Bluoz

testing for earthquakes?

from yesterday in Los Angeles at the Judge Judy Studios

Apparently Terry Childs wrote three books on this Fiberwan network, and the City of San Francisco objected to it, so it was never copyrighted. Wouldn't the city then be stifling innovation? One government agency telling another government agency not to copyright something created by a citizen? Isn't the whole point of the copyright and patent office to provide incentives for innovation? If Terry Childs was an independant contractor, would he then have the right to copyright what he supposedly innovated?..And does he then lose his rights as a citizen if he becomes employed by the City and County of San Francisco?

If that's the case, then how could SF ever expect to hire anybody to innovate, or even build a network from scratch.. Is SF going to be stuck in Windows 95 forever?. SF is never going to get the really smart people if they're going to be owned lock stock and three smoking barrels, because the really smart people won't even bother applying for the position after this fiasco

It sounds like everything started to go downhill when this happened

from the US Copyright Office

MPLS VPN fiberwan computer program design and configuration : vols. I , 2,...
Type of Work: Text
Registration Number / Date: TXu001575502 / 2008-01-17
Application Title: MPLS VPN fiberwan computer program design and configuration : vols. I , 2, 3 Second Edition.
Title: MPLS VPN fiberwan computer program design and configuration : vols. I , 2, 3 Second Edition.
Description: Print material, 3 v.
Copyright Claimant: Terry Scott Childs. Address: P.O. Box 23865, Pleasant Hill, California, 94523
Date of Creation: 2008
Authorship on Application: Terry Scott Childs, 1964- ; Citizenship: United States. Authorship: Computer Program.
Alternative Title on Application: MPLS VPN fiberwan computer program design and configuration : vols. I , 2
Previous Registration: 2007, TXu 1-365-055.
Pre-existing Material: MPLS VPN fiberwan computer program design and configuration : vols. 1 2.
Basis of Claim: Computer Program.
Copyright Note: C.O. correspondence.

Names: Childs, Terry Scott, 1964-

6th and Stevenson, Sam Francisco. I'm pretty sure this is a peregrine falcon. Thinner and smaller, and waaaay faster




as opposed to the red tail hawk sighted here previously

from the world famous corner of 6th and Stevenson, San Francisco, home of the crackheads

skipped last week, so this covers the last two weeks. Centered on 6th Street and Stevenson alley in San Francisco

6th and Stevenson, San Francisco... but of course

If it's true, that ignorance and lack of knowledge and understanding can send people to jail that do have that knowledge, we have a serious problem here in San Francisco.

If it's true that people without an education can send people to jail with an education, on a bail higher than any murderer in history, we have a problem...Nobody has heard from Childs yet in this case, and I'm guessing the defense likes ti that way, for good reason< Terry Childs built the San Francisco fiber line (fiberWan) network, almost with his own hands)

I'm betting at this point, regardless of outcome, that the Terry Childs case will eventually become important IT school curriculum, and likely in the legal community as well (more school for lawyers, and judges and the jury)

Did SF undermine it's own case? and people are calling the Chronicles coverage flat out reciulous

SF Reveals Usernames And Password To City Network In Accidental Effort To Prove Terry Childs’ Case For Him

best comment so far on this case

consider this an education that no school can teach you about..yet...about IT admin, because IT specialists are coming out of the woodwork worldwide to explain this

update from the court documents, but there's still a lot of questions

Tech gurus at O'Reilly have a lengthy article on this and so does Wired

and yet another update, a truly ironic one, District Attorney reveals the passwords and user names to the public and now on Slashdot. First comment > Childs might have been right all along (keep the city away from the computers)

more comments "In my own humble opinion, the SF DA's office is full of idiots."..."I had my doubts at first, but this makes it abundantly clear that Childs was right . More right than any of us might have imagined when this spin-doctored story first came out.

In hindsight he took totally reasonable, prudent measures to protect incompetent city officials from themselves. Who knows how they got into that situation, but I won't blame him for anything in light of this, and I sincerely hope a jury wouldn't either."

even more, hints of politcal cronyism and stone age tech at SF


from The Chronicle

In arguing against a defense request to lower his $5 million bail, prosecutors said Childs had set up more than 1,000 computer modems in locked cabinets and other hiding places, including at least one in a room at the Hall of Justice that even police didn't know existed, to tinker with the system without his bosses knowing it.

from The Deep End

1,100 modems? One thousand, one hundred modems. One thousand, one hundred analog phone lines at roughly $40 a pop. $44,000 a month in phone lines. Assuming $30 per modem, that's $33,000 in modems. What were they hooked up to? Computers? Assuming a very low $250 per computer (hey, maybe they were all eBay specials or something) that's an additional $275,000. So all told, we're at $308,000 in just the hardware, not to mention that monthly $44,000 bill.

