Referer Spam Rant

Well, my blog got hit with the first bit of spam, and it's an odd one at that.  I just quickly went to my referrer logs for my lunchtime checkup, and I found pages and pages (probably 4 or 5 pages straight) of referrers from a site in the .uk.  The referring url was a CV (resume) of someone overseas.

If this is a way to get his url out, it worked.  I followed it and looked at his resume.  I then made sure to email him and let him know that I will match the CV against every application I review, and make sure we do not hire a spammer.  If for some odd reason he thought I was a point of employment for him, a comment from my blog would have been MUCH more appropriate.

Maybe I'm off base here.  Maybe next time I am looking for employment, I should spam my resume url to a number of blogs and cross my fingers.  I think I'll end up on the higher road, though.

 

More gmail bits

Couple things on gmail.

First, go vote for what you want in gmail.  Its an independent site for gmail users, and hopefully the votes are taken into consideration.  I voted what what I'd like to see.  Check it here

Also, did you know your gmail can accept “alias” mails.  Send something to

gmailusername+sometag@gmail.com

Interesting.  So I'm guessing this could be used to setup filters based on diff “aliases” that are added to your address.  Wish I had know this when I started the account, maybe I would have tagged everything without a + to be spam, and only qualified aliases would hit my inbox.  On well.

Some gmail invites for my blog

Since it was just my 100th post, and I have a few spare invites, the next two people to leave a comment on this thread or off the contact page asking for some gmail invite luvin will be emailing from a fresh new gmail account, complete with the new gmail account smell.

Been using mine for a couple months now, and I don't think I could go back.  If you've been wanting to check it out, let me know.

Sorry no more invites.

Speed up vss over vpn

If you have ever worked through a vpn using vss, you know the pain it can cause.  I still have a bald spot from where I hit my head on my desk one to many times waiting to check something in.  Something like a 1 line change, where you wonder how it could take literally minutes. 

So after some searching, I found a little app that seems to be working extremly well.  Vssconnect from VoxCode software has server bits that runs as a service on the VSS box, and client bits.  Server is pretty simplistic, and offers a couple options over the normal vss server, but nothing to cheer about.  The client, on the otherhand, is a very fresh perspective on vss.  Make to look like vss with a facelife, the ui does everything the normal vss ui does and a few extras.  It also seems much faster then the normal ui.

The best part, though, is it does what it promises.  I have been checking in and out all day long, and its so fast.  As fast as being at my desk, and it even seems faster sometimes.  Get latest still takes a bit, but much less then without the addin. 

I didn't setup the server, but that part seemed to go very quickly.  The client setup was cake, and the integration into vs.net is done behind the scenes, so you still deal with the same vss dialogs. 

I did have 1 minor complaint though.  I was having some networking issues at the time.  I was connected to the VPN, but was unable to get to a specifc vlan via tcp (although I could get there \\server).  I had the client installed, and it took over vss in the IDE.  VSS normally talks over netbios (forgive me if my protocol is wrong, been a while  :) so I could get to the DB from the vss ui, but I couldnt ping the machine, and thus I couldnt connect to the vssconnect service.  I searched for a way to turn off the plugin so I could at least use the old integration, but coulnd't find one.  Figure I would have had to uninstall.  Fixed it with a static route, and all was well, but I would have liked a way to “disable” vssconnect.

Anyway, check it out here

[Edit] Oh and I forgot to mention.  At 30$ a developer, it's very reasonable also.

Gmail tray notify from google

Google released a nice little tray app for gmail.  Very simple, shows when you have new mail, double click to open a new browser to gmail.  Just under 3 megs of ram.  Sounds like a done deal to me.

Check it here

Sourceforge score. Dabcos SQL compare compare type util

Was looking around sourceforge and found a couple things I wanted to play with.  One of them was immediately useful, and just a great find. 

DaBCoS works a little like SQL Compare by Redgate.  Now don't get me wrong, SQL Compare is a FAR superior product, offering a ton more functionality, and is well worth the coin.  If your needs are a bit less, though, this little app might just have you covered. 

Ran it against a few databases I have and it quickly gave me an idea of the differences.  It has a synchronize function that I haven't played with yet, but I doubt I would use it for that anyway. 

Checked the authors homesite, and looks like he has some ideas on the next version.  Can't wait.

Check out DaBCoS here
Davide Mauri's Home

My woot bag of crap

Got my bag of crap yesterday.  Was like x-mas, kinda.  It was very much as described though.  I got

Some desk puck for holding paper
Some crappy non-amplified tiny polk speakers (nice for my desk tho, thinkpad on full blast, cant here it outside the cube)
Some wierd “lock” for a bag that is supposed to protect your bag. 

