A Chat with MrChikri via Celebrity’s Hacked Twitter Account

NOTE: The following article was first published on the now-defunct EduTechGuys WordPress site. The text was recovered from the WayBackMachine on the Internet Archive. Most of the embedded images are lost because Archive.org does not preserve images over certain file sizes. I am posting here so I have an accessible copy of it. Any red boxes in the posted images were added by me to protect personal information.

A Chat with MrChikri via Celebrity’s Hacked Twitter Account
by David | Nov 9, 2016 | General Education, Interview, Quick Tip | 0 comments

While following my Twitter feed earlier today, I saw a post from Dave Coulier (yes, as in “Uncle Joey” from “Full/Fuller House”) saying that he had some important news. I responded, not sure I qualified as a “News Reporter.” The account responded, letting me know they had hacked the account and wanted to talk about how they did it and what people can do to protect their accounts.

I struck up a conversation with a user going by the name of “MrChikri.” MrChikri said he was from London.

What follows is the transcript of that conversation (Note: all spellings, grammar, etc are left in tact from the transcript):

davidinark: So, you hacked a celebrity account and I reached out in reply (honestly not realizing it had been hacked). Can we talk about HOW you managed to hack the account, and then, more importantly, how do celebrities (and anyone else) protect themselves from being hacked?

After several moments of waiting, little dots began pulsing on the screen as MrChikri typed out an answer. The response came a full 7 minutes after my initial questions.

MrChikri: hackers that hack celebrities social media accounts are all using the same method, anyone can use this method to hack celebrities even you. all it takes is access to one website called http://leakedsource.com  and money for a subscription.

MrChikri: when big sites like linkedin, myspace etc gets hacked http://leakedsource.com  gets the database of the site and in the database it includes passwords,emails,usernames

MrChikri: i searched daves email on leakedsource and it gave me a list of sites that the email has been registred to

MrChikri: i have a subscription on leakedsource so let me show you a screenshot of how it can look like when getting the password.

davidinark: Ok, what does that look like?

MrChikri: even if you dont have a subscription on leakedsource you can still search emails,usernames but you won’t be able to see the info on it

davidinark: Feel free to block out passwords, etc.

MrChikri then posted the following image (note, all red boxes were added by me, davidinark):

(IMAGE NOT PRESERVED)

MrChikri: here is dave, myspace got hacked 2013 and over 360M passwords were leaked and as you can see daves was one of them

davidinark: Wow!

MrChikri: if you have a subscription this is how it will look like:

(IMAGE NOT PRESERVED)

davidinark: So, this means that Dave hadn’t updated his password since at least 2013!?

MrChikri: yes sir

MrChikri: most celebs use same passwords on all social media

MrChikri: i managed to get into daves instagram account with 500K followers

MrChikri: because he have been using the same passwords for his social media wich is very bad to do

davidinark: Yoy. Yes, that is VERY bad thing to do. I can only suppose that people get relaxed and assume everything is safe. They leave their passwords the same for years and never realize how exposed they have made themselves.

MrChikri: people like kylie jenner, katy perry, drake etc have been hacked using this method.

MrChikri: my tip is just change your password every month and don’t use same passwords on same social medias, also make sure you enable “Login Verification” on twitter and “2 Step verification on your emails” and “2 Factor Authentication” on your instagram

davidinark: I have to ask what keeps you from doing bad things on their accounts? Why are you willing to expose the problem and talk about it rather than cause absolute havoc, as many hackers would normally be apt to do?

davidinark: Your advice is spot on! I hope you are able to communicate that to the celebrities and others who AREN’T updating/changing their info!

MrChikri: well tbh i tweet crazy stuff to it just depends who the person is,

davidinark: Haha, nothing malicious, just crazy, eh?

MrChikri: i mainly hack accounts just to promote my instagram & snapchat, never my twitter cause i just got suspended today thats why im dming you off this one

davidinark: I assumed this was a burner account. 🙂

MrChikri: instagram is very easy to hack though you won’t belive it

MrChikri: lol

MrChikri: you heard about One Direction?

davidinark: Getting hacked? No. What happened there?

MrChikri: instagram should patch this way to hack accs cause this is just (ridiculous)

MrChikri: all you have to do is this

MrChikri: google “instagram report hacked account” and go to that link, https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/contact/740949042640030 … and this should come up

MrChikri: so then u just put ur username and etc

MrChikri: 5-10 mins after you will recieve an email saying this

(IMAGE NOT PRESERVED)

MrChikri: so this might seem hard but it is very simple, i putted in @twhiddleston ‘s instagram account to get into it, and then googled “Tom hiddleston holding a paper”

MrChikri: i found this and it matches the instagram email that they want me to do

MrChikri: then i just photoshopped the picture as you can see it does look legit

MrChikri: i sent that pic to them and after 17 hours i got this email

(IMAGE NOT PRESERVED)

davidinark: Very legit! (In response to the “legit” comment above)

MrChikri: they gave me a link to reset the password and then i got into his account

MrChikri: this is how dumb instagram is!

davidinark: Yeah, I can see where that wouldn’t be hard to do at all. So, how would someone stop that from happening to themselves?

