Posts by Andrew Jackson

Techwatch weathers DDoS extortion attack

Tell-tale signs for the non-log watchers

This is the type of behaviour that has been filing my dns logs several times a second, at times from different IPs, for weeks now. the blocked ip list on my firewall grows by at least 2 new ip addresses every day.

31-Jan-2009 03:35:45.214 queries: client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx#65233: query: . IN NS +

31-Jan-2009 03:35:45.214 security: client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx#65233: query (cache) './NS/IN' denied

I had just finished blocking one IP at 10:00PM PST, then this and two other IPs started hitting me 2 hours later. It sucks. My DNS server is being used to generate traffic back to the sites being attacked through root queries in the form of denied dns messages, and all I can do is just keep blocking IPs. It' not slowing my traffic down at all. It's just time consuming and frustrating.

Microsoft Live Search gets Powerset boost

Microsoft can dry up and die...

I don't care what they come up with for their search model. Besides the majority of my searches on Google are through their Linux-specific portal. I'll gladly eat my words when Microsoft can equal Google on that front.

Opera update fixes stability bugs

Of course it has flaws

It's software, and as noted by seatrotter, it's easy to make hyperbolic statements that are easily misinterpreted. 9.2 was terrible in the stability department. Crashed at least once a day under linux, and some web sites still do not work. I really love seeing those server error pages that come up sometimes, which upon examination, reveal that there is an IIS server with an MS SQL server on the backend not understanding what's going on.

That said, as an Opera fanboy, I'll keep using it, warts (Opera's, that is) and all. There are some very compelling things about Opera where you'd just have to spend some time using them to see the allure.

Paris perfect?!?! I guarantee you that no matter how hot or "perfect" she is, somebody, somewhere is tired of putting up with her shit...

(Didn't there used to be a "let me put on my asbestos suit" icon?)

Feds urge court to dismiss lawsuit protecting life on Earth

@JP Strauss

Precisely! Nowhere have I heard so much as a breath of concern about this. (Could it be that the Combine have aready arrived? That would certainly explain Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld...)

One need only remember the trials of one Gordon Freeman. Count me among the Resistance.

Ballmer bitch slaps Vista

@Jim Booth

Testicles...razor blades...

Good god man, the visual!

Torrent overflows Opera

Patched already

After launching Opera and finding there was new version available, which I installed, I read this article and found out my work was already done. I don't use Opera for torrents either, so not a great risk for me. But still, how much time elapsed between discovery and patch publication? Seems like a pretty damn fast patch release. Granted, Opera only has one application to shepard, as opposed to an entire OS. Even so, they certainly didn't drag their feet. Opera rocks that way.