I used to run a fairly popular email server for a small hosting company i "whipped up" with a fair bit of effort with a friend or two.
We used EV1Servers (aka Rackshack.net at the time). They were cheap, reliable, and their tech support worked for us.
I implemented a fairly good custom qmail solution using perl, a nice exec tree and some bespoke auth scripts in it.
It was flawless... Or so I thought....
I neglected to use the same true/false errorlevel ('return to shell code', or whatever the bourne jargon is) in the qmail-smtpd exec'er... therefore the previous install of some LWQ stuff had the tcp server db accept and forward mail from anywhere! (nargh!)
After 24 hours we were on 2 major RBLs and I didnt notice the err of my ways (to probe rather than be probed) untill we'd sent out serveral thousand mails...
(this also explains why the queue was HUGE and kept filling so quickly)
I managed to get off one RBL by using their automated open-smtp server check via some CGI. We passed with flying colours and were off that RBL before the end of the week.
I sent an email to the other RBL. Now, this other RBL is a 'private' RBL and "DOES NOT" (yep, in big bold letters all over their site) remove people. Once you're on, you're on.
I kindly explained the error I had in my script that inadvertantly led to our mail host being the great door to the spam sky.
The RBL host explained to me that it was not my server that was targetted, but the whole of EV1. I should have guess - but i didnt... the only time I'd run the RBL checks was _after_ my comprimising db was in place.
Little did I know that the entirety of EV1 was blacklisted. (imho quite right too, we got arpjacked by an adjacent out-of-the-plesk/ensim-box-install-with-not-update s-omg-openssh... it's easy to see why)
The RBL host explained this in a nice tone, and also explained that he would not remove me. Now, I was suprised he returned my email - the site did say not to try and contact them.
I replied thanking them for their time and hospitality. I was sincere and still feel the same way... I am, after all, an English Gentleman, first and foremost - the last of a dying breed.
I resigned to being blacklisted on a quasi-popular 'private' RBL.
I recieved an email, no more than 12 hours after my thank-you. It went along the lines:
---- >> thankyou for your time and effort. You didnt have to do this, yet you did. Thanks!
You did not have to thank me for that either. As a mark of respect I have removed your RBL entry. ----
Wootle etc:)
So kids, be nice to the mail and RBL admins out there!
honestly, as a european citiizen, i say nothing more than this:
fuck me. this bloke deserves a pulizer (?) prize- either for being (and i truely hope) the greatest whistle blower of any generation, or someone to surpass even the great Dan Brown when it comes to suspense!
PLEASE, SOMEONE, PLEASE, substantiate more of this information with links, references, things I can obtain myself. Do so, and the student world will find out- trust me!
ive had offers of money for maintaining past installs/setups/scripts ive worked on when dropping by.
my previous job was at an internet gaming cafe - a new business, and a good startup (in my business-happy eyes). it makes money still, but it didn't really make enough to sustain the manager + employee. Now afaik, it's self-sustaining with just a minimal wage employee.
I still frequent the place on holidays as there's a relaxed atmosphere and because gaming is fun. when dropping by i've found that some of the features i've setup in the past - such as a custom network "update" solution to synch all the desktops with the installed games and software plus a LVM filestore - aren't working as desired or need a tweak. This work may take me a few hours to sort out, even a day or two during my "holidays" away from uni, but, when you _want_ to do something and _want_ to help, it doesn't matter - especially when you enjoy tech/admin work.
ive turned down the offer of money in return for the fixes ive applied.
2 reasons really.
1) i see myself as a friend to my ex-employeer, as he treated me as one (this is such a great experience away from the capitalistic demoralization i faced at an SFI Group Pub)
2) i set the damned thing up using know-how that isn't going to be rivaled anytime and i dont want it to be me that causes a place i like to loose profit through hiring some pay-for-tech.
