Month: October 2008

Muahuaha !!! I love this thing.

by 
$ vim pf.conf.new
 ... write new packet filter configuration file
$ pfctl -nf pf.conf.new
  ... silent output if no errors
$ su - root
Password:
# cd /etc
# mv pf.conf pf.conf.old
# cp /home/Terry/pf.conf.new /etc/pf.conf && rm /home/Terry/pf.conf.new
# chmod 644 pf.conf && chown root:wheel pf.conf
# echo 'pfctl -F all -d' | at hhmm
  ... unlock the door if we screw up
# pfctl -e

enabling or disabling the packet filter (-e, -d) kills the SSH connection, but in the event of any embarrassing “oh crap, I’ve locked myself out” accidents, the at job will flush the firewalls settings and disable it. Believe me, if you’ve got a system running with no head or physical inputs (e.g. no monitor, no keyboard), ya really want to use such a thing… I still remember coming home from a *very* bad day at work, working on my rule sets, and locking myself out 5 times, and having to hook up a monitor and keyboard to the server each time >_>.

What wonders you can learn from one bad day, huh?

At least tonight, I’ve not locked myself out once… despite the days troubles, hehe. One of the reasons I like OpenBSDs packet filter, it’s simple, it’s powerful, just read the fine manual, use your gray matter, and it works! The rule sets are fairly easy to read, and OpenBSD documentation is second to none. Heck the manual page even gives the pf.conf syntax in Backus-Naur Form. The only complex part of pf, is the networking stuff – not the configuration. And of course, I love anything that is configured through a sane text file, rather then having to fire up some cornball program lol. Really, I wish I had the resources to replace my router with an OpenBSD machine, that way I wouldn’t have to learn my way around a new web-interface whenever one pops its final cork.

Ahh… At least one good thing happened this weekend!!!

*SIGH*

by

It seems to more time I spend around my family, or the more time I spend thinking about my /life/, the more miserable I get.

  • I have 5 programs to complete, 1 in C, 1 in C++, 3 in Python, only 2 of which are mostly done. The one in C, unfortinely is a windows app…. And that’s a sentence worse then death in it’s own right.
  • I have a ton of homework piled up, which at the moment on the _short term_ amounts to finishing one unit of a 2-year course.
  • I have a library to finish testing, 2 modules to rewrite, and a mock up of a website to do.

I’ve had part of my Friday and Saturday wasted, and I will probably have part of my Sunday wasted, and I don’t even want to think about Monday! So of obviously nothing is going to get done before I go back to work on Tuesday. Anyway you slice it, I just keep getting fucked.

Son of a bitch !!!

by

I just finished a little personal training time… MP Peaks, I snuck past the terrorists, killing only about 3 of them on the whole map. All the while while having XFire doing video capture, so I can analyze it later, moved on to later trainings and guess what?

No recorded files for any of the rounds played, combined with Xfire In Game (XIG) chat not working anymore in RvS, becoming more buggy in SWAT 4: TSS, and Xfire is getting to be next to useless these days.

[switching to mental log]

My first session was perfect…. I spawned, checked my weapon, made a quick scan of the safe house at insert. Then moved up the hill line, checking the hill line cautiously for snipers… matching my profile against the terrain to avoid sky lining my body -> tangos can see through trees, and shoot through them without having to worry about bullet proof snow >_>. Dropped on my belly prone and crawled up, noting the positions of 4-5 sentries on the opposite side of the bridge, crawled around using the parked car for cover. Checked out the other snow bank, it was a clear trip through that sector; except for a lone tango crouched in the snow, watching my approach vector. Positioned myself to recce the site lines of more distant threats… only one that might notice. Plugged the tango with a controlled pair to the neck, since I would’ve had to stand up (and risk being scene by him) in order to go for a centre mass or head shot, or choose to shoot his legs out… Not good in RvS, usually results in runners who are only limped once they stop moving lol.

Crawled forward and dropped into the ditch, when I noticed another sentry moving to investigate… I let him get close to the body, and plugged him, a quick look & see for any other threats, clear. So I moved up, keeping prone to avoid exposing myself along my 12 o’clock, and noting sentry positions along the way. All was going smooth, until I came to the crest of a small hill, and noticed a group of four sentries. One staring out towards the bridge, and three by a tree near a hill. No one looking at me, but one decided to walk a patrol, so I had to take cover pronto.

