Technology
Douglas vs Referrer Spam
Every day my IMAP server is filled with spam. Luckily, Mozilla Thunderbird has learned what I consider spam/junk mail and moves all that stuff to a Junk folder leaving me with an inbox that’s mostly free of useless emails. So far, I’ve had no false positives, which means that emails from Mum don’t end up being marked as junk. That’s good. But it’s at the expense of still receiving two or three junk emails per day. That was further reduced at work which our acquisition of the Astaro Security Linux, a Linux-based firewall product from Astaro. What doesn’t get caught by Astaro’s software is caught by Thunderbird so at Zymeta I work in a spam free environment. At home it’s a different story, but that’s an easy fix since Astaro offers free home licenses for personal, non-commercial and non-revenue generating use. A great offer from a great company which makes a great product.
Anyway, back to referrer spam. Unfortunately Astaro doesn’t have a way to specifically block referrer spam, though as blogging in the workplace becomes more prevalent I’m sure they’ll add that. Since the Zymeta blog server has been around for over a year now, we’ve found our way onto the referrer spammers’ lists. If you look on the right side of my blog, you’ll see a list of websites that led people to my blog. The majority of people arrive here directly (they either have the site bookmarked or are reading the RSS feed for the site), but every day people arrive at my blog for the first time from another site. In my case, the majority of the people come via Google while looking for information on getting the D-Link DWL-G122 to work under Linux. But every so often some referrers show up that aren’t real referrers at all; they are referrer spam.
Basically, every time a web page is requested by someone, their web browser sends along the referring website. That is, the browser sends along a link to the web page that led the user to my blog. Unfortunately, it’s an easy thing to spoof and as a result my blog ends up with a bunch of ‘referers’ that are actually pr0n sites (yes, I meant to spell it like that) or sites advertising online gambling or other low-life activity. That in itself is bad enough. But, because those links are now in my referrer list, if Google happens to come by to search my blog for content that day, suddenly people looking for that barely legal stuff arrive at my blog also. It’s a vicious circle. And the worst thing is that most of this referrer spam comes from regular people’s computers who’ve had their computers compromised and don’t even realize it.
Five years ago I would have tried to figure out a way to contact the computer’s owner to let them know but I figure more than half of average computer owners have infected computers so it’s a losing battle. Instead, I’ve started putting those IP addresses sending referrer spam into the web server’s local firewall rules and blocking them from accessing the site. And if I find more than one spammer in the space Class C address space in the logs, I just block all 256 IPs. In today’s case, the spamming machines were on dial-up accounts in Mexico.
It seems wrong to block them all since potentially someone might legitimately be looking for info that may be found on my blog. But I was so tired of constantly checking my referrer list and removing those entries which were clearly spam. Roller Weblogger, the blog server we use, uses a blacklist to help block this stuff, but it isn’t always up to date and the blacklist author only accepts additions via a certain program. So, until the file is updated with the sites that are showing up on my blog, I’ll keep blocking those IPs because in this case, as far as I’m concerned, ”the good of the many outweighs the good of the few.”
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Douglas vs Tiger
One of the reasons I feel that I can write about Macintosh related issues is that I deal with them on a regular basis. I’ve always believed that you shouldn’t be critical of things that you don’t know anything about or haven’t experienced. For that very reason I’ve made no comments whatsoever on the recent Air France crash in Toronto. Yes, I have my private pilot license but I’ve never acted as a pilot in an Airbus A340 nor was I in the flight deck at the time of the accident. I guess I could speculate, but realistically, no matter how much flying experience you have, unless you were there you won’t be able to say what might have gone wrong. At least not without more solid information and facts (from first hand sources).
Anyway, back to the issue at hand. At Zymeta our content guy, Dean, uses a Macintosh and I spent my first year there moving processes off Macintosh and onto Linux. And at home, I have an iMac that I inherited from a previous job. So, yes, I know Macintosh stuff. I may not be an expert but I have more experience than your average user. So last night I decided it was time to upgrade my iMac from 10.2 to the over-hyped 10.4, known as Tiger.
I actually tried to upgrade my iMac two days ago. But the machine kept spitting out the DVD whenever I inserted the upgrade DVD. No error message. No anything. I figured that either the DVD was bad or that my iMac didn’t meet the minimum system requirements. As it turns out however, this was a bit of stupidity on my part; I forgot that my iMac only has a CD/RW drive. Still, you would think that Mac OS X would give me some sort of error message, something like ’Unable to read this CD’. Even Linux does that.
