freemode.net

Freeswan on Debian    [ Software ]

I've been wrestling with a Debian box with FreeS/WAN patches applied as part of upgrading some end-of-life RedHat 8 systems.   IPSEC services start fine, somewhere between one third and one half of the tunnels come up, but it doesn't consistently work... then I found this page, which talks about getting FreeS/WAN to work with an older version of Debian, and most importantly, mentions that you have to turn OFF spoof protection in /etc/network/options.   Wallah!   It works, and I can stop worrying about having to restore the RedHat image over top of a perfectly good Debian install.

Last Morning Edition with Bob Edwards     [ News ]

Listened to NPR on WAMU this morning on the drive into work, it was Bob Edwards' last broadcast as the host of Morning Edition.   Last piece was an interview with Charles Osgood, who happened to be the first person that Bob had interviewed nearly 25 years previous.

Even Ted Koppel (interviewed regarding the Nightline program tonight that will show the pictures and list the names of the 700-some American military casualties in Iraq) wished Bob well for "the next phase of your career".   There's some amount of noise regarding his departure from Morning Edition and his new role as senior correspondent, and perhaps rightly so.   For an organization devoted to reporting news fairly, accurately and in depth, NPR hasn't done a great job of publicizing, explaining or informing its listeners about the change in advance.

Ah well, I'll certainly miss him - he's one of the voices I've grown up with, since my parents had NPR on for most of my childhood.   It's like having an old familiar friend telling you what's happening in the world, and I think that's why there's so many people who are so upset with Bob Edwards' departure as host of Morning Edition.

Hearing the opening music to "All Things Considered" still makes me think of dinnertime and my mom baking macaroni-and-cheese in the oven, my dad getting home from work and the discussions around the dinner table about the events of the day.   Ah well, all things must pass.

Latest (last?) Gartner IDS report    [ Geekiness ]

Gartner, ye olde purveyor of Insighte Into The IT Fielde, has graced us with an interesting new report on the state of IDS products.   In short:

• Current IDS (intrusion detection system) technologies just ain't cutting the cheese when it comes to return on investment - they're costly and not that effective at improving security
• New IPS (intrusion prevension system) technologies are the future of this field, since they detect and automagically block attacks instead of merely detecting attacks (oooh, shiny!)
• IDS vendors need to integrate IPS functionality into their product lines soon, or they'll die a grisly death

Well, grisly in a "corporate board meeting regarding our bankruptcy filing" sense.   Nothing that you couldn't pick up from using this stuff yourself, but go and buy the article if you want all the fun Magic Quadrant who's-hot-who's-not-for-CIOs details.

A discussion about this came up at work where one of the security team guys (Kevin) strongly objected to the report, pointing out how the Enterasys Dragon product far outshines its competitors in the IDS arena.   I agree, but... well, my inner debater got the better of me.   Hence the following treatise:

Eras on the 'Net    [ Geekiness ]

Something other than a political rant - I'm trying to do some research on the different eras of the 'Net, and came across Hobbes' Internet Timeline, which I know I've read before.   It's probably the best online resource for raw historical data on the Internet itself, certainly better than some other goofball sites.   The ISOC's Internet history site has some good links as well.

But how can you categorize eras on the Internet?   I know I've seen some vast changes in the 9-ish years I've been using it, but what are their key differences?   Since I've started reading Quicksilver a few days ago, I'm in a Aristotelian or Linneanian mood to exert order upon the world by classification.

Why I'm Not Voting For Bush    [ Politics ]

Top eight reasons why I'm not voting for Bush again in November:

(8) He's not a fiscal conservative.   Protectionist tariffs, huge government spending increases, reckless tax cut shenanigans and a ballooning federal deficit = economic irresponsibility.

(7) John Ashcroft scares the bejesus out of me.   I really didn't like Janet Reno as head of the DoJ, but the Ghost of Oliver Cromwell (State, meet Church.   Church, meet State.   Please, take away more of my liberties.) in that position is enough to make me want to toss #43 out of office.

(6) The whole they're-enemy-combatants-no-we-don't-have-to-follow-the-Geneva-convention bit for the prisoners held at Guantanamo is just wrong, plain wrong.   Regardless of how the US Supreme Court rules on this, the administration has botched their handling of "enemy combatants" and brought into question their willingness to defend basic rights and freedoms in other arenas.

(5) Abandoning any pretense of neutrality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and coming in on the side of Israeli settlements is absolutely mind-bogglingly stupid, given what the US is (supposedly) trying to accomplish in Iraq.   Hard to make a Arab democracy work if you're on the side of those kicking Palestinians off of their land.   Both sides in that conflict have committed absolutely heinous acts, our policy goals in the region would be better served by maintaining the pretense of neutrality that we had before.   It may not happen this week, or this month, but this decision WILL come back to haunt this administration and subsequent ones.

(4) Kyoto, the Axis of Evil, "Old Europe" and the panoply of foreign-policy missteps that have wasted and burned the goodwill of the entire civilized planet that the US had following 9/11.   Yes, the French and Russians are annoying to deal with, but dear god, that's not new!   The US had an opportunity that it will likely never have again to forge a real international consensus, expand and strengthen its leadership role and work with our allies to deal with threats like terrorism, and tossed it all away because Cheney, Rumsfeld and the neo-cons wanted to burn bridges instead of mend them.

(3) Where's the WMD?   It's not just that there was an intelligence failure, those happen all the time.   It's not that there weren't plenty of reasons to go to war with Saddam's Iraq - killing and torturing millions of your own citizens, blatantly defying UN resolutions, hell, even repeated attacks on our military forces could have been sufficient.   It's that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the administration declared that Iraq posed a grave and immediate threat to the security of the US because of its weapons of mass destruction, and HAD to be attacked NOW before they used them.   And they've all been disseminating and backtracking like there's no tomorrow since, well, looks like there aren't any.   It wouldn't bug me so much except that it was the major justification they used - live by the sword, die by the sword.

(2) When the British Prime Minister delivers a stirring call-to-arms for the Western world to stand firm, hold fast and fight back against those who would destroy us in the days following 9/11, I had real hope for the future.   Unfortunately, the elected leader of my country came out sounding and acting not like FDR to match Blair-channelling-Churchill, but something more like Ronald Reagan in his last year of office, muddled and half-hearted.   It scared me, and I think it's scared the press too - don't want to point out that the emperor has no clothes.   Even compared to his father, who was never the most impressive orator, Bush Jr. comes off as a repetitive dullard.   No wonder his handlers don't like open questions and real news conferences.   Makes you wonder who's really calling the shots and making decisions within the administration.

(1) No plan for postwar Iraq.   Occupations are hard business, and running a country can be harder and is certainly a very different task than invading it.   The Romans had it easy, if a population resists or rebels, then they destroyed the resisters, their families, their homes, their towns and their farms.   We can't (and shouldn't) do that sort of thing, which admittedly makes dealing with internal dissent + terrorists + radical religious movements opposed to your presence somewhat difficult.   This is why you NEED A PLAN and NEED LEGITIMACY.   Creating effective, legitimate governments is not done overnight, and it's only asking for failure to go at it with the time constraints and resources that have been put towards it.   It's the middle of April, and the administration has no idea what sort of government or specific people power will be handed over to on June 30.   If I were an Iraqi citizen, I'd be mighty mad about the situation too.