Domain squatters, that is. Squatters, campers - whatever you want to call them.
There's a site I'd like to develop, but I need a name for it. A short, snappy, memorable, relevant name - that has an appropriate domain name available. Every single idea that I or anybody else who's tried has come up with has been taken by domain squatters. Some of them have the cheek to ask ludicrous amounts of money for these domains - such as one boasting a whopping 1 hit per month, which wanted USD$1650, with a minimum/reserve price of USD$1000. Others are spammy search portals, and still others simply leave it to languish with no accessible website on them.
Why is this allowed to happen? Why are these bastards allowed to register these domain names, and then not do anything of any use with them - especially those who are trying to sell them? This is completely ludicrous, as it's really no different to buying a sandwich and then offering it to people for a hundred times the price - other than the fact that you can easily by another sandwich which will do the exact same job, at the same price that the other person bought theirs for.
I believe that there should be some kind of regulation, perhaps administered by a body such as IANA, whereby the registration is revoked on any domain name which is registered and then attempted to be on-sold without a site first being established. The same should also apply for any domain name which is used solely for spammy search portals, and perhaps also domains which are not pointed anywhere (and not used for mail, etc) for a certain period. It would probably be far too labour-intensive to have this body check all domains, so it would be best run on a reporting basis - if you find a domain that you'd like to register, and it's taken by a squatter, you report it and they investigate; the registrant then has a chance to defend their right to registration, and if they can't prove that they have legitimate cause to have the domain name, it is revoked and the reporter may register it.
For crying out loud, even domainsquatters.com is taken - by a domain squatter - as are cybersquatter.net and cybersquatters.net.
Which idiot at Microsoft decided that in Office applications, not only should you be able to move toolbars around (with no way to lock them in place) - but also the menu bar?!
Seriously - who on Earth is going to want their menu bar running down the side of the window? Or along the bottom? Even better yet, I can even detach it from the window completely, and have it float somewhere - even off on a different screen to the application itself. Why would anybody EVER want to do that?!
Posted on 18 October, 2006 by maximinus in Ubuntu, Linux
Ubuntu's networking system has something which Windows XP lacks - locations. These allow you to toggle between multiple configurations - for example, "Work" and "Home" - so that you don't have to manually change all of your settings when you change networks. This is very useful for laptops and other portable computers.
However, it has one very major oversight - once you've saved a configuration, that's it. You can't rename it or edit it - only delete it and create another. Neither can you reorder the locations within the dropdown list - they're just in order of first-last created. Also, you can't delete a location (or view it in order to derive a new one from it) without first activating it - a task which can take a considerable amount of time to happen, if the default gateway or DNS server (I'm not sure which; maybe either) is not reachable - i.e. you are not at that location, or one of these has changed and you need to update it.
Just how much effort would it take to actually make it possible to do these simple things? The settings must be stored somewhere - so why can't there be a simple interface for reordering, viewing, editing, renaming, deleting and creating locations without activating them?
To be honest, I haven't searched around to see if there are any applications out there which would do this nicely - I don't really care if there are. Now that I've got everything set up how I need it at the moment, it should be fine (for the time being) - so I don't need to reconfigure my locations any time soon. Consider this to be both a retrospective rant and a suggestion for an improvement which could be made to Ubuntu's network manager.
Update:
Since this post was originally written, the network manager in Ubuntu has been upgraded and most, if not all, of the improvements mentioned above have been implemented. Now all that's needed is a quicker way to swap locations - preferably without having to authenticate using gksu, as I don't see why I should have to type a password just to change network location... automatic switching based on available wireless networks (switch to whichever location has the currently connected wireless network specified, upon connection to a wireless network) would be great too, but should probably be a togglable option (perhaps on a per-location basis, i.e. "Auto-select this location when connecting to this wireless network").
Posted on 3 September, 2006 by maximinus
So, I'd been having issues with my desktop computer, which degenerated into a STOP 0xD1 (0x000000D1) error every time I logged in to Windows.
After several hours over the course of a few days completely rearranging the hardware inside my case, including stripping it right back to the basics, I was almost ready to call it quits and order a new motherboard (and graphics card, since there are no comparable boards available any more - Socket 939, AGP, SATA2). But then I managed (with some very quick fingerwork) to get into Windows Safe Mode (made more difficult by having an old install of Windows on the drive, so I get the menu to choose which install first), and everything was running perfectly fine.
I then disabled the VIA RAID tool, which was set to load on startup (but of course doesn't in Safe Mode), since the bluescreens I was getting seemed to be when the RAID tool loaded. I restarted into non-Safe Mode, and it worked! I then shut down, plugged everything back in, and it works perfectly fine once more.
Two good things came out of this all:
- I got SATA hotswap working, which I though was not possible on the VIA chipset (it never used to be possible). I found a site with an article stating that the latest VIA Hyperion drivers added SATA hotswap support (digg this)
- I ended up with a much tidier system unit (since I completely tidied up while I was in there) which uses less power (since I don't have all of my drives in there now, as I can now hotswap so I don't need them all in at once)
Update: While it has made it much more likely to boot nicely, it seems that one of the IDE hard drives is still causing problems. However, in my earlier testing, I did remove this drive - in fact, I tried with just about every other combination and the drive in question unplugged. So I guess it's both that cause problems - I'll be buying a replacement drive shortly.
**UPDATE**
I've now discovered that while these changes seemed to help in the short term, I was still getting these errors occasionally. The frequency increased again, and when I changed motherboards, I found that it got so bad that I could hardly log in again. This time, I discovered the true culprit - an AMD dual core CPU optimiser patch which I had installed when I got the dual core CPU. I disabled this (it runs at startup) - and have not had a single instance of this issue since doing so.
Posted on 13 August, 2006 by maximinus in Ubuntu, Linux
When my laptop hard drive died (from overheating - again) I tried everything I could think of to get the data off it. I froze it, hit it, banged it on the desk, turned it upside down - all the usual tricks. Nothing worked at all. Whether I put it in the laptop or used a USB enclosure, I just couldn't get to the drive.
I decided that since I was going to have to reinstall everything from scratch anyway, I may as well try Ubuntu - Ryan had been hounding me to install it for a while. It was a breeze to install, and I could even sit there playing games while it installed - beat that, Microsoft!
Anyway, after a minor niggle with the wlan not supporting WPA-PSK (which is resolved), everything seems to be working fine - Compiz gives me graphical effects which Windows wouldn't be able to perform nearly as well on the processor (Compiz even did it fine when the CPU was locked at 600MHz). There is only one exception - the built-in (well, more like butchered-up PCMCIA) SD/MMC/MS reader doesn't work.
Anyway, back to the "dead" hard drive. I decided to have another crack at it today. I tried putting it back in the laptop and manually setting the drive parameters in the BIOS, since it detected it, but as a 0MB drive. One problem - the BIOS on this machine doesn't allow manual parameter input - it's auto-only. So, on a whim, I slapped it back in the USB enclosure - and plugged it into the laptop with Ubuntu running. Ubuntu picked up the drive and automounted it - and I immediately had full access to both partitions on the drive. I have now copied off everything I think I might want/need from it that I don't have elsewhere - it was running for upwards of half an hour with no problems. I could probably just keep running it as a USB HDD under Ubuntu with no problems - but I'd rather not risk it, so it's just going to sit around in case I find the need for something else off it.
Overall summary: Ubuntu beats Windows hands-down (after a bit of setup, but hey - Windows takes longer to install and also requires tweaking to get decent performance).
As if I didn't already know, I've just seen absolutely irrefutable proof that website ranking systems like Alexa are extremely inaccurate. By only having access to data from people using their toolbar, their stats can be extremely skewed.
Today, for some reason, ShrinkThisLink (the
free link shrinker which I created and run) has spiked to an Alexa "Daily Reach" of 10 per million users. This makes absolutely no sense, since according to Google Analytics and Awstats, two stats tracking systems which I use and which both collect actual data (awstats from log files, Google Analytics from javascript embedded in pages) both show that if anything, traffic on Saturday (which is the day the Alexa information is apparently for) was BELOW previous days. The only explanation that I can come up with is that for whatever reason, a higher number of those visitors were using Internet Explorer (which my stats do seem to confirm) with the Alexa toolbar installed. This proves that it doesn't take a lot to cause reasonable amounts of change in the Alexa statistics, since when you average out the higher percentage of IE users and the lower number of overall users, you should end up with about equal numbers - demonstrating just how skewed these systems are.
Posted on 27 June, 2006 by maximinus in Rant
So maybe I find code of many forms easier to understand than some people. But whether I do or not, I find that some people have the tendency to oversaturate their code with pointless comments - like this one from some sample code written by my Java tutor:
if(menuSelection.equals("Create")) { // sent by the 'create' menu itemNow, if that isn't redundant commenting of perfectly self-documenting code, I don't know what is. Anybody who can't decipher that line of code should
not be touching any code written in any language. That line is practically the epitome of self-documenting, readable code - if you can't read it, you're certainly not qualified to be touching any Java code (and almost certainly not any type of code).
Edit: Here's another gem I've spotted:
WriteDataBaseToDisk(); // write it to disk
Here we have a comment which is *less* informative/descriptive than the code. What is this "it" that we are writing to disk? This was by no means the only such uninformative comment...
Currently feeling: Annoyed
Currently listening to: Nirvana - About a Girl
Currently reading: Java assignment code
Posted on 25 May, 2006 by maximinus in Rant
One more type of spam that annoys me: multiply-forwarded messages.
These can take one of two forms (or a combination of both):
- "forward this to x people or y will happen"
- joke / funny story / funny pictures
The first kind has absolutely no merit whatsoever, and only serves to either piss people off, or, if it's sent to morons or paranoid people, cause ever-increasing numbers of the message to be flooded around the 'net.
The second kind is alright, so long as it's
actually funny.
The biggest problem I have with
both of these types of message is the "multiple-forward" / "chain mail" part. This is because nobody ever thinks to remove the headers from the previous forwards, so:
- in order to get to the actual content (if you can call it that) it becomes necessary to scroll through several large batches of message headers
- more importantly, this is a security risk.
To expand on the second point, it is essentially just giving my email address (and that of anyone else it's been sent to) to everyone else that it gets sent to after the generation that I was sent it in. If one of these messages happened to get into the hands of somebody who wanted to send more intrusive spam, they would now have access to potentially hundreds or thousands of
known-good email addresses. All it takes is one person to send it to a spammer, or one person to sell the list to a spammer. Even if no spammer gets hold of it, many people whom I probably don't know are going to receive my email address. Any of these people can then contact me or sign me up for spammy newsletters, or do whatever else they like with my email address.
Why do these people find it necessary to forward crap to me? I don't mind the occasional joke etc, so long as it's funny, but the chain mail "forward or die" type messages are just stupid and a waste of resources. If you are going to forward a joke email (or, heaven forbid, a "forward or die" message) - at least remove the headers from all the previous forwards, and USE BCC. BCC is there for a reason - so you don't go giving everyone's addresses to everyone else. Send it to yourself, with the list of people you want to forward to in the BCC field. It only takes a few seconds to remove all the headers from the message body, and even less time to type your own address in the "to" field and use the BCC field for all the other addresses.
Posted on 24 May, 2006 by maximinus in Rant
'Scuse the bad pun, I'm just a little peeved at the moment.
On Thursday last week, in the evening, my desktop PC died. After extensive checking and fiddling, I came to the conclusion that the motherboard seems to have died.
L3 started on Friday evening, so on Friday I tried my best to source a new CPU, PSU and some new RAM (wasn't 100% sure which had died, so thought I'd nail all three, since it had to be one of them or the motherboard, which I already had a replacement for).
First, I tried Dragon, since they have a city branch at which I could have grabbed the stuff on Saturday. Their website, even after updating, still showed stock of the CPU and RAM at the city branch, and the PSU at both other branches. I emailed them, asking them to hold the stuff for me. I got a reply, saying that they don't hold the Athlon64 X2 4200+ in stock, that it has to be ordered in and that it wouldn't be in until the following week (this week). I asked about the 3800+ and 4400+, both of which were also showing as in stock. Once again, I was told they don't keep them in stock. Then, I was informed that they didn't have any of the RAM either - despite the site showing 10 the previous night, and 3 that morning (at the city branch alone). However, I was told that they had
multiple units of the PSU - despite the site only showing them at other branches.
So, I rang TasTech. I asked if he had any 4200+es, and he said no, he doesn't keep them on hand - but that he could get one pretty quickly. I asked how soon (this was at midday) and he said 3pm. THREE PM. That's
3 hours, folks. I said it sounded good, and I'd be there on Saturday to get it. He said to drop him an email to confirm; so I did - and also asked about the PSU and RAM. He then replied later, saying that the 4200+ that was listed as available wasn't actually available, so I ended up having to shell out another couple of hundred for a 4400+. At 2:30pm, he said he'd be able to get the CPU and PSU in (he had the RAM) by 4:30 -
TWO HOURS. A two-hour turnaround. Compared to Dragon's dismissive "next week" and not actually even offering to get one, that's
bloody amazing.
So, come Saturday, Mike gave me a lift to go and pick up the stuff (thanks, Mike). We got held up by roadworks completely blocking New Brighton Road. Once we got there, everything went smoothly. I got back to L3, and assembled the PC.
I had been planning an upgrade for a while - buying in dribs and drabs as parts were available cheaply and I had money. I was intending to hold off buying the CPU until after AMD's new Socket AM2 was released, since that meant that Socket 939 CPUs were almost guaranteed to fall in price. So here we are, four days after my foreced emergency upgrade - and today Socket AM2 was released. Despite the lack of availability of Socket AM2 in NZ as yet, Skt939 prices are already falling - the 3800+, 4200+, 4600+ and 4800+ have all dropped by varying amounts.
So, thanks to the precise timing of my motherboard's demise, I was forced to shell out more than intended, a fair bit sooner than intended, just to have a working machine. Understandably, I'm not too happy, especially since AM2 was released but 6 days after the motherboard died, and 4 days after I bought the new gear.
Posted on 28 March, 2006 by maximinus in Rant
Well, now that Telecom NZ are releasing their new 3.5Mbit/512Kbit plans on the first of April, Telstra have decided to get in on the act and are making available 10Mbit/2Mbit plans with decent caps* - $140/mo for 80GB, which is much better than any comparable Telecom plan (data cap-wise).
This sounds all very well and dandy, BUT when they laid their fibreoptic network around Christchurch, they came right up to the end of my street - but didn't come up it, despite there being two schools on the stree - one of them directly oppsite my house. So, I'm stuck with crappy Telecom ADSL plans.
* Decent as far as caps go - they're bloody stupid no matter how big (well, ok, maybe there should be a limit to how much you can use on these super-fast plans... but Telecom caps are absolutely and utterly pathetic).
Posted on 8 February, 2006 by maximinus in Rant
So, I got called around to my auntie's place to set up her new ADSL connection.
I got the modem out of the box, plugged it in, set it up and we were away... No, wait, we were getting authentication failures. I got her to retype her password to make sure it was correct; it was. I suspected that Xtra hadn't activated her account for ADSL access, so I got her to ring tech support and ask them. She asked straight away if the account had been activated for broadband, and the guy ignored her, launching right into his off-the-sheet generic step-by-step idiot's guide to walking an idiot through setting up ADSL that he'd been provided, so she handed over to me.
He started walking me through pointless steps:
"Click on the 'start' button at the bottom of your screen"
*blabber senselessly for 5 seconds*
"Ok, now click 'run'"
*blabber senselessly for 10 seconds*
"Ok, now type 'cmd'"
*blabber senselessly for 15 seconds*
"Ok, now click ok... and you should get a DOS window. Now type 'ip--"
"LOOK, I've got it connected, got it configured, we're just getting authentication failures. The first thing I want to know is if the username has been activated for ADSL..." I cut in, completely fed up with his treating me like somebody who's using a computer for the first time and his persistant attempts at making me do pointless things and refusal to answer my question.
