PHP "people" don't really know how to document things very well. At least, not when compared to Perl people. Generally, I've always found documentation by Perl people to be good, fairly complete, and looks like it's written by a technical person. At the very least, there is usually a good example in it which you can "just use", for the most part. Some PHP documentation I have been having to read (outside the PHP manual) looks like it's written by people who have never actually read documentation. Incomplete, silly errors, and a big PITA to actually read all the side-documentation to figure out what they are talking about.

When you are documenting "How to do X", don't say you need to understand Y, which points you to W. Explain how to do X without needing to know Y and W, and refer people to Y and W to "learn more", rather than a pre-requisite.

yceml.net...
google-analytics.com...
doubleckick.com...
googlesyndication.com...

Remember when a website was made up of THE WEBSITE?? I remember that when something was slow, it was because of a large image, not that it's connecting to 10 different remote services to track my usage, serve ads, track clicks, display images, load (usually unneeded) Flash and generally do things to slow down a page load.

Not long ago I pondered what could make someone call them self an SEO Expert. I also noted that my "consulting" website wasn't listed in Google anymore. Well, soon after that, I decided to change that. So, I did some run-of-the-mill SEO things which you can find suggested all over the internet. Today, I remembered I did that and decided to type in the two phrases which I would care about. "Perl consultant" and "Perl consulting".

So, currently #1 for one phrase, and #2 for the other (I will get you Randal!!!)

Can I now say I'm an "SEO Expert"? If not, why not? After all, I went from nowhere to be found, to top spots for TWO phrases which would be most important to me if I were still doing consulting. I'll also note that (as of this writing) I'm also on the 1st page for "CGI Consultant", "CGI Consulting" and "perl programming consultant" (#2 for that one).

No magic, no black-hat tricks, just well published best practices. I'm still seriously wondering what SEO "experts" do that the everyday person can't to bring their website to the top of the SERPs. Ok, ok.. I'm not an "everyday person", but any developer has these same things available, and even a non-tech person can read about these best practices in plain-English and tell their tech people to do it.

Maybe I'll just add "SEO Expert" to my resume.

My bank finally updated their online banking system. With it, came some problems. I've done some voluntary beta testing for them, which I hope has been useful for them. But, here's something I caught *after* release, which was, in a way, funny... but sort of not.

I had to send in my annual money to my HOA. So, I enter a one-time payment, and fill in the FULL payee name "Westbrook in Wilton Homeowner's Association". Well, apparently even though the system truncates the payee name, there was no maxlength on the form field.

This is how the check went out:

Technically, I think I should have deposited the check in my ass.

It's shiny, loud, and yells at me in Japanese. What more can I ask for?

Found the video made at the YAPC in Boca I coordinated. Still makes me laugh...

So I was looking at some connections of my connections on LinkedIn and someone had they they were an "SEO Expert". I've always wondered what exactly an SEO "expert" is. I've done a fair amount of reading on SEO, but wouldn't call myself an "expert". Why? Because it really seems like how search engines index and rank your site is pretty much voodoo. Unless you have worked at Google, MSN, Yahoo!, etc... and are risking lawsuits by breaking confidentiality agreements, you really can't call yourself an SEO "Expert", can you?

Let's face it, SEO isn't brain surgery or even removing an appendix or tonsils. There are best practices, good practices, and bad practices. None of these things aren't freely available to read about on the web (or sit at Borders and look through some books), and how to submit to search engines isn't a mystical secret you need to ask an oracle about.

Before I moved my journal over to this domain (used to be separated at perlguy.com), I had great rankings on Google for 'Perl consulting', 'Perl consultant' and similar things. Always within the top 5. Magic? No. Am I now not showing because of magic? No. I moved the journal here to a 3rd level and believe it's effected my "professional" page. No matter, since I'm employed :-)

But, I still must have done something right because on Yahoo! I still have a high ranking for "perl consultant" (#6 as of writing this), and #3 for "perl consulting", and #8 for "perl resume". For someone who does Perl, and would want to do consulting, that's pretty darn good ranking for those key phrases. I'm sure if I cared enough, I could figure out what happened with my Google rankings and fix it (I think they changed something about 8 months ago, since I saw a lot of sites suddenly lose rankings/index counts they had.. but that's another story). And, for my work I did a Google Sitemap, which brought indexed pages up 100 fold. I certainly wouldn't say I'm an expert for either making the sitemap, nor knowing what it is.

So, how do people think they are an "expert" at SEO? What do they think they know that people who simply spend time reading on SEO practices don't? Anyone know? Anyone out there who calls them self an SEO "Expert" care to say what exactly it is that makes them an "expert"? And, why "expert"? Why not "SEO Professional" and leave it at that?

Now, I'm not saying it's not a valid profession, since it is. People need to keep on top of the changing bits of what search engines are doing. But, an "expert"? Is that even measurable?

Google Photos Stir a Debate Over Privacy - New York Times

A woman got all in a tizzy because you can see her cat in the window when you zoom in on her apartment. So, she asked Google to take the photo off.

I'm not exactly sure why people are concerned about privacy here. If your window is open (or, at least there are no shades drawn) then people can look in, and photos can be taken. But, the funniest thing about this is that nobody knew about her or her cat, now she causes a stir and everyone knows her name, address, etc... It seems like if you were going to complain about privacy, you should do it privately.

For the past few years I work so damn much that I don't have time to tinker with things. Once in a while the school sends home a letter of a sex offender who has registered in the area. I always go online and check out their information, and see where they live. I always wanted to have a Google Map showing where all these dirtbags live, and tonight I finally had the chance to do it.

So, here is the start of my project. It's a simply Google Map with overlays from an XML file which I generate from a script I wrote to scrape the data from the NY Dept. of Criminal Justice. Currently, I'm only doing my county, but may make a few for surrounding counties.

Hopefully, I'll have more time to work on this, since I have some ideas (custom markers for risk levels, adding where they work, tabbed info windows to show more data, etc...). I'd like to make a good page where parents can visit on occasion to see who is where, and keep their kids safe.

I've always said that the work I generally do is meaningless, but maybe this side project isn't. At the very least, I'm having fun with it.

Wi-Fi startup inks first U.S. ISP deal

This may be interesting. I'm not sure if it'd make much sense for me to be a hotspot (my neighbors all use TW as well, and the deer don't carry laptops), but could be interesting in being able to take my laptop about anywhere and use it without hijacking stealing borrowing some bandwidth.

I've been getting more SPAM lately with better subjects. They are more "geeky", and sometimes almost actual sentences. They include topics of sendmail, Linux, and other things which I'd actually be interested in. Of course, they are just for junk stocks, but it's interesting that the subjects appear "targeted". Here's one I just got, which is similar to various others:

"The sendmail chapter has been written and contributed by Vince Skahan."

Not only would 'sendmail' mean something to me, but I do get chapters of books to review from time to time. So, when I get these, they are almost tempting to look at (but, I don't).

VX8600 - LG Electronics USA

After 5 years, I finally got a new cell phone. I was pretty tired of keeping mine taped together (literally), and I was overdue a free one from Verizon anyways. So, I got the LG VX8600 (some seem to call it the "Chololate Flip"). It's pretty damn sexy. The bluetooth works great with my MacBook, the camera takes decent photos and is generally 1000% better than my broken one.

Of course, I don't use my cell much. I work from home, so my home phone is generally fine. And, since my phone has been broken for some time, it's generally off. So, now I have a nice phone I'll never really use.. but at least I feel like I'm in the 21st century with cell phones.

BBspot - MPAA Lobbying for Home Theater Regulations

The MPAA is lobbying congress to push through a new bill that would make unauthorized home theaters illegal. The group feels that all theaters should be sanctioned, whether they be commercial settings or at home.

And...

The MPAA defines a home theater as any home with a television larger than 29" with stereo sound and at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon. Anyone with a home theater would need to pay a $50 registration fee with the MPAA or face fines up to $500,000 per movie shown.

AND...

"Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn't give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That's a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends," said Glickman. (head of the MPAA)

People get so worried about the gov't, look at the MPAA. They want to know when you watch a movie, what you're watching, and how many people are watching it. Have a TV larger than 29"? Have a sofa? Then they want to say you are a theater. These people are loons.

Web reaches new milestone: 100 million sites - CNN.com

100,000,000 sites and 99,999,000 are absolute crap.

I always wonder why when you unsubscribe from a newsletter/mailing they send you an email saying you were unsubscribed. By unsubscribing I'm saying "Don't email me", so I then get an email saying they won't email me. Just don't email me.

I also hate the ones where they say it'll take a few days or a week to "process the request". What the hell is that? Do they have monkeys to go through the requests and 'approve' them? All this stuff should be automatic. Get my unsubscribe request and remove my email from the database, now.. not in a week. Don't try to get a few more mailings to me, just get me off your list.

And for Gods sake people, include a decent text version of your mailings. Some of us still don't use graphical email clients (like me) and some probably use things to not automatically see HTML. When you have no text version, it's useless. I don't want to "click a link to see it online".. I just want to read it. Your information shouldn't be contained in images, it should be contained in text content.

AOL is so stupid when it comes to trying to block SPAM. When AOL users get an email, they can click a 'This is SPAM' button and essentially report the email as SPAM. Then, AOL keeps track of these complaints against the sender. Once it reaches a certain threshold, you're basically blacklisted. Even emails which have links to your domain can be rejected. We're talking overzealous moves here.

So, I'm sending out some newsletters which I do for work on occassion. We notice a lot of bounces back from AOL. Turns out, we're being blocked (again). So, I call them up to see what's up. Late last year I went through a process to be whitelisted with them, which apparantly I have to do every 6 months. So, I re-applied, but still have this issue to deal with.

I explain to the girl on the phone that them blocking us effects business. And, we don't SPAM. Which, we don't. Everything you get from us is legit. Order notifications, receipts and those e-commercy things. And, newsletters which provide you with links to opt-out of. Well, she can't do a thing aside make a ticket. She said she can't even talk to the people she's making a ticket for. I asked to speak to them, and she said she can't, and I can't. But, at least a ticket was made.

A few days later I get an email in broken English saying the block will be removed and I should "clean [my] email list". I don't know what the hell that means. See, people put themselves on the list by becoming users. How can I clean that up? It made no sense, but whatever, I was being unblocked. I was also put on a feedback loop, which essentially sends me a copy of emails which people are reporting as SPAM. This should prove useful, since I can now make sure these email addesses get off the newsletter list (since somehow clicking an AOL button is easier than clicking a link to opt-out), and investigate what people are making as SPAM.

One or two came in from newsletters. Ok, so you don't want the newsletter.. opt out! It's not hard to do. You can even send an angry email saying "STOP SENDING ME THESE!" and we'll do it for you while you get your rocks off using ALL CAPS at someone just doing their job, and who isn't SPAMing you in the first place.

But, then here was the kicker. A few came in for emails which are Want Agents. A Want Agent is something that you initiate. It's essentially when you tell our system what you want, and when the system gets what you want added to it, it emails you. You want a German pressing of Styx's Mr. Roboto on 7" vinyl? Well, we'll email you when someone adds it to our catalog. It's 100% requested by the user to be done AND you can email an address to remove the Agent, or do it on the website (as explained on the email itself).

I called AOL back. I explained that I'm a little concerned that people can actually REQUEST to get email, then mark it as SPAM, then collectively blacklist our site. The response was that when I get the emails from the feedback loop, I should remove those emails from whatever mailings are being sent. I said "Well, but the damage is done already.. they already reported the email, and you guys already counted it against us. I have no way to be pro-active." No answer. Then, I add "Plus, you guys strip the email address it's being sent to!" Which, they do. Luckily, I add it to the headers on the way out, so I do know the address. But, still stupid to tell me to remove addresses which they make efforts to strip out of feedback loop emails.

I think this is all pretty stupid. They allow their users (which, frankly, aren't the collective bright bulbs of the internet world) to effect companies in this way. There is obviously no quality control of what people are reporting. It's like the Wild West of SPAM reporting. We're not sending you emails on "V 1 A G 4 R /\" or selling you home loans. We're sending thing which you requested. And you say it's SPAM, likely hoping it will just filter into your SPAM box, but your moronic ISP uses the information to use against companies sending email.

It's total crap. They say you break the TOS, but they have no frikkin clue if you really did or not.

Oh, and Yahoo!.. don't get me started on Yahoo! You can't even call them! You have to email them, then they (at least from my experience) ask 100 questions and for "more information", even when you've outlined the situation pretty crystal clear with logs, sendmail sessions, examples, IPs, times, etc... Then, they don't help you and when you, a few weeks later, have the same issue and try to restart the dialog, they don't have your past email history and you have to start ALL OVER AGAIN!

Here's what you can do people. If you use AOL, don't. Get a real ISP for Christs sake. Comcast, Road Runner, Verizon.. whomever! The internet isn't hard to get around.. you don't need the Playskool look of AOL and their crappy service.

Thanks for listening.. AOL you and your email policies suck.

YouTube is the latest fad for everyone. Even myself. I've enjoyed it for some time now, but the fun is different these days. At first, I'd just watch funny stuff, or neat videos. But, now it's kind of fun watching people respond to other peoples videos. The drama that happens makes me laugh. Well, laugh in a sad way sometimes. Sad that I don't have so much time to waste that I can sit around and video myself responding to videos.

One thing I always hated about places like blogspot and livejournal is the drama that happened there. The thing is, you have to read it! On YouTube, you seeeee it! Much better media to see it than to just read what idiots have to say on their journals/blogs (me included).

Exabot has to be the rudest spider out there. They totally ignore robots.txt, actually they don't even seem to look for it. Then, they make requests CONSTANTLY for many pages per second. Rude, rude rude.

Exabot/Exalead.. you guys suck. Welcome to Deny.

They used to use 193.47.80.42 now they use 193.47.80.46, in case anyone wants to be pre-emptive.

Many people really like using CSS. I think it's good for some things, but when you depend on it for the format of the entire page/site, I think it sucks. Not every browser will like the same things, will render correctly or will always do as you expect. All browsers, however, will understand the standard table tags to make a table and obey the positioning. Not so with CSS which tiles things like a table.

After you finally get it all looking nice in IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc... by fiddling and putting in special rules, someone will email saying it looks like crap on their browser, and they don't want to upgrade it.

CSS is like salt. Using just enough to give some flavor is good, but add too much and you have to balance other spices to fix it.

NBC10.com - Local News - On Tape: Rep Won't Let Customer Quit AOL

Funny conversation of a guy trying to cancel his AOL account. If you've ever tried to cancel one (I did YEARS ago, like AOL 1.0 days) they really can make it difficult. This guys experience is probably more the norm.

You can also read about it in the guys blog.

Renting Movies With a Box and a Beam - New York Times

This is a $200 set-top box which allows you to rent ($4 new releases, $2 older ones) movies, and gives you 24 hours to watch them. It can give you up to 100 movies at a time.

I have a feeling this will be on one of those "Top 50 Stupid Products of 2006" lists. There are about 30 different ways right now to get movies from rental stores, movie channels, NetFlix, PPV, PPViD, etc... But, the companies say why they are better than these..

BLOCKBUSTER MovieBeam offers the same sorts of movies at the same prices — but you don't have to make two trips to the video store. You never have to pay late fees. And you never find that all the good movies have already been checked out for the weekend by 7 p.m. on Friday night.

Well, Blockbuster is already competing with the other ways to get movies. I don't think this will take people away from Blockbuster who still (for whatever reason) use Blockbuster. Blockbuster also has a mail service, and you can keep a movie for more than 24 hours.

NETFLIX DVD-by-mail services carry just about every movie ever released on DVD. You get to watch a lot of movies each month for a fixed monthly fee, and you can keep the movies for as long as you like with no late fees. But you may have to wait for weeks for your turn to check out the most popular movies. And your movie selection on a given night is limited to the three you've ordered ahead of time. With MovieBeam, you never declare yourself in the mood for a mindless Adam Sandler comedy, only to find that all you've got on hand are three World War II documentaries.

I don't find it takes weeks to get new releases. I also make sure my queue is a mix of different genre's so I'm NOT stuck with three WWII documentaries. And, if I were, I must have wanted to see them. As well, let's look at price. If you watch 3 DVDs each weekend, that's 12 movies for $20. With Moviebeam, lets say you watch 12 movies, half new ones and half new releases. That's $36 (not to mention the $200 for the box that will likely become outdated pretty quickly and that you only havd 24 hours to watch the movie). So, forgetting the $200, by the above estimate, you'd save $192 to use Netflix. Even if you upgraded to the 4-at-a-time plan, you'd be better off.

HBO After a movie finishes its run in theaters, it generally moves through the system in this sequence: hotels and airlines; home video (like Blockbuster); pay-per-view television; and finally, maybe nine months after the theatrical run, movie channels like HBO and Starz.

HBO sucks. Let's see.. it's a Friday. You'd think some cool movie would be on tonight at 8, right? Nope.. a Big Love marathon starts at 8. But, HBO Family has Footloose on at 8:45! HBO sucks. It's only good for The Sopranos, Big Love, Deadwood, Curb, etc...

Anyways.. I use Netflix for newer movies, and HBO for their original shows. When something I haven't seen, or haven't seen in a while, comes on I record it.

PAY-PER-VIEW Standard pay-per-view offers a very small selection, doesn't let you choose when to start the movie and doesn't offer any pause/rewind/replay features.

Right, and PPV is pretty much on its way out.. see below..

VIDEO-ON-DEMAND PAY-PER-VIEW This newfangled movie-delivery system is probably MovieBeam's biggest competitor. You can start a movie whenever you like, and even pause/rewind/replay it. Here again, though, the selection is very small, and upgrading to the necessary digital cable box can inflate your monthly cable bill by $10 or more.

I think the VoD stuff has a fairly decent selection. MovieBeam can say it has 100 movies, but maybe an average person will want to see 7 of them. I have a billion TV channels, but that doesn't mean there is anything on. I don't know how much extra I pay for a digital box. I don't think $10. And, I have an HD box and not sure if MovieBeam will be giving me my movies in HD like VoD does. Also, even if it does cost $10/month, that's 20 months before it would cost what the MovieBeam would have costed.

So, doesn't sound too appealing to me. All movies on it should be $2, and you should be able to watch them for up to a week (not 24 hours). That way, it would be $24 for those 12 movies, and I wouldn't HAVE to make sure I watch within a certain time period.

Since I've now decided to read the unsolicited poems sent to me, I'm wondering if I should make it a Podcast. Not sure why I would, aside just to do it.. but could be interesting. I'm also thinking of going back-in-time and doing readings for all the ones I've already posted. I have about 18 which I haven't posted yet. I guess it could just be fun for me to find myself on iTunes Music Store.

Have I mentioned lately that I love this thing? Well... I do!

I went to check out this MySpace place, since it seems to be the latest buzzsite of social networking until next months buzzsite on social networking.

The site really blows, so, I don't get it. Half the pages won't even load for me, because people seem to have 10000000 images, 2000000 media files and 7878787877 ways to butcher the English language.