MrChikri: if you go into your instagram settings and scroll down til you see “Two-Factor Authentication” and enable that, do you know what that is?

davidinark: Yeap! (**See below)

MrChikri: yes that’s what you need to do enable that, but i know a way to bypass that

MrChikri: i can only bypass it on instagram

davidinark: Definitely need that enabled on any accounts that offer it.

davidinark: I appreciate you taking the time to explain how it is done, but even more that you are interested in helping folks PREVENT it in the first place.

MrChikri: there is one more thing i need to say about twitter hacking. On twitter someone hacks you, you’re first changing the password right and then think that the hacker got logged out of the acc cause you changed the pass

davidinark: Right…

MrChikri: but when changing a twitter password you need to goto “Apps connected” and revoke every device from the account

MrChikri: then the hacker gets logged out

MrChikri: now dave got his account back but he only changed his password, i still have access to his twitter…

davidinark: Ah! Yeah, I bet most folks don’t know about that or even think about that!

MrChikri: literally no one that i’ve hacked does that lol

davidinark: Well, I am glad I reached out to Dave’s (er, your) tweet. Thank you for sharing HOW the accounts get hacked and how folks can PREVENT it from happening in the future.

I then asked MrChikri to look up my account information in the system to see if I was in there. I was. Luckily, the information turned out to be stale (old), but MrChikri’s advice is spot-on: Change the info anyway!

**NOTE: Two-Factor Authorization is a security measure in which verification takes place using TWO forms of ID. This usually entails using a cell phone number that receives a text with a special code to be entered for verification. The user gets a text from the site. If everything is on the up-and-up, the user enters that code on the site. If a user gets a request to enter the code but they never asked for the code, someone is trying to hack the account.

#aesa2014 Work Life: I Am New School

I am New School

Why I chose this:
Interested to see what technology offerings other education service centers offer. I'm not really sure what this session will over, so we'll see.

What we covered:
What verbiage do we use for the shift underway with technology? "New School"

Parents are naming their children things like hashtag, google, facebook...

Display of Maslow's Hierarchy - created in 1963

Kudoso wi-fi router that can manage family bandwidth, tie it to chores.

Teach digital safety. Digital footprints.

The goal is to give teachers and administrators the power to use new technology.

Used Polleverywhere to ask questions of participants. The problem is, as posed by presenter, that these devices (phones) are banned at a lot of schools. Kid forgets calculator, can't use the one in his/her pocket!

How many devices do you have connected to your network at home?

Personalized Learning - Content is interesting to ME and I have a purpose - a reason to use it.

"Why do I need this?" "Because it is on the test." - not relevant.

Competency-based programs

Flexible learning environment

Personal learning path

profiles for learners - interests/aspirations

Why type a paper? Speak it.

Collaborate and build classroom projects.

Move teachers to next level of engagement, technology use. Rethink assignments, assessments, etc.

If we hold kids to expectation that is too low, what happens when they pass it?

As ESAs, we need to model the change.

Be social - be transparent with stakeholders - wins and losses
Be innovative -
Be relevant - relationships
Be willing to learn - be willing to make mistakes, grow from them.

New School tool - iPads, ex: new school that we shut down and close up into old school ways.

How the "Facebook knows you cell name" works

Much of technology is the modern-day equivalent to a vaudeville magic act in so many cases.  It uses lights, a flashy gimmick, and the audience (that's you and me) sits there stunned, shocked and amazed at what is actually something pretty simple.

Today, I bring you the wonders of the latest Facebook "feature:" Facebook Knows Your Cell Phone's Name.

Here is the premise: By entering the last three digits of your cell phone into a carefully, and purposefully, crafted formula, Facebook will return the "name" of your cell phone.  If you haven't seen it, here are the steps:

1. 1st step: from your mobile number number, take the last 3 numbers. Example- 780-496-9684 , take "684"only
2. 2nd step: Write this @*[684:0] in the comment box below, replacing the 3 numbers with your own. 
3. 3rd step: remove the * sign and press enter in the comment box.

Now, go ahead and try it. Open a new browser tab, window, whatever. I'll wait for you...

Scary, right?  Not really.  The formula simply provides a shortcut to a Facebook ID, returns the user's real name, and provides it to you.  The ":0" at the end removes the hyperlink to the user's account/page.

So, if you do NOT add the :0 in there, you will actually get a link (or should, anyway) to the page that matches your three digits.

