Orb Designs Graffiti, a Daily Blog - May 02, 2005 thru May 08, 2005

GRAFFITI -- May 02, 2005 thru May 08, 2005

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Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable. About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

MONDAY Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
May 2, 2005

0706 - Good morning. Yesterday evening, I got an invitation to a birthday party, later this month. It's on the left coast, so it's unlikely that I'll make it to Colonel Mike Buckley's shindig, it's bound to be a good time. Col. Mike, my matrilineal great uncle, is going to be 103 this time 'round.

Today, I work on firewalls, a mailman installation that's delivering with unexplained delays, and whatever else I can get my nose into. Now to work with me!

Top / Email Brian

Mon TUESDAY Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
May 3, 2005

0900 - Good morning. Getting an early start didn't help ... there was traffic out the wazoo, and back in some other orifice. Now I've got plenty to keep me busy, so I'd best be about it. Have a great day!

Top / Email Brian

Mon Tues WEDNESDAY Thu Fri Sat Sun
May 4, 2005

1017 - Good morning. Well, maybe. Yesterday morning turned out to provide record low temperatures for the books, and the unexpected May frost killed off my tomato plants. We might have had one again last night, but didn't, and may again tomorrow morning. So we're covering the strawberry production box overnight to protect the buds, and I'll wait until Saturday to pick up new seedlings for the tomato beds.

Yesterday also was full of unplanned modifications. We made changes to the HVAC setup. I pulled, repaired three (!) malfunctioning fans, and re-racked a server. And I did cube-farm modifications to construct a double-wide for an incoming QA bloke. So today I'm back on the PF firewall rules trail, and hope to stay there long enough to make progress. I leave you with this quote from Doc Searls' site: "Hugh doesn't do necrophilia for free." It's not as bad as it sounds, but you'll have to go hunt that up for yourself -- I'm getting back to work here.

Top / Email Brian

Mon Tues Wed THURSDAY Fri Sat Sun
May 5, 2005

0632 - Good morning. Here's some homework for you to follow up on. First, there's pcHDTV, a place that sells the HD-3000. It's a Linux-friendly (no supported Windows drivers) HDTV card for your upscale Linux box. Better yet, it doesn't support the Broadcast Flag. So it's only legal to sell these until June 30, a little under two months from now. I'm buying two. Are you? Or do you care whether broadcasters and TIVO get to choose what you record and time-shift?

Other useful links from this discussion: AntennaWeb and "An HDTV Primer" with more information than you can shake a sackfull of sticks at. A number of people are happily using this card with MythTV. nVidia cards above some level (look for hardware-accelerated MPEG decoding) will help, and certainly a 2.4GHz CPU. This stuff isn't for the PIII ... I'm also told that cable decoding (for some cable systems) will work with built-into-the-kernel drivers, starting with 2.6.12, although pcHDTV doesn't support that yet.

Now to work with me, where I'll continue doing whatever comes naturally. Ciao!

Top / Email Brian

Mon Tues Wed Thu FRIDAY Sat Sun
May 6, 2005

0639 - Good morning. On the subject of buying hardware that isn't Broadcast Flag aware, Mark Huth weighs in... I carefully selected his messages and dragged them over to my hotlist mail folder, where I save stuff for either posting or later response or whatever. Well, I *thought* I dragged them over there! SIgh.

To summarize, Mark suggests that the solution should be political, not technical, and that instead of buying cards, I should be funding organizations like the EFF that are fighting against the bastards who are buying the FCC... Since I already donate annually to the EFF, I choose to hedge my bets and also buy the cards. I approve of the EFF, and they do great work, but those with the gold make the rules, and the bastards have a lot more gold. Said plainly, they can afford more politicians than we can, and beside, if *they* were smart enough to really understand these issues and at least work for compromise instead of being political flunkies for the RIAA/MPAA/younameit yahoos who want to ensure that we're consumers of their advertising-laden-crap-salad unto the end of days ... well, they would be smart enough to not want to be politicians, eh?

I'm sorry, Mark. I just don't think that it'll make a difference. But I give to the EFF anyway, because I could be wrong.

Hey, at least it's Friday! Have a great day, see you later-ish.

1440 - Good afternoon. And good news on the Broadcast Flag front... Scott Kitterman wrote me and dropped this link in my lap: Victory in Broadcast Flag Case! FCC Has No Authority Says Court. Of course, the game isn't over, and I ordered those two cards a couple of hours before I heard the news. I'll still be getting those. Ciao!

Top / Email Brian

Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri SATURDAY Sun
May 7, 2005

1022 - Good morning. We slept late, the day is getting older by the minute, and I've got plants to place and replace. Back later, probably.

