Tech

• Namespaces
  

  namespace NathanAGood;
  class XMLWriter 
  {
      // Implementation here...
  }
  
  $writer = new NathanAGood::XMLWriter();

• Removal of magic_quotes, register_globals, register_long_arrays, safe_mode

• Ability to encrypt a windows system partition/drive with pre-boot authentication (anyone who wants to gain access and use the system, read and write files, etc., needs to enter the correct password each time before the system starts).
• Pipelined operations increasing read/write speed by up to 100% (Windows)
• Mac OS X version

Security "guru" Bruce Schneier writes on Wired about how he runs a completely open wireless network. He thinks this is a good idea. Others disagree.

I for one, think he misses the most fundamental flaws in running an open network - the fact that strangers have access to your local network. From there, they can easily scan/exploit your local computers, brute-force your router login credentials, or poisen the ARP cache on your machines to perform man-in-the-middle attacks (to capture passwords, SSL sessions, voip phonecalls, http sessions) and so on.

Similar to the way Jeremy Clarkson didn't think anyone could do anything malicious when he posted his bank account numer and sort code in his newpaper column (he was proved wrong when monies were taken out of his account via a fraudulent direct debit), journalists quite often miss the point completely.

...so my old webhost for kquery.com is pulling the plug at the end of the year on all of their hosting services. It makes me wonder if I should keep kquery.com going by hosting it myself.

Kquery is still a great server browser - people are using it (i have no idea how) for Call of Duty 4 - someone must have hacked together their own master server menu file for it! The stats page on kquery.com still shows over 1000 downloads of the software every week, and between 1000-2000 game connections registered per day.

It makes me wonder if I should start developing Kquery again, but I can see it taking up a large amount of my time ...

Belkin's new "N1 Vision" pre-n wireless router looks pretty sweet.


Currently £104 from eBuyer.

We've been putting the finishing touches to our new remote data backup solution (we've decided on synching files over an openSSL link), and boy have we run into a lot of headaches!

Backing up open files... VSS + Robocopy

Scripting openVPN:

Freeware Ghost Replacement

Toms Hardware has a lengthy (19 page) review of Windows Server 2008. Looks like Vista, tastes like Windows Server!

Slashdot have put up part 2 of their "behind the scenes" look at what powers /. - part 1 covers the hardware, and now part 2 covers some of the software and configuration.

Fasthosts, "the UK's number 1 web host", has fired off emergency emails telling customers to change all their passwords after police were called in to investigate a major data breach.
"As a precautionary measure, Fasthosts has asked its customers to update their passwords. This includes their control panel, email, FTP, and database passwords, all of which can be changed via the customer control panel. Fasthosts has now implemented customer password encryption to further protect customer data."
We've asked Fasthosts why the passwords were not encrypted in the first place. It said: "Historically, Internet companies have rarely encrypted passwords to aid customer service."