Hide Your Cables in Your Baseboards and Crown Molding [DIY]

Benjamin Schollnick1 Comment

From the clip pad files from 2008 & Life Hacker… A trick that I keep intending to do for cable management…

Hide Your Cables in Your Baseboards and Crown Molding [DIY]: Hide your networking and television cables with WireTracks, a wire management solution that hides your messy cables behind crown molding and baseboards. The WireTracks site is full of instructions on how to install WireTracks. As for the actual WireTracks products, it looks like some solutions are more expensive than others, though a seasoned DIYer might be tempted to tackle the entire project without buying any of the gear from WireTracks. Whichever you choose, the idea behind WireTracks could be perfect for your home.

Hone Your Craft with Free Online Writing Courses [Writing]

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

From the clip pad files from 2008, and LifeHacker…
Web learning site Education Portal points to 10 universities (and semi-universities) that offer free online writing courses. Covering everything from fiction and screenwriting to technical documentation, the offerings range from course notes and texts to full lecture videos. For anyone looking to get started in the field or just explore their creative side, it\’s a helpful list of resources to keep in mind. For more higher learning at very low prices, check out Wendy\’s trip through the .EDU underground and ten universities with free online courses.

10 Universities Offering Free Writing Courses Online

Why do I have multiple dashboardclients running?

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

At this point, all evidence points to this being a normal fact of life with Mac OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard).  If you have more than 1 Dashboard widget, you will probably have more than one dashboardclient startup when you run Dashboard.  The ratio is probably not a 1:1 ratio, since Leopard is designed to consolidate dashboardclients into the smallest number possible…  But I suspect that the number depends on the number of clients that are running network tasks + 1.
If the DashboardClients threads seem to be taking excessive CPU time, then try reseting Dashboard.  The easiest way is to just force quit the Dock.  It is not possible to force quit the DashboardClients through the Activity Monitor, you have to terminate the Dock.  That will automatically reset Dashboard….  (eg. Terminal –> killall Dock)

Laurell Hamilton\’s Vampire Hunter heads to TV

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

The Laurel K. Hamilton Anita Blake books maybe visiting TV land as SciFi Wire (or should that be SyFyWyre?) reports…

The Independent Film Channel is teaming with Lionsgate for a TV movie based on the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter books, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project is the network\’s first-ever feature-length production and could be the basis for more Blake projects if successful.

In the books, Blake is a vampire hunter with a lousy dating life who also works as a police consultant investigating supernatural crimes. She attempts to come to terms with her own abilities, and navigate romantic and political relationships within the vampire community.

But the series is seriously PG-13 or R depending how you look at it. Hopefully it won\’t be too kidified… It\’s really not a bad serious although I have only read the first 5 or 6 books… By that time, it was becoming more of a Romance / Angst / Drama fest… And leaving it\’s \”Buffy like roots\”.
Good luck with the project, and I\’ll certainly take a look at it when it comes out…

Security? I don\’t need to be secure… Do I?

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Why does your Information Technology team tell you not to turn on that Web server, or leave SSH turned on when your not using it?  Because they want you to be secure…
Here\’s a perfect example…

Mar 30 16:14:06 68 sshd[2933]: Did not receive identification string from 96.10.82.114
Mar 30 16:21:57 68 com.apple.SecurityServer[24]: checkpw() returned -2; failed to authenticate user root (uid 0).
Mar 30 16:21:57: — last message repeated 1 time —
Mar 30 16:21:57 68 com.apple.SecurityServer[24]: Failed to authorize right system.login.tty by client /usr/sbin/sshd for authorization created by /usr/sbin/sshd.
Mar 30 16:21:57 68 sshd[2957]: Failed password for root from 96.10.82.114 port 12210 ssh2
Mar 30 16:21:58 68 sshd[2960]: Invalid user simoni from 96.10.82.114
Mar 30 16:21:58 68 com.apple.SecurityServer[24]: getpwnam() failed for user simoni, creating invalid credential
Mar 30 16:21:58: — last message repeated 1 time —
Mar 30 16:21:58 68 com.apple.SecurityServer[24]: Failed to authorize right system.login.tty by client /usr/sbin/sshd for authorization created by /usr/sbin/sshd.
Mar 30 16:21:58 68 sshd[2960]: Failed password for invalid user simoni from 96.10.82.114 port 12418 ssh2
Mar 30 16:21:59 68 sshd[2962]: Invalid user dilli from 96.10.82.114
Mar 30 16:21:59 68 com.apple.SecurityServer[24]: getpwnam() failed for user dilli, creating invalid credential
Mar 30 16:21:59: — last message repeated 1 time —
Mar 30 16:21:59 68 com.apple.SecurityServer[24]: Failed to authorize right system.login.tty by client /usr/sbin/sshd for authorization created by /usr/sbin/sshd.
Mar 30 16:21:59 68 sshd[2962]: Failed password for invalid user dilli from 96.10.82.114 port 12429 ssh2
Mar 30 16:22:00 68 com.apple.SecurityServer[24]: checkpw() returned -2; failed to authenticate user root (uid 0).
Mar 30 16:22:00: — last message repeated 1 time —
Mar 30 16:22:00 68 com.apple.SecurityServer[24]: Failed to authorize right system.login.tty by client /usr/sbin/sshd for authorization created by /usr/sbin/sshd.
Mar 30 16:22:00 68 sshd[2964]: Failed password for root from 96.10.82.114 port 12449 ssh2
Mar 30 16:22:01 68 sshd[2967]: Invalid user ale from 96.10.82.114
Mar 30 16:22:01 68 com.apple.SecurityServer[24]: getpwnam() failed for user ale, creating invalid credential

