If anyone has a Gmail invite, I don’t suppose you’d be so kind as to toss it my way? I’d like to see what all the fuss is about.
Category: Gnus
News stuff.
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Ensim – I don’t get it.
If you want a guaranteed way to hose your Web server, install Ensim. In a nutshell, Ensim is a control panel application that completely takes over your Web server and turns it into an appliance that any neophyte can manage themselves. The base operating system more or less gets pushed into the background, Ensim installs its own customized set of applications, and you never have to touch the command line again.
That’s all well and good for someone who wants Web Server in a Box functionality, but no good for a geek who wants full control over their system. If you ever want Ensim to die a horrible death, simply install some vendor security patches. Everything breaks horribly.
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A fistful of quickies…
Many thanks go out to sabominator for pointing out toothpaste for dinner. Applegeeks makes me laugh. A lot. Gina makes a hot bride. Mac Hall inspired Applegeeks. The Inventor makes a guest appearance. We have a bunch of little pricks wandering around the house, and you should buy stuff. The Trunkmonkey is passing 6 GB to 20 GB per day (leeches). Hamor.com needs some attention from Google. And, finally, Pepper Computer just released Pepper Keeper 1.2. -
Mac OS X – Clearing DNS Cache
Once you go to a Web site, or do any DNS lookup, the IP gets cached for quite a while. This becomes a royal pain if you’re a systems administrator who is in the middle of migrating domains from one server to another. Executing
sudo killall lookupdlookupd -flushcacheUpdated November 26, 2007: Thanks to Syd, the Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) command has changed to
dscacheutil -flushcacheandlookupdhas been deprecated. -
Cheap dedicated servers!
Although it’s too soon to give a review or recommendation, ValueWeb has been rocking my nuts for the past few days. Expect a full review in the next few weeks once we get all of our Web sites transferred over and convert our 768 Kbps SDSL line to a 6 Mbps ADSL line.
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Complete home network reconfiguration…
Last night I finally got around to decommissioning the last of my obsolete power-hungry hardware. For the past three years, a clunky AMD K6 system running OpenBSD and, later in life, SmoothWall Firewall has been chattering along accomplishing the monotonous task of dutifully inspecting, filtering, and redirecting billions of packets across my LAN, VPN, and DSL interfaces. Not that I’m not grateful for its three years of dedicated firewall service, but no tears will be shed as I toss its rotting carcass out into the street in hopes that it will find a new home with a deserving owner before being smashed with cinder blocks by the neighbor kids.
As a replacement, I’ve officially become a consumer and picked up a Linksys BEFSX41 EtherFast Cable/DSL Firewall/VPN Router. It’s small, it’s quiet, it supports SPI, VPN, and DMZ, and it neatly stacks with my existing access point. Sure, it doesn’t have all the functionality of a BSD- or Linux-based firewall, but it’s perfectly adequate for our needs. My only complaint is the fact that it tops out around 2 MBps (16 Mbps) when passing packets across the firewall. Although those speeds are faster than any consumer-priced Internet connection, transferring large files to and from the Web server outside the firewall is much slower than the grumpy old AMD K6. If I end up moving the Web server into the DMZ, I’ll get true 100 Mbps, but I’ll need to research exactly how the DMZ operates and make sure traffic can’t leak from the DMZ back into the LAN.
In addition, I’ve also picked up a Netgear MR814 Wireless Cable/DSL Firewall Router ($20 – $30 rebate available) to setup a secondary public/guest wireless network that sits outside the primary Linksys firewall. Not only will this move all non-trusted traffic to its own isolated honeypot, but the physical location of the antenna will dramatically improve outdoor reception in the backyard, garage, and on the back deck. Right now, the Netgear is setup in the Hedgie Room, but I’ll be looking to extend the range even further with external antennas for both the public and private access points. This should extend the range enough to allow the cool neighbors down the block to jump online. -
Is Google AdSense borked?
It appears that Google AdSense isn’t quite working up to snuff today. Every single page I’ve gone to that has AdSense ads on it has been showing PSAs. Even the Try Before You Sell tool reports No Applicable Ads for every single site I look up.
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Microsoft backpedals…
I guess enough people pointed out the Powerbook on Microsoft’s Web site that they decided to Photoshop it. No worries. The original is still on Microsoft’s intro page.
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My Powerbook AC adapter blew up in my hand…
My Powerbook G4 AC adapter blew up in my hand today. We’re not just talking poof, here. We’re talking about sparks flying, fuse blowing, toasted flesh smelling, heart attack inducing, nerve numbing goodness! I’m just glad that the arc grounded out through a piece of furniture and not me. Luckily, my hand was just collateral damage and was not subject to the brunt of the attack.
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Introducing the Microsoft Powerbook!
I guess Microsoft loves the Powerbook enough to use it in their advertising. Sure, there’s Office for Mac OS X, but using a Powerbook to promote Microsoft security doesn’t exactly give me the warm fuzzies. I guess Microsoft just really wants to be like Apple.I’m sure they had a good reason for the faux pas. A lazy art directory who grabbed the first cool photo they could find from a stock photo house, perhaps? Who knows. It is amusing, although not as funny as the Gateway 2000 ad that featured the Powerbook!
