Bill Sempf

I just spent the evening playing board games with my four year old son.  For a lot of people this would be an exercise in boredom, but it shouldn't be.  Teaching games is something that is very similar to teaching the kind of thinking that makes software design work.  It’s important, logical thinking.

Board games with young children doesn’t have to be limited to chutes and ladders and Candyland – random games with zero strategy.  Kids need to LEARN strategy.  The only way they will learn is to be led, hand in hand, though the process of making game decisions.  For instance, tonight Adam and I played Living Labyrinth. He can’t quite read the cards, and he has a hard time making decisions about how to use the cards.  But how else will he learn?

We played open hand, and I walked him through every move.  I reminded him to play his card first then move, and point blank told him what moves to make and why.  It wasn’t competitive, but it was a blast, and Adam learned a ton.  I’m betting that next time we play he’ll remember the cards and be able to make some decisions about his card use.

After that, we played a much less sophisticated game, Guess Who?  This game is a deduction game similar to the old logic puzzles with the grid that we all did in the puzzle magazines.  The kicker here – Adam beat me five out of five games.  I can’t explain it, unless it is just that he is a good guesser.  We play fair and square, no help, no hints, and he has to sound out the name of the mystery person for his final guess.  Beat my pants off.

Next time I am introducing him to Kids of Catan.

This remarkable game will not only be a great rule learning adventure, but the pieces are cool and we can make up our own games – another important skill.

Plus, I can have him play against Jeff Blankenburg next year at CodeMash.

I posted a pic of the latest delivery by my favorite UPS guy, along with a little beer haiku:

Even on cold days
The ups driver can
Bring warmth to my heart

A few people asked about the brew plan, but it doesn’t fit in Twitter.  I thought I would post it here for fun.

Good Night In Mexico

(From TCJOH, page 179)

7lbs Dark DME

1lb Rice

1lb Light Crystal Malt

¼ lb Barley

1 ¼ oz Spalt

1oz Saaz

1oz Hallertaur

German Lager Yeast

 

Nutcastle

(from BCS, page 151)

7lbs Pale Ale DME

¾ lb Special Roast

½ lb Victory

½ lb Crystal

¼ lb Pale Chocolate

2oz Williamette

Nottingham

 

Leaden Lager

(Hellbranch Recipe)

7 lbs ultralight DME

3oz saaz

Saflager S-23

Went and got the mail and I was SO VERY happy to see my new picks from LockNewbie.  I got a short hook and a bogata to go with my long feeler, and replaced my existing short hook and half diamond  in my carry set.  I am still going to keep my set of bogata from Rai, because how could I not??

This should about do it for me, on a day to day carry-and-practice set.  I can get into a Master 140 in about 20 seconds using the long feeler and my custom tensioner.  Rai’s bogatas will get me into a lock with no security pins in under ten seconds usually. 

The bogata/short hook combo seems to be a great combination for spool and mushroom pins.  They have the same feel, so I can start with the handled bogata to get a false set, and then move to the VERY delicate short hook to pop the lock.

I got Gabrielle a bogata and a ball feeler too – it should work well with her picking style.  And they are RED.  All in all, very happy.

Yesterday I went to Best Buy to get a Zune, and saved myself $200 and bought a Sony Walkman.  Why?  It does the same thing (plays music) and it has a Mini USB port rather than some useless fancy custom job that requires me to carry yet ANOTHER cable. 

You see, I never wanted an MP3 player.  I just want to use my HTC Touch Diamond.  But using it as a media player is heavily balanced with battery life.  In general, if I want to be able to make a call at 3PM, I’d better not listed to music at 10AM.  Convergence will work when we have leeetle nuclear reactors for our cell phones.  But that is a post for another day.

The one thing I wanted to be able to do with the Zune was subscribe to podcasts.  My pain is that subscribing to podcasts minus a crappy cable interface is not worth $200 to me.  “The Sony will do fine, and I will just figure out the podcast thing,” I thought.

Well, with a lot of help from Michael Young’s blog, which lead me to Jake Ludington’s blog, I have a working model that isn’t perfect but it seems to be working.  This updates those two entries for Win 7, IE8 and the latest Windows Media Player – is it 12?  I’m not sure.  Anyway, here goes:

1) First step is to subscribe to the podcast with IE 8.  Navigate to the website of a page with a feed you would like to subscribe to (like ExoticLiability.com) and click the View Feeds for this Page button in IE8.

2) Click on the “Subscribe to this feed” link on the RSS viewer page.

3) When you have subscribed to everything you are looking for, click on the Favorites button, and then the Feeds tab.  I made a Podcasts folder there to keep them organized.

4) Right click on the feed and select properties.  Check the Automatically Download Attached Files checkbox.

