OOPS! It wasn’t me, I promise (?)

“each little whale, know how to fail
take it from me”

I want a dinosaur bone couch too!

a collection of soft interior objects inspired by dinosaur bones
material: rubber-coated foam
– sayaka yamamoto • living with dinosaurs

The Great Australian Firewall bites the dust?

Some good news on the ridiculous Great Australian Firewall front; how about we redirect the money to rebuilding after the brushfires and floods – it would be a far better use for the $

The Government’s plan to introduce mandatory internet censorship has effectively been scuttled, following an independent senator’s decision to join the Greens and Opposition in blocking any legislation required to get the scheme started.

The Opposition’s communications spokesman Nick Minchin has this week obtained independent legal advice saying that if the Government is to pursue a mandatory filtering regime “legislation of some sort will almost certainly be required”.

Senator Nick Xenophon previously indicated he may support a filter that blocks online gambling websites but in a phone interview today he withdrew all support, saying “the more evidence that’s come out, the more questions there are on this”.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has consistently ignored advice from a host of technical experts saying the filters would slow the internet, block legitimate sites, be easily bypassed and fall short of capturing all of the nasty content available online. …
– Web censorship plan heads towards a dead end (2009-Feb-260 [The Age]

BSOD – IBM ThinkPad T41 – irq_not_less_or_equal

Today’s project is an IBM ThinkPad T41 running Windows XP Pro SP3 generating a BSOD on start up.

Blue Screen (BSOD) irq_not_less_or_equal

“This Stop message indicates that a kernel-mode process or driver attempted to access a memory address to which it did not have permission to access.“
“This error usually occurs after the installation of a buggy device driver, system service, or BIOS.“
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL [MS]

Using the hardware profile manager, and some educated guess work, the faults is pretty quickly tracked down to the WLAN.
If the Intel PRO/Wireless LAN is disabled the machine runs fine, if it is enabled we generate the BSOD. Checking the drivers it is quickly apparent we are running a pretty old driver set; probably “as shipped”.

Intel PRO/1000 MT Mobile Connection – Driver 6.4.16.36 (2003-06-13)
Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter – Driver 1.2.1.1 (2003/07/31)

Time to go shopping for an updated driver set – Drivers and software – ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p. (The ThinkVantage System Update 3.14 would speed up the driver update process, but itself requires updates to .NET)

• Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 3b Mini PCI adapter
  Windows XP, 2000 :: 08 Aug 2006 :: v1.2.4.41

• Intel PRO/100/1000 LAN adapter
  Windows XP, 2000 :: 28 Feb 2007 :: Build 135400

• Access Connections
  Windows XP, 2000 :: 22 Dec 2008 :: v5.12

One extra problem is that the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 is 802.11b, and the 802.11b standard is not supported on our WLAN. We’ll need a LAN connection to do some of the heavier duty updating (It seems we need a combined 233.99MB of IBM system updates!)

Updating the drivers does the trick, all is now well in T41 land.

Victorian Bushfire Information Resources

A collation of resources that have been scatter across my recent fire related posts and tweets in a rather disorganised manner;

Victorian Bushfire Information Line 1800 240 667

If you have evacuated from a fire area it is vital that you register with red cross 1800 727 077

CFA & DSE

CFA & DSE: People who do not need to access the website for reasons of personal safety, please refrain from doing so. Sites struggling with traffic.

Fires Today – Summary of incidents on Public Land [DSE]
CURRENT INCIDENTS (GOING FIRES) [DSE]
Statewide Current Incident Summary [CFA]
Incident Updates & Advice [CFA]
CFA Channel Streams [cfastream.info]
Major Incidents Map [MFB]
Bush Fires – Road Closures [Vic Roads]

CFA RSS

Web pages reading the RSS Feeds from the CFA site, reduces the load on the CFA server.

