Category: Internet

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Categories
Internet Tech (General)

SIP/VoIP

I’ve been a big fan of Skype for some time now. I’ve raved about it ever since I tried it for the first time. It’s simple, fast, reliable, low bandwidth, and the audio quality is great.

Glazou today recommend SIPphone (in particular PhoneGaim). He mentioned this a while back about SIP. I tried PhoneGaim, but couldn’t get it to launch on my XP laptop. So I instead got X-ten2.0 lite, and gave glazou a quick call. Some observations:

  • Audio quality is surprisingly clear. I think marginally better than Skype, though both are very good
  • I love the interoperability of SIPphone. 411 goes to TellMe, I can call landlines for a low rate, free to other SIP phones.
  • I like having a number rather than a username.
  • What happens if the company goes out of business? New number?
  • Slight delay (not bad) at times. I noticed this when making a test call to my house. Again, not bad, but it’s sometimes there

Overall, I’m pretty impressed. What do I prefer? I’m really not sure. I’m kind of mixed. One one hand, it’s easier for someone to get setup with Skype. Takes less time, and it’s UI is less confusing. But SIPphone feels more complete and real.

I think the phone is the next thing to change in our lives. Phone service today sucks.

Categories
Internet

A plan for worms?

According to Slashdot, a new variant of the Sanity worm is out, except this one patches to prevent it. Even good hacking isn’t a good thing. It’s still illegal and shouldn’t be done.

But government agencies should really start looking into such a thing. It’s obviously possible. There’s enough exploits in most software that a similar task could be accomplished. US-CERT among others should be researching the possibility of such tactics. A well designed worm can actually counter the effects of a very harmful one.

Even firemen have learned that fire is not only their enemy, but their friend. Fire is often used to put out fires… when strategically placed they can be a very effective tool against forest fires.

Categories
In The News Internet Spam

Your not allowed to be guilty

Considering our overburdened legal system, and understaffed courthouses, this is really pretty wrong:

A federal judge refused to accept a guilty plea Tuesday from a former America Online software engineer accused of stealing 92 million e-mail addresses and selling them to spammers.

So he can’t plead guilty to a crime he admits to committing because the Judge isn’t convinced. Just makes you think. I’m curious what the judge gets out of it.

“I’m not prepared to go ahead, Mr. Siegal. I need to be independently satisfied that a crime has been created.”

[Source: Forbes.com @ 3:28 PME ST 12/21/2004]

As if the guy pleading guilty isn’t enough. If there was any doubt about a crime being committed, the guy would fight it. I’m sure some spammers will be emailing Judge Hellerstein to say “Thanks buddy”. I question the basis of his claim that he isn’t satisfied a crime has been created.

Categories
Google Internet

Amazon Eager to Get A9 off the ground

It appears Amazon is giving a geeky (π/2) discount to early adopters who uses their search engine.

So before you make an amazon purchase do the following:

  1. Visit a9 and perform a search
  2. Visit amazon.com (if you like me… use my link so I get affiliate credit)

Robert Accettura, since you’ve been using A9.com recently, virtually everything at Amazon.com is automatically an additional π/2% (1.57%) off for you. Collecting this discount is zero effort on your part. It will be applied automatically at checkout (it will happen whether you use the shopping cart or our 1-Click Shopping®). You don’t need to do anything to get this discount except keep using A9.com as your regular search engine.

We don’t advertise this additional discount that we give in exchange for using A9.com, so if you want your friends to know about it, please tell them. It is probably the only way they’ll find out. All they have to do is use A9.com as their regular search engine. They should make sure they are signed in to A9.com (it should be recognizing them by name) so that we can be certain they get credit for their visit.

While the π/2% discount is a good additional reason to use A9.com it isn’t the best reason. A9.com licenses its web search results from the industry leader Google, and then supplements those results with Amazon’s Search Inside the Book™ results. The coolest feature is that A9.com keeps track of your search history for you on the server side. To see how this works, do some A9 searches from your computer at work and then sign in to A9.com from your computer at home.

How can we afford this additional π/2% discount?

Sponsored links revenue -from the small text-based ads on A9.com and Amazon.com search results pages -will help offset costs we incur through the Rewards promotion. With our automatic π/2% discount, we are effectively sharing with you some of the money we collect from sponsored links, i.e. sharing the pi.

Please use A9.com and tell your friends.

