Apparently the lastest release of the iPhone OS (v 3.1) has caused a few minor problems with WiFi and battery life. This has led El Reg to moan about the fact that you can’t downgrade the iPhone OS to an earlier version. I’m no great fan of Apple, but to be fair, this situation is …
Category: trivial musing
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/11/29/apple-antipathy-may-be-misplaced/
Nov 15 2009
system monitoring with munin
A while back a friend and colleague of mine introduced me to the server monitoring tool called munin which he had installed on one of the servers he maintains. It looked interesting enough for me to stick it on my “to do” list for my VPSs. Having a bunch of relevant stats presented in graphical …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/11/15/system-monitoring-with-munin/
Nov 11 2009
OSS shouldn’t frighten the horses
Since I first read that Nokia were adding much needed telephony capability to their N8x0 range of internet tablets I have been watching the development of the new Nokia N900 with much interest. It looks to be potentially the sort of device I would buy. Despite all the hype around the iPhone, I really dislike …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/11/11/oss-shouldnt-frighten-the-horses/
Nov 01 2009
a free (google) service is worth exactly what you pay for it
I note from a recent register posting that that some gmail users are objecting to the fact that google’s mail service has failed yet again. El Reg even quotes one disgruntled user as saying: “More than 30 hours without email…totally unacceptable. I’ll definitely have to reconsider my selection of gmail for my primary email account. …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/11/01/a-free-service-is-worth-exactly-what-you-pay-for-it/
Oct 29 2009
call me by name, or call me by value
The old saw about “real” programmers versus the rest (known as “quiche eaters”) was originally summarised beautifully in the classic letter to the editor of Datamation in July 1983 entitled “real programmers don’t use pascal”. Similar religious (i.e. irrational, but deeply held) positions are taken around various other “lifestyle” choices, such as the equally classic …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/10/29/call-me-by-name-or-call-me-by-value/
Oct 28 2009
handbags
It would appear that I may have been unnecessarily concerned about the accuracy of the profiling data held on me by the commercial sites I use. In my inbox today I found the following email from Amazon: “As a valued Amazon.co.uk customer, we thought you might be interested in visiting our website dedicated to shoes …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/10/28/handbags/
Oct 18 2009
logrotate weirdness in debian etch
I have two VPSs, both running debian. One runs lenny, the other runs etch. The older etch install runs fine, and is much as the supplier delivered it. Until now I have not had cause to consider the need to upgrade the etch install to lenny because it “just worked”. But today I noticed for …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/10/18/logrotate-weirdness-in-debian-etch/
Oct 15 2009
where has my money gone
Like most ‘net users I know these days, I conduct most of my financial transactions on-line. But on-line banking is a high risk activity, particularly if you use the “default” OS and browser combination to be found on most PCs. I don’t, but that doesn’t make me invulnerable, just a slightly harder target. So attempts …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/10/15/on-line-banking-security/
Oct 03 2009
debian on a DNS-313
I bought another new toy last week – a D-Link DNS 313 NAS. Actually, this was a mistake because what I really wanted was the DNS-323. I just wasn’t careful enough at the time. Quite apart from having space for two 3.5″ SATA hard drives instead of just one, the 323 is a very different …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/10/03/debian-on-a-dns-313/
Oct 03 2009
debonaras demise?
