One Way You Can Help the Hurricane Victims...

Arkansas Baptist State Convention

"ABSC accepting donations to help hurricane victims" Arkansas Baptists desiring to make financial donations can do so through their local churches or directly through the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, P.O. Box 552, Little Rock, AR 72203. Designate gifts as Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. (Make checks payable to ABSC Hurricane Relief)."

Also, if you would like to make a donation locally (to the El Dorado area), contact me and I'll help make arrangements to get the items to Maple Avenue Baptist Church.

Gas is rising...

I found this comment post on another blog.

I just noticed that our price of gas (in Kansas City) prior to the hurricane was $2.59 for regular unleaded; yesterday it jumped to $2.89 a gallon and today we are paying $3.01! It's amazing how this natural disaster has affected people even outside of the areas personally affected (LA, AL and MI)!"

As I drove into work this morning gas was still $2.69. It jumped $.20 on Monday. I look for it to go up here too.

Katrina Coverage From the Local Perspective

In my reading about hurricane Katrina, I found a few blogs that have pretty good coverage of Katrina and her aftermath. http://www.joshbritton.com http://thedailyanvil.blogspot.com/ http://www.brendanloy.com/ http://hurricaneupdate.blogspot.com/ http://www.punditguy.com/ http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Blogs http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html http://hurricaneupdate.blogspot.com/ http://www.livejournal.com/users/insomnia/599039.html Enjoy!

FEMA chief says Katrina’s effect ‘catastrophic’

Original Article:FEMA chief says Katrina’s effect ‘catastrophic’

"Oil refineries affected President Bush, meanwhile, was considering tapping U.S. emergency petroleum stockpiles to ease the storm’s impact on affected refineries. Administration officials said Monday that Bush was expected to authorize a loan of at least some oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The storm shut down oil and natural gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, representing about 8 percent of U.S. refining capacity or about 1 million barrels, further driving up gasoline prices."

I'm really beginning to wonder about this whole gas issue. At what point do we start considering other alternatives to fuel? Hybrid vehicles are an alternative, but not everyone (including me) can afford to go out and buy a new car at the drop of a hat. Will the supply be able to meet demand? Who knows. It's really starting to affect my pocket book though. With all that said, I do still have the choice to stop driving!

So What Else Has Been Going On?

I realize I haven't spent much time lately updating my BLOG with family related information. This would be for those of you who actually care to hear it. :>) I'll take a few minutes to update you on some things that have taken place lately. Cary started back to school (she had a short break during August). Sometime around April of 2006, she will have field work. This means she'll have to put what she learns into practice in a clinical environment. The locations for field work can range from El Dorado, Arkansas to Washington state. She recently found out she will be assigned to Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was told her room and board will be covered by the hospital. This is not the case for every clinical assignment. Many of her classmates have to foot the bill for their room and board. We have been really blessed! However, she will have to stay with others in an apartment complex. Little Rock is about 2 hours from our house, so she'll live there during the week and come home on the weekends. Tanner and I will have to cope while she's gone. Of course our parents will help out. Tanner has wonderful grandparents!! We have a little time to prepare for this challenge, thankfully. As you know, I have recently changed jobs within the company I've worked for the last 7 years. My focus is on Information and Network Security. For the rest of the year, I'll focus on laying the ground work for a security focused culture within the company. It will be a challenge, but I'm really excited to have the opportunity. Tanner started a new Pre K class this year. He likes his teacher and has made new friends. Cary and I went to the open house to meet the teacher and the other parents. He will learn basic sign language, possibly Spanish, and other new and exciting things. He is SOOOOO smart!! It seems like we are all in the 'beginning' stages of something in our lives. Life is about change, for sure. As a matter of fact, I heard a sermon this morning that was about times in life where we reach a 'fork in the road'. Life presents all types of 'forks' in the road. We must make a choice during these times. Some choices are more significant than others, but they call give us an opportunity to do what is right. I pray I will make good choices in the coming days.

