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I’m actually not going to write all that much more than that, but i’ll give you the quick run-down. I’m writing this post much after the fact, so i don’t remember all of the details, but somehow.. we realized that our mail server was sending out massive volumes of email. Email we didn’t authorize. This realization may have happened after i realized mail i tried to send out to someone got blocked, and assumed it was in error, more likely due to our lack of rDNS (our IP address doesn’t reverse, that is, it doesn’t resolve back into a name.. *shakes fist at colo provider!*). Alas, that was not the case.
We had been compromised! Someone was using our system to wildly send out spam emails, to all sort of unsuspecting folks. Aye! My ability to send out legitimate emails is probably going to be permanently affected. We need a change of IP address! (That’s how you solve the problem with someone associating your address with bad news, move, right? heh..) On a serious note, problems with that strategy include.. updating all records to your new address, and what if your whole subnet (think: neighborhood) is identified as bad news! Not only will the neighbors be mad if they knew, but it’d make moving a _much_ more difficult proposition! Let’s hope that’s not the case.

We used a bit of a kludge to make a quick stop to their attempts — they were exploiting a bug in the web server or one of our softwares to send out the spams, so he blocked the user the web server runs under from being able to send out email anymore. Not quite a pretty fix, plus there are legitimate reasons the web server should send out email, but.. it works for now!
I just thought of another problem i have, probably a problem that we all have–spammers sending out emails with our emails (or more commonly in my case, with email addresses from my domain name(s)). In theory the whole SPF records system could address that, but to my untrained eye the SPF system has failed to mount critical mass among ISPs. Maybe it’s because email is such an old system, to properly implement any new change or system on a truly effective scale would require buy-in and cooperation from SO many, and.. well, there are so many gotchas involved too. I always send out email from my @gmail.com address, but rarely do those emails go through google’s servers to reach their destination. (This incidentally, contributes a bit to gmail marking my own emails as spam.. ones that i send out!! I cc all my emails to gmail so that all sent+received mails are stored there, and.. bother! i say..)

In any case, in my internet searching these are some useful webpages I have run across:
Seemingly useful resources:

http://cs.cmu.edu/~help/security/unix_linux_breakins.html

(Followon to The Coroner’s Toolkit): http://sleuthkit.org/
I thought there was a Linux Intrusion detection system, but it seems like LIDS, if its what I Was thinking of, is Kernel-level. Gah. http://www.lids.org/

http://linuxtopia.org/online_books/linux_administrators_security_guide/10_Linux_Attack_Detection.html

In link checking, I realize that there are a lot of items necessary in security. I’m a fan of tools like tripwire, and tiger, which are good for ongoing look-outs. There is also the need for forensics tools (which many of these are), but let’s not forget the most important way to stay safe: protection. Hardened linux distributions really shine in this degree. Hardening tools can’t quite match up, but they’re a good alternate if you don’t want to run a hardened distro.

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Post tags: linux, Tech

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So before I get to apps, I have to explain the divide. The webOS ecosystem has this unique advantage of having the ability to “root” it.. or rather, lacking the need to “root,” or rather, use trickery to subvert built-in security mechanisms intended to lock a user in. In common parlance, an example of this would be the “jailbreaking” of iPhones. In that case, there are potentially drastic consequences (from Apple, though legally you are now ok!). Android.. is sort of in the middle. They don’t condone/endorse it, and do allow manufacturers to make it harder to “root” the devices, but i’d like to think they are generally supportive of the practice.
However, Palm has made it so easy to gain “root” access to your webOS device that you need only type the konami code (upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart) into the homescreen, and an option will appear allowing you to enable “Developer Mode.” This has allowed an entire “homebrew” catalog of apps to develop. These are apps that, generally speaking, are not able to be in the main Palm App Catalog due to a restriction of some sort or lack of feature/functionality. This community has been sort of led by hacker group “webOS Internals,” corralled by Rod Whitby. Given this nature of open-ness to developers, as well as the web-based roots of the front-end (Luna, which is almost all in CSS/Javascript/HTML, the language of the web), it is extremely easy for the interface to be tweaked to ones liking, without having to install an alternate launcher or other dramatic steps. _very_ cool. I might write more in another post, but for now, I close out, and here’s my list of apps:

Official apps:
AccuWeather
Countdown Timer
Facebook
fileCoaster (not working)
gDial Pro
LED Torch (have been using patch version)
LinkedIn (havent used)
P2GoogleVoice
Pandora
Ping.fm
Preware Alpha
ScummVM
Slacker Radio
Terminal
TimeTracker (havent)
Warranty Manager (havent, want to make sure is porable)
WootOn! (so far useless)
Yelp

Systems Apps:
Sprint Nav stopped working
removed: Amazon MP3
VZ Nav -use that shit all the time!

