If you're going to put up a website about yourself, of course it's going to be self-centered.
The -thing- about personal websites is they aren't supposed to be geared towards any audience other than the author (and possibly the author's friends). If you come across a personal website you think is bland and boring, you're not the audience. If you find one you find amazingly interesting, you might jive with the author.
I think what you propose, while the ideal, is idealistic and probably a bit unrealistic. Asking people to write about their lives without focusing on themselves is a bit of a contradiction.
Seriously, for e-mail administrators it's been like one new variant a week since about oh I dunno, JULY. Most ISPs these days can handle the amount of UCE that's sent through thier systems, but some just barely. Tack on these viruses and you can easily see your e-mail jump four fold. Add to that queueing of messages that are "undeliverable" and your systems, no matter how big, start to falter.
In these instances filters like SpamAssasin may even add to the problem since they often consume more overhead than even SMTP daemons do, so that usually goes out the window as well (It's great, but not on a large scale (perl)). It's better to just let the mail pass than to slow it down like that.
So in theory, let's say you have a mid sized ISP with 6 SMTP relays. You can't run an anti-spam service directly on those boxes because the volume would kill them, so you have to break them off on to their own box. Suddenly you've got 10 or 12 boxes to care for, and when you've got something like this where you have maybe let's say 10,000 customers on your core network infected, more perhaps, things get really ugly. So even if you have that anti-spam monitor broken off on to it's own cluster, you can either leave the filtering up to some vague RegEx rules in your SMTP configuration or you can pass it through the anti-spam devices, causing each peice of e-mail to pass through your system twice, making 3 to 4 connections each.
I'm responsible for a fairly large e-mail system, but not nearly the size of any mid to large scale ISP and it's gotten pretty hairy, I can't even imagine what it's like at a Telia or RoadRunner for that matter. People keep forgetting to look at WHY this is happening, other than MS and hapless users. The SMTP protocol allows it all. Want to find a solution? We need to start moving to something else, as painful as that may be.
To pre-emptively smackdown the "Linux is dying" trolls... It's a bit sad, true, but I've always been bigger on the community support model.
I think of RedHat's support services as a bit of a crutch. I find I get better "support" from the horde of Debian users, for free, with the requirement that I think out my questions, and try to give back answers when I can.
Won't hurt me, or any of the profitable "small frys" that I know. Will it hurt big business? Meh, who cares.
My concern though; will this do -anything- to RedHat's contributions to Linux proper? I mean, they've done a fair share, hella fair share in fact.
Not saying optimism is a bad thing, but sometimes when you don't play "the game", you end up as either a footstool or nailed to a giant t.
I think you're right on all 3 points, but I also think you have to find the right environment to practice those 3 points in. I'll outline the result of what I think the worst cases are below;
1. If you always tell the truth in an environment where people make you an enemy just because that's all they know how to do, you'll end up in an inquisition sooner rather than later. You'll find that a modified version of the "truth" comes back to haunt you more often than not.
2. Sometimes staying out of other people's business can come back and haunt you too. Keeping your nose out of it, you can end up being the last to know and worse stuck with whatever the implications are.
3. There's actually no downsides to this one though. Even in the most negative environments, stick to your guns if you feel you're in the right.
The best peice of advice, in my mind, is to get out if the situation's that bad. You may not think you have options, but you probably do.
X10(DOT COM) get dinged by customers not buying their cams, rather than this odd legal slight.
PS, just for those of you who aren't familiar; X10.com is not really related in any way to the x10 protocol or x10 devices, don't let x10.com sour you to this awesome technology. x10.com seems to sell webcams mostly to people who hope to catch hot chicks on camera.
Just a quick question, since I know KaZaA is rife with it. I'd like to try it out but I don't want to end up with Bonzai Buddy on my desktop eternally or something.
...now that I've gotten my smartarse remark out of the way.:)
I've gotta say, while I'm a Mac fan. Apple likes to eat up RAM like candy. If I look at Process Viewer right now of all the crazy stuff I'm running on my iBook, the Apple software is chewing up the most (and we're talking about a calendar, and a mail program here...). I can imagine the Windows equal, done by Apple, may experience some of the same issues.
In general, Apple == get more RAM. I think even dedicated Windows users would be a little taken aback.
Like... who do I root for here? AMD or Apple? I'm keen on both companies! Well at least if I build an AMD based Debian workstation won't be a sorry substitute for a G5.
Just as long as it's not Intel, I'm still quite happy.
If they thought they'd get an angry spew when calling me at dinner, I can't even imagine what torrent of profanity would exit my mouth if they called while I was on my way home after work stuck in traffic.