5) As it turns out, IE8 puts all the attachments from feeds in subfolders inside one temporary internet files folder.  If you wait until IE gets some of the files and click the View Files button then go up one in the directory, you can see what I mean:

6) On my machine, that folder is C:\Users\Bill\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Enclosure.  YMMV.  Might want to put the path on your clipboard, you’ll use it a lot.

7) Go to Windows Media Player (henceforth WMP).

8) Click on Organize / Manage Libraries / Music.

9) Click the Add button, and paste the path from Step 5.

10) Click Include Folder, then click OK.

11) Click the little arrow next to Create Playlist and select Create Auto Playlist.

12) Name the new playlist Podcasts.

13) Right click on the new auto play list and select Edit.

14) Click the green plus sign under Music in my Library, scroll to the bottom of the list, and select More.

15) In the Choose a filter dialog, select File Name.

16) Click the Click to Set link, and paste in the path you found back in step 5.

17) Click Ok, then go have a cup of coffee while everything updates.

18) When you get back, plug in your MP3 player.  I have the Sony Walkman E Series.

19) Windows Media Player will open the Sync tab.  Drag the Podcasts playlist to the Sync pane.

20) Click Sync.

It was a pain, but now it is set up, and I saved $200, plus probably the Zune Pass and 35 accessories I woulda bought. And I think this works better.  I’ll have  standard process where I bring the player downstairs, plug it in to charge and sync, then come down in the morning to get it.  Next post, I might ever write a PowerShell script that automatically syncs when I plug it in.  Hope this helps someone!

I was an early adopter of Live ID.  I was a Passport user before you could use your own email address; my first passport was sempf@hotmail.com.  After it went to Live ID I set up an ID at bill@pointweb.net.  I mostly use the hotmail address for personal stuff like xbox, and the pointweb account for professional stuff, like my partnership account.

After the 2006 Author's Summit I learned about the early beta of Office Live, and joined.  I created a new ID - webmaster@pointweb.net - specifially for the project, but I included bill@pointweb.net in the Office Live account so I could integrate my email.

Long story short, Office Live isn't very good.  It is basically the Google Apps, but it costs $20 a month and breaks a lot.  So, I went to Google in the summer of last year.  I moved my email, and cancelled my Office Live account.  All was happy.

Two weeks ago, I figured out that Office Live has been billing me for a year for the service I cancelled.  I logged into billing.microsoft.com and cancelled the service.  Then I got ready to write an email ripping Office Live a new one.  I went back to billing.microsoft.com to get my history ... and couldn't.  My webmaster@pointweb.net Live ID account was deleted when I cancelled the service.  "Well, that's OK," I thought, "I set up that account just for that reason."

But, they deleted my bill@pointweb.net account too.

I couldn't believe it.  Looked EVERYWHERE for a phone number - not phone support for Live ID.  Put in email tickets.  After 32 responses, I gave up.  All they did was say "check your password ... account is disabled ... check with Office Live."  Office Live, after 40 responses, told me to leave them alone.  Not their problem.

So basically, Microsoft screwed me.  My Mesh account, my Asure account, my Connect account, Messenger, MSDN, my Partner account, my Live Space, everything is gone.  Can't get it back. 

Notice something.  All of those services are free.  Microsoft doesn't care.  How could they?  I'm not paying them!  They are within their rights to delete any of those accounts anytime they want.

It was my fault for trusting them with my information.

We all do this alot.  Why pay for software if you can get it for free, right?  Free is cheaper, right?  Well, no, not when the REAL owner of the software has an attitude like this.

So, I need to not depend on free services.  I am getting out of Google too, because if they cancelled things right now, I would be toast.  Going back to SmarterMail for my email, or something like it.  Something I control; somethign I paid for.  I moved my blog back to a server I can touch too (thought I am using free software, but at least it is my build).

Remember this when you recommend something free to a client.  They will get what they paid for.

EDIT: Here is some Google fodder: Windows Live ID Error 80048826 means "Your Live ID is gone because the Live ID Database is hopelessly corrupt due to poor architecture and worse implementation.  We wish we'd used OpenID too."

When teaching beginners how to pick, I find that quickly they learn that they can hold the lock up to their ear and listen for pins dropping as they release tension on the wrench.  If you have lifted pins up at all, the springs will snap them back into position with a little ‘click’.  If you know how many pins is in the lock (which you should) they you can ‘see how close you were.’

This doesn’t work.

There are two common errors in beginning lockpicking.  The first is too much tension.  This is a problem because if you rotate the cylinder within the lock too much, every pin will feel like it is binding.  You will hold both pins against the shear no matter what, and you’ll get a very bad level of feedback of actually lifting over the shear line.

