hub? Answer: Half-Fast Ethernet If you get it, this is funny on so many levels (or not). If you don't, it's not. I'm mostly amusing myself here. Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:51:17 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=333 Still dealing with some fallout from the last webhost switch and PostNuke upgrade. Admittedly, if I were to do it all again, I would not choose PostNuke as my CMS... and sometimes I think when I get "free time" (I know: "What's that?") that I'd like to make a database converter to move the content from PN to another more popular, more manageable, more flexible CMS. But until then: oh well. Anyway, last night a friendly fellow named Chris informed me of some issues with new-user registration on this site. A little investigation showed that it's the XUser module I've been using to ease the registration process, and of course it's all but abandoned. So, until I find a replacement, the place to go to register an account with the site is ewall.org/user.php. Sorry for the fuss... Maybe I'll have some "free time" this weekend. Oh, in other site news: I did fix the Repacking for Windows Installer index page. Urp, sorry 'bout that—I know that's pretty much the only reason many of you come to my site. But it works again. Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:39:30 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=332 Today when I logged into my work computer it informed me that there was a new version of the venerable Gaim open source instant messaging client I use... but when I browsed to the Gaim site at SourcForge.net, it was gone. It turns out that, once again, another fine Open Source product has been forced to change it's name by legal battles with the Big Bad Corporations. Dang them! Now, The Program Formerly Known As 'Gaim' is called Pidgin. Okey-dokey. The last time this happened [to me] was with Ethereal—I still can't get used to the new name Wireshark, and always have to go looking on my computer to figure out what it's called now. I guess this is why companies invest so much in branding and don't want to change their names... and why the Big Bad Corporations love forcing the Open Source products to change! Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:58:58 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=331 ...and I don't mean ironic "like rain on your wedding day; like a free ride when you've already paid;" as my fried Tyler used to say, most of those things in Alanis Morrisette's song aren't ironic at all, they're things that just suck. The real irony here is this: It was only this past Sunday night, as the rain and wind was beginning to batter on my windows, that I wrote that last post about power outages in Africa. By lunchtime the next morning we lost our power here in my comfy little American city of Portland, Maine, and now a day later there haven't been signs of it coming back yet. It was a dark and chilly night, I tell you! Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:13:49 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330 Y'know, last August I promised you I'd share more stories from that summers trip to Central Africa. It's been more than a few days since then, so maybe I should get on that, eh? Okay, so here's an amusing little anecdote that I've been meaning to share: As is no surprise, the electricity is not particularly dependable in some of the places we traveled, even in parts of the larger cities like Bujumbura (Burundi) and Kigali (Rwanda). And it seemed that every time we were sitting around a table chatting and the power went out, someone would say to me, "Ah... This is Africa!" as if power outages were a defining element of African culture. I tell you: every time there was a power outage, someone said it. But once during our trip—at a wedding reception, in fact—there was a much better "This is Africa!" moment. The power had been dimming and already blinked a few times, and the customary "This is Africa!" had already been said, and there we were: hundreds of people sitting there in the dark. As honored guests, we white Americans were up on the stage with the wedding party and family, and had a great view of the other guests—at least until the lights went out. Then it happened: hundreds of cell phone lights flickered on throughout the hall—some phones with built-in flashlights, some just held up in the air with the screens on. It looked like waves of lighters at a rock concert, or a choir with candles at Christmastime. That, my friends, is my quintessential "This is Africa" picture: a sea of cell phones glowing in a pitch-black room. Why cell phones?, you may ask. Well, you see, most of Africa effectively missed the movement for "land lines"—which to this day are very expensive and impractical there—and skipped right ahead to cellular. Now nearly every man with a reasonably good job has a pay-per-call cell phone. It seems to me there are more cells-phones-per-capita in the Great Lakes region of Africa than in the United States! Can you believe it? Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:23:11 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=329 I'm sitting in my living room half-watching Elvis: King of Entertainment, a Christmas/birthday present from Whitley, my sister-in-law—who knows my soft spot for the King of Crooners. It's a sort of Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Elvis Aaron Presley And Other Things You Didn't Think To Ask. But then I realized that I may have never told you my theory—or rather, my proof—so here it is: my Ontological Proof That Elvis Is Alive And Well And Working At 7-Eleven. It's simple, really. Take the letters of his name: ELVIS PRESLEY... Now rearrange them. (You may find the Internet Anagram Server useful. Or not.) The letters in the name ELVIS can be rearranged to spell LIVES. Who could die with a name like that? And the PRESLEY part, well, that's a little more challenging—after a few false starts, you should come up with the word SLERPEY which is, more-or-less, the trademark product of 7-Eleven convenience stores. You thought those stories of gas station sightings were a myth, but my hypothesis suggests he actually works for them now. (Extra Credit: If you were still trying to figure out what to do with Elvis' middle name, AARON, than think about how the Slurpee's little straw-with-a-spoon-at-the-end looks like AN OAR.) Heh... Anyway, so now you know. Next time you're at the ol' corner convenience store, keep an eye out for the King, okay? Also: for a little more, er, thoughtful take on the topic of Elvis' life and/or death, click on over to Jesus is Alive, Elvis is Alive, What's the Difference?. Sun, 15 Apr 2007 19:30:40 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=328 Today I just learned the fascinating story of how the S.E.C. got started; this is a must-read! ;) Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:20:10 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=327 Dang, just in time for my next pen-test: the BackTrack Linux distro v2.0-final has been released. Downloading now. If you're not familiar with BackTrack, it's the merger of two older/expired LiveCD security auditing distros, Whax\Whoppix and Auditor Security Collection. I always have a copy in my laptop bag. Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:13:05 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=326 Even better than my occasional "Spam Subject Line of the Day" posts here: www.spam-poetry.com: poems made entirely of spam subject lines. Beautiful! Inspiring! Disturbing! Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:46:29 -0600 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=325 No, not irony like Alanis Morrisette asks "Isn't It Ironic"; as my college buddy Tyler used to say, that song just listed a bunch of things that "just plain suck". No, today's irony is that the blizzard that swooped across the Midwest has arrived here in Maine, so it's snowing like a bugger out there, and I'm sitting inside watching a movie called The Long, Hot Summer. Heh. Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:13:31 -0700 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=324 I resisted for a long time... Yes, I know there are a billion reasons to upgrade to IE7, starting with some reasonable CSS support, and maybe ending with Micro$oft's promise that IE7 has "more" security, but you've gotta understand I support so many small businesses that have been too scared to upgrade yet. And, admittedly, I hadn't come to grips with the interface changes yet... (every time I used someone else's PC with IE7, I couldn't find the menus!). So anyway, now I have IE7 on my office PC, and it's okay. But of course there's always the need to test things with IE6. For web development, you should of course have virtual machine images and services like BrowserCam on hand, but for more casual support, what do you do? Microsoft's recommendation, of course, was to download their time-limited virtual image. Nice, but the expiry date sucks, and I prefer VMware Player images. But dig down in the comments and you find a better solution: you can run IE6 as a standalone program, even when IE7 is installed. Since XP supports the .local files to solve the DLL Hell problem, it works more-or-less cleanly, even sharing components with IE7. Can't complain for a quickie solution. Recommended! Tue, 27 Feb 2007 10:00:48 -0700 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=323 Yesterday I attended Micro$oft's dog-and-pony show about the release of Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007—more on that later. However, one of the most fun parts of the deal was that I got to see a lot of former colleagues and co-workers (note that I refuse to spell that without the hyphen, as in "coworkers", because then it could easily be read as "cow-orkers"). So, anyway, this ones for you, Fred-o: Here's how to extend the Windows Vista evaluation period for up to 4 months. Oh, and for the guy who with the questions about trying to help a user with the Vista Upgrade: here's a great explanation of the loophole that allows you to "upgrade" to Vista with no OS prerequisite. And interesting news that, so far, it doesn't look like Microsoft is going to patch the loophole anytime soon, either. Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:06:29 -0700 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=322 I think I've gotten some sort of new phobia: the fear of sneezing. (Would that be called "sternutaphobia"?) Err, specifically, it's sneezing while driving that I'm afraid of. It all started at Christmastime, when Zach, my brother-in-law, casually mentioned nearly totaling his car in an accident caused by his sneezing. The conversation followed the path of "What-happened-to-the-car?" instead of "How-did-you-sneeze-and-have-an-accident?!" So, I never remembered to get back to the topic of "How-did-you-sneeze-and-have-an-accident?!" and now—needless to say—every time I'm about to sneeze while driving I'm nearly terrified. Yeah. I try to see if I can keep my eyes open during the sneeze... but then come the visions of eyeballs-popping-from-my-head. So then I try to concentrate really extra hard on keeping the steering wheel straight during the oncoming quake. Then I sneeze. ...and I realize there was nothing to be worried about. Still: Zach, if you read this, um... fill me in sometime, okay? Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:18:25 -0700 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=321 I'm excited for the new movie Breach to be released, ever since I heard about it on NPR's Fresh Air the other night ("Eric O'Neill and Billy Ray Discuss 'Breach'"). That's good, because I haven't been interested in a new film for a while (what's with the schlock they've been putting out these days?). Director Billy Ray's last based-on-a-true-story office "thriller", Shattered Glass, was pretty darn good. You remember that? It's the one about Stephen Glass, the journalist who fabricated his stories, and fooled a lot of people... for a while. Breach follows along the same lines of digging into the psyche of deception. Seems like a topic we'll never get to the bottom of. Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:43:39 -0700 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=320 If you can read this, you're seeing the new server. That's good, I think. Um, sorry if it's slow. We'll see about that right away... Sheesh! Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:00:00 -0700 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=319 Wowsers... take a listen to the song "Hide and Seek" from Imogen Heap's latest disc, Speak for Yourself. She really makes that voicebox hum. And speaking of hiding, this website might hide for a day or two next time you seek it out, as I think I will be switching hosts again. Long story, but I'm sure this will be the last time. (Ever?) Thu, 04 Jan 2007 23:00:00 -0700 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=318 I got a lot of great loot this Christmas (and on my birthday, conveniently nearby), particularly in the area of media input. So I thought I'd share the delightful choices I now have with you, for your delight as well. Not a one of these should be missed, I assure you. Music: Hem's Funnel Cloud Sparklehorse's Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Mustt Mustt Movies: Swades: We the People Bride and Prejudice Gattaca An Inconvenient Truth Oh, and for those of you who were wondering: I am not, in fact, some sort of N.R.I. (Non-Resident Indian) living in America, even though half of these things are of Indian origin... they're just cool. Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:26:24 -0700 http://www.ewall.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=317 ...I'm getting better. It's just... It's almost Christmas; in fact, it's The Darkest Night of the Year, the Winter Solstice. How depressing. And you want me to write more? Sheesh. You're so pushy! Okay, here's a couple things for you:You should play Kingdom of Loathing. It's too fun. They call Christmas "Crimbo". I will have some new technical content here soon... In fact, I've been working on some Exchange and Windows Mobile stuff at work lately which I think you'll be interested in. (You techies, at least.) I'm gonna go crawl back in my hole now, but I'll write later. Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:13:01 -0700