TechWiseTV

Geek Book Review: Reversing

This edition of the TechWiseTV Geek Book Review is on the book: "Reversing" by Eldad Eilam. Do you like the show "How it's Made"? Have you read the mag "Make"? Do you look at new technology and are not amazed at what it does but how it does it? You just might be a Reverse Engineer that just needs a primer. If you are the kinda of person that always has questions after learning something new and you believe that for all things there is always a root beginning, then this book is for you. One of the absolute best ways to REALLY learn anything is to put yourself in the developers/prototypers  shoes. But how do you do that? well, you can get hired on as a developer or start reversing. Having done both roles, I can assure that reversing is much more fun by a lonnnnngggggg shot!!!! This book really takes a person from start to finish. Over 500 pages of excellent data and source information. The book presented in a logically format with the legal crap and theory stuff up front in Chapter One and then the specialty chapters follow. Eldad discusses the top tools out there today like IDA Pro (My personal fav) but he also includes a excellent chapter on reversing malware.

Not all geeks are reversers and that is cool. Just like not all IT folks are into server administration. Reversing is an excellent primer to get you in the reversing mind set and the practical tools and skills to get started.

I really liked this book alot. This is a book you read once and refer to many times later on as a ready reference. This book has been promoted from my bookshelf to my reference shelf. I did not want to give my first book review the highest rating to show I am a tough and objectionable reviewer, but who am I kidding! I love this book and highly recommend it to all geeks wanting to take it to the next level.

Technical ability to understand this book: 3 out 5 (5 is the highest)
Code Examples and command sets: Yes
Tools how to use them: Yes
Did I honestly learn new stuff I can put in use right now: Yes
Any management or analysist crap in the book: No

Final Grade: 5 out of 5 Klingon badge thingys

Podcast - Home Brew - Episode 1

Check out first ‘home brew’ podcast..Jimmy Ray and I are trying to find a way to turn out more interesting information in a more casual fashion...we are extremely blessed to be part of Cisco and be on a team that helps us produce content in state of the art facilities with real producers...but sometimes...you just want to tone it down a bit, accept a few errors...relax.  Well, thats home brew. Time will tell how popular this format is...why don’t you let us know?  I have no idea if Cisco will let us populate this on our regular TechWise podcast channel...I hope so.  I think the audience would still like it AND the following/download volume is huge already.

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD

In this episode:

• What is Home Brew
• Nugache worm tripping alarms at Jimmy Ray’s Code Cave
• Book Review: ‘Reversing’

Leave us a comment...do you like this format at all?

802.11n Power Play

I am sure Jimmy Ray will weigh in here with some opinions soon...wireless is one of his pet topics. On our Beyond the Dial Tone show coming up on Feb 7, we make mention of 802.11n as it has garnered so much attention these days. It is still technically pre-standard but the adoption rates we are seeing indicate that the market is ready for it as it stands. One of the details that JR mentions, (one that often gets glossed over), is the power requirements. Many companies will promise that these radios can use in-line power you already have..no problem. Not entirely correct. These radios require more power than the current PoE (802.3af) standard and will operate in a less than optimum fashion if this is not taken into consideration.

Chris Kozup is one of our favorite wireless guys at Cisco...he has been on the show a couple of times...he explains the power requirements quite well in his blog entry, The Power of 802.11n.

Anatomy of a Bad Decision

Today was a real turning point for me. For today, I took my daughter to get her drivers license learners permit. It sure does not seem like she should be that old already. She asked could she drive my brand new Dodge Hemi Ram truck home to celebrate her new certification. I love my truck, I also love my daughter. So I said yes without a second thought...

It made me look at the bad networking decisions I have made in my career. I get a new certification and them jump into the bigger projects or recommend stuff over my head maybe a little too quick. Can I get a witness out there? One time, after getting my SCO ACE certification I tackled a UnixWare Cluster for a CLEC with nothing but book knowledge... yep...that project ran a little long. My favorite story is one time I was out at sea in the United States Navy and I was just appointed the new HP-UX Admin. Trying to do a service to my users I thought I should free up some disk space on our HPUX  servers so I read the manual and found the command: rm -r ... ahhhhhh yes... the sound of users groaning in pain...

Networking is full of risk and it is the risk that makes us grow isn't it? When I train engineers today I tell them go out there and screw up! That is where the knowledge lives. Pilots call it "pushing the envelope"  I love that stuff. All too many times I have had data centers crash and folks turn and look at me...envelope baby!

So my daughter made it home safely and my truck is fine. I was super nervous but she took a risk and now her confidence is really high. It really goes both ways doesn't ? sometimes we take the risk, other times we let folks around us take the risk.

