Rats!

No, not RATs; the warm-blooded, sneaking rodent kind.

Most folks don't like to talk about it. It's kind of embarrassing. The Bay Area has a rat problem, primarily roof rats (Rattus rattus). I have spent more time studying abatement than I ever imagined or wanted to. Here's the benefit of my research.

Rodent (and pest) control is about reducing shelter and food sources. Although the following information is specific to roof rats, most of the abatement measures are applicable to other species and vermin (including raccoons, skunks, and possums).

Rats can nest hundreds of feet away from their hunting grounds. You have to vigilantly maintain your environment as there is little you can do to control your neighbors. You can tell a pathway by the greasy black trail they leave behind (no, that's not soot from the chimney or traffic exhaust). Rats are agile climbers; they will use service wires and cables to "rope up" into your attic.

They also tunnel. Extensively.

Setting traps on a known path is useless as they are VERY smart and will avoid the traps unless there is no other food source. Look for tell-tale signs of activity: droppings, broken snail shells, half eaten fruit, holes under fences, noises, that smell.

If you think you have mice, think again. Mice are cute.

Roof rat babies are too. They are born in litters of 6 to 8, and start eating solid food around 3 weeks - which means they are out scavenging. Rattus rattus is thought to reach sexual maturity between 3 to 5 months, but most of what we "know" is from studying domestic lab rats because it is difficult to study rats in the wild.

Humans are the only effective control mechanism. Cats and birds of prey will not dent the population. We make the habitat. We are the only ones who can effectively eliminate an infestation.

There are three variables that affect population: sanitation, proofing, and control.

Control: Control is a polite euphemism for "killing". Even though most people don't like the idea of killing, you will have to engage in control if your property is infested. You will know the habitat is no longer desirable when the traps are clean for 6 to 8 weeks.

Please trap instead of using bait. Rodenticide is highly toxic to birds of prey who eat poisoned rats. If that is not sufficient motivation, they will crawl into an inaccessible location - like your walls - and die. The decaying corpses smell really bad, and it takes about 2 weeks for the odor to go away.

Sanitation: ​It is vital to maintain continuous good housekeeping in ​and​ around building​s​ or ​the ​benefits of all other control and proofing measures will be lost ​and​ the pests will return quickly.

• Make off-the-ground storage for pipes, lumber, firewood, crates, boxes, and gardening equipment.

• ​Thin or remove dense vegetation, especially hedges and climbing vines on fences and buildings. Prune tree limbs within 3’ of roof. Plants should be no more than 10" high. Remove species that are known to harbor roof rats in the Bay Area:

• Hedera canariensis — Algerian ivy
• Thuja orientalis — Arborvitae
• Bambusa spp. — Bamboo
• Rubus procerus — Himalayan blackberries
• Lonicera caprifolium — Honeysuckle
• Cupressus sempervirens — Italian cypress
• Populus nigra “Italica” — Lombardy poplar
• Juniperus sabina “Tamariscifolia” — Juniper tams
• Phoenix dactylifera — Date Palm trees
• Cortaderia selloana — Pampas grass
• Trachelospermum jasminoides — Star jasmine

• Frequently collect and dispose of garbage and garden debris in cans with tight-fitting covers. If you compost kitchen scraps, invest in a raised tumbler or line the bin with 1/4" mesh screen.

• Store pet food in rodent-proof containers. Do not free-feed outside. Do not free-feed inside, especially if you have a dog or cat door.
• Roof rats particularly love bird seed. Clean around outdoor feeders and in cages daily.

Proofing: Proofing can be a daunting task, especially when dealing with an infestation. A good service will take care of any clean-up, replace fouled insulation, screen, trap, and guarantee their work for at least 3 years. You need to seal all entry points to your home that are larger than 1/4".

• Seal openings around pipes, cables, and wires that enter through walls or foundation

• Repair/replace ventilation screen around foundation and under eaves

• Repair/replace internal screens on roof and attic air vents

• Put screens on rooftop plumbing vent pipes in excess of 2” diameter

• Put screens on windows that open

• Make sure all doors and windows are tight fitting and weatherproofed at the bottom

• Put a tight-fitting cover over the crawl space

You've heard the phrase "like rats fleeing a sinking ship"? There won't be many left in the house after screening, but be prepared to deal with a red mite infestation when the hosts are gone :/

​Aside from rodent borne diseases that infect humans (Hantavirus, bubonic plague, salmonellosis, rat-bite fever),  there is a significant risk to household pets. Rats hunt caged birds and carry fleas.