The pages all look like absolute shit, and the "content" people have is embarassing at best. It's sort of like a clearinghouse for poorly designed blogs made by the slightly retarded and highly illiterate population.

Maybe it's not all like that, but what I saw it was. I just did some random looking around... but it looks like everyone and their dog is on there.

So, two days ago my Powerbook died on me. I'm not exactly sure what's wrong, but it's all messed up. So, last night I went to the Apple Store and got a new 2Ghz MacBook Pro.

This thing rocks. Getting all my software back kind of sucks, and is a pain, but in the long run, this will be a good thing. Better wireless reception, brighter screen, fast as hell, builtin iSight and generally nice and shiny.

So many real estate agents have absolutely horrible websites. Bad design, no features and can sometimes not find what you're looking for. I've been looking at some Vermont sites, and can't get a listing of just want I want. All I want to see are cabins, with electricity and a bathroom (as opposed to a 'camp' which is many times with no bathroom and only generator hookups).

Yeah yeah.. I know I'm building a new house and can't really get a cabin in Vermont right now. But, I can look! That's something I've always wanted. A nice getaway cabin in Vermont we can go use on weekens and holidays (and maybe rent at other times).

Before we moved to Florida we looked into doing this. Actually, we almost just moved to Vermont! But, we did see some nice place. I remember this one A-Frame house on 6 acres for $80k. Should have gotten it!

Apple MacBook Pro 'fastest Windows XP notebook' | Reg Hardware

Have I mentioned I want a MacBook Pro? I know my birthday isn't for some time now, but since nobody who regularly reads this got me squat for the past 33 years.. you should make up for it and get me one. Or, at least an iPod! Cheap bastards! ;-)

For the life of me I can't get the MT templates for my comment page to match the rest of the site. Starting to annoy me that it's not all cohesive. I'm missing "something".

I really hate Sybase. Nothing more, just that I really hate Sybase.

Every once in a while I get an "invite" from a friend to join some website for the privilege of viewing their photos (or reading their blog, etc...) I have yet to joing any of these things, becuase I simply don't need another account to remember I have, or remember the account info.

I remember, not too long ago, when people would simply post photos on their website. Either with an image gallery script, or simply uploading them to a directory. Then, all I had to do it bookmark a URL, and I'm done. Nice and easy. Not go through registering, opting out of newsletters, remembering the site info (yes, my browser could remember it for me), then logging in to view things when I want. That's a lot of hassle to look at photos. Especially, when it seems everyone uses different sites.

C'mon folks! Free your photos! Don't use sites which require people to get an account to see them. If you want to share your photos, share them.. don't hide them behind accounts. Let them be free!

Our All Powerfull cable company, which we also get digital phone service from, now gives us caller ID on our TV. So, no more picking up the phone to look at the caller ID and see I don't want to answer, I don't even have to look away from the TV to know I don't want to answer! w00t!

Kelly sent me a Flickr invite so I could see her photos. So, I follow the link only to find that they make you have a Yahoo! ID to sign up. I don't want a Yahoo! ID... I have enough IDs and accounts in my life that a Yahoo! one has no value to me. Plus, it seems like you need a Yahoo! one and THEN make a Flickr one.. so that's 2 accounts to view someones photos.

Pretty stupid.

I gotta say, I love getting surprise checks in the mail twice a year. Well, it's no surprise when they would come, just that they do! I thank all you Germans who bought my book over the last 6 months!

The must have opened a shipping center in Albany, since I now get my movies 2 days after I send them back in (send in on Monday, get back on Wednesday). Pretty awesome!

Now, if we could just watch The Aviator which has been sitting on the shelf for 6 weeks now.

There is a possability that part of the system I work on will go to Java. It's the "display layer" part of the system. Basically, the templating and customer facing stuff (JSP, most likely) while the rest of the system will stay Perl. Now, I'm not exactly close minded to bringing in new technologies and having a hybrid system if it makes sense to do. I know Perl isn't always the end-all be-all of e-commerce systems, and other technologies may have their place (aside PHP, I really don't like PHP.. and Cold Fusion).

I've had a few discussion with the person who thinks Java may be the thing to use for that layer of the system. His background his more of Java than Perl (which is somewhat new to him), so I'd figure there is a natural bias.. as there is with me. But, I have yet to hear of a concrete reason why Java would be better to use than Perl for this. Of course, we don't have any prototypes of something with Java and Perl to do benchmarks, yet. That sort of "proof is in the pudding" is very important to me. If Java were 2x faster, and used less system resources... then I'd think there is a benefit. If somehow Java is better for RAD (Rapid Application Development), then I'd think there is a benefit. But, I'm not sure how you could prove that anyways. The 'rapid' part really comes down to the programmers.

So, I've asked for reasons why Java would be better, not good, but better to use. I have yet to get a really good reason. Here is what I seem to get:

* It's more strict than Perl, so code will end up more clean and structured since you can better enforce things. I don't buy this one. First, I don't like a strict language.. I like a language to DWIM and DWIW. This was a reason for my early on hatred of PHP and Cold Fusion. I kept saying to myself "WHY CAN'T I DO XYZ?? ARGH!!" or "NO!! THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANTED!! ARGH!!" Plus, you can have ugly and unreadable code in ANY language. That all depends on the programmer(s) and the development process. If you have guidelines and peer reviews, code should mainly come out clean and maintainable (and documented.. gasp).

* There are more "tools" for Java. I'm a "vi(m)" guy. That's the only tool I use. I tweak it to do what I want for Perl, but, that's it. I don't use IDE's, I don't use anything fancy. I'm an old-school commandline text-based guy (I still use mutt for my email and vi(m) for all my editing). I figure the more tools there are for a language, the more difficult the language is to develop in in it's raw form. Are these tools a crutch for people? Take something like HTML for example. There was a time when we wrote HTML by hand, but now everyone and their dog uses FrontPage or Dreamweaver to write it. That's fine if it's just helping debug or fine tune, but not when you can't write HTML without it. Same thing here. There is a line where tools become a crutch. I can write Perl in vi(m), textpad, notepad, pico, emacs or any other plain text editor. The only other "tool" I may need is perltidy to make sure my personal style can be transformed into something others are good with. I have had Eclipse mentioned to me over and over. I did just find out it has a Perl plugin (EPIC) and I know the Eclipse folks want to add some native Perl support. So, that whole argument may go away. But, I'm not sure that "tools" is a reason to use a language over another.

I don't think there have been any other major reasons given to me. It ends up being a tit-for-tat thing. Why am I not trying to defend Perl in this? Well, the system is written in Perl already, and it's doing a fine job. It doesn't *need* to be replaced, altough some things can be re-written and re-architected within the process. I think it's more costly and risky to switch languages and move to a hybrid system, and there should be some good reasons to do so.

Has anyone had experience with both languages and has an opinion? Anyone worked for a company which moved from Java to Perl or Perl to Java? Would there be a benefit of Java over Perl in the display layer? (Speed aside, since benchmarks would be done)

I've notcied that over time, my journal has become less tech and more, er, less tech :-) I don't mentioned book tech reviews I'm doing, I don't mention coding things and don't much comment on IT things in general anymore. I'm not sure why. I think it has to do with tech/programming being such a large part of my life, that I one day started scaling back on it. Maybe a Geek Burnout Avoidance thing.

I'm not really sure which is more interesting.. or if anything I write is interesting. Then again, I'm not sure it's meant to be interesting. I'm not a "blogger", per se. I'm a person who uses his "blog" to journal. I actually use it to see what I was thinking/doing a year ago, two years ago, etc... I don't do it to change the world, or become blog-popular.

Anyways.. I think I will start talking a bit more tech again. Being that I'm pretty solitary in my work situation, I have no immediate avenue to talk geek, so I have to make this an outlet for that again.

Dilbert (JPEG Image, 750x544 pixels)

I think my Airport card is crapping out. Not getting reception downstairs, and not even in the same room as the base station, unless I'm 2 feet away. Unless there is some serious stuff flying in the air to disrupt it, I think it's crapping out.

I really didn't want to have to get a new laptop, yet.

The World According to Ballmer

Speaking to a packed auditorium at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., on May 12, Ballmer trumpeted the ripe opportunities around Microsoft's sprawling business and questioned the ability of Google (GOOG ) to maintain its edge. Clearly alluding to Microsoft's key Internet search rival, Ballmer said: "The hottest company right now -- the one nobody thinks can do any wrong -- may just be a one-hit wonder."

Yes, the "one-hit wonder". Let's see: web searching, video searching, catalogs (Froogle), directions/maps, Gmail, Adsense, News, image searching, groups, etc...

Talk about "fuzzy math". There is an old Abbot and Costello routine where Costello explains how 1 + 1 is 3 (or 7, I don't recall) which Ballmer must have learned his arithmatic from.

perl.com: Inside YAPC::NA 2005

I love it when my name is mentioned in things. I'm looking forward to YAPC this year, and finally made my hotel reservation this morning. Next.. to figure out how I'm getting up there! :-)

From IRC. I'm not actually sure when it was said.. when I went to that screen this morning I saw it, and it made me laugh:

Python has a bright future behind it.

I hate it when you submit a bug for a module on CPAN, then 8 months later the maintainer writes back saying it "works fine". Well, no, it doesn't. So, I had to respond with a full example of it not working "fine" this time. Maybe he'll fix it (could just use the solution I provided originally) in 8 more months. It's like he didn't even try it over the past 8 months. Not hard to do, or at least provide the code he saw it working with so I can see it working.

Just makes me annoyed. When I get bug reports, I get to 'em.

In either case, he could fix them but I still wouldn't use the latest version of the module. I've since hacked it to fix various bugs, and enhanced it in more ways. But, it should work for people who need to use the CPAN version.

I found two seperate local websites which both contained SQL injections. This was about a week ago. Being the nice guy I am, I emailed both companies. A week later, injections are still there. Idiots. These places must share a brain, since they are both in ASP, and both are injectable, and neither has fixed the problem yet.

A while back I found some security issues with a local online banking service. I contacted them by phone, since I'm a customer. Someone there actually sounded interested, but I never followed up to see if they made the changes needed. Not like I'd go public with my findings, unless I become a non-customer :-)

So, I think altering these people was a good deed. And, if they use the info to fix the problems, they'd be doing their jobs.

I'm not quite sure why fools fall for phishing scams, but they do. Have you ever read some of these emails? I just got this one, and if anyone falls for it, they kind of deserve it:

Dear Customer,

You have recieved this email, because you or someone else try to access your banking account
from different locations. For security purposes, our bank requerments are to open an
investigation in this matter. Our online banking system requered IP logging. When your
originate IP used with your account(s), linked in our online banking system is changed,
your account are open for investigation and limited, until the holder authorize his information
that we store on our secure servers. Please check your ISP (Internet Service Provider) settings
for proxy or masquerade your IP address. This could be unsafe for your banking with us.

To help speed up this investigation, please access the following link to be sure you are on
our secure webservers and authorize your banking account. After the authorization is
successful complete, your banking with us will continue to work as normal.

https://url.to.scam/

Please note: If we do not receive the appropriate account authorization within 48 hours,
then we will assume this Charter One banking account is fraudulent and will be suspended.
The purpose of this authorization is to ensure that your banking account has not been fraudulently used
and to combat the fraud from our community.

Charter One Securities, Inc.

Oh no! "someone else try to access" my account!! And since they "requered IP logging" and my "originate IP used with" my account is somehow different!

How do people fall for this crap? Why would people believe their bank would contact them via email for ANYTHING important? Banks have phone numbers, and would use them. But, these emails are sometimes fun to read.

It Pays To Read License Agreements

Do you read EULAs? This guy did and found a clause which got him $1,000 from the software vendor. In the EULA it stated that you would get "special consideration", including possible cash, if you emailed them to the address they stated. After 3,000 downloads of this freeware, this guy was the only one to email.

This shows how many people don't read EULAs. They are a pain in the ass. They are long, boring, and may possibly contain something you don't agree with. There is no TOC or search functionality in them. You can't search for "privacy" or "monitor" or "track" in them. Actually, that would be pretty helpful. I'd love to be able to search a EULAs text for certain words, instead of having to read them.

Do I read them? Sometimes I do. If it's freeware, I usually do. I'll at least give it a very close skimming. If I purchased it, I'll usually just skim. That's another problem with EULAs... if you purchased the software, and don't agree with it, you generally can't return it.

The HDD on the box upstairs finally took a dump. Of course, this happens the day before a snow day (last night). Since I have to work during the day, it's nice when Kyla can play some games on the computer.

Being the geek dad, I had a good temporary solution. Download an ISO to make a bootable CD of Linux. I chose SLAX, since the download size is small. All I really need to Konquerer so she can get on the web, and didn't need to wait for a 800M-ish Knoppix download.

Downloaded the ISO, burned it, slapped it in, and now she's online playing Barbie games.

Damn, sometimes I'm just such the problem solver.

Lose your password for your Time Warner internet account? Well, just go there and do something where they give you a receipt. It's printed right on it, with your username. Very nice.

I noticed this when we went to swap our cable box for a HD box. But, didn't actually try it out until today. Since, I never knew our login or password.

Why the hell would they do this? May as well just write it on a Post-It and hand it to the person. Then, when they throw that away, as they will with the receipt, it's still plainly available for any dumpster diver. The receipt wasn't even for anything internet related!

Plus, since it's on my yellow carbon copy, it's on the original. So, anyone who has access to the receipts in the office has access to your login information. This wouldn't matter for those who would have it anyways, but I'm sure some people there aren't supposed to have access to it. Say, ohhhh, the cleaning crew.

So, I hopped onto their online support chat thingy:

SteveW : hello
Kevin : Hi Steve
Kevin : Why are the username/password printed on receipts?
SteveW : this is for your record keeping
Kevin : But, isn't that a little bit of a security risk?
Kevin : It's on my receipt, and it was when I swapped my cable box for a HD one
Kevin : Not even RoadRunner related
SteveW : well we give the receipt to you
Kevin : Yes, the carbon of it
SteveW : correct
Kevin : But, the original is left in the office. With plain text username/password
Kevin : for anyone to see
Kevin : And, you are not told the info is on the receipt. Most people likely don't notice and just toss it.
Kevin : Seems like an uneeded security risk to people.
SteveW : well i can bring it to someones attention
Kevin : I'd appreciate that. I don't see the purpose of it being there. Username, maybe, password.. no.

Then I just got off, since he didn't seem to care. It's somehow for "record keeping". I don't know what it has to do with record keeping. Records should be kept based on your account number. Stupid.

My mom sent Kyla 'Zoo Tycoon' as a gift. So, last night I installed it for her. She didn't want me to help or do the tutorials... just wanted to go at it. I remember when I used to play Sim City (back in the day, when it came out) and how complicated it can be. But, Kyla has been computer savvy since age 3 or 4, and I knew she could probably figure out some of the basics.

I came downstairs for about 20 minutes, went back up and she already built a few exhibits. She made them a bit small (like 200^ft for 5 lions), but pretty good for 20 minutes of clicking around. My little geek in training :-)

The game is actually pretty awesome. The three of us were up pretty late playing it, together. When it got too late, I saved the game. At the time, we have a budget of $450k. When Kyla got up this morning, she went right into the office, turned on the game, and started playing. I was cleaning, so I didn't go bother yet. About an hour went by and we have breakfast, then I went up to play with her. She was -$33k. She didn't understand that when you build things, you pay for 'em :-) But, we have fun feeding small animals to the lions and tigers.

We started another zoo, and we were doing pretty darn good. I'm starting to get the hang of what needs what, what to buy, and how fast to expand. Kyla, on the other hand, just wants to add more animals. Suzy came home from work, so she started playing with Kyla. I was out of the room for maybe an hour, went upstairs and there was a -$22k budget! When I had left, it was $200k. I'm not sure who bankrupt the zoo (*cough*), but I know that Kyla wasn't the one sitting in the chair!

I think they are making a dinosaur zoo right now. I'll go check it out. One day I'll start my own and see how well I can get it to survive. Pretty fun.

Today I got a phishing scam email for Amazon. The target domain was hosted on Yahoo! The WHOIS info showed the tech contact as domain.tech@YAHOO-INC.COM, so that's one of the places I sent the email (as well as abuse@). So, YAHOO-INC.COM rejects the email because clamav detected a phishing scam in the email. Um.. no shit!

You cannot report the scam because the email containing the scam will be filtered because it contains a scam. Hopefully, abuse@ for yahoo and Amazon get it, and probably the many others reporting the same one.

I hope people are enjoying it right now. Pretty cool. Have a great view of it on the deck. I think the next one is in 2007 if you missed it.

Have you seen the new AOL ads on TV? Where they say:

"When a costomer has an idea to make the internet better, we listen and do it"

No you don't. I don't know that AOL has ever made the internet better in any way. And, these ads perpetuate the falicy to its customers that AOL *is* the internet. It's not. It's a bubble within the internet. This isn't exactly honest advertising. Honest advertising would be:

"When a customer has an idea to make our service better, we listen"

Giving a "report card" on what your child is doing is NOT improving the internet. It's an enhancement to the AOL service. And, the problem is I would be a decent percentage of AOL users actually still think AOL *is* the internet.

Suzy has agreed to get a flat screen. She still wasn't sure what they were last week, so we went over to Worst Buy so she can see. Once she saw them, she was like "I like these, we should get one". Ok, twist my arm! We then went over to a local place called Rex, which has better prices. They had some nice plasmas for a decent price ($2,100 for a 37"). But, I really don't want a plasma.. I want an LCD. They only had 30" LCDs. A Westinghouse (which I can find no real reviews about) and a Sharp Aquos. I think 30" may be too small, and really want a 37". The Aquos are really nice. What I like about them is they come with a seperate table-top box which makes all your connections. That way, you have fewer wires running up the wall. Great idea. The 37" is about $3,400 right now. Still a little more than I'd like to spend on a TV.

So, my plan is to wait for the upcomming holiday season. I'm sure there will be more price drops and sales. Maybe a good one will dip in the $2,200-$2,500 range. Doubt it, but you never know.

Anyone done good research on brands? I'm figuring the Sharp Aquos, Phillips, Sony or LG. Am I missing a good brand to look at? I'm sure there is some brand which is really one of the Big Boys under a different name.

It would be cool to be able to do call transfers from a cell phone to another phone, like a land-line. So when you're on the cell phone in the car, and come in the door.. you can just transfer the call to your home phone.. pick it up, and keep talking.

I like to forget USE_DSO=1 when installing Apache/mod_perl the first time. That way I get to do it twice!!! I loooooove watching it compile! *cough*

Looks like Time Warner updated the software on our DVRs. I noticed two new options. First, "Send to VCR". I'm sure I could Google for how to make that send to DVD-R, or grab output with a computer. But, makes getting a DVD burner more enticing.

The second one, I'm most excited about. I can now schedule recordings for a show, only in a certain timeslot. I'm soooo happy about this. Before, you had two ways to do this. First, record every occurence of a show. So if I want every Nip/Tuck, it would record EVERY Nip/Tuck. I'm lazy, and didn't enjoy deleting all the recordings I didn't want.. and there could be a lot when you record a lot of shows. The other way was to schedule a recording for a timeslot on a channel. But, in the playback menu it only shows "Scheduled Recording" instead of the show name which was recorded. Seeing 10 "Scheduled Recording" entries in the menu was sort of lame. But now... it seems to work more intuitively. Plus, makes recording anime much better.

Apple - iMac G5

Oh wow.. daddy like. Everything, including the G5, is the size of the monitor. Do I smell a G5 PowerBook coming?

Dear Santa...

Two folks seems to be having issues with TypeKey and my journal. It seems they log in, write the post, then when they submit they are asked to log in again. Kell seems to have no problems.. I haven't had a problem yet. Anyone else?

I'll see if I can figure something out..

I'm now requiring TypeKey based logins to post to this site. Why?

* Curb SPAM. I get a crapload of blogspam every day, and it's plain annoying to have to clean them out.
* Most people who post here, I could really care less if they do and they would probably be too lazy to register
* Those of you which I like posting here (Alan, Kell, Mr. Isle of Wight, Slow Grand Cherokee, etc...) would probably take the time to register and continue to post.
* I'm tired of the idiots I used to work with trying to bust my balls, in a pretty lame manner I might add. I doubt they will make accounts, and if they do I can easily ban them. If they continue to register, get banned, register, get banned, etc... then they are even more lame than I already think and really need to get a life.
* I feel like it :-)

Maybe later on I'll relax it and allow non-registered posts, but for now I think I'll try this out. If anyone has any issues with the site, feel free to comment or email me!

Perl Foundation Store | CafePress

Help support The Perl Foundation by buying something that says Perl and has an onion on it. You know you want to.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Steers Consumers Away From IE

I've said for years what the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team now says... don't use IE. If you haven't listened to me, or about every security person in the last 5 years.. maybe you'll listen to the gubment.

I connect to a VPN, and sometimes have an issue. When the VPN gets disconnected for some reason (not because I disconnected it), my default gateway route seems to change to something I don't want.

Here is what I have in my /etc/ppp/ip-up:

/sbin/route delete default ip.of.the.vpn
/sbin/route add default 192.168.1.1
/sbin/route add XXX.XXX.0.0 ip.of.the.vpn
/sbin/route add NN.NNN.0.0/16 ip.of.the.vpn

When I connect, this is fine. All my VPN traffic goes through the VPN, and uses all things VPN. And, when I connect to the rest of the world, it works fine. So, it's a split-tunnel.

And, my ip-down:

/sbin/route add XXX.XXX.0.0
/sbin/route delete NN.NNN.0.0/16
/sbin/route add default 192.168.1.1

When I disconnect by hand, this works fine. I could probably have nothing in this file, but do.

But, those random disconnects (and reconnect) seem to sometimes make my default gateway the ip.of.the.vpn. I don't notice until Adium suddenly disconnects, and I do a netstat to look at the routing table... then I have to run ip-up by hand.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Wired 12.07: Copy This Article & Win Quick Cash!

Remember the email that said Bill Gates would send you money if you forward it? Here's how it all started.

The HDD on the DVR finally took a crap this weekend. It started a few weeks ago where recorded or paused things would "skip" when being played back. This weekend, we couldn't record or playback anything. Called Time Warner, and they came today and replaced the box, and gave me a credit for the whole month of service for the DVR (only $5, but hey.. they offered it).

I'm glad I chose the DVR service from TW over a TiVo. Only $5/month for it, I have yet to record 50 hours of stuff, and if it breaks.. they come and give me a new one.

Thanks to Matt, I now have a Gmail account. Thanks Matt!

I set up a new website, Ez Buy Online which is a product feed over Amazon. Basically, you shop there and buy from Amazon. There is a posters section which has thousands of posters from another product feed. I also added Google Adsense ads to this site, and those (so click them dammit!).

I figured, I have done enough random jobs with people using sites like these, that I may as well do my own and try it out. Thanks to Amy and her hubby for the logo.

One fun thing that I did was take some of the cobwebs off my mod_rewrite-fu. I made almost all of the dynamic links of the the site (not the poster part) look like html files for better indexing. I don't need to do every single one, but will probably find some I didn't do and do them later.

Google War

Microsoft granted patent for double-click

Soon, Microsoft will probably patent the power button, a cable which transfers power from an outlet to a computer and air.

Hack this site! Test your skills on these hacking challenges!

I finally got around to checking this site out. It's a good diversion, and somewhat fun. It let's you (legally) work your way through trying to find exploits in different "sites" and applications. Since yesterday, here is what I have completed so far:

Realistic Missions
Level 1 complete
Level 2 complete
Level 3 complete
Level 4 complete
Level 5 complete
Level 6 complete
Level 7 complete
Level 8 complete

Basic Web Hacking
Level 1 complete
Level 2 complete
Level 3 complete
Level 4 complete
Level 5 complete
Level 6 complete
Level 7 complete
Level 8 complete
Level 9 complete

Application Challenges
Level 1 complete
Level 2 complete

It helps to have a basic knowlege of SQL, JavaScript and detective work.

Ok, being constantly joe-jobbed is one thing. Getting a crapload of subscribe/unsubscribe emails from mailing lists from them is another. But, this has now gone too far.

Your Confirmation is Needed for TheBackstreetBoys.com E-Mail List

IT pros make life difficult for IT companies - The Economic Times

Because of the amount of outsourcing to India, many of their folks want more wages, which make it less cheap. So, companies in India may have to outsource.

The Laporte Report: Comcast Fires TechTV Staff

I watched TechTV since it came on the air (it was called something other than TechTV, ZDTV or something). It was, once, a good channel to watch. Then, I started getting bored with it and stopped watching. Then I would watch some of the anime they started showing, then stopped that since there seemed to be a commercial every 30 seconds.

Then I stuck with The Screen Savers about every night, since sometimes they had good things on there. Then I got bored of that since I was tired of hearing how to overclock every other night, how many ways to mod a case, and what new MP3 player is out this week, as opposed to last week.. and began tired of the same old things being hashed and rehashed. I finally stopped watching the channel altogether.

So, I guess I don't really care about this :-) Sucks that people will be losing their jobs, and kind of sucks that the channel won't be there for those who found it useful. But, I look at it this way.. if cable were a la carte, I wouldn't buy it anyways.

NewsForge | Los Angeles LUG pres resigns over military Linux use

He can quit if he wants, but I think he reason about the military using Linux is sort of silly. The military uses cotton, paper, rubber, metal and a whole host of other things as well. I wouldn't stop wearing green because the military wears green. Same with anything doing with Linux. Even if you disagree with the war, Linux didn't start the war. It's a tool. Not only that, it's a free tool! I'd rather the gov't be using Linux (free) than Microsoft (not free, evil empire, crappy). I know the military uses Perl, but wouldn't stop using it or distance myself from any part of the community because of it. Even if I found out that Perl scripts were used to launch bombs.

I once turned down a job from a military contracting company, however. They basically wanted me to make the process of creating missle circuit boards faster. I thought to myself that it seemed like there are enough missles, and I didn't need to help them make more, faster. Not that there aren't things I wouldn't do for a military contractor, that was just one I didn't feel at the time was right for me. But, I didn't stop using Linux, Perl, shell or CAD (well, I don't use CAD) because they use these things to design and make the brains of a missle.

I like one of the comments under that article:

Did he resign in protest because China might be abusing human rights and they use Linux? Did he resign in protest because some nefarious criminal enterprise was using Linux to shake down little old ladies or murder other crime family members? Did he resign in protest because the movie industry uses Linux in render farms and they support the MPAA?

A9.com > Search Technologies

The "new" a9.com search engine, by Amazon (a9 is short for Amazon.com). It's a front-end to Google. But, the search results look like Alexa results.. which is another search engine owned by Amazon... which is powered by Google.

So the results on a9.com are provided by Google. Also by a9.com, which gets its results from Google and Alexa. And Alexa, which gets its results from Google.

Is this a front end to a front end of a front end? Why not just go to the horses mouth.. Google?

Microsoft Discloses Huge Number Of Windows Vulnerabilties > April 13, 2004

Only 14 of them here. And to think, people were chuckling that a single proof-of-concept trojan for OS X came out (who probably sat there reading about it on the Windows machines).

A few days I added a new procmail rule to get rid of anything that comes from mailer-daemon or postmaster, which isn't to one of the addresses I actually send email from and send them to /dev/null. Now I don't see all the joe-job bounces! Yay! This cuts down on excess of 300 emails per day I had to weed through. Now, I'm just back to the dribble of SPAM which beats my filters, but that's tolerable.

Added this to my ~/.screenrc

hardstatus alwayslastline '%-w%{.wB}%n %t%{-}%+w %=%{.w} %H: %l %{-}%d/%m %c'

Now I have a nicer, permanent, status bar on the bottom with the names of my windows, the current one a different color, server load and time.

It's a great night out. No moon, but got to see Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus in the telescope. Really cool stuff.

Wired News: OS X Trojan Horse Is a Nag

It doesn't do anything bad, isn't in the wild and doesn't self-proliferate. Basically, all experts say it is a proof-of-concept and not really an issue. Apple will surely fix the issue before anyone actually makes it a "real" trojan. The software company who originally announces it says it is a threat, but it isn't.

That's one good thing about Apple. When they know there is a risk, they are proactive to fix it. Unlike Microsoft which is generally reactive to security issues. This is probably why there isn't any actual trojans or virii for OS X, and new alerts weekly about Windows.

Moral of the story.. Intego is trying to alarm people to sell software, OS X is more secure than Windows will ever be, and Windows just plain ole blows.

Samsung LTN325W 32" LCD.. price $3,999 ($3,499 with rebate).

Samsung LTN325W 32" LCD.. price $2,628 ($2,599 with rebate).

Did I miss something? Why does Crutchfield charge so much more for the same TV? Crutchfield has free shipping for the TV, didn't see shipping rates on HardDrive.com... but they only seem to charge tax for Texas residents.. not sure about Crutchfield. MSRP seems to be at $3,999.

Seems like a decent price for a LCD TV, and Samsung is usually decent. I'm not sure I want a 32". The actual width is at 27" or so. Kinda wouldn't mind a 42".. but the price on HardDrive.com isn't bad.. and even the MSRP isn't bad for LCD.

Got some more blog-spam. As usual, I went to look at the WHOIS info for the site being advertised in the SPAM. Here is the owner:

East Coast Webs
Sean Lowery
9020 Watchlight Ct
Columbia, MD 21045
US
+1.4107721059

His email address is sales@eastcoastwebs.com

I guess since he has people spamming blogs for a domain he owns, and mine was spammed.. I can post his contact info (which is available in WHOIS). His email address was hidden... but I emailed that address.. he emailed me back.. and now I have his address.

The IP the SPAM came from was 64.91.228.145, and the sites were for "Levitra" and "Cialis".

ICANN Reports On WHOIS Inaccuracies

A problem with WHOIS info is that people don't leave correct or full information. I use my real address, but won't leave my phone number. There is no reason for any schmoe who WHOIS' a domain I own to have my number. And I don't need the data being mined and my number added to telemarketing lists. But, a valid mailing address isn't too bad. Unless there is some stalker out there.

Hmmm... I guess I'm torn on this issue :-) I hate it when people use these WHOIS protection services. They are usually spammers or fraudsters and use it so you can't find them and the law can't find them (as the article states).

On one hand, I don't like that I can't find info on spammers and joe-jobbers to harass them. On the other hand, I don't like my personal info being out there for any lunatic to see so easily. I guess it isn't bad if the registrar hides your info, but gives a complaint address in the WHOIS. A registrar should have valid info on file. But, when should they then be obliged to give that info up? If I send them an email which is SPAM to their site (or from their server), should they provide me with contact info so I can take my own actions due to the CAN-SPAM Act?

Any opinions on this?

I sometimes send comments to Bill O'Reilly, as I am a regular viewers and usually agree with him. Today I got a "thanks for writing" email, with "Sincerely, Bill O'Reilly" at the bottom. But, the header says the sender was a "Christina Carneal"... I assume an assistant. I was momentarily excited to think Bill actually took the time to respond, until I looked at the header. Damn my geekiness and looking at these things! Ignorance would have been bliss!

Playing around with an Amazon product feed script. Fetches thing from Amazon, gets the results in XML and displays things. Actually, it's somewhat faster than Amazon itself.

Check it out.. and buy something :-)

Last week I wanted to log into my Verio control panel so I could transfer some domains to another registrar. I'm a domain registration only account with them. This means, that since I'm not hosted, I have to access my control panel from an IP address. There was my.verio.com, which let you put your domain name in, and it would send you to the right IP/box to log in. It was very useful. As you notice, I'm speaking of it in the past-tense. It is now anti-helpful.

It now redirects you to another page under the support site. This page tells you how to log in. It tells you to either, a) Go to domain.com/stats/, or b) use the IP address from your activation notice. But, it doesn't say to do this for domreg only account, just if you are a new activation. But, I know it would be the IP for a domreg account as well. So, I dug out a close to 4 year old activation email. I'm probably one of the few people who keeps these things for that long. No IP address given in it... it only tells me to go to my.verio.com. (You must understand recursion to understand recursion)

Ok, no problem! There are two handy boxes on the side of the page. One is labeled "Control Panel Access". Perfect! This should have the same functionality that my.verio.com did.. or take me somewhere which does.. right? Wrong. It opens a window going to domain.com/stats/ ... again not very useful. The other box is "Password Recovery". Maybe this will do something fancy schmancy. Nope, it just opens domain.com/cgi-bin/sendpass. Well, again, since domain.com isn't hosted there, it no workie workie.

I did some searching around, and really found nothing saying how a domreg only account can access their control panel. If it's there, it must be fairly well hidden, or I'm blind. Ultimately, I had to open up a support ticket for this. I explained all this, and suggested that they re-add the old my.verio.com functionality since it was actually useful. Lord knows not everyone who registers with Verio hosts with Verio.

After some hours (I don't think it was over 24) I got a reply back from support. It was a name I didn't recognize, so maybe he's new or didn't work in Boca, or I just never saw his name. He was responding "In regards to your phone call earlier today". Ok, so I didn't actually make a phone call, and he quoted much of my email above that statement.. but phone calls and emails are basically interchangeable so I'll let that slide. After he "researched" my issue, he found I needed to use a certain "Universal Resource Locator (URL)" to access my control panel, and gave me that "Universal Resource Locator (URL)".

Then, he gave me a URL to submit any suggestions I may have. I guess the original suggestion I had wasn't good enough, and I should do it twice. I knew tech support people who would actually take issues from one support case and *gasp* open another one! Nope, I have to do this one myself. So, I did send my suggestion using the suggestion form. Since I'm not an OEM or partner, it will probably not do anything unless there is a deluge of suggestions for this.

The tech support response then continues on telling me to go to a certain support URL (the main support site) to find info about problems I may encounter. So, I went there.. thinking maybe I missed something. Lo and behold, in a box labeled "Top FAQs" an entry is "How do I access my Control Panel?" This must have the info to my original problem I encountered!! Well, no.. it just took me back to the original page I started from. At least I went full circle!

It doesn't stop there. The tech support guy, gave me an article number to enter on that page (ves40001). Since this guy spent all that time "researching" my issue, he must have found some good information for me! After all, he's a tech support rep!! So, I enter it into the search box, and there was a single result entitled "How do I access my Control Panel?" I clicked on it, and yes... as you guessed.. I ended up RIGHT WHERE I STARTED! Now, I've done a full figure eight!

The rest of the email was pretty boiler plated. Now, the tech "support" guy did give me the right IP, so that was helpful. But, it seems like he didn't even read my email or try to do what I did (go to my.verio.com, and click the link) since he redirected me right back to the same page I said was useless.

I'm still not sure why the my.verio.com functionality was removed. They should really add it back somewhere.

Your Sky

We noticed a really bright star, obviously a planet, in the sky. Was wondering what it is. Found the site linked above. I believe it is Venus based on it's position to Orion, and brightness.

Google Local Search

Google now lets you search for things locally around you. It's in Beta.

I really hate that. I basically have the SPAM I see to an absolute tolerable minimum.. but someone(s) keeps joe jobbing me. If you don't know what a Joe Job is, it's when someone uses your email address (or random email addresses to my domain, in this case) as the From/Reply-To in the headers of their SPAM. So, it looks like the SPAM comes from you. What's worse (because I'd have to assume that people who actually get the SPAM are properly filtering it based on the content) is I get all the bounces. This happened a while ago (which I posted about), and it was pretty quiet for a while. But, over the last few days I've been getting about 200-300 bounces a day. I can imagine the number of emails not bouncing! There really isn't much of a recourse. I have tracked down a few open relays in .tw and .cn, but my emails to their admins are unanswered (they don't care). All I can think of doing is /dev/null'ing mail from postmaster@ or MAILER-DAEMON@ so I don't see the bounces. Right now, it seems to be a joe job advertising cigaretesstore.net. They, of course, have no contact info on their site. And, their registrar (RegisterFly) is protecting their WHOIS info (which will bring about a later rant at some time).

So, if you happen to get spam which looks like it's from my domain, it isn't. I don't SPAM (and if I did, I wouldn't put my domain in the headers!). If you happen to know who is behind some of these, let me know. I'll buy us both some steel toe boots for the ass-kicking.

CNN.com - Gates: Buy stamps to send e-mail - Mar. 5, 2004

I wasn't surprised that Gates would think having to pay for emails would somehow curb SPAM. The two ways mentioned to "pay" is either with money, or with time.. where you would have to solve a puzzle or something before sending an email. The money or time, they say, would curb spammers.

Bad idea.

Why? Well, nobody wants to pay for email! In a sense, many people do. We pay for our internet service, and people may be paying for bandwidth or space used to send/store email. Also, it's just stupid. Even if it costs a penny per email, it could add up. Who would pay for emails sent from a mailing list? One email to a list of 1000 sends 1000 emails. I wouldn't spend $10.00 to answer someones Perl question and those hosting the list wouldn't spend it either. But, a spammer would probably spend $10.00 to send a single email to their own mailing list, which just sends out to 1000 spam victims.

Anyways.. bad idea and I doubt would ever happen.

"Back in the early '90s, there were e-mail systems that charged you 10 cents a message," said John Levine, an anti-spam advocate. "And they are all dead.

Got three Bagle.J emails this morning. I wonder how many people fall for it. It's amusing, thought, when it comes to yourself, from yourself, on a domain which only you use. If I did have users on my domain, the "Cheers" may throw them off, since I always use "Cheers" in my own emails.

-------------
From rlie7@hotkey.net.au Fri Mar 5 04:48:49 2004
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 09:45:40 +0000
To: evin@ANOTHERDOMAINIOWN.com
Subject: Email account utilization warning.
From: support@ANOTHERDOMAINIOWN.com

[-- Attachment #1 --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 0.4K --]

Dear user of ANOTHERDOMAINIOWN.com gateway e-mail server,

Our antivirus software has detected a large ammount of viruses outgoing
from your email account, you may use our free anti-virus tool to clean up
your computer software.