Learning about Fish Finders

I'm in the market for a fish finder to go on the boat. I have no idea what I'm looking for at this point. I'm looking at Humminbird & Lowrance brands. The Lowrance site has some really good information. I'm going to attempt to consolidate information I find about the brands I research. From the sonar introduction found here:

In the late 1950s, Carl Lowrance and his sons Arlen and Darrell began scuba diving to observe fish and their habits. This research, substantiated by local and federal government studies, found that about 90 percent of the fish congregated in 10 percent of the water on inland lakes. As environmental conditions changed, the fish would move to more favorable areas. Their dives confirmed that most species of fish are affected by underwater structure (such as trees, weeds, rocks, and drop-offs), temperature, current, sunlight and wind. These and other factors also influence the location of food (baitfish, algae and plankton). Together, these factors create conditions that cause frequent relocation of fish populations.

Regarding the Sonar Unit....

There are four facets to a good sonar unit:

• High power transmitter.
• Efficient transducer.
• Sensitive receiver.
• High resolution/contrast display.

We call this our "Total System Performance" specification. All of the parts of this system must be designed to work together, under any weather condition and extreme temperatures. High transmitter power increases the probability that you will get a return echo in deep water or poor water conditions. It also lets you see fine detail, such as bait fish and structure.

Regarding Frequency...

192 or 200 kHz

• Shallower depths.
• Narrow cone angle.
• Better definition and target separation.
• Less noise susceptibility.

50 kHz

• Deeper depths.
• Wide cone angle.
• Less definition and target separation.
• More noise susceptibility.

Water Temperature...

Water temperature has an important influence upon the activities of all fish. Fish are cold-blooded and their bodies are always the temperature of the surrounding water. During the winter, colder water slows down their metabolism. At this time, they need about a fourth as much food as they consume in the summer.

Thermocline Defined!

These are areas underwater where warmer layers of water meet cooler layers, and where fish are often active. Generally, baitfish hang just above the thermocline, while larger game fish are found suspended in or just below it. Lowrance units will display thermoclines when used in the manual mode, showing actual sonar returns, and with the sensitivity set correctly.

Screen Resolution...

The number of vertical pixels that the screen is capable of showing is called Screen Resolution. The more vertical pixels on a sonar's screen, the easier it will be for it to show fish arches. This plays an important role in a sonar unit's capability to show fish arches.

I'm looking seriously at the Lowrance X59 DF. I found one on eBay for $209.00 "buy it now". I'm not sure which model I'll end up with, but I'm convinced I need one. I'll post more as I do my research.

It's Finally Over

Over a month ago, I was told I would be presenting for the Senior Management team for my company. This is something I've never done before and really never wanted to do. My knew security position called for it, though. I'm the type of person that, when asked to do something, will prepare extensively. I've been working on my presentation for about three weeks. I had a 30 minute time slot. I really like to be prepared for something like this. I performed the presentation beforehand for my wife, a coworker, my boss, and my boss' boss. Anyway, I had gone through the entire thing five or six times before the actual final presentation. I went up to the Administration building, where the Sr. Management team holds their monthly meetings. I showed up a little early so I could 'feel out' the format of the meeting. I was put at ease once I saw how informal the presenters and team were. I know all of the management team members and have a decent rapport with each of them, so this helped a lot. I went through my presentation without a hitch. My boss later told me the flow went very well. There were not a lot of 'fillers', like 'uh' and 'uhm', etc. He said I sounded very professional and got my point across clearly. The outcome showed to be successful by the fact that I was told by the CEO that, "It makes very good sense to have these tools. We are not talking about a huge sum of money." He was referring to the tools I mentioned in the presentation, obviously. It's great to have sensible people running the company. I very much respect our Management Team and the direction they've chosen for our company. I'll have to present at the quarterly management meetings and give them an update on how things are going. I think I'll feel more comfortable the next time. I'm just glad it's over for now!

Where have I been?

I haven't posted in a while. I've been pretty busy with, well, most everything. My new job is really exciting. I'm spending a lot of time on a website to keep people informed of security related issues within Teris, and beyond. Drop by now and then and take a look at it. I will probably stop posting computer security related items on my personal blog and put all of them on the Teris Security Central blog. I hope things are going well for everything. I'm looking forward to the weekend. Dad and I are taking the boat out this weekend to do some fishing. Tanner is going to stay at Mrs. Debbie's house. He loves Mrs. Debbie! Anyway, I gotta run. See ya.

