The DMZ

Scott Pack

2:02 AM

Hey, check this shit out.

yfrog.com/mefe2cj

Jeff Ferland

@ScottPack Ooh, nice one

Rebecca Chernoff

3:44 AM

who's ready for a town hall chat? (: 'tis scheduled!

Iszi

4:29 AM

This sort of looks out-of-scope for us, and a bit ambiguous...

0

Q: Which are the well know techniqhes used by government to break into suspect devices?

A few weeks ago, I saw an article about one hacker that discovered a way to send virus packages through verified software updates, and this lead me to wonder about the government legal techniques used when they need access to a determined device. I was wondering if the government has some kind o...

And this one... "Request for comments"? Seems too discussion-y.

3

Q: Request for Comments regarding the security model of a REST web service

I have designed a REST web service which requires authentication. It handles authentication in a manner similar to Amazon Web Services, namely: the user has an ACCESS_KEY (say, 'abcd') and a SECRET_KEY (say, 'aabbcc'). The SECRET_KEY is used to create a TOKEN: a SHA-1 using the request informatio...

appsec authentication web-service rest

Stack Exchange

6:01 AM

Stack Overflow Blog: Creative Commons Data Dump Sep ’11

Posted by Jeff Atwood on September 19th, 2011

While we will always continue to produce creative commons data dumps, we are moving to a quarterly schedule for all future dumps. We won’t be blogging each and every one, as it gets a bit monotonous. Please subscribe to our Clear Bits creator feed to be automatically notified when new creative commons data dumps become available!

The latest version of the Stack Exchange Creative Commons Data Dump is now available. This reflects all public data in …

Stack Overflow Server Fault Super User Stack Apps all public non-beta Stack Exchange Sites all corresponding meta sites …

Rory Alsop

7:41 AM

@RebeccaChernoff Morning!

good to see them in't diary

Ninefingers

8:07 AM

@RebeccaChernoff @RoryAlsop when is it sorry? I can't see anything on the schedule....?

Rory Alsop

4

Q: 2011 Moderator Election - Town Hall Chat: Wednesday 9/21 8pm UTC / 4pm EDT

In connection with the moderator elections, we will be holding a Town Hall Chat session with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary. I am working with the can...

discussion featured election

Ninefingers

@RoryAlsop thank ye! I might pop by.

Rory Alsop

some good questions over on the equivalent page for bicycles:

4

Q: 2011 Moderator Election - Town Hall Chat: Thursday 9/22 6pm UTC / 2pm EDT

In connection with the moderator elections, we will be holding a Town Hall Chat session with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary. I am working with the can...

discussion featured election

Graham Lee

8:53 AM

@RoryAlsop done.

Rory Alsop

9:36 AM

@GrahamLee morning. You over at Brucon?

Rory Alsop

10:09 AM

@ScottPack - comms received from your procurement office. Will expedite shipping tomorrow:-)

Scott Pack

11:34 AM

@RoryAlsop Excellent news! The AP office is usually pretty good once everything is in order.

Attention Comic Lovers: All this week, GWS is running strips on ASL signs that look "dirty".

Stack Exchange

12:09 PM

Stack Exchange Security Blog: An accessible overview of browser security

ninefingers on September 20, 2011

So the purpose of this post is to introduce you, an IT-aware but perhaps not software-engineering person, to the various issues surrounding browser security. In order to do this I’ll go quickly through some theory you need to know first and there is some simple C-like pseudocode and the odd bad joke, but otherwise, this isn’t too much of a technical post and you should be able to read it without having to dive into 50 or so books or google every other word. At least, that’s the idea. …

Graham Lee

@RoryAlsop no, first week at Telefónica this week so I'm in sunny Slough :-P

M'vy

@RoryAlsop you know if there is a way to have syntaxic coloration on the blog?

Would be cool for the c-code.

Graham Lee

@Mvy I think it's worth flagging that as a bug on meta - I don't think there's any auto-coloration plugin on the blog (yet)

M'vy

Ok, I'll raise a question

Scott Pack

I have a question, @Mvy

Rory Alsop

12:19 PM

@GrahamLee Woo! and Yay!

