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Loot list.

I only went for the stuff I liked as there were quite a few crap T- shirts and like how many stress toys and biros do you really need?

USB sticks 11

Blockmaster Safestick 1 and 2Gb
Vizi safe 2Gb
Safenet 2Gb
Gdata 2Gb
Safend 2Gb
Anue 1Gb x 2
Idappcom 128Mb x 3

Clothing

Codenomicon T-shirt
Firebrand T-shirt
Trustwave T-shirt
Eskenzi 5 pairs of boxer shorts

Sweets

Sonicwall Jelly bears x 3
Ironkey Mints
Smallwall Chuppa Chuppa Lolly from the guys with airblasters
Eset Smarties

Bits

6 assorted pens
Landesk, Highlighter pen
Seagate, flashing badge
Flashing lanyard no name as it rubbed off
Seagate, a mini mouse
After party, 1000 point roulette token, beer and wine
Qualsys, 9 half pint glass tankards full
Everywhere, Beer Vodka more beer and champagne in a few places
Application Security inc, Postit notes and three bound notepads
Data Maker, 3 tins of plastic putty and Cocktails
ioactive, Various stickers
Pressroom, coffee and sandwiches
Gdata, 3 boxes of tissues
Sipera, 2 silicon covers for my Htc
Websense, Multitool
ironkey, bag
Webroot, bag
4 after party armbands

Titus, a well made flexible torch / Laser pointer in my view the best freebee of the show.

Wares

Sophos, Antivirus and Security toolkit plus luggage tag
Webroot, Android full version, protection system
Astec d.o.o. Risk management tool called ARAT 4.0

The Show

Well, I booked online and got there at the tailend of a power outage upstairs, went to get my ticket to be told I am not on the computer. After a few calls I had to fill in a form, and as they started to enter the details the Apple mac crashed so they went to
a second and it crashed as well. Hmmm and I hadn't even touched
anything!

Eventually I got my pass and it ripped a hour later as due to cutbacks oops sorry, being green they stopped putting the passes in plastic sleeves.

Other cutbacks sorry I meant Ecologically sound reasons, we got no paper plates in the press room instead having to use expensive serviettes to balance the sandwiches on also even the bog paper was really narrow compared to the norm. at this rate next year we will get rubber stamped at the entrance instead of passes and Izal paper for the toilet and plates :-)

To get into the after party you need to register for an armband and got told that the press are not invited this year only exhibitors, so after a run around trying to find out how to get in I went to the issue place and they rang someone who said is it for the
Reverend Rat ? The woman looked at my pass and said yes, then she got told "Oh he needs a pass as he is a long term fixture at the party" :-))

The lady on the end of the phone was the top organizer of the show and came down and gave me some more bands for my guests, Thanks Claire.

Hi to the security guys and Peter their Boss, good as usual

Hi to Neil and the ladies at the Press office thanks for the warm welcome.

Well at least this year it wasn't all about fluffy internet and a good selection of vendors turned up also overall most of the stands were happy as it seemed that Junkets have been wiped out and that the majority of people visiting were there on a mission instead of
a skiving off work etc.

All in all I had a good time and met up with a few friends I look forward to next year's show.

That's it for now, thanks for looking in.

Regards

The Reverend Rat

Foxtons Estate Agents - cool decals.

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Semi comatose stinkie, feel free to send captions.

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How not to park a brand new car after going around a roundabout to
fast and hitting a divider, as before captions welcome.

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Thats it for now, more to come soon.
Regards
The Reverend Rat +:-)

I decided to go to Infosec the computer security show's 15th anniversary at Earls court London.

The last time I went was a couple of years ago and it was at Olympia.

I don't know how many more shows will be here as it is rumoured that Earls Court Exhibition Centre will be demolished in the next couple of years, maybe it will move to Expo.

Well things are a bit different, for a start it didn't have so much of the usual razzmatazz and a few of the big names were absent i.e. IBM, Microsoft and AVG to name but a few, but heh there is / was a recession.

The show seemed mainly orientated towards "Cloud" security.

The place was half full with exhibitors the other empty half curtained off, and quite a few people said it was a lot smaller than last year.

But...the staff were really helpful and friendly (Hello to the big Boss security guy that was keeping things in check :-) and hello to the Press room people (Hi Neal) and the helpful lady behind the desk.

And last but not least a big hello to the lovely young lady dishing out the coffee and food in the press room, thanks for the cake :-)
well it was my 50th birthday...

Everywhere I went there were people coming up to say hello and asking were I had been for the last couple of shows, it's nice to be missed :-)

Hi to all the guys and girl from London 2600 that turned up, and special thanks to Zap for the drinks on the way home on my birthday, I hope the sofa wasn't to uncomfortable :-) and Hi to Stan, long time no see, SA is rather a long way away.

I had one weird moment where a person came up and was convinced I tried to nick a Citroen badge off him last year and he was adamant it was me ??? I tried to explain first of all I wasn't there and that as I call these vehicles Shitrons for good reasons why would I want his badge? Then he just wandered of with his mates, chuntering to whoever wanted to listen.