Comment SPAM. What's That?

I was recently 'comment SPAMed' on one of my post. I wasn't aware of this type of SPAM until today. Due to this, I am turning on comment verification for my BLOG so this doesn't happen again. You can read about comment verification here. It will add one step to the commenting procedure, but I won't get comment SPAM anymore. Sorry if this makes it harder to leave comments, but it's something I just gotta do! So No To SPAM!!

Man is it hot!!

The only complaint I have about living in this area is the summer heat. Today's heat index is 110 degrees. That's in the shade! I went to Calion Lake this morning to try out the bass. I think they are hot too, and obviously not hungry in the least. Altogether, the trip went well, though. I went by myself with the new boat. I got there around 7:15 or so. The heat really gets kicked in once the sun comes up over the trees. I got home before 11:00. I just can't see staying out there in the burning hot sun, especially when nothing is biting. Calion is close enough to my house that it doesn't take much out of you to make the trip. White Oak and Columbia are both 45 minutes away. The only thing worse than not catching fish is having to drive 45 minutes home without any fish. I have developed a half decent tan, though. The rest of the day will be reserved for the honey-do's, helping Cary work on her skit for Church, and putting together the Sunday school lesson. Hope you all have/had a great weekend.

Blogger for Word

What a great feature! Blogger for Word! This feature allows you to compose a post in MS Word and publish it. It also lets you edit your last 15 posts. I’m going to specifically play with tables and see how well they post. This blogging business is getting easier and easier. I mean, if you can type a document in Word, you can BLOG!! Tables and pictures are not currently supported. I found this out when I tried to publish. I wonder about bullets.

• Point one
• Point two
• Point three

This may prove to be a useful feature. I wish like crazy it supported tables and pictures. However, you can't beat it for the price. Thanks, Blogger!

Plug-and-play bots worming and warring among Windows systems

Original Article Found Here:Plug-and-play bots worming and warring among Windows systems

"The worms--which appear to come from three families of code dubbed Zotob, Botzori and IRCBot--started spreading on Sunday without much fanfare. However, on Tuesday, computers at CNN and the New York Times became infected by one or more variants of the worm, and the public profile of the programs increased a notch."

If you haven't patched your computer yet, I advise you to do so! Although some reports don't think the Zotob and it's variants are much of a deal, I wouldn't chance it. You are better to be protected than not. Ask CNN & the NYTimes how big of a deal it was to them!

URGENT - ID theft automated using keylogger Trojan

Original article: ID theft automated using keylogger Trojan

"Anti-spyware researchers have uncovered a massive identity theft ring linked to keylogging software. The malware was discovered by Patrick Jordan of Sunbelt Software while doing research on the infamous CoolWebSearch application but the key logger itself is not CWS. It's far nastier."

During the course of infecting a machine, Jordan discovered that the machine became a spam zombie that was also sending data back to a remote server. He found that thousands of infected machines are contacting a US-based server daily and a portion of these are writing to a keylogger file, which is periodically harvested by cybercriminals. "The types of data in this file are pretty sickening to watch. You have search terms, social security numbers, credit cards, logins and passwords, etc," Sunbelt president Alex Eckelberry writes.

This is a very serious issue. I scanned my machine with this tool and didn't find the Spyware. I would recommend you do the same. With my new focus on security at work, I'm seeing all kinds of scary junk out there. Here are some things I would recommend every computer that 'touches' the Internet have:

• A Personal Firewall (ZoneAlarm )
• A Virus Scanning Product (This is not enough!) ( Norton Antivirus )
• A Spyware Scanning Product ( MS AntiSpyware Beta )

The ZoneAlarm Security Suite is pretty Sweet if you can afford it. At the rate vulnerabilities and exploits are going, it's almost to the point where you can afford not to do it.

Exploits Circulate for Windows 2000 Worm Hole

Exploits Circulate for Windows 2000 Worm Hole:

Windows 2000 users, patch now or else...That's the blunt warning from Microsoft Corp.'s security response center after "detailed exploit code" for a wormable flaw started circulating on underground security Web sites. The software maker rushed out an advisory late Thursday night to warn that unpatched Windows 2000 users are at the biggest risk of a PC takeover attack.

