Blurts

The dedication of the folks who create open source resources is amazing. I have been having some difficulty with this site. The bug was strange. I could insert links to other sites, but if I attempted to create a link to another URL from my own server the URL would end up corrupted. A pretty strange bug and not something most users would encounter. I posted a description to the users site and over the next coupld of hours went back and forth with someone (the original coder I think) working toward a solution. We narrowed the problem down to a plugin that added WYSIWYG features making authoring posts easier. The individual helping me then sent a line of code I could add to the plugin that fixed the problem. Pretty amazing.

I have written previously about not being concerned with iTunes raised prices on new music, but I could get a lower price on new music downloads elsewhere (lala). Now, it appears that everyone is or will soon move to a similar level level pricing scheme. Oh well, I guess my interests tend to lean toward older music so the total impact of the shift to multilevel pricing should still work in my favor.

The NY Times (select title for link) offers an interesting analysis of the challenge offered by netbooks to costlier laptops. Some of the very inexpensive netbook options require commitment to a data plan (similar to a smart phone data plan). I doubt this funding model would work in educational settings and I have heard that some netbook users have found themselves with huge bills because they did not understand the limits of the download cap assumed by their plans (via TWIT podcast). 

LifeHacker indicates that OpenDNS offers protection against the Conficker worm. The idea is to prevent individuals for going to sites the OpenDNS database knows to be infected.

I have been experimenting with an online service called OpenDNS for some months now. I must give credit to a Leo Laporte’s podcast for bringing this service to my attention.

Most tech folks are probably familiar with the role played by a DNS server. As I understand the purpose of the DNS server, it functions to translate the web address we enter into the IP of the server. The IP number directs the query to the needed machine.

My understanding of how OpenDNS works is that the DNS server could perform functions between this translation. It could check the request against self selected filter options and tell you that you really don’t want to go to the site you have requested. It could also record information about your Internet use. It might seem that these are sinister functions, but you may want to impose well defined types of filtering on your own activity (e.g., don’t let me go to known phishing sites) and you may be interested in your patterns of Internet use. I am guessing my service provider (the University of North Dakota) at this moment has a record of the activity originating from the IP of the computer I am using anyway. Perhaps the issue is – who do you trust?

The filtering options in OpenDNS are quite specific (phishing is the only one I apply) and may be of interest to institutions/businesses who feel the need to apply filtering.  

The process of making use of OpenDNS is fairly simple. You add the OpenDNS IP as your preferred DNS. You create an account on OpenDNS and set preferences regarding what type of filtering you prefer and whether or not you want to log your activity.

I am not concerned about Conficker because I use only Mac computers and I have been commenting this security risk because the problem interests me. If you intend to use OpenDNS as a way to deal with this particular threat, read the LifeHacker post carefully. I am not certain that the way I have the service configured would do the trick.

April 1 is drawing near and with it the supposed unleashing of Conficker. So many infected computers and the mystery of what will happen. Perhaps the clock on all computers will be reset to Dec. 31, 1999, and the millenium catastophe will finally play out. Perhaps most folks have forgetten the last computer doomsday scenario and have no idea what the previous sentence meant.

This is a follow-up to my previous post on the economics of the newspaper industry. The ReadWriteWeb post discusses changes in ad revenue over the past 15 or so years. The post promotes ad-based papers.