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INTERACTIVE AGENCY
Archives Nov 2005
Joys of IRC Help
There’s an old saying: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
There should be a similar addendum for IRC support channels: “If you don’t have anything useful to add, don’t say anything at all.”
IRC support channels can be an extremely useful resource — if someone is available and is able to help you out. Conversely, they can also be very frustrating, because you get someone who is incapable of helping you but feels compelled to offer advice or just berate you. The following is an actual conversation I just had on #mysql on OPN (the names have been changed to protect the unhelpful):
Shopping Deals - List of Great Sites
With Christmas quickly approaching, we felt it would be helpful to list some great website that assist with holiday deal finding! Highlighting the marriage of technology and great deals/coupons, we’ve listed a few sites for you to start your hunting!
http://www.fatwallet.com - This site not only lists deals & coupons, it has also worked out ‘Cash Back’ deals with hundreds of online merchants. Members of FatWallet get varying percentages of Cash Back when they shop at a Fat Wallet store - and Fat Wallet periodically sends checks back to them. Some percentages are as high as 25%!
Comments: This site is fantastic! Not only does it provide you with coupon codes, it also provides you with a cash back incentive! If you’re going to shop in the first place, this is a great first stop.
Brainteasers, Puzzles, and Secret Boxes
This Christmas will be a happy one… I finally found a few ecommerce sites that sell a worthy line of Brainteasers, Puzzles, and Secret Boxes.
The Internet is Down!
Nearly everyone that has worked in tech support before (or even those that haven’t) has a joke or story about some naive end-user calling about a routine problem but describing it as “the Internet is down!” — when really all they needed to do was reboot or something. It’s funny, and we nerds all get a laugh, but what happens when it’s true and you have to explain it to a customer?
This happened to me a few months ago. We had a customer calling to ask why they were being flooded with calls from their users about their web application (which we host) was down.
Tips on managing business growth
As an entreprenuer, the most attractive word in our vocabulary is growth. We want high growth because in our minds, that denotes a successful business. It makes perfect sense - if you were unsuccessful you definitely wouldn’t grow… so the opposite must be true!
Unfortunately, many entreprenuers have learned the hard way that growth is a two edge sword. If you initiate a growth phase, it’s typically because you are doing something right. You effectively execute sales, you deliver your services, and you parlay those successes into more growth. But what happens if the middle link of that chain weakens (or even breaks)? Growth kills your business…
MS Access Error: Disk or network error.
One of our clients called and reported an issue with a MS Access database. The user was able to open a network based .mdb file, but when they tried to click on a switchboard button they received the following error message: “Disk or network error.” There are many resources that deal with this error, but none of them provided the needed solution. The TMP/TEMP directories were set properly, the JET Engine was updated, and the .mdb file was not corrupted (verified on another computer).
Comment Spam JoeJob Example
Ask and ye shall receive. Here’s an example of a blacklist poisoning comment-spam attempt we just got tonight:
Author : Charles Ford (IP: 196.7.0.160 , ge1-0.cc1.cpt1.alter.net)
E-mail : Joshua@internet.com
URI : http://www.av.com
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=196.7.0.160
Comment:
Very informative site. Good job. thins that excited you at 14:
http://www.adobe.com , <a href=”http://www.yahoo.co.uk” rel=”nofollow”>thins
that excited you at 14</a> , <a href=”http://www.panasonic.com”
rel=”nofollow”>black girls on their mission</a>
Note that not one of the URLs is actually a spam URL, but are instead common high-profile URLs. This example is not as insidious as others I have seen, which use specific URLs from low-profile but legitimate bloggers.
MSNbot Banning
Chris has a very informative post about why he’s banned Microsoft’s indexing robot, elaborating on some of the problems:
- repeatedly fetches large binary files, including 500 megabyte ISO images, that are properly served as binary files and have not changed in some time; 21 fetches for 4 files accounting for 3.7 gigabytes of transfers this week. (See MSNbotBinariesProblem)
- aggressively fetching syndication feeds, many of them unchanging; 1,615 fetches of 329 feeds amounting to 45 megabytes of transfers this week. Half of the top 10 requested feeds have not changed within the past week, yet were requested 12 times or more. (See MSNbotCrazyRSSBehavior)
Comment Spam Blacklist Poisoning
A new trend in comment/referer spam is on the rise — or on the low, I should say, since it is low indeed.
Typically, when I get a comment spam that slips through our .htaccess checks and wpblacklist, I usually have to go to the wpblacklist options area and manually search for the URL they spammed and add the offending IP, host regex, etc.
However, a few months ago, I noticed a URL being spammed that didn’t look like your average “htp://free-blackjack-poker.info” type spam URLs. This was an innocuous URL that actually appeared to be legit. So on a lark, I loaded it, and indeed, it was a legit post, by a legitimate blog. The content, however, was still your standard “Get free rolexes/v1agra/etc” type message.
Executive Summary on AJAX
Adaptive Path have posted an executive summary on AJAX. Here is what they have to say about the executive summary:
By speeding up Web application response time, Ajax has also set a more aggressive pace for industry change and business evolution. Ajax will soon be fully integrated into Web application server platforms, but in the meantime, it’s already begun to alter the marketplace.
Inside you will learn:
- How Ajax represents a paradigm shift in what’s possible on the Web.
- How Ajax could benefit your business by increasing user satisfaction and conferring competitive advantage.