No problem. Apple will exchange my DVD for CDs… for another fee. Nice. Luckily though, Dean was able to put together an external firewire DVD drive for me. So last night, external drive in hand, I tried again. I won’t go into the details of how the install works but I will tell you that I was trying to upgrade my existing setup. It’s the default option and it is supposed to completely update the operating system, while leaving all the installed applications and users information and files intact. If it works, it’s the ideal situation; you get a new computer but all your files are right where you left them.
Of course, the key phrase is ’if it works‘… it didn’t. Instead, I was shown a message that the install failed and that I should try again. So I did. On the second time, I brought up the install log window and watched what was transpiring. As it turns out, Tiger didn’t even try to update my system as the installed failed while verifying my hard drive. The error log said something about there being an ’incorrect number of thread records’ but the actual user window simple said, once again, that the install had failed and that I should try again. A quick Google of the situation showed that the only success around this that people had was to back everything up and do a fresh install of Tiger. I didn’t dive too deep into looking for a solution as by this time it was close to midnight.
Lucky for me, I have several other machines on which I could backup stuff onto so I tar-gzipped up all the user directories, copied them over to another machine and did a fresh install. It probably needed that anyway. But imagine if your beginning (or average, for that matter) user encountered that. What are they to do? Overall, I would say that my upgrade experience was less than good, especially given how Macs are supposed to be all that.
Update: I clarified my thoughts on speculating on the causes of the Air France crash.
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The [Un]Mighty Mouse
Only Apple could make a big deal over something the rest of us have had for many years now; a three button mouse. While most normal Mac users likely already have a three button mouse (I bought a third party USB mouse for my iMac), the true Mac fanatics will tell you that the one button mouse is a superior product.
That said, I am pretty sure that those same fanatics are secretly envious of my three button mice. Or at least they used to be. Because now there is an official Apple product that they can buy which will allow them to continue to be fanatics while at the same time supporting Steve Jobs’ stock options growth. It’s almost like they think that spending more and more money on official Apple product will bring them closer to God, er, Steve Jobs. Whomever. And buy it you will, because according to an article on Ars Technica this new mouse isn’t included in new Mac purchases. Nice.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that Apple makes some good products. I don’t think anyone can deny that the iPod is the MP3 player to own, thanks to good design and marketing. But getting excited about a three button mouse? Come on.
Update: Ars Technica also has a review of the Mighty Mouse and an article about dissecting the Mighty Mouse.
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Where Did The Internet CD Go?
This morning the Internet connection at our office went down. I think someone might have removed the Internet CD (you know, those CD’s that come in the mail and have the Internet on them?) from one of the servers or something. Apparently there’s a problem up stream somewhere, though it seems to be more localized than Telus is saying because the servers at my house are working just fine. How do I know this if my office Internet connection is down? Easy, I just used the web browser on my fancy cell phone.
Interestingly enough, this is only the second time I’ve been able to use my cell phone’s web browser for anything useful. And the other time was to confirm that everything was working on my servers also. It’s neat that you can surf the web on your cell phone but realistically it’s just not practical. The screen on my cell phone is about 3cm x 2cm. My rough guess is that the screen on my phone is about 240x160 pixels. My monitor at work on the other hand is 1600x1200. Perhaps I’m spoiled but combine what I’m used to with the fact that most websites aren’t designed for phones, it’s just not worth the effort.
Some sites, like Google for example, have specialized versions specifically for cell phones, which is cool. That said, though, even those sites are a bit of a pain given that I can read the text on the site faster than my cell phone can scroll through it. Once, while plane watching at CYYC (from the McKnight Blvd watching area), I tried to access the Calgary Airport Authority’s website to get a listing of incoming aircraft. Unfortunately, instead of showing the list starting from the current time, the site listed all arrivals from midnight on. Which would have been fine had it not been 1600h local. I gave up trying after a couple minutes of scrolling and I hadn’t yet reached morning.
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Why Isn't Encryption Mainstream Yet?
More and more we are seeing articles about information being stolen from computers. And it begs the question, why isn’t encryption mainstream yet? I don’t know about MS Windows, but Linux seamlessly supports encrypted file systems. I have my laptop set up right now such that my swap partition is encrypted using dm-crypt and when I get time I will move my non-system partition over also. While some people are likely concerned about protecting their information from the government (read: tax evasion) or from law enforcement (read: organized crime), I’m concerned about preventing Zymeta’s corporate information and my personal files from showing up on the Internet. And for that reason, moving to an encrypted file system is a top priority.
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Google Makes You Feel Alive
If you’re a programmer, a real programmer that is, (and no, not a Real Basic programmer, that’s different), then I doubt that you feel anything but glee when something new is released by Google. At least that’s how I feel when I see something like Google’s latest creation, a personalized homepage.
