Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Bill Ricker

Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?


Maybe there's a Conservation Law of Suckitude. I haven't noticed
Verizon DNS sucking lately.

Maybe Verizon Mass recruited Comcast NH's one good DNS tech to fix
their breakage ?-)

--
Bill
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Re: OT: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread aluminumsulfate
> From: "Michael ODonnell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 21:12:32 -0500

> >> And the mome raths outgrabe!
> >>
> >
> >You joke!  But, on OSCAR, someone once said "youre so grabe" to me.
> >To this day, I wonder what s/he meant... *scratches head*
> 
> 
> My sincere apologies if I damage any illusions you may have
> been cherishing about the intensely profound significance
> of that comment, but it's likely that it was a simple typo;
> 'b' is next to 'v' on the keyboard and they were probably
> just suggesting that you lighten up a bit...

Well, yes, on some peoples' keyboards, B is next to V.  However, this
was likely not the intended meaning of the correspondent, because they
were talking to my flirtbot---not me. (a perl+/lotsaregex/ Gaim plugin)
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Re: Real Men use XML, was quote, was Google Earth...

2006-11-14 Thread Bill Ricker

  What XML gives you is a standard way to define the structure,
schema, and so on, in a way that is unambiguous and machine-friendly.


Right. And if you do NOT create a X-Schema or DTD, and are using a
non-validating parser, and then have to write code to explore the DOM
generated from whatever XML it receives, you've given up 80% of the
advantage.

XHTML recaptulates HTML's errors of mixing presentation with contenat
AND of accepting invalid syntax forgivingly.


  As others have said, the major benefit to this is you don't have to
write a new parser and validator every time you create a new data
structure.  You just use the pre-existing XML library.


AND USE THE VALIDATOR.


  That being said, the hype behind XML is largely, well, hype.  But
that's nothing new, either.  I'm still waiting for my flying car.


Yup.

The real win is PORTABLE , multiplatform, choice of parser
implementations that will accept a standard Schema (or DTD)
definition.


  Currently, XML is fostering some improvements in the area of open
data formats.


A very good thing.


While XML does lend itself to this well, I personally
think it is more a coincidence than anything else.


It's more than a coincidence, the availability of open-source
parser/validators and viewers makes it a viable basis for
standards-mongers.



XML just happened
to be in the right place at the right time.  We're fortunate we got
XML, and not something truely awful like DER or OLE Container
Documents or something.


Yeah.


  I'm hoping the magic pixie dust currently associated with XML keeps
the momentum behind open data formats going.


Yeah

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Bill
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Greg Rundlett

On 11/14/06, Bruce Dawson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Paul Lussier wrote:
>...
>>> How about the GNHLUG server?  Can we make that a DNS server as a
>>> "membership" benefit?
>>   Well, from a policy standpoint, I have no objections, but I wonder
>> about some technical aspects.  I'm not sure about the performance of
>> that system.  More importantly, unless you have a static IP address,
>> how do we open it up to just "members"?
>
> We couldn't really restrict it, not practically anyway.  Perhaps we
> could play with DNSSEC, but I don't believe that actually is intended
> for this purpose.

That server (liberty) is bandwidth restricted. I don't recommend opening
it up to the world as a DNS server.


Hey, liberty is the name of my home 'server' ;-)
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Re: Real Men use Lojban (fnord)

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott



On 11/14/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

  What XML gives you is a standard way to define the structure,
schema, and so on, in a way that is unambiguous and machine-friendly.


Hm. "unambiguous" and "machine-friendly".  Lojban, which is formally
defined by a yacc grammar, meets both these criteria.


 Not "standard", though.

 "Standard", in this case, meaning "has a snowball's chance in a
supernova of having someone else using it", not "written down
somewhere".


There's a standard parser for the Lojban language, too.  And since a
spoken language can represent pretty much anything humanly
experienceable, there's no doubt that it can represent any computer
data the programmer chooses.


 Perhaps, but perhaps not well.  I expect it would be ugly putting,
say, JPEG data into Lojban.  Sure, you could do it, as a sequence of
numbers written/spoken in the language, but it's not very pretty.  XML
is somewhat less ugly.  (Never thought I'd say that.)


No need to document data structures or their meanings---because the data 
structure
is a spoken language itself.


 Um.  Yah.  Just like declaring variables in a C program eliminates
the need for comments.


Ontologies, standards, and parsing aside, Lojban is easier for humans
to author/edit than XML ...


 I rather think XML in one's native tongue will always be easier than
Lojban (excepting the currently hypothetical case of Lojban being
one's native tongue).


... and can be spoken aloud.  Try doing that with XML!


 Open ach tee em ell close open body close open tee one close oh pee
ee en open slash tee one close ...

 Who is to say that is any more or less ugly that "la fus. se skari
lo blanu" or whatever?

 Slightly more verbose, I suppose.


For those curious ...


 Short list.



-- Ben
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Re: OT: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Michael ODonnell


>> And the mome raths outgrabe!
>>
>
>You joke!  But, on OSCAR, someone once said "youre so grabe" to me.
>To this day, I wonder what s/he meant... *scratches head*


My sincere apologies if I damage any illusions you may have
been cherishing about the intensely profound significance
of that comment, but it's likely that it was a simple typo;
'b' is next to 'v' on the keyboard and they were probably
just suggesting that you lighten up a bit...

 
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Real Men use Lojban WAS: Re: Real Men use XML, was quote, was Google Earth...

2006-11-14 Thread aluminumsulfate

>   What XML gives you is a standard way to define the structure,
> schema, and so on, in a way that is unambiguous and machine-friendly.

