My DSL connection was dead for about eight hours this morning (a problem with a switching station, I think).  I was at work and couldn’t connect to my home server.  I hate when that happens.

I rip all my CDs to the computer because it’s so much more convenient.  I can play anything I want without having to dig through a stack of disks looking for the one I want.  I can also access my music collection from work since I’ve set up my server to stream tracks which I [...]

I’ve dumped MoveableType and switched over to Wordpress for my blogging software.  At the same time, I implemented an entirely new look.  It’s not quite done yet, but it’s close.

Last week we switched our ecommerce website from a 4-processor shared system to a single processor dedicated system.  Because of some customization we require to improve the site, the switch is necessary.  I looked at the specs of the proposed system and gave it the go-ahead after insisting the memory be increased from 512Meg to [...]

Here is the mighty server that runs geekbiker.net.  It’s a Shuttle computer with an AMD Athlon™ XP 1900+ (1.6Ghz) processor, 2Gigs memory, 80 Gig and 400 Gig hard drives, running Debian Linux.  There is no monitor, keyboard, mouse, or floppy drive; but if you look real close you can just make out my shotgun just [...]

This essay was originally written for a new on-line Linux magazine.  Unfortunately, that project seems to be still-born, so I decided to publish it here instead of letting it go to waste.
You consider yourself a Linux advocate.  When a friend’s systems is infected with the Windows virus du jour, you are quick to point [...]

I got a whole bunch of these in my Apache log:

65.75.190.110 – – [07/Oct/2004:12:13:24 -0700] “POST /mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=61__ HTTP/1.1″ 200 2513 “http://www.php-soft.com” “”

Since I am using a validator plugin for comments, none of the seventy-one attempts were successful, but I added this to my system, anyway:

iptables -A INPUT –source 65.75.190.110 -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT –source 69.50.191.27 [...]

I hate doing job interviews.  Unfortunately, it’s impossible to avoid them.  In the past few years I’ve had a lot of them.  I’ve walked away from interviews thinking I had nailed it perfectly, yet the offer did not materialized.  Once I knew five minutes into the interview that there was zero chance of getting the [...]

I finally got fed up with China based hack attempts on the office server so I did something about:

#!/bin/bash
for i in `lynx –dump http://blackholes.us/zones/country/china.txt | awk ‘{print $2}’`
do
iptables -A INPUT -s $i -j DROP
done

My wife and I were driving to the bank and I saw a “Yard Sale” sign that mentioned computer equipment.  Naturally, on the way back we had to stop.  I picked up a HP Laserjet 4L printer for exactly one dollar.  At that price, I can take the chance that it doesn’t work.  It works [...]

The latest internet nasty uses a security flaw in Microsoft IIS to install malicious code on an otherwise trusted server.  When some fool using Internet Explorer (but I repeat myself) visits what should be a trustworthy website, the code installs a sniffer program that looks for banking passwords and credit card information and sends it [...]

Goes the UPS.  WTF!?  We have power.  Why is the UPS complaining?  I check the unit.  Yep, it was on battery when every indication said it should be on line power.  Damn.  After a couple of hours the batteries were exhausted and the system shut down.  I plugged the server directly into line power [...]

I keep telling my boss that I am not a web designer, yet he keeps asking me to make nice-looking web pages and html email newsletters.  Yes, I know the technical side of it, so if you draw me a layout I can put it together, but I have close to zero artistic capabilities.
Anyone in [...]

Looking back at my previous list of things to get done at work, I see I’ve hardly made a dent.  It’s not for lack of working, it’s because I keep ending up working on other things.

A couple of months ago I took a job doing simple data entry for an eCommerce company.  The pay has been crap, but it beats working fast food.  There are simply too many highly skilled technical people in this area looking for jobs, so my contract work has been few and far between.  A month [...]

I added a slick stylesheet selector to my blog.  Look for a drop down menu just under the drawing and use it to change the entire look of this blog.
I obtained the stylesheets and switcher code from Movable Style.

My increased bandwidth finally kicked in.  On my last test I was getting around 4meg download and 500k upload.  That’s damn close to four times the speed each way.  There’s a possibility the speeds will increase some more, but even if it doesn’t, I’m extremely happy with my new connection.  This kind of speed [...]

No, not the memory leaks that cause Windows to crash randomly.  The source code that was leaked onto the internet.  Some “so-called” experts are warning of doom.  Now that hackers (which is the wrong term, it should be crackers) have the code, they will be able to exploit Windows and cause all kinds of damage.
Uhm… [...]

Disney has chosen Microsoft to provide DRM (Digital Rights Management) for online movies.  Given Microsoft’s dismal history when it comes to computer security, they are the last company on the planet anyone with half a brain would choose.
My prediction.  Within 24 hours of the first movie being released online, the security will be cracked wide [...]

So another virus (and a variation of that virus) is making the rounds.  It didn’t bother me one bit.  My mail server scans file attachments using ClamAV and refuses infected emails.
Since the virus problem was handled automatically you would think I would be happy.  I’m not.  I’m angry about all the bounce messages saying I [...]