Category Archives: Geek Stuff

tabbing

June 24, 2005 Jack

From 6.22 box score:

Name	Tm	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	BF	ERA	WHIP
Kenny Rogers	Tex	3.3	10	6	6	3	0	24	16.36	3.94

I figured it out, I have to build an entire table from scratch, with the “td”s and “tr”s. What a pain.

Geek Stuff

Security Fix

May 20, 2005 Jack

Security Fix

This one I consider scary. Being able to spoof Caller ID completely negates one of the primary security mechanisms that someone is where they say they are, and, to a lesser extent, that they are who they say they are.

If someone steals a new credit card out of my mailbox, they can activate it and go on a spending spree without me knowing anything about it until the first bill arrives. Even the credit card company may not realize there is a problem with the spending pattern.

Another reason to keep the credit limits on your cards low.

I wonder if the credit card company will treat the spending spree as theft? The confirmation came from you home phone number? Presumably the signature on the back of the card matched how whoever stole the card signed it.

How are they spoofing the caller ID? Caller ID (ANI) is generated by the local switch and is passed on through the phone network when a call is made. Presumably the spoofers are acting as a local switch and passing whatever ANI on to one of the main carriers, like the baby Bells or MCI. These carriers just pass the ANI field on without looking at it. I think the main carriers are going to have to start monitoring the ANI coming from outside their systems and drop it if it doesn’t conform to standards. An MCI switch in Colorado Springs wouldn’t pass an ANI from a local switch that didn’t have a 719 or cell-phone area code. And they shouldn’t accept ANI from known Spoofers.

The FCC may need to set up stricter rules on area code conformity. I thinkthat all area codes starting with “9” should be caller pays. All Area Codes starting with “8” should be callee pays. And since they got rid of the ‘”0″ and “1” restriction for second digit, all the residential/landline area codes should be moved to the lower range of numbers and the cell phone, IP and non-land-line area codes should start at 799 and work down. This would give some assurance to the network switches that the ANI they are routing is reasonably accurate. And more importantly that the recieving phone can trust the information provided by the network.

Bad things happen when trust is lost, or is it more appropriate to say that good things don’t happen when trust is lost?

Geek Stuff, General

Linux – the OS for the Criminally Insane

May 18, 2005 Jack

Opinion Column by PC Magazine: Linux Community Implodes

Geek Stuff

Wherefore Art Thou, Smart Homes?

May 13, 2005 Jack

Column from PC Magazine: Wherefore Art Thou, Smart Homes?

I once had high hopes of creating a ‘smart’ house. I have a bunch of X10 remotely controlled light switches and plug-ins and IR motion detectors and remote camera monitoring modules. I even got some software to control them all.

And it didn’t provide a very satisfactory environment, for two reasons. First, when you are walking from room to room, it is easier to turn the lights on and off as you walk by the switch rather than trying to find the remote control that isn’t where you usually leave it. Second, I am trying to migrate to compact flourescent lighting and the X10 modules don’t work with flourescents.

So all my remote lighting control is down to my being able to turn the lights in the TV room on and off from my chair.

The remote camera is still up in the barn to monitor the horses, but the only time you want to monitor them is when it is too dark to see anything and those cameras weren’t very good anyway. You could tell if there as a horse in frame and if it was standing or laying down. I don’t think you could tell which horse it was.

I never found the need to try remote HVAC controls. We don’t have a zoned house and the thermostat is outside the bedroom door.

I can see that a ‘smart ‘ building is an energy efficient method for office buildings and other large structures that have energy zones. In the standard home, it seems like a lot of overkill.

Why do I need a tool to turn off all the lights in the house at one time. 99% of the time the only lights in the house to be turned off are the ones in the room I am in. We usually turnoff lights when we leave rooms and a final walkthrough the house in the evening catches any lingering lights.

So the upshot for ‘smart’ homes is they aren’t worth the time, money and effort unless you want to really geek out.

Geek Stuff