Just talked to the Doctor at the Cancer Center a little while ago. CAT scan I had on Monday came back "not good". Seems my {colon} cancer has spread to lymph nodes near the lungs, and a spot on the liver. Since last Tuesday, my leg has blown up again, this time, it's painful in my calf in my right leg. I have to do the Quasimodo shuffle to walk.

So I asked the Doc if I have "limited time". He says, "yes". 
Of course, he doesn't know how long. Any more chemo would not help, as it hasn't helped up till now. Seems as if I've exhausted all options.


 So at least now I can finally give up looking for a job. Crappy Cleveland market, anyway.

This DOES Suck. I passed my CEH in Dec 2004, so I beleive it is version 2.0 or thereabouts.

Whenever I mention the CEH in an interview, or it comes up in an interview's conversation, I usually get a snicker or a chuckle. "CEH?? What's THAT? ha ha ha ha". People have never heard of CEH, and the "Hacker" part usually scares them off. I'm proud of it, I worked hard to pass my exam on the 3rd time. But the CEH has not gotten me inside the door to any blazing hot tech companies here in Cleveland. I've been underemployed and unemployed since I finished my MCSE in Dec. 2001.

Now fighting the cancer, I don't care about finding work, I've given up on looking for a job. Despite that I had an interview for a "Network Security Analyst" at NASA Glenn Research last week.

$50.00 recert "maintainence fee" I still can't afford to buy a flat=screen monitor.

I'm still going to proudly proclaim I'm a CEH, but until my situation changes drastically for the better, I don't care. To my knowledge, still the only diff between my version of the CEH and the new version is the last chapter on Pen testing, correct?

I once found a website that had posted the ENTIRE CEH ver 2.0 courseware online in Adobe format. Wish I could remember what that site was. This back when I was working with the CEH study group. Maybe if I still have it bookmarked, I can dig it up. They MAY have the new version 5 courseware up by now, that would be kewl. I was asking Don about just posting this stuff to the CEH study group forum to save me oodles of typing, and it was decided I shouldn't, because of copyrights, and everything. So I didn't.

Shame on EC-Council. Their customer support has always been lacking, IMHO. They had BETTER at least improve THAT, if we have to jump through all these hoops.

  

Just finished yesterday, 1st new round of chemo. (I had finished my last round of chemo back in July 06). 5 1/2 hours with a needle. I hate needles, yuck. Amazingly, I can bend my knee more than I could before. I'm actually feeling better! Have to do chemo again next Wednesday, then weekly. I forget for how long.

So inbetween, I've found some time to install the ISO I had laying around of BackTrack 2.0 final. This is REALLY a great prgram to have! Installed onto a CD, it is a combination of WHAX and Auditor, based on Slackware. It loads up in no time, even on my bottom-of-the-pile-but-maxed-out-as-much-as-can-be Inspiron 1000. loads up in 1024x768, so it looks great.

This thing comes with so many tools installed, I may not need to carry around all my other disks I have, Auditor, Helix, etc.

BackTrack comes with Pen testing tools, Konsole, Firefox, Adobe, all kinds of neat stuff. Now I need to see about installing it into a VMware virtual machine. Got a few other things I need to do first. I re-sell identity theft protection software, and I have a potential client I need to pursue with that.

I HEARTILY recommend anyone out there to install BackTrack 2.0 Final. Download the ISO file, and then burn it to a CD. You won't be sorry! 

http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack_download.html

Well, that sucks. But from the wording, it sounds as if it starts in June 07, so I should be safe.

I agree with ChrisG that a baseline "entry-level' cert should not expire. It may go obsolete, true, but the basic technologies will not change. My CCNA expired on me in Aug 04, I tried to upgrade it once, but without any access to actual equipment, my only choice is to memorize everything. To heck with Cisco.

My local school IS offering CHFI classes, that I would love to do, and probably really CAN afford, depsite that it's still $2000. But this class is online at home, and while it's convienent and all, it's harder to get a hold of instructor to ask questions. Then on top of all that, the school does not even offer the exam. The closest place to me to do the exam is a 2 hr drive away. And I don't pass exams on the first time.

Guess I'll spend my time just studying while I do chemo. I have to re-start my chemotherapy, starting tomorrow. I have a job interview today that I don't care about, and then I have chemo tomorrow. 

