Wooshy Tidbits

Personal Security

2011-01-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

In my haze of having a flu, I did see on the tech segment on BBC News channel, a couple of interesting products. Alert me has amongst other things a home monitoring set that poke, text and prod you ;) iwallet is a wallet that offers security from being stolen and yes mislaid. I believe you can pair it with your phone (although it only supports blackberries and iphones) and if they become out of range of each other then alarm bells are set off. The secure server for seems a bit dodgy though.

Happy new year

2011-01-01T15:50:00.001-08:00

Well happy new year... That's it really!
Resolutions, drivers licence, get fitter, list everything out.
Bad start, I've got the headache from hell.
And yes strange it doesn't feel like Saturday, lots of shops and places closed today.

7/3: yourdrivingsucks.com

2010-03-07T16:05:00.000-08:00

After seeing my family's car being cut up by some aggressive and irresponsible driving this evening. I had a great thought of shaming those drivers by having a forums dedicated to exposing those drivers. Yes you could list the offending car's number plates.
Reality is I wouldn't do this myself because it probably contradict privacy laws in some way!

3/3: Lineside Fire

2010-03-03T15:07:00.001-08:00

A fire in Bermondsey beside the train line brought the south eastern network to a complete standstill. However it's not the first time this has happened. This is not the first time it's happened, neither. Although I have to admit I thought it was more recent than 2007.

Stop Press!

2010-03-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah I'm back. Actually I hadn't gone away. I've just been so busy with work and now currently a little off-sick atm.

RM #6: Cheeky Monkeys (Rail + Post)

2010-01-06T15:14:00.000-08:00

The weather has caused so much havoc that getting around has been a nightmare.
A few sports events have been cancelled including all of the all-weather racing meetings, which is a bit of a paradox as part of the point of all-weather racing is to provide action in sub-arctic conditions. To be fair, the main reason for the cancellations is due to the fact getting to those tracks have been treacherous at best!

The railways particularly southeastern trains has turned into a real joke. It was announced yesterday that they would be running a Saturday service but in actual fact, the service offered is worse than a sunday service with last trains instead of midnight as early as 8pm. This angered a fair few on Londonist and the Blackheath Bugle. A member of staff admitted that the reason for the service announced beforehand is so that they don't get penalised if they attempted to run a full service.

Furthermore, the peak-rate prices still applied, which is absolutely ridculous considering it supposed to be monday-to-friday service offered. They should at least offer off-peak prices. The same thing goes for the week in between Christmas and New Years where they offer a Saturday/Sunday service during the week.

The Royal Mail are downright cheeky. They were meant to deliver a parcel to me but they did not bother to knock nor ring the doorbell, instead electing to post a card stating please come collect your parcel at the sorting office or redeliver at an extra cost of 7 quid. A joke. Fortunately, a phonecall later and that matter has been resolved by Chris the complainer.

RM #5: Night before the snap

2010-01-06T15:13:00.001-08:00

Got frozen before the snow downpour.
Just found this (again) on sql best practices

RM #4: Schuey Stig and Weak Passwords

2010-01-03T23:36:00.001-08:00

This is the Stig's Fastest lap on top gear.
However it was a ruse as the stig removed his helmet... He didn't fair so well in the star in
reasonably priced car.

Weak Passwords - user discretion NOT advised!
Users are definitely the weakest link as they can and will set easy to remember passwords,
as demonstrated at Computer Weekly
and v3.

Pre-Windows 2000 Compatible Access
should ideally have no users. But after migration, it is usual to find "Everyone" and worse "Anonymous Logons" part of this group.
Not clever.

RM #3: Muppets

2010-01-03T06:13:00.002-08:00

Some other funny muppet videos floating about include "Pulp Muppets", Beaker's "ode to joy" and Statler & Waldorf montage.
And from Sesame Street, "Furry Happy Monsters"

The first UK chart of 2010 produces a new #1 in Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" knocking off Joe McElderry's "The Climb". So in the end if Rage against Machine managed to hold on for a second week at #1, it could have denied young Joe reaching the #1 spot. Coincidentally, Rage against the Machine may well have set a record in the UK Top 40 by falling from #2 all the way down to #40. Black Eyed Peas return to the top 3 with "Meet me halfway"

RM #2: Two is the number

2010-01-03T06:13:00.001-08:00

Repeat of yesterday as I go back-to-back at the Peninsula restaurant this time with family. Also back-to-back training runs.
Heh, not my idea but went to St Trinians 2 and it didn't think it was that good except for David Tennant's role as the villan. BTW I've not heard anyone mention that there is room for him to return as there is still a human version of doctor who floating about.

RM #1: Food and Sports Shopping

2010-01-01T15:46:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! No resolutions made but hopefully to feel "complete" by the end of the year.

Down to the Greenwich Peninsula with workmates to eat dim sum at the Peninsula Chinese Restaurant. Then on to Canada Water/Surrey Quays but found out that was closed except for Tescos.

Spent a lot of time looking at sports direct after being told by my dad that they were selling rucksacks for two pounds. That's pretty good incentive, especially with the free delivery of over 50 pounds. Just enough to make you spend over 50 quid in types of sports paraphernalia.

