Changes under the hood
*Hop*. There we go. I made a move from Nucleus to Movable Type. Despite the new, nice version of Nucleus, Movable Type is simply superior blog platform. Especially as I bought the new 3.121 version, which is just smooth.
There are some technical issues which are a bit unfinished, but most of this blog should work. Syndicated readers should note that while the old RSS url of http://www.melankolia.net/xml-rss2en.php is supported for legacy reasons, I recommend moving to one of the new urls (index.xml, index.rdf or atom.xml).
The old blog will remain, also for legacy reasons. Old links should stay alive, kind of. If you have linked to http://www.melankolia.net/index.en.php, please update your links. Linking to http://www.melankolia.net/ is a better idea anyway.
11.17.2004 12.00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What to do to virus e-mail
I've been in the receiving end of rather heavy loads of virus e-mails. I've received dozens of messages each day from two or three senders. It's a huge annoyance, but fortunately something that can be dealt with. Here's how:
Check the full headers of the virus e-mail. Look for the Received:-lines. Follow the chain and find where the message came from. Here's an example:
Received: from mail.melankolia.net ([XX.XX.XXX.XXX]) by shadow.nebula.fi (8.11.6/8.11.6) with SMTP id i74Ba7D28962 for <tefomed@melankolia.net>; Wed, 4 Aug 2004 14:36:07 +0300
This was the only one in the message, so the message came straight from the virus-infested computer to me. shadow.nebula.fi is my Internet home. mail.melankolia.net is also my address, but that's fake. The correct source is the IP (which I've replaced with X's to protect the innocent). Feed the IP to RIPE Whois Database to get a domain name.
Then just send a copy of a virus mail (without any attachments, but with full headers) to abuse at whatever the domain is. That should do the trick, in most cases.
Here's another example:
Received: from mail.melankolia.net (dsl-olugw3p44.dial.XXXX.fi [XX.XXX.XXX.XX]) by shadow.nebula.fi (8.11.6/8.11.6) with SMTP id i744mCD24543
for <weni@melankolia.net>; Wed, 4 Aug 2004 07:48:13 +0300
This time the plain-text part tells us all we need to know. It's a dsl line for XXXX ISP. RIPE would confirm. Ripe will also tell that correct abuse e-mail is abuse@XXXX.fi.
These two were the worst offenders - I would get something like 40-50 emails a day from both on most days. I complained about both and that's it, no more virus mail anymore.
08. 6.2004 13.12 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gmail
Thanks to a barefooted guy, I now have a Gmail account. I'm hoping to keep it free from spam to have an usable webmail in case I'm away from home. My regular mail gets unbelievably clogged in just few days as I'm getting few hundred messages - most of them spam - every day. If I don't download my mail for three days, the situation is horrible.
I'm not sure if I'll have much use for the account otherwise, but at least it's pretty cool. This - I fear - reveals my utter geekdom, but hey, at least I didn't have to name my firstborn child (or secondborn, for that matter) after some stranger to get one. Come on, people, it's only a webmail account...
It's amazing what lengths people are going to get an account, just because Google is cool and Gmail is invite-only. If something is not given to everyone, everyone will want it, it seems...
06.22.2004 11.16 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Linux project fails
Back in January, I considered my Linux box useful. Well, it isn't now. Since we switched displays (to be able to play Syberia, but that's a longish story), I haven't used the Linux box at all. I managed to screw it up when I tried to change the display adapter and I'm not sure if it starts up anymore.
What I'm going to do now is to boot up the computer somehow and get the necessary stuff out of there by FTP and then format the Linux hard disk. I've been using the computer a lot for Windows use and that's the way I'm going to keep it. Sorry, but Windows is just so much more usable than Linux. I hate having to compile software to use it! I want easy-to-install binaries! I don't want to solve mystical compiler error messages when I just want to install some software!
What I'd really love would be a system with a nice easy-to-use graphical user interface (Windows is ok, Linux just doesn't cut it), stability (this is where Windows fails and Linux shines) and decent command line interface with powerful utility software like Perl (this is certainly Linux territory). Even though Linux seems to win the comparison 2-1, it's the first part that really counts in the every-day use. I just don't like system administration - I want a computer I can use, not a computer to meddle with.
The question remains - would a Mac be what I'm looking for?
05.30.2004 15.44 | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Stopping Bandwith Theft
I've been a victim of theft. These thiefs haven't stolen anything material from me, but bandwidth. These sad creeps link images from other people's servers.
I studied my site logs, you see. A Deadjournal user had linked to my site and I went to see what it was about. It wasn't a link at all - she had stolen a picture from my website to use as her background image. That kind of theft can't be tolerated. If only she had even copied the picture on her web sites, but no. Well, if she wants to store her background image on my server, she must allow me to change it whenever I want... The pictures tell the story of before and after. She should be lucky I didn't use hard core porn... 
The problem is wider, however. My album cover pictures are used widely. They aren't my property as such and I don't mind someone copying them (that's what I did to get them, after all), but I don't like when people use my bandwidth to decorate their web sites.