Argh. 

I would recommend the excellent Hacking Exposed series of books.

# Paperback: 692 pages
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0072260815

While not specifically geared towards the ethical hacking class or cert, it does cover much of what I had in my class, at least. Good stuff to know.

I would rather attend a class, myself, so there is at least someone to answer your questions. When I did my class back in 04, the only real hands on exp we had was during the chapter on SQL Injection, when we worked through the Hackme bank simulation.

Just my 10 cents. Everyone is different. No one solution for one person will be the rght solution for someone else.

Note to Don:

Next year, get more paper plates and napkins. 
We had to tear lids off the boxes the pizza came in to use for plates. Oh well, it was still fun. 

OK, Back home. I was helping Brian pass out the pizza. Never seen so much pizza. Brian said there was enough pizza for over 200 people, that sounded about right. Brian said Don spent about $500 just on pizza. Rascal House pizza, they have a place on Euclid ave, near Cleveland State Univ., but I think that's a little far from where the con was, at Holiday Inn lakeside. I THINK there's a Rascal House pizza on 9th st., near Lakeside. That's a lot closer. I didn't even KNOW Mountain Dew, Diet Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper came in a 36-can pack! We ran out of paper plates and napkins. Like true hackers, we improvised, and tore the lids off the cardboard boxes the pizza came in, and used those for plates. W00t! 

I kinda thought NotaCon would be a little more techie that what I saw, but to be fair, I didn't reallly see a lot of it. The last time I was there [at the hotel] was for a job fair, about a year and a half ago. The job fair was in Ontario (the name for a ballroom inside the hotel), and the line was waaaaay outside the door.

Lots of stuff in the goodie bag they give you, including a SDN (Sybase Development Network) T-shirt, and trial CDs to try out. I will look at them, but I am the World's worst programmer.

Finally had to leave around 4pm or so, my foot had turned to a block of ice; Guess I have circulation problems, now. Was getting a little worried about it. Got home, back into bed, and under the covers. It's better, now, warm again.  Was talking to someone in line there for the pizza, he told me he had a spinal problem. I guess having medical problems goes hand-in-hand with being a hacker.....??

Lots of stuff for sale. T-shirts out the wazoo, all on sale at www.irongeek.com

Thanks, Don! Wish I couldv'e been more helpful than I was. I probably won't go tomorrow, on Sunday. Closing ceremonies are at 1:00pm, and the con is over at 2pm tomorrow, according to the schedule.

They just announced the pizza will be a little late. 
Still, pizza at 3:30 in the afternoon. Thanks, Don! 

Ok, back to the fun stuff. I'm sitting here at the EH table at Notacon with Brian.
Michael DeAlloia, Cleveland's "Tech Czar" is speaking on "Developing the Creative Econiomy in Cleveland". right now. Boy, somebody sure needs to. Kinda inbetween programs. Next up is....Brian!

I'm on my painkillers. 

Haven't been able to make it yet. Going tomorrow, Sat. afternoon.

problems, problems.

Yes, it was fun meeting Brian last night. I must admit, he is way ahead of me, technology wise. Just FYI, though, the machine he mentioned that I was using while he was playing with DNS redirection was actually his machine; he brought along his two laptops, I left mine at home.

Looking forward to Notacon, but there is a major problem, I won't be able to do all I wanted to do. I'm going to go Saturday afternoon, for sure, as long as I can stand it. I've got a blood clot in my leg somehow, last week. Had CAT scan last Tuesday, moved up from may 24. I was hoping it would be better by the time of Notacon, but that's not likely.

See, I got hit by colon cancer back in 05. Finished chemo back in Juily 06. Had to have surgery Nov 15, 2005, they gave me a permanent colostomy, (which I've named "Junior"), which I hate, but I guess I've gotten used to. It's been over a year.

So my right leg is blown up to twice it size, itches, and is sore all over. Uncomfortable to walk. Uncomfortable to bend the knee. I've given up looking for a job. 

I went to the hospital this monring, intending to go to the ER, but the parkiing there is silly; 3 spaces available, they're blocked off by cones, and "valet parking" for $5.00, why I don't know. I had intended this as an "emergency" visit.

