nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category computers

Spark Fun Electronics Hacked?

February 12, 2007

Hmm, I received this from what appears to actually be Spark Fun Electronics (sent from one of the servers physically near them), and the site itself is still offline:

Hello,

On February 8th, 2007 it came to our attention that someone or something gained unauthorized access to the Spark Fun Electronics server. It is highly unlikely that this person gained full access to our server data. But because there is no way for us to confirm the depth of the access, we felt it in the best interest to warn our (wonderful, wonderful) customers the server contained sensitive customer information including some credit card data. All numbers have since been removed and we are putting systems in place to better protect sensitive user information in the future.

Please check your credit card statement for any unauthorized activity. We will do everything in our power to work with you and your credit card company to investigate any discrepancies.

We truly appreciate your business and are very sorry to cause a scare. Please contact us (you can reply to this message) if you have any questions or concerns and we will address them as quickly as possible.

Best regards,
Spark Fun Electronics

—
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

UPDATE: Here’s some more info about the message… it appears to be legit:

c0nsumer@rowla:/var/log> grep "server89" maillog
Feb 12 13:36:26 rowla postfix/smtpd[50546]: connect from server89.sparkfun.com[65.58.240.213]
Feb 12 13:36:26 rowla postfix/smtpd[50546]: setting up TLS connection from server89.sparkfun.com[65.58.240.213]
Feb 12 13:36:26 rowla postfix/smtpd[50546]: TLS connection established from server89.sparkfun.com[65.58.240.213]: TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)
Feb 12 13:36:27 rowla postfix/smtpd[50546]: 180394AC23: client=server89.sparkfun.com[65.58.240.213]
Feb 12 13:36:27 rowla postfix/smtpd[50546]: disconnect from server89.sparkfun.com[65.58.240.213]
c0nsumer@rowla:/var/log>

server89.sparkfun.com is now down, and Spark Fun doesn’t publish SPF records. However, sparkfun.com is 65.58.240.188, so with a whole /25 (or less, maybe a standard /24?) they could be in the same subnet. It all appears to be in a block of colocated stuffs owned by dnssys.com who doesn’t have much of a site. Still, the email message appears to be legit…

At least there are no strange charges on the card I used there. Yet. :(

computerselectronicsmoved from livejournal

1280 x 1024 LCD

February 10, 2007


1280 x 1024 LCD for sale at Target
(Click for more moblog photos…)

I’m not sure why I find this so strange, but a 1280×1024 LCD seems really odd to me. It just seems really, really, really square. Then again, I guess 5:4 is… Maybe I’m just more familiar with 4:3, 16:9, and 16:10 displays.

acquired thingscomputersmoved from livejournal

Backups

February 10, 2007

Well, backups are working. Every night my PowerMac G5 backs its important stuff up to external disks, and then a few hours later rowla.nuxx.net shoves its important bits down to one of the disks. It’d be better if it was all sent offsite, but I do only have a certain amount of space available remotely.

computersmoved from livejournal

1394B!

February 7, 2007


Macally PHR-100ACB

At the end of last week I ordered two 320GB hard disks and a Macally PHR-100AF FireWire 400 (1394a) disk enclosure so that I could handle all of my backups straight through my PowerMac G5. Well, today I received the parts and while the outer box had the right labeling on it, the inside was the PHR-100ACB, a combination USB 2.0 / FireWire 800 (1394b) enclosure, along with all appropriate cables. Seems like there was a mix-up somewhere. Whoops!

I don’t mind, I just hope that this doesn’t mean that there is a mixed up package elsewhere and someone else will inadvertently receive an enclosure which is a bit less than they had hoped for.

acquired thingscomputersmoved from livejournal

rowla.nuxx.net is moving!

February 6, 2007

rowla.nuxx.net Maintenance Notice!

To everyone who uses rowla.nuxx.net to some degree: This machine is going to be moved at some point within the next few weeks, hopefully within the next few days. The colocation provider I use is getting their new building / data center going, and I’m going to move in there sooner than later. Because of this I will have to switch to a new IP address and have the server down for a few hours while it is driven to the new building, but after that things should be fine. It should just come back up once turned on.

Email deliveries attempted while the server is off should be queued by the last-hop mail server and delivered after things come back online.

I’ll post more info (and more specific dates / times as I have them) here, but for now just know that it’ll be happening.

computersmoved from livejournalnuxx.net

Glossy Laptop Screens

January 31, 2007

Do any of you have an opinion regarding glossy screens on laptops? My dad’s Dell has a glossy screen, while mine has the normal matte screen. I may be purchasing a laptop soon, and I’m still torn as to which I like more.

What about you? Which do you like? Why? What do you primarily use it for? (eg: Desktop Usage, Coding, Photo Work, Games, etc.)

acquired thingscomputersmoved from livejournal

Simplifying the network…

January 27, 2007


Cable Modem and Airport Express behind / beneath a couch.

So, tonight I took a big step and drastically simplified my network here at home. After moving the cable modem to the living room (photo gallery retired) and hanging it off of an Airport Express I’ve been able to turn off the entire rack of equipment in my basement. It’s really, really quiet down there. As part of this I’ve moved my entire house to wireless, with the exception of the TiVo and PlayStation 2, which hang off of a switch connected to the basement Airport Express. (I originally had one in each of these locations so they can play music through both stereos.)

Everything is bridged together nicely with WDS, which Apple makes exceedingly easy to do. (Set up the master AP, turn on the client / repeater ones, and it’ll script the setup on all of them.)

My >3 year old G5 (photo gallery retired) is happily using the connection and both my work laptop and the DS (photo gallery retired) see it just fine. I’ve also moved all backup receiving to an external disk hanging off of the G5. A few more external disks are likely to find there way here soon, just so I can back everything up to some sort of removable / different media.

It’s now strangely quiet in the basement, and I need to figure out what I’ll do with the rack down there. I might trash some of the machines, as they aren’t especially useful anymore. Maybe I’ll use it to store some of the project stuff I’ve been working on. Maybe photography and music equipment, or something like that…

I find it a bit weird to be cutting my home network down so far, but I really think that it’s the smartest thing from a power consumption and simplicity perspective. Also, fewer machines to support means fewer things to go wrong, and that’s a good thing.

around the housecomputersmoved from livejournal

Honda Music Link (and me) in the NYT

January 24, 2007

Well, the iPod article which I was quoted for in the New York Times seems to have been published.

To quote from page 2:

Honda’s Music Link also offers voice commands, but some owners have had problems with the system. Steve Vigneau of Shelby Township, Mich., said he had Music Link in his Civic and found the system hard to use and slow to operate. The software uses Honda’s text-to-speech technology and needs to be installed on a home computer so it can link with iTunes.

Chris Naughton, a Honda spokesman, said that text-to-speech “has not been as trouble-free as we expected, but many Music Link users are still quite pleased that with a single connection they can get a high-quality audio connection, head unit control and constant charging.”

Not great, but I’m happy enough with it.

And, of course, here’s the obligatory link to my Honda Music Link iPod Adapter Review. (It may be changed slightly in the future… the date-by-date updates at the bottom are becoming a bit tedious.)

automotivecomputersmoved from livejournal

RectFish + Peleng

January 13, 2007

RectFish with a Peleng 8mm fisheye is pretty neat. Compare:


Original


RectFish‘d

And yes, I know there is watermarking, but without paying $30 for a license I can’t export non-marked full res images.

I’ll research other apps for it later. OSS stuff, things which remove all distortion (resulting in a dogboned image), etc.

Oh, and click each image for a full size copy, if you’d like. Now, off to the post office. And my parents house.

acquired thingscomputersmoved from livejournal