Resumed training for the London marathon with a 35 minute run before losing my action a little bit. I need to get a new pair of trainers.

Random Musings - Day #365

2009-12-31T16:08:00.000-08:00

Well final day of the year. Made about 900 quid, backing winner after winner. But my camera may have broke! Nevermind!
Roll on 2010! Gonna to change my random musings a bit... i.e. title. But going to be out and about in 2010. We shall see what happens this year.

Looking for the chart of the year 2009. The bigtop40

Random Musings - Day #364

2009-12-30T16:12:00.000-08:00

Money talks are contrasting fortunes for the premiership leaders and bottom team.
Chelsea claim they are debt-free whereas Portsmouth have alledgedly been given a winding up order.

Statistics is only what you make of it. Chelsea are leading the premiership. But an interesting statistic states only 4 times in the last 15 years have the team leading at the new year gone on to win the premiership. But Chelsea have led twice at new years and gone on to win.

Is it me but the price of bananas has suddenly gone. You could get a bunch of 6 bananas for 60p. Now it is over a pound.

Law of Vulnerabilities as discussed by Qualys.
This RFC rfc2827 discusses ingress filtering for ISP's and companies for protection against DOS attacks, and would seem to be getting some attention again of late.

Splunk is software that indexes data from any application, server or network device enabling you to search and analyze billions of events across your IT infrastructure from one location in real time

ldd (ldd - list dynamic decrepency)

http://www.catonmat.net/blog/ldd-arbitrary-code-execution

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html

http://reverse.lostrealm.com/protect/ldd.html

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=514408

Random Musings - Day #363

2009-12-28T16:56:00.001-08:00

Tools

Metasploit 3.3.3 guide guide and download

OWASP Live CD Vulnerabilities

Nessus Home or Professional Feed?

Kismet

New oWASP Top 10

Know your (web) tools

BeEF - Browser Exploitation Framework

WPA cracked in 1 minute

Countering Kernel Root kits with lightweight hook protection

'Gumblar' Attack Redirects Users' Web Searches

twitter-like app

Tigris issue

Fixing Sophos and heavyweight solutions to simple problems

McAfee EPolicy Orchestrator and ProtectionPilot HTTP Server Remote Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

viewstate mangling

Salty md5s

AES and encryption described

Guidelines for the Issuance and Management of Extended Validation Certificates

Server-Gated Cryptography (IIS 6.0)

Random Musings - Day #362

2009-12-27T17:15:00.001-08:00

Don't know why Molly Sims suddenly popped up in my facebook. Meanwhile cityofeternals is beginning to take off.

Some VMWare and Virtualisation links:

Tripwire Config Check

How virtualisation affects PCI DSS

Free VM WARE Tools

Hacking Tool Lets A VM Break Out And Attack Its Host

VNC issues:

VNC Flaw Test

RealVNC_4.1 Bypass (msf)

Multiple VNC Client Vulnerabilities

Portable anti-virus on a stick solutions:

ClamWin

Naevius Antivirus

TrustPoint AntiVirus

Mx One Antivirus

Portable AntiVirus

Random Musings - Day #361

2009-12-25T19:15:00.000-08:00

Irony
Looks like Joe McElderry was merely delayed the inevitable as takes "the climb" up to #1. Certain amount of irony is that despite Rage against the machine denying him the topspot for the Christmas #1.
Also ironic is they have been showing clips of Michael Jackson announcing his "this is it" tour as his "final curtain call..." I'm afraid that was it!

Also never ask someone, "where you can find mr happy, in a store". Don't be surprised if someone removes their pants as a consequence!

Random Musings - Day #360

2009-12-25T19:00:00.001-08:00

I went to see Charlton play and that was perhaps the craziest game of football I've ever seen. 2 players sent off for Charlton before half time. But it was still interesting as Charlton were 1-0 at half time, which meant they had something to play for. But 9 versus 11 was too much and were then 2-1 down. But right at the death, somehow managed to get an equaliser.

Here's some useful documents:

Code of Connections (CoCo) Configuration Document

VOIP Security Guidance from NSA

ICSA Labs Product Assurance Report

Here's some news articles demonstrating all is not quite well with data leaking, etc.

Heartland Data Breach

Data Loss DB - Open Security Foundation

t-mobile sources and data leak

Bank gets trojaned

webhost attacks makes vmware virtually gone, which followed by an apparent suicide (Zero-Day really does kill!

PCI Assessment (Poem)

2009-12-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

And a poem, inspired by an PCI assessment...

Addicted to FTP, Don’t ask why
Your passwords are being sniffed
And your data is captured on the fly
So send your PAN’s in e-mails
Without any audit trails
Do not worry about PCI?
But do you care?
As you can lie
On your self assessment questionnaire

Random Musings - Day #359

2009-12-25T06:25:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas...
Just post some thoughts from a friend...

Top 10 reasons why you might be burnt out

"They told me at the blood bank this might happen."

"This is just a 15 minute power nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to."

"Whew! Guess I left the top off the white out. You probably got here just in time."

