Gh0st_Preacher's Stuff

Hello Internets.

I've been ignoring this site for a while, partially because I have other things to do, and partially because I've been rethinking my strategy for it.

Nobody wants to read about somebody's daily life with random insertions of actual information.  Top that with a healthy dose of me needing to get some semblance of order, and we have ourselves a re-launch in order.

With that in mind, here's where we're headed.

I recently ran across the site Awkward Things I Say To Girls and, in reading it, found that i have a wealth of information that's come out of my self improvement since the beginning of the year.  I will begin writing content focused on that topic in the hopes that it will be of some use to others, and that they'll be able to avoid the same mistakes I made.

We'll cover a wide range of topics, like fashion, weight loss, socially awkward leanings, dating, etc.  I'll give you anecdotes and advice, hopefully on some sort of schedule.

Until then, I bid you adieu.

I was doing some traipsing around on the various sites I visit to keep myself abreast of current IT security issues.  Pages like:
Shaowserver's DDoS charts - http://www.shadowserver.org/wiki/pmwiki.php/Stats/DDoSCharts
The ISC - http://isc.sans.edu/index.html
ESET's VirusRadar - http://www.virusradar.com/
WebSense Security Labs - http://community.websense.com/blogs/securitylabs/

Every once in a while, a new security threat comes out, and I find it interesting to see what the various security groups out there are saying about them.  This happened recently, with the Adobe 0-Day.  Long story short, Flash is vulnerable, big attack, yadda yadda.  But I found myself dissatisfied with the behavior of the security community.

These people work hard, don't get me wrong, but there's one critical area where they all seem to come short - working together.  At the very least, there needs to be discussions about creating unified messages about what's going on, and why it's important.  Instead, we have each group writing up blog posts, and other groups reading them and doing a little more research, and adding commentary.  While this would be fine for some fields, this is inefficient and ultimately hinders progress, especially when it's with something like computer security.

I posted to Twitter and Facebook, asking if anybody knew of a consortium between various security vendors, as my attempts at research ultimately failed.  I got responses pointing me to websites, but these sites were simply about computers, and some of the content on these sites related to security.

I would think that working together to pool information and research it in a unified manner might benefit us all by allowing better use of time.  But maybe that's just a pipe dream.

ed. note - I've removed some statements, and added others.  The one's that I've "removed" are now decorated with strikethroughs, and the additions are in pretty Blue.

In my time as a web developer, I’ve had to deal with a wide range of browser-based solutions for everything from JavaScript, CSS, HTML, XHTML, and Flash.  While I’m not a particularly large fan of Flash, I do think it’s an important part of the internet today.  When properly used, Flash-based content can rock your world.  Hardcore.  While that may not often be the case, it’s still a truth.

The developer/designer community likes to use it with what seems to be a reckless abandon.  There are entire shops who specialize in making face-meltingly awesome Flash sites.  While it may not be my cup of tea, it’s still something the web at large needs to support.  Browsers should support it (with exceptions).  I can understand my cell phone only having a somewhat cursory support for it in it’s browser (oddly enough, the interface is Flash – go figure), but high-end phones and computers should support it.

It’s interesting to look at the debate surrounding Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.  It can be difficult to admit, but Apple’s getting somewhat shafted on their end of the deal.  People want Flash for it, but that same outcry has not been heard for companies like Blackberry (which is getting support later this year).  In some cases, people DON’T want Flash support for their mobile device - see the comments on the previous link for some examples.  However, that discussion is best suited for another writeup entirely, because part of this problem rests on how the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad are positioned within the market.

Recently, Jobs posted a piece called “Thoughts On Flash”.  He provides 6 reasons Flash is not, and will never be, supported on their mobile devices.  It’s easy to read it and say “Oh, yeah, that makes sense”.  Allow me to switch to my “brutal honesty mode” and say this:

Steve Jobs is full of shit.

Yes, I said it.  Reread that a few times until you realize why.

If you don’t see it yet, let me provide a few glaring examples of how this writeup is terrifyingly bad.  This snippet alone provides plenty of fodder:

"…many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?"

This entire part is so bad it even provides its own counter argument.  It’s so poorly constructed that I have a hard time understanding how he could be so dense.