 So I parked where I usually do, in the underground lot across the street. I figured on my hike across the street to the ER, i would stop off over at the Oncology dept, where my Dr. is and they all know me there. I didn't have an appointment today, but they were able to get me in.

They took my blood, told me to delay taking the Coumadin again until tomorrow. Dr. had advised me in the past that anybody that has had what I have is at risk for it coming back again. Well, it looks as if it has come back. According to the results of the ["radiological"] CAT scan, there is a "mass" there, the word my Dr. used. He didn't say, "cancer", I did. He told me they are having a seminar or meeting this coming Thursday of all the gastroenterologists in the hosptal, and my surgeon will be there, too. Dr. told me they will discuss my case then, and decide how to proceed. my Doc told me there are different types of chemo we can try, and different types of radiation. I asked him if it was needle-less chemo, he said "no". I reeeaalllyy hate needles. NOTHING has been said yet about another surgery. The only person that was asking about surgery was me.
They gave me 3 prescriptions, Oxycodone (a narcotic), Percoset, (another narcotic), and Amoxicillin (variant of penicillin). All for pain. I'm hoping they will kill the pain enough so I can do the con tomorrow. I printed off a tentative schedule, so I have an idea what to expect.

Oh, and I have a job interview scheduled now for May 8th. I'm not even worried about it.

Sorry to bring down the thread. A little bit of good news, got some money back in taxes, so I've been able to pay off my car. 2005 Corolla LE. 17000 miles. YAY, no more payments!! Also paid off some old credit cards. No more Credit card collection calls! Discover card has a really obnoxious computer that called me 7 times a day. They told me if they had a work number for me, that they would have it call me at work. 

Thanks again for the Port80 software Don. I don't run IIS, I just have my little home network, but it looks very exciting. Brian speaks very highly of you, I do too. Best admin I know of.

I still love computers, and hacking, and all this stuff. Guess this is just a distraction, and of course, at a bad time. Could be worse, I suppose. What if all this would have happened to me after I got hired somewhere? What would a new employer think?

Thanks agiain, everyone. 

Pssst, everyone: Spread the word: www.unemployedmcse.com

Coingradulations!
I maybe got 97% if you add up all the times I took the exam.  Actually, I passed it on my thrid time. But the first time I took it, I got a 67% and I think passing back then (2004) was, what, 75%?

Hmmm, ok, thanks! 

I already have leetupload in my bookmarks, only been there once or twice. Haven;t had the time for it. I'll give it a shot now, thanks.

Still wondering what the dealio is over there at Foundstone, though.....

I've been trying to download a working copy of Superscan 4 from Foundstone. I was first introduced to SuperScan v3 in my CEH class, and fell in love with it.  GREAT little port scanning program.

So WHY can't I download Superscan 4 from Foundstone's Free tools page? EVERY time I try to download it, the download FAILS, due to an "unknown error". 

Did MacAfee put the kibosh on it for somereason, when they bought out Foundstone? I tried to download it today on a different network than what I have at home, one of the local libraries' free wifi  networks. Nothing. I can't even download Superscan v3. I do have SUperscan v3 on the CEH disk I got from the class, but when I try to install it off a backup copy of the original CEH disk, there's no executable. I'll have to try downlaoding it again off my original CEH disk, which I still do have.

Is Macafee playing with us? it says in the dl page Superscan v4 is ONLY for 2000/XP machines. I'm thinking maybe they screwed the program up on purpose, for some reason ??

So I'm messing around surfing the web today, like I usually do, every day and it hits me!

A great new format for a secure password: My car's VIN number!

Think of it: a vehicle VIN number is usually 17 characters. I did a check on it in my "Password Recovery Time Simulator" (you'll need to scroll down to the bottom of the page) http://www.alpinesnow.com, [PRTS] and it comes out as taking 10848035316494 years, 287 days to crack. That's pretty secure. Note: PRTS gives you an estimate of how long it would take to crack a password, assuming an "ordinary" Pentium running at 500Mhz. It also simulates a "Supercomputer" running 12 trillion calcularions per sec. Freeware, from the above website.

A VIN number doesn't change. Use it enough, you'll memorize it. When it comes time to change passwords, just change one or two characters. Simple.