"I wasn't sleeping, I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm."

"I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."

"I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Do you discriminate against people who practice Yoga?"

"Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."

"The coffee machine is broken."

"Someone must have put decaf in the wrong pot."

" ... in God's name, Amen."

Work Ethics

Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing all those who opposed them.

If you can stay calm, while all around you is chaos...then you probably haven't completely understood the seriousness of the situation.

Doing a job RIGHT the first time gets the job done. Doing the job WRONG fourteen times gives you job security.

A person who smiles in the face of adversity...probably has a scapegoat.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.

TEAMWORK...means never having to take all the blame yourself.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.

We waste time, so you don't have to.

Hang in there, retirement is only thirty years away!

Go the extra mile. It makes your boss look like an incompetent slacker.

A snooze button is a poor substitute for no alarm clock at all.

When the going gets tough, the tough take a coffee break.

INDECISION is the key to FLEXIBILITY.

Aim Low, Reach Your Goals, Avoid Disappointment.

Random Musings - Day #358

2009-12-24T07:00:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve! It really annoyed me that the trains on Christmas finish early. Which cause a problem getting home for Christmas.

Anyhow many many links. Here's a few...

IIS 6 Attack Could Let Hackers Snoop on Servers

IIS 6.0 Webdav Unicode Vulnerability

MSIE 0-day Spreading Via SQL Injection

SQL Truncation Exploits

Encrypting Connections to SQL Server

secret questions analysis

Attacks prompt Microsoft to fix Excel flaw

pcAnywhere Allows Local Users to Become SYSTEM

CVE-2005-1970 (Symantec pcAnywhere 10.5x and 11.x before 11.5 Caller Properties vulnerability)

Cisco benchmark

Catalyst Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) Configuration Example

Multiple Vulnerabilities in Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers

Cisco Event Response: Semiannual Cisco IOS Software Advisory Bundled Publication

Random Musings - Day #357

2009-12-23T16:53:00.001-08:00

I was wondering today if it was faster to get to Canary Wharf via DLR at Woolwich Arsenal or Greenwich from Woolwich Arsenal. The answer is slightly surprisingly via Greenwich. But it is only by a few minutes. In fact, you should change at Canning Town and get the jubilee line instead.

Also found this annoying... people who use two cards in the same cashpoint machine when there is a queue. It's just inconsiderate!

Random Musings - Day #356

2009-12-23T16:50:00.000-08:00

Well couple days off and should do some shopping but that's hardly happening.
For now some computer links that may have put on in the past year...

LSA is the Local Security Authority. According to Microsoft, "LSA Authentication describes the parts of the Local Security Authority (LSA) that applications can use to authenticate and log users on to the local system. It also describes how to create and call authentication packages and security packages."

You come dump lsa secrets (which doesn't allow access from the administrator) using oxid.it's abel or nirsoft's lsasecretsdump.

The security identifier (sid) is Microsoft's way of uniquely defining things. Here's some well known SIDs.

LMHash is an old school Microsoft format that should be stopped and later editions of Windows do not have by default.

Random Musings - Day #355

2009-12-21T14:52:00.000-08:00

Someone said they liked the Ski Sunday, which reminds to look a r&b song which I swear sampled not the actual ski sunday theme tune but the incidental music used to show the downhill course, etc.
Having a look at television tunes proved a bit fruitless. But I happened to stumbled an amazon remark made on the Richard X and Kelis mash-up song, "Finest Dreams".

The song is an interpolation of "The Finest" by The SOS Band c 1986 and "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of" by The Human League, from the Dare album. (which incidentally was also used as the music for Ski Sunday some years ago.)

So it was an obscure Human League album track, The things that dreams are made of. A remix is seen here. I've found no reference to more recent sample of the riff in that song so maybe it was Kelis I was thinking of.

Random Musings - Day #354

2009-12-20T17:57:00.000-08:00

So Rage against the Machine upset the odds and denied Joe McElderry the Christmas #1. The ironic thing is, Joe McElderry may still get to #1 next week.

More impressed with the final of "Move like Michael Jackson".

Also been having a look at beatboxing and scatting and variations like crimping.

Look at none of other than Justin Timberlake for not too shabby beatboxing. The guy's multi-talented. Also Ella Fitzgerald for scatting and Mighty Boosh for crimping.

Check out this scat battle

Random Musings - Day #353

2009-12-20T17:21:00.000-08:00

Amazed that a team as sacked their manager despite losing only 2 league games and making it into a semi-final of the league cup. Whereas another team that has lost 7 times in the league and out of most cup competitions is still in charge. That's the craziness of the premiership!

Random Musings - Day #352

2009-12-19T04:13:00.000-08:00

Looking for laptop hard drives and bits and pieces. I had a look at laptopbits and generally wasn't impressed how expensive is to get a replacement battery or power adaptor.
cough cpr heart attack

The race between Rage against the machine and Joe McElderry has well now gotten boring particularly as both acts are under the same label and hence will line Simon Cowells pockets even further. Shameful.

Random Musings - Day #351

2009-12-17T03:44:00.002-08:00

Here's the windows password assessment (word doc)

Here's another way to crack the administrator password.

