Dubuque County Fairgrounds Speedway
[Mon 17 May 2021 11:50:22 AM CDT] The picture on the left is a picture of a very good friend's race car. The car is a IMCA Modified, racing at a county
fairgrounds 3/8th mile high banked dirt track. I was fortunate enough to work on the pit crew for this car and a couple pro stock cars the gentleman in the picture
built. I dont care to use the man's name on the Internet, but I sincerely appreciated being part of his crew at the tracks he raced at.
I learned a ton of things working on his race cars when I wasn't on the road. At the time this picture was taken the racetrack was under NASCAR sponsorship, Racing for NASCAR points and money was really exciting, although NASCAR purses were smaller than other tracks. With NASCAR cash is king, so racers make less but the prestige makes up for smaller winnings. After all, it's about racing, and not completely money but the money helps. Its a damn expensive, time consuming sport. Click on the picture for a better view.
Ransomware - The Big Money Hack
[Thu 13 May 2021 11:01:17 AM CDT] One week ago Colonial Pipeline was hit by an alleged Russian hacker group known asDarkside.It seems ransomware is the popular thing these days. There is more money in it than the usual and also prevalent password, credit card number hacks etc. A great majority of these hacks would not happen if the target networks and computers were not so woefully insecure. Colonial Pipeline was penetration tested, security audited in 2018. Colonial was advised of 328 issues, but apparently did little to correct it. It is very very rare than one recovers from ransomware. Once a network is penetrated due to poor administration, code is injected, files are encrypted by very strong cyphers which are invariably impossible to crack. The only options are pay the ransom in bitcoin or restore from uninfected backups. I find it curious that no one has revealed the ransom amount, which I'm relatively certain is in the millions.
The same hacker group claimed three more networks today, one of them in the US. The number of american networks victimized by ransomware are many. The majority of these are reluctant to admit they were victims, and they pay the ransom in bitcoin which is virtually untraceable and hope the perpetrators send the key to decrypt their files. Most if not all of this can be avoided by proper security precautions, up to date software, and competent computer and network system administrators. We pay for that now or pay twice later. That is the bottom line and ransomware will continue as long as companies don't secure their systems.
Nice Job China
[Sat 08 May 2021 08:58:06 AM CDT] Hey China, learn how to fly rockets would you? About 12 plus hours from now, one of your booster rockets is tumbling out of control and doomed to enter the atmoshere and hopefully burn up, however that 60 plus tons of booster will likely hit the surface of the earth between 41 degrees north and 41 degrees south. You've done this before! Perhaps you need to steal more technology from the United States. After all you have been doing it for 60+ years. You want to build a space station? Do it right.The Police and the Public
[Thu 16 Apr 2021 12:50:21 AM CDT] It is an unfortunate fact that in most if not all societies in today's world need law enforcement. That said, it is incumbent on society to be aware of the fact that when a city or state hires a police department that society and or populace agrees to abide by the laws dictated by city, state, and federal law. This includes in no uncertain terms that when a peace officer gives you an order or command you, the citizen must comply.Should an individual feel the order or command given is unfair, or illegal, you have the right to argue that in front of a judge, but you do that later. In the meantime you follow those commands like it or not. Argue it later, it's your constitutional right. It is NOT your right to ignore or disregard orders given by a peace officer. I am painfully aware that some officers can be overzealous or use excessive force. HOWEVER, this rarely happens when one complies with the authorities. Police officers have a very difficult duty to perform, their life can be and is on the line daily. If you don't want trouble, make those authorities comfortable, don't argue, do not make them uncomfortable because they will respond and probably not in a nice way. Do not ask for trouble.
These are things the public seems to have lost sight of. The majority of schools and universities do not teach civics and government. Ignorance of the law
is no excuse, although it seems today's me
generation culture is unaware of the fact that the people hire police to do their job and you have directly or
indirectly given authorities permission to give you orders. This is a fact whether you know it or not. Be cool, they will be cool. Remember this,
the police have to recruit from the human race, they are not infallable. I'm no angel,
I've had experiences with good and not so good cops, but when I treat them with respect, they return in kind. Your mileage may vary.
