Mornings

One of the highlights of my day is seeing the sunrise over Lewisville Lake during my morning drive to work. Now that the days are starting to get shorter, the sun is not quite up yet when I drive over the bridge. It also is far from setting when I cross the lake in the evening, but unless it's overcast, it looks something like this almost every day (pardon my crooked cell phone shot through a dirty window):



https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie3kN2-pWpVTMc-gmd2dyxufwja1NqZYi-J9yukqNAGCK__ZJ-W-vEe0vAQsc1Y6kKNii-bLHf2WYa19BPgU1SIaGwWlcbr1hlxiF6VWHkVc3ixTYA3vhYtusA6eq91zhdHjGzp-0gfLB2/s1600/LewisvilleLakeAug2010.JPG

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/2856949962_d510e36f7b.jpg

What's happening in Pakistan?

How is it that we are giving the Pakistan government over a billion dollars a year, then firing missiles in Pakistan, a sovereign nation, and killing people? How can we legally do this without a declaration of war? And how can we afford just giving Pakistan nearly 3 million dollars a day while spending ourselves into deficit oblivion?

Home is where the desktop is.

I finally set up my desktop machine after about seven months of laptop and netbook wanderings in the wilderness. So, that's all I had to say. It is now time to play some Gratuitous Space Battles, which just doesn't work well on the netbook. It is far too epic for the little screen.

International versus NHL hockey.

I noticed a few things while watching Olympic hockey that struck me as being strange or different. There is no fighting. You get ejected from the game for fighting in the Olympics, where in most professional leagues it is just 5 minutes in the penalty box. Olympic hockey has no "obstruction" call. So, you see the defense playing the body when the forwards approach the net. In North American hockey, the defense goes after the puck. In the Olympics, the goalie can play the puck anywhere behind the goal line, even way into the corners. I saw a goalie get an assist yesterday. There is some hitting, but not as much, I suppose because the rink is wider and there's less play right up against the boards. There seems to be more hooking, although they don't seem to call it much. I noticed that the defense will hold the puck behind their net for long periods of time to allow a line change, but North American players tend to keep the puck moving and execute line changes a bit faster. Of course, there's the no-touch icing in the Olympics, with which I'm familiar from playing in recreational leagues where it makes sense. And I noticed yesterday that they resolve a tie with a 10 minute overtime, then a best of 3 shootout. Canada won the shootout, so I didn't get to witness any differences in the shootout, but there is a difference in the rules. In the Olympics, if the game remains tied after the first three shooters, any player can be chosen to shoot any number of times. In the NHL, I believe that everyone has to shoot once before anyone can shoot twice. In the NHL a team can dress 18 skaters and 2 goalies. In the Olympics it's 20 skaters and 2 goalies. In examining the rule book, I noticed that anyone who was on the ice can take a penalty shot, where in America only the victim of the infraction can take the penalty shot, which I think makes sense unless the guy gets dazed or injured in the process.

Almost punched a guy.

So, last Saturday I went to Cowboys Stadium on a whim to see if I could find a cheap ticket at the last minute. There were plenty and I started a bidding war and got a ticket for far less than face value. I got to the stadium just in time for the national anthem. It was played on guitar by Ted Nugent, and it rocked, up to a point where it was drowned out by a group of Mexicans in a nearby standing room only section chanting "Gringos suck!" I was about >< that close to punching the one closest to me, but the song ended and they stopped and I thought that I'd rather see the game than worry about a bunch of drunken idiots misbehaving in the cheap seats. Anyway, I don't know of anything as spectacular as Cowboys Stadium in Mexico. If you don't like gringos, please go back to Mexico. Next time, I'll probably be less tolerant if you disrespect Ted Nugent, and even less tolerant if you are shouting slurs during the Star Spangled Banner.

Mmmm Mmmm Good.

It's Christmas pot luck lunch day here and I am nomming on a burnt end, smoked turkey, and some tasty side items. I am eating the best tamale of my life right now. I work too hard in the gym to indulge at the dessert table, but it all looks amazing.

How to use a Cisco ASA as a sniffer.

Today I learned a cool firewall trick. If you're not technical, you can stop reading right here, just trust me that it's nerdcool.

You can use a Cisco ASA as a sniffer, and it will display the captured traffic in a format you can open in a packet analyzer.

First, create an access list to define the interesting traffic, like IP traffic from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.2, for example:

access-list sniffer permit ip host 192.168.1.1 host 192.168.2.2

Second, start the capture on the interface where the traffic passes:

capture testcap access-list sniffer interface inside

Be sure ASDM is installed, and "http server enable" is in your config, and http and https are allowed in your interface ACL to allow you to access it. If you already use the ASDM you’re already set up. If ASDM is running, you can now browse to the results.

https://securityappliance-ip-address/capture/capture_name

Put /pcap on the end if you want a version of the capture to load into ethereal or packetbuilder or some other packet analyzer.

Use the no syntax to stop the capture:

no capture testcap

Note that hackers could use this feature to PWN your servers or capture sensitive info, so be sure your ASDM interface on your ASA is locked down pretty good. Enjoy.

NOTE: If you want to watch the traffic in real-time (and you have CPU to spare), use this variation:

capture testcap access-list sniffer interface inside real-time