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Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat SUNDAY
May 8, 2005

1635 - Good afternoon. Bob Thompson writes:

FSIRT has announced a critical 0-day vulnerability in Firefox 1.0.3, and published working exploit code.
http://www.frsirt.com/exploits/20050507.firefox0day.php
This exploit allows an attacker to execute random code. If a user visits a malicious page and clicks anywhere on the page, the exploit code can create and execute a malicious batch or .exe file that contains code of the attacker's choosing. Mozilla has not yet released a final patch, but they do have a workaround and an interim patch available. For more details, see:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=293302
Until the patch is released, you can avoid the problem by clicking on Tools > Options > Web Features and disabling "Allow web sites to install software". Obviously, that's a good idea anyway. It would also be a good idea to disable javascript for routine browsing.

Linux systems do not appear to be vulnerable to this exploit, because merely using an executable filename extension such as .bat or .exe does not make a file executable under Linux. So, although the exploit code can still write a batch or .exe file with malicious code, that code cannot execute.

RBT

I've been busy. Gardening, shopping, a wedding reception, reading and commenting on Pournelle's next column. Time flies, I'm having fun, and all of a sudden I remember that I wanted to put something up here. I'll have pictures tomorrow, and some stuff about FreeBSD, if everything goes according to plan. If it doesn't, then it's because I decided to read one of my newer Terry Pratchett books, instead. One time at a thing... have a great balance of your weekend, and Happy Mother's Day!

1848 - Good evening. As I finally started to drop into my Sunday routine of chores and normal activities, I realized what was missing. I'd not spent the time I feel necessary to stay aware of the lives our soldiers are giving in our service:

1_st Lt. William A. Edens, 29, of Columbia, Mo. died April 28 in Tal Afar, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Stryker military vehicle.
Sgt. Eric W. Morris, 31, of Sparks, Nev. died April 28 in Tal Afar, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Stryker military vehicle.
Spc. Ricky W. Rockholt Jr., 28, of Winston, Ore. died April 28 in Tal Afar, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Stryker military vehicle.
Pfc. Robert W. Murray Jr., 21, of Westfield, Ind. died April 28 in Tal Afar, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Stryker military vehicle.
Sgt. Timothy C. Kiser, 37, of Tehama, Calif., died April 28 in Riyhad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his patrol.
Pfc. Darren A. Deblanc, 20, of Evansville, Ind. died April 29 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his dismounted patrol.
Pvt. Charles S. Cooper, Jr., 19, of Jamestown, N.Y. died April 29 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his dismounted patrol.
Cpl. Joseph S. Tremblay, 23, of New Windsor, N.Y., died April 27 from injuries received from a mine explosion while conducting combat operations in vicinity of Hit, Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Juan De Dios Garcia-Arana, 27, of Los Angeles, Calif., died April 30 in Khaladiyah, Iraq, when his Bradley Fighting Vehicle was attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire.
2nd Lt. Clifford V. Gadsden, 25, of South Carolina, died April 29 in Balad, Iraq, when a vehicle-born improvised explosive device detonated near his convoy vehicle.
Staff Sgt. Tommy S. Little, 47, of Aliceville, Ala., died May 2 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, of injuries sustained on April 19 near Iskandariyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.
Capt. Stephen W. Frank, 29, of Michigandied April 29 in Diyarah, Iraq, when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated as he was conducting a traffic control point inspection.
Capt. Ralph J. Harting III, 28, of Delawaredied April 29 in Diyarah, Iraq, when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated as he was conducting a traffic control point inspection.
Spc. Derrick J. Lutters, 24, of Burlington, Colo., died May 1 along a supply route in Iraq when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated while his unit was inspecting a bridge for enemy tampering.
Maj. John C. Spahr, 42, of Cherry Hill, N.J., died May 2 from injuries received when the F/A-18 Hornet aircraft he was piloting apparently crashed in Iraq.
Sgt. Kenya A. Parker, 26, of Fairfield, Ala., died April 30 in Baghdad, Iraq, of a non-combat related medical condition.
Capt. Kelly C. Hinz, 30, of Woodbury, Minn., died May 2 from injuries received when the F/A-18 Hornet aircraft he was piloting crashed in Iraq while flying in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. John E. McGee, 36, of Columbus, Ga., died May 2 near Diwaniyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his convoy vehicle.
Sgt. Stephen P. Saxton, 24, of Temecula, Calif., died May 3 in Baghdad, Iraq, when his unit was conducting a route security mission and an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.
Staff Sgt. William J. Brooks, 30, of Birmingham, Ala., died May 3 in Baghdad, Iraq, when his unit was conducting a route security mission and an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.

That's twenty more mothers who didn't get a call today. But you mothers ... you raised a child who went abroad in service of your country, followed orders and gave his life in the service of freedom. Yes, grieve, but be proud, too. I am, and I knew none of them.

Top / Email Brian

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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.

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GRAFFITI -- May 02, 2005 thru May 08, 2005

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