Hm. "unambiguous" and "machine-friendly".  Lojban, which is formally
defined by a yacc grammar, meets both these criteria.

>   As others have said, the major benefit to this is you don't have to
> write a new parser and validator every time you create a new data
> structure.  You just use the pre-existing XML library.  Likewise, you
> save some time in ramping up a new syntax or whatever.  Kind of like

There's a standard parser for the Lojban language, too.  And since a
spoken language can represent pretty much anything humanly
experienceable, there's no doubt that it can represent any computer
data the programmer chooses.

The big advantage which Lojban has over XML is that you don't need to
design elaborate ontologies.  Lojban has a pre-existing, universal,
ontology: the whole of human experience.  No need to document data
structures or their meanings---because the data structure is a spoken
language itself.

Ontologies, standards, and parsing aside, Lojban is easier for humans
to author/edit than XML, and can be spoken aloud.  Try doing that with
XML!

For those curious, the example I posted:

>  la fus. se skari lo blanu
>  gi'e mitre li papici loka clani
>  gi'e rainei lo bavyvacysai poi se cmene zoi gy. pie .gy. ku'o
>   .e lo skina poi se cmene zoi gy. Brazil .gy. ku'o
>  gi'e ki'ogra li rere

translates to:

   something called Foo has color(blue)
   and measures-in-meters(the number 1.3, in-the-property-of length)
   and has-favorite(a dessert which is named "pie"
AND a movie which is named "Brazil")
   and measures-in-kilograms(the number 2.2)

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Re: OT: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread aluminumsulfate
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 16:00:30 -0500
> From: "Ben Scott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> On 11/14/06, Michael ODonnell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Thy micturations are to me
> > As plurdled gabbleblotchits...
> 
> And the mome raths outgrabe!
> 

You joke!  But, on OSCAR, someone once said "youre so grabe" to me.
To this day, I wonder what s/he meant... *scratches head*
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Re: Real Men use XML, was quote, was Google Earth...

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, Ted Roche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

XML can be superior to plain text .conf files because it can
introduce structure, character-set specifications and can be
associated with a schema that can define and validate the document.


 All of that can be applied to just about anything else, too.
/etc/hosts has a very well-defined structure.

 What XML gives you is a standard way to define the structure,
schema, and so on, in a way that is unambiguous and machine-friendly.

 As others have said, the major benefit to this is you don't have to
write a new parser and validator every time you create a new data
structure.  You just use the pre-existing XML library.  Likewise, you
save some time in ramping up a new syntax or whatever.  Kind of like
BNF.  It's not like it does the implementation for you, but at least
everyone understands what the author's trying to get across.

 That being said, the hype behind XML is largely, well, hype.  But
that's nothing new, either.  I'm still waiting for my flying car.

 Currently, XML is fostering some improvements in the area of open
data formats.  While XML does lend itself to this well, I personally
think it is more a coincidence than anything else.  XML just happened
to be in the right place at the right time.  We're fortunate we got
XML, and not something truely awful like DER or OLE Container
Documents or something.

 I'm hoping the magic pixie dust currently associated with XML keeps
the momentum behind open data formats going.

-- Ben
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Bruce Dawson
Paul Lussier wrote:
>...
>>> How about the GNHLUG server?  Can we make that a DNS server as a
>>> "membership" benefit?
>>   Well, from a policy standpoint, I have no objections, but I wonder
>> about some technical aspects.  I'm not sure about the performance of
>> that system.  More importantly, unless you have a static IP address,
>> how do we open it up to just "members"?
> 
> We couldn't really restrict it, not practically anyway.  Perhaps we
> could play with DNSSEC, but I don't believe that actually is intended
> for this purpose.

That server (liberty) is bandwidth restricted. I don't recommend opening
it up to the world as a DNS server.

--Bruce
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Re: OT: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, Michael ODonnell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits...


And the mome raths outgrabe!

-- B
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OT: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Michael ODonnell


Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits...
 
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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread aluminumsulfate
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kevin D. Clark)
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:23:01 -0500

> > On the other hand, if the communication protocol was formed solely of
> > grammatical Lojban text, this problem would never happen:
> 
> I'm betting that Lojban poetry is even worse than Paul Neil Milne
> Johnstone's of Redbridge.

Since you asked. :)

http://www.lojban.org/files/texts/cukta1.html
http://www.lojban.org/files/texts/cukta2.html
http://www.lojban.org/files/texts/cukta3.html
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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Kevin D. Clark

aluminumsulfate writes:

> That's great, but when v3 of the protocol comes out, and the message
> is encoded

[snip]
> your v1 and v2 nodes are going to be incompatible with your v3 nodes.

Like I said, I was speaking very generally.

> On the other hand, if the communication protocol was formed solely of
> grammatical Lojban text, this problem would never happen:

I'm betting that Lojban poetry is even worse than Paul Neil Milne
Johnstone's of Redbridge.

Regards,

--kevin
-- 
GnuPG ID: B280F24E  Never could stand that dog.
alumni.unh.edu!kdc   -- Tom Waits

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Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

  The best results I've gotten, looking at the whole picture (price,
performance, reliability, customer service, etc.) are with local ISPs
doing fixed wireless.  The major advantage is that by eliminating a


Really?!  I don't know this to be very popular.  Is it now?


 Popular?  I certainly like it.  It is not that common, though, which
I suspect is what you're really after.  You need RF line-of-sight and
cannot have more than several miles between stations.  As it happens,
there's a big hill in the middle of Amesbury, covered in radio towers,
so it's convenient here.  Elsewhere in hilly New England?  I dunno.  A
lot of it is luck-of-the-draw.  Find out if there are any ISPs homed
near you and give them a call.


