ICT Samurai

ICMP extensions RFC

2010-04-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

Recently-published RFC 5837 describes additions to ICMP messages that would allow you to gather more information (including interface ifIndex, IP address and name). Two obvious applications are enhanced traceroute and path MTU discovery where the new ICMP extensions could indicate which interface is the MTU bottleneck.

The RFC authors come from BT, Juniper and Cisco, so there’s a non-zero chance it will actually get implemented where it’s most needed.

Short urban exploration documentaries

2010-04-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

Fashion and Urban Exploration?!
Short urban exploration documentaries: "Uneven Terrain is a series of short documentaries about urban exploration, about 10-15 minutes long each. There are six so far, about monumental ruins in New York, Centralia, the Pennsylvania town where an underground coalseam has been on fire since the 1960s, abandoned missile silos in the US and how they're being turned into homes, oil drilling in Los Angeles, the Teufelberg listening station and the abandoned bunkers under Tempelhof Airport in Berlin and pirate radio in London and on the old Redsand sea forts. Each short doc has a different presenter. All have accompanying photo galleries. [These are produced for the bootmaker Palladium, but it's pretty low-key]

Feudal Japanese Star Wars Art: Pics, Videos, Links, News

2010-04-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Feudal Japanese Star Wars Art: Pics, Videos, Links, News

NewspaperWood

2010-03-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

I know where to use this..
NewspaperWood: "

Dutch designer Mieke Meijer and design firm Vij5 created wood made from compressed newspaper.

Every day, piles of newspapers are discarded and recycled into new paper. Mieke Meijer has come up with a solution to use this surplus of apper into a renewed material. When a NewspaperWood log is cut, the layters of paper appear like lines of a wood grain or tyhe rings of a tree and therefore resembles the asethetic of real wood. The material can be cutr, milled and sanded and generally treated like any other type of wood.

[Via Atelier29. Thanks, metis!]

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Digg this!"

Make: Online : How-To: Build a sandbag-filling jig

2010-03-22T06:58:00.000-07:00

Another possible Fablab product for emergency situations.
Make: Online : How-To: Build a sandbag-filling jig

Road Trip

2010-03-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

I'm headed down to Boston to do some fun tech with with some folks. Keep a follow on this blog for all the excitment!..or not

I brewed beer!

2010-02-19T15:46:00.000-08:00

Jesse Krembs
802.233.7051
Sent from MDT.

GISVM – A Virtual Ubuntu Linux GIS Workstation

2009-12-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

This seems really useful..
GISVM – A Virtual Ubuntu Linux GIS Workstation

Good poem thanks commercial America.

2009-12-07T07:14:00.000-08:00

Walt Whitman - Pioneers! O Pioneers!
1 COME, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers! 2 For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers! 3 O you youths, western youths, So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! O pioneers! 4 Have the elder races halted? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there beyond the seas? We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers! 5 All the past we leave behind; We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world, Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O pioneers! 6 We detachments steady throwing, Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep, Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the unknown ways, Pioneers! O pioneers! 7 We primeval forests felling, We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep the mines within; We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving, Pioneers! O pioneers! 8 Colorado men are we, From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus, From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come, Pioneers! O pioneers! 9 From Nebraska, from Arkansas, Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein’d; All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, Pioneers! O pioneers! 10 O resistless, restless race! O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all! O I mourn and yet exult—I am rapt with love for all, Pioneers! O pioneers! 11 Raise the mighty mother mistress, Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,) Raise the fang’d and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon’d mistress, Pioneers! O pioneers! 12 See, my children, resolute children, By those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or falter, Ages back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind us urging, Pioneers! O pioneers! 13 On and on, the compact ranks, With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill’d, Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping, Pioneers! O pioneers! 14 O to die advancing on! Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come? Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill’d, Pioneers! O pioneers! 15 All the pulses of the world, Falling in, they beat for us, with the western movement beat; Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front, all for us, Pioneers! O pioneers! 16 Life’s involv’d and varied pageants, All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work, All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves, Pioneers! O pioneers! 17 All the hapless silent lovers, All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked, All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying, Pioneers! O pioneers! 18 I too with my soul and body, We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, Through these shores, amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing, Pioneers! O pioneers! 19 Lo! the darting bowling orb! Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and planets, All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams, Pioneers! O pioneers! 20 These are of us, they are with us, All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind, We to-day’s procession heading, we the route for travel clearing, Pioneers! O pioneers! 21 O you daughters of the west! O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives! Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united, Pioneers! O pioneers! 22 Minstrels latent on the prairies! (Shrouded bards of other lands! you may sleep—you have done your work;) Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, Pioneers! O pioneers! 23 Not for delectations sweet; Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious; Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pioneers! 24 Do the feasters gluttonous feast? Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock’d and bolted doors? Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers! O pioneers! 25 Has the night descended? Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers! 26 Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the day-break call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind; Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! spring to your places, Pioneers! O pioneers.

Walt Whitman - Pioneers! O Pioneers!

1
COME, my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;
Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers!

2
For we cannot tarry here,
We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers!

3
O you youths, western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,
Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! O
pioneers!

4
Have the elder races halted?
Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there beyond the seas?
We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers!

5
All the past we leave behind;
We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world,
Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O pioneers!

6
We detachments steady throwing,
Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,
Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the unknown ways, Pioneers! O pioneers!

7
We primeval forests felling,
We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep the mines within;
We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving, Pioneers! O pioneers!

8
Colorado men are we,
From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus,
From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come, Pioneers! O pioneers!

9
From Nebraska, from Arkansas,
Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein’d;
All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, Pioneers! O
pioneers!

10
O resistless, restless race!
O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!
O I mourn and yet exult—I am rapt with love for all, Pioneers! O pioneers!

11
Raise the mighty mother mistress,
Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,)
Raise the fang’d and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon’d mistress, Pioneers! O
pioneers!

12
See, my children, resolute children,
By those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or falter,
Ages back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind us urging, Pioneers! O pioneers!

13
On and on, the compact ranks,
With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill’d,
Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping, Pioneers! O pioneers!

14
O to die advancing on!
Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come?
Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill’d, Pioneers! O
pioneers!

15
All the pulses of the world,
Falling in, they beat for us, with the western movement beat;
Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front, all for us, Pioneers! O
pioneers!

16
Life’s involv’d and varied pageants,
All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work,
All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves, Pioneers! O pioneers!

17
All the hapless silent lovers,
All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked,
All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying, Pioneers! O pioneers!

18
I too with my soul and body,
We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way,
Through these shores, amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing, Pioneers! O
pioneers!

Lo! the darting bowling orb!
Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and planets,
All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams, Pioneers! O pioneers!

20
These are of us, they are with us,
All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind,
We to-day’s procession heading, we the route for travel clearing, Pioneers! O pioneers!

21
O you daughters of the west!
O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives!
Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united, Pioneers! O pioneers!

22
Minstrels latent on the prairies!
(Shrouded bards of other lands! you may sleep—you have done your work;)
Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, Pioneers! O pioneers!

23
Not for delectations sweet;
Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious;
Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pioneers!

24
Do the feasters gluttonous feast?
Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock’d and bolted doors?
Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers! O pioneers!

25
Has the night descended?
Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way?
Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers!

26
Till with sound of trumpet,
Far, far off the day-break call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind;
Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! spring to your places, Pioneers! O pioneers.

Special Delivery

2009-12-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

This is why I have no problem with people questioning what I do.

Special Delivery: "
Brad’s phone rang with the telltale tone of an inner-office call. “Yeah,” he briskly blurted out as he picked up the phone, “what’cha ya need?” That was actually his nicewayof answering the phone. As the senior trader at Æxecor, one of the world’s largest energy trading companies, Brad didn’t need to impress anyone and, in his mind, displaying anything less than vicious hubris would be a sign of weakness.

“Err,” the receptionist nervously answers, “there’s a… err, delivery for you, sir. They—”

“Hmphf,” Brad’s scoff cut her off. “So just sign for it, then! Is that really that hard to do? You can do that, can’t you?”

“Well sir,” the receptionist winced, “they’re asking for mooring instructions? And we need to pay wharfage charges? They said you’d know. I’m at a loss.”

“Fine,” Brad scowled, “I guess I have to do everything around here!” He slammed down the phone and marched out of his corner office. Despite Æxecor’s location – the “old docks” district – their office was one of the most posh in the city. On one end of the expansive, former warehouse sat the executive suites, which had a tremendous view of the city skyline. The other end – where Brad was headed towards – was the reception which overlooked its own, private bay on the river.

