February 2012
3 posts
2 tags
market dominance
The best thing that you could be doing with market dominance is making a change for the better. What did Apple do with its market dominance? It killed the CPU-hungry and battery-unfriendly Adobe Flash technology, and adopted open standards that any other manufacturer can implement, too, for increased interoperability and convenience of everyone involved (other than Adobe, of course, as well as...
Feb 13th
I had a funny dream last night...
I had a funny dream last night (Saturday to Sunday, 2012-02-04/05 PT). I was somewhere like in Europe, and there was something like a tsunami, and I was on a cruise boat (like those we have in Russia), and trying to take the pictures of the thing. And then hiding in the basement of some office-like building… Surprisingly, I just discovered there was an earthquake with a predicted 1 metre...
Feb 6th
4 tags
at&t U-verse 6rd in Santa Clara County
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,26841639 Is at&t for real? printf "%02x%02x:%02x%02x\n" 76 220 xx xx ; printf "%02x%02x:%02x%02x\n" 99 124 xxx xxx 4cdc:20yy 637c:YYYY From MSK. # traceroute6 2602:304:cdc2:0yy0::1 ; traceroute6 2602:306:37cY:YYY0::1 traceroute6 to 2602:304:cdc2:0yy0::1 (2602:304:cdc2:yy0::1) from Z, 16 hops max, 12 byte packets Skipping 2 intermediate hops 3 ...
Feb 3rd
January 2012
13 posts
3 tags
firstvds: ipfw continues to be broken; now they...
written for http://forum.firstvds.ru/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8233 Перезагрузился, и теперь опять абсолютно даже на IPv4 firewall не работает, как в начале января. Теперь опять показывает все нули по `ipfw show` (вообще ни одно правило не ловит даже IPv4 пакеты), динамические правила по `ipfw -d show` до сих пор отсутствуют — я вообще до сих пор ни разу не видел динамических правил на вашей...
Jan 27th
6 tags
firstvds сломали свой ispmgr апаче! (mod_rpaf.so)
written for forum.firstvds.ru: http://forum.firstvds.ru/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=8247&p=41815#p41815 Ваши изменения шаблонов привели к неработоспособности apache при стандартных apache22 + nginx из ispmgr (nginx установлен через ispmgr в начале января). Я apache2 не пользуюсь, но как советуете теперь обращаться к ispmgr? (Хочу перезагрузить весь сервер, а `shutdown -r +1` не работает. ...
Jan 27th
3 tags
after starting to use Linux (Debian), my list of...
After many years in the BSD land, late December 2011 I’ve started using the 2011 release of Debian Linux on Linode512 upgraded to Linode768 (plan to “upgrade” back to 512 after a while on 768). My list of bugs/annoyances is as follows (I might update this entry later on, too): * installing ntpd package corrects your date without any trace whatsoever what the correction was; I...
Jan 25th
3 tags
Bitbucket and all: do you trust them your private...
I started using Bitbucket for my private repositories a very short while ago, since they now support git. Unlike github.com and gitorious.org, Bitbucket provides unlimited private repository support for both git and hg, and they also have Australian roots, for a bit of redundancy in who to trust your repositories to. :-) The best thing about git is that due to the strong sha1 hashes and the...
Jan 23rd
3 tags
Using OpenBSD on non-native hardware is definitely...
With OpenBSD 5.0 under KVM on ARPNetworks, all you have to do is “disable mpbios”, and it all seems to work. However, not without subtle problems. First, I’ve noticed that if you have lots of disk activity, plus lots of output through ssh, then you get periodic networking stalls very easily, with “em0: watchdog timeout — resetting” appearing repeatedly...
Jan 22nd
1 tag
How to list open files on a UNIX system.
This is a nice question which I recall being asked in one of my interviews a few years back. I recall I answered it with a `sockstat` (FreeBSD), but the interviewer expected more on the lines of `lsof` (Linux and other *NIX). The pages below provide an excellent overview of just how flexible (yet divergent) UNIX systems are, and how a little shell scripting can get you a long way. ...
Jan 22nd
6 tags
Статус ISPFreeBSD8 ipfw: глючит IPv4, отсутствует...
written for forum.firstvds.ru: http://forum.firstvds.ru/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8233 В интересах продолжения темы IPv6 до сих пор не работает из форума Новости, хотелось бы разъяснений, почему ipfw всё же даже на IPv4 не работает. Далее приведу наглядный пример с сервера без каких-либо изменений с перезагрузки. Прошу заметить, что правило 02200, которое замечательно работает на вашей ISP...