Readers, if you haven't visited Windows Update in a while, you need to stop what you're doing and go there now. Regardless of the flaw shown above, you need to visit Windows Update at least once a week. Microsoft releases a security bulletin, and usually patches and fixes, the second Tuesday of every month. Mark your calendars and run the update. If you are running Windows 2000 SP2 or later or Windows XP, set the Auto Update to run late at night. When you see the 'little globe' in the bottom right hand corner that says you have updates ready to install, by all means install them!!

Kitchen Improvements

To follow up on a previous post about our kitchen cabinet/bar space, I'll have you know the work has been scheduled and we are only waiting to have it installed. Our contractor is putting as much as possible together at his house and will bring it over modularly. The anticipation is about to drive Cary out of her mind. I plan to post before and after pictures once it's done. On another note, Cary is trying to enjoy her time off from school. She will go back August 22. She says it seems that she's worked as much on her 'vacation' or more. She's volunteered at the Hannah Medical Center for two days, which is for school. Other days have been spent watching Tanner and cleaning house. She has something planned with her sister (It's a surprise). That should provide a little girl time for both of them.

Fishing | Fishing Report: August 10, 2005

Fishing | Fishing Report: August 10, 2005: "White Oak Lake: Charlie’s One Stop said the lake is clear and at normal levels. Crappie fishing is excellent on minnows and jigs fished near the shallow brush piles. Bass fishing is good on soft-plastic worms fished in the brush."

Above is the fishing report for White Oak Lake. I'm putting this on here so dad can read it. Hopefully he'll look at the computer in the next few days!

The Newest Member of the Family

It's finally over. The waiting has been terrible. We've been chomping at the bits for the arrival of our newest piece of manly equipment. Now, it has arrived and adorns our backyard. Yes, I'm talking about our new 1546 Xpress boat with a 40hp Johnson and trolling motor. Dad and I took it out Monday, and boy does she git. We're not use to a boat that actually plains out. Most boats we've been in poke their nose in the air so high you can't see in front of you, but never actually sit down. We closed the deal today. Tomorrow I'm going to work out the registration and whatever other loose ends that need tending. This weekend we plan to go to White Oak lake and do some early morning bass and bream fishing. Now we have to figure out when we're going to mow grass, since the weekends will be taken up by fishing!

Only In The South - "Little Harley"

I saw this one right in front of my house. This little bike is pretty cool. I don't figure you'll see too many of these in the North, so I added it to the Only In The South shots. That kid is about 8 years old or so.

Another Instance of 'Slap Ya Mama'

Cary got this as a gift from our 'Grandparents', Boomer and Granny. I wonder if the BBQ shop has this seasoning!

Happy 26th Birthday to Cary

Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to Cary. Happy Birthday to You. I told her last night 26 is closer to 30 than 20!! I'm not sure, but I don't think she wants to look at it that way.

The Car Whisperer

Nothing is private anymore. I was discussing this with a colleague at work yesterday. If something is easy and convenient, it's probably not secure. What we have here is a group of folks in the Netherlands (read full article here) listening to phone conversations as people drive down the road. They are using a directional antenna and a laptop with some software installed on it to 'eavesdrop' on phone conversations. The antenna and laptop are 'tuned in' to the Bluetooth wireless on the cell phone. Many people, including me, use a Bluetooth headset to talk on their cell phones. It's a convenient (there's that word again) way to be 'hands free'. Right now Bluetooth technology is being eviscerated (my CEH instructor used that word a lot, so I wanted to use it too). There are so many holes in Bluetooth security, it really shouldn't even be considered 'secure' at all. Anyway, I found this article quite interesting. In addition to the article, check out the pictures here.

