Posts Tagged: photos

fun / geek porn / news / ninja / tools / wtf — No Comments
12
Jan 10

The well equipped ninja

So, over Christmas Chris and Batman came by.  Christmas spirit was shared over the poker table.  Chris was showing off his new bail out bag that he got for Christmas from his fiance’s family.  It came packed with all sorts of nifty survival stuff.  A multi-tool, a length of rope, etc.  Anyhow, so a couple days go by and I stumble upon a nifty little grappling hook.

This got the gears a turning.  I wondered if I could find a foldable grappling hook to give away for a late christmas gift.  It was about that time that the clouds parts and floating down from the internet heavens on a beam of glorious light, came this little bad ass.  I found a micro grappling hook.

Micro Grappling Hook

Micro Grappling Hook

Micro Grappling Hook

This thing is built of 330 stainless steel.  Not-so-scientific research claims they can hold up to 350 pounds of weight.  The spikes are stored inside of the device.  You can add weight to the thing by filling it up with water or sand.  The eyelet accepts standard 550 cord.

These hooks are the smaller cousin of a hook used to pull trip wires from a safe distance.  The military wanted a smaller version, and this was their answer.  County Comm had 200 made.  Gave some to the military for testing, then sold the rest on their website.

Immediately, I knew I have to buy 3 of these bad boys.  Two of them would go to Chris and Batman as late Christmas gifts, and I would treasure the last one.

I bought 3 plus a 100′ section of 550 cord.  I cut the cord into 3 equal lengths, then gave them as gifts.  I think it may have been one of my best gifts ever.

Grappeling Hook 1

Grappeling Hook 2

Grappeling Hook 3

Cheers,
Jonathan

news / photos / wtf — 2 Comments
2
Nov 09

Just in case the wall, spikes, barbed wire, electrified fence, and security cameras were not enough

We will go ahead and add some anti-climb paint.

Buckingham Palace Outer Wall

Buckingham Palace Outer Wall

Photo taken from Buckingham Palace.

Cheers,
Jonathan

news — No Comments
23
Apr 09

Know thy enemy

DISCLAIMER: I did not take this photo. Please see the original.

I am pretty sure this is from the RSA Expo.  I am at RSA again this year. So, I thought this was appropriate.

I think there is an enamy in our midst.

I think there is an enemy in our midst.

news / technical — No Comments
31
Dec 08

Embarq does not care about your safety

Last month I was able to finesse my way into naked DSL. I know, a lot of ISPs offer this but here in Jefferson City Missouri, no one openly admits that it is possible. In fact, you have to talk to a special level of customer support called the “save desk” to get it. But this article is not about naked DSL. This article is about Embarq’s inadequate security measures.

In my prior DSL usages, the ADSL modem has more or less behaved as a bridge by default. This sucks because most users will just plug the device directly into their windows based PC, thus allowing the world to view their C$ share or other obvious Microsoft vulnerabilities (assuming you use Microsoft Windows). But Embarq did something different. Their device came configured more as a router. Typically, I would praise this type of behavior. However, I would soon change my mind.

I host this website over my DSL connection. So, I needed to test my configuration under the new ISP. I found my public IP and navigated to it. To my disgust this form came up.

embarq-1

Wow, this is bad. So, it appears that I have a remotely accessible administrative console on my new ADSL modem. So, I’m already pretty upset. But then I notice that the password is PRE-POPULATED for me. So without changing the password, I click “Login”. , I am now presented with a screen that tells me what the default password is (“1234″). This screen also prompts me to change my password. So, I change my password and press “Login”.

embarq-2

So, lets see what we can do now…

embarq-3

Ok, it looks like I can now modify any of the settings that a normal consumer grade router provides me.

There are many attacks that may be performed with this console, so many that I can not even begin to think about the possibilities.

After a beer or 2, I calmed down and convinced myself that a warning to change your password must have been included in the documentation. So, I read though all the documents that came with the ADSL router. Sure enough, there is no mention of this administrative console, nor is there mention that you need to change this password.

This all leads me to one conclusion… Embarq does not care about your safety.

Cheers,
Jonathan Forck

news / photos / projects — 5 Comments
17
Jun 08

My Homemade Pool Table

In late 2003, my father and I built a pool table. I’m so proud of it.

This is the finished project. This was taken with an early digital camera. The reds are exagerated…

done-1

done-2

Before I could start on the project I had to have a vauge idea on where to start. So, I drove up to Schmidt Billards in Columbia. I would link to that page, but it seems that Malware is being hosted on the site. This is a great little pool shop. They have nothing but great service.

cutaway

This illustrates how a rail is built

railcutaway-1

railcutaway-2

endrail

I found this slate by way of Matt. He knew of a guy that had a whole stack of it piled up in the back yard. The guy was going to cut them down into stepping stones. What a waste that would be!!! I only paid $75 for this set of 3 slates.

slate

This is the guts and the glory. This is the primary crossbeam. It carries the weight of the pool table. This crossbeam is composed of 10 thin layers of wood glued together. This keeps it from ever warping.

crossmember-1

crossmember-2

Here the subframe is complete. This will all have 1′ x 12′ solid oak wrapping it. In an earthquake, I would fully expect this frame to protect me from any thing in the house.

subframecomplete

Here are the legs before being wrapped in oak.

nakedlegs

Here, I begin to wrap the subframe in oak.

applyingoak

Now I’m done with applying the oak to the subframe.

applyingoakcomplete

This is right after I stained the frame and before I sealed the wood.

framestained

A close up of the wrapped oak.

Close up of wrapped wood

Another look at the wrapped oak.

Another closeup of the wrapped oak

The back of your slate should have boards around the edges.  My slate was purchased from a guy that was storing it outside.  So, the backing boards were rotted.  We used 1″ x4″ poplar wood for our backing.  I do not recall what kind of glue we used, as it was some time ago that we built this table.

The 2 2″ x 4″s on the bottom were added so me and my dad could safely rotate the table.  At this point, it is quite heavy.

Right after putting the new backing on the slate

When you set the slate on the table, you do not want to have to set it directly on the top of the cabinet.  You want a buffer there.  When you preeminently attach the slate to the cabinet, you will screw into this area.  You don’t want to put screws in your beautiful oak.  So, we added 1″ x 6″ poplar for this buffer area.

Closeup of the table padding.

Another closeup of the table padding.

Another closeup of the table padding.

Another closeup of the table padding.

After that, we built the rails.  I’m afraid that at this point in the project, I failed to take photos as frequently as I should have.  The rails were quite a trick.  Next time I have the table apart to put on new felt, I will take good pictures that show the construction of the rails.

He, we are fitting the rails to the table.

Fitting the rails

Fitting the rails

Once we felt we had them fitting properly, we went ahead and stained and sealed them.  At this point in the project, I am gitty every time I look at it.  Dreaming of the first time I get to break open a rack…

Stained and sealed rails.

Stained and sealed rails.

Closeup of the sights.

Here it is after final assembly.  This day ranked in my top 3 proudest moments so far in life.  I had talked about building one of these since I was a little kid.

1035886416_3bbcd62603_o

Cheers,
Jonathan