He says "many Flash websites rely on 'rollovers'".  Cool story.  What metric are you using to determine that?  Oh, none?  Cool.  So using his LOL TECH-NO-LO-GY SCIENCE methods, we could construct the EXACT SAME ARGUMENTS about JS and CSS.  I’ve built rollover menus using both methods.  I’ve seen a HUGE amount of sites that use JS to build rollover menus.  Using his logic, these sites should now all be re-written because Apple’s oh-so-highly acclaimed touch interface can’t do rollovers.

I am going to take a second here to look at every single iPhone user who has ever generalized the argument that Apple’s touch interface TEH BEST EVAR LOL!  I want you to understand something: your oh-so-precious device cannot simulate rollovers.  And there is no technological reason not to.  None.  Period.  In fact, I’m so generous, I’m going to give the solution right here, night now, for free: in the context of the web browser, register a gesture that’s not likely to get confused, like say a press+hold as being your mouseover.  Distinguish between this and touch+drag as two separate actions.  It’s not hard.  Or, y'know, use your experience from adding multi-touch to your laptops and mice.  Just sayin'.

You pride yourself on touch interfaces, and then ultimately fail to recognize how to construct even simple ones that allow me the same functionality as on a desktop.

I was made aware that at least the iPhone and iPod Touch do, in fact, have a method to support a mouseover-like gesture that's used for JavaScript and CSS based solutions, which makes this argument all the more painful.  That means this part of his argument is completely invalid in my opinion.

Moving on from his absolutely invalid arguments about how the fucking web should work, let’s look at the section titled "First, there's 'Open'".  Specifically, these parts:

"Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system."

This is fair.  100% fair.  Albeit a little bit of a Pot and Kettle situation.  It's fair, though.  But…

"Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android's browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft's uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers."

So wait, you wrote a rendering engine, open sourced it, and people use it.  That means that you’re all about open standards?  Huh?  Let’s make sure we understand the core of this whole "Standards" thing, especially when it comes to HTML5.  As of right now, HTML5 is not a standard.  It is still in working draft, and will remain so for quite a while longer.  Early adoption is one thing, but saying it's a standard is more than a little off.

On top of that, he fails to mention another little commonly used language that's maintained by a third-party group that injects their own layer into things, much like Adobe: JavaScript.  And CSS.  And HTML.  And XHTML.  While these are not driven by companies that are interested in generating a good bottom like for revenue, it's important for us to recognize that his entire part about Flash being maintained by a group separate from Apple can be applied to the languages he suggests we use.

Also, HTML5 includes an API for drag and drop functionality.  How will they support this if rollovers in Flash are such a hassle?  Hummm…

All of this ignores the whole "Apple = Closed System" thing.  But whatever.

Finally, Jobs provides a little snippet in his writeup that really bothers me for a plethora of reasons:

"...we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform."

This irks me, because it completely ignores two of Apple’s largest assets: financial backing for advertising and brand recognition.

It’s no secret that Apple's advertising campaigns are huge.  They always have been.  Even their first big ad was smartly conceived.  They know how to advertise their products to people.

Their brand recognition borders on insanity.  They've coined a look and feel, and have done so extremely well.  Think of it like McDonald's.  The white Apple logo vs. the Golden Arches.  Both are easily recognized logos, and the Apple aesthetic is also extremely recognizable.  Name any other technology company that has done as well in that arena and you get a gold star.

This argument also hints towards that mantra of "APPLE = REVOLUTIONARY O.M.G.".  Yes, in the old days they were.  They were ahead of their time.  But they are not any more.  The slate PC concept was not theirs, and their slate PC isn’t even a real computer in the first place.

The rest of this piece delves into other reasons he believes Flash is ultimately bad for the web.  Another sizable chunk of his argument is simply criticizing Adobe for some of their products.  None of his arguments really seem to address the core reasons and beliefs he has about why Flash is not coming to his mobile devices.  Instead, he's noting things he sees as issues with Adobe as a company, and not Flash as a product, that are – for the sake of this argument – completely irrelevant to the issue at hand.

At the end of the day, it's easy to see why Jobs wrote this.  He read Mike Chambers piece "On Adobe, Flash CS5 and iPhone Applications" and was pissed.  Chambers came out and criticized Apple, and did so with a no-holds-barred style – something many appreciated.

I wonder what would have happened if Jobs had simply come out and said "This cuts into our profit margins".  That is a simple, and understandable answer.  But to write a loaded piece that holds very little in the way of a valid argument is a bad move.

