Nate

On food and technology

2010-07-22T21:46:40Z

Had an idea for an Android app, and I suppose it could be ported to iPhone, but it's not something I'm as familiar with.

There are tools like http://www.recipematcher.com/ which take input on what you have in your pantry, and help you build a menu off it.

The problem is sitting down and typing in everything into the webpage, or whatever.

There are also tools like ShopSavvy which can look up the item based off a picture of the barcode.

Combining the two things together would be awesome.
You could take pictures of the stuff in your pantry, feed it into the recipe tool, and it would spit out what all you can make.

Certainly some things you would need to be input manually (bulk meat comes to mind) but it would simplify things greatly. Taking it a step further, if you marked the recipe "made" it could remove the items from its records, and as you grocery shop, you could scan things in again. Need an idea for dinner? tap a button on your phone.

I have looked around, and haven't seen anything like it. The biggest challenge to me is that I'm really not a programmer. I worry that anything I could put together would look like crap

KGpg Linewrap Decryption

2010-02-20T01:30:01Z

Warning: Linux related encryption / decryption stuff.
You can summarily ignore this unless you care about such things.

Ever since I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04, which included an upgrade to KGPG, I've had a problem decrypting data on the clipboard. It's a known problem, with not many options. I could go into it, but you're welcome to google kgpg linewrap decryption for yourself. Basically it was ignoring the carrige returns on data in the clipboard, so I would have to manually paste it into the editor, and then go to decrypt it from there.

Well, I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10, which included some updates to kgpg as well as the GnuPG program it uses on the back end. New version of Kgpg is 2.2.2 (KDE ver 4.3.5) and Gnupg 1.4.9.

So, in short, I finally got it working, and I'm posting this publically with the hopes that someone else googling for it will come across this post, and find it slightly useful.

After the updates, open up KGpg, and click on "Settings" then "Configure KGpg"
(Not that it matters, but I un-checked ASCII armored encryption. My office uses binary mode.) I've got PGP 6 compatibility turned on. Scroll down on the left hand side to where you find "Misc" and click it.

I have "Start Automatic" checked, then I cleared "Use mouse selection" as well as "Display Warning"

After I did that, I was able to decrypt from the clipboard.

reboot_kid @ 2010-01-06T08:19:00

2010-01-06T16:19:29Z

Looking into www.mylookout.com. It claims to be tracking, IDS, anti-virus/malware, etc.. for a variety of smart phone platforms. Anyone else played with it, or something like it?

Since I was asked...

2010-01-04T23:28:15Z

I did a bit of research into Executive Order 12425.

It all stemmed from this blog article: http://blog.cagle.com/2010/01/01/obama-executive-order-alters-your-legal-protections/

Text from the web page reads:
"With the signing of an under-publicized amendment to Executive Order 12425, Barack Obama has fundamentally altered your constitutional rights. His actions are undermining your rights to protect personal privacy from a foreign internationalist police agency named Interpol. A one-paragraph executive order may seem inconsequential to many, but this action has far reaching implications and threatens the sovereignty of America."

Unfortunately, that's not *quite* right. At least not the way I read it. I just did a first read for the sake of those who asked me, and will do a deeper dig time permitting. Follow me here folks

The Original EO 12425 (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_12425) basically enforces the International Organizations Immunities Act. It already contained the language, " it is hereby ordered that the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), in which the United States participates pursuant to 22 U.S.C. 263a, is hereby designated as a public international organization entitled to enjoy the privileges, exemptions and immunities conferred by the International Organizations Immunities Act; except those provided by Section 2(c), the portions of Section 2(d) and Section 3 relating to customs duties and federal internal-revenue importation taxes, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act."

The International Organizations Immunities Act (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/International_Organizations_Immunities_Act#Title_I) section 2 is:

"SEC. 2.
International organizations shall enjoy the status, immunities, exemptions, and privileges set forth in this section, as follows:
(a) International organizations shall, to the extent consistent with the instrument creating them, possess the capacity—
(i) to contract;
(ii) to acquire and dispose of real and personal property;
(iii) to institute legal proceedings.
(b) International organizations, their property and their assets, wherever located, and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy the same immunity from suit and every form of judicial process as is enjoyed by foreign governments, except to the extent that such organizations may expressly waive their immunity for the purpose of any proceedings or by the terms of any contract.

