Technology, Theology, and Anything In Between

It is now another new year.  Time to think about what to do differently this year, and set some goals.  My big goals this year are to get through the pile of books that I have.  I could easily read many of them in two months, but I’m trying to take notes and record them in Evernote, so I will have a searchable database of notes on many subject that interest me.

Some thoughts for today:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9 ESV)

I’ve been very busy during the months of November/December, so that is why I haven’t posted since October.  There are many things in life that take priority over blogging.  I’m hoping to get back to a normal schedule of at least two posts per month in 2010.

This year, I studied many theological books and articles.  I always like reading material from a broad array of sources.  I discovered some interest in the following areas:  studying other denominations, Christian pacifism, and differing eschatological views from my own.

1. Other denominations

I really liked studying writings from a Lutheran perspective.  Some of them included writings from several Internet Monk posts.  I find that I’m just not into the new evangelical Christian subculture.  I attended a megachurch for a couple weeks while on vacation, and was not impressed.  While things were for the most part done very tastefully, I just couldn’t get into the whole rock band / theater atmosphere.  I guess I like worship more contemplative and reserved.  I’m finding it is hard for me to accept the Americanized version of Christianity which tells people that God will give you everything you want if you just believe.  I think of the Christians whose paths were marked by pain and suffering for Christ and His cross.  I started looking into Mennonites when we were on vacation near Lancaster, PA, which got me thinking about:

2.  Christian Pacifism

I’ve often wondered on and off over the years why the church doesn’t practice more of what Jesus actually said.  Being in a confessional church like I am, we place much emphasis on doctrine, which usually comes from the Epistles to the churches.  I think there is not as much talk about what Jesus said in many churches because what He said is hard, sometimes difficult to understand, and against what we are used to.  For example, in America, it is hard to find a “conservative” politician that is against any of the recent wars / proposed wars that we are waging.  In churches, just about every Christian I know backs the wars that we are fighting.  I wonder why in light of “Blessed are the peacemakers” that we are so pro-war.  Especially since as I understand just war theory, I’m not sure our current war(s) even fit within that.  I found that the Mennonites have a very rich tradition of non-violence, and some great theologians, such as John Howard Yoder.  I began reading his material, as well as others, and came to the conclusion that at least I would be a conscientious objector if for some reason I was drafted.  Due to my age it would probably only happen if there was a need for my technical skillset, which I hear is not beyond the question the way some members of congress have been talking.

3. Eschatological Views

I’ve had a growing discontentment with the view of eschatology I learned growing up and in college, dispensational pre-trib, pre-millennialism.  There are a few issues I see as issues in application of the system.  For example, during my childhood years, it was very strongly suggested that full-time ministry was the “best” vocation, and all others were second class.  I think some of this was due to the belief that we were in the “terminal generation”, as Hal Lindsey’s book is named.  The issue I see with this thinking is that probably many in fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity decided that they should withdraw from the larger issues of society, and become largely focused on themselves and only in matters of evangelism.  When I went to Bible college, the professors mentioned on more than one occasion that we needed more books written from the Fundamental Independent Baptist perspective.  The only problem is the movement discourages “scholarship” and higher learning.  The downplay of intellectualism is starting to reverse slightly, but it is still alive and well.  The real issue is that any respected Seminary is not going to line up well with the tenets of the Independent Baptist ideals, so one must “cross-pollinate” in order to do so.

I’m not sure where my eschatological views will end up, but I have a feeling there will be more people embracing amillennialism/postmillennialism/historic premillennialism, simply because they are getting tired of trying to figure out how long the “generation” in Mat. 24 is.  During the 1980s and 1990s when I read prophecy literature based on dispensational pre-tribulation pre-millennialism, the time interval since 1948 was starting to get large, and now it is larger still.  At what point is “this generation” going to be understood in an allegorical, rather than figurative sense.

So there  it is, 2009 in review theologically for me.  While I was busy this year, I found time to start re-thinking some of the beliefs that I’ve held for some time.  I am a firm believer that you must re-assess your beliefs periodically, as there are blind spots that we all have, and it is good to think about the greater impact that holding certain doctrines may have.  These are just my rambling thoughts this evening.  Over the course of next year, hopefully I will be able to write out in greater detail why I believe what I do, and will in those articles include a fair amount of references so you can dig deeper, and also to credit my sources.

I want to thank any of my regular readers, especially if you have clicked on my advertising.  I received my first check from Adsense today, which has been 4 years in the making.  While this blog contributed maybe 10% of the total payout, it has been helpful.

I know there are debates about whether or not to advertise on a blog, since there is a tendency to write about subjects that will draw good ads.  I just try to write posts about theology and technology as I think of them.  Whether or not it makes me any money is secondary.

If anyone is out there thinking about using Adsense, yes, it really does work.  But, remember that your click throughs will probably be below 1% (in my case it is about 0.37%).  With that in mind, you will need to drive some serious traffic to your site in order to make any money.  I’m sure some people get a check every month or two, but it takes alot of pageviews to get that.

