From Russia with Love: Cyxymu

Thursday August 6 2009 Twitter and Facebook were simultaneously interrupted by a “denial of service attack”.   Max Kelly, chief security officer at Facebook, claims the attack was directed at one blogger, Cyxymu.

Cyxymu is also the name of a town in the Republic Of Georgia-this is an English translation of Cyxymu’s Live Nation blog site. Here is some of the text on the blog site that is apparently a letter to the President of the Republic of Georgia:

“Уважаемый Дмитрий Анатольевич! Dear Dmitry!
Несмотря на то, что мы с Вами являемся можно сказать политическими оппонентами, да и к тому же Вы являетесь президентом той страны, которая оккупировала часть моей Родины, я хочу обратится к Вам с советом. Despite the fact that we are political opponents can say, and besides you are the president of the country which has occupied part of my homeland, I want to ask you to board.
Может быть этот коммент Вы так и не увидите тут (т.к. мои комментарии в этом сообществе часто не раскрываются), но я приложу все усилия, чтоб он дошел до Вас по тем или иным каналам. Maybe this коммент you did not see it (because my comments in this community often are not disclosed), but I will spare no effort, that he came to you on certain channels.
Думаю Вы уже в курсе того, что неизвестные хакеры устроили DDoS атаку на мои блоги, расположенные на livejournal.com, facebook.com, twitter.com, blogger.com. I think you’re already aware of the fact that unknown hackers staged a DDoS attack on my blog, located at livejournal.com, facebook.com, twitter.com, blogger.com. Кроме последнего все сервисы были повалены хакерами, которые по всем данным были из России. In addition, all projects have been the last stretch by hackers, who all data were from Russia.
Но это была не первая DDoS атака на мои блоги, в прошлом году мой блог на livejournal.com так же был под атакой, и не работал с октября 2008 года, по май 2009. But this was not the first DDoS attack on my blogs, in the past year, my blog on livejournal.com also was under attack, and has not worked since October 2008 to May 2009. Однако это не получило широкой известности и не было расследовано правоохранительными органами России, что видимо дало хакерам эффект вседозволенности. However, it is not widely known and was not investigated by law enforcement agencies of Russia, which apparently has the effect of permissiveness hackers.
Теперь же весь мир, с моих слов, говорит о том, что российские хакеры, которые по всей видимо на службе у правительства, могут, ради блокирования одного блоггера с иным мнением, закрыть доступ в большие социальные сети для миллионов человек. Now the whole world with my words, suggests that Russian hackers, who apparently in the service of the Government, may, for the sake of blocking one blogger with a different view, close to the big social networks for millions of people.
Так вот, уважаемый Дмитрий Анатольевич! So, dear Dmitry!
Прошу Вас дать задание своим спецслужбам найти и исполнителей, и организаторов этой атаки, и показательно наказать, чтоб другим было неповадно. I request you to give the job to find and special performers, and organizers of the attacks, and revealing to punish, to others it was nepovadno.
Необязательно публиковать скриншот этой страницы с Вашей резолюцией, но сделайте это, для восстановления имиджа Вашей страны. You do not need to publish a screenshot of this page in your resolution, but do it, to restore the image of your country.
А то, Ваше ПВО сбивало во время войны Ваши же самолеты, которые бомбили Ваши же колонны, а некто Нагавицин, утверждает, что это грузины перекрашивали свои самолеты в цвета ВВС России и так бомбили.. And then, your aircraft to shoot down during the war, your the same aircraft, which bombed your same columns, but someone Nagavitsin, argues that the Georgians perekrashivali their aircraft in the Air Force colors, and so Russia bombed ..
Постыдились бы. Would be ashamed.

Итак, я Вас предупредил, господин президент. So, I warned you, Mr. President.
Вы любите интернет, надеюсь Вы понимаете, как важно восстановить облик России после этой грязной атаки. You love the Internet, I hope you understand how important it is to restore the image of Russia after this dirty attack.

С Уважением Sincerely
Георгий George”

 

Some have suggested this shut down of Twitter and Facebook is due to the Koobface Virus. Of note is that criminal authors also picked August 6^th to launch and updated version of the Koobface Virus, which propagates by using Facebook and Twitter posts to trick folks into downloading trojanized software. So if Twitter or Facebook goes down-it would seem counter to the purpose of the malware. But then thankfully I don’t understand the twisted minds of those who create malware.