The Toshiba Portege uses the Escape key to boot into BIOS. Not impressed with that Toshiba as it appears you cannot disable devices used in boot up. More details can be found here

Random Musings - Day #350

2009-12-17T03:44:00.001-08:00

Whilst watching the tv saw Teddy Sheringham playing poker finishing runner up in the partypoker world open heat.

Random Musings - Day #349

2009-12-15T10:57:00.001-08:00

Here's the full list of week-by-week votes for x-factor. The funny thing is that Olly never top a single week whereas the one week Rachel survived the bottom two, she won that week.

The only pub in Pratt's Bottom is the Bulls Head. I went there around this time last year.

Random Musings - Day #348

2009-12-14T10:02:00.001-08:00

Essential Hacking Tools, SQL Server Browser and Full list of SIP parameters

Random Musings - Day #347

2009-12-13T17:50:00.000-08:00

It's been emotional. Joe McElderry won X-Factor. Cheryl Cole was always in tears.
Ryan Giggs caused a bit of a surprise by winning the Sports personalty of the year. But that might well have been eclipsed by Seve Ballestros who picked up the Lifetime achievement award despite being back in Spain. Remember he's come back from brain tumour. Also don't forget Major Phil Packer's run in the marathon for charity.
Ding Junhui captured the UK championship. Maybe this is the start of getting the sport of snooker all over the world, especially the far east!

Random Musings - Day #346

2009-12-13T03:09:00.001-08:00

The duets for x-factor were slightly disappointing simply because they cut the songs in half, particularly the duets for Olly/Robbie and Joe/George. The final final will be between Olly and Joe. I still don't think it is clear cut as people think.

This would have been interesting fact to bat about in the FA Cup but Luton were unbeaten in 9 cup games until yesterday when they were defeated in the FA Trophy by Cambridge United.

Random Musings - Day #345

2009-12-13T03:08:00.001-08:00

Funny, it's not the first time that Olly Murs has been on the tv!

Random Musings - Day #344

2009-12-10T10:56:00.000-08:00

How to create Windows Service by using sc.exe

You had me at "Hello World"

Converting Java app into a windows service

Creating a simple win32 service in C++

tlist

Random Musings - Day #343

2009-12-09T14:43:00.000-08:00

Been trying to find some useful documents for work. A good best practice site maybe at sans. Here's a comparison between OpenVPN and IPSec.

Random Musings - Day #342

2009-12-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

Popeye's creator, E.C. Segar was celebrated by google as he was born today 115 years ago.

The X-Factor duets for this year's competition has been revealed. I was thinking if Joe got paired with George Michael, he would be nailed on to win it as they would probably sing "Don't let the sun go down on me"

Sure enough it is Joe and George. Meanwhile Olly teams up with Robbie Williams and Stacey teams up with Michael Buble.

Random Musings - Day #341

2009-12-07T10:58:00.001-08:00

Looks like Barry Hearn is the new man in charge of World Snooker. This should in theory breathe new life into the game of snooker. Currently, there are only 6 ranking tournament and little to no coverage. The game can be variated along the same lines as cricket. Have a short game. Frames with 6 red balls. Best of 3 frame matches. A one-day knockout tournament with draw after every round. Bring back doubles tournament. Have a turbo/shot-clock tournament or even time limit match. Don't forget that Snooker is quite popular in the far east and I am sure there is still interest in Canada and perhaps USA.

I really enjoyed Ronnie O'Sullivan's remark about Barry Hearn's appointment.

He is the Ronaldinho of promoting

Interestingly enough, Steve Davis has a twitter.
Just got over the flu after a day. I am just run down with work atm but I think my RQ might be decent.

Oh yes, boobs are the way forward. Typically efficent, only the Germans would come up with a study that proves that staring at boobs is good for you.
Why are psychologists so pretty? I was watching the BBC the other day, their resident psychologist was pretty cute. But the best known psychologist is Dr Linda Papadopoulos.

OpenVPN uses SSL/TLS for encryption as part of its VPN. It uses
UDP 1194 as its negotiation service.

Random Musings - Day #340

2009-12-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band The Official BBC Children In Need Medley is still at #1. While Rihanna moves up to #2 with Russian Roulette and Lady Gaga has bad romance at #3

Random Musings - Day #339

2009-12-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

The M25 can be a pain particularly if you miss a turning into it or not. But when one part of the junction is closed off and then there's nowhere else to go but the wrong way down the M25 for a few miles and head back from the next junction. That's just wrong!

I was commenting you have all sorts of experiences. Good ones, bad ones and ugly ones. But it's all good. A bit like the film, "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" was such a good movie.

Wonder who you need to inform if you change your name. Obviously if your passport and drivers licence and the inland revenue.

Random Musings - Day #338

2009-12-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

Always thought it would be a good idea if you can check a system with a magic bullet that is with a usb stick with some anti-virus checking. Antivirus on USB goes back to 2005
Backup encryption can be done feasibly these days.

