A place to share geekly ideas.

Outlook and Outlook Express Users Want to Reply to Digitally Signed E-mail

Submitted by geekwisdom on Fri, 2008-04-25 10:17.

You are probably reading this post because you are an Outlook or Outlook Express user and you tried to reply to a digitally signed e-mail from me. The result was a warning/error notice stating, "You cannot send digitally signed messages because you do not have a digital ID for this account." or some such thing. You are receiving this notice because Microsoft made a mistake in the default configuration settings when it packaged Outlook and Outlook Express for distribution.

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( categories: Security/Privacy )

/bin/rm: Argument list too long

Submitted by geekwisdom on Thu, 2007-12-06 10:44.
Do this instead: find . -name '*' | xargs rm
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( categories: Systems Administration )

Don't send me unsolicited commercial e-mail

Submitted by geekwisdom on Thu, 2007-11-15 14:04.

Dear [spammer's name here],

Please don't send me unsolicited commercial e-mail anymore.

I don't want to be nasty. So here's a little free end-user feedback on your marketing technique. These are the thoughts that went through my mind when I received your e-mail:

  • If I need something like this I'll do the research and pick the product.
  • However, because you spammed me about yours I'll probably contact "the other guy" before I contact you. That is, if I ever contact you.

Thanks for removing me from your list.

-S2
--
Steve Moitozo II

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Populating a PostgreSQL Calendar Table

Submitted by geekwisdom on Sun, 2007-10-28 15:01.
I'm using PostgreSQL for my data warehouse. I needed a calendar table for doing joins and a quick way to populate it. So I created my calendar table with:

CREATE TABLE "CALENDAR" (
"YYYYMMDD" date NOT NULL
);


Then I populated it with the following SQL:

INSERT INTO "CALENDAR" ("YYYYMMDD") select to_date('20000101', 'YYYYMMDD') + s.a as dates from generate_series(0,36524,1) as s(a);

This quickly puts records into the CALENDAR table for every day starting with 1/1/2000 and ending with 12/31/2099.
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( categories: Programming/Architecture )

Accounts everywhere!

Submitted by geekwisdom on Fri, 2007-06-15 09:47.
I've been thinking about all the Internet sites that I've created an accounts on for one reason or another. It has to be in the hundreds. Of those sites I wonder how many of them would let me delete my account completely. Very few I bet. Probably the most universal method of deleting my account--at a site I no longer want to have a relationship with and does not offer a "delete me" mechanism--is to poison the account with bogus information. I could change all the information about me to false information and, if allowed, change my e-mail address to something bogus as well. I guess I'd have to read the terms of use policies but isn't this my account?
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( categories: Security/Privacy )

Focus your energies on commonalities between threats

Submitted by geekwisdom on Fri, 2007-06-15 09:47.
In Rare Risk and Overreactions Bruce Schneier writes, "If you want to do something that makes security sense, figure out what's common among a bunch of rare events, and concentrate your countermeasures there. Focus on the general risk of terrorism, and not the specific threat of airplane bombings using liquid explosives. Focus on the general risk of troubled young adults, and not the specific threat of a lone gunman wandering around a college campus. Ignore the movie-plot threats, and concentrate on the real risks."
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Stop form spam by using CSS to hide a field

Submitted by geekwisdom on Wed, 2007-05-30 11:10.

I hate form spam. Whether the form is a contact form, a survey, or something else spamming can make life a pain. SANS has an interesting piece on techniques that can be used to reduce or prevent form spam. In my opinion the solution that has the least impact on legitimate users, is easy to implement, can be implemented in numerous ways, and has the highest negative impact on spammers is the best. That's why I like the idea of including a form field that is required to be empty. To make it easier on legitimate users the field can be hidden using CSS. This way legitimate users aren't bothered with it, yet spambots are compelled to fill it in.

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( categories: Programming/Architecture )