Hmmmmmm………………..I must say, this reeks of international intrigue.  Cyxymu’s government shutting down his blog seems to be the most logical explanation. I hear James Bond music playing in my head; I am having visions of Robert Redford and Brad Pitt in Spy Game.

Seriously, I do have a question though:

1. Who thinks that this guy’s blog is so dangerous that they are willing to go to such extremes to quiet his voice?

He must be worth listening to if his government wants to shut him up that bad!

Geeks Are Sexy

And I have proof. I ran across a blog the other day entitled “Geeks are Sexy”.  I ran across this blog a few days ago and it has topics ranging from scientists writing about a cure for cancer to book reviews.

Several of the books on their “10 must read books for Geeks” sound very interesting so I thought I would also share them with my readers. So here we go:

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

Authors: Steve Wozniak, Gina Smith
Publisher: W. W. Norton
288 pages
Book homepage ($2.99)

This book helps explain how the Apple fairy tale began in the 1970s and is written by Steve Wozniak the man supposed to have put together by hand the first personal computer. It details how Wozniak met Steve Jobs and how the Apple empire began.

The Ultimate History of Video Games

Author: Steven L. Kent
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
624 pages
Book homepage

If you want to understand the genesis of gaming this is a must read. The book reveals that early Atari  had the corporate climate of a dot-com startup, with rampant drug use and meetings staged in outdoor hot tubs. Did you know that Japan suffered a coin shortage during 1978 the height of Space Invadors? How about the original name for Pac Man was Puck Man-but do to vandal concerns that might replace the P with an F-it became Pac Man.

The Google Story

Authors: David Vise, Mark Malseed
Publisher: Delta
336 pages
Book homepage

Before 1998 there was no such thing as a Page Rank algorithm. Google was created by 2 students at Standford University. This book will outline how Page and Sergey Brin reinvented advertising and created one of the most successful and influential organizations of all time.

Does IT Matter?

Author: Nicholas G. Carr
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
208 pages
Book homepage

I am sure you have all heard the expression doctors have a “God Complex” so it seems do many IT managers. This book takes the position that just as many other industries such as railroads and telegraphs evolved to the point where humans become less necessary-the same thing will happen in IT. Does IT Matter-suggests that IT needs to change its mission to providing solutions for business.

Kids and Technology (How important are the 3 R’s?)

Children are being exposed to technology at a very early age. When a 9 year old can take a class at the University of Washington and create a video game and website of their own, it begs the question is it time to re-evaluate what is important to teach them in school.

Reading is of course essential, you can’t embrace technical ideas if you can’t read so reading should still be high on the list. Rithmatic (arithmetic)?  Well since computer technology is based on binary number systems, math is going to remain at the top of the list too. But what about Riting (writing)?

This blogger is going to say no not so much-I don’t think writing is very important and here is why:

1. I would venture a guess that 90% of people type and email or text a message rather than write a letter.
2. By the time a 9 year old enters the work force, technology is only going to have advanced and for all we know computers will work on voice command which will make even a typing skill outdated.
3. Most of the people I know only use their hand written signatures for things like birthday cards and signing checks.

Why is it so hard for school systems to evolve? It doesn’t seem to be so much of a problem in the college arena-but I think it is a huge problem for up and coming teen agers. Is it antiquated teaching styles from teachers and district administrators or are parents not using their voices to influence policy?

Is it me or doesn’t it seem more important to teach typing rather than enforcing perfect printing? Instead of cramping children’s hands with repetitive cursive, why not use that time for something like how to protect yourself on line? Health classes teach 7^th graders about protecting yourself from HIV with condoms (which BTW I don’t agree with) but no one is teaching them how to be safe on Myspace! Google streetview is taking pictures of playgrounds and putting children’s identities and locations on the internet and yet no one is telling 6^th graders about the downside of sexting.

Connectzone goes to Vegas! (for the Interop trade show)

Guest Blogger, Cable Geek

When ConnectZone decided to exhibit at the 2009 Interop show this year, we knew it was going to be a big deal. How big, we had no idea. One thing you can say about things in Las Vegas: they will never leave you disappointed.  It may leave you broke, or feeling like your soul needs a shower, but there is no such thing in Vegas as “going halfway”. The 2009 Interop show was no exception.

