Bug Unit

System administration for a company can have it’s ups and downs… It’s highs and it’s lows. It’s also not that great being The Man behind a lot of enforcement of safe internet usage through restrictions and logs and whatnot. Though it is amusing. And sometimes I find myself being so incredibly cunning that even a fox wouldn’t have thought of it. Take the last 24 hours for example…

I’ve been instructed by the producer to restrict internet access on the animators line testing machines. Line testing machines are in each of the animators’ rooms, and they have a camera attached to them that faces down on to some well lit paper. The animators put their drawings down in front of it, and then interact with the PC in front of them to capture the images into a sequence that they can then review on the computer. Fix timing of the animation, correct mistakes etc. It’s all very interesting stuff. But what they also use the computers for, is reference material. Reference material for their animations, and they usually visit YouTube and a couple other video sites to get some video reference for what they’re animating. So, that is the one site that should always be allowed… YouTube. The producer wishes to block all other non-production content from these machines, and I’m at the forefront of that process.

It’s easy-peasy-sleazy. With the nice and fancy routers that I chose, we can build groupings for certain PC’s, which I did, and then apply firewall rules to those selected groupings. Attach a schedule to those rules, and the result is a block on those machines that stops them from being able to access the internet outside of business hours. The last main task is to make them unable to access certain sites. For this, you can use all types of random “cybernanny” and the likes, software, but only if all your traffic is routed through a server which you administrate. Thats not the case here. Because we don’t have hundreds of PC’s accessing the internet, the standard firewall/router/switch is more than enough to route all the traffic for us, and give us protection from the outside. But the drawback to this is that you lose a bit of customization in the process. Things that you want to fine-tune become impossible, without a little bit of creativity

Note: This is where the creativity starts. (It may also get a bit geeky, but just bear with me, you’ll most probably understand it in the end)

All internet traffic is just shot straight at the standard firewall/router/switch that we have, meaning that I cannot track much of it because of the fact that I am limited by the router’s software itself. So I needed to come up with a sneaky way of intercepting the traffic before it’s being passed on to the actual router to pass it out on to the internet. I need to do this, because I need to formulate a list of all the sites that people are requesting off of those machines. So I came up with a plan… I run the DHCP server, so my first task is to add a new nameserver to the config file, which will then propogate through the network as all the network leases come up for renewal. I add one of my Linux servers that I maintain to be the first nameserver. Now, all requests will first be forwarded to the Linux server I maintain, and then it will pass it on to the router once it realises that it can’t resolve the addresses that are requested. This will take time, so I set it up yesterday so that all the machines will be on this new configuration in the morning, after they’ve renewed their network leases on the DHCP server.

Now, I add the list of sites to block to the router. All the common ones that I can think of off the top of my head. Facebook, Gmail and the likes. This comes to a list of 20 domain names, which is great and all, and although I think that I’ve covered most of the personal email sites and other non-production related resources, there will always be j-random free email site that someone is using, and then they’ll be able to use their email whilst the hotmail idiots of the world won’t be able to. I want to be fair… so this is where the whole nameserver interception comes into play.

I place the new ruleset on to the router and make it active. This means that the site blocking and everything comes in to play for the first time. At the same time, I distribute all the letters around next to the line testing machines, stating how there are now blocks on some sites and that restrictions are now in place. Seconds after putting the notices up, and run back to my server room and tell my Linux server to log all DNS (nameserver) requests, and (with some nice little scripting) filter out all of the requests from the machines that I have no interest in, and also link the IP addresses of the machines requests, to the actual machine names that I have, which results in a nice real-time display of all the web requests coming from the line testing machines only.

Why is this ingenious, you ask? Well, as soon as the people see the sign, typically, they will want to check whether their email site still works, or whether they’ll still be able to connect to the latest social networking site that there is… or maybe some porn. Who knows. Well, I know. I know now because of the logs that I set to record the requests. I know now because of the sneaky way all the machines are requesting sites from a random Linux server first and then passing it on to the actual server that will route their traffic for them. Voila! A list of all the sites that I forgot to add to the blocking list.

Now… hold on for a second. Before you all attack me for being a mean old system administrator who is out there to kill. I am righteous in some kind of way. I realise the fact that I have become the person who I have always been trying to work around my whole life. Within seconds on a new network I am always trying to establish the restrictions that are being imposed upon me, and ways around them. It’s just a way of life really. I hate being restricted, and in most cases, you can find ways around those things. This is why I feel righteous about the whole thing. Although I am imposing these restrictions, I am also aware of ways around them. I have left some doors open to be tested, should anyone want to test them. Although I will know if someone tries to do something like that, I have left it out there to be tried (from the internal machines, of course). It’s like locking the front and back door, but leaving a key somewhere on the roof underneath a cat, so that if a clever person comes along, they will be able to figure out how to get in. But if I see that the cat has moved, then I know that someone got in, so I need to check it out.

Look, it’s a story about cats. That’s all I know.