“Okay, I’m here!” he angrily announced once he stepped foot in the lobby. “So let’s do this! What do I need to—”

Brad stopped mid-sentence. His eyes were immediately drawn through the floor-to-ceiling windows and onto the river bay that Æxecor’s building overlooked. There was an absolutely gigantic barge – nay, an armada of tightly-connected barges – overfilled with enormous piles of coal that was attempting to dock in front of the building. “What… the… fuuu—”

“You mus’ be Brad,” a cheerful voice jumped in. Brad’s eye’s shifted towards the scruffy fellow wearing some sort of workman’s uniform who was sitting in one of the reception chairs. “Now first and foremost, how in the Sam Hill are we ‘sposed to moor this boat? I count two cleats, but we sure as heck can’t hitch these. And, shoot, do you even have a bulk berth?”

For once, Brad was speechless. He had absolutely no idea who that man was and he could hardly understand a word he said. Plus, there was that gargantuan vessel that was slowly moving towards the building. “Uhh,” he stuttered, “wait. Are you delivering… coal? To… uhh, us?”

“Well, yeah! Twenty-eight thousand tons of the good ol’ black gold!” The workman sarcastically furrowed his brow adding, “I mean, we did get the right address, har har. This is Æxecor? And this is Pier 53? And you are Brad, the fella who ordered it, right?”

It was that moment that Brad’s palm almost immediately made contact with his forehead. He realized that something must have really gone awry: instead of virtually trading 28,000 tons of coal, Brad had somehow ended up with 28,000 tons of real coal.

Commodity Futures Trading 101

If you’ve ever watched Trading Places, the 1983 classic starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, then you’re probably at least familiar with commodities markets. At a basic level, commodities such as gold, wool, and soy beans are sold by producers and, eventually, delivered to buyers. But Billy Ray Valentine didn’t strike it rich and bankrupt the Duke Brothers by hauling around Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice (FCOJ); instead, they worked the commodities market by buying and selling FCOJ futures contracts. Actually, that’s really the only way to trade in commodities.

A futures contract is pretty straight forward: you agree to buy X units of commodity Y at $N per unit at some fixed future date. While it might seem a bit strange for an individual to agree to buy twenty tons of pork bellies in April for $34,420 (even if he really loves bacon), the idea is to sell the to-be-delivered pork bellies long before April, and to sell them for more than $34,420. Just about every conceivable commodity is bought and sold in this manner long before the commodity is even produced. The whole point of all this trading is to shift the risk (and rewards) of fluctuating commodity prices from the producers (farmers, miners, etc) to the traders.

Of course, because commodity traders don’t actually want to be stuck with tons and tons of pork bellies, a whole series of middlemen — from the brokers to the exchanges to the clearing houses — work hard to ensure that, when you say "I’ll buy 300 tons of pork bellies for $518,000 in May," you don’t actually buy 300 tons of pork bellies for $518,000 in May.

Brokers, for example, will set up round-turn trades so that, for each futures contract purchased, an offsetting contract can be sold to whoever actually wants to buy the goods. The exchange’s automated trading systems have all sorts of rules-engines to make sure that obvious errors (like delivering truckloads of commodities to a commercial office park) don’t slip through. And finally, processors at the clearing house will double-check transactions to make sure they weren’t sent over in error.

All that said, it’s almost impossible for traders to actually buy the commodities they are buying. Well, almost impossible.

A Perfect Storm

Æxecor traded coal on only one exchange (the WTFSE), and they didn’t trade coal very often. As such, when WTFSE upgraded its public-facing, WebService-based API, Æxecor’s internal trading system could no longer communicate with it. With a couple pending coal trades, this presented a bit of a problem.

Fortunately, Æxecor had a staff of crack programmers, and they were able to hack together a solution that worked with the WTFSE’s new API. Essentially, the coder added a bit of XML to their trading requests, including this following snippet.
<AdditionalProperties>
  <PhysicallyDeliver>
     <value>False</value>
  </PhysicallyDeliver>
</AdditionalProperties>
Notice anything off about that XML? If you said, “value should be 0 instead of False”, then give yourself a pat on the back. As it turned out, WTFSE only recognized 1’s and 0’s to represent True and False and, if the value was nether 1 nor 0, it simply defaulted to 1. Whoops!

Now, this normally wouldn’t have been that big of a deal; to ensure accurate transactions, the WTFSE (and just about all other exchanges) sends back a trade confirmation with all of the original information encoded in their XML. That way, both parties have to understand each other’s data. On Æxecor's end, everything looked hunky dory, especially as a result of the following line of code.
bool physicallyDeliver =
   (getNodeVal("PhysicallyDeliver").toLower() == "true");
Kudos to the developer for verifying the correct case... but, a string can be infinitely more things than simply "true" or "false". Such as "1" or "0". Whoops.

Even a mistakenly confirmed incorrect trade shouldn’t have been that big of a deal, since the clearing house would notice some pretty big problems with the trade. You can’t just call up FedEx and request delivery of thousands upon thousands of tons of raw material to some office complex downtown. Commodities can only be delivered to a fixed number of delivery points, such as warehouses adjacent to train yards or ports. Of course, since Æxecor’s offices were in located on Pier 53, a recently redeveloped warehouse district off the river, it would have seemed like the logical place to accept delivery of a whole bunch of coal, especially to a rules engine. Whoops.

Fortunately, the commodity futures trading market doesn’t rely entirely on software. There are back-office personnel on both sides of the transaction (and several places in the middle) to make sure that a trader doesn’t do something silly like accidently click the “physically deliver” checkbox, enter into round-turn trades that creates an instant net loss, and so on.

So with everyone looking over transactions, you’d think that someone along the way would have noticed that trading giant Æxecor asked for physical delivery of a million-and-a-half dollars worth of coal. Actually, someone probably did, but because the trade came from Brad, there was just no way it could be made in err.

As the senior trader at Æxecor, Brad made it very clear that no one — “not even His Holiness, the Pope” — shall question his trades. After all, Brad makes complex trading decisions that no one else could possibly comprehend. Sometimes he buys high and sells low. Sometimes he holds in a decline. Sometimes he refuses to sell at any price. Brad works in mysterious ways, and if he said “do it”, then it better get done.

An Early Christmas

“Now don’t go telling me that this coal ain’t yours,” the workman said defensively, sensing something was awry. “I mean, if you don’t want it, that’s your business. But this here is your coal, mister Brad.”

As much as Brad wanted to deny it, he knew it was his. And not only that, but he had haughtily confirmed, re-confirmed, and re-re-confirmed with Æxecor’s own back-office processing team. He had just assumed, like he always did, that the mouth-breathing paper-pushers couldn’t read English. As he played back the last thing he told one of the processors about the coal order – “what part of ‘execute my f*ing trade’ don’t you understand!?” – he wondered what he could possibly do with 56,000,000 pounds of real coal.

Try to imagine for a moment how you would unload a mountain of coal worth million-and-a-half dollars. Craigslist does have its limits, after all.

As it turned out, it was more difficult than Brad could have ever imagined to sell real coal. The commodities market really only deals in futures, and everyone who actually needs 28,000 tons of coal has bought it long in advance. And besides, who wants to buy coal from some guy named Brad? Eventually, after paying exorbitant wharfing, shipping, environmental, docking, unloading, loading, and multiple-fee fees, Brad was finally able to unload it for twenty cents on the dollar.

Ever since “The Big Purchase”, Brad has never been able to live down his mountain of coal. Every time he passed others in the hallway, he knew that they knew about the coal, and they knew that he knew that they knew. No one really poked fun or laughed at him, but it didn’t matter. Brad was no longer thought of the senior trader at Æxecor; instead, he was the guy who accidently bought all that coal.

My real name is David Jones

2009-12-03T06:06:00.000-08:00

My real name is David Jones: "In September of 1967, aged 20 and yet to make much of an impression on the music scene, David Bowie was so enthused to receive his first American fan letter that he immediately typed out a reply from the office of his manager, Kenneth Pitt. The fan in question was 14-year-old Sandra Dodd, a young girl from New Mexico who had come to own a promotional copy of Bowie's first album as a result of her uncle running a radio station. She was impressed and decided to write to Bowie, telling him his music was as good as that of The Beatles and then offering to start a fan club on his behalf.

Below is the lovely reply she received.

Transcript follows.

Source

Transcript

PITT

25th., September 1967

Dear Sandra,

When I called in this, my manager's office, a few moments ago I was handed my very first American fan letter - and it was from you. I was so pleased that I had to sit down and type an immediate reply, even though Ken is shouting at me to get on with a script he badly needs. That can wiat (wi-at? That's a new English word which means wait).

I've been waiting for some reaction to the album from American listeners. There were reviews in Billboard and Cash Box, but they were by professional critics and they rarely reflect the opinions of the public. The critics were very flattering however. They even liked the single 'Love You Till Tuesday'. I've got a copy of the American album and they've printed the picture a little yellow. I'm really not that blond. I think the picture on the back is more 'me'. Hope you like those enclosed.

