Shouting Into Space

Creating CrashPlan Encryption Keys

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 20:53:07 -0700

I use CrashPlan for continuous backup on all my main home computers (that's five currently). I'm also a cryptography freak in that I'll encrypt anything I can! I wanted to use the backup encryption in CrashPlan and seeing a possible security hole with allowing CrashPlan to generate its own keys, I decided to do it the hard way (like most things I do).

These are the steps I took to generate my own hardened CrashPlan encryption keys. I have a different one for every machine CrashPlan is installed on...

This is all done, of course, on a Mac (why do it anywhere else?)

1. Create a password of 56 8-bit characters in any way you want.
Using "Password Assistant," create two "Random" strings of 28 characters.

2. Paste the two 28 character strings as one line into a text file called 'password.key' Make sure there are no line breaks in the file.

3. Base64 encode the file using the terminal.

/usr/bin/openssl enc -base64 -in password.key -out password.base64

To decode the file you can use the following:

/usr/bin/openssl enc -base64 -d -in password.base64 -out password.key

4. On the "Settings" pane of CrashPlan, select the "Security" tab.
In the "Archive Encryption" section, choose "Replace with your own data key (Advanced)," then paste the contents of the file "password.base64" you created in step 3.

5. Make sure you save the original password (and maybe the Base64 encoded version as well) somewhere safe (an encrypted disk image maybe?). You might need them later and if you forget the password, your backup archive will be unaccessible.

* If you really want to be ultra-super-mega-mondo secure, you can make a really "dirty" password with the following command (by dirty, I mean there is a good chance you won't be able to type the bare password. Just try to base64 decode the output of this command to a file to see for yourself).

/bin/dd bs=56 count=1 if=/dev/random | /usr/bin/openssl enc -base64 > password.txt

** If you're adventurous, you can try to weed out some of the "dirtier" characters with 'tr'

/bin/dd bs=56 count=1 if=/dev/random | tr -cd '\11\12\15\40-\176' | /usr/bin/openssl enc -base64 > password.txt

Good luck! I hope this satisfies your craving for hard-core encrypted CrashPlan backups.

Rudeness...

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:05:47 -0700

"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength."
-Eric Hoffer

Taking Stock of Police in 2011

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:27:39 -0700

Let's take stock of police in 2011:

They have three "things with a button" that can make you stop doing whatever you were doing when they approached you.

1. pepper spray - used if the thing you want to stop can't hurt you, but might touch or otherwise annoy you, used on the handicapped, but great for squirrels too, as it turns out!
2. stun gun - used on college students and drunkards because it's fun to watch them squirm - can be used on the elderly especially if they are in bed
3. firearm - used mostly on family pets and the elderly. The gun is used less and less these days because it gets cops in too much trouble. The other 'point-and-clicks' don't. All police do have guns however, just to remind you that you will be killed if you don't respond properly to pepper spray and stun guns.

BTW... It took me 5 minutes to write this post - including the Google searches (police pepper spray, police taser, police shoot)... That's sad.

A Clear Window

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:38:05 -0800

Today I mixed up a batch of BMW window cleaner for my wife's 328i. Of course I used the official BMW concentrate and mixed it with distilled water. Yeah - I said distilled. I went to the drug store to buy it specifically for the purpose. I wouldn't want my wife looking through hard water spots, now do? You gotta treat your wife and your Bimmers right.

Standard Time is Bad for Road Rage

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:55:16 -0800

It seems to me that the concept of 'daylight saving time' causes more problems than it solves. Consider that, when driving in rush hour traffic, people tend to be more aggressive and less obligatory toward other drivers when they can't see their faces!

This only stands to reason. As more people clog up the roadways during rush hour, tempers flare and patience shortens. When the "thing" causing your problems doesn't have a face, it's the perfect recipe for angry, uncompassionate driving.

Being a person who drives to work daily, I for one would be happy not to have to drive home in the dark in Winter. It's a battlefield out there.

Girl Talk

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:50:07 -0800

Girl Talk is mix artist Greg Gillis and he's a bad ass.

Check out All Day...

iPod and iPad Touching Kids...!?

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:46:00 -0800

I saw this the other day... Marketing people scare me.

An Open Letter to Rockstar Games Regarding Red Dead Redemption

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 02:15:00 -0700

To Rockstar Games,

At the time of this writing I am 4 hours, 23 minutes, and 40 seconds into Red Dead Redemption, having finished 8.3% of the game thus far. I struggled to find the proper words to precisely present my point in a poignant and punctuated manner. Although my intent was to be excessively eloquent in this enunciation of my enjoyment of Red Dead Redemption, the emergence of said eloquence seems to have evaded me. It is then with a sad sigh I must make my endorsement of your so expertly crafted work of art in the only way I feel fully captures the essence of my feeling.

Red Dead Redemption is a fucking awesome game. Well done! From the bottom of my heart, well fucking done!

Lesson Learned...

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:06:14 -0700

In the little over seven years that I've been employed at my present job, I've had a total of 14 managers. That's nearly one every six months. Each time I got a review from a manager, I was told how exceptionally well I performed and how it would be impossible to do what we do without me (or something to that effect). Typically, this was true.

During my tenure, some managers gave me good bonuses or a raise here and there. Other managers didn't. Some managers were complete assholes or total bitches and others were great people just trying to do right and not lose a limb (or their head) in the process (though a few still did).