Random Musings - Day #337

2009-12-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

Yeovil is completely dead at night. We went to a cark park in town where you would have to pay during the daytime but overnight it's free, there were only 4 cars in it!
Ironically enough went to Barcelona again. Only it was the resaurant in Woking!

Random Musings - Day #336

2009-12-02T07:16:00.003-08:00

Here's a guide to Internet Routing and RIP. Off to Yeovil...

Songs to potentially do a duet/dance to are:
Itsy bitsy yellow polka dot bikini, Let's all chant, Word up and Bette Davis Eyes

Random Musings - Day #335

2009-12-01T10:08:00.001-08:00

http://www.break.com/game-trailers/game/new-super-mario-bros/automatic-mario-queens-dont-stop-me-now.html

http://www.cesg.gov.uk/publications/media/directory.pdf
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/postpn270.pdf

http://www.computersecurityuk.com/Computer-Security-UK-VPN.html
http://www.cesg.gov.uk/products_services/iacs/osv.shtml

csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-123/SP800-123.pdf
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966456.aspx
http://www.byressecurity.com/assets/pdf/Version%20Network%20Segmentation%20WP.pdf

Random Musings - Day #334

2009-12-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

I didn't know that Nicolas Cage has set up residency in Bath as he switched on the Christmas Lights there.

Random Musings - Day #333

2009-11-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

You can move like Michael Jackson.
Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band (The official Children in Need Medley) defies the odds slightly by not appearing on x-factor and knocks off the x-factor finalists from the top. Jason Derulo is back at #3 with "Whatcha say"

Random Musings - Day #332

2009-11-28T18:18:00.000-08:00

In the last few days, in homage to Freddie Mercury's death 18 years ago, the muppets version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" has been doing the rounds and featured in Toronto's meme of the week

Random Musings - Day #331

2009-11-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

Tiger Woods was involved in car accident. There are a few rumours about the real story including affair that led to the accident ever opportunist has launched tigerwoodsaccident.com

Random Musings - Day #330

2009-11-26T12:42:00.001-08:00

Today is Tina Turner's birthday, simply the best!

Random Musings - Day #329

2009-11-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

Yes the Spanish are relaxed. Coffee break during the daytime, extended lunch, etc.
I was watching old videos on 105tv including Bruce Springsteen and didn't know Bonnie Raitt appeared n the video for Glory Days. Also didn't know Chris Isaak was dancing and cavorting with Helena Christensen on the 1990 song "Wicked Game"

Random Musings - Day #328

2009-11-26T12:23:00.001-08:00

Flew off to Barcelona. Missed the Champions League game between them and Inter Milan at the Nou Camp. That can hold 100,000 people. And it was sold out. It's actually hard to get tickets as No England club was involved. Went walking around Casa Batllo, Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas, Placa Catalunya, etc.

Saw this weird show called (Buscant) La Trinca. There was a guy called Ernest who was singing badly and changing wigs all the time and looked suspiciously like Alan Carr.

Random Musings - Day #327

2009-11-26T12:22:00.000-08:00

Down by Canary Wharf

Random Musings - Day #326

2009-11-22T22:59:00.000-08:00

X-Factor finalists are at #1 with the old Michael Jackson song, "You are not alone". Black eyed peas slip to #2 and Jason Derulo debuts with "Whatcha say" at #3.
Jedward are out finally.

Random Musings - Day #325

2009-11-22T22:54:00.000-08:00

We went to Karaokebox and dinner in Soho and Chinatown. Afterwards went to Thai Silk at the o2. Oddly enough one of the bouncer remembered me from being sick as ironically someone else was had been sick by the same bench that I did last time.

Random Musings - Day #324

2009-11-20T19:03:00.001-08:00

My mate had an audition for Britain's got talent 2010! So went around to check out the process and the competition. There were all sorts of people there but there were quite a number of kids. There was a quartet of dancers who were quite impressive warming up, doing flips, etc. Also there was a young girl doing some breakdancing.
Whilst there was Chris who sung and I think/hoped danced a little bit too in his audition!

Apparently you can reserve (free) tickets at Applausestore.

Random Musings - Day #323

2009-11-19T11:53:00.000-08:00

Here is H.323.
I've been checking myself out. No, not in that way. I've noticed I've been let air out so I checked out if there was something wrong with that. Apparently, it's natural particularly if you are eating a high-fibre diet or beans in general. Here's some tips on how to relieve stomach pain.

Random Musings - Day #322

2009-11-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

Visited a nice Lebanese deli-cafe called the Omnia. I had a couple of nice chawarmas there!

I was hoping for an upset when Ireland went to France but instead we got the Hand of Gaul

Random Musings - Day #321

2009-11-17T15:08:00.000-08:00

So Day 321 is here. Can't leave today without mentioning 3-2-1 Contact and of course the quiz show 3-2-1 featuring the one and only dusty bin.
Also bad new as the price of ginger is going to up and take the price of chinese takeaways up with it. Not impressed with the local Sainsbury's have stop selling their own brand of clumping cat litter.

