The “cloud” is achingly trendy at the moment and new companies offering some-bollocks-as-a-service (SBaaS) keep popping up all over the ‘net. Personally I am extremely unlikely to use any of the services I have seen, I just don’t trust that particular business model. I checked out the website for one of these companies today following …
Category: trivial musing
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/01/22/dis-unity-2/
Jan 21 2014
backblaze back seagate
In October last year I noted that the Western Digital “Green” drives in my desktop and a new RAID server build looked to be in imminent danger of early failure. That conclusion was based on a worryingly high load-cycle count which a series of posts around the net all attributed to the aggressive head parking …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/01/21/backblaze-back-seagate/
Jan 20 2014
thrust update
I have just run a search for further evidence of the possible compromise at thrustvps and found threads on webhostingtalk, vpsboard, freevps.us and habboxforum amongst others. All of those comments are from people (many, like me, ex-customers) who have received emails like the one I referred to below. So, I guess thrust /do/ have a …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/01/20/thrust-update/
Jan 19 2014
rage against the machine
I know it is futile to rant about banks. I know also that I should not really expect anything other than crap service from an industry that treats its customers as useful idiots. But yesterday I met with such appalling and unforgiveable stupidity and intransigence that I feel the need to rant here. I have …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/01/19/rage-against-the-machine/
Jan 18 2014
thrustvps compromised?
I have not used thrust since my last contract expired. I left them because of their appalling actions at around this time last year. However, today I received the following email from them: From: Admin To: xxx@yyy Subject: Damn::VPS aka Thrust::VPS Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 03:28:06 +0000 This is a notification to let you …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/01/18/thrustvps-compromised/
Jan 11 2014
strip exif data
I have a large collection of photographs on my computer. And each Christmas the collection grows ever larger. I use digiKam to manage that collection, but as I have mentioned before, storing family photographs as a collection of jpeg files seems counter intuitive to me. Photographs should be on display, or at least stored in …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/01/11/strip-exif-data/
Dec 30 2013
http compression in lighttpd
Today I had occasion to test trivia’s page load times. I used the (admittedly fairly dated) website optimization test tool and was surprised to find that it reported that parts of the pages I tested were not compressed before delivery. I have the default compression options set in my lighty configuration file as below: compress.cache-dir …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/30/http-compression-in-lighttpd/
Dec 26 2013
getting close to the nsa
Since my last post there have been a couple more entrants to the Tor logo competition. Neither, strictly speaking, meets the original requested criterion that they be suitable for inclusion in Tor Project team presentations, but each has its merits. The first image below was posted by “David”. I think it captures rather nicely the …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/26/getting-close-to-the-nsa/
Dec 24 2013
merry christmas
As I have noted before, 24 December is trivia’s birthday. My first post dates from 24 December 2006 so trivia is seven years old today. As is now becoming traditional I therefore post again today. And as a reflection of the story which has come to dominate trivia over the latter half of this year …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/24/merry-christmas/
Dec 14 2013
tor boost
Moritz Bartl has just posted some good news. Torservers.net, a volunteer run organisation spread across eight countries which provides high bandwidth Tor servers to the network, has just been awarded $250.000 over two years by the Digital Defenders Partnership. According to Bartl’s press release, with this additional funding: participating Torservers organizations will be able to …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/14/tor-boost/
Dec 12 2013
you choose
A letter in today’s Guardian, signed by someone called Paul Brannen, touched a chord. Brannen commented that it was difficut to find anyone today who did not, apparently, support Mandela’s release from Robben Island. Putting that in perspective, he noted that UK membership of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s averaged only 8,500. Brannen concludes …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/12/you-choose/
Dec 10 2013
caption needed
This picture, from the french news agency AFP taken at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, just cries out for a speech or thought bubble caption (or two). Just what is the First Lady thinking whilst her husband poses with Denmark’s Helle Thorning-Schmidt (with our own dear PM trying desperately to get in on the …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/10/caption-needed/
Dec 10 2013
an historical perspective
El Reg commentards can get worked up about a whole range of topics. That is one of the reasons I so enjoy reading it. Back in May 2009, El Reg posted an article about the then Home Secretary’s decision to place the right wing US Radio commentator, Michael Savage, on a persona non grata list …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/10/an-historical-perspective/
Dec 08 2013
no more akismet
In common with (probably) all wordpress based blogs, trivia has the aksimet plugin in place. Akismet is shipped by default in the base wordpress installation and new users are encouraged to sign up for an API key. On first configuring the blog’s plugins, users are greeted with the following commentary about akismet: Used by millions, …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/08/no-more-akismet/
Dec 08 2013
where are you now?
The ongoing revelations from Snowden continued recently with reporting in the Washington Post about the NSA’s program to track mobile ‘phone location data. Reporting here and elsewhere suggests that the NSA is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world. That reporting, and its obvious implications, reminded me …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/08/where-are-you-now/
Dec 03 2013
boycott amazon
This time last year I wrote to Jeff Bezos telling him that I was no longer prepared to support a multinational which so arranged its tax affairs that it paid little or no UK corporation tax on turnover estimated (last year) at some £3.3 billion. This year, Margaret Hodge, chair of the UK Parliamentary Public …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/03/boycott-amazon/
Dec 03 2013
data is imaginary. this burrito is real
As usual, Randall Munroe over at xkcd has his own take on the NSA/GCHQ snooping reportage. My thanks as always.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/03/data-is-imaginary-this-burrito-is-real/
Dec 02 2013
counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor
Last week, El Reg posted an amusing take on the apparent invasion of the NSA by Management Consultants. Nothing new there then. From personal experience I can confirm that UK Government has been completely overrun with the buggers for years.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/12/02/counterpoint-the-surrealism-of-the-underlying-metaphor/
Nov 27 2013
necessary and proportionate
Yesterday I received an email from the Open Rights Group asking me to sign an on-line petition set up in collaboration with nearly 300 other organisations. The email said: In 2013, we learned digital surveillance by governments across the world knows no bounds. Their national intelligence and investigative agencies capture our phone calls, track our …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/11/27/necessary-and-proportionate/
Nov 26 2013
more ninjastiks
In July I noted that a company calling itself Ninjastik had popped up selling what looked to be essentially the Tor Browser Bundle on an 8 Gig stick for $56.95 or a 16 Gig stick for $69.95. As I expected, we have now seen one or two more companies attempting to sell products which leverage …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/11/26/more-ninjastiks/
Oct 25 2013
I’m sure that is not what they meant
Yesterday’s Guardian contained a quarter page advertisement from “hibu” (the company formerly known as Yell, and before that, Yellow Pages). The advertisement showed a picture of a bright red and green fish swimming against a tide of uniformly blue fish. The headline was “Get spotted on all kinds of digital devices”. The ad finished with …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/10/25/im-sure-that-is-not-what-they-meant/
Oct 25 2013
Oliver Stone on PRISM
I am a big fan of Oliver Stone movies. Outside the pages of the Guardian and its sister paper the Observer, the level of comment in the UK on NSA/GCHQ surveillance capability remains bizarrely muted. In the US they are at least having a conversation. Whether that conversation results in any sensible decisions, and then …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/10/25/oliver-stone-on-prism/
Oct 12 2013
wd caviar green load cycle count
Back in January of this year I upgraded my desktop’s hard drive to a 2 TB WD Caviar Green. Not the world’s fastest drive, but quiet, power efficient, and, so I thought, good value for money. I subsequently used two of the same disks in a new build RAID 1 server (which I must get …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/10/12/wd-caviar-green-load-cycle-count/
Oct 09 2013
Snowden paranoia
A recent exchange on the tor-talk mailing list about conspiracy theories elicited this gem from “Ted Smith” (obviously a Bob Heinlein fan). “One of the more Gibsonesque theories I’ve heard is that Snowden is a CIA operative working to destabilize the NSA’s surveillance system on behalf of the CIA and other elite that feel too …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/10/09/snowden-paranoia/