What fun.. I would certinaly try again tho..  From what I gather a few lucky people got some nice stuff.

VSS bug from 6.0c still kills labels in 6.0d

My hatred for VSS grows daily.  I can't wait until the day I get the ok to move to subversion, at least until we can evaluate team system. 

Once again, a nuance in VSS bites.  We use labels heavily here at work, especially in the Database Project (I talked about a DB project before, again, fantastic way to manage your DB scripts.).  Part of my job is to run it daily, make sure it builds, and label it to the current assembly version.  Well, today's failed.  No problem, I've got a label from yesterday. 

Well, there is a problem.  And it's been a problem.  And how the hell could 6.0d ship with an issue like this that was identified in 6.0c?  C'mon.  When you run analyze (which if your not doing it daily with a decent sized project, your crazy) vss copies out the labels, and, well, just never copies them back.  So without these files, you can't get an old label. 

Now, compound this with the fact that analyze will bail if you have anything in it's “backup” directory, and you have a very good recipe for useless labels.  WTF.

Old post that pointed out the error in 6.0c, and fixed it today for 6.0d

Almost like you went to Japan

Thought you might be interested in that topic.  Emailed an old friend of mine after I dug up an album from a band he was in a while ago.  Found out that he is helping publish a book, so I wanted to give him a shameless plug.  So go buy his book, I know I will.  They also have a blog talking about the process of publishing the book.  Interesting stuff here.

Link
Blog

Chin Music Press Inc. announces the release of Kuhaku &
ther Accounts of Japan, a collection of essays and artwork
that takes an unblinking look at life in Japan. Kuhaku will
be available at select bookstores in the US and Japan and
online at Chin Music’s website (www.chinmusicpress.com)
for ?29.50 from the end of August.

Kuhaku consists of 24 essays, two works of fiction, dozens
of pages of artwork and a unique glossary of Japanese
terms that provides readers with opinionated, personal
and often humorous insights. The collection includes
works from 24 talented writers and artists on topics as varied
as taking out the garbage to cheating on your spouse.

The book was designed by Craig Mod, art director of Chin
Music Press, and edited by Bruce Rutledge, founder of the
Seattle-based company.

Help makes blogs more visible!

There are by some estimates more than a million weblogs. But most of them get no visibility in search engines. Only a few "A-List" blogs get into the top search engine results for a given topic, while the majority of blogs just don't get noticed. The reason is that the smaller blogs don't have enough links pointing to them. But this posting could solve that. Let's help the smaller blogs get more visibility!

This posting is GoMeme 4.0. It is part of an experiment to see if we can create a blog posting that helps 1000's of blogs get higher rankings in Google. So far we have tried 3 earlier variations. Our first test, GoMeme 1.0, spread to nearly 740 blogs in 2.5 days. This new version 4.0 is shorter, simpler, and fits more easily into your blog.

Why are we doing this? We want to help thousands of blogs get more visibility in Google and other search engines. How does it work? Just follow the instructions below to re-post this meme in your blog and add your URL to the end of the Path List below. As the meme spreads onwards from your blog, so will your URL. Later, when your blog is indexed by search engines, they will see the links pointing to your blog from all the downstream blogs that got this via you, which will cause them to rank your blog higher in search results. Everyone in the Path List below benefits in a similar way as this meme spreads. Try it!

Instructions: Just copy this entire post and paste it into your blog. Then add your URL to the end of the path list below, and pass it on! (Make sure you add your URLs as live links or HTML code to the Path List below.)

Path List
1. Minding the Planet
2. Luke Hutteman's public virtual MemoryStream
3. JayBaz_MS blog
4. Aaron Junod's Blog
5. (your URL goes here! But first, please copy this line and move it down to the next line for the next person).

(NOTE: Be sure you paste live links for the Path List or use HTML code.)

Original Post

Trillian 3 is coming

I've tried to cut down on the number of posts that just point people to other posts.  This is one I have to propogate, though.  Winbeta notes thats Trillian 3 is on its way, with a beta expected soon.  I have been a diehard trillian user for a few years now, and can't wait for a new version.  Not that there is anything wrong with this one, but I can't wait to see what they have up their sleeves. 

Check it out here

Windows 2003 upgraded on thinkpad

We are heading into the home stretch at work, and that means a little more time for work, and alot more code.  So I decided to try to squeeze some more performance out of my T30. 

