March 2008 - KCLUG

Stop editing the damn subject (was Re: The End Of Western Civilization (was Re: RoadRunner nonsense (was Re: fwd: RE: STFU RE))
by Billy Crook 12 Mar '08

12 Mar '08

See, now isn't that annoying? Cut it out, for the love of god. There is a reason emails have subject lines. It's so I can mute them in gmail, and not be bothered with that thread again. When people change the subject line it pollutes everyone's inbox, and breaks threaded reading and sorting. Stop It. Stop it now. Internet pollution kills baby seals. If you're going to change the subject line, change the damn subject, and write a completely different unrelated email. On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 2:11 PM, Leo Mauler <webgiant(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > --- Jonathan Hutchins <hutchins(a)tarcanfel.org> wrote: > > > On Tuesday 26 February 2008 13:06:06 Billy Crook > > wrote: > > > > > If one were to look at how their opt-out page > > > works, you http get with a few args, one of > > > which is your modem's mac address. You could > > > just as easily post with any other cable > > > modem's mac address, if say, you had multiple, > > > and didn't want to visit each physical location > > > of them, or maybe .... > > > > ... you could just type the correct url in the > > first place. > > > > Yes, it's annoying. No, it's not the end of Western > > Civilization. > > > > Get a grip, guys. > > It may not be the end of Western Civilization, but its > certainly being handled very insecurely by RoadRunner. > > This guy (blogger link below) has done some poking > around and discovered how RoadRunner is going about > the "opt-in/opt-out" process for its new services > (thats right, plural, see below), and it is a little > scary from a security perspective. > > http://rgov.org/road-runners-dns-wildcard > > Basically RoadRunner is using an open HTTP GET > request, and no SSL, for your "Preferences" page. It > is possible for anyone to request the "Preferences" > page for every single customer, and with this > information you gain the geographical location of > every single RoadRunner customer (and thus where to > direct your own ISP's advertising to best effect, > especially if you don't redirect "failed DNS requests" > to an advertising page). > > But RoadRunner has not one but *three* new services > you can opt into or out of. Services which, when > their options are set very unfavorably to the > customer, result in an interesting and profitable > situation for Internet Advertisers, and in particular > a certain class of advertiser. > > # Web Address Error Redirect Service: > (the service everyone is complaining about, which > sends you to a page containing ads from advertisers > who are advertising with RoadRunner) > > # Typo Correction Service: > (fixes common typos in URLs, such as cmo or nte) > > But the third one should be of some concern for those > with small children: > > # Safe Search Filter: > "This preference allows you to restrict adult-oriented > content from search results on the non-existing domain > landing service." > > Since there are only approximately 16,777,216 MAC > addresses the way RoadRunner is handling the service, > you could write a script which, for example, opted > every RoadRunner customer *into* "Web Address Error > Redirect Service", *out of* "Typo Correction Service" > (which increases the possibility that the RoadRunner > "Failed DNS Request" page will pop up), and *out of* > "Safe Search Filter". And it wouldn't take long to > run the script, or be much trouble to run it once a > week. > > And then you, as the owner of "Adult Content Website > Advertising Consortium", then use the advertising > revenue you collect from your adult website members to > buy HUGE amounts of adult content web advertising. > Every time a RoadRunner customer mistypes a URL, or > types in a non-existent URL, the RoadRunner page will > pop up and send adult content advertising related to > the customer's failed URL request (Rule #34 of the > Internet: "If it exists, there is porn of it."). > > You don't even need to be an adult content advertising > consortium. Just pay for "first placement" on the > RoadRunner Ad Page...err, I mean "Failed DNS Request > Page", and then run the script opting every RoadRunner > customer *into* "Web Address Error Redirect Service" > and *out of* "Typo Correction Service". The > RoadRunner customer will see the RoadRunner "Failed > DNS Request Page" more often than they would like to > see it, and your ads will be seen more often than any > other ad. > > Spam has proven that many Internet Advertisers have no > shame, decency, and/or ethics. This move by > RoadRunner will be exploited, and exploited soon, and > with any luck the complaints from customers (and the > lawsuits from parents) will bring it to an end fairly quickly. > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Be a better friend, newshound, and > know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ > > _______________________________________________ > Kclug mailing list > Kclug(a)kclug.org > http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug >

12 38

RE: Dry run Vital Site meeting on for tonight?
by Phil Thayer 11 Mar '08

11 Mar '08

That's what I understood. Today is the 11th isn't it? ________________________________ From: Philip Dorr [mailto:tagno25@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 4:27 PM To: Phil Thayer Subject: Dry run Vital Site meeting on for tonight? are we having the dry run Vital Site meeting tonight (Tuesday the 11th)?

3 3

Where to get laptop batteries? Also, Ubuntu deployment at bookstore...
by Chuck 09 Mar '08

09 Mar '08

Can anybody point me to a reputable place online (or locally) where I can buy a replacement battery for a Toshiba laptop? This is the first time I've had to replace a laptop battery. I also want to share news that we've set up an Ubuntu network at our bookstore and infoshop at 3109 Troost. We're making available a public Internet access terminal that is running Ubuntu. Our other computers in the building are also running Ubuntu. We also offer free WiFi. Our next project is to set up a community computing lab in the building which will mostly be running Linux. We welcome donations of equipment. We mostly need CAT5 cable at this point. Please come by and check us out: Crossroads Infoshop & Radical Bookstore 3109 Troost KCM0 64109 http://www.crossroadskc.org/ Chuck -------------------------- Bread and Roses Web Design serving small businesses, non-profits, artists and activists http://www.breadandrosesweb.com/

6 6

Re: Subject Lines Controversy
by Craig Aldinger 09 Mar '08

09 Mar '08

Have followed this bit, have come to a (sort of...) conclusion. Aparrently there are a whole lot of folks who can get pretty well exercised over trivia regarding the "Subject Line/Thread" continuity. My only response to this running byte-battle is: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? I suspect that there are many more important issues for which all of us simple readers of the forum would benefit by..... I do know that the good folks at KCLUG have inadvertantly helped me out w/ my learning about Linux just by my reading this forum, keep up the good work so newbies like this old man can continue my education!

1 0

Another Unix related comic
by Brian Kelsay 07 Mar '08

07 Mar '08

1 0

RE: Road Runner Nonsense
by Julie 04 Mar '08

04 Mar '08

To Hal and any others who haven't been able to replicate this: I've had RR service to my home ever since they came to KC and I couldn't replicate "it" either until I had Road Runner reset my modem (a Toshiba PCX2600 that I've had for just about four years now). I'd been having trouble with getting onto and navigating the Net. So I called RR to have them 'ping' my modem to see what the problem was (I've gone through about four modems during my time with RR). They reset it, told me I now have four IPs instead of one...for the exact same price; we'll see when I get my next bill... and that it works fine now, which it does. BUT, I _now_ get that advertising page when I run a test to see what I get with a random string. The only way I've found to be able to get to the page to set my "preferences" is through the Slashdot article someone gave here. I opted out of the thing and STILL get the advertising page I had 'supposedly' opted out of. What's up with THAT??? I've saved the changes that I've made but they don't 'take'. In addition, IMHO, I don't really have a 'physical' problem with this since I don't usually manually type in a URL and when I do I make double sure it's correct. However, I'm _quite_ disturbed at the Big Brother aspect of this "Nonsense"!!! Are there any other ISPs in the area that have the speed/quality of RR that don't employ such invasive practices. I've just about had my fill of RR and AT&T, both.Time Warner Cable TV is getting ridiculous in their programming, too, but I don't necessarily want to go the satellite route because I don't need to be out on the roof cleaning the thing in snowstorms just so I can get reception. ;) Julie @};-- >>>Hal Wrote: "Being a RR customer, I was curious to see this, but I cannot reproduce it. What am I doing wrong? [hald@iolo ~]$ lynx -mime_header http://www.asdfghjklqwertyuiop.com/ Looking up www.asdfghjklqwertyuiop.com Unable to locate remote host www.asdfghjklqwertyuiop.com. Alert!: Unable to connect to remote host. lynx: Can't access startfile http://www.asdfghjklqwertyuiop.com/ [hald@iolo ~]$ Thanks, -- Hal"<<< --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

4 5

RoadRunner nonsense
by Arthur Pemberton 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

My fellow RoadRunner using geeks have no doubt noticed this themselves by now, but for everyone else, an article is up on Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/26/1741253 ISPs are becoming more and more despicable -- I just wonder what tech guy sold his soul implementing this, surely going against standard networking behavior like this must cause one to lose their geek membership. -- Fedora 7 : sipping some of that moonshine ( www.pembo13.com )

8 14

Re: DNS alternatives (Was RoadRunner nonsense)
by Leo Mauler 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

--- Billy Crook <billycrook(a)gmail.com> wrote: > http://root-servers.org/ > > Ironically enough, if you don't have any DNS, you > won't be able to resolve that link to a server, > now will you. A quick nslookup fixes that for the future: http://root-servers.org/ is also http://192.71.80.110/ Once you get to root-servers.org, IP addresses are listed for all of the root servers. As the updates list indicates for root-servers.org, the IP addresses for some of the servers changes from time to time, but not all of the IP addresses change at any given point in time. > On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 1:34 PM, Leo Mauler > <webgiant(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > > > --- Luke -Jr <luke(a)dashjr.org> wrote: > > > > > On Tuesday 26 February 2008, cragos(a)gmail.com > wrote: > > > > > > Anyone else got any easy to memorize DNS > > > > server IPs or something of the sort? > > > > > > Root servers work for me. > > > > I haven't set up DNS on a server in awhile, > > though back then RedHat Enterprise came with > > a list of root servers. > > > > Where does one find a list of root servers? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

1 0

DNS alternatives (Was RoadRunner nonsense)
by cragos＠gmail.com 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

TW's astandard DNS rollout is despicable and everything, but still: It might be argued that one should no more depend on their ISP for DNS than they would for email. Might I recommend 4.2.2 1 - 4.2.2.6 and/or OpenDNS? Anyone else got any easy to memorize DNS server IPs or something of the sort? -Sean Related link: http://ask.metafilter.com/22161/DNS-servers-with-easytoremember-IP-addresses

10 15

Unix related Dilbert
by Brian Kelsay 01 Mar '08

01 Mar '08

1 0