Planet North East

SuperMondays: Review: An introduction to massive data sets, using SQL and noSQL approaches

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:42:15 +0000

Running a database is often challenging. Issues such as speed, reliability, scalability and data consistency often keep DBA’s awake at night with worry. This month we had two excellent presentations, these were:

Sam Lambert — DBA and Linux Admin for Smith Electric Vehicles.
Sam manages a complex computer system that handles over 1.2 billion INSERTS a day. This system has very specific technical challenges including failover, scalability and data consistency.

Jonathan Halliday — Developer in the JBoss team at RedHat
Traditional database solutions often fail to provide for the speed and quantity of data capture demanded in today’s environment and often force valuable information to be ignored or discarded prematurely. Fortunately help is at hand in the form a variety of solutions built on new models of distributed storage and processing. New systems bring technical choices, and often too much choice! Jonathan discussed some of these alternative solutions and provided guidance on how to select a suitable solution for your environment.

SemiBad: Hello world.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:35:29 +0000

Our son, Rowan Warwick-Farr, was born on January the 3rd 2012. Of all the things I&aposve made over the years, he&aposs by far my favourite.

Kristian Lunde: Zend_View and base paths outside the application directory

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:57:01 +0000

I’ve recently been working on a Zend application (v1.11.11) that required several views directories and they had to be located outside the application directory. The documentation says that you can have as many view basePaths as you like, which sounds great. The only problem is that the Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_ViewRenderer checks that the alternative basePaths are located within the default basePath (APPLICATION_PATH “/views/”).

The easiest way of resolving this is to add the full path to the directory like this:

APPLICATION_PATH . '/views/../../themes/my-theme/';

The example below is from my Bootstrap file:
protected function _initView() { $view = new Zend_View();

$view->setBasePath(APPLICATION_PATH . '/views/../../themes/my-theme/');
$viewRenderer = new Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_ViewRenderer();
$viewRenderer->setView($view);
Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper($viewRenderer);
return $view;
}

SemiBad: Epilogue.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:55:20 +0000

Saying goodbye to an old friend.

Random Thoughts of an ASP.Net Code Monkey: You Can Change the World Through Technology

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:33:22 +0000

Are you a student in the North East and interested in technology or do you know of any North East based students who are interested in technology? Would you like the opportunity to change the world and potentially win a free trip to Sydney, Australia?

If you've read this far then you must be interested, so what is this all about? The Microsoft Imagine Cup, that's what! The Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world's top student technology competition. Ever year Microsoft gives students a fantastic opportunity to envisage, create and deliver a technology solution that addresses the Imagine Cup slogan - "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems!" The Microsoft Imagine Cup theme this year is inspired by the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Sunderland Software City and Codeworks have teamed up this year to run a regional heat of the Microsoft Imagine Cup to highlight the fantastic talent that exists in our great region!

Imagine Cup North East - Are you up for a challenge? from Codeworks Ltd on Vimeo.

The Imagine Cup North East is an exciting opportunity for students to work together in teams to solve some of the worlds toughest problems, learn new skills, make new friends, win prizes (did I mention the grand final is in Sydney, Australia?) and test themselves against the other UK and Worldwide teams.

So how do you get involved? Why not come along to one of the taster events to find out more on Thursday February 2nd in Newcastle (17:30-20:00) and on Friday February 3rd in Teeside (17:30-20:00). At these events you'll see presentations from Microsoft about the competition, kits available and outcomes required and then on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th February you'll be whisked off to a secret location for a 36 hour non-stop hackathon to work on your team projects

To find out more check out the Imagine Cup North East website - http://www.imaginecupnortheast.co.uk and follow the Imagine Cup North East on Twitter - http://twitter.com/imaginecupne

If you're not a student but would still like to get involved the competition is also looking for Mentors and Sponsors, so get in touch with the Imagine Cup North East, let's get behind the fantastic talent in our region and show the rest of country and hopefully the world how good they are!!

Finally I'll leave you in the capable hands of Captain Rob Miles to give you some more information on the Microsoft Imagine Cup

Laurence Dawson: Dealing with slow Android animations

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:27:43 +0000

Recently I've been working on porting some existing asynchonous image loading code from Android 2.2 to the newer 4.0 (ICS). Straight away I enabled the hardware acceleration flag in the manifest file to take advantage of the GPU but came across the problem that the alpha animations were slowing down scrolling speed of any list views significantly. Continue Reading

Infosanity: honeyd-NetworkArchitecture-2

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:00:56 +0000

I was recently asked about the network configuration I use for my honeyd sensor. I had thought I’d already written about this so initially went to find the article on honeyd configuration; but my memory was wrong and the original post only covered configuring the guest systems, not the honeyd host itself. So, as I now have a pretty(ish) network diagram showing my setup I may as well correct the earlier omission.

<DISCLAIMER: This may not be the best network design for running honeyd, this is merely how my environment is configured and it works for me as a research platform. As usual, your mileage may vary, especially if your use-case differs from my own>

As can be seen, the design has three distinct network segments:

Publicly route-able IPs
Internal network for honeypot hosts
Virtual network for honeyd guest systems. These IP addresses sit on loopback interface on the host, with a static route on the firewall to pass all virtual traffic to the honeyd host.

Using a perimeter firewall with NAT/PAT capabilities allows easy switching between emulated systems and services if your public IP resources are limited; a large network of guests can be configured in advance and left static, then a quick firewall change is all that is required to expose different systems to the world.

Additionally, as much as honeypot systems are designed to be compromised and collect information of malicious attacks (or perhaps more correctly, because of this) , low-interaction systems like honeyd is designed to avoid full compromise. If something goes wrong and the host system gets fully compromised, a (sufficiently configured) perimeter firewall provides some control of outgoing traffic, limiting the attackers options for using the honeypot sensor to attack other systems.

Not much to it really; if you use an different setup and/or can suggest ways to improve the setup let me know, always looking to improve my systems where possible.

– Andrew Waite

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: 2012 PowerShell Scripting Games

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:39:46 +0000

Today the Microsoft Scripting Guys have officially announced the 2012 PowerShell Scripting Games.

Long-time readers of this blog will know that every year I recommend taking part in the Scripting Games as a great way to learn PowerShell through completing some real-world tasks.

The exciting thing about this year's games is that you can use a pre-release version of PowerShell v3 to take part, so even if you're already familiar with PowerShell, you can challenge yourself to use some of the new features in your solutions.

I'm definitely going to be taking part when the events start in April, and by then I'd expect the North East PowerShell Script Club to be up and running, so we'll perhaps look at some of the challenges together.

Keep an eye on the Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog for more info.

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: Imagine Cup North East

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

For the last couple of weeks I've been helping behind the scenes with Imagine Cup North East. If you've never heard of the Imagine Cup it's an annual student competition run by Microsoft to build technology solutions to address real-world problems, and this year two great local organisations promoting digital industries, Codeworks and Sunderland Software City, have teamed up to run a regional heat.

This week students from Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, Durham and Teesside universities and local colleges will be attending taster and information events (in Newcastle and Middlesbrough), where Microsoft's Ben Nunney will be on hand to discuss the finer points of the competiton.

The competition is a great opportunity for students to work on a project outside of their studies (looks good on the CV, etc) and it should be good fun too, with a 36 hour hack event later in the month. Of course there's also the possibility of a trip to the global finals in Australia to aim for too!

If you're a current student (or graduated in the last year) there's still time to get involved, and if you aren't eligible to take part, you should still be able to support the teams at a future NEBytes event. Head to the Imagine Cup North East site, the Facebook page, and follow @ImagineCupNE on Twitter to keep up with all the goings-on.

Random Thoughts of an ASP.Net Code Monkey: Computer Science Curriculum is Changing and You Can Help!

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:51:52 +0000

We as professionals in the Computer Science industry have a responsibility to aid and assist our individual education systems in educating and encourage the next generations of Computing Professionals, be they Developers, IT Professionals, Testers etc.

Change is Coming!

Michael Gove announced recently that the current Information and Communications Technology (ICT) curriculum in England is to be replaced in September 2012. This was all announced at the BETT show and the current curriculum was described as demotivating and dull.

I have long been concerned about the quality and delivery of the ICT curriculum in schools with the curriculum being insipid and not enough time devoted to it (indeed I am little concerned about how this new change will be implemented as I have heard stories of Teachers who believe that any ICT curriculum doesn't need to be taught anymore!).

I indeed remember countless years spending many hours in Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Access. Indeed my first exposure to Access came with the instruction from my ICT Teacher "learn how to use it and then teach me!" Fortunately for me despite spending year after year doing the same thing I was also learning how to code and make more productive use of my own Commodore 64 at home with the support of my parents.

However had I not had that support and encouragement it's likely I would have become disillusioned with IT and moved away from it, I did consider a career as a solicitor for a while, but the draw of the World Wide Web and the endless possibilities captured my imagination.

It is the imagination of the young fertile minds in our school system which we as an industry have been losing for many years with an insipid and dull curriculum which demotivates and makes Computer Science seem boring and unchallenging. Indeed if I started at an early age and spent the next 5-10 years only being exposed to Office programmes I too would quickly decide that IT/Computing was boring and unattractive. Indeed my own brother went through a process of completing an NVQ in IT at GCSE level but when presented with options at A Level his school decided to only deliver an advanced version of the SAME course rather than the Computing qualification which included programming, scripting and networking. Hence someone who is very competent and enjoyed working with computers quickly determined that he would never move towards a career in IT ever! A great loss to our community! This is just one personal example how many more are there. Indeed when I finished my BA (Hons) Business Computing degree many of my peers were of the opinion that computing was the last field they wanted to work in. This I'm afraid is a sad indictment of the state of Computer Science curriculum throughout our education system.

Call To Action!

This recent acknowledgment by the government that our Computer Science curriculum is not good enough and does not match the needs of industry has taken far too long in my honest opinion, but looking at the positive aspect there is now an agenda for change and a visible campaign to increase the quality and breadth of Computer Science teaching. However now is the time for us as an industry to influence and assist our Teachers. In the same way that we spend time educating ourselves and each other on the latest advancements, methods, languages and Computer Science technology we now need to find ways in which to take this enthusiasm and skill into the classroom and lecture theatres.

Get Involved!

Professionally we have user groups and societies in order to foster learning and to advance our own knowledge and equally there are similar avenues for us to take in influencing Computer Science curriculum! Two shining examples of this are STEMNET and the Microsoft Imagine Cup .

STEMNET works with industry to provide opportunities to inspire children and students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), this is achieved by assisting or delivering activities in schools and colleges, I have taken part in an activity in the last six months and found it a very rewarding experience helping a group of students work towards completing a challenge to create a mobile phone application centred around the London 2012 Olympics.

The Microsoft Imagine Cup is another initiative where industry can help Students to solve world problems by using technology and putting their learning into action and ultimately, this year, win a free trip to Sydney, Australia for the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals.

These are just two examples of how we as an industry can assist with the Computer Science curriculum to inspire and encourage pupils and students to get more involved with how things work as opposed to just being a user.

Now more than ever we have a chance to make a real difference, it is up to us to help to Make a Difference to Computer Science in Schools!

Random Thoughts of an ASP.Net Code Monkey: Recommended Listening–Clint Huffman on RunAs Radio

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:34:19 +0000

This week’s RunAs Radio has Clint Huffman, a Microsoft Premier Field Engieer talking to Richard Campbell about understanding the health state of IIS7/7.5. There is some excellent content in this episode and I’d strongly recommend listning to it. Clint covers aspects such as mappings, caching, failed request tracing and the IIS Log Analyzer. Rather than tell you everything that is in the podcast, listen now! - http://www.runasradio.com/default.aspx?showNum=248

RunAs Radio is an excellent weekly podcast with Richard Campbell and Greg Hughes for IT Professionals/Developers making use of Microsoft products. In my honest opinion I think developers need to also have an understanding of the systems they develop and deploy on top of to maximise the full use of the platform, so I feel this is an excellent resource for all, so check out the podcasts and subscribe now!