This is one of the bigger shows of its type.  From their website: “Interop is the leading global technology event, with the most comprehensive IT Conference and Exhibition available. Business and technology leaders attend Interop to get the most up to date information available on key technologies, learn about the latest trends and meet with leading vendors.” Like ConnectZone, for instance. 

This Geek has done plenty of trade shows before and even attended Iterop in Vegas many years ago. It was before the Internet bubble burst and the sky was the limit. The memories have all but faded of the circus-like atmosphere: the Rent-a-babes (to draw foot-traffic), hired performers (acrobats and magicians), and professional impersonators (Austin Powers was big that year).

Now that I typed that out, it sounds a lot like a 12 year old boy’s dream birthday party.  That’s weird…

This year’s Interop show, held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center,  was less frenetic and more focused on increasing ROI (a fancy term for “saving money”); a reflection of the current economic conditions worldwide. Because ConnectZone has been helping  customers get more for their money since its inception, it was natural to exhibit at Interop this time around.

Even though we are best known for cables and connectivity, we decided to highlight ConnectZone’s new line of metal products (cabinets, racks, shelves) and power distribution units (PDU’s).  With so much concern about budget these days, and limited brand choices with these products, we anticipated many companies would be looking for a better deal.  Judging by the response we got at the show, we were right on the money, pun intended.

Our metal products are displayed on our website, but we are always getting new stuff, so add it to your favorites and check back often.

The big hit at our booth was a new line of PDU’s. They have digital amp usage readout and are IP addressable, which allows you to monitor usage and even reboot equipment through the Internet. Lots of “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” over that, as you can imagine.

Our cables, though, did not get relegated to the shadows somewhere.  The Cable Geek would have none of that!   We displayed our popular CX4 cables, for 10 Gigabit data speeds. We also showed off our fiber Mode Conditioning “Launch” cables and our special Ultra-flexible DS3 cables, which we can customize in custom lengths and configurations.

The other hot item at the show was our swag: ConnectZone bottled water! The temperature outside is above 100 degrees, and guess what everyone craves? H2O, that’s what!

We met some really nice people there, both attendees and exhibitors.  In my experience, the IT world is filled with genuinely likeable and polite people, almost without exception.  Something about working in a field that is cutting edge and constantly evolving that draws a certain, well, geeky personality. That must be why this Cable Geek felt at home, as if in a GI-NORMOUS room full of fellow geeks.

7 Easy Things Every Business Can Do to Go Green

There are so many things to worry about owning a business: inventory, accounting, human resources-the list goes on and on. Being stewards not just of our businesses but our planet too-the responsible and ethical thing to do is do everything we can to “Go Green.”

In our industry it may seem like there isn’t much we can do. We don’t use much in the way of chemicals; in fact our local waste service doesn’t even offer business service recycling. Then there is always the question of cost-even if it’s the right thing to do-there can be a substantial cost to recycle batteries and printer cartridges. Well here are some ideas that will cost you little or nothing to help stop global warming.

Email. Go as paper free as you can. Connectzone.com emails invoices, purchase orders and even     credit card receipts. This saves paper, postage and human resources to stuff envelopes.

Set up a robust and reliable system to back up your accounting system. If you have that-you don’t need to print invoices to attach customer payments to because you can print them anytime if you need to. Keep the check stubs from customer payments to cross reference if you need to. This also saves storage room and paper. 

Use rechargeable batteries. With all the wireless mousses and keyboards out there-recharge batteries. Then for additional savings-if your wireless mouse requires 2 batteries-only replace one at a time to make sure you are getting the full life out of the other.

Recycle broke hardware. In the same building park we are in is a business that recycles everything from printers to monitors-for FREE. At the end of this post I will give you a website that has many recycle options-many are inexpensive. Most are free!

 Pay invoices by credit card. It reduces the use of checks (paper), envelopes and stamps.

 Think small. There is a gardener in your office somewhere, seek him or her out and ask them if they would like the corporate coffee grounds. Even the paper filters decompose in the garden really quickly.

