Well, based on what I've seen internally and the reaction by the *technical* people at the publisher, I believe that a DoS did in fact occur. I'm in complete agreement with you and everyone else who says that there are many reasons why wget might be used. However, in my experience this just doesn't smell like one of those reasons. There are simply too many requests for the same URL (/) over and over and over again.
I've shared as much information as I can. I don't know that they'll give me more information now that I've resigned but I've asked specifically for it anyway. More logs and more information would've been nice, yes.
My point with the blog entry was to highlight that the DoS was not *just* a Slashdotting and there were other factors that contributed to it, namely the wgets that I saw. Was it a bad DoS? I don't think so, there's nothing that I saw to indicate that. But something more than just a Slashdotting appeared to occur.
I apologize, I thought I made it clear that I was masking some non-essential bits of information in the log examples. One of those bits was the IP address. I replaced it with localhost in the example. I didn't feel is necessary to put the real-world IP in the example.
As you and others have now pointed out, it could be that people were wget'ing the site for other reasons. However, that's not how it looked. All the requests that I saw were from the same IP and were all for the root / URL.
Unfortunately, I don't have all of the information. I agree that it would be nice to have more. I have what I have and now you have what I have, minus two lines of log file that are virtually the same as the three already shown.
As an editor (now former editor) for LinuxWorld, I've been attempting to get details of the DoS against Sys-Con all week and bring them to our readers. Just yesterday I received those details and was working on a story about the DoS to appear in LinuxWorld. Since I don't think the story will be appearing there, it's now here.
From TFA: "There is still some doubt over whether the DoS attacks against Sys-Con actually existed or whether they were the result of 'The Slashdot Effect' for lack of a better term. I believe the DoS attacks did exist. I too was initially skeptical but based on e-mail correspondence I now believe them to have happened."
More in my blog.
I installed Xandros on my parents computer and haven't had to fix it since. I wrote about it for LinuxWorld. Yes, I know that switching OS seems like a huge step and frankly it is. But Xandros is the perfect distro for many computer users (basic office apps such as word processing, Internet, etc). The Xandros Deluxe edition includes Codeweavers CrossOver too so installation of things like Quicken and full version of Microsoft Office are possible, though Xandros includes OpenOffice.
It seems as though most Windows users that I've talked to don't care about the *name* of the program so much as they care about it just *working* and being compatible. OpenOffice is a great example of this. Show someone that they can read their old Word docs and that they can even save directly to PDF and they'll be an OpenOffice user. Yes, yes, yes. I know that there are things that OOo can't do but many (most?) users won't ever encounter those issues. Likewise, show someone that they can get their work done in much the same way and don't have to settle for IE's constant string of security holes, even post SP2, and Windows' poor performance and constant, never-ending critical updates and they'll be a Linux (and/or Xandros) user.
Since I installed Xandros on my parents computer I don't have to worry about my parents getting the spyware/adware/malware du jour or about the OS crashing for no good reason. They don't have to worry about clicking something they shouldn't or about their computer being "down" when they get yet another virus. I chose Xandros as an upgrade from XP Pro on their computer and it helped everyone concerned.
If I ever had to do tech support, which I'm just guessing I will at some point, Xandros is based on Debian which makes my life easier. At least I won't find myself in the position of having to tech support Outlook Express, a program I've never used, or any of the other disappointing, unconfigurable, security-hole laden programs that come from Microsoft.
Actually, there are four ways to have a patent corrected or amended. More info here
The methods are:
1) By re-issue
2) Issurance of a certificate of correct which becomes part of the patent.
3) By disclaimer
4) Re-examination
The first three methods are described in the doc linked above. The re-examination is described in Section 2200
None of the options are cheap. Re-examination starts at $2,250. See Section 1.20 of this doc.
