ramblings of a {sys,net}admin…

Hahahaha, hilarious!

Undercover reporter Michelle Madigan (Associate Producer of NBC Dateline) got a little more than she bargained for when she tried to sneak in to DEFCON 2007 with hidden cameras to get someone to confess to a felony. When DEFCON staff announced the “spot the undercover reporter” game and told the audience that an undercover reporter was taking video to catch someone confessing to a hacking crime, Madigan bolted from the conference premises followed by a pack of ~150 DEFCON attendees and reporters trying to photograph and video tape her.

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While surfing the web today, I came across these (funny) pictures of hacked street signs:

It got me thinking about these signs again. Occasionally I’ll pass one on the highway and I wonder about how they’re “programmed”. Do they have a wireless link back to some “central control” or — my guess — they have some type of console/serial port that the “programmer” plugs a special device (or perhaps even a regular laptop) into and then uses that to put in whatever message they want displayed. Anyone know how this stuff works? I’m curious.

EDIT: Since posting, I’ve found “How to Hack Roadsigns” and ““Hacking the Highway”, which both explain it — albeit differently.

On May 18, after spending the night smoking pot and having sex with a prostitute, a 39-year-old Lake City man decided he was going to get a beer. Sounds like a wild way to start the weekend. Little did he know he’d end up digging a hole in his backyard to bury a body.

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In a posting to linux-kernel yesterday, Linus says:

I’m damn fed up with the FSF being the “protector of freedoms”, and also feeling that they can define what those freedoms mean.

I feel the exact same way, and have for quite a while. That’s the primary reason I am no longer a paying member of the Free Software Foundation. And I wasn’t just someone who sat back and threw ‘em a few bucks every now and again. I was an associate member for a number of years and also volunteered to work their booths at various events (up to as far as five hours away) on my own time and at my own expense. I don’t write much code that’s released publicly, but I don’t foresee a time when I’ll be releasing anything under GPLv3.

GPLv2 FTW!

From CNN:

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) — Russian computers that control the international space station’s orientation and oxygen and water supplies were partly working again Thursday after failing the day before.

Flight controllers in Moscow were able to re-establish some communication with the computers overnight, and Russian engineers were working Thursday to restore the rest of the system, NASA space station flight director Holly Ridings said.

“They’ve made a lot of progress,” she said. “There are some cleanup steps to do still and some investigation.”

I wonder if they’re running Microsoft Windows? =)

Today’s XKCD post is hilarious:

Here’s an e-mail I got, sent to a public e-mail list. Reading the disclaimer reminded me of just how stupid these things are. I’ll be disappointed if Preferred Care does not sue me, since I’m so blatantly violating it.

Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:43:15 -0500 From: “Bliss, Aaron” <ABliss@preferredcare.org> To: “General Red Hat Linux discussion list” <redhat-list@redhat.com> Subject: Question on squid proxy configuration options

Hi everyone, I’m looking for a new proxy solution and am wondering if squid can authenticate ms AD users transparently; in other words, if users exist in the directory, will it authenticate transparently or will they have to enter their credentials thru a login page. Thanks for your help.

Aaron

Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this electronic message is intended for the exclusive use of the individual or entity named above and may contain privileged or confidential information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that dissemination, distribution or copying of this information is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone and destroy the copies you received.

How White and Nerdy Are You?