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Stuff Migrated

Data storage finally outgrew the 1Gb network’s capacity to effectively back it up in a timely manner. Then Solarwinds effectively demonstrated how vulnerable users of commercial software are. The nefarious n’er-do-well cyber vector is officially un-constrained. Remote users may not appreciate it, but the site is now hosted on a beefy 2nd gen Ryzen with plenty of RAM, running nothing but open-source software. Moving things off the old Synology NAS was a week-long project fraught with bumps in the sysadmin road and learning updates aplenty.

The video-monitor project mentioned in the last post yesterday was a 3-day debacle, due mostly to my own rusty admin skills. There were import issues with the WordPress site, so look for missing images and broken links until I go back and fix everything. I’ve yet to have a WordPress site of any size import correctly.

The Synology stuff is great kit, but aimed more at corporate customers with deep pockets on the high end, with minimal performance and capability on the low end. My DS418play is a great little mid-tier 4-pocket raid machine that served well for several years, performing all the typical LAMP duties associated with a web site like this. But it’s mine in name alone, with no OS/application control. Can’t trust it anymore, and it contains spinning disks. Pretty sure I never trusted the DSL router either, but at least it’s a throwaway item.

Planned new topology will be a 10Gb edge behind a proper stateful firewall. Activating a 2nd interface on this machine will be the day it moves into pure server status and I start building a new workstation. That last portion of the project awaits funding.

The 5712 Trumpomania silver lining: Build Back Better!

Late Update 8 Jan: Turns out every local WordPress link is off by the same .php value and there’s ALOT of missing carriage returns. I’ve been displeased with the direction WordPress is heading – this just confirms my fears. I believe this is actually the first time I’ve run the latest version. Synology is always versions behind and even runs an ancient kernel. I’m sure i’ts been securely Synolygized, but…

I have a feeling alot more software licences are going to soon be re-written, or alot less COTS is gonna be found in the networks. Can’t trust ’em.

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Maslow's Covered

Not sure why I got into the tech industry on the security front >35 years ago.  I suppose being thrust into the military with a willingness to do whatever, being stationed in Germany when the Wall went down was a factor.  But that’s what I did for the most part – systems, physical, personnel, crypto – sometimes simultaneously depending on how poorly resourced the unit at hand was.

Guess I’m lucky enough to have made my past profession a current hobby.  That’s a nice benefit considering the now ambulatory-restricted health condition I find myself in.  In fact I’m certain the desk-bound nature of my last couple jobs with Lockheed is the only reason I made it as far as I did.  Those long walks across Schriever were getting increasingly tiring.

So the current project on the 5712 tech home front is migrating off a long-running Synology NAS.  That is a great system with few complaints from me.  It’s well-designed and easy for non-techies to use.  But (BIG but) it’s proprietary, with limited functionality and high initial outlay and O&M risk.  The biggest part of that “but” involves software security in today’s politically charged cyber war.  In case nobody noticed, the next U.S. Civil War has been in progress on the cyber front for a few years now.

I won’t be waiting around to see if Synology eventually becomes another Solarwinds-type casualty on the cyber battleground.  It’s a bit tedious setting things up manually to manage the cameras with FTP server scripts, but probably alot easier than dealing with Synology and the software community generally speaking, in the long run.
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Call Santa!

Hey fuckface, how about giving Santa a call?  Seems your prayers are not answered.

It’s not the National Security “Council.” More like National Security “Cunts.”

They fucked this up so bad it’s just unbelieveable.

“UPDATE, May 15, 2020, 11:04 am ET: In a Fox News interview, McConnell acknowledged he was incorrect in his assertion that the Obama administration didn’t leave behind any kind of “game plan” regarding a pandemic threat. “I was wrong. They did leave behind a plan, so I clearly made a mistake in that regard,” McConnell said.”

It was the last, biggest one you made with our country’s health and safety – right after enabling the Fuckwit.

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Loose Lips Sink Ships?

Maybe the SS Trump is goin’ down.  When your entire personna as the POTUS is built on a long-running reputation in snake-oil sales and organized crime, there’s more than a few people privy to what you’ve been up to.  Trump’s biggest problem is way too many people both in and outside of his criminal enterprise now know exactly what he’s been up to.  And there’s plenty of evidence.  The only thing keeping the Liar-in-Chief out of jail is the Presidency and tight lips.  Soon he’ll have only the gracious silence of fellow criminals.  Keep pumpin’ out those pardons!

Remember Rudy’s “I have insurance” episode?  Fucking imbeciles.

At least the Fuckwit can still sign his name – but only after bitching about it and waiting to screw people out of a week’s unemployment benefits.  What a colossal dickhead.

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Back in Boston…

Francie ‘n Vic remind me of what feasting used to be – burning calories like they’re going out of style!

I’m slipping into a food coma just looking!

