Wed, 15 Nov 2006
Is it blackmail?
A Fascinating Apache Log Entry
Apache is the software that runs the HallmarcDotNet web server. It keeps a record of every request for a web page, including where it came from, the date and time, the method and protocol version used, whether the request was successful or not, the size of the file that was sent (if any) in response to the request, the URL that the requester had most recently visited, and the browser and version the requester is claiming to use.
Two or three times a month I run a script that looks for interesting entries in the log: cracking attempts, broken links, recruiters finding my resume, people reading my novel or blog, that sort of thing.
Today when I ran my script, I encountered a fascinating entry - one that piqued my curiosity. Here’s the raw text:
mail.fz.k12.mo.us - - [06/Nov/2006:10:46:25 -0600]
"GET /cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi HTTP/1.1"
200 19898 "http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=dubray+dirty+stuff+mo&btnG=Search"
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"
What that means is that someone inside the Fort Zumwalt School District network did a Google search for the combination of terms “dubray+dirty+stuff+mo”. For the uninitiated, Bernard J. DuBray is the current superintendent of that school district. A middle school (as it happens, the one my oldest child attends) in the district is named after Dr. DuBray.
It’s not a a very imaginative query… Possibly a student, but more likely a disgruntled employee. Or a very good PR flack, looking to get ahead of the opposition.
Do we have a potential blackmailer? Do I call the papers? The police? The network admin at Fort Zumwalt SD?
It probably means absolutely nothing; but it’s still fun to speculate. And imagine the possibilities.
posted at: 13:58 | permanent link to this entryTue, 14 Nov 2006
over-thinking energy efficiency
Break room, water cooler, drinking fountain, or restroom?
The other day as I was carrying my NPR All Things Considered mug down the aisle in search of water for my desk plant, I encountered an conundrum: what is the most energy-efficient way of obtaining the water?
This came up because as I was approaching the break room where I normally acquire aqueous refreshment, I noted that the light was out.
“What does that have to do with water?” you ask… with good reason.
A little background is required by way of explanation: here at MasterCard Worldwide, we have motion-sensing lightswitches in all of our break rooms, meeting rooms, and restrooms. This is so that when a room is unoccupied, the light won’t stay on indefinitely, wasting electricity. So far, so good. These switches also have a manual override, that allows someone to turn them off immediately upon exiting a room, rather than waiting for the pre-determined time to elapse before the lights shut off. Even better.
Anyway, the light in the break room was out. That’s when my conundrum confronted me — Should I enter the break room, triggering the light, running the water in the sink, and filling my mug? That would mean I’m using electricity that wouldn’t otherwise be used. Or, should I continue past the break room, and obtain the water from the electrically cooled drinking fountain? Finally, should I also pass the drinking fountain and enter the restroom, where the infrared-sensing faucet would dispense temperature-controlled, gas-heated water into the mug? (Of course I completely discarded the fourth option of entering the break room, triggering the lights, and filling the mug from the electrically-cooled and -heated water cooler.)
I’ll not keep you in suspense — I chose the drinking fountain, for three reasons:
First, the lights were already on in that area, and no action by me could turn them off or on. Second, Although the water was electrically chilled, the refrigeration would be activated regardless of whether I turned the fountain knob to dispense cool, refreshing H2O. Finally, the restroom sinks’ water temperature is not user-controlled, so the water automatically heats whenever it runs.
What would you have done?
posted at: 23:17 | permanent link to this entryMon, 13 Nov 2006
Halloween Surprise
Marc publishes a new short story
In an effort to appease my daughter (who asked every one in the family to write a short story), my wife (who encourages these sorts of endeavours), and my creative urges, I have written a new short story and published it on HallmarcDotNet.
The Halloween Surprise
is a fictional (which my wife is at pains to emphasize, since the character based on
her is described as “grumpy”
account of a family awakening on Halloween morning. Your comments are
welcome, of course. Send them to my first name at HallmarcDotNet.
Wed, 01 Nov 2006
Halloween Week
MasterCard’s Positive Financial Picture
I’m now back at my regular work location; it took a week to complete all the system testing in Kansas City. Unfortunately, I’ll be working again on Saturday, and then I’m on-call Monday through Sunday. That usually means at least four hours one night during the week and another seveal hours over the weekend on troubleshooting. Unpleasant.
