Diary of a Network Geek

No, not some new chick I'm dating.

Sadly, it's Linux software.   Okay, well, not so sad, because it's Linux-based software to help you track your personal library.
Yeah, yeah, I know, what kind of geek has a personal library that's worth cataloging, right?  Yeah, well, as it turns out, me.  I probably have a couple thousand books of one kind or another spread all over my house.  I'm pretty sure virtually every room in my house has a stack of books in it, if not a full bookshelf.  And, yes, I do lend quite a few books and they sometimes go missing.  And, yes, I have so many books, I have, on very rare occasions, bought the same book twice.  And, finally, yes, I've been talking about doing this for years, but this software actually looks like something I might use.  Besides, it's free.

Among the features are the ability to search by ISBN, author, title or keyword so you can find just the book you're thinking of in your collection; the ability to retrieve information from on-line bookstores and other sources; and the ability to use several different scanners, including the CueCat, for data input.  (You can read more about the features here at the Alexandria FAQ.)  There is more information, including a manual and screen shots at the Alexandria homepage.

So, yeah, a little geekier than my usual Friday Fun post, but it'll probably excite the librarians among my readers.
(And, I really hope there are some sexy librarians who still read this blog!)
Enjoy your weekend!

But, sadly, not for the software Kindle apps.

Okay so these two tools I'm going to share only work for the Kindle, and mostly rely on the ability to e-mail documents to your Kindle, but SendtoReader works with a Manual Delivery option, too.  SendtoReader is a web app that lets you send any webpage to your Kindle for later perusal.  Though, as I mentioned, you need to have an actual Kindle if you want to update it without synching via a PC first.
I have to admit, I was all excited about this web app, until I went to sign up for it and discovered that the Android app on my ColorNook wasn't able to get e-mail directly from Amazon's on-line document delivery service.  Still, if you're using an actual Kindle, this would be a killer app.

And, ToDo list for Kindle is, well, a to do list that you can send to, and update, on your Kindle.  So, you know, pretty much what it seems like it would be from the title.

So, there you go.  Two free web apps to get more out of your Kindle, just in time for the weekend!
Enjoy!

Really?  Are they bringing this one out again?

I've heard about the dangers of "cyber war" almost since I got started in this business twenty years ago.  Essentially, since the internet existed, people have been claiming that dangerous hackers are going to take over our infrastructure from within.  Sound familiar?  Like, oh, say, the Red Threat of the Cold War?
It's pretty easy to get IT guys like me whipped into a frenzy about this.  Back in the day, Winn Schwartau wrote THE go-to book on the subject, [amazon_link id="B00127UJMO" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]Information Warfare[/amazon_link], and in that book he talked about a so-called "Cyber Pearl Harbor" that ushered in a new era of digital warfare.  Well, now, it seems, ZDNet is reporting that we may have already had our so-called Cyber Pearl Harbor.  According to security researchers at McAfee, and elsewhere, several targets, including the United States, have been under a five year sustained cyber attack and they went on to speculate that a "state actor" was likely behind the attacks.  A security consultant at Sophos pointed out that fingers are usually pointed in China's direction when government-funded and supported cyber attacks are discussed.  And, I have to admit, based on the other forms of espionage, especially industrial espionage, that we've seen from them over the years, it wouldn't surprise me if they were using the Internet to attack various sites remotely in an attempt to get restricted information of various kinds.

But, is this a "Pearl Harbor"-like event?  I mean, really?
Do you see people rallying around this issue?  Are hackers joining the U.S. Military to defend our cyber borders?  If they are, it's one of the best kept secrets in the world right now.  Seriously.
Pearl Harbor was a galvanizing event in our history.  That one event is what got us off the fence and into World War II, as a nation.  Honestly, I don't see that happening here, or anywhere that high-level computer tech is the focal point of the debate.  We may rely on that tech to get our jobs done or to entertain us, but, really, most people don't have any idea of the security work that goes on behind the scenes.  This is an invisible war, if it even can be called that.
Again, I think it's a new form of Cold War.  It's a battle waged in the shadows against an all but invisible enemy.  It won't be fought like a conventional war of any kind, much less like World War II.  And, if the cyber war is an apt metaphor at all, then it's a war we're already fighting.

Oh, and as for the Chinese, well, they've already used their influence as a global market to get a partial retraction from those fine folks at McAfee, who are now claiming that there is no definitive link to any "state actor" of any kind, much less China.  Of course, I've only seen the back-peddling on a single, English-language, but Chinese supported, news site.  Still, that, my friends, is the view of the new global economy and the real war.  Big governments will start to throw their weight around and corporations will "adjust" their position on the truth to tap the market and access their bottom line.  Of course, that's nothing new, either.  China's been doing that for years.  Only now, they may be the biggest market still available in the entire world.
Looks like we all better start learning Mandarin!

Another one for the photography geeks.

