I’ve returned from a much-needed two-week vacation! But I decided to test out the recommendation from some security professionals (I can’t find the original posts right now) that suggest that when you leave the office, you don’t tell the general public that fact if at all possible. No out of office email, no giveaway voicemail message, and obviously no blog post with the announcement! I went as far as pre-writing several blog posts with advance publish dates, so they would automatically appear every few days as if I were still around. The idea is, if someone is going to try and pull off some hack or break-in, why tell them when you’re gone and give them the chance to strike? I don’t think the experiment was entirely necessary, perhaps, but it was fun, if uneventful. And I ended up with internet access more often than I anticipated on vacation — I didn’t write any blog posts but I did some Google Reader reading and posted a few comments on some blogs, etc.
I also updated the HelpSpot LAMP VirtualAppliance to the newest version (1.0.131 is now based on Ubuntu Server and allows you to install any Ubuntu module!) to fix the issue I had with DNS resolution, which I haven’t run into on this new version; outbound DNS works just fine now, and the PHP IMAP module installs! (As yet untested, however.) But hey, that was fun, and you’re supposed to have fun on vacation, right? At least I did it from a cottage overlooking the ocean in Maine :-) And there were minimal interruptions from the office the entire time (what there was I instigated by checking my email :-) and I returned to no emergencies or exceptionally urgent or unexpected requests. All-in-all a very good vacation! I could’ve used a little less time in the car (1300 miles in the last three days and that was just the return journey), but I’m not complaining (too loudly ;-)
Anyway, I’m back! And now you know why my posts have been sparse and not full of detailed technical info. Truthfully, I’m actually running low on detailed technical post ideas for the moment (and I do have some catch-up to take care of along with some personal stuff, which is why I’m posting this today even though I returned to work on Tuesday), but I’m sure that won’t last long. Stay tuned! I have a post coming this afternoon about a power adapter mystery/adventure that just happened, in fact…