For details see the attached file.

Cheers,
The ANOTHERDOMAINIOWN.com team http://www.ANOTHERDOMAINIOWN.com

[-- Attachment #2: Attach.pif --]
[-- Type: application/octet-stream, Encoding: base64, Size: 16K --]

[-- application/octet-stream is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]
--------

perl.com: Exegesis 7 [Feb. 27, 2004]

Text formatting for Perl 6.

FreeSBIE - Free System Burned In Economy

What is FreeSBIE? Simply: a live system on CD, or an operating system that is able to load directly from a bootable CD, without any installation process, without any hard disk. It's based on the FreeBSD operating system.

Basically, like Gnoppix, but based on BSD. Looks interesting.

I wrote a script to check for available domains from a dictionary. I found these two results amusing:

BUTTWOOD.com Available
STINKWOOD.com Available

I really surprised these aren't anal pr0n sites. But, maybe they will be soon after I have mentioned it :-)

I have a bunch of folder-hooks so when I reply to email from different folders, it is "from" a different email address than others, and uses different sigs or no sig. But, I still like all my sent mail going to sent-mail. But, because I changed my headers in various folders, when I send mail from those folders my display wouldn't show the To in my sent-mail, as it should... instead it showed me. That's not very useful :-) Finally, got off my butt to do something and came up with this:

folder-hook sent-mail 'set index_format="%3C %Z %[%b %d %I:%M] %-22.22t (%3l) %s"'
folder-hook !sent-mail 'set index_format = "%4C %Z %{%b %d %I:%M} %-15.15F (%4l) %s"'

Now it shows how I sent the email To, no matter what folder. Not sure exactly why it wasn't before, but... whatever :-)

I went to record something this morning and it wouldn't save that I wanted it to record. Since I was calling TW to switch back to HBO anyways, I figured I'd ask about it. They just said "Something is wrong with the save function and we are working on it."

But, they didn't say (or tell me) what the problem was. This made me wonder how this works. I would have thought the software on the DVR saves record time/info on it locally. I'm not sure what it stores elsewhere where there would be a breakdown anywhere aside my unit. I thought there was a DB of some sort on it which has a channel/date/time entry and sort of a cron which checks the time/date and just starts recording a channel (or channels) when the time/date matches.

Now, I just wonder how it works. Research time!

I have the DVR from Time Warner. It's cheaper to have it than a TiVO (it will take me years of having it to even what a Series 2 and lifetime membership equal out to), and I'm not stuck with it and have no memberships attached to the device itself. Basically, cheaper to have.

One gripe about it is that you can't specify to record all of a certain show at a certain time. I record a fair amount of anime. Usually, something is shown at, say, midnight... then again at 3am. There is no single way for me to tell the DVR that I want to record "all showings of Witch Hunter Robin that starts at midnight"... although the interface leads to you think you can. You can't. This has always left me with 3 choices; a) record them all and delete the duplicates, or b) every day set it to record for that night, or c) go through the menu and set it individually for many nights at one time.

Kind of lame, but a small price to pay for not spending $500+ or whatever it is these days for TiVO and lifetime membership. Today I called TW because I was switching back to HBO from the True Lies station... I mean Cinemax... since Sopranos is starting, Curb Your Enthusiasm is on, and Six Feet Under will be on soon. So I told the woman on the phone I wanted to make the suggestion that they fix this issue. She was nice and understanding and kept trying to explain to me how to sit there and do each individually. I kept saying I know that, but it's sort of silly. I want to say "record this program, or channel, at this time every time it is on at this time and not any other time".

She said she would bring it up at a meeting. I hope she does, since that's my only real gripe about the system. Oh, my other gripe is that you can't record the iControl channels when you order a movie. I'm not sure if it's a software limitation (since you can pause the movie, there are no real time boundaries for the showing), or because it's not on a cable channel. But, not a huge deal since you get iControl movies for 24 hours.

MySQL Administrator Downloads

I hope someone makes a native OS X version of this. Or, it will compile and run under X on OS X.

Being the host and maintainer for a bars website sure is nice. Not much beats getting free Guinness and Speckled Hen when I stop in. I always want to pay, but they never take my money.

A good way to possibly stop some of the spreading of worms would be to scan emails before they are bounced. If an email to someone@domain.com contains a worm, but someone@domain.com doesn't exist, the mail server will return a 5xx code and the message will be bounced to who is in the From. If that email is a valid one, then the postmaster could be helping to spread the worm or SPAM message. Spammers and worm authors could, and likely do, use this tactic to spread their nonsense. Before sending the bounce, have it scanned for a virus/worm/SPAM and not send the bounce. This could also help cut down on internet bogging since only a single email will be sent instead of 2 for every time this tactic is being used.

Really, what's the use of sending a bounce to someone saying "your email looks like SPAM" or "your email contains a virus"? If it is SPAM or a virus, just cut it out of circulation!

I already knew this, but Kyla affirmed it. I'm wearing my "Geek By Nature" shirt, and Kyla comes up to me and reads it to me.. "Geek By Nature" while pointing to the words. She then says "You're a geek!", and I reply "Yes, yes I am."

From the mouthes of babes.

Studies on Linux help their patron: Microsoft

In some 'independent' studies which favored in Microsofts favor with Windows vs. Linux, the studies were conducted "at the request of Microsoft," "commissioned by Microsoft" or "prepared under contract from Microsoft." Yet, M$ says they are independent studies. WRONG. You can't pay for a study in any way and say it is independent. That gives bias to a study and therefore makes it moot.

But, M$ says the studies are independent because the companies are independent and use their own methodologies. This is kin to looking at a car companies paid-for crash tests and using their super-safety rating and ignoring gov't or Consumer Reports crash tests which say they aren't as safe.

"But, the people who paid for it say it's true.. so it must be!"


[-] frodo =IN.saratoga (threads) [71/666K] [N=0,*=0,post=0,new=0]


666!!! IT'S EVIL!!!!

Symantec Security Response - W32.Beagle.A@mm

This is sort of amusing. I got one of the Beagle emails, sent to a unpublished address I used for paypal, from another unpublished addresses I used for paypal on another domain. The email originated from host-216-76-200-86.bhm.bellsouth.net, which must be a machine which harvests paypal addresses (which people do, since that's where much spam goes to, and you don't even need to have used paypal with that address) and has them in the addressbook. How/why it was spoofed from one of my addresses to another is odd.

Anyways, luckily I don't use Windows.. and if I did I wouldn't be such a stupid moron to click on the attachment.

I like the name Bagel for this better, which is the name I first heard yesterday morning when the Russians were getting hit hard. Guess the beagel ate the bagle *cough*.

MikeRoweSoft Design

Microsoft is suing this 17 year old, whos name is Mike Rowe, because of the domain name and identity name he uses for his part-time web design business.. MikeRoweSoft.

This is so damn stupid. The kids name is Mike Rowe. Is the name Microsoft supposed to keep him from using his own name in a identity just because it sounds like theirs? They would probably also sue him if it was MikeRoweSoftware, or MikeRowDesigns. Microsoft doesn't even do web design. What a crock.

Microsoft should take the money they spend trying to sue 17 year olds and fix their insecure and buggy software.

This always happens to me. I can't seem to write (well, type) any word with a "per" in it without first typing "perl". In fact, I did it with the "per" I just typed in that last sentence. Common typos: "perlson", "perl" (as in: per your email), "perlm" and whatever else I happen to type which contains "per". I'm constantly hitting my backspace to get rid of the 'l', and thinking "Man, I need to stop that", to just do it again.

I'd assume this doesn't happen with people who do other languages. Not many words contain "java" or "php". A lot of words contain "C", but people probably don't typo with adding a ++. "I c++ant c++ome to the meeting" probably doesn't occur often.

Today I got both an eBay spoof email, and a CitiBank phishing email. These two types of emails are closely related, except phishing emails (which I hate the term since I like Phish!) use a flaw in IE to further trick people.

Spoof emails are fairly common. I get them every so often. They use the http://something@domain.com/ formating. For example, the one I got today:

http://cgi3.ebay.com@cgin.info/eBayISAPI.dll?&MfcISAPICommand=EnterConfirm&UsingSSL=0&pUserId=&ru=445&ap=0&dz=1

It looks like you are going to be sent to an eBay server, but really it goes to cgin.info. Most non-savvy people can easily be fooled by this. They may not even pay attention to the URL since they may use a GUI email reader like Outlook. They click, and the spoofer has a page which looks exactly like the real thing.. and people submit personal info or account info without thinking twice.

The phishing email is slightly different. It uses a non-printing character, %01, before the @ sign. IE (on Windows, not on Mac OS X) will not display anything after it. So, instead of using http://www.citibank.com@attacker.com/ the format of http://www.citibank.com%01@attacker.com/ can be used. When it's clicked, it will display www.citibank.com in the address bar. For example,
Click Here

People need to beware of these emails. If you don't understand email headers, you should at least inspect the URL you are clicking. If it is in the format of:

http://www.somewhere.com@domain.com or http://www.somewhere.com:something@domain.com/ you probably don't need to go there.

I've been getting more and more attachments lately from clients. This is making mutt a little more of a pain to use. I use mutt on my remote server, which is what fetches email (via fetchmail) from various remote servers I have accounts on. I like this since I get all my mail at one place, and I can connect from anywhere and read my email (I never have to close mutt.. it's always within a screen session).

But, I'd like to be able to read my email (and delete/move it) from Mail.app, but without changing anything on my other server (since it has been fine for years). I'm guessing I should put IMAP on my server, and see if I can setup my folders on there as my IMAP mail folders, and hope Mail.app can just mirror what's there. Then, when I get an attachment, I can just fire up Mail.app to save it locally instead of doing it the more geeky way I do now.

Any thoughts? I don't want to migrate to Mail.app, I just want to use to see my mail folders as they are now. SpamAssassin works nice on my server, and don't want to configure new SPAM software, GPG works nice on my server, and don't feel like having to mess with that again either. I suppose I can filter all my email into a single folder on my server (after SPAM filtering), then grab it all from there and put it into folders locally on Mail.app.. but then I'd end up maintaining 2 sets of folders. Decisions, decisions.

Or, I can just keep doing what I do now :-)

CNN.com - New anti-spam laws fail to bite - Jan. 12, 2004

Hate to say "I told you so" (well, that's not true.. I like saying that).. but "I told you so".

I got 2 SPAMs from a US company which violate the law the other day. Now what? I have to report them to who? The attroney general of NY and FL (where the company is from)? How? Where? I couldn't even find a place to report violations. This is why punative damages are needed, so I can use my own attorney. Worthless laws. Gore could have done a better law.. after all, he invented the internet!

Logarithmic Maps of the Universe (J. R. Gott)

Princeton astronomers have made a map of the observable universe. Pretty interesting. At the bottom is the Earth, and it extends upward to the almost where the Big Band is thought to have happened. What's interesting is seeing where our artificial satellites are compared to the rest of the Universe. Our great conquest of space! If you look up a little past Neptune, you can see Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and Pioneer 10 still trucking along. You can also see the Sloan Great Wall and CfA Great Wall comprising of over 13,000 galaxies.

When you see something like this, it really hits home how egocentric people can be thinking that we are the only life in the universe.

Been thinking that a plasma or LCD TV would look nice above the fireplace. I'd wait for the prices to come down later this year (I'd rather have an LCD), but have been wondering about installation. The fireplace is on the East wall. My surround sound outlet comes out of the North wall (where the TV is now).

So, does someone have to start running wires through the wall to get these properly installed on the wall? I'd assume power needs to be run up to where the set will be, and to where it would plug into the stereo for the surround. Is my logic wrong? Seems like a lot of install work to have one mounted on the wall (unless mounted right above an outlet). When I see these mounted on TV, I see no wires (and have seen them above fireplaces).. so I'm not sure having to have hundreds of dollars of install done is worth it.

Having one on the North wall wouldn't be bad, but I'd like to rearrange my furniture so the sofa goes on that wall... which is why above the fireplace would be nice (also because the 2 focal points of the room would be together).

Anyone have one? Anyone know what's involved in the wall mounting.. wiring wise?

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - NASA Rover Lands on Mars, Signals Earth

Rover lands on Mars.. Osama bin Laden still at large.

New Worm Spreads Via MSN Messenger

So far, no too widespread or harmful. But, I like pointing out when MS products are causing issues. The worm itself may not be too bad, but it sure could be.

Do a lot of people use MSN messenger? I use AOL's IM service (via Adium), personally. I always figured AIM and Yahoo! Messenger are most popular.

Oh, and ICQ.. which I don't care for.

These are such a great thing. Great when there are short power outages and I don't need to restart my home server. But, I loved it today as there was a scheduled power outage since there was an upgrade on our high voltage lines. At 9am when the power went out I heard the beeping of my UPS. 30 minutes later, the power went on but my server never went down.

YAMAHA MOTOR - Paper Craft:Rare Animals of Japan

I decided to try one of these paper crafts. I used to do oragami, and this seemed easier. WRONG! I chose the Owl, printed everything out, cut out all the parts, got my glue. I'm basically stuck on the wings. I have the owl body done, but the wings are confusing me. Take a look at the direction.. there are arrows everywhere. It seems like it all glues to itself, but makes no sense!

Maybe I'll try the turtle.

I'll let you in on a secret. Google's translation service and systran don't hide your IP (208.55.254.110).

On this day in 1987 Perl was unleashed unto the world. Happy 16th Perl! If you forgot to get her a gift, you can donate to The Perl Foundation.

CNN.com - Bush signs anti-spam bill - Dec. 16, 2003

Basically, Bush just made SPAM legal. People don't want it to be legal, people want to stop getting it.

* People can just use offshore companies to send SPAM (many do already)

* You can't prohibit or legislate SPAM sent from other countries.

* The bill uses an opt-out approach, as opposed to a better opt-in approach. Now spammers can just send you SPAM and keep sending it unless you tell them to stop. Of course, we all know that opting out just lets them know the email address is valid, and valid email addresses are sold more than Russian women.

* The bill makes sure that SPAM contains certain things to be legal. Such as an accurate subject line, and certain info in the SPAM itself. If the SPAM has these elements then it is Government Approved Grade A SPAM. A spammer can send your mail system a million pieces of SPAM, clogging your customer inboxes and using your resources. Too bad, no legal recourse since it is legal. Want off the list? Go opt-out. Opted out? Watch yourself just get more SPAM.

* 37 states already have anti-spam legislation. This law supersedes it. California and Deleware only allow SPAM to people who have opted in to get it. Sorry, you don't have to opt-in anymore. California also allowed for people to sue offenders. No more, since the federal law supersedes this and doesn't allow for this.

* The internet is global, which the US gov't seems to forget. When a EU based, or Canadian business sends SPAM it can't be legislated. They can continue to send SPAM as they always have.. using open proxies, with subject like "Remember last night?" which contains kiddie porn info, no valid return email addresses or opt-out info. Remember, the US also bans online gambling businesses. They are all offshore, booming with income and out of the reach of legal recourse from the US gov't.

* If the SPAM is sent by company A for product XYZ, and you opt-out of email for product XYZ, will this stop company A from sending you SPAM about product ABC? Or, from their subcontractors from sending you email from XYZ?

I could go on with why it won't cut the amount of SPAM you get (which should be the real purpose of the law), and the legal questions the wording of bits of the law doesn't answer. For example, the "Sender" of a message is defined, in part, as "...a person who initiates such a message and whose product, service, or Internet Web site is advertised or promoted by the message..." Who is really the sender? See the "and" in there? If you make widgets, and people resell your widgets and SPAM using your branding to do so.. who is the sender? A parent company should be able to prevent their products from being sold via SPAM.

The wide range of opinion is that this bill won't cut SPAM in your inbox and won't really help the battle against it. And, I agree... since it won't. I think the only things I really like in the bill is that SPAM can't be sent via open relays. Also that it bans harvesting emails and directory service attacks.. but of course, how can you prove the spammers did this? I'm not even sure the bill prevents me from harvesting emails, then selling them to spammers. The spammers didn't do the harvesting, they just purchased a list of email addresses. But, even with these, since SPAM is now legal, they have no reason to do so. Just make sure the SPAM follows the rules, and send them all you want.

This is going to be a nightmare for IT managers and server admins. And SPAM will continue to flow freely and legally from within the US and not dent the offshore SPAM business. One of the other sad things is that people will probably hooray for Bush for signing this in without ever have reading it or researching the issues with it.

Since I like watching the local radar, I made a page to show the current radar, and one from Dec 5. Also made a little script which fetches and displays my local weather conditions. I also added a link in the Other Links section to it for easy access.

CNN.com - Microsoft to cut swastikas from software - Dec. 12, 2003

Office included the "Bookshelf Symbol 7" font, which includes a swatstika. Microsoft is going to provide a tool to remove it. No tools for removing security holes and bugs have been announced.

Hitler really ruined the swatstika, which has been around for centuries.

I've written "Cheers" at the bottom of my emails since about '95 or '96. I was thinking that in '04 I should maybe have a change. Any suggestions? I was thinking of "Regards", or maybe nothing.. just 'Kevin'. Or, keeping 'Cheers', since over all this time my fingers are so used to typing it (yes, I type it every time.. it's not part of my auto-generated sig.. my random quotes are).

Although I don't work there anymore, I'm still a customer of Verio. So, I get their announcements and whatnot. Today I got one about MyVerio. Bunch of "improvements", and KeyChain access to accounts, etc... So, I logged into my usual Control Panel... nothing was different. Same menus, same look (and lack of look on most of the pages) as it always has been. So, I went to the Verio home page and saw the MyVerio link. I registered to check it out. I basically wanted to see if this is new stuff to replace the old control panel, or basically a portal type thing.

So, I log in and go to the KeyChain. I put in the info for my account. Then, used it to log in. All it does is redirect you to http://username:pass@domain.com/stats/. Well, since my main account is a domreg only account, this was useless since it sent me to the /stats/ directory on a box not hosted at Verio. That's some amazing logic going on behind the scenes!! Too bad this sort of information isn't stored in a database somewhere so these types of things can be known to the system. Oh wait.. it is stored in a DB somewhere. Nevermind.

Well, the email that was sent had a URL at the bottom to send comments/suggestions/etc.... I went to it so I could say "Hey! It doesn't send you to your control panel if you are a domreg account! And you seem to have no info at all on the site to be able to do this." Maybe on the KeyChain config page it could say "This won't work for these types of accounts...." But, alas, the URL which was in the email just gave an internal server error. Niiiiiice. Maybe one day whomever runs that server will learn how to have ISEs be a little more useful (*cough* ErrorDocument *cough*).

Since this is all written in Cold Fusion, I know my old group didn't create it. They probably don't even know about it. There wouldn't be any collaboration between groups to make sure something like the KeyChain would work for all accounts.. or at least identify the ones it won't work correctly for. Having front-ends, products and UI somewhat work together would be ETOOHARD.

