Sunday, January 25, 2004 (8:30pm)

I remembered that last week's posts didn't include the mailbox link. So, the new icons are in my base template file, so the mailbox icon should be a regular fixture now.

The usual Sunday stuff...and the usual stuffing of dinner. Pam had plans for a roast, but it stayed a bit too long in the oven while we were at church. The result was a bit dry, so a quick change of plans was in order. In short order, Pam whipped up some enchiladas, and the ingredients for the 'giant chicken burritos'. Jason was coming over tonight, and being a typical bachelor type, he lives on frozen pizza and fast food. So we figured that any extras would find a good home in his refrigerator.

So, the revised plan for dinner worked out really well. Jason had several of everything, then spent a bit of time making some small chicken burritos to go, while Pam put the leftover enchiladas in plastic containers for him. And, in between, she whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Jason got the cookies, but I got to have some of the cookie dough (which I like better than the cookies).

We were able to send Jason off with a bunch of better food. There were some extra snacks in the panty, and a couple of 12-packs of Pepsi that I found on sale at the local Safeway grocery store, along with a pile of his favorite candy bars (on sale two-for-one). And he was able to get a load of laundry (mostly towels) while he was here.

Jason's main focus is his work in the shipping dept of his company, which sells credit card terminals and similar stuff. They have been very busy lately, shipping out a lot of their products. Their high sales volume may be a leading indicator of the economy in the US. If lots of companies are buying lots of their product, then those companies may be planning on higher sales.

In his spare time, when not working a lot of overtime, he works on musical compositions on his computer. He is quite artistic and talented in that area. His dream job would be in computer music production, such as the music for video games. He will be doing the music for a friend that is doing a short independent movie. He uses a program called "Fruity Loops", among others, which allows for multiple tracks of music.

We also talked to Stacy tonight, she was having fun with her roomies and a neighboring apartment having dinner and dessert together. It's been cold and a bit snowy back there, but she is getting acclimated to the winter.

Christine and family had a birthday party with some of her husband's family, so it was quieter than usual around here. Jason had to leave a bit after dinner, but we did have a nice visit with him. So now it's back to just the two of us. We're watching "Trading Spaces Family" for now, while I type this and do my usual 'geek potato'.

Back to work tomorrow. Since I moved to a new office last Friday, I'll be spending a bit of time getting things organized. I'll need to hook up a small hub (after the network switch is configured for the hub) so I can get several computers hooked up. I have a desktop system, an older laptop for running audits and testing configurations, and my newer laptop that gets connected about once a day. And I need to get a new short term plan for some security issues

Monday, January 26, 2004 (8:45 pm)

By now, you have probably heard about the big email worm making the rounds. You can probably find the links yourself. This one spread very fast, and very high volume. At work, we're getting up to 1000 per hour, which is a very high number for our mail system. The anti-virus guys are still working on updates (after releasing an update this morning for the Dumaru virus) for this new one. But our email system has a two-layer defense against viruses. All mail is scanned by the latest AV data files, and we check for updates once an hour. And another rule blocks any message with any type of executable attachment. So this viral email didn't make it through our mail system, although we did have some other difficulties this morning with a virus that probably came in 'sideways'. More about that tomorrow, probably.

But if you are using Outlook as your mail client, you should take a look at this information from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/mass_mailer.asp). And then follow the instructions.

On the spam-fighting front, this article from the Washington Post has some interesting ideas about fighting spam.

In the best American business tradition, the high-tech industry isn't waiting around to see how effective the new national anti-spam law proves to be. Instead, they're sharing their resources to try to find new ways to get rid of spam.

There are some that think that hackers ought to go after spammers. Not sure if that would work, but it might keep the hackers busy enough that the number of viruses might reduce a bit.

In between fighting viruses, I was able to do some more cleanup after the office move. I still have a filing cabinet to move (and all it's contents), but I am making progress.