:-)

M'vy

Oh, and good afternoon :P

Scott Pack

What's a 'syntaxic'?

Rory Alsop

happy (insert time of day here)

Scott Pack

And a good ${TIME_OF_DAY} to you as well.

M'vy

That's not the English way of saying it?

Rory Alsop

12:21 PM

@ScottPack heh - you win, geek:-)

M'vy

syntactic ?

AviD

@ScottPack happy isomorphic dilution to you

Graham Lee

@RoryAlsop indeed. So far I've remembered why I dislike Outlook so much.

Scott Pack

@Mvy Syntax highlighting is the more common (American English) terminology.

AviD

no, wait, esoteric dilletante?

something like that...

M'vy

12:22 PM

@Scott ok.

AviD

@Mvy I would go with syntaxic coloring.

its not highlighting, and its not syntactic.

M'vy

Ok, let's do this.

AviD

@ScottPack i know, luvving it. but omg! those deaf people are filthy! ;)

M'vy

@ScottPack what about : Blog and syntax coloration

Scott Pack

@AviD Earlier this year I was taught the sign for ahem "hungry".

AviD

12:24 PM

@ScottPack ahem?

Graham Lee

I just logged into blogoverflow and I can't see what plugins we have, so I have no idea whether there already is a fontification plugin.

Scott Pack

@Mvy Just make sure not to put that 'u' in the last word.

M'vy

Ahah

AviD

@RoryAlsop @RebeccaChernoff this coincides with the teachers' chatcast. shouldnt be a problem, right?

M'vy

American vs British English.

Graham Lee

12:27 PM

I can't make the town hall chat :(.

AviD

BZZZZRRRTT!! you lose. ;)

Rory Alsop

hahahaha

Graham Lee

yeah, bit of a #fail

Rory Alsop

I have a town hall chat here tomorrow, and over on bicycles the day after - thought I'd stand for mod there too, as freiheit was asking for more volunteers. Don't think anyone will vote for me though - I'm too new there

AviD

@RoryAlsop makes me think again we should have all those little bits of site design, like the votee buttons, favorite, etc. instead of the generic arrows/stars/etc....

@RoryAlsop can one be a mod in 2 places at once??

dont you have a day job?

Rory Alsop

12:29 PM

like I said - I don't sleep much:-)

AviD

heh

Rory Alsop

@ScottPack GWS?

AviD

girls with slingshots

Rory Alsop

@AviD the proposed artwork for Music.se looks lovely

@AviD oh, of course

is it suitable for work?

AviD

girlswithslingshots.com

for the most part

no visuals, or at least not much.

well, except for the sign language...

@RoryAlsop linkee?

M'vy

12:32 PM

> Oh my unicorns, why haven’t you developers fixed this?

I LOLed at this @Ninefingers

Rory Alsop

7

Q: What should our logo and site design look like?

One of The 7 Essential Questions of Every Beta. This one is pretty straightforward. Solicit contributions, throw out ideas, post preliminary (or finished) designs, and be supportive and respectful of other people’s ideas and creativity. We have designers on staff to come up with site designs bu...

discussion top-7 site-attributes

here you go @AviD

AviD

@RoryAlsop ta

Rory Alsop

and the bicycles one is cool - check out their main site, then the meta site :-)

they are looking at branded water bottles:-)

for marketing

AviD

oo pretty....

M'vy

@RoryAlsop wow! Lot's of propositions

AviD

12:34 PM

@RoryAlsop saw, nice - thats what I started saying.

love the idea of bottles - its not random crap, its site-specific crap!

but didja see - all the different elements are swapped out to something thematical.

we should ask @jin about that again... hey @Jin!

@Jin we're discussing the thematical elements that are not core to the site design, but add a lot of theme-feel - like the voting buttons, favorites, etc. See what @RoryAlsop linked to, on Musical Practice and Performance and Bicycles....

Iszi

@RoryAlsop Quite nice.

AviD

oops gotta run.... later crypters!