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Texas Xmas

One of Phoebe’s pics from yesterday made a rare journey into my computer:

I think Tanner found something he likes better than beer!

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TJ’s the Man!

As expected, TJ led the pro bowl voting at outside linebacker this season.  With Chubb on the other side, it seems likely the next Pro Bowl will be a real sleeper, with nothing at all happening in the NFC offense.

He looks like how I feel about Trump in this picture!

Tomlin summed up TJ’s attributes well.  #90 looks like how I feel about Trump in this photo.

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Idiots are Sooooo Predictable

As expected, the Orange Fuckwit announced his intention to veto the pending Coronavirus relief bill late last night.  This was expected by me, simply because it is the only thing he has left to do in any real official capacity.  So he declined, strictly for political purposes, in a feeble attempt to try making himself look better, as he departs the highest office in the land utterly disgraced, leaving the country in shambles.

After months of negotiations in which his representatives along with democratic counterparts generated a 4-foot-high pile of paperwork, the cretin once again showed his true colors.  Rather than work to help the country, his minions delayed and denied until the 11th hour where the TV conman took to YouTube for a quick broadcast to his base.
Must be getting pretty desperate, now that his German Bankers have resigned.  This was the plan all along – grabbing at one last straw in his scorched earth attack on Democracy and the US of A.  Nancy called his bluff.  Too bad we’re a little smarter than he gave us credit for.

Way to go, Girl!

The Piece ‘o Shit is pardoning murderers.

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Can’t Wait for the 2nd Wave

Coming up on a year with SARScoV2 spreading throughout the country.  I wonder how many people have deluded themselves into believing we are not still in the 1st wave here in the States?  The UK is well into the real 2nd wave now, including a new mutation that is even more contagious.

looks like some seriously extreme Brexit we got goin’ on now.

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They're Missing the Point

So OK, there’s no scientific basis for any claims to Cannabis’ medical efficacy.  That is after all, the whole point for it being on the Controlled Substances list, right?  Fine.  Last time I checked, some alarmingly high percentage of all CBD products recently tested had little or in some cases even NO CBD in them.  Isn’t that an even more obvious and potentially dangerous fraudulent claim?  Anybody remember the vape scam?  Whether or not Cannabidiol holds any medical therapeutic efficacy is rather irrelevant if the medication does not even contain it. Medication efficacy is pretty much up to the patient and quite variable in the licensed pharmaceutical industry anyway.

What about that, FTC?

Feds Crack Down On ‘Deceptively Marketed’ CBD Products

FDA maybe?  I’m thinking DEA.  While we’re at it, let’s get the FBI on the case.  Maybe even the Surgeon General could help, if he’d stop sucking Trump’s dick long enough to get  anything done.

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Fuck the Catholics. Just Fuck them.

Incredible.  I think some Catholic leaders need to get off their fat, lazy asses and do a few shifts down at the local ER.  These filthy bastards are exploiting the pandemic to their own ends just like Trump and the legislative arm of his criminal enterprise, the GOP.  Cocksucking Mutherfuckers, the whole lot.

Colorado bishops warn Catholics about morality of COVID-19 vaccines, citing fetal cells

Seems the bible thumpers want to leverage human reproduction as a subsidiary business.  What better way to generate demand for more babies than making plenty of room with a raging pandemic?  Brilliant!  And if the “immoral” vaccine was the only one available?  Arbiters of science now, huh?  Just pointing out a few ambiguous facts to help keep the flock guessing?

Apart from supporting their parasitic leaders, this is what religion is good for:  Fucking things up.  Watch the goalposts go clear out of the stadium on this one…

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Unintended Consequences

It’s not just college students.  In fact, the educational quagmire our country now finds itself in will affect every single citizen, in at least some small way whether or not they even realize it, for decades to come.  When Dr. Fauci sat in front of the House Committee last spring explaining how “we’re not set up for that,” his counterpart Betsy DeVirus, could have been sitting right beside him saying exactly the same thing about our schools.

“There is a much larger implication here for the country,” says Angel Pérez, who oversees the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “The fact is if we lose an entire generation of young people in the pipeline to college, that will have an impact on our tax base. It will have an impact on an educated citizenry.”

Consequences need to be intended and pursued for Trump and ALL his enablers.  The so-called “base” is getting their due, even as we speak.

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High Quality Employees

Between Giuliani, Powell and now this miscreant Ellis, under the circumstances, it appears plausible to assume Trump really should have won the election.  Because if you put these three on the case, there should be no possible way in Hell it could ever come out in your favor, regardless of evidence or anything else.

The bitch is scheduled to testify in Colorado today.  Should be interesting to see what she has to say for herself.

That’s right cocksuckers – hang your heads in shame.

The boss finally signed off – looks like it’s OK to proceed…

Late Update 12/16:  No surprises from the micropenis tweeter.  I imagine it takes a really big hawg to fill that cavern.