When Boredom Strikes

There are other ways to improve network security, and it comes in the form of security mechanisms. These security measures are more focused on prevention rather than a "cure". Among the most common security mechanisms are cryptography, access control lists, and authentication.

Cryptography - involves taking clearly understandable information and translating it into a ciphered (i.e. coded) unintelligible form using an algorithm and a key. Anyone who intercepts the information may find out which algorithm the source used; but without the key, it cannot be translated.

Access-control-lists(ACLs)- these are usually implemented in the router-level of the network, albeit a layer-3 and layer-2 mechanism. Any computer trying to access the network will be checked according to and(/or) its MAC address in reference to the access control list. If it does not coincide with the allowed addresses therein, it is denied access to the network.

Authentication - is basically trying to let a user identify himself, usually by use of a password, key card, or in more extreme cases, biometrics. If the user cannot provide the necessary information, he is denied access.

A neophyte network administrator may have his/her network vulnerable to most any kind of attack if he/she has no knowledge whatsoever on network security. There are plenty of things that could happen to your network. The following are the most common types of network attacks.

Denial of Service Attack (DoS) - An attack against a computer or network that attempts to limit or prevent access to the Internet by flooding it with requests (for a webpage or online resource) or email (causing the email system to overload). Denial of service attacks are usually done by "zombie" clusters, a cluster of computers under the hacker's control by way of malware, which then flood the network with requests.

Trojan - “Trojan horse”; a reference to the story of the Trojan War, a piece of malware (such as a virus program) contained within a legitimate program. The purpose of the Trojan can be wide, but the distribution approach is to attempt to have the user willingly install the host program to gain access to the victim’s computer.

Virus - A computer virus is a type of malicious software that can make copies of itself and infect a computer with or without the user's permission. The effects of such viruses may range from recurring messages in the form of dialog boxes to the deletion of files and may even corrupt the operating system itself.

Password Cracking - may be used with a program, or the more deliberate "brute-force" cracking wherein the attacker manually tries to make repeated random attempts to gain access to the network.

IP Spoofing - The manipulation of Internet packed routing data to impersonate a different machine. This is usually observed in DoS attacks in an effort to conceal the identity of the attacker.

Without the proper training and knowledge, any network administrator could leave his network open to all kinds of attacks.

Today I learned quite a few things from my dad. It turns out that we needed to make a network map of some sort which included a database of all the network devices in the company.

We initially deduced that we would have to go with html to make regions of our network map clickable—which would in turn then show another page containing all the information about that device: who's connected to which port, the number of ports as well as the IP addresses and the MAC addresses.

It turns out that there's this thing called FileMaker, and it does WYSIWYG what most of us would type on a terminal for several hours just to code tables and links and scripts on a regular DBMS—sort of like visually object-oriented DBMS. The first thing that ran through my head as he explained the basics of the program to us was "Oh man, the things I can do with this!"

Like all the good things in life, there is a little caveat—a $150 price tag. Good thing that the company legally owns the software we're using; I don't even want to know what we can ILLEGALLY do with this software.

Despite all that it turns out that IF we are able to pull this off, we could very well be on our way to have a portable online implementation of network documentation that can be so easy to use so as long as the user knows the details of the topology of the network.

Hopefully we'll finish soon and then I'll be able to upload a little something-something that doesn't actually contain sensitive information about the company my dad works for.

So, hope to see you soon.

Pasensya talaga sa wikang gagamitin ko, sapagkat ni minsan hindi na ako nakapagsulat sa wika ng bayan. Subukan ko lang na umakda ng kung anong pinagiisip ko ngayon—na hindi palaban sa karaniwang chenes-chenes churvaloo na lagi kong ginagamit sa pagsalita sa tagalong. :D

Noon pa man ay hindi ko namalayan na ang dami ko na palang nagawa sa buhay; kahit pipitchugi lang akong tao sa mundo, ginagawa ko talaga ang lahat na nakakaya ko para tumulong sa kahit sinong taong pumupunta sakin. Ngunit nang ako'y magmuni-muni sa mga pinagdaanan ko, napatanto ako sa isang realidad na lagi kong ipinagwalang bahala: na nakalimutan ko nang ingatan ang sarili ko. At sa ngayon, na ako na ay nagkamali at lumampas na sa punto na wala na talaga akong magagawa, saka lang ako napagtanto na hindi talaga babalik ang oras na lumipas—lalo na pag ako'y nagkakamali.

Kung tutuusin, mayroon naman talagang paraan na lutasin ang problema kahit tayo ay nagkakamali na; kaso lang talaga pag walang kusa, hindi natin makikita kung paano gawan ng solusyon ang ating mga pagsubok sa buhay. Doon ako nagkamali. Inisip ko na hindi ko na kailangan sumikap pa dahil ang laki ng pagtingin ko sa sarili ko, ni hindi ko inisip na limitado talaga ang lahat ng tao ay karaniwanng hindi perpekto.

