The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jul
30
OS X Users Vulnerable – Apple Still Don’t Get Security
Filed Under Security, Computers & Tech on July 30, 2008 | 26 Comments
One of the things I really love about OS X is its Unix underpinnings. Under the hood we get all the *nix tools and utilities I’ve come to know and love. Printing with CUPS, remote shell with OpenSSH, Windows sharing with SAMBA, web publishing with Apache, and so on and so forth. This gives OS X great power, but it also places a great responsibility on Apple. Just like with any other software, vulnerabilities surface in open source programs. In general the open source community is very responsive to security issues, and patches are released quickly. Those patches protect those who update, but they leave those who don’t even more vulnerable. The reason for this is that the patches can generally be reverse engineered, making it easy for the bad guys to attack un-patched machines. In order to keep OS X secure Apple need to push out patches in the open source components in OS X to users as quickly as possible. This is where Apple fall down, they are notoriously slow at getting patches out.
[tags]Security, OS X, Apple, DNS, open source, BIND[/tags]
Jul
30
June Photos Uploaded at Last
Filed Under Photography on | Leave a Comment
I’ve finally gotten around to getting my photos from June uploaded to my photo archive. I didn’t shoot much in June because the weather wasn’t great. With the exception of two shots of a rainbow it’s kittens all the way!
Jul
29
Photo of the Week 23 – Dog Rose
Filed Under Photography on July 29, 2008 | 1 Comment
When it comes to Irish wild flowers I’ve always considered the wild, or Dog, Rose (Rosa canina agg.) to be a real treasure. They’re quite rare, and in my mind, spectacular. They range from subtle pinks to pure white, this one is about as pink as they get. Compared to the fancy blossoms on modern garden roses the Dog Rose is exceptionally plain, but I like it’s simplicity, almost makes the modern garden varieties seem vulgar and over-the-top.
This shot was taken in the extensive grounds of what’s now the Farnham Radisson SAS hotel in Cavan. It was once the Farnham Estate and the lands contain some fabulous woodlands which are now open to the public. It’s at the edge of this woodland that I snapped this fine example of a Dog Rose.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the original shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/250 sec
- Focal Length: 55mm
- Focal Ratio: F8
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Auto
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]wild flower, flower, blossom, rose, Dog Rose, photography, Cavan, Ireland[/tags]
Jul
28
I’ve Joined The International Mac Podcast Production Team
Filed Under My Projects, Computers & Tech on July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Some of you may or may not know that I’ve been a regular panellist on the International Mac Podcast Live shows for a good few weeks now. I’ve also been blogging on Mac-related security matters on the IMP Blog. As of today I’ve also joined the IMP production team, so expect to hear more of me on the young but expanding IMP network. Although I’ve been contributing to a number of podcasts regularly for well over a year, I’ve never really considered myself to be a podcaster, I guess I am now!
While I’m talking podcasts, I may as well mention my other two regular spots. I do a weekly segment on The NosillaCast called Chit-Chat Across the Pond (or CCATP for short) where myself and the host, Allison Sheridan, chat about some geeky topic for about half an hour. I also do a monthly series on the Typical Mac User Podcast called “Introduction to the Terminal” where I try to encourage people to play with the Unix underpinnings of OS X a little more.
[tags]podcasting, Mac, technology, Apple, IMP[/tags]
Jul
22
Time’s Up – DNS Flaw Leaked
Filed Under Security, Computers & Tech on July 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
A few weeks back I posted about how there was a major flaw in DNS and how the details were being kept secret to give everyone time to patch. I did say that it would be a matter of when this got out, and not if. When turns out to be today. Details of the flaw were accidentally published on a blog and then un-published but once information gets out onto the net it’s out. There’s no way to put that genie into the bottle. I was able to find the details of the flaw, so if I can, the bad guys certainly can!
If you haven’t done so already, go to www.doxpara.com and click the button to check your DNS server:
Jul
20
Photo of the Week 22 – Kasteel Ter Elst
Filed Under Photography on July 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
This is an old photograph. I shot it back in 2001 with an old digital camera so it is small, even at full-size it’s only 640×480 pixels. I held off using it as a photo of the week for ages because of that. However, I’ve decided that size isn’t everything, so here it is!