Primary sources and for more information:

UC Davis:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74106.html

City of Berkeley:

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Health_Human_Services/Environmental_Health/Control___Preventions_of_Rodents.aspx#Guidelines_When_Speaking_to_a_Pest_Control_Service

​Alameda County Vector Conrtol - will conduct free site assessments!

http://www.acvcsd.org/services/rodent/rodentcontrol.htm

Censorship and Respect

I'm the kind of person who has to understand how things work, especially if there is data. I can't help it. I've always taken things apart, changed conditions, watched for impacts, and tried to replicate. I didn't know this was "hacking" until fairly recently. It's just something I do.

As a Product Manager, I spent quite a bit of time studying SEO, mostly because the if we depended on the Marketing Director to do her job the product would've died. The more I fell into tuning the landing and product pages to maximize hits, the more fascinated I got in the data we were collecting about who visited. Admittedly I had the best-est of partners who shared my interest in feeding data back into our message. We were very successful. What the company viewed as a minor add-on product to get the Sales Rep's foot in the door accounted for over 85% of the web traffic.

I can't help but be equally interested in my Twitter account stats. It's not about monetizing. I actively review and Block ANY followers that are: selling more followers, T&A, or obnoxiously hawking their wares.

I just love seeing how well I can communicate and what people are interested in...

The first time I noticed an anomalous drop in Twitter impressions was last Fall. My husband commented, half joking, that it happened right after posting a less than favorable tweet about Twitter. It wasn't rude, but it was critical. In my world, criticism is how you make things better, and Twitter hasn't exactly been too well as a company.

After posting sunshine and rainbows for a couple of weeks, my stats went back to normal. Hmmm.....I kinda brushed it off, but have been frustrated but the glaring lack of information about how Twitter calculates the stats reported on the analytics dashboard.

Then I saw the very same inexplicable behavior after I posting my Ted Cruz-resembles-GrandPa-Munster tweet:

The number of impressions were up to 9,960 after 36 hours - and then stopped. Same number next morning. I thought that was weird. By that evening, the number of impressions for this tweet dropped 75%. So of course I took to Twitter.

I started gathering more data because now I had a pattern. In the course of researching the problem I bumped into a few articles about Twitter censoring authors via shadow bans. I was initially skeptical, so I decided to test. 

I typically see 30 - 40 impressions within the first hour, unless there are re-tweets, which was what happened with my Ted Cruz-as-Munster funny. Impressions are defined as simple how many unique timelines your tweet appears in. It doesn't mean anyone sees your tweet, they just have the opportunity. With 80+ followers and being on a few Lists, 30 - 40 impressions is a logical number.

But, after I posted the following tweet, impressions for that and any other post I made dropped to zero - regardless of the content:

Hmm. There may be merit to the shadow banning rumor. Next test. I decided to publish how I feel about Twitter censorship, if indeed that is what happened:

What's interesting is impressions remained zero, until the following tweet to .@Jack (Mr Twitter himself):

Within 4 hours, impressions on ALL my tweets started to increment, including the Ted Cruz-as-Munster offender. But still not exactly where I would expect the numbers to be.

I wanted to see if innocuous tweets would get me completely out of the dog house, so I over-participated in the 2BitTues game. Bingo. The oh-so-offending tweet is now over 15,000 impressions and here is my current 7-day stats:

CONCLUSIONS

I think shadow banning is very real, but maybe far more subtle than folks may realize. 

My guess is users report abuse to Twitter when they bump into content that they find offensive. Twitter probably has some kind of level of tolerance where if there are so many reports within a time period, they ban first and review later. Rather than something as insidious as Twitter employees shadow banning accounts, maybe it's just gangs that group report what they don't like - knowing whatever that golden threshold of silence is...

THE IRONY

While I am fairly well disgusted by the SJWs imposing their over-emotional expectations on other people, my reaction is to filter the bullshit rather than engage. Like, whatever.

