If you’ve read my OpenSSH series, perhaps even if you haven’t, you are probably aware of the power SSH offers to those who know how to use it. 
There are many ways to protect the service from unauthorized usage, focusing on self-contained or single host solutions, one finds two common flavors: those which make use of the Linux kernel’s packet filtering tools (netfilter and iptables), and those which rely on Wietse Venema’s TCP Wrappers. Netfilter certainly offers power and flexibility, but this may be at the cost of simplicity and management ease. While no security measure ought to be implemented blindly, there is an undeniable benefit to simple measures which can be configured quickly and with little fuss — in this arena, TCP Wrappers stands tall.
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One thing to note about the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decision in Comcast vs. F.C.C.– it doesn’t restrict the F.C.C.‘s ability to regulate Internet services; rather, the court ruled that the broad regulatory powers enjoyed by the F.C.C. were overstepped when they told Comcast to stop discriminating against BitTorrent traffic . Many individuals dismiss this as a “bad decision” of the court, but to do so ignores important issues relevant to this ruling.
I generally favor ‘net neutrality, and I certainly don’t take a kindly view of the arbitrary packet discrimination employed by unscrupulous companies; left unchecked, such practices easily (perhaps inevitably) lead to “the pseudo service scenario of bribery … extortion“, but the same slippery slope analogy could slide the other way. Had the appellate court ruled in favor of the F.C.C. it would have set a precedent for allowing a regulatory authority to essentially invent new powers not specifically delegated to it by any act of Congress. If you would prefer that Congress pass such a law, you may wish to ask your representatives to support H.R. 3458.
Having discovered the advantages of á la carte VoIP pricing, I pondered how to extrapolate my experience for general discussion while avoiding the pitfalls of interpolation and abridgement.
The Reference Book of Rates, Price Indices, and Household Expenditures for Telephone Service published by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau provides a rough estimate of wireline telephone expenses averaging $45 per month in 2007, based on market research by TNS Telecoms. This isn’t too far from my own experience with residential VoIP plans which have tended to average about $35 monthly, including additional fees and charges, which can be significant: on BroadVoice’s “Unlimited World” plan, for example, “Taxes & Surcharges” account for about 35% of the monthly total. Based on these data, I use an estimated $35-$45 for generic comparison of monthly residential phone bills, or an average average of $40. As I designed our current, á la carte plan, I surmised that after discounting business use, the residential remainder was unlikely to ever exceed $30 in a single month. As the plan took shape, however, I realized that intelligent planning could lower that even further; somewhere in the neighborhood of a $20 monthly average would certainly exemplify what custom VoIP plans can offer, and half the average isn’t a bad talking point. 
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Avast ye corned jiggers; it be Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Verizon is a great company, doing great things, but that doesn’t mean they’re not evil. I’ve found that this is an effective maxim which allows me to extol the virtues of Verizon without sounding like I’m drinking the kool-aid. Today I’m hoping it works inversely as well. Continue reading »
While I was cooking last night’s dinner, I made the mistake of leaving my laptop running, open, and unattended. Because ours is primarily a Linux household (my wife is a Mac user), 
I normally don’t worry much about the computers. The servers, devices, and desktops tend to chug along without needing anything more than an occasional `aptitude update && aptitude upgrade`. Laptops, however, are an entirely different story. As you can see in the photo, we live with a creature that is essentially a heat seeking missle bent on killing laptop computers. Sure it was funny the first couple times, but amusement quickly turned to horror when I saw that she can actually crash Linux. All my base are belong to her.
The Common Council of the city of Peekskill, New York had a public hearing tonight to hear citizens’ comments on the proposed granting of a cable franchise contract to Verizon. Some Verizon suits were in attendance, as well as an obligatory Cablevision weasel; what surprised me was the vocal support of Peekskill residents, most of whom are not Verizon employees. It’s nice to live in a forward-thinking community. It will come as no surprise that the Council’s vote in favor of the contract was unanimous, but the epiphanic moment was toward the end of the public commentary when a Verizon rep. was attempting to recall the website address for more information: he got stuck after “it’s verizon.com, eh…” and nearly the entire gallery finished “/fios”.
The first Ogg-friendly music player I purchased was a Neuros II; 
this was late in 2004 and hardware support was fairly new as the Vorbis codec didn’t reach 1.0 until 2002. Then, as now, the best place for information on Ogg-friendly devices was XiphWiki. I recall being quite impresssed with Neuros’ willingness to open up the device specifications and embrace the Open Source community, unfortunately the device suffered from a number of design flaws that no amount of firmware hacking could ever resolve. Ultimately the combination of charging problems, a design plagued by awkwardness and bulk, and the manufacturer’s shift to focus on newer devices doomed the Neuros II to my technology junk drawer. Continue reading »
I have music on my mind. I’m listening to Voodoo Child (ten point bonus if you know how this relates to Doctor Who) and thinking about my next portable music player. Like most geeks, the first question I ask about any digital music device is, “does it play OGG?”
Generally superior to MP3, Ogg Vorbis is a must for any lossy digital music collection, but it’s not the only feature I look for in a music player. I use four basic criteria to judge music players: Continue reading »
Dell didn’t ask but if they had I would have told them that Ubuntu Linux is a good choice. I have generally refrained from the usual histrionics whenever something Linux-ish makes the news, but I’d would like to voice a couple remarks regarding Dell’s Ubuntu announcement.
While I’m always happy to see Linux reaching a wider audience, Dell has been something of a fair weather friend to the open source crowd. Continue reading »
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