I normally won’t be getting political on this blog, but I came across this story and was absolutely floored. Whether or not you support gay marriage, you have to agree that the blatant disregard for due process, existing legal statuses and rights, and simple human decency is frankly appalling! The actions Sonoma County undertook here have no justification, and the end result was an old man who’d lived an amazing life was forced to spend his final months in forced isolation while all his material possessions – keepsakes collected throughout his life – were stripped away and sold off for mere pittances. Meanwhile his partner was forced into a care facility and held there against his will, denied the right to be there for his loved one’s final moments.
What justification could there possibly be for this atrocity??
If you manage one or more servers, chances are you employ SSH for remote management of that server. If you’ve checked the logs for your SSH server (you do check your logs, don’t you?), chances are you’ve seen plenty of these:
Mar 21 12:25:15 odin sshd[28010]: Did not receive identification string from 61.184.104.106
Mar 21 12:29:32 odin sshd[28011]: Invalid user webmaster from 61.184.104.106
Mar 21 12:29:33 odin sshd[28011]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): check pass; user unknown
Mar 21 12:29:33 odin sshd[28011]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=61.184.104.106
Mar 21 12:29:35 odin sshd[28011]: Failed password for invalid user webmaster from 61.184.104.106 port 53329 ssh2
Mar 21 12:29:41 odin sshd[28013]: User root from 61.184.104.106 not allowed because none of user's groups are listed in AllowGroups
Mar 21 12:29:41 odin sshd[28013]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=61.184.104.106 user=root
Mar 21 12:29:43 odin sshd[28013]: Failed password for invalid user root from 61.184.104.106 port 56109 ssh2
Mar 21 12:29:45 odin sshd[28015]: Invalid user ftp from 61.184.104.106
Mar 21 12:29:45 odin sshd[28015]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): check pass; user unknown
Mar 21 12:29:45 odin sshd[28015]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=61.184.104.106
Mar 21 12:29:47 odin sshd[28015]: Failed password for invalid user ftp from 61.184.104.106 port 59859 ssh2
There’s countless ill-intentioned folks out there who would love to gain access to your system. SSH is a great doorway, all they need to do is find the key; hopefully they haven’t (but if they had, would you know?), and today I’m going to show you 4 ways to keep your server safe. I won’t harangue you on strong passwords or using public keys instead of passwords; instead, I’ll show you other measures you can take to improve the security of those mechanisms. (more…)
So, the after-effects of the drugs have cleared up, replaced by pain. I’ve got the ice pack they gave me wrapped around my head again, and beyond that all I can say is that I’m glad for the invention of Vicodine!
The bleeding’s stopped, though – that’s good!
Got out of surgery a few hours ago. Still feeling the after-effects of the drugs more than anything else. It went well, I’m told.
The strangest part of this whole experience is the lost time – one moment I’m sitting in the chair waiting for the surgeon to come back and tell the anesthetist to start the drugs, and the next moment I’m waking up with an ice pack wrapped around my head and gauze pads stuffed into my mouth. It’s not at all like going to sleep – that time’s just plain gone! It’s really weird – now I know how abductees feel!
So, I go in tomorrow (Thursday) to have my bridge sectioned (cut apart).
Then on Friday the surgery begins… (more…)
Kromey’s Adventures has moved to a new URL – http://kromey.us/. Please update your bookmarks.
The previous URL (http://kromey.sd41.net/) will remain active for the foreseeable future, forwarding visitors here. The old URLs (http://www.sd41.net/ or http://sd41.net/) will be retired soon and no longer forward visitors here. Be sure to update your links and bookmarks!
Check out my friend’s blog, Long Bones. She’s been very successful losing weight, and I’m leaning heavily on her for advice and guidance as I follow in her footsteps on my own path towards weight loss.
With my health insurance premium jumping $35 due to my weight (I’m not really terribly obese, although my BMI of 32.2 puts me in the “obese” category – and that’s apparently what the insurance company used, given that their only factors for determining my “build” (which is what they cited as the reason for the hike) were my height and my weight), I’ve decided that now is the time to lose weight.
So as of yesterday, I’ve added a new New Year’s Resolution: To begin losing weight toward the ultimate goal of dropping to 165 lbs (I’m currently 217.8) and shrinking down to a 34-inch waist (currently 42 inches). As recently as 8 years ago I weighed 160 and had a 32-inch waist, so I do believe these goals are attainable. When will I reach them? That remains to be seen – I’m not going to set target dates, at least not yet, so long as I can track progress toward my eventual goals.
To achieve my goals, I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet for now that will track my progress toward both goals, and includes calculations of my BMI and my WHR (which is currently 0.95 and should be 0.80 or lower). I’ve also begun work to start up a new website who’s focus will be to create a community of like-minded people set on losing weight or improving/maintaining their fitness levels, complete with the standard community tools (forums, messaging, profiles, etc.) as well as tools for tracking and sharing (if you wish) progress. I’ll announce the site here when it launches.
Happy new year everyone!
My new year’s resolution is to keep up with this blog. I’m going to shoot for one entry a week (or more), with a minimum of one a month. I’ll be focusing on more tech-related how-tos mostly, but I also want to start posting some various product reviews, share with you all some of the great things (and perhaps a few of the terrible things!) I’ve found.
Within Avatar’s first 4 days, I’ve seen it twice already, both times in 3D. The short version: Bar none the greatest movie of 2009, and it is easily within my personal Top 5 Movies of All Time, if not Numero Uno.
Avatar features gorgeous visuals, stunning action sequences, and a great script carried out by solid acting. If you see it in 3D, it’s even more amazing. (more…)
