SMTP works just fine, thank you

“Joel on Software”:http://www.joelonsoftware.com/ → “Internet Security: Too Broke to Fix?”:http://security.ziffdavis.com/article2/0,3973,1036052,00.asp

Larry Seltzer wants to replace SMTP with something that has authentication and resource limits. Well, SMTP already has authentication, and many MTAs already have resource limits…

Many people discover SMTP’s authentication when they try to send e-mail while travelling; their ISPs don’t let them. SMTP can already use TLS with certificates, SASL, or POP-before-SMTP, and many ISPs are starting to require one or more. My _hobby_ server supports all three, so it can’t be hard. I haven’t seen anyone do resource limits out-of-the-box yet, but that’s because it doesn’t really solve anything; spammers will always be able to hide inside “legitimate” usage profiles.

The problem is not the protocol, or the mythical “Internet”; it’s poorly administered computers. People who don’t think twice about _properly_ managing and securing a PBX will turn around and install, then neglect, crappy SMTP gateways. In my e-mail logs, the worst offenders for poorly administered servers are non-technical companies (law firms, insurance companies, banks :-). Most of the spam I receive comes through open relays on corporate networks, and through relays on home computers (where Microsoft installs insecure software direct from CD :-).

If we introduce a new protocol, spammers will find new ways to abuse it. Criminals are constantly finding new ways to abuse corporate PBXes, and cell phones, and calling cards. The solution is for people to stop treating the Internet as a toy, and start maintaining their servers properly. Sadly, that’s not likely to happen, and so we’re left with reactionary technology like realtime blackhole lists and desktop spam filtering software.

posted at 3:43 pm on Friday, April 25, 2003 in Rants | Comments Off on SMTP works just fine, thank you

More on Schools

An article on one teacher’s experience in the D.C. public school system, from FrontPage magazine.com. I don’t know what to say about this one. Yuck.

posted at 9:29 am on Thursday, January 16, 2003 in Rants | Comments (1)
  1. Tara says:

    Hello im confused like always

Friendly Fire

My (quick) thoughts on the incident.

I have to commend the pilots’ defense lawyer for digging up all sorts of interesting information about the case: the use of “Go pills”; the lack of information given to the pilots; and so on. The US military has a history of ignoring systemic issues in these cases, and punishing the poor shmucks at the bottom of the chain of command. (The problems identified in the investigation after the 1999 Italian gondola case still haven’t been addressed.)

However, one thing remains clear; the pilot in question disobeyed a direct order not to fire, and four soldiers (from a foreign ally) lost their lives. The case needs to go to trial, if only to get all of the facts out in the open. I personally would be happy to have all of this interesting, mitigating testimony affect their sentencing, but it should not affect the case going to trial.

posted at 10:26 pm on Saturday, January 11, 2003 in Rants | Comments Off on Friendly Fire

How to Grow a Bully

It’s not just Ontario that has gutted its school system. how to grow a bully describes one parent’s dealings with the public school system in New York (state) over the issue of bullying.

The summary through my eyes: The system there is punishing the victim and rewarding the bully. They’re doing it systematically; it’s not just the school principal, it’s the entire support structure. It’s disgusting.

There are several additional articles on the weblog; read them for the continuing drama.

It’s a stretch, but I did have to wonder; does the principal actually believe the crap he’s saying, or has he been handed a directive from above? Is he the problem, or just a cog in the machine, trying to survive like the rest of us?

Don’t write this off as an isolated incident; read the comments on all of those blog entries, or talk to your friends and relatives about their experiences; I would be surprised if you couldn’t find the pattern for yourselves.
From another commentary on the topic:

During the past thirty plus years, the public education system has gone from mediocre to abominable. If you think your children are being spared, if you think your school isn’t so bad, if you think things were bad when I was in public school, it couldn’t have gotten much worse than that, you are mistaken. Let me say that again, in case it isn’t clear: YOU ARE MISTAKEN.

My kids are in private school, and it’s working very well for them so far.

(Thanks to “Mama, don’t send your kids to public school” from The Safety Valve, which I found courtesy of Mark Pilgrim’s Recommended Reading software.)

posted at 10:14 pm on Saturday, January 11, 2003 in Rants | Comments Off on How to Grow a Bully

More on the shooting

The story gets worse.

The senseless tragedy only got more puzzling as Peel Region police revealed it wasn’t the first time the children had played with the “readily accessible” .45-calibre semi-automatic gun in the bedroom shared by Michael and his big brother in the family’s Mississauga townhouse.

Police also revealed that the gun is a Spanish-made Star Firestar 45, a cut-rate version of a military weapon that isn’t popular with gangs because it is relatively heavy and hard to conceal. Investigators are tracing the gun’s past.

I don’t understand. Why would someone in Mississauga need a .45? Why would they leave it loaded, in a bedroom where a six-year-old lives and plays?

This morning on the CBC there were interviews with parents and police officers who work to impress children with the dangers of real guns. The anecdotal evidence is that children do understand the difference between real guns and “playing cops and robbers”. Yet at the same time, we have this shooting (and the regular stream of them from our friends to the south).

I’m still trying to figure out how do deal with the whole “playing guns” issue with my kids. Whee.