(trying that out....? )

Rory Alsop

LOL

Iszi

@AviD Wrong chat room. Crypto.SE is over here --> chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/784/cryptography

Rory Alsop

@Iszi Heh - but if he said "later secs" it would just sound wrong

Iszi

12:50 PM

Erm, @RoryAlsop - It seems there's an error in the numbered list in today's blog post.

Rory Alsop

ooop - hang on

where?

Iszi

The list numbering gets re-started because it was broken up, when (based on later text) it seems it wasn't meant to be re-started.

Rory Alsop

weird - it is perfect in the editor. Must go and find out why

Iszi

@RoryAlsop It's just Markdown being... well, Markdown.

Scott Pack

So would our favorite stars be more appropriately stylized as a rubber stamp motif?

Rory Alsop

12:58 PM

yup - fixed by altering the gap between 1,2 and 3,4,5

very strange

@ScottPack I don't think Marilyn Monroe and Homer Simpson would look good in rubber. Oh, hang on. Let me retract that

2

Scott Pack

Hey guys! Remember that time when @Rory told us all about his rubber suit and cartoon fetish? That was great.

4

Rory Alsop

@ScottPack I saw a deer today

Scott Pack

I have been unable to locate a GlaDOS voice with samples from Portal2 yet.

Maybe I should look for Wheatly instead.

Rory Alsop

Did you get the portal 2 album?

free for download

M'vy

@RoryAlsop Yeah! Awesome music :P

Rory Alsop

1:09 PM

I think I grabbed the Portal 1 sound effects from the zipped file originally, sill have to see if the explorer works on the Portal 2 file

@Mvy - is there standard colouration for code? I don't think any of the tools I have used colour code anything, so I wouldn't know what to do with it if it did

Scott Pack

@RoryAlsop You mean standard colou?rs for each item?

Rory Alsop

@ScottPack yeah - never had that. How does it work?

I always tended to code on a green screen :-)

Scott Pack

Across applications...not that I've seen.

Hell, even within vi what colou?rs are used for what depends on which colou?r theme you use.

Rory Alsop

oooh - colours in vi! I'm so old school:-)

Scott Pack

Well, vim.

For all intents and purposes, vanilla vi doesn't really exist anymore.

My vimrc, if you desire such things

pastebin.com/8zZyqL2K

M'vy

1:17 PM

@RoryAlsop : StackOverflow has one set of colours so we can just use them

@ScottPack oh I like the numpad thing

Scott Pack

Thanks, though I've only ever tested that on a US English keyboard, I have no earthly idea how portable the keymappings are.

Iszi

@RoryAlsop Where?

Scott Pack

thinkwithportals.com/music.php

Jeff Ferland

Anybody have thoughts on pre-engagement pentest materials? Generic contract, things client should know... all the administrative overhead? Really baffling me in a way -- I'm bad at writing such things.

Rory Alsop

@JeffFerland can probably help you out here, but just about to go on a one hour con call. Will give you a shout later

Jeff Ferland

1:26 PM

@RoryAlsop Thanks!

Iszi

@ScottPack Heh. Yesterday's free portal download was via learnwithportals. This is thinkwithportals. I sense a theme.

Scott Pack

@Iszi One of the best lessons I learned from undergrad was from my lighting design prof -- "Think three dimensionally."

Portal seems to do a good job of reinforcing that lesson :)

Iszi

@ScottPack I prefer the lesson learned from Back To The Future: "Think four-dimensionally".

Scott Pack

I have enough problems conceptualizing gigawatts, let alone jiggawats.

M'vy

1:44 PM

No portal is five dimensional I think

X, Y, Z, time and Portal

BTW how do you compute your velocity in portal?

v = d / t ? LOL

I should ask Gaming :P

They'll yell at me :P

Scott Pack

And meetings. Enjoy the rest of your EDT morning, gents.

Iszi

Okay... I've now discovered that a service I signed up for some months ago online can only be canceled by calling Customer Support. LAME.

On the up-side, canceling service is only option 2 on the tree.

...and yet they still ask, "How can I help you?" when they pick up. Do these automated tree systems not relay any information to the call handlers?

Well, that was no more painful than expected.

