Jason building things (part II)

You've already seen where Jason likes building towers and structures with his jumbo blocks in a recent posting. But now we have had many instances of fun and Jason is showing his enjoyment in another way with the blocks he builds with....by knocking them down! He seems to take great pleasure in seeing them built up to some height, then he swats them over as seen here.


For those that are interested, here is how I got the picture:
I took some video with a digital camera and I captured the destruction. Then I was able to edit the clips with Avidemux to pull out this frame into a .JPG image. I was really impressed on how easy it was to use Avidemux as I have never done anything with digital video editing before. But I saw this as something easy install to add to my Dell Mini netbook running Ubuntu Linux 9 and I had to try it this application.

I think I found a new source for photos...

Talk at SCU

Yesterday evening I drove over to Santa Clara University and was given an opportunity to deliver a guest presentation. The Computer Engineering department has an Information Assurance track for the CE major for the graduate program. So for about an hour I got to talk about computer security incident response.

One of the favorite slides I like to bring out into the presentation is the deobfuscated java script code in web logs. What this means to people outside of the business is where malicious computer code comes across to critical web servers but in such a way that it is hiding its content from inspection, until it gets to the web server. When it arrives at the web server, the obfuscation is removed and the true nature of the content is revealed but then its too late to intercept the malicious code from doing harm to the web server.

Afternoon walks to the mailbox

So Jason has gotten accustomed to a couple things as he grows up. First, when he wants me to read a book to him, he will lift it up, putting it in my hands and then scramble over to the sofa to sit on it and wait for me to join him and read to him. The reading is rather cute becasue he seems to make the pages go by pretty quickly to get to the parts he likes most. Its a fun thing.

The other thing that's fun to do with him is that he goes along for walks. This usually happens when we go pick up mail at the mailbox around the corner from the house. So yesterday we put socks and shoes on him before heading out the door so he would have an opportunity to walk around a bit or at least part of the way. I've included a picture that was taken as we were coming back to the front of the house.

Been busy lately

I've been out of the office and away from for a couple weeks. I had some training down in San Diego. Soon after when I got back, I hit the road again for a customer visit. for the time being I am back here and sorting through all my stuff.

Technical training in San Diego

Hi Everyone. Since the last posting, I completed my annual training in Dublin and currently I am undergoing another course of technical training, but this time for my employer. While it sounds like my head is going to get flooded with information and that would be pretty close to the truth. But the nice thing is that this is a benefit to all parties involved so I do it all with a big smile.

Currently I am taking the SANS 504 (Hacking, Exploits, and Incident Response) course and its being taught by John Strand. He is an accomplished computer security professional and he carries himself well in the position. Its about the most enjoyable and interesting class I have had the privilege to be a part of. I am certainly getting a lot of the course and would defiantly recommend it to anyone suited for the subject.

Army, and Mission Peak hiking

This week I am on orders for the Army Reserve and I've begun my annual training. I am in Dublin, CA for the next couple weeks.

Yesterday I starting in on a bandwidth-measuring project (using MRTG) to gather some information and I had a couple issues getting all the required packages loaded for it to run. (It now appears to be working as I wished for.) In the morning I called my family to see how how things were going and how Jason was going about his day. Then in the afternoon a Army collegue and I hiked up to Mission Peak (which is part of the nature preserves within East Bay Regional Parks. The peak is about 2517 feet above sea level.

It took us an hour and 15 minutes to get to the monument at the top of the peak. The view out there is great and you can actually see much of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley from the summit.

I hadn't an opportunity to any sort of hiking since leaving active duty army in 1995 so this was a good deal to do. It was an enjoyable experince to go up to the top and get a work out at the same time. It might be something I should factor into my time off whenever I get some. In addition, I got so see some really nice plant

life that I hadn't seen in a long while, such as this California Poppy.

In addition to the trees and flowers, I happened upon a real-live rattlesnake on the way down. I was back on my way down the trail to go to return home and this snake was laying smack-dab in the middle of the path. I managed to not get bit or attacked, but also got to see the snake slither away a bit into the grass, prepare to lunge (as in a prelude to an attack), and hear the distinctive rattle sound the reptile makes. Check this out....

Ahhh...Nature.

Bubbles everywhere

Jason was outside today in the backyard and he was having a blast with the soap bubbles we got to blow around the yard. Here are photos of the fun.

Quakes and BBQ-ing

On an important note, Baja California (BC) experienced an earth quake this afternoon that was of a pretty significant magnitude. However given our location well inside the Central Valley of California, we did not feel any of it during the reported time it took place. (The hyperlink above goes to a Wikipedia image for a visual reference to the location of BC.) So all is well and nothing here was affected to what we can tell. (I was at the store at the time getting garden hardware and did not notice anything out of the ordinary.)

This weekend was a quiet Easter holiday. I got the backyard lawn mowed and tended to. And to top it all off we got to use the gas BBQ today. So I cooked up some chicken, hotdogs and Bocaburger (faux, non-meat,) patties. (No, no cooked Easter eggs or chocolate Easter bunnies!)