Alistair's Blog: How not to do Twitter support

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:04:53 +0000

Warning: This is a rant. I do it now and then when something annoys me. Call it therapy.

I have an xbox 360 that was kindly given to me by a friend who had a spar, and I am currently working through another friend’s game collection. I say working thought, I am still on the first game, but I am not the biggest games player and you can’t rush these things you know.

Anyway, I was wondering a while ago if the BBC iPlayer was available for it and when I checked I found that it was not because Microsoft insisted on charging for it and the BBC was not allowed to do so. Then last year it was announced that it will now be available on the xbox early this year. If it is available for free then I decided I really should wire up the console to the Internet, and it would make life easer if I know this before next week’s broadband install. It has not been clear if it will in fact be free so earlier this evening I thought I would do something radical and ask.

I was going to use the support section of the web site but as the xbox twitter support account claims to be the “Guinness World Record Holder” of the “Most Responsive Brand on Twitter” so why not ask them on Twitter? This is a transaction of what happened…

Alistair MacDonald (@alistair) 25/01/2012 18:00
@XboxSupport When the iPlayer is released will it be free to use or will I need to pay like the other TV services?

Xbox Support 2 (@XboxSupport2) 25/01/2012 18:02
@alistair We don’t have that information, unfortunately. ^PC

Alistair MacDonald (@alistair) 25/01/2012 19:01
@XboxSupport2 Thanks. Any pointers to find this out would be welcome.

Xbox Support (@XboxSupport1) 25/01/2012 19:04
@alistair Sorry, we don’t have any info. ^PJ

Alistair MacDonald (@alistair) 25/01/2012 19:09
@XboxSupport1 Do you not have the ability to escalate queries you can’t answer?

Xbox Support (@XboxSupport1) 25/01/2012 19:11
@alistair We do, but that info has not been released yet. ^PJ

Alistair MacDonald (@alistair) 25/01/2012 19:14
@XboxSupport1 Wait a moment, I thought you said you did not have any info. Are you saying it is secret at the moment? When will it be out?

Xbox Support (@XboxSupport1) 25/01/2012 19:16
@alistair We don’t have any info regarding that. Let us know if you need anything else. ^PJ

Alistair MacDonald (@alistair) 25/01/2012 19:19
@XboxSupport1 If you could escalate my inquiry that would be great. Thank you.

Xbox Support (@XboxSupport1) 25/01/2012 19:23
@alistair Cheers! ^PJ

Alistair MacDonald (@alistair) 25/01/2012 19:24
@XboxSupport1 When and how will I get a response?

Xbox Support (@XboxSupport1) 25/01/2012 19:29
@alistair We are unable to respond with more info on that. ^PJ

Alistair MacDonald (@alistair) 25/01/2012 19:35
@XboxSupport1 Sorry but I feel like you are sticking two fingers up at me. Can I make a complaint? Do you have an email address?

Xbox Support (@XboxSupport1) 25/01/2012 19:37
@alistair Sorry you feel that way, but we aren’t able to assist. We do have report card coming out, you can check your DM’s for those. ^PJ

Alistair MacDonald (@alistair) 25/01/2012 19:53
@XboxSupport1 I have found the contact details I require through the web site and will take it from there.

Xbox Support (@XboxSupport1) 25/01/2012 19:54
@alistair Ok, sounds good. Let us know if you need anything else. ^PJ

It is true that I always got a response from Twitter, although I can’t say it answered my simple question. For reference I called the xbox live support number on the web site after this last tweet and got an answer straight away. The answer being yes I will need to pay for “gold membership” to access the iPlayer on the xbox, and that is just not going to happen. Why could they not tell me this on Twitter?

Now I don’t claim to be a Social Media expert, but I am an advanced social media user and I know how not to treat people on Twitter. Microsoft got a lot right here in fact, but the big thing they got wrong is treating a person like an idiot and not having a next step when the canned responses they have fail them. Even if they could not tell me then they should have taken the conversation off twitter and politely said that they were really sorry but we can’t tell you yet and why.

Okay, rant over (for now).

Richard Lane: Leadership and Sales Success

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:42:34 +0000

I’ve recently finished reading Onward by Howard Schultz. The title includes the phrase; “how Starbucks fought for its life without losing its soul“. What’s been fascinating to me as I have been carried along on Howard’s journey following his re-appointment as CEO is that I never knew Starbucks had a soul worth saving in the first place. I’ve always liked Starbucks but never had undying loyalty. As I have progressed through the book my desire to re-engage with Starbucks has increased.

From this I have concluded that either:

Howard &/or his co-author, Joanne Gordon, have done a great sales job on me, or Starbucks had so seriously lost its brand position and values that it has taken a book for me to understand their history, culture and vision.

Either way, Howard Schultz makes for a very charismatic leader. His passion for coffee and for the Starbucks family (employees are called ‘Partners’) is persuasive. What is also apparent though has been the need for tough, really tough decisions. You can feel the pain he personally felt in making these but also understand why the decisions had to be made.

This got me thinking about my own leadership style and the type of leadership needed to be a successful sales manager.

Like most things in life it seems, a blend of approaches is required if you want to be a successful sales leader. It is necessary to be a visionary, a coach, a friend, a mentor, a solution creator, someone who can think outside of the box and motivate when things don’t go right. On the other hand it is important to set and manage expectations and to hold people accountable. It is necessary to create routine for people so that they can perform against a set of goals (or KPIs) that have meaning attached to them. At durhamlane we talk about the need for goals to be Ambitious yet Realistic‘. Your team need to know when they have been successful and to understand the implications of not achieving goals that are agreed and set.

One set of skills or disciplines will only take you so far. However, get a blend of both working together and you will create a culture of sales performance that people want to be a part of.

Finally, I believe consistency is the key. No-one likes, or does particularly well against a moving target.

What has your best sales leader excelled in? What made them special and how did they positively affect your performance?

Alistair's Blog: Broadband and line rental for £8.56 a month!

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:20:21 +0000

It is a constant surprise to people that I have not had ADSL broadband at home, ever. In truth I do have a 3G Mifi that is essentially a portable wifi access point and at £8 / month for 5GB transfer (an old half price offer that I still have) and I use it when at home and away.

With last year’s VAT rise I was paying £12 a month for the fixed phone line with evening and weekend calls. I was looking for a cheaper option and considering going mobile only when I spotted a great deal from Plus Net. I sign up for an annual contract with the monthly cost is £12.73 (offer expires 14/02/2012). So now I can have an expected 16mbps broadband with a 10GB transfer limit for just 73p more than I was paying for just the line. I could have had a monthly contract instead of an annual one for a few more quid and a setup fee but I went for an annual one.

In the past I had a Plus Net business connection at my old office, and two family members use them, so I have confidence in there service. They are owned by BT (shudder) but run as a separate company with decent support. You might also find it amusing that they own the company I am moving away from.

What is better is that I used Quidco and got another £50 cash back (offer expires on 31/01/2012). I recommend checking Quidco for all big inline purchases as it has saved me over £200 over time. So now for the next year my monthly cost is the equivalent to £8.56, a whole £3.44 cheaper than I was paying for the phone alone. I am oddly pleased.

If you want to do the same then please consider using my Quicdo affiliate link to place the order. It will not cost you any more and I get a small kick back of you do. Also as part of the Plus Net signup process please enter that “alistairuk” refereed you for the same reason. If do not want to then that is fine, I still recommend taking the offer if you can.

Ethicalhack3r: Prevention of unwanted telemarketing calls

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:54:12 +0000

I am tired of receiving multiple telemarketing calls per day, I’m tired of the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) not having an affect and I’m tired of telecommunication companies charging for prevention features which should be free. I came across an e-petition that was setup by a Rob Whitelock, it is not perfect in its recommendations [...]

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: What's New in PowerShell v3 - the slides

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:11:24 +0000

This is the deck that I used at my presentation to the NEBytes user group last night. The audience was mixed IT pro/developer; 1/4 people who have used PowerShell to some degree; 2/3 had at least some awareness. The aim of the presentation was to show existing PowerShell users some of the exciting new features/directions, and persuade the rest that PowerShell has come of age and is a technology that they should be exploring.

What’s New in PowerShell v3 and Introducing Script Explorer

At the end there was a discussion about books to help you get started with PowerShell. There are some really good books out there, but to reduce the cost of entry, I'd suggest you start with some free ebooks. You can check out this post which links to some resources, and you may also find PowerShell cheat sheets useful (I did when I was getting used to the syntax). Also, look out for announcements around the public availability of the Microsoft Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell.

I also asked whether anyone would be interested in a North East (England) PowerShell Script Club? I want to discuss with those who might want to take part about how they'd like it to work for them, but one idea is to meet for half an hour before the normal NEBytes meetings so that we can share challenges we've faced or successes we've had, with the aim that we all get better through sharing our experiences. If that's of interest to you, drop me an email to jonathan at nebytes.net or @jonoble on Twitter.

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: IE6 Migration Roadshow touring England

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:46:24 +0000

Please stop using IE6.

If you haven't yet, then you might want to attend one of these events. This comes direct from Microsoft...

We are thrilled to extend the invitation to you to attend our series of Internet Explorer 6 Migration Roadshow events!

With support for Windows XP coming to an end on the 8^th April 2014 and IE6 standing in so many people’s way of migration, what better time to start taking the leap to a more modern browser? Problem applications are all too often the blocker, so Microsoft have teamed up with Camwood, Citrix Systems and Quest Software, all application compatibility experts, to help jump-start your move.

Join us at a date below for a packed agenda discussing the technical challenges faced by IT departments when migrating their users off of IE6. We will establish:

·         Why you should go through the trouble of migrating;

·         How you go about identifying those problem applications;

·         What you can do about them.

There are a range of dates to choose from, each offering a slightly different spin and all promising to be thoroughly informative! Take your pick and use the links below to register with our partners.

Who, Where & When?
Tues 21^st February
Microsoft & Quest Software
Manchester United Football Ground (Old Trafford)
09:30 – 14:00 (+Stadium Tour!)
More Information & Registration

Thurs 22^nd March
Microsoft & Citrix Systems (Including newly acquired AppDNA)
Chalfont St. Peter (Easy access via the M40 & M25 as well as rail)
09:00 – 16:00
More Information & Registration

Tues 3^rd April
Microsoft & Camwood
London, Cardinal Place
More Information & Registration TBC

Thurs 19^th April
Microsoft & Quest Software
Reading Football Ground (Madejski Stadium)
09:30 – 14:00 (+Stadium Tour!)
More Information & Registration

On behalf of all the team at Microsoft, we hope to see you there!

In case you're wondering, I'm usually a Chrome user myself. I'm not one for adding multiple extensions to a browser, so I like the way that Chrome natively syncs my bookmarks, etc, and has Flash and PDF reading funtionality built right in. So that's IE6 and Adobe's Flash and Reader that I no longer use. Three birds, one stone.

Random Thoughts of an ASP.Net Code Monkey: Cut The Cord, Save Money and Go Faster

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:12:35 +0000

Towards the end of last year I started to think more and more about how I make use of digital television services, telephone (land line) and broadband. I considered my usage vs cost and was keen to work out whether I was getting value for money. This led me to decide to cut the cord and save money!

For the past 5 or so years I've had all of my services from one supplier, Sky. I had unlimited broadband (ADSL at approx 10 mb/s download), telephone (free evening and weekend calls) and Satellite television, I had all the channels available apart from Movies and Sports. I didn't go for movies as there's limited new content added each Friday and I didn't go for sports because I have a season ticket and if I want to see a match it's a great chance to catch up with friends at the pub. All in all my package was costing around £60 a month, quite a lot if it's not getting used to it's full.