This all irks me so much because Jobs has the audacity to complain about something like rollovers on the web while trying to place the blame on everybody but his own company for the fact that these rollovers cause problems on their touchscreen interface.  This is one company with a subset of products that is now trying to dictate what sort of an interface we should construct for the web.  Think about this for a second.  Jobs has the gall to actually try to tell us that we need to write a completely separate fucking interface to play nice with his shit.  This is after all the hype about how "OH MANS CHECKITOUT ALL THESE DEVICES HAVE FULLY COMPLIANT BROWSERS GUESS THAT’S PRETTY AWESOME RIGHT?"

Wrong

Get bent, Jobs.

Throughout the time I've spent on this planet, I've fulfilled a stereotype that is nearly crucial to every social circle.  We exist as a mechanism to afford others the chance to point and laugh.  We're funny, but mostly because we're like Chris Farley.

I'm fat.

It's been apparent to me for years that I'm overweight, unhealthy, and not a likely candidate for a long existence.  But it was only after I became single again that i realized how bad it had gotten.  This is why I've started a thorough diet and exercise program, and I've seen amazing results so far, and I'm pretty sure I'll continue to see pretty amazing results for some time to come because of my persistence.

At my peak, I weighed between 250 and 255 lbs, at least when I last used a scale before the lifestyle changes, and I stand at 6' tall.  That's a big problem.  I'll let you go do the BMI calculations based off of height.  Yes, it's scary as hell.

The cornerstones of weight loss are all there for me.  Diet and exercise.  This isn't that difficult.  I got some estimates on what my BMR probably was and created a nice caloric deficit.  I was sitting at around 2500/day for maintenance.  Going down to 1250 or 1500 a day won't be a problem, right?

Oh how I was wrong.

See, in all of the weight loss information available to the public, there's a serious lack of information, as well as a serious amount of misinformation.  Here's the low-down: the amount of calories you take in to your body must be less then the amount you expend.  Plain and simple.  However, it is possible to go too low.  That 1500/day made me groggy and put me in a sour mood.  My weight also didn't move the 2lbs that week that I'd hoped for.  I thought "Maybe the first week is just like that", and for some people it is.  But I then found out that I'd made a serious mistake.  I was eating too little, and my body had gone into starvation mode.  Suddenly, it was doing everything it could to expend as little energy as possible, as well as converting as much food as possible to fat while going to my muscles for energy.

This alarmist attitude may be a little extreme for a single week's worth of dieting, and I have no idea if it actually had that much of an impact.  But the fact that I realized this earlier, rather then later, has been key to everything up until now because it helped me realize that this isn't that hard.

That caloric deficit doesn't mean you need to eat less.  It could also mean that you just need to exercise more.  Or you could do a bit of both - give your body proper, balanced nutrition, and exercise regularly.

So then what's your success been so far?

I've lost 20 lbs so far.  A lot of that has been water weight, but a lot of that has been fat, too.  I've also put on some muscle, and I feel far better then I did before.  While these are extreme results, they have slowed down quite a bit.  Once I see the scale stabilize a bit more on a day-to-day basis, I'll be moving to weekly weigh-ins.  I've also started taking pictures to visually quantify my results.

Soon I'll post some stuff soon about the three cornerstones of my success: diet, weightlifting, and cardio.  I'll give you my personal advice and hopefully give somebody out there some ideas about how simple this is.

Until next time.

I've been fooling around with Python for mass file operations for a while now.  It's been good so far, especially with how friggin' simple it is to do just about ANY file operation. 

At work, I sometimes get requested to run mass site updates.  Commonly, I'll be asked to do the same thing to over 30 sites.  In these instances, I've found that writing a Python script to handle at least some of that lifting is worthwhile.

In today's example, we're going to cover updating the source files for a bunch of sites.  These are dirty hacks, and Windows specific, but they work well enough for me.

First thing I needed to do was copy the latest version of our ASP.NET app to every site.  To handle this, I have this:

import os # needed for traversing remote directories
import shutil # needed for file copies and deletes

sn = raw_input( "Folder Name: " ) # ask for the folder name
shutil.rmtree( "\\\\testserver\\inetpub\\webroot" + sn) # completely remove the contents of the directory named for the site
shutil.copytree( "\\\\builds\\asp\\v.1.5", "\\\\testserver\\inetpub\\webroot" + sn) # grab the latest ASPX files for the site
shutil.copytree( "\\\\builds\\bin\\v.1.7", "\\\\testserver\\inetpub\\webroot" + sn + ".wip\\bin" ) # grab the latest DLLs for the site
shutil.copyfile( "C:\\webconfigs\\" + sn + ".config", "\\\\testserver\\inetpub\\webroot" + sn + "\\web.config" ) # copy the web.config for the site and place it
print "Copied!"

