Firewalls for dummies

Word to the wise folks. When you’re installing a firewall on your server due to mysterious login attempts, make sure that you know what IPs you’re blocking.

I ended up driving out to where my server is colocated at 8pm last night because my server wasn’t reaponding. I had recently installed APF (advanced policy firewall) and BFD (brute force detection) and wad confident in it’s functionality. Note: I installed and tested it while away from home.

Geeky stuff: APF is a CLI Frontend for iptables. You can deny/allow IP addresses with simple commands. Pair it with BFD and what you have is a nice little security system that scans server logs every few minutes looking for repeated failed logins and other suspicious activity and automatically blocks access to the offending IP (and tells you what it’s done in a nicely formatted email. End of geeky stuff.

Once I had it up and running I walked away confident in the security of my server. I knew of a few IPs that had been hacking away at me for months, so it was only a matter of time before the emails came telling me they were blocked. I added a few manually just to get the feeling for it. Happy with myself I went out with my lovely wife for dinner and a movie.

Then I tried to access my website from home…

No http access, no ssh, no FTP, and no reply on pings. Shit. I call the office and have them reboot my server. Nothing.

I only live about 10 miles away so I drove out to take a look. Looks like it’s running… Better reboot again to make sure it was done right. A few minutes later and we’re back in action! I head home.

Wake up at 6am. No response on my site or email. No FTP. No ssh. DAMMIT!

After a few cups of coffee it dawns on me to try something. I Vpn into my desktop pc at work and pull up my website. Works fine. Try it again from my local browser, fail.

A feeling starts to nag at me.

I use my remote desktop to SSH into the server. Success.

The feeling gets stronger.

I disable the firewall…

Everything magically works again.

The feeling begins to redden my cheeks.

I check the firewall rules.

Out of the eight IP adresses I manually denied, my home ip was first on the list.

The day before I installed the firewall I had forgotten that I had changed my password. There were several failed login attempts due to this.

That feeling? Stupidity. I has it.

Ferber Baby

Having a son means losing sleep now to sleep all night later. Let Isaac cry it out last night. It was like he knew it was my idea because he started crying for me in particular. Ouch.

When that didn’t work he started crying for mama but HA! I had given her earplugs! After a grand total of 45 minutes we all got back to sleep. Up at 6:15 to start our day. We’ll let mama sleep in today.

Daddy 1, Isaac 100.

I’ll catch up some day, right?

Facebook for iphone 3.1.4

Facebook for iPhone has been updated once again.

This version supposedly fixes a bug where friends were incorrectly matched with contacts. Also something about push notification.

Grab it now in the app store!

UPDATE: It’s still buggy.

OK Go – Of The Blue Color of the Sky

“Here’s our new album, man.  It doesn’t sound anything like the other two.”

“Not at all?”

“No way man, that would be derivative”

“What if no one likes it?”

“Be cool man, we’re OK Go… they’ll get it”

OK Go - Of the Blue Color of the Sky

OK Go - Of the Blue Color of the Sky

Normally this kind of attitude would aggravate the hell out of me.  Luckily, I’m used to OK Go experimenting with their sound.  If you’re not, then you’ve only heard their singles.

No, even if you’ve only heard their singles you should know this.  How in the world did this band churn out a top 40 pop hit like “Do What You Want” when EVERYBODY know they’re the guys who cranked out that awesome 90’s post-grunge hit “Get Over It.”  Even then, there’s no WAY it’s the same band that dances around on their patio to “A Million Ways”

OK Go has always toyed with genres on their albums.  It’s hard for me to sit and listen to an album in its entirety without thinking that I’ve accidentally put my iPhone on shuffle.  Not that I don’t love it, because I do.  Any band can be experimental, but only a good band can pull it off, and OK Go usually does.