Jan 20th
`apt-get install ntp` in Debian 6
Apparently, installing ntp in Debian results in your clock being corrected, with no proof whatsoever that the correction took place, and the amount of any such correction. An obvious security flaw, if you ask me. On the other hand, in the Linux land, that’s probably just another day.
Jan 19th
3 tags
firstvds.ru ipv6
Заказал тридцатого декабря местного времени FreeBSD8 сервер с IPv6 под новогоднюю скидку. С самого начала, IPv6 адрес вообще не работал — очевидно, у сервера забыли настроить gateway. Починили в течение суток после обращения в поддержку. Потом оказалось, что firewall (ipfw) вообще тоже не работает. На IPv4 просто-напросто не влияет на пакеты, а на IPv6 — даже не выключается и не включается...
Jan 17th
2 tags
How you should not run a web-site.
What can I say? HGST provides an excellent example of how you should NOT be running your web-site. % http_ping -count 4 -interval 1 "http://www.hitachigst.com/internal-drives/deskstar/deskstar-7k1000d"; date 29131 bytes from http://www.hitachigst.com/internal-drives/deskstar/deskstar-7k1000d: 3544.97 ms (7.376c/3485.42r/52.173d) 29131 bytes from...
Jan 16th
5 tags
AT&T U-verse on BroadbandMap.Gov.
We’ve all heard that the fcc.gov et al has spent 350 million USD on the National Broadband Map. Has anyone actually bothered to visit it recently? http://www.broadbandmap.gov/about-provider/at&t-inc./nationwide/ — T http://www.broadbandmap.gov/about-provider/verizon-communications-inc./nationwide/ — VZ http://www.broadbandmap.gov/about-provider/surewest-communications/nationwide/ —...
Jan 13th
1 note
3 tags
routers and open firmwares
A couple of months earlier, I’ve got a ZyXEL NBG4615 and a NETGEAR WNR3500L GigE 802.11n routers in the attempt to replace my buggy 2Wire. Anyhow, it seems like neither one wants to work with my static ip setup, trying to NAT my static subnet instead of simply passing it through. The WNR3500L is marketed by NETGEAR as their “open-source router”. So, what does this actually...
Jan 12th
7 tags
Any consumer routers that can do routing? Or, the...
I’m looking for a robust consumer router that can do the simplest routing function of all — simply forward packets between the WAN and LAN interfaces. The option of NAT’ing the RFC 1918 addresses would be awesome, too. Spoiler alert: after several very long conversations with ZyXEL NA tech support (including the managers; by the way, ZyXEL’s tech support is outsourced to...
Jan 11th
December 2011
11 posts
1 tag
переделегирование с ns1.domenus.ru
У domenus.ru хорошие цены и быстрая круглосуточная поддержка по телефону, однако интерфейс доволно скудный. Дополнительно, если вы вдруг использовали их ns1.domenus.ru. и ns2.domenus.ru., то при переделегировании доменов, ваши домены мгновенно перестанут работать до того момента, пока зона .su/.ru не обновится, т.к. их интерфейс, очевидно, мгновенно удаляет записи с их собственных DNS серверов...
Dec 31st
3 tags
installing java on freebsd
First off, the FreeBSD documentation regarding Java is just terrible outdated. However, it’s pretty easy once you get the gist. `pkg_add -r openjdk6` is all that was needed to get `java` and `javac` onto the FreeBSD 8.2 VDS 8-stable system. However, `pkg_add -r tomcat7` didn’t work as expected, since, apparently, it depends on java/jdk16, so it tries installing jdk-1.6.0.3p4_27,...
Dec 31st
7 notes
3 tags
firstvds.ru — the highest level of incompetence
This is seriously the highest level of incompetence for a hosting company that claims to be the number one in the Russian market for virtual dedicated servers. The company is actually owned (or otherwise has roots) to ISPsystem, the people who make the FreeBSD VDS thing, together with a number of (rather horrible, must I say) control panels (the FreeBSD virtualisation itself that they offer seems...
