SoftLayer == Niche Player

Anyone who's ever followed Gartner's Magic Quadrants knows the lower left corner is usually the Loser's Quadrant.  If you can't make it to at least the "Challengers" quad (losers with attitude), there's not much your marketing department can do to help you spin the news.

Whenever an MQ is unleashed unto the world, the press releases start to flow from the Gartner-proclaimed  Challengers, Visionaries, and Leaders.

Not so much from the Niche Players.

So it's somewhat surpising to see SoftLayer strutting their stuff over their Niche Player status in the latest Gartner MQ for "Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting" (Price US$1,995).

Well, good for them.  They've had a checkered past.  Nice to see they're finally cleaning up their act.

NegotiateHOST/(machine_name)

Did Google bring you here?

I ask because last time I Googled "NegotiateHOST" (Did you mean Negotiate HOST?) I got nothing.

As in Jack Shit.

And that never, ever happens.  Kind of a jaw-dropper.  I mean, Google has everything.

So I decided to get the #1 (for now) Google hit for "NegotiateHOST".  Just because I can.

Anyway, there is this sevice called "lsiagent.exe" (and its little buddy, LsiUser.exe) that you will not find in Control Panel→Services (you can find them in TaskManager) that listens on TCP Port 57632.  If you telnet to that port you will get the response in the title of this blog entry.  And, like me, you will say to yourself, "What the Hell is that shit?"

That shit comes from here.

Relax, it's legit.

I don't want to get into what it is or why it's there.  You can figure that out for yourself.

All I want is the Google hit.

And a port 57632 fuzzer.

Life During Cyber Wartime

Heard of a Prius that's loaded with iPhones
Packed up and ready to go
Heard of a Web site, up on GoDaddy
A place where nobody goes
The sound of noobies, off in the distance
I'm getting used to it now
Squatted in a mantion, squatted in a rental
I squat all over this dump

This ain't no Facebook, this ain't no Twitter
This ain't no surfing around
No time for blogging, or online dating
I ain't got time for that now

Upload the log files, to the sysadmin
Hope for a backlink some day
I got three avatars, a couple OpenIDs
You don't even know my reddit name
Back there at 4chan, hackers uploading
Everyone's ready to troll
I schlep in the daytime, I hack in the nightime
I might not ever get laid

This ain't no Facebook, this ain't no Twitter
This ain't no surfing around
This ain't no MySpace, or fucking flashmob
I ain't got time for that now

Heard about Google? Heard about Yahoo?
Heard about eharmony dot com?
You oughta know not to surf using Windows
Somebody hack you out there
I got some thumb drives, some elite kid scripts
To hack a shitload of sites
But I ain't got no iPod
Ain't got no earbuds
Ain't got no iTunes to play

Trouble in transit, we got through Websense
We blended in with the noobz
We got some shell code, we're hacking telcos
I know that that ain't elite
We dress like hipsters, we dress like camwhores
or in stinky old shorce
I changed my goatee so many times now
I don't know what I look like!

You make me nauseous, I feel like puking
We make a decent Red Team
Don't get exhausted, I'll do some coding
You ought to get you a latte
Why stay in college? Why go to tech school?
Gonna get certified this time?
Can't write an email, can't send e-postcards
I can't do nothing at all
This ain't no Facebook, this ain't no Twitter
This ain't no surfing around
I'd like to hack you, I'd like to pwn you
I ain't got time for that now

Author #6236

Last week, I got an invitation from Packet Storm to set up my author account.  They gave me a page all to myself, which you can find right here.  Here's an excerpt from the nice email they sent...

Packet Storm was recently redesigned and one of the new features makes it so you can customize your profile and author page. All you have to do is sign up with your current email address. We noticed that you have 3 files on your author page.

We have found that our users sometimes have questions for authors. By signing up, you will be able to have a direct conversations with the people most interested in your releases. 

Well, I guess I'm honored, and I'm always looking for ways to "pump the brand", but I'm not sure having "direct conversations" with those people is something I want to do.  I'm not quite sure who those people are or if they even exist, since most of the conversation around here is with Cameroonian puppy scammers and people who are pissed off because they got banned at BOT House (StinkFly).

In fact, no one seems to give a rat's ass about the Websense bypasses I have uncovered in the past.  With the possible exception of Websense (you out there, Hubbard?).  And besides, this is the place to come to for that anyway.

I might bite because it seems more Websense Fun is on the way.

Creepy Convergence

One early Sunday morning back in October, Gastonia (NC) police found a 2009 Hyundai Sante Fe parked in their own parking lot.  Inside were a pair of bodies, the victim and perp of a murder/suicide.

Tragic, but it happens every day.  On average, it happens about twice a day.  There is no avoiding it.  It happens.

This always triggers a number of events.  The police have to investigate.  The bodies have to be removed.  The crime scene has to be cleaned up.  Coroners are woken up.  Autopsies are performed.  And sooner or later the unfortunate actors of their own Final Tragedy are laid to rest.

The twist in the Gastonia murder/suicide was somewhere along the line a mortuary worker lifted a credit card from the victim.

Or, if you believe her creepy MySpace page, the mortuary manager.  (I don't expect this page to be up forever, so I have preserved it at right.  Click for a larger view.)

This particular mortuary advertises many of the services involved in the chain of events that happen after a murder/suicide, including body transport and autopsy, so it's not unusual the Gastonia police contracted with them for this incident.

Now, the mortuary has a public relations nightmare on their hands.

And they're looking for a new manager.

The cops, too, need to take a look at their chain of evidence policies and procedures.  And a second look at their dealings with this company in the past.

Then someone needs to take a long, hard look at ChelleMorticia.  With search warrants.  And maybe a cadaver dog or two.

This is not going to be the last we'll hear about her.

Disturbing Update

It seems our girl has taken her own life.

Still, this is not the end of this story.