Tuesday 10th January 2006
Song: Lene Marlin - Another Day
heh, there's some things about Sun that I'm really going to miss when I leave. Of course there's the public facing things like working for a company with a really badass processor out there that's something like seven years ahead of the competition. Also things like OpenOffice.Org, optimistically trying to sway users away from Microsoft Office. Also, they're an open source company. Also of course, a company developing a UNIX.
Anyway, that just turned into an advert. The point was, I also really love all the stuff on the inside. I've mentioned the gym, shop, TV, pool table etc before. But in addition to all this, I've just found out that the catering staff have organised some cookery classes for staff. There's also a weekly meeting for people who want to become more confident with public speaking. I just love the whole social aspect that the place carries with it.
I think when I leave uni (not going to bother doing a masters, I don't think) I want to try and get a programming job in a really small company. Despite how cool I do find UNIX, I don't think I'd really want a job doing UNIX administration for it. Especially since there's so much time wasted doing things like resetting users' passwords and restoring accidently deleted files. The problem is I'm not really sure I'd enjoy being a code monkey too much either. However, it seems safer to experiment with different career paths and company sizes while young. As much as I do love everything that comes with working for an absolutely huge company, I'd like to see what a small place is like too.
I do have one fear though... A Windows desktop. I don't mean to sound too elitist or anything, but I really just can't work with Windows. I just find it so awkward. Ironic, given that it's aim is to make using a computer easier. I'm not just saying Windows is shit, don't get me wrong. It's just not for me. The problem though, is that most places do have Windows running on their desktops. Thankfully I think the majority of people aren't insane enough to run a Windows server (incidently, who else is fed up with MySpace's unreliability? Windows barfs under high loads). Anyway... I wouldn't actually reject a job offer over a Windows desktop. However, I probably would reject a job offer if it required programming in some Microsoft language (VB.NET, waah).
If you have or use a wireless network, I recommend you read on. Last Friday, I got a phone call from Rob wanting me to help with some Linux stuff for him. He had been getting into cracking WEP keys (the password thingers used for "securing" wireless networks). I'll spare you of the details, but the gist of it was that I learned quite how bad security in this area was. Basically if you're in an area with a wireless network, you can start picking packets (bits of data) out the air. With this data, even though it's encrypted there is a way to work backwards and get the key out of the data. Once you've got the key of course, you can then join the network as a normal user. What he did to test it, was he got his brother to set a password on his wireless network at home (in hex, not ascii). He then left his laptop on over night collecting data from it like I've just mentioned. Here's where it gets interesting though. By the morning, he had accumulated enough data, so he ran the program to try and get the key. Here's the killer: It took two seconds, yes, just two seconds, to get the key. The moral of the story is, WEP is a bit of a false promise. Interestingly, we use WPA on our network here. I had a quick chat with Rob about this too, and apparently WPA keys can't be pulled out the air in the same mannor as WEP. I'd like to think our network is a *bit* safer (I'd also like to try to break into it). However, WPA keys only allow ascii strings for keys. So theoretically you can go at it with a dictionary attack. Of course this then falls back to a human problem, people set rubbish passwords. Oh, and hidden SSID's can be found with considerable ease, too. Be afraid.
If you are connected to a switch, hub, router (typically anything that lets you plug several computers into one internet connection), I recommend you read on. Unlike Rob, I didn't have the facility to mess about with wireless networks (I don't want to screw up my iBook by messing about) but was fascinated by how poor the security was. So I turned my attention to cabled networks. Are they really any better? Short answer: no. Last night I was playing around with this using my mum's computer, and managed to succesfully capture all her network traffic. As a test, I used her computer and logged in to our router. Then came back to my computer to see what information I'd captured, and sure enough the password for our router was visible in plain text on my screen (For those who care, I was using ARP poisoning). The main thing here though is that *everything* was being routed through my computer, without any noticable change to my mum's computer.
This is exactly why making sure you've got that little padlock symbol is so important before sending credit card information over a network. Of course encryption can be cracked too... but I've not looked into that at all yet. :)
Hope you're all scared now. :)
Thursday 5th January 2006
Song: Taking Back Sunday - Set Phasers To Stun
Well I guess I should do an update, it's been a while.