Dec 31st
3 tags
HE.net / AT&T connectivity woes continue
As reported earlier, HE.net / AT&T connectivity woes continue. # mtr --report{,-wide} 76-220-32-XX.lightspeed.sntcca.sbcglobal.net ; date HOST: liXXX-XXX Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1. 184.105.143.85 0.0% 10 0.6 0.6 0.4 1.2 0.2 2. 10gigabitethernet2-3.core1.fmt1.he.net 0.0% 10 0.6 ...
Dec 29th
1 note
4 tags
disappointed in Hurricane Electric latency
Meh. For a few hours now, seems like HE has a latency problem; about 17ms to Fremont from San Jose, instead of the usual ~5.5ms. Even some packet loss, meh. % traceroute fremont1.linode.com ; date traceroute to fremont1.linode.com (64.71.152.17), 32 hops max, 40 byte packets 5 12.83.39.137 (12.83.39.137) 2.387 ms 1.964 ms 1.784 ms 6 12.122.200.9 (12.122.200.9) 2.974 ms 3.031 ms 3.020...
Dec 24th
9 notes
1 tag
todo for my apache conf (swamped logs)
Wow, my access logs of several domains are totally swamped with all that hacking activity, with overreaching attempts at compromising those poor-written php and perl scripts that some people do run! I have a plan: If (404 or 403), and User-Agent does not contain “bot” or “Bot”, and the GET request is for a “.php?” or a “.pl?” resource, and,...
Dec 21st
5 notes
7 tags
dslreports: How does CenturyLink offer 40/20, when...
Isn’t it surprisingly shocking that AT&T with all the same technologies as its competitors in other regions, delivers significantly lower speeds than the said competitors, roughly using about the exact same technologies as the competitors are using? Right now: BPON @ Verizon FiOS: 15/5, 25/25 and 50/20. (real speeds are actually higher than advertised) BPON @ AT&T U-verse:...
Dec 18th
5 tags
dslreports: [FTTH] 4ms+ ping to anywhere outside...
Come to think about it, I’m confused why my ping times are so bad. I have a latency of noticeably well under 2ms to several first hops into the AT&T U-verse network (hops 2, 3*, 4* and 5), yet recently, anything anywhere other than the AT&T routers is always at least 4ms away. What’s adding those extra 2 to 3 ms of delay between AT&T serving me pretty much in the...
Dec 18th
2 notes
1 tag
the anatomy of the interwebs
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=give+a+fuck&hl=ru http://lurkmore.to/Всем_похуй http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3BcbdVj8n4 (Шоу Фрая и Лори. Учитель) http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/A-Bit-of-Fry-and-Laurie/70153392 http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Fortysomething/70210372 Turns out, that Hugh Laurie is the guy that plays Dr. House! Just finished the 6th and last episode of Fortysomething...
Dec 17th
2 tags
Lactose intolerance: lack of labelling and...
Wikipedia has a nice article about Lactose Intolerance, including the part titled “Lactase Persistence”, which discusses the fact that amongst all the mammals, it’s very abnormal to actually still be lactose tolerant well past the childhood, where only certain human populations do not lose the ability to produce lactase to digest lactose as they age (in other words, lactose...
Dec 8th
1 note
2 tags
Aastra 6730i and IPKall SIP to TFN
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26624055-Aastra-6730i-and-IPKall-SIP-to-TFN Is there a way to configure Aastra 6730i to work with voiper.ipkall.com for dialling Toll Free Numbers? I’ve created Line 4 with voiper.ipkall.com as Outbound Proxy Server, and assigned Programmable Key 4 to be of Type “Line” and on Line “4”. From there, I expected everything to just...
Dec 6th
1 note
November 2011
3 posts
2 tags
HE.net pings between Fremont1 and Moscow, Russia
I’m on the lookout to getting some hosting from HE.net in Fremont. So far, on multiple occasions, they seem to have very weird ping times to webdc.ru in Moscow, about 60ms slower than the competition. This is even after the HE upgrade news from 2011-11-18. # traceroute fremont1.linode.com; date traceroute to fremont1.linode.com (64.71.152.17), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 gw.webdc.ru...
Nov 21st
1 tag
YodaoBot: another misbehaving chinese bot
Blocked another misbehaving Chinese bot. Looks like they’ve been spamming the access logs for constantine.su since about March 2011. They generate an average of 10 requests a day (226 for the month of October, similarly for multiple months prior to that), to a static single-page site (“Last-Modified: Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:11:18 GMT”, e.g. like two and a half years ago). And...