The after party was a bit toned down compared to previous events but there was a guy doing green screen backdrop photos with a choice of backgrounds the most popular was the one below, apart from the booze he was the best thing there, there was also a band but it couldn't be heard from where I was so can't comment on their performance.

The unofficial place found for smoking was outside the emergency exits but when we went back a second time they were padlocked from outside so we decided to smoke where we were being we were surrounded by concrete when this big voice boomed out that we were breaking the law by smoking where we were, immediately followed by me shouting back "not as much as you lot locking the emergency doors with people still on site" a short silence later the voice came back with, ok follow me you can smoke out here and took us to a different fire exit :-)

Now the bit you've all been waiting for...The freebies...

Tshirts
www.Qualys.com
www.Splunk.com
www.Netflowninjas.lancope.com
www.eccouncil.org X 2
www.toplayer.com
Codenomicon defensics (a very sought after "T" as they were not
giving them out unless you signed on the dotted line)
www.codenomicon.com

2 nice Glass beer tankards and lots of Grolsch from www.Qualys.com
5 glasses of Champagne from Cisco's garden party. www.cisco.com

2 x 8Gb stainless key shaped storage drives from The Press Office
2Gb Encrypted Safestick from www.blockmastersecurity.com
Various small usb storage keys from different vendors.

Laptop bag from www.messagelabs.com

Baseball cap and notepad from Application security,inc.
www.appsecinc.com

And from www.gdatasoftware.co.uk two packages one called Internet
security for netbooks 2010 and the other Notebook security special protection with a kensington style lock with it.

A £15.00 I tunes voucher from Veritysystems.co.uk

A pair of water pistols in NAMCO colours.

And finally a magnetic red tin of sticky plasters which I needed after opening the tin thanks www.secunia.com

The last day saw me in the pub with Peter Wood and crew from www.firstbase.co.uk
Peter has known me for a fair while and introduced me to loads of people whilst telling them they could learn a lot from me :-)
Cheers Dude.

All and all a good time was had and I am looking forward to next year.

And on a last note following me blagging bits and pieces and then saying can I have one too ? after I did all the persuading worked this time, but next time ????? :-)))

Bye for now
Thanks for dropping in
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

I got myself a Sony Ericsson Xperia 10i with Android on Orange, not a good move :-(

The phone looks good and at first glance even seems to work great.
But...I am having a few problems with it.

The Bluetooth usually works but does drop connection with the phone (in my jacket pocket) on the odd few occasions.

You can not make it auto connect to the headset and I've tried a few different ones, so if a call comes in you have to answer it manually.

Battery ???? if Bluetooth is on you get around ten hours usage or if using GPS, a lot less.

There are three buttons at the bottom of the screen, the middle one wakes the screen up from standby which is a pain in the ass if the phone is in your pocket, the button is very sensitive and the screen doing this gives you six and a half hours battery life this I found out the first day at
Infosec.

The Internet is not very fast and the gps can take ages to connect up and thats if the service is available.

The phone comes with a lot of built in apps but with no description of them in the manual and you can't get rid of them either.

The volume output is also not very good in fact it's crap.

The Android OS is version 1.6 baseband version 1.0.14.

Android 2 has been out a while and Android 2.1 is now out but when I go to updates it says I have the latest software....

If I could debrand the phone then I could update via Sony Ericsson instead of Orange but so far have not found a safe way of doing this without great risk of bricking the phone even using some of my old contacts for advice.

Orange prefers you to use their free apps (surprise there then) and the first stage you have to do on their site is to choose the phone from a list and the X10 is not listed and with no way of typing it in.

I got a voicemail from my sister and listened to it but can't seem to dump it and the orange shop guys don't know how to either.

There are other niggles that have come to light but can't remember them at the moment.

So being a little peeved with the above I decided to ring Orange Customer Care on 150 to then find another BIG PROBLEM, I went to dialler and rang the number but when the phone connects to the other end (this and any other call) the screen switches into standby mode, something that I set in the settings not to do ever except if I do it manually. In turn any key press will bring it to the unlock screen and the moment you unlock it it kills the call which is no good if your on an automated call system and you need to press the appropriate selection as your call is terminated already.

I spent an hour in the Orange shop using their phone to get nowhere apart from I will be called back later when the have spoken to Technical.....3 days on and I'm still waiting.

From what I can find out it so far it seems that Orange are the ones causing the hold up because they need to rewrite their warez to fit the new Os's as they come out and they
are not keeping up.

Orange did offer to replace the phone with the same model but it will still have the same Os 1.6 and problems as I have now, which is pointless.

I am sending a copy of this to Sony Ericsson, Orange and a few gadget review mags.
I will keep you all in touch with my progress as and when things happen.

Yours

Thanks for looking,

The Reverend Rat +:-(

Here are a couple of images of today's as yet unconfirmed (gas ?) explosion in Macbeth Street in Hammersmith.

Apparently there are bricks and other debris which were blown out at the back of this block of flats - numbers 172 -179, next door to the Hope & Anchor public house (a "gay pub").

The explosion blew out several windows at the front and even damaged some windows and brought down ceiling plaster etc. in the school building across the road.

Amazingly, nobody appears to have been hurt.