At ngayon, andito na ako sa kasakuluyan; hindi mapakali dahil sa dami kong gagawin pag simulan na ang regular na klase. Hahakbangin ko naman ang di pamilyar na kapaligiran. Sana akoy inyong ipagdasal sa Panginoon.

Filipinos all over the world who watch American Idol may have been dismayed over Ramiele Malubay's elimination from the contest.

I say boo hoo. "She had it coming" so goes a song from Chicago. This Filipina American Idol contestant made it to the top 9, which pales in comparison to Jasmine Trias. I believe the only reason she came that far is because she was sitting on pretty. Pretty cute is more like it. Look at the picture. Ain't she pwetty cyute? Awww....

Disappointment after disappointment, it was eventually obvious that her lucky streak was coming to an end. She had a beautiful and big voice, to be sure; it's just that her song selection and her ineptitude to show her voice range simply left her as a stagnant contestant utterly unable to progress.

Judge Randy Jackson correctly predicted that she was the one to go home, while Simon said that "America got it right this time", referring to the bottom three including Brook White and Kristy Leigh Cook.

At least Danny Noriega is nowhere to be seen. One Sanjaya is enough. Please.

There is a friend that I've been missing a lot for a good couple of months, and when we do finally meet again, circumstances have led me to shorten my stay in their longed presence. When I do attempt to come back that friend is nowhere to be seen.

It never ceases to amaze me that there are times when I'm in a group of friends, it still feels quite lonely when just one person is missing. I believe it just means that person is close to my heart; though, it never really mattered why or how such a person would get close to my heart. Sometimes just their mere presence brings so much light into the surrounding environment that we never really appreciate it until it's gone.

Thus, there lies the rub.

We don't usually appreciate people's impact on our lives until they have left for circumstances beyond our control; but then again, how would we show our appreciation if not to cherish the time that we share with others? I guess we all need to be wary of the connections we make with other people; because when we enter their lives, they are going to search for us in vain. Sometimes we do go back; but our stay in each other's company is less often than always, short-lived.

I've been recently racing against time since my days as a person with relatively unrestricted freedom are numbered and I have to experience a 240-hour on-the-job summer training, alone. Friends are but hard to access except through SMS and email and that's just about it. I'm thinking this since I'm going to be "working" eighty miles outside the city and I never really gave much thought to the being alone part in the corporate world.

The very thought makes me cringe.

I guess sometimes we really need to let everything be; otherwise, I'd be clinging to everything and not letting go—which would lead me where? It would lead me nowhere. Such things are futile, and of the immature and selfish kind.

Relativism is of no use here.

If there's one thing I learned about forming relationships, it's that some can be very fruitful, while some others I'd rather do without.

Every relationship I've formed has a ripple effect in my life; for some reason, it affects the way I think, feel and cope throughout the day.

The one thing that really bothers me is that I've been wearing a mask, a lot of different masks to be precise; and I'm finding it hard to tell people this is the way I really feel because for some impertinent reason, they don't believe the truth when it's staring at them in the face. So I find myself disappointed, hurt and confused. The very reason why I'm typing this is because I just walked out on them having a good time.

I have begun to doubt the things that I once so fervently believed, and now I'm a broken shattered man. I can't find my center, trying to balance on a log at a raging river. I really thought that I had shown people the real me, but it turns out I've compromised myself for the sake of getting along with people. The people I spend my time with, are not bad people at all; they're actually quite nice. The only thing that's stopping me from finding a new set of friends is the fear of not being able to find people who can really understand me, and I feel that I am partly to blame for them not understanding me.

People often can't connect with me because of the way I think. They usually say "nosebleed" – a local term that means the person saying it doesn't understand, like what I just said was way above their level of thinking. Should it be my fault that I'm an active thinker, filled with ideas?

When I do try to level with them, I find myself thinking, "this isn't me at all", and I usually just end up getting hurt because they get too comfortable. Is this even rational or am I just having pride issues?

What do you think?

Sometimes, I get the feeling that I'm being watched. Like I'm drifting in my own land of slumber and I wake up in the middle of the night feeling rather helpless and downtrodden. There are so many new learning experiences I took with this previous school year:

I felt that I was being called to be a priest.

In an attempt to escape that feeling I tried to go into the dating scene.

I got rejected.

I took my tension out on more expressive things like singing in a choir that took 20 hours off my week leading to the following lien.

I failed a couple of subjects.

I decided I didn't like the course I was in, even though I had the potential of being really good at it.