It also works for many, but not all, 4-digit numbers, 5-digits, etc.  Why?  It ties back to a Facebook ID, remember?  We *all* have Facebook IDs.  That's how FB keeps track of its users.  

Now, the next part took a bit of thinking, and I am not 100% sure it's right, but I'd be willing to bet it is: Where did your "cell phone" go to school?  I bet Harvard.  Or, Harvard is in your "cell phone's" network, anyway.  Well, so long as you only use the last three digits.  How do I know this amazing information?  Is it magic!?  Some kind of weird sorcery? No.

Take the digits you used to find your cell phone's "name," and add it to this:

1. Open a  new tab, window, whatever in your web browser
2. Copy the following URL into your newly opened web browser tab, window, whatever: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=XXX, 
3. Replace the XXX with your numbers. Ex: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=123
4. Press enter

Did you get someone's page?  Did they have Harvard listed in their networks? Probably. Why? How?

Stop and think a moment. Where was FB developed?? Harvard. So, who would have low-number IDs? Harvard students. Anyone *not* in the Harvard network either removed Harvard at some point (early FB required a school network, remember?) or was an outside invite in the very early days, though that is highly unlikely - it was specifically for Harvard students to rate each other, remember?  TheFacebook was a knock off of "Hot or Not."

Oh, and if you try the last 4, 5, or all 10 digits and come up empty?  Most likely, that user has either completely deleted themselves from Facebook or that number just hasn't been used yet.

Ah, yes, I know - I just pulled the curtain back on the ol' wizard.  

RPC Error trying to renew IP address

While working on a computer this weekend, I came across a problem I had not encountered before.  The computer would not connect to my local wireless network.  The machine had been infected with a virus/malware but had been cleaned prior to coming to my possession.

I finally got it to connect to my network (it was an adapter setting), but the computer would still get online.  I dropped to a command prompt and saw the machine was using a self-assigned IP address.  That's no good.

When I tried to renew the IP, I got an error: "The RPC server is unavailable."  After searching for a while, I came across several back-up related forum posts about the error.  None of those applied. Start again.

I searched around some more, changing the terms a bit, and came across a post with people having the same problem.  Okay, getting warmer.

One suggestion was to run sfc /scannow.  That usually cures system file issues, but it did nothing for this situation.  However, one of the comments to the article had exactly what I needed!

I looked in SERVICES and saw that DHCP Client was not started.  When I tried to start it, I got another error: 1075 Dependency is not loaded.  The fix is actually pretty easy:

"Just delete the registry entry and reboot the system. It should work just fine. it worked for me. 

• Click Start, 

• click Run, 

• type regedit in the Open box, 

• and then click OK. 

• In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dhcp 

• Right-click the DependOnService entry, 

• and then click delete. 

• Click OK enough times to get out. 

• Reboot the computer."

That worked!  Once I rebooted, the computer and it (eventually) found my network and connected. Whew!

Hope this helps someone else.

The "Un-Internet" and educational application

I posted this to a statewide edu-tech list to which I belong.  I thought I would post here for another avenue of discussion.  This is in response to (or rather, a sharing of) an article published yesterday (Jan 2, 2012).

This article (linked below) is mainly about business practices, but I can see some of the same discussions surfacing in education circles regarding content (bandwidth not withstanding and bandwidth quickly becoming a non-issue), blocked sites, etc.  Sure, we have CIPA and COPPA to contend with, but the days of "Network Nazism" are quickly coming to an end. As well they should be.  I enjoy seeing the emergence of actual Technology Committees at various districts: Administrators, teachers, community members all reviewing sites submitted by teachers and students to be reviewed for educational use.  This has worked very well in the district for which I am one of the "community members."  In fact, we recently blocked one site and opened another based on that group's input.  We have to protect our students, but we also have to realize that our teachers and students *ARE* the users/customers, and unless we work WITH them, they will find ways to work around or without us.

 

http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/01/the-un-internet/

Response to "Ten tech items you won't be needing"

The LA Times published an article (see end of this response for link) about the 10 tech items you won't need anymore. Like the last one of these responses I did, let's take a look:

1. Flip Cam - I half-agree with this. Pocket cameras are still a lot cheaper than an iPod, cell phone, etc.  The pocket cameras also tend to be a whole lot easier (in my experience) to pull the video from the device into one's computer for editing.  On the other hand, nearly every other device you buy has a built-in video camera, so why bother carrying around another piece of equipment. See, half agree...

2. Portable DVD player - One day, this will be true. Not any time soon, however. Why not?  because there are many families that bought as many DVDs for their kids as possible and, dang it, we are going to watch those in the car if it kills us!  I am one of them. Of course, Shan's van has built-in DVD players, so we don't need a separate portable one.  Okay, I'll give them this one.

