Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot

This has got to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen in ages!

I’ve seen links to this floating around but hadn’t actually watched it yet, so thanks to Brendon for sending it my way.

There’s some amazing stuff on YouTube; you could literally spend the whole day surfing there and not get any work done at all. And there’s a universe of diverse content there, from baby’s first steps to women’s lingerie, from economics tutorials to crazy driving in the Isle of Man. Actually, here’s a really good one: Frozen Grand Central Station

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I’m looking into the possibility of multi-homed internet connectivity for a client and as usually happens in this sort of situation, I’m learning a whole bunch of new technology. Okay, this isn’t quite new, but it’s something I’ve never dealt with before, so a great learning experience.

There are several ways to multihome, separate from the actual protocols used to do so, amongst which the most important are:

Single Link, Multiple IP address (Spaces)

The host has multiple IP addresses (e.g. 2001:db8::1 and 2001:db8::2 in IPv6), but only one physical upstream link. When the single link fails, connectivity is down for all addresses.

Multiple Interfaces, Single IP address per interface

The host has multiple interfaces and each interface has one, or more, IP addresses. If one of the links fails, then its IP address becomes unreachable, but the other IP addresses will still work. Hosts that have multiple AAAA or A records enabled can then still be reachable at the penalty of having the client program time out and retry on the broken address. Existing connections can’t be taken over by the other interface, as TCP does not support this. To remedy this, one could use SCTP which does allow this situation. However SCTP is not used very much in practice.

Multiple Links, Single IP address (Space)

This is what in general is meant with Multihoming. With the use of a routing protocol, in most cases BGP, the end-site announces this address space to its upstream links. When one of the links fails, the protocol notices this on both sides and traffic is not sent over the failing link any more. Usually this method is used to multihome a site and not for single hosts.

Multiple Links, Multiple IP address (Spaces)

This approach uses a specialized Link Load Balancer (or WAN Load Balancer) appliance between the firewall and the link routers. No special configuration is required in the ISP’s routers. It allows use of all links at the same time to increase the total available bandwidth and detects link saturation and failures in real time to redirect traffic. Algorithms allow traffic management. Incoming balancing is usually performed with a real time DNS resolution.

(That’s from Wikipedia, which has a great description on BGP)

And here a great article on Multihoming and BGP.

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Here are collection of some great posts I put up on other blogs last week. I was just coming back from holiday as I spent a few days in Milan (no, I didn’t buy any clothes, womens gold watches or any other gifts, though my wife did buy some shoes amongst other things), but I did manage to get some posts in. Here are some great posts for you to read:

• AskOwen: Do I lose quality when I move a file from one place to another?
• MBAGeek: Because FUD is cheap
• AskOwen: Can I make money from hosting?
• WordPressGuru: WordPress 2.6 almost here
• TheJokeShop: Courage (love this joke)

It’s not much to read, so you can catch up quickly

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I went to a really interesting presentation this morning given by Nick Coombs on behalf of ITEX, an IT Services company specialising in offshore jurisdictions. The breakfast talk was about a product called PolyServe which helps companies consolidate SQL Server instances onto a small number of machines, helping to reduce the Cost of Ownership of your SQL Server estate, while improving the manageability and availability of your SQL Server farm.

The talk started with discussing the issues that are faced by organisations running multiple systems each of which requires SQL Server. Traditionally, each of these SQL Server instances would be deployed onto a different server, which gives rise to over-provision with each server running at 5-10% load, high cost of implementing high availability and a large number of maintenance points. The two ways to address this is Virtualisation or Consolidation. Virtualisation isn’t idea for high I/O applications like database server and actually increases your maintenance points as now you have a host OS to manage besides each of your instance. Consolidation is ideal for SQL Server, but does increase the onus on availability and capacity planning. Polyserve adds a new dimension to consolidation by providing a “farm” of SQL Servers which allows administrators to dynamically rehost SQL Server instances onto each of the different hosts. Shifting hosts from one box to another typically takes around 30 seconds and can happen automatically in cast of a server failure. The bottom line is that Polyserve allows orgnisations to deploy highly manageable, resilient installations of SQL Server on less servers (resulting in lower Cost of Ownership, lower power requirements and lower license costs, etc)

The presentation was pretty interesting and you can watch this below:

| View | Upload your own

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Just came across a great service today aimed at job seekers and recruiters. It’s aimed at addressing a number of issues plain old CVs have and replacing them with a profile you can manage and control access to. The service is called iProfile and represents a leap forward in how you can apply for new jobs. Here are some advantages the iProfile has:

• in control - you stay in control of your information and your profile: you know exactly what employers and recruitment agencies will see and know that it’s up to date. You decide who gets to see it and when - and you’ll soon be able to track exactly who’s looking at your profile and why. It also helps protect your personal details, because your information is kept in one, secure place - rather than being sent out, beyond your reach, to lots of different people.
• saving time - you only have to go to one place to update your profile, and you can then share it instantly with as few or as many agencies and employers as you want - and you can post it directly onto job boards too.
• first in line - having an iProfile gives you an immediate edge on other candidates, because iProfiles are often the only thing or the first thing that’s searched when it comes to filling a vacancy. They make recruitment much more efficient - so they’re the first port of call for thousands of employers and recruitment agencies.
• better placed - whether or not you’re actively seeking a new role, using an iProfile helps you in your career, by providing a focus to your development that you can share with others - and get feedback and advice on.

If this sounds interesting, here’s a video you might want to watch that explains how it works a bit more succinctly:

I thought it was pretty interesting, though I wish there was a way you could create different views on your iProfile. Sometimes it’s good to be able to tailor certain information for a particular role you are interested in applying for, and accent those strengths you may feel that the recruiter is really looking for. The technology works really well. I was quite impressed that uploading my Word CV resulted in it’s being automatically broken down by the website into the relevant sections of your website. User interaction is quite slick too and the site is a pleasure to use.

The interesting thing is the focus on “Achievements” rather than cold-hard facts, and allowing users the ability to updated these as they happen, thus never leaving anything out. It doesn’t matter if this was getting your MBA, delivering a multi-million pound system or learning how to build patio furniture, the website can handle anything you can throw at it.

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How would you like $200 for a blog post? Well, if you enter it into the Work Connexions $200 competition and you could be laughing all the way to the bank. Here’s the blurb

Work Connexions is offering $200 dollars for your best blog post. All you have to do is to go to www.workconnexions.com and submit your best blog post before 30th June 2008 and you will be automatically entered into the competition. Include a link from your website and you will qualify for one month banner advertising on any of our Wcx page rank 4 and above sites.

Enter at: http://www.workconnexions.com

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It’s been interesting to watch the U.S. catch up with Europe when it comes to SMS. If you haven’t come across it before (I just don’t want to assume here), SMS (stands for Short Message Service) is the ability for phone users to send short text messages to one another using a mobile phone, up to 160 characters. Take-up in Europe seemed well ahead of the US on this front, though numbers of messages sent in the US seems to be catching up. With the increased proliferation of mobile Internet services, and more ubiquitous services like Twitter, there are those that predict the drop in usage of SMS, though this doesn’t seem to be happening just yet.

I just came across a press release of a new service in the U.S. that uses this technology. SJA Mobile have released a service that’s being used by the FBI to allow people to send anonymous tips to them. Here’s the press release:

SJA Mobile & FBI Launch SMS Tipline
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SJA Mobile today jointly announced with the FBI’s Washington D.C Field Office and Metropolitan Police an initiative which will enable D.C-area citizens to anonymously report crime tips via a novel new medium – SMS. SMS, or “text messaging,” has up until now never been used before as a medium for crime tips.
Citizens in the D.C area can report a crime or homeland security tip by sending a text message with the tip to the number 50411. The 5-digit number to text to is called a “Short Code.” Currently the service is available on all major wireless carriers, along with several Tier 2 carriers.
SJA Mobile is in talks expand the service to several other major cities.

The interesting thing here is that SJA Mobile are acting as a proxy for the messages that are being sent in. This allows them to withhold the sender’s phone number and make the message appear anonymous, and I would expect the FBI wouldn’t normally request the identity of the person who has sent the message. It’s an interesting concept, yet it still relies on the person sending the tip trusting the provider to keep their information confidential.

Still, I think it’s a step in the right direction, using technology to speed up and simplify processes like this makes them more likely to be used by people looking to report any information.

Anyone know of a similar service here in the UK?

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One fo the great things about taking some time off is that I get the opportunity to catch up on some things. I’m not talking about finding out which is the best acne treatment on the market, but rather catch up on my reading, things I want to do and above all time with the family. I’ve started reading Freakonomics again, hoping to finish it this time. I just love the way the book was written.

I’ve also been catching up on some bookmarked pages and posts I’ve had piling up. A great post was sent to me by my friend John a couple of months ago and is a blog post entitled Who Needs Encryption by Laurentui Cristofor. He’s a security specialist, but the post is less about security techniques and more a call to rationality to understand what security is and when it is helpful. More importantly, it outlines where it is NOT helpful. Here are three scenarios he outlines where encryption is just the wrong thing to do:

• “I would like to package my database application in a form that would allow a customer to use it, but without him ever being capable to access the actual data stored in it. I think encrypting the database should help”.
• “I think encrypting the data in the database will prevent a machine administrator from being able to read it”.
• “If an attacker hacks into my database, he’ll get my sensitive information, but if I encrypt it, it will be useless to him”.

