erinammons.com » Work http://www.erinammons.com the life and times of Erin Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:16:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Recap of 2011 and Looking Forward to 2012 http://www.erinammons.com/2011/12/25/recap-of-2011-and-looking-forward-to-2012 http://www.erinammons.com/2011/12/25/recap-of-2011-and-looking-forward-to-2012#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 03:57:11 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/?p=564 Continue reading →]]> I got a new job in November, I’m now a “Service Desk Resource I” (basically, tech support) at BDO (an international accounting firm). Since I’m no longer commuting as much, I finally had some time to catch up on my various to-do items lately, and one of those was to make at least a small update to this site. I’m still trying to decide if I like the new theme I picked, though. Also the Links page has been updated – all of my current social network profile pages are on there now, in addition to the buttons in the right sidebar.

Barton and I recently rented a self-storage unit, and have been seriously hammering away at all of the stuff we own that we don’t regularly use, to get it in boxes/totes and moved into the storage space. Some of the things getting packed away are items that we would love to have at our fingertips or on display – if we owned a house. But an 800-ish square foot apartment? Nope, there is just not enough room. We still have a long way to go though, and I expect the unit will be mostly full by the time we’re satisfied with our de-cluttering efforts. This will also make moving a slightly less monumental task.. I hope.

We also joined a local ham radio club this year – MARA (Michigan Amateur Radio Alliance). Interacting with those folks, and attending the monthly meetings has been a welcome break to the usual work-chores-sleep-work-chores-sleep monotony. We also joined the ARRL as well. I’ve been studying, off and on, to get ready to take the General License exam too, hopefully I will have that accomplished by sometime this coming spring.

If you have looked through my Tumblr (Warning: do not click on that link if you are at all sensitive to sexual content.. especially giantwtfomgbbqrobosex) at all, you’ve probably noticed I’ve had a huge resurgence in following Transformers/Transfandom this year. I’d hoped I might be able to attend Botcon 2012, but alas, it is now prohibitively expensive to go. Maybe 2013? Urgh. HOWEVER, I am still immensely looking forward to the second season of Transformers: Prime which premieres in February.

If you have waded through this massive update and are still with me… thank you… and…

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

]]> http://www.erinammons.com/2011/12/25/recap-of-2011-and-looking-forward-to-2012/feed 0 http://www.erinammons.com/2010/03/18/heart-my-coworkers http://www.erinammons.com/2010/03/18/heart-my-coworkers#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:44:05 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/?p=351 Continue reading →]]> Reading thru the work chat backlog:

Severin: from where I sit, I can only see the back of her Stormtrooper monitors, so it’s funny to hear muttered curse words come from them, throughout our overlapping shifts
Severin: “omfg, this guy is retarded”
Severin: sometimes I think I hear her say stuff in Samuel L Jackson’s voice

]]> http://www.erinammons.com/2010/03/18/heart-my-coworkers/feed 0 the progression of the internet is funny http://www.erinammons.com/2010/03/05/the-progression-of-the-internet-is-funny http://www.erinammons.com/2010/03/05/the-progression-of-the-internet-is-funny#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:27:12 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/?p=341 Continue reading →]]> Benny just published a post on her site about WP and caching. It makes me chuckle to think about, because essentially the web has come full-circle.
The web was first populated by sites that were all static html pages.
Then, someone thought of using databases and a whole bunch of other neat things to make websites “dynamic” – meaning, you didn’t have to spend hours tediously re-writing static html to make a change across your whole site.
Then, these dynamic sites were great, but if the site was popular, then you needed to back it up with a shit-ton of hardware and load balancing and etc, etc in case you had a lot of visitors.
Now, caching (turning the dynamic site back into simple static html) keeps sites light and serving to millions of visitors.
Strange, innit?

]]> http://www.erinammons.com/2010/03/05/the-progression-of-the-internet-is-funny/feed 0 Awesome Phishing Spam http://www.erinammons.com/2009/10/26/awesome-phishing-spam http://www.erinammons.com/2009/10/26/awesome-phishing-spam#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:48:59 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/?p=253 Continue reading →]]> Below is the awesome phishing spam I got today, sent to my work email address. Apparently I was the only actual user account to get this email. The actual email addresses/domains have been redacted. However, just imagine if you had received this email in YOUR work inbox? The .exe payload was a virus.


From: "System" <redacted@redacted>
To: <redacted@redacted>
Subject: Attention - Mail system upgrade
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:47:54 +0530

Attention!

On October 30, 2009 server upgrade will take place. Due to this the system may be offline for approximately half an hour.
The changes will concern security, reliability and performance of mail service and the system as a whole.
For compatibility of your browsers and mail clients with upgraded server software you should run SSl certificates update procedure.
This procedure is quite simple. All you have to do is just to click the link provided, to save the patch file and then to run it from your computer location. That's all.

http://updates.redacted.com.secure.s-data1.net/mail/id=7254828-redacted@redacted.com-patch5370226.exe

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter and sorry for possible inconveniences.