After work, Pam decided on a BBQ chicken salad. So, I fired up the grill (it was only 45 degrees outside, so it's not like I am doing it in freezing weather), and put on some Teriyaki-soaked chicken breasts. We cooked extra, so there are the makings of some good sandwiches for lunch. I tried out some new temperature 'toothpicks' from Lawry's. They are plastic sticks just a bit larger than a round toothpick, and have a coating on the end that is temperature-sensitive. They make one for chicken, and one for beef. You stick in the sensor in the meat for about 10 seconds, then look at the color of the tip. If it is all red, then the meat is at the proper temperature. They worked pretty good, the results were pretty close to my digital thermometer.

Tonight, a bit of 'geek potato', and checking out the mail system at work. Don't forget to get your virus updates; an automatic daily or even hourly check might be a good idea.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004 (10:55pm)

I found this somewhere today -- an incident from the "Total Information Society". (Note to John D. and others: the 'hand' icon is your link. There's one for each post. And John: you can have a copy of the 'hand' picture if you want it.)

The Year 2010's Pizza Order

Operator: "Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your..."
Customer: "Hi, I'd like to order."
Operator: "May I have your NIDN first, sir?"
Customer: "My National ID Number, yeah, hold on,
eh, it's 6102049998-45-54610."
Operator: "Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at
1742 Meadowland Drive, and the phone number's 494-2366.
Your office number over at Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302
and your cell number's 266-2566. Which number are you
calling from, sir?"
Customer: "Huh? I'm at home. Where d'ya get all this information?"
Operator: "We're wired into the system, sir."
Customer: (Sighs) "Oh, well, I'd like to order a couple of your
All-Meat Special pizzas..."
Operator: "I don't think that's a good idea, sir."
Customer: "Whaddya mean?"
Operator: "Sir, your medical records indicate that you've got
very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol.
Your National Health Care provider won't allow such an
unhealthy choice."
Customer: What do you recommend, then?"
Operator: "You might try our low-fat Soybean Yogurt Pizza.
I'm sure you'll like it"
Customer: "What makes you think I'd like something like that?"
Operator: "Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes'
from your local library last week, sir. That's why I made the
suggestion."
Customer: "All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then.
What's the damage?"
Operator: "That should be plenty for you, your wife and
your four kids, sir. The 'damage,' as you put it, heh, heh,
comes $49.99."
Customer: "Lemme give you my credit card number."
Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash.
Your credit card balance is over its limit."
Customer: "I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before
your driver gets here."
Operator: "That won't work either, sir. Your checking account's
overdrawn.."
Customer: "Never mind. Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash
ready. How long will it take?"
Operator: "We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45
minutes, sir. If you're in a hurry you might want to pick 'em up
while you're out getting the cash, but carrying pizzas on a
motorcycle can be a little awkward."
Customer: "How the hell do you know I'm riding a bike?"
Operator: "It says here you're in arrears on your car payments,
so your car got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid up, so I just
assumed that you'd be using it."
Customer: "@#%/$@&?#!"
Operator: "I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already
got a July 2006 conviction for cussing out a cop."
Customer: (Speechless)
Operator: "Will there be anything else, sir?"
Customer: "No, nothing. oh, yeah, don't forget the two free liters
of Coke your ad says I get with the pizzas."
Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents
us from offering free soda to diabetics."

Of course, the "Total Information Society" could go this way:

Another Year 2010's Pizza Order (by R. Grefer)