 Think Big. Plan a rooftop garden, think of it as an enviroscape for your employees and the local birds and bees. If you don’t have the space how about a planter with a tomato plant or lettuce-it will come in handy for a lunch time BBQ.

There is something simple all of us can do and we should. It would be fiscally irresponsible not to take advantage of saving money in business. It would be globally irresponsible not to help our planet. For more ideas check out www.earth911.com

IT Pros: Stop by our Booth at Interop Las Vegas ’09

Are you heading to Las Vegas for the big Interop Conference and Expo in May? If so, stop by Booth 2636 May 19-21 and meet some of the Connectzone team. We’d love to share some of the exciting ways IT organizations are using our products and services. Plus we’ll give you a chance to see our recent additions of data racks and cabinets that will make your life easier.

Interop is always a great show with over 400 exhibitors showing off all kinds of IT solutions. If you’re going and looking for a free Expo Pass, here’s a priority code you can use: CMXXNL03

Be sure to stop by Booth 2636. We’re looking forward to meeting you!

Connectzone Marketing Team

Blowfish Encryption

I was watching 24 the other night and Blowfish Encryption caught my attention. I started wondering to myself if that was even a real thing. You know like how doctors in shows like Grey’s Anatomy and ER do fake CPR? Turns out Blowfish is a real thing, so here is my version of “Blowfish for Dummies”.

To make a computer do anything, you would have to write a program, basically give it a task. An algorithm (aka cipher) tells the program how to do the task. So here is an easy example.

I am going to wash my car-that is my program. There are lots of ways to get my car washed:

1. Go to the car wash.

2. Do it with a hose in my driveway.

3. Pay a neighbor kid to do it for me.

The way I choose to get my car clean is the algorithm or a cipher.

In cryptography, Blowfish is a keyed, symmetric block cipher, designed in 1993 by Bruce Schneier. There is no record of anyone ever “breaking” a Blowfish code. So my curiosity got the better of me when Morris found a “backdoor” and that is how he broke the encrypted message sent from Rene to Jack. A backdoor is basically a way the original developer of the code can break the code by entering through a back door they themselves created. Most often it’s someone’s birthday or their dogs name and so on. Turns out there is no back door for Blowfish and I know this because its creator Bruce Schneier has a blog of his own, loves 24 and has been blogging about it since Monday night. If you go to his site-it is both informative and hilarious. Those guys are talking so far over my head! As in the Gary Larsen cartoon where 2 mathematicians taped a paper with a math problem on it to the 3 mathematicians back. The rest of us aren’t even smart enough to know why it is so funny!

The long and the short of it is, Blowfish is real, there is no back door and it has never been broken which begs the question how would Rene have gotten the key to Jack so he could open it?

Cipher isn’t a new idea-quite old actually, in fact it goes back as far as the Greeks. They would use ciphers, specific codes that involve subsitutions or shifting information. For example here is a cipher with a grid of letters and numbers:

	1	2	3	4	5
1	A	B	C	D	E
2	F	G	H	I/J	K
3	L	M	N	O	P
4	Q	R	S	T	U
5	V	W	X	Y	Z

If a Spartan general wished to send the message I AM SPARTA to another general, he would write this series of numbers:

42 11 23 34 53 11 24 44 11

As long as both generals had the correct cipher, they could decode any message the other sent.

And that is Blowfish for Dummies. And I only barely understand the tip of this so if I have made mistakes or someone smarter than me wants to correct me-please feel free to comment.

And last but not least I want you all to know I voted for Jack Bauer for President.

How Much Technology is Enough?

From The movie Wall Street

Bud Fox: “How much is enough? “
Gordon Gekko: It’s not a question of enough, pal. It’s a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another.”

This quote applies to this article in two ways. First it begs the question how much technology is really necessary to run a business or your life for that matter? Second is the zero sum game where someone (insert your company name here) wins and someone (insert your competitor’s name here) loses. At least everyone hopes it works out that way.

I have been pretty old school in my thinking. I only learned how to IM last week. Didn’t see the purpose. Why not use technology I already know, like email or cell phone. Then I don’t have to learn anything new. Frankly I am not the smartest or coolest crayon in the box and like most humans I don’t like change very much. Then I got a lesson from one of my sales people Lance.

