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Firefox Sets a Guiness World Record

Mozilla Firefox has been the open source browser of choice among many people for a long time. I install it on every system I work on for a friend, and I have it installed on every computer I own. Granted I run Linux at home, and you can’t even get Internet Explorer for Linux, but that doesn’t even really matter. The point is that Firefox has been the only browser in history to have any shot at dethroning Internet Explorer in the browser market. I use it, I love it, and everybody I show it to loves it.

With that note, Firefox 3 was just released. Firefox boasted about it for weeks, and their entire mission was to try and set a new Guiness World Record for the number of downloads in a 24 hour period. Firefox 3 was downloaded 8,002,530 on the day of its release. Yes, that is over eight MILLION downloads in 24 hours. I did contribute, and so far I like Firefox 3. It looks cleaner, and seems to run better. It does take up more memory, but thats to be expected with the improvement of the looks, and the special features they added to it. It’s pretty sweet. Look, I even got my own Download Day flyer :)

Firefox Download Day

Mozilla enthusiasts worldwide drove more than 1.7 million pledges to download Firefox 3 on Download Day, hosted regional download “fests,” and informed more than 43 million people through hosting Download Day affiliate buttons online. The global Mozilla community has been celebrating the historic goal of establishing a Guinness World Record with parties in more than 25 countries, including a 24-hour long download fest celebration called Camp Firefox at Mozilla’s Mountain View headquarters.

That’s pretty amazing. Over 8 million downloads in 24 hours. Those servers must have been going ape shit all day in order to push out downloads like that. Good stuff.

Mozilla Sets New Guinness World Record with Firefox 3 Downloads [mozilla]

2008 07 03 Funtime Current Affairs
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My Anti Pouch Campaign

So, at work all the guys I work with have this running joke. “Long Live Pouch!”. We have determined the pouch is the stomach, and everybody has a pouch…at least everybody has a little one. My pouch is a little bigger than some, and smaller than others. Well, as of yesterday, I have started my ‘Anti Pouch Campaign’. Seriously, yesterday I ate a half a salad for lunch, went running for 20 minutes after work, and then after my run I went and sat in the sauna for like 15 minutes. It was awesome. I’m not really sure how much weight I lost, but I know how much I weighed in at….which is kind of high so I’m not going to post it here. I will keep you updated on the results of the ‘Anti Pouch Campaign’, and anybody that wants to join in on the fun…let me know and we can work out a schedule and exchange results. It should be a pretty good time…as long as I can stick with it. One day at a time though….thats my current philosophy. Muahaha :P

In other news, we went to Wichita, KS for the weekend. This guy we work with, Snarf, was getting married to his high school sweetheart, so on Thursday at lunch, Grant, Katie and myself decided we were going to pile into the Cadillac and drive out to Wichita. We got another guy we work with to head out with us, and we left Friday night at about 8pm. We showed up in Wichita at about 5:30am Saturday morning, went to the wedding at 2pm Saturday, and then headed back on Sunday. It was awesome. Snarf was completely surprised that we made the trip out there. We partied hard with him Saturday night, and then hit the road again on Sunday. Took us just about 8 hours to make it back to Colorado, and my car was pretty disgusting by the time we got back. Apparently, there are a lot of bugs that hit your car when you are going 90 mph down the highway. Who woulda thought!? :P Check out my MySpace/Facebook in the next couple days for pics/videos of the trip, and the wedding. It was a pretty good time, and we definitely had fun doing it.

LONG LIVE POUCH!!!

2008 07 01 Funtime Current Affairs
Food and Drink
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The Website Is Down (Video)

This is honestly one of the funniest videos I have EVER seen. Any IT person, especially system administrators, and help desk support people, will find this hysterical. It starts off kind of slow, but by the end you should be crying you are laughing so hard. Freaking Awesome!!