Random Musings - Day #320

2009-11-16T09:58:00.001-08:00

Ports used by an exchange server. This can't be an exhaustive list as you know Exchange uses RPC services.
The following gives information about what ports available for CRM accessing other Microsoft servers.
Here's a guide to patch policy from Stratus

New OWASP Top 10 has come out.

Random Musings - Day #319

2009-11-15T16:40:00.000-08:00

I didn't realise that the guy who jumped on stage with Jedward on x-factor was none other than Calvin Harris. Better photo and article found in the mirror

Random Musings - Day #318

2009-11-14T14:31:00.000-08:00

Went pass the Hilton in Deansgate

Random Musings - Day #317

2009-11-14T13:46:00.000-08:00

After work, I stayed up in Glasgow and visited the nice gym at the Glasgow Caledonian University. Unfortunately, the gym closed at 7:30 when I got there at 6:45. However, the guy there waivered the entrance fee of 4 pounds. Later, the weather took a turn for the worse and barely got out of the hotel but did end up going to the alea casino!

Random Musings - Day #316

2009-11-14T13:39:00.000-08:00

Up to Glasgow for work

Random Musings - Day #315

2009-11-11T16:21:00.000-08:00

Read what Sting had to say about x-factor

Random Musings - Day #314

2009-11-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

This Sophos guy was a bit dismayed that the general public condoned the worm creator's effort of finding that ikee iphone worm and test driving it. If you think about from a security aspect, you should inform the makers (i.e. Apple) who can put a fix for it. But the iphone would have to be 'broken' anyways. For the general public, they would like to know if there is an issue with their iphone and this can only make awareness in security better. That said, the guy did argue, more hackers are looking for the ikee source code so that can level more malicious payloads.

Here some useful tidbits on securing your file upload including filtering. You can send a malware dummy file (from eicar) to test.

Random Musings - Day #313

2009-11-09T06:52:00.000-08:00

The iphone has a new worm and it's replicating itself by displaying photos of 80s icon, Rick Astley. Yes you've been rickwormed!

In local news, it's not safe to even go to the gym, as this Whitstable gym owner fatally discovered. Here's another accidental death

Embarrassingly forgotten my administrator password. All is not lot though, you can get it back using a number of different methods

Random Musings - Day #312

2009-11-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

Northwich Victoria of the Conference North knocked out Charlton Athletic, 1-0 in the FA Cup 1st round. And from the performance, which you could call Charlton Pathetic, I fail to see how we/they are 2nd in League 1. I had a bad feeling about that match.

I also had a feeling that Danyl might go tonight from x-factor. Thankfully, I was wrong. He's really the only reason for watching the show now. Particularly, as Simon Cowell didn't have the balls to make a decision for the second week running and this time didn't put Jedward out of their misery. Hence byebye Lucie due to the "public vote".

Meanwhile, JLS score their second #1 and knock off Cheryl Cole from the top with "Everybody in love". While Black-eyed peas who were guests on tonight's x-factor are up into the top 3 with "Meet me halfway"

Random Musings - Day #311

2009-11-08T01:37:00.000-08:00

Trying to perfect the circle glide/side glide. Not easy. Even looking at youtube, its not easy! Here's a short version

Random Musings - Day #310

2009-11-07T00:41:00.000-08:00

I read somewhere that Kimiko Date Krumm won a WTA event at Seoul. Big deal, you say for the Japanese. But the girl was one day short of 39 when she won and even more amazing she had taken a 12 year break in that time. Only Billie Jean King has won a tournament with a greater age.
Serena Williams was on the Jonathan Ross Show and interestingly enough her book was barely mentioned and yes the US Open fiasco was discussed briefly. I am surprised no-one mentioned her namesake Robbie was on the show too. Williams versus Williams again. ;)

Random Musings - Day #309

2009-11-05T22:25:00.000-08:00

BBC visited Sesame Street and there some outtakes too.
What is the recommended daily water intake. I thought 2 litres was the bare minimum but apparently it is 1.5 litres. But you do lose 2 litres per day according to BBC and someone forcing themselves to drink 2 litres a day.

Random Musings - Day #308

2009-11-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

Very amused that cookie monster is on the front of google today. It is the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street.
It's funny going through old snippets on youtube. I really didn't know how much of a double act Kermit the frog and Cookie Monster were. Here's them playing a guessing game, looking at cookbook and a telephone.

Random Musings - Day #307

2009-11-03T16:09:00.000-08:00

Rested up. I saw "This is it" and generally impressed with the dancing and singing. It was a wee bit long but other than it was great. I mean I wish I could move the way the way he did when I am 50. Of course I'd rather be alive at 50.
Talking of dance and singing, catch this cartoon video of "I feel good" and there's an interesting mashup of britney and bobby for "My prerogative"

Interesting to see how the team of Andy Murray and Laura Robson fair as they are confirmed to represent GB in the Hopman Cup.

It's true, the most expensive train ticket in the UK is over a grand

Random Musings - Day #306

2009-11-03T02:02:00.000-08:00

Been ill and dizzy. I know a few people are picking up the old swine flu. But I don't think I have that.
I'm amazed that my good friend got into Britain's got talent (2010). So I'm intending to go down there to the audition!