I guess, when it comes down to it, ive never had huge problems with money, and im unlikely to in the forseeable future. this is not to say im rich, but i am very giving within my own capacity. the christian ethos maybe. i do wonder of myself in different positions, whether or not i would do the same things i do now...
I hope i can shed some light into why i've enrolled in Bioinformatics...
I chose Bioinformatics Undergraduate course at Birmingham (http://www.bham.ac.uk) because it was a sensible blend of Biology (something I'm 'good' at msyelf and supposed to be inherantly good at with my father being a GP, mom a nurse and grandad a health inspector) and computers, more specifically, perl and databases.
I've found a love of genetics recently, since embarking on my AS levels two years ago, and today, the eve of my A2 level exams (AQA, 1:30hrs back to back:/) I'm still facinated by genetics and the human (et plantae, animalia) genomes. I think there is HUGE potential in genetic engineering... However, i know where the work is, and where the discovery really is.
Most people say that the real discovery is at the lab level, but after years of "oh well, it works" and "oh well, it didn't quite work this time, maybe i used too much ocetic stain?" to "Damn it! I've just thrown away the supernatant and not the fsuking sediment!!! ARGH!" i've come to believe that lab experiments are really left to those with a different type of enthusiasm i've yet to acquire. While i think experiments can be rewarding at times, total discovery isn't always as fun.
The blend of bioinformatics with perl was something of a godsend when i started reading up on the subject. I've seen conferences advertised, fm and sf projects on bioinformatic processes and a oreily liturature.
Tbh I found the course at Bham by pure accident. Somehow a Biosciences leaflet came through the door, and on it was a limited place course with a grade boundary i could squeese into. I emplore you to do some of your own googling like I have.
I found stats like, "Bioinformatics is estimated to be worth $40Bln in the next 3 years". I know the biotech industry is very down at the moment (i do Business aside from Biology, and had a portfolio in some Biotechs for a module), but i can only envisage it booming in a few years as processing power increases and genetic probing is refined more and more. Only in the last 2 years we have seen the manufacture of mass probe machines, and they're being improved on year on year.
Ultimately i decided that i'd rather do something that would not only enhance my perl and database skills - which are currently limited only to small-time webapplications, and aimed at small scale systems - but reward me careerwise. Bioinformatics includes the necessary skills to migrate into CS or into other Biological Sciences, such as Genetics (tho the natural progression is Genetics to BioInf). I see Bioinformatics as the only "real" next big thing on the tech and biological market. While it's true the pharma conglomerates are conducting dubious business, it's this business that's been generating *MASSIVE* revenues per product; if I am able to manage a new product, such as an artificial enzyme or protien, from conception to the market place, i can only see big $$$s as my reward (read as pounds, i don't have unicode installed:/)
Do read, http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id =1476685
My dad put me on the the fact that Bioinformatics doens't have the technologcical-bust stigma CS is gaining. I'm coupling this with a top 4 UK Uni, and looking at postgraduate conversions to almost anything if I can get a 2nd class... That said, I think there are going to be interesting implications in LAW and Bioinf soon. An LLC conversion course to specialise on genetic, information and biological law is not a totally absurd plan at all! (i have convinced myself that anyhow)
I know one thing for sure is that whether or not the Biofinformatics world kicks off when i graduate in 3/4 years time (assuming i make the grades, which is oh-um-err right now) I'll come out with experience in CS and Biology and a broadrange of skills...
There's a SH3 coming out soon apparently, so i've picked it up again. I've just jumped down a big hole in the history place and got stuck today:/ Fun, but after my friend went last night I had to stop playing on my own !!
System Shock 2... I ran every time i heard "shooooop" or the many calling. "The Many have been alerted to your presence": OMFG RUNNNN!!!
Has anyone heard the track, "return of the many". It's a remix and is really freaky. Well recommended.