Any local providers you can suggest?


 We're using MVA at work (http://www.mva.net).  I'm generally happy
with it.  We're getting everything we pay for.  It's a symmetric feed
with SLA, CIR, and all those other acronyms.  I'm sure a home user
would be horrified at what we pay for it, but it's a whole different
class of service vs. a consumer feed.  They do offer consumer feeds,
but I have no idea what the terms or rates are like.

 Reliability has been very good over the three years or so we've had
it.  There was one outage due to equipment failure at the tower once.
It went out around 4 PM and was back later that evening.  Said owner
was there, at the base of the tower, in the rain, until the techs got
finished fixing things.  There have been maybe two or three other
times were performance got bad due to upstream circuit trouble, but
those were all resolved within an hour or so.  The NET^W NYNEX^W Bell
Atlantic^W^W Verizon frame relay circuit we had before that wasn't any
more reliable.

 Again, the "local company" factor is huge.  Trouble is always
acknowledged and sometimes proactively reported.  I'm on a first-name
basis with the owner, and I can call right into their NOC if I need
to.  No run around, no recordings, no help desk b*llsh*t.  Even if
something happens, I at least know what and why and when.  That's
worth a lot to me.

-- Ben
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Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread aluminumsulfate
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:26:32 -0500
> From: "Ben Scott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

>   The best results I've gotten, looking at the whole picture (price,
> performance, reliability, customer service, etc.) are with local ISPs
> doing fixed wireless.  The major advantage is that by eliminating a

Really?!  I don't know this to be very popular.  Is it now?  Any local
providers you can suggest?

> incompetent monopolies.  If I have a serious problem with the wireless
> feed at work, I can drive to the ISP's office in the next town, and
> beat the owner over the head with his radio.

I find the GNU Emacs manual more effective when used in this manner.
I find it tends to instill more fear in the person I'm beating. ;)
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread aluminumsulfate
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:22:05 -0500
> From: "Ben Scott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

>   One problem I did encounter in the past was that Adelphia was
> dropping UDP packets with a *source* port of 53.  Any other source
> port was fine.  Today's Internet is a weird place.  :)

/me is really looking forward to that RFC they're putting together for
Internet-over-Internet encapsulation.  I think it'll be a good
workaround of braindead ISPs.

Of course, after a while they'd probably catch onto that too and we'd
have to start using Virtual Private Internets.
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread aluminumsulfate
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:21:40 -0500
> From: Chip Marshall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> On November 14, 2006, Steven W. Orr sent me the following:
> > On Tuesday, Nov 14th 2006 at 09:06 -0800, quoth Thomas Charron:
> > => Brace yourself.  I don't know the current status, but in the past, I know
> > =>Comcast has intercepted all DNS queries, regardless or destination, and
> > =>redirected them to their own.
> > 
> > If they do that how can you tell?
> 
> I think for that to work, they'd have to spoof the source IP of the
> returning UDP packet. I think the only way you'd be able to tell if it's
> being tampered with is by comparing the TTL of the returning UDP packets
> to what you'd expect to see if they were coming from the actual name
> server. Theoretically, the packets from Comcast's nameserver should have
> a higher TTL, having traversed less hops to get to you.

A more reliable test would be to find a set of test cases for which
Comcast's and Real DNS servers return different responses and
periodically query names from that set of domains.
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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread aluminumsulfate
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kevin D. Clark)
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 10:30:12 -0500

> Suppose this is version 1 of the protocol.
> 
> Now suppose in version 2 of the protocol we want to add some more
> properties:
> 
>
>blue
>1.3m
>pie
>22kg
>Brazil
>

That's great, but when v3 of the protocol comes out, and the message
is encoded


blue
1.3m

 pie
 Brazil

22kg


your v1 and v2 nodes are going to be incompatible with your v3 nodes.

On the other hand, if the communication protocol was formed solely of
grammatical Lojban text, this problem would never happen:

 la fus. se skari lo blanu
 gi'e mitre li papici loka clani
 gi'e rainei lo bavyvacysai poi se cmene zoi gy. pie .gy. ku'o
  .e lo skina poi se cmene zoi gy. Brazil .gy. ku'o
 gi'e ki'ogra li rere

Easy as that.  :) The text will parse into a tree just like XML, but
with the advantage that standard rewriting rules can be used to
convert between different *representations* with the same *meaning*.
Hm.  Sounds like one of the original goals of SGML, doesn't it?
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Fios. Was: Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Fred
On Tuesday 14 November 2006 11:25, kenta uttered thusly:

> I'd love to try Verzion's FiOS but they're not offering it in my part of
> Nashua. :( If anyone here has it, how is it?  I'm also not sure how any
> local DSL providers are stacking up these days.  Feedback is appreciated.
>
> -Kenta
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I've been using Fios for quite some time now, and if you search the archives 
I did a write-up on them shortly after the install. 

Well, it's been quite a few months, and the service has been nice and fast. 
Not one outage that I can recall. Just friggin there, reliable, and 
invisible.

There are a couple of caveats -- as there always are -- with it, though. For 
me, who likes to keep ssh sessions open all the time, Fios tends to drop 
inactive TCP/IP connections after a time (a few minutes). Got around this 
problem with enabling keepalive in ssh.

Another caveat with Fios, if you get their dynamic IP offering, is that 
dynamic means dynamic. Every so often Fios will shift the IP, open 
connections or not. Generally about once or twice a month. If your router 
(there is no "modem") gets turned off, you will always have a different IP 
when it is turned back on. 