After asking for the username, being unable to find the username in the system and having to 'try to find it another way' - then making sure I had the right capitalisation and had added in their absurd username suffix ".xadsl" - he EVENTUALLY came back to me with "Oh, the .xadsl form of the username hasn't been activated yet. I'll just do that for you now."
So, after a long wait to get through to tech support, and several attempts at getting him to check if it had been activated he finally discovered that it was exactly what I suspected from the get-go. Unfortunately, it took until I got pissed off and cut him off mid-instruction to knock his tiny brain off the tracks of his instruction sheet he seemed to be thoroughly glued to before he would even check what I was suggesting - totally wasting not only his time and my time, but also the time of whoever was next in the tech support queue.
My advice to any company hiring staff for tech support roles: Make sure they have an IQ greater than their shoe size; that they know how to use their initiative and can recognise users with technical knowledge; and that they themselves have more knowledge in the field than the majority of the people they will be helping.
Posted on 3 February, 2006 by maximinus in Rant
So, today at work I was asked to see if there was anything wrong with a site. It had been reporting steadily decreasing amounts of visitors since about July last year.
So, I have a look at the stats myself - and see that they are indeed showing declining visitor numbers. So I look back a little further, to this time last year - only to find that the number of visitors then was also low - but built up to a peak around June/July, then started tapering off again.
Why could this be? Perhaps because it's about SKI ACCOMMODATION IN NEW ZEALAND? Did nobody think that perhaps NOBODY wants ski accommodation in summer, as it's a very season-dependant thing to be wanting, in a country like New Zealand?
Sigh.
So, I'm sitting here working on the long-overdue next version of BLISS, the blogging engine which powers Rant of the Day, and I am, as per usual, battling to try to make things cross-browser compatible.
This time, however, through a cruel twist of fate, it's not IE which is 'misbehaving' as such - this time, it's the only browser which supports CSS which lets me do what I want. This is because MS have extended CSS to do these things - but they either haven't reccomended them for inclusion in the official CSS spec (thus allowing for cross-browser support) or they have, but too late to make a current CSS spec.
I can't even seem to find any nifty JavaScript snippets or anything that'll do the job instead. It seems that truncation other than at a set number of characters is just one of those things which is near-impossible.
Well, I decided to get the domain name ShrinkThisLink.com and set up a
free link shrinking service - no ads, either.
If there's a web page you want to share with people, but the URL is long and convoluted, simply paste it in to
ShrinkThisLink.com and hit the button, and it'll give you a nice short URL to give to friends etc - making it easier for those people to visit the page. It's especially handy if you want to put the URL in your MSN Personal Message, as there's no way to copy from the MSN PM to the clipboard, and links in it do not become clickable - so the URL has to be typed out to get to it.
Why do major organisations use such stupid systems? Why do they never seem to be thought out properly?
Yesterday, I went to get my learner's license. I got there after 4pm, and as such was told that I would have to come back as their system doesn't allow times after 4pm. So I went back this morning, look tee test, and then had to wait for nearly 15 mins to get my temporary license, because their system is so limited that it only allows specific times to be entered - presumably only quarter hours. This fiasco meant that I arrived late for the first lecture of the day, though I didn't miss much.
If their system had been thought out properly before it was created, they would be able to cut the crap and issue the temporary license when the test is passed rather than a random amount of time after, and would also be able to keep issuing licenses (at least learners' licenses) until just before they close for the night, rather than having an hour and a half where they have to tell people to bugger off and come back some other day - and I would have had my temp license yesterday and not been late for class.
Also, when the woman took my bag to put it behind the counter, she didn't first make me place any cellphones etc in it, so I had my phone, pda and mp3 player on me during the test... And she found it so heavy that she dragged it along the desk, nearly pulling out the glass panel in the top of the desk, then at the end had to bring it around the counter to give it back... Good thing I only brought the textbook for one of the two classes with me today, I suppose...
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