Nov 7 2009

Google Wave

So I got invited to join the new internet phenomenon – Google Wave and with only 3 contacts I don’t see the point. Guess this one is for the viral developers to make some use of it before it gets released to the masses.
I think I get the point of it – its about integration and collaboration. I can see it replacing my email interface @ Google Mail which makes sense – for chatting? I’m not so sure. For status updates? Still not sure. For sharing documents? Possibly but outside of the workplace… we’ll see.
So far its as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

Nov 3 2009

Acer Aspire One + Ubuntu UNR Karmic Koala 9.10

Karmic Koala UNR on AA1
Be warned! All is not good in the upgrade camp this early on… that said on an HP nc6400 no issues and on my Acer Aspire One UNR upgraded fine – apart from breaking my tmpfs mount /tmp area.

This is fixed by following the instructions here.

/tmp as tmpfs
As tmpfs no longer supports mounting of /var/tmp under Karmic Koala do these workarounds in /etc/fstab:

tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
none /var/tmp aufs noatime,br:/tmp=rw:/var/tmp=ro 0 0
none /var/log aufs noatime,br:/tmp=rw:/var/log=ro 0 0
none /var/cache aufs noatime,br:/tmp=rw:/var/cache=ro 0 0

Reboot and things are back the way they where when you optimised your AA1 under UNR 9.04.
There are other tips in that posting – I encourage you to visit it.

Nov 2 2009

L33t new 5k1LL5!

I have to admit to something – I’ve bought a book. The book in question is Gray Hat Hacking, Second Edition: The Ethical Hacker’s Handbook. This book covers a wide range of skills and tools and is undoubtedly a brilliant book covering penetration testing and tools used by those script kiddies. This subject is not taboo in this day and age and for someone working for a large website I’m surprised we’re not more of a target. With me learning these tools such as Metasploit, learning about buffer overflows, XSS, remote auditing will help stay close to those pesky script kiddies and the easily accessible tools they have available for causing havoc on other people’s bits of kit. Plus its fun just seeing how easy it is to gain access to other people’s computers!