3. Flash drives - BZZT! Wrong answer.  People still need a way to access their files when the "cloud" is not available.  The evolution of portable media dictates that SOMETHING will replace flash drives, but it will still be something people can carry on their person.

4. GPS for your car - BZZT! Wrong answer.  I can use the GPS in my car in more places than my phone because of cellular data coverage, or more specifically the lack thereof.  With my in-car GPS, I can find my location, get directions and route my course without worrying about dropped signals or getting a call while trying to navigate (which on many carriers will kick one out of the GPS app).

5. Small digital cameras - They are talking the small-form point-and-shoot.  I have to agree.  Cell phones now boast 8 megapixels, which is still more than most people would ever actually use anyway.  The only thing holding me back here is that small point-and-shoots are coming with better and better optical zooms - something that our cell phones just can't handle.  But, I certainly see the demise of those little cameras in the future.  Now, pro-level or pro-sumer level cameras?  Those will be around a long time, well, relatively speaking.

6. FAX Machine - BZZT!  The fax still can be one of the most secure ways to send a document - encrypted, secluded, direct.  Now, the machine itself may go, I suppose.  With unified communication systems, we can have fax-to-desktop, thus eliminating the physical machine.  I dunno, maybe I'm a half-and-half guy on this one after all.

7. Netbooks - Yeap. These are going, going, gone.  Now that you get a case, a keyboard, a stylus, and maybe even a mouse for your tablet, who needs a netbook?

8. CD player - Yeap. Gone.  Convert your CDs and (GASP!) records over to digital and kiss the physical CD players goodbye.  Oh, never mind the deterioration of your MP3 files. That's just a normal part of data corruption.  Besides, you can always download the songs again or convert them from CD.. wait, no more CD players? Oh. Nevermind. You're just outta luck.

9. Voice recorders - Are these even still around? Wow. I thought these were already dead and gone.

10. PDA - Palms? What?  Like voice recorders, I thought PDA's were already a thing of the past. Well, they are now for sure.

The original article can be found here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/12/ten-unneeded-tech-items.html

On-The-Job Training

My mantra these days, for as long as I have been employed as a 'Tech Guy,' is this: "I am a TECH GUY!" The response to that mantra is often this: "Other duties as assigned."

For much of the past year, I have been working with the architect, contractor, my Director and Assistant Director, the City Manager, AT&T, the Department of Information Systems, and anyone else that happened to be in the crossfire in regards to the new office building under construction.

One of my 'other duties' was to spec, order and generally figure out just how much, and what kind, of conduit we need in order for AT&T to provide connectivity to our new building. For the record, I installed the water pipe that runs from the well house to our home when we moved in. I helped repair the water pipe at Mom's place when her pipes burst this winter. That's the extent of my knowledge regarding conduit.

Turns out, we needed 3,000 feet of piping. We've got three 1,000-foot runs that go from the building to the highway where AT&T says we must stub out. I didn't know what that meant, but it means where our pipes must end. In addition, I had to find and order two "pullboxes." As it turns out, "pullboxes" is a term used by a handful of people in the world, and evidently not by those people who actually sell the things. Through trial and error (mostly the latter), I came to find that most folks call these "hand-pull boxes" or "transfer boxes." It also turns out that these are not always readily available. At one point, I was looking at having them shipped from South Carolina. The shipping charges precluded me from following up with that route.

In the process of getting the pipes ordered and delivered, the fire alarm/data guys called to let me know they would be punching down our connections and wanted me to come up with a naming scheme. Now, I am not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but I figured a simple ROOM#:RUN# system would be easiest to follow. I also figured that since the call was made the week before last, I would enter the building and see all the wires joyfully punched down and labeled. Uh, no. The wires are coiled up above the ceiling grid. Lovely. And, even better, it's not my problem. I just told the lead contractor and he takes it from there.

The other thing I noticed was the absence of security camera wiring. The data guys were supposed to provide wiring so that I could "just come in and hook them up" (their words). I am hoping those wires show up about the time the punchdowns are completed.

I've heard many of my colleagues and peers complain that they aren't invited for input until after the project is already finished. I haven't decided yet if they are actually in a better position than walking through everything as it moves along. My hope is that when all is said and done, I can look on the project with pride, knowing that I had a hand in making sure the connectivity was taken care of. Either that or I'll be booted on my butt for screwing everything up. Either way, I hope I never have to do this again. :-)

Playing Oprah

Today, I worked with John, teaching teachers about various uses of technology in the classroom.  We talked about lulu.com for helping students become published authors, delicious.com for keeping track of web sites, polleverywhere.com for asking questions where students text responses.

We also shared several tools with another group of teachers.  Afterward, I told that group that it would be difficult to implement those strategies with out the proper tools or supplies.  And then, I announced that we were giving them some of those tools.  It was amazing.

