PLOTdotLOST

Asus Transformer TF101

2011-08-18T11:40:00.001+02:00

I have been thinking of trying a tablet computer for sometime. I'm not a total noob to the market as I do own an IPad but as something of a geek i have always found the nanny slate something of a let down. Like any child tell me not to touch just makes me want to get past the fireguard. I like the fact that I can turn of nagging nanny and download software from any source I see fit.

First impressions are very good indeed. Yesterday I ran the tablet for 16 hours some of the time I used the keyboard doc the rest of the time I just used the tablet on its own. I was very pleased to find out that there is a button for turning off the touch pad while typing. Great feature wish I had it on my Wintel Workhorse, I can disable the Wintel one with drivers but corperate IT will not let me install them, I need to fix my posture it appears.

I have been a fan of documents to go for a while, it came with my Blackberry and I have used it on the IPad and now Android. It worked perfectly and in short order I had two gig of my active documents synced with the PC.

I used DVDGalexy to convert a couple of DVD's so I could watch them on the device this was very easy and fast to do. I was going to put them on a MicroSD and shove it in the side of the unit but found it was just as easy to download directly to the MicroSD via Windows 7, simple drag and drop. The device has a MicroSD in the tablet itself and a full SD plus dual USB's in the dock.

Next was to get Wireshark for Andriod up and working. Did not have high expectations but it was much better than I had expected, so the device was meeting my nerdy expectations a result.

Skype was a little annoying, voice quality is perfect the system worked perfectly with the Bose Headset from my Blackberry and with the Seinheiser C550 that I use for everything in the office, the annoyance came with the fact it does not work with either of the video cameras in the unit. That lead me trying out Google Talk which gave a good result, just wish a few more of my buddies used it.

Installed Angry Birds and a Pinball game designed to work with the Tegra2 nice and smooth graphics not had time to play with it but seems to be very nice.

Overall a very nice little device it cost a ton of money but so far its been worth it, I'm sure in a few months it will have lost its shine but for now I'm a happy camper.

Busy Busy Busy

2011-07-29T09:20:00.004+02:00

Racing towards the end of the finical year trying to tie up the loose ends of the old year and see what I will get to do in the next 12 months. Been a bit of a busmans holiday last week as I was asked to look at HP’s Application Monitoring Solutions. It always amazes me to see a repeat pitch this reminded me of a day back in 1996 when I was peddled a very similar story at CA in Maidenhead in some fancy room on the top of their building. The challenge with such solutions has never been the capability its always been around the level of effort it takes to get there. I recall the first time we added the coke machine into Polycenter it was great fun but I’m not sure it had any value other than the fact we could do it! Later on I created a network of electronic rat traps around the farm attached via a wireless network I can tell when the battery source is low and when the trap has discharged. Nothing worse than frying a rat then not finding it for a couple of weeks . . .
Ah I’m off the point then I’m thinking that’s the whole point of a blog, my brain is a jumble of things going on mostly I’m trying to avoid writing a departmental structure, job descriptions etc for a build out in Asia. As the deadline looms my head crams up with all the other things going on in my brain, thoughts of my dead parents, of being alone, what to do at the weekend, the fact Billy is getting old. I did not plan to get another Weimaraner when he is gone but it is impossible to imagine a life without my constant shadow. He is 11, I can hear the cancer in his breathing the same story as Boo Dog his Aunt who was put to sleep in the back of my car aged 15 after an 11 year fight against cancer. I know the cancer wont kill him old age will but its still hard to think of a future without him. I worry about being selfish and getting another dog, its such a commitment and I’m not sure I have 15 years lifespan left to look after him. I’m in good health but statistically 15 years is more than I have, amazing how deadlines make you bottle up thoughts probably better I clear them from my head as they don’t want to seem to pack up into their box just yet.
Jumbling the work and technology stuff in with personal stuff is the way my mind works I guess in a real life situation I would not be what the casual reader expects.
In any case back to HP and their Application Monitoring Solutions all seems fairly nice in the end state but I want to see the level of effort required to get there. Back in the day I built a number of Enterprise Monitoring/Application Instrumentation solutions (some still in use today) it has always been possible but the cost often out weighed the benefit, not that I cared much it was the clients money not mine! If HP have got the implementation and updating costs licked into shape then it could be a viable approach for us, well if they can wrap it all up into a service . . .
Back to those Job Descriptions . . .

Short Note

2011-06-14T23:52:00.002+02:00

Its been a while since I last blogged not sure why guess not much has been going on or perhaps nothing that inspired me to write anything. Keeping to around 1500 calories a day along with around 45 minutes of cardio and I have lost 7 kilos in 9 weeks. I could have lost more weight but realized I was not eating enough which is just dumb.

I started taking multi vitamins to make sure I was getting enough of the right stuff then a couple of days later I was always wanting to take a piss. It was somewhat annoying its one of the classic symptoms of being a diabetic but not something I've experinced before. I quick check online seemed to point to a problem with my kidneys being confused. Looking back at the records of what I have eaten nothing had changed apart from the fact I was now popping a multi vitemin at the same time I was taking the metaphromia. I cut out the multi vitemin and the need to want to piss all the time went away around 8 hours later. Now I'm not saying that was the cause but I dont feel much like taking the tablets again, if i do will do it out of phase with the other tablets see if its just a question of overload.

Exercise front is looking way better not only have I double the intensity of the workout in terms of resistance I have also increased the time. My heart is dropping 30 beats in the first minute after exercise not stella but a lot better than the 6 it was when I started.

Tablets starting to work

2011-04-20T20:33:00.003+02:00

Couple of goals over the next few weeks, first is to get within my acceptable BMI at the moment thats 2 kilos does not sound like much but it will be a challenge to fix it.

At the same time want to get my blood sugar within the acceptable levels this seems to be going fine! Hope I can cut down on the tablets but thats more of a long term desire. Its always easy not to loose focus at the start its two three years down the road when old habits creep back in. Biggest challenge is sticking to meal times the trip from work to home takes to long and ends up with me eating to late need to start eating at work i think.

Back being a diabetic

2011-04-18T23:17:00.003+02:00

Managed to stay 5 years free of being on tablets for being a diabetic but the diet and not enough exercise has made my cells lazy again.

The advice is 2x Metformin HCI 500 at dinner for 14 days. Then start with 2 tablets in the morning as well. Not sure I agree with that will have to wait and see. Holland is something of a backward country as far as being a diabetic is concerned they dont pay for self testing the single most important thing we can do to keep to the program. Ordered 200 strips online hope they turn up tomorrow then I can do a bit more work on my blood sugar profile.

In preperation I created a spreadsheet in google docs.

2011-04-07T19:21:00.003+02:00

I was cleaning the lining in my scooter helmut and found it was past its throw away date. The prospect of getting a new one was not something that got me excited, then I came accross the Barock Legend Range just had to have one!! I chose the BL-14 (the one in the picture).

Camping plans the executive way

2011-03-23T16:33:00.000+01:00

I've been thinking about getting back into camping as way of getting some R&R, need to do something to get away from the phone. The more I drive the G-Wagon the more I want to climb mountains with it. With it have huge space at the back (it is a 9 seater after all) I started to see what goodies I could pack into it.

First thing was a semi decent tent, I'm used to the exo skeleton style tent but thought I would have a look at whats new. Loving the idea of the new Vango Infinity 600 perhaps with a side canopy.

Next on the list was something to cook on, heard good things about the Kampa Roast Master. I would also consider their Geyser Hot Water System for more off the beaten track type journeys.

Electric power is best served by one the new generation of Honda camping generators, first hand experience these are super quiet with plenty of power, probably the EU20i

A fridge is somewhat essential so a EdgeStar seems to be a wise choice.

Last but not least some kind of chemical toilet based on a fair bit of research Thetford seems to be the company and perhaps the 465 to be the right product.

In a normal care this would all take up a lot of space but in the G-Wagon I wont even notice it . . .

2011-03-20T20:08:00.000+01:00

I've been traveling to Paris on the Talyis for the last month its amazing how many IPhones, IPads and Mac's you see on the train. Its funny that hardly any of them seem to get the Internet working they fiddle about on the on train website without ever getting out of the captive portal. I do own a I-PAD and the one time I did bring it seemed to work fine on the train. My first generation I-Pod touch even works perfectly well. I like the idea of the I-PAD but its not yet a replacement for my corporate laptop. I'm sure it could be if work swapped all its apps to running on the tablet but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Being a Microsoft Shop so much of the software portfolio works best with a Windows PC.

New Scooter

2011-03-20T11:43:00.002+01:00

My Gilera Runner from 2003 is starting to get a little tried. Its fine up to about 60km a hour but if I hope the throttle any more than that it starts to cough and splutter. Done a ton of things to try figure out what is causing it, could be the fact the ECO needs a good clean or it might be the fuel pipe is starting to loose its grip and fuel is leaking. I noticed that fuel was getting onto the rear mug guard on full throttle so it might be that.

In any case this week I made the decision to get a Peugeot Elystar 50cc. The link is for the German site as the official Dutch site seems to be offline.

I found a good blog on an early model in English and Dutch. Some great tips had a look at a few of the extra's I can get on the Rollercenter website.

Think I might have a go at making some travel video so I did a little bit of research into a basic waterproof cam corder. I like the look of the Kodak Playsport, should do the trick with a 16gig card will give me 10 hours of 1080P high def video. Just need to figure out how to mount it on the bike.

Hope to get it next Saturday you never know Roy from fa.Van Laar said it might be in, my guess is i will have it for the weekend of my birthday which will be great.

My try to do a bit of blogging about Travels on the scooter not sure I will do much video editing but might do a little.

Off to Paris later today will try to write some stuff on the train I have a fair few things to say about the recent 8K SCC filing from EMC. EMC's online ordering systems have been offline since Friday 11th and it takes them until the 17th to make a claim. Went to the press meetings no real information was provided, arranged a meeting with our head of risk management they failed to provide any information. We are left with 140,000 frightened users and our customers wanting to know what the hell is going on and expect us to provide the answers EMC is not doing. Every day they dont disclose drives another nail into the once great RSA. In reality I doubt anything has been compromised to the extent our environment needs to be shut off its not really the point.

2011-03-01T19:12:00.002+01:00

“The mark of a mature man is a certain scar he bears: the perfect memory of a women never won, or a once-true love lost forever.

However much he may love you, he is only here because she is not”.

I’m not sure about the genesis of this quote or if I fully agree with it but for sure it gives me pause. Thursday night waiting for room service to arrive with something to eat and between a couple of hours of work calls finds me flicking through facebook. One of my gaming buddies, EZ has a friend who appears to be something of a romantic seeker looking for a spark to lighten her world, she has a whole series of interesting quotes collected from the net this being one of them.

In general I agree with much of these simple lines. I question the word mature and can think of a number of replacements as I’m not sure it’s a sign of maturity unless that has overtones of folly. In my case the love lost forever is something probably should be the trust/love I destroyed forever, like everything in life you don’t truly understand what you lost until the situation cannot be reconciled. In general I’m not one for wallowing in self pity as it serves no purpose and I have to live with myself.

Five year of a transitory life drifting from one situation to another is somewhat tiring. On the surface its easy to skip from day to day focusing more and more on work a masking the fact that something is very much missing from my life. Something needs to jolt me from this thought process as I’m sure it does not have a productive outcome.

That’s the beauty of a blog its about what occurs to me at the point of writing a place to capture ideas, simple facts or just how to do certain things so at a later date I can recall what I was thinking or just how to configure that dham blackberry . . .

Back into Blogging

2011-02-21T16:25:00.003+01:00

Life has been busy for the last few months, I seem to have slid into becoming a weirdo personal assistant. In theory I’m still an Enterprise Architect but at the moment that seems to mean personal assistant to the head of operations. Lots of people seem to have fancy idea about what an Enterprise Architect is, something I will perhaps write a little more about when I’m not 4 minutes from the next conference call.

These days I seem to spend perhaps 5% of my time specifying requirements/acceptance criteria and 95% of my time building the business case for one approach or another. Success is measured in the number of spin cycles the board takes over making a decision. In any large organization IT Strategy s not so much a question of Jab and Move and more stand back and soak up the punches.

Oh well con call to jump on . . . might get back to this later or perhaps I should switch to Micro blogging . . . to be continued . . .

How to setup automated conferance dial in on Blackberry

2011-02-21T16:16:00.003+01:00

This example shows how to configure an Outlook message to auto dial to Intercall's Paris PoP

###-###-####!RRRRRRR!*!NNNN

###-###-#### represents the dial-in number

RRRRRRR represents the room code for the meeting and

* Is needed to tell the system you want to setup a meeting

NNNN represents the moderator Pin code

The "," inserting a pause, the "!" inserts a wait code to the phone which will menu prompt you to submit the next piece of information.

France dial in: 33170732720
Fake Conference Code: 3332501471
System needs * to setup meeting: *
PIN: 0666
To start conference 1

33170732720!3332501471!*!0666!1

The blackberry software on my phone does not recgonize hash as a valid part of a phone number this is perhaps a setting. If it did I could get rid of the annoying timeout pauses.