Jeff Ferland

2:24 PM

@AviD Seemed security-related when he was talking about an app connecting somewhere... turned out to just be a config thing. Concur with the move to SU.SE

Iszi

2:36 PM

Oh, this is amusing.

blogs.computerworld.com/18936/ok_lets_revise_that_assumption

So, a company first says (presumably for security purposes) that they're going to send a password in an e-mail separate from the ID. The "separate" e-mail ends up being a FWD that includes the ID, rendering that protection moot. But, isn't the whole thing sort of pointless anyway since they're using a cleartext protocol in the first place?

Hi @RebeccaChernoff

AviD

@JeffFerland fair 'nuff.

@Iszi talking about no more painful than expected, I hate calling the IRS.

urrghh. Now on hold, probably for another 20 minutes.... :@

@Iszi besides the fwd issue, I've heard that idea. I think the thinking is that the attacker would need to grab TWO emails over the air, which obviously is like being hit by lightning twice.

actually, thats accurate - lightning is more likely to strike in the same place again. atmospheric inconsistencies, and what not.

@Mvy you'd probably have more fun with that at Physics...

@RoryAlsop luvvit! I'm using that one from now one, and /blaming you.

Rebecca Chernoff

@Iszi allo

AviD

@RebeccaChernoff Ms. Chernoff! How'dya do

Iszi

Well, here's a big surprise. "DigiNotar goes titsup" http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/20/diginotar_bankrupt/

Funny, I always thought it was "tits-up" or "tits up".

Rebecca Chernoff

@AviD alright, and you?

AviD

2:50 PM

@Iszi ah, no - that's actually from the ancient gaellic word, meaning "spoilt meat" or "flat whiskey".

@RebeccaChernoff excellent

@Iszi gaellic was a very flexible language, but it really did only focus on 3 or 4 subjects....

@RebeccaChernoff I assume you saw my comments on the OWASP conf, and associated swag?

Rebecca Chernoff

aye

AviD

two thumbs up, and thanks

Rebecca Chernoff

(:

AviD

3:06 PM

@AviD aarrggghhh!! now its been over 40 minutes, not counting the complex phoneform I had to fill out....

I wonder if there's really anybody answering....

oo! I'm up!

see! whinging does work....

Rory Alsop

afternoon - long con call finished

yay

@JeffFerland So, what are you needing? have a look at pentest-standard.org/index.php/Pre-engagement for a useful list of pre engagement categories

tombull89

3:27 PM

enters chat room

sees these two starred comments:

2 hours ago, by Scott Pack

Hey guys! Remember that time when @Rory told us all about his rubber suit and cartoon fetish? That was great.

Iszi

@AviD Interesting. Urban Dictionary says it's military slang for "Total Inability To Support Usual Performance".

tombull89

2 hours ago, by Rory Alsop

@ScottPack I don't think Marilyn Monroe and Homer Simpson would look good in rubber. Oh, hang on. Let me retract that

Iszi

And, as usual, chat Markdown hates me.

tombull89

leaves chat

Iszi

@tombull89 - You ever read bash.org?

Right, you've left chat. Anyway, bash.org fans will recognize this similar scenario (cleaned up just a little for this room):

<anamexis> oh man
<anamexis> I was opening a coke, right
--> Beefpile (~mbeefpile@cloaked.wi.rr.com) has joined #themacmind
<anamexis> and it exploded
<anamexis> ALMOST all over my keyboard
<anamexis> but I got it away just in time
<-- Beefpile has quit (sick bastards)
<anamexis> :<

Rory Alsop

3:35 PM

hahahaha

M'vy

classic

Jeff Ferland

@RoryAlsop Really familiar with that site and the relate categories... stuck on language, I guess

I have no sample to work from

Rory Alsop

ah, okay - if you can wait until about 3 hours time I have some sample bits I could send

not got any work ones I would be allowed to send

Jeff Ferland

@RoryAlsop Thank you much

Rory Alsop

3:55 PM

some will be a wee bit different (US/UK) but the majority is the same

AviD

@JeffFerland I think I have a nice one on hand, but I have a feeling the language might be inapplicable ;)

Jeff Ferland

@AviD Slightly different character set perhaps?

