I must be a spammer because SORBS say I am. I didn’t realise it until today when I tried to email the administrators of a Usenet Peer and the message bounced because their Mail Server uses SORBS (Spam and Open Relay Blocking Service). SORBS have a good website so it didn’t take long to find… Continue reading I am a Spammer!
GameCopyPro Scam
Woe is me! I thought I was too experienced to get caught in a simple Internet scam but I fell for this one, hook, line and sinker. Kyle (my stepson) reported this morning that his Xbox360 was scratching disks. As the games he plays cost around £45 each, this seemed a serious issue and so… Continue reading GameCopyPro Scam
Farmers Law
A few incidents yesterday got me thinking about the law and farming. Somehow the farming community seems to be a law completely unto itself, exempt from the rules that apply to other folk. Sunday was the annual sponsored walk supporting Teenage Cancer Trust. It was a lovely day on Dartmoor but for me was slightly… Continue reading Farmers Law
Recursive chmod
My music collection is complicated, I rip my CD’s on a Linux server, FTP them to a Windows server. Manipulate ID tags and filenames using various means, then FTP them back again in order to play them through my Squeezebox. This recently caused me grief when I used an incorrect umask on a massive transfer,… Continue reading Recursive chmod
0845 0262572
Yet another number that’s been calling my mobile on a daily basis over the last couple of weeks. This one belongs to Phones 4U, a company in the UK mobile phone industry which firmly believes in the hard sell ethos. At the moment they aren’t going to sell me anything because despite calling me many… Continue reading 0845 0262572
Gallery2 Captcha
Having recently cleaned out all my comment spam from Gallery2, I’ve been wondering how it got there in the first place. In order for non-authenticated users to leave a comment, they must first answer a Captcha. Having tested it’s working correctly, I’m forced to conclude that somebody has a bot that can successfully read and… Continue reading Gallery2 Captcha
Gallery2 Comment Spam
I store all my photos in Gallery2 with a PostgreSQL database back-end. It works well in most respects but fails miserably when it comes to managing Comments. Whilst it’s possible to delete them, it can only be done one at a time; a painfully slow process when there can be tens of thousands of spam… Continue reading Gallery2 Comment Spam
Disposable Society
A few years ago I bought a cordless drill/screwdriver from Focus, a big UK DIY chain. It’s a 24v model CCHD24 made by a company called Champion and it’s served me very well. Now the battery is failing to retain a charge and I want to replace it. The problem is that I can’t find… Continue reading Disposable Society
What the Hack – The sequel
I can’t believe it’s four years ago that I went to What The Hack at Liempde in Holland. Now it’s almost time to dust off the rucksack and check out the tent in preparation for Hacking At Random. Anyone fancy tagging along? It’s fun, honest!
00800 2794783
This is the number that shows up on my caller display when Monument try to get in touch with Lou. My issue is that they try and contact her every couple of hours, every day and seemingly take no notice of me telling them she’s at work. Are there phones available that enable me to… Continue reading 00800 2794783
Motorcycle Road-Tax Petition
I’d love to see a lot more names on this Government petition. Why on earth should motorcycles be exempt from tax relief for non-polluting vehicles? In summary: Changes to the law mean cars emitting less than 100g of CO2 per kilometre travelled would be exempt from paying Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax), while motorcycles are… Continue reading Motorcycle Road-Tax Petition
The age of the bus
For the younger generation, the title of this is based on an old series of advertisements for British Rail, their slogan was, “This is the age of the train”. Thought I’d better clear that one up. :) Fuel prices being what they are at the moment and the associated costs of actually owning a car… Continue reading The age of the bus
Broadband Performance
I’m not usually one to rate my ISP on bandwidth performance, there are other more significant factors for me, such as tolerance of the trivial abuse complaints against users of my services. Today however I am rather concerned that my 8192/832kb/s Nildram service is running miserably slowly. According to www.speedtest.net I’m getting about 432/640kb/s. Yes… Continue reading Broadband Performance
Layered Technologies Revisited
Whilst idling through some old blog entries, I paid a visit to the website of my old friends Layered Technologies. It seems that since kicking me off their network for running a Tor server (that they explicitly granted me permission to run) they have revised their Acceptable Use Policy to include this: TOR and Anonymous… Continue reading Layered Technologies Revisited
0151 2441361
I know from consulting whocallsme.com that this number belongs to Littlewoods Direct. My partner Lou has an account with them that probably spends the better part of its life in the red. This being the case, they are (in my opinion) perfectly entitled to try and contact her. So having explained who they are and… Continue reading 0151 2441361
ATM Perils
Yesterday (30th June) I used one of those nasty ATM machines that charges a fee to withdraw my own money. I don’t like the concept but sometimes the convenience outweighs the charge. What I didn’t realise until now is what happens when they go wrong. The charge on the machine in question is static (£1.75)… Continue reading ATM Perils
Mutt – Sorting and Threading
After years of being irritated by Mutt threading my messages by Subject and then sorting those threads by oldest message in them, I finally took the time to figure out how to get it doing what I want. As is often the case with Mutt all this info was widely available, it was just scattered… Continue reading Mutt – Sorting and Threading
Image Manipulation
In a recent blog article I used WordPress to embed images into a posting. This was very simple to do but there is a drawback: The image embedded within the post is identical in size and resolution to the one viewed if the image hyperlink is clicked. This makes the post and initial webpage very… Continue reading Image Manipulation
Goodbye Green Fields
Since moving into the village of St Mellion, almost two years ago, I’ve walked our dogs, Ollie and Murphy two or three times every day in some local fields. Sadly (for me) today is likely to be the last time as the fields will be mostly gone by tomorrow. The land has been purchased by… Continue reading Goodbye Green Fields
Encrypted Filesystems Revised
Some years back I blogged about encrypted filesystems. That info is still valid but times have moved on and there are other, better ways now. I can’t take any credit for this info, it all comes from the blog of Lars Strand. My thanks to him for taking the trouble to make it public. I’m… Continue reading Encrypted Filesystems Revised