- Sep 9 2008 - 8:30am
- Sep 10 2008 - 3:00pm
- Sep 11 2008 - 12:00pm
- Sep 16 2008 - 6:00pm
bjepson (Brian Jepson)
Interests
About Me
I got my start in IT as an undergrad doing desktop support and application development for the URI Memorial Union. At the time, I did all my development with FoxPro, which turned out to be really hot on Wall Street. So that led me to a brief career in New York where I managed to move into Perl, SQL, and HTML development (there's a good chance that the web app I worked on was one of JP Morgan's first Intranet applications--a Smalltalk to Perl/SQL/Netscape Enterprise server conversion). But my heart's always been here in RI, so in all of my out of state jobs, I managed to eventually arrange a telecommuting setup.
Writing a series of books led me to my current job, as an editor for O'Reilly Media's Make Magazine, where I head up Make's book publishing program, covering everything from the O'Reilly Hacks series to books about Astronomy, microcontrollers, and more.
Even when I've wandered as far away as NYC or the DC metro area, the tether that kept me connected to Rhode Island has been AS220. I was one of the people who built AS220's first web sites, and have always worked hard to make sure technology helps the staff and volunteers there get their jobs done. Now, along with several other people, I volunteer to keep AS220.org running, which is home to the AS220 web pages as well as web sites for many local artists and arts organizations.
Since co-founding Providence Geeks with Jack Templin, I've become even more energized about my home state, and have realized that this community will do something amazing with info tech, digital media, and art... on a level that has never been seen anywhere, any time.
Recent Content
Title: Ignite NYC July 29--anyone going down? (Forum)
Submitted: July 15th, 2008 - 2:42pm
This looks like fun; my friends Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis, founders of Ignite, are putting one on in NYC on 7/29: Ignite NYC: Soldering, Guerilla Knitting, & Bomb Shelter. I'm not sure I can make it, but it may be too much fun to pass up.
Title: Providence Geeks Joe Cascio speaking at Ignite Boston (Forum)
Submitted: May 23rd, 2008 - 3:24pm
Given that Joe's speaking, and that my employer puts the event on, it would be super lame of me not to go. Anyone else from RI going up? Anyone else from RI speaking there?
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/05/ignite-boston-3-next-week.html
Title: O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures Startup Camp@Foo Camp (Forum)
Submitted: May 22nd, 2008 - 3:45pm
Here's a cool way to get an invite to Foo Camp and get your idea in front of OATV:
We're making space at OATV Startup Camp (and at Foo Camp to follow) for two people from each of six to eight early stage startups that we select from those that apply. Once we select the startups, we’ll tailor the sessions to their issues, but we're planning to cover things like fundraising, PR and viral marketing, and working with investors and a board of directors. And of course, you get to interact with all the people who'll be there at Foo Camp as well.
...
Some areas of interest include cloud computing, mobile, location-based services, open source hardware, physical computing and new materials, the future of manufacturing, tools for information management and open data, open source (especially as used to create Web 2.0 data assets), rich media and the future of creativity, cleantech, braintech (applied neuroscience), and personal genomics. Even better, surprise us with something you see that we don't.
More information at the Radar blog
Title: (video) Another RI geek at Maker Faire: Tom Sgouros (Forum)
Submitted: May 11th, 2008 - 7:41pm
Tom Sgouros does this awesome play called Judy -or- What Is It Like To Be A Robot that has gotten rave reviews, including very kind words from Douglas Hofstadter (Gödel, Escher, Bach"). He brought his play to Maker Faire Bay Area 2008, and it was a real hit, especially with kids. I wasn't able to see much of the play because I was so busy (75,000 attendees will do that to you), but when I saw a swarm of kids rush the stage at the end, I had to shoot this video. I love the curiosity and sense of wonder he's inspired.
Title: Cool Geek show in NYC Monday and Tuesday (May 12/13) (Forum)
Submitted: May 10th, 2008 - 9:30am
ITP is having their annual Spring show (open to the public, no RSVP needed), and thanks to the magic of antibiotics, I'm on schedule for being well enough to go down there. The show is really neat: if you like things such as Arduino, or dig any kind of art that communicates with humans, you should check this out. AS220 Labs founder Shawn Wallace will be joining me, and I think we're going to hit both nights of the show. If you caught Paul Badger's Providence Geeks presentation, there will be a lot of stuff like his work. Post a comment if you're thinking of checking this out; it would be great to meet some Providence folks for drinks or whatever just before or after the show.
ITP Spring Show, A two day exhibition of interactive sight, sound, and physical objects by the student artists of ITP.