Friday 16th October 2009

2009-10-16T09:22:00.001+02:00

Wet, tunnel repairs and accidents the unholy trilogy that ends up in a long queue of traffic on the way into work. Days like today I like to go through town rather than taking the ring or going country the Haarlem way. They seem to have been working on the IJ for months and I guess this has scared off people from going this way for a couple of years now. If you know the ring is stationary then cutting through the city is a lot more relaxing. Sure there is a little bit of start and stop but at least you move all the time. Being in the mini put on some tunes, roll back the carpet and enjoy the ride.What with it being Friday and all will try to sort out a number of loose ends before the weekend. Only thing that really has to get done today is need to send out materials for review prior to the Architectural Oversight Board at the end of the month. Its interesting to see how the shortage of money has driven innovation and also tarnished the shiny new penny approach.

October 15th 2009

2009-10-15T17:03:00.005+02:00

Been something of a slow day at work and its one of those times where I have 15 minutes which is to little time to start something new but to early to go home. Mostly I'm not to shy about leaving early as I always put in the hours elsewhere but today it does not feel right.

Somehow the world feels like its in high definition today, the office view is always changing mainly because I have an exciting view of the highway. Traffic looks fairly light so I hope to avoid the hour long que's that can sometimes delay the way home. Since I quit smoking for the 1000th time the journey home is the worst time as there is nothing else to do. Lucky for me I have something of a soar throat and a bloked up nose so the very idea of smoking just makes me want to be sick. On the whole I'd rather feel fine and not want to smoke as well but this will do for now.

Been a fairly interesting day work wise lots of things moving which is always good. I guess one of the things about being one of these theory planner types (I'd not call it strategy some might) is its always interesting when something floats by that you noticed in the flow years before. The folks in IT always talk about this will be the year for bla bla bla and mostly its just standard industry hype cycles. In the 1990's I was entused by IPv6 but it never seemed to want to take off but thats when I was an engineer who got excited at the prospect of a new protocol stack. As my career changed and I became more concerned with delivering global applications the reality of latency and inconsidered application design really started to hit home. The SuperJumbo started to look a promising way of deliverying certain types of functionality without the need to educate coders on how to design for applications that have to work half the world away. The prospect is tantalizing but like so many things in the reality of IT a number of events must come to pass before this is part of our reality.

Its an important capability but nobody cares about it and to be honest nobody should. I recall 7 years ago pitching this to our CIO with all the benifits (nothing to do with addressing) and his main concern was what cudos would the division get for doing it. I'd never looked at the world that way until then, the answer of course is none. We would have spent a fortune, cause operational disruption with no tangable benifit, well nothing the Business Folks could touch.

Thank god its Friday

2007-03-02T13:00:00.000+01:00

Another week goes by, time just seems to race on a head. My boss was away this week hawking the topic maps around with leadership to see if they could buy into the approach. Seems we are on the right lines but one of the comments from the man upstairs was he would like to see more detail. Well so would I but moving down to more granular layers is fine as the subjects become more tangable the problem of course is the further down you go the level of detail required increases along with the timescale to deliver. Oh well meeting next week to see what type of detail we need to go after next.

Came down with food poision on Tuesday night so have been off work for two days. First day i was sick and the second day I just had a very bad headache so could not sit down at the computer as it just made things worse.

Dentist Day

2007-02-21T13:46:00.000+01:00

With all the new things going on at work, I've had to do some work. Its nice for a change but I'm sure that the novelty will not last. My new boss appears to be more switched on than I thought will see how things go but I'm tempted to make a career change as I think I've had my day with IT. Much of yesterday was spent working on new architectural modules I have no idea why we cannot just take one off the shelf and use that rather than come up with our own. After a lifetime of reading different modules I find the work done by Cutter Consortium to be some of the most accessible. It is somewhat helpful to me directly but more useful to explain to the none IT guys who run the business the whole context of Enterprise Architecture.

Whatever we decided it’s a case of get on do rather than spend months looking at 101 different options and trying to over engineer a module. I find colleges are more inclined to talk than get their feet wet which for me is the only way to refine the module. It seems to be a series of endless meetings about agreeing single words while all can agree on the main direction. I’m also picking up developing the Standards process which should be an interesting couple of days. The best part is I do not have to run it afterwards so in my terms a real result.

Much of the day was lost a long needed trip to the dentist. It seems like ages since I tried to get an appointment to get some work done. Not sure I’d do a one and half hour appointment again but it was all fine and at least the work again. Talking to the dentist it was funny to hear he hates going to the dentist and he has been putting off his next trip. So it seems nobody likes it.

Access to Site Recovered

2007-02-16T12:50:00.000+01:00

Well after being offline for over a year I have managed to recover my account details and convert the blog to run with a new gmail account. It been a busy year or so since I have been away from the blog with lots of changes in my personal and working life. This post finds me single, having passed my MBA and near completion of the Farm. Changes at work means I may well move away from the Netherlands and try to make a new start elsewhere.

Thursday End of Ethics

2005-07-21T23:34:00.000+02:00

Today saw the end of the Understanding Organizations part of the course. It's been a good module which has made a lot of sense to me. At the end of the three days the course returned to an old favorite book of mine The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli There is not much the book does not tell the modern executive. Most management course tell you all about being nice this one is refreshing as it says things like, be ruthless, get rid of managers loyal to the old boss, Don't let advice become pressure and never depend to much on anybody. In some ways its interesting to see the backlash against companies such as Nike over there ethics but who goes after GE the darling of Management Schools. It was quite a revelation to see all the bad things they have done.Next its the development of global marketing strategies deep joy then its onto corporate finance and I'm done. Looking forward to next year as it kicks of with Global Supply Chain Management and corporate IT both areas I have some skills in.

Longtime no Blog

2005-07-21T00:00:00.000+02:00

Life has been hectic over the last month and a half and its like I've not had time to sit down at the keyboard. I've not got time now but I have a little time before I have to get some sleep.I started on the Executive MBA Program here in Edinburgh on the 10th of July and its been none stop ever since. The first year last three weeks with one day off in the middle. Its a fairly pacy and its not for those who think its going to be an easy ride. The first thing you notice is how smart all the others are. The first three days of strategic management was hard going, and I felt the other guys in my group pulled me through. Based on my own assessment I was a borderline pass/fail on that part. Since then I have been through Accounting for wooden tops, Negotiation and we complete managing across cultures tomorrow then it's the only day off!!! That being said not so sure it will be much of a day off as I should go visit with my brother and get ready for Marketing on Saturday.Without a doubt its been the most challenging course I have undertaken to date. I've boot camped on things like MCSE, PRINCE II before but this is another world. Its not so much the material is difficult it's the pace that it comes there is no time for slow down. Every day has a number of case studies for assessment and the odd exam dropped in. Then there is the tiredness. Morning start at 9 in the morning with class teaching ending about 6. Then the fun starts with group assignments best case has been finish around 11 with some going on until 3am in the morning. One of the things I have noticed is the programmatic thinking that is exhibited. Its more about applying models than creative thinking. I guess that's because the whole thing is supposed to be a science. The funniest situation so far has been one of the negotiation case studies when one side was a building contractor who had to meet with a group of angry residents called Chestnut Village. After having been on the other side of similar meetings and working with an excellent group of guys we nailed the contractors. They were treating it like another management game which was their mistake. We came in well prepared with our game plan fully organized. As the dentist I launched into attacking them about their pedophilic builders, from then on it got worse as we rained anger on them. The game plan was not to settle down for 15 minutes, by then their agenda was in tatters and we had them arguing amongst themselves. Then our lawyer smoothed in as the voice of reason focusing on our long term goals. If we did not secure a commitment for a permanent access road in this meeting we knew we would loose our advantage. They caved in and then the short term stuff fell into place. The debrief was real interesting as the learning experience was very real.
Oh well its time to hit the sack it will not be so long till my next confession.

Freaky Friday

2005-06-03T19:08:00.000+02:00

Today was a busy day, and its not even over yet. Up at 7:30 and off out to the builders merchants in search of Velux Windows. After checking on the website I managed to track down a number of local dealers but none of them seemed to keep stock of the large GGL P10 windows I was looking for. Managed to track some down to Van Keulen in central Amsterdam, great builders merchant as there was not waiting time. The only problem was with the packaging the windows were way to big for the car. Back off to the farm to get the trailer. Collected the windows and was back at the farm for 10.

Just after I arrived the architect arrived to look at progress and give advice on next steps. Great timing as the plans had to be changed for the windows. Discussed a number of other changes she is very happy with the way things are going. Dropped her off in Amsterdam and then it was on to HGI Glas. Service in Holland can be a strange thing but these guys are fantastic. Ordered the glass on Thursday at 3pm and it was ready to collect at 11:30. They loaded it onto one of their trailers, hitched it up to the car then back off to the farm again. The boys had already fitted one of the Velux windows by this time. Then it was back off to Amsterdam again to drop off the trailer.

Stopped in at the scooter shop to see about the engine. The new 100cc piston was showing signs of damage already and the guy showed me the damage the oversized piston had done to the engine. Decided to swap it for a 75cc which will not stress all the parts so much. The part was not in stock so will have to wait a week or so before its back on the road.

Grabbed a bite to eat from a service station then back on the road to the farm. Collected the trailer again and went to Bouwmaat to collect 40 bags of plaster. As soon as I had loaded the 40 bags onto the trailer I saw a huge thunderstorm coming up from the coast. Back into Bouwmaat to buy a cover for the trailer. Just in time, I got soaked making sure everything was tied down correctly fortunately the bags of plaster stayed dry.

Back to the farm with the plaster once again just in time to meet up with my mate who is supplying the lighting control system for the living room. It’s an automatic dimming unit that can be controlled from a touch plate or from an infrared controller. It allows four sets of light to be independently dimmed to fit your mood. Task lighting will be provided by conventional wall switches.

Sat down at the PC for ten minutes to type this note then its off upstairs to remove the last few items before the guys start plastering tomorrow. Then I need to start catching up on my reading for the MBA. Hopefully things will slow down soon.

Civic duties

2005-05-31T21:09:00.000+02:00

Took the Civic out for a spin and it was better than I had expected. First gear is not that lively but then when you have on around 8,000 rev’s the rest of the gears change in blistering succession. Even more impressive was the stopping power. With my girlfriend on board and the fact it was not my car I was not as energetic as I would have been on my own but even so what a great car. It had a nice set of manners around town but then quickly picked up the pace on the open road. The ride is very firm but at 120 in sixth gear the noise level was more than acceptable. The problem is the car’s power at 120 is at the top end of third gear and it squeals with delight as you power up into the next gear. Overall great drive and in the words of Will Smith “I goto get me one of these”.

The builders have started on preparing for the plastering and have already removed the old window and made most of the replacement not bad going for day one!

The boys are back in town

2005-05-31T00:16:00.000+02:00

The builders are back in town and start tomorrow morning. On the schedule during this trip is to gut and replace the walls, floor and ceiling in one bedroom. The room also is going to have a new central heating system installed and hot water boiler. This will require an airing cupboard to be made and installed. Once that’s complete the new downstairs bathroom needs commissioning (small mater of attaching the heated floor, thermostat and lighting).

Then it will be onto upstairs fitting a new window, installing two new skylights, radiators and electronics then plastering. That’s a big job as the upstairs of the house is over 160sq meters and raises to 8 meters at the highest point. The plastering alone will take around three weeks. Once they have done this a new kitchen needs to be installed including the gas fitting.

Tomorrow I’m off to test drive a new potential car. I had settled on the Mini Cooper S with the Williams works kit but I’m rather taken with the Honda Civic Type R only the test drive will tell.

Are we there yet

2005-05-30T11:26:00.000+02:00

I use my blog for lots of things and for once here is something from my day job.

I was asked to investigate how Microsoft had implemented PKI within SQL 2005. Much to my surprise the SQL implementation does not integrate with an external certificate service. SQL has no mechanism to check a CRL within SQL. Certificates have been implemented as a convenient way to distribute keys within SQL not as a means of none repudiation/authentication, perhaps in the next version. . .

Planet Internet sends me w32.mydoom.bu@mm

2005-05-27T21:43:00.000+02:00

Today the system at the farm was hit with a virus, sent by my Internet provider Planet!!! Two email were sent one from support@planet.nl and the other from admin@planet.nl both contained a variant of my doom. I have sent the message header to Planet it will be interesting to see what sort of explanation I get. No doubt it will be interesting. It was easy enough to work around rebooted the PC in safe mode and ran the update for Symantic. It could not find the liveupdate server it was then a fairly simple process to look into the hosts file and notice the fact that all the virus update services were being sent to the local loopback address (127.0.0.1). Removed the entries from the hosts file, then updated the virus check and ran it. It located and remove the w32.mydoom.bu@mm.

Keep my big mouth shut

2005-05-19T17:02:00.000+02:00

I’ve had to eat a large slice of humble pie this week after buying myself an iPod mini. After spending months telling people they are mad to want an iPod I bought one!!! I always like the design of the iPod but the return to base for battery replacement made me shy away. The iPod has come down in price and now the fact I will have to dispose of the unit after a couple of years is not so bad. I like the sheer range of accessories that are available. Dock, Power Adapter and Remote are essential items. The next item added to the shopping list is the PodGear Pocket Party. This should be with me in the next week so I will report on how the unit shapes up. The next question is when are they going to allow stack on modules say a a wireless remote and party speaker set. The interface is common so no reason why you could not create iPod stack. If any sad sod takes this idea and makes it real just give me a couple of the each item for the idea, like thats going to happen.