Lance had posted some of our product for sale in on a forum website. A company previously unknown to him saw the posting on said forum and contacted him, with an Instant Message.

Before Lance could type back to the potential customer, his cell phone rang-yep it’s the customer from the Instant Message. This customer is about to leave his office in England, Lance is just getting started with his day in Washington.

This customer is in need of product and it must ship NOW. This customer has already been to our website and checked out product. Next our new customer emails a PO to Lance. For payment the customer is understandably reluctant to email credit card information-so he faxes it.

Lance proceeds with the order using our company network of computers and software. Our shipping department uses the internet to process the shipping of the product. The customer is sent a receipt with tracking information via email.

Everything bolded represents technology. Note to self nowhere do I mention carrier pigeons.

So essentially the transactions described above just eliminated “the pond” that exists between the USA and England. So it would seem that as technology grows, the distance around the planet proportionally shrinks. I confidently speculate that this transaction would not have taken place 100 years ago or maybe even 25 years ago.

So back to the question of how much is enough? Well I guess it depends on who you want to be in the zero sum game.

USB 3.0 Available Now!

 

 

Why Is USB 3.0 Needed?

The short Answer is Speed & Power, let me explain.

USB is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 & 100 time faster than USB 1.1 & While using less power; which for portable devices like an Ipod power is more important than speed.

 

For Small Files less than 1Gb, USB 2.0 is fine, although as I get older I realize more and more time is the 1 commodity I am always short on.

USB 3.0 SPEED

USB potential Communications Speeds

·         USB 1.1 Communication Speed 4.8Mbs

·         USB 2.0 Communication Speed  480Mbps

·         USB 3.0 Communication Speed  4.8Gbps

Here is a real world example of download times from the official USB organization www.usb.org

	256 Flash	USB Flash	Sd-Movie	USB Flash	Blu-Ray Movie
	256Mb	1 GB	6 GB	16 GB	25 GB
USB 1.0	5.7 Minutes	22 Minutes	2.2 Hours	5.9 Hours	9.3 Hour
USB 2.0	8.5 Seconds	33 Seconds	3.3 Minutes	8.9 Minutes	13.9 Minutes
USB 3.0	0.8 Seconds	3.3 Seconds	20 Seconds	53.3 Seconds	70 Seconds

 

USB 3.0 Saves Power

 

Not a big deal for Desktop devices plugged into 120Volts but huge for portable devices.

While USB 2.0 Polls individual devices asking if they have anything to transfer USB 3.0 Devices & Hosts only transmit only when they have Data to Transfer. So if you have an Ipod, a Zune or some other portable USB Device they aren’t always using power telling the USB Bus that I have nothing to talk about, now if we can only implement this technology on telemarketers. J

Microsoft Tag-Way Cool

What the heck is a Microsoft Tag-you might be asking yourself? Well it is something pretty new and innovative from Microsoft and it looks like this:

 

 

Now if you have the application for your cell phone (you can get it here for free) you can just aim your cell with the Tag application open at the image above and it will add the information to your telephone. Above is a real tag I made (making a tag is free too). And believe me-if I can do it anyone can.

Now I have your interest let’s do something fun. I want you to go to the link above where you can get the application for your cell phone and download it-I’ll wait here while you open a new browser page and download………….

Welcome Back! Now bring the application up on your cell phone, hold the phone up to your monitor and center the image above between the red lines and see what happens. Don’t worry it won’t do anything scary or take you to a nefarious web site…………..

How cool is that? It took you to Connectzone’s website. It’s a new spin on the old idea of a bar code but think about the applications.

Make a Tag for your business contact info, put it on your business card, give it to a customer and they can immediately upload your info into their cell phone. The customer can take the cell home from from a meeting or trade show and upload your contact info into his or her PC.

How about you are a restaurant owner with a giant billboard and you put a Tag on the billboard? Anyone driving by with a cell phone could get info about your restaurant from your website-driving directions-hours-maybe even make a reservation.

You could put one on your email signature for your website, blog or contact information. You could make a Tag for a promotion or sale items in your signature or website. Tag your product pagacking so your customers can easily be navigated to the product on your website. You could put it on party invitations and give directions to your house. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination!