Slashback: Exactitude, Fortitude, Picnic

Slashback tonight with another assortment of corrections, amplifications, looks backward (and even looks forward to looks backward). In this last case, it looks like you may even get fed.

You mean we have to reprint all the invitations? Reader Ian Cowley wrote with a slight correction about the end of an era:

"Your article on slashdot.org about the billionth second of the epoch is sort of (but not entirely) flawed.

Yes, UNIX systems will report 1000000000 seconds at 01:46:40 on 9th September. Which of course means the 1 billionth number will be 01:46:39.

But, these systems do not account for leap seconds. According to TAI (international atomic time), the 1 billionth second since the beginning of January 1st 1970 will occur at 01:46:17 on 9th September 2001, as 22 leap seconds have been inserted since 1970 (the first was 1972, the last 1999).

So celebrations of the 1000000000th second should be at 01:46:17, whilst 01:46:40 can be reserved for celebrating 1000000000 displayed on UNIX system clocks."

Errr ... thanks. We'll just have to start at "Unix Day, Observed."

What price the capture and humiliation of virus spreaders? JayHerrick writes: "We have posted a small bit of JSP that reports the number of times our server has been queried for a 'default.ida' page. It's stylish, it's cool, and it'll probably get Pepsi all mad at us because we ripped the Code Red logo off one of the bottles." Equally stylish, despite the name, is a small tool named codeRedNeck, described by reader mindriot thus: "As CodeRed probes port 80 of a machine, CodeRedNeck first answers on that port and then goes silent, thus forcing the worm to wait until the connection times out." He advises: "Read the original idea by Tom Liston. Heise also has more on this."

Even More Auspicious dates. No matter which date you choose to mark it, Linus' little kernel-that-could is about to mark its tenth birthday. ikluft writes:

"The "Linux10" Linux 10th anniversary picnic and BBQ will be held on Saturday, August 25 from 11AM to 6PM at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale, California. Details and directions can be found at Linux10.org. If you can attend, please use the RSVP form so the organizers know how much food and soft drinks to provide (only provided if you RSVP.)

Linux10 is being organized as a family event -- bring the kids. In support of that goal, it is also a no-media event. Linux and Open Source enthusiasts who work for the media may attend and participate while off-duty.

Linux10 will gladly link to other Linux 10th anniversary events. Let us know the URLs for those events."

Reader big_drew adds: "The event is free (food, softdrinks, cds -- sorry, no free beer, but byo is ok)" and says "If you can't make it out to CA, you can still get the t-shirt (profits will be used to fund the picnic)."

Anyone want to organize a picnic in the vicinity of Knoxville, TN? :) I can bring some pasta salad and watermelon.

Ten candles all around here, too. Simon Spero writes: "As noted in http://www.w3.org/History.html, today, August 6th, is the 10th anniversary of the first public release of the CERN Web Software."

Re:CR2 response

[IronChef]

Crack one IIS box, and you're a felon. Crack a million, and you're... some anonymous virus-writing guy that will never be brought to justice.

Linux Birthday Bash

[bendude]

Anyone interested in a Melbourne, Australia, Linux 10th anniversary picnic and BBQ on Saturday, August 25.

Having used so many flimsy excuses for a piss up, I think it would be a shame to let this one go.

Re:CR2 response

[s390]

Er, a bit dodgy if well-meaning. In many jurisdictions, using the CR2 backdoor at all would make you potentially liable for a cracking offense, no matter that you disabled a zombied server out of the best intentions for greater good. Unauthorized access is... felony.

Suppose the infected system provided suicide-prevention access, or battered-women's services, and your code shut it down completely, and someone got hurt, or dead - your little hack could get you in a major civil or even criminal hole that you'd regret.

Think twice before messing with anyone else's server, especially through any automated script. But that said - if you could shut down the worm, patch the server, remove the backdoors, and post a message to /var/log/messages to notify the admin - that _might_ be helpful and low risk. But you'd have to remain prepared to defend yourself and _prove_ that you didn't add a backdoor.

At minimum, you'd have to keep complete TCP/IP traffic logs for such interdictions for seven years or whatever the longest Federal, State, or Local statute of limitations requires. You'd also need to escrow these and all your code with your attorney immediately.