Author's posts
Jun 17 2013
please sign here
This post has nothing whatsoever to do with the usual topics I cover here, but this is my blog so hey I can write what I like. My family has a proud tradition of working in the UK public sector. Despite multiple machinery of government changes by administrations of both major political colours thoughout my …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/17/please-sign-here/
Jun 17 2013
trivial traffic bump
I normally get around 1000 to 1300 hits a day (or 32,000 to 40,000 per month) on trivia. Not a huge hit rate, but consistent and on a slight upward trend over the past year. Today I have seen over double that – most of it this morning. Between 05.30 and 07.00 local time my …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/17/trivial-traffic-bump/
Jun 16 2013
prism opt-out
In all the noise on the ‘net about the alleged NSA PRISM program, this new site offers an amusing, but nonetheless useful, list of free alternatives to proprietary software. In part the site sort of misses the point about PRISM, but it is still good to see someone taking the time to point out that …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/16/prism-opt-out/
Jun 15 2013
Edward Snowden
The revelations of the past week or so have been interesting to me more for what they haven’t said, than what they have. There are a few points arising from Snowden’s story which puzzle me and which don’t seem to have been addressed by the mainstream media – at least not the ones I read. …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/15/edward-snowden/
Jun 13 2013
microsoft windows is conspicuous by its absence
At DigitalOcean – or so says Netcraft in its latest write up on their astonishingly fast rise over the last six months. Apparently, in December 2012, DigitalOcean had just over 100 web-facing computers whilst in June 2013, Netcraft found more than 7,000. That is some growth. But I’m not surprised. I make no apology for …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/13/microsoft-windows-is-conspicuous-by-its-absence/
Jun 12 2013
blimey that was quick
The cable tester I ordered at around 17.00 yesterday arrived in this morning’s post. And jolly good it is too for such a ridiculously cheap item. As expected, the instructions are amusing but pretty clear for all that. It is easy to use and feels fairly robust, despite the price. Now the results. I am …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/12/blimey-that-was-quick/
Jun 11 2013
Emails from PayPal will always address you by your first and last name
Except when they don’t. I have just received a wonderful email from paypal headed “Tim Harrison, your monthly activity is now ready to view online.” Way to go guys. That really inspires confidence.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/11/emails-from-paypal-will-always-address-you-by-your-first-and-last-name/
Jun 11 2013
blimey that is cheap
David’s comment to my post about my gigabit ethernet upgrade prompted me to look for a cheap LAN tester so that I could check continuity through the RJ45 coupler that had caused me difficulty. It would also be handy to be able to check the box full of old patch cables that I seem to …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/11/blimey-that-is-cheap/
Jun 10 2013
PRISM – we had it first
I can exclusively reveal that the UK government had a PRISM database long before those upstarts in the USA. In the late 1970s I worked in the Statistics Division of what was then the UK Civil Service Department. We used a database of Civil Service personnel called PRISM (Personnel Record Information System for Management). I …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/10/prism-we-had-it-first/
Jun 10 2013
slow gigabit ethernet
I have been making some changes to my domestic network of late which I will write about later. However, one of the main changes has been an upgrade from 10/100 switches to gigabit – mainly to improve throughput between my central filestore and desktop machines. For cosmetic reasons (and to keep my wife happy) I …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/10/slow-gigabit-ethernet/
Jun 10 2013
Iain Banks
I first met Frank (the protagonist and narrator in “The Wasp Factory”) in about May or June 1990. I had taken my bike (then an FJ1200) in to the dealer for a routine service and tyre change and had wandered in to a local newsagent to pick up a magazine or two to read whilst …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/10/iain-banks/
May 29 2013
another good reason not to buy one
Back in November 2011 I wrote about the TP-Link TL-SC3130G IP camera. I had some trouble getting that device to work properly over wifi so I returned it and got my money back. Today, Core Security released an advisory about this device (and several others from TP-Link) about a remotely exploitable vulnerability arising from “hard-coded …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/05/29/another-good-reason-not-to-buy-one/
May 27 2013
lighttpd graceful shutdown