Usually, it took about a month or two to train a new manager on where I was, where I'd been, where I was going, and how fast I'd get there. Generally, most managers were only able to deal with one or two of those variables. The more important thing, in their minds, was making sure they looked good to their managers. Somehow they forgot (or never knew) that well cared for, productive employees can make any manager look good to their boss!

In the next month or two, my manager would learn how many little, behind the scenes things I was doing to keep the automated orchestra playing flawlessly. Slowly, they'd understand the necessity of a good SCM engineer and start to put well placed trust in me. Anytime I thought it might be nice to venture out into something different (like development, or project management, or marketing), I'd bring it up with my manager and usually be give "20%" of my time to work on new tasks.

Inevitably, releases come, then patches, coupled with constant tech support to my group of developers, and of course, myriad regular SCM duties. The "20%" of my time dwindles down to an effective 0%!

So, after all this time. I've left my company for another. As I embark on solving a new set of challenges, I'll try to remember the lesson learned from my last seven years of work:

Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

I'd always thought it would assure the consistent availability of my position were I to make myself irreplacable. Indeed, I spent a considerable amount of energy to ensure it took me to deliver our prodcts. Well, there is no doubt my efforts certainly ensured my position, but the side-effects were so restrictive as to be stunting. I've glad I've broken free of that suffocating situation.

I'll apply what I've learned to my future endeavors.

Purpose

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:22:41 -0700

I don't know how to best use the gifts I've been given...

Run Script at Mac OS X Login

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:28:12 -0700

I know alot of people want to know how to do this. The solution is usually creating a shell script and naming it with the '.command' extension so it'll launch the Terminal.

The cleaner way is through a simple launchd plist placed in your ~/Library/LaunchAgents folder.

Here's my example:

$ cat ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.latcarf.loginscript.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.latcarf.loginscript</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/bin/bash</string>
<string>/Users/latcarf/Documents/script/loginscript.bash</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>

# Start it up
$ launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.latcarf.loginscript.plist
# Or just reboot or logout and back in to kick it off.
# Only runs once at login.

Oakley M-Frames

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Sun, 03 May 2009 11:12:00 -0700

I just picked up some new Oakley M-Frames for use as shooting glasses.

I guess this means I need to start shooting again.

Ammo prices are skyrocketing though since we're in a bad economy and folks on the conservative right are afraid Obama's gonna take their guns away. Libertarians know that people only take your guns away if you let them.

Necrography

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:04:00 -0700

A new horror fiction magazine is out. It's published biannually and contains fiction, poetry, art, and photos of the horror genre.

It's currently available for sale and has gotten some nice comments from readers. Looks pretty good.

The main web site is at necrography.com and there's a blog at blog.necrography.com.

Check it out and buy a couple copies, I think I will - always good to support independent markets...

It's not MAC!

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:43:51 -0700

Just a little pet peeve I need to get off my chest.

I know all you PC folks are coming over to the Mac in droves and that's a great thing. It's great for you and for me. You'll have a much better computing experience (and life in general) on Mac and I'll still have a job making software for you. So win-win all around!

One little behavior we need to correct though, is how you write about your new computer. In the Windows world it's normal to write PC, or DELL, or IBM in all capital letters. Heck, in DOS (all caps there too) it's even proper to write FOLDER NAMES in capital letters as well, isn't it?

In the Mac world however, it's wrong to write Mac in all caps (and generally wrong to write folder names in all caps - it just looks like you're yelling). Yeah, I know it's a hard habit to break; writing Mac vs. MAC. I mean, you're gonna have to hold down the shift key a little less, and that's tough, but you should be getting used to doing things with less effort now that you have a Mac, right? Besides, you don't need to yell about your Mac. We all know how much better they are (we've been using them for years) and Mac users generally appreciate a little more subtly (you'll understand that as you get used to using your new Mac).

Anyway, Mac is the first three letters in the word Macintosh, which is a kind of an apple. Apple makes computers (and other hardware) and a Mac is a kind of Apple computer. See the correlation here, kind of witty huh? Anyway, you never see the word Macintosh with all caps for the first three letters: MACintosh. That just looks weird right? Well, using MAC to talk about Mac computers looks weird too. So, if you could just please not do that, it would be great.

Oh, before you go there is one instance where you'll want to use the all capitals version of the word MAC. That's when you need to talk about the "quasi-unique" identifier that's assigned to your network adapter. It's known as a Media Access Control address. All computers that can connect to a network have these and they're certainly not limited to Mac. Hey, I guess you also might want to use the all capitals version MAC when you're talking about MAC cosmetics as well, but that has nothing to do with computers.

Ok, so just to make sure we're on the same page... Use Mac and not MAC and we'll all get along great. Thanks!

The Cost of Idiocy

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:21:11 -0800

So yeah, it's been a loooong time since I posted in this blog but I found something that gets my goat enough to write about it... It's this damned bailout business. I'll post more on my feelings about this when it's not so close to my bedtime but for now, I'll just leave with a link to a high-level analysis of the cost thanks to CNBC.

Yes, you as a tax payer are indentured to your share of this. Yes, you are now solidly a slave of the state. Yes, your unborn children already owe. Get working friends, it's gonna take alot of your sweat to pay this off. If you consider there's 300 million people in the US (from age 1 day to very old) and the cost of the bailout is roughly $4.3 trillion (that will go up), then you owe (right this minute - not counting inflation) just over $14,000! Remember, this amount is on top of your share of the national debt (and I won't even get into that).

Get cracking people, freedom is not free!