Sadly it seems that the debonaras wiki is no more. Rod Whitby had done some excellent work in pulling together a site which consolidated useful information about low cost network storage devices (alternatives to the slug) which could be made to run Debian. Unfortunately the site was a continual target for wiki spam bots and …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/10/03/292/
Sep 28 2009
abigail’s party
In today’s Guardian, Charlie Brooker ranted rather eloquently about how much he hated smug Apple fans. Or did he? Actually he made full on broadside swipes at both Apple and Microsoft’s approach to product marketing. One side is too slick and irritating, the other is way too uncool and irritating. But most of his ranting …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/09/28/abigails-party/
Sep 20 2009
wordpress security
At about the time I decided to move trivia to my own VPS, there was a lot of fuss about a new worm which was reportedly exploiting a vulnerability in all versions <= 2.8.3. Even the Grauniad carried some (rather inaccurate) breathless reporting about how the wordpress world was about to end and maybe we …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/09/20/wordpress-security/
Sep 12 2009
wordpress on lighttpd
I have commented in the past how I prefer lighttpd to apache, particularly on low powered machines such as the slug. I used to be a big apache fan, in fact I think I first used it at version 1.3.0 or maybe 1.3.1, having migrated from NCSA 1.5.1 (and before that Cern 3.0) back in …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/09/12/wordpress-on-lighttpd/
Sep 09 2009
are you human enough
In the course of moving trivia to its new home, I necessarily reviewed and edited a bunch of links. This meant I revisited some old friends – including Chris Samuel’s blog where I discovered this gem. As Chris says, you’ve got to love the captcha.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/09/09/are-you-human-enough/
Sep 09 2009
we’ve moved
As I mentioned in the last post. I decided to move trivia from its old home on a shared hosting platform to my own VPS at bytemark. I also mentioned that this was proving trickier than it should – for no real good reason. However, the move is now complete and the blog is now …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/09/09/weve-moved/
Aug 26 2009
wordpress woes
As is common with many blogs, my public ramblings on this site are made possible through the ease of use and flexibility of the mysql/php based software known as wordpress.. And again, as is common to much php/mysql based software, that package has vulnerabilities – sometimes serious, remotely exploitable vulnerabilities. When vulnerabilities are made public, …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/08/26/wordpress-woes/
Aug 02 2009
zf05
I really missed the old phrack magazine. Some of the “loopback” entries in particular are superb examples of technical nous, complete irreverance and deadpan humour. One of my favourites (from phrack 55) appears in my blogroll under “network (in)security”. I am particularly fond of the observation that details of how to exploit old vulnerabilities are …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/08/02/zf05/
Aug 02 2009
dns failure – a cautionary tale
I recently moved one of my domains between two registrars. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but on reflection it was both foolish and unnecessary. Unnecessary because my main requirement for moving it (greater control of my DNS records for that domain) could have been met simply by my redelegating the NS …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/08/02/dns-failure-a-cautionary-tale/
Jul 12 2009
zebu update
Well google was clearly the fastest at indexing my blog. It only took a day for my nonsense phrase to appear as number one on their index. Since then, the phrase has appeared in ask, bing, clusty and yahoo, but still not in cuil, despite being visited by their robot on 29 June. Obvious (and …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/07/12/zebu-update/
Jul 05 2009
aspire one bios updates
This post is partly for my own benefit. It records some of the most useful references to bios updates for the AAO. My own AAO is actually running a fairly early bios (3114) and deliberately so. I upgraded to 3309 in (yet another futile) attempt to get sony memory sticks to work but found that …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/07/05/aspire-one-bios-updates/
Jul 05 2009
tor on a vps
I value my privacy – and I dislike the increasing tendency of every commercial website under the sun to attempt to track and/or profile me. Yes, I know all the arguments in favour of advertising, and well targeted advertising at that, but I get tired of the Amazon style approach which assumes that just because …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/07/05/tor-on-a-vps/
Jun 28 2009
wild xenomanic yiddish zebu
This post is an experiment. I have noticed from my logs that several different search engines index this blog. Ironically, the indexing has sometimes given me a little trouble when I have been searching for topics of interest to me (such as fixing the sony memory stick problem on my AAO) and my search returns …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/06/28/wild-xenomanic-yiddish-zebu/
Apr 12 2009
acer aspire one – a netbook experience
I mentioned in an earlier post that I had recently acquired an Acer Aspire One (AAO) netbook. I chose the AAO in preference to any other of the netbooks on the market for two reasons – firstly it looks a lot cooler than most of the competition (particularly in blue – see below), but secondly, …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/04/12/acer-aspire-one-a-netbook-experience/
Mar 29 2009
bad science and worse
I’m a big fan of Ben Goldacre’s “bad science” column in the Guardian. He is particularly scathing about quackery and spurious medical science. His views of “Dr” Gillian McKeith in particular are well worth reading. Whilst I was reading one of his columns recently, I was reminded of another “Dr” who seems to get away …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/03/29/bad-science-and-worse/