Brian Baskin's Site (FWIW)
Ahh, the Lightning "Community"
Last Updated on Tuesday, 02 October 2007 01:43 Written by Administrator Tuesday, 02 October 2007 01:17
There was a recent falling out at the National Lightning Owners Club, which involved me to a point. Unfortunately, just like most events, much of it is ruled by rumor and speculation. So, what happened exactly, and what can we all learn from it?
The Admin of the site clarified a Supporting Vendor rule to an extreme that was beyond reproach. It is now unallowed to sell, or even discuss, a product unless that product is sold through a Supporting Vendor of the site. The first victim is this rule was a close friend who wasn't even selling or advertising on the board. He was making one-off parts as requested on a completely different forum; someone just happened to post a write-up on how well the part works on this site. The site then wants those individuals making parts to pay $500 annually to have the privilege of selling parts on the board.
What's the danger behind this? When taken to an extreme, such a rule bans the discussion of a wide variety of parts, anything from McMaster-Carr bolts to AFR and Edelbrock heads, and any item bought off eBay, and even the Gen2 items such as fan controllers from DC Controls. While the moderators will say that they know better than to ban people discussing AFR heads, the issue is that this rule makes enforcement subjective. When hundreds of parts are talked about on the board, how can the moderators pick and choose which ones get shut down, and which ones stay running?
It's a rule that's bound to bring only trouble.
Google Talking!
Last Updated on Saturday, 02 September 2006 11:08 Written by Administrator Saturday, 02 September 2006 11:07
I've just recently started work on another project, Google Talking. I'm joining up with Josh Brashars to crank out the material, with Johnny Long as the tech editor. This will be a very interesting book to write about an application still in beta, and with ongoing major changes. But, there's a lot of cool things that we're going to touch on, such as connecting to H.323 gateways with Google Talk to phone people on their PSTN phones, some modifications to the client, usage on Linux/OSX boxes, and a break-down of the Jabber/Jingle protocols used by Google Talk.
Look for it around Christmas time.
Book Rankings
Last Updated on Thursday, 20 July 2006 09:43 Written by Administrator Thursday, 20 July 2006 09:26
Back on December '05, a buddy j0hnny Long (known for a few books) made mention of using dynamic graphs. After some talking, how about making graphs of his book sales (and my first book) off of Amazon.com? So, using some awk statements from j0hnny, I went home and learned JPGraph. Over the months, I've updated it with more books, as they come out, and tried different techniques with the displays. It took many updates to reverse the results, so that "1" is the best and highest score, but that was the biggest challenge.
But, here's what I have so far:
Basic Daily Amazon.com book ranking for the last 30 days
Off that link are other graphs I made, but this one is the simplest and most effective.
Combating Spyware in the Enterprise
Saturday, 17 June 2006 20:53
Work is coming to a completion on another book that I have recently contributed to, Combating Spyware in the Enterprise.
On this project, I wrote two chapters: End User Solutions, and Forensic Detection and Removal.
In the prior, I go into depth on the various applications available for end-users to protect single computers, to help secure individual boxes in a network environment, or common home user machines. A variety of applications are covered, from free to commercial, along with steps and procedures to help anyone be able to install and configure a number of spyware scanners properly.
In the Forensic Detection and Removal chapter, I delve into detecting and removing spyware manually without any automated tools (such as the spyware scanners covered in the prior chapter). Using tools like HijackThis and HiJackFree, and the basic Windows registry editor, I cover many of the locations where spyware tends to entrench itself upon an infected computer. The chapter then covers how to identify malicious data amongst the high number of innocent "hits" you'll find, and how to remove the dangerous components. This is extremely useful in cases where your network workstation is suffering from a 0-day infection. There are also crucial steps enclosed to help if your network server has been infected, allowing you to practice the removal of the spyware while protecting your server and your overall uptime.
It should be published soon; Syngress is looking at early July. So, go ahead and preorder a copy :)
Site back up (Again)
Last Updated on Thursday, 20 July 2006 09:43 Saturday, 17 June 2006 20:50
After years of changing formats, and trying different software, I decided to finally settle on Joomla! (Exclamation obligatory) Now, work begins on bringing data over. It'll be a long and arduous journey; one in which I'm sure that I'll give up on eventually.Page 4 of 4