My blog was getting hammered by comment spammers, none of them were getting through thanks to Akismet, but still I found it annoying to say the least.
Fortunately, the spamming morons were always coming from two address ranges, so I just dropped their /24 blocks into iptables and now they don't even know that this blog exists any more, as their packets simply disappear into the ether.
So, for peace of mind, drop these two ranges into your server firewall and live a slightly happier, less spamful life.
195.225.177.0/24
85.255.119.0/24
If you don't know how to do this, ask a responsible adult and / or your server admin.
Naturally, the really scummy comment spammers will use trojaned pcs so this won't help for those purveyors of junk.
[Edited: Blocked comment posting, because, amazingly enough, this entry is the one the spammers like the most]
Post Category: Blogging,Technical
October 20th, 2006 at 11:20amOs
There are a number of stories in the news at the moment pertaining to religious freedoms, and how far they should be allowed to intersect with someone’s job.
Firstly, we have the story of Aishah Azmi, a 23 year old teaching assistant in West Yorkshire, who was asked to remove the veil she wears when doing her job. She’s a Muslim and believes that the Koran instructs women to ‘be modest’ in mixed company, so she dons the veil when there is the possibility of men being around. She also wears it when she’s teaching in class, which is where the problem arose, her employers had asked her to remove it when she is teaching English as it’s hardly the most effective educational technique to only show your eyes to your pupils. She refused, and kicked up a fuss about it.
However, when asked, she revealed that when then she was interviewed for the job, she was unveiled, even though there were, *shock*, men present!
The second case hitting the headlines is the case of a BAA worker who is on unpaid leave for not hiding her crucifix necklace while working, as it contravenes the company uniform policy. They specify that all religious paraphernalia should be hidden beneath the uniform, except Sikh turbans or Muslim hijabs since they plainly can’t be. There are plenty of people complaining of religious intolerance towards Christians while not enforcing such stringent rules for other faiths.
Interestingly, I think BAA are being a bit ridiculous, and the school are acting reasonably.
As much as I find the whole ‘invisible man in the sky’ idea utterly stupid, I don’t see a problem with some people showing off small representations of the gallows their founder didn’t die on (as I don’t believe Jesus as portrayed in the Bible actually ever existed); I may think it’s silly, but it’s not going to effect their job.
However the woman in the silk mask is directly interfering with her ability to do her job by hiding her face in case some man sees her and becomes inflamed by lust, or whatever other reason is used to subjugate women in the Koran.
It’s a matter of application – when dealing with people a crucifix or a turban or a hijab or a yarmulke doesn’t impact on their ability to do their job, but a veil?
So, BAA wrong, school right.
I should get a Darwin Fish pendant and wear it proud!
Post Category: Politics
October 15th, 2006 at 12:47pmOs
I thought I’d try a new theme for the blog, so I’ve used Dark Blix with a change of the main graphic to a picture of a sunset I shot a few years ago using a Canon PowerShot G2, which harks back to my days when I was just getting back into photography.
Overall, I quite like it, so I think I’ll stick with it a while to see how it comes out in the wash.
PS, here’s a picture from the same shoot, I was going through a phase of photographing churches at the time and I recall it was a bitterly cold November in 2002 and it was blowing a gale. My fingers were quite numb so you’ll have to forgive my chopping the top off the picture, it was a tricky shot to get!
Nice light though, that’s the magic hour for you.
Post Category: Personal,Photography
October 12th, 2006 at 12:12amOs
When I got back into photography a few years ago I started to re-train myself from the point-n-shoot mentality and to actually think about what I was shooting. I spent quite some time learning framing, controlling light et al, to get the technical side of photography sorted out so I could concentrate on the creative side without really thinking.
Then, one day, I was firing test shots with a new lens, paying no attention to any of the above, just seeing how it handled. I was shooting through a dirty window, with the curtains in shot most of the time, you know, basically messing about.
And I got this shot.
Many people have told me they really like it, yet there was no thought to any of the technical matters, it was pure luck.
Ok, I did some post-processing, mainly to fix the framing to remove the shadow of the curtain from the right hand side and colour-correct it.
Since then, I've gotten a whole lot better technically, not to mention gotten better equipment, but I still like the shot even given it's completely serendipitous origins.
Post Category: Personal,Photography
October 9th, 2006 at 03:04pmOs
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken a picture of the Opportunity Rover, which, frankly, I think is an amazing picture. The more we learn about Mars and other planets in our solar system, the more we will learn about the Earth’s history.
No doubt some moron like Greg Hoaxland will deny it ever happened, or that it’s some artifact from a long-dead Martian civilisation, but the day I pay attention to him is the day I will pour my brain out of my ear.
Post Category: Photography,Science
October 8th, 2006 at 12:45pmOs
[Since I missed yesterday’s post, I’ll put up two today]
I’ve had to disinfect a laptop that was infested with spyware, not the most pernicious variety – the majority of it was hopelessly amateurish – but highly annoying nevertheless.
Pop-ups were flying, search engines co-opted, dozens (and I do mean dozens) of extraneous processess were starting at boot time and making the whole pc practically grind to a halt.
Most of them were fairly easy to remove, however one remained incredibly stubborn, and took several hours to finally purge. But I managed it.