People jumped out of their chairs.  One teacher had tears running down her face.  Everyone clapped and cheered, genuinely excited and appreciative of the items they were getting.

I used to think Oprah gave away all those things as a demonstration of her own money or power, but I fully understand now the rush she must feel everytime she gives things away.

If I had the means, I'd do the same thing.  The blessing truly is in the giving.

Random Photos and Drive-by Shootings

I've been taking pictures lately but haven't been posting any. So, while hanging out in the hotel room NOT working on my novel like I should, I thought I'd share some of my latest photographs:

This is a photo of the front grille of our server rack. I also took a head-on shot, but this one is more 'artistic,' I think.

As you can see, not *ALL* hotels are superstitious!  This is a photo from the Cosmopolitan's elevator in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  I wonder how many objections they get from patrons who are assigned the unlucky floor...

I almost deleted this, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked the way the mirror reflected the camera's flash.  It makes the elevator seem much, much tighter than it actually was.

On the way home from Fayetteville, you can see the nuclear power plant from I-40.  I took this while driving (sshh, don't tell my wife), and the juxtaposition of the giant power monster next to the plant that supplies the juice was uncanny.  (okay, all you Phineas and Fern fans can say it now: "and by uncanny, I mean COMPLETELY CANNY!)

This morning on my way to North Little Rock for a tech meeting, I watched the sun rise in my rear view mirror.  The photo does not even come close to expressing the bright orange light, but I liked the orange sun peeking through the mist behind me.

Racing past trees can get one dizzy even when looking at a still shot of the event!

When I turned on to I-30, the sun was beside me, rising in the distance...

Don't bring your laptop to class! How ludicrous.

Thanks to a friend, Cliff, I was directed to a post regarding a professor that bathed a laptop in liquid nitrogen and the smashed the thing as a warning to his students *NOT* to bring their laptops to his class.  Really!?  Here is the video of the "professor's" warning:



The actual article that Cliff pointed me to is here: Dr. Z Reflects

My response:

How insecure about one's own teaching methods and materials does one have to be such that they ban a tool which would enable their students to get all the possible knowledge they have access to?  Just because I use a laptop during a lecture does not mean I am Facebooking, Tweeting, or checking email.  I am taking notes, tying information in class to information found online.  And, you know what? Maybe I am Tweeting what I am learning (though I dislike twitter, so I wouldn't personally be using that "tool").  Let's ban pens.  We should ban pencils. Ban paper, too.  Let's use rocks and slate. Oh wait, that is also technology. Well, crap, let us simply bask in the glory of the professor's diatribes.

To me, we face the same types of issues in the K-12 world as well.  Students today, whether in High School or in college, have access to tools that *can* allow them to enrich and enhance the lessons and information they get in the classroom.  But, over and over again, rather than try to figure out how to use these tools, instructors and institutions throw up walls and DEMAND that students set these tools aside.  There is nothing that frustrates me more than "rule by intimidation and fear."  Banning the tools that have become a very extension of today's students demonstrates the epitome of fear and intimidation.

We must, as educators and administrators, reach students in the arenas in which they live and play.  When I was in 9th grade, I had a Commodore 64 with a dot matrix printer.  During the school year, my English teacher (we actually called the class "English" in those days (GASP!)) went from being totally against my using those tools (it was not a typewriter, somehow I was cheating by using a computer, etc) to understanding that the tool had nothing to do with the original thoughts I was putting on paper.  Now, in her defense, she had an issue with the 9-pin typesetting - it was blocky, ugly, and hard to read.  That was rectified with a 24-pin printer. Ah, the good ol' days.

How many professors, teachers and administrators use their own computers each and every day in order to prepare their lessons, report grades, communicate with colleagues, make notes, etc?  Today's students (not all of them, I am well aware) are much more adept at sharing their brain's processing power between multiple tasks and multiple stimuli - how could they not?  They live in that environment every single day (computers, television, gaming, texting, etc).  When they get to class, we expect them to put all of that aside.  Sometimes, the reason is because the instructor is so deathly afraid the student will not be paying attention to what s/he is saying.  Want to know how the students are using those tools in the classroom?  Ask them.  Really.  One might be surprised.

Should there be anarchy and lawlessness about the tools?  Of course not.  Set rules.  But, as with all rules, educate the students as to the appropriate use of those tools.  If a student should break the rules of use?  Discipline that one student - privately. 

While destroying a laptop may be somewhat entertaining, the reason behind the destruction is far from it.  If one is so afraid that his/her students are "playing" during lectures, then perhaps it is time for that instructor to evaluate his/her own material and/or delivery style.  Someone once said something akin to, "The thing we fear most is that which see in ourselves."

The iPhoneBook has reaching implications

What would happen if someone married traditional picturebooks with the technology of handheld computers? One company has proposed just that:



I like the idea of having the interactive features tied to the book the child is reading. Basically, it's the same kind of thing we've seen in the past, but updated with video and interaction as opposed to simply reading the book aloud when a page is turned. To me, that natural extension of what is shown in the video would be a text-and-picture book with the text in the actual book. Keep the "window" there for supplemental features, but let the book stand on its own for those times when the device is not available or when the child does not have access to the device (i.e, his/her parents do not own one).

Taking this further, what about coffee table books? You pick up a book on travel to Europe, slide in the iPod, and in addition to the author's notes and musings, you are presented with video, interactive photos, music from the area, etc!

A NASCAR book would not only depict and discuss the history of the racing, but also have 'bonus' features available when the reader inserts an iPhone/iPod Touch into the book's window. How about a book about your favorite sports team with info and highlights at your fingertips - why mess with DVD's when you can have it right there *IN* the book!?

Let your mind go wild with the possibilities!

(thanks to Teacher_Rick from the Netherlands for sharing the video on Plurk!)

The 12 Daves on Christmas (technology edition)

Okay, so I have been playing with different display names on my Plurk account.  Lately, I've been using "12DavesOChrsms" (you can only use 15 characters).  That sparked an idea:

Oh, the first Dave on Christmas shared technology:
An emulator of Atari.

Oh, the second Dave on Christmas shared technology:
Two turtle programs and an emulator of Atari.

Oh, the third Dave on Christmas shared technology:
Three Flickr Flicks, two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari.

Oh, the fourth Dave on Christmas shared technology:
Four Commoncraft Creations, Three Flickr Flicks, Two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari!

Oh, the fifth Dave on Christmas shared technology:
Five Spicy Wings, Four Commoncraft Creations, Three Flickr Flicks, Two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari!

Oh, the sixth Dave on Christmas shared technology:
Six games for playing, Five Spicy Wings, Four Commoncraft Creations, Three Flickr Flicks, Two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari!

Oh, the seventh Dave on Christmas shared technology:
Seven Dino-Rockets Downloads, six games for playing, Five Spicy Wings, Four Commoncraft Creations, Three Flickr Flicks, Two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari!

Oh, the eighth Dave on Christmas shared technology:
Eight iPhone Band Apps, Seven Dino-Rockets Downloads, six games for playing, Five Spicy Wings, Four Commoncraft Creations, Three Flickr Flicks, Two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari!

Oh, the ninth Dave on Christmas shared technology:
Nine Worcester Workbooks, Eight iPhone Band Apps, Seven Dino-Rockets Downloads, six games for playing, Five Spicy Wings, Four Commoncraft Creations, Three Flickr Flicks, Two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari!

Oh, the Tenth Dave on Christmas shared technology:
Ten Linked-In Lead-ins, Nine Worcester Workbooks, Eight iPhone Band Apps, Seven Dino-Rockets Downloads, six games for playing, Five Spicy Wings, Four Commoncraft Creations, Three Flickr Flicks, Two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari!

Oh, the eleventh Dave on Christmas showed his family




Eleven Plurkers Plurking, Ten Linked-In Lead-ins, Nine Worcester Workbooks, Eight iPhone Band Apps, Seven Dino-Rockets Downloads, six games for playing, Five Spicy Wings, Four Commoncraft Creations, Three Flickr Flicks, Two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari!





Oh, the twelfth Dave on Christmas shared technology: Twelve Honeycutt Hotspots, Eleven Plurkers Plurking, Ten Linked-In Lead-ins, Nine Worcester Workbooks, Eight iPhone Band Apps, Seven Dino-Rockets Downloads, six games for playing, Five Spicy Wings, Four Commoncraft Creations, Three Flickr Flicks, Two turtle programs, and an emulator of Atari!

You just never know...

On Thursday (yesterday), the Arkansas school technology coordinators covered a plethora of topics.  One participant shared what he learned, and I thought I would share it with you.

Things I learned today:

• Looking for aliens at school can get you fired.
• There are computers in heaven.
• XP can look like Windows 7.
• Erate windows open a portal to the past.
• The naming of Windows 7 was a rounding error.
• Apple is to Microsoft as CNN is to FOX.  Or was it the other way: Apple is CNN as Microsoft is to FOX.
• All those who have seen a pinwheel of death are dead and can't talk about it.
• Google may put OpenDNS out of "business."
• Piracy pays.  (Both for Apple and  Somalia.)  :)
• There are no luke-warm opinions when it comes to mixing government and religion.

The various discussions took place throughout the day via email.  People responded to the various posts/topics as they could throughout the day while putting out the fires they had to deal with in their daily lives.  Also, everything listed here actually was born from only three separate emails, so far as I can remember.

