Welcome to my digital home! There are lots of articles you might find helpful buried in this site on topics such as modifying an Alfa Romeo 159, rebuilding a Lotus 7 (Robin Hood 2B), not to mention a ton of stuff on technology in general. It’s all here somewhere, so use the search function or navigate using the menu structure. if you want to talk, reach out via the contact function, I usually do answer!
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InfoSecOpen post to see coverage:
computing.co.uk – April 2009 – Malware
computing.co.uk – April 2009 – Risk in the recession
pcauthority.com.au – April 2009 – Microsoft
computing.co.uk – April 2009 – Microsoft
crn.com.au – April 2009 – Risk in the recession
whatpc.co.uk – April 2009 – Security
computing.co.uk – April 2009 – Malware
Searchsecurity.co.uk – April 2009 – Conficker & PatchingRelated Images: [...]
LiveMixesOldschool Hard House from the archives
https://jabawoki.com/wp-content/mp3/Jabs_050403_HardHouse.mp3
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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GeneralI have been working with a large retailer of late who is a heavy user of Sun & Solaris. As you can imagine, this is perfectly normal, and in fact, considered best practice for what they are doing. That said though, in an area such as retail, with low margins and profits based on sheer quantity, surely a leap of faith into the “dark side” or as we prefer to call it, Linux, would be a better option?
Once upon a time the argument was simple, RISC architecture was simply ahead of the game, by a long way, but guess what, x86 grew up, caught up, and overtook. These days, the performance you get out of multi-core x86 is significantly more than it’s RISC based equivalent. I realise that point could be considered contentious by the purists out there, but for mainstream computing in a world that is ever more cost concious, I struggle see how any argument for RISC can win over x86.
Once you have your x86 base, you can go with an x86 version of Solaris (not that you would) or thanks to Sun not playing silly games, you can actually use something useful, such as Redhat, Suse, Ubuntu or if you so desire, Novell.This additional flexibility is core to getting the base of your platform right. Large scale architectures need solid foundations to remain stable, perform and scale as desired.
Lets consider it for a moment. Sparc vs x86 & Solaris vs Linux, well to be honest, there is barley anything in the comparison except cost. Sun make x86 hardware based on multi-core AMD processors which are blisteringly fast and being manufactured by Sun, they are rock solid.
Now. If I were that retailer, I know where I would be looking to spend my money, but thats not what I am there to talk to them about, so I’ll keep it for my blog and not overstep my scope.
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LiveMixesA multi-part Electro Pop Mix for the masses 🙂
01. David Guetta – Memories (Bingo Players Remix)
02. Klubbheads – Kickin hard (DJ Solovey Remix)
03. Desto – Crazy (Lindberg And William Remix)
04. Snap – The Power (DJ Pomeha Remix 2010)
05. Gubellini vs Pain feat Darook Mc – Shake It Up (Javi Mula Remix)
06. Sabien And Alim – Naughty Feat Jerique (Shahin Remix)
07. Loleatta Holloway – Ride On Time 2010 (Bruno Ramos & HytraxX Mix)
08. DJ Eako & Morelly feat. Omega Brown – I Can’t Stop (Steel Mix)
09. Queen – You Don’t Fool Me (Dj Denis Rublev & Dj Natasha Baccardi Remix 2010)
10. Andrea Paci feat. Michelle Weeks – Big Mama (Elektro Mix)
11. Crookers Feat. Miike Snow – Remedy (Magik Johnson Vocal Remix)
12. Axwell – I Found You (DJ MikeY 2010 Remix)
13. Robbie Rivera feat. Fast Eddie – Let Me Sip My Drink (Chuckie Remix)
14. Topmodelz – Have U Ever Been Mellow (Rekoilz Electro Remix)
15. Niels Van Gogh And Emilio Verdez – Black Is Black (Club Mix)
16. Soul Puncherz – Speakerz Bumpin Loud (Filthy Rehab Remix)
17. Shadow Stars – Desintegration feat. Sergei Khovanksy (Mario Ochoa Remix)
https://jabawoki.com/wp-content/mp3/Jabawoki_Electro_Pop_Part_1_10082010.mp3
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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InfoSecI am getting a little annoyed with hearing people wax lyrical about “the cloud” and how its going to revolutionise the world. I have a news flash for you all, its not new and its not revolutionary!
First of all, lets define what we are talking about. There is a simple definition for Cloud Computing, and three models of operation as held by NIST, these are:
Definition:
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.
Models of Operation:
Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.
Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).
Now, I am pretty sure that during my long career, I have seen a lot of companies doing IaaS and PaaS as a “Business as Usual” activity, haven’t you? In my experience, IaaS is nothing more than a traditional infrastructure outsourcing arrangement, as undertaken with IBM, HP/EDS or BT, while PaaS is just a simple hosting service offered by most ISP’s (I accept I am simplifying here). So what are we really talking about when the press pickup and pedal the term “cloud computing”. Looks to me like they are talking about SaaS, which again, has been around for a while, Hotmail anyone?, but not really taken off in the enterprise until it became “cloud computing”. So is this just a media spin to pedal Hotmail to the enterprise or just a natural progression from outsourcing boxes to apps? What is revolutionary here, I am yet to see.
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Alfa 159 / ElectronicsAs part of my quest to replace every single bulb in my Alfa with an LED equivalent, I noticed that the high level brake light utilised small bulbs and not LEDs (strange I know, but that’s Alfa for you!). So me being me, I took it apart and found that it would be very easy to replace the bulbs with LEDs whcih was a result. Of course, this wasn’t enough so I thought, If I had 10 LEDs what could I do with them 🙂
Enter the ATMega328 MCU, or as you may know it, the Arduino 🙂
The ATMega328 has 14 Digital Pins, 6 of which are PWM and an additional 6 x analogue inputs, problem is I needed 10 x PWM pins. The best option in this case is to use a shift register such as a 595 to extend your pins, but as I didn’t have one to hand, I decided to do it the hard way. There is a software library for the arduino SDK called : SoftPWM.h which lets you simulate PWM on any pin, which is quite useful to limit the hardware used and make better use of the processing power of the chip. So 4 hours of “figuring it out” yielded this result:
The basic functional requirement was simple:
When the brake pedal is pressed illuminate as normal
If the pedal is pressed for more than 5 seconds get your cylon on 🙂
You can download the sketch from the downloads section if you want to play with it. There are lots of arduino cyclon sketches around, but most / all of them are 6 LED’s or less due to the hardware PWM limitation, so this one lets you have up to 14 LEDs without moving into shift register world. and the schematic is below for your information:
This is isn’t the finished product btw, juts a learning experience on the way. I have some high powered LED’s on the way from China, and some shift registers in the post, as the main issue with doing this in software is speed and I need some more speed for some additional functions 🙂
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RH2B Build DiarySo after installing my lovely new OMP race wheel it was apparent that all was not well with the steering column! In fact, this was an understatement as there was a good 1-2″ of play side to side on the column whcih was just not going to do. a quick investigation identified the issue. A 30+ year old bush that had given up the ghost!
Sierra Steering Column bush from the donor car! probably 83-90 so quite old now!
After a bit of time on google I established that this was a standard Sierra steering column bush, and also that Kit Spares held them in stock (probably should have started there 🙂 ) £20 including shipping and a couple of days later it was time to pull the column apart and figure out how this all hangs together.
Fortunately, its as easy as you would expect. The column is hung on the original mount points at the top and passes through a 3mm steel holder at the bottom, so all that was needed was to loosen the joiner in the engine bay, remove the bolts off the column top and slide the whole thing out. Once out the old bush litter ally fell out into the foot well!
installing the new bush was a little more fiddly as it actually fitted snugly and needed some fettering with fairy liquid and some random tools. Once in, the column could be slid back into place and I could set about bolting the top half back in.