Fortunately, there's a solution. Preventing Image Bandwith Theft With .htaccess describes how to stop the thiefs. Now you can't see the pictures, unless your referrer information tells you're coming from Melankolia.net. This will hurt some legitimate users, but not many. It's a nice solution to an annoying problem.
04.12.2004 15.22 | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Blog software comparison
I was asked about which one is better, Nucleus or Movable Type. I thought I'd share my answer with you all:
It depends. If you want several blogs on your system, Movable Type is better choice. You really can't have multiple blogs with their own authors in Nucleus, because to edit the skins and templates you need system administrator rights.
If you want to have just one blog, both are fine. Movable Type has perhaps a bit better user interface, while Nucleus has some other advantages. If you want to do your plugins, Nucleus uses PHP and MT Perl, that might make a difference.
You get wider support with Movable Type, but because it's more popular, people know it's weaknesses and exploit them. I haven't received comment spam on my Nucleus blog.
I think I prefer Movable Type slightly. I prefer the concept of building static pages from data stored in the database. Since the pages don't change that often, it saves you database traffic. Of course, if you want to do something dynamic, Nucleus makes it easier.
02.13.2004 07.19 | Comments (2) | TrackBack
National computer security day
Today is the national computer security day in Finland. I didn't know about it until I found a small leaflet hidden between my morning newspaper. The leaflet teaches the very basics of computer security: firewalls, viruses, spam, updating Windows and so on. It's very short and quite shallow, but it covers the most important parts and looks friendly. It's accompanied by a web site, which gives more detail.
I think this was a very good idea. The project has wide support, from government offices to businesses. Of course it's good advertising for F-Secure and other companies behind all this (well - Microsoft is involved and the material certainly underlines the need to update their buggy software), but I'm not complaining. As broadband Internet connections are becoming more common and used by non-geeks who might not understand the need for adequate protection, campaigns like this are increasingly necessary.
02.11.2004 16.14 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Interesting and useful
I've found few rather interesting web resources recently.
Let's start with del.icio.us, which is a social bookmarks system. Users can use it to store their bookmarks. Bookmarks are public and the front page is a never-stopping stream of interesting links, which you can easily grab on your own lists as well. You can categorise the lists with a simple tag system. All the bookmarks are available in RSS format (see the sidebar for my latest delicious links, for example). You can also subscribe to someone else's bookmarks within the system. It's pre-pre-alpha, but already really interesting.
I like! is another interesting bookmark-related system. It's idea is simple: when you hit an interesting page while surfing, you hit a I like! button in your browser (implemented as a bookmarklet). From your selections, the system builds a profile and recommends some links to you. At the moment the recommendations aren't too cool, but I expect the system to improve when it's databases grow. It's interesting, but still beta. It's slowish and doesn't really shine yet, but I'm curious.
Finally we come to Bloglines, which is a highly useful RSS feed reader. It's web-based, so you can check your feeds everywhere without installing any software. It's the best thing since rss2email, which still rules the field in my opinion. Bloglines has lots of interesting features, including the possibility to export a blogroll. You can see that in action on Gameblog, where the blogroll is taken from Bloglines. Check it out and subscribe me (I've included a handy subscription link button).
I notice the English side of this blog is highly geeky.
01.30.2004 13.12 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Linux box
When I told you about my Linux box, I said I was wondering if I had any use for the machine. Well, it turned out surprisingly useful. I've been using a lot, mostly for everyday stuff like web surfing, reading my e-mails and writing. Johanna has been able to use our main computer for her web surfing more while I haven't been shut from computer while she surfs. Everyone's happy.
I've been very satisfied with Linux, especially since I switched from KDE to WindowMaker. My only problem is with Galeon, which is slow to draw stuff on screen. But I think it's unfair to compare it to Firebird running on my other computer (433 MHz Celeron vs AMD Barton 3000+). However, I have to check if some other browsers are any faster. Reading my e-mails with pine is always a delight, even though I do miss my spam filter...
01.10.2004 12.45 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lovely software
For some reason I find MiniMP3 to be a very charming piece of software. It's an invisible MP3 player. It resides in the system tray, that's all user interface it has. It can load and save playlist and play MP3 files. It doesn't even show you the title of the current track! What beautiful minimalism! The program is just a single exe file, only 45 kilobytes.
01. 1.2004 17.44 | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Linux
I installed Mandrake Linux on my second computer yesterday. I expected the installation to take a while, but no: it took me only about 45 minutes, 30 minutes of which was spent copying files. It was easier than installing Win98! The results were just great: a working operating system, with several different graphical user interfaces and loads of useful software.
It's still a bit of a mystery how much use I will find for the second computer, because the Linux machine is not networked yet. It also takes a very long time to start up. But if we ever need to use two computers at the same time (say, we both need to do some writing or something like that), I'll have a working computer there ready to be used.