This user used SSH on the mac for a few days, and then forgot to turn it off.  We don\’t know how long these script kiddies were attacking the system, attempting to guess the password…  But between the reasonably strong password, and LaunchD automatically throttling back SSHD launches, they never cracked the system.  But that was partially due to the fact that the user happened to see the attempts in the System Log…
Please review your System Preferences\’s Sharing configuration, and if you are not running a web site turn off \”Web Sharing\”.  If you are not using SSH, then please turn off \”Remote Login\”. And most important of all, if you are not allowing Windows users to login to your system, make sure File Sharing is turned off.
If you wish to File Share with the other Macintosh systems, and exclude the Windows users… Choose File Sharing.  Click Options, and make sure \”Share Files and Folder using SMB\” is turned off.  And make sure that \”Share Files & Folders using FTP\” is turned off.  Unless your running an FTP server, there is no reason for that option to be on (in most cases).
If you are not sure about any of the other settings, ask your local IT representative for help.  I\’m sure that they would rather take 5 minutes to review security settings, then spend hours cleaning up your system from a script kiddie attack.

What\’s this? \”Importer Start Failed for XXX.\”

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

I\’m not sure when this started, but I just noticed this in my log file, on NERV.

3/31/09 6:06:14 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.launchd.peruser.506[40370]) getpwuid(\"506\") failed 
3/31/09 6:06:14 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.launchd.peruser.506[40370]) PID 1104 \"lssave\" has no account to back it! Real/effective/saved UIDs: 506/506/506 
3/31/09 6:06:14 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.launchd.peruser.506[40370]) Exited with exit code: 1 
3/31/09 6:06:14 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.launchd.peruser.506[40370]) Exited with exit code: 1 
3/31/09 6:06:14 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.launchd.peruser.506) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds 
3/31/09 6:06:16 AM mds[38] (Error) Import: importer:0x20b8800 Importer start failed for 506 (kr:268435459 (ipc/send) invalid destination port) 
3/31/09 6:06:17 AM mds[38] (Error) Import: importer:0x20b8800 Importer start failed for 506 (kr:268435459 (ipc/send) invalid destination port) 
3/31/09 6:06:18 AM mds[38] (Error) Import: importer:0x20b8800 Importer start failed for 506 (kr:268435459 (ipc/send) invalid destination port) 
3/31/09 6:06:18 AM mds[38] (Error) Import: importer:0x20b8800 Importer start failed for 506 (kr:268435459 (ipc/send) invalid destination port) 
3/31/09 6:06:21 AM mds[38] (Error) Import: importer:0x20b8800 Importer start failed for 506 (kr:268435459 (ipc/send) invalid destination port) 
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Rant – Man fires at McDonald\’s window over breakfast menu (AP)

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Sorry, just a small rant here…

(AP): \”AP – Police said a customer fired one or two shots into a Salt Lake City McDonald\’s after the driver of the car he was in was told the restaurant was not serving lunch yet. Police said the female driver of a white Dodge Intrepid pulled up to the drive-thru and ordered from the lunch menu early Sunday but was told only breakfast was available.\”

What the heck! Assaulting someone with a firearm because of the time of day? (McDonald\’s doesn\’t have lunch until about 11am.) This is a good example of someone that shouldn\’t have a firmarm. Obviously he doesn\’t care about anyone else, and is a little soft in the head….
Please remember to educate your kids, and other friends about firearm SAFETY. The answer to these problems is education, not necessarily banning firearms. If we ban the firearms, the only people that will be armed is the criminals.

(Via Yahoo! News: Top Stories.)