Random thoughts
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
House update
Almost two months ago I had mentioned that we were planning to buy a house and had made an offer. The negotiations and the paperwork took a while. We finally agreed on the deal and signed the contract earlier this month, and received the keys yesterday.
Elias was very excited as he moved around the house (he had slept through the two times we had seen the place before) and seems to like it. He quickly made friends with the two children next door, too.
The house was completely renovated not too long ago, so only minor adaptations are required. We plan to furnish the house within a month or two and move in by autumn.
Needless to say that we are very excited and happy about this and looking forward to our new home.
Elias was very excited as he moved around the house (he had slept through the two times we had seen the place before) and seems to like it. He quickly made friends with the two children next door, too.
The house was completely renovated not too long ago, so only minor adaptations are required. We plan to furnish the house within a month or two and move in by autumn.
Needless to say that we are very excited and happy about this and looking forward to our new home.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Microsoft DNS patch KB951748 secures Internet access too well
The latest Microsoft DNS patch improves security too well. The update appears to be incompatible with Check Point's hugely popular ZoneAlarm firewall and possibly other firewall products, and results in complete loss of Internet access.
After a lengthy failed attempt to diagnose a family member's “my Internet no longer works” problem over the phone I saw the BugTraq alert “Microsoft DNS patch KB951748 incompatible with Zonealarm” late at night. Sure enough, uninstalling the update nicely resolved the problem.
The other possible workaround, turning off the firewall completely, would be more risky than living with the spoofing vulnerability until this incompatibilty gets fixed.
After a lengthy failed attempt to diagnose a family member's “my Internet no longer works” problem over the phone I saw the BugTraq alert “Microsoft DNS patch KB951748 incompatible with Zonealarm” late at night. Sure enough, uninstalling the update nicely resolved the problem.
The other possible workaround, turning off the firewall completely, would be more risky than living with the spoofing vulnerability until this incompatibilty gets fixed.
Labels: technology, windows
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
What do all the numbers mean?
Who the heck is Charlie O'Donnell? I don't know, but somehow (more precisely, from Ed Costello's bookmarks on del.icio.us) I stumbled upon his blog post An experiment: Who's really out there and how do you measure influence?
When Feedburner reports 2686 readers, does that mean 2686 folks actually read the blog, or once subscribed to it and never came back? So Charlie is running an experiment to determine who's actually reading, how people find out about the blog etc. and as an aside get really popular. This is social marketing at its best, so let's pass on the word and see just how popular we can get this.
Link to the post: http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2008/07/an-experiment-w.html
When Feedburner reports 2686 readers, does that mean 2686 folks actually read the blog, or once subscribed to it and never came back? So Charlie is running an experiment to determine who's actually reading, how people find out about the blog etc. and as an aside get really popular. This is social marketing at its best, so let's pass on the word and see just how popular we can get this.
Link to the post: http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2008/07/an-experiment-w.html
Labels: metrics, technology