Good news is come at last.
Next steps: replace Exchange with an IMAP server, move back to a print server from IPP, reset roaming profiles (maybe), determine how best to provide local and network file copies.
I'm not the only one having fun at work. A most eloquent rant from Ad Rem: I'm also really sick of dictatorial commands made on a whim to demonstrate someone's power. I'd also hoped/thought (but have been severely disabused of the notion) that adults didn't act like clique-ish junior high students. A little respect and a little appreciation would be nice, though the core temperatures of certain netherworlds would have to radically change before that would happen.
I'm not sure who is going down first the Exchange Server or the Info Sys staff. Crossing fingers that the last iteration (getting rid of the log files so Exchange will really start) may work
Well, the network is back up, and all seems to be well ... except for one tiny problem: the bloody email server. The unique identifier for the Exchange server was lost in all the recreation of the network passwords and users. And just as promised, there is a unique one for each user, never to be regained if that user is deleted or the identifier is lost. So the server couldn't join the network, although everything was talking nicely. Solution (and yes we read the hacks): rebuild the server. Long process, which does not appear to have worked out as planned ... Good news is email queues nicely, so little seems to have been lost.
The buffer overflow problem strikes again. No data file damage, but the network is crippled. No ps, no ls. glibc is damaged so functions depending on it won't work. Well, not quite all is lost. Still have DNS and DHCP and internet access.
Probable cause: rpc buffer overflow undiscovered from the previous attack.
Senator Santorum’s comments have provoked sufficient retorts elsewhere. Suffice it to say, I have trouble with the concept of a limited constitutional government being pushed into bedroom policing without any compelling state interest other than that the behavior offends Mr. Santorum. Offense is not a compelling state interest. Even adultery, which arguably (and I do mean arguably) violates a contract, is rarely reason for bringing in the power of the state.
Far more interesting, however, is research showing the central role of tolerance— as distinguished from liking or approval — in the creation and maintenance of democratic institutions:
A society’s commitment to gender equality and sexual liberalization proves time and again to be the most reliable indicator of how strongly that society supports principles of tolerance and egalitarianism.
Employing the World Values Survey, this article delves into how views expressed toward egalitarianism between the genders, tolerance of homosexuality and similar marks of self-expression distinguish democratic from nondemocratic societies, not views held on the value of elections or political free speech.
In other words if tolerance as the hallmark of an enduring democratic society. Senator Santorum's lack thereof is the greater risk to our society. Membership in a society of over 250 million souls will test one's patience and one's beliefs, to be sure. (Mr. Santorum's remarks sorely have tested mine.) But that perhaps is the reason why tolerance is so essential: the need to recognize universal rights no matter how despicable you find the person holding them to be.
As an aside, read the article as it focuses on democracy and the Middle East.
Math and marriage may go together like a horse and carriage. Terrible pun. Anyway, /. referenced an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education on using nonlinear mathematical equations for evaluating the dynamics of marital conversations.
Ad Rem writes, Hydra claims that it allows ‘all users to type anywhere in the text without locking parts of the text for other users.’ I wonder if there is anything similar out there for PCs.
Certainly useful stuff. I haven’t found anything yet, but there may be some open software that does this.
Just because it's on google, doesn’t mean it’s true: The myth of the manual typewriter that William Gibson cannot squelch.
[Well, it seems Google page rankings have caught up with the news. Still, it remains a useful reminder not to equate page rankings with facts.]
After all, we’re holding with Debian Linux
While FreeBSD offers some useful features, the drawback centers around the filesystem. We've been using SGI's XFS filesystem, a 64-bit journaling filesystem. Journaling allows for rapid recoveries from crashes by obviating special filechecks for consistencies. XFS is designed for handling large files: a 1 million terabyte file limit and 2 TB filesystem limit on Linux. Incidently, backups can run while files are in use. *BSD employs the Berkeley FFS, which cannot match some of the above XSF features and which loses more user data in the event of a crash and requires a longer restore time as it runs fsck post-crash.