This shot is a silhouette of the ruins of a once beautiful castle in my native town of Duffel in Belgium. It was shot against a lovely winter sunset. The castle itself dates back to the 12th century and was home to the first recorded lords of Duffel. It now sits in a small pond a few hundred meters away from the river Nete but when it was first built it sat on an island in the river. Obviously it’s not the castle that’s moved since but the course of the river! Like so many things in Belgium it was unfortunately destroyed during WWII. If you’re interested in learning more about the history of the castle check out this page.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the original shot:
- Camera: FujiFilm MX-2700 (point-and-shoot)
- Exposure: 1/400 sec
- Focal Length: 7.6mm
- Focal Ratio: F8
- ISO: 120
- Camera Mode: Auto
- Exposure Compensation: -0.9
[tags]sunset, Belgium, Castle, ruin, Duffel, Belgie, Kasteel, Photography[/tags]
Jul
20
Selective Colour With The GIMP
Filed Under Photography on | Leave a Comment
This is how I do selective colour using the GIMP. I’m not claiming it’s the only way, or even the best way. I just know it works. This technique has a few powerful features though. Firstly it’s non-destructive, secondly it allows for partial de-saturation, thirdly it allows the channel mixer to be used to generate a very good black & white version of the image, thirdly, it allows for a controlled boost of the colour in the colour areas. This give you much more control, but it also makes the technique a little more complex than many other techniques you’ll find out there.
[tags]GIMP, Selective Colour, Tutorial, Image Processing, Photography[/tags]
Jul
17
Google Earth – Illuminating our History
Filed Under History & Geography on July 17, 2008 | 4 Comments
I’ve loved Google Earth since I first used it, but today I had a real “wow” moment with it. Last Christmas my interest in trains was re-kindled when I took some time to do something I hadn’t done in years, shoot some photographs in and around my native village, Duffel. I got some lovely shots of trains but also came across a very curious artefact. A lump of brick, cement and steel with a sign on it. The sign indicated that this strange lump was all that was left of a railway bridge. I looked around, there was nothing even remotely resembling a railway line, or indeed even the track bed of one. It turns out that most of the track bed was ripped up, and used to build the near-by E19 motorway, which runs between Brussels and Antwerp.
[tags]railway, local history, Google, Google Earth[/tags]
Jul
14
Photo of the Week 21 – Owenreagh Wind Farm
Filed Under Photography on July 14, 2008 | 2 Comments
There’s lots of wind farms in Ireland these days but this one hold a very special place in my heart because I played a very small part in getting it built. Now, when I say small I really do mean it. My Dad developed the project in his spare time and I helped him erect the measuring mast on the site and clambered up and down that mountain more times that I care to remember to collect the data from the mast. The wind farm I’m talking about is Owenreagh in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. You can see it very clearly as you travel from Armagh to Strabane along the A5 just after you pass the Ulster American Folk Park.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the original shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/500 sec
- Focal Length: 50mm
- Focal Ratio: F11
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Auto
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]wind turbine, turbine, wind mill, wind farm, Tyrone, Northern Ireland, photography, Ireland[/tags]
Jul
13
Major DNS Flaw – Do You Trust Your ISP?
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Security on July 13, 2008 | 4 Comments
This week it was announced that one of the core protocols that holds the internet together is fundamentally flawed. The problem is not with someone’s implementation of the protocol, but with the actual protocol itself. It’s hard to over-state just how big a deal this is. At the moment the details of the vulnerability are being kept secret to give the world time to patch, but you can get some technical information from the advisory issued by the US Cert. On Tuesday all the major DNS server vendors released patches at the same time. This is un-heard of, nothing like this has ever happened before in the history of the internet. That alone should bring home just how big this is.
Although the good-guys have successfully kept the details of the flaw secret to date, despite the large numbers of organisations involved, the reality is that the bad guys are frantically trying to figure this out as I type. It’s not a matter of if they’ll figure it out, but when. The security community have bought us time. That time should not be squandered, but used to protect the internet as a whole, and to protect ourselves.