Random Musings - Day #305

2009-11-01T16:14:00.000-08:00

It's All Saints day.

On X-Factor, I was happy that Danyl stayed for another week. The bad press he's getting has got to him. He's the best singer in the competition, although I have a sneaky suspicion, he's peaked too early.

Cheryl Cole is still #1 on the UK Charts fending off Westlife's "What about now" and Jay Sean's "Down"

Hmmm I think I've made up 3 dance moves and the best way to describe them is in their names... the basketball pivot, the weaving slide and the crossover moonwalk...

Also went to The Globe on the south bank of London. I should really check out a play next term as like in the good old days you actually stand up for the whole show for cheap. The exhibition was fascinating. Particularly the urine being used as a stain remover for costumes.
"What the dickens" has nothing to do with Charles Dickens as he's 19th century. The term originate from a Shakespeare's play, "Merry wives of Windsor". Also didn't know that Sam Wanamaker was the person most responsible for bringing the globe theatre back. I immediately twigged that actress Zoe is in fact his daughter.

Random Musings - Day #304

2009-11-01T16:12:00.001-08:00

It's halloween or as it is also known, all saints eve. No need to dress up in costume for me!

Random Musings - Day #303

2009-10-29T23:57:00.000-07:00

The Japanese Premier, Yugo Hatoyama maybe launching an attack on the charts. Meanwhile Wham's "Freedom" was #1 many years ago.

It's 1000 days from the start of the Olympics.

Any interesting script in two lines to mess around with a script file and generate a listing ports in a way your mother likes it.

grep "^10.0.0.1" tcpscan1.ts | awk '{print $3$2}' | cut -c2- - | sed 's/)/|(/' > ,
for I in `cat ,`; do echo "$I/tcp)"; done | sed 's/|/ /'

More bits of useful scripting relate format modifiers and one-liners for sun. Talking of sun here's a blueprints guide

Random Musings - Day #302

2009-10-29T03:20:00.000-07:00

Here's some Oddball stories for October.

Details about Solaris patching including PCA. A couple mroe scripts to help identify patch issues at bolthole and Waider

I went to the Floating Lotus and thinking that place might be a fad, I was pleasantly surprised to find food pretty decent. I particularly enjoyed the tender beef dish but the fabulous fried seafood with salt and pepper was the best.

It reminded of another place I went past whilst on a canal trip in Regent's Park called the Feng Shang Princess.

Random Musings - Day #301

2009-10-29T03:19:00.000-07:00

Been very impressed with Mya's performance on Dancing with the stars. Only Len Goodman doesn't seem to be totally impressed but he does know that Mya has done a bit of dancing before.

Here's an allegedly generic-friendly client friendlysql.com

Random Musings - Day #300

2009-10-27T03:20:00.000-07:00

I was looking at the weather map and noticed how close Scotland is to Northern Ireland. On closer inspection, it doesn't appear as close as it is from Dover to Calais but apparently you can get from Larne (N.I.) to Cairnryan (Scotland) in an hour by ferry!

McDonalds have pulled out of Iceland. You can work out on your own what the story is about. ;)

It's all about the cut. Once again, computerhope have a good guide.
Actually I am trying to split, mix'n'match fields delimited from a csv file. There's a bunch of useful linux and unix commands at laynetworks and one must get up to speed in using the powerful but tempermental awk.

Random Musings - Day #299

2009-10-27T03:15:00.000-07:00

[Oct 26]
In Belfast and enjoying it. I'm by the river (laggan).
I jogged all the way around town, past the city centre, around the river, up to the university and up to St Peter's Cathedreal.
Everyone seems to smoke in Belfast, why I don't know.
(Update me)

Random Musings - Day #298

2009-10-27T03:13:00.001-07:00

[Oct 25]
I've not checked properly but I believe Cheryl Cole is #1 and x-factor now sucks as the wrong group goes out.
(UPDATE ME)

Random Musings - Day #297

2009-10-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend sees the World Crazy golf championships. Then there's also Rumfest.

FA Cup first round draw looks interesting. Both Oxford sides (United and City) are in the first round. Other interesting sides include: the Staines massive, Bromley, Sutton United and arguably the dangerous floater in the whole competition that no-one wants to face, last year's Johnstones paints winners, Luton Town.

Random Musings - Day #296

2009-10-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

Asterix is 50 years old!

Saw VI was in general release in the UK and all-in-all, it had a bit more substance than the previous two disappointments. Jigsaw's character was more featured than the previous two could have something to do with it. Saw VI does indeed take a pop at the Insurance industry. Oh yes! Churchill could be next. Mind, I could swear that a couple of games were taken straight out of the industrial zone of the Crystal Maze.

I actually hope there is not another sequel to this. But sure enough the ending was open enough for that in mind.

Here is how to hping2. System Configuration guidance is available from many sites.

Random Musings - Day #295

2009-10-23T18:06:00.001-07:00

[SQL]

Random Musings - Day #294

2009-10-23T18:05:00.001-07:00

Norwich has a church on every corner in the town centre or that's what it appears to be. Still I managed to visit the castle and the central Cathedral over lunchtime. Unfortunately everything goes dead quiet after 5pm. Even the bus station was dead between 7-9pm.