Offtopic: my favorite new telemarketer trick, which has seemed to help reduce my call volume. Pick up, and as soon as they go into their pitch, put the phone down on the counter, but don't hang up. Don't pick it up again until they've given up on you. Sorta pointless, but hilarious. I haven't tried the reverse crank call yet, but next time I'm whipping out the Dr. Evil Sound Board.
Don't know if anybody's mentioned this, but I came across this from Road Runner's site after they blocked a bunch of ISPs (filtering gone awry, I'm afraid, and corrected now).
Essentially a whitelist of senders, rather than a blacklist. There's been lots of whitelist talk, but I don't think anyone's taking it seriously because it would be difficult to get everyone to fall into line with this concept. Imagine how much mail your clients -wouldn't- get if it was to be implemented. But now, it's gotten to the point where the community HAS to do something, I mean really now. So I propose admins that are reading this hop onboard and sign up to see what they have to offer.
What I'd like to see is a community run list, like a polar-opposite RBL, that would do an open relay test, a reverse IP test, and would be open to human scrutiny. We could give ourselves 365 days to get the word out and implement it, that should be a good amount of time.
FreeBSD also has packages, which are a lot like.deb packages.
Admittedly I like apt too. If I had to choose between Debian or FreeBSD, I'd jump off a bridge from madness...
Actually, I'd pick Debian for the workstation, and FreeBSD for the server, but this is a personal preference.
Debian is great, great as a server. I've been the admin for a tonne of RedHat (...) boxes, and a cluster of FreeBSD boxes, and I used to preach the merits of FreeBSD over RedHat. With Debian though, that argument gets a lot harder, and you have to start looking really low level, like comparing the kernels, and packages, and core teams, and other crazy stuff.
iTunes for Windows is about to hit the market pretty soon, and while the price per track is higher, Joe Public will be paying PER TRACK or PER ALBUM, and you know what you're getting. The feeling of a shrink-wrapped package is still there. Downloading mp3's is still sketchy, how do you prove ownership in this age where the RIAA can swoop down on you at any time and snatch your grandmother's retirement or something.
I applaud the vision behind Emusic's business model, but it's wacky and unsustainable in that ugly dot-com sorta that's all too familiar. Anyone else ask themselves how they were sustaining UNLIMITED downloads for $9.99? If you have to ask that question, you're probably right in being perplexed. As far as I know bandwidth still costs money. Compare it to a gas station offering unlimited gas for $50 a month.
And he's such a regular guy (seemingly) that it probably gives him a bit of a shudder to read that.
I don't envy the position Linus is in though, I mean looking back, he didn't set out with the goal of being worshipped globally by computer nerds, he just had this re-write of Minix he was working on. Eesh!
Of course!:) We've just come full circle back to the core of a Linux Vs. Windows debate. The real question now is why don't any US corporations really seriously ask that question? Customers? I guess privacy and security is more inconvenient than is worth it.
Just like everything else on this continent, people will trade security and safety for minor convenience. Apparently the Chinese are thinking ahead a bit.
While I'm sure that the NSA is no slouch when it comes to computer infiltration, I've never been one to believe that they've got some magical super powers outside the realm of known technical limitations. Let's not forget that most of what any government says it can do is a large percentage smoke and mirrors to keep the public feeling safe (PATRIOT missles) or unsafe (PATRIOT act) as it may be. On top of that the Chinese have never been pushovers when it comes to technology. They're in the asia pacific region, which is undoubtably a world hotspot for technological advances. Hell, the PC you're using right now is probably 60% chinese and 90% asian in manufacture and design.
With all that in mind, I'd say any advantage the NSA can get, it would take. And with THAT in mind, I think it's perfectly reasonable for the Chinese government to fully inspect any operating system it may run.
Fair enough, and true, but with the technologies emerging to allow them to protect their music without having to burn them to a media and then physically ship them, I see nothing but bright times ahead for indie artists.
I'm not saying the artists that fear these technologies are dumb, but I think they've been mislead probably by the respective recording industries themselves about how and what is possible online.
As I see it, indie artists buying into the old party line aren't doing themselves any favours.
I don't know why we're assuming all artists are on the same wavelength here. Neko probably fears the technology. Good artists can be short-sighted as well. All are human after all.
This is non-practical for people who have international clients, and even then at many ISPs this would mean blackholing the asia-pacific rim for *all customers*, not just the impacted ones.
I wish it was just that easy, and trust me, we had been over it in our own personal adventures.
That's what they're for, I think this would be perfect. Trusting a PGP sig is actually much better than trusting data from *.rblwhatever.org.
