Brielle's Ramblings - Work

An update

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:05:17 -0600

Well, there is a bunch of stuff to talk about, so let me get right to it.

The AHBL is on hold until November.
We've been considering this for a while, and finally decided it's time to revamp and redesign both the website and the database backend. This is going to take a while, but once it's done, we should have most things automated. Sept. 1st, we plan to clean out the existing AHBL database until the site comes back online. We are not shutting down, nor are we stopping our spam fighting efforts.

ClamAV/SOSDG is on hold until November.
I just don't have the time to work on the Windows builds of ClamAV for now.

I am moving.
Yes, you heard it right! I am moving. I can't disclose where I am moving to yet, but unfortunately I need to leave the NYC metro area for personal reasons.

Stopping spam from China the easy and fun way!

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 17:51:46 -0700

So, a lot of people have asked me over the past year or so how I manage to prevent getting so much spam from China without needing to outright block all of China's IP space either in iptables/firewall or DNSbl lists.

Well, I'm about to give you our secret.

The Chinese govt dislikes us (the SOSDG) - alot. We tend to host sites that their govt does not want its people seeing (Falun Gong anyone?).

So, what does any great opressive govt do to sites that are on its banned list? They filter out all of our IP space in their network so their users can't get to our servers.

This does have an interesting side effect though - the filter blocks more then just HTTP traffic (port 80 tcp). SMTP connections are blocked as well. Spammers in China can no longer reach our servers at all.

So, if you want to cut back on spam from China without having to implement blocklists or filters your customers may not appreciate, host a site that pisses the Chinese govt off on your mail servers. I've seen them block new IP ranges hosting Falun Gong sites in under 12 hours.

Easy because it requires no major changes on your end. Fun because you get to irritate everyone's favorite oppressive country and waste their time.

How To Fix Java+IPv6 on Windows XP

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 08:22:33 -0700

Well, for those of you who have Windows XP with IPv6 support, you may have noticed after turning on the IPv6 stack, you were no longer able to use alot of applets in your browser with Java 1.5.0.

Well, I have the fix for you (provided you don't intend to use any applets which need IPv6 support):

1. Go to the Java control panel
2. Go to the 'Java' tab and click 'View' under 'Java Applet Runtime Settings'
3. In the 'Java Runtime Parameters' box, paste the following line in:

-Djava.net.preferIPv6Addresses=false -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true

4. Hit 'OK' and hit 'Apply' then 'OK' again, and reboot.

Your java applets should now be working again! Yay!

What Happened With RoadRunner?

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 09:48:08 -0600

As many of you all know, the SOSDG used to have a 1.5mbit line from RoadRunner, then suddenly we switched over to SpeakEasy (who we really should have gone with in the first place, but thats a whole different issue).

Wondering why we did this?

Back in Feb/Mar of this year, we began to have connectivity issues - we didn't notice them until we got the much more expensive switches and started doing VoIP. Quality on the VoIP service was horrible - dropped calls, lag, etc. Finally we began having line dropouts once every 6-12 hours.

We contacted RoadRunner who insisted that the problem was on our end - so being the diligent people we are, we swapped out all of our equipment and cables - brand new Cisco 2900xl 24 to replace our almost brand new Cisco 2900xl 12, new ethernet cards, new cat6 wires, etc. Still the exact same problem after we changed it all. RR still insisted it was us, but sent out one of their techs to 'diagnose' the problem.

The tech, who seemed very smart while chatting with her, apparently didn't know the basics of how 10BaseT Half duplex works, and attributed the collisions on that interface to our equipment. Once again, claiming it was our fault and refusing to swap out the equipment. She had stood us up for an appointment one time before this as well.

Frustrated, we tried to get somewhere with RR, but at that point, we couldn't get anyone to talk to us or call us back, not even supervisors. Finally, we called in some favors and had a CCIE and CCNA from Cisco take a look at our equipment and setup - they right away alerted us to a known flaw in the Cisco router RR provided us that would be causing the failures we were seeing.

I managed to get in touch with a RR supervisor who promised to look into it and come out for an appointment to test our theory with the collisions and the flaw in the router. Needless to say, we got stood up again.

We finally said 'fuck it' and called SpeakEasy, who had our new DSL line installed in under 24 hours and activated shortly after. I filed a complaint with the Indiana BBB about Brighthouse, and we refused to pay any of our back bills until someone decided to actually call us about our service problems and issue the appropriate credit.

A few months after, someone from Brighthouse did finally call us back about our $2000 in unpaid bills. Well, after being given a hard time about service credit, we finally got them to knock off more then $400 in the bill (for outages, service cancelation, being stood up by not only a tech but supervisor, which cost Andrew hundreds of dollars in lost revenue for the time he had to take off).