The advances in game technology thesedays is making gaming more and more impressive but sadly i personally think there are problems with new features. If you take a look back at Lost Souls in doom ][, and the way they just charged at you - SS holding or not - from the dark to scare you whitless, and you see a great bit of level design with cunning lightening; whereas if you look at these action games with flashy effects, they're trying to erode the scare factor, the thriller factor because of the amount of planning involved and just hit the end gamer with lots of special effects so they become the next whizbang game.
Real stories like Half-Life, Starcraft, SS2 and Silent Hill will always be show beaters in the true gamers eye!
A lot of people will give me stick for this, but nonetheless, I'm standing by, IRC.
IRC *is* a great place to meet people with similar interests. If you're an extrovert, you'll simply love to meet people, and if you're an introvert, you'll need a helping hand but you'll find the variety of different people you'll [probably] never meet irl, on IRC.
I met the last person i dated through a community site (I then met her best friend, but thats another story:), and we knew before we met that we had a lot in common. We phoned and txt each other regularly. We had similar tastes in music and both of us were highly academic.
I guess it's because IRC is a conscice medium that does away with all the 'wasteful' talk.
imho, it's no replacement to meeting people on the train, at parties or in bars, but people should really giver consideration to IRC communities rather than plague them with "nerd"ish slander.
In August i'll be off to Reading [Music] Festival (red-ding, is a Town nr London), with my IRC mate from Scotland and one of his IRC mates from the midlands. We've met before, and we're doing it again - it's funny and whitty and we had a great laugh last year.
a real time regex engine would perform regexes on condensed byte code of a page rather than the actual page. this is bound to be lossy.
the only way i can see it happening is an associated list of popular searches is entered into the db store, and regularly updated. sadly you're going up in factors, depending on how many expressions you have, so it'd be a huge db pull.
maybe... it's a cute idea. I'm sure something client side would be easier, with the advent of broadband in most homes.
Someone must be able to do their maths out there and figure out how fast you can crack 128bit encryption at 12 terraflops?
(and you know the US govmt. has a centre like this alread right?)
Matt
Slashdot Mirror
I used to run a fairly popular email server for a small hosting company i "whipped up" with a fair bit of effort with a friend or two.
e s-omg-openssh... it's easy to see why)
:)
We used EV1Servers (aka Rackshack.net at the time). They were cheap, reliable, and their tech support worked for us.
I implemented a fairly good custom qmail solution using perl, a nice exec tree and some bespoke auth scripts in it.
It was flawless... Or so I thought....
I neglected to use the same true/false errorlevel ('return to shell code', or whatever the bourne jargon is) in the qmail-smtpd exec'er... therefore the previous install of some LWQ stuff had the tcp server db accept and forward mail from anywhere! (nargh!)
After 24 hours we were on 2 major RBLs and I didnt notice the err of my ways (to probe rather than be probed) untill we'd sent out serveral thousand mails...
(this also explains why the queue was HUGE and kept filling so quickly)
I managed to get off one RBL by using their automated open-smtp server check via some CGI. We passed with flying colours and were off that RBL before the end of the week.
I sent an email to the other RBL. Now, this other RBL is a 'private' RBL and "DOES NOT" (yep, in big bold letters all over their site) remove people. Once you're on, you're on.
I kindly explained the error I had in my script that inadvertantly led to our mail host being the great door to the spam sky.
The RBL host explained to me that it was not my server that was targetted, but the whole of EV1. I should have guess - but i didnt... the only time I'd run the RBL checks was _after_ my comprimising db was in place.
Little did I know that the entirety of EV1 was blacklisted. (imho quite right too, we got arpjacked by an adjacent out-of-the-plesk/ensim-box-install-with-not-updat
The RBL host explained this in a nice tone, and also explained that he would not remove me. Now, I was suprised he returned my email - the site did say not to try and contact them.
I replied thanking them for their time and hospitality. I was sincere and still feel the same way... I am, after all, an English Gentleman, first and foremost - the last of a dying breed.
I resigned to being blacklisted on a quasi-popular 'private' RBL.