In the email, it speaks of changes to "Domain Central". You can look up domains based on a keyword, play "domain roulette" and see recently deleted domains. Oh, and register multiple domains at the same time. Ok! Now we're talkin! I went to the Domain Manager in my control panel and saw you can register multiple domains from there. I don't recall if that was there before. Not a hard thing to do (simple form changes, some loops, etc...). But, didn't see the things which are *really* useful like keywords and seeing deleted domains. That stuff is handy. So, I clicked a link in the domain manager which took me somewhere else and saw a Domain Central image. Ah! There it is! So, it's not actually integrated into the real control panel. You seem to have to use another interface to do these nifty things, then either register externally to your control panel, or then use the Domain Manager in the control panel. My head is spinning!!

It would really be nice for Verio to get some cohesion between their products and services. The new look of the website is nice, but there is still a lame look to much of the shared hosting control panel. Although one thing is written in Perl (shared control panel), another in Cold Fusion (MyVerio) and another in PHP (Domain Central) doesn't mean they can't somehow work together and resemble the work of a single company.

Now, don't think I'm saying all this because I used to work there. I left on my own, and like most of the people there. If I really wanted to share dirty laundry about Verio, I could. But, choose not to because it wouldn't do anyone any good. However, I am technically a "customer" and would critique like this for any company I am a customer for. If their link worked, I would have told them about it. But, it didn't.. so I'm telling you :-) I also use web.com for some domains. Their interface also sucks (OpenSRS), but they have $7/year registrations.

Anyways. I hope the fix that URL, and can bring some of these useful features into the shared hosting control panel. It would probably server the customers better and help the company be more profitable.

I mentioned a few days ago all the crap that's on the Windows box. After cleaning it all, it's basically all Gator spyware crap. The thing is, Kyla is the one who mainly uses that computer. A 5 year old. After cleaning all the Gator crap out, no one used the computer aside her (and me, to make sure all the Gator crap was gone). After she was on the computer for a while, I went up to find a crapload of popups, a Date Manager installed and Precision Time installed (all Gator spyware).

Of course, silently installing software on my computer would be equivalent to hacking. So, I assume there were pop ups prompting Kyla to install software, which I actually saw a few. Of course, being 5, she probably just clicks "Yes" thinking she should for some reason.

Here is my pondering. A 5 year old can't agree to a license agreement. You can't enter into a contract with a minor. A 5 year old can't read a EULA. A 5 year old can't read a Privacy Statement. Essentially, by them prompting her with the pop-up they are entering an agreement with a 5 year old. From their EULA:

Ownership; All Users of This Computer Bound. You represent and warrant that you are the owner of the computer and that you have authorized the download and installation of the GAIN AdServer and GAIN-Supported Software, or that the owner of the computer has authorized you to do so. You agree, with respect to all other users of the computer that you have caused the GAIN AdServer and GAIN-Supported Software to reside, to (i) provide a copy of the GPI Privacy Statement and End User License Agreement; and (ii) to obtain their consent to same before allowing them to use the computer to view Web sites on the Internet. Alternatively, if you have the legal right to accept this Agreement on behalf of one or more users of the computer that you have caused the GAIN AdServer and GAIN-Supported Software to reside, then you hereby accept this Agreement on behalf of all such other users. Also, you agree not to use the GAIN AdServer, or GAIN-Supported Software, in a manner prohibited by law, or in violation of any contractual provision by which you are bound. You agree to comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations in your use of the GAIN AdServer and GAIN-Supported Software.

A 5 year old certainly can't enter into this agreement. But apparently she did by clicking "yes" on a pop-up she didn't ask to see.

oluntary Software and Right to Remove. You understand and agree that the presence of any GAIN-Supported Software on any computer is voluntary and that you may remove any of them from your computer at any time.

A 5 year old can't agree to that either.

Privacy Statement and Other Policies. You agree to be bound by and comply with the GAIN Publishing Privacy Statement applicable to any Licensed Materials, the privacy statements applicable to third party GAIN-Supported Software, and any other policies governing the use of Licensed Materials for which, as appropriate, you have accepted via a click-thru agreement; or have been provided notice.

A 5 year old doesn't know they are seeing the agreement.. or how to not agree to it.

I'm the owner of the computer, and I didn't agree to their license terms. The agreement was entered into by a 5 year old. Are these license agreements similar to other contracts which you must be an adult to enter into? I didn't agree to have their software installed... a 5 year old did. See what I'm getting at here?

Anyone know the laws of such situations? I only know you can't enter into a contract with a minor, but doesn't know if EULAs are the same.

Yahoo! News - California Police Arrest Man in Bank PC Theft

A man stole a laptop from a Well Fargo employee. They caught him after he used the laptop to log onto his own AOL account. They were able to track him because AOL had the persons home address.

Moral of the story.. if you steal a laptop, change your hardware or connect to AOL via a router so your MAC address isn't sent.

Or, just don't steal laptops :-)

The Opte Project

Nice full color maps of the internet.

CNN.com - 'Master' and 'slave' computer labels unacceptable, officials say - Nov. 26, 2003

Lord, this is so stupid. From the article:

The request -- which has some suppliers furious and others busy re-labeling components -- came after an unidentified worker spotted a videotape machine carrying devices labeled "master" and "slave" and filed a discrimination complaint with the county's Office of Affirmative Action Compliance.

DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT!?!? The person who complained about this should be slapped around with a hose. The terms "master" and "slave" have been industry standards for years. I'm not quite sure why anyone would be offended by the use of these terms on electronic items. Sounds like someone is overly P.C. and looking for a lawsuit to me. There doesn't seem like there will be a ban on the terms, and companies are just being asked to use other labeling ("primary" and "secondary" or the like). I hope they don't cave in and do it, it's pretty damn stupid. People are too damn sensitive. I would be passive agressive and relabel things as "Owner" and "Indentured".

I wonder when someone will tell the BD&SM community to stop calling eachother "master" and "slave".

Congress poised for antispam vote | CNET News.com

Well, I guess it's a start. I'm not totally happy with it because it leans towards opting out, as opposed to opting in. I really dislike it when you have to say you don't want to get something. If I want something from you, I'll tell you. It seems that the FTC will be having a Do Not SPAM list, much like the Do Not Call list. Of course, I'll sign up for that.

Some of the measures in the bill make sense (look near the bottom of the article). Not forging headers, can't harvest addresses from the web, needs a valid mailing address in it, can't use open relays, etc...

Of course, this won't stop SPAM. I'm not sure it will even curb SPAM. The FTC is "Federal", not "global"... so it will only apply to spammers in the US. And, you know people will continue to go through open relays and contain forged header info. If you can't find them, you can't fine them. Who will be fined anyways? The spammer, or the person hiring them to do "bulk emailing"? If a US company hires a company in Canada to send the mailings, the Canadian company isn't bound by US regulations.

I'm not sure of the wording of the bill. I'm a little nervous if this is the Feds controlling how people use email (in a sense). I'm hoping the wording is really adding a federal regulation to corporations on how they do marketing, rather than how mass mailers send the emails. Companies should be regulated to not be able to market via email with companies, or themselves, when they use these practices.

I guess it is a step in the right direction, and I'll be interested if it has more of an impact than I think it will.

The Fedora

Red Hat is trying to trademark the name of Fedora for their Fedora Project. Since 1998, Cornell University and University of Virginia have been working on the open source Fedora Project. Different software, same name. Red Hat has so far refused to stop the trademark application for the name, as requested by the two universities.

This really isn't all that interesting, but I think it *could* be interesting, depending on what Red Hat decides to do. I'd call it "Top Hat Project", or "Ten Gallon Hat Project" or something else.. and just accept that someone else is using the name.

Last night my power adaptor went poof. Literally, it went *poof* with a tiny bit of smoke. The coating near the part that plugs into the back was getting worn, and wasn't making a good connection. This was going on for a few days. Last night I put my laptop down on the ottoman (since the sofa is my office right now, and the ottoman is my desk) and I saw a small poof of smoke come from the cord. It totally separated.

Luckily there is a Mac store in Latham (30 or so minutes south), so I went down there and got a new one. $89!! Yeesh. Although, that's the same price as the Apple store, I'd think maybe $50. I would have gone to the Apple Store in Albany, but I had Kyla with me and my trips to the Apple Store can be lengthly.

Luckily, the PowerBook is fine :-)

NASA - Lunar Eclipse

Nice clear night.. saw the huge full moon, and watched (not all at once, of course) it completely eclipse from my back porch. Very cool.

NEWS.com.au | Arrest over 'Nigerian' email scam (October 31, 2003)

Finally, I hear of an arrest with this scam. They tracked down 1.5 million bucks scammed by this guy. What's really sad is there are enough dopes out there for 1.5 million to be gathered by one of these scammers.

By the way, my uncle Ungawaw Matumba Wagaoogie has some money tied up in his Kenyan homeland. I also have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

The geomagnetic storms that have been happing made an amazing aurora this evening. I was out walking Jazmine at 7pm and noticed some pink in the sky. I though "It's way too late for and remnant of sunset", then I looked straight up into the sky. What I saw was amazing. It was a huge circle in the middle of the sky radiating pink and red all around it, and streaking out through the sky.

I just sat there, looking up in awe at the beauty. It started to dissipate after a few minutes, and I went back to the house to have Kyla step outside. She saw some of the sky was pink, say "cool" and went back inside. It eventually turned different parts of the sky into pink colors, and basically vanished. When I saw it at the "peak" it was simply amazing to see.

I saw the aurora once before, years ago, in CT. It was nothing like this. I always considered that time one of the coolest things in my life, now I can add another!

(sorry you were in your cube Alan)

See you later, anti-Gators? | CNET News.com

The spyware, Gator, is forcing people who call it spyware, which it is, to remove the term and call it adware, instead of spyware (which it is).

Let's see. No one intentionally installs Gator. Have you ever heard someone say "HEY!! I NEED MORE POP-UPS!! I THINK I'LL INSTALL GATOR!!" Um... no.

Hmmmm.. Gator spies on you while you surf, and is software. Spies.. spy... software... ware.

Spy    ware
Spy   ware
Spy  ware
Spy ware
Spyware

Let's just call a spade a spade here. If Gator doesn't want people to refer to them as spyware, then don't be spyware!

Why is Guinness black yet the bubbles are white?

Link says it all. Why does the best beer on Earth have white bubbles, even though the sweet nectar itself is black?

The Bongo Project

TCP/IP via bongos. Pinging never sounded so good.

CNN.com - Makers of Kazaa suing record labels - Sep. 24, 2003

No, Kazaa is suring the RIAA. Hope the win!

Last night I was helping someone out over IM. He is a "windows person" who was having problems getting Apache, proftpd and permissions for users worked out. The box was behind a firewall, so I couldn't connect to do it for him.

It was like teaching a blind man to play chess over the telephone.

COMPAQ Support Library

So.. where is that "Any" key, anyways?

ICANN | Advisory | 19 September 2003

If you haven't heard, or haven't mis-typed in a domain name lately, you may not know about Verisgns new SiteFinder implementation. Basically, it is a wildcard zone system which will display their own generated content for requested domains that are not registered, are registered but not active, and restricted domains.

For example, click here. This hasn't been to popular with most people. I know if I had a registered, but unused, domain I wouldn't want Verisign hijacking it and displaying anything.

Hopefully, they will voluntarily stop this.. it's just not needed.

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - RIAA Files Lawsuits Against File Sharers

Nothing new in the article, aside more lawsuites being filed. My favorite line is this:

In June, the industry announced that it would target hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files, hoping to cripple online piracy by suing fans

Makes sense, right? People don't speed ever again after getting a speeding ticket. No one gets drunk again after having a bad hangover. No one remarries after getting divorced. Criminals never return to jail after doing time. Yes, suing the fans will really teach them a lesson! That'll get 'em! And, after they pony up thousands of dollars to the RIAA they will all run right out and purchase CDs!! I know that if I were sued by a company, I would take whatever money I have left and go buy their products! Sounds like Hollywood logic to me!

Anyways, since the RIAA started it's crusade, record sales have still not increased even though users of P2P systems has dropped. Maybe I'll make a nice pie chart for the execs to explain that to them in pretty colors and shapes. People don't buy music like they used to because most of it sucks (as I have said before), it's too expensive, the economy sucks as a whole, and people simply would rather spend an extra $20 on... oh, I don't know... silly things like food, clothing and gas.

My check for contributing to, and 2 free copies of Games Diversions & Perl Culture came. Way cool. Good to see my name and words in another book. Of course, I'd prefer people buy my book if they have money to spend on a book :-)

WCCO: Suspected 'Blaster' Is Busted

18 year old who wrote the Blaster.B worm was arrested. I wonder if people have, or will, file civil suites against worm/virus writers when they are caught. Of course, many are probably like this kid who only has $3 in his bank account.

(from cnn.com)

"It's an exciting time to be involved in digital software," Gates said during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club at the Cobo Center.

And I was all excited about all the analog software! Now, where did I leave those punch-cards....

color attachment brightmagenta black  
color error brightwhite red   # errors yell at you in red
color hdrdefault red black   # headers
color indicator brightyellow magenta # currently selected message
color markers brightcyan black  # the + for wrapped pager lines
color message brightcyan black  # informational messages, not mail
color normal white black    # plain text
color quoted green black  # quoted text
color search brightgreen black # hilite search patterns in the pager
color signature red black    # signature (after "-- ") is red 
color status brightyellow blue # status bar is yellow *on blue*   
color tilde blue black  # ~'s after message body
color tree red black    # thread tree in index menu is magenta
color signature brightred black
color underline yellow black
color header cyan black ^(From|Subject): # Important headers
color body magenta black "(ftp|http)://[^ ]+"  # picks up URLs
color body magenta black [-a-z_0-9.]+@[-a-z_0-9.]+ 

#  Coloring quoted text - coloring the first 7 levels:
color quoted    cyan black
color quoted1   yellow black
color quoted2   red black
color quoted3   green black
color quoted4   cyan black
color quoted5   yellow black
color quoted6   red black
color quoted7   green black

#  Colorize smileys:  :-)  ;-)  :-/  :-(
color body  yellow black "[;:]-[)/(|]"
color body  yellow black "[;:][)/(|]"
color body  green black "[[:alpha:]]\+://[^ ]*"

color index brightyellow black ~N      # New
color index yellow black ~O              # Old
color index magenta black ~F
color index blue black ~T
color index red black ~D

Not only is adding the colors to quoting great, but now seeing bright yellow colored new email, red for deleted and non-bright yellow for old messages is a nicer visual cue to what's there. Not sure why I didn't do this much earlier! The coloring of smilies was just for fun.

One of the new words in the OED is 'Perl'.

Perl. noun [mass noun].
Computing. a high-level programming language used especially for applications running on the World Wide Web.
ORIGIN 1980s: respelling of PEARL, arbitrarily chosen for its positive connotations.

I wonder when it will be a valid Scrabble word!

Taxing computer connections? - 2003-08-25 - Orlando Business Journal

Looks like the state of Florida wants to tax LANs and WANs. A 9% tax... 9% of what, I don't know.

The proposed rule pushes the definition of communications systems to include local area networks, or LANs, as well as wide area networks, or WANs, which connect computers across distances. Practically any office with two computers will have a local area network.

...

That brings them under the purview of the proposed rule, which includes computer networks as "substitute communications systems" -- subject to a 9.17 percent state tax, plus local option taxes.

Next to be taxed by an unknown state... a tax on the blinking LED lights.

Microsoft Windows: Insecure by Design (TechNews.com)

Much of what is said in this article I agree with. Of course, much of it is a fact. XP comes with ports open which it shouldn't, while OS X and Linux do not. XP's firewall is the most difficult to set up then OS X and Linux. XP gives admin access by default, which Linux and OS X makes you create a user account to use. In fact, on OS X you have to enable the 'root' account to use it (otherwise you use sudo).

Is it insecure by design though? Maybe not. It's just insecure, and shipped to non-geeky people with insecure settings, and the geeky people have to find out which settings are insecure. Maybe Windows *users* are insecure by design!

Anyways, my favorite quote from this article is:

...Windows XP on the Internet amounts to a car parked in a bad part of town, with the doors unlocked, the key in the ignition and a Post-It note on the dashboard saying, "Please don't steal this."

Yahoo! News - Microsoft Is Using Linux To Protect Its Own Web Site

From German Mirror site.. it's still English, just not as bogged down as the US site.

Apple - Power Mac G5

I keep looking at it, and I do want one. I also want a 17" PowerBook (I love my 15", but want the 17"). When I get into the house I'll be having a home office, since I'm now working from home. So, it will be write-off heaven! By reading IRS docs I see I can write off part of my mortgage, power, heat, etc... for the portion of my home which is my office. Of course, I can also write off computer equipment for the office.

One thing I'd like to do if only work in the office. This would be a way to train myself to separate "work time" and "play time" on the computer. of course, I'll take advantage of my wireless (like I do now) and work outside, or on the couch... but really want to separate things.

Of course, we'll see what happens. But, I expect I'll still be on my 15" working in the office and around the house.

Tech News - CNET.com

Article is titled "Rockin' on without Microsoft". Story of Ernie Ball and how his company has moved away from Microsoft.

I don't want to poke fun at Billy Gates or MS here. Since some mental midgets things I do that to be cool. Ok... I can't resist... MS products will slowly be leaving the workplace and home offices. More will be moving to Mac and Linux as has been happening.

SecurityFocus HOME Columnists: The Sad Tale of a Security Whistleblower

This is the story of a guy who disclosed a security vulnerabilty to those it affected... and went to jail for it. The feds say it is because it is dissemenating information ".. that can be used by others to impair the integrity of a computer system". Well, duh! And it is usually just that reason why people fix their software... someone disseminated info that it is exploitable.

This guy may have gone about it in the wrong way, but I don't think he should have gone to jail for this. I've reported security holes, as well as many of my ilk. And, software is now better because it was done.

This case happens to be that he alerted the users of the software directly, since the company which owns the software didn't fix the issue when reported.

The Scout Walker Kama Sutra

You like Star Wars... you like sex... put them together and you have Scout Walker Kama Sutra! This site is safe for work, but could raise a lot of questions from the younger Star Wars fans!

Network interface - EhBASIC driver

Remember BASIC? Back in the day everyones computer had a BASIC interpreter... and we all knew some BASIC to make the computer do things. This is the BASIC source code for a 6502-based Ethernet web server. Here are some screenshots of pages being served from a BASIC webserver on a microprocessor (1 MHz 6502 CPU).

CNN.com - Warnings did little to stop internet worm - Aug. 13, 2003

I'm not always sure why corporations get hit by these worms when patches are available. Is it clueless sys admins? Lazy sysadmins? Bad management? Bad security officer? It isn't very hard to monitor new exploits. I do it, and I update my software accordingly. I have an IDS so I know what people are trying to do on my box, and I have a firewall. I'm probably not unlike many people who have the job of keeping corp. systems secure... I keep personal things as up to date as possible. But, why do the corp. machines get left behind? I know I generally pay more attention to remote exploits than local ones. Since I know I am local, and if someone else becomes local, then it was because of a remote exploit.

From the article:

Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall acknowledged that the blame does not really lie with customers.

"Ultimately, it's a flaw in our software," he said.