If you are like most software engineers, you are probably worried about keeping your job, and what would happen if you were laid off. While none of us can predict the future, here is an idea to help stay organized, should a search become necessary.

If you have a web server, either one on the internet or at your house, download the SugarCRM community edition. My CRM database is installed on a FreeBSD system, but it should work on any system that supports LAMP. I would recommend making sure the PHP modules needed for email are working with the install of SugarCRM. The installer will tell you if email will work or not. On my FreeBSD system, I had to do a recompile of the php additions in the ports package.

The next step is to update your resume, and upload to job boards, such as dice, monster, etc. Then, as recruiters contact you, start to add their companies and their names and contact information to your CRM database. The idea here is to keep accumulating names and contacts. Should the time ever come that you are laid off, you will have a nice database of prospects to call on and look for work.

Hopefully you will never need to use the database because of layoff. The database could be used to just ask around and keep track of the market. I’ve maintained several relationships with recruiters, and I’ve found that they can give valuable advice as to the kinds of work out there, and hourly rates and wages. In the age of social networking, sometimes just using a database like a rolodex can be a very powerful tool.

I realize very few people that are my friends will need this information, but there are a few that may benefit from it. To that end, I wanted to write about an ongoing problem I’ve had with a break-in that happened to me. One of my development systems on the Internet was compromised recently.

I had just opened an account and was trying the system out, and one morning I woke up to find abuse emails pouring into my mailbox. When I logged in and looked at the system, I found several new usernames created, and hacking scripts. Since then, my machine has been re-imaged to prevent the possibility that a rootkit had been installed. The abuse reports are still pouring in from machines who were attacked from mine. It is a big paperwork mess and not fun at all.

To prevent this in the future, or at least reduce the risk by a large amount:

1. Disable PermitRootLogin. I didn’t think to do this, because most of my Internet systems are FreeBSD, and this option is set to “yes” by default. Most Linux distros (at least CentOS and Debian) set this to “yes”. This is not a good option, as “root” is an easy username to guess, and after that, it is only a matter of brute-force cracking.

2. Move SSH to a different port if you can. This will keep most “script kiddies” out, as they probably aren’t going to do a complete port scan of the machine.

3. If possible, write some firewall rules that are very strict to only allow the IP addresses and ports that are really needed. In other words, grant only as many privileges per IP address and port to provide the services you are advertising. Anything more can create extra vulnerabilities.

Again, my production systems have been locked down in this manner. I didn’t think to do it on a development system, since it was only a week old and I was trying to get Xen virtualization working on it first. I’ve learned my lesson: secure the machine first. I was surprised how many attacks happen every day with crackers connecting via SSH.

Please do at least secure your systems with these ideas, and you will have less chance of a machine being compromised by malicious attacks. There are scripts available that will email you if they see any failed login attempts. If you have any additional ideas, please feel free to post them! I hope this has been helpful to someone, and a reminder that computer security is an important item we need to be vigilant about. I dropped my guard for a week and I was taken advantage of.

I’ve not been posting for awhile, due to some intense configuration of a new server with Xen, and also installing Asterisk on an existing server.  My intentions are to lower my fixed hosting and telephone costs by using virtualized servers, and by using Asterisk for an interactive IVR to help route support and sales calls to my business.

I was able to find a very inexpensive SIP provider, Unlimitednet.US.  They provide local and toll-free inbound DIDs and outbound trunks for very low prices and per-minute rates.  Because of the low call volume I receive, this should allow me to have a professional sounding phone system for very little money.

One helpful hint I can give is I had some difficulty installing CentOS 5 on a Debian Lenny host Xen system.  I have details on how to make the install go smoothly.

I’ll have more to say later, once I get back to a normal schedule.

Here are some ideas for being “socially responsible” with technology, at least in the software engineering field:

1.  I’ve found over the last year, I was able to reduce my electric bill by not running a server at my house.  When I first started my business, I thought that it would be great to have a server and network at home.  That actually did work well for awhile, but caused my power bill to go up.  I live in an area where electricity can be expensive, and we don’t have options for “green” power, other than to buy credits to offset power usage.  While I did that for some time, I got tired of paying an extra amount of money for electric every month.  If you must run a server at home, consider using a server with Intel Atom chips.  While the Atom is not a fast processor, it certainly can get the job done in some instances.

2.  If you provide web hosting, consider using a VPS instead of a dedicated server.  A virtual private server allows you to take advantage of much faster hardware at a lower cost, and because it is on a computer which has other VPS systems on it, there is not much more power usage.  I’ve found that by moving the server functions from a physical machine at my house to a VPS, it is possible to take advantage of the server doing multiple functions, i.e., doing what I need it to do, plus serving webpages for my customers.  Even better is finding a datacenter that uses “green” power.  Some datacenters I know of that have initiatives to reduce power consumption are AdvantageCom Networks, and NetDepot.  There are plenty of others, but these two I personally use, and they have scored well in my informal benchmark testing.