All ordered, installed, and managed by Terry Childs.

Really.

Forgive me if I find this to be an absolutely ludicrous statement. I think I missed it yesterday because it's so patently absurd. Unless Childs owned his own phone company, how could he possibly have done this? If the city is taking anything Anthony Maupin says seriously, it might explain their complete ignorance of this situation.

why does this look suspicious from a technical standpoint? Why does this make the management look even worse?

IT specialists from Germany weigh in

(25.07.08) - Cyber-Ark, the privileged identity management specialists, says that the ongoing FiberWAN network lockout situation in San Francisco - where a network administrator has changed system passwords and is refusing to hand them over to administrators - could have been avoided if managers had operated a high-security approach to master passwords. "Administration passwords are always being changed for security reasons, such as when IT staff leaves and also for general security reasons. The main problem with admin passwords is that a number of people need access to them at any given time," said Adam Bosnian, VP Marketing with Cyber-Ark.

"If the operators of the FiberWAN network - which gives San Francisco city administrators access to payroll, law enforcement data and prison bookings, amongst other things - had a top-level master password, which was stored securely, then the current lock-out situation would have been side-stepped," he added.

According to Bosnian, the San Francisco FiberWAN chief executive could have stored the top-level master password in a digital vault, meaning that no-one need actually know what the password was, but it could be accessed electronically by relevant senior staff, if the need ever arose.

From The Chronicle


The supervisors' approval of nearly half a million dollars for it will "accelerate the process," said Nathan Ballard, Newsom's spokesman. Ballard could not say definitively when the court would begin operation, but officials previously had set a goal of near the end of this year.

"It was a smart move to approve the funds. The board saw the writing on the wall," Ballard said. Newsom had proposed a measure for November's ballot that would allow voters to give the go-ahead for the court. That is likely to be pulled from the ballot after Tuesday's action.

This was the only item at the budget and finance committee yesterday

video is 50 minutes



This went to the full board later the same day, yesterday and can be viewed here

http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=10

It's item 62 and it starts at 3:01hr until 3:36hr from a 5 hour video. You can scroll to that if you have a fast connection. The Daly amendment as described below and in the comment from Livinintheloin was a split 5-5 vote and therefore failed. This will be going before the full board again next Tuesday as it stands now

From Livinintheloin describing what Daly proposed as an amendment to the Community Justice Center

To better serve his constituents, and for public safety (?) Daly wanted the following to fall outside of the CJC's jurisdiction. His motion Failed.

San Francisco Municipal Police Code: SEC. 97. USE OF VEHICLES FOR HUMAN HABITATION PROHIBITED.

(a) No person shall use or occupy or permit the use or occupancy of any house car, camper or trailer coach for human habitation, including but not limited to sleeping, eating or resting, either single or in groups, on any street, park, beach, square, avenue, alley or public way, within the City and County of San Francisco between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.

(b) No person shall use or occupy or permit the use or occupancy of any motor vehicle for human habitation, either single or in groups, on any street, park, beach, square, avenue, alley or public way, within a residential neighborhood of the City and County of San Francisco between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. For the purposes of this Section, "motor vehicle" shall mean any self-propelled vehicle other than a house car, camper or trailer coach. "Residential neighborhood" shall mean any area of the City zoned for R-H, R-M or R-C use under the City Planning Code, and "habitation" shall mean the use of a motor vehicle as a dwelling place, and shall not mean the use of a motor vehicle for allevation of sickness or temporary physical inability to operate such motor vehicle.

SEC. 120-1. AGGRESSIVE SOLICITING PROHIBITED.

Findings. The people of the City and County of San Francisco find that aggressive solicitation for money directed at residents, visitors, and tourists in areas of the City open to the public imperils their safety and welfare. This conduct in turn jeopardizes the City's economy by discouraging visitors and prospective customers from coming to San Francisco for business, recreation, and shopping. This conduct also threatens to drive City residents out of the City for their recreational and shopping activities. Further, the people find that aggressive solicitation undermines the public's basic right to be in and enjoy public places without fear that they will be pursued by others seeking handouts. The people further find that no state laws address or protect the public from these problems.

(c) Definitions. For the purpose of this ordinance, an individual (solicitor) harasses or hounds another (solicitee) when the solicitor closely follows the solicitee and requests money or other thing of value, after the solicitee has expressly or impliedly made it known to the solicitor that the solicitee does not want to give money or other thing of value to the solicitor.

(d) Penalties.California Penal Code:

California Penal Code: 647. Every person who commits any of the following acts is guilty of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor:

(c) Who accosts other persons in any public place or in any place open to the public for the purpose of begging or soliciting alms.

(j) Who lodges in any building, structure, vehicle, or place, whether public or private, without the permission of the owner or person entitled to the possession or in control of it.

