Clear Ambiguity

A couple of posta ago, I pointed to an online search site where anyone can look at random AOL user’s searches. This data will be quite useful to researches, private investiators, the police and just about anyone who could gain from intimate knowledge on peoples private lives. I can see huge issues with the easy availability of this data, including what I consider is probably the scariest and that is I think people are going to die because of it. Seriously.

Just a minute ago I played witht the random search tool wondering just how hard it would be to identify a user. Turns out it is way too easy. I don’t wont to put any details here (I think this guy is going to have enough problems as it is) but the particular record I looked at was an American minor (under 18), who asks the AOL search engine some very personal questions. He also searches for his name and his school. There is no doubt that a complete ID can quickly be made and due to the private nature of his searches I think that the next time he looks online for his name the poor young bloke will have a devastating realisation that his private life is now out there for all (including his friends, enemies, school mates, etc) to see.

There are around 600,000 possible stories like this in the AOL data and I think that if this young man or 1000’s like him are in anyway depressed, then this may have them thinking of suicide. AOL have apologised for releasing this data, but I think that they should in some way be held accountable for the likely devastation they are going to cause and I seriously believe young lives are at risk.

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I work for a living. I put in around 20 hours a week into a non-profit. I also get called on to work on lots of computer issues for free, and I want it to stop.

I am known around these parts as the person that fixes computer problems. I have reasonable skills and typically do the work required at a professional level. However, I am doing most of this for free and lots of people are taking advantage of me. Not all though, some offer money, some feed my children and some offer contra in the form of cartons of beer, or bottles of wine. Some even go out of their way and do something in return, like help around the yard, etc. I have no problems with this minority.

It is the people that expect me to work on their computer for no return and usually have the audacity to push their time frames on to me that this article is about.

I really need to take charge of this aspect of my life and now is the time. I will post here aboiut my progress :)

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This site has indeed been suffering from Clear Ambiguity. There is no clear direction and nothing to imply to readers that the fire fighting article one day will be followed up by a similar topic. I have started creating a few more blogs which will have one main theme. There will be a link to the blogs in the blogroll (over there on the right), and I will drop some links in posts here. I imagine that this blog will stay as my peronsal diary, with the occasional political rant and biased opinion.

Other blogs are going to be focussed on
firefighting
online auctions
personal finance (getting out of debt)
woodworking
fly fishing
bsd
linux
hosting (so you wont have to deal with those annoying dreamhost stories anymore)

cheers

shaun

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A few years ago I won an ebay auction with what I thought was a bargain. I ended up paying something like AU$7 for a years worth of hosting. The greatest part of this deal was that the host nettrohost provided ssh access and enough bandwidth/ hard drive quota to keep me going for a while. Unfortunately they removed ssh access basically as I joined because of “security concerns” and bailed on the agreement. I ended up sticking with them for a while because it did the limited amount I asked of it, and life was busy. I found them very annoying to work with and definately suggest that you look for something else.

I then started hosting at home, when South Australia’s and I guess now Australia’s premium ISP Internode started providing static IP adsl accounts at a reasonable cost. This was a great solution for some time and I definately got my moneys worth out of them. They are without doubt the best ISP in Australia and are run by some of the best thinkers, admins, help desk staff and well all positions in the industry.

I didn’t look around at external hosting for a while, because the four domains I was hosting just worked from this home adsl service. I ran email, web and a few other services on my gateway freebsd stable computer.

I found out a few weeks ago that I can now order adsl 2+ on this exchange and had a look at my options again. Turns out that by going back to a dynamic IP and moving up to adsl 2+ (theoretical 24mb/sec) would actually save me AU$30/ month. Wow, that is amazing, so off to google I go to search for hosting deals again, thinking that a couple of hundred MB of space and half a GB of bandwidth would keep me going for a while and hopefully would not be too expensive.

Well I was stunned at how competive the hosting industry has become and what was for offer. I emailed a few maillists I frequent to get some reviews and feedback which just made the whole process more confusing. In the end I had a really close look at Dreamhost. Basically, in my situation and with my requirements they are untouchable. I found out that I can get ssh, easy installs like this wordpress software I am using now, hundreds of users, email accounts and maillists and so on. The real killer app for me is ssh. With it, I can easily edit and manipulate files on this debian linux server. Also you don’t get 100’s of GB space/ bandwidth- you get GB’s :)

Once I had my mind settled on dreamhost, I did a little more researching and found that they have a referal system where the referer and referee can share US$97. This just floored me and I started looking aroound for anyone willing to share a bit more than most. I looked at quite a few sites where people had stories similar to this one with http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi or http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi type links and were basically tricking people into giving them the full $97 by not disclosing it. I guess that is fair in this strange internet world we live in, but I would always watch my cookies and would delete anything looking like that. So a little more googling, and I found a guy’s blog called http://underscorebleach.net/jotsheet where he had an entry http://underscorebleach.net/jotsheet/2005/08/dreamhost-promo-code. The idea here was that he would keep US$7 and I would get to keep the $90 for myself.