3.  Some other low tech ways we have reduced our electrical usage include shutting off our extra freezer.  We buy our meat and frozen items as we need them, so we don’t overfill and waste food, either.  We have set our thermostat to 75 degrees to keep the air conditioner from turning on as much.  This summer, although being cooler, our power bill has dropped quite a bit compared to last year.

4.  Another means of being socially responsible is in teaching others about software engineering and other related disciplines.  Those of us who know how to make technology “work” should at leave give back some of our knowledge to the community for free.  I’m still struggling to figure out the best way to do that, so if any of my readers have an idea, please feel free to comment.  Especially teaching people how to use open source and free software replacements for proprietary software would be helpful.  In our current economic times, why spend money when you don’t have to?  Even better yet, have you donated to a cause such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or Free Software Foundation?

I do maintain multiple servers for my business in separate geographic locations, and all but one of them are VPS systems.  The one dedicated server is a Dual-Core Atom server, so even that system consumes less power than a regular server.  I would like my business to head in the direction of providing web applications, and as such, want to make sure I have the resources necessary to handle the load from a well-used application, without consuming more resources than necessary.

I was reviewing my blog statistics today, and realized that most of my hits come from people looking for reviews on AT&T’s U-Verse service.  If you haven’t read any of my other posts, I’ve had U-Verse since January of 2008.  I had the TV and Internet products at the beginning.  I was thinking of switching to the phone service, but they were going to charge an installation fee for it, so I decided that I would not bother to switch.  Besides, they gave me a good deal on a regular landline, so I figure that it would be best to stay with what I have.  I did cancel TV this year due to cutting back on my costs.  I still have the Internet product through them, currently the “Max” product, which is 10 mbps down / 1.5 up.  Since I’ve started to do more media stuff with my company, I thought a fast upload speed would be the best.

I’ve been very interested in Mennonite theology.  I’ve been reading several books recently by John Howard Yoder on pacifiism.  I like what I’m reading.  The thing that I like about Mennonites is that they really seem to be a “third way”.  It is hard to call them conservative or liberal, or any other label.  In fact, I’m reminded very much of the short time that I visited and attended a Plymouth Brethren church.  I seriously think they are on to something.  Maybe I will blog more about what I’ve learned in another post.

As always, if anyone who wanders over here has any ideas on what I should blog about, please do let me know.

I’m reading “The Art of Deception” by Kevin Mitnick.  It is interesting to read how it is so easy to get people to trust you and give information that would normally be held confidential.  It makes me think that I should be much more careful about verifying the identity of who is calling or emailing me.  Normally I’m careful, but it takes being vigilant and on guard at all times!

My most recent brush with social engineering was when I got the “Heather from Card Services” scam.  I didn’t give out information, but I can see how these guys do it.  They began by asking me a series of innocent questions, then proceeded to ask things like “what is your 16 digit card # and expiration”.  I immediately suspected something was up, because a read credit card company has never asked me for my expiration over the phone when I call them.   What made me even talk to them as much as I did was because they said they were from “Card Services”, and one of my cards list themselves online and in statements as “Card Services, FIA” or something to that effect.

So the lesson learned, and that Kevin is trying to teach us, is that it can be very easy to “mark” a target and go after information.  Especially when multiple calls are made and a little information is obtained each time, it can add up to being enough to steal an identity, break into a computer system, or something worse.   That is why he wrote the book, to show the rest of us how to analyze how ourselves and our companies interact with people (especially that call on the phone), and limit the amount of information that is given out until identity is verified.

Please keep a watchful eye on what you and your employees do, as you never know who could be trying to do some hacking or “private investigation”.

I’m on vacation right now.  I have a couple of  books by Kevin Mitnick, which I’m hoping to get through reading by the end of the week.  My thinking is that these books will help me understand how to secure my systems better, and also understand the “human nature” side of hacking.  I also have a theology book to read, actually it is church history.  That book is “Turning Points” by Mark Noll.  This book is about the points in history that the author believes to be most important in the history of the Christian church.

I’ve been setting up IPv6 on my servers, and also doing lots of traceroutes to determine what VPS systems I have give optimal routing for different networks.  So far, the one at Interserver.com has some nice routing to just about any top-tier network that anyone would be on.

Also, I’ve been experimenting with broadcasting video streams.  I’ve downloaded Quicktime Broadcaster, and will be playing around with making movies on my iSight camera.  Not very high-quality or professional, but will experiment so I know how to do video streams and feeds.  Note:  This is also a service I intend to offer with my consulting company.

I’ll post more thoughts on the books I’m reading in a few days.  If you are a regular reader of my blog, I’d love to hear from you, and ideas for discussion topics are always welcome.  I’ve been reading some books on science and religion, and hope to be able to blog and comment when I have my head fully wrapped around the subject material.  There is alot to digest in each book I’ve read.