I recieved an email, no more than 12 hours after my thank-you. It went along the lines:
----
>> thankyou for your time and effort. You didnt have to do this, yet you did. Thanks!
You did not have to thank me for that either. As a mark of respect I have removed your RBL entry.
----
Wootle etc
So kids, be nice to the mail and RBL admins out there!
Matt
honestly, as a european citiizen, i say nothing more than this:
fuck me. this bloke deserves a pulizer (?) prize- either for being (and i truely hope) the greatest whistle blower of any generation, or someone to surpass even the great Dan Brown when it comes to suspense!
PLEASE, SOMEONE, PLEASE, substantiate more of this information with links, references, things I can obtain myself. Do so, and the student world will find out- trust me!
Matt
ive had offers of money for maintaining past installs/setups/scripts ive worked on when dropping by.
my previous job was at an internet gaming cafe - a new business, and a good startup (in my business-happy eyes). it makes money still, but it didn't really make enough to sustain the manager + employee. Now afaik, it's self-sustaining with just a minimal wage employee.
I still frequent the place on holidays as there's a relaxed atmosphere and because gaming is fun. when dropping by i've found that some of the features i've setup in the past - such as a custom network "update" solution to synch all the desktops with the installed games and software plus a LVM filestore - aren't working as desired or need a tweak. This work may take me a few hours to sort out, even a day or two during my "holidays" away from uni, but, when you _want_ to do something and _want_ to help, it doesn't matter - especially when you enjoy tech/admin work.
ive turned down the offer of money in return for the fixes ive applied.
2 reasons really.
1) i see myself as a friend to my ex-employeer, as he treated me as one (this is such a great experience away from the capitalistic demoralization i faced at an SFI Group Pub)
2) i set the damned thing up using know-how that isn't going to be rivaled anytime and i dont want it to be me that causes a place i like to loose profit through hiring some pay-for-tech.
I guess, when it comes down to it, ive never had huge problems with money, and im unlikely to in the forseeable future. this is not to say im rich, but i am very giving within my own capacity. the christian ethos maybe. i do wonder of myself in different positions, whether or not i would do the same things i do now...
Matt
totally agreed.
t-shirts must be printed!
M
I hope i can shed some light into why i've enrolled in Bioinformatics...
:/) I'm still facinated by genetics and the human (et plantae, animalia) genomes. I think there is HUGE potential in genetic engineering... However, i know where the work is, and where the discovery really is.
:/)
d =1476685
I chose Bioinformatics Undergraduate course at Birmingham (http://www.bham.ac.uk) because it was a sensible blend of Biology (something I'm 'good' at msyelf and supposed to be inherantly good at with my father being a GP, mom a nurse and grandad a health inspector) and computers, more specifically, perl and databases.
I've found a love of genetics recently, since embarking on my AS levels two years ago, and today, the eve of my A2 level exams (AQA, 1:30hrs back to back
Most people say that the real discovery is at the lab level, but after years of "oh well, it works" and "oh well, it didn't quite work this time, maybe i used too much ocetic stain?" to "Damn it! I've just thrown away the supernatant and not the fsuking sediment!!! ARGH!" i've come to believe that lab experiments are really left to those with a different type of enthusiasm i've yet to acquire. While i think experiments can be rewarding at times, total discovery isn't always as fun.
The blend of bioinformatics with perl was something of a godsend when i started reading up on the subject. I've seen conferences advertised, fm and sf projects on bioinformatic processes and a oreily liturature.
Tbh I found the course at Bham by pure accident. Somehow a Biosciences leaflet came through the door, and on it was a limited place course with a grade boundary i could squeese into. I emplore you to do some of your own googling like I have.
I found stats like, "Bioinformatics is estimated to be worth $40Bln in the next 3 years". I know the biotech industry is very down at the moment (i do Business aside from Biology, and had a portfolio in some Biotechs for a module), but i can only envisage it booming in a few years as processing power increases and genetic probing is refined more and more. Only in the last 2 years we have seen the manufacture of mass probe machines, and they're being improved on year on year.