Bank Holiday Weekend

2005-05-17T10:42:00.000+02:00

I’ve been running the scooter now for around a week. I did a number of runs around 15 kilometers from the farm to Amsterdam before doing the 25 kilometer run to work. The run involves a couple of city centers (Zaandam, Amsterdam, Amstelveen) and one ferry. It took just under the hour of which the ferry took up 10 minutes or so. Bad traffic at the bottom of the Overtoom and my desire to stay within the law (no bike paths or speeding on the combined bike/scooter paths (speed limit 27k) kept the time down. Very pleased with the performance I guess on a better day I can get the time down to a more respectable 40 minutes. If I take the car then the trip will normally take around an hour. In good conditions it will take 20 minutes but that sort of time is only available on weekends or the middle of the day.
Top speed is hard to tell but I would guess around 90k. The engine must be running rich as when it gets hot I loose power in fourth gear. Not so much I can do apart from mess about with the jetting. I changed out the stock exhaust for a performance model. This appears to have been a mistake as it has deepened the engine note. The over rich fuel means I’m getting unburnt fuel igniting in the exhaust resulting in a nice popping/crackling noise when you come off the throttle. Great effect but not what you really need when trying not to draw attention to yourself. I have another exhaust which is more like the stock model which I hope will raise the engine note to a more acceptable scoot noise. Having the speedo working is amazing as I now notice most peoples scoots are doing around 60 I now can spot the after market parts that have been added to squeeze out an extra couple of k.
The main only remaining problem is that the kick start does not work. I went back into the garage and they will look at it for me on Tuesday of next week. I’m going to strip the engine out of the bike at the weekend. Hope to get the engine back Wednesday night.
Over the weekend I spent time working on jobs around the farm. Got around to putting down weed killer to keep the paths clear and strimming around the property. With three of the rooms completed it was time to start moving items from rooms that need to be renovated to the completed rooms. It’s a bit of an annoying job putting stuff in boxes, moving it knowing that your going to have to do it all again in another month.
This week I need to sort out the central heating system and a hot water boiler. I have a friend who can help me get these things for trade price. I need to get the other materials purchased so the guys can get started when they are back.
Spent a fantastic Sunday evening and Monday with my girlfriend. I had been planning to cook supper but all the supermarkets in downtown Amsterdam were closed on Sunday. As a result we went out for a great dinner. Monday morning we hung out in the apartment before going out for brunch then onto see the Interpreter at the pictures.

Slow Tuesday

2005-05-10T16:28:00.000+02:00

Things are slow around the office. Completed the first draft of the Enterprise Architecture last week and I’m sat waiting for feedback. I’m supposed to be doing QA on the Records Management Business Case/RFI but trying to get any of the deliverables to review is impossible. Got a list of attendees for the MBA program bit disappointed to see most of the people are coming from the UK firm. There are a few internationals from petro/chemical, Banking, Government and the like but on the whole its UK centric. It does not matter so much as its still a MBA in International Business but it would have been nice to have a more international group.

Went out to dinner last night and had one of the best meals I’ve ever had. From the h'orderves, the wine (a stunning bottle of Louis Jadot), through the delicious fish pot to the sublime Banana Pie with home made mango sorbet everything was perfect. We have never been impressed with Amsterdam dining, not that its not good its never great, the Seafood House Albatross is a unique treat. Between us we have traveled to most corners of the world and eaten in some of the most famous restaurants to be found but it was hard to come up with one that is better. I got the restaurant from a the IENS independent index which seems to be the place to look for fine eating in Holland.

Sunday Bike Day

2005-05-08T09:09:00.000+02:00

Got the scooter back together yesterday, to find the garage has not put the kick start together correctly. It just does not engage so will have to take the whole engine back for them to get it working. Funny it was working before I took it in to get the oil seal and the overdrive kit fitted. The bike was easy enough to bump start but I had a few problems until I realized I had put the gear selector on the wrong way around. Once that was put right it worked much better. Still have problems with the idle which is way to high. Took it for a short spin and there is a major difference in performance. I took it up to 45 in third and the dropped it into fourth and the performance was sluggish I just did not have enough revs. Real strange as that was the old top speed of the bike. The instructions say not to crank the bike up until 300 kilometers so I took it up to 65 which to be honest is plenty fast enough on those tiny wheels with 1950’s brakes. Today I’m going to try and get the idle under control then I can start working on those 300 run in miles.

The farmer came over yesterday with the news that there had been asbestos in the skip. There are a number of asbestos panels on various buildings on the farm but I had no idea how parts had found there way into the skip. Lucky for me that the depot had just put everything back into the skip and sent it to the farmer to sort through without closing the depot. Lucky for me as that would have resulted in a 60,000 euro fine!!! The farmer was a bit upset but to be honest I had no idea how it had got in the skip. Now he’s going to have to dump the contents onto concrete the sift through looking for the panels ending up costing me an extra 250 euro which I could do without.

I’ve started taking an interest in my Gameboy Advanced SP again. It’s a very versatile platform which can play shop bought games or a whole raft of say Spectrum Games. To hook up the Spectrum games you will need a developers Flash Card. I have two a 256 Meg EZFA Advance and a 512 EFA Extreme Flash Advance. There is a wealth of emulators available for the Gameboy best place to check out is gameboy-advance.net.

Feeling lonely today as my Girlfriend is off in Budapest with the “girls”. Its hard spending two wonderful days together then coming back out to the farm and being without her. If I get my act together the farm could be sorted in a couple of months then it can be sold and I can finally be free of this place and my old life.

Friday Holiday

2005-05-06T21:59:00.000+02:00

Thursday was two bank holidays in Holland. It was Ascension and Liberation day. Liberation day is a bank holiday once in every five years but this year it fell on another national holiday. That means you loose one of the bank holidays. My employer gave us both the Thursday and the Friday off whilst most other people here only go the Thursday off. I’m trying to make sure my girlfriend knows how special she is to me so I arranged to take charge of the two days.

We finished up work on Wednesday and we went for a quick bite to eat at Zushi, been a number of times before the food has been up and down since it opened but on this occassion it was very much on the up.

Then we went on to the Tuschinski, a cinema that dates back to 1911. Its such an old cinema they have two people “love seats”, in the price for these you get a glass of wine, chips, popcorn all served by your waiter. Real nice spent a lovely couple of hours cuddling up and watching the movie. Stopped off at the bar over the road from my girlfriends apartment for a nightcap, great evening.

Got up fairly late and went foraging for food at Tony’s Muffins and the local Albert Hein. Then onto the Bridal Suite at a really cool hotel just out of Amsterdam. Highly recommended the room came with a King Sized bed, Fireplace, Minibar (which we stocked with the stuff we brought), large Sauna, Steam Cabin, huge whirlpool bath, double sinks, balcony the list goes on. Just chilled out for the rest of the evening taking time out to go for an excellent meal in the restaurant. Great nights sleep and excellent breakfast before going to the airport as my girlfriend is off to Budapest. We both had a great time will have to do it all again real soon.

The only wrinkle in the in the day was when I put the scooter back together. All went well until I tried to fit the carburetor and noticed that the pipe between the carb and the engine is to small. Will have to see if I can get another part tomorrow.

Monday one week on

2005-05-02T10:04:00.000+02:00

It’s been a week since my last blog main reason is that ive been off work and not really had much energy to write anything. Had some kinda of virus well that’s what the ever helpful doctor tells me. I got tablets to stop me hugging the toilet and antibiotics to fight the infection but nothing to counter the headaches ive been suffering from. The sickness has cleared up but the left side headache has returned. I was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic 3 years ago with a blood sugar of 14.4. I was put on a course of tablets and was told I would be on them for the rest of my life. The tablets would stop working after they had stretched my pancreas to far then it would have to be six shots of insulin a day. I just could not stand the idea of that so set about looking for a cure. The first thing they tell you are there is no cure once a type 2 always a type 2. At the time I weighed some 110 kilos and had a size 38 waste. After a year of following a strict diet and doing more exercise I had a weight of 78 kilos and a waste of 32 but better than anything a blood sugar average of 5.4 with no readings over the magic 7. They are not sure what brings on diabetes but much research points to diet, exercise and stress. Over the last couple of weeks I have been not eating so well and been putting myself under a lot of stress so im thinking that could be the reason for the sharp pains in the left hand side of my head. I also have hypertension in my left arm and left leg another sign. Ive also been smoking way to much another bad thing for my system. So today it’s back on the careful six small meals a day. Its funny you work real hard to get your health under control then you let things slide for a while I guess this is some sort of wake up call.

No real progress on anything much, the scooter engine is rebuilt but im still waiting for the piston rings to come in from the UK. I ordered them over a week ago but I got a message on Thursday that lead me to believe they had not processed the order. I tried to get the DR Racing Parts in Holland but none of the four resellers listed stocked the kit that I have. Taking the engine from 50 to 110 may seem a big step but the engine is designed to be between an 80 and 125 so the bottom end is well within tolerance. I hope the bits come in over the next couple of day so I can pop the head on and bolt the engine back into the frame. It’s been off the road for nearly a month the whole job should have only taken a couple of days.

Monday Update

2005-04-25T16:47:00.000+02:00

I’m still waiting on the replacement piston rings from Beedspeed in the UK. I ordered them about a week ago. They were sent by first class post so they should be here any day now. I’m off down the scooter shop tomorrow to see if the engine is ready. If all goes to plan they should have fitted the gear upgrade kit, split the crank and replaced the seal (and any other bits that need changing). Once that’s done it should be a simple matter of putting back the rear break, fly wheel, cylinder head and putting the engine back in the chassis. I guess its about 3-4 hours work in total. I’m on holiday tomorrow so hopefully I can get it all done then.
The guys should be finished on the first part of the farm today or tomorrow which means things will get a bit less hectic for a couple of weeks. Time to start planning the next bit of work, once again a reason for being on Holiday tomorrow.

Sunday Coffee Time

2005-04-24T10:10:00.000+02:00

Friday night was fantastic, after work we went to our favorite bar in Amsterdam and had a few drinks. Then off to try a little restaurant my girlfriend had found just around the corner from her apartment. It was stunning nice bottle of wine (after sending the first one back) but with fantastic food. I had the classic Dutch dish of Asparagus with Ham, Chopped Boiled Egg with boiled potato’s whilst my girlfriend had the salmon variation. As always fantastic company but for once supported by great food.

Saturday was spent doing even more clearing up around the farm. Taking the trees down is fast but then cutting them up so they can be thrown into the outside fire takes a long time. Its not so much the big branches but the small ones that take all the time. Today I’ve set to work with the spade digging out the crap in the front garden, spraying weed killer over the drive and hacking down many of the weeds. It seems every time I think I can not get any more muscle pain I do more work and take it to a whole new level. I guess years of inactivity are starting to catch up with me.

Wednesday Wondering

2005-04-20T22:07:00.000+02:00

Early start in the morning as I have a day trip back to the UK, deep joy. Yet another short flight into the dreaded Heathrow but this time only a 15 minute drive to the meeting. Then a whole day of technical presentation’s on networking, I hope I do not self harm to much to take the mind numbing boredom out of it. I was present when the CEO of this company gave the initial pitch on the self defending network it will be interesting to see if the guys tomorrow do such a good job as the man at the top. My main technical guy is not attending as he lost his passport on Monday. After a couple of days looking for it he went down and filed a police report. Next day it turns up in one of his shoes. Problem is it takes about 5 minutes for a passport to be reported lost but around 48 hours for the report to be cancelled. I still have two other guys from the place I work with me but its not going to be a lively debate unless I step into the fray. At this stage I’m not sure I have the energy.

House is progressing well all the rooms are built one has been plastered and another is in progress. Its already time to see what the next steps are. The guy is coming to collect the mammoth skip in the morning. I’m dreading the bill as long as its less than 5,000 I will be happy. The is still a load of wood to go but the farmer will work his magic on that. As for the rubble that’s getting dug into the ground.

Had loads of problems with the PC "hanging" when I rapidly changed between directories in Windows Explorer. No errors on the screen and nothing in the error log, when I ran perfmon nothing looked out of shape. I tried a number of fixes but the problem turned out be that my default folder view was Thumbnails. As soon as I changed the default to list the problem cleared up. I guess its because the PC needs to read every file and create a thumbnail if it needs to. With a large number of files this could explain it.

I’m trying to get my act together and see things from other peoples perspective. No more self loathing (will have to work on that) and more looking at my actions from the other side of the fence. I have to make this work.