It’s a great read, so check it out

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I’m not blogging so much recently because I’m actually away on holiday. We’ve spent a few days in the UK visiting parks like Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures and other parks and are off to Milan for a few days now. Holidays with me are as easy as fitting Mac memory, I don’t really mind where we go, as long as I can take a break. And now that I’ve finished my MBA, I feel I deserve this one.

Where are you going ton holiday this year?

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FireFox 3 will be available on Thursday 17th June. I picked it up this morning from Techeme and the news is already spreading like wildfire. The developer ecosystem has been preparing for this for some time now with lots of plugins already supporting the new version and it’s nice to see Google Gears have got their prep work in place too.

I’ve been using RC3 since it was released and I haven’t had a single issue, not even one! There was a bug fix issued yesterday, but that was for Mac users. (Even the security guys are happy with it ;)) Memory consumption is quite aggressive, but then, so is my plugin use, so I can’t really fault it. I’ve had no freezes, no crashes and browsing the web is as quick as ever.

Good work guys! There’s nothing left to do but wait for FireFox Download Day, close the exterior shutters so that your funky UV lights can really light the room up and download like there’s no tomorrow!

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Anna, one of my work colleagues sent me these and I thought they were yummy enough to share. They should really go on my Joke Blog (in the spirit of thematic consistency), but I’m sure many of my geeky pals will appreciate the mash-up style humour

I don’t know if you can find any of those chocolate in the shops, but you can buy some candles, melt them down and make your own samples if you want *grin*

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Have you noticed that this website now seems quicker than it ever was? Well, the reason is that I’ve moved it to my new host, tubu.net and everything is now flying!

I didn’t need to do any market research to find out that the main concern my readers had with my website was the slow loading time and the more-than-occasional PHP timeout error. I tried to alleviate things by using WP-Cache, but that didn’t stop the problems. So my mate Andy pointed me in the direction of his awesome web host and well, you can just feel the difference.

This is going to be the first time that the majority on my websites will be hosted on a Linux box, but Wordpress is much happier on that and it’s an opportunity to get more hand-on with new technology for me. Fun huh?

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I’ve just upgraded my browser to Release Candidate 2 of FireFox 3 which has some bug fixes over the previous version. I had some problems with Beta 5, but have been using RC1 without any issue ever since it was made available. It seems like there’s quite a bit of effort put into the quality of this release and it’s unlikely there will be any blockers in the final drop. I love all the new features and browsing is particularly zippy.

Comments from around the blogosphere echo my feeling that this is the best browser available at the moment, and really grows on anyone using it. It does take up quite a bit of memory on my box, but when you look at all the functionality I have plugged into it, well, I’m not too surprised. I’m sure more can be improved on the memory handling, but, as long as it does the job and I have enough spare memory, I don’t have any problems with it.

As you might know, FireFox is going to try and go for a download record on the day it is released. You can pledge to download and will be notified as soon as it’s available. (You can find badges there to promote the release day, so move your speaker mounts next to the window, pump up the volume and tell the whole world to download it)

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I’ve just realised that we’re only a couple of weeks off from the tennis season. Yes, I’m talking of no other than Wimbledon, which runs from the 23rd of June till the 6th of July. I’m not usually much of a sports fan, preferring to sit at my computer rather than getting too physical, but I don’t mind watching a spot of tennis on TV. I do however have a friend who goes there every year and usually does his best to try and persuade me to join him. I must actually get round to it one day.

I’ve been doing some digging around to learn more about Wimbledon and I’ve found some interesting bits of trivia:

• Ball Girls were first? employed in 1977.
• Yellow balls were introduced in 1986.
• Last time, somebody played with wooden rackets in Wimbledon was in 1987.
• Goran Ivanisevic was? the first wild card entrant to win singles title? (2001).
• The first TV coverage of a Wimbledon match was in 1937.

Interesting couple of facts there. I wonder if Peter knows about them. Anyway, I’m sure he’s already got his Wimbledon debenture tickets and will be jetting off to watch the games soon. Maybe some dayI will actually join him. Maybe someday …

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Sorry for the brief outage, but I haven’t really gone anywhere. I have my final MBA exams this week, so have been a bit too stressed to update all my blogs.

I’ve still have some time to post a couple of entries down at MBA Geek and AskOwen, so if you know where to look, you’d know I haven’t falled off the edge of the world. I’m still hanging out on Twitter and Plurk, those being my current social hangouts of choice, but really most of my attention is focused towards books.

Funny how you can’t keep me offline though. Knocked up a website for my mate Phil when I was bored this weekend. Like it?

Exams will be over in a few days though, so should get busy again.

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