Yet another great job advertisement

How’s that for leaving no stone unturned? I understand that network equipment can be quite heavy but you get extra hiring marks for deadlifting 200 pounds?

Solid understanding of network services provided by Unix/Linux and Windows Server.
Experience with the following applications/tools: Microsoft Office, Visio, Wireshark, Nessus and Nmap.

Ability to relocate and install network equipment.  Ability to lift 50 pounds.

Must also be able to work occasional weekends and on after-hours projects.

Here’s a consice job description

Note to the reader: While I have changed the names of the parties involved, the rest is AS IS

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SECURITYFOCUS JOBS - NEW OPPORTUNITY
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JOB DESCRIPTION
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Position: <CENSORED> Team Leader
Location: <CENSORED> , Algeria
Type: Contract

Closing Date: 2008-05-16

hakers

JOB REQUIREMENTS
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hakers

CONTACT
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hakers

hakers
<CENSORED>
hakers
<CENSORED>@hotmail.com

Joomla Woes (Yet another quick post) OR Consider me a Drupal Fanboi

A while ago a friend of my commented in a conversation (and sparked a blog post) about how Joomla is evil and corrupts the souls of teenagers with an “easy money” mentality. From a not-so-short debugging session at work (having to look after the work of two unexperienced guys plus a manager turned “coder” to save some $$$) I reach this conclusion.

Joomla sucks.

Yeap, you read it correctly, and yes I take my chanced making such a harsh statement.

Why it sucks?

As with any click and go technology it is really easy to screw yourself. In the surface all is well, templates, modules, components the works.  In the backend? Not so good. If you have to extend it, prepare to break every major software engineering rule and write UGLY code (granted, PHP code tends to be ugly). If you have to debug it, it is a bitch. Having worked briefly with Drupal  (in an ugly personal LAN website ) and Joomla, I believe that Drupal is the best of them two.

Using it as as simple (and I mean really simple) CMS, it is Ok. Trying to hack it to perform tasks not inherently suited to it sucks. Compared with Drupal which is hook based, it really really sucks… Combine Joomla with incompetent management (i.e. hammer, world, nail) and you have a work hour sucker.

 (sorry, I try to keep lixtetrax rant free but after the last workweek, I really had to let this out of my chest).

Ruby On Rails real strength

• Faster in development time than J2EE (the claim that a small RoR application can be the size of all XML documents required to work with J2EE is correct)
• Better than PHP (forces you to avoid bad development practices, a case that is seen all too many times)
• YAML
• Cool kid on the block

Other than that, if you are outside DHH’s frame of mind, good luck

The lighter side of Oracle Vs SAP

Via The JD EDwards Advisor

Allow me to offer some allegations from Oracle’s lawsuit that would demonstrate, if they are true, how stupid TomorrowNow’s employees were. According to Oracle…

• Most of the download requests came from an IP address that is located in Bryan, Texas (TomorrowNow’s hometown) and is part of SAP’s network. Very bright!
  
• Some of the illegal downloads came from URL’s that had TomorrowNow’s name in them, such as http://hqitpc01.tomorrownow.com.
  
• In many of the sessions on Customer Connection, the perpetrators downloaded hundreds of files at a time. Using one customer ID from an Oracle customer that was switching to TomorrowNow, someone downloaded an average of 1,800 items a day for four days straight. Now that wouldn’t arouse any suspicion…would it?
  
• In many cases, the downloaders provided obviously fake information. That included phone numbers such as “777-777-7777″ and email addresses like test@testyomama.com.
  
• To top it off, the perpetrators logged into Customer Connection using multiple userids and passwords that they had gathered from multiple companies. However, they logged in from the same IP address. Hmmm…now when would Oracle software users such as Abbott Labs, Bear Stearns, Merck, and Smithfield Foods all log in to Customer Connection from the same IP address?

Assuming that the above are correct (after all JD Edwards is closely related to Oracle so they have a pro-Oracle bias):

This cannot be serious! The tech level in this attack is ridiculous! In typical geek fashion I will assume that it was one of the typical clueless IT manager types that performed the “attack” as any person having been on the net for a couple of years or more knows how to (even semi-effectively) cover her tracks. I am not a lawyer so I cannot presume how TomorrowNow will get away with this one but I still can believe it. The immaturity level of the “attack” can give food to some paranoid conspiracy theories (I mean come on SAP, you can afford a decent techie to retrieve the require info for you). So without further ado here are some other not so serious explanations about the incident:

• TomorrowNow got hacked. Perhaps a drive by incident, perhaps a (drum roll) Oracle coordinated attack to discredit their opponent. So the attack was Oracle -> TomorrowNow->Oracle
• TomorrowNow in order to cut costs (so middle level execs can play more mini golf)decided to employ 15 year old or less than script kiddies.Under command of management (which in some cases have a directly comparable mental level), they decided to do some recon about their main business opponent. Whoohoo, this proxy thing surely is working man!!!!!!
• The whole issue was forged by a bored Oracle employee using ed. Such was the punishment decided upon him for saying “you know, for simpler installations I am big MySQL fan, perhaps we must re-evaluate the complexity of our product for the SOHO market”.”FORGE” *whip crack*
• Under a grant from MPAA/RIAA, Oracle provided warez links that deceptively pointed to their documentation under the moniker “Hot Teen Ebony Asses pt DCXLVI: The return of the hung well Chinaman” and for “WINDOWS VISTA SOURCE CODE LEAKED !!!111!!!1!!11!!!”. So given warez puppie population was duped into framing their employer!

Feel free to think some more of your own and always keep in mind the Occam Razor (simplest explanation is almost always the most possible).
Via news.com

SAP responded Friday to allegations raised by Oracle that SAP’s wholly owned subsidiary, TomorrowNow, illegally accessed its rival’s customer support and maintenance site. “SAP will not comment other than to make it clear to our customers, prospects, investors, employees and partners that SAP will aggressively defend against the claims made by Oracle in the lawsuit,” SAP said in a statement. “SAP will remain focused on delivering products and services–including those from TomorrowNow–that ensure success for our customers.”

TomorrowNow, a third-party support and maintenance company, provides service to Oracle’s PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards customers. Oracle alleges TomorrowNow accessed its maintenance and support Web site, using log-on and passwords of former, or soon-to-be former, Oracle support and maintenance customers.

So, where is the WWE-like response? This is tame! It is like paying the price of admission for a loud action flick like 300 and getting to see Leonidas and Xerxes reconciling their differences over a cup of tea, after pondering about the futility of war. Perhaps they have a policy of not commenting on legal events while they are in progress but come on! Where is the typical “We have nothing to do with this whatsoever so up yours?”. I mean come on! Turn the other cheek might be the Christian thing to do but (as SCO found out to its dismay) some corporate lawyer are actually well-paid comedians who conjure lawsuits for their comedic value. However, no real comedy/violence value for this one, let’s all hope that the action and name calling will pick up shortly

Links to original articles:

JD EDwards Advisor blog entry

news.com article

Oracle’s 44-page complaint in pdf form(obviously, requires Acrobat Reader)

(I was too tired from the Army to do a decent post so I owe you one shortly )