Month: August 2004

All is Quite

Two of my favorite literary quotes of all time come from “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque. I ran into them a couple days ago and thought I would share:

“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.”

–Chapter 10

“The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me.”

–Chapter 12

Where is GRUB when you need it

Ever wanted to know how to reverse engineer an embedded device?  Two spectacular articles by Jim Buzbee walk you though getting system level access and installing alternative services on a Linksys NSLU2.  The articles do a great job of teaching you the ins-and-outs of accessing Linux based embedded devices.  You can follow future progress (and future tutorials) from Jim’s NSLU2 website.

The other great link gleamed from the NSLU2 tutorials is to Dan Kegel’s Cross Platform build chain script.  Historically building cross-toolchain for use in embedded systems development was frustratingly difficult. Dan has this process fairly easy.  With two-thirds of embedded devices running Linux , the two tutorials and Dan’s script make for a perfect introduction into the world of embedded systems.

knocking on port knocking

Port knocking has the potential to be an additional layer of protection available to highly security conscience network administrators.  However, just like any innovation, it is not without its weaknesses.  The author of the following article discusses some of the problems that can occur with port knocking.  The primary issue the author identifies is the use of new definitions for existing security concepts that are already well researched.  This has caused some administrators to fail to identify  the natural security limitations of port knocking.

Iraq and Bin Laden

Two articles that I ran into today, the first is a campaign piece from myway news.  In it Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry admits that he would have voted for the war regardless of WMD.  The statement actually improves my opinion of Senator Kerry because it was obvious to anyone who read his Iraq opinions prior to the election campaign that he was a big supporter of the war.  By making this statement he shows some honesty on this topic (something I have long sense given up finding in a Democratic President.)

The second article was sent to me by Jason Mical. Its a report by Alan Cullison on his discovery of an Al-Qaeda computer hard drive (actually two of them) in late 2001.  After reading some of the letters written by Abu Abdullah and Osama Bin Laden it is amazing these people were able to organize a trip to the telephone booth let alone the largest terrorist attack in American history.

and what did he ever do for us?

“Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossiblity in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple.”
–Babbage

As said with regard to his Analytical Engine, thus becoming the world’s first programmer.

AES Cipher System

The successor to DES encryption approved by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology is called AES.  The basis for AES is a wonderfully interesting block cypher called the Rijndael algorithm.  If you are interested in Rijndael or  block cypher encryption you can find out more about it here.   A great place to find brief outlines of several of the more common types of cryptography can be found here.  If you want to understand the basic structure of public key cryptography, this is a good place.

While I am on the subject of cryptography, let me post my public key information.  Anyone interested in secure contact with my can use my publicly listed 1024 bit DSA key (ID: DC430CA6).

Usage Stats

On a regular basis I am asked market share questions.  This is mostly in relation to software usage and is used to make application development decisions.  Two of the best (or most commonly quoted) usage statistics sites are w3schools and Google’s zeitgeist.  Either source has their strengths and weaknesses; but combined they make for a very useful informational tool. 

While I am on the topic of market share IDC has predicted that Linux has moved into the number 2 slot on the desktop OS market.  Today the Mac, tomorrow the world…

Yahoo the Vote

Yahoo has a great election information page that I have found useful for looking up candidates, their voting records, and local issues.  It even have functionality to send the legislator messages on issues that are important to you, the voter.