I watched the enemies patrol carefully to anticipate his movements, but kept out of sight. Once he settled into position, I switched back to advancing, noting the positions of sentries by the cottage next to my escape point. Luckyly there was just one in a position to see me; plus 1 or 2 on the hill where the patrol man was. So I slide down into a narrow part to avoid being seen, if that creep started patrolling my way! One final obstacle, a lone tango guarding the escape point – a quick double tap centre mass and head, tango down

Stood up to a crouch and moved closer to the cottage for cover, then quickly to the escape point (green smoke). Victory!! Game over, when finally a tango comes around the far corner of the cottage and see’s me standing there, so I abused the bug in the game, scoped on in full auto and emptied my mag into him lol. The game has a bug, that when the round is ending, you can scope on and hold fire at the same time, and discharge your weapon without doing any damage (tangos can fire free, since they rarely use scopes lol).

It was a perfect exercise to limber up my stealth skills, but unfortunately no video to analyze my game play, and try to find ways to improve :. When we heard about viacom acquiring xfire, me and a few friends started joking about how long it would take for XFire to go down hill, but it has been faster then we expected haha.

The moral of the story?

XFire is a piece of shit

Song of the day: 2008-10-25 / Still Alive

by

So stuck in the head….

You have changed
I have changed
Just like you
Just like you

For how long
For how long
Must I wait
I know there’s something wrong

Your concrete heart isn’t beating
And you tried to
Make it come alive

No shadows
Just red lights
Now I’m here to rescue you

Oh I’m still alive
I’m still alive
I can’t apologise, no

Oh I’m still alive
I’m still alive
I can’t apologise, no

So silent
No violence
But inside my head
So loud and clear

You’re screaming
You’re screaming
Cover up with a smile I’ve learned to fear

Just sunshine
And blue sky
That’s just how it goes
For living here

Come fire
Come fire
Let it burn and love come racing through

Oh I’m still alive
I’m still alive
I can’t apologise no

Oh I’m still alive
I’m still alive
I can’t apologise no

Learn to lose
Learn to win
Turn my face against the wind

I will move fast
I will move slow
Take me where I have to go

Oh I’m still alive
I’m still alive
I can’t apologise no

— Still Alive, Lisa Miskovsky

Mirrors Edge

by

Now that looks like a game worth paying for, a real adventure game is much harder to find these days, especially that’s much more then run around shoot’em all, then when their all dead, try to ask a question or two about where the exit sign is >_>

Oh, what a nap lol

by

laid down around 2300Q, set the TV to th end of Multiplicity, since Gung Ho was going to start after it. I figured, lay down a bit and then get to work on stuff. Next thing I know, I’ve barely got one eye open and Gung Ho is almost over. Next thing I know, it’s over and the time is past 0139.

I need to get my todo list sorted, as to what I’m going to be doing this weekend. Gee, wouldn’t it rock if I didn’t have to plan 3 days in advance or something lol.

oy vey

by

Woke up early, ~0730Q for a leak, so I was still fairly awake around 0900Q when things picked up…. A wonderful leaking pipe in the utility room, += fixed after 1100Q, == late for work and *too* late to bother with the days op. So yet another day off work, without wages.

On the up side, I managed to catch ALIENS on Cable. I’m off until Tuesday afternoon, so hopefully…. pardoning any more desasiteres, things can’t get much worse lol.

Oh man, I should shut my mouth while I still can lol.

Writer’s Block: Fright Show

by

‘Tis the season for scary movies. Some rank The Evil Dead as the best horror film of all time. What is your favorite scary movie?

Live Journals Writer’s Block

For me, that’s a relatively hard thing to think of. There has only really been one movie that ever really scared me. There have been a few that have made be uncomfortable over the years, but nothing ‘scary’ for the most part. Simply put, I know it’s a movie lol.

I don’t particularly care much for horror movies, unless their is something much more interesting then trying to freak people out. Books and games are better for that, because it’s a more immersive medium. Hmm, that reminds me… There was one game that did scare me a fair bit when I was younger, Resident Evil. But that was fairly minimal, because I was strongly decided, that if such an absurd thing as zombies ever appeared out of no where taking over most of the city, my arsenal of squirt guns, super soakers, and other weapons would have to also be capable of firing a zombie melting fluid, that never runs out >_>.

Ahh, the imagination of children… Sometimes scary, sometimes a safe guard against fear. It’s always good for a kid to be able to tell the difference between make believe, and reality, without losing the ability to be creative.

When it comes to movies, I much prefer comedy, action, and science fiction flicks.

What a screamin’ and hollerin’ filled day, AGAIN!.

by

Let’s see, where do I start?

Stuck getting up for work, overslept and got bitched at..

When we’re about to leave for work, the battery is discharged.

So I end up walking the dogs, but Coco doesn’t get her turn because their is no time.

So Ma calls the place from yesterday to get someone out here with jumper cables for the car…

Then it’s a waiting for the road service, because the place from yesterday don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. And coco is whining because she didn’t get to go out.

