Blogdiy booyaa dot org: week 1
By booyaa | May 17, 2009
week 1 - 13/5-17/5
earlier this week we bought a virtual private server (vps) with 34sp.com with the view of moving me and lou’s domains to it (our friends have been kindly hosting both). i thought it would be a good idea to keep a log of how we did it. now, normally this would be a very boring log, but almost immediately after firing up the vps i was shocked by how quickly the hackers started calling around. so instead of this log being used to track software installs, it will have a security twist to it.
in an impossibly perfect world, you’d stick a static content webserver in the dmz i.e. no cgi and push updates from production to it. but this ain’t, and i need to keep all my eggs in the one basket! so i’m going to try my best to keep the script kiddies out and make it worthless for the more seasoned hackers to do any poking around. seriously dudes, there won’t be financial or customer data on this server, it’s just a blog site!
so far i’ve achieved the following:
- lock down ssh:
- disable root login (requires a non-root account to be used instead)
- disable password auth (pub key only)
- enable denyhost (becareful not to lock yourself out!)
- move off port 22 (security through obscurity, but will stop most script kiddies)
- lock down mysql:
- listen only locally (don’t switch to local socket files because tunneling a mysql connection won’t work)
- security auditing:
- run scripts against secure and lastb logs (looking for suspect logins)
- run chkrootkit nightly (checking for rootkit, would’ve its support bins were in a read-only environment so my rootkit doesn’t get patched by an anti-rootkit-script)
Tags: hardening, linux, security | Topics:
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Wikipediaallotment updatery: watcha growing in your propagator boo?
By booyaabooyaabooyaa | March 29, 2009
today we started to sow our first veg seeds, this meant dusting off the heated propagator. unfortunately our new place doesn’t have many places to start seeds off, in fact the only space we have is in front of the french doors. so provided we don’t get too blotto’d whilst dining al fresco (which won’t be a while) the seedlings will be safe.
so back to the propagator..
from top to bottom: 3 x trays of parmex carrots, 1 x ’sweet chocolate’ sweet pepper, 1x ‘orange banana’ toms, 1 x ’serpette amelioree d’auvergne’ climbing pea and 1 x ‘n. napia’ pointy red sweet pepper.
we’ve had very poor luck with carrots so far, although having read a few blogs i think it’s safe to say we’re not alone. this time around we’ve went for the rounder ball-like variety. this is mostly because it would seem that the soil you need, to avoid getting forked carrots, has to be super fine soil, that has been sifted through a spider’s web, whilst saying a prayer to the angry carrot god TORRAC. the other seeds are having their second chance, as they either didn’t grow or didn’t ripen in time for harvest. further more after graduating from seedling to plants, the toms and peppers are being grown in the mini greenhouse so we can get a better crop. last year we found that the poor summer combined with the allotments windy disposition gave a small crop. although, but before i entirely blame it all on the elements, i should point out i didn’t stake out the plants or keep them to four trusses.
we’ve also started this years flowers:
left is blue lagoon (verbena x hybrida) and right is night phlox (zaluzianskya capensis).
lou also planted some bulbs (daffs?) in the garden, it’d be great if they end up flowering, but failing that they’re ready for next year 
it’s been very chilly outside, i do wonder what it will do the veg this year. it’d be great if we had a longer summer to make up, so fingers crossed!
Tags: allotment, carrots, flowers, growyourown, peppers, propagation, tomatoes | Topics:
| No Comments »shelter’s vertical rush: a race to the top of tower 42
By booyaa | March 22, 2009
last wednesday me and two mates ran to the top of tower 42 (nee old natwest building), all 920 steps. despite repeatedly running up the 122 steps that make up the measley 6 floors of my work place, nothing prepared me for this event.
by the time i reached halfway point i had to start walking (this was after i had set a good pace). i had the odd occasional bursts of energy flying past people, but by the end, my legs had become like lead and i was gasping for air.
i’m normally used to an 25-60 minute type running event and finding my rhythm. i had no such luxury in this event where the winning time is sub 5 minutes.
and in 8 minutes and 11 seconds it was all over. i had hoped for a sub 10 minute finish so i consider this a result. i tried to avoid dragging myself the stairs using the bannister, but having seen footage of the winner i now know this is acceptable in the sport of stair climbing! i was top 45% of the category which is a nice percentage to be in.
i was doubly pleased because i ended up raising over 200 pounds for shelter (they asked race entrants to raise at least 150 pounds). thank you to all my wonderful sponsors, you helped me stay true to my training and stopped me from giving up when it started to hurt a lot. did i meant it hurt a lot?
crazy event. mad props to alison for making the mistake of telling me about the event!
Tags: charity, race, shelter, verticalRush | Topics:
| No Comments »allotment updatery: tatertastic!
By booyaa | March 22, 2009
our earlies went in today, much to the surprise of plotber malcolm. he said he would wait until the risk of frost was completely gone. he also said i should have fleece at the ready to protect tender shoots should the frost come. with this advice in hand i decided against planting the main crop this weekend.
i ended up keeping some of the fleece (well actually wasn’t real fleece, more like that weed suppressing membrane) on two rows to warm the ground and force faster growth.
this time around we picked really obscure varieties, made further obscure because shozu failed to upload the photo above, which had the descriptions. so from memory and left to right we have: gypsy mixed with highland burgundy, skerry, salad blue, shetland black, gypsy mixed with highland burgundy and finally dunbar rover.
aren’t they great names? the taters are heritage varieties which can go from blue and purple insides, to black skins with blue rings in white flesh. we’ve had the shetland black before and really enjoyed them.
since my plan for main crops was postponed, i decided to prune the rasps. hopefully i wasn’t too harsh. i made a half arsed attempt to weed the area around them, but it needs more work.
there’s still so much to do and we’ve not made a start on any seedlings. but hey, i guess when you stick food in the grow, you’re technically in growing season eh?
Tags: 2009, allotment, growyourown, lotty, potatoes, taters | Topics:
| No Comments »arrested (gaming) development: pyevilclutches source code
By booyaa | December 22, 2008
i spent most of last week tidying up the code so i could share it with you. as mentioned numerous times, you’ll need a copy of the game maker’s apprentice book as they contain the various graphical resources used in the source code.
think of the source code as a reference, rather than a fully working demo.
it’s christmas week, so it’s unlikely i’ll be posting anything gaming related. i’m sure most of you will be far too busy to be reading blogs anyways 
so have a great break. whereever you are, and hopefully santa will get you lots of games to play!
so without further ado, here is the source code: clickie
Tags: development, gamemaker, gaming, pygame, python | Topics:
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