September 2009 Archives

I've decided to learn Python.  I've been a Perl hacker for over ten years and, until very recently, scoffed at the notion of the necessity and/or applicability of the object-oriented programming (OOP) model -- that is until I took a formal class on Java programming.  But I digress...  I like Java, but it is just too heavy for 95% of my programming (or in my case, scripting) needs.

Enter Python.  For many years, I've heard and read that people rave about the benefits of Python, but was never interested because of its strong ties to OOP.  Now that I have seen firsthand how the OOP model can significantly increase the software design and implementation process (because it's more aligned with the way we naturally think), I thought I'd see if Python could fit comfortably between Perl and Java.

I began simply by directly translating my Perl dnscat script to Python (i.e. keeping the procedural logic the same, just changing it to Python syntax).  The direct translation was going quickly and quite well as I began, and I quickly located the parts of the API applicable to the task.  It was all going well, that is, until I reached the regular expression searches on CNAME and A records.  My forward progress has ceased, and I cannot see how Python can be nearly as powerful as Perl.

To be continued -- maybe...

I discovered that my congressional "representative" in Washington, DC, Niki Tsongas (D-MA), was part of the 18% of corrupt, traitorous, liberal fools that voted to continue federal funding of ACORN, the child prostitution-enablers.  It took only a few moments of my time to send an e-mail informing her of how I felt:

"You're FIRED, you TRAITOR!"

My only regret is that I didn't add a second, two-word sentence: Call me.

I've long thought and felt that liberals, with their peace, hugs, love, and "Kumbaya" way of looking at the world, are juvenile, sophomoric, and, well, puerile (not to mention dangerous).  Unfortunately for me, I find it difficult to articulate (especially with the written word) my thoughts in a coherent and spittle-free manner.  Thankfully, retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Allen B. West has come-along to bail me out.  To wit (shamelessly lifted from Pam Geller's Atlas Shrugs Blog):

Washingtoons

15 September 2009
Lieutenant Colonel Allen B West (US Army, Retired)

"The Kids Who Never Got Picked to Play"

Greetings fellow South Florida riders, South Floridians, and Americans, here we are for another monthly installment of our Wheels on the Road political assessment. What an incredible few days it has been for me. Just last Friday I had the pleasure to address Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy lunch seminar in the Nation's Capitol, topic Afghanistan.

I had been invited to DC as part of the National Taxpayer Day March on 9-12, co-sponsored and hosted by the Free Republic. It was a true honor to speak to the "Freepers" on 9-11 and 9-12, thanks Gang!

However, the most phenomenal event was to be there on 9-12 for the march on Washington DC with close to 2 Million American Patriots. I will never forget the moment when the National Anthem was sung in unison. There is an energy building in America and it has a voice which must be heard....which brings me to the topic of this month's missive.

Do you all remember growing up and the kids who never got picked to play? They would always just sit on the sidelines and decide to heckle those in the contest. Many times they would go off to home, sulking, and just ridicule those playing as dumb and stupid. It became a focus in life for them to make those that did not allow them to play pay for that decision. They could have developed the skills and courage to try, but that was just beneath them. They preferred to be allowed in just because and believe that everyone should be allowed, and get a trophy for showing up.

As I sat there in DC this past weekend it dawned upon me that those kids did indeed grow up, and now they are in control of America.

Yes, the effete, petulant, elitist, intellectuals educated at our "finest" universities are truly making us pay for not letting them play. I realized that when I watched the news media reports on the 2 Million gathered on 9-12. David Axelrod stating that we were not representative of mainstream America. Robert Gibbs boasting that he had no idea what was going on. There were the typical media outlets downplaying the crowd and calling them racists who just don't like having a black (actually half-white) President.

See, the kids who never got picked to play believe, as they always have, that ignoring and ridiculing is a means of engaging debate.

The problem is that when you are in control of our America, ignoring and ridiculing are not viable means to govern and lead. It is just hilarious to see the left in such disarray when they have always been the greatest of protesters and hecklers. If 9-12 had been a Code Pinko anti-war rally it would have been on every news outlet in America. Heck, how many times were we forced to watch Cindy Sheehan camp out in Crawford Texas?

These are the kids who never liked to face hard problems but would just run home expecting pity and adoring parents to comfort them.

Did any of you find it interesting that last week President Obama decided to "call us out" during his joint session address to Congress? Well, we answered his call and about 2 Million came to Washington DC. What did the President do?

He ran away to Minnesota so an adoring crowd would cuddle him....what a coward!

And obviously there are others who recognize the lack of resolve and courage in our fearful leader.....Osama Bin Laden just released a tape calling the President of the United States, powerless.

The irrational emotionalism which guides liberals renders them incapable to lead even a kindergarten class to recess. We see them unable to decide what they should do for Healthcare reform, but as always; the kids who never got picked to play blame others. Their lack of a sense of responsibility and accountability is indicative of a childlike immaturity.

