Friday, January 16, 2004 Friday, January 16, 2004Gee, Microsoft, you could have made filtering network traffic just a little bit more usable. All you had to do was write a log file, or at least give us the option to log what you're doing.
So I'm applying their so-called IP filters to a host before we deploy it. And, unlike some idiots out there in InternetLand, I use a default DENY rule. So, I add one of those. Then I add the exceptions to the "naff off" rule. And then I apply the filter.
And that doesn't work, because now everything is denied. I suppose that's better than having everything allowed, but it's more than a little annoying. Now I have to leave my chair!
The rudimentary firewall in Windows 2000 applies the rules in an somewhat dynamic fashion. In other words, it's unpredictable. If you permit traffic first, and only then deny it, then things work. Maybe. Who knows? It doesn't log anything.
Update: There are a couple of tools that make the Windows 2000 IP Security Policy more transparent. Of course, neither of these is installed by default, and one must be acquired from the Resource Kit. netdiag, from the support tools provided on the Windows 2000 CD, can display the status of all networking components. The helpful thing here is that it appears to display the policy filters in the order in which they are applied. The following will spit verbose output for the IPsec test suite to NetDiag.log:
netdiag.exe /v /test:ipsec /lThe other tool is ipsecpol, part of the Resource Kit, but fortunately available for download. ipsecpol can be used to set policy from the command line. But the elite programmers at Microsoft wrote it only to set policy, not display it, so you'll want to read the instructions. Knowledge Base article 813878: How to Block Specific Network Protocols and Ports by Using IPsec contains examples.
5:09:45 PM # Google It!
categories: Dear Microsoft, Security, System Administration
The BOFH who writes at joat.blog is taking typical BOFH action against comment spams. It's becoming amusing.
12:09:43 PM # Google It!
A young Palestinian mother of two, a 3-year-old son and an 18-month- old daughter, made her way to the front of a line of workers at the heavily fortified Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip Wednesday morning, feigned a medical problem and then detonated a bomb that was strapped to her body, killing herself and four Israelis -- three soldiers and a civilian security inspector, Israeli authorities said. She also wounded seven people, four were Palestinians. —[via MyFreePress.com, emphasis mine]
9:49:51 AM # Google It!
categories: Sadness
Thursday, January 15, 2004Derek and Novarese both complain about NBC's scheduling antics.
NBC is up to no good. I was trying to tell the ReplayTV to record the Bachelorette (please don't ask me why) tonight from 8:00-9:00, but it kept telling me this would conflict with Law and Order, which doesn't start until 9:00. Recording back-to-back programs on different channels has never been a problem before. After a little digging, I discovered that the Replay thinks LnO starts at 8:59 instead of 9:00. When you look at the program guide, sure enough, LnO's little box is just a little bit bigger than everyone else's. WTF? It's not a mistake, either... it's on the official NBC schedule for 14 Jan 2004. Looking at the schedule for upcoming days, this isn't a one-time deal, either.
Yeah, I ran into that last night too. I work around the problem by having a dual-tuner DirecTiVo. The schedule is not entirely accurate, though. The credits for West Wing and the intervening commercials did not end until 21:59.30 EST, and by the time the Law and Order opening number finished playing it was 22:00 EST.
8:45:25 AM # Google It!
categories: Media
Wednesday, January 14, 2004Gordon Weakliem has some interesting points in this post on the global reallocation of production.
I wonder if the US perspective on this is like the UK and Europe's perspective ca. 1840, when the US was using cheap (immigrant and slave) labor and becoming a manufacturing juggernaut. Even into the early 20th century, immigrant labor was the backbone of US manufacturing, and it took things like Sinclair's "The Jungle" to create public outrage and spark labor reform, thus creating opportunities for the current cheap labor markets.
4:14:23 PM # Google It!
Here's my dumb idea regarding comment spam. The problem is that the comment spammers are attempting to leverage your googlejuice to increase their googlejuice and, thus, their traffic. Now, I know you want to just kill 'em all, but why not host the comments at a site with intentionally negative page rank?
Like I said, it's a dumb idea.
1:19:19 PM # Google It!
Tuesday, January 13, 2004On WSHU, as I was riding in this morning, they played the Suite from Lieutenant Kije. It seems that Sting borrowed a theme for "Russians," off Dream of the Blue Turtles
4:51:20 AM # Google It!
Monday, January 12, 2004I know someone who knows someone who was on 60 Minutes.
10:02:44 PM # Google It!
We're busy making our travel plans for the coming year, and ignoring the risk of a CWA strike. Some of our plans involve air travel. Mark Frauenfelder had some trouble with the TSA, and since incompetents in that bureaucracy are legion, it's a good thing that our daughters have traditional, WASP names.
3:45:41 PM # Google It!
Yesterday my wife was feeling sick, so I took the girls to Church by myself. That was strange. For one thing, I'm Protestant, specifically Presbyterian. I am still somewhat uncomfortable with the Roman Catholic ceremony, but no longer feel as out-of-place as I once did. Oddly enough, my favorite part of the ceremony is now exchanging a sign of peace, also known as the kiss of peace, where once it was my least favorite. Later, the Big Sister expected to go up to receive the Eucharist with me, since she does so with her mother. But the Pope regrets the divisions in the Church that prevent me from joining in Communion.
My daughter's expectations are more important than those of the Bishop of Rome. I carried the girls forward, and received the Host.
Then we went to Dunkin Donuts.
Then I packed the girls back in the car, and drove across the street to the Key Foods supermarket, for orange juice and a couple of other things. You would think that the International Organization of Soccer Moms and Chauffeurs would protest suburban developments that require them to reload their vehicles more than twice a day, particularly in regions of temperature extremes and other foul weather.
By the way, I think they have rain in Japan. You would think that the Honda engineers would take this into account when designing the CR-V.
3:03:59 PM # Google It!
categories: Family
Is it just me, or has the past tense become unpopular? Or, as the dictionary puts it
Usage Note: Hanged, as a past tense and a past participle of hang, is used in the sense of “to put to death by hanging,” as in Frontier courts hanged many a prisoner after a summary trial. A majority of the Usage Panel objects to hung used in this sense. In all other senses of the word, hung is the preferred form as past tense and past participle, as in I hung my child's picture above my desk.
I've observed other instances where it appears that the past tense is shifting, in both spelling and pronunciation. Either that, or the copy editors at major publications are incompetent.
9:58:16 AM # Google It!
categories: Language