Preware-installed (These are the “Homebrew” apps):
(Reqs) Linux apps – GNU Patch, lsDiff;
Plugins – Terminal Service Plugin
Service-Package Manager Service, Pre Backup Service, SysToolsMgr
Patches: Ad Blocker
Advanced Reset Options
Call Duration in Call Log
Call Log Styling Mod
Copy URL to Clipboard
Disable Landscape gesture Scroll
Flashlight in Device Menu
gDial Pro Universal Integration
Improved Photo Naming PRE
New Task Auto Details
No Auto Refresh After Idle
No Auto-Off while charging
No Draft Text
No Missed Call Callback
Open to Call Log
Show Download Count
Slider answers to Speaker
SMS Icon for Mobile Tagged Numbers Only
SMS Prepend Fwd When Forwarding
Video ownloads – No truncating
Virtual Keyboard (blech)
Pre Backup Utility

What about SSH? other things installed via ipkg (from novacom)

now trying to figure out how to backup, probably use http://forums.precentral.net/web-os-development/212309-running-bash-sh-scripts-webos-app.html

Backing up is not just about using the “Save+Restore” app to backup settings, i want to backup ALL the files on the phone. And I did..

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Post tags: apps, palm, Pre Plus, WebOS

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It’s been the better part of my month (that i can cancel within and get the payment for the phone back (paid full price for the phone, per JohnT’s recommendation)), and T-Mobile’s supposed to be the cheapest carrier, and Motorola’s supposed to be a wizard at designing cell phones, but I’m not seeing either. My bill looks similar to what I was paying on Sprint, though actually much less clear. Minutes-wise? That’s where Sprint was supreme. Their policy? UNLIMITED mobile-to-mobile calls. OMG. I ended up using something like 100-200 of minutes that were not counted in that, with the bulk of my minutes being placed to others with mobile phones, in retrospect unsurprisingly. I pretty much ran out of minutes w/ my TMo phone and had to use it sparingly in the end. Not a fun feeling. (Might as well be back on prepaid if i want to be worried about per-minute usage.)

This phone also has the much spoken of MotoBLUR technology. It’s .. kinda gross. As I’m just biding time as I wait for the Nexus One to drop, this skinned Android interface finds me.. underwhelmed, and i want to say it’s gross, but i can’t quite substantiate that. And since I’m writing this post way after the fact (like 19 mos , i can’t remember all of what I didn’t enjoy. Its keyboard wasn’t as nice/fun to use (keyboards can be more or less enjoyable? well of course that’s true for physical keyboards too, but i don’t note the differences as starkly in computer keyboards! interesting..), the screen size was smaller.. etc.

Also, I rooted this phone. I didn’t ever get around to trying to root that Samsung Moment from last month, so I had to be sure to do it this time. I looked up the instructions online and.. frankly, they were atrocious. It’s possible I just couldn’t find the right people, but all the links I found required me to use Windoze (eww!) to “root” the phone. How gross is that?! It was much more of a painful and annoying experience than i had expected. This is unbecoming of Android, with its open-source (Linux 4eva! heh..) roots. Maybe Motorola has locked the phone down, and that’s part of the problem. Hopefully it’s not a fundamental android problem. Oh, in retrospect i should have saved the URLs and proper thoughts from doing the rooting/re-ROMing, but alas, I did not. So with that, I think we close.

Little did I know when I wrote my previous (Sprint Samsung Moment) post, that in my http://market.android.com/ account, it listed most (all?) of the apps that I had downloaded. However, it looks like it didn’t record a single of the apps i downloaded during my time on this phone. Ich+. Did I use a different account? No. Then? (UPD’11: My initial install of android (cm7) on the touchpad didn’t show any of my apps either, but my subsequent install (of alpha2) did start showing my apps. Interesting. Weird.. maybe i don’t have to use the Amazon App store after all..) End that aside..
Here’s my list-to-self of apps I had installed:

A Online Radio, Redbox Codes (boo) & dvdplay codes, Craigslist, Facebook, fring, Huffington Post, imeem mobile?, Mobile Banking, Opera Mini 5, Pandora, Pocket Auctions eBay, Recovery Flasher (http://smarterware.org/3189/why-and-how-to-root-your-android-phone), ScanLife, Shazam, Slydial,Terminal Emulator, Tether Petition, Voice Recorder, Waze(?), Weather, WordPress, Yelp
(Same-ATK, androidVNC, AnyPost)
(Sys- Amazon MP3,Audio Postcard, Browser, Calculator, Cal, Cam, Cam)

(I assume same means one from the Sprint, but no, I don’t know what Sys refers to..! pre-installs? Hrmm.. eh!)

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Post tags: cell, mobile, palm, phone, plus, pre, verizon

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http://silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56305 (links to utility, non-linux compat even tho its Acronis?)
and

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/Problem-with-WD-Advanced-Format-drive-in-LINUX-WD15EARS/td-p/6395

So I took the server home, reformatted the drives, ensuring that when i created the sectors, the numbers were divisible by 8. Apparently, these drives use some new (ahead of their time? or is that just marketing speak?) technology, but it works like sh*t in Linux. (Not necessarily just Linux, but that’s the only place wherein we’ve used it, and I am mainly looking for others experience in Linux, though it does appear there are some windoze complaints out there too.)
The drives don’t sync up properly, which caused errors that made me think the drives were bad.

UPDATE’11: We sold the drives on eBay, and bought new drives.. boy, this process was longer than shoulda been, huh? Err.. oops

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Anyways, back to the “present,” i had that cell phone for almost a year, until i got laid-off. Then, I let my parents get me a cell phone. (In retrospect, I wonder how that happened.. did I ask? did I succumb? hmm..) I had that phone from ’01-’04, and cancelled it when i went into the backcountry. I lived life happily without a phone from April’04 til after graduation in ’07. I’m not sure how i managed so easily, but somehow, life made sense and worked out without one. I had my [internet] “land”line in my room (tho it was really problematic that first semester.) While traveling in India in ’07-’08 I had a cell for most of that time, then went back to having no phone. I picked up a prepaid phone when I joined the Nader campaign in ’08, and used it on-and-off, trying to skate the line between not having a phone (and saving money) and being all-in. I just ended up being really cheap and rarely wanting to call or be called by anyone, not quite the best proposition for anyone. So, I finally gave in. I need a cell phone. For work, for pleasure. Whatever, it’s 2010 and I need a phone. These smartphones seem pretty sweet. And anyways, how good is that, the opportunity of having Linux.. on a phone?! So good! I am a techie, so it’s like, so many of my dreams coming true/together. I was waiting for the Nexus One to drop on Verizon, as it was the “clean” android, google’s flagship phone, great specs, etc. Til then (supposed to be June.. update: it never happened) I would jump between all the other carriers, then do a family share with my bro’s gf. (why won’t he do it? pppht!) So here’s that story..

This was a nice phone. A lot larger than phones I’ve used in the past, or in the future. In retrospect I _really_ liked the keyboard. I’m a big fan of the physical keyboard, and don’t see myself ever using a phone that doesn’t have one. I obviously prefer the form factor of the side slider, where the keyboard is the same length as the screen height on its longest side. These phone keyboards.. they’re just too small for me, really. This was a nice phone, I had fun.

The best part of this experience, I later realized, is that Sprint was doing this test-drive promotion. They started advertising it after i had cancelled service. (As a reminder, per California state law you are allowed to purchase cell phones, service, and i think any accessories, with the opportunity to return within 30 days without any penalty of return.) However, I ended up coming up in the world, and was included in the test-drive promotion. What does that mean? I got my month of sprint service (which I already considered a bit of a value) for FREE! Maybe there were some taxes and minor charges i incurred, at the most 5-10$ worth. It was pretty brilliant. For future reference i don’t recommend waiting until EXACTLY 30 days to do cancellation, since it made the billing and returns a bit more complicated in several ways, but hey, i am a believer in using something for the full-extent that you paid for it, after all. (I don’t remember what their policy was on doing pro-rated billing, charging only for the days i actually used the service.)

So, here’s a quick app breakdown.. I wrote this down mainly for my own use, so i know which apps i will want to keep/install on a future Android device.

Use often: TwoTouch Timer Free
Advanced Task Killer
City Caller id (don’t need?)
Quick Settings
Pingdroid (for ping.fm)
Google Voice (crashes on startup, if not more)

Semi-often:
The Weather Channel
Opera Mini
Voice Caller Id (in conjunction with Text-to-Speech Extension)
SyncMyPix
Facebook for Android (MUCH nicer than using it through the web!)

Newly trying: Craigslist Checker; Redbox Code Checker;
Free Dictionary Org
My Coupons (John)
Valpak (John)
fring (John)
wordpress
android-vnc-viewer

Useful utilities don’t use often: Wifi Analyzer, Barcode Scanner
Voice Recorder – trouble with phone screen blanking (stops recording), need to play with some more.
Shazam (Dennis)
Uninstaller?

Need more time with-
AnyStop: BART
FiveOneOneDroid (for 511.org)
Command Executer (couldn’t get a terminal to install)
Metal Detector
Wheres My Droid

Removing: Gps OnOff (Confusing)
Seesmic (never used, meant to use with drytoiletlover)

Barely used: Yelp, flirt SMS, Compass, Pickup Lines

So, i have written a lot of half blog posts. Why? I don’t really know what to tell you about that!

So I’m actually writing this post over a year and a half later, hence, I have little to say, but feel the need to hit ‘publish.’ (Who likes drafts anyways..)

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Post tags: android, linux, phone

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As this is being posted after the 2008 Nader campaign has come to it’s completion, here was an interesting note I received via email:

What’s Next?   Ralph would like to take the campaign energy/momentum and channel it immediately into organizing congressional watchdog groups district by district over the coming weeks/months so that when the Dems take power on Jan. 20th we can put sustained pressure on Congress to enact real progressive “change.”  Please SIGN-UP NOW by going to november5.org to stay in touch w/that effort.  We will be sending an email on Monday…

There are many organizations that Ralph has created or inspired, such as CalPIRG for example, that do a lot of great work. This idea however, of having mass amounts of people in every congressional district coming together and organizing. Making sure that their representatives actually are accountable to them and their voices, desires, hopes, dreams, and needs. By coordinating this on a broader scale, there are the oft-quoted advantages of “scale,” received. Each group can focus their research on specific areas of interest, and they can pool resources, to hire paid folks that can work full-time, to draft materials, from marketing and otherwise, etc.

Ralph would like two things from you before you move on in
life:  (1) a short memo with your thoughts/ideas on what worked and
didn’t work about the campaign.  Those memos should be sent to me
directly.

I didn’t end up writing a memo to Ralph, but i do have a lot of thoughts. I think I can say with sincerity that this ~5 months on the Nader campaign.. has been the toughest time in my life. I can do jobs and work, but this experience, was truly disjointing. I experienced a lot of lows. And unfortunately, the highs always felt much more fleeting. Every demo(n)crat that would criticize or attack me (personally!) or Ralph.. it would hurt real bad, and i have yet to get over it. Part of what hurts is that i don’t find it appropriate to criticize anyone else for who they are. As the adage went in the CCC, “Focus on the situation, issue or behavior, not on the person.” Part of the reason I took this whole summer so hard was the attitude i brought into it. I knew that the media has misled so many in terms of the 2000 election, perpetuating this false notion that Ralph Nader had in some way affected Al Gore’s chances of winning the presidential election. It’s all so fallacious I of course won’t bother with going into it here, but i thought i could educate people, help them understand what actually happened, and possibly, why i was out in the streets. I think that’s part of the reason I was so dis-illusioned, i couldn’t get the majority of folks to listen to me. If they wouldn’t believe me, that’s fine, but have sympathy, understanding, a good ear. I think the fact that folks were so bent on pushing a hateful agenda than in collaborating with me on the things that (I assumed) we agreed with is what killed me. I have long been brought up with what i know realize is a lie, that i have more in common with the democrats than the republicans. Considering how i’ve been (mis-)treated by democrats this year, I have to say i hope i have, and hope never to have, anything to do with them. Even personal friends of mine have laid into me and my politics in a very hurtful manner. It’s.. been a tough year.

So, even though most of us were on the campaign because we really believed (for example, see this brilliant video by one of the shining sports in the campaign for me: Why I Support Nader – Ashley Sanders), it was hard. And I think all of us have taken some sort of lesson from society about how to be beat down, and stay down. In my opinion, it’s hard to have that endless optimism, hopefulness, energy and enthusiasm when .. well, when life’s just giving you lemons.

I’m a really big advocate of urban farming. Partially because people are leaving the “Rural”/”countryside,” but also because that’s where the people are, and there’s a _lot_ of wasted space in cities. People should be close to their food, in location, understanding, and more.

I think I had a lot more to say on this, but going to close this post at this..

Wow, as of nov’11, most links in this post are dead! Eek.

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Post tags: SCOPE NGO India, urban farming gardening

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