Sunday Blues

2005-04-17T20:14:00.000+02:00

What a miserable day! Woke up around 7 and went outside to work on the next part of the Scooter. Made good progress on putting the front end back on and connected up all the cables. Made a bit of a mess of my hands routing the cables through the case. Started cleaning and stripping the engine down, I hit a minor couple of problems but managed to find a work around but then got stuck on removing the clutch basket nothing I did worked (I know that feeling). Thought I would put the scooter back together with the new cylinder head but because I was tired I managed to snap one of the piston rings so everything is on hold. Spent the rest of the day cleaning up blots and the engine case.
My minds been elsewhere all day I’ve yet again managed to upset the one person I have in my life that I love. I’m such a screw up. When I know she’s disappointed with me I just feel totally worthless.

Saturday Update

2005-04-16T21:01:00.000+02:00

Got started on the scooter today, to recap its going from a 1982 Vespa PK 50 XL to a 110 CC, 19/19 Carb, Sports Shocks/Breaks and racing exhaust. A number of other problems have to be fixed such as the speedometer does not work, the front fender is bust and all the cables need replacing. I hope to have the whole thing done this weekend but I think its fairly ambitious seeing as I’ve not done any of these jobs before.

Taking the engine out was the hardest thing as the version of the Vespa I have has been modified from the original. I followed the instructions and soon had the engine out but had problems with the gear select and the wiring loom. After about a hour of scratching my head I managed to work out how to get the parts free. A couple of guys at work are seasoned re-builders and for once I have been actively looking for advice. Clean all the parts as you go along and put them in plastic bags. I swooped the plastic bags for a plastic box with compartments in it. Once the engine was out I went and put it in the shed.

It was then onto the front end stripped of the handlebars, headlight etc in quick time. A couple of minor parts need replacing so I dropped around the scooter shop on the way to get the shopping. I was then at a loss at getting the front fork out. After 20 minutes of scratching my head again I remembered I had bought the tool. Dived into the box of bits and there it was. Ha 5 minutes later and the front fork is off the bike. Taking the wheel of the fork was very straight forward as was replacing the two worm screws that run the Speedometer. Fitted the upgraded breaks then noticed I had not done anything with the front fender. Took off the old one saving all the bits I would need to put the new one I had bought on. Hung the new one up in the stables on electrical wire and gave it a coat of paint. Over the rest of the day I would return to give it another then another coat, watching Justine on American Chopper was real helpful as I tried to follow what I’d seen him do. The last step was to replace the front shock absorber with a adjustable sports one. The bloody bolt had seized on and no amount of brute force, heat or hammering would make it move. Just like all boy scouts I had prepared for this as I had made sure I had bought some cutting wheels with the new Dremel I bought to help with the project. Again American Chopper watching came in handy I could just see big Paul “getting aggravated’ as I set about cutting off the bolt. This took a little longer than I thought but 5 cutting disks later and a couple of smacks with my trusty hammer and the shock was free. Fitting the new one was simple. That was as much as I could do until the paint drys tomorrow.

Next job was to take the frame and give it a good clean with the pressure washer. Was amazed at the amount of grime that came off the thing. Then again it had done around 24,000 K and the counter had not been working for the previous owner. I must have added another 15,000 to 20,000 since I have had it.

Last job for today was to run all the new cables through the frame, repair some damage I had done to the wiring loom earlier. Threading the cables must be about the most annoying thing and this wasted a good hour or so.

I hope to get it done tomorrow. I have to fit a new flywheel, cylinder head and change a cog. Unfortunately I have to split the crank as the seal has packed up and I do not want my nice new bike to be loosing oil from the start.

The house is coming on and the three rooms should get plastered over the next week, this will mean four of the rooms in the farm are finished. Next step will be to fit the new heating system and complete another bedroom. After that there is little choice but to move out whilst a couple of steel girders are installed in the house and the living room/current kitchen are ripped out.

Got an invite for dinner by my girlfriend, but I wrote back saying I could not make it but could I buy her dinner Sunday. Then I get another message telling me to forget it. I have no idea what’s going so I sent another message saying I was sorry but was getting the bike done but would really like to take her out tomorrow night. I have no idea what’s going on, when we have fallen out before I’ve always had some idea of why and its always been of my doing. This time I have no idea what got her so upset I really hope we can work it out.

Sunday Sunday

2005-04-10T07:42:00.000+02:00

Its been a bad week for computers. It all started when one of the guys I work with lost yet another Maxtor drive causing him to loose 1.5TB of data. He was not all that bothered but it was the second time it happened in a couple of months. My ex-wife’s portable HD crashed with yet another Maxtor drive, apparently it just stopped spinning. Both disks were less than three months old. My favorite 1942 Server also went up in smoke, my German is not that great but kindly one of the guys told me the hard disk had gone. Since my girlfriend has my gaming PC (3000+, Golden Sample, Sounblaster Audology ZS Pro, 7.1 Speaker system, 1.5 Gig, dual 10,000 RPM SATA boot drives) I’ve been using an old Athlon 850 (with some serious over clocking) with a 9600XT and a soundblaster live as my main system. I bought this PC around 1998 but over the last few weeks it has become more and more unreliable. On Friday night it finally stopped working, it was in such a state it would not even get as far as checking the memory or the processor in its pre boot check. I stripped it down cleaned everything removed/reinserted all chips, removed the battery and cleared the CMOS. Put it all back together and hey presto it lived again. Then I had my next problem in its finial throws the PC had managed to corrupt the registry. Deep joy boot into the windows recovery console and restore from the repair directory all this messing about cost me best part of a day.
The farm progressed a long way over the last couple of days. The pile of rubbish from two years of building is not more!!! I’ve no idea how one guy could move that mountain by hand over four days. All three rooms now have new ceilings, electrics, plumbing, doors, windows and walls. Next step is to replace all the floors. The guys tell me this will all be completed by Wednesday. It will be a total of 24 Man days of work for the work on the house. The plastering and making good will take another 6 man days. I’m delighted with the work so far it looks like in a couple of months the farm will be complete and can be sold.
Today I'm going to complete installing the Fibre optics in the shower room and perhaps connect the heated floor. In a couple of weeks four bedrooms, most of the living room and one bath room will be complete. Just leaving the master bedroom and one other bedroom to complete.
Later I'm off to cook my girlfriend a fish supper and hang out, now thats what I'm talking about!!!

Tuesday afternoon jottings

2005-04-07T16:23:00.000+02:00

My girlfriend is a music junky but is always loosing her tunes. I managed to arrange one of the MPx 220 phones with a 512meg mini SD card which she has been using for the last couple of weeks. The first one had some kind of hardware problem every time you used the camera the phone froze and it kept reformatting the SD card. I got the phone swooped for another model and life seems to be good (although its early days). She’s been making buying a MP3 player noises for a while so I thought I would beat her to the punch. Went out and bought her a 6Gig I-Pod Mini Blue with the travel pack (seeing as she is always jetting somewhere). What a nice little gadget not for me but perfect for the girl on the move. I like the user interface and the scroll wheel. I-tunes looks fairly nice the only minor problem I had was getting the PC to see the I-Pod I do concede that this could be the fact I did not read the manual. Once it had been restored life was good. Certainly the smile on her face over lunch was well worth it.
The guys did loads on the house yesterday I was impressed with the amount the guy had achieved throwing stuff into the skip. The window they put in is stunning and perfectly in keeping with the house. I’m just going to go back to the farm to see what progress they have made today.

House Phase 3 Day 6

2005-04-06T11:47:00.000+02:00

Well is now Wednesday and work is progressing well on the Farm. The guys were not working yesterday as they had another job. I got these guys from a good friend of mine who still needs odd jobs doing on his properties so it was not worth kicking up a fuss when he needed a little work doing. Today they have been joined by another guy whose job is to clear away the heap of crap that’s left over from two years of building work. I feel real sorry for the guy just humping crap all day and loading up the vast skip. It will take him a few days to split the wood, the stones and the mixed waste. In Holland you have to pay for the disposal of rubbish at different prices. The most expensive is mixed waste and that’s what’s going in the skip. The local farmer takes the wood for about 1/3 of the price of mixed waste. I need to lay a fair amount of concrete outside so it seems a waste of money putting hardcore in the skip to buy it back later.
Spent yesterday evening at my girlfriends place as her hot water has been off for a couple of days. It was just a matter of unequal pressure in the central heating system. That’s the problem with these modern enclosed combi boilers they shut down if the detect problems. Its probably for the best otherwise you could have a much worse situation than no hot water.
All the parts arrived for the scooter on Monday and I got around to taking them back yesterday not done any work on it yet think I will wait to my mate is back from the US as he has built a number of engines over the years and I do not want to muck it up.
The tradition in Holland is that you provide cakes on your birthday. Most people nip around to the local shop and buy in but I made a carrot cake. Not heard the last of it people are now badgering me to make another one. I’ve always been a dab hand in the kitchen but sometimes it amazes me that people do not make stuff at home any more. I have always made cakes for special occasions it just seems the natural order of things.

House Phase 3 Day 4 (and my Birthday)

2005-04-02T23:28:00.000+02:00

Well I had an interesting birthday today, spent all day working on bits around the farm, stuffing things in the skip making arrangements with the builders cleaned both the cars and both the trailers, cut down a couple largish trees (chainsaw moment) and pruned some more. All that and still found time make burgers then cook them on the BBQ. I’m now officially knackered. This was my actual birthday my official birthday is tomorrow when my girlfriend gets back from a family wedding in Ireland, I collect her at the airport and in my arms to loose myself in her embrace. Planning to do a load of stuff around the farm in the morning then hang out cook super and fall asleep in my lovers arms. For the first time in years I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I guess the farm will be done in around four months and I can sell up and move on. Not sure what the next thing is if I can stay away from IT that would be a plus but I guess I’m not ready to make that move quite yet.
Progress on the house was good today, yes the boys work Saturday’s. They removed the plasterboard in bedroom one to find that the wall were perfect underneath. When we used the laser level to check out the roof there was a 6cm difference corner to corner!!! God knows what the DIY expert who worked on this house thought of before. Thank god for the laser it cuts down the effort involved in make the ceiling straight. At this rate the boys will be finished ontime. The framework for the ceiling is now installed correctly as are the batons for two of the three walls. I guess they will finish the framing and perhaps the installation of plasterboard on Monday. This room is the largest and required the most removal work the other two rooms are already stripped. Bedroom two requires a new window (already fabricated and glass to come Friday).

House Phase 3 Day 2

2005-03-31T22:39:00.000+02:00

Building progressed well today, I like these guys they start at the agreed time, clean up as they go along and work all the time. All that and they are both real nice guys. Not made much progress with filling the skip but there is plenty of time for that.

Was a nice day today so did a load of work outside, any excuse to get out the chainsaw. Its funny I have a garage full of tools but I always smile pulling out the chainsaw. Of all the things I own its in the best nick every time I spark it up I feel like donning a Goal minders mask. Did a bit of heavy duty pruning but decided to switch to a trusty spade and brute force for the smaller stuff as its easier to get the roots out on small trees by digging out under the root ball. Cleaned out the front of the farm of all the broken tiles and bricks left over from the renovation of the roof.

Looking forward to getting back into the office tomorrow as I have a fair amount of work to get done. Its strange every time I need time to sort out my personal life work crashes in around me. Then again its nice to feel like I still have a job.

House Phase 3 Day 1

2005-03-30T21:40:00.000+02:00

The skip I ordered did not turn up yesterday. Well it did but nobody was at the farm to show them were to put it so they did not deliver it. Pain in the arse as I only went out for 10 minutes and that’s when they showed up. Talked to the farmer (who provides this service) and he arranged with them for it to come today. The builders turned up dead on time at 8am shortly followed by the skip. Skip is not quite the right word for it, when it was ordered we asked for the largest one they did. Its truly huge 8 meters long and around 2.5 meters high!!! The entrance to the farm is not small but it took a lot of skill for the driver to reverse in. I was impressed with his ability to drop it right next to the place the rubbish will be coming from. The builders had got wheel barrows before I told them to get on with the house. The guys are great they would have spent all day moving rubbish but I would rather have progress on the house. In a couple of weeks there will be time for them to top up the current skip with any of the other rubbish lying around the place.

Much of the material need to complete the place is already onsite. I have enough solid teak door and window frames to setup my own business. The Joiner was real pleased as he likes quality material, when they found out I had all the brass hinges and quality locks they were real pleased. I went for expensive security for the three outside doors all using the same lock, I hate having different keys for everything.

They built all three door frames and made the windows today, they totted off around 6pm to order the glass which will take four days to be made. Off to the shops tomorrow to buy fastenings, lights and sockets ready for when they have build the rooms. By my estimate they should be well on the way to needing that stuff the week after next.

Over Easter

2005-03-30T21:25:00.000+02:00

It’s been a busy Easter getting ready for the builders to start tomorrow.

The farm is a traditional 1900 Dutch barn which means the first floor was the haystack, the middle and back of the house were for livestock. Only a third of the house was actual used for people. When I bought the house it had three basic rooms, covering around about a third of the actual space. To bring events up to speed the roof has been taken off, replaced for new (not bad as its huge 154 sq meters of floor space with a roof that rises some 8 meters from the base of the first floor to the top). The original floor of the haystack has been removed and replaced with new. The space has been fully insulated and plasterboard fitted, the major electrical work upstairs is complete. Downstairs a bathroom has been installed, with heated floor, 200 fiber optics (never again), shower, sink etc. A fair amount of structural work was required to the main structure of the building to make all these improvements.

What is happening over the next three weeks is three rooms are being built with new floors, wall and ceilings which will renovate around a third of the downstairs. The overall budget for this is tight at around 7,000 euro including labor and materials but should come in a little under budget. Needless to say I have not chosen to use the local Dutch workman as the standard fee around here is based on the square meters that needs to be done. Based on passed experience you pay people to stand around and not work all day. They then complain about everything. When you go to the builders merchant you discover they have been adding 25% to the price to make that little bit of extra profit. When you work things out you pay double or treble the actual cost, no wonder most Dutch builders seem to spend so much time at home.

UK update

2005-03-23T09:02:00.000+01:00

God, I’m back in the UK I think its marginally more horrid than I remember. Got into Heathrow about 2pm and took the short drive down the road to Wokingham. I spent much of the 90’s visiting Wokingham as the company I worked for had its Head Office in Wokingham. I would have just stayed in the hotel but I had been given a quest to find gripe water. I understand this is something that parents need to alleviate sleep depravation. The substance is not available in Holland so I went off in search of the local Boots. After searching the baby section I was pointed to the medical section. I had been told to buy as much as I could carry so I cleaned out the shelves. Stopped in at the local supermarket to get a few other things that brings a smile to the Englishman living abroad. That being said I would rather be without the few things and living abroad than back in my homeland. Everything is so expensive.
The hotel I’m staying at is one I used a fair amount before. Not been for about five years and was real surprised at the rooms. The Cantley has had a major renovation since I was last here and they have done an excellent job. The suite I took is very nice with luxury bathroom and a very nice comfortable bed. The reason I used to stay here was the Milton’s restaurant. I tried it last night and it was not what I remembered. The starter of sausage with caramelized onions and horseradish was very poor and smacked of the microwave. The onions had been badly done with way to much sugar added. The sausage was bland and there was no hint of the horseradish. The main was lambs kidneys with vegetables. The kidneys were ok nothing special but to accompanying vegetables were a great disappointment. The potatoes had way to much fat added and lacked any flavor. The treacle tart was not great looked like it had come out of a bought in supermarket effort. The wine was also nothing special. Louis Latour is by far my favorite French wine producer but the half bottle of chardonnay was bland with no real taste of anything. The staff were nice enough but it was not what I had expected. All in all I will stay here again as the room is fantastic but next time I think I will give the restaurant a miss. Just off to the all important full English breakfast, if its not up to muster then this hotel is gone from my list of places to stay.
The new PC I have needs some changes. Performance is dreadful the problem seems to be its only been shipped with 256 meg of ram. With a couple of applications open the machine spends all its time swapping to disk. I notice that Microsoft is indicating that Longhorn will need a 3000+ processor the 1.8 I have now will need some serious upgrade.

Monday Blues

2005-03-21T16:41:00.000+01:00

Not got much done at work today as I lost my laptop on Friday. I'd secured it to the back of the scooter but about 2 clicks from work I looked around and nothing on the back. Turned around and drove slowly back to work but no sign of it on the sidewalk. Not best pleased as it had my tax return, bank statements etc etc in. The thing that really upset me was that for once I was using my trusty Billingham bag. Its something I cannot replace as they only made a limited run before deciding to stay with the Camera market they are more famous for. That bag has been all over the world with me. The hassle of changing bank accounts, social security numbers etc is nothing compaired to the loss of the bag itself. I've never been one for material things, I can pack my life into a couple of bags (as shown over the last year or so) and move on. The problem is this was one of the bags. I hope some good citizen finds and returns it but I do not have that much hope.

Went down to the police station to report it (for the insurance) but was told that I could phone it in on 0900 8844. This is a great service you phone up report the item/crime then they send you the forms to sign. The nice policeman at the station told me they were to busy to take my details as there was a bank robbery in progress in South Amstelveen. I love the way people leek information he had no reason to tell me anything but human nature is a funny thing. As I was taking my Girlfriend to the airport in a hour I decided not to see what other information I could get from the happy copper.

As somebody who has worked in the murky area of identity theft I'm well versed in all the steps I have to take to mitigate the risk of suffering from such a crime. My phone contains all the cancellation numbers and details (on secure storage) so within 20 minutes of the loss everything that was at short term risk was cancelled. I like the Motorola MPX its a great form factor but the fact that it only has 32 meg of on board storage coupled with PocketPC's inability to understand the add in storage card is the limiting factor, well that and the fact the battery life sucks big time. Any time a vendor phones you up offering a free extended battery for the demo stock they gave you its time to worry. At least it does deliver my corperate email so the loss of the PC is not the end of the world.

Today I've been using Windows Terminal Server which rocks. The server is some 3000 miles from my current location and it works very well. New PC is here so better start the update process.

Fun with Flash

2005-03-18T16:57:00.000+01:00

The flash of Gary started something. I forwarded it to some of the guys at work and I was sent back another great flash file about the Jackson case. When is it all going to end.

Internet Laughs

2005-03-18T12:55:00.000+01:00

The sad story of Gary Brolsma was a lesson to us all on taking care on the internet. When doing a bit of research into the poor Mr Brolsma I came accross an excellent site that carried other entertaining flash files.

I laughed so hard at Everybody has had more sex than me I would like to thank the excellent albinoblacksheep for bringing this wonderful animation to the masses. The animaton by Bernard Derriman is a work of genius.

Vespa Mods

2005-03-17T22:58:00.000+01:00

Took the plunge today and ordered the upgrade kit for my 1983 Vespa PK50XL. Its not much of a bike cost me 75 of your best euro. Sometime in its past somebody thought it was a great idea to hand paint metallic blue paint over the original white coat. Its not a very a good job as you can see the brush strokes. The clutch was broken when I got it but it was not much of a problem and easy to fix.
The scooter had some 24000 clicks on it but not sure how good an indication this is as the speedo cable was bust. I’ve been using the bike most days for just over a year and must have added something like another 6000 to 10000 clicks to it. I’ve spent a little money on it over the year replacing a headlight and rebuilding the carb. I’ve noticed that performance is dropping no doubt down to the fact the cylinder head is in desperate need of a polish/clean.
Seeing as I have decided to strip and rebuild the whole engine I have decided to breath on it a bit. The Dutch scooter shops are not aloud to sell performance parts any more so I had to fall back to a trusted UK supplier. I’m upgrading the cylinder to 110cc which will require a new head, cylinder and gearing. The carb will be upgraded to a 19/19. The scooter was designed to do around 50 clicks and by the end it will be closer to 90/100 so a bit of work on the breaks has to be done. To this end major break upgrade to take place and of course new front/rear adjustable shocks. Whilst this work is undertaken I will naturally replace all cables, gaskets and rubber components. The front mudguard is a bit knackered so that’s coming off and a new one putting on. I’m debating with myself if to leave the bike in its original beat up state or have the frame bead blasted and powder coated. This will make the bike look great but then it will draw the attention of the local bike thieves. Scooter theft is more of a sport than a crime in downtown Amsterdam. The advantage of having a beat up looking pile of crap on the road is that people tend to leave it alone.
This weekend the plan is to strip out the engine and clean up the bike. If I have time I will fit all the cables, paint up any of the rust spots and fit the new shock absorbers. Then next weekend one of my buddies is going to come over and we will take care of the work on the engine. Should not be too tricky a job. If I remember I will take a load of photos and post them to the site, perhaps somebody might find them useful.
I ordered the bits I need for the speedo so will report on new top speed (if I dare push it that far).
Next will be fixing up my Kawasaki KT250. I got it a couple of years ago as a gift. It does not need to much work had a go it a year or so ago but there was some problem with ignition. Had no meter to find out what was wrong so pushed into the back of the garage and its been there ever since.

Smartcard Token

2005-03-16T14:00:00.000+01:00

God this week at work is slow, nothing much is going on. I’ve been chasing timelines for the delivery of requirements for a PKI deployments. There is a lot of interest in the service but nobody is prepared to actually define what they need and when they need it by. I think I should change my job title from Enterprise Architect to cat herder. The technology is simple to deploy but it’s the trust model that’s proving the most tricky. The bottom line is that nobody appears to trust anybody else to attest to the identity of an individual. I’m in my fifth year with this job and this is the third PKI project I’ve tried to get off the ground, every year people say to me “this is the year of PKI”. There is an interesting debate around if a digital certificate by itself can be considered strong authentication. The age old mantra two factor strong authentication (something I have, something I know and something I am) does not sit easily with Certificates. If the certificate is stored on my none encrypted file system and the only mechanism to protect is a passwords then can it be truly seen as something I have? The issue arises about can the certificate be irrevocably tied to a single identity. In the case of a password protected certificate the attestation of identity cannot be assured. This situation can be improved by making those certificates portable through something like a smartcard or embedded onto the physical device using technology like the trusted platform module. In both cases the certificate is tamper proof and I have to marry my username/password with a physical device (PC or Smartcard) to prove identity. With TPM or Smartcard we are moving towards meeting the requirements of strong authentication. I’ve been in favor of a physical biometric (tamper proof identity card) for building access that also delivers access to the corporate desktop acting as secure storage for signing and encryption keys. This works very well for corporate devices that support smartcard but what happens when I need to access corporate data from a third party device. This brings us back to some sort of token based authenticator. I can get a token that acts as secure storage which also provides the flexibility for certificate storage but the form factor sucks as a physical biometric. Perhaps the answer for the next few years is a move towards smartcards for corporate access and an additional token for the mobile executive.

PLOTdotLOST gets place on MBA

2005-03-10T21:23:00.000+01:00

Much to my surprise and delight I have been offered a funded MBA by my employer. I applied for the opportunity just after Christmas but was surprised and very pleased at being selected. Over the next two years I have to spend a couple of months on residential courses sharing ideas with people from a wide range of corporations. It’s a great opportunity and one I intend to embrace with both arms. The big boss dropped in today to give me the good news it means a lot to me as even with two exceptional performers under my belt I still often wonder why they keep me around.
At the beginning of the week I was called into a meeting between one of our technical leads, a Redmond consultant and one of our project managers. The project manager asked me to come listen in and see if I could bring some clarity. After listening for five minutes it was clear the problem was two impassioned people largely agreeing but failing to understand each other. One Dutch the other American go figure the problem. All I did was rephrase statements in a language that both could understand, with ten minutes consensus was reached and the phrase “very productive” was used. Both parties stopped me later in the week to thank me for my involvement for moving the project on. Largely I’d done nothing.

Sunday Morning

2005-03-06T09:55:00.000+01:00

Looked at the thermometer this morning and it was -8. It did not feel that cold but when you have three t-shirts two sweat shirts, jeans and full waterproofs topped off with an a beanie you do not expect to be cold. Did a couple of hours outside but have now finished for the day as far as physical labor is concerned. Off into Amsterdam to cook brunch for my girlfriend. I’m still totally mystified in why she put up with me. She is everything to me I need to get this house finished and sold so I can start to live the life I want to.
One thing I have learned is that there will be no more building projects. It just takes up to much of your time whilst trying to build a new life and hold down a steady job.

Added Site Tracker

2005-03-05T09:30:00.000+01:00

I found out I could add a free site tracker to the blog. Seems to offer a fairly good service now I will find out that nobody reads this blog apart from me!!! Lol

Saturday Morning Update

2005-03-05T08:34:00.000+01:00

Snowed in for two days this week, I did make a half hearted attempt to get the car off the drive. I can always take the tractor and drag the car onto the road but I can work from home just as easily as I can from the office. I was on the phone till fairly late last night taking part in a Strategy meeting. I made cakes and sat drinking tea, smoking the odd cig and chiming in with the odd comment when called for. A most civilized way to work, bit strange spending three days without seeing another person and talking to anybody face to face.
Last year the water supply to the house froze, this year there has been no such problem. The big achievement this week was a stripped down the garage door and replaced the cables etc. Put it back together and it now works, it even locks. I added four locks two at the bottom and two at the top. It will not stop anybody who is determined but then again nothing really will.

Winter wonderland

2005-03-02T09:02:00.000+01:00

Got up this morning to a winter wonderland, well around six inches of the whites stuff. These was not much frost so it’s the nice powdery snow that is great for kids and those who have not grown up to have fun in. Normally at this hour I’m just walking to the morning breakfast meeting with the boys. Its been something of a tradition at this employer for the last two years. A number of years ago I was consulting a transport training company were they had problems with staff being late in the morning. As a lover of a cooked breakfast I was always in early to take advantage of the excellent one offered by the staff canteen. I noticed that nearly everybody got something when they came into work, it sort of goes with the territory. It occurred to me that if the canteen offered a free sit down breakfast from 8am until 8:30 would people come in early for the free meal. Management agreed to give it ago. Once news got around people came in, anything for a free breakfast. People sat around and talked a mixture of last nights television but also discussed work. The main advantage was that lateness was virtually eradicated within a week. It did cost the employer to provide the service and to cover the tax liability but all in all it was a success. Since the onset of diabetes and creeping high cholesterol with some of the guys (one of those things that starts hitting you in your late 30’s) breakfast is now more a whole-wheat bagel with Smoke Salmon that the traditional fry. Looking at the main road over the dijk this morning it looks as if the Dutch have never seen snow before so I have take the time to have a couple of cups of coffee and bacon/brown sauce sandwich.