12.17.2003 10.06 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Choosing Linux distribution
I'm probably installing Linux on my old computer at some point. I'm now pondering about selecting the distribution to use. Red Hat or Debian or something completely different? Opinions are welcome, as are pointers to interesting and useful articles about the issue.
Red Hat feels like a safer selection, with more support and easier use. In the other hand, Debian has some attracting points (mostly philosophical) too.
10.14.2003 11.44 | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Actually, more computer trouble
Sure, I got my computer back. However, it didn't work. They claim it worked all right when they tested it, but I don't care. It doesn't work when I try to use it, that's just about all I care. Well, I returned the computer and hopefully they'll fix it properly this time.
I still have a pretty good opinion of Triosoft, but that's going to change if they can't fix the computer they sold me.
09.24.2003 12.36 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
No more computer trouble?
Last Tuesday I took my new computer for repair - Win98 simply stopped working. Continuous fatal exceptions, problems starting up and shutting down, that kind of mysterious action. Installing Win98 again didn't do any good, so I decided to take the computer to the shop where I bought it.
Today I got a call from them - the computer is fixed and ready for pickup. Apparently the problem was overheating of the processor, caused by too inefficient cooling fan. The AMD Barton 3000+ needs lots of cooling, it seems. Now it should work, I sure hope it does... Computer trouble is very, very annoying. Fortunately I had a back-up computer.
09.18.2003 16.29 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New display
I went and bought a Hyundai ImageQuest L17T 17" TFT display. It's beautiful! Full 17" of display space (my 17" CRT display had less than 16" of actual display), less than 2" thick, weights less than five kilos. In addition of crisp, non-flicking display it features a TV adapter so I can use it to watch TV too. There's simply no turning back - how can I use a CRT display after this beauty?
One funny thing: turned out the monitor is actually too light. Johanna's old computer table has three legs, two in front and one in back. Earlier the weight of the monitor was enough to keep the table somewhat stable, but now even a slight leaning on the front of the table caused the table to tilt. I solved the problem by placing some heavy-weight computer books behind the monitor in the back corner of the table. Now it's stable as ever and I can also reach my Programming Perl easier!
08. 8.2003 09.53 | Comments (4) | TrackBack
New Google operator
Google has a new operator: ~. Add ~ directly in front of a word to search for the word and it's synonyms. For example searching for "~help" finds words like "manual", "guide", "tips" and so on. Sounds like a neat thing.
(From Google Weblog)
08. 5.2003 08.16 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Creative e-mail use
I've set up a e-mail to blog interface using PostMan plugin. It wasn't completely simple - the script has bugs, I had trouble getting cron do what I want, things like that, but now the system works and I'll just have to fix one bug to make it work even better.
Is it of any real use, is another thing. I think situations where I have SSH connection but no web connection are rare, but in the other hand, writing with Mozilla Mail is more comfortable than writing with Mozilla browser...
07.24.2003 20.05 | Comments (3) | TrackBack
A very good RSS reader
I like the RSS technology, but I haven't been satisfied with various RSS feed readers I've tried (those include AmphetaDesk, NewsMonster, Syndirella and nntp//rss). Somehow each has been too complicated in every-day use and I've quickly stopped using them.
Thanks to a RSS discussion on the Spielfrieks list, I've found something better: rss2email by Aaron Schwarz. I've set it up to check my feeds three times every day - if it finds anything new, it e-mails it to me. I don't need to use any external software to read the feeds. When I'm on my computer, I've got mail reader open 90% of the time. I don't need to remember to start any other programs (as with nntp//rss, which also shows the feeds in my mail/news reader).
Simply put, the solution is perfect for me. It took some installation effort, especially as I had to hunt down and install a newer version of python (which was surprisingly easy, even though I had to compile it from the sources).
Of course, I wouldn't be the geek I am, if I didn't already have plans to improve the system. I'm thinking about web interface... Then I could offer the system as a service for other people, as well. I'll keep on thinking about that... Meanwhile I enjoy reading my RSS feeds with Mozilla Mail!
07.24.2003 13.39 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Pirate keyboard
Defective Yeti offers us a view to the world of computer pirates.
07. 9.2003 08.03 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New plugin
I needed to display the category description from the templates (because category description allows characters that the category title doesn't), but there was no template variable to do it. Therefore I needed to create my own... The result, CatDesc, can be found on my Nucleus plugins page.
07. 2.2003 12.54 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Plugin
I've created my first plugin for Nucleus. I wanted a list of articles with most karma and wasn't satisfied with the existing plugin. I modified it a lot and there's my first plugin: MostKarma. More information can be found at my Nucleus plugin page.
07. 1.2003 11.05 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Beta testing browsers
I keep on beta-testing browsers: I just installed the latest Mozilla (1.4 release candidate 3). This far I've used six different versions of Mozilla (1.2.1, 1.3, 1.3.1, 1.4rc1, 1.4rc2 and 1.4rc3)... 1.4 versions have been the best, I think. Or at least I've had the least problems with them. Hopefully this latest version doesn't spoil their good reputation.
07. 1.2003 10.08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack