divisionbyzero.net

Follow-up Central Logging

4 minute read Published: 2012-06-18

The reaction to my Central Logging post has been significantly greater and more positive than I could've expected, so I wanted to recap some of the conversation that came out of this. I am pleasantly surprised by most of the comments on the Hacker News Thread. So, here's a real quick recap of the responses I've received. I will continue this series this weekend with more technical details.

Central Logging with Open Source Software

16 minute read Published: 2012-06-17

I have worn many hats over the past few years: System Administrator, PostgreSQL and MySQL DBA, Perl Programmer, PHP Programmer, Network Administrator, and Security Engineer/Officer. The common thread is having the data I need available, searchable, and visible.

So what data am I talking about? Honestly, everything. System logs, application logs, events, system performance data, and network traffic data are key requirements to making any tough infrastructure decision, if not key to the trivial infrastructure and implementation decisions we have to make everyday.

I'm in the midst of implementing a comprehensive solution, and this post is a brain dump and road map for how I went about it, and why.

Statistics, Risk Analysis, and Misunderstandings

2 minute read Published: 2010-06-11

I married a Statistician, so this article sums the lectures I receive on a daily basis. Risk Management is statistical analysis, and I'm not sure how many folks in IT Security have Graduate level Stat exposure. So, the understanding of our statistical shortcomings is key. You need to read that entire article, twice.

Screen Scraping HTML

14 minute read Published: 2005-04-06

We've all found useful information on the web. Occassionally, its even necessary to retrieve that information in an automated fashion. It could be just for your own amusement, possibly a new web service that hasn't yet published an API, or even a critical business partner who only exposes a web based interface to you.

Of course, screen scraping web pages is not the optimal solution to any problem, and I highly advise you to look into APIs or formal web services that will provide a more consistent and intentional programming interface. Potential problems could arise for a number of reasons.

Regular Expression Primer

19 minute read Published: 2004-03-24

"Regular Expression" is a fancy way to say "pattern matcher." Humans can match patterns with relative ease. A machine has a bit more difficulty deciphering patterns, especially in text. As computing became more powerful, the methods for matching text grew into more flexible dialects.

Regular expressions can be one of the toughest concepts to grasp and use effectively in any programming language. Perl is no exception as its regular expressions engine is perhaps the most advanced regex engine in existence. Its power and flexibility also serve to confuse and intimidate many new comers. It is important to understand the Regular Expression engine as its often the cause of serious bottlenecks in programs of all shapes and sizes.


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