Want to write something to to post here ? Write your lines (preferably in english) and mail them to Peter at franky@vendetta.org. For more rants and tech-related stuff, visit Vendetta.Org 20011105 - OurHouse Pictures - Added by Peter Finally got around to put the OurHouse pictures online - http://www.darklife.com/smeg/ourhouse/ 20010801 - Kill a commie for mommie - Added by Peter Kill a commie for mommy ? Dit we go back to the fairlight crack intro's ? nopez.. this is my say about the Code Red worm that is currently disabling the internet one node at a time and there is nothing modern technology can do about it... Well, that is what the media and all the 'security' and antivirus venders would like you to believe... So what is this 'Code Red' worm ? It all starts with a vulnerability in the Indexing Service, part of IIS - for those unknowing, IIS is the webserver that comes with Windows NT4 (IIS4 in the option pack) and Windows 2000. Microsoft released a patch for this mid june and that was it. Well not really, as many sysadmins still believe that once an NT (to keep things simple I look at Windows 2000 as being NT 5) webserver that's it and all is fine - wrong ofcourse as you need to keep up to date with the latest service packs and hotfixes... Now I don't want to start a rant on pro or contra Linux (and other Nix's) but it IS true that Linux-based boxes are generally less vulnerable to these internet worms, although they exist - as do the vulnerabilities in the Linux software, there is no need denying that, but the Linux sysadmins generally look after their machines much more and when a patch for their webserver or database-server of choice (Apache, MySQL, etc.) it is installed within a matter of days. Windows hotfixes often NEVER get installed. So you end up with a bunch of dedicated webservers that never had the proper patch. Add many NT boxes are set up with IIS activated by default without the administrator knowing (or caring) and you get a nice breeding ground. And this is what the Code Red worm likes. The worm uses this vulnerable server to spread itself to other servers and when the time is right it starts a DDOS against the site of the White House. So what's the deal ? Marketing ! Marketing I hear you say ? Yes, as it has been with many viruses, worms, and other digital creatures the antivirus vendors and 'security' firms declare world war three and try to gain customers (and most probably do) by making a lot of noise about it. This noise then gets picked up by the media and off you go - always looking for a good story when the USA is not bombing some small country just for the fun of it it is very likely that it will get picked up by some newspapers or a major network and if one goes - they all follow. This is what happened with the Code Red worm, After it has been going around happily from one vulnerable server to the other nothing much happened and at the 20th of July it started its DDOS attack on the IP address of the whitehouse.gov site - which had already been moved to another IP. According to almost all newspapers, major networks and somebody we will not call by name but is famous for his hysteria about the raw sockets in Windows XP the internet will come to a very very VERY grinding halt as the Code Red virus starts to spread again over all the servers out there on the first of august taking down corporate networks, destroying mailservers, blowing up routers and melting fiber optic cables along the floor of the pacific ocean. Will it ? Well no... Ofcourse you can protect yourself ! Instead of seeing to it that your servers are up to date you can just do like the American military and just take all your servers offline - claiming that the safety of the nation was in danger by this horrible horrible program that nobody could do anything about. and it was written by the Chinese ! the last communist stronghold on the planet ! (when infecting a system, the worm displays a 'hacked by Chinese message). Antivirus vendors yelled and screamed that their packages are able to intercept this 'virus' - ofcourse a worm is not a virus and secondly it does not spread through email. I myself have been getting calls from users in panic that they wanted to update their antivirus definitions to protect their systems from the worm, not taking my answer that they simply did not have to protect their windows 95, 98, Me, NT Workstation boxes against it, add to this an item in the morning radio news here in Belgium about it and you know where the mass hysteria comes from. So what does it all mean ? A lot of companies spent a lot of money on this package of bits that would have been stopped if everyone applied the correct security patches in time and some others sure made a lot of money. But at the end it is the people that have to learn to react to this messages of destruction in a more calm way - and the news media should stop making all the needless noise, but then they will never EVER learn... 20010507 - The joys of central-locking mechanisms - Added by Peter When walking around in Brussels going to the trainstation on my way home, I have to cross the busy Kunst-Wet intersection. It's real fun to cross the road there actually as it's never the same. As usual a lot of traffic was completely blocked and horns were going off left and right - when waiting for the light to switch to green for me to cross the road there is a Citroën MPV making a lot of noise. The driver was making loud gestures for all cars to move and when they finally did he drove straight off - BUT - I was already crossing the road and the sucker drove right into me, so I knocked on his passenger side mirror and window but he just continued. Then I had the idea to do what i should have been doing all the time when those suckers drive around like idiots: You yank open their back doors ! Indeed, you open it, scream at them whatever you want and you slam the door shut again... It's worth millions to have a look at their faces because you are doing the thing they do not expect at all, that you - the stupid little insect that is running