VoicePost 191K 0:58

“Maybe noticed serving than posting much. There is a reason for it, there always is a reason for everything I do. Sorry it's because this is Joe shows me how much I can trust, how much I cannot trust, how much I can share, how much should be kept private. You guys gonna hate that drama, yeah I think it's kept alive ___. Ultimate ___ so far for the last year or so hasn't done much. He should've told me everything I can say.” Auto-Transcribed Voice Post

You're damned right I have a drinking problem! I'm fresh out of Guinness!
At least I still have Fat Tire.

So puppy boots, yay. Using GParted to re-arrange some things on my drive, give me a proper linux swap and 1.5g partition. Also loading puppy onto my old 512mb mp3 player to try to get that to boot. If the flash drive works I'll use the partition to load up Puppy Unleashed and include the apps/packs I want and make a new more dedicated flash image.

After that I begin penetration testing of my own wireless...

Then I begin pricing out a cheapy pc option (any size, really) to make a dedicated server...

Then after that I renounce all women and become a friggin GEEK-MONK hybrid.

I think that last step will take care of itself.

Now I remember why I left you.

"Hey Paco, what's it like to try to get Damn Small Linux running on a Dell Vostro 1500?"
Well, Timmy, I'm glad you asked. You see, before you would only speak your questions in my head at night. Every night. For months you have been slowly driving me mad with questions so pointlessly absurd that they make Bill Nye nauseous. Now that you've come out in the open, though, I can defenestrate you with great rapidity.
*SMASH*
*insert sound of a little innocent boys wail of confused panic and fear truncated by his spine snapping like rotten twigs as they hit a fence 20 feet down*

Now then.... what's it like trying to get DSL working?

Well, obviously I think the developer worked for Sega.net.

On to Puppy.

When are you happy it's a chemical burn?!

When you thought it might have been an STD.

Paco was a chemists son...

Note to self: Don't drink random things in that room.

Day whatever of owning a laptop

Firewall up and running.
System locked down.
Patched patched and repatched.
SSH server runs on home system. Now I can actually use it for proper encryption and run apps with some feeling of security.
Dynamic DNS service now up to allow me to connect to it reliably.
Going to get a pen drive or two to load Damn Small Linux (or a variant) to run some decent packet sniffing software and a quick version of John the Ripper.
Going to get a mouse so I can get off this damn trackpad (I*#*&#@&& HATE TRACKPAD DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE), and in my down time play some Day of Defeat (Woot!).
Feeling kind of bad that I spent hundreds on a toy that sits idle most of the day (aside from times like this), I've also begun using it when it's plugged in to search for pulsars with BOINC.
Realized that in order for me to run it in most applications I would use it for when out and about in public (such as sidestepping having to put up with ads or sniffing from a WiFi hot spot), I'd have to have it run my SSH on multiple ports and accept connections on a common port BESIDES the traditional port 22. Most companies restrict nonstandard ports.

Realized that would expose my PC, and my security knowledge isn't that good.

Realized I'll have to build another PC, put it on the DMZ port. So how to get around someone hacking it and using it? Run linux on it loaded entirely in ram, don't include a hard drive, run it off a write-restricted flash drive or CD. Reboot it every couple of weeks or so, reset the password, and off ya go.

So now I need to price and build a mini-itx system. Since it doesn't need to do anything except sling packets, I should be able to keep it cheap.

---

Back on the work angle, decent QOS/VPN capable routers are coming down in price and becoming more accessible. Time to revisit the whole idea of getting new routers and actually running this network like we know what the hell we're doing. Unfortunately will have to purchase with my own money, configure, test, and deploy, and once I can prove it works THEN I can probably get some money back. I think I'll have to do that before doing the whole mini-itx home box. Dammit, there goes this months bonus.

WAIT a second. I just said I was going to be getting back into the linux scene now that I actually have a workable system for using it like I need. I even recall saying since 2000 (before I got laid off from that job) that I needed a laptop to do half the crap I want/need to do to networks with the mobility it would require. That means once again wrangling with an unfinished product and poorly written apps from not just one monolithic manufacturer, but every Tom, Dick, and Crazy-Man-With-A-Perl-Script-Get-It-Off-Get-It-Off-Not-My-Pants-Dear-God-Why, just because I have this crazy notion that not paying for things and then bitching incessantly about them not being glossy and and easy to use is a great thing.

... TESTIBALLS!

But dang, the idea of running DSLn off a pen drive... ooh. Nice.