Jim's blog

I got carried away over the weekend and bought a weather station that hooks up to a PC. I have been contemplating how to build one for some time and decided that the cost/benefit tradeoff was strongly in favour of buying one if I could find one to suit. I now own an IROX Pro USB. It is made by Honeywell (or maybe they just relabel it too).



Continue reading "Weather (or not)" »

I am regularly trying to figure the tradeoff with clients between password lengths, lifetimes, complexity and ease of remembering for staff. A complex password takes longer for a hacker to crack so doesn't need to be changed as often. Less frequent password change makes it a bit easier for staff to manage more complex passwords. However this article points out that the tools hackers have available are growing ever more powerful. The GPU in high end graphics cards appear to be able to crack complex passwords in days rather than month so do we need to advise staff to change complex passwords on a daily basis? That would be almost impossible in most organisations.

Smart cards are looking better and better...

From Realtime Web Security referring to a New Scientist article that I'll need to look up.

It's easy to forget how computationally powerful some graphics cards are. They create near realistic renderings of objects and it turns out their good for password cracking, too. New Scientist is reporting that Elcomsoft, a Moscow based software company, has filed for a US patent on a technique to radically improve the speed of password cracking using off the shelf video cards like nVidia's GeForce 8800
... read more

When my Dad turned 70 eleven years ago, we got all his children and grandchildren together in Wellington (being central) and spent a weekend talking, eating and being a family.
The following year we passed over my Mum's 70th and it wasn't until their 50th (Golden) wedding anniversary seven years ago that we all got together again, along with a few other relatives and friends. Last year Dad turned 80 and we had a smaller family get-together.

Yesterday Mum was 80! What a great day we had in Hamilton. All of her descendants (grandiose - she now has a great granddaughter) apart from my brothers daughters who are in Oz, plus a few other relatives and some of here friends going back 70 years or more to her school days. That group included Merle, her bridesmaid and Ailsa, Merle's sister who Mum was matron of honour for at her wedding.

There were a few cousins representing other branches of the family and I caught up with two I hadn't seen for probably 40 years. We had a great buffet lunch then headed back to Mum & Dad's place for more relaxed conversations, drinks, take ways for dinner, more talking, more cups of tea more talking.....

Great fun.

And despite the weather forecast Wellington turned on a splendid weekend. Pretty windy at times but warm and sunny. That long dry summer may be on its way.

I made a couple of cheeses on Saturday - another cheddar and some camembert with the new lot of culture that arrived earlier in the week. I used more milk (4 litres) for the camembert than the recipe said and spent a busy time trying to make some extra moulds for it. Later I found out why they should all be exactly the same height and why I should drain them on a flat surface rather than a recessed one when I came to turn them over. Anyway I now have a couple of good looking hard cheeses ripening and 5 camemberts of various sizes.

It was a pretty social weekend as well with the kids coming over several times, a movie Saturday night ("I do" a french comedy - worth seeing), a walk and pizza with friends Sunday night.

Got the garage almost cleaned out, did a bit in the garden, listed a couple more bits and sold a laser printer on Trademe.

A good weekend although didn't get out in the boat - the wind was a bit gusty and strong at times for it to be fun although we did see couple of guys out in a small cat at Plimmerton - (only sail boat in sight) and they were moving pretty swiftly.

The X86 Memory System And Why It's Hard To Virtualize Securely

The first in a series of articles by Thomas Ptacek about how the x86 system memory architecture makes secure virtualisation difficult.

This reinforces the message I got some time ago from a colleague working in the hacking/forensics field forensics who pointed out that encrypted disks and related technologies are useless if you can gain access directly into system memory through a DMA channel. PCMCIA slots (and probably USB) have DMA capabilities that are easily usable by a competent hacker with physical access to a computer.

from Security Focus

I have just ordered some Flora Danica culture and the Penicillin Candidum white mould powder to have a crack at a Camembert style cheese. Hopefully get into that this weekend if it arrives in time.

Update: I bought from Curds&Whey in Auckland. They don't accept payments online but they did email me payment details promptly and I have direct credited the amount due so hopefully it will be in the post tomorrow.
Update:Prompt delivery of the cultures - good service.

a few days ago. Only three sheets of plans with virtually all details on sheet 2 and in the building guide. The first sheet is lines drawing and oar details, second sheet has the boat details and the third provides details of how to build with a sliding seat. The plans also cover building a Mollyhawk which is better suited to two rowers by stretching all fore and aft dimensions by 15%.

I think I've got enough offcuts from Hookey to need to buy only 4 sheets of 6mm ply plus the frame timber and some epoxy (I still have about 2 litres). Building should be a pretty quick process once I start as it looks very straight forward. Oars are the most complex thing I think.

Take a look at John Welsford's site information on Seagull here.

According to this article

Most people are seeing less spam because of filters provided by either their workplace or ISP.

Just noticed that Microsoft have announced Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate 0.

You can download it.

How long before the hackers have cracked it?

Why do NZ companies invest less in security than those overseas?

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/scrt/F27620C382A5B1D3CC257363007FFE18

Linux servers are a desirable target for phishers as they provide a more flexible framework for launching attacks. Researchers are finding more and more Linux servers being compromised by hackers.

"The vast majority of the threats we saw were rootkitted Linux boxes, which was rather startling. We expected Microsoft boxes," he said.

and

"Since Linux machines can be used to more easily create specially crafted networking packets, they can be used in highly sophisticated online attacks, said Iftach Amit, director of security research with Finjan's malicious code research centre.

Capabilities like this make Linux machines highly coveted by online attackers, and they fetch a premium in the underground marketplace for compromised machines, Amit said."

Read the article here

Last night I ordered a set of plans for a John Welsford Seagull.

Seagull is a light-weight stitch & glue rowing dinghy and I'm thinking that it can go places with me on the roof rack when I go away for a weekend or longer and provide some simple fun on the water without needing to tow a trailer.

As a total novice to rowing it will be another learning experience I am sure but in time I can imagine a few days away quietly rowing up a lake somewhere and camping at night in places that are hard to get to otherwise (well other than some kind of boat.)



Take a look at John's web site for more Seagull details.