While on that subject...Jason got to do an Easter egg hunt today in the living room and he had a pretty good time of it. We have a few pictures of the Easter basket we put out for him and staged, as well as Jason going throughout the living room till all the eggs were revealed. Later i will gather those and post them here. But in all, it was a really great weekend.

Recently caught at his best

I found this in the digital camera and I could not help but to include it. He is all about the smiles in this picture; enjoy.

Jason building things...

The other day I had a good opportunity to get a picture of Jason having fun building one of his Jumbo-Lego towers. He got a hold of these last Christmas as a present and they have been a hit with him ever since. Now he like to take them and build a tower just about as high as he can manage. Here in this picture we see him hard at work while Max the cat supervises the completion of the work. (Typical cat.)

Techie projects of late

Sometimes I get on this blog and I forget I can write about almost any subject. There isn't just one thing in my life and there are plenty of interests that go around. Lately I have been working on malware analysis (e.g., reverse-engineering how computer viruses function and work to fix the damage they cause) and standing up what is termed as a Linux Apache MySQL PHP (LAMP for short) server. These projects are fun to to (at least to me) and everytime I work on these little projects, makes for good, fun learning experiences. Today I have a couple things to write about the LAMP server creation. Here is a text-screenshot of the webserver just after install:

For folks that never worked on building their own webserver, it does take some work but in the end you will stand to learn that a well planned setup that you build yourself can leave you with a rewarding experience. Personally I used to be completely happy with just simply installing packages or taking a 'ready made' setup and makeing one or two tweeks. But what I have found is that you may end up with little extra things that lurk below your normal attention but are still there that may either be simply undesirable or may even represent vulnerabilities that are just waiting to be exploited. It can really blow up on you if you happen to be unaware of it.

So I decided to take a basic Red Hat Linux version and install just the base components onto an old Dell Inspiron laptop I had laying around and load in all the nessesary pieces (ie. the Apache Webserver, the MySQL database) and setup a basic firewall to help protect it. As an extra challenge, I decided whenever possible, to compile as much as possible from source code. So far I got as far as setting up the firewall and defining rules, and getting Apache 1.3.41 with SSL support compiled and running.

Before I go on, I am going to subject it to a vulnerability assessment to see what aspects of it are open and in need of attention before further progress. This way I can see its attributes (both negative and positive of course) just as it is fresh 'out-of-the-box'.

I will write in later when the tests are done and I get MySQL installed (ah...a day without a SQL query is like a day without solar fusion.)

Eating orange slices

The other day I had a moment where I put up a post to the blog and mentioned I would later add some pictures. Well, sorry, but I have not gotten the pictures from off the camera they were taken.

However Jason was sitting in his high-chair eating his snack (at the designated chow time, because that is *his SOP*) and he was eating small orange slices while we watched.


So he is really working on using those teeth that are coming in. Lately I peered into his mouth and I could see teeth on the bottom and top fron (maybe 8) and what appears to be a molar for grinding food. Awesome.

Some help with data analysis timelines...

Its not often that I get to post about some of the things I learn of on the job, but this is a pretty exciting one. For a while I have wanted a simplified method for sorting events that happen on computers (e.g., file timestamps, changes to the Windows Registry, event logs, browser use and sites visited) and firewall logs or IDS logs.

Well there is a great tool out the for doing this sort of work called log2timeline but up till now I had problems getting some of the requisite Perl-language modules installed so I have not had the chance to troubleshoot it or spend any time on it. But today one of my coworkers notified me there was a great 'howto' document on the web (here is the link to the site.) It looks pretty well explained and resolves the problems preventing my associate or mine issues we had in the past with installing and compiling it. In fact Chris was excited that he got it working working and we traded some usage ideas. So thanks go to Chris for finding that aid and I owe him a solid in return.

I am thinking I can use the logtotimeline in a small side-project where I can take some of the events in a malware analysis class I took last year taught at SANS. The plan is to capture the attempted call-outs using tcpdump and file timestamps on the 'victim' system and put both of these disparate sources together in a sorted-by-date/time listing. I will let you know how it goes.

Birthday,anniversary, and a Saturday at the zoo

Before I forget I wanted to get a blog posting out today. So today I am one year older and my marriage to my wonderful wilfe has gone on for another year. Whats amazing is that everything seems to go well and make the family stronger at every turn.

I will post some pictures later today but we also had a chance to get out this weekend and take Jason to the SF zoo. Jason got to see the lions in their enclosure and he could point them out, and he got to see his current favorite, the penguins. Its funny that we happened upon the penguin exhibit right about feeding time so there were flocks of the birds all over that Jason could watch and enjoy.

Gotta run and get a few things done today. I will revisit later to post pic and so on.

New Year and new things for Jason

Sorry its been a while since I posted anything on this blog. I have been keeping busy at ho0me and work and Jason is growing big and doing more every day.

He had a great Christmas and he made out pretty well with a drawing chalkboard and a indoor playset with swing & slide as part of the set. He also has been having a ball with a number of book that he got from Santa Clause and a set of jumbo Lego blocks.

