05 Jun 2004
Just because Kim wrote the URL in my english folder, and because there are some very cool pictures up in her gallery, a behemoth link to her site: http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/loth/l/i/lithanya/
No progress on the HP front – I’m thinking there is something screwy with my parallel port – perhaps it IS time to bother taking this mobo back… hmm. Onboard sound frazzled a few months ago, and I’ve been putting off replacing it – perhaps parallel got cooked simultaneously? Shrug. It wouldn’t be a problem, but for the fact that I’m unable to locate the USB cable for the damn thing. I’ll have a look around later for that, I guess.
As best I can tell, the Platform Seven streaming media server is still down — so, even if a recording was made, it couldn’t be uploaded until Monday at the earliest. I’ve had enough of a whinge about IT @ SACS in recent days, so I won’t say any more, other than that I think an outage may be in connection with paranoia over certain other… system compromises. Pure speculation, so don’t bother attacking me over that statement.
Even if I don’t give them abuse about it, another site hosted on the same server probably will — as malicious as this may seem, the longer it is out, the better – lower QoS means that people are more likely to start jumping up and down, making noise, and generally demanding that certain problems be resolved. Well, that’s the theory, anyway. I’ve sent emails to staff at SACS before and had them arrive four days late – whilst iiNet’s mail servers aren’t wonderful, if there was that kind of a delay, then they send out NetStatus messages about it, which didn’t happen, so I’m assuming it was a SACS problem, and not iiNet’s. The worst thing is, people haven’t jumped up and down that much about it. Brewing discontent, perhaps, but we’re yet to hit a stage of open rebellion.
When THAT happens, it will be most interesting to watch. Call Ticketek on 9266 4800 now. Err… okay, maybe not.
As alluded to yesterday, I was planning on writing a song about a certain series of events which have been happening over the past week. It doesn’t say anything more than what I have already, but some people may find it vaguely amusing, so what the heck.
To the tune of Pete Murray – So Beautiful:
Built this box just the other day
Installed FC1 booted away,
Hackin’ about j00,
Hackin’ the net j00′re in,
What you up too where you /bin?
(Just hackin’)
And all the packages j00 wear,
And the users in your /home
Shouldn’t chown you
Now you tell me why it’s so
You bigger than mighty Windows,
(At least you think so)
God my fingers burn,
Now when I think of hacking your lair
You have changed so much that I don’t know,
If I can login and tell you I care
And I would love to bring you down,
Set your uptime back on the ground
Throw my mouse down on the desk,
Turn my head, start to stress,
(They’re coming after me)
Compromises are so sweet
Always so much fun, so l33t
(At least I thought so)
Now you think j00′re so damn fine
j00 can’t rule the ‘net no not mine,
I don’t think so.
God my fingers burn,
Now when I think of hacking your lair
You have changed so much that I don’t know,
If I can login and tell you I care
Now the scan that you’re in,
And the users that login
Just get to me,
But j00 think I’m not as cool,
As j00 are so skillful
Well who j00 fooling
Well I’m here to tell you babe
The game j00′re in is just a game
So damn pretentious
God my fingers burn,
Now when I think of hacking your lair
You have changed so much that I don’t know,
If I can login and tell you I care
And I would love to bring you down,
Set your uptime back on the ground
You think you’re so skillful
(So skillful)
Sincerest apologies to Pete Murray and Sony Music Australia.
05 Jun 2004
I was going through a folder today which contained various stuff, and stumbled accross a piece of paper which had been written on the way to reha… the place where we had visions.
This has no real relevance to anything, at least, no more than most things posted here do, but I found it, and it’s kinda cool (I still don’t get how it works), so I’m posting it. If you want to know how on earth it is worked out, ask Tori!
I will end up marrying Katy, drive a Tricycle, have -3 (yes, negative three) children, and work in web development.
One out of four?
I think it was something like come up with five names of people from the opposite gender, five modes of transport, five numbers, and five occupations, and then draw some random spiral thingamajig. I was following it okay up until then… guess I’ll just have to trust her on the actual results, hey? :p
For those who care enough to want to know what COULD have happened:
Names: Tori, Sam, Katy, Kylie, Kim
Transport: Tricycle, Dump Truck, Unicycle, Limo, Jet ski
Numbers: -3, 9, 28, 3000, 2
Occupations: Custodial engineer, Waiter, Web developer, Sign painter, Butler.
Anyway, if you see me driving a tricycle anytime soon, be afraid. ;)
05 Jun 2004
I’m about to have another dig at SACS IT. Stop reading now if you don’t want to hear any more.
So, they’re a school, right? You’d presume that they, like most other businesses, would experience peak activity sometime during the week. You’d be wrong.