When i removed the top half I was less than impressed with the mounting solution. What is becoming a trend with this vehicle is the original builders approach to solving technical problems was, lets say, a bit garden shed; and I wanted to be a little more professional about it! So where the Sierra steering column mounts were 18mm open voids that clearly took a bush of some kind once upon a time, and instead had been friction mounted with an M10 and a large washer, I decided to pop along to my favourite hardware supplier, Stirling Nut and Bolt.
This is heaven for fasteners of any kind. They literally have everything you could ever want and at trade prices so you don’t spend an arm and a leg! A quick tour of the warehouse and 15 minutes later I had 2 x M10.9×50 High tensile bolts, 2 x M10x50 washers, 20x 18mm M10 spacer washers and an assortment of other similar things to work with just in case. A whole £7 later…… (i’ll let you stew on that), I was back home and assembling my newly acquired parts into an M10 spacer bolt arrangement that went, M10 Bolt, 50mm washer, 6 x 18mm spacer washers inside of the column mount, then the frame mount point, then a nylock high tensile nut.
This solution made the column extremely rigid and removed flex at the lower end where the bush took up the remaining pivot movement and the column was firm, central and more aligned that its previous installation!
Under side of steering column
Come the winter this is all coming apart again as part of the big rebuild, but for now, I have a safe, secure steering solution for this summers fun!
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LiveMixesIn honour of the legend that is Deadmau5 this mix is dedicated to his work and the awesome sounds that result from it.
01) Toca Me (Deadmau5 mix) – Fragma
02) I Want You (Deadmau5 mix) – Carl Cox
03) Afterhours – Deadmau5 & Mallefresh
04) Hey Baby – Deadmau5 & Mallefresh
05) Harder Better Faster on Drugs – Deadmau5 vs Daft Punk
06) Dont You Want To Feel (Deadmau5 mix) – Drugstore Era
07) Finished Symphony (Deadmau5 mix) – Hybrid
08) Tiny Dancer (Deadmau5 mix) – Marco Demark Feat Casey Barnes
09) Longest Road (Deadmau5 mix) – Morgan Page
10) Super Skunk (Deadmau5 mix) – Noir
11) Cherry Twist (Deadmau5 mix) – The Crystal Method
12) Dirty Sexy Club Music (Deadmau5 mix) – Filter Freq
13) Burn (Deadmau5 mix) – Prime 33
14) No Pressure (Deadmau5 mix) – One Plus One
15) God Is A DJ (Deadmau5 mix) – Faithless
https://jabawoki.com/wp-content/mp3/Jabawoki_Strictly_Mau5_04042011.mp3
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Alfa 159The final stage was putting all the wiring in place. I opted for 4 gauge cable from the battery up front and a 4 gauge earth in the rear, both connected back to brass 4 way distribution blocks so I could pull 8 gauge runs to amps and the line converter. This also left me the easy upgrade route for adding additional amps to run upgraded mids & tweeters in the cabin, but that’s another project!!
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Alfa 159Once the planning was complete and I had the Amp prepared for some serious load, it was over to the car for a complete strip of the boot and sound proofing. The approach taken was to utilise a number of different sound proofing materials once I stripped the car back to the shell.
To start with , a Bitumen material was used to create a panel deadening effect to eliminate rattles and vibrations. This was applied to all panels in as much quantity as was viable. The second stage was to utilise a 12mm thick high density foam to act as a sound proofing material. This was used to create a sound proof shell in the boot to stop the low frequencies going anywhere but into the cabin, as such, this material was not used on the parcel shelf, where the bitumen product was, but was utilised on every other surface that was externally facing. Where it was just not possible to utilise the thick 12mm foam, I made use of a 7mm medium density foam that was more pliable and easier to work with.
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