Kirt Cathey, NH2GX, JG1FXZ

Let The Tablet Wars Begin

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:49:27 +0000

This morning I had the great opportunity to sneak-peak the Samsung Galaxy tablet. Not yet released in Japan, so this was a ‘special’ occasion made available to preview Samsung’s morsel of toy. I have to say, ‘it is nice’. The accelerometer, the touch screen, the screen is all really nice. Okay, okay, you know there is a big BUT coming….
Here is a nice picture and article from Reuters.
I do not know how to describe what I am about to write, so I’ll be careful. What I notice with the my wife’s Android phone, I also see in the Galaxy tablet – an inexplicable rough edge. Just a slight responsive difference on the touch screen, reactivity, or interaction. It is so hard to describe that I almost accuse myself of being a fan boy.
When you pick up an ipad and use the device, or when you use an iphone, there is a ‘finish’ on the product that makes you want to use it. I did not walk away from a Galaxy tablet preview thinking that eventually I would buy one, or want one. Of course, my opinion is probably heavily influenced by the fact that I have an iPad already. However, even then, I think that I would probably have the same opinion, since I am notorious for picking up multiple types of the same device – kinda like a Tokyo fashion toy.

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Bullet Trains and Small Bladders

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:09:08 +0000

Everybody in this country wants a window seat on the bullet train, but nobody can hold their bladder long enough for a two hour ride to Osaka. So, people like myself who actually like the ‘edge’ leg room and ease of mobility offered by the aisle position, find themselves levitating toward the window seats. When Japanese try to get out of their window seat, some where in their mind they think they can get get by without waiting for you to stand to get out of their way. One Japanese guy found himself sitting back down to wait for me to stand up this morning. I met his passage with a stern shoulder check as I stood up. Again, plausible innocence goes over great here. After the incident, he felt in the wrong and apologized

Over the past couple days have been working with iText, the great Java PDF API. I am finding that when pulling simple HTML from web-based HTML editors, where the strings are stored as simple HTML, iText is very useful for PDF export. According to some web links it also does RTF. I’ll get to that this afternoon after taking this iPad break.

Of course, all of this text wrangling is for the reporting interface for WorkPapers.Pro, the best electronic working papers software on the ‘net. On that note, to seperate the subject of security and electronics from my programming endeavors, I’ve setup a seperate blog at WorkPapers.Pro, which will address that subject without boring my readers here…. now back to the workshop for the next blog post. Thinking about mashing something together that uses a remote control, servos, a really loud buzzer, and a hidden camera.

If you look close at this picture, there is a lot of blood on the front of this rig. Bugs? Platform jumper?

On, on!!

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‘Cloud’ Consultants

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:13:18 +0000

You know when something has gone a bit far and it’s time to differentiate when so-called professionals start (calling themselves that) actually making a profession out of something. Huh? Back in 1987 when I was first hooked up to the internet as an individual through The Well community in San Francisco, I would have never imagined that just six years later job advertisements would appear for full-time email system administrators. That came to pass and by about 2000 I was not interested in the administrative side of the business of IT any more and started working on consulting projects. Right around that time, the web was kicking in full force and all enterprises were levitating various services toward web technology. Email and related technology was no longer that interesting, so I started working on an application called J-World, a document management and knowledge management system for KPMG in Japan.

What is so different about J-World and a private cloud? What is so different about any web service out there and a public cloud?
Answer: A lame consultant that doesn’t have the technical skill to sell any other service.

The cloud jargon is now getting filtered from my understanding. In fact, from now on, when somebody says ‘cloud’, I’m going to confirm, ‘You mean web service?’ Or, ‘You mean internet service?’ Or, ‘YOU MEAN THE SAME %$#ing INTERNET AND ALL ITS RELATED SERVICES WE HAVE BEEN USING FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS?’

I was at a user forum for one of my most recent, favorite alliance partners and one of the other speakers introduced himself as a cloud consultant. I laughed, and said, “things are kind of foggy around SLAs these days eh?”, citing an article in Network World which revealed that WEB SERVICE (not cloud) service level agreements are far shakier than other IT services, such as data centers.