The second mistake is overlifting.  Few people know how little pressure is required to actually life the key pin, and it is common the just ram the whole pin stack all the way to the roof witho0ut stopping at the shear line – a problem complicated by providing too much tension.

Those two problems combine for a false sense of what is happening inside the lock.  If you lift all of the key pins into the shear line – very easy on cheap locks – and then release tension, you’ll be able to hear all of the pins drop.  This causes the ‘oh, but I had it, ‘cause I could hear them drop’ problem.  The problem is that you didn’t have it, there is nothing wrong with the lock, you just overlifted.  It’s a common problem.

The best thing you can do is not listen at all in my opinion.  It’s like sniffing the cork when tasting wine – it’s not going to tell you anything.  The sommelier offers you the cork to you can make sure it isn’t dry or crumbling – NOW so you can sniff it.  Experienced pickers listen at a lock to see if they have something in particular, not just to see if they have any pins lifted.  I sometimes listen early on, to see if my feedback is lying to me.  I try and set one pin, and then see if it snaps back.  I don’t know if it is overlifted, or just jammed into position with too much tension.  But I do know if I made one pin stick.

So, don’t listen at the lock, at least when starting out.  Trust your fingers, and start with easy locks.

Defcon 17 is in the books, and Gabrielle and I had another fantastic time.  Props go out to all of the Defcon staff.  The Locksport International team and TOOOL put another fantastic lockpicking village together.  Coffee Wars pulled a record turnout of thirty-six brews, and we met some great people there.  (We lost badly.) And thanks to the hard working goons we met.

We arrived on Thursday, but with the new Defcon 101 tracks, we were practically late.  The lines weren’t much worse than usual but there was a badge shortage right away thanks to the fine people at Chinese Customs.  Gabrielle and I ended up with paper badges at first, but Gabrielle social engineered us into two actual badges soon thereafter.

The badge, as usual, is fantastic.  Kingpin did an over-the-top job of building a sleek, simple badge that still has lots of hacking potential and out-of-the-box functionality.  It uses the 32 pin MC56F8002 processor, with a microphone and an RGB LED to produce visual effects from aural input.  Wired Magazine actually published the open source firmware.  I am not a hardware hacker, but I have been working on getting it to produce different visual output based on pitch rather than volume.

I didn’t get his name, but one of the engineering team from Freescale (the company that made the microprocessor on the badge) came to the con.  He just set up shop in the Hardware Hacking Village and helped people program the board.  It was one of the coolest things I have seen at any con.  As some of you probably know, my hardware experience is circa 1979.  He effortlessly moved between helping me with the most basic soldering questions to the most advanced programming questions.  I was blown.  Get me his address, someone.  I want to send him a bottle of Scotch.

It seemed like the traffic flow was worse at first compared to Defcon 15, but it soon leveled out.  Part of the problem was the need to clean out the rooms fully and then count them coming back in due to the fire code.  The marshals were around, and very visible, throughout the con.

There is a lot of talk about the Riv being too small.  I happen to disagree – I think that DT just needs to find a logistics volunteer that will orchestrate the talks in such a way to control the crowds.  I have seen Gabrielle do it.  It is possible.  (You hear that Jeff?  She will work for Absolut.)  The people at the Riv work their collective asses off to make it a good con and you just can’t replace that.  Let’s change the logistics instead.

Oh wait, there was technical content too!  Who knew?

The most significant thing I learned is that for all of the protections for CAS in the .NET Framework, there is a mind blowing flaw.  The framework assemblies are just called by name.  If you replace an assembly, EVERY .NET program on that machine will use the altered DLL to run the program.  Does that mean if you replace the encryption protocol to email the keys to China, that all programs will send that key to China?

Yes.

Discuss.

Props to Erez Metula.

There was a great talk on using iMacro to do screen scraping for AJAX sites, and I plan on getting some new PoCs for that up in the future.  It wasn’t rocket science, but it was a really good implementation of a simple idea that I sure as hell didn’t come with.  I mean, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right?  Screen scraping is a massively underused art.  There is a LOT of information out there and the web browser just sucks for really making use of it.

So much net development was done on Metasploit in the last 12 months that they got an entire track dedicated to it.  The biggest piece is undoubtedly the Oracle module, which really puts all of the disparate Oracle attacks into one place for ease in testing.  I can’t recommend its use enough if you are a pen tester or in charge of db security

The civil liberties content was significant compared to 15.  Nearly one whole track for three days was filled with lawyers telling us how not to go to jail when we fly to Italy on vacation with some music of questionable origin on our laptop.  I just popped in and out of these, but every time I did I learned something.

 Did you know that if you are asked to give up your password in the states you can say “come back with a warrant” but if you are flying overseas, they can just take the machine without your permission, copy the whole hard drive, and say “Thanks for the warez, d00d.”  Lesson learned?  Carry an empty laptop overseas and download your data set from a secure channel once you get there.   When done, upload results and clear the machine again.  Microsoft doesn’t even LET you carry a machine overseas.