Getting Things Done

You may remember a while back I posted an article mentioning my ongoing battle with time and task management. I stumbled across some fresh material; at least fresh for me because I haven't studied it. It's actually very well known and the methods are widely used. The name of the book I'm referring to is, "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. I'm about half way through the book and have found some pretty good information relating to this difficult subject. The subtitle of the book is, "The Art of Stress-Free Productivity." I don't know about you, but I could sure use some stress relief. I won't go into detail about the methods of GTD because you can read about it here. The author also has a BLOG that can be found here. I also found some really good information about time and task management at 43folders. From the book, so far, I've implemented the suggested "reference material" system which is simply getting yourself a 2 drawer file cabinet (or whatever size you may need) and labeling sections "A" through "Z". This is so simple (I wonder why I didn't think of it?). Basically, when something comes across your desk (or from where ever) and you deside that it is not 'actionable' and also not 'trash', and you'd like to keep it for future reference, you file it under the letter of the alphabet that makes the most sense to you. For example, if I read an article in eWeek magazine relating to the security threats associated with Instant Messaging programs, I might file this under "I" for Instant Messaging. I may also file this under "S" for security. The trick is to label a single manilla envelope for each item you plan to file. The above suggestion isn't rocket science, but it's something I had never thought to do. The book has much more information that what I've mentioned. If you're interested in this method, I suggest you go here for an overview.

A Few Notes on Linux for the Newbie

I've recently taken an interest in Linux. My collegues and I are brand new at Linux and know very little about it. This article was referred to me by Billy. As I read it, I'm going to post comments I find interesting from the article. This post explores the history behind GNU/Linux and the file system. If I read the rest of the documentation, I may post again.

Linux itself does not come in a single version! Instead there are may different froms of Linux called "distributions", or "distro's" for short. This is where the strange names like Red Hat, Debian, Caldera, SuSE, etc come into the picture. They are just different organisations distributing the same system called Linux in their own way! But then what distro do you use? The best way is to talk to existing users about the strengths and weaknesses of the various distros, and also to determine which distro seems to have the most support in your area, and then choose one that you like. Finally, its all about choice, you see!

---

So now we know that Linux is just another but very popular form of the Unix operating system. But there is more to the story; in fact, the very thing thing that we think of as Linux, isn't exactly Linux in the truest sense. To be very honest, it should be called "GNU/Linux" rather than just "Linux". This is because "Linux" is just one key part of system - it is the kernel, which is the very core of any operating system.

---

The Linux Documentation Project - The LDP is an attempt to gather all the information about the GNU/Linux system under one standard resource. It draws upon efforts of a lot of people all over the world who enjoy using the system and would like to share their experience and knowledge with others. The LDP includes documentation in the form of HowTo's, manuals, Guides which cover a wide range of topics such as everyday use, hardware setup, networking, applications development, internal working of various components, etc.

---

In Linux, different partitions need not be assigned special names to access them. This is because Linux uses a standard directory structure to take care of all partitions. This structure ensures that a particular file for a particular program will almost always be present at the same place on any machine running Linux.

---

The simplest case is to have gigantic partition spanning the entire hard-disk. But this would be a very bad strategy since the time taken to check the file-system would be enormous. Also if the hard-disk crashes, all the data could be lost in a single blow. Also in case of desktops, its very likely that the machine will be used as a dual-boot system with other operating systems. This means that there is a need for not just multiple partitions but also diverse file-systems existing on them. And then of course, there is the swap partition, which is used for memory management by the Linux system. Seems there is no way to survive without dirtying up your hands with partitioning stunts during installation, after all ...

---

Hackers Race to Expose Cisco Internet Flaw

Hackers Race to Expose Cisco Internet Flaw

It appears that Cisco is a little ticked off about a recent flaw found in their IOS (Internetwork Operating System). As I understand it, the flaw is related to the way a router handles IPv6 packets. Also, according to the US-Cert Advisory, "...crafted packets must be sent from a local network segment to trigger the attack. This vulnerability can not be exploited one or more hops from the IOS device." The impact of the vulnerability is that an unauthenticated, remote attacker on the same IP subnet could execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service, should they be able to exploit the vulnerability.

Suggested solutions are to upgrade to a fixed version of IOS or disable IPv6 where it is not needed.

An eWeek article (see below) said that hackers worked through the night [Saturday] to exploit the vulnerability, basically, to keep [Cisco] customers informed. I think they may be concerned that Cisco would make light of the issue.

"Angered and inspired by Cisco's attempts to suppress news of the flaw earlier in the week, several computer security experts at the Defcon computer-security conference worked past midnight Saturday to discover and map out the vulnerability. 'The reason we're doing this is because someone said you can't,' said one hacker, who like the others spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity."