I recently discovered that a virtual Windows server I was running had been hacked. I was being paid to run it as part of an arrangement with a long time client of mine. This server ran Windows Server 2008 R2 and though it was rarely used, it was configured to automatically update when required. The only service it exposed to the internet was RDP over TCP/IP port 3392 instead of the default 3389....
This morning I want to talk about something that isn’t quite so serious. I want to talk about the state of video gaming. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a pretty big gamer. I’ve been gaming for over thirty years. I started off on an Apple IIe, Atari 2600 and Colecovision. Yeah I definitely had a blessed childhood. Joking aside, I’m still gaming 32 years later. The platforms and economic drivers have changed but my addiction hobby remains largely intact....
Yesterday was a red letter day for me. Two decades after using Linux for the first time, I have finally managed to fully convert all of daily driver devices to boot Linux. Any of you who know me, know that for years now I’ve been running Linux natively and in a single boot configuration on whatever primary personal laptop I happened to be using at the time. You might also know that just over a year ago I managed to get my wife using it on her laptop....
The other day I got asked by my boss’ boss to share the “secret sauce” behind my productivity at work. This was an odd moment for me as over the last 17 years of my of professional life, nobody has ever asked me to do that. But it did get me thinking about it and that has led to me making a few notes on the subject that I’ve decided to share with the world....
The day has finally come. Today I have been forced to dissolve my relationship with Facebook. Why? In a single word: CISA. In a nutshell CISA is a piece of legislation that allows companies like Facebook to more freely share customer data with the government. All data shared with the government (DHS) under the auspices of this law is automatically shared with the FBI and the NSA. Even more importantly, customers have no recourse against this data sharing as the corporations in question will be immune to lawsuits which touch upon activities covered by it and the process itself is specifically exempted from the Freedom of Information Act....
As many of you know, I self identify as a retro and an indie gamer. That pretty much means that for the most part, I don’t play many of the modern AAA games out there. Of course as a retro gamer, one must avoid going full hipster (otherwise known as asshole) by at least acknowledging that the retro games of today were once the AAA games of yesterday. As I revealed in my Kryoflux article awhile back, I began collecting physical versions of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Goldbox games from SSI....
Anybody who knows me professionally, knows that I despise Microsofts Internet Explorer web browser. What they probably don’t know is why I despise it. Most people likely assume that because I’m a Penguin, I’m also an Internet Explorer hater. The two do tend to go hand in hand. However nothing could be further from the truth. I use Linux a great deal on my own time, but professionally I tend to spend most of my time with Windows....
So as some of you know, I tend to get a new laptop every 12 to 18 months. Over the years my preferences for laptops have changed drastically however and this has been reflected by my latest purchase, a third generation Lenovo X1 Carbon ultrabook. Long gone are the days where power is king and I’d tolerate any inconvenience to get it. There are a number of reasons for this, the most prominent of which I hope to address as part of this post....
Over the last few weeks, the public has been subjected to an array of Grand Juries deciding not to indict cops accused of homicide. Keep in mind that we aren’t talking about the verdicts of trials here. We are talking about indictments. An indictment is given when a Grand Jury decides that there is enough evidence present to actually have a trial. The prosecutors typically select their strongest evidence and present it to the Grand Jury in an effort to get an indictment....
I just finished reading an article detailing an idea for modernizing the US Postal System and I have some thoughts that I’d like to share. Before I begin, I’d like to take a moment to explain why the following critique is so important to me. The long and short of it is that as a software developer, my career essentially consists of solving problems. Software is just the tool I tend to rely upon for getting the job done....