Nothing Much

2005-02-27T15:28:00.000+01:00

Bloody central heating had packed up again this morning. Well not strictly true the hot water was working but nothing was going around the pipes. It was clear the boiler was working ok it was the water pressure was low so had to do the normal 15 minute mess around to top the system backup and bleed all the radiators and its working again. Just one of those many jobs I could have done without having to do today.
Had a really great time last night hung out with my girlfriend and watched a movie. Cooked a nice chicken/rice dish sat around chilled and chatted perfect way to spend a Saturday. Meeting with the builder today was ok he’s a real[ nice guy with an excellent approach but his price is sky high. He has quoted me 15 man weeks of labor for a job that should take maximum of 4. Nice but sadly crazy I’m sure he will do great work but at that price I would expect something stunning., whatever way you look at it, its not 6 weeks each for 2 men with another guy for 3 weeks.
Off to get me a roast dinner in a couple of hours cannot wait. My mum was the last person to cooks such a thing for me (cooked it myself a fair few times) and that would have been 7 years ago at least.

Lazy weekend

2005-02-26T08:36:00.000+01:00

For the first time since Christmas I have a weekend with nothing major to do. If I’ve not been away with work, its been hard slog getting all the rubbish sorted out from the last years building work. When you gut the inside of a house and replace the huge roof it generates a mountain of rubbish. This had formed a big pile at the back of the farm which throughout the year had blown or got moved all over the place. One of the interesting things in Holland is that you have to sort building waste. It makes sense in a country that does not have landfill sites where all waste must be burned or recycled out of necessity. Now its down to about 80 cubic meters of mixed building waste. The bricks are going to be dug back into the land so I can build a concrete standing for horse boxes, the tractor and the like. If there is enough left over I will make a new fireproof muckheap to replace the iron container that is currently there for the job. That will leave about 60 cubic meters of mixed waste which will end up costing a couple of 1000 euros to have taken away (plus a lot of barrow loads). Once this has all gone the last round of building work can start. Have a meeting tomorrow with a potential new builder who has prepared a quote for the new heating system and the completion of three of the downstairs rooms. All the structural work is now complete new roof plus supporting pillars and the hayloft has been converted into a 170 sq meter living space. I might do the last of the electrical runs this/next week so all that will be left is the plastering/heating upstairs.
I have a date with my not so ex girlfriend later today going around to our old home to cook supper and watch a movie. Went for a drink with her at one of our old haunts last night had a good time and for the first time in a couple of months I felt normal again. We talked about planning a holiday together. What with the air miles I have already collected and the three or four trips I have to Redmond over the next three months we can go pretty much anywhere. Once the farm is finished it will be time to look for another job and move on, hopefully together.
On Sunday I have a meeting with the builder but more importantly I have been invited over for dinner by one of the guys who used to work for me. Should be a good laugh as his wife is great company and the plan is to have a traditional Sunday roast. Will have to make something for pudding will get my thinking cap on when I got to the shops this morning to get the stuff for tonight.

Blogging

2005-02-24T19:57:00.000+01:00

When I was a kid I tried to keep a diary on a number of occasions and it never really worked out I stuck to it for a couple of days then lost interest. In the early 90’s I was fairly active in news groups writing under a number of names in alt.hacking and later in places such as comp.security.firewalls when terms like 31337 (phracker-speak" for "elite") did not sound lame. I was traveling for work and my employer had provided me with a mobile brick phone and one of the trendy Compaq Portable Ones. I would download the messages read and sometimes write a response. My attention to this depend on how long I was away from home and who was paying for my dial up bill.
I started the blog thing at work as my boss wanted to share some of the R&D stuff we were working on within the company. Over the last year its become a bit of a habit.

Lost Phone NOT FOUND

2005-02-24T19:25:00.000+01:00

My phone never did turn up, I must have left it in one of the side bins on the plane, one of them had a cloth lining and I bet it was lying in there. I phoned the airline they said it had not been handed in so found, try phoning lost and found. I read the policy for lost and founded which stated it did not deal with stuff from the airlines. Makes sense but I phoned them anyway as expected not there thing but they did give me a number for the airline (same one I already had). Phoned the airline not nothing has been reported, I asked if somebody could check the bin lining on the plane, I was then told that security checks would have found it. I then pointed out that the same check would have found the half eaten bandwidth that was left over from the previous flight or the food in the magazine holder? I then wanted to report it as stolen but this was not getting me anywhere. The phone was insured for 50 Euro so at this point I decided my life was already short enough so gave up the game.
On my return to work I was impressed that they already had replacement SIM’s for me but not as yet the corporate phone. One of the benefits of working for IT R&D is there are always a number of phones lying around so I grabbed one of the trusty MPX200’s battery life sucks but at least it has internet. There were some better units I could have used (MPX220, XDA1 and the swanky MPX) but I like the Smartphone 2002 for some reason. Did not bother getting my email connected as Smartphone + Email Push = less than one day battery life.

Good old Google

2005-02-24T10:57:00.000+01:00

I noticed an interesting presentation at this years RSA about hacking using Google’s API. I’d been aware of the challenges posed by Google Search for sometime but as it does not directly effect me I paid little attention to it. The recent problems with the Google Toolbar harvesting user information (yes you can switch this feature off) made me have a quick look at the Foundstone SiteDigger Tool. For a look at some of the things you can find checkout the Goolge Hacking Site. The question comes to mind is the problem with Google or the fact people are not building their infrastructure correctly?

Notes from my Day Job

2005-02-23T00:10:00.000+01:00

One of the coolest security implementations I have seen for a while was Entrusts Identity Guard. As Mr Gates (latest industry affectation) said in last year’s Keynote the day of the Alpha Numeric Password (even with special characters and punctuation no less) is just not considered secure. The two schools of thought are PKI (delivered on Smartcard) or Token.

Certificates (PKI) are excellent but need secure storage and a reader to make them fly. Storing of a Certificate on your local hard disk is by many not considered secure as you are storing your encryption/signing key with your data that is only protected with a password (remember them). The secure option is to have your Certificate stored on some kind of credit card that can server as a physical biometric (photo ID) and perhaps even building access. The problem with this technology is you need a reader, the new way of approaching this is to deliver this solution through a USB device.

Tokens come in all shapes and sizes but all work on the basic same principle. The user takes the number on the token (changes every so often) and adds a secret number only they know to the front of the number. The resulting code is entered into the password filed if all the numbers match up your granted access. Cool bit of technology portable but does not allow you take advantage of many of the features offered by Certificates. I forgot to mention certificates have the added advantage of giving you pseudo single sign-on. A number of banks have taken this technology and implemented it in retail banking. You can also use the same method for transaction signing.

The only problem you have with both of the above is they both require me to send something physical through the mail (not strictly true in the case of certs or soft tokens). Interesting nugget from this years conference is that the NSA consider FedEx as a viable method of transferring confidential information, although I hasten to add not Top Secret. The current lag is five working days for getting something to all parts of the world. Even with this you have a problem of the enrollment ceremony has how can you attest to the fact that the recipient is the one you sent the device to. That of course comes down to Mr Process.

The reason I like IdentityGuard is that I can cheaply create a portable limited lifetime token that can be distributed by say a secure website. I have a client collaboration space I need to share. I add in my clients and it asks me to add the users details required to get access. For each user I get given a URL that I paste into an email asking them to join this space. At time of enrollment the client (who I know) calls me and I take him through the process over the phone. Now I know its not so secure as the other two methods but its easy to expire and looks on the face of it very viable for securing data that is High Value but of limited lifetime.

Monday Blues

2005-02-21T20:24:00.000+01:00

Today I feel totally useless, I’ve been searching my mind and its not one thing but appears to be more everything. I guess for once I am really am plotdotlost. Its my dad’s birthday and I feel like I should be with him. I miss my ex-girlfriend so much today and I feel I should be with her. I’m unable to get a reliable builder to do anything on the farm. All I do just seems to upset everybody. Once I have cleared up this mess I’m not sure what I’ll do I just hope it gets a bit better as I’m not up to too much more of this. Nearly 40, very successful work wise but a total disaster personally. Eight hours or so a day of work used to make up for the parts that are missing but it does not have the same luster anymore.
From a work standpoint is should be a good day. I’ve been invited to sit on the conference board for the largest Security Conference on the planet for the second time in a row. Something to wear my lovely new suit I was bought for Christmas. The memory of Christmas day is so clear to me I’ve never been as happy or been given such a wonderful gift. I remember thinking at the time lord take me now as I will never feel this good again.
In the words of Scarlet tomorrow is another day.

Catch me if you can

2005-02-18T23:57:00.000+01:00

For the first time I attended the closing of the RSA Conference. Just like the opening session is normally done by some industry luminary such as Mr Gates (seems be the latest affectation) and the finial session is given by a comic, this year it was given by the ex fraudster Frank.
Telling a your life story to a room full of Security Specialists is a hard gig when you are an ex con. Two years ago Kevin Mitnick appearance did not go down well, the panel session were Ira Winkler and Mitnick is still one of the most entertaining one way exchange I have ever seen. I’ve always been had the highest respect for Ira and he dissected Mitnick in moments. With this back drop I wondered how Mr Abagnale would be received.
And that’s were you really have it Mr Abagnale to call him Frank or Abagnale would not show the required respect he deserves. It was a great story not a whole lot like the movie but fascinating. He comes across as a man of quick wit but with an overwhelming sense of the important things in life love and family. I find his words are resonating within me, he talked with such force about the features that characterize a man. It is certainly the most enjoyable and moving forty minutes I have spent with strangers.

RSA Day One

2005-02-16T16:27:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was day on of the RSA Conference which was kicked off by Bill Gates. He is still not the best speaker in the world and this year he really had very little to say. The main announcement was the pre-release of I.E. 7.0 before it ships with Longhorn. We all have been waiting for Longhorn but I’m wondering what the desktop version will do as it will be lacking Microsofts new secure file system for that it’s a matter of waiting for Longhorn Server. ISA server looks like its trying to draw level with the more established firewall providers by offering an enterprise management consol. Microsofts anti-spam/spyware stuff was ok but I’d seen it before so it was not that much great news. To be honest I was falling asleep throughout the keynote.
A couple of the track sessions in the afternoon were ok but the one from Oracle was very good. Topic was Federated Identity Management – Implementation in Action. An excellent speaker who put all the component parts into context a very insightful thought provoking talk. The only downside was the dumb ass questions, some of these people should not be allowed out in public. I found the Trusted Computing, Identity Management, and Web Services, Enabling the Next Generation of the Internet interesting. The speaker was workmanlike in his delivery but the information was well laid out and was thought provoking. I came away energized with a number of ideas on how the technology could be merged with some other methods for non-repudiation to deliver a more trusted environment.
Best part of yesterday was I managed to sleep. First time my body clock has got in tune with the local time in less than a week.

Travel Update

2005-02-14T14:56:00.000+01:00

Got to the hotel later than planned, flight was due in at 4:30 but it was just before 7pm before I drove into the hotel. The Neverlost system is useless they should change its name to Everlost. It took a couple of attempts to get the one way system and it some became evident it was better to switch the system off and just navigate by landmarks. Fortunately its far from my first time in downtown San Francisco so I basically knew my way around.
Was real funny about 6 years ago I spent a week in San Jose and I remembered getting lost on the way to the highway. What was funny was we passed the same spot this time, funny what you remember.
The Hotel is ok but they put me into a disabled room. Not that it’s a problem but the guy I’m traveling with just keeps on calling me a Joey. His wife calls me trailer park trash I’m not doing well in the credibility stakes.
I left my bloody phone on the plane. Gave them a call from the Hotel last night and it had not been handed in. I’m sure it will turn up its not the first time I’ve been running around like a headless chicken and forgotten it. Last time was on the way to South Africa. Hope it turns up as its strange not having a phone. I left my backup in my desk draw as I thought I would not need to bring two, always the same. At least the old one plays MP3’s so I could have listened to some tunes.
Not sure what’s on the cards today go register then go off to San Jose.

Over Greenland

2005-02-14T14:43:00.000+01:00

At the time of writing I’m just over Greenland on the way to the RSA Conference 2005. I was not looking forward to flying British Airways not because I have anything against them more the fact that I had to get a flight to the UK then onwards to San Francisco rather than flying direct. Pain in the arse and adds some two hours to what is already a long journey, Get into town around 5pm local time then it’s a quick drive downtown to the hotel. Its been a good flight so far as BA have beds and I always feel special when flying upstairs.
Last year I was on the conference board for the European RSA conference and at the one I’m attending I make the founders circle. Not sure what that all means but its free. Not managed to make one of the gala’s this year took the tux out of its wrapping had a look then decided better of it. After some 38 years of not attending his sort of event I thought why change the habit of a life time. The tux is a recent purchase for one reason and one reason only. I had made a rash statement that I would never wear one and then my ex girlfriend made issue of it. Last time I was in the US I spent a small fortune on the whole outfit with shoes, shirt studs and cuff links. It does not seem the same wearing it without her on my arm so I decided to wrap it up and leave it in storage for another time.
Things between us are going much better right now and I realize how much I do love her. Once I have sorted out the mess that is my life I hope we can get back together. Its time for both of us to move on, I’ve been with my current employer now for some 5 years. Progression has been good and I’m not seen as a total idiot but there is nothing for me in the long run. With age creeping up on me its time to move again and get another step up the slippery pole.
Will be a good trip as one of the guys I work with is traveling with me. This guy worked for me at my last firm and we both contracted at the current employer for about a year. When I jumped ship I was always on at this guy to come across. Two years later and once more he’s working for me or just getting paid to laugh at me I’m never sure which. From memory this is only the second trip away the last time was doing something with one of the large UK Telco’s in the mid 90’s. Mammoth game of Command and Conquer Yuri’s Revenge did not play each other as I would have got a right kicking. This used to be my old companies game 8 guys staying after work kicking the hell out of each other. These days its more BFV or 1942.