(c) Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable.

(d) Insofar as concerns customs duties and internal-revenue taxes imposed upon or by reason of importation, and the procedures in connection therewith; the registration of foreign agents; and the treatment of official communications, the privileges, exemptions, and immunities to which international organizations shall be entitled shall be those accorded under similar circumstances to foreign governments."

The update to EO 12425 signed by Obama (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-amending-executive-order-12425) in which it says, " it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words "except those provided by Section 2(c), Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act" and the semicolon that immediately precedes them."

So, the way I read it, and again, I intend on reading it more, Obama has made resources used by and under the control of INTERPOL to be subject to lawful search and seizure by US Law Enforcement agencies. Quite the opposite of what the blog has indicated. So, now INTERPOL guys an have their laptops searched at boarder crossings, just like the rest of us, and any income that INTERPOL makes in the US is subject to taxation. Any customs or duties due for bringing in or exporting stuff is also payable, and removes some tax loopholes for them. Actually, this could have far reaching implication for people applying for specific types of diplomatic immunity.

Interesting times, a decent but boring read. I'll be interested in seeing what shows up in the media.

Interesting

2010-01-04T18:09:49Z

Came across an interesting tool today.
Basically it allows you to pull forensic data out of a network data stream.
http://www.xplico.org/

I'm just RTFMing now, but it looks like you grab the packet capture via the normal means, then you run this tool against it.

It pulls out valid data from the stream, so you can see what was actually transmitted/received.

It currently has a hard time with SSL/TLS encrypted streams (and even then will ONLY work with the private key provided.) However, you could run the stream through wireshark, apply the private key to get decrypted data, then feed said information to Xplico. It would certainly be a lot easier than doing hex dump data review.

reboot_kid @ 2009-11-11T22:19:00

2009-11-12T06:19:39Z

Who's idea was it to leave this package of Oreos by my desk, and why do they taste so delicious?!?

Side note: I need a glass of milk

reboot_kid @ 2009-10-25T08:47:00

2009-10-25T15:47:24Z

So, I'm a D&D freak at heart.
I just don't get any chance to play the games anymore.

Anyways, I was going around my normal morning routine online, and came across this picture

So looking forward to this

2009-10-02T17:26:31Z

Warning about canned meat

2009-09-15T17:35:56Z

If you receive an email from the Department of Health,
Telling you not to eat pork from cans,
Because of swine flu......
Ignore it.

It's just spam.

Interesting days in Infosec

2009-07-07T15:59:34Z

For starters, those of you who didn't hear about this, there's a new 0-day exploit in the wild. Discovered yesterday. For those not familiar with the "0-day" term, it essentially means an exploit the 'bad guys' learned about before the 'good guys'

Most of the time, the 'bad guys' develop a hack after reverse-engineering a patch, etc, to see what hole it plugs. They trust it will tkae people time to get the patch installed, especially in the business sector. Anyways, new one out, decent write up here: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=6742
The attack is via ActiveX, and Directshow. It will basically give an attacker the same rights to your PC as you enjoy. Microsoft suggests turning off Directshow ActiveX for the moment. I'm willing to bet they'll have a patch out soonish. I would suggest not using IE. Not that other browsers don't have their flaws, they do, but it makes you a smaller target. Of course, apply the patches as soon as they come out.

Then there's the story that Dell is getting ready to start offering "Digital Forensics" packages to government agencies. I'm no D-F expert, although have advised the board of the Digital Forensics Association in the past (www.digitalforensicsassociation.org) and can't really see a good outcome of Dell doing DF. Just selling the software and hardware is only a small part of the puzzle, and I expect the police department (or whoever) they sell this package to will be contracting to Dell services to run the service, at least some of the time. I've got a problem with that. I'm not sure that Dell contractors are the best resources when it comes to discoving evidence, and preserving it, for legal purposes. I base this solely off my personal interactions with Dell. I used to be a certified repair tech for Dell, so I've seen a bit of their internal workings.

