July 2011 - skunkworks - Skunkworks Site

Windows vs Ford /. Madirisha
by Thuo Wilson 24 Jul '11

24 Jul '11

*For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.* * * *At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, 'If Ford had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.' ** In response to Bill's comments, Ford issued a press release stating: If Ford had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part): 1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash..........Twice a day. 2.. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.* * 3... Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this. 4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.* * 5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads. 6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.* * 7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying. 8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna. 9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car. 10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off. PS - I 'd like to add that when all else fails, you could call 'customer service' in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!!!! Please share this with your friends who love - but sometimes hate - their computer!*

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DadaabNet - Suggestions, Feedback, and Advice
by Crystal Watley Kigoni 24 Jul '11

24 Jul '11

Greetings from Dadaab! Please see our attached most recent concept note. We need your suggestions, feedback, and advice. We are also seeking partnerships and any assistance. Best regards, Crystal -- Crystal "Naliaka" Watley Kigoni Executive Director Voices of Africa for Sustainable Development crystal(a)voicesofafrica.org http://www.voicesofafrica.org/ Twitter: VOA4SD Skype: crystal.naliaka Facebook group: Voices of Africa<http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_103722386364001&ap=1#%21/group.ph…> Facebook cause: Voices of Africa<http://www.causes.com/causes/102634-voices-of-africa-for-sustainable-develo…> YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CrystalKigoni LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=20585778&trk=tab_pro> "You must be the change you wish to see" - Gandhi

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website to cms
by Josh Handley 24 Jul '11

24 Jul '11

We are looking for someone to convert our small website (www.bridgeinternationalacademies.com) from iWeb to a content management system so that non-technical people at the company can modify the content and add new pages. Please send proposals to me off list. Include cost, timeline and examples of past work. Josh

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HOW TO STOP UNWANTED TRAFFIC ON MY PC
by The sherminator 24 Jul '11

24 Jul '11

Guys, I have ubuntu 10.10 in my pc. Recently when I connected to internet (via my phone) i saw a LOT of traffic going out and also coming to my computer(i have a third party app to monitor the traffic). It starts instantly when i connected and i didn't open any application (not even updates). The worst thing is that this traffic is not monitored in some apps(i can say them trustworthy apps like google desktop gadgets). The most interesting thing is when i tried to identify the app doing this by stopping each processes in process monitor one by one. I saw that when i stopped pulseaudio, the traffic stopped slowly after a while. Now i usually stop it before connecting to the internet. But it causes problems with audio and video. I doubt this is a virus or a rootkit(oh god, dont be so). So i need help with this. Can anyone help me guys? (I am not an expert in linux but,kinda of a newbie.)

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Re: [Skunkworks] A Question for the Network/Security Engineers out there
by William Muriithi 24 Jul '11