AviD

@Iszi you DO know I was joking, right? @RoryAlsop is the one that speaks Gaellic fluently....

@JeffFerland heh

actually most of my work I do do in english, but since I avoid pentesting, I'm limited in my stock of forms.

Jeff Ferland

"Here's a copy of the form, and here's Rosetta Stone so your legal team can get through it."

AviD

hmm, actually I probably have one in english too, but it's not "mine" to give...

@JeffFerland lol. yeah, google translate is not awesome for Hebrew...

Rory Alsop

4:04 PM

@AviD no gaelic where I'm from, remember. Old Norse FTW! (We had Vikings, you know!)

AviD

@Iszi hmm, I think I'll keep that one instead of @rory's...

@RoryAlsop wait, what? I thought scottish brogue was sourced from gaelic...

Rory Alsop

4:18 PM

Not the far north of Scotland:-) Orkney was only sold back to Scotland 300 years ago

and on that note - off ot find a train

bye all

Iszi

4:45 PM

Is 12 lines too long for an e-mail signature that doesn't include images or a quotation?

First two lines are his name, with the first line being redundant. Next three are titles. Two after that are employer & contract. Then one for physical location (city & state), three for phone numbers and one for e-mail.

tombull89

5:16 PM

@Iszi chuckle

yes, when I'm at home.

Iszi

Can anyone get me details on MySQL bug #36544? I'm getting "Access Denied" when I try to look it up, but I'm not seeing any indication that it's meant to be a restricted area or any reference to how to request access.

Wait... there's a little Login/Register link. Maybe that'll help. :-/

Nope. Still Access Denied. Blech.

M'vy

6:08 PM

Poor performance due to binary selects in MySQL?

did you tried google cache?

Iszi

@Mvy The current version appears to be the same Access Denied message.

@Mvy Is that the name of the bug? If so, it's not the droid I'm looking for.

M'vy

not sure

the site seems not to be mysql... dev.icinga.org/issues/365

Iszi

No archive in the WayBackMachine.

M'vy

RIGHT JOIN after LEFT JOIN works incorrectly ?

Iszi

@Mvy That's missing a couple digits.

M'vy

6:13 PM

oh wait

Iszi

@Mvy Doesn't sound like what I'm looking for either, but then again I don't really know if the Bug ID I'm trying to look up is the issue I'm looking for. Reference?

M'vy

You do not have access to bug #36544.

Iszi

@Mvy Bingo

Okay, noob question here (please let me know if this would be worth posting): What tools (preferably built-in, and/or single-purpose) would one use to perform a banner grab in Windows?

I've tried telnet hostname portID to no avail.

Jeff Ferland

6:31 PM

@Iszi Not built-in, but you could use netcat

Iszi

@JeffFerland I said Windows.

Wiki says there's a Windows version, but the link's dead.

Jeff Ferland

@Iszi I said netcat. Try here? rodneybeede.com/Compile_Netcat_on_Windows_using_MinGW.html

Worst case, you can use cygwin to get it.

Iszi

What's this about... "GAPING_SECURITY_HOLE option (-e command line option)"?

@JeffFerland - Have you ever used NCat? If so, how does it compare?

Jeff Ferland

@Iszi No; probably works exactly as well for your task.

Oooh, new tool. Me likey.

Iszi

6:53 PM

I wonder if building a portable NCat on my own would be worthwile, as opposed to downloading the pre-built one. Would be nice to know what the current version number is.

Scott Pack

mmm....netcat....

Hey @Iszi. Go to twatter and see if I'm currently following you

please

Jeff Ferland

@ScottPack I want to harm you every time you use that word.

Scott Pack

@JeffFerland Hey, it's his nickname. Blame him.

Iszi

@ScottPack Supposedly you are. Still only see your eye, though.

Scott Pack

Yeah, I haven't updated my picture there, yet.

Iszi

7:04 PM

Just sent you an @Mention.

Scott Pack

And, naturally, the SMS was received before the web page updated

Iszi

Haha.