The irony of all this is #TheTriggering would've never even entered my radar except for this experience.

Apparently, someone(s) can't take a joke - or criticism. 

So here's what I have to say: Fuck your labels. 

You are what you DO. You can't demand or expect respect. The very best you can do is give it. Respect is earned, and it will always elude you if that's what your goal is, instead of supporting a community, being dependable, helping folks out just because it really feels good to make a difference. You have to sincerely care about people to win their trust. 

Reasons to Compost

My beloved dual chamber compost tumbler rusted through on one side.



We've been composting for 18 years. The tumbler is an intrinsic part of our system. All the kitchen scraps and [suitable] yard waste go in the tumbler, which tremendously speeds decomposition. You can easily give it a turn, instead of spending hour long sessions with a shovel. The tumbler sits on a frame of spindly metal legs which keeps the rats (and other critters) out while the worms do their business. We switch between active and cooking chambers, and empty the goo into the black box to "finish".

I thought we could limp it along until next summer, but the metal literally caves in with slightest touch. Total garden crisis. I talked with my husband, who asked if we could buy replacement parts. No such luck. $499 to replace the entire unit, if you can find it in stock, and money we just don't have right now.

The best options I could come up with were:

a) Stop composting and buy the stuff in a plastic bag.

b) Use only the black box and get rid of the tumbler.

c) Compost only the paper towels, coffee grinds, and egg shells to avoid the rat problem.

I wasn't happy, but tried to look on the bright side. Composting takes a lot of time. You have to stay on top of the mix, or it will easily sour. I was so relieved when Doug said he can fix it, no problem. (That sheet metal shop class from high school keeps sure comes in handy!)

This is why. He took one look at the compost I laid down on Friday.




You can't buy this. It's black gold.



I harvested 4 gorilla carts full of compost this week - that's 5.5 cubic feet per load.

Reasons to Compost

• Plants love compost. It makes the soil friable, and rich with oxygen and nutrients.
• Using compost instead of chemical fertilizer enriches the soil instead of depleting it. Plus you save money by not buying something in a box.
• The birds and salamanders will thank you for providing food instead of poisoning them.
• Compost keeps weeds at bay and significantly reduces water usage.
• It improves drainage, which the plants like, and helps the soil absorb rain instead of creating run off (El Nino).
• Top dressing your plants with a 1 -2" layer protects roots from frost in winter and the heat in summer.
• If you make it, you don't have to buy it - and cart a bunch of dirt around in your car.
• There's no real knowing what's in a box or bag. What you make is a superior product, tuned to the chemistry of your garden.
• Ameliorates the guilt of throwing out fruits and vegetables that didn't get eaten.

Pruning Deadwood and The Right Time

Sometime around June or July, the Rose Lady across the street busted me pruning the ornamental cherry tree out front.

"Tsk, tsk", she murmured. "You shouldn't being doing that at this time of year. It will bleed out."

"But this branch is driving me nuts! It's not in the right place."

I knew she was right, but rationalized it would be okay - until a few days later when I found a pile of goo in the flower bed under the tree, and couldn't figure out what it was...then I looked up, and saw sap flowing from the fresh cut.

I made a silent pact to never again prune at the wrong time, and pondered how there really is a good time - and a bad time.

Like when I over-sowed the wildflower seeds because none sprouted the year before, and then spent countless hours thinning an overgrown mass of seedlings because what I didn't realize is: the seeds didn't thrive the first time because I sowed in late Spring. California wildflowers need to lay dormant throughout a cold winter. The low sprout rate had nothing to do with viability or water or sun - and everything to do with timing.

Everything Worth Knowing About Business I Learned In the Garden
It's not an accident that "pruning deadwood" is a euphemism for letting go of employees that drag a company down. Many companies strategically use periodic layoffs to purge new hires that don't fit in, get rid of long term employees that can't cut it, and dump managers that block change and growth. Just as most plants need regular pruning to stay healthy, companies need to cut the deadwood.

But in the garden, there's a lot more to pruning than just removing the deadwood. My first priority is reducing the risk of breakage when the winter storms come. I thin the crown and lace the branches so the wind and rain can pass freely - instead of getting caught like a sail.