Driving Fine

2005-02-04T14:42:00.000+01:00

Was off in Den Haag buying an external USB drive and took a tight right hand turn to get back to the highway. It appear I missed a sign that showed I could only turn left or go straight on. Next thing I know I was pulled over by a policeman on a bicycle. Nice guy but it was clear he was not going to let me off with a warning. The fine was 45 guilders until I pointed out its now Euro's. Copper was a nice guy so we had joke about it and waved as I drove off 45 Euro's worse off. Nice thing about the cops in Holland is that they just write up the ticket and do not break your balls over it, much better than other countries I could name. Speeding fines become a bit of a pain when you get one for going 5 clicks over the speed limit on the highway.Went over to see the ex girlfriend last night so I could put back the pc etc that I had taken in the break up. She had a frank open discussion with me and to my surprise she does not see me as the Smacktard that is my own self image. I'm still mystified by what an articulate, funny, successful babe with everything going for her still sees in me after I've been such a monster to. Fortunately I did not take all the correct bits for the pc so I will need to go back around to finish off. Think I might have to take it all back one item at a time. Still waiting for a quote from the builder, going to work from home on Monday so I can meet with him and the plumber. Hope the quote is good as I do not want to be going back around looking for yet another builder. . .

Upgrade to Home Router

2005-02-02T23:17:00.000+01:00

Just upgraded my Alcatel (nee. Ascend) SpeedTouch 510 to R4.2.3 of the software to fix a problem I was having with Passive Mode FTP. The firmware was easy to find and download. The installation process was just as simple. Such a long way since we have to attach a serial cable and use Kermit.
Back to the scooter project I've now been advised it would make more sense to fit a 125cc 2 Stroke from a PK125/ET3, it appears that this is a more cost effective hybrid. If it has the original engine number matched to the frame I can claim ignorance when I get stopped, hang on I just blogged that . . .

New Project

2005-02-02T16:00:00.000+01:00

The weather is starting to get a little better and its time to get the 83 Vespa PK50 XL back out of storage. It’s a very tatty manual Vespa hand painted by a previous owner with a leaking gearbox and occasional timing problems. That being said I’ve done 20,000 clicks on it (estimate as the cable is snapped) and it starts first kick.
Its about time I spent a little money on the bike so I’m looking to increase the power output. After a bit of reading around I have decided to make the following modifications:
DR 110cc kit (new cylinder head)
19mm cab
Upgrade the gear ratio with 110 racing gear kit
Front and back DR Brake shoes
New shock absorbers front and back
Might create a how to guide with photos.
No intention of changing the look of the bike otherwise it will get nicked.

2005-02-02T14:26:00.000+01:00

I notice today that Microsoft has launched its own search engine to try and compete with Google. MSN has always provided search but before I think it was bought in from Yahoo but now the Redmond boys are pushing ahead with their own solution. Sounds like it has a number of funky features. I submitted this blog to it, so lets see what happens, the submit for was here.

Domain Name Lorry Sheds Load

2005-02-02T13:04:00.000+01:00

Looking after your DNS registration as a private individual is fairly easy a couple of domain names are easy to maintain and most company’s are only to happy to charge your credit card for another year. Problems arise when you have many 100’s or even thousands of Domain’s that you need to keep track of. Found a great story about the UK Secret Service who forgot to pay their subscription for a security site that is reference on MoD sites. Two disgruntled operatives have taken over the site, redirected the MX record and started answering email on the users behalf, priceless. Story was first published on cryptome.

Something of Nothing

2005-02-01T22:15:00.000+01:00

1st of February and I’m approaching 39 soon it will be the big, so people tell me, 40. Do not feel any older and I do not seem to see the world any different. Well that’s not totally true. One of the guys at work has bought a nice 5 year old range rover. Nice tidy motor not a scratch on it, not to many clicks with all the trimmings. Nice car but it just all looks a bit tired, same with the mini I looked at during the week all just looks somehow a little shoddy. Guess I’m starting to get critical which is a sign of getting old to be sure.
Going around to see my ex girlfriend tomorrow which I’m looking forward to. Only talked the once and I miss her company all the time. Catch myself thinking I wonder what her perspective on this or that would be. Main reason is to take all the toys back I took such as the PC and Oven. She needs them more than I do, if I hang onto them now all they are going to do is sit around in boxes and run out of warranty. Hope I can manage not to be to much of an arse so she wants rid of me straight away, she always was a great friend long before we came an item and I really miss her. God I’m turning into a right soppy sod better nip out for a crafty fag with a cup of tea.

Moment of Madness

2005-01-31T21:05:00.000+01:00

I’m a total idiot.
Off to San Francisco for the 4th time to the RSA Conference and what do I do only book the bloody Hotel for one night. I managed to book the Gimp in for the whole time but must have messed up on my own application form. Well I guess it will be nice for a change and not have to share with all the other guys. Its funny you come in a couple of days before and the Internet service is fine. Then the conference starts and the net goes down like a lead balloon. There are more script kiddies trying to make a name for themselves than normal conference attendees. You even get cryptology groupies weirdi beardies who have grown to the natural size of their cubical the smell is unbelievable, especially when it rains. In Paris 3 or 4 years ago I thought the stage was going to collapse when all the crypto guys got a bit excited and decided to stand no auditorium was ever designed to take that combined weight. In any case staying on fifth so not that far from the centre on fourth. The weather is always crap hope somebody is giving away free umbrellas. This year I must remember to take my cd drive and 1942 I cannot buy yet another copy to pass the time.

Hockey Town

2005-01-31T11:52:00.000+01:00

I dropped a mate at the Bus station last night and on the way home there was a piece on the Canadian Hockey lock out on the BBC World Service it reminded me of the time a couple of years ago when I was in Toronto and first got an understanding of how passionate the Canadians are about Hockey.
I was in the Eaton Center doing a bit of shopping killing time between meetings. I was looking around one of the sports shops thinking about getting a hockey shirt. Was not serious about it was just a means of passing time. Four or five big guys were in the “shop” part of the store doing whatever people do with skates.
A middle aged guy stopped one of the guys walking around the floor and politely asked him were he could find mans figure skates.
The shop assistance had an expression of pure shock on his face and his expression screamed “FAG”. It took a couple of seconds for him to collect his thoughts before replying “man we do not sell figure skates this is a hockey town!”
The poor guy looking for figure skates did not take to kindly to the town and pressed his question asking were he could get such an item. The floor walker was just lost for words so walked with the customer over to the “shop”.
“Guys, this GENTLEMAN is looking for a set of men’s figure skates!”
All operations in the “shop” stopped as the guys turned around with looks of total disbelief, everyone of them with the “FAG” expression.
The lead man looked at the customer and said “man we do not sell figure skates this is a hockey town!”
At this point the customer was starting to feel a bit put out by the attitude of the staff. He tried a number of times to get information but it was clear that the guys had either never heard of men’s figure skates or had blocked them out of their mind. The customer ploughed on with trying to explain the number of Olympic success Canada had enjoyed in the figure skating. After a couple of minutes the customer left in disgust.

Fun Packed Saturday Night

2005-01-29T18:57:00.000+01:00

Today was a fairly long drawn out affair, started off fairly well managed to get a hour of BFV played (my score sucks big time). Went off to the BMW dealer to have a look at the new mini. Fairly nice car in the flesh just a bit naff inside but that’s what you seem to get these days in the budget range. The sales girl was ok but not really very interested I love the Dutch it’s the we are over here if your bothered approach to selling cars. Of course its not possible to have a test drive on Saturdays as the staff are not there. In some ways you should applaud the Dutch system for having shop staff away at the weekends but it does make you think how does anybody find the time during the week? Still have to wait for personnel to tell me what the new car policy (if there is one will be). The car has to go back in 20k which is about 4 months of driving. The lead time on the mini is some three months so it will be a balancing act between the old and the new.
After the car show room was going to drop in on IKEA but it was jumping with people so did a quick spin away from the place. Next it was on to the shops in Amstelveen to pick up some bits for the vacuum cleaner. Town was real busy so did not bother and went to get some chicken food instead.
Got home and cleaned out the chickens. Does not like its been done for a few months. The hens are starting to lay in the tool shed or on a bail of hay which tends to make me think they are not happy with the hen house. Cleaned out all the boxes and the rearing pen putting new hay in for bedding. Must have been some mites in the old bedding as I have been bitten to pieces.
Finished my washing and now I have evening of looking forward to the ironing!

Saturday Morning

2005-01-29T09:57:00.000+01:00

Saturday morning and the normal huge amount of exciting things to do on the weekend, you know washing, ironing sorting through all your possessions deciding what to throw, sell or split between you. Yesterday I went got animal food, packing boxes (from some nice guys on the bottom of the Overtoom), tape and a hair cut. Nothing to report on the rat front apart from the light was flashing but there was no rat in the trap. I checked out the batter pack and it appears not all the batteries were seated properly. Afternoons seems to be the time so lets hope it gets something today.
Had a good chat with my university buddy down in Australia first thing, msn messenger is a wonderful thing. Talked about my stupidity and leaving the most wonderful women in the world L I know I should be feeling more but I guess that will hit me in a few months when it all sinks in. Had a chat with the ex during the week still owe her some cash, managed to get a loan to pay off what I owe did not want that between us. The phrase “Right person, wrong time keeps turning over in my head”.
Off to go look at cars thinking of getting the new mini but will have to go see it in the flesh, will make a change from buying cars for others.
And finally you can now find the site through Google wow I finally did something.

Off to bed short reflection on the day

2005-01-26T23:58:00.000+01:00

Quite day today nothing much to do in the morning, afternoon was a bit more lively as up with the big man tomorrow AM. Got a scoob at some new upstairs 3 year plan which makes more bits of the jigsaw fit together so guess me and the boss need to get together first thing to try and grab ourselves a good slice of the pie.
Back home tonight and all quite on the mouse/rat front. There was a smell of burning around the feed bin trap and the light was flashing but nothing had been toasted!!! Everything is reset and the saying goes tomorrow is another day.

Strike One

2005-01-25T23:31:00.000+01:00

Got back from work today and checked the rat zappers in the barn. I placed one between the feed bins and the other on a ledge were I have seen rats running along both bated with dried cat food. The one on the ledge has not been touched nor has the few morsels of cat food I placed around the trap to give the rats the general idea. The one between the feed bins had an interesting red flashing light sure sign that the trap had been sprung. No rat but a fairly large black mouse. Not what I was looking for but the death of any of the fury fiends suits me just fine. Lets see if the morning brings anything better.

Tuesday gets a bit better

2005-01-25T13:14:00.000+01:00

Things are looking up a little today. My ex girlfriend came around and we spoke for the first time since we split up. My decision to just up sticks, take all my stuff was totally out of the blue for both of us and I’m incredibly sorry for the emotional fall out this has caused. I hope we can become friends again as she was/is such a major part of my life and without doubt the most amazing person I have ever met. To see her so unhappy rips me in two. I’m amazed that after my behavior she even wants to talk to me but as one of my friends said you can never know what the other person sees in you.
Checked the rat zapper this morning but nothing. Its early days yet and after reading the literature its clear that this could take a number of days before the little guys get used to the idea.
Have to prepare for an Executive meeting with Cisco and need to work out what we are going to talk about. Nothing really new in their space but I will have a look through the current product set and see what we can talk about.

Last Minute Blog

2005-01-25T01:37:00.000+01:00

The Rat Zappers I bought from the UK actually arrived!!! Not that bad service. Minor problem with the large extra powerful batter pack as neither seemed to work. I phoned the company I had bought the zapper from and he told me to check I had the contacts correctly placed on the unit. I took the box to bits whilst he was talking and check, he was dead on right once I had the batteries pushed home the little red light flicked into life. I decided not to do the finial test which involved a nasty spark couple with a bang and involved a screwdriver best left to the professionals. The power plugs in on a phono jack and one of the units seemed to have a bit of a problem. I could not be bothered sending the unit back so stripped it down removed the obstruction and reassembled much to my surprise it worked. After careful review of the product literature the zappers have been installed in the stable block. One is carefully installed in the rafters on a well known rat highway whilst the other is hidden behind the feed bins a place rats will always be shocked if they do not find a free meal. Both units have been baited with cat food after the recommendation of the manufacturer. I wonder how long before we get the first kill.

