The Confession: Discussing Religious Morals with Jack Bauer

We have all been fans of 24 right? The innovative show (in terms of story line) where Jack Bauer the secret agent solves terrorist and conspiracy plots in 24 hours, not hesitating to use the most drastic techniques (extensive torture and even shooting his team and family members) to uncover the truth? Wait you don't know what I am talking about? Shame on you :).

Well, Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who played the charismatic role in the show has done it again; This time in a smaller scale, through a 10-episode web series that he created: The Confession. The plot is rather simple: a professional killer (played by Kiefer) and a priest engage in the only truthful conversation that can happen, in my opinion, between such characters, i.e. the meaning of good and evil, all in the secrecy of a confessional.

I absolutely love the format of this series. It is web-only (mainly on hulu.com, unfortunately available only in the US, deals are signed for internatinal distribution, I just don't know what sites), 7-10 minutes per episode and really fast-paced.

Good Job on this one Kiefer, can't wait for more of your projects or more web-only specials like this one. See the trailer below:

Breaking Out of "Jail" : Restricted Shell

No, I am not writing a sequel for the show "Prison Break", though I would love to see it come back to the screens :).

If you have never used a Linux or Unix-like terminal to administer a computer (yeah, it's a geeky post), you better stop reading now. The purpose of this post is to give some ideas on ways to get out of restricted shells on Linux systems.

- "But what is this restricted shell thing you are talking about?".
I assume as a Linux user (if you are not, you should have stopped reading by now :D), you know that each time a terminal is launched, a special program is started to read your commands: The Shell. There exist many shells (Boune shell or bash, Korne Shell or kshell, and more) and they are very powerful as you might expect. However, mostly in production environments where multiple users can remotely access a shell of a machine, it is good practice for administrators to apply restrictions on the commands that a normal user can execute on the host with the help of restricted shells (a good example is rbash and this post How to restrict access with rbash describe a way to implement it).

- "So how do I break out of this restrictive "prison"?", two words: Shell Escapes.
Many command-line applications provide a way to fall back into a shell, restrictive or not. The one I will mostly talk about is offered by vi/vim the text editor, since it can permit you to access an unrestricted shell following these instructions:

1. Once in vi/vim, type ESC, then:

• Type “:set shell=/bin/bash”
• Type “:shell” and VOILA!!!!! 

Unfortunately, vi/vim also has a restricted version rvi/rvim in which this trick will not work. If you are stuck with rvi, you can try the following methods to access vi with other applications:

2. Using the text-based browser lynx:

• open a local file with lynx (e.g.: $ lynx /etc/passwd)

• type “o” to open the options; change the second option (Editor) to “/bin/vi” and save the changes to go back at the main page.

• Type “e” to edit the file with vi
• Follow instructions in 1.

3. Using the mail (local email client) command:

• $ set VISUAL=/bin/vi
• $ mail -s "subject" "destination email"
• Type "~v" on the next line to edit the mail with vi.
• Follow the instructions in 1.

There are various other ways to obtain the same result, this was just a the tip of the iceberg.
ENJOY YOUR FREEDOM!!!


UPDATE: Guess what?? The browser Elinks is also vulnerable to shell escapes. This is based on the feature (hacking feature?) allowing users to edit the contents of text boxes on a webpage using external editors (i.e. using other applications on the machine... Yayyy vi/vim). All you have to do is setup the $EDITOR environment variable with "/bin/vi" and the rest is history... Wait you need more details?? OK:

• $ set EDITOR=/bin/vi
• Open a webpage containing a text box (should be easy to find on the Internet. If you can not, well lmgtfy!!!).
  
• Navigate to the text-box area and Enter to edit, the press F4 (or whatever is used in the configurations) to edit the text box externally, and you should see something familiar :=)

Specialization is for Insects

It's been ages since my last post! I have been (and still am) outrageously busy with my academic work. Hopefully, I will fill the gaps by posting a little more than usual in the upcoming months.

Today, I wanted to mention and briefly discuss the following "quote":

"A human being should be able to
change a diaper,
plan an invasion,
butcher a hog,
conn a ship,
design a building,
write a sonnet,
balance accounts,
build a wall,
set a bone,
comfort the dying,
take orders,
give orders,
cooperate,
act alone,
solve equations,
analyze a new problem,
pitch manure,
program a computer,
cook a tasty meal,
fight efficiently,
die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects. " - Robert Heinelein - Time Enough for Love.

In this world where there is so much to discover, people tend to stir their lives towards one or two areas they master or have expertise on. Robert Heinelein suggests that as human beings, we can and should do as many activities as we can. This reminded of a quote that I loved to say when I was younger to explain to my friends why I loved going to school (I was the biggest nerd ever at that time, I have met worse than me recently!!!):

"Il est parfois mieux de connaitre quelque chose de tout que de connaitre tout d'une chose." (Translation)

On Time Management

            TIME, four letters that could make your life very exciting or completely miserable. If like me and every body else you are engaged in a number of activities, then you had to, at a certain point in time, deal with this beast. We have all heard magic words put together by "great thinkers" to display the necessity of efficient time management for a successful life:

"Time is money."
"Never leave ’till tomorrow which you can do today." - Benjamin Franklin.
"Never let yesterday use up today." - R. Nelson
"The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something." - Carl Sandburg
"Make use of time, let not advantage slip." - William Shakespeare

And blah, blah, blah.... Don't get me wrong, I am not saying time is not of importance and should not be considered at all, I am merely suggesting that it should not be taken too seriously. Time should not control your life; on the contrary, having a life of fulfillment involves among other things a control of time.
If you have a 30-page paper due in two weeks and you are not very excited about writing, why would you want to refrain yourself from watching two hours of that TV show that makes you smile or getting excited by the MADNESS of this year's NCAA tournament or even spending a full day hanging out with your favorite peeps?

After reading my last paragraph, I see how foolish it sounds. I guess I am just trying to justify my current excessive procrastination :).
Ignore everything that I just said, and just live your life to the fullest; the key is in not spending time, but investing in it!!!

Courage to Engage

Me trying to speak in public :)

This was the theme of this year's edition of ISLC (International Student Leadership Conference), a panel of internationals, for internationals, by internationals, organized and hosted by James Madison University and Eastern Mennonnite University.
Students from all parts the US get together to learn and discuss the tips and tricks necessary to a successful leader, coupled with fun activities (dance party for example). It is a great occasion to meet people from all around the world studying or living in the United States, hear their stories and learn about their culture. I can not possibly layout all the lessons that could be gained throughout the conference (go next year if you can, and experience for yourself!!), but I will discuss a couple points I personally gathered.

          First, a general overview of the theme: "Courage to Engage". A leader is someone that people follow and trust to develop/achieve a project, a passion or something they believe in. So each of us is a full blown tank of leadership potential waiting to burst. This does not mean that everybody has be the president of a group or war leader or anything like that (though these are included), it all starts with the little things such as having the courage to engage into a difficult conversation or with a stranger or simply getting out of your comfort zone to have a connection with your alter ego.

          One example can be derived from the inspiring documentary movie "Crossing Borders" by Arnd Wachter, which follows 8 students (4 Americans and 4 Moroccans) living together in Morocco for a week (see trailer below).  The movie was shown at the conference, followed by a very interesting group discussion on the topics developed in the movie (the previous picture was taken at that moment), moderated by the author himself Arnd who gracefully accepted to participate at the event.


CROSSING BORDERS (Trailer, 3 mins) from CROSSING BORDERS on Vimeo.

"There is enough religion in this world to hate each other, but not enough religion to love one another" - King Abdullah II of Jordan

Happy Pi Day....

First 500 decimal digits (π)

Today, 3.14 (March 14th) is π day. The math and geek communities celebrate this powerful, overused yet strange number every year.


I just couldn't end the day without mentioning it. If you want to know, what Pi sounds like, watch this video.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

You can also have a slice of Pi (I mean Pie :|): HAPPY PIE DAY!!!

I'm in love with Zach Galifianakis!!!

There I said it :)

 After my previous post on the terrible tsunami/earthquake in Japan (update in 3 words: nuclear power plants), I am writing on something less sad, more hopeful, less stressful.
This guy on the left has the power to make me scream with laughter. I can't decide whether he is stupid or very smart; maybe he is stupidly smart or smartly stupid. His punchlines are dumb but brilliant.
Yes i know, I'm babbling...... Oh common, this is funny: "The only time it's good to yell out I HAVE DIARRHEA, it's when you are playing scrabble.........Because it's worth a crap load of points!!! ", taken from the best SNL monologue ever (Source).

So yeah, since Hangover, just looking at him make me burst into tears....

A sad first post!!

Well, My first post is related to a sad, sad situation.
A gigantic 8.9 magnitude earthquake is currently hitting Japan (a country I am very found of...) and can escalate to cause a tsunami. The east cost of Honshu-Japan is under siege and reports say there are already hundreds in human casualties and "tremendous damage" (from Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan). My thoughts go to the suffering population.

This and similar situations make me wonder about earthquakes (and other natural disasters) early detection techniques. First, let me mention that I do not know much about it, but from what I read, there are some precursory signs before they happen. Earthquakes for example, are manifested through energy waves that can be accurately detected. Apparently, our current GPS satellites already have the technology to record magnetic fields and electromagnetic waves; they just need to be tailored to monitor tectonic movements. If implemented, they could provide warnings as early as weeks before the occurrence of the disaster.
This "will provide the key element in a fight against earthquakes and tsunamis: TIME" (Source).

If only there was an industry already investing money in satellites to help out. Oh....wait are we talking GPS satellites? like the ones that we use when we drive?
You are right, the car industry is already in this business. I can hear it from here: " Yo Ernest, they already make efforts to ensure that your vehicle can roll on broken roads when there is an earthquake!" Oh well, they wouldn't need to do that much if we can tell the people to drive on the nice road and get away weeks beforehand.
All I am suggesting is, the car companies could be generous and give out some cash (maybe they already do, I don't know), so we could know in early December 2011 if 2012 will be the end of the world :).

And to the Japanese population: Watashi wa watashi no inori de tamotsu!!!

Yet Another Personal Blog!!

Hello World!

Welcome to my first and so far unique personal blog.
I intent to use this space to rant, praise, discuss, give my point of view on all sorts of subjects of interest.

I am a computer science student, so do not be surprised to see mostly tech stuff on here. I am also a movie enthusiast, I love listening to music (no particular favorite...) and like most guys I am a sports fan, mostly Basketball and Soccer. To know more about me visit my Student Website.

J'espere que je pourrais poster regulierement (pas de promesses :|), tout dependra de mon temps libre. Oooops... yes do not be alarmed if you see some French, we all have a translate.g00gle.com friend that can help us translate right?