Some of you may have guessed that I enjoy photography just a little bit.  You may have deduced that from all the photography related links I share on Fridays.  Or possibly because I tell you am obsessed by it virtually every chance I get.  Either way, it's true.  I find myself staring into portraits of people in magazines trying to figure out the lighting setup based on the reflections in their eyes.  When I see a photo I like on Flickr, I usually check the EXIF data, if it's available, to get some idea about how the photographer made it.  The EXIF data is far from the whole story, but, at least, it gives me some idea how the photographer was setting the camera to get the light and depth-of-field that they did.

Well, recently, I was reading an entry on Chase Jarvis' blog challenging his readers to reverse engineer one of his photos.
I kind of love those sorts of things, to be honest.  But, what was cool about this one was that someone in the comments pointed to a website that automagically pulled the EXIF information from the photo!  How cool is that!?
The site is called Jeffrey's EXIF Viewer.  And you can use it to pull EXIF information from either a photo on your hard drive or that you find on-line somewhere.  I haven't actually tried it on Flickr for people who don't upload the EXIF data, but I'm sure I will be in the near future.  In any case, it's free, outside of some advertising, and it's pretty cool.  (Also, for the hard-core tech geeks like me, I'll note that it looks like it was programmed in Perl, which is my favorite programming language.)

So, go forth, find photos and check them against the EXIF data to see if you can guess the photographer's settings!
And, enjoy your Friday!

No, not a flu that your synthetic humanoid might catch.

Virus writers target operating systems with a large installed user base.  There's nothing controversial or even particularly interesting about that statement.  It's a generally accepted concept based on observation, if not actual hard facts.  For a long time, that's why there were so many viral attacks on Windows.  Windows enjoyed the greatest market penetration, so Windows users had to put up with the most frequent attempts to penetrate their machines.
But, that's changing as the distribution of operating systems changes.  Android, in various forms and flavors, is now the most installed operating system.  Yeah, that's right, someone has been writing viruses (virii ?) that attack your Android phone.

I've seen two new stories about this today.  One from a Houston local tech celebrity, Dwight Silverman over at the Houston Chronicle, and elsewhere, both talking about a new Android Trojan that can actually record your voice conversations.
One of the things that people like about Android is that it can load software from places other than a restricted, safe, controlled marketplace, but, that's also one of the liabilities.  Apparently, the malware takes advantage of that ability to load itself onto your phone's SIM chip and force the phone to record conversations to the chip then, optionally, upload those recordings to a server, presumably controlled by an attacker.  It's somewhat unclear how that process would be initiated, but the simple fact that it can do it at all is chilling to me.  Also unclear from the articles was whether or not this has been spotted in the wild.
Hopefully, not yet.

So, here's another warning for you.  Your devices, of any kind, are not safe.  Not ever.  If you have them powered on and they can connect to a network, even if you think they aren't, you may still be vulnerable.  The Internet, in all its forms, is a wild and wooly and dangerous place.
Be careful out there, people.

I hope so!

And, by that I mean, I hope all that Mac Malware we heard about a couple weeks ago is gone.
Now, I know several Mac fanboy blogs linked to the note I put up about the Mac malware some time back thought I was going out of my way to bash Apple, but, honestly, nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, I hadn't given it another thought until Ed Bott wrote "Where did all the Mac malware go?"  I threw the original story out there as a warning to all the Apple users who think the Mac and OS X is entirely free from any malware and utterly safe.  That's just not true.  It is, I have to admit, much safer, in general, than Windows.  There are a couple reasons for that, but, mostly, it's because of market share and how Apple does, well, everything.

So, that last explosion of malware may be the only shot you hear fired.  At least, for a while.
Frankly, I hope so.  And, I hope that it put enough scare into people that they take security seriously anyway.  As Apple's market share grows, their products will all become a more appealing target for hackers and crackers.  Though I hope to be proven wrong, I suspect that there is malware being written to attack Macs and, possibly, iPhones and iPads.   In fact, that malware may be already written and just waiting for the right infection vector.  Maybe.

Maybe I'm just a bit cynical and I'm waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop.
For years, Apple fanboys have told people that Macs were completely virus free and were more secure by their very nature.  Sadly, that's not true.  We've heard the first shots fired in a new skirmish in the secret war for desktops of all kinds.  It's big business.  I don' t think this is the last we've heard about Mac malware.
But, maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe Apple has closed that hole and all the other holes, too.  Maybe the Macs are all safe and that's why we haven't heard about that malware recently.
Maybe.

But, can you afford to take the chance?

Personally, I find both to be delicious!

But, that has nothing at all to do with this post.
I've been thinking about a lot of stuff this week.  Mostly, though, I've been thinking about creativity and photography.  So, instead of just bringing you one link today, I'm bringing you two.
First, a little about creativity.  Some time ago now, Paul Zii wrote 29 Ways to Stay Creative on his Tumblr.  It's worth reading.  I can't promise you that it will fix your creative slump, but, really, the novelty of trying anything from that list is likely to stir something for you, even if it's not today.  Besides, what can it hurt?
I've been thinking about creativity, primarily my own, for a little bit now.  My photography, I feel, has been getting stale.  For a while, going out shooting with other photographers seemed to help me, but, now, I find myself more stymied by them than inspired.  I shoot what they're into, not because I'm all that interested, but because I'm with them.  Not that it's a bad thing, by any means.  They're mostly a good group of photographers and pretty decent people, too, so hanging out with them has been fun.  But, due to some interpersonal "stuff", I found myself asking if that was really what I wanted to be doing with my photography.  Did I really want someone else to drive what I shot and why?  As it turns out, not so much.  So, change and its relationship to creativity has been on my mind a lot lately.  And, of course, I thought back to Paul's list.  Some of those things, I did or have done, before.  Some are entirely new ideas.  All of them stimulated my thinking and creativity.
If you're in a slump, try them.  They may help!