Monday Lunch Time Look at the Day

2005-01-24T14:49:00.000+01:00

Snow is flurrying past the window, not looking forward to the train ride back from work tonight (will get to finish the Da Vinci Code). Wrote the exec summary for the corporate governance paper one minor modification after some peer feedback and my contribution is done for now. Need to shuffle the PKI deck then hop on a 5 year strategy call.

Forgot to mention that the new airgun worked very well and with a single shot the cesspit is now back in action. Next step is to start baiting up the barn to see if I can get any of the rats. A bit of internet research at www.ratkill.com gave me the tips I need to coax the rodents into range. Now the nights are getting colder a few nights with the gun and the traps will get the problem under control. Off to the states in mid February so will pick up a few more of the rat zappers interestingly they even do a wireless base station that alerts you when one of your traps has worked.

Lastly I finial got around to registering my first domain name, not sure what I’m going to use it for perhaps my own email service and as a hosting site for a number of pictures.

Back to work

2005-01-23T23:20:00.000+01:00

Long and eventful weekend. Had to go and collect the last of my things for the apartment I shared with my ex girlfriend. Sad to see a picture of us smashed on the floor and pictures torn up, only natural I guess. It was hard seeing all the things I’d bought her stuffed into the items she wanted me to take away. I took them out and left them as I bought them for her if she does not want them then she can throw them away I do not want them back. I had planned to leave the PC and some other bits and pieces so she could make use of them but it looks like she is leaving town so I thought I would reclaim them now. No idea what I need another PC for but I’m sure I will find a use for it in the future. By the time the farm has been finished and sold the PC will be so out of date it will need a new one. It took two trips to the flat to get the last of the things sad to think a week ago I was leaving with one suitcase and black bag with all my clothes in.

Interviewed two lots of builders both seemed good. Think I will go for the slightly more expensive builder as he will do all the running around something I just do not have the time for. I think things will kick off in about three weeks plenty of time to get the skips in to get rid of most of the old builders waste. Managed to clean up all of downstairs and throw away lots of junk, all the good stuff is now upstairs. Next couple of weeks will involve unpacking/repacking all the stuff that’s been in boxes for four years! I wish it was all sold up and I could move on but that’s going to be a year or so yet.

I did manage to get an airgun a Gamo CX 1000FPS with a Varmint Hunter Kit Scope (laser site and lamp). I download some targets measured out 15 meters and scoped out the gun. I laid down on a horse rug and used an upturned bucket with an old sponge to rest the gun. It took about five shots to get the scope setup correctly and then I put the laser into the middle of the site. Much to my surprise I managed to cluster 10 pellets within the 1 cm bull from 15 meters! I had messed about with friends airguns when I was a kid and had always been a crap shot. After a bit of internet reading and a chat with the guy in the shop and I could pop off a rat at 50 meters without any bother technology is great. Rat hunting is going to have to wait a while started to bait up the barn so they get used to feeding in range.

Friday workday

2005-01-21T13:27:00.000+01:00

Today has all been about time slicing between a PKI Paper, Corporate IT Structure/Governance models, the ongoing rat problem and getting some stuff back from a Hotel I stayed at in October with all that I have a dentist appointment to fit in later and a long chat with a mate.

The PKI paper must be the third one I have done now and its still nowhere near off the blocks. PKI has a number of uses but when trust/risk issues are involved we seem to retrench to our paper based systems. Document archiving and customer workflow are both physical paper based so the addition of digital signatures for Integrity/non repudiation have limited application. There are a number of IT uses for PKI SSL and TLS but these are IT not Business reasons. It’s the age old question why look at something that’s only going to bring a 5% saving many other places to bring value. At last year’s RSA Art was saying to me about is this the year for PKI I guess not yet. Gartner said we would all have looked at this by 2004 which we have (many times) but as yet its not fully hear in our business.

Corporate IT Structure/Governance models, its been a fun two weeks with the road show in town with internals and consultants flying in from the four corners of the world. It amazes me how people get stuck down in the detail rather than look at the legal framework that meshes the corporation together. Its clear the technology implementation is opposed to our legal structure but is inline with the global Vision/Strategy.

Forgot to mention at the begging I applied for the Corporate MBA today. Boss man talked to the big man. Looks like I am the first one with my nose in the trough this year so I stand a good chance. Once the big man has your name in his mind it tends to stick which means my name will come up first in any discussions. Breaking it off with my wonderful girlfriend and getting on finial lap for the farm made my decision to get on with doing the MBA. I turned down the chance for an on the job PhD with the country hop so its time to get back on with it. Approaching 40 and I should get around to completing my studies.

Stayed at a wonderful hotel in Cape Town in October, happiest 10 days of my life. Spent the middle five days in Mauritius deep sea fishing and just being together. Mauritius is a great place to buy clothes as most are many designers assemble their products on the island. I bought a number of items but then left them in the Hotel room back in Cape Town, doh. Three months later and I get around to sorting out the courier.

Last trip to the dentist today for six months its about time. Seems for every year I do not go it’s a filling and this time I had a tooth out. Once the divorce is through and the house is sold I will have the money to buy a bridge to replace the missing molar.

As for the chat its been a long time since I spoke to my legal buddy in the UK would like to get her perspective on the whole thing.

Last thing need to get into a bit of pest control so off to get me an air rifle. With the weather being so cold a bit of indoor rat shooting sounds like a plan. The rats have started to get the upper hand and a cull is due. I have invested in a couple of the excellent rat zappers but thought a bit of cold blood killing would help. After doing a lot of research I think a .25 Air gun should do the job and a lot of practice.

Add Blog to Search Engine

2005-01-20T20:28:00.000+01:00

Now I have no girlfriend and I’m living in a building site I have much more time to spend writing the blog. The first problem I came across today was that I could not find my blog listed on the Internet so I thought its time to add this site to a number of search engines. Never really done this before and came across a number of ways to pay for the privilege of having your blog listed. I found an excellent site that allows me to manually plotdotlost to a number of search engines. It will be interesting, as I have nothing better to do, to see if it works. More information on this to follow.

All bunged up

2005-01-18T20:13:00.000+01:00

Professional help in Holland that’s like a honest estate agent a dead breed. The man came look out the window at the pipe then told me I needed a pipe cleaner. I tried to point out that the pipe clear had already told me I needed a plumber! Resigned to the fact the toilet needed fixing I set to work on it myself.

After marginal success with the drain cleaner for the Karcher, I was getting more and more frustrated and even more likely to become very close friends with the cesspit. I finial decided there was nothing for it but to take the whole pipe away. After a quick root around in the tool shed I came up with a nice handy crowbar, a masonry chisel and the hammer (wow all my tools were in the right place). A few taps later and the pipe was in my hand, so what if a bit of concrete would be required.

I set about separating the three pipe sections and in a couple of minutes had a two foot long root ball with the diameter of a tennis ball, god only know how the toilet worked all this time!!! Replacing everything was fairly easy, I did a fairly wet mix of sand, cement and a few stones a bit of shuttering and the thing is back together.

Yet again it proves if you want something doing yourself in Holland do it yourself trying to get anybody to a job of work is bloody impossible.

Good Bacteria

2005-01-17T14:43:00.000+01:00

The ongoing work on fixing up and selling the farm has started a new lease of life after the bank came through with the money. Over the weekend I had the delight of my estranged wife telling me that the toilet would not flush. So mean as ever I go over myself with plunger in hand, I push I probe but the water does not budge. Next step off to the DIY shop for a drain winder to try and remove the blockage, but in typical style I get one that’s to big for the job, back to the DIY shop for a more manageable apparatus. After a short root around that’s what comes out brown roots. Then I twig the fact the thing is blocked with roots, “why would somebody flush roots down the, oh hang on that means something is growing into the drain!”

So I’m around the back of the house with a spade on finding the cesspit (the eventual point of this story) and set about finding the toilet waste pipe. I spot two of them and work both of them back but both appear to be dead ends. After opening the tank itself, not for the faint of heart or stomach I find the pipe with a beard of roots dropping out the end. I trace the pipe back to the wall and find its cracked to such an extent it needs a proper job. Therefore I need to call for professional help, that and the fact the cesspit is a bit close to this operation for one as clumsy as I. I notice the tank is a bit full and remember putting a few chemicals down to remove the blockage which have no doubt killed the bacteria.

Its time to phone a to seek knowledge on all maters related to cesspits. I get hand over to a man who does, a French man working in Holland who speaks flawless English! After much advice on pumping and cost per square meter of effluence he gives me the following advice:

“You could always pay $50 for some top up bacteria or just sling in a dead chicken or two”.

So if your cesspit is full
And the place is humming
A chicken’s neck go pull
And fix your dodgy pluming

Anonymous Posting

2005-01-13T18:15:00.000+01:00

Tracing of people who post anonymously is not as hard as you would think but they have to say something that you could bring court or police action into. Your anonymity is protected as a blog site will protect your identify (IP Address) not letting it fall into the hands of somebody you just ticked off. That being said if you were to say something libelous or had some knowledge of an unsolved crime then you should be aware that the PC you did this from has the potential to be tracked down.

The police contact the website prove their case and get access to the IP address. The IP address can be traced to a service provider not a very tricky thing to do you just do a whois search. This will give you the named owner of the person who owns the address range. This may be a large ISP or company. Once you have this name you contact them using the Telephone number provided asking them nicely about things like their process for providing information on users and perhaps about their acceptable use policy. If you have evidence of the wrong doing you can share with the company often they are only to happy to help, if you have the correct credentials. Now I hear you say “but the address range used my ISP is private registered address space, the old RFC 1918/NAT argument”, but this does not hold water. Just because it’s not publicly addressable the ISP/Company keeps records for billing/administrative purposes. If your ISP/Company leverage DHCP the DHCP server itself logs which physical device is assigned an IP address at any one time. If you have a cable modem they have you at this point. If you used dial up then the same process may have to be gone through with the teleco but at this stage this does not take very long.

I’ve been involved were somebody was publishing libelous information from a chain of internet cafes. What had not occurred to them was that for security reasons the internet café had installed surveillance camera’s. The perpetrator was identified from the surveillance video and then the guy still got a tap on the shoulder. The camera showed the guy at the computer at the time that computer uploaded the libel.
There is always a way around this type of protection lets face it most phones are still analog. I remember a simple way in the old UK Travel lodges. Each room had a payphone but because they had done it on the cheap you could unscrew the faceplate for the phone unplug the payphone wire in you laptop/telephone and call all night for free. Camera’s were something of a problem but a simple disguise and paying for the room in cash gave a good level of protection. This was a common move for pedophiles who traded images directly taking advantage of secure tunnels using 3DES.

Blog On

2005-01-13T16:01:00.000+01:00

20 years in the IT Industry numerous posts on news and chat sessions on IRC but this is the first time I have put figure to keyboard as part of a blog site. I'm not even sure what I'm going to use this medium for perhaps nothing the whole thing may disappear in a week or so if I loose interest in writing about nothing.

Over the last ten years I’ve worked in a number of fields advising cooperates on how to secure information or helping track down those who have stolen it. Since day one I’ve known the Internet is not an anonymous place with a few tools and a few tricks in what has trendily become called social engineering you can track somebody down fairly quickly. Its all dreadfully simple the problem is most people see “cyber space” as a complex environment were you can do and say what you want. As a student of those who engage in the murkier side of the Internet I’m aware of a number of other tools/techniques that can be used to track down authors without resorting to legal means.

When I get time between my ex. wife, girlfriend, work and the numerous other things that leach my time I will run through a number of topics that may be of interest to those who want to understand the nature of the Internet.

One of the main reasons I chose this site was because it had a nicely written privacy policy. I suggest you all read this in conjunction with the site rules as these provide a wealth of information that can be used to your advantage. The statement:

This page summarizes the privacy policy and practices on the Blogdrive Web site. We will not willfully disclose your private individual data without your express permission, unless required for law enforcement or by statute

It does not say court order/subpoena just law enforcement if you were to post a something that may have evidence to a criminal case then this website would provide the requesting police force with:

· Your computer's Internet Protocol (IP) address. (An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you go on the Web.)
· The domain from which you access the Internet (for example, aol.com, if you are connecting from an America Online account).
· The Internet address of the Website, if any, from which you came to our site (for example, www.yahoo.com).
· The date and time you arrived at our site and how long you spent on the site.
· The name and version of your computer's operating system and browser: for example, Windows XP/Netscape Navigator 6.x. (This information is supplied automatically by your computer.)
· Which pages you visited.

Say you posted in Ireland to a website in the USA the criminal activities you were talking about would no doubt be in Ireland. The Gardi would contact the blog host providing credentials and a reason to see the log extract if necessary completing the correct legal paperwork. This information would be passed back. If you connected from your home telephone, cable provider, wireless network this would have been in Ireland. It would then be fairly simple for the Gardi to then follow the same process on their home turf. What happens next your door goes in at 2am you, your loved ones and your PC are all having to explain the prank you were trying to play.

I guess the reason this does not happen more often is there is so much out on the internet that you would really have to do something really stupid to get anybody’s attention believe me people do it.