And lastly, there's bits like this: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=6742
The Internet Storm Center regularly publishes stuff where there is a real security impact. Right now, they're saying, "In 24 hours we're getting a lot of rumors that there's a bug in SSH."
They did their work, and it looks like its only old versions of SSH. There are people submititng anonymous tips saying, "Look for a presentation about this at BlackHat/Defcon (Hacker conventions) and tell people to update their SSH"
Well Gee. Thanks. You mean we're supposed to stay up to date on patches? There's a shocker.
While normally I agree with getting info out there, this just smacks of fear mongering, and advertising for BH/DC presentations.

Maybe I'm just in a grumpy mood this morning, but if you've found a problem with an old version of a software package, that has already been updated/patched, and the new version isn't vulnerable, how is it any different? The folks reading the ISC know to keep their systems patched. Sorry, I just feel that it was a waste of space on ISC. (Of course, given my track record of late. This will blow up into something huge, and I'll have to wipe egg off my face)

Duck Pond

2009-06-17T21:42:05Z

I'm working from home today, so I thought it would be nice if we took Alex out to a local pond and feed some ducks while I'm on lunch. One of those quick, cheap, and fun things to do.

We stopped at Subway so we could have sandwiches for lunch.

When we got to the pond, there was a big sign saying to not feed the ducks :-(
Alex was fine with it, but I still wish there was some place close we could let him experience that.

Anyways, got a few pictures of some brave geese, I'll pull them off the camera soon.

Anyone know of a good place for such an activity?

foo

2009-05-09T00:20:06Z

More bart delays :(

LITTLE GIRL ON A PLANe

2009-05-07T16:02:31Z

A stranger was seated next to a little girl on the airplane when the
stranger turned to her and said, "Let's talk. I've heard that flights
go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow
passenger."

The little girl, who had just opened her book, closed it slowly and
said to the stranger, "What would you like to talk about?"

"Oh, I don't know," said the stranger. "How about nuclear power?" and
he smiles.

"OK," she said. "That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask
you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same
stuff -- grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns
out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do
you suppose that is?"

The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence,
thinks about it and says, "Hmmm, I have no idea."

To which the little girl replies, "Do you really feel qualified to
discuss nuclear power when you don't know crap?"

More coffee stuff

2009-05-03T18:16:01Z

Doing a bit more roasting today.
Already finished one batch of Sumatra at a City roast.
Starting up for the 2nd batch. Again, Sumatra. I had about 4oz of regular beans that I threw into the mix too. We'll see how a half regular half decaf batch turns out.

I got a ton of coffee beans for my birthday, including a couple of pounds of Kona beans. I'll have to work up to roasting those. I just hope my roasting skills bring out all the good flavors of the coffee.

Ok Internets

2009-04-30T18:24:19Z

My brain has failed me.

I got a question, and I'm sure the answer things are possible, but I can't think of it, and my google-fu is weak.

Question:
"Is there any way that I can use a Microsoft Office product to sort of emulate a wiki? I have something that I need to put online that is full of definitions, need to connect to each other, and I don't get to put a wiki on our site."

If anyone has suggestions, I'd appreciate it.
My only thought is an HTML page, where everything is cross-connected, but my HTML skills are not up to that.

Brunch

2009-04-19T20:05:46Z

Headed out to Pacifica to have brunch with the lovely newlyweds Missmorte and Robtrooper, but alas she was un-well.

We're at Nona's enjoying the wonderful cooking of Joreth right now. I love the food, but I'm kind of glad its a 90 min drive, or I'd weigh a TON

OpenOffice easter egg

2009-04-10T17:37:50Z

Those of you who have Open Office, you can do the following to get a 'space invaders' style game.
Ignore the german prompts. Its kinda fun.