It’s always been the case that web development gets a bad rap. Either you are lumped in with the HTML monkeys and people think you make simple web pages or no one really understands that behind the pretty web pages is some code written by a programmer of sorts, just like you. In any case, I’ve been moving away from web-based development, not because I don’t like it but to do something different again; I’ve done web-based application development (as I like to call it) since 1995. Seriously. That was one of the attractions to my move to Zymeta; a chance to get back into non-web development.
But every time I take a step away from web development, Google brings me two steps back. With their personalized homepage, they have introduced drag and drop. Yep, drag and drop within a web browser. How cool is that? Perhaps it’s been done somewhere else, but not that I’ve seen. And whenever Google introduces something new, suddenly there are other sites piggy-backing off Google. Look at all the cool things you can do with Google Maps now. Seeing things like that is the programmer equivalent of that long hike followed by a scramble to the top of some peak, taking a deep breath and looking around. It’s moments like that where you feel alive.
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Protect Your Feet ... from Apple
Apple’s discovered a better way to shoot off your foot. Maybe it’s already a joke, but this time it seems Apple isn’t just shooting off their own foot, they’re shooting off both feet. And the feet of anyone that actually likes Apple.
Or perhaps it’s just a marketing ploy to get some press. Of course, only Apple would sue their best fans for press. That’s the problem with being a zealot (read: brain washed). No matter how many times someone rakes you over the coals, you just keep coming back. In Apple’s defence, they’re not the only one’s doing it. George Lucas is right up their with Steve Jobs for the top award for fan alienation. When George announced that on a few years before the 20th anniversary of Star Wars’ debut in theatres that he was releasing the videos for the last time ever, I fell for it and immediately bought the box set. Since then, he’s released it a couple more times and then finally after a huge delay released it on DVD. And now he’s talking about yet another release; this time in 3D or something. Nice. For the record, I haven’t bought a Star Wars product since that box set in the early 90’s.
Update: Dean has some good comments about George Lucas and his Star Wars ripoff^H^H^H^H^H^H marketing brilliance.
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Tiger To Be Saved By Linux?
It looks like Apple has the potential to save face with it’s Tiger release thanks in part to Linux. Okay, it might be a bit of a stretch, but Robert Young did found Red Hat, which along with other major distributors, helped propel Linux into the mainstream. Oh, the irony.
On a somewhat related note, according to Ars, Apple recently changed the name one of their technologies from Rendezvous to Bonjour. So no more formal hello’s in French without paying Mr. Jobs for the privilege.
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Rave Reviews For Tiger
I’ve been reading a lot recently about Tiger. It’s not that I care. Not at all. Not even a little. It’s just that everywhere I look it’s Tiger-this and Tiger-that. Bah. It’s just a point-release for crying out loud. But the interesting thing is that most of the “rave” reviews are from already establish Mac fanatics (as in religious zealots). It’s like asking a priest to review the Bible. If you think otherwise or get mad when you read that, then there’s a good chance that you too are a zealot of sorts.
What this industry needs is people that act more like restaurant critics. If the food at a restaurant is terrible does the critic sugarcoat it? Not typically. But the problem is that Apple likely spends a great deal of money advertising in MacWorld and other Mac magazines and websites. Are those magazines and sites likely to criticize Apple? Not likely. And if they were thinking of biting the hand that feeds them, they’ll think twice after Apple’s stunt last week.
Oh, but wait! PCWorld also wrote a rave review on Tiger, and it’s a magazine on PCs. That must be unbiased. Nope, PCWorld is affiliated with MacWorld and I suspect Apple advertises their iPods and other iCrap in PCWorld magazine also. So do I trust their review? Nope.
Am I saying that Tiger is not that great? Of course not; I haven’t even tried it. Maybe it is as great as they say. But I think I’ll make my decision after I talk to some non-zealots and perhaps try it for myself.
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Air Racing
I’m not a big fan of Flash-based websites. Not at all. I think that too often Flash is used to make a site look cool, but when it comes down to it the site disappoints because there’s no solid content or information. But, this afternoon I was looking for some air race information and found the Red Bull Air Race site. Amazing. I’m not sure if those air race guys are good pilots, crazy pilots or just plain crazy, but the flying they do is amazing.
The Red Bull site is exactly what Flash should be used for. You can watch a race take place and you can choose the camera angle to watch from. Want to know what the pilot is thinking? No problem, just turn on the commentary. It’s like a DVD but all within your browser. Very slick.
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