But, the fun doesn't end there! Apparently the person who got us the credit left Brighthouse, and didn't properly document the credit. We get a notice from a collections agency about owing Brighthouse 700 or so. Back to the BBB we went and filed yet another complaint.

Finally, Brighthouse decided to honor their agreement with us and make sure the 700 in credit was given.

If I could have been there to shove the Cisco router down the tech and supervisor's throat, I would have. Their lazy asses forced us to shell out money to buy new equipment that we didn't need, as well as bring in experts to diagnose the problem.

So, to recap - Brighthouse/RR blows monkey chunks - SpeakEasy is awesome (and cheaper).

Tips: How to really impress me

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 21:34:14 -0600

So, today I got perhaps the most impressive tip from a customer - one that is actually quite useful. A really nice halogen desk lamp - works beautifully and looks really nice on my desk. Customer had it in the back of his car, offered me as a tip after I cleaned his windows.

Yay!

The icecream man cometh

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 18:25:06 -0600

I was sitting here, in the station, thinking to myself, "God, an icecream bar of some sort would be perfect right now..." And my thought was interrupted by the ding ding of the bell letting me know someone had pulled in. I go out to the front and theres the icecream truck waiting for gas.

Yay!

Hero Gas Station Attendant and Customer Save Girl

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 12:38:45 -0600

Amazing how things just seem to go horribly wrong at the worst times. About 10 mins ago, while fully loaded with customers and trying to balance 40 other things such as a malfunctioning pump, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a little girl on the street corner up from me. She had to have been only around 3-4 years old.

She slowly started to walk out into the street, which is a rather busy street that connects to one of the main routes through this area and into New York state. The customer in the car next to me also noticed and we took off running to catch her. I darted through the traffic, narrowly getting blindsided by several cars.

Luckily, I reached the girl just as she stepped into the street, and carried her over to the woman customer who was coming up behind me. We brought the little girl over to the resturant nearby and tried to figure out where her mother was. Safely in the hands of my customer, I went back to the station to try and get as many people out of the pumps as possible, out of concern that we may need to contact the police to alert them to the fact we found a lost child.

After a moment I saw the girls mother come running out from the park across the street towards my the customer and take the girl from her. I'm not sure of the exact conversation that transpired, but when the customer came back, she said that the mother didn't even thank either of us for trying to protect her kid.

WTF is wrong with these people? Are you that fucking lazy that you can't even watch your kid so that she doesn't go running out into a very busy street? Thank god that there are people out there who are observant and good hearted that are willing to risk their own safety to make sure that the innocent and helpless are protected from danger.

Although people are calling me a hero right now, do I think of myself as one? Not really. I'm a human being, one that takes his responsibility as a human being seriously, which is more then I can say for many people out there.

Myths about gas station attendants

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 11:42:05 -0600

It has been about a month since I started working at the gas station - and I've learned quite a bit about people's habits and myths when they either pull into a gas station, or see a gas station attendant.

Myth: Attendants know where every street and house in the county they work in is exactly.

This of course is not true, and I'm an example of why this is.

Take the customer who pulled into the station last weekend and got visibly miffed at me because I didn't know where the street she wanted to go to was. I didn't catch all of what she said, but I did catch something to the affect of...

"You fucking work at a gas station, you should know where streets are..."

She pulled away rather quickly and I've not seen her since.

Where the hell did people get it in their minds that just because I work at a gas station, I must know where every street in the county is?

Myth: Attendants don't mind if you distract them with questions about directions when they have 10 people lined up for only 4 pumps and half of them need change made from cash.

This is one of my more bigger gripes. Like most gas stations these days, customers seem to come in groups. I'll have a dead period of 10-30 mins, then suddenly 30 people decide to rush the station and get gas all at once.

I have 4 pumps which means that I can only fill up these people so quickly. I also have to make change as well, which takes time (thanks to the fact my right hand is severely fucked up from many years ago). Naturally, there is the one car that decides to pull up in the street and ask me for detailed directions while I'm trying to start the pumps and handle people's change.

Naturally, this distracts me just enough for me to forget to do something, like hit which grade the customer wanted, or keeps me from hitting the "Receipt" button quickly enough for cash customers who want a paper copy of what they got. Missing that button means I have to spend another minute inside the station writing up a receipt by hand and then bring it back out.

That causes ALL of my customers to wait AND makes me rather unhappy.

Yeah, I know I complain alot, but its amazing the sheer lack of consideration many people have for those who make sure your car doesn't die on the side of the road somewhere with the fuel gauge on "E".