Number 40

White Rabbits – Percussion Gun

David — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:55:31 +0000

Brilliant video. Lead singers who play the piano are the bomb.

Demonstrate Metasploit on a Mac using VMWare Fusion

David — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:20:52 +0000

I had been trying for a while to set up a couple of virtual machines in such a way that I could demonstrate the working of Metasploit on my Mac. At last today, I have figured out how to do it.

What you’ll need:

1. A Mac (I have a MacBook Pro running OS 10.5.7)
2. VMWare Fusion (I run version 1.1.2, but this should not matter too much)
3. BackTrack 4 (DVD iso can be downloaded from here. NB not the VMWare image!!!)
4. Some old Windows installation cd (can be Windows 2000 or Windows XP)

Setting up BackTrack

1. Download the iso from the link given above

2. Set up BackTrack 4 as a virtual machine in VMWare Fusion:

3. Set BackTrack network to ‘Bridged’:

4. Start networking:

Remember this IP address (192.168.178.26). This will be the local (‘attacker’) IP address later on!

5. Start KDE:

6. Start Metasploit (the web version, msfweb):

7. Wait about 15 seconds, then open a browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:55555:

8. BackTrack 4 and Metasploit are all set!

Setting up Windows 2000

9. Install Windows 2000 (no screenshots provided, use the VMWare help if this should prove difficult)

10. Set network to bridged:

11. Check the Windows IP:

Lo and behold! The windows IP address is 192.168.178.21! This will be the ‘target’ address later on.

Demonstrate Metasploit

12. Start ‘Exploits’ on your BackTrack 4 virtual machine:

13. Search for ‘rpc dcom’ and click:

14. Click on the target link provided (if you’re into reading, you can also click the ‘external references’):

15. At ‘target address’, type in the IP address of the windows virtual machine (refer to step 11 above):

16. At ‘local address’, type in the BackTrack 4 virtual machine IP address (refer to step 4 above), then ‘launch exploit’:

16. Are you sure you want to send unencrypted data?

17. The VNC session will be started, and you will have gained control over the other virtual machine:

Ian Morison on God

David — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:27:14 +0000

Ian Morison on the possible existence of a God-thing (something higher above looking down on us), on Fora.tv

John Vanderslice

David — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:01:09 +0000

I really like the combination of rock drums and singer-songwriter ambience of John Vanderslice’s songs. Actually, he is currently the #1 played artist on my iPod. Although I prefer his song ‘White Dove’, I couldn’t find a decent version of it on YouTube, so I included the following song:

No Man Can Find the War – Tunng

David — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:54:19 +0000

Looking for a video of Jeff Buckley’s father, Tim Buckley, I ran into the following song. No footage, unfortunately, but a brilliant song and a nice production:

And the original, with some voice over dude:

Laura Marling – New Romantic

David — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:28:51 +0000

And, after having featured Noah and the Whale in the previous post, I would like to raise your attention to an ex-member of that band, Laura Marling. Is there a new British renaissance going down there, or what?

I’d like to call it ‘the second British invasion’.

Noah and the Whale – 5 years’ time

David — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:46:48 +0000

From Crackle: Noah and the Whale ‘Five Years Time’

How did I run across Noah and the Whale? I don’t remember. However, their music cheers me up and rids me of the headache that was pestering me all morning.

Suicide note

David — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:13:27 +0000

I don’t usually link to blogs, but this one is, as one of the commenters says, so ‘morbidly beautiful’ that I cannot but point you to this blog entry… enjoy.

Kid Harpoon – Suicide Note

The Day Off

David — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:26:43 +0000

The Day Off from Karen Abad loves Dinosaurs. on Vimeo.

When I saw the name of the creator of this video, all sorts of bells started ringing. The reason? ‘Karen Abad loves Dinosaurs‘ is a commenting monster. She comments on nearly every video which is posted on Vimeo. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At least, not in her case.

This video is beautifully crafted and intrigues from beginning to the end. We see a girl in a wannabe grown-up setting, and then she returns to a child-like situation.

It’s a fantastic video. Enjoy!

Be Your Own Judge

David — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:01:55 +0000

For my father, it was easy. He would just read the books of the famous people, watch the famous people on tv or in the cinema, and he would judge whether they were good or not. If he deemed them good, he would be in the company of millions. If he deemed them bad, he would be in the company of millions. If he deemed them average, he would be in the company of millions. Either way, he would have his opinion confirmed by millions.

For me, it is not so simple. I have Vimeo. I have YouTube. I have MySpace. I have Flickr. I have millions of weblogs. And with everything on the web that I consume, I have to be the judge, every time. ‘Is this quality?’ ‘Is this trash?’ Every day I’m judging, making the call.

Choosing what you like has become more challenging. But no longer can I just trust someone’s talent: every day I have to see for myself whether I like this person’s art or not.

Life has not become easier, but all the more challenging!