I shape plants to be part of the overall landscape, to create a tapestry instead of a patchwork quilt, with a plant plunked here and another over there. I take my time, sometimes multiple passes with days in between, watching how the plant responds, lest the cuts go to deep.

I take labels with a grain of salt, and spend a lot of time researching, reading what others have to say, and taking pictures of gardens I like.

I know some plants are in the wrong spot, and need to get moved to flourish. Others will never perform and need to come out. Then there's the thugs that try to take over the world, stealing resources and crowding everyone else out - those I jump on swiftly before they spread.

The Right Time
Fall is the time to prune the trees and large shrubs, when the plants are sleepy and the sap runs slow. The branches are clean of leaves and spiders, and the birds are done nesting.

Fortunately, it was only one branch, and the tree survived.

Sometimes, the right thing to do is nothing at all.

Cons as a Place to Hire

Here are my thoughts about Career Tracks and job hunting. 

Summer Camp Experience

I was pretty dismayed by the BSidesLV Career Track. I came to the conference with a folder of resumes, and every intent of hitting those sessions until I looked at the agenda, and realized the bulk of the material was aimed at college students or recent grads. 

Trust me: There is nothing anyone can tell me about a Life at a Startup that I can't beat, like coming to work to find the doors chained and padlocked.

While there were a few talks that sounded interesting, the way the track was laid out, it felt like I needed to dedicate the entire day, and there were other talks I wanted to go to, in addition to volunteering as a red shirt.

I was working security during the chill-room table time, so had a great excuse for eavesdropping on two of the tables without looking like a creep. The conversations were 100% buzz-word compliant. I'm not certain any of the parties involved had any idea what the other people were saying...and all I could think of was the career fair booths that I'd (wo)manned in the past, collected literally a thousand resumes, and I swear not one of those resumes landed on a manager's desk. Not one of those people got hired! As a matter of fact: We would rent the booth for PR, to make it look like we were hiring and growing and competitive.

The clincher was when some guy wandered into the SOC room to "volunteer", and when Nous politely told him the schedule was set 2 months ago, he said, "But I'm here to jump start my career!" and stormed off.

DefCon mirrored the same focus and fervor for young people.

I didn't hand out a single resume, and came away feeling pretty much like an anomaly: ton of experience wearing many different hats in tech, newly interested in infosec, discovering the stuff I've always done to get the job done is called "hacking" - and that it's really cool being around other people who don't think like everyone else either i.e., college was a looonnnngggg time ago.

#DerbyCon Hiring List

I bumped into Rob's tweet and followed to his post:

http://www.room362.com/2015/09/2015-derbycon-hiring.html

It’s often tough from both hiring and job hunters to find one another at conferences. I think this is mostly because of a couple things.

1. No one wants to stand at a both on either side and talk job stuff in front of a bunch of people and people at booths rarely get the chance to get away.
2. It’s hard to know “who” to talk to.

So I created a very simple Google doc to help put twitter handles and links together for people who are job hunting and people who are hiring to kinda get to know who to talk to.

Yes! Such a relief to see someone else's analysis of my problem, and addresses my primary issue which is: If I can just talk with the hiring manager or the team, I can explain what I do to relieve pain - and at the same time assess whether they are a good fit for me, because I really don't want to be a sacrificial lamb (hired to fail), work for another asshole, or work for a company that can't make payroll.

Note: I think a key component of why the Hiring List is so appealing and successful is because it is constrained to the con - not after, and not inclusive of non-attendees.

There is an amazing amount of communication that happens face-to-face that you just can't get via any other form of communication, and that I think is key to getting hired and building the kind of trusting relationship that successful teams need to thrive. 

Ideas

I don't know if Rob's Hiring List can work at BSidesLV. I can imagine getting overwhelmed with contacts...

Here's a few ideas, just to kick-around other options that might help the not-right-out-of-college job hunter. Goal being to inspire better thoughts and conversation (the over-used word of 2015):

• Anonymized Hiring List? This is prolly a bad idea, but set-up a "drop-box" for hiring managers so their home feed doesn't get bombed, and so they don't continue to get bombed after the con, but they can still meet face-to-face.
• Flip-it-around: Instead of company booths that job-hunters approach, what about tables where we can advertise our skills - and what we're looking for. I almost came with a custom printed shirt "Looking for work!", but then decided that could be mis-interpreted ;-)
• Coffee social - or something like that: I would go to a gathering dubbed as a meet and greet opportunity. I don't like selling my shit at Happy Hour because it's Happy Hour! Or at a Party because it's a Party! Maybe I'm old school (okay I am), but there's a time and a place and aggressively hunting folks when they are hanging out is just rude.
• Resume board: Heavy sigh. 