Two blog posts in one day. Whilst this may surprise you, it doesn’t surprise me. This post seemed too weird to add on to the end of the last posts eco-rant, so I decided it’s better to just do it in a seperate one. Just by explaining this to you, I have successfully taken about 1 minute of your time that you will never get back. It reminds me of Ducklight Travel’s and how our slogan is “Our memories, your time.” This is also all relative, because this in fact is the exact reason why I was making this post in the first place. Now where was I?

Ducklight Travels.

After about 3 weeks of “fiddling” (not playing) with my new server that I bought about a month back, to run from our house here in Edinburgh, I have successfully created a nice new web-world for Ducklight Travels. Some sort of culmination of all the aspects of our travels into one single entity, named Ducklight Travels, in it’s entirety. No more reliance on websites like FlickR, or WordPress, or even Vimeo (to a certain extent). From now on, everything will be infused into one powerful website which hosts the Ducklight Travels Episode releases, as well as the Bugunit web blog, *and* all of the fancy-wancy pictures that we’ve taken. As well as a couple cool features on the site that I won’t get into now, but will rather leave you with an air of uncertainty as I whisper some of their names… names like “The Bug Pit”, and “Who the Bugs”… just two of the features of the new website/worldsite that will be released in just a little while. Whilst we await the registration of the domain name, and some final tweaks are made (thanks Darb for bits and pieces of web experience) you can enjoy the last remaining words of the bugunit.wordpress blog, and keep it fresh in your memories so that one day when you’re telling your kids about how *you* were around when Ducklight Travels was just a mention in a small blog on WordPress, they won’t all throw poo in your eyes and call you a liar.

Beware the poo throwers of the world. How can you ever trust someone who throws their own poo?

Well, I realised yesterday that I have not written on the blog for about three weeks. In fact, I think I have hardly done any personal web usage or fooling around at work in the last two weeks at all, which might be a good thing for the company, but is probably a bad thing for me.

Ok, so I am working at Visitscotland.com. I am their brand spanking new web analyst, and I have not really done any work yet. It is day 7 of me being here. The whole of week one was meeting people and familiarising myself with their (nightmarish, behemoth) website. I say that because the site from top to toe is about, approximately 90 000 pages big (Or is it wide? Or long? Anyways…).So, it is a big site. I am part of the business development team, and as far as I can understand (day 7), I am to look at the stats, tell people what isn’t working and then we as a team can try and fix it. It seems like a cool company, and thus far everyone has been very nice. The CEO even sat with me for an hour and a half, when he hardly has five minutes to spare. It was cool.

I am also now an official commuter. Every morning I wake up at 5:30, shower, eat breakfast and put on my suit. Yes, my suit. I leave the house at 6:30, and catch two buses to get to Livingston at 8:10. Then I work til 4:50, get on two buses and usually walk into the house at about 6:30, making it a nice round day. I have been struggling to get used to it, as my last job didn’t take much travelling and I could roll out of bed at 7:30, but it is all good and I will get used to it.

Two exciting new developments have occurred:

1. Heather
2. Italy

Now obviously, the existence of these developments pre-dated the blog. Especially Italy, which was founded in 1957.

Anyway…Heather has arrived in Edinburgh for a few weeks to soak up the sunshine (joke…that was a joke: weather more miserable than it has been since January at the moment) and check up that I am taking care of her ‘little one’. It has been really cool having her here, and so nice to see a friendly face from home.

Italy is pretty self-explanatory. We went to Italy this past weekend, and it was fantabulous.

We woke up at 2:30/ 2:45 on Saturday to catch the 3:30 bus to Glasgow Prestwick airport. We then checked in and hopped on the 6:20 flight to Pisa. Pisa was beautiful and sunny and all the things you would expect from Pisa (having been to Pisa before, I knew what things to expect. Cunning.) We saw the tower and a massive military parade, frolicked, took photos, frolicked some more and then dragged big heavy suitcases across the length of Pisa.

We then got on a train that managed to be raining (leaky aircon) in spite of the sunny skies out the window, and headed for Florence. The entire floor was wet by the time we arrived, so it is probably good that we weren’t booked for any kind of onward journey.
Florence was also absolutely gorgeous, with small clustered streets and window boxes full of flowers and ice cream and good looking Italian men…um…I mean, lovely scenery. We had a slight hiccup while trying to get to our accommodation- we arrived at the street, and it wasn’t there. What? Well, it simply wasn’t there. The address that we were given (a street address) contained no One World Apartments. No problem- we phone them. No problem- they send a man on a bicycle, armed with a note.

Mr Whittington
Your apartment is not here! Please now go across the bridge into a totally different part of town where you actually didn’t want to stay or you would have booked there, to inhabit an apartment which we have fraudulently claimed was here when actually it was not.

Ps: the key we have provided you with does not actually open the front door. You will be stuck on the street for half an hour while we ignore your calls. We apologise for the inconvenience.

[Ed’s note: phrasing not exact]

Ok, so we have not slept since 2:30 am, we are dragging suitcases in the Italian heat across town, it is mid-afternoon, and then the key didn’t actually open the door. The apartment was five stories up (no lift- tiny small footed Italian concrete stairs), and it was hot. But, it was actually really pretty, overlooking a tiny piazza, and once we had had a nap and recovered our sense of humour, it was actually a cool place to stay- there was always something happening. We went to sleep with a concert underneath our window and woke up with a market clanging away selling cheese, soap, fish made of candle wax and other essentials.