The first step was to move to a gig of ram.  The stick should be here today, and I really can't wait.  This should make quite a difference.  An OS reinstall was on my plate too, as this install had gone through a few major projects, and was showing signs of needing help.  Instead of cleaning out XP, I decided it was time to take the plunge to 2003.  I was a bit worried since my searching on running 2003 on a T30 actually turned up no success stories, other then some random ads of people selling a T30 with 2k3 installed.

The backup process is like pulling teeth, but once I'm relatively sure I got it all (damnit I missed onenote), I take the plunge.  The 2k3 install goes off without a flaw, and it's time to start trying to play Driver Yahtzee.  Look in device manager, and everything looks pretty good.  Video card, modem, and an unknown device need drivers.  Off to IBM's site.

I get the 2K video driver, try to install it, and the installer bails.  Hmm.  Grab the XP driver, install finishes.  Hmm.  Reboot.  Blue screen.  Hmm.  Start over.

This time I just get the 2K driver, and upgrade via Device Manager.  w00t.  So then I run with the 2k versions of everything from the IBM site.  All set, except the unknown device.  We will see if this unknown device rears its ugly head this week.

Once all the drivers are in, its time to get to the meat of the reinstall.  After hours of installing, copying, moving swap files, defragging, clicking checkboxes, etc etc I think I'm ready, and pack it up.  Back at work, and so far everything is looking good.  There is def a difference in speed.  It could be that all the trash is gone, but I think in general 2K3 is just a snappier OS when set as a workstation.  So far I'm really happy.  More on this after I get used to 2k3.

I have 2 very minor complaints so far.  The icons on the desktop have a black background to the text.  Been looking for that setting, but I might not be able to make it transparent.  Also, when I extend my desktop to a second monitor, I don't get to see my wallpaper.  Both minor, but annoyances nonetheless.

 

Feeling lucky?
I love the idea of woot.  Since the first day I saw the link I've wanted to order something from them.  Well, today is the day.  .01$ bag's of who knows what, with 5$ shipping.  So I got three of them to see what kinda goodies I may or may not get.  I'll let you guys know how lucky I was.

Two minutes, two annoyances

Doubt they're linked.  So now in my IDE I can't click on a titlebar, and have it detach from the docked window (IE when I try to double click on the command window header to break it from the bottom so it can grow).  I use that alot, annoying.

Couple minutes after I realized that, I do a build after I changed some code, and the IDE just quits.  No errors, nothing in the event log, not even one of those “send me to MS” delays.  Just gone, like last nights Mexican (which was very good by the way, man I love fresh pico).

I will now hunt for a pencil to shove in my eye.  Now back to your regularly scheduled silence. 

Ill dress up like OS/2 for halloween this year

Cause this site told me to.

Thanks McP for the link.  I still think I'm DOS tho.

 

 

Which OS are You?

Symantec Client Firewall and Sharepoint

I recently switched from Mcafee virus protection to the Symantec Client Security suite.  Although I was always a fan of Mcafee, I had heard good things about this suite, and wanted to get a more capable software firewall on my thinkpad.  I also hate Zonealarm and its obnoxious interface. 

All in all the swtich went pretty good.  Uninstall mcafee, install symantec, get used to pop-ups about what apps can and can't run.  The biggest issue I found, is suddently I couldn't get to any of the corporate sharepoint portal's.  So over the weekend I try, and fail to getinto my personal sharepoint portals. 

Come to find out, by default the app blocks sharepoint.  It's probably because of all the client side garbage it does, but its hard to tell that since IE reports a DNS error.  So after many trips to ping and nslookup, I tried disabling the firewall.  Low and behold, that works.  So whats the point of the firewall if I have to turn it off to do my work. 

So I start searching.  Nothing comes up on any of my searches, be it newsgroups, web, or Symantec's KB.  After fumbling around the UI for quite a bit, I found a place for Trusted Sited.  It reads as a way to give others access to your shared resources, but thought I should give it a shot.  Bingo. 

So, if you find yourself in this spot, do this. 

Open the firewall admin
Click Client Firewall
Click Configure
Click Networking tab and wait to switch (what are these, swing UI components?  ;)
Add the server name to this box (I added both netbios, and full DNS qualification)
Head back to your favorite portal.

w00t

Yesterday's geek notes had mention of woot.com.  Seems like a really interesting site.  One product a day until its sold out, at what looks like really low prices.  Best part, they have an RSS feed.  .  Check it out.  Now when I say w00t to people (most just give me a blank stare, but I can't be the only one that trys to talk in irc every so often) at least I can direct them to a site.