The dynamic IP problem was an issue for me since I do development "on the 
road", as it were, but got around this problem by writing a couple of 
scripts to update my name servers with the IP periodically. If you don't 
have your own name servers, you can always use something like DynDNS, I 
suppose. 

But compared to Crumcast, it's reliable, and much cheaper -- something on the 
order of $35 per month for their 2Mbit/5Mbit bandwidth -- their lowest 
offering. For modest increases you can get higher down bandwidth, but they 
are stingy on their up bandwidth, keeping you to 2Mbit for most offerings. 
Also, the bandwidth with Fios stays consistent -- I've not seen slowdowns 
like I have with Comcast. 

Overall, I am happy with Verzion and what they've done. Which is saying a lot 
since I dealt with them back in 2000, where they could barely spell "DSL", 
let alone get it right. Back then, they promised me DSL service, then made 
me wait for months, only to tell me that they "ran out of ports". Sigh. Now, 
they waited on me hand and foot during the installation, including fishing 
wires through walls and the like. And their Customer Service also greatly 
improved, and actually understood my technical questions, which blew me 
away. Usually I have to fight the "is it plugged in" queries, but not this 
time.

Having worked with DSLAMs and the like in the past, when fibre to the last 
mile seemed like a pipe dream, we've come quite a long way. Phew!

-Fred
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Paul Lussier
"Ben Scott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>   Those reverse to:
>
> 24.34.240.9   chlm2-pdns-tmp.chelmsfdrdc2.ma.boston.comcast.net.
> 24.34.241.9   chlm2-2dns-tmp.chelmsfdrdc2.ma.boston.comcast.net.
> 68.87.64.196  ns.inflow.pa.bo.comcast.net.
>
>   Note the "-tmp" in those first two names.  Meanwhile, I have
>   these, from DHCP:
>
> 68.87.71.226  cns.chelmsfdrdc2.ma.boston.comcast.net.
> 68.87.73.242  cns.manassaspr.va.dc02.comcast.net.

Interesting.  I don't recall ever mucking with my dhcp config such
that /etc/resolv.conf wouldn't get updated.  I suppose it's possible...

>   At a guess, it looks like you have stale entries in your resolv.conf file.

Definitely.  Changing them to what you have makes those sites resolve
instantly.  Now to hunt down why those were static...

>   Of course, as others suggested, setting up your own local,
> full-service, recursive resolver is probably a good idea, too.

I might do that if I feel the need to build yadnss :)

-- 
Seeya,
Paul "who sometimes just wants to be a user"
--
Key fingerprint = 1660 FECC 5D21 D286 F853  E808 BB07 9239 53F1 28EE

A: Yes.   
> Q: Are you sure?
>> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.   
>>> Q: Why is top posting annoying in email?
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread kenta

On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Ben Scott wrote:

Both result in 'not found' errors from home:

  $ host www.evangelicaloutpost.com
  Host www.evangelicaloutpost.com not found: 2(SERVFAIL)


Hmmm, SERVFAIL is more than just a simple "not found", it means
"something is actively broken".  I have seen nameservers give that
response when you attempt to send a recursive query to a nameserver
configured to refuse connections or recursion.  But it can also
originate from a broken authoritative server or a lame delegation.


This happens the Carnivore server is broken, just call the ISP and request 
the FBI reboot the box or replace it with a simple linux box 
running Ethereal :D


-Kenta

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Re: Earthlink DNS (Was: Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?)

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, Mark Polhamus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/09/more_info_on_dead_domain_handl.php


Earthlink says: "...this isn't something that you'll be able to get
customer support help with..."

 My response would then be: This isn't something you'll get my
subscriber fee with.

 Voting with your wallet is a great form of democracy.

-- Ben
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Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread kenta

On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Travis Roy wrote:
When I worked at the MediaOne NOC (under my horrible manager there) some guy 
called saying he was going to kill and/or beat one of the callcenter people 
(they worked upstairs).


Now I remember why I paid you less than everyone else.  GOOD TIMES.


(-1 point for me for clogging everyone's inbox, but it just had to be 
done)


-Kenta

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Earthlink DNS (Was: Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?)

2006-11-14 Thread Mark Polhamus
Travis Roy wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Michael ODonnell wrote:
>>> I have no love for ComcCast - I'd drop them yesterday
>>> if I had any better (or even comparable) choices -
> 
> I use Earthlink for my cable service...
> 
> It's from Comcast, and my bill actually comes from Comcast, but I get an
> Earthlink IP, Earthlink DNS, and Earthlink reverse DNS.
> 
> I did this because I have DirecTV. If you have Comcast for TV and
> internet, then Comcast is cheaper, but if you don't use Comcast for TV
> service Earthlink is cheaper (due to Concast's bundle discounts).
> 
> I've been very happy with it.

I'm a long time Earthlink subscriber -- started with dialup but now have
Earthlink through my cable broadband.  Until recently I have been
perfectly happy, but now I have one huge issue with Earthlink:

Remember when VeriSign decided to grab all nonexistent domain names and
return the IP address of  their "helpful" search service called
SiteFinder?  They did it using a wildcard DNS entry.  See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitefinder.

Now Earthlink is doing the same thing for users of it's default DNS
servers (from DHCP).  Enter a non-existent DNS domain and you get an
invalid "found" response with the IP address of their search/advertising
portal run by an outfit called barefruit.com.

You can read Earthlink's blog about this "helpful" service and the
furious responses from users here:

http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/08/handling_dead_domains_1.php
http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/09/update_on_dead_domain_handling_1.php
http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/09/more_info_on_dead_domain_handl.php

See also
http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/2006/09/earthlink_tries.html.

