Published by manu on April 03 2010
Categories: WTF GNU-Linux

Today I realised something was missing, an image on my site (from an external source) wasn't showing up in my browser. I'm using Iceweasel, but not only, so I check with my other browsers, Arora, Icecat, Konqueror, no issues there. I switch off NoScript, reload, nothing. I realise via Firebug that there is a "display: none" on the img tag... . AND THEN, someone points out that it's AdblockPlus that did that.. .. . .

My point is, many years ago I ditched Windows and one of the many reasons I talked about was I don't see the point in having a system that requires so many addons and such just so I can safely and comfortably use my computer and today, when I opened the Addons window in Iceweasel and I saw how many addons I had (one's that deal with security and anti-add/spam/etc) I realised that I am going through a Total Fail Moment™. I am running Microsoft Iceweasel with Norton Anti Advert, Zone Alarm Flashblock and Kapersky Noscript...

Published by manu on March 29 2010
Categories: etc Photography

I just setup this website for a friend of mine, Roger Woloshyn AKA starman. I met him at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre when I was on my "Subarctic Lifstyle of a Spotted Mind" trip. starman has a few articles on aurora viewing and other Churchill related stuff.. see for yourself at starman.ca

Published by manu on March 27 2010
Categories: WTF consumeriste

I am afraid of objects that are "protected" by "security".. . untill I confront my fear of such I will just have to avoid purchasing them.

Published by manu on March 19 2010
Updated on March 25 2010
Category: Photography

A bit late, but I've been a bit busy lately, more on this subject. I've finally got something I've been looking to get for a long time. I don't think I'm done with this matter nor shall I ever be.. Words stop here:

I now uploaded the whole set in the gallery.

Published by manu on February 24 2010
Category: etc

You might have already heard about distributed research, projects like Seti@home and Folding@home, you install some software and your computer works for science. It's a way of passively helping out.

I recently found out about this very nice project called Galaxy Zoo which is a bit the same except that the participants act as active researchers. It seems that with all these new telescopes and probes and things like that, the amount of information that needs to be analyzed is enormous. The idea is to send out images to the participants for them to classify the images, this helps the filtering process by alot, astronomers can work with sorted images.

Results have been published and recently Galaxy Zoo 2 has help publish a paper. The idea is great, people putting together their efforts to do things.. hmm, rings a bell. In all this you get to see rare images and be yourself a part of the findings.

So instead of clicking on sites like "hot or not" in your spare time, do something useful and head to one of the Galaxy Zoo sites, oh yeah I didn't mention, this seems to be very fruitful so there are a few variants, including the new Solar Storm Watch.. (I love a good solar storm!!).

Links:

• Galaxy Zoo 2
• Solar Storm Watch
• Galaxy Mergers
• Super Nova Watch
• Zooniverse -this seems to be the place where all this stuff is centralized

Published by manu on February 23 2010
Categories: GNU-Linux consumeriste

After many discussions with many people over many years concerning the Open Source "problem", things are becoming clearer. Some have said that it will just die off as there is no way of making any money out of it and hence no way of surviving in today's economic system.

About a week ago Symbian has switched to Open Source, they have about 50% of the mobile market according to this article but I'm sure they have started to lose some points to i-phone and maybe a bit Android.. In any case, if they moved to Open Source it's probably has something to do with being more viable.. how things change.

: ]

Symbian website

Published by manu on February 23 2010
Category: consumeriste

I always thought of CDs and DVDs as an unpractical medium for storage and use, so I avoid using them as much as possible. They are fragile:

• you mustn't touch 50% of the object
• it can break or scratch very very easily
• to hot or to cold and it can break
• it's extremely voluminous (compared to hard drive, SD cards, etc)

Today I was reminded something that I had completely forgotten as I so rarely get to watch DVDs, (I own 2 DVDs, one bought in 2000, and one gift still plasti-wrapped).

I am glad I haven't spent money on anything like this because I probably would throw a freaking fit.

Published by manu on February 21 2010
Category: etc

This website is now using HTML5, normally this shouldn't change much, well all except for one thing important to me is the video tag that allows me to publish video content in such a simpler manner.

I re-encoded all my photo/video montages in OGV "format" and it seems the quality is better (this could be just an impression) and mostly it's now using open formats. There should still be a Flash fallback for older browsers for now, however I just noticed IE is broken, any Safari feedback would be nice too although I'm not sure I'll "fix" it.

Published by manu on February 07 2010
Categories: WTF GNU-Linux global warning

You know those lists that determine what IPs should be blocked from mail servers ? Well, maybe the idea at one point was interesting (maybe not)... . I realized today that I'm again on a couple of lists, nothing major, I realized this because an email I tried to send was blocked. After investigation it appears that these would be the among the different reasons:

• Dynamic IP (which is not true of course)
• Someone on the same netblock sent a "bad" email .... in November !!!
• A server on my netblock bounced an email
• I bought a can of SPAM and I'm sure they know about it

Some of those lists are like "Minority Report", like aspews.org who base their list on "preventive" action, meaning you don't have to have done anything wrong to be listed.. It's like when you get stopped and searched just because you're... .. you know. read more about apews and it's origins

But people are allowed to use lists, of course.. . feel free... however you might want to compare, oh because some will require payment for delisting (or a huge amount of time), some don't care.. . so be careful if you do use lists, you can compare them if you want, and/or check if/where your IP is listed