San Francisco Park Code Section 3.12: Prohibits camping in parks, and in The City.

quote from Terry Childs, who gave mayor Newsom the codes earlier today

"This better be right," Newsom said.

"It is," Childs assured him, but asked the mayor to deliver it in person to the Cisco specialists - not to the city's computer brass.

this would be consistent with some earlier stories

keep the incompetent city brass away from those computers!...danger danger!

In her motion to reduce bail, Crane said Childs had been the victim of a "bad faith" effort to force him out of his post by incompetent city officials whose meddling was jeopardizing the network Childs had built. At one point, she said, Childs discovered that the network was at risk of being infected with a computer virus introduced by a colleague.

link

Another article goes further

If the City of San Francisco were a public corporation and allowed a screw-up on par with the recent Terry Childs case, it might find itself facing federal investigation and Mayor Gavin Newsom might be fighting to stay out of jail, experts said.

We definately haven't heard the last of this and if Childs is ever vindicated, it's going to be near impossible for the City of SF to get anyone to run the fiberWan network




just wait for the T-shirts

7th and Stevenson, San Francisco, across from the new federal building. What's it like not to see this every day?

previously - shit's hit the fan now

life by the porta potty at 6th and Stevenson, San Francisco.

scenes From The Laughing Policeman with Walter mathau, Lou Gosset and Bruce Dern

This is 6th Street near the corner of Jessie and 6th. You can see the 995 market building in the background on the right. This shows Lou Gosset and Bruce Dern entering a hotel on 6th. Dig those bell bottoms!



Jessie alley, across from where Club 6 is now



my building in the background. You can almost see my window up there



Jessie and 6th, dig those 70's hairdos!



Jessie and 6th, looking west toward toward Twin peaks this time



The Laughing Policeman, a good movie you can rent from Netflix. Walter Mathau plays a cop. he does not laugh. He is Walter Mathau

something about this smelled from the very beginning

Many news sources are saying that Terry Childs, an IT admin for the city and county of San Francisco is holding the city hostage.....or is he? I mean, c'mon, I've seen plenty of technical incompetence with city hall before. Street crime cameras, anyone? The bigger the incompetence at SF city hall, the bigger the contract. Just look at Tenderloin Housing Clinic...duh

could this be a case of SF officials going to extreme lengths to cover their own ass?

One clue most are overlooking

updated story

A clue as to the actual nature of the lockout has come from statements that it might cost the city "millions of dollars" to unlock the system.

Millions? Really?

Unless Childs managed to install BIOS or kernel-level disk encryption on all the servers or stuff M80s in the server drive bays, there's no way that the cost of "unlocking" the network would run into the millions of dollars. Since officials are talking publicly about bringing in Cisco experts to undo the damage, it may be safe to assume that what Childs did was change the login to some or all of the routers and switches running the network.

and now there's this revelation

"A source with direct knowledge of San Francisco's IT infrastructure has tipped off Paul Venezia to the real story behind Terry Childs' lockout of San Francisco's network, providing a detailed account of the city's FiberWAN, interdepartmental politics, and Terry Childs himself. Childs pleaded not guilty to charges of tampering yesterday and is being held on $5 million bail. According to the source, Childs' purview was limited to the city's FiberWAN — a network he himself built and, believing no one competent enough to touch the network but himself, guarded religiously, sharing details with no one, including routing configuration and log-in information. Childs was so concerned about the network's security that he refused even to write router and switch configurations to flash. But what may prove difficult for the prosecution in its case against Childs is that his restricted access to the network was widely known and accepted among managers and the city's other network engineers. Venezia, who has been suspicious of the official story from the start, suspects that the Childs case may be that 'of an overprotective admin who believed he was protecting the network — and by extension, the city — from other administrators whom he considered inferior, and perhaps even dangerous.' Further evidence is that fact that the network, from what Venezia understands, has been running smoothly since Childs' arrest."

you've heard of making backups, haven't you?



That's my first reaction to the news. Critical infrastructure should have redundancy everywhere, including the support staff.

To give a stupid but obvious example what if Childs was run over by a car? OK, he wouldn't care but all the rest of SF would.

So they should never have put the network online until the information was in several places (the brains of several people if formal electronic/paper records were too inflexible).

Stll, this sounds like political infighting more than ever. Given the situation why were they trying to fire a critical person like Childs? Sounds like some bureaucrat with an ego as big as Childs would be involved to cause this, rather than Childs "going rogue". And he (the bureaucrat) was more skilled in the political game. Of course this person would be covering his tracks, and not be obvious in any way. So Childs and the whole of SF lost. His firing does not make sense otherwise, given his critical position.

Ah, the fun of weaving conspiracy theories :-)

citizen pops the million dollar question, somewhere South of Market near 6th Street