I run two tails mirrors. One in NYC, the other in SanFrancisco. They each serve around 2-3 TiB of data per month. In common with my other servers, occasionally I need to interrupt those VMs in order to effect a system upgrade. I had to do this very recently with my upgrade of all my …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/05/27/lighttpd-graceful-shutdown/
May 27 2013
LMGTFY is the new RTFM
Back in the day, questions aimed at technical mailing lists or usenet news sometimes attracted the response “RTFM”. Personally, I always found that sort of reply both rude and somewhat arrogant. Often the questioner was obviously new to the topic under discussion and really wanted to know how to solve his or her particular problem. …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/05/27/lmgtfy-is-the-new-rtfm/
May 09 2013
digitalocean do it again
I can’t believe these guys. Not only do I get unlimited traffic on a 1 Gig network (now at three locations – I have a VPS in each of Amsterdam, New York and San Francisco) for peanuts, but they have just given me a $5.00 credit (i.e. one month free for one of the servers). …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/05/09/digitalocean-do-it-again/
Apr 29 2013
too close to the logo
I came across this entry on the blog of a company called Conformal today. The company purports to specialise in open source security products and the blog entry was about the logo for their secure online backup product called “cyphertite”. Apparently the marketing discussions concentrated on “artfully applied make-up, designer clothes, and a narrative to …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/04/29/too-close-to-the-logo/
Apr 27 2013
cool
I have just been notified that I am eligible for a Tor T shirt. How cool is that? This is a Tor Weather Report. Congratulations! The node 0xbaddad (id: C332 113D F99E 367E 4190 424C E825 057D 9133 7ADD) you’ve been observing has been running for 61 days with an average bandwidth of 2278 KB/s,which …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/04/27/cool/
Apr 10 2013
this is not a political blog
but I cannot let her passing go unremarked. Yesterday even the Guardian devoted 15 pages, plus the centre spread and a separate 16 page supplement to Margaret Thatcher. The usual suspects on the right wing tabloids were, predictably, particularly revisionist and swivel eyed. We are in danger of letting the death of one ex prime …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/04/10/this-is-not-a-political-blog/
Apr 01 2013
Debian iz free operatin sistem (OS) 4 ur computr
For a moment today I had the awful feeling that the debian website had been compromised by an illiterate 14 year old. The front page had been changed and contained such pearls as: “Debian providez moar than pure OS: it comez wif ovar 29000 packagez” and “Peeps hoo use sistems othr than Intel x86 shud …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/04/01/debian-iz-free-operatin-sistem-os-4-ur-computr/
Mar 27 2013
gchq recruitment site stores plaintext passwords
I can’t resist this. El Reg today points to a blog post by a guy called Dan Farrall who has commented on his experience of receiving a plain text reminder of his GCHQ recruitment site password by email after filling out its forgotten password form. Farrall’s blog post is worth reading. Whilst he acknowledges that …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/03/27/gchq-recruitment-site-stores-plaintext-passwords/
Mar 26 2013
using an ssh reverse tunnel to bypass NAT firewalls
There is usually more than one way to solve a problem. Back in October last year I wrote about using OpenVPN to bypass NAT firewalls when access to the firewall configuration was not available. I have also written about using ssh to tunnel out to a tor proxy. What I haven’t previously commented on is …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/03/26/using-an-ssh-reverse-tunnel-to-bypass-nat-firewalls/
Mar 13 2013
impolite spam
Most blogs get hit by spammers aiming to get their URLs posted in the comments section. Like most wordpress based blogs, I use the default Akismet antispam plugin. I don’t like it, I don’t like the fact that it is shipped by default, I don’t like the fact that it is increasingly becoming non-free (as …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/03/13/impolite-spam/
Feb 28 2013
touching update
I have recently upgraded the internal disk on my main desktop from 1TB to 2TB. I find it vaguely astonishing that I should have needed to do that, but I do have a rather large store of MP4 videos, jpeg photos and audio files held locally. And disk prices are again coming down so the …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/02/28/touching-update/
Jan 25 2013
now that is what an isp should be like
In my post about the astonishing speed of the DigitalOcean network compared to the appalling service I was getting at ThrustVPS, I mentioned that the free bandwidth model didn’t look sustainable in the long run. Indeed, DigitalOcean told me themselves that they would move to a more normal commercial model when they had a better …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/01/25/now-that-is-what-an-isp-should-be-like/