Country Fire Authority – Victoria, Australia – Statewide Current Incident Summary [MapVisage]

The following are readers that I knocked up when the CFA server became hard to access;

• CFA 1 – Country Fire Authority – Victoria, Australia – Updates & Advice (5 min refresh)
• CFA 2 – Country Fire Authority – Victoria, Australia – Statewide Current Incident Summary (10 min refresh)

NEWS

Tune to ABC 774 radio for accurate information (774 AM 107.1 FM )
ABC 774 online stream
Bushfire Emergency [ABC News]

TWITTER

@cfa_updates
@774melbourne
#fireupdates (TweetGrid)
#bushfires (TweetGrid)
#vicfires (TweetGrid)

MAPS and MAPPING

Sentinel Hotspots [Geoscience Australia]
Sentinel Current Hotspot GPX files [Geoscience Australia]
Latest Fire Maps for the State of Victoria [CFA]
Mapping the Victorian fires [Google/CFA]
Australian Feb Fires 2009 [Google Maps]
Victoria’s bushfires [Google Maps]
Victorian Bushfire tracker [Where is]
Victorian Bushfires Map [Map Visage]

WICEN

WICEN is an organisation consisting mainly of Amateur Radio enthusiasts who provide communications to emergency response agencies in times of need.
2009 Bushfire Activation Updates [WICEN (Vic.)]

OTHER

Seen someone throw a cigarette butt out of their car window? Ph EPA on 1800 352 555 with rego, make, model & colour of car

Red duck curry (kaeng ped pett yang)

Mix coconut milk, red curry paste, lychee, pineapple and roast duck. YUMMO!
Cooked this one up for Saturday night. If eating with children use more coconut milk, less fish sauce and a few more lychees.

• Kaeng ped pett yang (red duck curry) [The Second Pancacke]
• Duck Red Curry [Luv a Duck]
• Red duck curry (kaeng ped pett yang) [SBS]
• Thai Red Curry with Roast Duck, Bamboo Shoots, Eggplant, and Pumpkin [Wandering Chopsticks]

New Adobe Acrobat 0-day in the wild

Over the weekend SANS posted the details of a new 0-day vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat;

… There is a new Acrobat 0-day in the wild. They say you can avoid it by turning off Javascript inside of your Adobe Acrobat products. [1]

Unfortunately we have at least two and a half weeks until we can expect to see a vendor provided patch;

Adobe is planning to release updates to Adobe Reader and Acrobat to resolve the relevant security issue. Adobe expects to make available an update for Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 by March 11th, 2009. Updates for Adobe Reader 8 and Acrobat 8 will follow soon after, with Adobe Reader 7 and Acrobat 7 updates to follow. [2]

Adobe categorizes this as a critical issue and recommends that users update their virus definitions and exercise caution when opening files from untrusted sources. [2]

The level of risk and lack of a vendor supplied patch means that we will need to rely on remedial actions initially. AusCERT give details for the following remedial actions;

• Disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader and Acrobat
• Prevent Internet Explorer from automatically opening PDF documents
• Disable the displaying of PDF documents in the web browser
• Do not access PDF documents from untrusted sources

Check with your antivirus vendor to see if their latest virus definitions do add a level of protection, some will be faster at providing cover than others.

While the distribution of this exploit thus far appears to be targeted, new variants are expected as more information is made public. [4]

[1] Adobe/Acrobat 0-day in the wild? (2009-Feb-20) [SANS]
[2] APSA09-01 – Buffer overflow issue in versions 9.0 and earlier of Adobe Reader and Acrobat (2009-Feb-19) [Adobe]
[3] ESB-2009.0162 — [Win][UNIX/Linux] — Adobe Reader and Acrobat buffer overflow vulnerability (2009-Feb-23) [AusCERT]
[4] New BackDoor Attacks Using PDF Documents (2009-Feb-19) [McAfee AVERT]
[5] Exploit-PDF.i (2009-Feb-19) [McAfee VIL]

This weeks links (2009-02-22)

Australian character

A very interesting point from Jim Darby (a sub-editor at The Age, and a CFA volunteer for 15 years currently as First Lieutenant with the Mount Macedon Fire Brigade);

I suppose there are some similarities between us and the diggers. Like the first AIF, we are volunteers and with that comes the very Australian characteristic of refusing to take shit from any person, particularly our superiors. And they know it. Being a volunteer also gives you some room to agitate, and our organisation is all the better for it.
– Don’t search for heroes in the CFA (2009-Feb-26) [The Age]

ROTFLMAO

@wilw “Wondering if you’re a huge geek? If you laugh all the way through this Fark thread, you probably are: http://is.gd/kSUp”
@wilw “If you ever successfully eat at this restaurant, it makes you a smug expert on every kind of food, and you will no longer have friends.”