Thank you

  • A9.com Instant Rewards will not be applied to the purchase of gift certificates or gift cards, such as Amazon.com Gift Certificates, Target GiftCards, or Borders Gift Cards.
  • A9.com Instant Rewards will not be applied to purchases from Amazon.com zShops or Amazon.com Auctions; payments and contributions made using the Amazon.com Honor System; Marketplace Pre-Orders; or In-Store Pickup purchases.
  • A9.com Instant Rewards may be inactivated for any Amazon.com account at any time depending on the number of A9.com Web searches performed.
  • Product searches performed on Amazon.com will not help to qualify an account for A9.com Instant Rewards.
  • You do not have to click on sponsored links to qualify an account for A9.com Instant Rewards.
  • The A9.com Instant Reward rate is π/2% (1.57%) off the total purchase price, including tax and shipping.
  • The exact amount of the A9.com Instant Reward stated on the order summary is only an estimate. After taxes are finalized, the exact amount of the Instant Reward will be finalized.
  • A9.com Instant Rewards are not for use on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr, or any Web site other than www.amazon.com.
  • Amazon.com reserves the right to change or discontinue the A9.com Instant Reward program at any time.

[Source:Amazon.com 9/19/2004]

Categories
Internet

Slashdot again

I made slashdot again with a news contribution.

Robert Accettura writes “Network Solutions has updated its whois interface, giving it an interesting new twist. On top of regular info provided, it shows data that appears to be from Alexa, including a screenshot of the homepage (though not terribly recent), as well as looks up your IP, and displays lots of information on it. It even shows the server type, if it supports SSL, DMOZ, Yahoo listing, traffic ranking, and lock status. This comes right after they announced rapid DNS updates. Perhaps they are trying to win over the geeks before they turn on sitefinder?”

Got to admit, I like the new whois. Lots of info nice and easy to use. Feels good. No complaints. But bring back sitefinder, and they can shove it. I’m sure I’m not alone with that feeling.

That’s all I really have to say.

Categories
Internet

Akamai taken out by bot network

Doesn’t this creep you out? Akamai, an extremely robust network, designed for those who need intensive server-side power, taken out by a bot network.

14,000 servers in 1,100 networks in 65+ countries.

Just makes you wonder how vulnerable the internet really is. Yea, it’s a web, and not based on a central hub. But it obviously still has problems.

On another note, what a wonderful NOCC.

Categories
Internet

Well, domains are popular again

Domain-name registration surges according to a CNET news article.

How much is legitimate, and how many are just blog/email spammers treating domains as disposable?

Categories
Google Internet

Got Gmail

I’ve got Gmail!

Thanks to Jeff Walden for the Invite.

I’ll hold off on initial impressions for now, I think I’ll write them all at once at some point in the future when I feel I’ve toyed with it enough to do so.

My email will stay the same as it has for several years now. I think I might use the Gmail account for all the mailing lists I take part in. Quite a few, and they clog my email. Might be nice to put them all in Gmail.

When I start getting invites, I’ve got a few people to give to, but any extras will be given away here like Asa is doing. So stay tuned. You never know when it happens, or what the requirement may be. Might be first comment, might be a scavenger hunt, might be a bug bounty? I’ve got to figure out how to do it so everyone gets a fair chance. Some people are doing just developers, or people that they remember have been looking. I’m thinking more like a contest. Perhaps trivia?

Anyway, were getting a little ahead now. More later if I get invites to give away.

Categories
Internet Security

Spyware disabling itself in Spybot S&D

Well, I found this rather alarming. Apparantly some Spyware is learning to disable itself from Spybot S&D. Unfortunately, I went through the list real quick and unchecked all so it searches for everything… but didn’t make note of which made the list (just got home from work, tired, hungry, and not thinking). Blasted, would have been nice to post here and see if just had a corrupt preference file (I just upgraded to 1.3), or if this really is Insurgent Spyware fighting back.

Anyway, I’ll be keeping an eye on this with all systems I have it installed on. With any luck, if it’s really the next generation in Spyware fighting, it will happen again, otherwise, most likely a false alarm.

So more later if I think this is real. Please don’t set off a public alarm, just take a look yourself and see if you find this. Lets not get our panties in a knot. Thanks.

Categories
Internet

Down with Site Finder

I’ve said it before. Site Finder sucks. It’s a violation of standards, and privacy. Not to mention business ethics (hijacking web traffic with a monopolistic position to increase revenue at a cost of user privacy).

It may come back.

Here’s to hoping Verisign goes out of business.