Nov 10th
3 tags
FCC Complaint against T-Mo myTouch 4G advertising
Filling in the following form again: FORM 2000A - DECEPTIVE OR UNLAWFUL ADVERTISING OR MARKETING COMPLAINT The text of my complaint, limited to 1000 chars: « 0. I purchased T-Mobile myTouch 4G from T-Mobile in early July 2011. 1. Prior to purchase, T-Mobile promised phone firmware improvements, outlined in various literature, including a claim on http://mytouch.t-mobile.com/ to the effect...
Nov 2nd
Corsair 16GB Flash Voyager USB 3.0 Flash Drive...
My review of Amazon’s Corsair 16GB USB 3.0 drive, http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Flash-Voyager-Drive-CMFVY3S-16GB/dp/B005M21TBA All those USB 2.0 flash drives are so slow that they are hardly limited by USB 2.0 itself, so, that’s why I got this USB 3.0 flash drive to use with my USB 2.0 systems. It’s upsetting that the mainstream flash drives have literally zero information...
Nov 1st
October 2011
6 posts
GBLX can't spell Hurricane
% traceroute fremont1.linode.com ; date traceroute to fremont1.linode.com (64.71.152.17), 32 hops max, 40 byte packets 5 12.83.39.137 (12.83.39.137) 2.283 ms 2.100 ms 1.567 ms 6 12.122.200.9 (12.122.200.9) 13.166 ms 2.966 ms 2.958 ms 7 208.178.58.185 (208.178.58.185) 4.913 ms 208.51.134.1 (208.51.134.1) 4.971 ms 4.728 ms 8 po1-20G.ar3.SJC2.gblx.net (67.16.134.26) 5.015 ms ...
Oct 24th
1 tag
American sales tax loopholes
It’s funny to see how the American sales tax loopholes work. Apparently, if you buy something from an out-of-state seller, then they can still outsource the delivery of the product to a local supplier in your state. In such case, the wholesale supplier in, say, California simply direct ships to one’s California address, whereas the purchase is billed to some Michigan or Ohio...
Oct 21st
2 tags
Both dns1.yandex.ru and dns2.yandex.ru have...
Both dns1.yandex.ru and dns2.yandex.ru appear to have identical traceroute. Therefore, Яндекс.Почта DNS hosting obviously sucks, especially if you’d be hosting not only Yandex.Mail on your domain name, but, say, some other stuff like a web-site or SIP, too. From att.com/uverse in San Jose, CA: % traceroute dns1.yandex.ru; traceroute dns2.yandex.ru; date traceroute to dns1.yandex.ru...
Oct 19th
13 notes
1 tag
access.log spam from baidu
So tired of stupid baidu spider spamming my access logs for cnst.su and some other domains. Seriously, the site only has front page, and it hasn’t been changed in years! The Last-Modified date that’s reported by the server is correct — 2007-12-30, oh my! Please, stop wasting my time and traffic, baidu, I’m tired of blacklisting your servers on the IP level with...
Oct 2nd
2 notes
smashed car on CA-85 southbound on October 2, 2011...
Was driving from Mtn View to San Jose on CA-85 and I-280 at around 2011-10-02T00:30, and suddenly there are a lot of red lights, and only one lane available on CA-85 South. A police car is visible, and, after passing a police car, a totally smashed passenger car is hanging off of the divisor, with the positioning being of the opposite direction to the movement of the highway. Wow. Was it going...
Oct 2nd
September 2011
15 posts
met a pastor at a bar
Just back from downtown San Jose. Went to the library, parking in the nearby garage that was advertised as being free on Sunday. Well, the library closes at 19:00 for general population (students can stay until midnight), whereas the free Sunday parking in the garage expires at 18:00. The extra hour would cost one 5 bucks for the night… Or, a free validation for the night; there’s...
Sep 26th
3 tags
About Russians and Russian customer service
I happened to stumble across a Russian sales associate today in my looking out for apartments. She’s been in the US for 10 years, originally I thought that she speaks without any accent, although I did pick it up afterwards. Probably in her early to mid-thirties, maybe late twenties. I realised that she was Russian when she pronounced my name in Russian, instead of in English as I...
Sep 24th
15 notes
8 tags
Why is Cat5e in Bay Area's large new residential...