I'm an Earthlink subscriber (a reluctant one after this "SiteFinder"
stunt) but I've configured alternate DNS.


-- Mark Polhamus

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Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Travis Roy



If I have a serious problem with the wireless
feed at work, I can drive to the ISP's office in the next town, and
beat the owner over the head with his radio.


Just don't call first..

When I worked at the MediaOne NOC (under my horrible manager there)  
some guy called saying he was going to kill and/or beat one of the  
callcenter people (they worked upstairs).


We were in lockdown for a few hours and couldn't leave the building..  
Not that there was much to do at 3am, but it still sucked.

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Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, kenta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

That being said, does anyone have experiences with other residential high
speed providers that are in the same price range as Comcast?


 At that price range, your options are always going to be fairly limited.

 The best results I've gotten, looking at the whole picture (price,
performance, reliability, customer service, etc.) are with local ISPs
doing fixed wireless.  The major advantage is that by eliminating a
dependency on local wired infrastructure, you also eliminate large
incompetent monopolies.  If I have a serious problem with the wireless
feed at work, I can drive to the ISP's office in the next town, and
beat the owner over the head with his radio.

-- Ben
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Chip Marshall
On November 14, 2006, Steven W. Orr sent me the following:
> On Tuesday, Nov 14th 2006 at 09:06 -0800, quoth Thomas Charron:
> => Brace yourself.  I don't know the current status, but in the past, I know
> =>Comcast has intercepted all DNS queries, regardless or destination, and
> =>redirected them to their own.
> 
> If they do that how can you tell?

I think for that to work, they'd have to spoof the source IP of the
returning UDP packet. I think the only way you'd be able to tell if it's
being tampered with is by comparing the TTL of the returning UDP packets
to what you'd expect to see if they were coming from the actual name
server. Theoretically, the packets from Comcast's nameserver should have
a higher TTL, having traversed less hops to get to you.

-- 
Chip Marshall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://kyzoku.2bithacker.net/
GCM/IT d+(-) s+:++ a25>? C++ UB$ P+++$ L- E--- W++ N@ o K- w O M+
V-- PS+ PE Y+ PGP++ t+@ R@ tv@ b++@ DI D+(-) G++ e>++ h>++ r-- y?
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, Thomas Charron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

  Brace yourself.  I don't know the current status, but in the past, I know
Comcast has intercepted all DNS queries, regardless or destination, and
redirected them to their own.


 FWIW, in my service area (Dover, NH), they do not appear to be doing
this.  Or, if they are, they are adjusting the response time for
queries based on distance to the real nameserver.  ;-)

 One problem I did encounter in the past was that Adelphia was
dropping UDP packets with a *source* port of 53.  Any other source
port was fine.  Today's Internet is a weird place.  :)

-- Ben
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Steven W. Orr
On Tuesday, Nov 14th 2006 at 09:06 -0800, quoth Thomas Charron:

=> Brace yourself.  I don't know the current status, but in the past, I know
=>Comcast has intercepted all DNS queries, regardless or destination, and
=>redirected them to their own.

If they do that how can you tell?
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Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Cole Tuininga
On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 11:25 -0500, kenta wrote:
> That being said, does anyone have experiences with other residential high 
> speed providers that are in the same price range as Comcast?

I've used Worldpath (http://www.worldpath.com) for home DSL for several
years now and couldn't be happier.  The service has been reliable, the
rare occasions where I've needed to talk to a tech have been pleasant
with knowledgeable (and local) individuals.

I get about 4.2Mb down and about 768Kb up.  I get that and a static IP
for about $50/month.

-- 
Cole Tuininga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.code-energy.com/

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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Thomas Charron
  Brace yourself.  I don't know the current status, but in the past, I know Comcast has intercepted all DNS queries, regardless or destination, and redirected them to their own.  Thomas
On 11/14/06, Paul Lussier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed that sites I can get toboth easily and quickly from work are completely unreachable fromhome.  From Comcast's perspective, these sites seem to not even exist.
Is this intentional censoring on Comcast's part, or just incompetanceat maintaining a DNS server infrastructure?And on that note, can anyone recommend a decent set of DNS servers topoint at instead of using Comcast's?
How about the GNHLUG server?  Can we make that a DNS server as a"membership" benefit?Thanks.--Seeya,Paul___gnhlug-discuss mailing list
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Re: Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Travis Roy



On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Michael ODonnell wrote:

I have no love for ComcCast - I'd drop them yesterday
if I had any better (or even comparable) choices -


I use Earthlink for my cable service...

It's from Comcast, and my bill actually comes from Comcast, but I get  
an Earthlink IP, Earthlink DNS, and Earthlink reverse DNS.


I did this because I have DirecTV. If you have Comcast for TV and  
internet, then Comcast is cheaper, but if you don't use Comcast for  
TV service Earthlink is cheaper (due to Concast's bundle discounts).


I've been very happy with it.
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, Paul Lussier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Nope.  The two I can remember of hand are:

  www.evangelicaloutpost.com[1]
  www.shamusyoung.com[2]


 FWIW: I just ssh'ed into my home system and checked those two names
against the two Comcast DNS servers present in my /etc/resolv.conf,
and everything appeared to resolve fine.


Both result in 'not found' errors from home:

  $ host www.evangelicaloutpost.com
  Host www.evangelicaloutpost.com not found: 2(SERVFAIL)


 Hmmm, SERVFAIL is more than just a simple "not found", it means
"something is actively broken".  I have seen nameservers give that
response when you attempt to send a recursive query to a nameserver
configured to refuse connections or recursion.  But it can also
originate from a broken authoritative server or a lame delegation.