Jimmy Ray

New Show - Thursday, Feb 7

Check out the spotlight clip for a preview:

2008 Internet Security Trends Report

From the report: The overall trends in spam and malware can be characterized by a large number of more targeted, stealthy and sophisticated attacks:

• Spam volume increased 100%
• Spam has become more dangerous
• The "Self-Defending Bot Network" was introduced (into the form of the 'Storm Trojan'
• Viruses no longer make headlines

I sat down with Jon Orbeton from IronPort to discuss the 2008 Internet Security Trends Report that was recently released. 

You can get the full report at http://www.ironport.com/securitytrends/

You can hit the podcast directly.

Web 2.0...for geeks!!

Buzzword bingo... it's a game we all love to play. From phrases like "thinking outside of the box" to B2B the endless stream of buzzwords will certainly keep us in buzzword bingo cards for sometime to come. Robb was tasked with creating a Web 2.0 show and I immediately thought, good luck with alllllllllll that! There really is no such thing from a technical point of view.

But Robb is smart and that is why they asked him and not me. He gets the big picture on here on the parts and pieces fit. I am an engineer from steam to stern. Defining the processes is not something I have ever been good at.  When the phrase Web 2.0 was actually first used at a Web Conference by Tim O'Reilly back in 2005 I thought that was a clever way of summing up what technology has morphed into.

But then enter the analysist. Seizing on the opportunity to sale more "research" studies, Tim's idea became...(dramatic music....) a buzzword. Web 2.0 lit up the Internet fast then Anna Kornicorvia's latest beach pictures. As an engineer, I has asked how do we make our business Web 2.0 ready nearly three times a day.

So I seized on opportunity to train engineers on Web 2.0 myself. Not really about Web 2.0 per se, but how to use buzzwords in our favor. For example, the personality type drawn to engineering normally will roll with the changes and automatically look for newer, better and faster ways to accomplish our end goal, "Successfully Passing Data" I was on sight troubleshooting a network here a while back. After talking with the companies engineer to see what he had already done. As he explained his troubleshooting methodology, I said, "OK, so you used half bracketing up to what point?" He replied, "What is half bracketing" I told him that the troubleshooting method he used is called, half bracketing. His response was, "Whatever Dude, this is just how I troubleshoot, call it what you want"

To me, as an engineer, that is what Web 2.0 is. it is just a little more interactive and a little more friendly and a whole lot more graphically enhanced then the BBS' of old. As engineers, we naturally moved from news groups to Wikis. From bookmarking to del.icio.us and of course from brick and morter music stores to iTunes. But the question is how to we use this buzzword to our advantage. That is simple. Think like an analysist. Analysist have most likely never config'ed a piece networking gear in their life, but exec's listen to them. Analysist know how to seize a moment in time. Now we have an in. For example, consider this conversion between an Exec and an Engineer:
                Engineer: We need to replace our PIX firewall with a new ASA to keep up with the current                     threats.
                    <What the Exec heard:> I need spend money on something I really can not define
                Exec: It is just not in the budget this year. Please make do with what we have and keep our                 data safe.

Been there done that right? Now add a new buzzword and which what happens:

            

   Engineer: In trying to make our business ready for Web 2.0, I noticed the firewall needs                         replacement to support the newer processes we need for success
                <What the Exec heard:> We are not ready for Web 2.0!! This is worse then missing my tee                 time at the country club. Think goodness my engineer caught this problem!
             Exec: Excellent job, please go ahead to order what you need. Fine work!

You see, buzzwords can be our friends. Web 2.0 is really something we do all the time as engineers. Now it has a label, a nice neat container to put all those processes in so non engineering types can understand them.

Jimmy Ray

       

Jimmy Ray Fishing Success

Completely unsubstantiated rumor that this is Jimmy Ray struggling to hold that head up...good day at the lake JR? 

The Web 2.0 Journey

I have always considered myself relatively net saavy. I say relatively...as it always depends on who you compare yourself to.  But I know I don’t embrace every new shiny thing that seems to grab at least passing interest on the web.  As I now am getting older (I will be 40 on March 1) I begin to wonder if this is a sign of my age...I do see guys (and girls) my age however that seem very well versed at living the new and ever changing web as well as report on it. So I do think there is hope.

I personally tend to evaluate new technologies based on my ability to be productive with them.   My past is littered with software and gadgets that I spend money on and never manage to integrate into the fabric of my daily life. If the learning curve does not come quickly or I can’t define the benefit - then it many times just does not stick. 

It is with this set of eyes that I am now embarking on a quest to explore and become much more effective at understanding (and enunciating) technologies and services that define the new web and make possible the benefits of peer production, lowered collaboration costs and self-organizing groups.

There is more to come...but let me tell you what I have already started with: Wikis. About 3 weeks ago I decided to use a hosted wiki platform from Wetpaint to create two wikis: one for my very dynamic neighborhood and one for work. 