Random Musings - Day #293

2009-10-23T10:09:00.001-07:00

Off to Norwich via Stratford. Annoyingly at Stratford, I had to wait for the ticket machine to go past 9:30am so I can get the off-peak ticket as those tickets do appear on screen before 9:30am. Nearly missing my train. There's a countdown clock next to the station, presumably for the Olympics 2012. It is set to over 1000 days still.
I did some running in the evening and almost found myself on the way to Ipswich somehow. Plumstead is in London but there is also one near Norwich.

Random Musings - Day #292

2009-10-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

Forgot to mention Beth Tweedle and Lee Westwood were also winners for Britain. I would be slightly worried if Clare Balding interviewed Beth Tweedle at the Sports Personality of the year, particularly after her comments in her interview with Liam Tredwell after he won the grand national. Clint Eastwood showed up and took part in the ceremonies for the Lyon football game.

Rumfest is coming the following weekend.

Also saw Micro Men

Random Musings - Day #291

2009-10-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

The fairytale story has been completed for Jensen Button. To think at the start of the year, he was without a car and likely to be sitting a job centre with us mere mortals rather than sitting on the grid makes this turnaround sublime.

Beachballgate has turned a few heads, particularly as it turns out, it probably should have disallowed as it was foreign object that interfered with the course of play. When I say foreign, I don't mean the players! Check it out for yourself as Darren Bent scored via a deflection from a liverpool beach ball.

Wow, the knives are already out for Whitney Houston after a sub-par performance. Her performance was ok and she looked good but it was her post-performance interview that was questionable. She seemed very slow, forgetful and unsure when interviewed about the competition. More thoughts found at unreality.

Talking of x-factor, last week's performers on the show debuted at #1 and #2 on the UK chart. Alexandra Burke long-awaited comeback song "Bad boys" gives her second #1. Whilst Robbie Williams is back with "Bodies". Meanwhile last week's #1, Chipmunk is now #3.

Random Musings - Day #290

2009-10-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

I had some plumbers round and was looking at B&Q and Wickes

Random Musings - Day #289

2009-10-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

Leona Lewis is ok after a punch in the face!

Random Musings - Day #288

2009-10-15T09:45:00.001-07:00

Huge patch Tuesday updates. Sky has free news. Family guy helps out Microsoft. London techies get their kit off for charity. People are finding resetting accounts triggering account lockouts on twitter.

Random Musings - Day #287

2009-10-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

I've lost a bit of respect for laterooms as they used to be very good at giving discounted hotels but these days everywhere I look they are very expensive now and in fact other sites are now cheaper.

Random Musings - Day #286

2009-10-13T22:37:00.000-07:00

Fame is a remake of the 1980 movie. But like some of students at the performing arts, this movie was going nowhere.

Random Musings - Day #285

2009-10-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

Not that impressed with comparison site, electrical comparison. It doesn't seem give much discrepancy between stores.

Here's how to keep your teeth white-clean

Random Musings - Day #284

2009-10-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

Chipmunk is #1 with Oopsy Daisy. Saturdays at #2 with Forever is over. Jay-Z is #3 with Empire state of mind.

BTW I forgot to post last week and last week's chart had Taio Cruz at #1 (this week at #4), David Guetta with Akon at #2 and Jay-Z at #3.

Interesting blog where there is some commentary is at wwadh.

Random Musings - Day #283

2009-10-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

England lost in Ukraine 1-0 after Robert Green was sent off. I found it amusing when a sky reporter said "England didn't get the rub of the green" referring to England's possession in the second half.
Just watched the start of "Murder by Numbers" and I swear my default alarm tone uses the same opening sequence.

Random Musings - Day #282

2009-10-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

The aptly named whosampled is a database of songs that sampled other songs. I don't think the database is very big. A lot of sampled songs that I can think of, are not there. But then again, I can think of quite obscure samples. It may well be tailored for R&B tracks too.

Random Musings - Day #281

2009-10-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

This article would scare people into believing SSL VPNs is not up to the task at all. Though it does have some good suggestions on handling a SSL VPN on a client device.

Random Musings - Day #280

2009-10-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

The nicely named stackoverflow is a Q&A site for proggies. Some very nice codes and tools can be found at remote exploit. Downloads can be found at download32.

I thought I had this in my blog somewhere but some funny stuff with Super Mario Bros including the Super Mario Corrupter, Super Mario Gold Run, Super Mario rescuing the Princess

Random Musings - Day #279

2009-10-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

I stayed at Jesmond in Newcastle. Seems pretty nice enough. There was a bar beneath the hotel I was staying at for the night. Incidentally, the hotelier tried to put me in the same room as another guest. When I tried the door there was some noises! House prices in Jesmond are quite dear and it does seem posh, well some of the people seemed posh.

Random Musings - Day #278

2009-10-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

Well people in the UK that applied for the London Marathon 2010 are learning their fate. Unfortunately, I've been accepted. This time around I'm nearly a stone and a half heavier. So this is going to make life even more tougher than last time in 2008