When I reviewed my usage I found that with regards the telephone I hardly ever use it, I prefer to use the inclusive minutes on my mobile contract. Moving onto my television services, I regularly found very little on the approx 700 channels I was interested in watching and 90-95% of those shows which I did watch or record were available on a Freeview channel. Moving onto my broadband services I found them to be very reliable but slow! My local exchange was one of the very first outside of London to have fibre to cabinet services from BT made available, and despite Sky announcing trials for fibre optic broadband a couple of years ago nothing has progressed on that front, so I gave up waiting.

So out of the approx £60 I was not getting value for money. I can get Freeview direct from my TV and as mentioned I can use my mobile for telephone services. As for Broadband service, I've already maxed out what Sky were offering and I had to maintain the telephone to keep broadband with Sky. I looked at BT and they offered infinity up to 100MB for £35 a month but I had to have a phone line as well which takes the cost to £45 a month and includes a service I don't want.

Yesterday I called Sky and canceled all of my services and gave my reasons for canceling which were slow broadband speed, limited use for telephone and happiness with Freeview channels. Surprisingly the agents at Sky didn't even try to stop my cancelling and consequently the provision of their services will end in early February. I then applied for Virgin Media's Cable 50Mb/s Broadband service, selected no television services and no telephone line, made use of an excellent cashback offer via Quidco (if you don't use this service already - check it out now!) and my girlfriend referred Virgin Media to me so she gets money off her bill and I get free installation! I've paid a little more for the privilege of not having a telephone installed but I've controlled exactly what I have and am not paying for services I won't be using. There's also the added bonus that Virgin Media announced plans this week to double all broadband speeds of customers , so before long I'll have 100MB broadband. This is costing me £30 a month for three months and then £35 a month afterwards on a 12 month contract and compared with what I'm paying now I'll save £280 over the course of a year, quite a sizable chunk!

So I'll be relying on my internet connection more in future for media services. I've been really impressed with the media services on the recent Xbox 360 dashboard update which has 5 OnDemand, 4OD and soon to arrive BBC iPlayer. In addition I've started to evaluate LoveFilm and Netflix now they have arrived in the UK. Initial impressions of these services are that currently the LoveFilm catalogue is great if you want to use the traditional DVD/BluRay service however their streaming catalogue is limited - for a start it doesn't include TV, and recent films which I can rent on DVD/BluRay through the service are an additional cost when streamed?? Netflix has a good but old catalogue and is streaming only so I'm hoping that gets updated soon. At present I'm leaning towards sharing a subscription for LoveFilm with my girlfriend so we I can make us of the streaming and she can use the DVD service, and possibly Netflix dependent on how their catalogue develops.

I'm looking forward to finding out how my decision pans out, have I made the right choice? I've certainly initially saved myself some money and reallocated my spending. I believe this may also be the path others take in the future as we evaluate what we spend our money on. As internet provision and online services increase I feel the consumer will make services like Sky and Virgin Media work a lot harder for their money!

James Mills Blog: Refresh Teesside – a networking event for creative Teessiders!

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:15:02 +0000

Next Event – 6pm, Wednesday 8th February @ Capaldi’s, Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough

Refresh Teesside meet at 6pm on the second Wednesday of every month. We meet in the function room upstairs at Capaldi’s Restaurant, Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough.

In Teesside there are hundreds of creative businesses who can benefit from knowing each other. Many of the businesses are relatively small in size, focusing on a specific skill or service. Everyone can benefit from knowing other professionals in their own trades and networking with other professionals who offer skills and services they may require in the future.

Registration will be between 6 and 6.30pm. We will greet you and ensure you are registered. At 6.30pm there will be an introduction to the event with any announcements. After this, it’s up to you to get out of the event what you want.

There will be developers with their laptops out sharing code and working on problems. There will be freelance developers and designers looking to connect with agencies. There will be photographers looking to offer their services to others. There will be business owners who may be recruiting. Most importantly there will be creative people networking with their peers.

There will be light food, kindly provided by Capaldi’s, during the evening. The bar will be open. The event officially finishes at 9pm.

We look forward to seeing you there, if you have any questions then send us a tweet or an email.

To register for the event please go to the Refresh Teesside Eventbrite page

If you would like to find out more information about future events then please bookmark our official website.

Other links that you may find interesting:

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: Why I hope Windows 8 ARM tablets don't have a full desktop

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:48:26 +0000

There has been a significant amount of speculation and rumour surrounding the existance of a full desktop experience on Windows 8 devices powered by ARM processors. These are the lower priced tablets that are going to exist in the same market as the iPad and various Android tablets, like those make by Samsung and Asus. Before anyone who hasn't been keeping up with this has a panic, there's going to be a normal Windows desktop on fully-fledged laptop and desktop PCs, but on tablets it makes less sense as a user interface. It's not like you could just take your favourite desktop application that you're running on Windows 7 and put it on a Windows 8 device that's using some SoC (system on chip) architecture anyway - it would need to be recompiled to work with those systems.

The main reason that I don't want the desktop is because I don't want developers, including (especially) Microsoft, to be able to treat the Metro UI as a skin that you can just scratch away to reveal something that they designed 10 years ago. It's not that the 10 year old design isn't perfectly functional on a desktop, but on a device with a touch interface it's going to be fiddly at best.

What I want is for everyone who is developing for Windows 8, especially tablets, to have to think about the user experience using touch. The Metro design language works particularly well for this (some would say to the detriment of the traditional keyboard and mouse user), so for goodness' sake, let's please make sure that it's used consistenly.

I've had far too many experiences in the past, particularly with smartphones, which are in some ways more closely related to tablets than PCs are (which is why Apple and Google have taken the opposite approach to Microsoft), where you have a really nice skin up front, only to find that you're only two taps away from something that looks like my A-Level Computing project in Borland Delphi!

Stuart Holmes: What I did in 2011

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:33:49 +0000

A monster year for work this year. I rebuilt the new website for work (http://www.newcastle.co.uk/) and its sub sites. I also designed and built the SuperMondays website for the user group of the same name. I also started a personal project called the Digital Event Board to share events, conferences and training with IT professionals.

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: PowerShell v3 at NEBytes' 2nd birthday

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:37:43 +0000

This month's event marks 2 years since we started the North East Bytes user group and the start of what is bound to be an exciting year with some major new Microsoft products on the horizon. I'm happy to be able to give a presentation on the 18th January to talk about the "glue" that's going to bind a lot of those things together.

My session, "What's New in PowerShell v3, and Introducing Script Explorer" aims to give some insight into what's coming in the Windows 8 timeframe for those who have already started their PowerShell journey, and also to help those who are yet to take the plunge by looking at the soon-to-be-released Microsoft Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell.

We're fortunate enough to have another interesting presentation on the night from Gary Short, another MVP and an excellent speaker, about data mining the social web.

You can see all the details, and register for this free event at Eventbrite. I hope to see you there!

Social Media in Local Government: Looking forward – 2012 and #WeeklyBlogClub

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:24:05 +0000

What started out as a casual conversation between friends about how we each should blog more (partly a nudge for me to take control of my circumstances) has, as so often happens, snowballed into something much bigger. It's name is Weekly Blog Club.

The idea roughly consists of a blog post every week, possibly on a given topic, which this week is 'how we expect to use social media in 2012'. Using this as a jumping off point for an exploration into my own circumstances, reflections on 2011 and the aforementioned predictions.

2011

It's safe to say last year wasn't the best year I've ever had. I had a bad experience with work which was followed by a period of unemployment. I found the whole JobCentre Plus route to be soul destroying and ineffective with advisers themselves admitting they were unlikely to be of any assistance to me.

Then, just in time, social media came to my rescue. The networks I had built and nurtured whirred into life and had a positive effect on my life in a far greater way than the tangible offline networks which had been put in place to support me in a time of need.

It turned out that someone I knew online, but had never met, had need of someone to help out on an interim basis at a small (but perfectly formed) local authority in the midlands. Two of my online contacts who had become firm offline friends both recommended me for the position and I came to be working at Cannock Chase Council.

2012

Now it's the present, I've had a great few months at Cannock and felt both valued and inspired again. My colleagues have been amazing and I hope to share some of the things we've achieved over the coming weeks. A director of service even went so far as to call me 'a breath of fresh air' this evening and poured so many compliments my way I began to feel a little awkward. After my first day with the council I described it as putting on a 'comfy pair of slippers', it took me no time at all to settle in and I'm pleased if I did make a difference.

But now my contract is winding up and I'll be on the hunt for gainful employment once more. I have a couple of speaking gigs lined up and the perennial question of whether or not to go freelance is rearing its head again. I have to say I'd welcome a few exciting projects to get my teeth into and the chance to work with more exceptional public sector people - who are a class apart.

Social media for me in 2012 will fulfil this desire again. Update LinkedIn, blog more, tweet more and hope to get noticed. What's important this time around is that I know the power of my network and I know that I have some great friends out there.

So that's it, if you want to hire me get in touch, and I hope 2012 is a great year for all of us.

Jon Bradford: Minority Report

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:02:42 +0000

Okay. Three days in and I have already dropped the ball. I knew it was hard and highly likely to happen – I just hadn’t expected it to be this early, I missed my first daily post. No matter.

Picking up on one of my themes from My Predictions for 2012, I (like many) are intrigued by the notional idea of what Apple’s iTV may look like. Thankfully, the press and blogging community have established that the real issue holding back Apple’s iTV (or any interactive television) is not technology but how a user relates to the content on the television, i.e. the human interface/experience.

As someone who has spent too much money over the last few years on a multiple of devices in an attempt to create an interactive television experience, I have to sadly admit failure. At one extreme I have hooked up a mini PC and attempted to use a keyboard and a touchpad. Maybe I am just getting old but trying to use a touchpad with a cursor on a screen 20 feet away is becoming more challenging (may be I should get my eyes tested more often).

My most recent acquisition is an Apple TV which has many great things going for it – particularly the ability of a three year child to use it on a Saturday morning to watch Bob the Builder as often as they like without any assistance. The simplicity of the interface and the remote is a joy – but it feels very limited in the same way the original iPhone was when it was first released – do you remember the iPhone before the Apps Store. I truly believe that the full potential of Apple TV will be realised when third party developers are allowed to create apps for this device (and am greatly encouraged by the recent hack that has been developed). I mean I can’t be the only person in the world who is massively frustrated by the inability to use the BBC iPlayer on Apple TV!!

Whilst I do not underestimate the innovation and creativity of developers to find novel ways to use the current Apple TV remote to interact with third party apps, we have to admit that it is somewhat limiting. But the solution to the problem is readily available – the iPad – the second screen experience. If we consider what lies at the heart of the problem – it is how to address the differences between a “lean back” experience of television and the “lean forward” experience of computers. Maybe there isn’t a single solution to the problem. Maybe it is a hybrid solution that combines the best of both worlds.

The current chatter on the blogs about the Steve Jobs moment – “I’ve cracked it” being the use of Siri to control Apple’s iTV. I believe that this might work in a closed ecosystem where Apple controls all over the various applications – however assuming an apps store will eventually appear I find this approach pretty restrictive.

I take the view that iTV requires a second screen – the iPhone and iTouch might be adequate but the iPad is perfect. The simplicity of the design allows the “blank canvas” to be whatever is needed. Sometimes it can be a keyboard, sometimes a giant touchpad, sometimes voice activated and sometimes an accelerometer. The iPad would be the ultimate “remote control”.

But obviously the iPad can be a second screen. At times, you may need to look at something in greater detail, so having the content at arms length is important – but equally sometimes it may be better suited for a bigger screen at a distance. What I am describing is something similar to the Minority Report – without holographic displays. Imagine being able to work with some content at your fingertips to be able to flick it away to another larger screen and/or pull it back to your fingertips.

This exists in its infancy on airplay where you can mirror your actions and screen both on the iPad and also Apple TV. What I am describing is a dual screen experience – but recognising the differences between the two screens – one lean forward, the other lean back.