Internet Relay Chat - IRC
[Tue 13 Apr 2021 05:51:21 PM CDT] Most people don't know about IRC, it predates Facebook and all the other social media sites. I started on UnderNet.Org where I learned about everything I know about computers. Now and for years I hangout on Freenode.net. Freenode is a world-wide network as undernet is but it is mainly a tech network but there are many social channels as well. IRC networks allow you to create, register if you wish, your own channel, and control who gets in and who doesn't. IRC has a rather steep learning curve for the un-initiated but there is much to learn. A friend of mine in Tunisia hosts a small network where I hangout and who I've learned a lot from. You can try his network from this website, http://Tchat.ZIDnet.ovh. Pay no attention to a warning your browser may give you, it is perfectly safe and easier to use than an actual IRC Client, of which there are many. By the way, be prepared to speak French.The Trial of Derek Chauvin
[Sat 03 Apr 2021 12:00:01 PM CDT] After a week of testimony from the prosecution's witnesses things don't look to good for Officer Chauvin. I saw for myself the body cam footage of an overzealous cop detaining George Floyd. It's been my opinion from the beginning the police used excessive force resulting in Floyd's death. The more I see and hear from witnesses, the more I'm certain Chauvin is guilty, of which charge? I'll leave that to the jury.Does Instagram Leak Phone Numbers?
[Thu 11 Mar 2021 07:12:19 PM CST] Answer: I think so, here's why. I signed up with Instagram yesterday using my phone number instead of email. I did this with two factor authentication in mind. So I get a code via smartphone to login. Less than 24 hours later I get about five robo-calls, which I don't answer, but two numbers left voice mails telling me,We will be forced to take legal action if you don't call this number.Well, this isn't the first time I've had these these calls, few leave threatening voicemails though. So, their numbers are blocked, but I do not think this was coincidence. Instagram seems to be leaking numbers. I don't do social media of his sort although I do use IRC. This is one reason why I don't use these services, they aren't to be trusted. I joined strictly because my daughter is on it. Just a word to the wise, join social media platforms and give up your privacy. This is just an example.
Department of Motor Vehicles
[Tue 02 Mar 2021 02:38:13 PM CST] TheDMV,the place where everyone dreads to tread. So I pull into the parking lot pulling an empty gasoline trailer, I hauled chemicals and fuels for years but that's not the story. I walk in and I see every chair in the place was taken, probably about 20 to 25 people. I thought, damn this may take forever. I was just there to renew my license. So I stroll up to the desk, turns out my license was 31 days expired. In my state they give you 30 days grace period to renew or you take the written tests over again. Despite my plea to cut me some slack they of course refused, so I said okay I'll need these tests. I need operator, chauffeur, motorcycle, tractor-trailer, tankers, and hazardous materials, (Haz-Mat). Everything but double-trailers I told them.
I wasn't aware of the one computer terminal in the front of all those people still chewing on their pencils. They told me to use that, and they would send all the tests to it. Great I thought, I don't want to wait for an empty chair. I walk over to the computer and start ripping through the tests. I finished in maybe twenty or thirty minutes. Still, nobody sitting had finished what looked like one test on their desk!!! Amazing, anyway, I go to the counter and tell them I'm done. I passed everything with about three wrong answers. I looked at my mistakes and realized I hadn't read the questions properly, I did know the right answers. Well, I do the eye check, get my picture taken, pay them and they hand me the license. Walking out of that office, the SAME people were still working on a test. Amazing in a scary way. That's who you share the road with, awesome right!
China - Friend or Foe?
[Tue 23 Feb 2021 10:42:47 AM CST] I would personally like the U.S. to get along with China, and it would seem we do. The U.S.A. does a huge business with China. China literally floods our markets with cheap, poorly made products. Nearly all the things you buy sayMade In China.The biggest reason for this in my opinion is China employs sweat shops, has nearly no pollution standards, among other reasons. I'm am no expert on the subject and I think the Chinese population are fine people. The problem is their Communist Regime are controlling the show. Speak out against the Chinese government and you will probably
disappear.That's what Communists do.