24 Jul '11

>>> Hallo Listers, Hello Mungai, >>> >>> *(First of all, apologies for a long email)* >>> >>> This is mainly meant for the Network or Security Engineers in Telco/ISP >>> environments out there. >>> Not in ISP, may be you should null dev this response :) >>> I work in a Telco (mainly VoIP) and we are looking to buy Big Fat >>> Firewalls with IDS/IPS features with throughput greater than 40Gbps >>> >>> Reason for this high perfomance requirement is that we want to move VoIP >>> traffic (SIP/RTP) behind the Firewalls to be able to do IDS/IPS inspection >>> of this traffic which is very latency sensitive. >>> >>> I have done a lot of research around and even contacted the 2 most popular >>> Firewall vendors Cisco/Juniper but am NOT too impressed so far... I think its because you are looking for a single hardware to do both the network and IDS task. In my hubby opinion, you may find a better and cheaper solution by just looking for a firewall that can handle the above traffic easily and just perform the IDS out of band. This setup is better for a number of reasons. - Unlikely to increase latency. I really do not think there is a network equipment that can do IDS effectively out there unless you massively oversize it. And IDS on network equipment are never as complete as dedicated IDS, even from the same vendor, the last time I looked at it - IDS are still really noisy and most of their flags are mainly false positives. I would easily say over 60% of their alerts are false alerts and that could be one of the reason they are not widely implemented. To make it practical, you have to learn your traffic, keep changing its signature and rules often to keep the false positive down. This would not be easy if the IDS is also the firewall. An out of band IDS therefore offer you the flexibility of frequently teaching your IDS. You also get an ability of using lots of memory and CPU as IDS are memory bound. - Until IDS become reliable, I would never use IPS. That's just looking for trouble for no good reason. Actually, I am curious if there is any IDS out there that does a lot of VOIP profiling. There is not need of implementing an IDS against VOIP traffic if 80% of the time, it will be checking for problem that only exist in none VOIP traffic William >>> >>> The highest demands that we have are on the following IDS/IPS >>> functionalities: >>> >>> >>> 1. Block SIP brute force registrations (Easy to Implement) >>> 2. Ability to detect and block SIP fraud calls (toll fraud) by >>> performing the following deep packet inspection tasks: >>> - Setting a threshold of calls per calling number to destination >>> number and blocking calls that exceed this threshold. >>> - Alternatively the VoIP IPS should be able to do the above >>> automatically e.g. learn calling patterns of Numbers automatically and be >>> able to blacklist offending SRC IP/SIP URI when certain thresholds are >>> reached (and removing this ban after some time) >>> 3. Ability to detect and mitigate IP Telephony SPAM (SPIT) >>> >>> >>> That said, I have 2 ideas of how to implement the above: >>> >>> >>> 1. *Put everything behind the new Firewalls (but then the FW in >>> question has to have proper IDS/IPS features to automatically detect the >>> above VoIP attacks and block them)* >>> 2. *Install normal Enterprise class Firewalls (without IDS/IPS) and >>> have a 3rd party tool e.g. SNORT doing this in real time and interacting >>> directly with the FWs to block ongoing attacks on the fly.* >>> >>> >>> My question is to anyone out there who might have input on how best to >>> implement this and which path you would take and why? >>> >>> Your input is highly appreciated ! >>> >>> -- >>> Kind Regards, >>> >>> *Moses Mungai* >>> >>> Oslo, Norway >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Skunkworks mailing list >>> Skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke >>> http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks >>> ------------ >>> Skunkworks Rules >>> http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 >>> ------------ >>> Other services @ http://my.co.ke >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Skunkworks mailing list >> Skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke >> http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks >> ------------ >> Skunkworks Rules >> http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 >> ------------ >> Other services @ http://my.co.ke >> > > > > -- > Kind Regards, > > *Moses Mungai* > > Oslo, Norway > Mobile: +47 4626 4320 >

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<OT>Forest Roas on google maps
by solomon kariri 23 Jul '11

23 Jul '11

What is this new forest road, replacing Thika road and going all the way to Moyale? Never heard of it. Moyale<http://maps.google.com/maps/place?ftid=0x1795b7083162083f:0x47cb15c5255ba81…> -- Solomon Kariri, Software Developer, Cell: +254736 729 450 Skype: solomonkariri

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some info about AMD processors
by Yast Labs 23 Jul '11

23 Jul '11

http://products.amd.com/pages/desktopcpuresult.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSup… -- Regards, Kenneth Njuguna, Sales Executive, YastLabs Computer Solutions, 0723511949.

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Wordpress Meet Up
by Phares Kariuki 23 Jul '11

23 Jul '11

Hey, We will be having a session on how to use Wordpress as a CMS, this Tuesday, from 6pm at iHub Nairobi. The sessions will be coordinated by Sprint Interactive, who will share the experience doing the same. -- With Regards, Phares Kariuki | T: +254 720 406 093 | E: pkariuki(a)gmail.com | Twitter: kaboro | Skype: kariukiphares | B: http://www.kaboro.com/ |

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Biometric and CCTV Quotations
by Joseph McDonald 23 Jul '11

23 Jul '11

I need a quotation for a simple biometric solution for a consultancy firm.Will be used at the main entrance door only. I need only 2 CCTV cameras for the corridors. I need this ASAP by monday. Thanks

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Request to receive skunkwork emails
by Justun Macharia 23 Jul '11

23 Jul '11

Morning Admin, I would like to receive skunkwork email lists in my mailbox: justunmacharia(a)yahoo.com. Thanks alot in advance. regards, Justun Macharia, System Developer

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