So there you have it, the Apple iTV does exist today but it is not one but two devices – Apple TV and the iPad. Do I seriously think that this is what iTV will be? No. Apple have no track record of selling two products together to create a solution, that would not be elegant enough – but we can dream and I do hold out hope for an Apps Store for Apple TV very soon.

Infomixer: Untraditional Hutspot

noreply@blogger.com (Mario) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:03:27 +0000

This dish has a history that goes back to 1574 when the Spanish left an old version of it behind when they gave up besieging the city of Leiden. Potatoes and possibly carrots weren't known in Europe as edible at the time and were added to the recipe later.
The way most Dutch people now eat it is as a mash of potatoes, carrots, onions and rib of beef. Personally I don't like the rib of beef and have made this dish for years without it. Last week I experimented a bit more with it and came up with a version that is even tastier.

It's perfect winter comfort food, although I eat it all year round. It would be easy to make a vegetarian version of this by removing the sausage and using vegetable stock.

2 to 3 litres chicken stock * (because of availability I used a mixture of about 20% vegetable stock and 80% chicken stock)
1 kg carrots (the big chunky ones you get in winter would be best)
600 g potato (one big baking potato)
500 g red sweet potato *
300 g can of borlotti beans (or brown beans if you can get them)
400 g of onions and/or shallots
2 leeks
2 garlic cloves
teaspoon of dried chopped dill *
half teaspoon of 'Provencal herbs' *
salt
low fat smoked sausage (optional. I think low fat smoked sausage tastes better than the full fat kind)
freshly ground pepper

* I didn't actually measure these ingredients, this is just a guess

Serves four, apart from the sausage which only serves two. If you are making it for two, make it for four, it's perfect for reheating.

Bring the stock to a boil in a large pan and add the not too finely chopped onions, shallots, garlic, leeks and the dill, Provencal herbs and some salt to a large pan.
Chop the potato, sweet potato and carrots into equal pieces (carrots a bit smaller than the potatoes) and add them to pan,
Bring back to boil.
If adding the smoked sausage, remove it from all packaging and lay it on top of the vegetables in the pan (on the package it will probably say something like 'boil for 15 minutes in packaging', just ignore that).
Simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the potatoes and the carrots are cooked.
Add the beans (drained) and keep it going for a bit longer to heat the beans.

Remove the sausage.
Drain (catching the liquid).
Mash (add a slight amount of the liquid or milk to make a fairly smooth mash).
Season with the pepper and possibly some salt.

Serve with the sausage.

Originally posted at foodster.net

Infomixer: Mincemeat Turnovers

noreply@blogger.com (Mario) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:02:04 +0000

Every New Year's Eve I crave oliebollen, but since these require deep frying and hence too much faff, I make appelflappen. Apple turnovers are the only traditional Dutch New Year's Eve food that isn't deep fried, but baked in the oven instead.

Last year I made the filling for the appelflappen from scratch. This year I used a jar of mincemeat instead. Far from traditional, but if the number of these minceflappen that my daughter ate is anything to go by then it was a success! Using a jar is definitely easier than making the filling from scratch, but I thought the mincemeat turned out a bit runny. I think I prefer the more traditional apple turnovers, but think that the ease of using a jar will probably win me over to make these again next New Year.

500gr puff pastry
400gr mincemeat
1 beaten egg
About 2 tsp sugar

Pre-heat fan oven to 200°C.

Roll out puff pastry thinly.

Cut pastry into twelve squares of about 12cm.

Place small heap of filling in centre of each square.

Fold each square over to form a triangle.

Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake in oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Richard Lane: “Can a sales person be 100% honest”?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:45:54 +0000

“Can a sales person be 100% honest? That would make for an interesting blog post” a good friend said to me a while ago. The question has been playing on my mind ever since. I suppose a similar question would be is something Black or White. To me, being a sales professional relies on being able to see the colours in-between – or ‘grayscale’ to use the language of my HP printer.

If we relate “100% honesty” to having integrity, being the consummate professional and always trying to do the right thing by your clients and prospects then it is essential. Success in Sales means being able to navigate around a customer’s organisation – listening here, offering advice and providing feedback there. It is not our place to make controversial statements or to disenfranchise. Rather we must challenge – where and when appropriate – and build rapport and relationships that make someone want to buy from us. Offering value, becoming a trusted advisor and delivering products and services that have a positive impact.

There are times when it is better to stay quiet rather than speak up, others when we focus on one feature at the expense of another. Does this mean you are being dishonest? Only if you do so in the knowledge that you are not offering your prospect or customer the best solution possible.

The Sales Profession has built itself a reputation that not many envy. Perhaps this is because of a tendency to focus on short-term success. Worse, Management has pushed a culture of short-termism. This type of self-preservation is not long-lasting. Trust rapidly disintegrates. The most important sale is not the first to a new customer but the second – when you have successfully delivered so that they want to come back for more.

I know lots of great sales people who are focused on developing win-win relationships built on trust, reliability and professionalism. The word cloud on the right comes from a survey we ran a year or so ago where we asked sales people what first words came to mind when they thought of Sales. We intend to run it again soon and will share the results.

The Sales Profession knows it has to do better and it is rising to the challenge. I could point you to many sites both here in the UK, the US and around the rest of the world where sales individuals and organisations are helping others to make a lasting difference. Just four examples of sales pro’s I respect include:

Dave Stein at ES Research
Paul Castain at Sales Playbook
Neil Warren at Modern Selling
Donal Daly at The TAS Group

2012 will see all of us here at durhamlane continuing do our bit to put a positive dent in the sales universe. What can you do to put Pride back into Sales?

Wishing you all the best for an exciting and successful 2012.

Jon Bradford: jdbradford

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:50:52 +0000

It is going to be busy. Very busy.

This is by no stretch of the imagination comprehensive nor complete but a list of my predictions for 2012.

1. Second Generation Social Networks. Facebook and Google+ will go on to dominate the first generation of social networks – but a second generation of social networks will appear – in large niches. These networks already exist, such as Stack Exchange and SoundCloud – but more will appear. The primary social networks are not be able to service all the needs of these niche users – but the second generation social networks will deliver greater value will be more engaging.

2. Apple TV Apps. Apple will create an Apps Store for Apple TV and the sales of Apple TV will take off. A new generation of apps will be developed that will combine smart TVs and the tablets/smartphones that will work as the “second screen” and someone will create an app that combines X Factor and a Twitter stream and everyone will go nuts about it and Simon Cowell will make even more money.

3. Internet of Things. People will start to understand the real potential of smart devices and the social impact it will have. We will see the first “Internet of Things” Hackathons and web developers will fall in love with the new ideas and opportunities that come from it.

4. Big Data. It will get a lot bigger, a lot faster than people expect. With the proliferation of smart devices (as above), we will have more data than we really know what to do with it. People will have to come up with novel technical solutions to capture, distribute, share and draw conclusions from the data being collected.

5. Android versus IOS. Only a very small minority of the world will care or understand the difference between Android and IOS devices – this will give Windows Phone a fighting chance when everyone realises that it is not possible to install all 500k apps from the Apps Store on your iPhone/Android and that in reality people don’t use more than 6 apps.

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: Don't believe the Mayans. 2012 is going to be good!

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:08:57 +0000

I've got mixed feelings about the year that just ended - 2011 had some real contrasts for me.

I enjoyed more travel than any other year of my life, to Malaysia and Singapore twice, Ibiza, Florida and exotic Reading. I got to feed my theme park addiction at Universal Studios Singapore and all of the Disney, SeaWorld and Universal parks in Orlando, including the amazing Wizarding World of Harry Potter (I'd never seen any of the films until 3 weeks before I went; watched all 8 in the space of a week and loved them!).

Unfortunately I was also the most ill I've been in a single year. I was off work for all of August when acute reactive arthritis in my left ankle and knee left me unable to walk. Some time after that was resolved, I was found to have "quite a collection" of gallstones, which did a sterling job of keeping me from getting much sleep for weeks. Rubbish.

Professionally I had the great experience of setting up the IT infrastructure at a "green field" site. Getting the new campus up and running at Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia was the most interesting project I've ever worked on.

I spent eleventy million hours reading the five books of George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, having been gripped by HBO's Game of Thrones. Can't wait for books 6 and 7. With that and Harry Potter, 2011 was the year that I discovered that I don't dislike all fantasy, just Lord of the Rings.

Anyway, that's all in the past. 2012 is only three days old, but I'm already enjoying it.

New Year's Day brought the news of a Most Valuable Professional Award from Microsoft. I'm really glad to be a PowerShell MVP again, simply because the other people in that group are some of the best people I've ever had the fortune to interact with. I'm thoroughly looking forward to the interactions that are to come over the next 12 months.

Partly because of my recently renewed appreciation of my legs, I'm going to spend more time being active this year. I may actually get round to using my gym membership for more than taking my son to the pool, although that in itself has already yielded results - on the first swim of 2012, James finally overcame his attachment to his armbands and is now swimming at a pace that feels like exercise!

If I can find some time inbetween the PowerShell projects I want to work on, putting on NEBytes user group events, and having a life away from tech, I might even get round to building one of the Windows Phone app ideas I've got sitting in OneNote.

It's going to be a busy year!

Ethicalhack3r: WordPress 3.3 Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:56:14 +0000

Yesterday two Indian security researchers, Aditya Modha & Samir Shah, released an advisory outlining a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability within the latest version (at the time of writing) of WordPress 3.3. Many people started re-tweeting the news (including myself) and blogging about it. The problem came when I tried to reproduce the vulnerability, I couldn’t. [...]

Jon Bradford: jdbradford

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:32:08 +0000

The following is an article that I authored and was recently published in The Kernel. I am planning to going into more detail around a number of the topics raised in the article later in the year.

***

Times are changing. Over the last ten years, the cost of starting a consumer internet business has fallen dramatically. Equally, the cost of distribution is approaching zero. There has never been a better time to start a business. Sensing this is so, many people are now turning their backs on corporate jobs, helping to fuel an unprecedented rise of start-ups in hubs, including London and Berlin.

This new class of business relies a lot less on early-stage investment capital. The competitive advantage for these firms now comes from their experience, know-how, creativity and contacts. In other words, they are living on their wits and intellect.

At the earliest stages of a business, investment and intellectual capital are necessary to create critical momentum. They start the ball rolling. As a prominent venture capitalist once put it, investment capital is like rocket fuel: it gets you there faster.

But you have to make sure your rocket is pointing in the right direction, and it is the intellectual capital that serves as the navigation system, ensuring that you know where you are going before you start the count-down.

There are, however, some profound differences between the two asset classes of investment and intellectual capital.

Investment capital is controlled and distributed by a very small number of people, and it comes with a series of terms and conditions. Intellectual capital, on the other hand, is widely distributed, and individuals can choose the terms on which it is shared. It can be given away freely, or charged for.

In our fast-moving society, the free exchange of information creates more value to both the provider of the information and the recipient than a proprietary approach. We are moving from a time when knowledge distribution was restricted and proprietary to an open source, collaborative future.

This is the fuel on which Silicon Valley has operated for decades. Now, others are cottoning on.

Unlike conventional investment, intellectual capital can be redistributed again and again. The advice continually evolves: it becomes more refined, crafted and useful, based on feedback.

Similarly, the recipient of knowledge can now choose to pass it on to others, creating a network effect of expertise, strengthening the ecosystem and accelerating idea generation.

Finally, and possibly most importantly, the cornerstone of an innovative and entrepreneurial culture is failure. It can’t be repeated enough that failure must be embraced and accepted as natural consequence of innovation. A culture which shuns failure is a culture that shuns entrepreneurship, and, ultimately, wealth creation.

This is where the most significant difference between venture capital and intellectual capital exists. Failure leads to the loss of investment capital. That is accepted by venture capitalists and angel investors alike, who encourage businesses to take risks with the potential of a big pay-out on a few of their bets.

But intellectual capital is different, because entrepreneurs arguably learn more from their failures than from their successes. Heads you win, tails you win – at least, in respect of your intellectual capital.