Operator: "Thank you for calling Pizza Parlor. May I have your order"
Customer: "May I have your NBIN first, ma'am?"
Operator: "Our National Business ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh,
it's 51423-0596-5647382910."
Customer: "Thanks, and could you tell me please what are the NIDNs
of your cooks and your drivers?"
Operator: "Our cooks' National ID Numbers, yeah, hold on, eh, that's
6201038889-52-435021 and 7612127778-09-671231, and the
drivers are 5212157900-14-768890, 4544342122-22-221287
and 9864530204-21-012822."
Customer: "Thank you. I see you are located in the former 'Your
Heart's De-Light' facility. What have you done to eliminate the
PCB that had soaked into the ceilings from their old fluorescent
fixtures?"
Operator: "Err, sure, we had a complete sanitization done before we
moved into the building."
Customer: "Ah, talking about sanitization; what have you done to
improve the sanitary conditions in your kitchen since the last
inspection by the health department, when they cited you for
unclean conditions the third time in a row?
Operator: "Huh? Where did you get this information?"
Customer: "Well, I'm wired into the system."
Operator: (Sighs) "Oh, well, may I take your order now?"
Customer: "Sure, I'd like to have the lacto-vegan special."
Operator: "May I suggest a complimentary upgrade to ovo-lacto?"
Customer: "I don't think that's a good idea, miss."
Operator: "Whaddya mean?"
Customer: "Miss, two out of the three health citations your
establishment had were for Salmonella strains, presumably from
eggs you had not bothered to keep sufficiently cooled."
Operator: "But we changed our practices accordingly."
Customer: "Thank you, but no thank you, I'd rather not take a chance;
besides, do you really want to risk losing your business liability
insurance?"
Operator: "Why'd you ask that?"
Customer: "Well, according to your records at United Mutual Trust,
you are just a few food poisoning suits shy of termination of
your coverage."
Operator: "Oh, I wasn't aware of that."
Customer: "And, please, have it done by Mr. Lobo,
rather than Ms. Tomy."
Operator: "Why's that?"
Customer: "According to her National Health Care provider she's HIV
positive, and also has tested positive for STDs."
Operator: "Oops."
Customer: "Hey, don't you run any background checks on your staff?"
Operator: "Err, let's get back to your order. Could I have your credit
card number, please?"
Customer: "No, the BBB has several complaints on file that credit card
numbers used at this subsidiary were later exposed to credit card
fraud."
Operator: "May our driver collect cash from you today, then?"
Customer: "No, both of them are known felons, and I don't want to risk
any allegations of non-payment."
Operator: "So, how would you like to pay today?"
Customer: "I already deposited the necessary amount into the trust
holding at your franchise's headquarters; verification number
34978641."
Operator: "Thank you."

I thought that was funny. (Note to Brian C.: any apostrophetic errors are whoever wrote that...)

John Dominik had a good funny today, although it hit a bit close to home here. Much of it was quite familiar (and somewhat depressing).

The "MyDoom" worm is still out there. Yesterday at work, we were getting about 1000 per hour. Today, the rate slacked off a bit, but it seems to be in the 800 per hour range. Our mail servers are handling the load -- and blocking the viral/worm messages. There are the usual user concerns about the automatic "You sent me a virus" replies (note to all my readers -- yes, both of you -- turn off that auto-reply feature in your virus checker). But I did work on a few planning things, and I got the filing cabinet contents moved.

Pam fixed a nice dinner of pork chops and potatos and salad. Then a short trip to Sam's Club for a couple of things. We watched a movie called "Jericho" on the "Westerns Channel" after returning, and then "Magnum, P.I." while I did a bit of 'net surfing. The usual stuff.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 (9:55 pm)

Brian C found some broken links in a couple of the pages here. And while I was fixing them, I found a couple more. So as long as I was fixing them, I decided to add a link to the Digital Choke story in a few different pages.

The "MyDoom" virus is still trying to come into the network at work, but at a slightly slower pace: only about 800/hour. For a while there it looked like one came through our defenses, but it was a false alarm. So I monitored that situation, making sure that the filtering rules are working properly. I also hooked up the older laptop to the system, along with a LinkSys hub (after the 'switch' guys configured the port for the hub). Then I started running some Bindview audits against the Novell NDS tree. Part of that is to become a bit more familiar with the capabilities of the BIndview program, but you do find some interesting stuff from that audit. Nothing I can tell you about, though.