So in this instance, let's say a dispatch from your friendly neighbourhood RBL freenet source would include, in a PGP signed plaintext message;
- RBL IP or net / netmask
- short reason
Hell dudes, these dispatches could even be sent to a Usenet group... Has anybody tried that? Like an offshoot of NANAE? NANAE.dispatches? You'd filter for new adds and cancels, trusting only the signatures you want...
And this is a huge one. I've dealt with DDoS attacks in the past, large scale ones like the ones that hurt the anti-spam lists.
A lot, if not the vast majority of infected zombie attackers out there are located in asia pacific. Trying to track down the responsible admin, and then trying to get a response is -near impossible-. Language barriers, general apathy, it's all there. On top of that a lot of hosts in Korea have awesome pipe.
Seriously, people keep bandying about the idea of using freenet for distribution of blackhole lists, but it's probably absolutely THE best solution to the problems we're facing. The ISPs can only do so much, and when the lists are distributed from a central, known source.. well, we've seen the results of this.
I suggest one of us take up the cause of creating this freenet distribution system. It could revolutionize the way trusted data is passed if it works successfully for an RBL. I'd do it myself, but I'm beyond short of time, and brains for that matter:)
A Palm OS capable device is required. Check it out. I use it daily, nay, hourly. I keep everything in it right down to my credit card number.
If it gets owned somehow, I'm screwed, but it's a trade-off I'm willing to make for the total convenience. Read up on it so you're comfortable with it, but I highly, HIGHLY reccomend it. HIGHLY.
Slashdot Mirror
The -thing- about personal websites is they aren't supposed to be geared towards any audience other than the author (and possibly the author's friends). If you come across a personal website you think is bland and boring, you're not the audience. If you find one you find amazingly interesting, you might jive with the author.
I think what you propose, while the ideal, is idealistic and probably a bit unrealistic. Asking people to write about their lives without focusing on themselves is a bit of a contradiction.
In these instances filters like SpamAssasin may even add to the problem since they often consume more overhead than even SMTP daemons do, so that usually goes out the window as well (It's great, but not on a large scale (perl)). It's better to just let the mail pass than to slow it down like that.
So in theory, let's say you have a mid sized ISP with 6 SMTP relays. You can't run an anti-spam service directly on those boxes because the volume would kill them, so you have to break them off on to their own box. Suddenly you've got 10 or 12 boxes to care for, and when you've got something like this where you have maybe let's say 10,000 customers on your core network infected, more perhaps, things get really ugly. So even if you have that anti-spam monitor broken off on to it's own cluster, you can either leave the filtering up to some vague RegEx rules in your SMTP configuration or you can pass it through the anti-spam devices, causing each peice of e-mail to pass through your system twice, making 3 to 4 connections each.
I'm responsible for a fairly large e-mail system, but not nearly the size of any mid to large scale ISP and it's gotten pretty hairy, I can't even imagine what it's like at a Telia or RoadRunner for that matter. People keep forgetting to look at WHY this is happening, other than MS and hapless users. The SMTP protocol allows it all. Want to find a solution? We need to start moving to something else, as painful as that may be.
I think of RedHat's support services as a bit of a crutch. I find I get better "support" from the horde of Debian users, for free, with the requirement that I think out my questions, and try to give back answers when I can.
Won't hurt me, or any of the profitable "small frys" that I know. Will it hurt big business? Meh, who cares.
My concern though; will this do -anything- to RedHat's contributions to Linux proper? I mean, they've done a fair share, hella fair share in fact.
Here it is
I think you're right on all 3 points, but I also think you have to find the right environment to practice those 3 points in. I'll outline the result of what I think the worst cases are below;
1. If you always tell the truth in an environment where people make you an enemy just because that's all they know how to do, you'll end up in an inquisition sooner rather than later. You'll find that a modified version of the "truth" comes back to haunt you more often than not.
2. Sometimes staying out of other people's business can come back and haunt you too. Keeping your nose out of it, you can end up being the last to know and worse stuck with whatever the implications are.
3. There's actually no downsides to this one though. Even in the most negative environments, stick to your guns if you feel you're in the right.
The best peice of advice, in my mind, is to get out if the situation's that bad. You may not think you have options, but you probably do.
PS, just for those of you who aren't familiar; X10.com is not really related in any way to the x10 protocol or x10 devices, don't let x10.com sour you to this awesome technology. x10.com seems to sell webcams mostly to people who hope to catch hot chicks on camera.
Just a quick question, since I know KaZaA is rife with it. I'd like to try it out but I don't want to end up with Bonzai Buddy on my desktop eternally or something.