To put this disease in context: malaria, HIV and tuberculosis kill over 5 million people per year and cause 300 million illnesses. Not of small import is that causes, prevention and treatment are available for the three diseases mentioned here.
From Ad Rem Not only are some breeders managing to create structurally unsound animals, the Globe and Mail reports that some people are altering dogs’ appearances through surgery to win.
What is the point to the competition? Unless it is to show off the surgeon’s work? Since obviously ethics are out the window, how about a freaky art show with the top awards for the weirdest enhancement to dogs?
In response to being cracked, we're considering moving from Debian Linux to BSD, a flavor of UNIX. The logic is thus: it would be really fun to learn BSD, fewer systems use BSD Unix, so the potential number of crackers is smaller, security is a focus of the BSD community, our programs (Samba, Apache, sendmail and similar) all run on any unix flavor, and finally it would be cool to do. The mail server has been running uneventfully for three years on FreeBSD: no cracks, no reboots.
Flavors of BSD under consideration: FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD. A quick comparison, although I need to check out their history too.
From all of this, what are the trade-offs of each program?
Gut reaction is FreeBSD (simplicity and stability). OpenBSD definitely trumps on security, but we don't have extraordinary requirements, such as transmitting federal court trial documents and evidence. Need to look a bit more into the VPN standards of each as we use that for communicating with remote offices. Also, will we want wireless (that is NetBSD)??
Or should we put OpenBSD on the firewall and one of the other two on the other machines??
He acquired passwords and other private information to crack systems, by asking people. La plus ça change. Now systems administrations install patches, provide passwords, train users, rotate passwords. And guess what? The majority of workers would exchange confidential information for a pen! Okay it's not quite scientific, but the study's point remains: people are the strongest or weakest security link, not the equipment.
Siberian ice cores turn out to contain 400,000 year old plant DNA, the oldest yet known specimen. The cores also contain soil samples with DNA fragments from horses, mammoths and bison.
And, 8,600 tortoise shells carved with signs appear to be the oldest evidence yet of written language. The shells were found in graves in Jiahu, Henan Province in China.
The current count is 3,389 cases of SARS and 165 deaths.
Of note:
no option other than to isolate patients and manage them according to strict infection control practices as precautionary measures.
The Washington Post today reports the resignation of the chair and a member of the President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property. Martin Sullivan, the chair, wrote, While our military forces have displayed extraordinary precision and restraint in deploying arms—and apparently in securing the Oil Ministry and oil fields—they have been nothing short of impotent in failing to attend to the protection of [Iraq's] cultural heritage.
[May 8, 2003: Salon, the New York Times, and the Washington Post with similar sources have been reporting over the last week or so that while objects have disappeared, some objects were intentionally removed for safe-keeping and many have been returned, whatever the original reason for their removal may have been. US customs officials and military assisted in the recovery.]
It's gone for good, much of the history of Mesopotamia. As a letter writer scribed, these items survived the Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Ottomans and Iraqis only to be destroyed for lack of a few soldiers. Two laments one terse and one verbose express it better than I.
./ posted Why Am I Getting All This Spam?
Several sites have also written about AOL's suits against spammers and an enterprising Marylander who posted a spammer's contact information.
Sounds like I have some website work to do, because frankly my organization has limited bandwidth and storage (who doesn't?), and better things to spend limited funds on than unwanted, unsolicited advertising that annoys end-users.
We was cracked. Samba could be attacked using a buffer overflow. Fortunately, it was an opportunistic crack and possibly ethical. As in Samba was shut down on vulnerable servers, but no actual damage incurred.
Canadian scientists have uncoded the genome behind the coronavirus causing SARS, named the Urbani strain. This means (1) testing for the disease is now possible and (2) the search for a remedy can begin. The test makes it possible to confirm suspected cases (and identify silent carriers, if there are any). The WHO reports 2,960 reported cases and 119 deaths worldwide as of April 12th, of which 166 cases were reported by the United States.
More on the lab which mapped this coronavirus. The lab used a Linux-based Beowolf cluster.