So, is Microsloth saying it is their fault completely? If so, then they should be sued for damages. Of course, if it came to court, the spin would change to "It isn't our fault, we had a patch available for over a month. It is the customers fault." I think both are true. I think MS is at fault for not providing secure software.. ever. They have a terrible track record where security is concerned. It's not like once in a while they are like "oopsie", there are generally multiple Windows or MS product vulnerabilties each week. And, it is the consumers fault as well for not keeping up to date. When Apple has a security update, I use it. It isn't hard for Windows folks to do the same. Once or twice a week, check for updates. Not hard. When you see the oil light in your car on, you go get an oil change. If you don't, your dumb. But, when it comes to corporations, there is little excuse for it not happening in a timely manner. There should be a person or two on staff to monitor security issues, and implement the patches in a timely fashion. If a corporation was hit by this worm this past week, their security guys should be fired and replaced... they had a month to prepare and I'm curious as to why they didn't.

RoboSweep

Someone took apart a Robosweep to see how it worked. Pretty simple.

I saw one of these on QVC the other night for like $199. They had it running while they talked about it. In 10 minutes I think I saw it clean 3 square feet. Not very impressive if you ask me. Plus you'll have to still vacuum your own stairs. Anyone own one of these? Seems like a novelty to me.

Primate Programming(tm) Inc

If you thought there were a lot of baboons in Redmons already, just wait until Gates reads about this!

BBC NEWS | Technology | Stopping the pop-swappers

Interesting article. Shows some figures that not only has music sales dropped (which we all know because of the evil RIAA), but also the pirated CDs on the market has increased. So, file-swapping may not be the cause of all the RIAA woes. Of course, the RIAA is a bully and it is easier to bully 17 year olds then it is to bully organized crime.

Let's see.. why else could music sales have dropped:

* Much new music sucks ass, and people don't want to buy sucky ass music.

* There are newer trends which help teens "define" who they are. Dressing like you live in the ghetto tells people more about yourself than listeing to ghetto music. Cell phones, cell phone accessories are big now. Car mods. Etc...

* CD burning is in about every home. So, just like we used to make copies of tapes for friends, we do that with CDs.

* Much new music sucks ass.

* The economy isn't great.. wages aren't great for many, many are unemployed and don't want to spend their non-surplus of cash on sucky ass music.

* Music innovation is all but dead. Most rappers are a dime a dozen and sounds like eachother. Most "new rock" bands sounds exactly the same.. low scratchy, whispering singer with lame guitar riffs behind them. Rock N Roll is basically dead.

* Radio station choices. Satallite radio aside, there seem to be more radio stations with a good variety of music. Radio is free, and usually plays the "good" songs from artists.

* Most new music sucks ass.

Of course, the RIAA thinks it is all because of file swapping. We know they are wrong because it is a combination of all these things, not any one of these things. Sure, P2P systems has played a part in this. I'd be moronic to say it hasn't. But, the RIAA going after P2Pers to solve their problems is barking up only a small tree in their forest of problems.

Cracking Windows passwords in seconds | CNET News.com

Says it all... yet people don't switch.

CNN.com - Kinko's spy case: Risks of renting PCs - Jul. 23, 2003

So, this guy installed keystroke logging software in about 14 Kinkos. So, people who went to Kinkos to do things like BANK TRANSACTIONS were also giving this guy their login info. For Christs sake people, don't use public terminals for sensitive things. Do some research, look at porn, play games... but don't log into your bank account or connect to your home PC. Basically, don't do things which need a username/password.

I remember I was once staying at a hotel, and used their public terminal in the lobby. I started poking around the filesystem and noticed that the software they used kept userid/passwords for email accounts in a plain text file. It was a few years ago, and don't recall the software. I told the people at the front desk... not sure if they did anything.

I come to find out that my dad (an AOL user, for now) wasn't getting my emails. So, I look in my mail queue (mailq) on my server and notice my emails to AOL are being refused. So, I telnet into port 25 on one of the rejecting MX hosts. It blocks Road Runners dynamic IPs. Really nice, eh? I guess they do it to help prevent SPAM (although, they should worry about their own customer sending it, then getting it if you ask me).

So, I had to make my local postfix use a relayhost to send mail now. I don't really like that, as now my sending of email relies on someone else, rather than me. I know when my box is up and running! And, since my email client (mutt) only sends email locally to be sent, I had to do this (as far as I know, at least. Maybe someone has a hack).

Now I need to see if postfix can only do a relayhost when sending to an AOL address. Seems kinda lame to have to use an remote SMTP server for ALL email when I only need it for 2 people... until my dad switches to Road Runner. If anyone knows how to make either mutt or postfix use a relayhost dynamically, please let me know.

Boston Globe Online / Nation | World / BC, MIT decline to name students in music-use case

I'm glad someone isn't afraid to stand up to the RIAA. They may be doing it to avoid lawsuites from students, and not for other reasons... but it's nice to see someone giving an initial "screw you".

Finally took a few minutes to set up printing from my PowerBook to the printer off of Suzy's Windows box. I never really needed to print from home before since, well, I had a printer at the office. But, now I do. Thanks to OS X and CUPS.. printing just fine and dandy (at least my test pages).

Yay CUPS.. Yay OS X!

CNN.com - Report: Hackers abusing Cisco flaw - Jul. 18, 2003

In other news.. chickens laying eggs.

Record industry sends out subpoenas | CNET News.com

It is now just safer to allow your friends to backup their music on your computer. Even I won't use any P2P systems right now in case the RIAA Nazi's come to my door.

Telly: The Entertainment Computer

This looks interesting. A Linux based home entertainment computer. Will do the things that Windows® XP Media Center Edition does, as well as act as a DVR with a subscription free TV program guide. Nice GUI, included DVD/CD-RW, is expandable and is currently $899. I'll wait for more reviews.. but for only a few hundred more than a TiVo 80 hour box, with more out-of-the-box (don't have to hack on it) features, it could be cool.

Anyone have it? Or want to send me one to try out? :-)

I was just looking at the usage stats for my site for this month. And noticed a few hundred page views from n00.bcrtfl01.us.wh.nameservers.net which is from my old office. Also a few dozen from *.pbc.adelphia.net and other Palm Beach locations. It's interesting that people who didn't talk to me in person seem to look at my site so much. I get a lot of visitors each month (which is interesting in itself.. upwards of 60-80k unique page views), and these are a small percentage of that. But still.. if you didn't care to talk to me in person (or IM, which is almost in-person these day), stop being a voyeur.

Reminds me of another topic.. I was going to post a "Year of Journaling" post (although I am not over a year at it) to mention things which I find interesting about this medium. Also, why I started doing it, why I keep doing it, what I have learned from doing it, etc... I guess I should do that :-) Would be nice to record those things.

Ok.. it's in my queue! :-)

CNN.com - Program hijacks PCs to send porn ads - Jul. 14, 2003

Notice the title doesn't say "Program hijacks computers", or "Program hijacks Macs" or "Program hijacks Linux based systems".

CBS News | Americans Abroad To Vote Online | July 12, 2003 16:33:54

According to this article:

Voters using SERVE can register to vote and cast their ballots from any computer using Microsoft Windows with Internet access.

That's sort of lame. Why would anyone need Windows to vote online? I sure hope that this system later supports Mac and the various Linux and BSD variants.

All I know is that if any voting system is Windows based, it will be more insecure than a butterfly ballot in Florida.

So, still using it. So far, it seems to meet my needs. It looks like it does decent memory management. A new tab seems to take about 6MB of memory, and when you close them, the memory actually comes back.. unlike Mozilla or Camino. Some of the javascript stuff doesn't always seem to work right. My Moveable Type bookmarklet doesn't work with Safari, which is a bummer. Also, there isn't any password integration with the Keychain like in Camino. So, I am re-entering things in as I go. Sort of sucks. There may be a plugin app that will do it, but it should be built in.

I'll keep using it and hope that the things it lacks, or doesn't do quite right, will soon be fixed in some updates.

So, since 1.0 of Safari is out, I'm giving it a whirl. I have been using Camino, but Safari seems to use less memory so I'll give it a whirl. I imported all my bookmarks last night and will use it exclusively for the next week to see if it meets my need. So far, so good aside a small thing or two which don't look the same as in Camino.

ABCNEWS.com : Record Industry Targets Teen Programmer

The RIAA is out of control. They should be stopped.

Been having a few summer blackouts lately. Glad I have a UPS so my server doesn't go down!

RSG-X10-1

Wireless video sniffing... sounds like fun for when I have some spare time!

"SBC Communications "Frames" On-line Sellers By Seeking Royalties For Patent Covering Internet Frames"

I'm not allowed to say what I want about this, because it is SBC. One day I will tell you why... but I'm sure you can guess. Just read the article.

This story is interesting. Someone goes to a M$ event where they give them software on CDs. The software comes with no license. The CDs say on them "UNLICENSED SOFTWARE - Illegal without separate license from Microsoft". So, they give the software which says you need a license, but don't provide the license... so using the software would be illegal. The guy emails them about it... not all solved yet. Pretty interesting to me. I'll follow it to see how it ends up.

Larry has completed Apocalypse 6, which deals with subroutines for Perl 6. Long read.

This site is kinda fun. Plays 20 questions to guess what you are thinking of. I was thinking of an artichoke, and it got it after 11 questions. The site was a little slow, but fun.

Can you stump it?

If you recall, last May Jim Allchin (group VP for platforms at Microsoft) testified to the fact that releasing the source code to Windows would harm national security, and could hurt the war effort.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the national security is also implicated by the efforts of hackers to break into computing networks," Allchin testified. "Computers, including many running Windows operating systems, are used throughout the United States Department of Defense and by the armed forces of the United States in Afghanistan and elsewhere."

But, now Microsoft signed a deal with the Chinese Government to give them the source code to Windows. China has been moving to using Linux, because it can audit the source code for security issues. Now, it seems MS will give them (THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT!!) the Windows source so they can audit the code and hopefully not use Linux.

So, Allchin stated, under oath, that giving up the source code would be a threat to our national security. So, was Allchin lying? If he isn't lying, then isn't it being a little treasonous by giving the source code to a foreign country? Either way, it seems like Allchin should be charged with purgery, or MS should be charged with treason.

Bad mojo, Microsoft.

CDR-Info, The Recording Authority

This is kinda cool. A CDR-ROM combines CD-R and CD-ROM so that a portion of the CD can be written on, and the rest can be stamped. CDs and CD-ROMs which you would normally purchase in the store are stamped (an impression of grooves is made on them), and your CD burner actually burns information onto the media. The CDR-ROM allows both. So, for example, AOL could stamp their 'intall' stuff on to a portion of the disk, then instead of it being thrown out when you get it in your mail, you can burn data onto the rest of the disk. Of course, AOL likely wouldn't do such a thing since their CD-ROMs are free, and people would surely grab as many as they can :)

But, within a few years CD-Rs and CD-RWs will likely be obsolete anyways since DVD burners are becoming less expensive. About 6 months ago DVD-R media would cost about $20-$30, now it is around an average of $3/disk. In another 6 months, they will likely be around $1 and the cost of external and internal DVD writers should cost what a CD burner costs now. At that point, why would you ever use a CD-R again?

[iSONEWS]

isonews.com is now owned by the Feds because the owner(s) were violating the DMCA by selling mod chips. I disagree with this, and the DMCA. I feel that if you make a product, and I purchase it, I own it and can do whatever I wish. But, the Feds see it differently. The site owner(s) sold mod chips for the X Box, so that pirated games could be played on it by circumventing the built-in security protections.

I think it would be ok if the case was for selling pirated copies of X Box games, or providing pirated copies. But, since someone owns the X Box, it is their property and should be allowed to modify it HOWEVER they wish. And, someone should be allowed to sell products to do these mods. There is no harm in having a mod chip, the harm would be in obtaining and using a pirated game.

Since the X Box has done pretty poorly in the market, you'd think Microsoft would like that it is modded... maybe more people would buy it!

Microsoft WinXP Update spies on other PC software

We should all know that Microsoft is basically evil by now. Here is another way. The Inquirer (not The National Inquierer) points to a story on a German website (links to it, first few pages are in English and free) about when a user uses the Windows XP Update facility, information not-related to the update is sent back to Microsoft. Information like ALL the software you have installed... not just Microsoft products. Interesting read, not very surprising though.

SpamAssassin: Welcome to SpamAssassin

I've been using SpamAssassin now since the beginning of August of last year. After I found the various things it marks as SPAM but really aren't (like AOL email from my mom in ALL CAPS), and either made seperate procmail rules for these, or altered the SpamAssassin configurations, I have virtually no false positives.

They are filtered into my SPAM folder, and I'd say that there are less than 2% false-positives. I could probably start sending things to /dev/null now, but won't. I do send emails with a rating higher than 6 right to /dev/null and never see them (my threshold for SPAM is a rating of 3).

If you don't use SpamAssassin, you should. If you aren't a geek and depend on your ISP, you should lobby them to install it. Over the last 7 months, after some tweaking, less than 1% of SPAM makes it to my inbox (maybe 1 or 2 a week, versus hundreds). Very nice.

Overheard someone talking about "high level" and "low level" ASCII and mentioning how Kanji is "high level" ASCII. Made me chuckle since a) there is no such thing as "high level" and "low level" ASCII, and b) Kanji is a set of glyphs (like Katakana and Hiragana), not a character encoding. Shift_JIS is a character encoding, and ISO-2022-JP is a character encoding. One of which uses single byte characters in the EXTENDED ASCII character sets. Oh, and c) this was all being said to a technical Japanese person.

Just gave me a chuckle since I had to learn way more about Japanese glyphs and character sets in general than any person should have to know. Sort of like a carpenter hearing someone to use a socket wrench to hammer a nail into balsa wood.

I wonder if バカ is "high level" ASCII...

NP: Dr. Horner's Classic Jazz Corner

As I was transferring some MP3s from my PowerBook to my FreeBSD box I decided to poke around the PowerBook for any files I can get rid of. I decided to look in the /Library and ~/Library folders. In the Caches folder I noticed the 'MS Internet Cache' folder and went inside. I saw 3 10MB files (IE Cache.waf, and two other .waf files). Turns out that IE takes the size you say to save for a cache (10MB was the default) and creates files of that size. It doesn't do the nice thing and STOP growing the cache at the chosen size, instead it just wastes space. I immediately deleted these file (especially since I use Chimera, and only have IE for "it works on IE" thing for work).

Then, more poking around showed a 202MB file in an IE Cache folder named 'Downloads Cache'. Another big waste of space. So, I download stuff and it caches it as well?? Dumb dumb dumb. It always pays to poke around your file system! Especially, when you have ANY Microsloth software on it.

Lawsuit challenges software licensing - Tech News - CNET.com

So, this lady is suing Microsoft, Symantec and others complaining that you can't read the EULA (End Users License Argreement) before purchasing the software. And, if you then do not agree to the terms of the EULA, you can't return the software since it has been opened (the EULA is always inside the shrink wrap).

Right now, I am mixed on how I feel about it. I do agree that it is dumb that the EULA is inside the box, when software companies full well know you can't return opened software. If you purchased the Windows XP upgrade, got home, opened the box, read the EULA and didn't agree with it (and didn't install the software), well.. tough luck, you are stuck with the software.

Then again, if stores like CompUSA allowed people to return opened software on the basis of "I didn't agree with the EULA", they know people will simply purchase software, copy it, and return it. There are solutions for this (I have ideas), but it will be interesting to watch this lawsuit.

I wonder if when you register a domain name, if it could come with some sort of copyright for the duration of the time I have the domain registered. So, for example, I would have a copyright on 'perlguy.com', or, better yet, a copyright on '@perlguy.com' (so there is no confusion with URLs). I this way, it would be a clear copyright violation when a SPAMer sends any email to an address containing @perlguy.com... hence opening a lawsuit against them for the violation. This would also allow for people to have a TOS which clearly states that "Any use of @domain.com without express written consent is a violation. @perlguy.com may not be used by humans or programs without this permission."

This would not only open clear legal ramifications for SPAMers, but would also mean that web sites which scrape pages (or, archive email lists) would have to block out email addresses (many already do, or obscure them to 'name (at) domain.com'). This would be important because that is how many SPAMers get email addresses, by scraping web pages for email addresses.

Anyways, just a thought. I'm sure it never would or could happen... but maybe some variation of the idea could help.

CNN.com - Microsoft also gets slammed by worm - Jan. 28, 2003

We should all know about the latest MSSQL worm that caused some havoc over the weekend. Well, it is good to know it also bit Microsloth in the ass as well. Mainly because they didn't patch their own servers from this exploit that was released and patched (by M$) some time ago.

Why can't SA's and the people who should keep track of these things in companies actually do it? It isn't so hard to watch the bug lists (I do it), download patches and delpoy a more secure piece of software. This isn't rocket science.

bsdforums.org - FreeBSD 5.0 RC3 is now available

Link says it all ;-)

Apple - PowerBook G4 17"

Unveiled today, and I'm drooling over this.

OSXFAQ - Technical News and Support for Mac OS X

GTK+OSX has released a native Macintosh Aqua port of the Linux-based GTK+ open source graphical user interface library. GTK+ (GIMP Toolkit) is a popular widget library supporting graphical applications for Linux. GTK+OSX version 0.1 is an alpha release intended for developers.

Cool beans!

KNOPPIX - Live Linux Filesystem On CD

KNOPPIX is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it.

This seems pretty cool. I'll probably download it and give it a whirl. Seems like a great thing to have on a CD because a) it's a great thing to let someone have who just wants to see what Linux is like, without having to make a commitment. Just let them play around when they can... and b) it would be nice to have Linux on a CD to carry around for those times when you have to be at a Windows machince. So, next time you go to Aunt Sally's house you can use Linux safely from her machine.

It has the 2.4.x kernerl, KDE 3.0, Gimp, OpenOffice, XMMS, and other essential software included.

I'll likely d/l it... but if anyone has had experiences with it, let me know.

TechTV | The Screen Savers

I've been watching The Screen Savers for some time now (since the station was ZDTV). Nothing else interesting is on at that time, so I watch. Most of the show is pretty useless to me because a) it is mainly Windows related and b) most things spoken about are pretty basic and geared towards a novice. But, I watch. Sometimes it is just entertaining (like counting how many times Patrick's shoulder twitches, and Martin makes me chuckle). Chris DiBona is becoming more of a regular, which is good.. and sometimes there are interesting interviews. The rest is novice Windows user fluff.

I think they have done about a million segments on overclocking and just under that amount about portable MP3 players. The same topics just keep coming up over and over, and the callers seem to have the same questions over and over. "How can I overclock?", "How do I network my home PCs?", "Should I get an AMD or Intel?", "Why am I too lazy to RTFM?", etc...

I propose they do a show about using the internet to find answers. Is that mainly a Windows user thing? I mean, not actually researching something before asking? Even if these people would search the archives for the show, most of their questions would be answered. They should really change the show and a) only answer the same question once a month (better call screening), b) do more on Mac OS X, c) do more on Linux/FreeBSD, and d) take more time teaching people how to teach themselves.

