Proof these blogs are overrated :P

Anyway I am finishing up packing the bag at the moment and look forward to being back home with my wife and everything that is familiar to me.

So coming into the country wasn't so bad, the flights were all screwed up (thank you Chicago Ohaire) but we got here and that's what's important. On first impression Russians seem very mean and ill-tempered, it wasn't until yesterday I had it explained to me the chief cultural difference between westerners and Russians when it comes to the smile. Westerns smile and it's considered having good manners, but when a Russian smiles it means they personally like that person, a person like friends, family or that they just generally like. So to a Russian when I smile they are thinking "why are you smiling at me? Do I know you? I don't like you I don't even know you!".

Another major obstacle here is obviously language. However like many places just because a person doesn't speak english, doesn't mean they do not understand every word that is coming out of you mouth. I have proof of this! Friday evening one of the girls in the office was having a birthday, so there was a party. There was beer (piva), chips, fish jerky and these sandwiches with bread, cream cheese, sliced cheese, either ham or bologna and a thick slice of tomato. It was very good actually. Oh yes and juice and vodka (naturally). So once the drinks started to flow we began to play charades!! And they were very good at playing.

I have learned many many things about the people here and it's been a very eye opening and interesting trip that I have enjoyed. I have to thank the people here that have basically baby sit us, Ilya and Vadim they have taken great care of us and taught us so much and been very patient with all of our hundreds of questions. I'll try to post again before I leave.

Not really what more to say other than it's a LONG travel and I doubt I'll have much to say on the subject until after it's done. I am going into this without any real expectations.

NOTICE: As of yet I have not read any specific details about the Kaminsky DNS details so this is all speculation and might change completely once details arise

So the main patch appears to be to randomize the source port for which the DNS resolver uses to look up a domain against another DNS server. Now I will not go into the details of how the exploit works, but to my knowledge this is the patch. There is supposed to be a fundamental DNS flaw in this, I don't see how that is as I have written DNS servers from scratch and mine is not vulnerable. (Sorry not for public release and no it's not djbdns, tho I do use that dns server and yes it is awesome).

So here is a question I have about a possible _REAL_ fix to this. When the resolver does the look up and receives it's response, why does the DNS server not compare each answer (which is referenced to it's answer) against the question initially asked. This information can be stored on the DNS server to compare this to. I understand that CNAME records might exist, but obviously that can be compared. Is answer of type CNAME? If so then use the answer to the CNAME and compare thant against the rest of the answer. Instead of just copying the entire answer into the cache. That just doesn't seem to work in my opinion.

So again this idea of a fix might be flawed or not, but that will be determined later. With any hope there will be more information released today to give some light on this. As a hosting provider and hacker I am extremely interested in what this has in store.

Sorry about this but you may have noticed that the site has been down for the last week or so. I didn't have the money on hand to renew it so it expired. Lucky my best buddy Kris Bailey was able to fund our shared account and renew it for me. Thanks again Kris ;)

So lots has been going on, lots and lots of changes I've moved back and forth on a few projects. I have been using a lot of django and python (sorry PHP) and am now thinking about rewriting this site using the django framework. Sorry just like it _THAT_ much.

A few other new items I've been up to:

1. Installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron on my laptop
   Dropped the Gentoo install that I had on it, I had originally installed that in 2002!!!! (that's 6 years!)
2. Using emacs as my new default IDE
3. Using irssi instead of xchat

I think what this is all coming back to is migrating to a more stress free method and faster development environment for me. It may not work for everyone, but that's OSS, freedom to choose.

Anyway ... I've begun development on a new top secret project. The main application is written in C for a massively distributed systems solution and a web interface to the system that I am using the Django Web Kit based in Python. This is my first stint into Python beyond using the Python interpretor for a fast calculator when on the CLI or a quick CLI client application for management consoles over local Unix Sockets. This is about all the experience I've had with Python up until now. I must say as a PHP developer this is a very different world. In the 1 day I've been messing with it I've already written most of the core framework including front-end html. I really love the ability to layout the database design and define the relations and in a single command have SQL built or a database synchronization to occur immediately. I love this application already!

Anyway this application will have some cool stuff involved with it including external API communications and export features. Which I'm sure Django will be able to handle in short order.

To bring it home, a friend of mine Mary Liz sent me an email today that outlined just how un-safe the average home is. To give you a little insight, I no longer eat processed foods, or conventional vegetables, fruits or meats. Sure it means I pay a hell of a lot more for my food, but it also has changed the way I feel and think about food.

---- Exctracted from Email ----

For Earth Day, I'm making a pledge to rid my home of cleaning
products that contain harmful chemicals.  I encourage you to
do the same:

Purchase a 100% Natural home cleaning kit here:  http://store.eco-me.com/echoclkit.html

Why?

* The average home contains as much as 25 pounds of toxic
cleaning products. 

* Companies are not required by law to list the contents of their
products and testing for long-term health effects are not
enforced. Toxins, even trace amounts, can be absorbed into
your body and organs within seconds of exposure.

*The air in our homes is 3 to 7 times more chemically polluted
than outdoor air, pollution and all. 