Well, can’t write an article these days without mentioning WorkPapers.Pro. Over the past couple days have put up some updates, added a template to the support forum (with many more to come), and now have a nice, manageable following of beta testers. The software is now very robust and data table changes are frozen, and in the final stages of pre-release. The most recent version was released on August 1, 2010, which is my younger daughters eighth birthday, so named the release after her. Now, anybody that knows Hannah’s birthday can figure out when the next and final pre-release deployment will take place. Hint: very soon.
Here is a screen shot….

New Interface - WorkPapers Beta 2 (Aya)

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WorkPapers Release, Some Great OS X Applications

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:21:33 +0000

First things first! WorkPapers Web Edition is now available at https://workpapers.pro. The site still has a few rough edges, but the project has progressed enough to invite blog readers, registered users of the desktop software, and others for a taste of the best work flow software on the ‘net. Register here to get into the provisioning system. At this time all provisioning is manual in order to evaluate load requirements and have a bit more security control over site access. We’ll automate the process in the near future (actually it’s already coded, but not enabled) after we have determined the appropriate load balancing schema and scaling strategy.
During the last phase of this project, over the past couple days while coding the front-end web site, I ran into a couple of OS X applications that literally blew my mind. After downloading, I scratched my head wondering why I had not heard of these apps before.
First, Pixelmator is the most rocking Photoshop replacement you can buy. If you want to do graphics manipulation every once in a while, want the power of Photoshop, but do not want to re-finance the house to get something done, this is for you. A mere US$59 will get you along with a graphics application that opens and saves Photoshop format, handles layer manipulation, and is perfect for web graphics.
Next, CSSEdit is the key to working with CSS without having to memorize all those style sheet selectors. Over the past couple months, I spent hours looking up various selectors online. With CSSEdit, the code-sense will keep you from endless trips to w3schools or other reference sites.
Finally, while at MacRabbit to purchase CSSEdit, right at the purchase page they try to hock Espresso – their HTML IDE – onto you for an additional cost. Well, I bought them both and am not looking back. Espresso and CSSEdit’s real time preview, combined with code-sense in a nice Cocoa-OS X interface.

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Accent Zip Password Recovery – A Career-Saver

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:01:10 +0000

The fine folks over at passwordrecoverytools.com sent a request for an evaluation about four months ago, and as I was ensconced in a plethora of security work and programming, I never had a chance to test the tool for a good writeup. That was, until I decided to go on vacation last week and a client sent a password protected zip file without forwarding the password! That same client has decided that since I am on vacation, that my emails are not worth responding to! Hmmm…. Hahhhh! (small bellows of smoke roll out from the ears)
Well, the password was recovered in all of ten minutes. Five minutes to boot up Parallels (only have my Mac here) and install Accent Zip Password Recovery, and another five minutes to figure out the program.
Overall, the program works fast and as interfaces go, fairly intuitive. I am going to definitely give this tool another run when I find a client relying on WinZip passwords for file transfer. Also, there are many other password recovery tools at the same site for MS Office (including individual licenses for Excel and Word), MS Access, and MS Money – all a good tool chest for a security auditor that wants to prove a point about the reliability of these built-in password mechanisms. Although I did not have to use it, the advanced dictionary features on this software make it even more useful for security testing. As a security testing professional, any password tool does not pass the muster without custom dictionary capability.

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WorkPapers Release Around The Corner

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:41:07 +0000

After much anticipation from the WorkPapers user community, I am proud to announce that invitations for WorkPapers trials and testing will go out throughout the following week. After watching some fireworks tonight (from Honolulu Hawaii), I will setup the first pre-production release that will be setup as invitationware. Those who actively participate in this phase over the next couple weeks will receive a free one year subscription to the service. Please notice the ‘actively participate’ qualifier. That means posting to the user forum with bugs since there will still be a few, suggesting improvements, commenting on your own work application of the service, and answering others questions.
The initial release will include IMAP mail connectivity and allow users to link emails to their working papers. WorkPapers will also feature a ticked-reviewed-complete workflow with user access in three levels – manager, editor, and reviewer. All pretty much the same as the original desktop software complete with a tree interface tied to multiple text editors. Here are a couple (big) screen shots. There are still some style and placement tasks outstanding that we will work on before uploading.

Procedures Tab in WorkPapers

One of the big programming challenges in this release was the addition of email connectivity. As auditors, attorneys, or researchers that need a good working papers solution, our professional lives revolve around email. This release was held back about six weeks due to many intricate email challenges. In fact, email, Google Contacts connectivity, some Exchange 2007/2010 Outlook Web Access (OWA) connectivity, and schedule integration with Google Calendar and OWA is already coded under the hood and will be released gradually after testing. This initial release is a ‘shaved’ version of solid, tested code.

WorkPapers Review Notes Screen

Also, in good WorkPapers fashion, the user will not be tied into using the workflow tabs that we have programmed into the interface. The tabs across the top of the text boxes are fully customizable by individual project. All other solutions try to lock us into their so-called best practice workflow, which is fine if all you have to do is one kind of audit, review, or research.

WorkPapers Email Screen

These screen shots show only a small portion of WorkPapers functional ability. Not only can you link emails to procedures and evidence, but users with proper access, can send procedures/task details via email. This makes it very convenient for a manager to ‘push’ tasks and prioritize work as necessary.

This is just a small taste of what is to come…. in the next couple days will submit another blog post directing all to a web site to register for the invitation to use WorkPapers.

Oh, and yes, I am a user too. I have been using the software for the past three months on the production server and have found it very useful in juggling the many tasks related to multiple project management at work and task management for development of WorkPapers itself.

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Whew!! Coming Up For Air

admin — Tue, 18 May 2010 06:49:24 +0000

Hi All. Crawled out of the dark coding dungeon for some fresh air over the next couple days. Then back into web site touch-ups, alotta photoshop, and some rounding out the rough edges, then deployment. Last night uploaded a milestone version of the web version of WorkPapers to the repository. This version pretty much does all of the base functions – tying together workstep and results editors to the tree view, attachments, project tracking, and the first step of Google Apps integration.
Okay, okay, I know you all have no idea on what I am describing… thinking out loud. But when you see the application in a couple weeks, you’ll know. I’ve taken legacy versions of WorkPapers and kept those functions, while adding optional GTD, social media, and application sharing features.
For those of you who have not figured out the hosting web site yet, I will be disclosing that information with an open invite in the next couple days… or weeks, depending on how quick I get things done. For most reasonable purposes, announcements for the invitationware release (with adverts) will go out by the weekend. Paid release announcements will go out in mid-June. Previous purchasers of WorkPapers software will get a one year subscription to the service free of charge and an invitationware invite to become an early adopter.
I must say, web application programming is much more tedious with many more variables than desktop programming. This iteration of the software will ultimately be both – the web application and the application desktop tool. I wanted to stay completely away from a desktop version initially, but after spending a couple months of development, realize a couple things:
1) I want to give users a way to work offline and synch with online contents – added value for higher paying customers.
2) No matter how ‘rich’ and ‘sexy’ you create a web application, depending on the widgets used and target functionality, one web browser is always better than something else.
The solution to both of these challenges is to roll my own web browser that links with some desktop services like email, calendar, and contacts, while presenting the WorkPapers web application in the most visually pleasing, high performance environment possible.
Stay tuned…. will be blogging a lot more in the near future.

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New WorkPapers Release Coming

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:26:37 +0000

Hi All! It’s been a while, but since then have been hard at work programming on a couple of projects with a couple of languages. Over the past couple weeks, since mentioning WorkPapers in a blog posting, several users have replied via email calling, requesting, and some demanding a new release. Well, it’ll be out in a few weeks. This next release will enhance the previous version synchronize, file exchange, and export – with a few long-awaited reporting upgrades. A subsequent release will include WorkPapers Web Edition with client software synchronization and/or pure filthy rich online experience. This mix of web and client programming is really challenging, but I like the work since it ensconces the mind for hours and keeps me from going out and getting in trouble.
Speaking of trouble, climbing season has come back around…. I climbed Mt. Kumotoriyama last weekend and it was coooold! The trees were still frozen, but that’s what one can expect at just about 7,000 feet.

WorkPapers Web Edition

Here is a quick glimpse of WorkPapers Web Edition…. the screen icons/buttons will change slightly before release to make it prettier. Trial sign-ups will start in about a week, so let me know if you’d like to try. The release will be an extended (safer) beta release like GMail or other robust web apps, since users will also have the ability to synchronize their data offline to stay safe during the beta final design period – but beta will also be an extended free period with discounts for beta adopters. Join the fun!!!

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MySQL Setup On OS X 10.5x – The Missing Procedures

admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:23:19 +0000

This posting is basically to document the procedure for setup, so others do not have to go through the ordeal that I went through. I am not sure why more explicit instructions are available , since when I Googled for the run-time errors that were produced as a result of using the MySQL DMG package, there were a myriad of comment postings and forum postings but very few solution.

First, download the DMG package and the tar file (both) from MySQL download site. DO NOT INSTALL THE DMG INSTALL PACKAGE. Unpack the tarball and move to /usr/local/yourMySQLVersionFolder (<-substitute with your MySQL unpacked folder name.). Create a symbolic link to MySQL in /usr/local —> sudo ln -s yourMySQLVersionFolder mysql.
A mysql user account is in OS X by default, so move into the mysql folder
–> sudo chown mysql .
–> sudo chgrp mysql .
Move into the scripts folder and look for a script called mysql_install_db and open in vi, emacs, or your favorite editor and change the line,
localhostname=’/bin/hostname’ to localhostname=’localhost’.
If you do not perform the procedures above, or just go ahead and use the install package provided by MySQL, then all will work just fine after installation. You will develop and program your heart out, feel like the master of your destiny, then once you reboot, MySQL will not let you login to change anything. The error you will most likely see is:
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user ‘root’@'localhost’ (using password: NO)
Over and over again, no matter what you do…..
That’s not all…. if you have completed the steps above, you may still get an error that says mysql cannot access /tmp, or something like that. At this point, do the following:
–> cd /usr/local/mysql
–> sudo mkdir tmp
–> sudo chown _mysql:wheel tmp
–> sudo chmod 755 tmp
Then pull up the editor of your choice to edit (or create in my case) /etc/my.cnf to include the following:
[mysqld]
tmpdir=/usr/local/mysql/tmp

At this point, all shoud work. Now go to the DMG package file and double click on the preferences pane icon, and when prompted if you want to include that in system preferences, press the yes button. Then unmount the DMG package and trash it. You’re done.
The frustrating thing about this little adventure were the plethora of install instruction blog sites, but every one of the comments areas were filled with requests about the error above, and everybody had a different solution FOR THE SAME OS!! Hope this saves some time for somebody out there in internet land. If so, please comment. Also, for more morsels of wisdom, please refer to this site and this site, which is where I managed to gather the proper procedures.

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WorkPapers Software, Java, Google Web Toolkit, and DCMA

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:35:26 +0000

Hi All!! Still alive and kicking. Been a couple weeks since the last posting but have been hard at work putting together another platform iteration of WorkPapers software. So far, I have created the audit working papers management software solution in Cocoa and RealBasic, so this time around thought I would try one more iteration in Java and Ajax. For more information about WorkPapers, please see the projects page on this web site. This will give a cross-platform solution that will sync with a web-base Ajax interface… sexy! So now that I am in advanced stages of this programming iteration, I thought I would shop around for yet another domain name to host the software on. One of the domain names I searched revealed an imposter that states the product is still in development! Whoever decided to use the name must have thought of it, then said, ‘Yeah, that’s an awesome name!’. Then proceeded to use it without searching or anything. I have not submitted links for it in three or four years as I have a user following, and still get number four or five on Google. What were they thinking? I know what I’m thinking… stop using my name or get ready to offer a serious cut!
I have used the ‘WorkPapers’ name for software since 2003, so whoever is out there trying to use my name will have a hard time collecting money for it free-and-clear because I have all intention of protecting the name…. that’s where DMCA fits into the title. Been learning a bit about that and also that it applies to trademarks too! Also, learned that a copyright and trademark right can be very well enforced even if they are not registered, and furthermore, even if somebody manages to register the trademark after you have used a name. I really hope all is settled amicably.

Along with my job as a security practitioner, I have been looking into developing domain analysis tools (especially AD) with Java and came by this link that outlines all the resources from Sun Oracle that outline how to use the JNDI framework for AD analysis. Good stuff for the hands-on types!
Enjoy…. 73s.

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