If you are using Spamassassin you may edit "/etc/spamassassin/local.cf" and add:

skip_rbl_checks 1

Yah, basically I just decided that I HATE THOSE LISTS, they are just there because people are to lazy to properly configure their servers, many don't even respect the basics. I noticed that many mail servers, and I'm talking about corporate mail servers don't even know how to properly issue the "HELO" command !!! So I'm currently testing a couple of settings, if you have Postfix you can also try:

# refuse mails from people who don't know how to say helo smtpd_helo_required = yes smtpd_helo_restrictions = permit_mynetworks,reject_unknown_hostname # refuse mails from IPs that don't have a PTR smtpd_client_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, reject_unknown_client

It's amazing how much crapmail is rejected before being sent to any filter or mailbox lookup, and this is just because the proper BASIC configuration hasn't been met..

Another tip from workaround.org (please follow this link for full implementation info):

smtpd_recipient_restrictions = [...] check_policy_service unix:private/tumgreyspf

This feels alot better, so much cleaner is the postqueue and happy I am. As for the list guys/gals, I'm sure there are plenty of them with very good intentions and such but they can still go screw themselves because they contribute to enabling crappily configured servers to function and disabling legitimate emails from properly configured mail servers... . Of course this does not change the fact that my emails might still be unjustifiably rejected by mail servers using RBL/DNSBL but at least I'm not a part of it..

One MX at a time.

Published by manu on January 18 2010
Categories: GNU-Linux consumeriste global warning

Icky on the inside ?

I noticed chrome is available for Debian/GNU Linux among others.. They have also been putting up ads around town that are impossible to miss. Some people think this is good, probably because Google is already their start page for many people, some even type the URL of the page they want to see on Google !

Some have told me to stop seeing evil everywhere and just bend over and. ... well, while I do think that the Google search engine is unquestionably good I don't think that I want to see one entity have so much control over the Internet, because the Internet belongs to everyone.. .well, things are changing.

I went through the Google Chrome Terms of Service and tried to understand a few things...

1.4 The Universal Terms, together with the Additional Terms, form a legally binding agreement between you and Google in relation to your use of the Services. It is important that you take the time to read them carefully. Collectively, this legal agreement is referred to below as the “Terms”.

Okay, I will do this. I've been signing to much crap without reading it in my life, I really like GPL software just for the fact that I don't have to reread it all over again each time I install a program.

4.4 You acknowledge and agree that if Google disables access to your account, you may be prevented from accessing the Services, your account details or any files or other content which is contained in your account.

I think this is somewhat "normal", however this a word out to those who think it's outrageous to spend 5 dollars a month for your own domain and web space : It's maybe time you found a local "organic/fair trade/green/wtf" email provider, one you can even get your own domain name with and all, it's worth the money, you'd have no ads (unless it's a ripoff) and some kind of guarantees. This would also be a step to insuring a stronger independence of the internet...

6.1 For information about Google’s data protection practices, please read Google’s privacy policy at http://www.google.com/privacy.html. This policy explains how Google treats your personal information, and protects your privacy, when you use the Services.

I'm not going there in this post, however it's got some tasty pickles..

7.3 Google reserves the right (but shall have no obligation) to pre-screen, review, flag, filter, modify, refuse or remove any or all Content from any Service. For some of the Services, Google may provide tools to filter out explicit sexual content. These tools include the SafeSearch preference settings (see http://www.google.com/help/customize.html#safe). In addition, there are commercially available services and software to limit access to material that you may find objectionable.

This is the one that scared me the most, basically, the Internet is filtered out by Google's search engine results (only because "everybody" depends on it). Now that so many people are going to get the Google browser the Internet will slowly be shaped (I almost wrote sheeped) into the Googlenet. Of course in this statement Google only reserves the right to do it, but that is a guarantee that they have the intention of doing so... (don't be fooled but the "sexual content" thing being in the same article).

18.2 You understand and agree that if you use the Services after the date on which the Universal Terms or Additional Terms have changed, Google will treat your use as acceptance of the updated Universal Terms or Additional Terms.

P.S. If you accept the terms today, hahaha lol, because you'll have to manually check every time you use the service to see if their have been updates. You can probably sign up to a newsletter somewhere, no indication of that though, so this abusive article (used by so many other companies) should be abolished ASAP.. I'm not even sure this is really legal..

20.2 From time to time, Google Chrome may check with remote servers (hosted by Google or by third parties) for available updates to extensions, including but not limited to bug fixes or enhanced functionality. You agree that such updates will be automatically requested, downloaded, and installed without further notice to you.

Imagine your computer's operating system updater not asking you if you want to update, not providing you a way to NOT check automatically... . Even when I used to use Windows it wasn't like that (not sure how it is today).

20.3 From time to time, Google may discover an extension that violates Google developer terms or other legal agreements, laws, regulations or policies. Google Chrome will periodically download a list of such extensions from Google’s servers. You agree that Google may remotely disable or remove any such extension from user systems in its sole discretion.

This turns your browser into an Iphone, meaning you can't even install an extension that they don't want.. .enough said here.

So, do you still want to install this software ?

Published by manu on January 18 2010
Category: WTF

LOLOMG !FAIL.. I'm sure this door was put there because it was cheaper than a window...