The New DNS MessThe New DNS Mess
The Age has an interesting article about proposed DNS changes [1]. Apparently ICANN is going to sell top level DNS names and a prediction has been made that they will[...]
Kernel Security vs UptimeKernel Security vs Uptime
For best system security you want to apply kernel security patches ASAP. For an attacker gaining root access to a machine is often a two step process, the first step[...]
Dell PowerEdge T105Dell PowerEdge T105
Today I received a Dell PowerEDGE T105 for use by a client. My client had some servers for development and testing hosted in a server room at significant expense. They[...]
Safety of Child SeatsSafety of Child Seats
I have just watched an interesting lecture by Steven Levitt about car safety for children in the 2-6 age range [1]. The evidence he presents shows that the benefits for[...]
Car vs Public Transport to Save MoneyCar vs Public Transport to Save Money
I’ve just been considering when it’s best to drive and when it’s best to take public transport to save money. My old car (1999 VW Passat) uses 12.8L/100km which at[...]
Links June 2008Links June 2008
Paul Graham has recently published an essay titled How To Disagree [1]. One form that he didn’t mention is to claim that a disagreement is a matter of opinion. Describing[...]
Solving Rubik’s Cube and IO BandwidthSolving Rubik’s Cube and IO Bandwidth
Solving Rubiks Cube by treating disk as RAM: Gene Cooperman gave an interesting talk at Google about how he proved that Rubik’s Cube can be solved in 26 moves and[...]
TED – Defining WordsTED – Defining Words
I recently joined the community based around the TED conference [1]. The TED conference is expensive ($6000US) and has a long waiting list (the 2009 conference is sold out) so[...]
ISP Redundancy and VirtualisationISP Redundancy and Virtualisation
If you want a reliable network then you need to determine an appropriate level of redundancy. When servers were small and there was no well accepted virtual machine technology there[...]
Letter Frequency in Account NamesLetter Frequency in Account Names
It’s a common practice when hosting email or web space for large numbers of users to group the accounts by the first letter. This is due to performance problems on[...]