In answer to your questions, my real name is David Jones and I don't have to tell you why I changed it. 'Nobody's going to make a monkey out of you' said my manager. My birthday is January 8th and I guess I'm 5'10'. There is a Fan Club here in England, but if things go well in the States then we'll have one there I suppose. It's a little early to even think about it.

I hope one day to get to America. My manager tells me lots about it as he has been there many times with other acts he manages. I was watching an old film on TV the other night called 'No Down Payment' a great film, but rather depressing if it is a true reflection of The American Way Of Life. However, shortly after that they showed a documentary about Robert Frost the American poet, filmed mainly at his home in Vermont, and that evened the score. I am sure that that is nearer the real America. I made my first movie last week. Just a fifteen minutes short, but it gave me some good experience for a full length deal I have starting in January.

Thankyou for being so kind as to write to me and do please write again and let me know some more about yourself.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed, 'David Bowie')

The Hemingway Bartender’s Companion

2009-12-01T12:03:00.000-08:00

The Hemingway Bartender’s Companion: "

On Monday, November 9, Phil Greene presented an evening of cocktails and drinking lore of author Ernest Hemingway, in a seminar titled, “To Have and Have Another, The Hemingway Bartender’s Companion.” Sponsored by Mount Gay Rum, Plymouth Gin, Hendrick’s Gin, Laird’s Applejack, Domaine de Canton, and Pernod-Ricard, the evening featured anecdotes from Hemingway’s life, recipes for several of his favorite cocktails (shown below), excerpts from his novels, short stories and letters, and background on the author and his fascinating life and times.

Phil demonstrated and served the Jack Rose Cocktail, and read the passage from the novel “The Sun Also Rises” in which it’s featured:

“At five o’clock I was in the Hotel Crillon, waiting for Brett. She was not there, so I sat down and wrote some letters. They were not very good letters but I hoped their being on Crillon stationery would help them. Brett did not turn up, so about quarter to six I went down to the bar and had a Jack Rose with George the barman.”

Jack Rose Cocktail

1.5 ounces Laird’s Applejack

.5 ounce Stirrings Grenadine

.5 ounce fresh lime juice

Add all ingredients and ice to shaker, shake well, strain into chilled cocktail glass or coupe.

From “Islands in the Stream,” guests enjoyed the Green Isaacs Special (named for the Isaacs Islands, just north of Bimini), and read from the novel:

“Where Thomas Hudson lay on the mattress his head was in the shade cast by the platform at the forward end of the flying bridge where the controls were and when Eddy came aft with the tall cold drink made of gin, lime juice, green coconut water, and chipped ice with just enough Angostura bitters to give it a rusty, rose color, he held the drink in the shadow so the ice would not melt while he looked out over the sea.”

Green Isaacs Special

2 oz Hendricks Gin

4 oz green coconut water (Vita Coco, available at Whole Foods)

1 oz lime juice

4 drops Angostura Bitters (or “just enough Angostura bitters to give it a rusty, rose color”)

Build in Collins glass.

From “Across the River and Into the Trees,” and a 1947 letter Hemingway sent from Cuba to his publisher, Charles Scribner, Phil offered the Montgomery Martini:

“We have real Gordon’s Gin at 50 bucks a case and real Noilly Prat and have found a way of making ice in the deep-freeze in tennis ball tubes that comes out 15 degrees below zero and with the glasses frozen too makes the coldest martini in the world. Just enough vermouth to cover the bottom of the glass, ounce 3/4 of gin, and the Spanish cocktail onions very crisp and also 15 degrees below zero when they go in the glass. This has been rugged as I said but there are better ways of sweating it out than putting your head on the wailing wall.”

Montgomery Martini:

1.5 oz Plymouth Gin

1 tbsp Dolin Vermouth

1 frozen Spanish cocktail onion

2 drops orange bitters (such as Regan’s or Fee Brothers)

Stir well with ice, strain into chilled martini glass.

“Waiter,” the Colonel called, then asked, “Do you want a dry Martini, too?”

“Yes,” she said, “I’d love one.”

“Two very dry Martinis,” the Colonel said. “Montgomerys. Fifteen to one.”

He did not like to call for Montgomerys in a tone that could be overheard because there were two obvious Britishers at the next table.

Next on the agenda was the infamous Papa Doble Daiquiri, also known as the “Double Frozen Daiquiri, No Sugar,” featured in “Islands in the Stream,” and elsewhere:

Papa Doble Daiquiri

3 ¾ oz Mount Gay Eclipse Silver Rum

Juice of 2 limes (about two ounces)

Juice of ½ grapefruit

6 drops of Luxardo maraschino liqueur

Blend well with ice. Serve in a large goblet.

“This frozen daiquiri, so well beaten as it is, looks like the sea where the wave falls away from the bow of a ship when she is doing thirty knots.”

And the last drink demonstrated and served to the crowd, fittingly, was the Death in the Afternoon, from the classic 1935 literary cocktail book, “So Red the Nose or Breath in the Afternoon:”

“Pour 1 jigger of absinthe into a champagne glass. Add iced champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink 3 to 5 of these slowly. (EDITOR’S NOTE: After six of these cocktails The Sun Also Rises.)”

From the novel, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” Hemingway wrote of absinthe:

It was a milky yellow now with the water and he hoped the gypsy would not take more than a swallow. One cap of it took the place of the evening papers, of all the old evenings in cafes, of all chestnut trees that would be in bloom now in this month, of the great slow horses of the outer boulevards, of book shops, of kiosks, and of galleries, of the Parc Montsouris, of the Stade Buffalo, and of the Butte Chaumont, of the Guaranty Trust Company and the Ille de la Cite, of Foyot’s old hotel, and of being able to read and relax in the evening; of all the things he had enjoyed and forgotten and that came back to him when he tasted that opaque, bitter, tongue-numbing, brain-warming, stomach-warming, idea changing liquid alchemy.

Phil also offered three other recipes to the audience:

The Gimlet, from “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber:”

2 ¼ oz Plymouth or Hendrick’s Gin

¾ oz Rose’s lime juice cordial

Stir with ice, garnish with a lime wedge or wheel

“It was now lunch time and they were all sitting under the doublegreen fly of the dining tent pretending that nothing had happened.

"Will you have lime juice or lemon squash?" Macomber asked.

"I'll have a gimlet," Robert Wilson told him.

"I'll have a gimlet too. I need something," Macomber's wife said.

"I suppose it's the thing to do," Macomber agreed. "Tell him to
make three gimlets."

The mess boy had started them already, lifting the bottles out of the canvas cooling bags that sweated wet in the wind that blew through the trees that shaded the tents.”

Campari and Gordon’s Gin, from “Across the River and Into the Trees:”

“He heard her coming up the stairs and noticed the difference in her tread when she was carrying two glasses and when she had walked down bare-handed. He heard the rain on the windowpane and he smelled the beech logs burning in the fireplace. As she came into the room he put his hand out for the drink and closed his hand on it and felt her touch the glass with her own.”

It’s our drink for out here,” she said. “Campari with Gordon’s and ice.”

“I’m certainly glad you’re not a girl who would say ‘on the rocks.’”

2 oz Gordon’s Gin

1 oz Campari

Pour over ice, garnish with orange peel

And, Hemingway’s Bloody Mary:

“To make a pitcher of Bloody Marys (any smaller amount is worthless) take a good sized pitcher and put in it as big a lump of ice as it will hold. (This is to prevent too rapid melting and watering of our product.) Mix a pint of good russian vodka and an equal amount of chilled tomato juice. Add a table spoon full of Worcester Sauce. Lea and Perrins is usual but can use A1 or any good beef-steak sauce. Stirr. (with two rs) Then add a jigger of fresh squeezed lime juice. Stirr. Then add small amounts of celery salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper. Keep on stirring and taste it to see how it is doing. If you get it too powerful weaken with more tomato juice. If it lacks authority add more vodka. Some people lime more lime than others. For combatting a really terrific hangover increase the amount of Worcester sauce - but don’t lose the lovely color. Keep drinking it yourself to see how it is doing.

I introduced this drink to Hong Kong in 1941 and believe it did more than any other single factor except perhaps the Japanese Army to precipitate the fall of that Crown Colony. After you get the hang of it you can mix it so it will taste as though it had absolutely no alcohol of any kind in it and a glass of it will still have as much kick as a really good big martini. Whole trick is to keep it very cold and not let the ice water it down. Use good vodka and good tomato juice. There is a vodka made in N.J. by a Russian process that is o.k. Can’t remember the name and don’t want to tout you onto the wrong one. . . . There is a very fine Mexican sauce called Esta Si Pican (sort of mild Tobasco) that is good added to the Bloody Marys too. Just a few drops.”