Looking forward to this trip of course conjurers thoughts of how lucky and truly blessed I am. Really I am, I have a beautiful wife and make enough money to be comfortable. Sure I don't have a BMW or a house for that matter, I at least am better off than 99% of the human population and there is something to be said for that I am sure.

So these little perks are great for me, I haven't had anyone before be so interested in my thoughts and expertise as to send me somewhere like Google to learn. I suppose it's an accomplishment? That's possibly debatable Along with this sort of thing I also get to work on cool projects like DNZoom and a few other things I can't mention. However when they launch I will be blasting what happens. Also on my list of things to play with in the iPhone SDK (for some reason Obj-C with Posix support on a mobile platform just really thrills me) and a few other C projects. Remember gang, I'm really a C developer who fell into PHPland ;)

So here I go, I need to work on some articles for CNet before someone decides to put a hit on me!

Click to enlarge

c=0; for i in `find . -type f -name "*.php"`; do c=$(( $c + `wc -l $i | cut -d ' ' -f 1`)); echo $c; done; echo $c

THis example is specifically for searching out PHP scripts, however you can modify this however you like to fine what files you want.

*grumble* anyway too late now, maybe at least I can get through the next level!

1337: Part 2

1337: Part 3

1337: Part 4

1337: Part 5

1) What is it like to be a ninja.
Well it is quite nice actually. I kill indiscriminately whenever I feel injustice has occurred (especially if you cut Ninja off in traffic) and I hack around with shit like allz dayz, and that's always fun.

2) Was the initial training hard?
Well the initial training wasn't so hard since training never really ends. It's a life process. Beginning when I was a small not quite ninja yet. Many years living in parents basement and eating Tombstone Pizza's (what do you want on your tombstone? cause I'll put it there).

3) What does "Modern Ninja" do in todays world.
Currently Ninja is a PHP / Perl developer working on automation systems and front end / backend development. I also work on my side (at home) projects. As well as trying to reverse engineer a tv tuner with a LSI chipset to work in a MythTV box. (Ninja not paid enough to buy nice tv tuner card.)

I think the underlying question is what is it to be a "Modern Ninja" in today's world. That is a multifaceted question, because I think to be a Ninja you must practice self discipline and command authority. This includes not eating junk that slows your mind from being attuned to what occurs around you, and being agile and knowing at all times how to "go off the grid". A topic I hope to go into in detail throughout my time with this site.

Enjoy!

http://falafel.ytmnd.com/

Then use a service like CVS Commit or Activity Mail.

So on your machine you should cvs co CVSROOT and edit loginfo with your favorite text editor and append an appropriate entry for the method you which to receive these notices. Then commit that back.

• The Following should be in your /src/cvs/CVSROOT/loginfo file.
• ^toys /usr/bin/Mail -s [toys cvs]: %s devs@domain.tld
• DEFAULT $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/activitymail -df %{sVv} -m "CVS: " -t user@domain.tld

This is an attempt to make the site appear to magnify whenever the user font size is different. Some sites once you increase your browser font size begin to look weird. However if you use something like em or ex for your measurements the elements will scale in relation. This can pretty cool.

The only thing that doesn't scale the way I would like ATM is the logo in the upper corner, this is because it is a background image of the header element. I will probably get around to placing the tag inline with the header at some point, but right now I don't feel like messing with it to be honest.

You might also notice that the image has changed from a silhouette of a ninja to the hacker logo. Ehh I found it on Google Images and checked to verify that it was Creative Common image.

In other news, I am one of the many scavenging the earth looking for a Wii. Yeah I know what your thinking... "Good luck with that ninja!", but hey ninja's persevere damnit, and so shall I. Besides, I already have it on good authority that the local Circuit City will be receiving a shipment tonight. So hopefully by this time tomorrow I'll be whipping some ass in virtual tennis. Ahh what's better than exercising? That's right, watching an avatar of your self exercising while you eat hot wings from the safety of your couch.

So that laid the ground for what was to come. DNZoom is coming along great, we're working on some awesome new features that are really going to wow people. With time we will be able to revolutionize the domain and parking industry into something quite respectable, it's a very exciting time for us.

Along with that I have found some lacking with existing web server solutions (Apache, LighttpD). So I've started writing my own that will be just a simple CGI web server with a twist to maintain Unix sockets to the launched PHP session. Since my framework, Rippley, is a software role as service framework, being able to maintain locale, user data, session data, database connection (etc) between page loads without having to start a new one I expect to be highly productive. However I'm writing it in C and in my spare time, so it's a slow process.

Also working on a Perl script to work with the Asterisk AGI framework and writing an article for TechRepublic about it. Asterisk and VoIP is so cool man!

Anyway there is much more going on, but just wanted to put some more content up on the site.

Currently I am working on this framework that this site runs on, I call it Rippley. Also an experimental cryptographic process that the few people that know of it call weirder. It's functional and as far as we can tell (we aren't professional cryptographers) it is very very powerful. More on that later.

Lately I've been also wanting to play in electronics, of course the financial and time barrier is holding me back.

Anyway as I stated before this site is under SEMI active development so expect some sweet changes here.