It just goes to show you that you never know where a conversation can go, especially with as a diverse group of folks as we have in that which makes up the Arkansas school technology folks!

Eight Days a Week...

Eight Days.  That's how long it's been since I lasted posted an update.  Yeah, I know I explained what's been going on, but still, I know some folks check back here to see if I've done anything, and I need to let you in on things!

First of all, I'm up to just over 35,000 words out of the 50,000 required to "finish" the NaNoWriMo contest.  I anticipate hitting the 50-grand mark by the end of Monday.  I would have Sunday, but I have to work on Saturday, so that shoots that in the foot, or the butt, or where ever you'd prefer to shoot.

I also got a NEW CAR!

Yeah, it's a 2009 Dodge Charger SXT.  It is one butt-kickin buddy!  I hated getting rid of my truck.  I have never enjoyed a vehicle as much as I enjoyed the truck.  I loved driving it, playing in it, putting goofy decals on it.  But, I am a "sporty" car kinda guy at heart, and this was much more in my price range.  I have been having a blast tooling around in it, too.

On Tuesday night, I drove four hours to Ft. Smith to stay overnight in a hotel for a training on Wednesday.  On the way up, I drove the Interstates because it was already dark by the time I left the house.  On the way back Wednesday, though, I decided to take Hwy-71 to Hwy-270 to Hwy-7 then grabbed I-30 home.  Basically, I went for a joy ride through the Ouachita hills and mountains.  I have one thing to say about it:  HOLY COW!  The pit of my stomach tried to turn over a couple of times because I am so used to driving the truck.  The truck could not take the turns in the manner that the Charger cut through them like soft butter.  Hugging curves, running on the straight lines, enjoying the ride... 

I was in Ft. Smith on Wednesday because Apple came in to tell us about integrating Macs with Netware and to talk to us about imaging the Macs.  Basically, you set one Mac up the way you want all the others to look, then save an image of that machine.  After that, you push out the image to the other computers so they all have the same stuff, set up the same way.  Very handy!

Today (Friday), I hosted a "Mac Party" day at work.  We had about 15 people come and learn how to use their Macs plus get a look at LOTS of software apps to run on their Macs (some useful, some just for fun).  I think everyone walked away learning SOMETHING new!

Tomorrow (Saturday), I am leading a group of teachers in a technology session.  I will be quickly covering PowerPoint and helping them work on their group projects.  They will create content with links, Arkansas Standards and Frameworks, the PowerPoint, and possibly videos/images.  It should be lots of fun!  I am going to share many of the resources that I've been exposed to for the last few weeks and months.  Very cool stuff indeed!

Things should return to "normal" for me after the Thanksgiving break.  Thanks for checking in on me!

Troubleshooting a Local Area Network Problem

Warning: Technical Info Ahead!

I visited a school district recently that experienced a complete network failure. Through some troubleshooting, the tech was able to narrow the culprit down to something happening at the high school.

This article discusses how to troubleshoot a local area network when something like this happens. The images are for reference only, but should give you an idea as how to at least START the troubleshooting process, and hopefully it will help someone out there find the demon that shut down the network.

First, let me talk about how the tech narrowed down the issue to one building. All the connections from campus come into one data closet. When his users started complaining that they could no longer get online or use their email application, the tech went to the closet and unplugged one connection at a time until the problem went away (a smaller scale will be discussed below). Once he determined the problem went away when he unplugged the high school, he knew where to to start looking for the problem. This is where I came in (with an extra set of hands/eyes to help me).

At the high school, I unplugged all the connections in the tech closet. I then only connected a nearby computer and the connection back to the central tech closet (which leads to the Internet):

The little black screen in the upper left corner is a simulated PING test. I ran a PING test on the computer out to the DNS server we use. You could also PING something like YAHOO.COM, if you so choose.

How do I run a PING test? Do this:

1. In Windows XP, click START then RUN then type CMD and press ENTER. In Vista, Click the WINDOWS BUTTON, then in the search box, type CMD and press ENTER
   
2. At the prompt now on the screen, type PING YAHOO.COM and press ENTER (or use whatever address you need/want, so long as that address LETS you ping. Some do not)
   
3. You will get one of two BASIC responses: either "Reply From..." or "Request Times Out." "Reply From..." is a successful ping (you can reach the site you are trying to ping). "Request Timed Out," however, is a FAILED ping. It means your computer could not reach the computer you tried to ping. This is useful for troubleshooting!
   

Okay, so what if your one computer and one connection back to the Internet fails the ping test? At that point, you know you have a problem in the devices that run between the two sites (in this case, between the main closet and the high school).