Phil will be presenting his Hemingway seminar in Spring, 2010 at the Key West Yacht Club, an event sponsored by the Key West Art and Historical Society. Stay tuned for more details…

SHODAN - Computer Search Engine

2009-11-24T10:06:00.000-08:00

SHODAN - Computer Search Engine...it's a search engine of computers...

The Democratization of Communications Warfare

2009-11-21T14:15:00.000-08:00

The Democratization of Communications Warfare: "So I am in Berlin for the second time in two weeks, fresh back from DeepSec in Vienna, lounging on the main deck of c-base and looking back on the week. I'm waiting for a new passport and the consulate isn't open on weekends. Harald Welte has been kind enough again to let me use his living room and I'm looking forward to seeing some Cold War museums with him tomorrow.

For many years, the telecommunications industry has relied on the cost and complexity of network equipment to achieve many of its security goals. Sure, the standards had big security holes, but you needed really expensive equipment and a lot of expertise to exploit those holes. The problem, though, is that cost and complexity were often the only security measures. If you had network equipment, network exploitation was usually just a question of how you configure that equipment, and the attack configurations were usually obvious.

Right now, there are genuinely bad people using the public communications networks to plan genuinely bad things. There are state actors using network exploits to monitor or track these bad people. There are state actors using network exploits to abuse the privacy of their citizens. There are criminals using network exploits to commit fraud. There are targets using knowledge of network exploits to confound the state actors who are targeting them. When we see this cycle of measures and countermeasures in the world of radar systems, we call it 'electronic warfare'. To describe this cycle of exploits and counter-exploits in telecom networks, I'll introduce a new phrase: 'communications warfare'. The weapons in this type of warfare are IMSI-catchers, jammers and hacked handsets. Thanks to cost and complexity, communications warfare in the cellular networks has largely been the domain of large, well-funded organizations. Even hackers usually stayed out of this game because the equipment and know-how are at a premium, so much so that some mistake the most basic techniques for trade secrets.

Moore's Law and the open source movement are removing the cost and complexity of network equipment. VoIP projects have been doing that for wireline networks for several years now, but projects like OpenBTS and OpenBSC are starting to do the same for cellular. These projects remove barriers that prevent people from experimenting with cellular technologies in their homes and classrooms. They demystify the systems. They have the potential to democratize cellular communications, but thanks to the inherent failings of cellular security, these projects also have the potential to democratize cellular communications warfare.

I don't think that democratizing communications warfare is a good thing, but I think that democratizing cellular is a very good thing. I have spent some time this week wondering if it is possible to achieve the first without unleashing the second.

Samasource: How African refugees are scoring Silicon Valley Internet jobs

2009-11-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Samasource: How African refugees are scoring Silicon Valley Internet jobs: "

On a scorching hot June day in northeastern Kenya, an hour west of the Kenyan-Somali border, Leila Chirayath Janah arrived at the Dabaab refugee settlement in an armed convoy. She was there on a mission: to connect jobless, displaced refugees to the rest of the world through legitimate Internet-based jobs.

Leila, 27, is the founder of Samasource, a non-profit organization reminiscent of a tech startup that outsources web-based jobs to women, youth, and refugees living in poverty in third world countries. I met her last month in the tiny office space she rents out in downtown San Francisco. She is tall and well-dressed, and has credentials that include Harvard, Stanford, and a fellowship with TED India. Her obsession with Africa started in her teens — when she was a senior in high school, she left LA to teach English to a class of 60 blind people in rural Ghana; a few years later she created an African Development Studies at Harvard, and a few years after that, she started working on Samasource.

Leila's approach to development is pragmatic; her goal is to equip poor but educated people with tools needed to turn their intelligence and drive into the opportunity to earn income. 'Donors love health and education,' Leila says. 'It's so sexy; everyone loves to be the one to save a life by buying a mosquito net or building a school. But in reality, when you look at what the developing world really needs, it's a connection to markets.'

Shortly after launching Samasource, she read an Oxfam report that mentioned a Dutch non-profit had set up a computer lab in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya. 'I thought, how crazy would it be if i can get these refugees to do real work for clients in San Francisco? What if we could prove to the world that these people who have been written off completely as only good for receiving handouts, who are stuck in this camp receiving food rations, can be productive to the global economy?'

Before she left for Kenya, Leila hooked up with Lukas Biewald, a former Yahoo! engineer who had created a job crowdsourcing software web site called Crowdflower. Lukas had agreed to help her hook up the refugees with real clients in California through Crowdflower — Leila would train the refugees to do simple work like data entry and Google searches at the camps while Lukas watched their progress remotely.

Dadaab's refugee camps are insanely overcrowded. 300,000 displaced people live in a space that is only meant to accommodate 90,000. While some resell goods acquired at the market in town, most of the refugees don't have jobs because they can't get work permits under Kenyan law. Boys are routinely recruited out of their mundane reality by rebel groups that turn them into pirates and child soldiers.

The camps are managed by CARE, so Leila coordinated with its reps to have 16 trainees picked out for her Samsource experiment. They had to have a certain level of education and basic knowledge of English. The computers in the lab were imported from China and rigged to withstand the heat, pressure, and dust that permeate the refugee camps.

The tasks ranged from simple searches to transcription to virtual assistance to app testing. Leila spent an hour teaching her workers how Samasource would work and setting them up with a special Crowdflower login and an @samasource.org email address. 'I taught them how to Google,' she tells me. 'They totally got it.'

Two days later, Leila called Lukas to see how her refugee workers were doing. 'They're getting the same results as our for-profit clients,' Lukas told her. 'And in some cases, they're doing even better.'

One of the refugees Leila trained was a 24-year old Sudanese man named Paul Parach — a former Lost Boy who was seized from his home at age nine and survived by walking through the scorching desert with no food for days before arriving at a refugee camp in Kenya, where he was shot in the leg by a guy from a rival tribe. 'You could see in his eyes that he wanted to get out of there,' she says.

A few weeks after she left Dadaab, Leila got a friend request on Facebook from Paul the refugee. 'It was just crazy,' she remembers. 'This is a guy who, two months ago, had no idea he could be connected to the world this way.' After that, he even dug up her cell phone number and started sending her texts with credit he bought using the money he made through Samasource. Leila points out that Paul is now just one connection away from Mark Zuckerberg (Samasource was one of this year's fbFund Rev winners). 'Paul now has power and social capital; he's starting to build an online reputation and starting to become visible to the world. It was a totally unanticipated side benefit.'

Leila's experiment proved that a Somali refugee with a Kenyan public education could do a lot of the same work that educated Americans were doing. She now has 520 workers in six countries who are working with Samasource. They've generated over a quarter million dollars in sales working for clients like Google and the Stanford University Library, and have made more money than they would in years of doing backbreaking 50-cent-a-day labor at the camp. 'Some people have accused us of creating a virtual sweatshop,' Leila says. 'I find that very funny. This is like the ultimate creme de la creme job you can possibly get. If your opportunities are working at a quarry or toiling away on some field, the chance to sit in front of this cool machine and do this work that connects you to the world is so empowering for people, especially people from marginalized groups who have been told their whole lives that they're not worth anything.'

You can hire a worker or donate to Samasource on their web site, or download the Give Work iPhone app to play a fun solitaire-meets-trivia type of game that helps Samasource-affiliated workers make a few bucks.

A special kind of nerd..

2009-11-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

Only a special kind of nerd needs this tool..
Path Align-R Antenna Path Alignment Test Set 2200/2240 - Pendulum Instruments

Contigo Autoseal Mug

2009-11-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

Contigo Autoseal Mug: "

Far and away the best travel mug I've used is the Contigo Autoseal Stainless Steel Mug. The Autoseal mechanism is the most leak-proof design I've found; it seals automatically when you're not actively drinking from it, so there's no worry about knocking it over with the top open. This is the only mug I'll use around my computers now.

I had a terrible experience with the Oxo mug. It was impossible to clean due to the enclosed design of the lid, and eventually accumulated way too much gunk inside for me to be comfortable using it. The lid on Contigo’s mug is fairly open and easy to clean, and the entire thing is dishwasher safe, though they also sell a model with a colored body that isn't. They sell replacement lids for $7 if you have a problem, but I've been using four of them for over a year in heavy rotation with no issues.

Contigo also makes plastic smaller containers for kids and larger water bottles (both of which are BPA-free) with the same Autoseal design.

-- Adam Fields

Drunk Tastic..

2009-11-03T18:50:00.001-08:00

Soda...

2009-11-03T18:45:00.001-08:00

Fuck Yeah!

I know Jason...

2009-10-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

I know Jason, Jason is a good guy, this sabbatical is a great idea...you should
support it to.

After a long day at work..

2009-10-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a long day work...but hey maybe a little youtube remix will help cheer me up!

Success!

Location Location Location..

