Well tomorrow is Turkey Day, I’ll be in Grover Beach with my fam celebrating it up, leaving tomorrow sometime and driving my rents up in my car is my guess (I like driving my car) - but all in all it should be fun, going to take the camera, and maybe have dad/mom drive part of the way so i can roll down my window and take some shots as we go - its a fun drive, that and I have never got to be in my backseat yet, always driving!
Got some fun news the last few days, a few new server contracts coming my way, which will help the finances some a nice recoup from the MBP purchase but that and the fact that across the board now my common OS is Mac, it is really easy to work across my network, not that I couldn’t with Windows, but a common OS is handy for some of the Mac-ish things I can do with some apps, like SubEthaEdit - so should come in handy.
I am trying to come up with something new for my bedroom, and considering getting a new LaserJet for the home office that is Mac compatible, as I have my Epson for Photo work, but with the Windows rigs slowly being phased out, I am hitting less and less things that can use the LJ1000, considering a 2300N which is Mac and Network ready, so it’d be nice to throw it on as a Network printer vs. something tied to a certain computer, just have it always on, and accessable from anywhere in the house, as well as routed into the linux box so I can get to it from the outside world.
Lastly, the war on Spam continues, its gotten worse for some, but not many companies are working with me and how I do business, they want me to pre-purchase X number of accounts to get a discount that allows me a minimal mark-up (if any) so for instance, at the base buy-in it’d be $2 per account for customers to make me like $0.10 profit, so at this point it’s either A) Buy a anti-spam/virus appliance -or- B) Live with the fact I am getting no profit, and offer 0 support to customers on the functionality, but simply pass the buck. Not sure what I am going to do yet, but hopefully I can come up with something soon.
Anywhoo - must find the adapter for the MBP (still needs a name) - as I have been sitting here over 3 hours and this battery has to give out soon! (not that I am wanting it to!) anywhoo - have a good Turkey Day folks, don’t eat too much!
Even 6 months ago there wasn’t as many attempts on servers, I mean sure you have your automated SSH attempts, FTP attempts, folks trying to brute force a common list of account names “joeuser” “bob” “administrator” etc. for a common, easy, password - the common rule from olden days (aka the comedy classic Hackers) was words like sex, power, money, god, etc. things that are all too common in the day - but since rollerblades become popular (ie Hackers) - the war has moved elsewhere.
I have some clients which still to this day are HTML only folks, they only use HTML, they don’t want to try a CMS, they don’t want to make a Blog, their photo gallery they do by hand, and to them, I want to give them a hug for being sticks in the mud - less security concerns there (granting their username isnt bob and their password isnt power!) - but things like Message Boards, Blogs, Galleries, CMS systems - all lately have had seemingly an increase in attacks, this morning I got a txt’d from Julie saying they had a site defaced - not the worst of hacks, but still, requires attention, cleanup, audit to ensure files aren’t infected - and in some cases, wiping everything, and starting from a few days old backup.
So my advice to anyone out there who runs their own blog, their own gallery - and mainly any application which you can goto a .com and pickup - check for updates, check for new relases, and stay up on it. One of my customers has 1 semi-dated application, and another which is who knows how far behind in updates - this weekend he has quite a task ahead of him in updating these dated apps - sadly a worry I see if the loss of data or database corruption if a proper upgrade path isn’t taken - if your unsure how to update an app (aka a friend installed it for you, or it “came with my hosting”) - post a comment, ask away - unsure if your version is old? Check the software’s homepage, if it’s not posted all over “NOW VERSION 3.20391!!!!!!” check the downloads page, 99% of the time it’ll be listed next to the download link - but if you have questions, worries, need help in a walk through to backup, post a comment and I’ll be glad to offer help if I can either privately or via IM (and soon IRC) - just don’t think “Oh I’ll never get hit, my site is too small” - I have had personal websites which get less that 50 unique visitors a month get taken down, so no one type of site is targeted.
That’s my rant for the day - go about your business
It just blows my mind sometimes - got fwd’d a email tonight from a client from a random visitor more or less threatening to turn the customer’s site over to the wolves as a “unsecure website” - while I don’t keep up on all sites this customer manages on their server (as my contract is to keep the server itself safe, I am not contracted to manage and secure each site & application they have - but this email was kind of in my opinion a tad out of line.
While I am all for security, educating web users to do things safely on the internet, going and saying “Do this or I am going to be FORCED to report you to XYZ.COM” is just plain sad. I have done my best to encourage others to use anti-virus, even though I personally do not, Spyware Scanners, Alternative Browsers, Email Clients, smart things like not opening attachments, etc. etc. but never, ever, would I go and say “Do this or your gonna be tattled on” it’s not my place - sites who don’t comply with my desire for security like SSL login’s I am smart enough to swap out non-SSL url’s and add in the S to “http” since most apps simply use a relative URL and do a post to something like:
../application.php
So when you type in say “http://www.coolsite.com” it makes the above code look like this to your browser:
http://www.coolsite.com/application.php
So when you add in s to http making it https - tada - your secure, not in all cases, but in a majority. Just blows that one person who feels the desire to spout off helpful information does it without offering any real solutions, assistance, or even say “For $125 an hour I can help re-work.. blah blah blah” - information is power, and some sites would be more than willing to offer a few bucks to make sure their visitors are safe and secure.
Ah but such is life I suppose - some people just have a different way of trying to protect their own, and ensuring their loved ones are safe and secure online - but badgering businesses, and being forceful vs. helpful is not the way to do it.
ANYWAY - this week some apps to write, one off the bat this week, for HAF reporting of donations, not only for quick review on the web, but also for exporting to a CSV format for using in Excel for review on the desktop - and a few other continual tweaks as we find a few other mini-glitches people report, and some functions I am trying to write to capture errors from their payment processor so it displays how we want vs throwing them to another site which tottally breaks the donation process - and a few other tweaks on CMC things, but my own projects are evening projects for FH for starters, making great headway on the testing new “Support Center” which will offer a support forum, new spot to report tickets, how-to’s, resources, software, etc. going to be a all inclusive area to offer greater support to my clients. If it floats well, same will be done on TN.
Well that’s my rant - my status - my week oh and I’m famous - I’m listed on a upcoming album in the thanks. I’ll steal the pic from Linz sooner or later Night.
but that and the fact that across the board now my common OS is Mac, it is really easy to work across my network, not that I couldn’t with Windows, but a common OS is handy for some of the Mac-ish things I can do with some apps, like SubEthaEdit - so should come in handy.
oh and I’m famous - I’m listed on a upcoming album in the thanks. I’ll steal the pic from Linz sooner or later 