So, why this sudden tirade? Yesterday this server got hit with a 985 line hack attempt. The source address was Beijing, China. Not the first time but the biggest one, it lasted 8 minutes. Each log line was a seperate attempt at hacking known vulnerabilities. They failed. What bothers me is that the Chinese state sponsors and promotes hacking U.S. networks. This article will likely invite more. Anyway, the Chinese have been stealing intellectual property from us for decades. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but China is planning for world domination. That is their end game. I won't bore you with more details, but our powers that be are aware of this, if they aren't they need to be.
Block IP Addresses With Linux Nftables
[Sat 06 Feb 2021 04:23:10 PM CST] As an avid Linux Operating System user, I recently migrated from an iptables firewall to the more recent packet filtering and firewall software tonftables.I tossed my old firewall rules and started fresh. The only stumbling block was to figure out how to block entire ip addresses, with or without a bit mask. Turns out after much googling and finding nothing but cryptic documentation the answer was simple. Here's how, I load my firewall configuration from /etc/nftables.conf, Instead of using the userspace
nftbinary, I simply added my rule in the incoming packet chain above rules that allow specific traffic. Reason being, rule sets are processed in the order they appear, so you want this rule above and before rules allowing packets in, such as http, https, ssh protocols etc. First, as root (or using sudo) open your configuration file with any non-formatting editor of course and add this line:
Where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is any ip you do not want past your firewall. In this example there are two addresses which are blocked from all 65,535 ports
saddr
is
the source address. Curly braces seem to be required for more than one ip. Also use one tab indentation on that line. IP's are separated with commas. At the end is
the verdict, which could be one of many but we want to drop the packets on the floor. As in iptables the drop directive is case-sensitive.
Save and close the file and run systemctl reload nftables.service
Then check your ruleset with nft list ruleset -a
as root.
Rules will be listed with a handle number which the kernel assigns automatically. The handles are used when you use the nft command from userspace,
which we just conveniently by passed.
For complete details check out netfilter.org.
Nftables are awesome in my opinion, forget iptables.
There are ways to translate iptable rules to nftables, but I hear that can be somewhat buggy. I hope this helps.
Newport, Rhode Island
[Fri 29 Jan 2021 10:22:20 AM CST] Located on the shores of Narragansett Bay, south of the capital of Providence and 75 miles south of Boston,
is one of the most beautiful cities on the east coast of America. The bay is full of sailboats and yachts, it has a long history as summer homes of US
Presidents. Needless to say I really enjoyed getting loads of nursery stock out of Newport. I'll spare you the details, but the stuff paid well and
usually went right back to Chicago. Perfect for me, I would leave Newport with a load and a check in hand for roughly $1000.00. Nursery stock is also an
exempt commodity, meaning no Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration authorization needed. What is a exempt commodity you ask?
In general, exempt commodities are things that have not been processed in any way such as fresh produce. Authority costs money.
Typically I would layover
one night before loading in the morning. What would I do? Right down on the water front at One Pelham East, is one
of the many great clubs I've known. They always had super good bands playing, and it is a great club. The name of the club is the same as it's address, One
Pelham East. I highly recommend visiting Newport.
loser. He was tough on Iran and China, I was with him on that. He lost the election fair and square. Now he has gone to far. People died. He incited a riot and an invasion on the capital. If congress decides to remove him from office prior to inauguration, I'm good with that. Trump is acting like a wounded animal and we all know a wounded animal is the most dangerous animal. This reprehensible attack on the capital is unprecedented and will stain the reputation of this country forever. In retrospect, I should have never trusted a president of the United States that used the
Twitter-Verseas a medium to boost his capacious ego. In summation, the tragic events of 2020 has ominous similarities to political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in short Socialism and ultimately Communism. What Joe Biden does is unknown to me, but it worries me. More on socialism and Marxism in upcoming articles. It doesn't belong in this article.