2009-10-19T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Fake Gatsby : A guide to New York speakeasies - CHOW

The state of the army...Eisenhower letter..WWII

2009-10-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

It is one my long term goals to work for a organization that is in this state..

This is far from the case, but the point is that higher commanders have learned to handle the important things and we have gradually developed an organization that keeps the nagging details in the hands of people that can give their whole attention to them.

from here..

10/GUI Promo..

2009-10-14T09:34:00.001-07:00

Pretty Cool

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

Bail Out Bag, Xtra Large, County Comm

2009-10-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

I own a couple of these bags..they are awesome. The regular 5th gen bag, holds all my essential networking/hacker tools (except a laptop. Time to get a netbook I guess) . They are cheap XL bag would be good as an overnight bag.

Get one here...Bail Out Bag, Xtra Large, County Comm

Afghanistan’s Civilian Surge Sputters

2009-10-12T08:38:00.000-07:00

So that's like a total of 1500-2000 people doing work development work from inside the system. We currently have
NATO - ISAF: 64,500^[4]
Afghan National Army: 100,000^[5]
US non-ISAF troops: 48,250^[6]^[7]
British troops: 9,200

For a rough total of 100,000 expat troops..so 2 percent of the total folks expat "force"folks are working on direct rebuilding of country...that's a surge?

Afghanistan’s Civilian Surge Sputters: "
While the administration is still weighing strategy in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama has already made one thing clear: The mission in Afghanistan may fail without an influx of civilian experts.
So where are muddy-boots diplomats and aid workers? According to the New York Times, nearly half of them have yet to get their passports stamped in Afghanistan.
Here’s the key paragraph:
State Department officials also said they were close to their target of having 974 aid workers in Afghanistan by year’s end as part of what they called Mr. Obama’s civilian “surge.” They said 575 civilians were on the ground now.
“Close?” Uh, not exactly. The president’s plan to renew focus on governance and local development in Afghanistan was announced back in March. At the time, senior officials in the White House and the Pentagon told Danger Room that the civilian surge — not any extra troops — would be the key to turning the war’s tide. But Henry Crumpton, a former Foggy Bottom bigwig who now advises General McChrystal, tells the Times that the effort is falling short. “Right now, the overwhelming majority of civilians are in Kabul, and the overwhelming majority never leave their compounds.” Sure, there are still 75 days left in the year; but the progress made so far doesn’t exactly inspire.
The Times is not the first to pick up on the difficulties recruiting civilians to deploy to Afghanistan. And in fairness, civilian agencies lack the manpower base and the deployable reserve to surge personnel to war zones. In 1967, the U.S. Agency for International Development had around 2,000 civilian development experts in South Vietnam. That’s roughly equal to the total number of people the agency has on staff today. Other agencies, like the Department of Agriculture, also face concerns about overstretch in Afghanistan.
So while the rest of the federal government struggles to fill billets, the military seems to be preparing the logistical base for a troop increase. According to a recent solicitation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is shopping around for contractors to oversee a possible expansion of Kandahar Airfield, the main hub in southern Afghanistan.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]

UltraCell XX55 Fuel Cell

2009-10-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

Perfect for my desert listening post.....

UltraCell XX55 Fuel Cell: "
Ultracell’s new XX55 Fuel Cell is a 5.5 lb.(with fuel and external battery pack) generator that can power an Air Force JTAC’s Battlefield Air Operations (BAO) gear quietly for days using only a handful of methanol cartridges. The fuel cell puts out 55 watts at 4 amps (10-30 volts) so by itself, it can run battlefield electronics of all flavors without breaking a sweat. Over the course of a 72-hour mission, the XX55 could reduce battery weight up to 70% since it can run for days, or even weeks, on a single fuel cartridge.

Where the system shines, though, is when it’s teamed up with a power managing module, like the BPM-602 from Protonex, that automatically manages outgoing and incoming power from its 6 ports. For example, with a PM box the fuel cell can run a laptop, satcom radio, laser designator and a battery charger while supplementing its output from a solar panel, 12v auto adapter and/or some 5590/2590/8180 military batteries.

The liquid methanol fuel cartridges can be refilled in the field and are light and clean, giving off only water vapor and a trace amount of methanol in it’s exhaust. The XX55 has an external AA battery pack (a little power is needed to start the generator) as requested by the military so they are always ready to go without concern for the charge state of an internal, rechargable battery.

The fuel cell costs $10,000 and the fuel cartridges are $35 a pop from UltraCell.

Wow..

2009-10-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

Saint Expedite

2009-10-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

Saint Expedite is brothers with Papa Legba!

Shocking Terrorist Seniors Flummox Yankee Security, Armed With Only Birkenstocks and Gnarly Tees and Stuff

2009-10-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

I have worked at VY, this is the outer edge of the security ring, it's get much tighter much faster. Don't worry granny or anyone else isn't getting much closer.

Vermont Daily Briefing � Shocking Terrorist Seniors Flummox Yankee Security, Armed With Only Birkenstocks and Gnarly Tees and Stuff

Seretoys

2009-09-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my SERE skills. Mostly lockpicking and handcuff escapes. I've always been intrigued by flexcuffs. Disposable handcuffs seem to be the tool of mass arrest. While I doubt I'd ever get caught in one, well PPPPP. I picked up some Monadnock disposable handcuffs at the local police supply store, 50 cents a piece. They are essentially giant fierce zip ties.
My first release attack was to shim them. While this is possible, it's very difficult due to the number of teeth, construction of locking mech and tightness of the whole assembly. Also once you are zipped up it's hard reach into the lock assembly.
On to plan B: cutting. I tried using my shoe lace, but it's just to thick a cutting edge. Also instead of cutting the plastic it really just burns my wrists. I ended up using a steak knife, which was pretty sketchy and not typical found in the back of paddy wagon. Also it's pretty slow. Dissatisfied with my first attempts I decided to do some research.
Some web searching, enlighten me to two cool facts. Some of the newer flex cuffs have a metal inner strip, which counters cutting attacks. The body snap and all these attacks are detailed here (with video!). It should be noted that this attack will most likely not works against more modern and robust disposable handcuffs.
I also emailed Matt at SEREpicks.com knowing he'd have some advice. He did, use kevlar cord. So I ordered some from him, along with some other toys. The kevlar cord is the orange spools in the upper right of the photo.
While I waited for my toys to arrive I used the whiter inner nylon of some paracord. It works amazingly well.
I haven't had a chance to try the kevlar, but I positive it will work.

One of the other issues I'm working is how one actually goes about the cutting motion. The one I'm currently working with is to lay on my back and with the cord looped over each foot and thru the cuff, perform a series of bicycle kicking motion. it's not to subtle, but it does make you abs look fabulous. The other method that I've heard about Is to sit on a bench and with same cord arrangement stomp or kick your legs up and down.

This is just too cute

2009-09-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

This is just too cute: "

Just look at his little face at the end...awwwwww

SNEAKEY ::: Key Bumping is for Hacks

2009-09-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

I could use this software just the other day.
SNEAKEY ::: Key Bumping is for Hacks

Universal credit card in the palm of your hand

2009-09-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

Awesome!

Universal credit card in the palm of your hand: "

Do you remember the magnetic card spoofer in Terminator 2? It was a bit farfetched because apparently the device could be swiped through a reader and magically come up with working account numbers and pin numbers. We’re getting close to that kind of magic with [Jaroslaw's] card spoofer that is button-programmable.

Building off of a project that allows spoofing via an iPod and electromagnet, [Jaroslaw] wanted something that doesn’t require a computer to put together the card code. He accomplished this by interfacing a 16-button keyboard and a character LCD with an AVR ATmega168 microcontroller. Card codes can be entered with the buttons and verified on the LCD. Of course this is still dependent on you knowing the code in the first place.

As you know, credit cards use this technology. We don’t think Walmart is going to be OK with you pulling this out in the checkout line, not to mention local five-oh. This technology is also used for building access in Universities, businesses, and hotels. If used in conjunction with some other spy technology you’ll be on your way to becoming a secret-agent-man.

Terence J. Bordelon's Portfolio

2009-09-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

Terence J. Bordelon' built an open source fully autonomous EZ-Star UAV with up to 100km of range..

Bedazzler - DIY non-lethal weaponry

2009-09-28T12:52:00.000-07:00

Bedazzler - DIY non-lethal weaponry yes awesome!

This is my favorite quote..

2009-09-25T05:03:00.001-07:00

This is my favorite quote from the Lincoln hallway of the Vermont State House.

Upgrading the wireless @ Vermont State House

2009-09-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

Only the shadow knows.

2009-09-17T04:47:00.001-07:00

A little picture from the camera phone while I wait for the morning bus.