A re-issue application is the normal filing fee, which is still non-trivial for an individual to undertake for this purpose.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, based on what I've seen internally and the reaction by the *technical* people at the publisher, I believe that a DoS did in fact occur. I'm in complete agreement with you and everyone else who says that there are many reasons why wget might be used. However, in my experience this just doesn't smell like one of those reasons. There are simply too many requests for the same URL (/) over and over and over again.
I've shared as much information as I can. I don't know that they'll give me more information now that I've resigned but I've asked specifically for it anyway. More logs and more information would've been nice, yes.
My point with the blog entry was to highlight that the DoS was not *just* a Slashdotting and there were other factors that contributed to it, namely the wgets that I saw. Was it a bad DoS? I don't think so, there's nothing that I saw to indicate that. But something more than just a Slashdotting appeared to occur.
I apologize, I thought I made it clear that I was masking some non-essential bits of information in the log examples. One of those bits was the IP address. I replaced it with localhost in the example. I didn't feel is necessary to put the real-world IP in the example.
127.0.0.1 - - [NN/May/2005:NN:20:44 -0400] "GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 49107 "-" "Wget/1.9.1" eudora="autourl"
As you and others have now pointed out, it could be that people were wget'ing the site for other reasons. However, that's not how it looked. All the requests that I saw were from the same IP and were all for the root / URL.
Unfortunately, I don't have all of the information. I agree that it would be nice to have more. I have what I have and now you have what I have, minus two lines of log file that are virtually the same as the three already shown.
I'll be updating the blog entry with this.
As an editor (now former editor) for LinuxWorld, I've been attempting to get details of the DoS against Sys-Con all week and bring them to our readers. Just yesterday I received those details and was working on a story about the DoS to appear in LinuxWorld. Since I don't think the story will be appearing there, it's now here. From TFA: "There is still some doubt over whether the DoS attacks against Sys-Con actually existed or whether they were the result of 'The Slashdot Effect' for lack of a better term. I believe the DoS attacks did exist. I too was initially skeptical but based on e-mail correspondence I now believe them to have happened." More in my blog.
I installed Xandros on my parents computer and haven't had to fix it since. I wrote about it for LinuxWorld. Yes, I know that switching OS seems like a huge step and frankly it is. But Xandros is the perfect distro for many computer users (basic office apps such as word processing, Internet, etc). The Xandros Deluxe edition includes Codeweavers CrossOver too so installation of things like Quicken and full version of Microsoft Office are possible, though Xandros includes OpenOffice.
It seems as though most Windows users that I've talked to don't care about the *name* of the program so much as they care about it just *working* and being compatible. OpenOffice is a great example of this. Show someone that they can read their old Word docs and that they can even save directly to PDF and they'll be an OpenOffice user. Yes, yes, yes. I know that there are things that OOo can't do but many (most?) users won't ever encounter those issues. Likewise, show someone that they can get their work done in much the same way and don't have to settle for IE's constant string of security holes, even post SP2, and Windows' poor performance and constant, never-ending critical updates and they'll be a Linux (and/or Xandros) user.
Since I installed Xandros on my parents computer I don't have to worry about my parents getting the spyware/adware/malware du jour or about the OS crashing for no good reason. They don't have to worry about clicking something they shouldn't or about their computer being "down" when they get yet another virus. I chose Xandros as an upgrade from XP Pro on their computer and it helped everyone concerned.
If I ever had to do tech support, which I'm just guessing I will at some point, Xandros is based on Debian which makes my life easier. At least I won't find myself in the position of having to tech support Outlook Express, a program I've never used, or any of the other disappointing, unconfigurable, security-hole laden programs that come from Microsoft.
The methods are:
1) By re-issue
2) Issurance of a certificate of correct which becomes part of the patent.
3) By disclaimer
4) Re-examination
The first three methods are described in the doc linked above. The re-examination is described in Section 2200
None of the options are cheap. Re-examination starts at $2,250. See Section 1.20 of this doc. A re-issue application is the normal filing fee, which is still non-trivial for an individual to undertake for this purpose.