After work, Pam and I went to the gym for a short workout. Then over to the Kaiser pharmacy to get my new prescription, which took a while since they were a bit busy. Finally got home, and had a 'breakfast dinner' of some Raisin Bran ("two scoops") and toast. I really like raisins in my cereal. One of my other favorites is Kellogg's Raisin Squares: bite-size shredded wheat with raisins in the middle (Pam also likes them). But that cereal is hard to find in this area. I even wrote to Kellogg's asking them for the stores that carried it in this area. They pointed me to their 'product locator' page. A search there didn't find any store in a 200-mile radius that has Raisin Squares. So, I was a bit depressed about that. It's really a nutritious cereal; good for snacking also. I also tried a Google to find an on-line store, but no luck. So until I can find Raisin Squares, I'll stick with the Raisin Bran. And raisin muffins. And raisin bread (makes great toast). And the raisin cookies my wife makes (with double the amount of raisins).

You might get the feeling that I like raisins. Although a friend of mine calls them 'dead grapes'.

Thursday, January 29, 2004 (9:30pm)

I found some interesting stuff in my travels around the 'net today. Well, they appealed to the 'geek' in me.

Let's start off with a geeky comic strip that I visit daily. It's called "User Friendly". It's about a software company, and the people of the support desk, network admins, and other geeky types. It also has a few aliens, which I haven't fully figured out. But most days, it's worth a chuckle.

Today's cartoon was about the challenge of using Linux.

On the virus front, several developments that you may already be aware of, so you can find your own links on your favorite news site. First off, if I was the author of any of the "MyDoom" or "MiMail" viruses, I'd start to keep a really low profile. There's a total of $500,000 (US) bounty on that moron's head ($250K each from Microsoft and SCO). Although Microsoft has offered rewards before, this one is pretty large.

Related to that, your local FBI is trying an 'outreach' program, or at least this agent is. And our US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is starting a new mailing list (link to the lists):

The DHS has launched a series of e-mail distributions that may be of interest to you:
1. Technical Documents: Technical language, specific details for experienced users and system administrators:
a. Technical Cyber Security Alerts: Technical Cyber Security Alerts provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits.
b. Cyber Security Bulletins: Cyber Security Bulletins provide bi-weekly summaries of security issues and new vulnerabilities. They also provide patches, workarounds, and other actions to help mitigate risk.
2. Non-technical Documents: Common language, overall concepts for home and corporate computer users
a. Cyber Security Alerts: Cyber Security Alerts provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits. They are released in conjunction with Technical Cyber Security Alerts when there is an issue that affects the general public. Cyber Security Alerts outline the steps and actions that non-technical home and corporate computer users can take to protect themselves from attack.
b. Cyber Security Tips: Cyber Security Tips describe common security issues and offer advice for non-technical home and corporate computer users. Although each one is restricted to a single topic, complex issues may span multiple tips. Each tip builds upon the knowledge, both terminology and content, of those published prior to it.

I signed up for them today, and since they are new, I don't know about their content. But it's another source of information. Note that the signup is a 'double-opt-in', so when you sign up, they will email you a verification message to your email address. You'll need to reply to it according to the instructions. They must be getting a large volume of requests, because the verification email took a while to get back to me.

And Microsoft is continuing their outreach program. Along with user-level newsletters and their site at www.microsoft.com/protect (which is recommended for all levels of users to protect their computers from hackers and identity thieves), they have released three posters about computer security:

Microsoft is offering 3 free security awareness posters in PDF format for immediate download as well as in a pack of 75 (25 ea). The URL for downloading/ordering is www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=SecurityPosters

I ordered the posters (they are free), and then grabbed the PDF files and printed them on my color printer at work. You can also get them here: poster 1  poster 2  poster 3 .

And finally, I'm glad I don't live in this neighborhood (note: I'm not sure why those last to paragraphs are there)

The decomposing remains of a 60-ton sperm whale exploded on a busy Taiwan street, showering nearby cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours, local newspapers said. The 56-foot whale had been on a truck headed for an autopsy at a university when gases from internal decay caused its entrails to explode in the southern city of Tainan. The whale died after it was beached on the southwestern coast of the island.

That's almost as scary as John Dominik's recent experience.

... more later ...

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