You may have heard that MasterCard is a public company, now. We announced our first quarterly result as a public company this week; double-digit profit growth for the tenth straight quarter. The stock price is up 15% on the news. We’ve now doubled our company’s worth in the market since our IPO. It reminds me a little too much of the stock bubble at the end of 1999…
Still, I like knowing I’m part of that success. On the other hand, I haven’t been seeing my family nearly enough.
Halloween was busy. Bryan is 13 now; so this was his last trick-or-treat Halloween. He went out as Robin Hood and got loads of compliments on his costume. Melody is nine, and as sweet as ever. She always goes ethnic: last year she wore traditional Mexican garb, and this year she was Chinese. And Thomas… Thomas was adorable as a seven-year-old Greek philosopher.
We live across the street from the local Alderman, who always pulls some strings for special events. As a result, we had a police cruiser and a ladder truck from the fire department in front of the house, distributing junior badges and glowsticks to all the kids. The parade of costumed kids was much larger than it had been in Shingle Springs - suburbia is different than country living. The cutest costumes were a trio of tween girls who were rock, paper, and scissors.
Jan is doing well, although she’s a little frazzled. She’s been taking prerequisite courses at the local community college in preparation to enter their RN program. She finds them easy, but is annoyed at having to take them at all, given her B.S. in biology.
The program doesn’t appear to be very well administered. After all prerequisites have been taken, students are then required to pass a test on dosages, including things like converting drams to CCs, etc. But to take this exam, you have to register for it. It’s only offered to a few students at a time. Only eighty students are admitted to the program each year. So, students want to register for the exam early and choose an early test date, so they can be one of the first eighty to pass. However, the program only permits registration on specific dates, beginning on a Monday. Complicated, eh? To make matters worse, you have to register in person. As a result, students began lining up to register on the Sunday morning prior to the opening of registration.
With tents.
The weather forecast was for a low in the 20s with snow flurries possible. So, around eight p.m., the campus director of security intervened and told all the students to go home. He handed out numbered tickets to everyone in line had a security officer stand there and give tickets to anyone who showed up afterward. More than three hundred tickets were issued. Jan was 37.
On Monday morning, when told where they stood in the rankings, there was much anger on the part of students who had driven by, seen no line, and gone home.
Can you believe that kind of poor planning exists in a professionally-run institution?
As part of my duties in Kansas City, I was installing some software in our Trust Center. The Trust Center is, essentially, a bank vault where MasterCard stores encryption keys that permit our data to be securely transfered across connections that might be compromised.
To get into the Trust Center, the system is complicated. It’s supposed to work like this: After entering the data center (which is surrounded by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire) by using an electronic key, negotiating a boulder barrier, using an electronic key and a PIN to enter the windowless building, one checks in with the security office and is issued a second electronic badge and PIN. Then, one is escorted to the hallway leading to the Trust Center. There, the visitor is badged in again. At the entrance to the Trust Center, The visitor badges in with the new key and PIN. That brings the visitor inside the outer wall of the vault. Inside the Trust Center, the visitor’s fingerprint is scanned, the visitor is issued another PIN for the scanner, and the visitor signs in. After that, the visitor enters the “beer can”. It’s really more like a human-sized test tube. The two glass walls operate like an airlock (only one can be open at a time), and the floor is a scale. Inside the beer can is another fingerprint scanner. This one is keyed to the visitor’s new badge, and it has a separate database from the first. After the door to the beer can closes, the visitor uses the new badge to tell the scanner who one claims to be, and then it scans the fingerprint to verify. If the credentials are accepted, the inner door opens and the visitor requests access to the inner vault. Two “trusted” staff members must be present at all times, and even they are not permitted access individually. These two come out of the Trust Center through another airlock. This one really *is* an airlock… the doors are pressure sealed. All three individuals then seal themselves in the airlock and then open the inner door. The visitor now enters the Trust Center proper. There are cameras throughout this procedure, of course, and in the Trust Center itself several more. The two “trusted” staffers spend much of their time while a visitor is present looking over the visitor’s shoulder to be sure nothing illicit is taking place. Very disconcerting for a privacy nutcase like me.
Imagine undergoing this procedure twelve times over four days. And doing it in reverse to get out. And being trapped in the “beer can” with an electronic voice repeating, “Access denied. Please repeat the procedure,” over and over. When trying to get *out*.
That’s what my week was like.
posted at: 16:31 | permanent link to this entry
Marc Elliot Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 21 January 2002
Page modified: 31 December 2009