The guy with the tow truck and jumper cables explains the battery problem is bacause the internal lights were stuck in the always on position -> BP or PAC, piss on you!

So we head to the normal family mechanic… Good guy, know him and his wife from church.

The alternator is still working (thankfully), so the battery charges and passes sanity checks when hooked up to a voltmeter. He also dismantled something on the engine and whatever he pushed had the same effect as putting the gas pedal flat on the deck,

Ma decides to get a new battery, since it was 3 years old… Which is roughly another $100 between battery / service / warranty / whatever.

I spend ~50% of my laptops own battery charge righting code.

5 minute down the road, the engines running worse then ever… return to mechanic, and guess what? I hose up top near the crankcase was cracked. As far as I can tell from google and his description, it was probably some kind of breather tube for a PCV system.

Son of a bitch, replacing that tube has fixed the cars chugging up and down the road, which has been driving Ma crazy, for what? Nearly 3+ years by now loool.

It is always the simple things in life that getcha !!! Be it a broken serpentine belt driving the alternator and power steering among other things, leaving a light on, just righting to the teletypewriter device, or replacing a stupid hose that helps regulate the amount of air / gases in the chamber to the right levels.

Get stuck going shopping, since we missed work, and I bloody hate grocery shopping !!!!!

I managed to leak the trooper by accident over instant messenger, and had to change it in a hurry, then report myself for stupidity.

To top it off, there is almost nothing on TV; just Keeping The Faith.

Scratch that, to make it even worse! I just ended up having to rub her royal majesties feet.

If tomorrow is like today, yesterday, or worse, I am really taking the weekend off doing shit for awhile loooooooooooool.

Bartender: Let me get this straight, I’m talking to a priest who went on a
bender, because his best friend; a rabbi, stole his girl.

Priest: Right

Bartender: I want to thank you for telling my this story.

Priest: Why?

Bartender: Because now I can retire.

Priest: You have to give me advice, that’s what this is supposed to be about.

Bartender: Oh GOD, what do I know? I half Punjabi Sikh, one quarter Tummel
separatist, my sister married a Jewish doctor from New Jersey, and our
other grandmother was an Irish nun; who left me this bar, which is a VERY
long story.

Priest: You’re a Sikh, Catholic, Muslim, with Jewish in-laws?

Bartender: Yes, yes, it is very complicated… I’m reading dynetics.

Priest: I don’t blame you.

Priest: I thank you for listening to me, I feel like I should ask you for my
penance

Bartender: I don’t do penance, I do shots!

both: *snorts* Hahaha

*pours them both another shot*

Bartender: I tell you what I know

Bartender: May those who love us, love us. And those who don’t love us – may
GOD turn their hearts. And if HE cannot turn their hearts, may HE turn their
ankles, so that we may know them by their limping

Priest: *nods agreement*

Ever wonder just what gcc does?

by 
Terry@vectra-$ cat > test.c
#include <stdio.h>

int
main(int argc, char **argv) {

        int i;

        printf("%s ", argv[0]);
        for (i=1; i < argc; ++i) {
                if (argv[i][0] != '') {
                        printf("%s ", argv[i]);
                }
        }
        return printf("n");
}

Terry@vectra-$ gcc -v test.c -o test-bin
Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-unknown-openbsd4.3/3.3.5/specs
Configured with:
Thread model: single
gcc version 3.3.5 (propolice)
 /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-unknown-openbsd4.3/3.3.5/cc1 -quiet -v -D__GNUC__=3 -D__GNUC_MINOR__=3 -D__GNUC_PATCHLEVEL__=5 test.c -quiet -dumpbase test.c -auxbase test -Wall -W -Wpointer-arith -Wbad-function-cast -std=c99 -version -o /tmp//ccj26536.s
GNU C version 3.3.5 (propolice) (i386-unknown-openbsd4.3)
        compiled by GNU C version 3.3.5 (propolice).
GGC heuristics: --param ggc-min-expand=46 --param ggc-min-heapsize=30393
#include "..." search starts here:
#include <...> search starts here:
 /usr/include
End of search list.
 as -o /tmp//cca26536.o /tmp//ccj26536.s
 /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-unknown-openbsd4.3/3.3.5/collect2 --eh-frame-hdr -e __start -Bdynamic -dynamic-linker /usr/libexec/ld.so -o test-bin /usr/lib/crt0.o /usr/lib/crtbegin.o -L/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-unknown-openbsd4.3/3.3.5 /tmp//cca26536.o -lgcc -lc -lgcc /usr/lib/crtend.o
Terry@vectra-$ ./test-bin arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4 arg5
./test-bin arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4 arg5
Terry@vectra-$