"How does this do massive amounts of work?  Looks like just one site to me!"  Yes, but the Windows console is nifty in a lot of ways.  For instance, copy/pasting has some weird quirks and is perfect when you don't want to write or use a parser.  Fire it up and go to the directory the script is in:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Gh0st_Preacher>f:

F:\>cd f:\scripts

F:\Scripts>dir
Volume in drive F is Gh0stData1
Volume Serial Number is E8F9-F338

Directory of F:\Scripts

01/14/2010  11:59 PM    <DIR>          .
01/14/2010  11:59 PM    <DIR>          ..
01/14/2010  11:59 PM               697 copy.py
01/14/2010  11:59 PM             1,954 fileupdate.py
01/14/2010  11:58 PM               268 setro.py
               3 File(s)          2,919 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  583,399,571,456 bytes free

F:\Scripts>

We're working with "copy.py".  Craft a file with a list of the names of the sites you're working with, and put the script before each name, like this :
copy.py
site1
copy.py
site2
copy.py
site3

Stupid, right?  Let's see what happens when I copy/paste that into the console window that's currently in F:\scripts:

F:\scripts>copy.py
SN: site1
Copied!

F:\scripts>copy.py
SN: site2
Copied!

F:\scripts>copy.py
SN: site3
Copied!

That's the actual echo.  The windows console will wait to paste each line until it has the ability to actually place that text somewhere.  Not only that, but it'll translate carriage returns the same as you hitting "enter".  Because of this, you don't need to write a file parser for dumb scripts like this.  This copy/paste system is stupid - I am wholly aware of this - but it's simple and easy.  No extra code.  No nothin'.  Just things working.  I can't really argue with results.

So how else can this be useful?  In my case, I have to modify a value in the web.config files I copied.  The value will be the same across all sites, since we just need to point the site to a different data machine to grab our head, header, and footer files.  here's what I did (credit to TOXiC for the original here):

import fileinput, string, sys # need these for everythang

done = "n"
while done == "n":
    sn = raw_input( "sn: " )
    fileQuery = "\\\\testserver\\inetpub\\webroot\\" + sn + "\\web.config"
    sourceText = "livedata.site.com"
    replaceText = "devdata.internal.com"
    def replacemachine(fileName, sourceText, replaceText):
        file = open(fileName, "r") # open in read-only
        text = file.read() # read the file and assign to a variable
        file.close() # close out the read session
        file = open(fileName, "w") # reopen the file in write mode
        file.write(text.replace(sourceText, replaceText)) # do the replace
        # and write the new file with the correction.
        file.close() # closes the write
        print "servicemachine updated"
    replacemachine(fileQuery, sourceText, replaceText)
    done = raw_input( "done? " )

Now, this time, I decided to get crafty.  See that loop in there?  You can just keep telling it "n" for "done" and it'll start over again.  Starting at F:\scripts, copy/paste a file formatted like this:

fileupdate.py
site1
n
site2
n
site3

Still simple, still stupid, but it still works.  Output?

sn: Site1
servicemachine updated
done? n
sn: Site2
servicemachine updated
done? n
sn: Site3
servicemachine updated
done? y

And our updates are done!

We could roll both of these up into a big script, but I'm lazy.  Seriously lazy.  Copy/paste lazy.

This is an example of duct tape programming.  It's dirty, but quick and effective.

Keep it simple, kids.

Woo for double-content posts!

My roommates Greebo and Diieu (those are their screennames - not about to post their real names) got me a Christmas gift that blew my fucking mind away.

Yamazaki 18 Year Single Malt Whisky.

I wanted to try Suntory whisky - it was the only Whisky I hadn't tried, and it pisses me off.  That's right, it makes me angry.  They got me a bottle of Whisky, and that pisses me off.

I had consistency in my life.  Whisky/Whiskey came from Tennessee, Kentucky, Scotland, Ireland, and Canada.  Nowhere else.  At least, not the good stuff.  But Yamazaki completely changed that.  It's smooth - smoother then anything else I've ever tried before, and it's got an amazing, mature, full flavor palette.  It's damn good.