I’m just trying to understand the phenomenon. Here in the South Bay area, there are a very significant number of medium- and high-rise new apartment and condominium buildings, with 100+ units per building (i.e. per webpass.net’s pricing, they’d offer free building hookup), already having centralised Cat5e or even Cat6, yet there are basically no telecoms who’d steps up...
Sep 22nd
25 notes
1 tag
you never know what you find with the next link!
I sometimes find the traversal of links on the web quite surprising: http://www.dslreports.com/ http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Tech-Arrested-for-InHome-Masturbation-116182 http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/103376 [plus tonnes of other links of prior mishap Comcast employees, someone commented about verizon in 103376, and a google search later] ...
Sep 19th
8 notes
4 tags
FTTP: FCC form 2000B complaint against AT&T...
Just filed a complaint with the FCC. Other people with the FTTP may wish to do the same. If you didn’t have a 2-stage professional installation performed, with an Optical Network Terminal installed, and fibre terminated on your premises, then this does not apply to you. Distance is a reasonable excuse for AT&T not providing 24Mbps for some FTTN customers with copper. ...
Sep 13th
8 tags
dslreports: AT&T U-verse FTTP: line bonding with...
So… I was thinking about this whole AT&T U-verse profiles thing. People who live too far away from a VRAD can get pair bonding with an iNID such that they can still enjoy U-verse at full speed, right? I can’t deny myself the pleasure to entertain the thought of AT&T doing line-bonding of fibre, since, apparently, their fibre-to-the-premises lines are limited to the 30/3.6...
Sep 9th
4 notes
3 tags
Why now is the best time to join the ranks of...
I’ve joined T-Mobile USA as a customer in this summer of 2011, months after the proposed merger plans. Prior to going with T-Mobile, I considered AT&T Mobility, Sprint, MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless. My primary concern in selection was getting a phone with software upgrade and potential resale potential, a good network, and getting the cheapest overall price possible...
Sep 9th
2 tags
Sep 7th
1 tag
command of the english language
Sometimes I’m honestly surprised at my own command of the English language. Whether English or Russian, I come from the new generation that hardly ever reads books. I do read a lot, though, but pretty much all of my reading comes through online resources, articles and blogs. I play virtually no video games at all whatsoever (other than an occasional hit on iOS). Not like I should be...
Sep 6th
4 tags
Netgear WNR3500L — WNR3500Lv2, Open Source Router;...
Oh, Netgear, you are so special! From the outside, isn’t it nice, a company releasing an “open source” router, and specifically advertising it as such? Even going as far as creating a web-site / paying some unrelated entity to create and maintain one — http://www.myopenrouter.com/. But what’s behind the doors of this seemingly genuine approach of embracing the open...
Sep 6th
121 notes
4 tags
A possible conversation in Sebastopol, CA in 2011
AT&T: Hello, welcome to AT&T, your incumbent duopoly telco provider. How can I help you?
Sebastopol resident: Is 18Mbps downstream and 1.5Mbps upstream the fastest you offer for FTTH U-verse customers?
AT&T: Yes, we also offer 24/3, but that is only available to customers that have copper, through VDSL, and not available via fibre to any FTTH customers. Anything else I can help you with?
Sebastopol resident: Yes, please cancel my uber slow 18/1.5. I'm switching to Sonic.net's 1Gbps/100Mbps fibre, you know, Sonic.net Fusion FTTH with 1Gbps for 69 dollars a month.
AT&T: :-o
Sep 5th
1 tag
A nice map of FTTP / FTTH around the US
I found a nice map of FTTH around the US: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/06/1gbps-fiber-for-70in-america-yup.ars http://corp.sonic.net/ceo/2010/12/13/sonic-net-selected-by-google-to-operate-stanford-fiber-network/ http://sn.im/1axal4 http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=107636815986001525252.0004925bda8ab3461a9ef To summarise: AT&T U-verse FTTH is a joke at...
Sep 4th
2 tags
Sep 3rd
122 notes
2 tags
My Amazon ZyXEL NBG4615 review.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UBFV8Q http://www.amazon.com/ZyXEL-NBG4615-300Mbps-Wireless-Gigabit/dp/B004UBFV8Q I’m a big fan of ZyXEL stuff, from their 56K modems back in the day, to the Prestige line of ADSL modems that I used to have with my Sprint / Embarq a few years ago. So I was pretty excited about this router. I now live in San Jose, California in a new apartment...
Sep 2nd