2008 07 01 Funtime Humor Comments (0) Permalink

He’s Off

So, Brahma headed out today to head back out to the Middle East. He signed another contract with ITT to head out to Afghanistan this time. Everybody wish him safe travels as he heads out for another year of misery and hell with the company from Satan’s backdoor. All right, that might be a little harsh, but they didn’t do me right, they didn’t do Joe right, they didn’t do Jeremy right, and they didn’t do Grant right…so I’m not very happy with them. And to think I was willing to go back out there to work with the TNOSC under them. Not gonna happen anymore. Turns out the TNOSC doesn’t get to do any log analysis. Anyways, Brahma should be keeping his blog updated as he is out there…as long as the TNOSC, and the Afghan System Administrators don’t block the website. Let’s all hope they don’t cuz I love reading that kids blog posts. Freaking awesome. Haha

As far as my attempts to get back out to the Middle East go, I did apply for a job with Northrop Grumman out there, but I got denied. Oh well. It would have been nice to go back out to Kuwait and make some booku bucks, but I guess I’m not really qualified to do that job. I am going to hang out here for another couple months, try to get some more credentials, and the GCIA cert, under my belt and see if thats enough for them then…pending the job is still available on the NGC Careers website. I’ll let you all know how that turns out.

As far as other things go, I have been laying kinda low the last couple weeks. I was on call last weekend, and have been on call every night this week, except Tuesday night, so I should be able to party pretty hard this weekend. We have some pretty big plans, that I can’t really go into right now. I will tell you all about it Sunday or Monday, but it’s going to be AWESOME! Make sure to check back with me sometime in the near future so that you can read all about it…and maybe even see some pictures. Also, check out my MySpace page to check out some pictures of the last few weekends when we did actually all get together and party. I have some pictures of Grant’s birthday weekend, the UFC fight that weekend, and then the next weekend which was Katie’s birthday. We partied pretty hard those two weeks, so lets hope we can do it again here this weekend. Haha.

All right. Time to get back to work. I’ve been writing this for a little bit, and its going to post at noon. Don’t forget to head out to Brahma’s site and show him some love. The guys is a trooper for suffering another year out there…and this time in Afghanistan. Crazy guy. We love you Brahma, and make sure to come back to us in one piece, my Samoan brotha!! :P

2008 06 27 Funtime Ramblings Comments (0) Permalink

The Godfather Rated AFI’s Number One Gangster Film

The Godfather Part I has been rated the number one gangster film of all time by the American Film Institute (AFI). Tough competition in this round, including Scarface, The Godfather Part II, and Goodfellas, not to mention some of the movies that didn’t make the cut. Here’s the full list.

  1. The Godfather Part I (Widescreen Edition) (1972)
  2. Goodfellas (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1990)
  3. The Godfather, Part II (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition) (1974)
  4. White Heat (1949)
  5. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
  6. Scarface (Universal Cinema Classics) (1932)
  7. Pulp Fiction (1994)
  8. The Public Enemy (1931)
  9. Little Caesar (1931)
  10. Scarface (Platinum Edition) (1983)

I knew there was a reason this is one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s a classic, and anybody that hasn’t seen it…needs to definitely check it out as soon as possible. It is truly one of the greatest films ever made.

2008 06 18 Funtime Film Comments (0) Permalink

Boston Celtics!! 2008 National Champs!

The Boston Celtics won the National Championship last night. What an amazing performance brought out by the Celtics. Complete domination throughout the entire game. Props to the Celtics!!

Final Score: Boston Celtics 131, Los Angeles Lakers 92

Boston Celtics

2008 06 18 Funtime Sports Comments (0) Permalink

What a Weekend!

So, this weekend was Katie’s birthday, and we partied right. Her birthday was actually on Friday, but she had some friends fly in from out of town on Thursday, so we went out Thursday night, and hit up a cowboy bar downtown. Yes I know, I went to a cowboy bar. Crazy, right. Wanna know what’s even crazier? Good, because I’m gonna tell you. I actually danced…for like 2 hours. That is what is really crazy. Haha. Anyway, that is what happened Thursday night. Didn’t sleep much that night, as I was on the couch at Katie’s house, and heard some people come downstairs at like 8am….I didn’t get to sleep until 4:30ish. So, I got up and went home. Slept for a couple more hours, and then got up and ran some errands. Didn’t have to work that day, but I did have to get my car fixed. I’ll talk about that a little more later.

So, that was Thursday night. Then on Friday night, we went downtown again, and this time, I don’t think anybody got really drunk. Had a couple shots with Kyle (Katie’s roommate), and then ended up back at their place where we stayed up again until 4:30ish. That night I was actually sober, and was able to drive home, so went home, and didn’t pass out until 6am’ish. Got up at 9:30 Saturday morning to take care of some errands, and get some things done before the official party on Saturday night…Vegas themed, how awesome is that?? Then partied on Saturday night. Played a little poker, and won some money…I know, I’m pretty much awesome, right. Haha. Overall, the weekend was pretty fun…had some drinks, went to a fun party, played some cards, and to top it all off, it was a three-day weekend. Can’t complain too much about that.

Anyway, about my car. I went out Thursday after work to get it washed, and on the way home, the weather strip on the top of my windshield started to fall off, and flap in the wind. Come on, seriously, my car is a 2005…this shit should not be happening to it. So, it was too late to get anything done with it on Thursday, but on Friday I called Cadillac and asked them what they could do. They guy at Cadillac told me he had to order the part, and said he would place the order and let me know when it came in….3-5 business days. WTF!!? 3-5 business days to get a piece of rubber glued to the top of my windshield. Get outta here. So I told him to place the order and give me a call. Then like 3 hours later, he called and told me they actually did have the part in stock and that he could take care of it that day within a couple hours. So, I packed it up and headed down to Cadillac. Got the windshield repaired, and then I also got my interior back panel replaced, which was starting to fall off where the airbag comes out. Which, basically means that my car is finally functional again….thank god because that shit was really starting to irritate me. Haha.

Well, thats how my weekend went. Anything big from any of you out there??

2008 06 16 Funtime Night Life
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WARGAMES and the Great Hacking Scare of 1983

WarGames turned 25 a couple days ago, and I guess AMC was airing it that night. I was lucky enough to catch about a half hour of it on television towards the end of the night before I went to bed.

For those of you slackers out there that have never seen this fantastic film, WarGames is about a high school hacker named David Lightman (played by Matthew Broderick), who is a computer hacker at home. He uses his system to scan the internet for phone numbers he can dial into in order to access them remotely. In an attempt to get into the public system of a video game manufacturer, so he and his friends can play an unreleased copy of their new game, he accidentally ends up dialing into WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), a military computer based at NORAD, and starts playing games with it. This ends up almost starting World War III as the U.S. Military thinks Russia is going to launch a nuclear attack on the United States.

Well, as it turns out, WarGames, along with some other television shows and movies of the time, started the ‘Great Hacking Scare of 1983′. Luckily I wasn’t there to witness this, because I would have probably been pretty pissed about it, but the mainstream media of the time was trying to convince parents to question whether their kids needed to access the outside world from their home computers.

A magazine article suggested that computer modems be “locked up” just like firearms, to keep them out of the reach of teenagers. I even heard one pundit proclaim that there was no need for regular people to be able to log in to a remote system: that if you need to access your bank account, a friendly teller was just a short drive away.

As you can see, this was all un-merited and people were just going crazy, but that is the way things were back then. People saw something they didn’t understand, and it scared them. Especially with things the way they were with the Soviet Union back in the early 80’s. I’m just glad we all got over that one, and now the internet is a part of everybody’s daily lives. Because if not, what the hell would I be doing with my life. Haha

I actually bought this movie at a gas station like six months ago, and have yet to watch the DVD copy that I own, but I try to watch it all the time when it comes on television. It is seriously one of my favorite movies ever, and to think its 25 years old now. Craziness. One of the reasons I actually like this movie, is that the technology, and the computer haxoring done in the movie is actually fairly legitimate for the time. I don’t think you could dial into a military network that easily, but other systems (banks, schools, video game companies) were easily accessible, and had no knowledge of computer security. Come to think of it, I don’t think anybody knew what computer security was back then.

WARGAMES and the Great Hacking Scare of 1983 [The Knight Shift]
WarGames [Wikipedia]
WarGames [IMDb]

2008 06 05 Funtime Film Comments (0) Permalink

Comcast Was Haxored!

Comcast Hack BannerComcast.net was hijacked Wednesday night, and all traffic going to their site was redirected to a series of different sites throughout the night.

Wired.com spoke with the two crackers, Defiant and EBK, which are associated the crack group Kryogeniks. They say the attack began Tuesday when they used a little bit of social engineering, along with technical hacks, to get into Comcast’s domain management console at Network Solutions, Inc. Originally, they had no intention of directly messing with the Comcast.net site, but only wanted to let them know it was possible to get in. They started out by changing the contact information for Comcast.net to Defiant’s email address; they also changed the street address to “Dildo Room” at “69 Dick Tard Lane”.

Comcast noticed the administrative change, and promptly changed this information back. This caused the crackers to repeat the exploit in order to get back into the management console for Comcast. Once they got in again, they took a screenshot to prove their access, and even contacted the original technical contact at his home number to tell him they had access. Comcast would neither confirm nor deny the warning call.

Comcast Hack Screenshot

After being scoffed at during the phone conversation with Comcast’s technical contact, the crackers decided to take things to the next step, and re-route all Comcast.net traffic to servers under their control.

“If he wasn’t such a prick, he could have avoided all of that,” says EBK. “I wasn’t even really thinking. Plus, I’m just so mad at Comcast. I’m tired of their shitty service.”

Comcast.net’s 14 million nationwide subscribers kept the crackers up all night redirecting traffic to different servers, as they were falling to the copious amounts of traffic hitting their servers. According to the crackers, “You know how hard it is to find hosting handling that kind of traffic? The first one went in two minutes”. Both crackers say their houses have been raided by law enforcement for computer crimes, therefore, EBK slept for about an hour, and Defiant slept for approximately 20 minutes during the attack.

The defacement message was short and simple: “KRYOGENIKS Defiant and EBK RoXed Comcast, sHouTz to VIRUS Warlock elul21 coll1er seven.”

The attack began at around 11:00 p.m. eastern time, and Defiant and EBK owned Comcast.net until four or five in the morning. Even when Comcast regained control, it took hours longer for the change to fully propagate through the DNS, leaving some customers without webmail access as late as 11:30 Thursday morning.

How sweet is this. I really hate how Comcast limits your traffic, and monitors the type of traffic coming from your IP Address, and I am wicked excited they were so easily pwn3d <- geek term. Its about time this finally happened, and maybe this will shed some light into Comcast on how they are viewed by the public, and by their customers. Hopefully this will open their eyes a little bit, otherwise maybe Defiant and EBK will just have to do it again!

HACK THE PLANET!! Haha.

Comcast Hijackers Say They Warned the Company First [Wired.com]

2008 05 30 Funtime Web/Tech Comments (0) Permalink

Been A Little While

So, I know it’s been a little while since I posted anything, and for that I apologize. I haven’t really had very much time. Things at work have been pretty crazy the last couple weeks, and then on weekends, I have been hanging out a lot with friends and partying. I’m pretty sure you don’t want me posting blogs when I am drunk…that would just be awkward for my readers, and pretty funny for them too. Haha.

Well, on the agenda for this week is the UFC fight. BJ Penn is going to fight Sean Sherk for the Lightweight UFC title, which is going to be pretty sweet…except for the fact that Sean Sherk doesn’t stand a chance to beat BJ Penn. BJ is in a whole other class of fighter, and he’s going to dominate the Lightweight division once he gets the title. It’s still going to be pretty fun though. I am heading down to Colorado Springs this weekend for a doctors appointment, and then partying Friday night, watching the fight Saturday night, and then there is also Territory Days coming up this weekend…which is going to be a blast. I haven’t seen my family/friends down in the Springs for six weeks by the time I get down there, so seeing all them is going to be pretty sweet too. I’m pretty sure Jeremy and I are bringing my mom out for dinner for a late Mother’s Day dinner, but I’m not positive. I’m probably going to try and convince her to do so, even if she doesn’t want to. Haha.

My friend Jenn left for Chicago, for two months, last week. She’s going out there to do some internship/work study for the summer, and then she’s moving back to Golden to finish her senior year in college. Go Jenn, this is going to be awesome for you, and I’m happy that you are getting this opportunity. Although, it does kind of suck that we aren’t going to really get to hang out this summer, I’m getting pretty used to it by now. ;). Brahma from Kuwait is heading back out to the Middle East in a few weeks to go back to work, which actually kinda sucks, but it’s going to be really good for him. Good luck out there brotha man. If I didn’t have so much holding me back here, I may actually go back out to Kuwait…but then again, I would require a job with the TNOSC IA department working with IDS logs, and doing pretty much what I do here, but making a LOT more money doing it. Haha.

Went and saw Ironman this week, and let me just say that was an awesome movie. Robert Downey Jr. played the part of Tony Stark brilliantly. It was really cool seeing a non-mainstream super hero get his moment in the spotlight. We have been seeing movies for Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man for years now, and its nice to see a lower class super hero get a great movie made for him. It really was an awesome movie. If you haven’t seen it yet…get off your @$$ and go out to the movie theater. Haha.

Well, that’s pretty much it. I will try to get back on the ball and start blog posting more often now that I am back in the groove. I still check this thing all the time for Comments and Messages. So feel free to send me something if I start slacking off, and give me a virtual kick in the butt to get back to blogging.

2008 05 21 Funtime Ramblings Comments (1) Permalink