Macbeth Street (gas ?) explosion - flats 172 - 179

School windows damaged across the street

(click the images above for larger versions in a new window)

N.B. for those of you looking for another possible explanation, not connected with a suspected, but so far as yet unconfirmed, gas leak, this part of Macbeth Street was used in the past (1998) as an filming location for Dr. Who - Remembrance of the Daleks when the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) see the Dr Who Locations Guide - Macbeth Street

Has he discovered a secret plan by Maplin the high street electronics store, to move into the Restaurant business ?

(click the image above for a larger version in a new window)

All of these items, such as

• Corned Beef
• Milk Shake
• Tuna Melt
• Grilled Cheese
• Hash Brown
• Fish n Chips
• Surf n Turf
• French Toast
• Bacon n Eggs
• Lunch Box

are genuinely available from the Maplin's product catalog and high street stores.!

They are mostly electric guitar accessories.

"Banksy" on Hammersmith flyover

How not to liven up a Bar-B-Q

McDonald's unregistered software

September London 2600 meeting

Nigella Lawson celebrity TV chef filming at the fish stall

Trashing Karma

Cloud photo

I was tipped off (thanks Mark) that William Gibson, author of "Neuromancer", "Count Zero", "Mona Lisa Overdrive", "The Difference Engine" (with Bruce Stirling), "Virtual Light", "Idoru", "All Tomorrow's Parties", and "Pattern Recognition", was going to be signing copies of his latest book "Spook Country".

A couple of years ago armed with my trusty security bit screwdriver I managed to obtain a London transport CCTV poster.

It turns out that William Gibson had put on his blog that he was after the very same poster. So...I went to the book signing with my poster and traded it for a hardback copy of his book which he then wrote a dedication in it to me :-)

The dedication says:

To Reverend Rat with extreme gratitude for his generosity and security tool!

W M. Gibson
29 Aug '07
London

That's it for now, thanks for dropping in, speak to you all soon.
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

More pictures from the Forbidden Planet book signing event on Wednesday 29th August 2007:

Thats it for now
thanks for reading.
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

- note the car with the lights still on under water

This is the headline in all the local Gazettes.newspapers: Ealing & Acton Gazette, Fulham Gazette, Greenford & Northolt Gazette, Southall Gazette, Hammersmith & Shepherds Bush Gazette.

FIRESTARTER Arsonist's high street rampage.

I was on my way to the Doctors when, I noticed that the door of Barclays Bank was cracked with smoke damage to the night deposit box. And then I saw Lloyds and Halifax had been attacked with the front of Lloyds burnt out and that was before I noticed a dark stain on the two ramps into the Police station all cordoned off, I could see that the tarmac had dissolved a little and the area ponged of petrol.

I took a few photos and rang a contact I have at the Gazette, no-one there knew anything about it and sent their Head Photographer to see my photos.

(Hammersmith Police Station)

(Barclays Bank)

The guy said he expected to see crap pictures i.e. mobile phone or shaky out of focus ect, pictures that don't meet the standard for printing. Mine he said were the best he had seen and used one on the front page :-)
also he said that my flood pictures would have been used if I had contacted them.
If I get four more published I can get my N.U.J. card.

- click for a larger image of this photo of Lloyds bank which was published on the front page of the Gazette

The 40 year old male Arsonist got nicked trying to light the petrol at the Police Station and was done under the Mental Health Act.

Thats it for now
thanks for reading.
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

Smoke alarms ...most of you have come across the alarm that goes off at the slightest thing, ie you can't even boil a damned kettle with out it going off, just like the alarm I have....so...

I made a Remote fire alarm switch.
I pulled open the alarm and saw that the silence button was a blob of metal and a springy metal strip, the two touch and the alarm goes quiet for ten minutes, I turned over the circuit board and soldered a piece of bell wire to the two points and connected the other ends to a doorbell push switch, this was mounted in the kitchen near the cooker.

I put the alarm back together and back to where it lives in the hall.
I tested it out making a fried egg sarnie and it works :-)
Next thing I want to do is try making it work with a remote control device.

Recycling gone mad...

Thats it for now
thanks for reading.
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

A lot has gone past since I last blogged...Water mains exploding in Hammersmith and flooding the High street, Heh, it even made the telly and the big newspapers.

In the meantime his new email address is:

thereverendrat @ hushmail.com

Speed of light % by Frequency = Wavelength in Metres

Ie,
0.3 % 2.4gHz = 0.125 metres (12.5cm) % by 4 to get 1/4 wave....0.03125 metres or 31.25mm

Or for 1.2gHz,
0.3 % 1.2 = 0.250 (25cm) % 4 = 0.0625 or 62.5mm

0.3 was used as that is the speed of light in air.
Also try to use the full frequency Ie, 2.43 instead of 2.4 it makes a small difference to look at at quarter wave but it would be more noticable at full wave,

0.3 % 2.43 = 0.123 or 12.3cm....2mm difference

HTH.
The Reverend Rat +:-)

Ps,
% = divide by, and yes,
For the purists if you are running a length of cable you need to add a few more equations, but Heh, lets show people how to walk first :-)