Salon provides more details on the privacy risks inherent in the new computer-assisted passenger screening system (CAPSSII), designed to replace the current “no-fly” list for airlines. The known flaws of the old one (who is put on the list and why is apparently classified as is the rationale behind assembling the list) are to be replaced with credit reports with their well-reported shortcomings.
The counter-argument is this new system will help prevent terrorists boarding planes. Not necessarily, as CAPSSII can be reverse-engineered. Random searches of passengers remains more effective: there is no system which someone can counter.
Several useful bits, to help understand the SARS outbreak.
An average of about 36,000 people per year in the United States die from influenza, and 114,000 per year have to be admitted to the hospital as a result of influenza.
SARS has been identified as a member of the coronavirus family.
Corona viruses are named for their corona-like (halo) appearance in electron micrographs. The corona or halo is due to an array of surface projections on the viral envelope, one of which is the E2 glycoprotein, the viral attachment protein and target of neutralizing antibodies. Corona viruses are second only to rhinoviruses as a cause of the common cold. Infection is of the epithelial cells and remains localized, due to the optimum growth temperature of the virus which is 33 to 35 degrees.
It's time for spring cleaning. At least that's what I told myself, when looking at the mess of clothes in the closet, on the washer, hanging above the dryer. Of course, on a lovely spring day, staying inside to consider laundry, let alone fold one shirt, is just not possible for this human. Absolutely not. My legs had me outside in no time at all.
Of course, were the spring cleaning merely limited to the temporal, no problem would exist. It is just as easy to put on a shirt in the laundry room as take one from the closet. The problem is more spiritual, I suppose. My head feels jumbled, unsorted, like a pile of clean, crumpled laundry. Somewhere in that pile is what I seek, but it lies buried, wrinkled, and then I notice my favorite pants still rest in the dirty laundry pile. Surely if I just sort through all these thoughts, put something to paper — writing sorts them out — the world will be clearer.
But then I remember the confusion isn't in the thoughts themselves, but in the larger issues: what do I want to do when I grow up? Oh wait I am grown up. So why don't I have a better answer? I enjoy fiddling with computers and reading about them as much as anything. But this is a large field, how to narrow it down? And in 5 years what should/could/would I do? I don't know. I have no idea. I never have an answer for that question.
How then to consider the non-work fun? My piano playing is horribly rusty and I should revive that. In the meantime there is the discovery of gardening (okay, an excuse for more tools and trips to the hardware store). And hiking and reading, and seeing plays. How many have I already missed this year? And cooking for friends. Then there are the talks around town. And I haven't been to many art shows lately. What about music? Is there an adventure I must do, a book I must write? Maybe is about as strong an answer as I can provide.
Well writing this down only shows the jumble is as jumbled as ever. Blast. Somehow, I feel as though I should have a life's plan, instead of a pile of interests unsorted and compelling. Must be the result of living in a country devoted to 10 days to a happier, healthier, wealthier and more spiritual chicken soup for life guide.
Here's a picture of the new coronavirus behind SARS. So far the numbers are 2,671 stricken with SARS; 103 have succumbed.
I finally moved the blog to the folder /carpedecorum so the URL [http://latitudinarian.org/carpedecorum] now looks something like the blog's name.
I am a Fedora.
The hat of the adventurous, I am spontaneous and active, perhaps sometimes a little foolishly. Regardless, I always come out alright. What Sort of Hat Are You?
Quiz found by Janni
The Practical Nomad reveals all the little secrets your travel plans may contain, both corporate and private, already stored in a few handy databases and ready for mining by your friendly US government. John Poindexter would be proud.
Talking Points Memo points to a lucid critique of the Bush administration's doctrine of regime change. Ken Jewitt's piece for the Policy Review raises the clear and compelling point that threats of regime change probably encourage nuclear proliferation, not lessen it (North Korea has already called our bluff). And, historical references should not be bandied about lightly: Iraq is not post-war Germany during the Cold War and creating democracy is not simple. Finally, so goes Iraq, so goes the Middle East contains more wishful than thinking.