The knowledge and know-how generated from success and failure builds a stronger ecosystem. Imagine it as a pruning of ideas; the creation of a fertile “entrepreneurial compost heap” and the recycling of expertise being dug back into new ideas, helping them to germinate, take root and grow back stronger.

The latent potential of any ecosystem to generate and strengthen its intellectual capital is a valuable and rich resource, but on that remains largely forgotten and overlooked. This is a tragedy, because it is largely controlled by the entrepreneurs themselves.

A considered approach to the sharing of knowledge and expertise by entrepreneurs will create a vibrant and stimulating envirnoment. This does not require permission. Give it freely, pass it on and finish every meeting with: “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

Mass adoption of this strategy by the wider start-up communities outside Silicon Valley will create a stronger and more transparent ecosystem that supports heroes and highlights bad practices. It is a crowdsourced, peer-to-peer support network that comes from the community .

Perhaps best of all, unlocking the latent potential of intellectual capital will reduce the reliance of the start-up community on investment capital and its owners – nudging the balance even further in the direction of what – and, yes, who – you know.

Alex's Notes: There's no shame in code that is simply "good enough"

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:52:06 +0000

Back when I started developing what could loosely be called software around fifteen years ago, I didn't know what I was doing. If it compiled, ran and produced (mostly) the expected results, then the job was done.

As a new programmer, I was immensely productive.

Of course, problems came when it was time to fix bugs or extend the software. It was often easier to just start again than to try and understand the rat's nest of poorly structured and unintelligible code.

Fast forward ten years and I have been fortunate enough to have had exposure to some huge, well architected and complicated systems, not to mention some extremely clever people. As a result I realise I knew nothing back then. In another ten years I'll probably think the same about my current knowledge and ability. But that's the nature of software engineering. You never stop learning and evolving.

I do however miss those naive days of being able to crank out code with such velocity. It was fun back then. Yeah, what I did then might have been inefficient and probably quite flawed. But for the most part, it worked and served a purpose.

Back in those days of youthful ignorance I didn't have the experience to know what could go wrong when I hit the database fifty times to service a request. That was learnt the hard way. I just ploughed ahead, thinking in functional terms about how the application would behave for a user. I didn't worry about code being performant or extensible or even dream of coming up with my own framework. No yak shaving, I just focused on the task in hand. This was perhaps a good mindset to have.

A decade later, I am not suggesting that we should lash things together in this way. It'd be moronic to suggest we shun our collective experience, knowledge of patterns and the advanced features of programming languages. Not to mention security. However, I have found that as my knowledge increased, there was a dangerous tendency to obsess over tiny details relating to both scope and implementation and not produce anything at all.

"Will my peers think I am fool for using a TABLE element to display this on-screen calendar?"

"This web service I am creating isn't really RESTful, but if I make it RESTful it'll be really slow."

"Hmm. That query on a million records took over 75ms. Slow. :("

"This won't scale very well with more than 1000 concurrent requests. :("

"Yes, we're creating an online pizza shop but what if we want to support tapas or greek food as well? We may want to the ability to sell mountain bikes and custom coffee mugs using the same software at the some point...."

Would an engineer design a small, single lane bridge for a rural Northumberland village so that it could support the weight of a thousand double decker buses? No. So why do we, as software engineers try to do exactly this? That day will never come.

Why expend effort over engineering software in places that you don't yet know are important? Sure, it'd be nice to get a background task running in one second rather than ten - but if it's a one off nightly scheduled job, does it matter?

I have come to the conclusion that there is no shame in producing well considered, simple, fit-for-purpose code that is just good enough.

Good enough doesn't imply half-arsed or lashed together. It should concisely meet the requirements at hand, not what you think the requirements might be next week. It doesn't mean you are naive and haven't considered the big picture, nor are you lazy or stupid. It doesn't mean you are a moron if you don't use wildcard generics and don't have a fetish for multiple inheritance.

I believe all developers should have a geek valve that prevents them from introducing overly-generic, indecipherable black magic to a codebase. In conversation you would look a bit unusual if you insisted on using flowery language to express a point that could be adequately conveyed in more standard terms. Some people may miss your point. The fact that their grasp of English isn't as advanced as yours doesn't make them stupid. It means you aren't communicating efficiently. Why can't the same logic apply to code? Favour explicit and clear over clever.

Software evolves over time, in some cases decades. If the architecture is kept as simple as it can be and is easily understood by all, on-going maintenance and evolution is likely to be a hell of a lot less risky. It will be more likely to be undertaken in a reasonable timeframe by anyone on the team. To me, that's true extensibility.

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Jon Bradford: jdbradford

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:01:32 +0000

Hello and welcome.

Here’s to a very quiet relaunch of my personal blog. Prior to this I previously blogged at Jay Eye Sea with a close personal friend Ian Leader and as both of us have got progressively busier it has gone unloved for sometime.

I have a massive admiration and respect for Brad Feld, Fred Wilson and Nic Brisbourne – all of whom have full time jobs as VCs but find the time to do a daily blog – often very insightful and providing transparency in world where decisions are often made behind closed doors without explanation. I can’t promise anything this spectacular but you have to start somewhere.

My personal rationale is to “write myself smarter”. From my own experience I know that writing forces me to think harder, research my topics and try to draw conclusions. The process of writing helps my day job, where I often have to explain myself but it makes me smarter creates more value to myself and everyone around me.

I ask for your patience. The blogging will improve and I might yet prove my English teacher wrong.

Infosanity: Infosanity

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:56:14 +0000

It’s a while since I’ve found time to add a new tool to my malware environment, so when a ISC post highlighted a new update to Cuckoo sandbox it served as a good reminder that I hadn’t got around to trying Cuckoo, something that has now changed. For those that don’t know, from it’s own site:

[...] Cuckoo Sandbox is a malware analysis system.

Its goal is to provide you a way to automatically analyze files and collect comprehensive results describing and outlining what such files do while executed inside an isolated environment.

It’s mostly used to analyze Windows executables, DLL files, PDF documents, Office documents, PHP scripts, Python scripts, Internet URLs and almost anything else you can imagine.

Considering Cuckoo is the combined product of several tools, mostly focused around VirtualBox, I found install and setup was largely trouble free, mostly thanks to the detailed installation instructions from the tools online documentation. I only encountered a couple of snags.

No VMs

[2011-12-29 17:21:56,470] [Core.Init] INFO: Started.
[2011-12-29 17:21:56,686] [VirtualMachine.Check] INFO: Your VirtualBox version is: “4.1.2_Ubuntu”, good!
[2011-12-29 17:21:56,688] [Core.Init] INFO: Populating virtual machines pool…
[2011-12-29 17:21:56,703] [VirtualMachine] ERROR: Virtual machine “cuckoo1″ not found: 0x80bb0001 (Could not find a registered machine named ‘cuckoo1′)
[2011-12-29 17:21:56,704] [VirtualMachine.Infos] ERROR: No virtual machine handle.
[2011-12-29 17:21:56,705] [Core.Init] CRITICAL: None of the virtual machines are available. Please review the errors.

The online documentation specifies creating a dedicated user for the cuckoo process. Sound advice, but if you create your virtual guest machines under a different user (like I did, under a standard user account), then the cuckoo process cannot interact with the virtualbox guests. Either changing ownership of cuckoo, or specifically creating the guest VMs as the cuckoo user will solve the issue.

Creating Database

Last problem encountered was Cuckoo’s database, which if it doesn’t exist when the process will create a blank database. Which (obviously, in hindsight) will fail if the running user doesn’t have permissions to write to Cuckoo’s base directory.

cuckoo.py

With problems out of the way, Cuckoo runs quite nicely, with three main parts. the cuckoo.py script does the bulk of the heavy lifting and needs to be running before doing anything else. If all is well it should run through some initialisation and wait for further instructions:

/opt/cuckoo $ ./cuckoo.py
_
____ _ _ ____| | _ ___ ___
/ ___) | | |/ ___) |_/ ) _ \ / _ \
( (___| |_| ( (___| _ ( |_| | |_| |
\____)____/ \____)_| \_)___/ \___/ v0.3.1

www.cuckoobox.org
Copyright (C) 2010-2011

[2011-12-29 20:27:17,120] [Core.Init] INFO: Started.
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,719] [VirtualMachine.Check] INFO: Your VirtualBox version is: “4.1.2_Ubuntu”, good!
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,720] [Core.Init] INFO: Populating virtual machines pool…
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,779] [VirtualMachine.Infos] INFO: Virtual machine “cuckoo1″ information:
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,780] [VirtualMachine.Infos] INFO: \_| Name: cuckoo1
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,781] [VirtualMachine.Infos] INFO: | ID: 9a9dddd8-f7d6-40ea-aed3-9a0dc0f30e79
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,782] [VirtualMachine.Infos] INFO: | CPU Count: 1 Core/s
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,783] [VirtualMachine.Infos] INFO: | Memory Size: 512 MB
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,783] [VirtualMachine.Infos] INFO: | VRAM Size: 16 MB
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,784] [VirtualMachine.Infos] INFO: | State: Saved
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,785] [VirtualMachine.Infos] INFO: | Current Snapshot: “cuckoo1_base”
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,785] [VirtualMachine.Infos] INFO: | MAC Address: 08:00:27:BD:9C:4F
[2011-12-29 20:27:17,786] [Core.Init] INFO: 1 virtual machine/s added to pool.

submit.py

The submit.py script is one of the ways for getting cuckoo to analysis files:

python submit.py –help
Usage: submit.py [options] filepath

Options:
-h, –help show this help message and exit
-t TIMEOUT, –timeout=TIMEOUT Specify analysis execution time limit
-p PACKAGE, –package=PACKAGE Specify custom analysis package name
-r PRIORITY, –priority=PRIORITY Specify an analysis priority expressed in integer
-c CUSTOM, –custom=CUSTOM Specify any custom value to be passed to postprocessing
-d, –download Specify if the target is an URL to be downloaded
-u, –url Specify if the target is an URL to be analyzed
-m MACHINE, –machine=MACHINE Specify a virtual machine you want to specifically use for this analysis

Most of the options above are self-explanatory, just make sure to select the relevant analysis package depending on what you’re working with; possibilities are listed here.

web.py

Finally, web.py provides a web interface for reviewing the results of all analysis performed by cuckoo, bound to localhost:8080.

I’d like to thank the team that developed and continue to develop the cuckoo sandbox. I look forward to getting more automated results going forward and hopefully getting to a point where I’m able to add back to the project; until then I’d recommend getting your hands dirty, from my initial experiments I doubt you’ll be disappointed. But if you won’t take my word for it, watch Cuckoo in action analysing Zeus here.

– Andrew Waite

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: Photo Books

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:00:00 +0000

I can't remember when I got my first digital camera. It was certainly long enough ago that I've built up many gigabytes of photos of family, holidays, failed attempts at "arty" shots, and everything else. The trouble is, apart from the few that I use as desktop wallpapers, they hardly ever get looked at.

I'm one of those people who won't let people go through all of the photos that I've taken on a trip. I want to sort the wheat from the chaff, take the best 10%, crop them, fix the colour balance and then let people see them. That effort makes for a nice slideshow, but it probably doesn't get shown more than a couple of times.

I think that by far the nicest way to present a collection of photos is in a photo book. There are lots of places you can get one; in fact the options can be quite daunting. When I was looking to create a photo book of our family holicay in Orlando as a surprise Christmas present to the kids, I asked around a bunch of people, but nobody could really suggest any supplier in particular. In the end, I went for the winner of a recent Gadget Show "Top 5" - albelli.co.uk.

Albelli offer a desktop client that comes with a number of pre-defined page layouts, but with the option to control them manually yourself and a handy feature which lets you drop any number of photos onto a page and press a button to have them arranged into a grid that fits the dimentions of the various pictures (you can click multiple times to have them rearranged). The client also handily tells you if a particular photo is too low a resolution to look good at the size you've set it to - I followed its advice to reduce the size of a couple of shots and they ended up looking great.

