The Problem:
Ever wonder why Windows and Mac application tend to install and “just work” and Linux applications don’t? Is it because Windows and OS-X is a superior operating system? I think not. When it comes to the raw power of the operating system I don’t think anyone would seriously call Linux inferior. Most experts consider […]

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In order to spread the load and increase capacity I was trying to move the MySQL server to another computer with the main server handling the web and the second server running the MySQL database. Even though I have 8 gigs of ram in the main server every now and then for some reason I […]

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I am confused about the bridge collapse in Minnesota because it just doesn’t make sense to me that the whole thing just fell down instead of just one section. For the whole thing to just fall down like that makes the thing that the whole thing was rotten or rusted out or something. Logically if […]

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Asking a question on some open source support forums is sort of like this example where I will substitute asking directions to make a point. Although I support open source software, generally when you get a commercial product you don’t get the kind of attitude that you get in some free software discussion lists. This […]

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Everyone knows that when the IPhone comes out that it will sell faster than they can be supplied. However in the long run being tied to AT&T exclusively is going to hurt Apple because AT&T’s service sucks.
A friend of mine from Missouri came to visit me here in the San Francisco area a few weeks […]

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Every time Fedora comes out with a new version the usual suspects all write about how wonderful it is. I’m not one of those people. I’m the kind of guy who puts the DVD in and install it on a real computer and see if it works. If it doesn’t, I slam it.
So I get […]

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A blast from the past. It appears that in February of 1992 I was on Microsoft’s enemies list. Apparently Microsoft was trying to keep information about MsDOS and Windows 3.1 out of my hands. Someone emailed me this document from the Comes v. Microsoft trial. Trying to figure out what this means and get more […]

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Went to Linuxwork in San Francisco and Redhat wasn’t there? What’s up with that?

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If you are like me and loyal Linuxcong user you might have noticed that the web interface (http) stops working on FC5. I figured out the problem. The pam modules with Linuxconf are not compatible with Fedora Core 5. The fix is simple.
cd /etc/pam.d
rm linuxconf*
ln -s login linuxconf
ln -s login linuxconf-pair
This makes the code […]

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I love open source software and have contributed to the development of several projects. But open source has a down side in that there are no customers to answer to - and that creates an environment where bugs go unfixed and necessary features go un added. After all, how much can you pressure someone who […]

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I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m liking Firefox less and less as it seem to be foing down hill. There’s two bugs in particular that are really making me want to run something else.
First, there must me some kind of memory leak issue. I’m running XP and have a gig of […]

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I’ve reconfigured my email servers to add a header to all the email I process.:
warn message = X-Online-Freedom: http://www.eff.org, http://www.dearaol.com
condition = ${if def:h_X-Online-Freedom:}
If you’re running Exim - this can work for you too.

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I used to be a Vonage fan but no more. I’m trying to transfer a phone number away from Vonage. I had intended to keep the service under a different number but now I’m not going to.
I got my number originally from SBC and transferred it to Vonage. But I never thought at the time […]

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I am in the process of becoming my own phone company. Using Voice over IP technology like Vonage and Packet 8 but doing it muself. Basically it’s just open source software called Asterisk that I have running on one of my email servers. Not only is it incredibly cheap, but I can do a lot […]

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I’m a Windows user and it’s a hard habit to break. But Sony’s new rootkit installs is even more reason to move to Linux rather than use proprietary operating systems like Wondows and Macs.
Sony decided to out secret software on its music CDs that installed into the kernel of Windows so it can track and […]

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation ( http://www.eff.org ) receintly turned 15 years old has been a steadfast friend in keeping the internet free and protecting our online rights. If not for the EFF we wouldn’t be enjoying the liberties and freedoms we have today. Over the last 15 years EFF has done an extraordinary job with […]

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This works for me. Here’s the movable type example:
Location /mt/mtcomments.cgi
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^.*marc.perkel.com/.*
RewriteRule ^.*http://www.ctyme.com/comment-spam.html
/Location
And for Wordpress Blogs:
Location /blog/wp-comments-newpost.php
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^.*dvorak.org/.*
RewriteRule ^.* http://www.ctyme.com/comment-spam.html
/Location
The way it works is - if the referring link isn’t local - you don’t ge to […]

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So - after starting two other threads on the subject I have now made the conversion to the Athlon X2 server. The bottom line is - it works!
Basically running about 300 web sites of all kinds from a few static pages to PHP/MySQL. The system includes email and is running spam assassin.
This box replaces two […]

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I tried posting this on NewEgg’s review forum and it censored me. Apparently it doesn’t let you post honest reviews, so I’m posting it here.
I was very disapointed with this product. maybe it’s the state of the technology but I had expectations this board would actually work. BEWARE - As of right now 09/04/2005 there […]

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Here’s an idea that I think would work out well. Why don’t we get colleges who are training tech writers together with the open source community and have them work together?
The problem as you know is that a lot of open source software is great - but the documentation and user interfaces suck. That’s because […]

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I’ve been testing out a new piece of software called Mambo. it’s a very highly rated content management system allowing you to crate a whole web site from a web based user interface. I’m still learning it and it looks great but like most open source applications ikt’s far harder to learn than it needs […]

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I’ve yet to figure out what all the hype is about Mozilla Thunderbird. I’m an old Netscape user and been using the old swiss army knife Mozilla all in one package for years. Mozilla is deviding it up into separate applications and is phasing out the original Mozilla. And I ask myself - why?
Additionally - […]

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I love Unix. I have several Linux servers and when it comes down to it - there is no other OS to use for Web and Email servers. (BSD, Macs and other Unix OS’s are of course included) But in many was the Unix community is hopelessly stuck in the past. And one of many […]

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I have been working with nonprofit organizations for years. I have what may be the best spam filter on the planet and it costs me very little to run it. I’m not rich - but I can afford to give this service away.
Nonprofit orgs waste a lot of time and money every year deleting spam […]

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Trying to get back into blogging. Still working on Church of Reality web pages and deploying a network of spam filtering computers. I registered a new domain:
http://www.junkemailfilter.com
I have what is probably the best spam filter on the planet. And I’m hosting over 100 domains as well as being a front end filter for many others. […]

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Fedora Core 3 is not a pretty release for Redhat. The original distribution is very buggy and if you install everything - you are looking at hundreds of megs of new downloads to fix it.
Once you get it working and download all the fixes it seems to work fine. If you are already running FC2 […]

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Dear Readers,
There’s a new virus spreading - I don’t know what it is yet and it hasn’t made the news. But I have observed several making it through the virus filter. The virus is an email attachment that clains to be a password file and has an attached document inside of a ZIP file.
If you […]

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If you notice there’s a new button at the top of this blog. It lets you add this blog to your My Yahoo page just like any other news feeds. I’m just testing it out and it looks pretty kool so far.

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… that the Democrats would wimp out at the convention. But they are doing REALLY well - MUCH better than I expected.

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I got a cool new technology toy. It’s a new way to make telephone calls without having a telephone line. You use the Internet to make phone calls. It’s called Voice over IP (VoIP) and I just got one and I love it. I can now make phone calls over my cable modem and get […]

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