Go and chess may not be the best games for military strategy after all; the information is all there; it's only a matter of uncovering it. Poker on the other hand employs strategem and deceit, propaganda and ruthlessness. Specifically no-limits poker. Goal: all the chips (winner-take-all). Requirements: chutzpah, psychology, steel nerves, and of course a poker face. Lady Luck need not apply.
A nice little piece on unfurling history from the study of DNA noting that only about one gene in a hundred separates any one from any other given human. It also raises the question again of whether language set us apart from other human creatures.
It's the 14th day into the war and already yesterday the NYT reported the briefings are getting heated. The military's feud has gone public full-scale too: Myers roundly chastized the military in Iraq and at the Pentagon for criticizing The Plan.
MSNBC reports in its 31 March piece, Profiling by grocery receipts? that the US government is skirting laws prohibiting the gathering of data about citizens by relying on data — credit card receipts, grocery receipts and similar — collected by private companies. In theory, the data mining is to profile potential terrorists among us. Two huge problems: we don't know it works and the government is deliberately skirting laws designed to prohibit this very action.
Third problem: relying on databases maintained by profit-maximizing companies. Companies don't gather accurate data; they rightly gather sufficiently accurate data. At a certain point more accuracy is too costly to meet a company's goals. That's entirely different than maintaining a secured database for who is permitted entry into a sensitive location. Different set of trade-offs. So determining who boards a plane and who is a threat and who is detained for questioning on the basis of company-maintained data is just plain foolish. (Not to even touch on the problem of people who share the same name.)
./ reports a new bit to be added to the TCP/IP header to enhance security. The request for comments outlines how the evil bit will distinguish unusual packets from malicious ones.
The WHO recommends no travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong until the means by which SARS is transmitted is better understood. So far treatment for the disease consists of isolating the patient and treating symptoms. No drug can be recommended for prophylaxis or treatment at this time, according to the WHO, nor are antibiotics effective (the disease appears to be caused by a virus).
Antibiotics have reduced many of the scourges that damaged or killed many of us; indeed pencillin in World War II all but eliminated the number one killer of soldiers: infections from war wounds. Others include strep throat, pneumonia, tuberculosis, food poisoning and meningitis. Sadly, many diseases once again threaten lives as the bacteria that cause them have become resistant to antibiotic treatment: typhoid, tuberculosis, malaria, strep, to name a few.
Running short on supplies such as ammunition can be deadly in warfare. Antibiotics are weapons in medicine, and they should be treated as gingerly as weapons, as their indiscrimate use saps their potency. Today's news on that front:
The Annuals of Internal Medicine published the findings today that while antibiotic use is falling in the United States, the rate of broad-spectrum use doubled from 24% to 48%. Too frequently doctors prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics without a clinical rationale. As a result, the medical profession risks losing some of its most potent therapies for patients with the greatest need.
Antibiotics are among medicine's most powerful tools. However, their popularity is their Achilles' heel. The more frequently antibiotics are used, the more they promote the bacterial resistance that undercuts their effectiveness (9). As a result, physicians can be tempted to use newer and broader-spectrum agents, thereby fueling the expanding cycle of resistance (2, 14, 20). ...
Our study shows some encouraging signs. Overall, community-based outpatient physicians prescribed substantially fewer antibiotics over the course of the 1990s, particularly among children. Moreover, antibiotics are being used less often for illnesses for which they have limited utility, such as upper respiratory tract infections and acute bronchitis. This may reflect the success of many recent educational interventions to discourage unnecessary antibiotic use.
[But] increasing use of broad-spectrum antibiotics also has important implications for bacterial resistance. In addition to their broad-spectrum activity, quinolones, amoxicillin–clavulanate, and second- and third-generation cephalosporins are widely used for empirical treatment of severe or complicated infections and for directed treatment of otherwise resistant organisms (31-34). The expanding use of these agents, which by the late 1990s made up more than one third of all adult antibiotic prescriptions, can promote escalating antimicrobial resistance within both individuals and communities (35-37). As a result, the medical profession risks losing some of its most potent therapies for patients with the greatest need
For more reading on drug resistance to antibiotics:
And here's what you can do, according to the CDC:
The CDC website provides useful information to parents about antibiotics and children's illnesses.