Posts by Phillip Baker

Defusing this and the drop in sources

Really, to stop these attacks being a nuisance in your logs and/or triggering any self-protection mechanisms it's the easiest thing in the world to change the port SSH is listening on, if you will have it externally visible. Go and do it now.

And the drop in sources; assuming this is the same lame bunch of skiddies who I went and taunted for a bit of sport on their command and control IRC server, they've removed any semblence of sleep (even when idle!) from the bot they're installing (OMG IT GOES FASTER THEN), so it sits there chewing 100% of a cpu core 24x7 which is pretty obvious - particularly when it's masquerading as a process you don't even run on your server.

Killer app

"the killer application for a mobile phone remains the ability to make phone calls, and it seems possible that in all the excitement Apple has forgotten that."

Please. Apple threw THAT design requirement out of the window with the first version of the iPhone.

"iPhone bad at being a phone shocker, more at 11"?

I experience probably a 50% or higher failure rate in calling most of my colleagues who have 3GS model or earlier, even if they have full signal and are sat on a desk unmolested. They're just not good phones. Fantastic dicking around gadgets, games, apps, and whatnot, and good for data when the data works (equal parts o2 overload and handset fail there), but if you actually place any value on making and receiving calls, get yourself an old Nokia (by which I mean pre-smartphone era, or some of their new 'budget' handsets). You'll get a week's worth of standby and it'll work for months without needing a reboot.

After that, if you need or desire (aha) smartphone functionality, an HTC Desire, provided you don't mind being tethered to a charger most of your time.

If phone calls are of no significance to you, then by all means get yourself an iPhone, but don't pretend that this is a new phenomenon. Even WinMo devices are better (and I hated my WinMo by the time I ditched it early for my Desire).