Give a listen to “Return” off their first album, it’s great but you’d never hear it on the radio.  Not because it’s bad, but because it won’t sell albums.  OK Go is good at that too.  Toss a few “radio friendly” hits on there and fill the rest with what you REALLY want to play.  Think that’s selling out?  The Beatles did it too.  Any great band does.  That’s how they make money folks, that’s how they gain new fans.  Sgt. Pepper would have never happened if it weren’t for “Penny Lane” (even though they ended up not putting it on that album, it was originally recorded FOR it, then released as a single BEFORE it, and placed on an EP AFTER it.  How’s that for an interesting factoid!).

So now here we are with a new OK Go album.  I didn’t know what to expect exactly, but I was hoping for something good.  The music industry NEEDS something good.  I’ve heard the new OG Go album now, and well… It is what it is.

It’s not a BAD album in any way, but it’s lost something.  Maybe the boys are getting old, or maybe they’ve found some peace in their lives or something, but this album doesn’t have the bite they used to have.  All the songs are pretty mellow, and are belted out in that familiar drunken-lounge-singer-with-nothing-to-lose tone that they do so well.  If you don’t like squeaky vocals, don’t get this album.

I shouldn’t be surprised, the album title itself sends a message of “ahh, well, that’s groovy then” so I should have expected a mellow album.  I’m fine with that even, it’s just that… well… I miss the experimentation!

All the songs on the new album sound fairly similar.  Again, this isn’t a game-killer but I just expected MORE from OK Go. 

Maybe i’ve become jaded, expecting the music industry to finally wake up and release a good album commercially (I’m ignoring the indie scene simply because they’ve all gotten so damn pretentious).

::sigh:: a boy can dream, can’t he?

Overall it’s not a bad album at all.  Worth a listen at least, so you can decide for yourself.

Hipstamatic for iphone = cool

Hipstamatic is one of my new favorite apps for the iPhone. It simulates using a lomocam, and the results are some really cool photos taken right on the iPhone. It’s fairly inexpensive (just a buck or two) to start, and you can purchase additional lenses and films, which are basically filters and frames for the photos.

When in use, the screen resembles the back of a camera complete with a small viewfinder. Point and shoot at just about anything and the result is usually a pretty sweet lo-fi image that would fit right in with the usual fare at your local coffee shop or art show.

Hipstamatic also upload right to facebook for easy sharing, and saves high quality copies to your camera roll. I dig it.

Why’s er’rybody wants me teefers?

Took my wife to the dentist today for a fractured tooth.  Had some snow last night, so a lot of their appointments cancelled.  I found myself with nothing to do so I decided to get a cleaning.  Next thing I know i’m getting 24 X-rays done, and now they want to extract 4, maybe 5 teeth.  Never fails.

I have my wisdom teeth.  They’re in, they’re through, they dont’ bother me.  Dentists however have something against them.  It took me a long time to grow these teeth, and now that jsut want to take them from me?  And they want me to PAY them to do it?  Does anyone else see anything wrong with this?

I used to have bad problems with TMJD, but it went away too, after several consultations and discussions of surgeries and whatnot… I left it alone and guess what, it went away after a few years.  Wasn’t easy, sure, but it fixed itself.  The human body is made to do that, ya see.

So whatever.  Maybe they can pull them if my insurance covers enough of it.  They’re a bitch to keep clean, and it’s not like I can chew anything back there.  I may not be using them very much, but I am attatched to them in more ways than the obvious. ..

I mean, they’re WISDOM teeth… if they take them, will I no longer be wise?  Would I be so un-wise, that I won’t realize what I’ve lost?  That seems the most likely outcome, because all of those who have given up their wisdom teeth don’t seem to mind…

Ignorance is bliss.

Toons!

I finally got all of my little cartoon shorts together.  Most of them were just time-wasters, but it gives me something to do when I have some free time and am feeling creative.  Check it out here.

Facebook for iphone 3.1

W00t! Push notifications and sync friends with contacts! Sync part isn’t perfect, but it works! Get it now from the app store!

Here we go again

So i’ve tried twice before to start a blog, and failed twice before. I always pick a topic and then fail to live up to it due to my apparent ADD.

So no topic this time. I’ll write what I want when I want, or not at all!

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