A recent article on SecurityFocus analyses the patterns in recent SSH login attacks.

Most of the results of this analysis were fairly unsuprising to anyone who runs a public-facing SSH server. root and various other system-level accounts are prime targets for attack, despite the fact that any competent sysadmin will have disabled remote logins for these accounts. I personally have seen repeated attacks looking for account names like lpd and harrypotter.

The analaysis of passwords used is also not suprising, with simple strings of numbers ("123456" or "11111") or letters ("password" or "admin") being common. I remember one NT system …

The Register reported that people in the Netherlands should beware of interdimensional attack. "Yup, it looks like the Daleks are poised to exploit this rift in the space/time continuum.", writes Lester Haines. Its bad enough that we have to worry about attacks from other countries, without having to deal with attacks from other (fictional) dimensions.

As Slashdot reported earlier today, Diebold's voting machines are much less secure than was previously thought. (Is it possible to have negative security?) Apparently, common desk and minibar keys can open the Diebold voting machines!

Now this is just plain ridiculous. The original exploit for these machines required that you either have a key or a screwdriver, with the key being preferrable. (Dismantling a voting machine is likely to get noticed, whereas simply opening a little door won't.) As it turns out, the key that was used is just a simple office furniture key, widely available on the Internet and …

I have started a new song. Those of you who heard my "early work" on Modarchive.com will probably reeling with horror at this point, but rest assured — I have been honing my skills.

The file is only thirty seconds, and is just a preview of the earliest part of the song. Enjoy.

(Editor's note: the file alexdw-test1.ogg seems to lost to history. Probably for the best.)

Well, I've finally finished my time in service of the Indiana National Guard. I just received my discharge papers, so now I'm back to being a full-time civilian again!

The television database is finally starting to shape up. At this time, broadcast channels are listed for several local markets near northeast Indiana, as well as several local cable systems.

On the broadcast side, the Fort Wayne and South Bend markets should now be fully covered, and Lansing, Toledo and Lima should be coming along very quickly. The real attraction here is the cable listings. Aside from PPV, the channel listings are complete for Comcast in Fort Wayne, and a few small Longview and Galaxy systems in Steuben County. Angola's local system (Mediacom) is not fully in yet, but will …

First of all, I'd like to point out that my resume is now online, but currently only in Micro$oft Word format. PDF and HTML versions are forthcoming. Also, I'm currently working on a database of television and radio stations, and their owners.

The database right now is in the process of being filled, and the interface is being written. The administration interface is mostly complete (although you'll never see this). I have a preliminary interface that shows "providers" and their line-ups, although the information is not very detailed right now. (The info is in the database, it's just not …

I just want to assure everyone that I am still alive. I have lots of exciting trip pictures from my trip to Arizona in January, as well as new case-mod stuff. I also plan to update the Linux Digital Camera List before it becomes completely useless. Oh yeah, and I noticed the "problem" with the forum. Nice going, heh… still pointless, since nobody used it anyway. (Adios to the forever-beta forum, I guess.)

Sorry I haven't updated my web site in quite a while. I have been… distracted by other matters. However, if you are anxious to see me at work, I have updated my employer's web site. I have updated the web site for Moyer Companies, which includes my employer — Moyer Process & Control. I've been working there for three years now, and I have only just now been given the opportunity to update it. (It has badly needed it for some time now.) I hope you all enjoy the layout and coding… you probably aren't particularly interested in springs. ";-)"

Some people have complained that there are only thirteen episodes per season in the new series of Doctor Who. Howver, given what the series has tended to do in the past, it is not too far off the mark. The original series of Doctor Who was shown as multi-part serials with 22.5 minute segments. If you edit together all the episodes of a typical four-part serial, you get a fairly consistent 1:30 run length. At any rate… after the Troughton era, seasons were usually 26 episodes long. As Season 22 amply demonstrated, a season of the equivalent 45 …