Thoughts?

Sinners and Saints; Infosec and Hackers: Parallel Universes

​

I heard a fascinating interview on the radio ​yesterday; Terry Gross speaking with Nadia Bolz-Webber, a Lutheran pastor in Denver. ​

When asked why people are surprised she's a pastor, Bolz-Webber responded, "...I tend to swear like a truck driver...I'm very heavily tattooed, I have sleeve tattoos, basically, and very short hair, and I'm, like, 6-feet-1-inch [tall]. I don't actually act like a pastor either. I don't have that sweet, nurturing, "come to me; I'll co-sign on all of your BS problems," like, I just don't have that warm, cozy personality, and I'm kind of cranky and a little bit sarcastic, I guess."

Looks more hacker than pastor, huh?

Bolz-Webber was a stand-up comic in recovery when she got her calling. She was giving a eulogy at a friend's funeral, when she realized the crowd of academics, comics, and alcoholics were people like herself; not readily welcomed by mainstream churches.

So she went to seminary, and started ​her own church: ​The House for All Sinners and Saints​.

Everything was great, until The Denver Post ran a ​front-page ​feature ​​about Bolz-Webber, and the "normals" descended on the church​.

She struggled with "our weird" ​getting "diluted" - but eventually ​faced the basic tenant of her ministry: accepting ​strangers - including "bankers in dockers".

What struck ​me are the parallels with BSidesLV: 

• A church for sinners and saints and a conference for infosec and hackers.
• Vibrant communities built on shared interest, not necessarily shared belief. 
• Unexpected dramatic growth from people outside the archetype.
• Built on accepting strangers and Encouraging diverse voices.

I am so grateful for the BSidesLV community. Being one of those people with a foot in each door, I'm interested in the intersection, the exchange of ideas. Being able to hear other perspectives is invaluable - even [especially!] when I don't agree. 

Sometimes I change my mind ;-)

Bright creative people aren't easy. We're not easy to live with, and we're not easy to work with. 

So please: bring your toys back to the sandbox. We need each other. 

Def Con - A Beyond Noob Perspective

Having read a number of posts recently that poignantly express disappointment / frustration in how much Def Con has grown and changed, I want to share my beyond noob experience.

We went to our first DefCon last year.

I was on a short term contract at a local PD, filling in until the new IT Director started. After the first few weeks, I came to realize many of the problem reports boiled down to malware and squirrely network issues. I traced a few nasty trojans to a couple of roaming Windows accounts that belonged to personnel who had not worked at the agency in years. I regularly worked on computers that had not been updated in over 5 years old...I was shocked.

Every night I came home, shared the latest story with my husband - and started studying. I was totally out my depth; Infosec is his thing. After a couple of months, he asked if I had any interest in going Def Con. I'm like, what's that? and then Yes!

It was a totally impulsive decision. We booked late, and stayed in the "wrong" hotel. Didn't read the FAQ, and wore Firefly brown. Brought the kid, didn't party, don't gamble, don't really like Vegas...and had SO MUCH FUN!  It was like becoming a room without a roof.

We met the most amazing people! Totally got into the badge, even though no hope of "winning". Went to some really good presentations.

Watching videos is not the same. There is a vibe, an under-current, that you get standing in those dreadful lines, walking down the hallway, listening to the buzz, hanging out in the chill room. It changed how we interact, what we're interested in, what we make.

I know the conference has changed. 23 years is along time. But what you may not see, is: Def Con is what you make it. It is the essence of the badge, a multi-layered interconnected puzzle.

If part of what you value is reaching out to the disenfranchised bright creatives, expanding a community of non-conformists, those who question authority - and best practices! People who make impulsive decisions, stay up too late, and (oh god!) take things apart, this beyond noob found a path at Def Con - and is looking forward to BSidesLV and 23!