Ξ January 30th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
I generally cringe when I need to update my OS. Though Linux goes on fairly easily, its a hassle to get things the way you want them (flash, browser plugins, etc). SO, I came across a few others that went though the pain before me and just copied their work:
Personal Fedora 10 Installation Guide
Fedora 10 Installation Guide (for sun Java)
Could I have done this myself? Sure, I’ve done it before, but borrowing these guides rather then hunt down the right packages to install and configure saved a bunch of time and effort.
Ξ January 29th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
I sent out my HP laptop to be repaired by HP. The hinge on the laptop had broken and HP said to send it back to them and they’d fix it. Flippin’ sweet I say. So I backed up my home directory and popped it into a box and sent it to them. They were nice enough to replace the parts that were broken, and gave me a snazzy new keyboard (some of the letters on the old one were worn off). The problem is that they re-imaged my hard drive. They sent it back with a fresh install of Windows Vista. OK, I figured I could live with it for a while but after tooling around with it for a few minutes I realized that it had to go. The fresh installation was one giant advertisement for any number of software vendors. The first 15 minutes were spent closing out of pop up’s for subscriptions for various virus and adware protection and trial memberships for yadda yadda yadda. The whole desktop was cluttered with links to websites I’d never go to. The OS also came with no compilers or software development tools. What the heck was I going to do for school? I was somewhat peeved at HP. Thank God I backed up my computer before I sent it in.
At any rate, I trashed Vista and downloaded Fedora 10 with my mini. Fedora 10 is snazzy. I had Fedora 8 installed before it went to HP, but I think 10 is an improvement. It has better support for some of the packages that I use the 8 did. It also has a REALLY snazzy look and feel to it. Though I installed my own windows manager (fvwm), I decided to keep the background image and the gnome toolbar.
I also had to install Sun’s version of Java for school, but it came with Eclipse, Perl, gcc, and Python.
Ξ January 29th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
Since the last post consisted of Buffer overflow instructions, I decided to post a little hacker history here.L0pht Heavy Industries was a Boston based hacker group. Of the group, Mudge may be one of the more “well known” members, though they are all cult heros in their own way.
The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling is another fun read. It cronicals the hacker underground in the late 1980’s. Ironically, the system in Texas they write about became part of SDF where this site is currently being hosted.
More to follow when I have a bit more time
Ξ January 29th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
The old Buffer Overflow has been around for a long time. You don’t hear about it much as a Java developer because Java programs run in a JVM; a controlled environment that doesn’t allow memory to be used/accessed outside the virtual machine. The idea of a buffer overflow (in a nutshell) is to discover what area of memory will be used in a program, and then dump your own instructions in that memory space to be executed. The instructions you would normally put in there would generally give you a root shell.
Here are a few of the better “how-to” articles on how to accomplish this:
BUFFER OVERFLOWS DEMYSTIFIED
How to write Buffer Overflows (by mudge)
Writing buffer overflow exploits - a tutorial for beginners
There are many others, just google it
Ξ January 21st, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
We’ll be house hunting this weekend on Long Island. If anyone wants to get together this weekend on either Long Island or Queens, let me know. Perhaps Dinner/Drinks/Movie or something? *shrug* I’ll probably want to make it an early evening, house hunting wears me out.
Ξ January 21st, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
School starts again this week. I think I’ll register today. Graduate school costs an arm and a leg. It’ll cost me close to $4,000 for one class, but, with only a handful of classes left, I’m to vested to stop going. I’ve started looking for Ph.D programs to apply to. If anyone has a suggestion regarding a good Comp Science program in the 1) tri-state area that will 2) allow me to attend part-time and 3) accept most of the credits from the MS Computer Science program I’m in, please let me know.
Ξ January 21st, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
ok, this is the last book review of the day: Stone Cold by David Baldacci. Not a bad read. Another CIA type thriller about an underground club called the Camel Club. The Camel Club is a rag-tag group of misfits that explore government plots.
I’m kind of predictable in that I love books like this
Ξ January 21st, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
I was going to write a review for this book, but I came across this: http://avphibes.livejournal.com/370683.html. I really couldn’t have done a better job of the review. I’m just starting to read the last 150 pages and I’m fustrated as hell trying to get throgh to the end of this thing. It’s verbose and tedious as hell. Is this really what women think about all the time? Please, someone tell me it’s not true.
Ξ January 21st, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
I’m a sucker for Vince Flynn books. The are a great mix of politics, the CIA and terrorism plots. The books come off as a fairly realistic “what if”, and they are a fast read. His new book “extreme measures was particularly good. I give it a thumbs up
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