Youtube for hacker types >>SecurityTube -

2009-09-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

SecurityTube - Watch, Learn and Contribute Computer Security Videos...also carries HNN casts.

Demining...

2009-09-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

And your job sucks?

Article: The unspoken truth about managing geeks

2009-09-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

This article is off the the hook good. This entire paragraph pretty much sums up the difference between the good ICT teams I've worked with and the bad ones.

Opinion: The unspoken truth about managing geeks

" This is a tricky one. Good IT pros are not anti-bureaucracy, as many observers think. They are anti-stupidity. The difference is both subjective and subtle. Good IT pros, whether they are expected to or not, have to operate and make decisions with little supervision. So when the rules are loose and logical and supervision is results-oriented, supportive and helpful to the process, IT pros are loyal, open, engaged and downright sociable. Arbitrary or micro-management, illogical decisions, inconsistent policies, the creation of unnecessary work and exclusionary practices will elicit a quiet, subversive, almost vicious attitude from otherwise excellent IT staff. Interestingly, IT groups don't fall apart in this mode. From the outside, nothing looks to be wrong and the work still gets done. But internally, the IT group, or portions of it, may cut themselves off almost entirely from the intended management structure. They may work on big projects or steer the group entirely from the shadows while diverting the attention of supervisors to lesser topics. They believe they are protecting the organization, as well as their own credibility -- and they are often correct."

Michael O'Hanlon - U.S. Needs a Force to Serve in Congo - washingtonpost.com

2009-09-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

And to read...
Michael O'Hanlon - U.S. Needs a Force to Serve in Congo - washingtonpost.com

Two fellow TED talks worth listening to

2009-09-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

On my to watch list

Two fellow TED talks worth listening to: "
VIDEO: Paul Romer's radical idea: Charter cities
VIDEO: Paul Collier's new rules for rebuilding a broken nation

Tom Barnett says "Collier has intrigued me for years, and I do believe in the 'charter city' approach. It's very much akin to free-trade-zones being set up in cities: super-connectivity amidst largest disconnectedness as a means to jump start and create demonstration effects.

Singapore was/is a charter city, in this respect. So was/is Hong Kong and Dubai and Doha and . . .""

Now that's an Umbrella.

2009-09-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

I love ads that have no dialog.

The next evolution..

2009-09-14T09:18:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty involved in the hacker scene in the US. I wouldn't say heavily, just involved, and care. I care about how the community has evolved and will evolve. I look for ways to change the scene to effect it in manner I believe with lead to more interesting and beneficial outcomes.
I've been thinking about throwing a different type of hacker con. Hacker con are conventions for hackers, one throws one, like one would throw a party. In the case of United States hacker cons, they tend to be held in hotel, and resemble sales conferences. Talks during the day, drinking and parties at night. The more intense the con (See Defcon) the more everything is amped up. More speakers, more booze, more craziness. Now all and all this isn't a bad thing.
I'm from Vermont, where things happen at a slower pace. So I've been trying to come up with a different model..
I got some inspiration here

Beside all the holy feelng physics talks I'm intrigue by what I'm going to call the languid, summer academic conference.

Worth Sharing..

2009-09-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not one for chest thumping, but well I thought this was worth sharing..

how to crimp cat5 - Google Videos

2009-09-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Crimping cat5 is a basic life skill if your going to do ICT work. I There is a proper way to do it. There are special tools even. Learn it, love it be proud of it when you do it.

YouTube - CCNA IP Addressing Part1 of 5

2009-09-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

A good start
YouTube - CCNA IP Addressing Part1 of 5

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

2009-09-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

This article was fascinating. Go read it..now.

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

IPERF - The Easy Tutorial

2009-09-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

A useful tutorial on the use of Iperf for network testing..something for the fabfi

IPERF - The Easy Tutorial

Fireman's tricks of the trade..

2009-09-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

These are some pretty cool little trick of the trade for fireman..and others..

What's in your pockets?

Was that so hard..

2009-09-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

A mere proof of concept a couple of a months ago. Anyone that works in "the field" should be able to find this useful.

OLPC in Afghanistan

2009-09-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

Computer Repair Flowchart

2009-09-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

I have on of these....in my head.

Computer Repair Flowchart: "

From Morris Rosenthal's Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts. Bonus: On his site, the charts are interactive, so clicking on a diamond jumps you to the text for each decision step.

Seven free ways to improve your network's security

2009-09-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

I've been on Vaca for the last week in Wyoming and Colorado. But Stretch over at packetlife is never off line..

Seven free ways to improve your network's security: "
Here are seven things you can do this week to improve the security of your network at no cost. (Granted, policy and configuration changes don't come overnight, but you can at least get the ball rolling.)

Change your local passwords

Centralized authentication models, using RADIUS or TACACS+ to authenticate individual accounts against a controlled database, are an obvious best practice. However, the need to maintain administrative access to infrastructure devices in the event that the authentication service or backend database becomes unavailable generally necessitates the inclusion of one or two local accounts on each device. A typical TACACS+ configuration for IOS might look like this:
aaa new-model
!
aaa authentication login default group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization exec default group tacacs+ local
!
username admin privilege 15 secret 5 $1$A8q8$lAEkzwlEvjVw66vEvF3D7/
!
tacacs-server host 10.24.74.223 key 7 021711521F020A22455E011C171E1C0C0101
Login authentication and privilege escalation ("enable") authorization is first attempted via TACACS+, and falls back to local accounts in the event the TACACS+ server returns no response. (Note that local authentication is used only when the remote server(s) fail to respond, not when permission is denied.)

These lonely local accounts tend to be neglected, especially when not deployed in great numbers. Take an hour or two to cycle these passwords (and perhaps usernames) if they haven't been changed in the last several months, and vary the credentials among devices. A strict 1:1 credential pair-to-device ratio is ideal to minimize the impact of a compromised account, but isn't always practical. Alternatively, you might also consider developing a rudimentary formula to arrive at the username and/or password for each device (for example, a common character string plus a unique identifier). If you decide to use a single common password for a group of devices, ensure it's long and truly pseudo-random (not a leetspeak phrase like "LoLz@urP4ck3tz!").

Encrypt all stored passwords

How many passwords do you have sitting in a plain spreadsheet saved on a workstation or server? If the answer is more than zero, it's a good idea to look into a more secure solution. There are commercial solutions available for secure credentials storage, but for many organizations a simple free archiver like KeePass (free and cross-platform) will do just fine.

Of course, encrypting your credentials archive raises the question of who should have the "key to the key box," and where that master key should be stored. Most encryption tools support the use of multiple keys and key files to aid in developing a flexible but secure access strategy.

Audit your configuration templates

Configuration templates are generally only developed when they are first needed, and often lie dormant for years until being cleaned up or removed. Like any physical device, configurations too should be refreshed from time to time. The word "audit" isn't often well-received, but this can actually be a quite simple process. Taking a good look at what's in (or not in) your configuration templates is a great way to not only evaluate current practices but also to help familiarize novice engineers with the technologies your organization uses and how they are being employed.

I've suggested before printing out a base configuration file and working through it line by line, marking any line for which you cannot readily explain. This approach is complemented well by using an automated utility like nipper to catch common issues or omissions.

Perform an interal port scan

An internal port scan takes only minutes and can expose potentially vulnerable services running on infrastructure devices. Scan for at least all 1024 lower ports, preferably more; advanced utilities like nmap scan thousands of well-known ports by default. It's also important to scan from various locations both within and outside of various security perimeters to ensure access restrictions (such as VTY line access groups) are defined and applied properly.

Clean up your lab

Lab equipment is generally considered benign, but is often the lowest barrier to unauthorized entry on a network. Sensitive configuration parameters may be left on unattended gear after a round of testing, or lab gear may be connected to the production network without having been properly secured first. If you haven't already, implement a simple policy dictating both the requirements for connecting lab gear to any production equipment, and measures which must be taken when tearing down a lab.

Review and tune your logs

Now is a good time to review log files for a given period of time, perhaps the last month, and account for any unexplained or unusual events or messages. In particular, address any predictable recurrences ("Oh, it does that every Friday at four. Don't worry about it."). Investigate whether each recurrence is indicative of an issue, conveys necessary information, or should be pruned from future logs. Adjust logging profiles on devices appropriately.

Secure your image repository

There has been more and more research done on IOS-based rootkits in the last few years. While no high-profile incident has yet thrust the issue into the spotlight, don't volunteer your organization to be the first to do so. Verify all software images you retrieve from vendors; this is typically accomplished by comparing a calculated MD5 or SHA-1 hash of a binary image to that asserted by a trusted source. Cisco, for example, provides guidelines for IOS image verification, but this concept applies to all vendors and system images. Free hashing applications are available for all platforms.

Of course, few engineers fetch a new software image from a vendor every time the need arises; most maintain a small local archive of the specific images and other files used by their devices. Consider moving this archive to an encrypted volume (perhaps in conjunction with your credentials catalog).

Seth Hardy running for (ISC)2 Board of Directors

2009-08-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

I also know Seth from my work with the Hacker Foundation. The below pretty much sums up my reasoning as well regarding Seth for ISC2.

Seth Hardy running for (ISC)2 Board of Directors: "

My long time friend Seth, and a founding member of the Hacklab.to hackerspace in Toronto is making a run at Board of Directors for (ISC)2. In case you aren’t familiar with what (ISC)2 does, read their “about” page. The short story is, they set the standards for testing and certification requirements in the Information Security arena for large enterprises. The now almost mandatory CISSP certification is one of their creations.
For a long time now there has been considerable dismay in the hacking community with the quality of the CISSP certification. In spite of this, it has become the defacto standard in required education for work in any infosec related field of technology. Which is why it’s time for some reform. Seth is a proven security professional whose academic background is grounded in math and more specifically cryptography. He has presented several times at Black Hat and other prestigious ( and less prestigious) conferences in matters of security and cryptography. He currently is a malware researcher for a major anti-virus company. He’s also a pretty cool guy and doesn’t afraid of anything.
As a former security auditor myself, I’ve seen first hand some of the very real problems with the CISSP and the industry that’s built atop it. Placing Seth in a position to make changes to the way (ISC)2 does business is better for everyone in the long run. Which is why I’ve decided to make this post. If you or someone you know holds a CISSP certification please let them know about Seth’s campaign for a seat on the board of Directors. Only CISSP holders can vote for these positions.
You can read more about the campaign here: sethforisc2board.org

5th generation warfare

2009-08-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

Trendsetter that I'm going try a define a term that isn't commonly in use now, but that I use all the time.

5th Generation Warfare: Build on the ideas of 4th generation warfare of

Survival
To convince the enemy’s political decision makers that their goals are either unachievable or too costly for the perceived benefit

but also leverages the increased economic and technical abilities of individuals. In a way this is open source warfare for the middle class.

Think complex remotely triggered explosive devices controlled over public ICT infrastructure. Think blunt cyber warfare against critical infrastructure or worse precision attacks.
Think "anonymous" goes kinetic. (Anonymous is already a non-kinetic group)

A characteristic of this type of warfare is that it's clandestine, open source, and leverages the inter-connectivity of a modern society against itself.

This will happen. This being said, it's a ways off, and co-option is good counter.

An Armed Peace Corps = Proto-Sysadmin Force

2009-08-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

This sounds like Thomas Barnett's SysAdmin Force. Though in a proto way of thinking and not big enough nor setup for long term meaningful deployments. One of the things I find odd is the idea that road from failed state to civic state is really really long. You can't do that with one brigade..even in one place not two, or three.

That being said the argument between the Peace Corp vs the Marine Corp is very interesting. After reading Lt. Nate Ficks (one of the Killer Elite of Generation Kill) book about becoming a Marine officer and totally wish we had a SysAdmin Corp to put him into.

An Armed Peace Corps?: "

Last week in the Washington Post, Michael O'Hanlon lamented
the inability of the U.S. military to get "boots on the ground" in
peacekeeping operations in places like the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. O'Hanlon, who served in the Peace Corps in Eastern Congo, made the case
that an all-volunteer military force trained for peacekeeping could
help overcome the current overstretch of the military and the U.S.
hesitation to deploy peackeeping troops for fear of public outcry when, as in Somalia in
1993, casualties could result:

The notion is this: Ask for volunteers to join a peace operations
division for two years. They would begin their service with, say, 12
weeks of boot camp and 12 weeks of specialized training and then would
be deployable. They would receive the same compensation and health
benefits as regular troops, given their age and experience. Out of a
division of 15,000 troops, one brigade, or about 3,000 to 4,000
soldiers, could be sustained in the field at a time.

This type of training would be modeled after standard practices in
today's Army and Marine Corps. To be sure, soldiers and Marines in
regular units usually go beyond this regimen to have many months of
additional practice and exercise before being deployed. But the peace
operations units could be led by a cadre of experienced officers and
NCOs -- perhaps some of whom would be drawn back to military service
after leaving...

The dangers of deploying such units to missions such as the one in
Congo, would be real, but the risks would be acceptable. First, those
volunteering would understand the risks and accept them. Second, in
most civil conflicts such as Congo's, possible adversarial forces are
not sophisticated. Soldiers in the new division would not need to
execute complex operations akin to those carried out during the
invasion of Iraq or current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. They
would largely monitor villages and refugee camps, inspect individuals
to make sure they did not have illicit weapons, and call for help if
they came under concerted attack.

I
agree with O'Hanlon's major point that it can be difficult for
peacekeeping operations to succeed without active U.S. support. Most
current missions are undermanned and underfunded, even for their
already very limited
mandates. I also think the volunteer idea has potential, but my hangup
is the idea of creating a separate track within the military that has
less training. Wouldn't it be better to ask for volunteers from within the armed forces and give them additional peacekeeping training?

To get a perspective on this proposal from the kind of person who might volunteer, I called my friend Marcus
Williams, who at the last minute this spring chose to withdraw from his
planned Peace Corps deployment in West Africa and instead apply to Officer Candidates School for the U.S. Marines.

Interestingly, Marcus cited peacekeeping and development as one of the
reasons he hopes to joint the Marines. "Arguably the Iraq war and
Afghanistan are right now peace keeping
missions. So it becomes kind of hard to define where people are
deploying," he said. He added that for better or worse, working on development from within the military means you get resources that Peace Corps volunteers simply do not.

The
proposed short training period and separation from the normal military
also worried Williams, who graduated from Stanford in four years with
both a degree in International Relations and a Masters in African
Studies:

If you had people volunteering and there was less training involved,
there's this sort of vision of the idealistic African advocate who's in
college or going to college and may not have the serious commitment it
takes to serve in the armed forces. They're going to end up in the
field and not be a very effective unit. When it comes down to it you
have to follow orders and accept very seriously that you might die.

Williams pointed out that for the Marine Corps, Officer Candidates
School itself is almost 12 weeks and for those who choose to join
afterward another six months or so of basic training is required.

Ultimately,
Williams argued, if the U.S. wants to get serious about supporting
peace-keeping operations in places like the DRC, that would be great,
but U.S. troops aren't necessarily the key.

I think that if the U.S. were really committed to these peacekeeping
operations we wouldn't be focused on getting U.S. boots on the ground.
The cost of the Ghanaian peacekeeper on the ground is much less and if
the U.S. peacekeeper is going to literally receive less training, it seems like it would be better to support other troops.

If the U.S. really wants to help, he said, it should focus on its comparative advantages:

flying helicopters, intelligence, communications operations. I'm
thinking most of the peacekeepers in Sudan. They had boots on the ground but they didn't have any real logistics.

Does all this mean O'Hanlon's idea should be written off? Absolutely
not, Williams said, it just needs some careful thought. "I think you'd
have a lot of people interested in volunteering," he said.
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

Adding a DisplayLink monitor to a Linux router

2009-08-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

This might be useful for the some of the FabFi Nodes..

Adding a DisplayLink monitor to a Linux router: "

Routers aren’t just for routing network traffic any more. With the help of alternative operating systems such as DD-WRT, Tomato, and OpenWrt, routers are now extremely customizable and can be utilized to suit a number of needs. The main issue with projects built around routers is the need to telnet or SSH into them to get to a console. [Sven Killig] came up with a useful solution that utilizes the USB ports available on an Asus router to display video on a DisplayLink device, allowing a user to sit down and use the device as though it were a physical terminal. This would be a good DIY alternative to commercially available routers that display network graphs, system information, incoming email, and other data.

A moment of zen...

2009-08-23T19:20:00.001-07:00

I just spent the last hour in a pleasantly zen like state. All thanks to Matt Fiddler and serepick.com. The koan of tonight:

What is the sound of a handcuff escape if no one can here it?

Danger Room in Afghanistan: Hansel and Gretel vs. Roadside Bombs

2009-08-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

I'd follow up with these questions regarding the article below in the comments section. But appears to be troll central:

Shouldn't the guys making the supply runs be aware of the fact that the place they keep getting hit is the same place? I understand that it's possible that it's not the same people make the supply run, though this seems like a really out there occurrence.

Shouldn't someone in the command structure be able to figure that the supply runs keep getting hit in the same place:
AAR 1: Got hit at the intersection of A & B
AAR 2: Got hit at the intersection of B &A

Danger Room in Afghanistan: Hansel and Gretel vs. Roadside Bombs: "
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — The Marines in southern Afghanistan have largely left the roads, to avoid improvised bombs. But they’re still getting hit as they carve tracks through the desert. Now a reporter-turned-lieutenant may have found at least a partial answer: off-the-shelf GPS units, combined with a British tactic from the counterinsurgency in Northern Ireland.

Former Wall Street Journal reporter Matt Pottinger came up with the answer earlier this year, working for the Marines’ Combat Logistics Battalion 3, based out of Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province. The battalion was driving as much as 110 kilometers off-road to resupply outlying bases. To keep from getting attacked, they tried to vary their paths through the desert. But the Taliban always seemed to know where they were going to be next.

So Pottinger hooked the battalion’s vehicles up with commercial Garmin GPS trackers, to record where they were driving. After a few runs, he plotted the routes on top of military-imagery databases. “You’d get this spaghetti network of track, and they’d converge in these places,” he says. Turns out the Marines weren’t changing up their routes nearly as much as they thought they were.

Small, almost imperceptible changes in the terrain were forcing the battalion’s vehicles into natural choke points. Near the town of Jamal Ghar, for example, there appeared to be nearly 3 kilometers between a mountain and an irrigation ditch. But Pottinger saw that all the vehicles were driving right on top of each other; most of those 3 kilometers was taken up by farmland. The Taliban had a natural point where they could plant bombs. And they did, attacking the Marines repeatedly.

Once the battalion realized they were going through ambush points, they began sending bomb-clearance teams to sweep the area for explosives. They found 69 percent of the bombs that were in their path. And they set up sniper teams, to target any militants looking to set an ambush.

Pottinger calls the tracks “honesty traces.” It’s a term he borrowed from the British. Troops on patrol in Northern Ireland used tracing paper to sketch out where their vehicles were driving — and getting hit by the IRA. By anticipating the patterns they themselves were making, they could anticipate the attacks, too.

“It’s simple, Hansel-and-Gretel-type s**t. Just leaving breadcrumbs. Amazingly, no one was doing it,” he says.

The Marines already had military-grade GPS terminals in their Humvees. But those “Blue Force Trackers” couldn’t record a vehicle’s route. So he turned to the commercial GPS units instead. Now, at least two other battalions have purchased similar units. They, too, are running “honesty traces.”

Photo: U.S. Department of Defense

.af election

2009-08-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

From my twitter feed for all my left brain reasons about why the .af election is f*ck my right brainstill thinks is cool to see it happening photos can be found here and a frontline SMS site is here.

Petzl Tactical EXO EASHOOK

2009-08-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

I have absolutely no need for this tool..but it's so cool

Petzl Tactical EXO EASHOOK: "While perusing the internet we came upon a great video by Rob Curtis of Military Times Gear Scout.
Curtis shot a EXO demonstration video recently at Outdoor Retailer with South Salt Lake Tactical Officer Steve Crandall.
Our jaws were literally on the floor when we saw the Petzl EXO used here in a tactical application.
We’d seen the EXO [...]"

Tech cynic..

2009-08-20T05:02:00.001-07:00

For all my technology talk, I'm something of cynic about a lot of actual eqiupment. But I'm pysched about picking up the new Blackberry Tour. Mainly for the reason it combines three stand alone devices I carry in my gear bag, a camera, a gps and a MP3 player. If you add in the fact that it's a phone and a mobile data terminal..well I'm a happy monkey.

UPDATE:
Oh and it's also a world phone that supports GSM and apparently if you ask nice they will unlock it for you...so you can use third party SIMs.

Need a new job?

2009-08-14T17:32:00.001-07:00

Good at public speaking? Cool under fire? Able to speak on and off the record...

https://jobs.un.org/Galaxy/Release3/vacancy/
Display_Vac.aspx?lang=1200&VACID=0db4bcab-71a2-4e6d-afc5-4e4df87f09a1

Cuba capable of waging a cyberwar

2009-08-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Umm yeah, anyone with a clue and some money is capable of waging war now a days:

Cuba capable of waging a cyberwa By Manuel Cereijo
Miami Herald
08.13.09
During the last few weeks there have been thousands of cyber attacks on computers and computer networks in the U.S. government and private entities. The United States, because of its...

arr Pune

2009-08-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

Amy Sun and crew are in Pune India for Fab5. Wish I could be there..

arr Pune: "
Super smooth from Boston to Pune. Now at the Centurion hotel, about to rediscover the joys of “horizontal”. If you’re here come to my room, I probably brought stuff for you.
"

Zulu Nylon Gear Mega Admin Pouch

2009-08-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

A rival to the Monkey Admin Pouch?! Yes it's a another admin pouch for my chest rig. That I have not reason to wear, but well what can I say I like my mangerie! I'm actually looking for one of these that is big enough to stow a netbook in..so I can build the ultimate tactical nerd rig.

Zulu Nylon Gear Mega Admin Pouch: "We’d like to introduce a special gear review (with YouTube video) today at ITS Tactical on Zulu Nylon Gear.
Zulu is a company owned and operated by one of our readers here at ITS, and we wanted to help get the word out about their newest offering, the Mega Admin Pouch.
We’re big fans of this pouch, [...]"

Food Drop

2009-08-13T09:53:00.001-07:00

Food drops are one of the most dramatic things, that organiztion like the WFP do. Bombing runs of rice and wheat are sure cool to look at. But really they are sign of just how bad a situation is. If your dropping food from the air it generally means that, you the security and access problems are out the fuck door. Also it should be noted that the WFP generally contracts with locals to perform much of the field work in the food distrubtion scheme. Stuff like driving trucks, and manning warehoues. This type of work is valuable aid to some one's pocket book and their morale. When you dropping food from the air that all goes out the window. The money is spent on special international staff, fuel and planes. So the next time you see one of these on the TV, rememeber it means the situation on the ground is really really bad.

Andrei Soldatov documents the relationship between the FSB and Russian hackers

2009-08-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

As part of my hacker nations theory I've always been of the unfounded belief that the FSB was behind RBN and similar projects. Pretty obvious just never back up...I look forward the reading this article for the skinny..if any.

Andrei Soldatov documents the relationship between the FSB and Russian hackers: "The following article appeared in Novaya Gazeta on May 31, 2007. I’m reproducing it here for three reasons: (1) because it is relevant to the current DDoS attacks against a Georgian blogger, (2) because it covers the history behind the relationship between Russian hackers and the Kremlin via the Federal Security Service (FSB), and (3) because I wouldn’t be surprised if it disappeared from the archives at some point in the future.Note: This is a machine translation courtesy of Google Translate. I’ve included both the original Russian text and the rather poor English translation. If anyone would like to contribute a clean translation for me, I’ll publish it here on a second page. Read the full article here.

AfriGadget:Mechanics and Tailors

2009-08-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

I met Erik this winter at Web4Dev a conference put on by UNICEF. Besides writing for Afrigadget, Erik is the prime movers behind ushahidi a open source mobile crowd sourcing app. It should also be noted that he is a giant.
He's one of the folks I wish there were more of. A hyper empower individual doing good works. Erik is unique in that he is a African, a hulking white African no less. He gets Africa and issues on the continent far better then most and he can translate it into the West. Check out one of his more recent posts field trailing some new kit in Accra: Mechanics and Tailors

Openings

2009-08-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

Although it stands to reason that a samurai should be mindful of the Way of the Samurai, it would seem that we are all negligent.

When I was 17 years old or so I was required to write a senior thesis or some such for high school. My subject was "10 ways to hack Dartmouth College". Some how my paper found it's way into the hands of Pat Wilson, a sharp and wise woman of ICT. I remember being called to her office in the basement of the Kiewit Computer Center. A dark and quiet place where only the highest of Dartmouth IT wizards had offices. After the initial pleasantries she proceeded to educate me in a most resolute and insightful manner. I honestly don't remember the complete points of the discussion. I do remember I was schooled though. One key line she said;

"Your pretty good at the high level stuff, but you don't know the details" 

These words have haunted me ever since. It's spurned me to many a tome to find and understand some small detail of my work. But I have to say I'm just not wired that way. The hard numbers & words escape me., I'm no programmer the sharp language of code never really seeming to be worth the pain. Remembering facts and formulas is useless, because you can always look it up, (See Stand Alone Complex, for the counter to this way of thinking, reference 1)  and in the world of CMYA engineering better to have an authoritative source.  To the average person I'm a fount of arcane technology knowledge. But at hacker conventions and tech events I'm constantly reminded of all that I don't know, even on the surface. Even within the narrow confines of my profession I'm surprise at how little I know or how little I've mastered. When working with others I'm shocked at how little we all actually know, about our culture, technology and it's interactions.
In a way I'm surprised at how negligent we all are about knowing the world around us even the one closest to us.

Test post subject

2009-08-12T10:34:00.000-07:00

Test post body

2009-08-12T10:22:00.001-07:00

Test message sms to blog

Woot First Post!

2009-08-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

Woot First Post! oh wait..that's sad.