A few attacks ago, I made reference to the schools’ email system (specifically staffmail – studentmail reliably delivers all my spam quite nicely. Scary thing is, I haven’t ever used that address for anything outside school! Since I started checking studentmail from home, I’ve picked up 263 spam messages – I think that was about two months ago, now. Sure, it’s well below my regular account, but then “jstreet@subdomain.subdomain.statecode.edu.au” is hardly as predictable as “josh@majorisp.net”, you would think.) — well, that’s what is currently on the “this thing sucks” list.
(n.b. I’ve decided I want to add some sections to this site for that kind of stuff – random thoughts of the moment, etc. I’ll stop interrupting myself, now…)
So on Friday, a certain ITSS teacher sent out an email to all Cisco academy students (basically to check that it was all workingish), with a request that people replied upon reciept. So, people did. People the proceeded to get messages such as this one, politely sent in reply from the schools’ staff email server:
—– Original Message —–
From: “System Administrator” postmaster@sacs.nsw.edu.au
To: someone@somedomain.tld
Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2004 10:08 PM
Subject: Undeliverable: Re: test from Mr Hawkes
Your message
To: Hawkes David
Subject: Re: test from Mr Hawkes
Sent: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 21:14:16 +1000
did not reach the following recipient(s):
Hawkes, David on Fri, 4 Jun 2004 21:11:04 +1000
The recipient could not be processed due to congestion in the message
transfer service
The MTS-ID of the original message is: c=us;a=
;p=sacs;l=STAFFMAIL0406041111LXRJ88GJ
MSEXCH:MSExchangeMTA:STAFF:STAFFMAIL
You really do have to wonder what kind of network congestion an email server at an academic institution can be experiencing at ten o’clock on a Saturday night…
Just for the record, I didn’t get an error when I sent my reply to the email. That one was courtesy of Michael Dale.
04 Jun 2004
No time to post, brief version of the day:
HP printer back today.
No significant news on the SACS IT satire front.
The evil hax0rz box has been removed – I was planning on writing a song about it, maybe later.
Platform 7 recording (I don’t think) happened this week, I got their late, and no-one handed me a tape at the end – at any rate, no recording shall be uploaded this weekend, unless someone else emails me it/about it.
The streaming server is down and out, anyway – reasons behind this are still TBC, but I’m inclined to blame IT. Again.
03 Jun 2004
I’ve made a vague promise that this would be written in loose terms, so I’m sorry if I break definitions of loose, here ;p
The St. Andrews IT department has long been a cause of angst not only for students, but for teachers, parents, and fish. In the past, there have been various people attempt to hacksaw it down, however they have been detained and generally oppressed because of it.
This is a topic scarce-discussed, for fear of reprisals from various personnel. As Ellis Baker would say in “The System” – “Anything but I.T. Levi, anything.” But SC shall brave it, bringing you news from the front at great risk to life, limb, and network access privileges. Well, okay, reduced risk to the former two, and dubious risk to the third.
Don’t interrupt my dramatisation, okay?
So, anyway… In the past, such attempts to fell the gargantuan enterprise that is SACS IT have been circumvented (often before the offending parties were aware that such attempts had occurred – such is the benefit of a “first strike” network admin policy, it would seem. Nevermind prevention, accusation is the cure!) – but now, two brave young men have endevoured to strike where none have ever (publicly) struck before (and gotten caught for it).
Bob and Bill, as they shall be known, set out on a mission to bypass the *cough* security measures *endcough* that St. Andrews had in place, using a vast variety of highly skilled programmes (note: skill rests in programmes) obtained from highly secretive and little known security resources on something known as the Internet. Big “I”, there.
It is alleged that certain people obtained access to resources through the use of utilities designed especially to disrupt network activity within St. Andrews, namely known as Linux, a highly malicious tool for Black Hat hackers, with known violations of global intellectual property law. Clearly, this is a tool only for extreme criminals on the edge of society.
Specifically, they are thought to have made use of the dubiously named “CISCO TESTING SERVER”, labelled with an equally questionable message – “DO NOT TURN OFF”. This computer, thought to have been running a variant of this highly illegal “Linux”, was a purpose-built hacking tool, with the capacity to destroy nations at the press of a button. Go the direct link to ye olde ICBM launcher on the roof of BBC.
Hey, this is sounding more and more like “The System” every minute! Bring on Paint!
[i]If you haven’t read it, talk to Ellis Baker sometime, or talk to me and I’ll email you a copy of it – from what I’ve heard from him, he’d want as many people to read it as possible… hehe, it is a VERY good read.[/i]
Disclaimer: [i]The information presented above is not guaranteed to contain a shred of truth. For the most part, I have taken a small part reality, and distorted it beyond immediate recognition. If anyone is offended by the truth that remains, if you can give me legal reason to retract comments, then I will. Until then, post a comment, have a cry, and get on with your life.
Oh, and secure your networks, whilst you’re at it.[/i]