Chef creates a fine dining vegetarian restaurant called Ubuntu. Guests say the food is way better than at ordinary restuarants; but they hate that they have to cook it all themselves
– (4233963) Chef creates a fine dining vegetarian restaurant called Ubuntu. [FARK]

#Blackout news

#Blackout news – you can start turning your avatars & sites back on Tweeple. We won a delay on NZ #S92!
#blackout, s92a is delayed for a month, and if there’s still no agreement, then s92a will be suspended.

The government is to delay implementation of the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies Act) due to come into force February 28.
Prime Minister John Key announced at a post-cabinet press conference this afternoon that implementation of the controversial clause of the copyright legislation to be delayed until March 27.
“We are hoping that by that time we will have come up with a voluntary code of practice,” Mr Key said.
If no agreement is reached, Section 92A will be suspended.
– Government calls delay on S92 (2009-Feb23) [NBR]

Help Name the New Space Station Module “Serenity”

(via Geek Dad) NASA wants your opinion in naming the International Space Station’s Node 3 – a connecting module and its cupola – before the two segments travel to space and are installed on the orbiting laboratory.

Help us to name another important addition to the station – Node 3 and its cupola! … Voting will be open until March 20th, 2009. NASA will announce the winning name in April 2009.

You know you have to go and vote for Serenity .. go vote now, yes you!

The Chap Magazine

(via Brass Goggles) The Chap Magazine: I do say old chap, I like the cut of your jib …

The Chap takes a wry look at the modern world through the steamed-up monocle of a more refined age, occasionally getting its sock suspenders into a twist at the unspeakable vulgarity of the twenty-first century.
Since 1999, the Chap has been championing the rights of that increasingly marginalised and discredited species of Englishman – the gentleman. The Chap believes that a society without courteous behaviour and proper headwear is a society on the brink of moral and sartorial collapse, and it seeks to reinstate such outmoded but indispensable gestures as hat doffing, giving up one’s seat to a lady and regularly using a trouser press.

In this months issue we see feature on Steampunk;
* An anthropological investigation into the the sub-culture known as Steampunk
* Steampunks again – this time in a series of photographs among some bizarre Victorian contraptions

Mac OS X Security Update 2009-001 breaks Perl

Mac OS X Security Update 2009-001 breaks Perl;

Perl breakage only occurs if you’re running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), you’re using the Perl distro baked into the OS, and you’ve updated the distro via CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network), a widely-used collection of existing Perl modules.
…
This would indicate that Apple’s security update reverts Mac Perl to an older IO object incompatible with newer CPAN modules. “The Security Update brings (old) IO.bundle with version 1.22 but your IO.pm has been updated to the latest 1.23 on CPAN shell. (But hey, 1.23 was released in 2006…Why do you bring that ancient version back, Apple!?),” … [1]

[1] Apple’s Mac OS X update breaks Perl (2009-Feb-18) [The Register]
[2] Apple’s Mac OS X Update Breaks Perl (2009-Feb-18) [SlashDot]

Let’s all just agree robots are cool!

“Let’s all just agree robots are cool!”

The Galvatrons – Robots are Cool

Why are robots cool?
I asked the boys: Why are robots cool?

“Robots shouldn’t be cool… but they are!” exclaims Condor.

The fact that the band’s name, The Galvatrons, was taken from the 1986 animated film Transformers might have something to do with it. For 21-year-old Johnny, the Transformers are more than just an animated series about robots in disguise. … [Youth Central]