Title: Providence Geek Kipp Bradford at Maker Faire (Forum)
Submitted: May 10th, 2008 - 9:13am
Kipp totally kicks butt (and saved mine at Maker Faire). At this last Faire, we unveiled version 2.0 of the Maker Store... Maker Shed, and I had a lot going on: several authors and a dozen independent kit makers doing demos and Q&A, and a workshop area where people could go and build the kits.
I was responsible for these things, and we had an unexpected lack of coverage in the workshop area: we had advertised that people could come and learn how to build the MintyBoost and MiniPOV, neither of which is self-explanatory, and both of which require a lot of soldering. I didn't need to engage in any arm-twisting with Kipp, because he loves this stuff, and spent over an hour working with kids showing them how to assemble these kits. (Long-time Providence Geeks will remember that Kipp and I demoed something similar to the MintyBoost at a Geek Dinner way back when we were still on Wordpress.com).
Here's a video of Kipp doing his thing.
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Recent Comments
I'd agree with Matt's suggestion to keep it focused on Ruby or programming. However, there are a couple of groups that are doing hardware hacking if you'd like to check them out:
DC401 (monthly--a mix of security and hardware)
AS220's Make and Break Wednesdays (every week where there isn't a Geek Dinner or DC401 meetup)
- Brian
I'm really glad to hear you found it. You should also poke around and see if they left any back doors. Check out any PHP/ASP/Perl/etc scripts you have on the server, check to see if anything funny is going on. And if a script has mysteriously appeared that wasn't there before, it's certainly suspect.
I think the most likely way they got in is through a software vulnerability. When there's a vulnerability, malicious hackers (I say malicious to distinguish from hackers like myself who aren't out to get you) will use that vulnerability to trick your web server into running some program that then grants them access to your server (effectively, they are able to use the vulnerability to run programs under your own credentials). Then they do their deed, and often will leave a back door so they can get back in if you find what they did.
To reduce my exposure to such problems, every time I install a new software package (Wikipedia, WordPress, Django, etc) on a server, I subscribe to the mailing list or RSS feed where the software project announces new releases. Then when a new version comes out, I drop whatever I'm doing and perform the update.
- Brian
You're welcome. To be honest, if I'm correct, you have a very serious problem. As far as I can tell, someone gained control of your site and replaced some of the code running on your server.
The way this happens is through vulnerabilities in some piece of software.
For example, I use WordPress on my personal web site. Each time a new version of WordPress comes out, I have to update immediately, because each new version (usually) fixes some kind of security flaw in the product. The minute the security flaw becomes known, malicious hackers begin probing every web site they can find until they find one that is vulnerable. Then they use the vulnerability to compromise the site.
After they've compromised it, they replace some part of the site with their own files. There are many forms this takes, but three common ones are:
If your site has been altered, then you should take steps to find out what was changed and restore it. However, once a site has been compromised, all of the files on it should be suspect, especially anything that is executable (PHP files, CGI scripts, etc.). There are many ways you can respond to a compromise, but one of the more conservative responses is to restore the server from the last backup before the compromise.
- Brian
j,
I believe your site has been compromised. I tested this out, and it appears that the redirection is occurring when visitors go to the web site, not before. Here's what I did:
1) Installed the RefControl (Referer control) extension for Firefox
2) Went into RefControl options, and for the web site "www.pearlstreetlofts.com", set it to "Block-send no referer"
3) Searched Google for Pearl Street Lofts, clicked the results link, and the site came up fine.
Then I tried:
1) Going into RefControl options, and for the web site "www.pearlstreetlofts.com", set it to "http://www.google.com/search?q=pearl+street+lofts&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a", which is the referer URL that a Google search would transmit.
2) Typed www.pearlstreetlofts.com into the browser, and I got the wrong site.
So it seems that a malicious hacker has control of this site, and is redirecting visitors who come in from Google.
- Brian
Can't wait to check it out.
BTW, I just saw that Doc Searls <3s MoFuse!
Very tempted. I'm wondering what will happen to people who already have iPhones... will they have to re-commit to a 2-year contract, or will they be able to swap the old SIM into the new phone? Whoops... the reality distortion field wore off for a moment. Who cares if I need to do a new contract with AT&T? I need my frakkin 3G :-)
Here's a wrap-up of the Steampunk events at Maker Faire (lots of pix):
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/05/steampunk_maker_faire_wra.html
Definitely! Jake von Slatt of the Steampunk Workshop covered the Yankee Steam-Up that takes place each year in East Greenwich. It may only have been 1% punk, but it is 100% steam :-)
http://steampunkworkshop.com/steamup07.shtml