Second, a very creative idea for cameras.  Pinhole Egg Cameras.  Yeah, that's right, it's an article about making pinhole cameras from eggs, developing the photos from them and displaying them.
I have never done film photography, really, just digital, so these absolutely fascinated me.  In fact, seeing these made me give serious thought to taking an old-fashioned film photography course.  I have a film camera and I know it works because I've lent it to several people at the office when they were taking photography courses.
Well, maybe one day, when I have more time....

Until then, though, you might as well enjoy the links!  It is, after all, Friday!

You may have seen this already...

If you travel in the same tech circles on-line that I do, you probably have seen a lot of the same things I link to here on Fridays.  So, why do I still do it?  Well, for a couple reasons.
First, because maybe you missed it.  Or it didn't seem like it was what it is so you didn't actually look at it.
Secondly, because, well, I liked it, so I want to link to it so I don't lose the link, even if you don't like it.
And, thirdly, of course, because it adds search engine optimization "juice" to my tiny, little marketing tool, er, I mean, blog.

So, anyway, now that the business is out of the way, here's the real stuff.
You all should know by now that I'm a little bit into photography.  (Yeah, yeah, I know, that's like saying Shakespeare wrote a couple plays, but, still, you get what I'm saying here, right?)  And, of course, digital photography is "where it's at", as the hep cats say.  Well, as ubiquitous as it may seem today, it wasn't always so.  Don't believe me?  Okay, then hop over to ExtremeTech and check out their History of Digital Photography and see if that doesn't change your mind.
Also?  It's Friday and you're obviously slacking if you're reading this blog anyway, so you might as well go see something fun.

Regular readers may be familiar with my photography obsession.

A number of years ago, I spent some money I'd hoarded on an entry-level Canon DSLR, instead of some medical bills.
I'll be honest, sometimes I worry that I should have spent the money on the medical bills, but, my shots are getting better.  I take great comfort in the idea that it's the photographer, not the camera, that takes the photo.  Mostly because the majority of my gear is, well, let's just say, not "top flight" and leave it at that.  But, still, if my camera were stolen, I'd be quite devastated and I'd want to find it again.  Well, that's where the Stolen Camera Finder comes in.

First, you should know that this is NOT something you install on your camera.  Nor is it some kind of insurance.  Rather, it's a webpage.  And, it's free.
Here's how it works: You get a photograph which you which you took with missing camera.  You take that photo to the website I linked to above and drop it on the target, per the instructions.  Then, the website does a search, based on the metadata from you photo, which includes the serial number of your camera, to find all the photos it can which match the starting photo.  If, or when, it finds photos posted by someone else that have the same serial number embedded in them as your source photo, it shows you the sites.  You can then go track down the person who used your stolen camera to make some of those terrible Facebook photos, or, I guess now, Google+ photos.

How you handle it after that is up to you.
All that matters is that Stolen Camera Finder helps you find your camera.

Okay, maybe not the "funnest" Friday Fun link I've ever posted, but, still, helpful if you've had a camera get stolen!

Regular readers know I'm not a big fan of outsourcing.

I am, however, even less of a fan of off-shoring.
Now, before someone calls me racist again, let me say that I have no problem at all with non-US citizens making money, no matter what country they're from.  Honest!  I'm friends with more than one proud Green Card holder!  But, I'm not a big fan of shipping jobs to a foreign country when someone right here in the United States is out of work and can do the job.  In fact, for years I've advocated what one company I worked for did; Rural Sourcing.

Of course, at the time, we didn't call it that, but, as it turns out, that's what it is.
We had a call center in a very rural town, connected to our data via a satellite.  In fact, they were connected to the same service bureau that we were.  It was a pretty good deal, all the way around.  We got decent, cheap labor, that spoke English without an accent to our American customers.  They got better jobs than the local sugar beet canning factory.  Yeah.  That was our employment competition.  Can you guess where the majority of the people in town wanted to work?  I'll give you a hint, it wasn't standing on a production line with high-speed machinery.

So, while this isn't new, it is, apparently, a newish idea for corporate America at large.
In any case, take a look at the article on Tech Republic; First Rural Sourcing Effort Proves Successful.
As I mentioned, it's not new at all, but it must be a new concept for the author of the article.  I think it's a great idea.  It CAN be cost effective to use local developers and local call centers in rural areas.  I don't think it's wrong to try and pull some of this business back from overseas.  I think it's good, smart business.