So now my Whisky/Whiskey list, in order of preference to sip, is as such:

Scotch, Suntory, Bourbon, Tennessee, Canadian, Irish.

You see that breakdown?  Suntory is now preferred over bourbon for sipping.  See how wrong that is?  It's like the softer brother of Scotch.  While I have sincere appreciation for the rough edges of Scotch - as well as the other darker flavors contained therein, Suntory breaks that ideal and goes to the smooth edge.  All the flavor, but with a bit more of a refined feel.

God dammit.

Speaking of gifts, I'm recording as a gift this year, a continuation of last year, where I recorded a 6 song CD for a Christmas present to my family and friends.  I included 3 drum and bass songs, as well as 3 songs with guitar and other instruments.  All of them but one were original compositions.

This year, I'm going it again, but all the songs are going to be full-on guitars, drums, and bass.  I'm not doing electronic music this time around because I want to do the full recording deal.  It's been a challenge so far, but fun.  My track list is coming down to something like this:

1. Delé - New Hard Rock song with delay laced intro.
2. Walk - Solo acoustic piece written for Allison's graduation.
3. Goin' Down - Cover of a cover of a Freddie King song
4. Untitled progressive song here - think Vai-ish with Satriani hanging out, too.
5. Probably a blues/rock song here.
6. Probably a acoustic guitar / electric guitar thing.  Calm outro idea.

If I can muster a 7th song in time, I'm definitely doing it, but that track list seems to be the direction I'm heading.

I've learned a lot since last year.  My rhythms are much stronger, and my melodies are a bit better - though not by much.

My recording sensibilities are a bit stronger this year, as well.  I'm making better use of the stereo soundstage to get a bigger field, and I use doubletracking quite a bit for the first song to get a bit more of a ballsy feel.

I still have a lot of work to do - I just got the drums and bass done for the third track, but overall things are going will.

I hope you're all doing well.  If I don't post before, have a wonderful holiday season!

Ah, it's been long, friend.  Too long.  Let me spin a tale of my travels...

Or not.

NEW PHONE

Last week I scored a new phone - the LG enV Touch.  This is a step up from my old phone - an LG enV (1st version).  Honestly?  Gigantic upgrade.  My father footed the bill on buying one for me and getting a free one for himself through Verizon's new every 2 program.  Without going into a full-blown review, this thing is awesome.  Seriously.  I have almost no complaints.  It's that good.

BB KING IN CONCERT

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the BB King Concert in town.  Amazing show.  84 years old and he still brings down the house.  He can still sing and play as well as ever.  His interactions with the audience were priceless and humorous, and the music was amazing.  I was also so lucky as to be able to get his signature on my guitar through some connections.  While I did not get to meet him, I got his freaking signature on my guitar.  I'm really excited about it.

BORDERLANDS

Okay, this came out a while ago, but we were using this is hold us over until L4D2 to came out.  It's fun, all though the replayability is questionable.  The loots are where it's at.  Not much else to it.  The difficulty was a little disappointing, however.

MODERN WAREFARE 2

I got my hands on this.  The single player is extremely well done.  While there are a few small feasibility issues contained within, it's overall extremely well done.  The controversial "airport" scene was not as bad as I thought it would be when I saw it in context.  Still terrible, but not as bad.  The ending opens it up for a 3rd game, however.

LEFT 4 DEAD 2

Okay, Valve, I get it.  You really did improve it.  But is it $50 of improvement?  I don't know.  My disappointment with this still holds out on the fact that you never really gave us the DLC you promised for L4D1.  However, I bought it as apart of the 4-pack, so I only payed $35 for it in the end.  With that aside, this is my new favorite Valve game.  Really.

FINIS

I've got dinner ready, but I will hopefully return with more content soon!  I hope, at least.  I'll give a fuller review of L4D2 when I've gotten through the campaign and all the game modes.

Until next time!

I bought a bunch of PBR to tackle one of my favorite drinking games.

The Power Hour.

For the uninitiated, a Power Hour one shot of beer every minute for an hour.

You can see where the good idea part comes in.

I was searching around for a good clock of some sort to give the 60 second countdowns for each minute, but the Internet failed me.  There were a lot of bad ones out there, so I made my own!

http://gh0stpreacher.com/media/powerhour/launch.html

Click the button, and you'll get a small window that displays a 60 second countdown timer, along with a handy clock to help you see the time.

I might change it later.

Woop!

Note to self:

Don't turn on VPN when remoting.  DURP.