The neighborhood wiki has started to grow quite quickly through my use of techniques learned from Malcolm Gladwell and The Tipping Point. I simply created the platform (using wetpaint), seeded just enough content and organization to be able to explain the concepts and then I began a small evangelism campaign by talking to the key influencers, the connectors and mavens, that jump start me quickly by bridging their groups with the new wiki.  I worked with a few of them one on one to disciple them into becoming evangalistic trainers...this seems to be working. I have also benefitted from a few hot button issues bubbling up in the neighborhood.  Our local school district is attempting some rezoning/redistricting...whatever you call it and we are all fired up as it could have dramatic effect on our property values, where our kids go to school and what friends they end up making (or giving up).  I simply had my wife forward me a few of the email storms that seemed to depend on the cliques that shared emails and I asked a few of their more vocal members to move that conversation to some pages on the wiki.  This is all still in the early stages but things are looking very promising.   “Providing the platform for collaboration” was my goal and it is already starting to self-organize and allow me to monitor and participate as actively or inactively as I need to.

The blog you are reading now is an off-shoot of the TechWiseTV wiki at www.mytechwisetv.com.   The wiki came first, also on the wetpaint platform as a way to take our Cisco TV show and expand the conversation.  This is happening much slower but I am encouraged about the ideas that are starting to come out.   We have already started moving from a model that published ‘show notes’ for each show in a downloadable .pdf (how antiquated) to one that is wiki based so at a minimum, Jimmy Ray and I can collaborate on the writing more openly as well as provide access to our guests so you get unedited show notes in their own language...  to a new model that says - lets spend less time on the past (show notes available after a show airs) to shownotes that are avaiable as they are being written (prior to air date) to now....lets write the show itself in the public eye.   Hmmm...this lead to a decision to share the taping date (shows are not live) and allow anyone with an interest to weigh in on the content and potentially influence it.  This is all very new but I am excited about it and I hope that as our audience on these new tools grows, we will get more input, ideas and creativity to play with.  Won’t you help?

A lot of this started as I research our guests and their writings for what is internally being called our Web 2.0 Special Edition (taping Feb 20 and airing April 3).  I have been reading and working to get guests like hyperactive blogging trendsetter Robert Scoble....the scobleizer blog/microsoft and now Fast Company fame....Jeremy Owyang from Forrester, Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and a few internal people.  I like the idea of having a teenager or two on this particular show to highlight the thinking of a younger generation but I have to dig one up...my kids are way too young.  Oh, the books I am wrapping up from these guys right now have been very enjoyable...wikinomics of course (and his blog/wiki).

I am now very inspired to try out many more things...I will comment on them as I do them.   Many things like facebook still make no business sense to me but I am slowly learning to avoid overly narrow thinking.  What can they do for you?  I would love to hear opinions on the business side of all these collaborative applications. These guys listed above provide quite a few good ones in their writing...but what does this stuff do for you?

Robb

Heading Home

Local host 127.0.0.1
Even networks always need to have a guaranteed home that is always up and ready to welcome them back. Doesn't it feel good to head home at the end of the day? In IT we sure put in the hours. Upgrades and maintainance windows are always at late hours. Certainly troubleshooting occurs at all hours of the night, meetings, conf calls and then email late into the night. It is 10PM here in San Jose and I just got an email from Robb. Late nights... Do we love it or are we just sick?  In the frozen tundra of Wisconsin (where I live), snow storms and black iced streets get a solid foothold and then oops! the routing tables get trashed or patch Tuesday just crashed the LDAP server... scrape the windows, turn up Casting Crowns and head out into the darkness, to rescue the 21st centuries digital version of a damsel in distress...well to geeks like me anyway...

But in the end it always feels good to point the car towards home. Robb and I travel a lot for TechWiseTV. He lives in Texas and I of course live on the third moon of Hoth. Cisco is really cool about having a "Flat Earth" policy,  so our team is really all over the place. When we all get together the conversation always turns toward leaving to go back home. Robb's kids started a video Skype session with him during a mind numbing Power Point Power Session about the reflectivity of paint or something and I saw him take a deep breathe and I knew where he wanted to be, the great thing is, all of us sitting around home vicariously were all transported back home if just for a second. Nothing like Home. 

Airline travel is a well worn out topic of discussion that can always alisit a groan from fellow road warriors. Setting in the middle seat, all 248 lbs of me (maybe I should lay off the In N Out Burger...yeah right!) all I can think of is driving home and seeing my family. Doesn't that feel good...unless you are sitting next to me on the plane...

I love networking . I study, practice and research all the time. Networking is really something I am absolutely fascinated with. I certainly want to really know my trade the best I can, but if I am being really honest with myself, I believe I just want to get home quicker and knowledge is the road that paves the way back to my 127.0.0.1

Jimmy ray