Ok, so I'm just griping here.. a little whining. But, I'd rather continue to watch the show because it is interesting rather than because nothing else happens to be on. Ok.. done griping :-)

Kudos to Apple! This was lightning quick service. I sent the laptop out on Wednesday morning, and got it back about 30 minutes ago. It looks brand spanking new with a new top case assembly, and wireless is working fine again with thew new Airport card. Fantabulous! I'm quite happy.

Just got off the phone, again, with Apple. They are sending me a box to ship them my PowerBook. They'll be fixing the Airport issue, as well as replacing my outer case... which has the paint chipping off it. Both covered under AppleCare. Let's just hope it all goes smoothly.

NP: Rap Game from the album "8 Mile" by Eminem

My Airport card seems to be dead. Last night I went to check my email, and got no signal at all. I did everything... reset my base station, rebooted (again and again), created a new location, etc... Finally, after an hour I called Apple (since I have Apple Care). After being on the phone with them for another hour (doing many of the same things) they said they won't send me a new card unless I try connecting to a network with an Apple Airport Base Station. My Orinoco RG-1000 isn't their product. So, I have to find an Apple Base Station which uses the SAME PROTOCOL as mine. What a bunch of bullshit.

So, screw that. I know of nowhere to do this. If anyone knows of a decent, cheap, PCMCIA 802.11b card which will work in OS X 10.2.x, please let me know. This blows, and Apple sucks for not sending me a new card.

NP: Beautiful Way from the album "Midnight Vultures" by Beck

My TrackBack wasn't working right. After poking around I saw I missed an entry in my templates. Now, I see the pingable entries in my bookmarklette. Sweet!

Stream: American dreaming - Dead Can Dance (Toward The Within)

Decided to try Kung-Log for journaling. Not too sure I will use it. The MT Bookmarlette is great on it's own, so using another app seems sort of pointless. It does have spell checking (which I need) and should add on what is now playing in iTunes... but not sure I'll keep it.

UPDATE: I may have spoken too soon. This may actually be useful for when I am not journaling from another site. I stand corrected :)

Roads from the album "Dummy" by Portishead

Mac Addicts to the Rescue

This is a good story about how a guy was being frauded when selling on eBay... and how the Mac community helped him catch they guy. It's good when people stick together!

Froogle

Froogle is now in Beta.

Froogle is a new service from Google that makes it easy to find information about products for sale online. By focusing entirely on product search, Froogle applies the power of Google's search technology to a very specific task: locating stores that sell the item you want to find and pointing you directly to the place where you can make a purchase.

bsdforums.org - FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, MacOS X, Darwin, Linux, Unix forums, message boards, discussions and news. - FreeBSD 5.0-RC1 Now Available

ISOs available.. read the link above.

The Chimera Project

I've been using Chimera for the last week or so. I like Mozilla, but don't need Chatzilla or Mail... just a browser please. A few people said to try Chimera out. Alan helped me out a bit (since he uses it) with getting some of the things I have been used to wih Mozilla working on Chimera. So far, I like it. Via Bugzilla, I put in an enhancement request to have all links opening to a new target be opened in tabs withough having to do a Command-Click on the link. I'll likely put another one in to have a "Never Save Password" option on the dialog which asks to save your password on your keychain for web pages.

In all, so far so good. I haven't used Mozilla all week, and if Chimera keeps working well.. I will remove it completely.

So, I upgraded MovableType this morning. It now allows this TalkBack functionality where external journals who reference my entries can send a 'ping' to my journal so I know where it is referenced.

If anyone is using a journal which also does this, please 'ping' this entry so I know it is working right! :) Thanks.

This just happened on IRC.. I thought it was funny:

*+* Mode change "-o impwrk" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*<* Schuyler has left channel #perl
*>* Schuyler (~sderle@xxxxx.xxxx.com) has joined channel #perl
*+* Mode change "+o Schuyler" on channel #perl by ua
*+* Mode change "+o Abigail" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o ajit" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o Alias" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o ask" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o Averell" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o barries" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o basil" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o baud" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o biz" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o bline" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o borup" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o brev" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o CanyonMAD" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o cfedde" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o Che_Fox" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*+* Mode change "+o clkao" on channel #perl by Schuyler
*<* Signoff: Schuyler (Read error: 232 (Connection reset by peer))
<@{KM}> hit and run opping
<@ua> heh

I just put up a call for venues on The Perl Foundation website and Yet Another Society website. So, the search begins for a place for the conference in 2003. I'll be trying to get a venue for here in So. Florida next week.

A review of ORA's Essential Blogging is on SlashDot. When I heard this book was bring published, well, I wondered why! Then, I remembered that ORA likes to take freely available documentation, make it look different, bind it, put an animal on the cover, and sell it. That is exactly what I thought this book would be like, and is basically what the reviewer says it is. I don't know why anyone would spend $30 on a book like this, but people must be since the Amazon ranking is high right now. ORA could publish "Essential Non-Writing", have it be a completely blank book, put a 'rabbit in a snowstorm' on the cover and people will buy it. Amazing.

Over here I see how a guy made his old PowerBook Duo into a digital picture frame. Not a bad idea. I have a Sony Vaio which I don't use anymore (since LCD clips broke) which I could probably do this with. I have been thinking of a way to make the Vaio into something useful. I was thinking of mounting the LCD in the kitchen, and hiding the keyboard part. Then, get a small wireless mouse and keyboard (which can both be easily stored) and having a sort of kiosk terminal in my kitchen. But, a picture frame would also be cool.

As I stated in an earlier post, Dell wasn't going to be selling OS-less PCs anymore because of M$ being allowed to control what other companies do. M$ licensing terms stated that PC makers MUST ship computers with an OS. Of course, many people and companies don't want this, since it is an extra expense. Especially, when the are just going to install their needed OS on it anyways (which may not be Winblows). The policy is "intended" to help prevent piracy, since you pay for the OS license when you purchase a computer with it installed. As well, many companies already have licensing terms for Windows (through licensing programs) and have pre-purchased Windows. When they then purchase a PC with Windows on it, they have to erase the software on the PC, and re-install their Windows. They also, in this case, pay twice for a license.

Dells new n-Series computers will ship with FreeDOS inside the box, but not installed. This way, they ship with an OS, yet customers who want no OS installed get what they want. And, since FreeDOS is, well, free... there are no licenses to purchase.

Although the price of these PCs is reportedly to be the same as those with Windows installed, it is good to see a company not just cave in to Microsoft, and find a nice way to meet the rules, and give customers what they want. Of course, I'm still sticking with my Powerbook :)

Games Diversions & Perl Culture: Best of The Perl Journal is a new book coming out with some good articles from older TPJ issues. Why am I plugging it? Well, my Perl Poetry Contest article(s) is in it. So, you should buy it :) You should also buy it because of the information in it.

Of course, if you haven't yet, you should buy Writing CGI Applications with Perl... my book ;-)

Lawrence Lessig's Freeing Culture keynote from OSCon 2002 is now online. It is a Flash presentation with his slides (and voice, of course). It is fantastic. It really puts the inane copyright laws into perspective, their history, and what you can/should do to fight it. You should really watch it.

Microsoft will no longer allow Dell to sell PCs without an operating system. Please note that Microsoft is not a monopoly, and does not use their monopoly power to squish competition in the market place. This is part of an email someone got from Dell:

UPDATES

1. Effective 8/26 - New Microsoft contract rules stipulate that we can no longer offer the "NO OS" option to our customers beyond September 1st. As such all customers currently purchasing a "NO OS" option on either OptiPlex, Precison or Latitude for the express purpose of loading a non-MS OS will have the following options:

1. Purchase a Microsoft OS with each OptiPlex, Precision or Latitude system.

2. For OptiPlex and Precision - purchase one of the new "nSeries" products (offered for GX260, WS340 & WS530 - details in the attached FAQ) that are being created to address a different OS support requirement other than a current standard Microsoft OS.

We must have all "No OS" orders shipped out of the factory by September 1st. The "No OS" legend code and SKUs will be I-coded on 8/19 and D-coded on August 26th to ensure shipment of orders prior to September 1st. FYI - this effects all of our competitors as well.

Hey people... STOP BUYING MICROSOFT WINDOWS!! Use Linux, BSD, or Mac OS X.

Microsoft lied about how secure its Passport functionality is. You can read the article here.

I don't understand why anyone would think anything from M$ is secure, or bug free. I really don't know why people use M$ Windows by choice. People who use Windows by choice are a bunch of monkeys. You know M$ puts out shit software, you know there are security holes up the wazoo, you know they lie and yet you still buy into it.

Spamassassin kicks ass. 100+ SPAM messages were correctly sent to my SPAM folder, and only 2 stayed in my inbox. Pretty damn good, if you ask me.

I decided to start using SpamAssassin today. I have been using various procmail rules to send email to /dev/null or my SPAM folder when certain keywords are there, or they are from various IP ranges. Of course, I don't know how many emails went to /dev/null (I turned logging off), most correctly went to my SPAM folder, but some SPAM would end up in my inbox. I was never a fan of procmail ratings, so decided to try SpamAssassin (which also does rating). So far, all my SPAM from today has been nicely placed in the SPAM folder.

I figure I will watch the accuracy for the rest of the week, and adjust my minimal rating as needed. Then, when satisfied, send it all to /dev/null. I figure this is pretty safe because if people I know are sending me emails trying to sell me inkjet products, Viagra, an herbal product to make me ejaculate %581 more, hot young asian anal whores or a mortgage.... well, they aren't friends I need :)

With some help from the fine folks at OWLS, I was able to export my old data and move it. I'm back in business!

In this article a survey is explained which shows that roughly 1 in 3 pot smokers is employed in the IT field. The study was done in the UK, but I would guess the US would have the same results. It doesn't say, but I would guess another 3rd are politicians, and the remaining 3rd are everyone else.

A bill was introduced into the House today which would basically allow Copyright holders (MPAA and RIAA) to, well, DoS you and cyber attack you if you are sharing their copywritten works on a P2P network. So, the bill will allow them to do what would land you in prison. Read it for yourself.

This site lists the currently unpatched holes in IE... 20 as of right now. Way to go Microsoft!

This is ironic, got this in my inbox just now:

From: "McAfee.com Store" <subscriptions@mcafee.com>
To: "nospam@perlguy.com" <nospam@perlguy.com>
Subject: Learn how to stop unwanted spam emails

What a bunch of mental midgets over at McAfee.

Perl 5.8 was officially released, and you can read the release notes. This release includes better Unicode support (yay!), new threads implementation, new core modules, safer signals, and more! Enjoy!

:apple Ok, so it was yesterday, but I was busy :-) I won't go into much, but some of the things coming from Apple are cool. First, there is OS X 10.2. There are some cool apps, like iSync, which helps you keep your address book and contact info sync'd between your PDA, computers, iPod and cell phone (yes, cell phone). Pretty darn cool, but I don't own a PDA, iPod or a cell phone! So, I don't need it, but it's way cool technology. Out of the announced upgrades to the apps for 10.2, I don't really need any of it. The update to iTunes 3 is cool, with the smart playlists. I'll likely play around with it, but I still like using Audion. So, I'm not sure what 10.2 will give me that I need. I have a 667 TiBook, so I don't have the 32Meg vram to use Quartz Extreme. The updated apps don't mean much to me, and the upgrade is $129!! $129!!!! That's pretty damn steep. I will bet they will lower the price, to around $69, since $129 is over the top.

Other things of note are the new iPods. New pricing, new software, and a 20Gig model. As well, they will be selling a Wintendo iPod for you Winblows users. The new iMac is looking pretty sweet. 17" widescreen display, NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX, SuperDrive, 800 Mhz G4 for about $2,000. I'm not crazy about the cost, but the computer is nice. I still wish they would sell an iMac without the screen. So, thats a quick summary of some cool things coming from Apple. If you don't use a Mac, you really should try it out.

:apple Apple has come out with a security update patch to fix the Software Update issue.

Security Update 7-12-02 increases the security of the Software Update process for systems with Software Update client 1.4.5 or earlier. Packages presented via the Software Update mechanism are now cryptographically signed, and the new Software Update client 1.4.6 checks for a valid signature before installing new packages. Downloaded packages which do not contain a valid signature are deleted from the system.

Good to see Apple is on the ball.

Seems like the new Toast Titanium 5.1.4 from Roxio has a Mircosloth-like change to their EULA:

Content providers are using the digital rights management technology ("DRM") contained in this Software to protect the integrity of their content ("Secure Content") so that their intellectual property, including copyright, in such content is not misappropriated. Owners of such Secure Content ("Secure Content Owners") may, from time to time, request Roxio or its suppliers to provide security related updates to the DRM components of the Software ("Security Updates") that may affect your ability to copy, display and/or play Secure Content through the Software or other applications that utilize the Software. You therefore agree that, if you elect to download a license from the Internet which enables your use of Secure Content, Roxio or its suppliers may, in conjunction with such license, also download onto your computer such Security Updates that a Secure Content Owner has requested that Roxio or its suppliers distribute. Roxio and its suppliers will not retrieve any personally identifiable information, or any other information, from your computer by downloading such Security Updates.

Nice, eh? I upgraded to 5.1.4, but will not upgrade again. If I suddenly can't copy something, or burn something, I will downgrade to 5.1.3 and stay there since it does what I need.

I don't like how these things are sneaked into EULAs. They should have a 'What's New' section at the top, since things like this can be hard to spot. But, at least Roxio did it within a viable upgrade to the software, and didn't do it like M$ did... by putting it in a security update. I think that is so damn low.

As you know, I have a book. The book has been translated to a few other languages, and each country seems to localize the cover to suit their market. I thought I would share these, since I think it is cool:

Germany
Japan
Russia

I also happened upon this site, which seems to be a Chinese site (I can't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese, since it is all mainly Kanji.. and I am teaching myself which is a slow process). Notice the cover on there? Looks pretty sweet. I emailed my publisher to see if they could get my a copy (which, contractually, they need to). It's kind of neat knowing people around the world put time and effort into translating and reprinting your work.

A Synopsis 5 is online, which is a summary of changes in Larry Wall's Apocalypse 5. Frankly, I don't care much about Perl 6 (right now). It is still being designed, I would wager we won't even see a beta release for at least another year (being conservative), and it will take much longer for version 1.0, and even longer to have any buy in from companies to use it in production. If I can't get paid for my Perl (which is what I do now), then who cares? I'd rather learn Ruby, which I have played with.

Perl 6 will not be backward compatible with Perl 5, and much of the syntax is quite different (not worse, but different. Perl 6 will not be Perl as we know and love it). Of course, when the time comes, I will beta test it, learn in, and use it for personal things... but I'm not excited about it.

When people ask me why I don't like Microsoft, this is one of the reasons why. It isn't just that their software is, at best, unstable.. or that they rush things to market and consumers have problems, or that they are terrible at testing their own products for security flaws. On top of all those reasons, it is because Microsoft wants to own your box. Just because you spent your hard earned cash on it, and because it is in your home doesn't mean that Microsoft doesn't want to control it, and thereby you. We all know about Windows XP, and how it MAKES you register. We know how MS Office will search your network for other copies of itself. But, did you know that the latest security update to Windows Media Player does even more to make you give Microsoft ownership of your box.

Microsofts Windows Media Player had a few security issues. So, MS put out a security update. No biggie there, MS is used to having security holes in their software, and consumers are used to having to update their Windows software. As you, the user, click through an update you are generally presented with the EULA ("End Users License Agreement"). I bet you just clock "OK" and move on, don't you? Well, that is a mistake. Most don't read those things thinking it only says stuff like "no warranty" and "use at your own risk". But, if you read the EULA for this update you will see:

"You agree that in order to protect the integrity of content and software protected by digital rights management ('Secure Content'), Microsoft may provide security related updates to the OS Components that will be automatically downloaded onto your computer. These security related updates may disable your ability to copy and/or play Secure Content and use other software on your computer. If we provide such a security update, we will use reasonable efforts to post notices on a web site explaining the update."

Whoa! Where'd that come from? By agreeing you have now given MS permission to automatically download software onto your computer and disable other software. A few things here are fishy. First, this change to the EULA was sent out via a security update. I think it is pretty low for a company to change a license agreement when all you, as the consumer, wants to do it plug a security hole(s) in THEIR software. So, if you don't accept the agreement, you are stuck with software with a security hole. Kind of a catch-22, to Microsofts advantage.

Secondly, read "reasonable efforts to post notices on a web site..." This makes me think that they will do squat, and you agree to the terms that they can do squat, to notice you. What's "reasonable effort" to MS? "a web site"? What website? Where? Shadey business going on here.

So, by agreeing to this EULA, you agree to let MS download any code which they see fit, without warning you, without asking you, and without you knowing when it happens or what it does, and you won't be given the chance to refuse it. Very nice of them, isn't it?

In essence, you give MS admin access to your box and allow them to automatically install software which could contain virii, break applications, corrupt data and generally wreak havok on your computer. Are you pissed off yet? Well, you should be if you are a Windows user. If you install the WMP security update, which you need to do in order to be safe, you also give MS full reign to install whatever code they want to on your computer without telling you and without being legally responsible for any damage it may cause.

I think this practice of changing the license in a securty update is low, unethical, and a slap in all Windows users faces. I'm not a Windows user, but if I were I would be mad as hell that they are trying to do this. As a computer professional I am mad that they did this, and that Windows users will allow them to do it.

So, wake up Windows users! You can always make the switch, it would be more painless than you think.

A worm for Apache was discovered in the wild. Seems to exploit some chunking code. Read BugTraq for more details.

:apple This afternoon Apple came out with a security update for Apache, mod_ssl and OpenSSH.

Security Update July 2002 includes the updated components, Apache v1.3.26, mod_ssl v2.8.9 and OpenSSH v3.4p1, which provide increased security to prevent unauthorized access to applications, servers, and the operating system.

Good to see that Apple put these out in a somewhat timely manner. Of course, you can use fink to update these things, but Average Joe User is better with using the provided Software Update in OS X. Way to go Apple!

Yay! The Gnome folks have released Gnome 2.0 today. Gnome is what I use on my Linux and FreeBSD boxes which I use as desktops. There are some spiffy screenshots, and a starting point for you to get aquainted with Gnome 2.0 and find the right download spot! Make sure to read the Release Notes. My Ximian Red Carpet is fired up and ready to go! Enjoy!

OpenSSH 3.4 has been released and should be available shortly on openssh.com.

All my friends are now at YAPC::NA, and I'm not :sad. This blows.

Theo de Raadt announced that the OpenBSD team is working with ISS on a remote exploit for OpenSSH (a free implementation of the Secure SHell protocol). They are refusing to provide any details on the vulnerability but instead are advising everyone to upgrade to the latest release, version 3.3.

Read more here.

:apple KernelTrap has spoken with guru Jordan Hubbard, one of the creators of FreeBSD and currently a manager of Apple's Darwin project. With just a high school education, Jordan has offered some impressive contributions to the world of computing.