Once you're happy with your book layout, the app deals with uploading the photos and then feeds you in to the options you have to enhance the book, like glossy paper or a "lay flat" binding. I ended up with a book that cost £40 (discount codes are sometimes available), but the opinion of everyone who has seen it has been that it is worth it.

A nice little bonus is that they include a free online version book that you can share or embed, like this (it uses Flash, sorry)...

Infomixer: Cheat's Trifle

noreply@blogger.com (Mario) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:04:27 +0000

For the last four years I have made a trifle for our Christmas dinner. You know you've been accepted when your family let's the foreigner make the trifle.

When I was looking for trifle recipes my wife initially suggested I would make Heston Blumenthal's version*. Hah, very funny, love, but no. I decided to go for Rick Stein's Traditional English Trifle.

Well, I looked at it.

And then I took every shortcut I could think of.

Bake my own madeira cake? Oh, look, cheap supermarket's madeira cake.
Make my own custard? Ooo, look, cheap supermarket's fresh custard...

I've never actually made Rick Stein's trifle and as a result I don't have a clue whether my shortcut version has any positive relation to his, but my family likes it, so who am I not to keep making it?

Since I'm not actually following Rick Stein's recipe I've always had to guess most of the quantities and have ended up buying too much ingredients. My main reason for writing this down is so next year I can finally stop buying too many ingredients.

While most celebrity chefs always seem to suggest getting the best ingredients money can buy, I suggest getting the "normal" range of fresh custard from your supermarket, and the cheapest madeira cake you can get.

2 * 500gr tubs fresh custard (I use Sainsbury's Fresh Custard, not the one from the Taste the Difference range)
1.5 jars raspberry conserve (I use Bon Maman)
4 * 265gr madeira cake (I use Sainsbury's Basics Madeire Cake)
200 gr milk chocolate
480 ml double cream
Oloroso sherry (about 20 spoonfuls, far less than a bottle)

This gives me about two medium sized serving bowls and a bit more worth of trifle. I tend to create little individual ones without the sherry for the kids and put all the sherry in the main bowls.

Day before serving (i.e. Christmas Eve):
Cut the cakes length ways into slices about 1cm thick, cut the "crusts" off.
Put one layer of cake on the bottom of your serving bowl.
Spread about two spoonfuls of jam on it.
Add another layer of cake + jam.
Depending on the height of your serving bowl, you might want to add another layer of cake + jam.
Drizzle over the sherry and give it a bit of time to sink in, you can help it by poking the cake layers with a knife to create a few holes.
Pour the custard on top, cover with cling film and put in the fridge.

Grate the chocolate (First time I bought a packed of grated chocolate, and since I haven't been able to find that cheat anymore I now grate the chocolate using a food processor). Cover and put in the fridge as well.

Just before serving (Christmas Day):
Whip cream, scoop and spread on top of the trifles, sprinkle over the grated chocolate.

There is no chocolate in Rick Stein's recipe, but I think the sprinkled chocolate looks and tastes good and the kids love doing the sprinkling.

Enjoy.

* I used to have a link to Heston Blumenthal's trifle recipe, but the recipe seems to have disappeared from the BBC Food website. I can't find the recipe online now, but it is the one that takes 6 hours to make and requires wonderful kitchen implements such as an electric drill and a blow dryer.

Tmacuk.co.uk: Blackhat Abu Dhabi 2011

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 13:05:15 +0000

I recently traveled to Abu Dhabi with Ryan Jones to present at Blackhat.

The trip was absolutely amazing, the conference, the people I met and the venue was beyond perfection. I don’t think I will ever stay, or afford to stay, at a more extravagant place than the Emirates Palace. I told myself before I arrived that I wouldn’t let anything phase me, lets just say I didn’t have the opportunity to try!

I am going to keep this short, but I met a lot of new people, a lot of people I had spoken to over the phone but never seen face to face and people that I knew over Twitter. This, in my eyes, is what these conferences are about – and the networking breaks that were provided were great for this.

The speakers dinner was very very strange. We were taken in a big 4×4 and driven out into the middle of the desert where we found a camp. There was Shisha, food, traditional dancing, sandboarding, ATV’s and camels. It was absolutely brilliant and the best event I have been to!

The presentation went really well, we had a lot of people asking us questions afterwards and a lot of praise too. Hopefully we can present at another Blackhat event soon – they were very well organised and it was refreshing to be a part of it.

Please keep your eyes out for the technical blogpost on the SpiderLabs blog!

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: PowerShell Quick Reference Guides and Cheat Sheets

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:30:23 +0000

For a good couple of years after I first started working with PowerShell, I had a couple of quick reference guides and this cheat sheet pinned to the wall next to my desk and it saved me checking the online help numerous times. Having them practically in my sight line all the time definitely made me more productive.

Now that PowerShell covers so many areas, we need more cheat sheets. Thankfully the PowerShell community is very obliging, so there are now a bunch of them covering different products. I'll update this post as I find more - if you find any I've missed, please let me know in the comments.

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: Lync Mobile client for Windows Phone 7

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:42:25 +0000

Today Microsoft has released the Lync client for Windows Phone 7, generating a load of buzz from excitied Lync users. The client doesn't "just work" however, there are some pre-requisites that need to be in place on your organisation's Lync infrastructure first.

Fortunately my friend Ben Lee has all of this covered in great detail, so if you want to enable Lync Mobility, check out his posts:

Configuring Lync Mobility

And for his overview of the WP7 app, including some tips and gotchas:

Overview of Lync Mobile for Windows Phone 7

Ethicalhack3r: WordPress Plugin Disqus Comment System XSS

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:15:17 +0000

# Exploit Title: WordPress Plugin Disqus Comment System = 2.68 Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) # Google Dork: inurl:/wp-content/plugins/disqus-comment-system/ # Date: 11.12.11 # Author: Ryan Dewhurst (@ethicalhack3r) # Software Link: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/disqus-comment-system.2.68.zip # Version: 2.68 # Tested on: Cross-Platform ** Vulnerability Description ** The WordPress Disqus Commment System version 2.68 was found to be effected by [...]

SharePoint and other Microsoft technologies: PayPal example project C# ASP.Net

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:31:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I spent some time integrating PayPal Express Checkout into http://bookhashtags.com so that I could take payments for the featured book spot.

Whilst PayPal produces a lot of documentation and provides some tools to help generate code these were not always that helpful. For example the code wizard produces code that doesn't build and uses a very old version of the API which means that a lot of the things you can now do according to the documentation just didn't work and it wasn't immediately obvious why.

I have put together a bare bones Visual Studio 2010 project that will give you a quick understanding of the basics of the three Express Checkout calls (SetExpressCheckout, GetExpressCheckoutDetails and DoExpressCheckout) you need to make to get things working.

To get the project to run you will need to set up a PayPal sandbox account here - https://developer.paypal.com

You will need to add your sandbox account username, password and signature in the NVPAPICaller class.

Once that is done just press play, change the default values on the default.aspx page and hit the Pay button.

The example only adds one item and doesn't handle shipping costs. For more information on parameter names etc. see the PayPal Express Checkout Integration pdf

Download the project

SharePoint and other Microsoft technologies: Simple Linq to XML example

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:26:00 +0000

string xml = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?><people>"
                + "<person><id>1</id><name>Aidan Garnish</name><company>65hours</company><email>aidan@65hours.com</email></person>"
                + "<person><id>2</id><name>Joe Bloggs</name><company>65hours</company><email>Fred@65hours.com</email></person>"
                + "<person><id>3</id><name>Fred Smith</name><company>Microsoft</company><email>Joe@Microsoft.com</email></person></people>";

XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(xml);

            //filter by company and return a collection of names as strings
            var query = from person in doc.Descendants("person")
              where (string)person.Element("company") == "65hours"
              select (string)person.Element("name");

            foreach (string name in query)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(name);
            }

            //return a collection of objects
            var query2 = from person in doc.Descendants("person")
                    where (string)person.Element("company") == "65hours"
                    select new
                         {
                             id = person.Element("id").Value,
                             name = person.Element("name").Value,
                             email =person.Element("email").Value,
                             company = person.Element("name").Value
                         };

            foreach (var obj in query2)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(obj.id + " - " + obj.name);
            }

Console.ReadLine();

SharePoint and other Microsoft technologies: Some simple Linq to Objects examples

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:57:00 +0000

Linq to Objects is a really handy way to filter and order lists of objects. The following code is a simple example that shows how to filter and how to order a list by an object property.

//a little bit of object and list set up
            ContractPerson person1 = new ContractPerson()
            {   Name = "Aidan Garnish",
                AccountID = "1",
                Company = "65hours",
                Email = "aidan@65hours.com",
                Role = "SharePoint Consultant" };

            ContractPerson person2 = new ContractPerson()
            {
                Name = "Fred Smith",
                AccountID = "2",
                Company = "65hours",
                Email = "fred@65hours.com",
                Role = "Dynamics Consultant"
            };

            ContractPerson person3 = new ContractPerson()
            {
                Name = "Joe Blogs",
                AccountID = "3",
                Company = "Microsoft",
                Email = "joe@ms.com",
                Role = "Microsoft Consultant"
            };

            List<ContractPerson> people = new List<ContractPerson>();
            people.Add(person1);
            people.Add(person2);
            people.Add(person3);

            //filter list by ContractPerson.Company
            var filteredPeople = from person in people
                        where person.Company == "65hours"
                        select person;

            foreach (ContractPerson filterPerson in filteredPeople)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(filterPerson.Name);
            }

            //filter list by people who have a name beginning with A
            var peopleWithNameStartingA = from person in people
                                 where person.Name.StartsWith("A")
                                 select person;

            foreach (ContractPerson filterPerson in peopleWithNameStartingA)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(filterPerson.Name);
            }

            //order the list
            var orderedList = from person in people
                              orderby person.Name ascending
                              select person;

            foreach (ContractPerson filterPerson in orderedList)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(filterPerson.Name);
            }

            Console.ReadLine();

Ethicalhack3r: EC-Council – CEH – Unethical Behavior

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:42:58 +0000

The EC-Council or ‘The International Council of E-Commerce Consultants’ as they like to call themselves offer a range of different services, mostly in the field of Information Security training and certifications. One of their certifications, the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) claims to aspire to training ‘ethical’ hackers. “CEHv7 provides a comprehensive ethical hacking and network [...]

Ethicalhack3r: WPScan 1.1 released

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:32:09 +0000

I am pleased to announce, after 5 months of work, that WPScan version 1.1 has been released! With 780 more lines of code the most notable changes are: Detection for 750 more plugins. Detection for 107 new plugin vulnerabilities. Detection for 447 possible timthumb file locations. Advanced version fingerprinting implemented. Full Path Disclosure (FPD) checks. [...]

1DayLater: Designers, now you can create customized 1DayLater invoices

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:03:00 +0000

Regular 1DayLater users will have noticed several improvements to 1DayLater’s PDF invoicing tool over the last few weeks; but what news for our designer community?

Well, we listened to popular demand and made it easy for designers to create their own invoice templates. We even wrote a short user guide to help. Non-designers should be seeing more customization options next year.

A case study: Digitalized Web Design

Web design company ‘Digitalized’ wanted to create an invoice which their clients would recognise immediately. They amended the standard 1DayLater template to include their own colour scheme and business logo.

The result is a sleek and professional looking template which can be populated straight from the PDF invoice tool in the ‘business tools’ section of 1DayLater.

Needing some inspiration for your design?

If you need some ideas to help you get started, we recommend you check out 1DayLater’s Flickr page. Here you can find all of the current non-customized templates for 1DayLater, including some from our friend Balazs Ertl Bakos.

Have you designed an invoice template which others would use?