around on the street slowing them down - is able to come into their big bad fortress-on-wheels. Expect a lot of comments to be thrown your way but don't care, just walk along and enjoy the moment of glory and honor that you receive from your other pedestrian friends... To make it even taste better, the car was driving with a CD license plate, short for Corps Diplomatique or the suckers that work for foreign embassy's. These idiots have diplomatic immunity so they drive like mad - and you should not get mad at those dudes, you get fucking even ! Some things to look at tho : older cars often don't have central-locking systems, so the backdoors can be locked, but that won't stop scaring the hell out of the drivers ofcourse look inside the car, people in the back could get aggressive check the driver, if its a yuppie go ahead, skip on the bodybuilder type don't stay around and yell too much, this gives them the time to overcome their surprise and come back to you check for enough traffic, force them to drive along, you don't want them coming after you check for guns, for the obvious reason :) finally : don't push it, you do not want to cause accidents ! 20010507 - LOAD "BASTIAN",8,1 - Added by Peter A CD review ! Yes indeed ! If you live in Belgium it is quite impossible to miss the song "you've got my love" on the radio. This song by a Dutch guy called Bastian even gets lots of airtime on TMF. and why should I give a smeg about this album ? Well, because one of the instruments used a lot on the CD is a Commodore 64 ! When listening to You've got my love (and you can recognize that SID-Sound) it's very easy to pick out the 'Phocking Phat C64 Bass' (PPC64B). So let's go. 01 - Almost : The intro 02 - Ready : Sure is ready to start this CD - PPC64B Level : Groovy yet monotone, as most of the song 03 - Anything : Very funky and catchy tune 04 - You've got my love : Album version - sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. - PPC64B Level : PH0KKING L337 !!! 05 - Entirely new : idonno, one of the few songs i dare to skip... PPC64B Level : Adequate 06 - Love is incredible : groovy tune, lie back and relax when listening to this - PPC64B Level : Groovy Baby 07 - Sid Crash : Some SID-Tryouts.. intermezzo I think... 08 - People Change : More funky stuff - like it... 09 - Into the motion : This reminds me of many C64 demo soundtracks, which is good, very good... - PPC64B Level : Yummy.. 10 - Uptight Boogie : So-so song I guess - but nice.. - PPC64B Level : also in the backgroundsynths - sweet. 11 - Game Over : Please insert coin to continue, little bit hidden is the single version of You've got my love. 20010504 - Say Whot ? - Added by Peter Let's have a talk about Belgians former pride : Lernout & Houspie Speech Products (in short LHSP) For years this speech technology firm located in Ieper (that is near the French border at the coast) has been making record revenues and profits making speech technology for your pc, fax, mobile phone, fridge, etc, etc. they have set up an entire 'language valley' in Ieper and also started up divisions in the far-east, one of those countries being South Korea. And it lasted many many years and many many stock offerings and people sold their houses and putted all their money in that company that those 2 happy blokes from just around everyone's corner founded and everybody was going to make a fuckload of money ! But then in comes one smart journalist from the Wall Street Journal that aside from writing his articles can also do some accounting. And soon he spots that there is a big fuckup on the financial part, and the bubble bursts. bigtime. Everybody loses his or her money and people go to court, claiming that everything should be paid back and the local politicians even announce in public that the state should repay those people. This here is my opinion on the entire circus... The founders, "Jo & Pol" : They started to company years ago (and are now in jail when writing this) and claim that they know nothing about anything when it comes to this scandal. as they were the managers of the company they should have known about this... But then from someone i have met on a training course that had worked for one of them at Wang I heard that although they are excellent sales people their management skills are not what should be expected. So did they know ? Probably, but if they didn't it would not surprise me. KPMG : This is the firm that was supposed to conduct the audits at LHSP Korea. In Korea billions and billions of dollars disappeared and KPMG did not notice. So this means one of the following things : KPMG new all about it and played along or (and this is the scary part) they received millions of dollars for their audits and they did not notice. If they indeed did not notice it means to me that they are not capable of doing these audits and should stop doing them. Local politicians : Ieper is in a region dominated by the Flemish catholic party the CVP. All the local politicians have been supporting the firm since day one. A good thing for one as it certainly boosted the local economy and putted the region in the spotlight. Downside then is that the government should compensate for the losses Joe Sixpack made on it - At the end the only thing they cared about is their popularity gain. The banks : Lots of banks (and not even the smallest ones) have loaded money to LHSP by the fuckload. So what is abnormal here ? First of all that these banks did not ask any guarantee of being repayed. You can not loan a single Euro from a bank this country without selling them your soul, but here it was no problem to get a couple billion euro's and a promise that they'll get it back, someday. And these banks are the ones running the stockmarket, where their daytraders bought and sold LHSP stock with every new loan they got and the stockprice went up. 20010417 - Mekka & Symposium 2001 ! - Added by Peter This time no text over here, instead there is an entire article about my visit to the Mekka & Symposium demoparty in Fallingbostel (Germany). Read it here !!! Old Entries