One more item for Shmoocon! Handmade iPhone cases! These cases fit iPhone 3, 4 and 4S. Each one is unique, hand stitched with Velcro fasteners and two loops on the back for attaching to belts or straps. Again, quantities will be limited. Come by the booth early!
I’m bringing something new to Shmoocon this year and I think it’s something that will appeal to the grrlz even more than the guys.
These are handmade iPad/iPad 2 cases and laptop cases. The cases are hand stitched and quilted and are lined with fabric to keep your electronics safe and sound. Each case is different and all are made from African fabrics. Some are made with a water resistant core that’s also pretty unique: A Jinja Pure Cane Sugar bag! The cases close with either a button and hoop or with Velcro strips.
Quantities are rather limited so come by the booth early if you want to grab one of these cool cases!
Here’s a preview of the new run of shirts, first available at Shmoocon. We’ll be selling a version of this through the year alongside our custom con shirts. Quantities will be limited. Don’t adjust your sets. They aren’t black! =O
As I plan to hop the flight for Shmoocon, I’m starting to make a list of things we need in Uganda. Some inexpensive creature comforts I’ll be able to get from the CVS around the corner from the con. Other things are either too expensive or too hard to get a hold of. So, as always, we’re looking for some oddball donations. Every little bit helps, so if you have something on the list and you’re either coming to the con or know someone who is, would you consider donating it to us? Thanks in advance!
Motorcycle gear: We’re traveling a lot more by motorcycle because of the ridiculous fuel costs. However, Uganda isn’t the safest place for bikes, so we’re trying to do our best to stay safe. Motorcycle protective wear is very expensive, so we’re looking for some donated gear. We’re looking for: lightweight reinforced bike jacket (M/L), helmets (of all sizes for men, women or teens), gloves, trousers and boots. If you have anything bring it along. If it doesn’t fit, we can exchange it for gear that fits.
Oddball cables and connectors: We’re looking for oddball stuff (some from Radio Shack) including 3.5mm mini-stereo-to-RCA cables, mono or stereo 1/4″ female to 1/4″ female adapters, decent RCA cables, iPhone/iPod/iPad data cables, Mac power supplies and cords, iPhone chargers (the little white bricks).
Tools: Decent RJ45 crimpers, micro tool kits (all those oddball teeny drivers).
Thanks for anything you guys can offer. I really appreciate it.
Thanks to the generosity of SANS, who is again paying for my flight, I’ll be joining the HFC crew at Shmoocon 2012 in Washington DC. We’re less than a week away from the show, so I’ll be posting a few teasers and some updates that have been sitting in my drafts queue for WAY too long. For our first teaser, here’s a mockup of the new Shmoocon shirt. This shirt will only be available at the con (no online sales) so if you want one and can’t make the show, be sure to tap a friend to hook you up.
I’m back in the saddle again. I spent about two weeks away, one week taking a class, a few days traveling to the class and another few days to recover from the ordeal.
But the tale involves a pirate in the Caribbean, my friends at Offensive Security and an interesting new career twist for me.
Muts has posted part one of my blog here: http://www.offensive-security.com/blog. The first part of the blog talks about the course and the second part (soon to be published) talks about the rest of the course and the bit about the career twist. Stay posted.
Work has been a challenge for the past couple of weeks thanks to the pathetic power and REALLY spotty Internet connectivity, but I wanted to post some of the services we’ve provided here in Uganda for the past couple of weeks:
The power situation is worse than I’ve ever seen it. The local (only) power company, UMEME is doing what’s called “Load Shedding” which some places call “Rolling Brownouts”. Whatever you call it, it’s really annoying. There’s barely enough time to charge a laptop or a cell phone, then the power’s back off.
I was sitting in the UMEME office, complaining and the attendant walked away to talk to a supervisor. I couldn’t help but take a phew (sic) photos. This was one of my favorites:
It shows a CISCO IP phone and the new Dell PC used by the agent. Nice gear. Someone’s got money. Ironically, though that doesn’t trickle down to the customer. Some paying customers go three weeks without power. Some like us get it in 8-hour bursts every other day. We have enough hydroelectric power in Uganda thanks to the Nile dam(n)s to supply three East African countries, but we sell it to Kenya. So Kenya has great power and we get the dregs. But I’ve gotten into a rant. The point of the picture, and the thing that grabbed me was the UMEME desk calendar. It show a closeup of a technician’s belt with loads of brand-new, unused tools, and a torso shot of (I guess) a technician. The technician is tangled up in the cable and he looks concerned.. worried.. clueless. Either that or he looks like he’s about to get bitten by the cable. Either way it’s funny, to me anyhow. UMEME. It is supposedly the local word for “Power”. We, however, think it’s an acronym. Ugandans Mostly Expect Missing Power.
(on a personal note..)
11/11/11 .. Happy (150%?) Pepero day ..
The power has been out for way too long. I haven’t had a good stretch of power for a week, so I’m getting nothing done. The email is piling up, projects are slipping. I spent some time reading a few books and taking care of some odds and ends. I finished the Jobs biography, and found it to be a great read. I see a lot of Steve Jobs in me. I don’t mean that egotistically .. I’m not a genius or anything. I just mean that between his emotional extremes, laser focus and my too-often problem of not being able to put myself in other people’s shoes. Overall, I have a lot of respect for Steve, but moreso for the other players in the story, specifically Bill Gates for his philanthropic insistances and Woz for his heart, passion and principles. I found Woz’s story to be particularly fascinating and through the brief glimpses I had of him, I find that I relate to his philosophies in a lot of ways.
I’m engergized to DO SOMETHING with my life, make a difference, leave a legacy but I keep getting mired down by so many things. It’s a strange time. In a way, I’m almost happy we’re without power. It’s giving me time to think about what my life’s priorities are ..
I’m not a frequent Facebook, Twitter or G+ user. It seems I’m too much an 80′s kid to be down with anything much more social than blogging and email. Even that seems to be a bit much because I went an entire year not noticing I had comments on my blog. (My apologies to those stuck in the queue. It wasn’t personal.)
When I moved to Uganda and rolled johnny.ihackstuff.com to point to hackersforcharity.org I lost my personal blog. I tried posting personal stuff on here, but after the first year, it didn’t feel right. I felt like I should be posting more business-related stuff, especially since I was funded by donors.
I thought of using my Facebook or Twitter accounts for their intended purposes (personal minutia) but too many people were following them to get HFC updates, since I cross-posted there.
I thought about the idea of using another blog, but then I couldn’t figure out who would care, or where it should go, or what it would really be about and then it struck me that at least right now my life is inexplicably intertwined with HFC, so I might as well just post personal stuff here inline with work stuff. So, until I figure out how to separate my “existances” I guees I’ll just use a disclaimer when I post so people who don’t care can just skip my junk. Something like…
(On a personal note):
A few days off (thanks to no power) and I woke up prepared to get back to work. I should have known better when the power started flickering.
But that wasn’t the real sideliner: turns out one of our new German Shepherd puppies died in the night. This turned into a bunch of frantic calls to the vet, and several back-and-forth runs to the pharmacy for the other puppies who are anemic and losing weight because the mother isn’t producing milk for some reason. It’s been a long morning and now it’s already lunchtime and it appears the Internet won’t be cooperating, so I thought of just eating lunch and calling it a morning.
Then a second puppy went lethargic and a few hours later was forcing his last breaths. It was the saddest thing I’ve seen in a long time. There was nothing we could do. No, it’s 4:30 and I’m just too exhausted to do anything else but eat and chill for a bit. More later.