Get in touch and send us your design. If we think other 1DayLater users would use it, then we will give you a free premium licence to thank you for your hard work - Send this to designs@1daylater.com

Ethicalhack3r: WordPress ‘In the Wild’ and WPScan Update

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:36:47 +0000

As part of my on-going interest in WordPress security I wanted to find out for myself what the state of security was like on installations in the wild. A list of servers running WordPress was acquired from Shodan by searching for a particular HTTP response header and its value. The list contained 10,000 entries, I [...]

Infosanity: kingpinCover

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 14:10:52 +0000

Written by journalist Kevin Poulsen (of wired.coms Threat Level blog), KingPin spans the hacking, cracking and carding underworld spread over several decades. The narrative covers the life and activities of Max Vision, a computer consultant, key member of the carding underworld and ultimately convicted criminal.

From the timescales involved, kingpin covers many years and several of Max’s ‘projects’ made national headlines at the time. Some, like the Pentagon being hacked via a weakness in BIND were folklore by the time I personally entered the infosec profession. While others, like the ongoing wars and takedowns between various carder forums were more recent and featured heavily in the press at the time.

The part of the book that I found fascinating throughout was that I was unaware that many of these, on the surface, unconnected stories were linked to the same individual; plus several more on the legal/whitehat side of the community, some of which I have used and experimented with prior to reading Kingpin, it’s usually interesting to get some of the backstory behind tools in this industry, but it’s especially the case with this backstory.

Equally, I found the portrayal of Max’ early years to be intriguing, reading Kingpin I had the feeling (rightly or wrongly), that the outcome of the story could have been different had a couple of actions and/decisions gone the other way, leaving Max as an asset to the infosec community rather than running one of the largest criminal forums on the net. Can’t help wondering if Max could have ended up being a positive force in the infosec community, or if those that are could have ended up going the same route had circumstances been slightly different.

From the right side of the law, I was fascinated with the details of Special Agent Mularski’s undercover work as Master Splyntr. Like a lot of the content of the book I was familiar with the impact Splyntr had had within carding community from several press articles at the time, but hadn’t dug in too much depth. Knowing more about the time and dedication required by one man that ultimately lead to many arrests I’d like to make an offer to Agent Mularski: if we’re ever in the same place, introduce yourself and the drinks are on me (and hopefully the war-stories are on you).

If you’ve got any interest in information security or crime in general, I’d strongly recommend that you put a few hours aside read Kingpin. If you’re disappointed after you finish I’ll be surprised.

–Andrew Waite

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: We've all been there

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:49:35 +0000

If you've never come across XKCD before then I'm going to suggest you head over there now and come back to my blog later. It's ok, I'll wait for you.

Their post today really resonated with me, and if you work in IT I'm sure you've had this experience too...

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: Finding duplicate keys in a data file with PowerShell

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:29:45 +0000

In my day job I've sometimes found myself looking for anomalies in data exported from our Siemens HiPath PBX. Siemens produce a tool that we run on a schedule to export some of the configuration settings for telephone extensions so that we can use it in various other systems. The file is called port.txt and it occasionally contains duplicate values in its unique_key field. (Don't you just love irony?!)

The HiPath doesn't care (apparently) but when we import the data into SQL Server it goes into a table where unique_key is the primary key, so the DTS package doing the import fails. We can find the duplicate unique_key very quickly with PowerShell and report back to the telecoms people to fix their config.

The data arrives in a CSV file, which are easy to work with in PowerShell. (I don't know about anyone else, but I work with CSV files a lot.) Finding our duplicate is about as simple as:

Import-CSV port.txt | Group-Object unique_key | `
Where-Object {$_.count -gt 1} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Group

Sadly this file is not immediately usable. The header row is a,b,c,d,
i.e. The last item doesn't have a name. Shame on you Siemens!

So we have to cope with that. There are a number of ways we could do this but we're using one of the CSV data handling cmdlets that came along in PowerShell 2, ConvertFrom-CSV, which basically takes some comma-separated values and converts them into objects in the same way as Import-CSV does, but without the file.

Obviously we need to get it into a proper CSV format with no empty headers first. In fact, in this particular example there's a comma on the end of every row with nothing after it, so we'll simply replace those trailing commas with a comma followed by something using a regular expression match:

Get-Content port.txt | ForEach-Object {$_ -replace ",$", ",foo"}

That gives us something like a,b,c,d,foo which we can convert to objects and deal with as before, so the whole job can be achieved with:

GC port.txt | Foreach {$_ -replace ",$", ",foo"} | `
ConvertFrom-CSV | Group unique_key | `
Where {$_.count -gt 1} | Select -ExpandProperty Group

That should be clear, perhaps with the exception of the last cmdlet. When you group objects by some value, you get a GroupInfo object. That contains the value that you grouped on, the count of objects in the group, and a collection of the objects in the grouping called "group". I'm using the ExpandProperty parameter on the Select-Object cmdlet to expand those objects back out so I can see the data that's causing the problem. In this case it looks something like this:

unique_key : 87734
switch_name : KN0A
pen : 1-14-25-25
extension : 496625
tcos : 6
least_cost_rout1 : 32
foo : foo

unique_key : 87734
switch_name : KN0A
pen : 1-15-49-73
extension : 497573
tcos : 6
least_cost_rout1 : 32
foo : foo

Infosanity: ZeroDayCover

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:55:41 +0000

Written by Microsoft’s Mark Russinovich, Zero Day focuses on the actions of a security consultant who starts a job for a client who’s systems have been infected with unknown malware and taking out of action. With the business losing money and circling the drain whilst it’s systems are out of action the characters rapidly find themselves caught up in a plot far large than they originally signed up for.

The scope of the plot starts out slow, and rapidly expands to cover a full gamut of topics, from skiddies in IRC channels and Russian hackers for hire, to corrupt government officials and Al Qaeda terrorist plots (even Bin Laden turns up in person). Dispite the Hollywood style plot elements, Russinovich keeps the technical aspects of the plot grounded in reality, even to the level that the odd code segment included can be reviewed by a (semi)proficient reader can determine the next plot arc before the characters reach the same conclusions.

The overall story, and the culture the characters operate in clearly show the difference between an author with a technical background and plenty of real world experience with the subject matter, over a proficient author who has had expert assistance to get the technical aspects of a story to a plausible level, and makes a very welcome change in this growing area of fiction. Russinovichs experience working with government and industry parties as part of the recent clampdown on botnets, the work in this area is a clear influence for the Zero Day story arc. Thankfully, Despite this being Russinovichs first novel I found it surprisingly well written, with believable characters and a plot that I became emotionally invested in (and without spoilers, cheered inside when a certain character got what I’d felt from first introduction that they deserved).

If you’ve got any interest in information security, computer/network administration to just good sci-fi I’d strongly recommend picking up a copy of Zero Day, it may be shorter that I would have liked (only because I want MORE) but I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent in its created scenario. Hopefully it will serve as a warning of what could happen, rather than a premonition of an actual occurrence; unfortunately it’s likely that those with the true power to stop events similar to the books plot won’t be interested in the story summary and will miss the warning.

– Andrew Waite

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: NEBytes November 16th: Virtualising SharePoint and Mobile BI

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:54:05 +0000

Due to an abundance of quality speakers, we are running two NEBytes events in Newcastle this month. The first features a pair of UK MVPs: John Timney, talking about Virtualising SharePoint, and Jen Stirrup, with a session on Mobile Business Intelligence Using Microsoft and Tableau.

The details in their own words are as follows...

John:

Sharepoint 2010 Virtualisation remains a hot topic and for many firms it is still as yet unexplored territory and the concepts surrounding virtualisation are pushing the knowledge boundaries for Sharepoint Infrastructure Architects, Administrators and Solution Architects into areas they thought they wouldn’t need to understand, away from the physical and into the conceptual. This presentation offers an introductory view of some of the important aspects to consider when thinking about utilizing virtualization in the Sharepoint 2010 world and considers reasons for virtualizing Sharepoint 2010, supported physical and virtual platform architectures, guidelines for choosing which aspects of farm to virtualize, support and the issues it brings, considers layered designs as an easy means of visualising virtual architecture and introduces conceptual Geo-DR.

Jen:

Mobile Business Intelligence allows end users to access data to support their decisions, irrespective of time and place. The Apple iPad is the definitive tablet of the decade, and is game-changer as a credible business tool. PowerPivot is a game-changer because it places data, and data structures, back in the hands of business users. Apple’s cutting edge usability, along with PowerPivot’s accessibility, can be combined to enhance productivity for mobile business users. Together, these technologies can support Mobile Business Intelligence as an essential tool for end users who need data 'on the go'.

What you will learn from this session:

Capabilities of Microsoft PowerPivot in terms of scalability and empowering access to data

Using PowerPivot as source for data, viewing the visualisation via an Apple iPad

Specific considerations for visualising data to serve Mobile Business Intelligence, supported by Tableau

Come and see Mobile Business Intelligence in action using the Apple iPad, with Microsoft PowerPivot as a data source.

Two excellent topics for IT Pros, I'm sure you'd agree!

The event is free (as usual) and you can register at Eventbrite.

Tmacuk.co.uk: OWASP Birmingham

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:36:02 +0000

Hi all.

I, along with Jason Alexander, Mike Kemp, Majid Ali and Ian Williams, have decided to take the plunge and begin a new UK Owasp chapter in the heart of England.

I am writing this post to give you guys a heads up of our first metting and how you can be involved and help, what we hope, will be the biggest chapter in the UK (if not europe (think big people))!

Our first event will be held on the 15th December – which I will not be able to attend as I am speaking at Blackhat in Abu Dhabi! We already have secured David Rook aka SecurityNinja as our first speaker. We are looking for more though. Contact me if you are interested in speaking, a bio and brief outline of what you want to speak about would be great. I have personally spoken at a number of OWASP chapter events and it is great exposure in the Application Security sector.

We are also on the look out for sponsors, venues and of course attendees. If you are, or know anyone who would be willing to be one of these then either let us know or sign up on the eventbrite page – when it gets erected!

I will be updating you all soon, please keep an eye on the OWASP Birmingham Wiki.

Richard Lane: Shouting about (& understanding) Customer Feedback

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:00:34 +0000

In this day and age it is all too easy to forget, or not mention, the great and the good experiences we go through, for the ultimate customer experience. Some might say it is over rated, others will argue it is part of our human nature and fabric to want to receive valued customer excellence. Surely it’s the very least we deserve. Whether it’s a genuine good morning or somebody opening the door for you – so few really do go that extra mile – I believe in giving praise, where praise is due.

Savvy businesses now have customer experience at the top of their agendas, but few really know to manage it, so when you do sample it, why not shout about it. Share the experience and let others follow. Help them to share it again with others.

Here is a recent example of awesome customer service I received:

We had a new Baxi boiler installed in our old but new house nearly two years ago and since having it turned off most of the summer, it began making peculiar noises when it was re-incarnated last week. We contacted Baxi before finding out that their service people heateam, have won numerous accolades for customer service. And boy they weren’t wrong. We were told it was still under warranty, ‘close call’, and that an engineer would be with us within a matter of days, which was confirmed in the same conversation. That was supported by a text the night before, stating (i) the job number, (ii) an option to cancel the appointment and (iii) an ETA stating that I would receive another text in the morning. I did and as punctuality is a hot topic for me, they didn’t disappoint. The engineer arrived on time, looking professional from the branded van to the corporate wear. This was followed with a quick diagnosis, service and wrapped up in knowledgeable advice for on-going maintenance for the heart of the house. The icing on the cake for me was what they did next. The same day I received simple text, which read:

‘heateam would love to hear about your experience of the service we have provided to you, please reply back with your rating 1 to 5 (1 = poor, 5 = excellent)’.

SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE and EFFICIENT customer excellence, it’s simple when you know how.

There are numerous ways to capture customer satisfaction. It is so valuable to the way you build and shape your business. We use a simple yet brilliant product from CustomerSure to measure what our clients think of our service. As a professional services business, our reputation is everything and we can only manage what we can measure. No doubt your business is the same so don’t bury you head in the sand and hide behind what you think people think about you – make it your job to find out. Expose yourself to the elements of human nature and ask for feedback.