System Administrator

]]> http://www.erinammons.com/2009/10/26/awesome-phishing-spam/feed 0 Longing for a simpler time. http://www.erinammons.com/2009/04/01/longing-for-a-simpler-time http://www.erinammons.com/2009/04/01/longing-for-a-simpler-time#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:18:31 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/?p=166 Continue reading →]]> Remember when all websites were just text and hyperlinks and maybe a few images? Now everybody has to have some crazy php-based content management system application (yeah, yeah, pot-kettle-black, I know). Working in the webhosting industry and specifically, in Security, has really made me long for those simpler times again. Sure, editing html is tedious and time-consuming, but its pretty rock-solid safe once its web-accessible. Nobody can exploit flaws in your plain html code to send spam, upload phishing sites, or kill other webservers.

]]> http://www.erinammons.com/2009/04/01/longing-for-a-simpler-time/feed 0 Life Update. http://www.erinammons.com/2008/11/25/life-update http://www.erinammons.com/2008/11/25/life-update#comments Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:38:20 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/?p=126 Continue reading →]]> Just gonna make it a list.

  • Work
    • Moved to the Secteam in Sept.
    • Back on 2nd shift (4pm-12am) in Oct.
  • Car stuff
    • Bart bought a 2004 Tahoe in Aug.
    • Its been in 3 times for repairs. Over $1600 spent before 2 payments were made.
    • Tahoe now has pretty white letters on the side expressing our unhappiness. [pics forthcoming]
    • Contour is still running like a champ.
    • Bonneville had to have the upper and lower intake manifolds done AGAIN, to the tune of $1200.
    • Both Bonneville and Tahoe have aftermarket remote start/car alarms.
    • Bonneville has back windows darkly tinted.
  • Other stuff
    • Still checking out apts in Grand Rapids, however moving to Marshall or staying in Lansing are now options as well
    • Apt building we are currently in had to have major sewer repairs a couple weeks ago
]]> http://www.erinammons.com/2008/11/25/life-update/feed 1 Security Improvements http://www.erinammons.com/2008/10/23/security-improvements http://www.erinammons.com/2008/10/23/security-improvements#comments Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:07:57 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/?p=116 Continue reading →]]> Now that I’m on the Secteam at LW, its obviously got me thinking harder about implementing better security measures on this VPS. One thing I’ve already done is install CSF (ConfigServer Security & Firewall, available at http://configserver.com), and set LFD (the login failure daemon) to send me emails about detected security issues.

I also have Apache2/ModSecurity2 (with our latest ruleset), however I’m finding that I probably need to make a few other adjustments, such as enabling SuPhp and open_basedir, locking down permissions, and most importantly, keeping up with new versions of software (omg, WordPress 2.6.2 already?!).  These things I hope to accomplish very, very soon.

]]> http://www.erinammons.com/2008/10/23/security-improvements/feed 0 Urgente warn for the system admins http://www.erinammons.com/2008/06/07/urgente-warn-for-the-system-admins http://www.erinammons.com/2008/06/07/urgente-warn-for-the-system-admins#comments Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:16:07 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/?p=110 Continue reading →]]>
  • Do not give the eating for monkeys in the datacenter area
  • Do not bring any eating and any plastic bags come in the datacenter, is that the monkeys will attack to you and make you danger.
  • Do not provoke the monkeys, is that it will bite you
  • Please to intensive care your servants if they fallen, do not carry and food and toys, and do not away from fallen servants
  • The monkeys are not afraid anyone please do not interact with them it so very danger!!

    • Notice – If have accident from monkeys, the datacenter can not invoke to you.

    You salute!

    ]]>     http://www.erinammons.com/2008/06/07/urgente-warn-for-the-system-admins/feed 3     I been detroited. http://www.erinammons.com/2008/03/14/detroited http://www.erinammons.com/2008/03/14/detroited#comments Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:38:43 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/2008/03/14/detroited Should I get this? It would be funny :)

    History/Definition of “detroited”: A customer wrote in saying that we had ‘detroited’ (read: destroyed) their business.  So now anytime something is broken beyond repair we say its been ‘detroited.’

    ]]>     http://www.erinammons.com/2008/03/14/detroited/feed 0     Ten Randomly Generated Hostnames http://www.erinammons.com/2008/01/29/random-cpanel-hostnames http://www.erinammons.com/2008/01/29/random-cpanel-hostnames#comments Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:01:30 +0000 Erin http://www.erinammons.com/2008/01/29/random-cpanel-hostnames Continue reading →]]> cPanel is funny. One of our setups guys pointed this out and I had to check on my own vps.

    • approached.aqxenterprises.com
    • acoup.aqxenterprises.com
    • bewpers.aqxenterprises.com
    • cedrate.aqxenterprises.com
    • charge-a-plate.aqxenterprises.com
    • bistournage.aqxenterprises.com
    • barrulee.aqxenterprises.com
    • -blast.aqxenterprises.com
    • atweel.aqxenterprises.com
    • approached.aqxenterprises.com

    Also, one of the others he found was ‘antisemitic.hostname’ – Carl said use this to fix it ;) 

      /scripts/fixracism --force
    ]]>     http://www.erinammons.com/2008/01/29/random-cpanel-hostnames/feed 2