  $ cat /etc/resolv.conf
  search hsd1.ma.comcast.net.
  nameserver 24.34.240.9
  nameserver 24.34.241.9
  nameserver 68.87.64.196


 Those reverse to:

24.34.240.9 chlm2-pdns-tmp.chelmsfdrdc2.ma.boston.comcast.net.
24.34.241.9 chlm2-2dns-tmp.chelmsfdrdc2.ma.boston.comcast.net.
68.87.64.196ns.inflow.pa.bo.comcast.net.

 Note the "-tmp" in those first two names.  Meanwhile, I have these, from DHCP:

68.87.71.226cns.chelmsfdrdc2.ma.boston.comcast.net.
68.87.73.242cns.manassaspr.va.dc02.comcast.net.

 At a guess, it looks like you have stale entries in your resolv.conf file.


I think they're managed via DHCP.


 You might want to make sure of that.  :-)

 Of course, as others suggested, setting up your own local,
full-service, recursive resolver is probably a good idea, too.

-- Ben
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Steven W. Orr
On Tuesday, Nov 14th 2006 at 09:57 -0500, quoth Cole Tuininga:

=>On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 09:29 -0500, Paul Lussier wrote:
=>> And on that note, can anyone recommend a decent set of DNS servers to
=>> point at instead of using Comcast's?
=>
=>
=>
=>The company I work for (DynDNS) offers a pretty high quality recursive
=>DNS service for $29.95/year.
=>
=>Here's a link to our "features" page:
=>
=>http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/recursivedns/features.html
=>
=>

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this service for the purpose of 
hosting a domain? It sounded to me like Paul was looking for another 
server to point to in his resolv.conf
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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Jeffry Smith

On 11/14/06, Kevin D. Clark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


Paul Lussier writes:

> Is there anyway we could foster this into a real discussion on XML,
> what it is, what it's used for, why it's
> good/bad/evil/sucks-rocks/better-than-sliced-bread ?

Well, everybody has their own view on the world.  You need to
understand where I stand before you understand my perspective.

I occasionally design (and implement) non-trivial communications
protocols.

When you're designing protocols, you need to get the protocol to be
expressive enough in order to transport the information you need over
the wire.  Of course, this should be obvious.

What isn't necessarily so obvious is the fact that the entire time
you're designing and working with the protocol, you've got to be
thinking to yourself "how do I design this protocol to be
future-proof?".  At some point you need to make the protocol flexible
enough so that implementations of one version of the protocol can be
backwards-compatible and interoperate with previous implementations of
the protocol.

This is the kind of problem that can make you lose a lot of sleep at
night.

One of the useful ways to think about a protocol is to think about it
in terms of the information that is carried in each logical message
(the semantics) and on the other hand, how each message is logically
expressed/encoded on the wire.

XML encoding is useful here.

Speaking very generally, suppose I have a message that is encoded like
this:

  
  blue
  1.3m
  pie
  

Suppose this is version 1 of the protocol.

Now suppose in version 2 of the protocol we want to add some more
properties:

  
  blue
  1.3m
  pie
  22kg
  Brazil
  

By using XML encoding, a version 1 peer's protocol implementation
isn't so inflexible that it bombs when it sees these extra fields --
it can, for example, choose to ignore these extra fields.

Contrast this behavior with some other, fixed-field protocols (how
about TCP for example).  How would you arbitrarily add a field to such
a protocol?  (answer:  not very easily)

When you're working on a rapidly changing product that involves a
custom protocol (or, alternatively, a protocol that you merely wish to
extend), having flexibility like this can be very useful.



Another big reason is the reason SGML (predecessor to XML) came about
- separating content from presentation.  IBM (some company that
actually DOES innovate) developed it and sold it to the DoD.  Concept
- you have documents that will be displayed multiple ways (on-screen,
printed, etc).  However, you don't want to rewrite them each time.
SGML (now XML) separates the two.  In SGML you had 3 parts:  the data
with markups for structure, a DTD that described the markup allowed
for a given kind of document (another reason for it - ensured
consistency of the documents), and a presentation element.  The
presentation element would be different, depending on the medium.  So,
by writing one document and marking it up, it would be usable on
multiple display formats.

As mentioned, it's also good for ensuring consistancy.  And it's
portable - based on text.

Probably more reasons, but that's oen that I remember.

jeff
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Michael ODonnell


I have no love for ComcCast - I'd drop them yesterday
if I had any better (or even comparable) choices -
but I can't say that their DNS sucks any worse than
anybody else's.  They do fsck it up occasionally but
(here in Chelmsford) it's working OK at the moment.
 
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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Drew Van Zandt

Here's some XML to gander at:
http://em1.sensatronics.com/xmldata
http://em1.sensatronics.com/xmlconfig

(Note that for some reason Firefox will only display it after I click
refresh - haven't seen that happen before today, but if you just get a
blank screen try a refresh.)

Your browser will probably make it pretty for you, though the
indenting etc. isn't in the data that's actually being sent.

Basically it's just HTML with made-up tags instead of standards like
This is bold.  The advantage is that you can use a standard
parser rather than inventing a new parser every time, and then just
look through your already parsed data for particular
application-dependent key->value pairs.