Remember, even negative feedback can be converted into something positive.

Jonoble.com, powershell, tech, stuff: First taste of FIM

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:24:58 +0000

I've spent two days this week at Microsoft's UK HQ at Thames Valley Park at an Identity Management event run by Oxford Computer Group - basically learning about Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 (and 2010 R2). It also gave me the opportunity to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones, which is always good.

My knowledge of FIM prior to this was based almost entirely on a collection of FIM Ramp Up videos on the TechNet site, although I have a reasonable about of experience of the challenges around Identity Management, having helped develop the in-house solution we use at Newcastle University today. Actually, it was nice to discover that the way FIM does a lot of things is very similar to the way that we designed our system all those years ago.

During the two days there were several instances where people would ask how something could be achieved with FIM. If the solution wasn't built-in, the answer was typically "buy 3rd party companion product x, or use PowerShell". That didn't come as a surprise to me, but it underlined once again that if you have a bit of PowerShell knowledge, it can really save you some money.

Yes, there are some costs involved with learning PowerShell, but it's mainly time (especially if you take advantage of all the free resources that the community has produced), and the skills that you learn will be transferable to a long and growing list of other technologies. You're going to get the time you spend learning PowerShell back many times over (and frankly, if you don't have those skills you're going to be increasingly replacable in the future).

It's not yet certain that we're going to be implementing FIM (we'll certainly be waiting until FIM 2010 R2 next year if we do), but the ability to extend its functionality with PowerShell, reducing the need for hardcore development or consultancy, definitely goes in its favour.

If you're also new to FIM, the Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager 2010 Technical Overview is a really good place to start (thanks to Mark Parris for his blog post pointing me to that), as well as those TechNet Ramp Up videos.

Tmacuk.co.uk: Gunnar Glasses

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:22:01 +0000

At work we recently had the whole EMEA team in the office for the first time since I joined. It was a great week to catch up with people you had only ever chatted with via email or Skype. A colleague of mine, was wearing some funny glasses when I first shook his hand. Funny because they were yellow!

I didn’t want to come out straight away with it, so I waiting until Day 2 and asked him what the glasses were about. He pointed me towards http://www.gunnars.com/. The glasses are made for avid gamers who have what can only be known as RSI for the eyes. He bought them when out in Vegas a few years ago and said that he has never looked back, he said that it has helped his eyes to no end. The same week my eyes were deteriorating so I decided after my next pay check I would buy some.

Myself and two others grouped ordered, and waiting for them to arrive (which was too long since customs charged us tax etc). I finally got them yesterday. I have used them all day today so far, and I used them at the tail end of work and whilst playing Modern Warefare 3 last night and I must say that they are defiantly doing the job.

The fact I am wearing glasses is difficult to get my head around (excuse the pun). They are the most comfortable things in the world, I mean glasses in general not these. So far my eyes are actually tingling back to normal. They are getting lazy because they are not being strained at all which is amazing. I take them off every now and again and type without them so that I can get used to seeing colours properly, but after 2 / 3 minutes I pop them straight back on.

The only down point I have so far is refraction, something that @dookie2000ca on Twitter said also. Sometimes you can see some pretty colours! All in all though – this definitely adds 10 points on to my hacking.

Alistair's Blog: Port Designs Berlin Sleeve Review

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 22:58:13 +0000

It has been a while since I have been asked to review a product on my blog but if someone wants to send me something shiny then I am more than happy to do so. In this case I have been asked to review any laptop case from GearZap.

As someone who attends a lot of tech events I needed something that was going to protect the laptop form the usual knocks and bumps on the train, have handles to carry it with other bags in the same hand, and not look overly shabby.

I could chose any of these 15″ laptop cases but with some advice I selected the Port Designs Berlin Laptop Bag 15/16″ Sleeve. It met the requirements and looked smart enough to for most occasions without feeling odd at social occasions.

When unwrapping the bag I was quite pleased with with the look and feel as it came across as not overly cheap, but on overly posh. A middle ground I am most comfortable in. The case is designed to so you can open it up and the computer and function without it being removed. Annoyingly it appears that unless your laptop is the exact size required it will just pop out of the holders. Initially this was disappointing but I find myself slipping the laptop in and out with ease so much it is a feature I am probably best without.

My first outing with the bag was to a hack day where I already had another bag with the usual hack day bits and bobs in (mouse, power strip, external HDD, sleeping bag, etc) so the bag was just being used for the laptop and the power supply. The bag has a large zip pocket that holds my small power supply and UK power lead without loosing it’s shape, but squeeze in any more and it looks like it has been eating pies and not exercising. If you carry lots of junk with your laptop then this bag is probably not for you, but if you just need a small PSU like me then it is ideal.

There are also two open-topped pockets with Velcro under the handles. The handles fold neatly in to these pockets but I have not yet had cause to do this. They are convenient for pens, business cards, flash drives and other small items. The handles are also well padded so are not constantly digging in to your fingers like many bags I have had in the past. There is no shoulder strap as it is just not that kind of bag.

So in summery it is a good smart looking bag if you travel light and well worth the £30. If you need to carry more or need both hands then you are probably better of looking for something bigger. For me it is spot on and I will definitely continue to use it.

Richard Powell - UX and Web Design in Newcastle: Cennydd: Designing for the Wider Web

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:05:00 +0000

Designing for the Wider web, by CennyDD at UX Brighton was one of those awesome presentations which leaves you feeling a little bit scared. It started with the statement: “so.. we sort of realised that we’ve been doing it all wrong in this industry”. And he’s sort of right

What I love about the web is the pace at which it moves. The approach I used 6 months ago is probably not valid today, and thats fantastic; Imagine being in an industry that never changed! “Designing for the wider web” outlined the changes we are going to have to make to our workflow and why

Notes: Designing for the Wider Web

Theres very few editorial decisions gone into these notes, but hopefully theres some useful tidbits here.

Cennydd stated: Mobile vs desktop is just plain wrong. There is no mobile web, or desktop web… there is only the wider web
Developers already make important design decisions that designers aren’t even aware of
Be future friendly, don’t design for iPad, or Android, or iPhone. Deign for the devices of 3 years away
The static context: A comfy user, in a familiar environment who is still. Think longer tasks
The mobile context: handheld (usually), unfamiliar environment, more distraction, shorter tasks
Context affect testing. The user test in a testing room is now outdated
Physical size difference across devices are huge: 250px to 3000px. 20% of TV’s last year had internet
Pixel density can vary hugely, but will peak as around 300DPI
You are part of the problem if you create 1000px wide static wireframes
More input devices now as well: mouse, gesture, pyhsical gesture (think kinnect), voice (think SIRI), accelerometers, compasses.
Cennydd asserted that our previous safe assumptions are no longer safe
Conserve bandwidth, it will become more precious. Cennydd cited Headset hotties as an example of a useless waste of bandwidth
We should be aiming for coherence across channels and devices, whilst allowing device specific strengths to come to for
Expand our personas to give the multiple context
Consider content shifting. Content is no longer confined to its original context
There is a resurgence of long form content. Oh look! People read online!
Design deliverables must change, its expensive to create 30 different mockups for 30 different devices
Deliver design blocks that work cross channel and device, and a rough framework for positioning
Document how people interact with different channels over time
Stop mockup and and start prototyping
UX Designers need to learn to code, Designers need to UX. Only teams with cross diversification of skills will flourish
Cennydd finished by stating (paraphrased) “We could get depressed, or we could say this is exciting. The wider web is entering its difficult teenage years”

More Notes from UX Brighton

This post is one of 4 posts on the presentations I enjoyed the most at UX Brighton. You might want to check out the other UX Brighton Posts

Richard Powell - UX and Web Design in Newcastle: Giles Colborne: How does distraction affect design

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:03:00 +0000

Giles Colbrone’s presentation “How does distraction affect design” at UX Brighton was great. One of the trending terms in design at the moment seems to be “Persuasive design”, which is good thing; What purpose does design have if not to persuade. But Giles had concerns about this approach.

The great thing about this presentation was that i could relate to both sides of the argument. As a user I find myself constantly distracted by incredibly persuasive design, which I hate. But as a UX Designer I find it difficult not to rely on at least some of those same mechanisms.

Notes: How does distraction affect design

Theres very few editorial decisions gone into these notes, but hopefully theres some useful tidbits here.

Users, with smart phones, are bringing the internet into distracting environments.
Giles cited research that found the average person checks their email 30-40 time per hour
There is some evidence that the brains of internet users are attuned to multi tasking, but we shouldn’t design for that
People who multitask often are worse at multi tasking than those who don’t
But, we don’t multitask, we switch attention. The thinking part of our brain can only process 1 item at a time
There is a huge cognitive cost to multitasking. You have to store and retrieve where you were in your previous task before you switched
High multitaskers are worse at learning & worse at concentrating
We are actually addicted to twitter. Giles stated that psychologists know that small, frequent, random rewards are the most motivating
We get a dopamine hit every time we check twitter
It is useful to look at the treatment of ADHD sufferers
Consider alerts more carefully; Which alerts are actually important
Don’t steal focus
Encourage people to concentrate and focus on specific tasks. ADHD suffers are encouraged to use egg timers “Im doing X for 15 minutes”
The process of switching apps leaves us vulnerable to distraction
Make the task in hand more rewarding & engaging than the dopamine hit of multitasking
Think beyond gamification. Giles stated this might be a cheap trick?
We are more susceptible to distractions hen under pressure, so remove pressure
Games designers spend ages adjusting the learning curve, why don’t we do this with apps?
Giles finished by saying that distraction is a hidden problem, a time bomb?

More Notes from UX Brighton

This post is one of 4 posts on the presentations I enjoyed the most at UX Brighton. You might want to check out the other UX Brighton Posts

Richard Powell - UX and Web Design in Newcastle: Mike Atherton: Beyond The Polar Bear

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Mike Atherton’s presentation Beyond The Polar Bear at UX Brighton outlined the next steps for information architecture. He argued that traditionally IA has followed the principles of a library; Organise the content based on the principle that some content is less useful than others. But whats next?

I enjoyed Mikes presentation because it was so practical, but also because he argued for the need to prototype in the browser; something which I am a big believer in.

Slides: Beyond The Polarbear

Here’s the slides Mike Atherton uploaded to slideshare for Beyond the Polar Bear:

View more presentations from Mike Atherton

Notes: Beyond the Polar Bear

Theres very few editorial decisions gone into these notes, but hopefully I’ve done the core message of Mike Atherton’s presentation justics

“Beyond the Polar Bear” refers to the traditional bible on IA, published by O’Reily Media.
How many people have gone through an extensive IA process only to find that users don’t start their journeys where we want them to
Traditionally UX has sat on top of the presentation layer. Mike argued that its should permeate all layers
Domain modelling is a technique ever-one involved in IA should understand.
In IA we are trying to understand users mental models: “How do you think about X”
Domain experts understand that model, because they understand the subject. They don’t need to be technically minded
There is always a difficulty in talking to users about IA. They can articulate “heres a difference”, but not “heres what the difference is”
Cool URI’s should be persistent, human readable, hackable (I can guess it)
Mike stated that SEO is massively important as “Google is the homepage for your site”
The BBC believe in “The Web is your CMS”. Need content, grab it from wikipedia. Need better content? Improve the wikipedia entry
The web is a single shared space, your content is not a silo
Think bottom up: CSubject, then content, then peronas & wireframes
Team with a developer & design in the browser, don’t produce 1000px wide wireframe documents
Mike stated (& I agree) that with a good designer/developer its easier to prototype in code and less wasteful as prototype can become production

More Notes from UX Brighton

This post is one of 4 posts on the presentations I enjoyed the most at UX Brighton. You might want to check out the other UX Brighton Posts