Scott Pack

It's odd. When I go to the 'people I follow' page I see the 'Follow' button, instead of the 'Following'

Iszi

I've got the same on a few people that I'm definitely still getting tweets from. Weird.

Rory Alsop

@ScottPack hahahaha - took me a while

Scott Pack

7:12 PM

(:

Rory Alsop

@Jeff - having a look for some of those docs now

Jeff Ferland

7:24 PM

Wikipedia released the non-sensitive parts of their puppet server configuration files to the public today. That could be fun to look at for anybody who likes playing with a lot of servers.

Scott Pack

You're right, it could be.

Puppet is pretty stinking nice. Between it and cobbler it's sometimes easier to provision a new system than manually change the freaking ip address of a box.

Jeff Ferland

I like the idea that admins are most efficient when they manage configurations rather than machines.

2

Rory Alsop

@Scott - popped some extra goodies in the bag for ya!

Scott Pack

giggity?

Rory Alsop

you'll have to wait and see:-)

Scott Pack

7:36 PM

Awesome, thanks.

Rory Alsop

Hey - did you see we nearly have another 10k user - @D.W. - think he only needs 7 upvotes :-)

Scott Pack

That reminds me, I need to respond to one of his comments.

Rory Alsop

@JeffFerland definitely.

Scott Pack

@JeffFerland Configuration management systems are just nice in general.

Oh, you mean local changes get undone? Shazaam

Rory Alsop

think I have a couple of possibles here - will need to do a bit of sanitising, and then shall I send them through to your @st-------mo.com address?

Thomas Pornin

7:47 PM

Hello everybody

Jeff Ferland

sacrifices a random prime number to @ThomasPornin

3

Scott Pack

Good afternoon, sir.

Thomas Pornin

@JeffFerland Your sacrifice is accepted. You may live.

Jeff Ferland

Anybody able to explain why the Viagra comment has a white star with outline while the rest of the stars are black?

Scott Pack

@JeffFerland That's hollow, not black, thank you very much.

Means that it's been pinned to the starwall by a room owner or mod.

Jeff Ferland

8:26 PM

-1

Q: Win32 virus problem for windows

Win32 virus actually very harm full for windows PC. its make you PC speed very slow and also disturbing to run other program. You can Know about win32 virus more. Click me

trust

Spam -- kill

That user has posted two "informative" links to the same domain in two questions... we got us a bot.

@ThomasPornin You should have the rep to delete those two questions. Would you please?

Thomas Pornin

@JeffFerland That's a misconception. I cannot do that.

I have rep to vote for deletion -- only when it is already closed, and even then I need other voters.

Jeff Ferland

@ThomasPornin I thought that changed on questions when they were heavily down-voted.

Thomas Pornin

This job requires a moderator.

Jeff Ferland

Aug 30 at 20:15, by Jeff Ferland

RORY! LESS SOCIAL LIFE, MORE MODERATING :)

:)

Funny how we ask more of those who already volunteer more... :-/

Scott Pack

8:57 PM

Now, a certain number of spam flags will also delete a post

Iszi

@JeffFerland Well, somebody nuked that. I got 404.

Speaking of which, could somebody @@ Jin about that page?

Scott Pack

Sweet, looks like I'm going to Educause next month

Jeff Ferland

9:14 PM

@Iszi After it gets enough spam flags, the stackexchange system will nuke it. I think it just took a while for enough of us to weigh in.

Scott Pack

9:53 PM

I think it's 5 spam flags? I'm not sure if there is any weighting going on, though.

Ninefingers

@ScottPack it's 6 and they auto-expire

8

A: How does the Spam Flag work?

What is the effect of the Spam flag? The spam flag is designed to eliminate posts with no relevant content and to penalize the authors: 3 flags (spam or offensive): post is banished from the front page. 6 flags (spam or offensive): post is locked, deleted, and the first revision owner loses 10...

Scott Pack

@Ninefingers Damn you and your mso-fu!

Ninefingers

@ScottPack ha! That's nothing. Wanna talk about design patterns? :P On a serious note, now I'm blue, I've begun checking MSO again just to ensure I know all the ins and outs and what the current hot topics are, should I ever need to know for some reason.