Source: canada.com

posted at 11:46 am on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 in Rants | Comments (1)
  1. jok says:

    Well you never know when your neighbours might start doing something demonic like standing on their driveway…
    http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/010702_nw_shooting.html

7 year old shoots 6 year old

A 7 year old girl shot her 6 year old brother dead on Saturday in Mississauga. They found, and were playing with, a .45 semi-auto handgun (unregistered) when the girl pointed the gun at her brother and shot him in the head.

The owner of the gun was the two kids’ 22 year old brother, he has been arrested and charged with criminal negligence causing death and numerous firearms offences, including unsafe storage of both the gun and the ammunition.

The brother (through his lawyer) is pleading not guilty and planning on fighting the charges. So much for taking responsibility for his actions…

The boy is dead. The girl is permanently scarred. The family is irreparably damaged. All because this 22 year old is an idiot.

As chronicled elsewhere in this weblog, I have a friend with many guns. His pistols are locked in a small safe; all of his longarms and ammunition are locked in a separate steel cabinet, which has its own hookup to the alarm system. In addition, they all have trigger locks.

Leaving a weapon lying around unlocked is bad enough; lying around unlocked and loaded? I hope they bury this guy.

Naturally, the pistol was unregistered, showing yet again that the bungled Canadian firearm registry is useless as well as mismanaged.

Story links:
The Toronto Star
The Globe and Mail
Canada.com
CBC News

posted at 3:04 pm on Sunday, January 05, 2003 in Current Events, Rants | Comments Off on 7 year old shoots 6 year old

Today’s Peeves

We interrupt this program for two annoyances:

  • People who stand on narrow escalators (where there’s no room to pass) so that everyone else has to wait for them. I make exceptions for people who obviously have trouble with stairs, but watching someone walk 500m and then stand on an escalator really bugs me.
  • People who are perfectly able-bodied using the elevators on the subways and GO train platforms. Those elevators are supposed to be for people in wheelchairs; I’ve also seen people with strollers and carts use them, which is ok by me. However, I’ve also seen a mother with a child in a stroller have to wait for three or four elevators, because they are full of selfish S.O.B.s who are too lazy to take the stairs (or even worse, the escalators).

WALK, PEOPLE! IT’S GOOD FOR YOU!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

posted at 2:04 pm on Friday, December 13, 2002 in Rants | Comments (3)
  1. jok says:

    Gee, I didn’t know you took the subway. Are you using the new Sheppard line at all?

    As for walking 500m and then standing on an escalator: Well Toronto isn’t so bad (except for Spadina station) for it’s inter-line transfer stations, but when I was in Osaka (and Tokyo), after 500m of dodging crowds, standing behind everyone on the escalator was a welcome rest. and actually, I’m pretty sure there is an 800m walk inside Tokyo station to get from the main body of JR lines to the line that goes to Tokyo Disney world. Worse yet, we had to do it twice, since I misread the map and did not realize that the line shoots right under Ginza without connecting to any of the subway lines above it. and duh, that’s what I get for trying to use a JR pass. The subway connection in Tokyo station does actually go right to Ginza. Now here’s a subway system:
    http://www.tokyometro.go.jp/network/print_english.html

    That purple line is super-deep. At shinjuku station there are something like 5 levels stacked on each other and O-edo sen(line) is the deepest, but keep in mind the JR line is elevated above street level, so you only have to worry about going down 3 to level 5. I’ll bet you’d rest on the escalators from O-edo sen. Btw, here’s a diagram of the O-edo platform at “Tochoomae” (one left of Shinjuku on that map).

    I’ve lost the link, but there used to be 3d diagrams of the O-edo stations somewhere.

    Hm, I seem to have gotten off topic… So have you tried Don Mills station yet? That thing is about 5 storeys down. Walking on the escalator could be tiring for some there. I have a nit to pick with that station. It is officially on 4 levels (subway,mezzanine,bus bay,street) but the fricken elevators only take you up one level at a time! Taking Megan on a stroller through that station requires walking all over hell’s half acre taking 3 different elevators (Well, if you’re going shopping that is… There is yet another elevator closer to Sheppard which goes from the mezzanine to the street).

    More curious still, is the elevator in Sheppard station. It has two buttons “Level 4” and “Level 5”, but (for newcomers) you have no idea which level the Sheppard line is on (you can tell from the button placement which level is the lowest). Only a complete nerd like myself who read the station design plan would know that they actually built the Yonge station above the Sheppard station bringing it within inches of the surface. Building it below would probably have been most people’s assumption. (FYI, you come across the elevator before you get to the escaltors and their signage telling you which way to go for Yonge trains)

    $1 billion and they can’t even get the elevator buttons right.

  2. jok says:

    http://www.kotsu.metro.tokyo.jp/util/sitemap_index.html

    Article explaining depth of O-edo sen (15-48m) Hm, at 3m/storey, that’s 16 storeys down in places. It also lists the cost at $13 billion (approx — I converted it):
    http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr28/pdf/f22_fuc.pdf

  3. jok says:

    Slight correction from http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/%7Ezq8a-kaz/shinjyuku.htm (in Japanese, if you want a laugh, cut and paste the lines with the “36.6m” into babel fish.. brutal). Shinjuku O-edo line station is on level 7, 36.6m down.

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