Now I am not one to miss an opportunity like this, and so I signed up for 12 months on a special they were having for the code monster package and then towards the end of the easy and harmless process I entered the promotion code off the above site and it automatically took US$90 off my total. WOW!

I have left it a while before writing this, because I wanted to test the service, but I have to say that dreamhost have been 100% perfect hosting service for me for my needs. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for an incredible value linux hosting service.

UPDATE:

Dreamhost had an outage this week due to a significant power blackout. There is more info at blog.dreamhost.com.

As above, I am more than happy to help the underscorebleach guy out by pointing people there, but if you would like the same deal with the massive benefit of helping out a little non-profit called itshare then please consider using the Dreamhost promo code itshare90. If you do then you get US$90 off any yearly or two yearly hosting deals, and itshare will get US$7 to help with it’s much needed fundraising. I am a member of this organisation which make linux based computer systems out of donated parts and give them away to families and people who cannot usually afford them. They are definately worth supporting.

There are also discounts for the monthly paid hosting accounts. In each case itshare receives US$7 and you keep the remainder. The main problem with these accounts is that there is a setup fee though.

If you have lots of money and just want to get hosting quickly and don’t want to worry about doing the research, then by all means join Dreamhost by clicking throught this www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?linunix/shared/comparison.html and then itshare.org.au will get $97. I don’t think that you should do that though, as you have truely earned a decent discount by reading this far.

UPDATE:
There are quite a few people linking directly to this article. I just want to let you know that after I created this promo code, I had a think about it, and decided to create one that gives you all the discount possible. The code is ITSHARE97 and there is another post about it http://www.pcuse.com/dreamhost-promo-code-itshare97.php. By all means use that code and get $97 off for all 1 and 2 year hosting plans. To give you some idea, the cheapest plan (which has amazing features) will be only US$22.40 for 12 months (under $2/ month).

If you can spare the $7 though, please consider using the original ITSHARE90 promo code and helping out itshare a little- thanks :)

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So you are concerned about the situation in the USA, want to do something, and either have no money yourself, have given too much to other charities or would just prefer to do a very little bit without bothering too much, well here is a way to send money to Hurricane Katrina relief without spending a dime. Basically this is a link to a blog, where the author will send a US$1 to the American Red Cross for everyone who posts a comment. The site is going to get heaps of attention, and so it should. So post away, help the cause and feel a little better today. Another great find thanks to scalzi.com/whatever.

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Lots of My hovercraft is full of eels translations, because I am sure you will need it one day. Monty Python has had a huge influence on my life, with some of my fondest memories being laying down watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus and belly laughing with my late father.

I am also fortuante that my whole family loves Python humour. Strangely, I think it keeps us sane, happy and closer.

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I have just had my yearly fire fitness medical, and unfortunately it looks like my geek nature, multiple children and hectic life are getting the better of me. It looks like I have hypertension, or high blood pressure.

A quick chat to the sports professional doing the medical gave me the following advice.

I need to lose around 10-15kg in weight as I am currently 109kg and at 187cm (6′2″) I am about 14kg overweight. I am using this calculator which is just the first one I came across using google.

I am only 38 years old and I know I am fitter than many of my peers, as I do a fair bit of heavy and aerobic type work. However I really need to fix this. There are many reasons that I have to, like my work often involves sustained and heavy work up very steep hills, and the most common way for firefighters to die is via heart attacks. I also am concerned for my own health, and and well have to fix it.

I work around 10km from home, so will start to ride there instead of using the car, it is basically uphill all the way, so I should be awake when I get there, and the trip home will be a nice relaxing coast. I will also ride the kids to school/ kindy when I have that time of day free- I did this morning.

I really enjoy riding, and used to ride 100-200kms and go camping in a previous life. I have very little time these days though, as I am either working or watching children. I just need to make a slot for me.

I am not alone with having hypertension, as 1/7 Australian adults have it, while 1/3 American adults have it. Hopefully it is just a weight, lifestyle and food choice problem, and not genetic.

Update
Turns out the ride to work is 12km. Unfortunately I am unfit enough that it took me 66mins. The time will come down over the next few weeks hopefully.

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I am thinking of running an ongoing series about a certain topic. This site is brand new and has very few readers at this stage, but I would like some feedback. The ideas so far are:

1. Follow my progress through a fitness and weight loss campaign
2. Follow my progress as a beginner woodworker starting from very little experience
3. Just write about everyday stuff as the others are available elsewhere
4. Concentrate more on the firefighting information and photos

Any suggestions ?

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Whatever: Being Poor
Read this piece by John Scalzi. Being poor, I mean really poor like many of the Katrina victims is hopeless. This post will make you think, and possibly bring back the past.

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Time to put this domain to some practical use, and I can think of no greater requirement right now than dumping some stuff from my head. I could really do with the bandwidth.

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