AltSci Blog

Jan 16, 2010

Today I have been more productive in the tasks I want to get done than the past two weeks. What stops a person from doing what they want to do when they don't have to do anything? Procrastination, laziness, sloth, and depression are keywords for the type of feeling a person has when they are unwilling or incapable of doing what they want. The question of whether it is volition or predetermined is of great importantance. If it is volition a person can choose whether they are able to do what they want. If it is predetermined the person simply must wait until the period of inactivity is over. If we are convinced that the inaction is by choice we must find a way to force ourselves to act.

And so I have turned the corner and I don't know how. Perhaps it was encouragement from others in other projects, perhaps it's a sense of accomplishment that another project is finished. Does it make sense that a person would be unwilling to work on one project while another is in limbo or a broken state? Even if you aren't directly working on that project knowing that your future depends on it is enough to cause anxiety. This anxiety is probably enough to cause a form of depression or escapism. When I worry about the unknown I have two choices: do something about it or let it continue. Each has consequences and benefits. Often the choice to do something causes such fear and doubt that a person will avoid the very reasoning that should cause them to do something. This type of awful loop is certainly the cause of much grief in many people's lives. I am not at the point where I will give self- improvement advice to others but if my logic is correct a person might be able to understand something on their own based on my rather lame blog.

jvoss@altsci.com
March 6, 2008

It's a pretty simple virus, so the lessons learned from analysis of this virus should carry over to more than just this virus. I tried to write it generically enough to fit any case, so when I analyze it I will compare it to other viruses and how things on the net work. I'll try to come from a neutral standpoint because the idea of demonizing or glorifying a virus are counterproductive to the task of learning what it is and why it is. I'll try to keep the philosophy in the next to last section clearly marked so people who wish can skip over it or skip to it if that's their prerogative.

Every virus needs to get onto a computer (host) somehow. Viruses of old days resided on floppies. These days they are much more often carried by computer networks, the internet being the largest. If you think of floppies and other medium as sort of sneakernet, then all viruses need a network. This method of transfer ends up running code on a system that is commonly unintended by the user. In the SSH Bruteforce Virus, I spread the virus using a dictionary password cracker that supports Secure Shell (SSH). This is very simple and uses an open source library for SSH (libssh-0.2). When my virus successfully logs into a remote system, it copies a tar archived version of itself to the victim. It extracts the archive and executes the payload script. The remote system now has an exact copy of the virus. This is the definition of a replication virus. At this point, the system is infected and can infect more systems.

Oct 28, 2009

Click the links to my Toorcon Talk Video and Advanced Code Relationship Mapping Slides.

I don't have enough time to go into details. You can tell that it's me because the links are pretty obviously to video and my site.

DRM on MP3s

jvoss@altsci.com
Oct 20, 2009

I downloaded Incubus' new album and I noticed that if I had Java turned off (like any sane person should) it would direct me to a zip file download. The zip file only had 15 songs. I asked support about it and they were aloof, obviously they and their devs had never turned off Java after the first non-deluxe album. The Java downloader is unnecessary but there is an interesting property. The files are different from the ones in the zip file. At first I was certain that it was DRM. But it's pretty difficult to put DRM in one bit. That is what is happening here.

The only thing I can think of is that they could have DRM'ed the zip file also and I am just seeing the session id incrementing. However, I think it is unlikely that they have DRM'ed the zip file. Does anyone have a copy of Incubus - Monuments and Melodies to test against?