Ultimately i decided that i'd rather do something that would not only enhance my perl and database skills - which are currently limited only to small-time webapplications, and aimed at small scale systems - but reward me careerwise. Bioinformatics includes the necessary skills to migrate into CS or into other Biological Sciences, such as Genetics (tho the natural progression is Genetics to BioInf). I see Bioinformatics as the only "real" next big thing on the tech and biological market. While it's true the pharma conglomerates are conducting dubious business, it's this business that's been generating *MASSIVE* revenues per product; if I am able to manage a new product, such as an artificial enzyme or protien, from conception to the market place, i can only see big $$$s as my reward (read as pounds, i don't have unicode installed
Do read, http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_i
My dad put me on the the fact that Bioinformatics doens't have the technologcical-bust stigma CS is gaining. I'm coupling this with a top 4 UK Uni, and looking at postgraduate conversions to almost anything if I can get a 2nd class... That said, I think there are going to be interesting implications in LAW and Bioinf soon. An LLC conversion course to specialise on genetic, information and biological law is not a totally absurd plan at all! (i have convinced myself that anyhow)
I know one thing for sure is that whether or not the Biofinformatics world kicks off when i graduate in 3/4 years time (assuming i make the grades, which is oh-um-err right now) I'll come out with experience in CS and Biology and a broadrange of skills...
Goodluck.
Matt
There's a SH3 coming out soon apparently, so i've picked it up again. I've just jumped down a big hole in the history place and got stuck today :/ Fun, but after my friend went last night I had to stop playing on my own !!
System Shock 2... I ran every time i heard "shooooop" or the many calling. "The Many have been alerted to your presence": OMFG RUNNNN!!!
Has anyone heard the track, "return of the many". It's a remix and is really freaky. Well recommended.
The advances in game technology thesedays is making gaming more and more impressive but sadly i personally think there are problems with new features. If you take a look back at Lost Souls in doom ][, and the way they just charged at you - SS holding or not - from the dark to scare you whitless, and you see a great bit of level design with cunning lightening; whereas if you look at these action games with flashy effects, they're trying to erode the scare factor, the thriller factor because of the amount of planning involved and just hit the end gamer with lots of special effects so they become the next whizbang game.
Real stories like Half-Life, Starcraft, SS2 and Silent Hill will always be show beaters in the true gamers eye!
Matt
A lot of people will give me stick for this, but nonetheless, I'm standing by, IRC.
:), and we knew before we met that we had a lot in common. We phoned and txt each other regularly. We had similar tastes in music and both of us were highly academic.
IRC *is* a great place to meet people with similar interests. If you're an extrovert, you'll simply love to meet people, and if you're an introvert, you'll need a helping hand but you'll find the variety of different people you'll [probably] never meet irl, on IRC.
I met the last person i dated through a community site (I then met her best friend, but thats another story
I guess it's because IRC is a conscice medium that does away with all the 'wasteful' talk.
imho, it's no replacement to meeting people on the train, at parties or in bars, but people should really giver consideration to IRC communities rather than plague them with "nerd"ish slander.
In August i'll be off to Reading [Music] Festival (red-ding, is a Town nr London), with my IRC mate from Scotland and one of his IRC mates from the midlands. We've met before, and we're doing it again - it's funny and whitty and we had a great laugh last year.
Matt
a real time regex engine would perform regexes on condensed byte code of a page rather than the actual page. this is bound to be lossy.
the only way i can see it happening is an associated list of popular searches is entered into the db store, and regularly updated. sadly you're going up in factors, depending on how many expressions you have, so it'd be a huge db pull.
maybe... it's a cute idea. I'm sure something client side would be easier, with the advent of broadband in most homes.
Matt
Someone must be able to do their maths out there and figure out how fast you can crack 128bit encryption at 12 terraflops? (and you know the US govmt. has a centre like this alread right?) Matt