Big J Walk… an anthology of drivel

Microsoft Security Essentials

I have been using MS Security Essentials (MSSE) since the beta release for Windows Vista and Windows 7 Beta/RC. I have had really good success with MSSE finding/blocking security threats. Also, so far, the performance of MSSE has been pretty good as well:

CPU usage is typically @ 0% active

RAM sits around 32MB

And blogs are starting to review and report that the MSSE product is scoring very well in the “Free Options for AV” niche.

PCMag.com

190 points and 3 stars

http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/12/av-comparatives_rates_anti-mal.php

Canonical has released Alpha 1 of the Ubuntu 10.4 distro slated for GA release late April 2010. Over the coming weeks, I will be capturing my installation and testing of the Ubuntu alpha releases and attempting to do so with some videos.

The main method I’ll be using includes Virtual Box to leverage the hardware I have on a Windows host. I don’t have hardware acceleration on this particular Windows host as the CPU doesn’t support this feature.

Once I feel comfortable with the alpha release and the capture of the progress, I’ll move it over to my Ubuntu 9.10 server for some X-Windows execution. Basically:

• Ubuntu 9.10 SERVER – Virtual machine host
• Ubuntu 10.4 Alpha – Virtual machine guest
• XMing to leverage X Windows to deliver the Ubuntu 10.4 desktop to any of my networked machines
  • With the last bullet, I will use Virtual Boxes “headless” capabilities to connect natively, I think/hope

More to come…

This is happening right now at work… Left shift and the number 9 key sometimes stop responding. Increases the difficulty to use the open paren…READ FROM THE BOTTOM UP.

I’ll update as the entertainment continues… I’m wondering if someone’s AutoHotKey macro is a bit whacked out today…?

I have been running VirtualBox for virtual guests going on 2 years or so. I mostly use them for trying out new software or for any other time that I want to create a distinct barrier from my physical PC and any potentially nefarious actions I might execute that could do harm.

I decided to kick my VirtualBox guests over to the NAS server and run VBox as a headless virtual option.

The easy part was the installation of VBox – a quick apt-get command had that squared away quickly enough. I then went down the path of moving my virtual disks, configuring new machines, and then registering all the bits together so that MACHINE X can access DISK Y, and so on.

I went the headless route as to allow RDP sessions directly to the NAS. I don’t run any desktop management on the server, so using the VBox (or any virt GUI) doesn’t do me any good. Eventually, moving to the VBox web controls will take place, but that tool isn’t as mature as just executing my own VBoxManage commands. Eventually, I will move to the web console as well.

Thus far, the performance is about as good as you would expect from a small-ish NAS server running a guest OS.

Soon, I’ll post my build and run scripts. Sometime….

After self-inflicting some panic around the build and stability of my G1 but downgrading the ROM and firmware to V1.0, I was able to get the Android V1.6 (donut), root access, and CyanogenMOD 4.1.9999 installed within an issue.

The browser issues I experienced, specifically with forced close (FC) immediately on launch, are all now gone. Also, I am using a different camera application that gets me the ZOOM that I think any/all digital cameras should offer – to some extent.

The V1.6 build, with CYAN 4.1.9999, is pretty fast. I haven’t had any issues with being able to go from one app to another.

One area of concern when dealing with USB disk drives is the association and assignment of the disk to a device name.If not properly aligned, this can cause havoc on your shares, permissions, and data.

When you expect /dev/sdb1 to be your 1 TB Western Digital drive but the mapping of the devices causes the /dev/sdb1 to be your 320 GB Seagate, what you end up with is data from disk A being presented to other disk shares. This can result in your BACKUP share showing up as an expected media or apps share.

In order to align this within my NAS and have some expected results, I need to move away from DEVICE IDs and use something more unique. Like the UUID for the disk itself

Within Ubuntu, the command blkid shows information about the disk devices. This includes the UUID, the label, and the type.Here’s some output:

@nasserver:~$ blkid

/dev/sda1: UUID="7524d180-a105-4428-a56c-3128c73684a1"

/dev/sda2: UUID="15a4483b-373e-45c0-80ff-b1588c71bff5"

/dev/sda3: UUID="186C12564DB71A6D"

/dev/sdb1: UUID="BA1A9D7A1A9D347B" LABEL="1TB_DRIVE"

/dev/sdc1: UUID="0C229D2C229D1C30" LABEL="400GB_Testing" TYPE="ntfs"

/dev/sdd1: UUID="88e94acd-5645-4f36-b291-5b74890f2c35" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"

/dev/sde1: UUID="BC5A275D5A271424" LABEL="500GB"

The changes that are necessary in the /etc/fstab file looks like this:

UUID=186C12564DB71A6D /media/virts  ntfs  suid,dev,defaults,umask=007,gid=46,exec,nls=utf8  0  0

UUID=BA1A9D7A1A9D347B /media/1tbroot ntfs  suid,dev,defaults,umask=007,gid=46,exec,nls=utf8  0  0

UUID=BC5A275D5A271424 /media/500GB ntfs  suid,dev,defaults,umask=007,gid=46,exec,nls=utf8  0  0

UUID=88e94acd-5645-4f36-b291-5b74890f2c35 /media/Music          ext3  relatime

What this leaves us with is the ability to reliably mount the correct UUID to the mount point each time. The Samba configuration can then make use of the mount point and the Windows share can be named whatever through the Samba configuration.

I spent the last 2 hours trying to figure out why I was getting prompted when I SU’d from root to another ID.

In the /etc/security/login.cfg, the authentication was set to PAM_AUTH instead of STD_AUTH.

Quick change and PRESTO! I now can SU to an ID from root without being prompted for the user’s password.

Note: this may be specific to AIX 5.3 with the build I have use of at work. There are other authentication options, PAM configurations, and 3rd party applications in play.

I have three teams in as many leagues.

My scores, and the scores of the other teams, in line.

What the heck am I doing wrong?!?!

pc waiting

Old Thought Process

In the past my perception has been that the “XX Minutes Remaining” on a Windows dialog box was an acknowledgement of work requested and the estimation of the time the PC needs to complete said task.

New Perception

The “XX Minutes Remaining” is truly based on a non-linear timer that hasn’t really started yet. And while there may be movement in either direction with an increase or decrease to the overall estimation for completing you request, the submission is truly that – a _request_.  When the dialog box goes away, that’s when you know I finished your _request_. Don’t push me… or your _request_ will be faulted.

I downloaded and ran the .11.1 experimental ROM available from cyanogenmod.com

I ran into the same issues but some new ones cropped up:

• Browser launch would generate a FC. It never opened.
• The “end” (red) button would sometimes work… the other buttons would light up when I would hit the button, but it didn’t do anything – sometimes

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