1. Go to the spreadsheet application in the OpenOffice suite
2. Go to any cell
3. Type in: =game()
The response will be "say what?"
4. Type in: =GAME("StarWars")
5. Press the enter key -- the opening screen shows up
6. Pick your icon -- a message will appear in German
7. Pick your level (again, in German)
8. Click 'start'

Ugh

2009-04-09T22:15:45Z

Someone decided to go down and cut fiber cables.
http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_12106300?nclick_check=1&forced=true

No wonder some of our facilities are offline in that area.

For my friends on OSX

2009-04-09T15:11:57Z

So, if you've got a Mac, you might want to check out Boxee.
http://www.boxee.tv/

They have Ubuntu and Windows versions as well, but they're not as up to date as the Mac version.
Basically, it turns your PC into an entertainment center, and pulls content from all over the place.

I've been enjoying watching MacGyver episodes ;-)
Its also got links to Pandora and Last.FM. One central app for doing all your multi-media stuff.

I'm really enjoying it. It's like Miro, but with a better UI. It seems to be ideal for exporting out via HDMI to your normal system.

If you do get it, look for me, I'm Rebootkid ;-)

Conflicker Stuff

2009-03-30T18:20:59Z

So, for those of you who are geek inclined, there's a simple scan tool available.
I've hosted it off my website because the main site seems to be inundated with traffic.
My mirror is at http://nateandamy.org/scs.zip
md5 sum: f5992661c3aa01a6254285261496ff26
The main is http://iv.cs.uni-bonn.de/wg/cs/applications/containing-conficker/

You'll need to have Python, and the impacket library installed.
Use is pretty simple.. ./scs.py {start-ip} {end-ip} and then look for "conflicker"

if you're running Ubuntu, and want to help our your Windows users, do the following
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python python-impacket
unzip scs.zip
cd scs
./scs.py {start-ip} {end-ip} | grep -i conflicker

If you've got infections, you'll see something like:
127.99.100.2 seems to be infected by Conficker.

Mr Fix It

2009-03-20T02:08:43Z

Can't fix it when the PCI bus has started dropping traffic.

Guess who's building a new computer tonight?

Looking for suggestions

2009-03-16T17:18:52Z

I work from home a lot.
I use Skype for VoIP calls, and it works rather well.

I go through headsets fairly regularly.

Well, when the baby comes, I'm going to spend even more 6 hours or so a day, and have a good noise canceling system. (kids make a lot of noise)

Ideally, being able to be used with both the laptop and the cell phone, but thats not a real requirement.

So, anyone got any suggestions?

I said this a long time ago...

2009-03-16T16:14:38Z

And now, Time is reporting on it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090316/us_time/08599188519000;_ylt=Ai865zc6sCg6_020MxgXml.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJiNmZucnF0BGFzc2V0A3RpbWUvMjAwOTAzMTYvMDg1OTkxODg1MTkwMDAEcG9zAzE1BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2FnYXltYXJyaWFnZQ--

Basically, they're saying to take "Marriage" out of the hands of the Government. From the article:
Instead, give gay and straight couples alike the same license - a certificate confirming them as a family, and call it a "civil union" - anything, really, other than "marriage." For those for whom the word marriage is important, the next stop after the courthouse could be the church, where they could bless their union with all the religious ceremony they could want. The Church itself would lose nothing of its role in sanctioning the kinds of unions that it finds in keeping with its tenets.

This is mildly disturbing

2009-03-13T21:30:37Z

Original article here: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/when_reality_meets_product_concepts/

Short version: Guy has a motorcycle accident, loses a finger. Doctor finds out he's a geek, and offers to build a prosthetic with a built in USB drive.

So, this guy litterally has a USB finger. It contains a distribution of linux, and the movie, "Freddie got fingered"

Happy Square Root Day

2009-03-03T17:53:12Z

Today is 3/3/09

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090303/ap_on_fe_st/odd_square_root_day;_ylt=AnYqOyYHZ4yZ2MMQxB4zhWus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFpOXFkbWY1BHBvcwMyNgRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDMzMwOW1hdGhmYW5z

The last such day was five years ago, Feb. 2, 2004, which coincided with Groundhog Day. The next is seven years away, on April 4, 2016.