So we are into 100 and already into February. It amazing me h0w much time has gone since last post. We've gotten plenty of rain in the Central Valley and its very much needed. But last weekend it started drying out a bit and the weather was very nice. We got a chance this weekend to walk Jason over to the little local park nearby and I am including some pictures of him exploring the grassy field and outdoor playset.

Jason walking about

Here is the latest news with Jason and its good news.
Jason has started walking about and what started as a few steps and usually a lurch forward. Now he is pretty adept at bringing himself to his feet and starting off after whatever is in his mind to go after. Since the Christmas season is upon us, Jason has been very attracted to what the Chrismas tree holds. Now his newest form of speedy movement means he can get to the tree oh much faster.

Today we had a chance to get out of town and headed off out towards Oakhurst. Oakhurst is just within an hour's drive from Yosemite National Park and is one of the California Central Valley cities in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It was pretty easy to get from home and we had a nice time. Jason also got some personal enjoyment out of it, where he got to play around in a pile of leaves. Next week I will have a work assignment that will take me out of town right after Christmas so getting out and taking the family out on a little adventure was a welcome

Long time since last posting and Halloween

Hi Everyone. Its been a *long* while since I last posted but I have been pretty busy with thing at work, and Jason has been doing real well. Recently he came back from a pediatric cardiologist appointment and the report on him was that he was doing well and heart function was going along fine.

So I am going to catch up on a couple pictures that I have been long overdue in posting here. Jason was given a stuffed penguin animal toy and he has fallen in love with it. He took to it really well and its now his favorite, even dragging it everywhere he goes. A couple days ago he fell asleep in the living room on the floor, with one arm draped over his penguin!
Here is a picture with him sitting with his penguin.


Recently we had Halloween night and Jason got to take part in the event. He seemed to have a great time, going as Poo (Disney) and he looked really adorable in his costume. He even got in to the spirit of the holiday and made a grab for the candy dish meant for the Trick-or-Treat'ers. He did not get any candy out of it but he had a good time throughout the night. It was a great night for everyone.

Find that kitty!!!

Jason was seen yesterday looking for his cat, Max. Where he was looking made us laugh. Max is burrowed deep into the laundry basket. Jason caught wind of this and started reaching in to pet one of his favorite cats as seen here.

Jason is 1 year old!

Jason is now a year old and he is doing great. He is now spending most of his time babbling and working on crawling. Lately the crawling has been done in pursuit of the house cats! Its a real hoot to watch him become so determined in catching up to them unnoticed till the last moment.
He also gets plenty of time practicing his standing and walking skills in his walker here in this recent picture.

This weekend a birthday party is planned to go off and we will open our home to see Jason on Saturday afternoon. Tomorrow I will go off to get Jason's birthday cake and it will start what will be a fun-filled day for him.

That's all for now.

Jason's social visit to UCSF and A/C

This weekend was a happy and eventful weekend for Jason. He had a great time going
to see the great nurses and staff over at UCSF Children's Hospital Pediatric Cardiology floor.
We traveled up to San Francisco on Friday and stayed overnight to be able to visit the
nurses that took great care of Jason while he was being cared for. Some of them were in complete amazement that the little boy that was discharged to go home some nine months ago had made some much growth and development progress.

After the visit to the hospital we went out over to the Golden Gate Park took in some of the sites. Jason even got to ride on the carousel at the park. After a short while there, we went over to the beach by Pier 39 and Jason go to take in the ocean. He had a great time looking at the ocean and everyone at the beach.

Today's trip back home went pretty well and Jason had a pretty good time traveling back home.
It takes us about 3 hours to travel home from SF, but usually we have to stop sometime along the way to feed him (for one of his 'every three hours' feedings.)

This evening my wife and I noticed a slightly warmer house in the evening and we were not totally certain the A/C unit was running. All the Central Valley weather forecasts were claiming how hot it was going to be, and I though that could have something to do with it, but went out to the back yard to investigate. The indoors thermostat appeared to be working just fine and there was air blowing out of the register vents in the house so outside to the outdoors fan sounded like the obvious next step to investigate. When I went out there, I found the blower motor was not running and the whole unit was pretty warm; warmer than I ever felt it.

I cut the power off from the house circuit breaker and started looking through the 'house appliances install/service guides' for ideas. I did not get too many from that but I then checked out a schematic on the inside of an exterior panel. This showed me how a relay, outside compressor, and outside fan (the blowermotor) were interconnected and I immediatly started to check the supply voltages to the blower motor. I have had this Fluke 79 Series II multimeter for over 18 years now and it continues to be of great value. Some may consider it an extravegant tool to have, but I have fixed more house problems with it than I can keep track of. So anyway I got to checking the supply voltages and it appeared to be getting the right voltages, but I was not certain the motor was fully functional. I gave it a little push with a stick and it started up spinning and gathering speed to its normal flow rate.

I may have to give it a little while to make sure its fully cooling the house, but a service call tomorrow appears to be in order....