The upgrade to WordPress 2.5 went very smoothly, all I did was backup my database and files, deactivate all the plugins except my InstantUpgrade plugin, and then ran that. After enabling the same plugins I was running before, everything was fine. Easily the most hassle-free upgrade I have ever done on any platform.
I disabled the Twitter Tools updates, I thought there was a weekly digest option but there wasn’t, and it was spamming the Hak5 feed.
We filmed segments for Hak5 3×09 yesterday, and it was a lot of fun. I stood in for Darren’s segment, Matt stood in for mine. Christine and I both did short tips and then we headed back home. It was definitely weird being up there for the first time since December. Hopefully we get another live show going soon.
Today I will be fixing up my garden to look nice, which is a project inspired by Christine. I’ll put up pictures later.
I’ll be talking about the knoppix-based forensic live CD called Helix on the next Hak5 episode which we’re shooting this coming weekend. It’s been out there for quite awhile, and as a security guy I have gotten the opportunity to use it in an incident response role a couple of times. I believe a 2.0 release is coming in the next couple of months, but no official word yet.
I need some geek roommates so I can delegate some of this network stuff to them :). I’ll eventually get things online, I just stay fairly busy. Sorry!
I’ll be drawing up a diagram either tonight or tomorrow, or when I’m done with the network, but essentially what I am going to do is build a pfSense box out of the old P3 550 box, and run two switches on two separate NICs which will be appropriately designated in the software so there is as little chance as possible of crossover.
If you run a Wordpress blog and haven’t removed the code in footer.php which displays the version of wordpress you’re on, I would suggest doing so. It’s a little security by obscurity-ish, but it’s one more small barrier against common vulnerabilities you may be passed over on if the attacker doesn’t know what version you’re on.
Yeah the Hakme project isn’t dead, good things take time folks. The garage is finally networked, and i’ll be getting stuff online this week. Main priority is figuring out what to use for a firewall box. I’m going to give a bunch of stuff a try, from pfSense to m0n0wall, and others. Once I am confident that I can expose a server to be attacked without too much fear of someone breaking into my personal computers, things will start rolling a bit smoother. Obviously I am not going to be able to protect against the most elite hackers out there, but hopefully they’ll have better fish to fry.
I recently purchased a set of JBL On Tour Portable speakers for my Ipod on amazon, and I tell ya.. for 30 40 (oh well eh!) bucks it doesn’t get better. The sound coming out of them is freakin amazing for how small it is. Definitely have some party sound for the house now.
My tonsil recovery is pretty close to complete. I will probably still have a little soreness for a few weeks, but otherwise I feel great and can eat almost anything. I may even try a mixed drink or two this weekend. We’ll see how that goes. As unfortunate as my two trips to the hospital were for rare bleeding, I am happy I had the procedure done.
Along with the speakers, I ordered the book that goes with the game Mass Effect, which I recently finished for the Xbox 360. Outstanding game minus the technical issues. The book is called Mass Effect: Revelations and is written by Drew Karpyshyn, the lead writer for the game. I’ve heard a lot about this book and will be starting it soon. Expect a short review of it in the next few weeks.
I’ve started a wiki at wiki.securabit.com. I’m looking for people who want to help make this thing special. The idea behind it is a security oriented reference wiki for everything hands on in our industry. Tutorials and HOWTO guides for everything from secure programming to configuring your routers or whatever securely, etc. I want to keep the focus pretty narrow so that it’s a technical, factual reference, that isn’t very long winded. Short and to the point is the goal here. If you’re interested in helping out please let us know.
I started playing around with Tabula Rasa yesterday. I think it’ll keep me occupied for a couple months while I wait for some more good Xbox 360 releases. It’s definitely a good bit of fun, but not something I can get addicted to.
Thursday afternoon I ended up going into the hospital again for more post-tonsillectomy bleeding. It wasn’t as bad as it was on Monday but I still had to go under and they put another stitch in, along with the cauterization. I went from having 0 surgeries in my life to 3, all in the last 2 weeks. Hopefully this last one actually fixed the problem, but from what I am told the bleeding is purely random.
I picked up a couple more flash drives to replace the cheap ones I lost. A Patriot 8GB and a Sandisk 4GB (with U3). I was playing around with the U3 apps on Thursday before I had to abruptly head into the emergency room. I’ll be doing more of that today, and also fooling around with the Windows Server 2008 installation I did on a partition on my T61p. I used the guide at http://www.win2008workstation.com/wordpress/ to convert the install into a workstation with the full Aero experience along with wireless network connectivity. I haven’t created a virtual machine using the Hyper-V beta yet, but I did enable it, and will be doing that today.
I introduced my girlfriend to Neverwinter Nights a few days ago, and she’s addicted. It’s a lot of fun to go back and play a game like that with someone sitting next to you, hunting monsters and finding loot and arguing over who should lead. Do any of you play? I would love to set up a game with a few friends every now and then and play through some module.
Last night I had some complications with my tonsillectomy recovery and had to go back into the ER for surgery. We got home about an hour ago and I am doing fine now. I will be off work a little while longer, and hopefully the recovery goes off without any other hitches.