Florence itself is as beautiful as it was last time I saw it, streets filled with tourists, buskers and people selling handbags. We shopped a lot, we ate a lot, we soaked up the sun and the scenery. As for the rumours that there was wine involved, I cannot comment.

My only other negative about Florence was a grumpy waiter who mis-understood me when I was ordering. I ordered a pasta (starter portion) and a margarita for Kyle and I to share (he was also ordering a pasta, and Heather was about to order a pizza). I was speaking to an Italian man, so I foolishly used swirly hand movements to say ‘bring it all to-geth-er’. He thought I meant that we were sharing the food, freaked out at me, told me he would not serve us, to get out of his restaurant and go to the self catering place down the street. No jokes. When he realised that we were bona fide customers, we received no apology. He received no tip, so the scale was evened out.

Otherwise, special memories are listening to a busker on Ponte Vecchio late in the evening, pasta, laughter and generally walking around the beautiful streets, absorbing all the best of Italian culture.

For the second part of our trip we Eurostar-ed our way up to the great ancient city of Roma. We caught a taxi to our hotel. Outside there was a little man waiting with a note.

Dear Mr Whittington

Owing to repairs in the Chiara Stella Guest House, we regret to inform you that you have been moved to the Gioia Guest House instead. The guest house is under the same management and is of the same standard as Chiara Stella. We apologise for the inconvenience.

Having been moved around in Paris, Florence and now Rome, I was beginning to wonder why Europeans bothered with the sham of ‘booking’ when they obviously had no intention of letting you stay where you wanted to anyway, but then we saw the Gioia guest house, which was a haven of nice fittings, tiled floors and aircon. I was content.

We headed out in the afternoon to see the Colosseum, which was quite intense. Knowing the history of the place, it is hard to pair your knowledge of the pain and suffering that occurred there with the enjoyment and interest you have in such an old and unique building, so the two emotions sat uneasily side by side. I will say though that seeing it was truly fascinating.

Kyle and Heather then opted to sit under an olive tree (!) while I went and explored the ancient ruins of the old city, temple of Saturn and other things to charm your average history nerd into a coma. It was really amazing, and I would love to go back sometime to give everything the attention it actually deserved.

Evening came and we found a small pasta bar overlooking the Colosseum to have dinner at. We had a drink at a small Italian bar and then went back to bed- no market underneath our window this time, but the silence was a welcome change.

Day 2 in Rome was limited in terms of time, but we did our best, being bullied by an Italian woman, visiting St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, walking the streets and absorbing the yellow/green and white beauty that is Rome. Rome also completely awakens both the Christian and the history nerd in me, and I have an appointment to go back and see more, and more, and more, and…The problem is, I don’t think you could ever see all that Rome has to offer- but I would like to try.

5pm, back on bus. Bus-airport-airport-plane-plane-chairs in airport- bus-taxi- home. Home, 2:05 am. Sleep.

5:20 am alarm clock. Argh.

Ok, unfortunately it seems that wordpress has changed their system or something, making it impossible for me to get my pretty little avatar. But from the fact that I can’t figure out something on the computer, it should be obvious that it is Jen who writes here.

So, it’s been a while. I have been so busy manky-footing, double-crossing, interviewing and quitting, that I have scarcely had time to breath. The manky-footing you all know about. The double-crossing, interviewing and quitting are all connected to the fact that, barring a reference check that should be happening as we speak, I will soon be working for a new company. I would have preferred to leave them nameless so that I could moan about them at a later date, but as Kyle has already let the cat out of the bag, it is visitscotland.com. I am taking up the position of web analyst with them, basically seeing popular and less popular points on their site, places of high drop off, and I will then be in charge of making suggestions. I am hoping that ’suggestions’ is a euphemism for being able to crack the whip and discipline people, because that is really the only way to get true job satisfaction. I will let everyone know how it is going. In the mean time, all you need to know is I have bought a suit. It has little stripes on it.

This weekend Kyle went gallavanting in London, and I stayed in Scotland. You know the saying ‘If you need something done, give it to someone busy’? Well, that wasn’t me. I think I went out of the house to go to Tescos. Deprived of technology since Kyle took the laptop, I found myself curling up with Pride and Prejudice. Yes, really. And an ’80s marathon on TMF, and my housemate’s chocolate cake. Aaah, bliss. There weren’t too many other decisions to be made, other than is it cheating on Roark from The Fountainhead (my first love) to fancy Mr Darcy? I decided that all was fair in love and war when one person makes buildings that shoot towards the sky, and the other has 10 000 per year. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you should read more.

I am currently working out my final week’s notice at the job that still remains nameless. I will really miss it, because everyone is so nice and nurturing (it is an office of women, with only one guy sys admin), and there is this woman who brings tasty treats at least once a week.

Visitscotland.com has a lot to live up to.

Edit: Kyle managed to fix my avatar for me. He also insists that I use this one even though it makes me look like a bug.