Since we were able to ping the world, we are back to troubleshooting the network. Once you confirm that your network works with just one computer, you add ONE of the connections on your network back into the loop:


I prefer to always pick one port to use for ALL the remaining tests. That way, you are limiting the possible problems down to one actual "leg" of your network. As you can see above, I took the wire from "Connection 1" and plugged it into port 5. In our case, I have no idea where "Connection 1" goes on the high school network. And for now, I don't even care. My goal is to find the link that is crashing the network. Once I hooked up "Connection 1," I run the PING test again on the computer nearby. Now, what I really did was set the ping test to run indefinitely. The command for that is: PING -t YAHOO.COM

In the example above, I am able to ping the outside world. At the high school, I was able to get to the outside world.

In the next example, I UNPLUG "Connection 1" and plug "Connection 2" into the SAME PORT that I used for the first test. Again, this is because I know that port works now that it has passed the first test.


Once "Connection 2" is hooked up, I check my PING test to be sure i do not have failure messages. It's important to stop here a moment to say this: You will most likely have *SOME* failures. One or two over the course of dozens is not too bad. what we are looking for is a complete failure where you get "Timed Out" error after "Timed Out" error - many in a row.

As long as the PING test passes, you repeat the procedure for each of your connections: disconnect the wire, plug in the next wire, check the PING.

So, what happens when you get a FAIL?


Uh-oh! We failed our PING test!! Now, we know where the problem is. Or at least we know which part of the network is causing the problem.

What I did at this point at the high school was to unplug the error-causing wire, and check the PING. Everything looked good. I plugged the offending wire back in, and checked the PING - FAIL! I did this because I wanted to be sure it wasn't some fluke. It was not.

Now, I unplugged the errant wire again. Then, I plugged the other wires into the switch. I checked the PING to make sure that everything was working while all the other wires were plugged in. Everything worked.

Our next task is to find out where the errant wire goes and discover which devices on that part of the network might be causing the problem. I believe we will find a situation where someone plugged both ends of a network cable into one switch. Basically, it's taking one end and plugging it in to, say port 5, and then taking the other end of the same cable and plugging it in to port 7. The actual port numbers don't matter. what matters is that it creates a loop. Ever heard feedback when someone is speaking with a microphone because they get too close to the speaker system? Same idea, but with data spinning out of control in an infinite loop. It is not pretty, and it brings many networks to a screeching halt because nothing else can get through while all this other data is going round-and-round.*

Once we are able to hunt down the offending equipment, we take whatever steps we need to take in order to cure the problem. For example, if it is an issue where a wire is plugged back into the same switch, we unplug the wire. If it turns out to be an infected computer, we get it off the network and heal it.

One thing that should be done, though, is another PING test setup. The difference at this stage, though, is that you do not have to unplug everything else to run the test. all you have to do is plug in the wire that was causing the problem. If the problem persists, unplug it and hunt down another culprit. If everything works after you plug in the wire, then you have cured your network of the offending loop/computer!! Wahoo!

*For my truly techie friends: I am fully aware that many modern-day switches have measures that will shut down the offending ports in such a situation. But, you might be surprised at how many sites do not have such capabilities - case in point, the high school where I was troubleshooting.

There is no title

Borrowing (and changing) the line from "Matrix" for the title here - there is no spoon, there is no title, whatever works right?

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It's Arkansas Children's Week. I have no idea what that means, except for the fact that the employees of the education service center where I work have to don these GREEN t-shirts today. We always wear whatever shirt they come up with on Wednesday of Children's week. I'm guessing that's because they don't want us wearing the same shirt every day. I would have no problem with that. My co-workers might by the end of the week, though.

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The Philips SKIN project is one of the strangest things I have ever seen. The image above does not convey the weirdness level of this project. Follow the link and you see a video of two people in an intimate (albeit sensual) embrace. Now, what happens in the video is an artist's 'interpretation' of what could be done, but still, it's where Philips thinks life should be heading.


(sidenote: please watch the video. To me, the most interesting part is the girl's face throughout the thing. Frankly, I don't think she's in any mood to show any kind of tattoo. And, the guy could do a lot better than her if he ever sees the video and sees just how 'excited' she is to be there - I think she'd rather be at McDonald's...)

What is it? Living tattoos. using nanotechnology, Philips gets these little creatures (or whatever they are) inside a person's body. They react to touch, and 'light up' (or become visible, really) based on the warmth, feeling, etc of the person.


And, believe it or not, they aren't the only ones looking into this kind of thing. Another application would be to incorporate a none display device in one's hand, allowing it to receive text messages in the palm of your hand!? Are you friggin kidding me with this? Why the heck would I even WANT to get text messages in my hand, or dosplay some kind of 'emoticon' on my cheek depending on how I am feeling!? Really, do people even WANT this?? I sure in the heck don't....

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