I've developed the habit of sleeping 3-4 hours in bed and the rest of it during classes.

In other words:

I let my life spiral out of control.

Now I'm trying to find out what in the world to do next, because frankly, it is spiraling out of control; more than you can imagine. Because of my two failing grades (possibly more as there are only two known failing marks as of this writing):

I lost my scholarship.

I forfeit being an officer in any student organization within the university as my quality point index does not reach 2.0.

I lost a significant amount of trust from my parents.

I am forbidden by my parents to join any extracurricular activities that are not in-line with the degree I'm trying to earn.

I am to be home before the sun sets; with exceptions, of course.

I'm thinking: the consolation that I would probably get out of this is that I'm still alive and eating very well. *grins* I still have my computer, and I am redeveloping the habit of self-reflection through writing aka blogging. If anybody actually reads this, thanks for giving me your time.

Much respect,

Jay

"So many questions, but the answers are so few..." goes a line in a song from a local band here. Sometimes, I get the feeling that I ave so many questions that are running through my mind.

I guess that's what happens when you're halfway through something and you have no idea what's ahead of you.

Or me.

I recently filed my candidacy for the office of chairperson at the Xavier University - United Religious Organizations, or XU-URO. I have been planning for this for quite a while, and I haven't really decided until it was the last day for the filing of such candidates.

Why? That is the question that I've been wanting to have an official answer to. As my overcalculating brain examines all possibilities and taking into consideration factors that may seemingly have no effect whatsoever to the end result-- it seems that I did it considering the possibility that there may be no other way to achieve my goal.

There has been a drastic change of the system with the appointment of officers. Being a Jesuit institute, and one that upholds the Ignatian spirituality, such activity should have been done in discernment and in the Spirit.

Then again, that is not the whole point of this post.

I've been wanting to serve, being able to make a difference. That's all I ever wanted. Seeing mediocre activities, with nonchalant facades masking what was truly real, I could not help but ponder if I could have made a difference.

I have no beef with apathy, none with what has already happened. I just want to be able to know that I have done my part, and that there is nothing I could have done any different to change what has happened.

For months I have been seeing all the negativity that goes around the office. Different auras coming from different organizations. There are auras of exclusivity and cheerfulness within the organization; but all that could simply have been shyness on the part of different people from the mere fact that XU-URO is not as united as what was originally concieved.

What would I have done? There is nothing I could have done. I was one of those apathetic people who frankly could care less. Then I saw the beauty of community. Then I saw the essence of that very community: service.

It's not that I want a title to be put into my resume, as what people perceived the previous officers have done in the past. It's just I want to be able to reach a point wherein I could look back and say that I was at least able to share what little I have for the good of the community.

I've seen my own share of communities, rising and falling, for seven years, I have witnessed people come and go. I've also seen people staying, even for a limited amount of time, and seeing the effect of what that little amount of time can do for anyone.

I've also seen that communities rise, not for the sake of community; but for the sake of service-- knowing that there is something we can do, not just here in the safety of the walls within this school, but outside a whole field of fertile soil that we can plant our seeds on. If only we took the effort to sow them.

Then again, it may just be the stress talking.

It seems to me that original material is getting harder and harder to come by as I move from blog to blog.

No offense to fellow bloggers out there, but there seems to be something that's bothering me about other blogs.

Being a hardcore blogger myself, I pride myself in being able to write beautiful things on my blogs, not that none of you have made beautiful blogs yourselves. I just find myself sensitive when I see blog posts that are simply copied from someone else's website without permission.

It's not that I've never copied posts in my entire life; in fact, I have copied my own posts from different blogs here to expose them to different readers.

It just annoys me that some people are really trying to make a sub par effort at trying to make blogs when the only reason that they really could have is to make money off AdSense. It really takes away the fun out of blogging.

Why is it that when somebody releases a very interesting product, like ASUS's EEE PC or Apple's MacBook AIR, some person has to invent a rather cheesy idea like making a laptop with a weird screen and a weird keyboard/touchpad/scrollpad?

Enter the NoahPad -- some asian dude decided that due to geographical differences with different people, he decided to make a laptop with severe ergonomic differences with most laptops. The keyboard has been split into two -- which is not necessarily a bad thing, there is the problem of the touchpad part of it though. Since he neither wanted the fonts of the minute laptop to be minute, or too large, he decided that it would act like a mobile phone and show just a part of a 1024x768 screen.

Just check out the YouTube video and see for yourselves. They even tricked some poor British dude to voice over the sad ad.

Noahpad UMPC -- Virtual Screen

As if it wasn't enough trouble that we got one of our undersea cables in the Philippines cut causing us to slow down on the internet usage for few days before contingency lines were then tapped, Iran has lost all internet connectivity.