In this interview, Jordan talks about his current involvement with Darwin, as well as his past efforts with FreeBSD and 386BSD. He also reflects on his recent decision to step down from the core FreeBSD team.

FreeBSD 4.6 has been released. Check out the announcement, then go download it.

Dave Cross wrote a review of my book and it is posted on Slashdot. Of course, in Slashdot fashion, it turned into a "Perl vs. $insert_other_language" troll-fest.

The book is currently coming out of a second printing and should be re-available at your favorite online stores soon.

You know you want to switch to using a Mac, you know you do. But, you are probably afraid of making the switch from Winblows. Apple has a new ad campaign for this, and I went to the website with their info on 'switching'. Check it out if you want to switch, it is painless and you will be much happier.

If you use Mozilla (if you don't you should), check out BannerBlind. It is a Mozilla extension to remove banners from web pages so you don't see them. Very customizable as far as what sizes to (dis)allow. When Mozilla has an extension (or it is built in) to disallow pop-ups (similar to how Opera does it) I will be a happy camper.

I also made things a little more pretty (I do like eye candy, although I am a command-line junkie... the duality is very Zen) with the Orbit 3+1 Theme. The Orbit Theme on MozDev didn't install properly on 1.0, but I am happy.

The folks over at Virus Bulletin have written a good, in depth, article explaining how the Win32.Simile virus works on Windows. Read the article here. They have told me an article covering the Linux.Simile side of it will be online next month. Mildly technical article, very worth a read.

If you use OS X, and have updated to 10.1.5, you should really download Silk a "haxie" from Unsanity. This takes advantage of the Quartz text smooting added in 10.1.5 for Carbon apps. Normally, people have to update their apps to take advantage of this feature, but Silk makes it so it works now! I have been using Silk since, oh, about 10 minutes after it was released and it is fantastic. Mozilla 1.0 with smoothed text... mmmmmmm

The wait is over! Mozilla 1.0 is released! Read the release notes then commence downloading!

Another hole in IE, this one is exploited by hyperlinks to gopher protocol sites (some of us remember gopher). Basically, you can root a system by exploiting this. I won't go into details.. just read the article. As of yet, Microsloth has not released a patch.

Microsoft sucks, plain and simple. How many times a week do we need to see security issues with their software? Anyways, glad I am a Mac and Unix user.

So, ActiveState is doing a "Programmers Choice" Awards. This includes someone for Perl, PHP, Python, XLST, and Tk. So, I grovel here that I get a few votes for my unsung work in the Perl community. Why put in a vote for me? Here are the things I do, all for free (aside the book) and noone even says "Thank you" for:

* takes care of the beginners@perl.org list
* takes care of the beginners-cgi@perl.org list
* runs the perl-i18n@perl.org list
* Site admin for yetanother.org
* site admin for perl-foundation.org
* Has helped with the Win32 Perl FAQ
* Has a few useful modules on CPAN (notably Apache::Htpasswd and Untaint)
* helps people on lists, and on PerlMonks, and on IRC
* An auther on use.perl.org
* Wrote a good book, Writing CGI Applications with Perl
* Maintains the beginners and beginners-cgi FAQs on learn.perl.org.
* Started the Hartford Perl Mongers, and is trying to help restart the SouthFlorida Perl Mongers
* etc...

So, go here and give your old buddy Kevin a vote. Or, if you have been positively affected by me (answered your question, you read my book, you use the lists, etc...) at least say thank you.

Well, in the animated GIF for the network manager for the xServe, if you stop it by frames, you would see that it said the OS is 10.1.5... the other day when Microshit released SR1 for Office X, they stated it works well in 10.1.5... so we knew it was coming. Last night Apple released OS X 10.1.5, so start those Software Updates!

Read on to see what's new in 10.1.5...

Peripheral Device Support:
--Expanded support for new Canon digital cameras.
--Improved support for Nikon FireWire cameras.
--Expanded support for SmartDisk, EZQuest, and LaCie disc recording devices.
--Improved support for MO drives.

Application Improvements:
--Increased stability of Mail and Sherlock.
--Emails are properly retained when rebuilding the Draft mailbox.
--Support for 2D and QuickTime hardware acceleration for Rage Pro.
--Updated Carbon applications can use Quartz anti-aliasing technology for high quality text display.

Networking and Security Improvements:
--Improves networking via AFP when accessing multi-level directories on Windows NT file servers.
--Significant improvement to file searching on local and remote volumes.
--Includes a generic PC Card driver to support a variety of PC Card modems.
--Mail accounts go offline to indicate that SSL encryption settings are not supported by mail server.
--Includes the Security Update April 2002.

WebDAV Improvements:
--More efficient iDisk mounting and file navigation.
--Added support for connecting to iDisk using default DNS settings of AirPort.
--Support for mounting a WebDAV volume from a non-standard http port.

Asian Language Improvements:
--Significant updates to the Korean Input Method, especially important when using AppleWorks.
--Internet Connect and AirPort applications updated with Chinese and Korean localized content.

Larry has done Apocolypse 5 which deals with how regular expressions will be done in Perl 6. It is sort of long, and I haven't made my way through it all yet, so I don't have any comments right now. To follow/partake in a AP5 discussion, you can do so on use Perl; (where I am KM, in case you don't know).

An article at LinuxToday says SuSe is not planning on having a per-seat license with UnitedLinux. They won't be releasing a developers distro, now they say they are. You know what? I think the best thing to do is sit and wait to see what they do. UnitedLinux doesn't yet exist, they are targeting the enterprise users, and pressure from the community will either make them do the Right Thing, or help them fail.

Stay tuned for the next installment of "As the Distro Turns"

David Bowie was running a Be a Rock Photographer Contest. Well, I really wanted to win. So, when I heard about it, I did what any good hacker does... write a script to enter myself a few tens of thousands of times. By my count, I entered the contest (well, my script did) over 100,000 times. Did I win?!?! NO! Some bitch who works at a, get this, camera shop did! So, I am guessing this was fixed. FIXED I TELL YA! I didn't even get a first or second prize. C'mon! 100,000+ entries! I should at least get an autographed photo of Bowie. I guess whatever they did on the backend disallowed entries with the same email address or something. Next time, I will generate random email addresses (all valid perlguy.com ones, of course) to get around that.

Well, there are other contests to try.. I wanna be a winner! I really do!

Kartoo is a kinda neat search engine (at least the Flash enabled bit). Not very practicle, so I surely wouldn't switch from Google, but cool to check out.

Digitimes has an article saying Quanta Computer will start making 17" and 19" iMacs in Q3. This is cool, since one of the things I don't like about the new iMac is the 15" screen. If I were Apple, I would sell just the computer part of the iMac (no screen), and just have video out plugs on the back so you can use whatever monitor you want with it. That would make for one small, and portable, desktop system. As well, it wouldn't mean you are hosed when you decide you want to upgrade your monitor, but not the system itself. I have so many pipe dreams...

Banner day for releases! You can grab 2.5.19 from your favorite kernel.org mirror and see the changes in the changelog.

SARC has a response for the Linux.Simile virus. This is the first known virus (at least, I never heard of another) to affect both PE and ELF binaries, thus making both Winblows and Inetl Linux machines vulnerable. There is no destructive payload, but the virus will display a message on certain dates.

Today, MacPerl 5.8.0a1 was released.

Yay pudge!

The loooong awaited Mozilla 1.0 is almost out. This email explains how the 1.0-RELEASE branch in CVS has been cut, and the wait is almost over!

Perl 5.8.0 RC 1 has been released. This is a release candidate, and not for production environment. Please download it (from your local CPAN mirror), and give it a whirl. Read the perldelta to see the changes.

mod_perl 1.99_02 (devel) has been released (for Apache 2.0.x), and 1.27 (stable) has been released (for Apache 1.3.x).

Enjoy!

Bruce A. Mah from the FreeBSD Release Engineering team announced that due to some late-breaking issues, 4.6 will be released about a week later than originally planned.
Read the entire announcement.

RMS commented on the per-seat license of UnitedLinux, saying:

'Licensing per seat' perverts the GNU+Linux system into something that respects your freedom as much as Windows," Stallman said. "They cannot restrict the GPL-covered programs in the system that way, because that would violate the GNU GPL, but the system also contains non-copylefted programs which are points of vulnerability. Free software developers, please don't let them license YOUR program per seat. Use the GNU GPL!"

Well, since there isn't a UnitedLinux yet, noone is violating the GPL (yet). I think the per-seat license is for people who want their distro to be "Powered by UnitedLinux", or for only the non-GPL-ed UnitedLinux code. If UnitedLinux were to block people from re-releasing GPL-ed code used in UnitedLinux, or charge a license to use GPL-ed code, then they would be violating the GPL. Remember what happened to Caldera when they started to license per-seat? People got mad, gave them the finger, and moved to another distro.

Caldera, Conectiva, SuSE, Turbolinux partner to create UnitedLinux:

UnitedLinux is a standards-based Linux operating system targeted at the business user. It is developed, marketed and sold by an experienced partnership of Linux companies.

Not sure which "standards" they mean.. since there are so many :) But, this seems to be their attempt to knock Red Hat off the top rung of the ladder. Sould be interesting to watch.

My question is, when will RMS yell that it isn't called "UnitedGNU/Linux"??

Last night I was watching The Screen Savers and they were talking about if Linux is ready for the desktop market (a re-hash everyone does, but at least Leo and Pat weren't talking about overclocking, or MP3 players AGAIN AND AGAIN). Here is a link to their show notes.

Read on for my theory, and challenge to anyone who will fund this...

Anyways, this got me thinking. We all hear this every so often, "Is Linux ready for the desktop?". Basically, can moms and dads use it, or is it mainly for geeks. Noone has been able to answer this question, but I have an idea on how to get a good gague.

Take, say, 20 people (or some higher, even number of people), split them into 2 groups. These people should be the "I don't even know how to turn a computer on" type of folks with little or no experience with computers. Basically, the type of people who pay others to teach them the basics, and read Dummy books.

Put both halves into two classes, one teaching basics on Winblows, and one teaching basics on Linux. The class (which would be a few days) would cover what many basics classes do: connecting to the internet, getting/sending email, browsing the web, creating a document, printing, changing wallpaper, etc... And maybe a few intermediate things like changing your IP address, or DNS servers.

On the Wintendo box, have standard productivity tools like Outlook and Office. On Linux, use StarOffice 6.0 (5.2 is a swap hog) and Kmail. I think beginners would be better off with KDE than something like Ximian Gnome (which I use), or Enlightenment.

Both classes, teaching the same things. At the end of the class, each group of students would get a test... the same test. Answering some basic true/false type questions, and exercises like changing from DHCP to a static IP. Associating a file type with an app. Creating and printing a document. Etc... Then, see if either of the groups were any more productive than the other. Did 8 out of 10 Winblows people have no problems creating a printer, while 7 out of 10 Linux users had no troubles? If the final test is good, some of these things could be measurable.

My theory is that if someone is a computer dummy to begin with, then they are tabula rasa, so it shouldn't matter which OS they learn on. I think that the basics of what most computer people do (non-Geeks) can be done on either OS: email, web browsing, photo editing, documents, IM, etc... so it should be fairly easy for people to pick up using Linux.

Of course, some things like installing programs may be a little tougher to teach on Linux. Having gandma typing 'make; make test; make install;' isn't a good option. I hope someone writes a toolkit (if it exists, I don't know about it) to allow software developers to create something similar on Linux to the 'install' process on Windows. Or, even better, make it drag-and-drop like on OS X.

So, who wants to step up to the plate to fund the testing of my theory? OSDN (DiBona, paging Mr. DiBona)? TechTV (c'mon Leo! You could get this funded!)? O'Reilly?

What do I use? Well, I use OS X on my TiBook, Mandrake for my spare desktop at work, a desktop with FreeBSD at home. I have one Wintendo box at home, which Suzy uses (and one Kyla uses for kids games) and an older Vaio with FreeBSD on it. Basically, I haven't used Windows for some time now, which is very liberating.

Do people think this is a good idea? Could we get something like this to happen? May be some interesting results.

An article on SecurityFocus.com explains how someone found a hole in their online-user-account management. Basically, when you went to change your profile, you would get a URL like www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/edit/u/12345, where '12345' is your account ID. If you were to change it to '12346', you would then be able to change another users profile. Apparantly, this was fixed on Monday. I didn't try this, since I don't have an account there, I only read the site.

I'm surprised noone found this before (or at least, reported it), since I know one of the first things I do whenever I get any type of online account is see if I can hack into it. This isn't so I can see if I can get at data from other users, but to see how secure my own data is. It is sort of ironic that the #1 Tech Book publisher had such an obvious issue, and didn't seem to find it themselves.

On a side note, the roof of my mouth is burnt from eating hot pizza.

Here is an interesting article about some students at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology who registered microsoft.com with Verisign by using the Russian Cyrillic letters for "o" and "c". So, although the two domains are different because the cyrillic "o" and "c" is technically different, they are very hard to tell apart. Interesting read.

This article at the Oregonian explains how a small company, Exit Exchange, is trying to get a patent on those annoying pop-under ads. Not sure what you would really patent... a few piddly lines of JavaScript? Using someones resources without their permission (which is why I think they should be illegal)?

So, they want the patent (since they actually have been doing pop-under for some time now) and want the larger companies to pay licensing the technology (TECHNOLOGY?? IT IS 3 LINES OF JAVASCRIPT!) to larger companies. Now that they are applying for the patent, they can already go after companies saying there are damages.

If companies can't afford the license, maybe we will get less pop-unders. But, we know people will cough up the cash. This is probably more stupid than the 'One Click' patent thing with Amazon.

I'm going to start doing pop-asides, where an ad pops up beside your browser. You heard it here first!! POP-ASIDES!! If you try it, I will sue you! Anyone know a good patent lawyer?

We have all heard of the Peace Corps, well, here are the Geek Corps! Basically the same idea as the Peace Corps, but instead of building housing, geeks share their geekness with people in strange and foreign lands.

A little over a week ago Joe Barr wrote an article on how RMS wouldn't speak at a Texas Linux group because they call themselves SIGLINUX, and don't mention the GNU Project in their name. RMS wants Linux to be called GNU/Linux, since Linux was build on some GNU tools.

Personally, I call my UNIX flavor FreeBSD, so they can squabble all they want. I think RMS is being an asshole about this, and his crusade will only spread this assholness. But, what do I care? :-)

Anyways, RMS replied to the other article to give his side. Basically, he says how Linus is the egomaniac because Linux is named Linux (after Linus) and not GNU/Linux.. but he (RMS) isn't an egomaniac becuase he wants everyone in the world to refer to Linux as GNU/Linux.

Another issue in these articles is the fact that Linus uses Bitkeeper, a commercial product, to patch the Linux kernel. Linus says he uses it because it does what he wants, and does it well. Of course, people don't all care about this since it is odd to use a commercial product to help keep a free product going. I sort of lean towards what RMS says about this (which you can read yourself).

Started mucking around with Applescript today. I want something which will grab what's playing on Audion, and upload the info to a server. I see things for iTunes available, but none for Audion. I use Audion because it plays Ogg Vorbis files, mainly. Anyways, I learned to grab the title of the file playing, write it to a file, and upload it to a server. I don't like that it seems impossible to get the artist name from Audion. But, it was a good first day of really looking into this.

On Version Tracker I saw this:

MacPython 2.2.1 - high level programming language like Javascript or Perl

Um.. do people really consider JavaScript a high level programming language? I mean, I would dare say it isn't even a programming language at all. It is a scripting language limited to web browsers. Perl, of course is a high level programming language. Maybe whomever wrote this meant Ruby, or something that actually is a high level programming language. But, what else can you expect from someone who is a Python programmer?

Here you can see the first teaser for Matrix 2, "The Matrix: Reloaded". I saw it in the theater last night before Star Wars. I CAN'T WAIT! Of course, my eyes are on The Two Towers right now :)

Napter finally bites the dust.. doo dah, doo dah..

Long live Gnutella!

At first, this news sort of ticked me off. Then I got more ticked off when I heard about the p5p thread where it seemed like egos got in the way from p5p helping with a stripped down Perl to keep in the Perl core. It's to bad Larry didn't step in with his opinion (which then becomes the Perl Communitys opinion).

Anyways, after reading a bit more, it seems that it will still be installed when installing FreeBSD, but from a port, as opposed to being tied directly to the core. This may not be too bad, since doing a 'make world' will not blow away any custom Perl install.

I do Perl for a living, so I care about it... and I use FreeBSD for my home server, and have used it for years (I like FreeBSD much better than Linux), and have used it almost exlusively aside from my shiney Powerbook. I can see where having things stripped out of the Perl dist would be mucho helpful. I mean really, do we need CGI.pm out of the box? Nope. We don't need much of what is in the core distro of Perl. Most things can be CPAN modules and installed when needed. I have often wished for a "build your own Perl distro" where you have the most stripped down Perl, then add in modules (and dependencies) for what you intend to use Perl for.. then get a nice tarball with a proper Makefile.

Anyways, we'll see how this turns out! Maybe one day I will have enough tuits to make a system to roll your own dist.

Xserve, the new 1U rackmount from Apple. Pretty sweet.

There are new CDs (well, they aren't technically CD's) which are copyright protected so they will not play on PCs or Macs. Since they aren't technically CDs, they also will not eject and may cause other problems with your computer. If you own a Mac (like me), this Knowledge Base article should help you get the disk out. Currently known discs which do this are:

Shakira: Laundry Service
Jennifer "Big Ass" Lopez: J To The L-O
Celine "I lied about retiring" Dion: A New Day Has Come

Luckily, I don't listen to any of that shit.

I downloaded some app which updates a file on my server based on what is playing in iTunes. I wanted to integrate it into MT. The app (iTunesTrackInfo, don't recall URL) will upload as HTML, or JavaScript. Well, the JavaScript didn't seem to work well with Mozilla so that isn't acceptable.

So, I did it as a regular file and implemented a new MTNowPlaying template variable which would read the file holding the track info. But, you have to rebuild the pages for it to change. Why not use SSI's? Well, I don't want to! And sometimes people don't have SSI enabled. Well, I gave it a shot and will think of another way to do it. Besides, I am mainly using Audion these days, and would need a script to update based on what Audion (and/or iTunes?) is playing. Maybe that is where I should start... give me a chance to delve into Cocoa and AppleScript.

@home, or whomever it is that now provides my bandwidth at home, seems to now be changing IPs about every day. This sucks. This site isn't run from home, but my server at my house is what fetches my email (as well I IRC from there). Now, my connections get hosed. Luckily, I use DynDNS.org and have a cron which updates my IP there. Still sucks though.

Time to try a web log (I hate the term 'blog'). I have a lot to rant about, may as well do it! We'll see how this goes....

Time to try a web log (I hate the term 'blog'). I have a lot to rant about, may as well do it! We'll see how this goes....

Time to try a web log (I hate the term 'blog'). I have a lot to rant about, may as well do it! We'll see how this goes....

Time to try a web log (I hate the term 'blog'). I have a lot to rant about, may as well do it! We'll see how this goes....