Shame on you Mr. Trump
[Fri 08 Jan 2021 09:29:26 AM CST] I voted for Trump, twice, I believe he did some good things during his tenure as president, but he is a poor leader. The world is in the midst of a pandemic with not much light at the end of the tunnel. Even if the U.S. Government manages to deliver vaccines to the population many people are intending to refrain from taking it. As if that wasn't enough to proliferate the spread of Covid-19, there are the viral mutations we will need to address. No one knows how this will all turn out. Let's get to the proverbialBottom line.Businesses are failing and will fail due to lack of revenue and their employees will follow. I can't imagine the tough times people are in trying to survive, to keep a roof over their heads. This is bad, it's the perfect storm. Our government was in tremendous debt to begin with. Can we as as a country survive this? The negative effects will haunt us for a long time. I don't have the answers, but if we avoid social and economic breakdown, we will survive. That is a big
if.
South Water Street Mkt, Chicago
[Mon 28 Dec 2020 09:15:08 AM CST] South Water Street produce market Chicago, was probably one of the the biggest produce markets in Chicago since the early 1920's. I had delivered produce to customers there hundreds of times. Being such a crowded place, a Chicage cop would conduct traffic after daylight. It was a tough place to get a truck and trailer in there. I was there in the late 70's and 80's, I carried a .38 caliber revolver hidden in my sleeper berth as I did in New York City also until Mayor Ed Koch instituted a mandatory one year sentence at Riker's Island located in the lower East River, NYC. if caught in possession of a illegal firearm. I carried it in Chicago too, thankfully I never used it, but the market was a dangerous place. They closed this famous market in about 2001. You can see pictures from way back in it's early years HERE .2000 Miles and No Sleep
[Sun 20 Dec 2020 10:54:03 AM CST] It's not unusual to run 1500 miles non-stop, but I hadn't expected this trip. I had been running Omaha to New York City for two weeks straight. I got home on a Friday afternoon, I got a decent night's sleep that night but the next morning at 6am my dispatcher calls and asks me if I would hook a trailer that someone didn't show up for. It was Saturday morning and the load was due in Richmond, California Monday morning. This meant I was going to need to run it wih no sleep, just a couple fuel stops. So I haul ass, no pills, just caffeine, I get to Reno, Nevada, I'm dead tired and I start climbing Donner Pass Interstate-80, this is a 25 mile stretch of death, but the weather was good. It was late Sunday night when I reached the summit at Truckee, California. This is where I messed up, my brakes hadn't been adjusted for two weeks and my trailer was brand new, with adjusted brakes. I
should
have
stopped and adjusted the tractor brakes but that's a dirty job and it was cold up there and I was dead tired so I started down the Humboldt
which is
about a 6 per cent downhill grade for miles. I could tell I had a tailwind, it's called the Diablo Winds
they blow from the mountains to the ocean, in
southern California they're called the Santa Ana winds. I had no jake brake to slow me down like most west coast trucks have, so I started down in seventh gear
using as little braking as possible, but my 78,000 pound truck was speeding up fast, I had to pick up gears to keep from blowing the engine up due to overspeed
and laying on more brakes. Well, the trailer brakes were doing all the work, I hit 90 miles per hour and the trailer brakes start billowing smoke, using as
little brake as possible, I'm sure I was doing over 100mph. Finally got to the bottom but the smoke was still thick, but no fire. I'm coasting trying to cool
them off but
they were still hot by the time I hit Sacramento. I made Richmond at 3am. Just another day at the office, but my dispatcher was happy, as was the customer.
Never under estimate Donner Pass.