I've gotta say, while I'm a Mac fan. Apple likes to eat up RAM like candy. If I look at Process Viewer right now of all the crazy stuff I'm running on my iBook, the Apple software is chewing up the most (and we're talking about a calendar, and a mail program here...). I can imagine the Windows equal, done by Apple, may experience some of the same issues.
In general, Apple == get more RAM. I think even dedicated Windows users would be a little taken aback.
Anyone agree or am I way off base here?
Just as long as it's not Intel, I'm still quite happy.
Offtopic: my favorite new telemarketer trick, which has seemed to help reduce my call volume. Pick up, and as soon as they go into their pitch, put the phone down on the counter, but don't hang up. Don't pick it up again until they've given up on you. Sorta pointless, but hilarious. I haven't tried the reverse crank call yet, but next time I'm whipping out the Dr. Evil Sound Board.
http://www.bondedsender.com/
Essentially a whitelist of senders, rather than a blacklist. There's been lots of whitelist talk, but I don't think anyone's taking it seriously because it would be difficult to get everyone to fall into line with this concept. Imagine how much mail your clients -wouldn't- get if it was to be implemented. But now, it's gotten to the point where the community HAS to do something, I mean really now. So I propose admins that are reading this hop onboard and sign up to see what they have to offer.
What I'd like to see is a community run list, like a polar-opposite RBL, that would do an open relay test, a reverse IP test, and would be open to human scrutiny. We could give ourselves 365 days to get the word out and implement it, that should be a good amount of time.
Hmm, gotta break out the pen..
FreeBSD also has packages, which are a lot like .deb packages.
Admittedly I like apt too. If I had to choose between Debian or FreeBSD, I'd jump off a bridge from madness... Actually, I'd pick Debian for the workstation, and FreeBSD for the server, but this is a personal preference.
Debian is great, great as a server. I've been the admin for a tonne of RedHat (...) boxes, and a cluster of FreeBSD boxes, and I used to preach the merits of FreeBSD over RedHat. With Debian though, that argument gets a lot harder, and you have to start looking really low level, like comparing the kernels, and packages, and core teams, and other crazy stuff.
I applaud the vision behind Emusic's business model, but it's wacky and unsustainable in that ugly dot-com sorta that's all too familiar. Anyone else ask themselves how they were sustaining UNLIMITED downloads for $9.99? If you have to ask that question, you're probably right in being perplexed. As far as I know bandwidth still costs money. Compare it to a gas station offering unlimited gas for $50 a month.
And he's such a regular guy (seemingly) that it probably gives him a bit of a shudder to read that. I don't envy the position Linus is in though, I mean looking back, he didn't set out with the goal of being worshipped globally by computer nerds, he just had this re-write of Minix he was working on. Eesh!
Sorry, I don't have numbers, just press releases...
Just like everything else on this continent, people will trade security and safety for minor convenience. Apparently the Chinese are thinking ahead a bit.
With all that in mind, I'd say any advantage the NSA can get, it would take. And with THAT in mind, I think it's perfectly reasonable for the Chinese government to fully inspect any operating system it may run.
Don't implicitly trust what you read on *
I'm not saying the artists that fear these technologies are dumb, but I think they've been mislead probably by the respective recording industries themselves about how and what is possible online.
As I see it, indie artists buying into the old party line aren't doing themselves any favours.
I don't know why we're assuming all artists are on the same wavelength here. Neko probably fears the technology. Good artists can be short-sighted as well. All are human after all.
I wish it was just that easy, and trust me, we had been over it in our own personal adventures.
So in this instance, let's say a dispatch from your friendly neighbourhood RBL freenet source would include, in a PGP signed plaintext message; - RBL IP or net / netmask - short reason Hell dudes, these dispatches could even be sent to a Usenet group... Has anybody tried that? Like an offshoot of NANAE? NANAE.dispatches? You'd filter for new adds and cancels, trusting only the signatures you want...
A lot, if not the vast majority of infected zombie attackers out there are located in asia pacific. Trying to track down the responsible admin, and then trying to get a response is -near impossible-. Language barriers, general apathy, it's all there. On top of that a lot of hosts in Korea have awesome pipe.
Seriously, people keep bandying about the idea of using freenet for distribution of blackhole lists, but it's probably absolutely THE best solution to the problems we're facing. The ISPs can only do so much, and when the lists are distributed from a central, known source.. well, we've seen the results of this.
I suggest one of us take up the cause of creating this freenet distribution system. It could revolutionize the way trusted data is passed if it works successfully for an RBL. I'd do it myself, but I'm beyond short of time, and brains for that matter :)
My first search.
If it gets owned somehow, I'm screwed, but it's a trade-off I'm willing to make for the total convenience. Read up on it so you're comfortable with it, but I highly, HIGHLY reccomend it. HIGHLY.