So, makers of Look2Me and WinAntivirusPro, if I ever meet you I shall remove your kneecaps with a screwdriver.
Then make you eat them.
And when you shit out your kneecaps that I made you eat I’ll make you eat it so you shit out the shit that was your kneecaps.
Then, perhaps, you’ll feel a quadrillionth of how you deserve to feel.
Post Category: Rants
October 8th, 2006 at 12:58amOs
Sometimes I throw caution (and my bank balance) to the wind and buy a load of books in one hit, then work my way through them. They’re usually thematic; photography, technical etc. My last blow-out was on religious topics, specifically:
I did buy other books but I’ve not gotten round to reading them yet, the next on the list is The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, whom I’m a huge admirer of.
Some may wonder, why a self-professed militant atheist would be reading books about the history of religion, but it’s history I’m currently fascinated by, and the fact that certainly people actually take these stories as being literally true means that a little education on the topic is very helpful to me.
Maddeningly, it’s obvious to anyone with any degree of objectivity that these stories are as historically accurate as tales of Thor, Odin, Zeus, Mythras or Harry Potter. At least Harry Potter is more entertaining to read, and in most cases, more believable.
Post Category: Personal
October 7th, 2006 at 03:04pmOs
I do so enjoy PR-speak, in a recent release about the anti-piracy features of Windows Vista Cori Hartje came out with this corker:
Reduced functionality mode has been a part of the initial Windows XP product activation process for retail and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) installations since its launch, and, similarly, Windows Vista will have a reduced functionality mode but one that is enhanced.
(emphasis mine)
Enhanced reduced functionality? Double plus ungood!
It wouldn’t really be an issue if WGA in XP had been a rousing success, but I’ve seen at least three machines that were perfectly legit fail the WGA check, including my own, and one of those wouldn’t even get past the login screen and had to be re-installed (ironically using the same ‘invalid’ key). In the case of Vista, reduced functionality includes logging the user off after an hour, no matter what they’re doing at the time.
Naturally, this wouldn’t be a problem if Microsoft had a history of not utterly screwing up their anti-piracy schemes, alas this is not so. If Vista thinks that you’ve been tinkering with the anti-piracy measures, it’ll immediately have a hissy fit and demand reinstallation.
I’m probably not going to be first in line to install Vista in any case – my experience of the betas has been less than stellar – but I feel that MS have gone just a little too far in this case, because, naturally, the pirates will crack SPP within hours and it’ll be the legitimate customers, once again, being inconvenienced by this.
I, for one, don’t like being presumed guilty and constantly being forced to prove my innocence.
Technorati tags:
Vista,
WGAPost Category: Rants,Technical
October 5th, 2006 at 02:24pmOs
How about this for a way to stop people downloading music illegally, give them value for money!
Frankly, most cds are over priced for what you get, a few decent tracks with some filler, which has done the job of annoying people to the point where they’ll just download the tracks they like and ignore the rest.
I don’t do this, however. I read a couple of music magazines, and if there’s a review that sounds like something I’d like then I download the whole album (illegally, natch) and listen to it. If I like it, I buy the album because I happen to like having physical media to hand instead of abstractions like mp3s. This solves two problems: firstly, I don’t end up with albums I hate and regret buying; and secondly I get to support the artists I truly enjoy.
Two examples:
Although it’s outside of my normal musical tastes, I really enjoyed the song “Hey Ya!” by OutKast, so I downloaded the album “Speakerboxxx / The Love Below” and checked it out. It turned out that “Hey Ya!” was the only decent song on there, the rest I positively hated. Had I bought the album I would have been very annoyed indeed.
On the other hand, I’m a big “Weird Al” fan, I’ve got all of his albums that have made it to my side of the pond, and learning that he had a new one coming out I sought out ‘pre release’ copy that was floating around the web, which I enjoyed. When I found out that the album was being released as a DualDisc with a whole bunch of extras, including the whole album remixed in 5.1 DVD-A, plus music videos and karaoke versions, I knew I had to have it.
Finding the dualdisc in the UK proved to be something of a bind, so I ordered it from Amazon US and it arrived a healthy 7 days later for the princely sum of $25 including shipping; at the current exchange rate that is actually lower than the retail price for normal UK cds, which of I course I never pay as I buy online, but still.
So, by adding lots of content that would be annoying to download, and showing that he cares about his fans I bought the album. Conversely, had I hated it based upon the mp3s I downloaded I wouldn’t have bought it, and I wouldn’t be annoyed as a result. So, everyone wins.
Music labels, give people compelling reasons to buy a CD instead of just downloading it for free, and you will get sales, it’s hardly rocket science is it?
Technorati tags:
Music,
Weird Al,
dualdiscPost Category: Music,Rants
October 4th, 2006 at 01:57pmOs
I’m going to publish one post a day for the next week, well, starting yesterday (Monday), just to see if I can actually come up with something to talk about without getting too boring.
You never know, I may come up with something profound. But don’t bet on it, especially if you live in the US where they’ve just banned internet gambling. Hmm, perhaps that’s an idea for a post!
Post Category: Blogging
October 3rd, 2006 at 04:12pmOs
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