Slipping and Sliding in Illinois
[Sat 28 Nov 2020 3:35:44 PM CST] It was an extremely cold night heading north in Illinois on I-57. A blizzard had passed through and left a few inches of ice and snow on the road, it was still snowing and blowing as I was coming out of Forida to Chicago. I was taking the long way to Chicago due to conditions that night and I kind of knew I wasn't going to make it, so I was aiming for the truck stops in Effingham, Illinois. Everything was going well considering the snow plows and everyone was off the highway. I was making good progress, running 50 mph maybe when I catch up to five freight haulers running about one truck length apart. The right lane was rutted with ice and snow so those boys were just easing on up the highway. I put my truck in the fast lane and passed them all naturally. About twenty miles later, and maybe five miles short of safety, my engine loses a lot of power. I thought, oh man, my fuel is gelling up, so I eased onto the shoulder ever so careful and got out to close up mywinterfront.A winterfront is a sheet of vinyl that covers the air inlet to the radiator. I got back in the truck and prayed it was enough to warm up the fuel, the throttle was still lazy so I waited a few more minutes and sure enough, here comes the freighthaulers. They all went by, not a word on the radio, no surprise there. I seemed to have some power now, so it was do or die to get to the truck stop and pour some additive in my fuel tanks. I pulled back on the road and get to the interchange of I-70 and I-57, and what do I see, all five of the freight wagons were scattered in the ditches. They all looked okay but going nowhere, I was desperate to keep my truck and reefer going, so I run into the truckstop, bought a few quarts of fuel additive and dosed up the engines with it. It would have been foolish to keep going, it was 2am and the roads were basically closed so I found probably the last open spot to park and went to sleep. It was a close call. On the rare ocassions that I actually stay at a truck stop in terrible weather, is that the place will be full of trucks but ONE spot will be open because nobody has the balls to back into it. I can always count on that and I took it. Those guys in the ditch could have walked to safety, so I didn't worry about their fool asses. I had Georgia fuel in the tanks and should have known it would gel, but I didn't know it was quite that bad up north. Next morning I hauled ass to Chicago, unloaded and went home. Another successful trip.
Miami, Florida
[Tue 10 Nov 2020 12:36:25 PM CST] Among the many cities and places in Florida, Dade County, Miami is probably the place I spent the most time in. For three years running I had a regular run from Iowa to Miami, back to Chicago and then home. I typically did this in four to five days, every week. There is one person I miss in particular, his name isBlack.Black was a very good friend of mine. He was a
lumper,a lumper is a guy that hangs around places that get a lot of truck traffic and ask drivers if they want help loading or unloading their trucks. Black was my man in the 12th avenue market in Miami. I saw him nearly every week when I would pick up produce for my customer in Chicago. For a slight but fair fee, Black would count and load my trailer with whatever I was picking up. Black lived on the street, a street person and a swell guy. He lived in a vacant lot in the back of a straight truck box. I could trust him to load the trailer and watch my truck while I got something to eat or grab some sleep. He was a big guy, nobody messed with Black. On occasion, I'd hang out with him, I got to know him very well and I miss him.
Where I live in the midwest USA, people complain about the heat in the summer. OMG, they don't know real heat and humdity like Dade County. I spent New Years Eve one night in Miami, drinking beer and polishing my truck in a bad neighborhood parked in front of a cold storage place on 72nd street. My last pick up before heading to Chicago. It was 95 degrees at midnight. So humid there was a fog over the city, normal for Miami. I remember that night because a cop stopped and asked me if I knew I was in a bad neighborhood! I said, yes sirs, I certainly do and they smiled left. That's Miami for you. A shout out to my cousin the Professor at U. of Miami. I spent time with him whenever I had time, which was rare. Anyway, those are some memories of Miami.
New York, New York
[Thu 05 Nov 2020 11:54:08 AM CST] A city so nice they named it twice. I have a special place in my heart for NYC. I delivered beef to a great customer on 14th street west, between 9th and 10th Avenues. I also loaded off ships at the east side piers along side the East River. I can't express how exciting New York really is. It has an energy about it, anauraif you will. Nowhere in my experience have I ever been to a more exciting place than New York City. The city that never sleeps, there is always something to do, always places to eat 24/7/365. So many famous people have walked those streets, and still do. The rumor is the New Yorkers are rude, thats not true. The people mind their own business but they are very friendly once they know who are. A fair warning if you ever visit Manhattan, do not look like a tourist, stroll around like you own the place, if you don't you'll be targeted by con artists, thieves, and what not. Don't look like a
mark.
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