The undersea cable handled "telephone, internet data, everything". The other two were damaged last Wednesday making the internet slow down to a crawl in the Meditterranean and South Asia.

Officials say that it was caused by ship anchoring, which probably is a very plausible reason, if you know what I mean. XD

Well, if there are any terrorist insurgents there, I guess they'll be offline for quite some time.

What has been synonymous with city-building fun has now become a repetitive chore.

I have to commend Maxis for making the best Sim games I have played so far, so why aren't they at the wheel at the latest installment of the SimCity franchise? EA wanted another firm to run the show and run it they did--poorly.

Common to most SimCity games involves a lot of realistic socio-economical factors that would dictate the success of your city. In the new game, all you really have to do is just checking and balancing the happiness of your sims and all you really have to do is a lot of mindless clicking.

Sure, the graphics are a great improvement, but do we really need great graphics to have a great game? This is a lot like a diet-version, even a light-version, of the usual SimCity games that we have come to love. Why? It's because you get to choose what kind of buildings you would have in your city. More emphasis was placed in the power of choosing specific buildings for creating specific societies. You'd find that there would be different kinds of cities with different kinds of buildings with different kinds of sims.

When you get a stable economy, you'd find that there's no more to do than wanton expansion of your city. Which is a great challenge, I'm sure, if you're a three year old. The game is simply too easy, the level of realism has sinked to an all time low, and it's mostly eye candy.

The verdict? The graphics of the game is a much needed breather for the franchise, but it comes with the cost of totally depriving would-be tycoons of the challenges and realism that the previous installments had to offer.

Screenshots

So here's a little overview of the typical classroom environment at class.

Ms./Mrs./Mr. Bum comes in the classroom with all the students seated. Class should have started 10 minutes ago.

Scenario A:

Then he/she/it starts to open some PowerPoint presentation it got off from the internet and starts reading the slides to the class, many of the bums don't even know how to speak properly-- like they need a subtitling system just so the students can understand. It'll probably add in a few superficial questions, but mostly just reading the slides. Forty minutes pass and the alloted time period for class ends with the ring of a nearby bell.

Scenario B:

Then he/she/it starts to open some book she got at the archaic section at the library where books are at least 20 years old and reads from it like Scenario A. It'll probably write something on the board; but the students already know that they wouldn't understand anyway. Some have taken the same subject three times in a row, and most of them would have a grand slam at failing the subject. Forty minutes pass and the alloted time period for class ends with the ring of a nearby bell.

Scenario C:

The bum arrives, what like 5 minutes late? Anyway, it doesn't bring anything, just the clothes on its skin. The bum starts talking in light speed about:

a) bragging about where it used to work, but not decidedly content about working where it is now, or some lame story about how it had the good life for a ridiculously short amount of time

b) the lesson(!) but--- it's filled with computer jargons and you'd have to have a laptop nearby to google everything it says.

c) it doesn't talk in light speed-- but it's mostly nonsense. There was one time we spent 3 weeks listening to jokes and its personal life. Ugh!

Scenario D:

The bum doesn't arrive 10 minutes late-- in fact, it doesn't arrive AT ALL. This goes on for two weeks, and all of the sudden.. BAM! It's exams week.

Man, they're not even qualified to teach-- no strategy, no passion, no effort. The highest educational attainment they have is just a bachelor's degree--some of them aren't even computer science graduates(!), save for the chairman who actually has the only master's degree in the department. Ha! As if we won't get a bachelor's degree in two years time.

OK, now that we have that underway, let's go to the present. There has been a replacement of computers in the oldest computer lab in campus, the students were at least content about it because they were admittedly significantly faster than in any of the present computer labs.

The catch?

The students were making so much progress with their projects that the teachers wanted in on the new computers. They couldn't make requests for new computers through the proper channels (the university is QUITE RICH), so they decided to get new computers through the 'proper' channels-- the computer lab.

They decided that since the computers were significantly faster, they wanted it for themselves. Sure, they didn't consider the time it takes having to let the students remake their projects on slower computers, they didn't even consider how much time and effort it took to get their projects where they are. We're not even pros yet-- who can come up with an extensive network system in 3 days provided that the price is right. We are STILL students trying to learn.

And I thought politics was only seen in the media. : (

Dedicated to those GREAT teachers who are a GREAT insult to the education system with no due respect whatsoever.

Hi!

Welcome to my blog. This is the only place I wish to write my thoughts and feelings about most anything.

I might be posting something I have in my previous blogs, forgive me for the deliberate copying and pasting of my own material; but then again, it's still my material so W00t!.

Anyway, I hope your stay will be a comfortable one. Don't worry, the worst I could do is pull out a baseball bat and whack you silly. XD

Much respect.