Here are some clear examples; if we do not call it a war on terror, we don't have to fight....it is just an overseas contingency operation. Let us not call anyone an enemy and release terrorists to exotic vacation locations, then they will like us. Let us grow government and take over various levels of economic production and tell taxpayers it will not cost them anything. Let us cheat on our taxes but be Secretary of Treasury and Chairman of Ways and Means Committee. Let us create a Department of Energy to make America energy independent, but become more dependent on foreign energy.

Doggone, they are making us pay for not picking them with their inept policies based upon failed socialist dogma!

I am so glad that I did get picked to play, but also I got in the house in time to study and develop my intellect. It has always been fun challenging the intellectual elites not just mentally but also physically, where they cower and retreat. My principles of governance are rooted in conservative ideology, not likeability and emotionalism.

I had the great opportunity to have parents that did not shield me from tough situations but admonished me to develop my courage and competence. And after a career in the Army I realize that leaders make tough decisions based upon insight and intestinal fortitude.

Since the mid-term elections of 2006 we allowed these poor souls who have never truly known thrill of victory or the sting of defeat, while growing up, to control our Republic. Each day they have proven themselves incapable of guiding this great Nation. Sure, the liberals reading this will go into their typical Bush derangement syndrome and start yelling about Republicans. As I stated, my ideology is conservative, and when you move away from those principles of governance you lose. However, one thing I give President G W Bush, he never ran from a fight or the chastisement of the party of hecklers.....yes, long before Congressman Joe Wilson.

Imagine, we now have a group in charge of America who I cannot envision throwing a ball, catching, running, and shooting, just nothing. Look into the eyes of Reid, Pelosi, Rangel, Frank, Schumer, Waters, Wexler, Klein, Dingle, Clyburn, any of them and think about what do you see? They remind me of the basic training platoon from the movie "Stripes" with Bill Murray.

Examine President Obama without his teleprompter, certainly not a lean mean fighting machine....but he sure can give a speech.

There is a part of me which actually has pity for the left because of their sad pathetic existence. But I do not feel this way for long because I have nothing but contempt for them and the complicit media machine they have created.

I would prefer them to stay on the sidelines and heckle......even better, go home and have some warm milk and graham crackers while Men and Women of courage, competence, commitment, conviction, and character take the reins of leadership.

After seeing the 2 Million in Washington DC on 9-12 that is exactly what shall happen in 2010.

Steadfast and Loyal! LTC(R) A B West

Colonel West is a candidate for congress in Florida's 22nd Congressional district.  Visit his web site at http://allenwestforcongress.com/.

Please click the Sevenload Link (just to the right):

This is a moving video containing the audio of the phone calls that people made while inside the World Trade Center as the horrific events of the day unfolded.

We're in the process of migrating from NIS+ to LDAP where I work, and have decided to forego using LDAP to store host information and deployed a DNS server.  Even with all of NIS+' quirkiness and idiosyncratic behavior, it was still a fairly simple naming service to administer.  As a result of deploying a DNS server for host information, we lost our quick access to the hosts table for forward and reverse lookups.  Rather than having to perform host searches on the BIND zone configuration file, I wrote a quick Perl script to query and parse the name server zone transfer output:

#!/usr/bin/perl

# Simple hash of a few different OSs
%dig = (
    solaris => "/usr/sbin/dig",
    linux   => "/usr/bin/dig",
    darwin  => "/usr/bin/dig"
);

$DIG = $dig{"$^O"};
$DOMAIN = "example.com";
$DNS = "ns1.example.com";
# Zone transfers are required
$DIGCMD = qq/$DIG \@$DNS $DOMAIN axfr/;

open DIG, "$DIGCMD|" or die "$DIG: $!\n";
while (<DIG>) {
    next if (/^;/); # Skip any comments
    # If we match a CNAME record, we have an alias to something.
    # $1 = alias (CNAME), $2 = canonical hostname
    if (/^(\S+)\.$DOMAIN\.\s+\d+\s+IN\s*CNAME\s+(\S+)\.$DOMAIN\.$/) {
        # Push an alias (CNAME) onto an array indexed on canonical hostname
        push(@{$cnames{$2}}, $1);
    }
    # Here's a standard A (canonical hostname) record
    # $1 = canonical hostname, $2 = IPv4 address
    if (/^(\S+)\.$DOMAIN\.\s+\d+\s+IN\s*A\s+(\S+)$/) {
        $ip{$1} = $2;
    }
}
close DIG;

# Format and display it like niscat hosts:
# canonicalHostname alias1 [alias2 aliasN] ipAddress
for $host (sort keys %ip) {
    print "$host ";
    if (defined(@{$cnames{$host}})) {
        print join(' ', @{$cnames{$host}});
        print " ";
    }
    print "$ip{$host}\n";
}

exit 0;

Note that this does require that the nameserver allow zone transfers.