Speaking of privacy (weren’t we, really?) social networking was a huge topic this year.  Tom Eston and Kevin Johnson gave a great talk on some proof of concept work they did on social networks and trust.  For instance, set up a parody account of a ‘B’ celebrity, and gain trust of followers.  Then send out a link for a fun quiz with an XSS attack.  Gain twitter cookie, get password, rinse and repeat.  Social Butterfly is another of their tools, which manages the creation of apps in social networking sites like Facebook.  It collects user accounts to be used for research purposes.  Check it out.  It’s not just that picture of the Christmas party last year that will get you in trouble on Facebook.

Locksport village was very informative, very well attended, and very well stocked.  I picked up some new equipment and finally met both Schuler Towne and Doug Farre in the flesh.  Doug and I are going to make some moves toward getting the Locksport International organization a little more, well, organized, and get things up and running there. 

Gringo Warrior was a hoot.  I supplied the live guard with a cigar (which he really needed!) and watched.  Deviant had a whole boatload full of people, and I hadn’t practiced enough, so I didn’t do it this year.  Maybe next year.  The ah-ha moment for that was watching a very accomplished picker run the whole gamut in three minutes, and then spend ANOTHER three minutes trying to open the car door.  After that, Deviant stood by the auto locks and yelled “Everyone look!!”  Took out his auto jigglers.  “Easy lock,” pop.  “Medium lock’” pop.  “Hard lock,” pop.  “GET some jigglers people!  They aren’t that expensive!”  I got some jigglers.

My Defcon moment had to be standing in the elevator lobby waiting for a ride down from my floor, when thmping bass – LOUD thumping bass – became clearly audible.  I thought “that’s one hell of a boom box.”  Wait.  Aren’t those lights?

The door opens, and there is a full mobile DJ station in the elevator.  I kid you not.  There was a mini-rave going on right there in the elevator with a DJ and dancing babes and the obligatory big white guy who can’t dance just bobbing his head and looking cool.  It had to have been the coolest thing I have ever seen in an elevator, bar none.

Can’t wait for next year, folks.  This one was fantastic.  Till then, see you at PhreakNIC!

I decided that I wanted a simple Rye/Wheat blend for the end of summer, so I constructed this fairly simple recipe.  I think I might have underhopped it, especially considering the Rye character which at first take seems to demans a little more upfront bitterness.  We will have to see though - I put it down in primary on Sunday.

I'm also looking for a name for it - apparently they were all of of Creativity at the homebrew shop.  Thoughts?

Wheat/Rye

 

 

In Jujutsu, details matter. The Bansenshukai Ninjutsu jujutsu curriculum is made up of a 30 part kata of maneuvers from American Jujutsu in the Crawford system. It's the basic stuff you see in an MMA fight, really. Mount reversal, guard break, side mount, key lock, arm bar, arm bar, juji gatame ... you get the idea.

What astounds me is how much the details matter. Fo instance, in step 4 of the drill Tori is in side mount and Uke breaks an arm bar and grabs for a scarf choke. Tori goes to gaidon and get a vertical arm bar. Uke's arm is laying against the back shoulder and chest of Tori, and Tori has both hands to get the lock. In BSSKN, we use the palm grip (palms together, thumbs interlocked, fingers folded over back of hand) and tonight Sensei reminded me to use the knife edge of the inside of the forearm to get the lock. Just put that bone right on the top of the tricep.

That makes all the difference.

It is simpler to just grab the elbow joint with the hands. In fact, you can just hit it with a fist and break the elbow joint if you want. But putting that edge there just puts Uke in an inordinate amount of pain right away, and who doesn't want to end a fight faster?

So next time you train, work out the details. It's not just a fight, it is a set of techniques, and blending them will take time. Focus on the techniques now so them come naturally later.

In the world of taijutsu, legs are like pistons. You let the pressure out of them to lower yourself to the ground, and increase the pressure to lift yourself up. Take Morote Gari. You drop to a sprinters stance - releasing the pressure in your knees (performed by the calves and thighs) and position yourself at the knees of uke, then increase the pressure in your knees to take uke to the mat.

Hokojutsu is the same thing. The key to moving my bulk around silently is to not place my leg, but lower it, and then lower my weight onto it. If I just place it, I thump. If I lower it, I don't. It's a totally different way of thinking.

There are a bunch of examples. When I perform Oni Kudaki, for example (in the classical way) I slide into uke with my back foot and lower by center of gravity on my pistons to take balance. Then I raise myself after I get the lock on the elbow. The legs work just like hydraulics to lower and raise my body.