First paragraph, Christmas. A few months ago, my parents went out for a meal one evening with one of my Dad's friends and his wife. It turns out this friend of my Dad's cooks their meal at least once per week. This put my dad to shame as he hasn't cooked in years. Shortly before Christmas I learn that my Dad would be cooking on boxing day, to put right this injustice. Even closer to Christmas, my mum got quite ill, and couldn't really do anything... So the scene was set. My Dad was now going to be cooking Christmas day lunch. Quite impressively, it was really nice. I did of course mock, but at the end of the day I couldn't help but admit that it was very well done. Especially considering how rarely he cooks anything. Christmas on the whole this year wasn't all that bad. I got the obligatory socks and deodorant along with mostly stuff I'd specifically asked for, so Santa had no suprises for me this year.
Wednesday morning I went to work, the car park was completely covered in snow and looking pretty desolate, so I parked up in what I hoped was near a bay and went in. Inside the building was unsuprisingly as dead as the car park (who would've thought?). By about lunch time I came home. I then worked from home Thursday and Friday too. There wasn't a lot I could do really, as everytime I got stuck, there was no one to ask as everyone was on holiday.
New Years was spent with good company, on the whole not a bad night. Pictures can be found here. Another nice long weekend, then back to work Tuesday. By Wedneday I seemed to have picked up the flu like my mum had. Took the day off work, and just generally did nothing. Today I'm working from home, still not feeling brilliant, but not back to normal.
The other thing I wanted to ramble on about because I'm excited, is Lene Marlin. I expect you all remember the single "Sitting down here" from the late 90s, and maybe "Unforgivable Sinner" and "Where I'm Headed" too... A few months ago she seemed to resurface out of the blue looking much more grown up with a really nice catchy song (How Would It Be). When that came out I went and bought her debut album (with the three singles mentioned above on it), and absolutely loved it. Then for Christmas I got her latest album with "How Would It Be" on it, and the obsession has bloomed. A bit of internet pokery has shown me that there was infact a middle album that I'd never heard of. Seems a bit suprising given the success of the first, but it seems there was a long gap between them and she wanted to remain a lot more low key as the boom of the first was too much for her. Fair enough. I then learn that there was a DVD made of this second album... I have to get it! Wasn't really sure what the video part of it would be, but from what I could tell there was a little documentary and all the songs from the album. So I head over to ebay, and found it as a buy it now. So I bought it then. It's soooo good, I can't believe it. It is exactly what I wish every band/singer/artist would do. Basically, before each song there's about 30 seconds to a minute of talking about the song with Lene, band members and the producer, then there's a video of them all sat in a studio performing it. It's so simple, yet enjoyable to watch.
Anyway... yes, I really like her... Unlike Pink, Avril, Robbie etc, she does actually seem to write all her songs herself. However she seems to be more of a singer than musician. From what I can tell she writes the songs herself with an acoustic guitar, just strumming out the chords (I believe this is how Blink 182 start, too) and writes the lyrics and works on the vocal melody. Then presumably gives the music to the band to develop further and build up, while sticking to her chord progression. I think The Corrs have got some competition now.
In another news that I doubt anyone will care about but I thought I'd write anyway, is my brother's bought a new car. A nice black Ford Mondeo ST something or other. It's got a 2.5L V6, and it's really nice! It's just such a nice ride. Very fast, very smooth, very quiet. Not a boy racer car at all, I like it.
Oh, that reminds me... FAO Bob, you have in your hate list, "people who think cars matter". Could you clarify that a bit for me? I assume that you mean people who buy crap cars, and then proceed to put loads of stickers on them, staple and glue extra bits of plastic on them to make it heavier and slower, put spoilers on front wheel drive cars (which will theoretically decrease traction), and have them lowered so that they can't enter multi storey car parks. These people aside, I do think cars matter. Think how often you have relied on a car to get somewhere. I know that without one I wouldn't be able to get to work. My only other option involves a train ride and two busses. A bus of course is fundamentally the same as a car, but with more seats. I also find car mechanics interesting (the parts, not the guys in overalls). The more I've learnt about them, the more I've wanted to learn about them. It's also handy to know something (or at someone) as I understand that car garages love to rip people off at any opportunity. Anyway... I think that's all for now. :)