--DTVZ

On 11/14/06, Paul Lussier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kevin D. Clark) writes:

> "Bill Ricker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>>>   "XML is for people who don't understand Scheme."  (not my quote,
>>> that just seems like such good flamewar fodder that I had to pass it
>>> along)
>>
>> There's nothing new under the sun. Each generation thinks they
>> invented sex and fast square root algorithms.
>>
>> I've said for years, if LISP stands for Lots of Invidious Silly
>> Parentheses,   >> and usesancient  ENDIF syntax, as if syntax-aware editors couldn't
>> handle closing-brace-match.
>
> I agree with this all 100%.  XML is just another markup language for
> me.  Earlier in my career ASN.1 and BER-encoding were my bread and
> butter.  Nowadays XML has more popularity (probably deservedly so).

Is there anyway we could foster this into a real discussion on XML,
what it is, what it's used for, why it's
good/bad/evil/sucks-rocks/better-than-sliced-bread ?

About the only thing I know about XML is that it appears to be a
markup language for Pirate Treasure Maps (you know, X-marks-the-spot...
okay, sorry, not funny :)

I know it wasn't intended for wetware-parsing, but increasingly hear
how many people have trouble dealing with it.  Conversely, I haven't
yet heard a single computer say anything bad about it :)

--
Seeya,
Paul
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Cole Tuininga
On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 09:29 -0500, Paul Lussier wrote:
> And on that note, can anyone recommend a decent set of DNS servers to
> point at instead of using Comcast's?



The company I work for (DynDNS) offers a pretty high quality recursive
DNS service for $29.95/year.

Here's a link to our "features" page:

http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/recursivedns/features.html



-- 
Cole Tuininga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.code-energy.com/

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Comcast Alternatives? Was Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread kenta

On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Michael ODonnell wrote:

I have no love for ComcCast - I'd drop them yesterday
if I had any better (or even comparable) choices -


That being said, does anyone have experiences with other residential high 
speed providers that are in the same price range as Comcast?


Comcast has actually been pretty good to me.  To be honest I can't 
remember the last time my Internet service was out.  My IP rarely changes 
(once in 2 years) and for the most part they still seem to have a "Don't 
Ask, Don't Tell" policy when it comes to having a server type box at home.


I'd love to try Verzion's FiOS but they're not offering it in my part of 
Nashua. :( If anyone here has it, how is it?  I'm also not sure how any 
local DSL providers are stacking up these days.  Feedback is appreciated.


-Kenta
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, Paul Lussier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed that sites I can get to
both easily and quickly from work are completely unreachable from
home.  From Comcast's perspective, these sites seem to not even exist.


 Really.  That's interesting.  I'm on Comcast (Dover, NH) and I
haven't noticed any problems of that sort.  Any pattern to the sites,
that you can discern?

 Also, are you using manually configured DNS servers, or what they
give out via DHCP?  If the former, you might want to try the later.  I
know they've been changing things around as of late.


Is this intentional censoring on Comcast's part, or just incompetance
at maintaining a DNS server infrastructure?


 "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by
stupidity."


How about the GNHLUG server?  Can we make that a DNS server as a
"membership" benefit?


 Well, from a policy standpoint, I have no objections, but I wonder
about some technical aspects.  I'm not sure about the performance of
that system.  More importantly, unless you have a static IP address,
how do we open it up to just "members"?

-- Ben
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Real Men use XML, was quote, was Google Earth...

2006-11-14 Thread Ted Roche

On Nov 14, 2006, at 9:40 AM, Paul Lussier wrote:


Is there anyway we could foster this into a real discussion on XML,
what it is, what it's used for, why it's
good/bad/evil/sucks-rocks/better-than-sliced-bread ?


We can if we start it.

A pocket summary sure to offend many and distort history a bit:

XML is a spinoff/outgrowth/subset of SGML, the Standardized General  
Markup Language. The idea of XML was to be simpler to use and create.  
It has few rules to create fully-formed and valid XML, so it's easier  
to get right in a text editor.


XML can be superior to plain text .conf files because it can  
introduce structure, character-set specifications and can be  
associated with a schema that can define and validate the document.


XML can be useful in many kinds of document exchange, like EDI, where  
current standards or protocols fail to sufficiently validate or  
strictly define the documents. (There's an entire sub-industry that  
makes money converting submitted documents of form XXX into the  
format expected by the recipient.)


XML can be overkill for .conf files that are just sets of name-value  
pairs, but once you get into nested sets and want to express values  
with valid ranges or characters outside of 0x01 to 0x7f, XML starts  
to be a better fit.


XHTML is an XML superset of HTML that's more consistent, easier to  
validate and easier to process.


Nearly every computer languages has XML parsers and XML factories to  
read and write the format. Most even work well together.


XML is useful in data exchanges where sender and receiver do not have  
to agree on much else other than to use XML and appropriate schemas.  
You can use code page 1252 while I convert the document to Unicode  
and others read it in other formats, as long as there are mappings.


The GNHLUG produces XML in the form of RSS feeds that are consumed by  
readers, aggregators and other machine processes to help us spread  
our news.


http://wiki.gnhlug.org/twiki2/bin/view/Www/WebRss?skin=rss

Confirm it's valid here: http://www.feedvalidator.org

In Hackers and Painters, Paul Graham refers to Java as the "magic  
pixie dust" of the last Web Bubble. Paraphrasing, "sprinkle it on any  
business plan and the VCs throw money at you." XML certainly has the  
potential to do the same for the Web 2.0 marketing Ponzi scheme. But  
there is some deep value in this stuff beyond exploiting VCs to buy  
bimmers for the CTO. Lots of specialty languages, all of which are  
valid XML have sprung up, making it easier to create and exchange  
documents: MathML, MusicML, OPML, and others.


Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com


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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Kevin D. Clark

Paul Lussier writes:

> Is there anyway we could foster this into a real discussion on XML,
> what it is, what it's used for, why it's
> good/bad/evil/sucks-rocks/better-than-sliced-bread ?

Well, everybody has their own view on the world.  You need to
understand where I stand before you understand my perspective.

I occasionally design (and implement) non-trivial communications
protocols.

When you're designing protocols, you need to get the protocol to be
expressive enough in order to transport the information you need over
the wire.  Of course, this should be obvious.

What isn't necessarily so obvious is the fact that the entire time
you're designing and working with the protocol, you've got to be
thinking to yourself "how do I design this protocol to be
future-proof?".  At some point you need to make the protocol flexible
enough so that implementations of one version of the protocol can be
backwards-compatible and interoperate with previous implementations of
the protocol.

This is the kind of problem that can make you lose a lot of sleep at
night.

One of the useful ways to think about a protocol is to think about it
in terms of the information that is carried in each logical message
(the semantics) and on the other hand, how each message is logically
expressed/encoded on the wire.

XML encoding is useful here.

Speaking very generally, suppose I have a message that is encoded like
this:

   
   blue
   1.3m
   pie
   

Suppose this is version 1 of the protocol.

Now suppose in version 2 of the protocol we want to add some more
properties:

   
   blue
   1.3m
   pie
   22kg
   Brazil
   

By using XML encoding, a version 1 peer's protocol implementation
isn't so inflexible that it bombs when it sees these extra fields --
it can, for example, choose to ignore these extra fields.

Contrast this behavior with some other, fixed-field protocols (how
about TCP for example).  How would you arbitrarily add a field to such
a protocol?  (answer:  not very easily)

When you're working on a rapidly changing product that involves a
custom protocol (or, alternatively, a protocol that you merely wish to
extend), having flexibility like this can be very useful.


Anyways, that's my perspective.

Regards,

--kevin
-- 
GnuPG ID: B280F24E  Never could stand that dog.
alumni.unh.edu!kdc   -- Tom Waits

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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Kent Johnson

Paul Lussier wrote:


Is there anyway we could foster this into a real discussion on XML,
what it is, what it's used for, why it's
good/bad/evil/sucks-rocks/better-than-sliced-bread ?

About the only thing I know about XML is that it appears to be a
markup language for Pirate Treasure Maps (you know, X-marks-the-spot...
okay, sorry, not funny :)


As far as what it is, there is a huge amount of material available 
online to answer this. Here are a few starting places:

A Technical Introduction to XML
http://xml.com/pub/a/98/10/guide0.html

Many other articles on xml.com

Processing XML with Java - complete book available online, the first two 
chapters are general introduction to XML.

http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xmljava/

Kent

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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Tom Buskey

And on that note, can anyone recommend a decent set of DNS servers to
point at instead of using Comcast's?


Run your own local DNS server with caching.  You do have a server at
home right?  Or run a caching server on localhost.  Linux and MacOSX
can do it.

Point it at the root servers if you can't find reliable secondaries.
Recommendations?
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Two security discussions on the evening of the 16th

2006-11-14 Thread Ted Roche
The nice thing about MythTV is that you can record one program while  
watching another. Unfortunately, I haven't figure out how to do that  
in real-space, yet.


I plan to attend Shawn O'Shea's presentation on VMWare at MerriLUG  
(http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.linux.gnhlug/7394),  
but if that's not your cup of tea, check out these two presentations:


The Greater Boston Chapter of the ACM will have Jeffrey I. Schiller  
of MIT presenting "Computer and Network Security in the 21st  
Century." Details at http://www.gbcacm.org/website/semInfo.php? 
id=1119 - sounds fascinating!


Also, the New England Information Security Group will be presenting  
"Cyber Forensics - What To Do When Presented With a Computer That May  
Contain Evidence of Criminal Activity," by Melissa Royer of Defender  
Data Recovery and Forensic Services. Details at http://www.neisg.org/ 
Meetings/Default.htm


So little time, so many good meetings...

Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com


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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Kevin D. Clark

"Bill Ricker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>>   "XML is for people who don't understand Scheme."  (not my quote,
>> that just seems like such good flamewar fodder that I had to pass it
>> along)
>
> There's nothing new under the sun. Each generation thinks they
> invented sex and fast square root algorithms.
>
> I've said for years, if LISP stands for Lots of Invidious Silly
> Parentheses,   > and usesancient  ENDIF syntax, as if syntax-aware editors couldn't
> handle closing-brace-match.

I agree with this all 100%.  XML is just another markup language for
me.  Earlier in my career ASN.1 and BER-encoding were my bread and
butter.  Nowadays XML has more popularity (probably deservedly so).

Regards,

--kevin
-- 
GnuPG ID: B280F24E  Never could stand that dog.
alumni.unh.edu!kdc   -- Tom Waits

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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, Bill Ricker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Another old quote -- every non-trivial application has a non-trivial
subset of a Lisp interpretter (and/or Fortran library) embedded, but
implemented badly.


"Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc,
informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of
Common Lisp."
  -- Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming

"…including Common Lisp."
  -- Robert Morris's Corollary

-- Ben

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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Paul Lussier
"Tom Buskey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> Run your own local DNS server with caching.  You do have a server at
> home right?  Or run a caching server on localhost.  Linux and MacOSX
> can do it.

Good point, don't know why I never thought of that.  For that matter,
I can also use the ones here at work :) Duh.  My caffeine system must
have too much blood in it this morning.

> Point it at the root servers if you can't find reliable secondaries.
> Recommendations?

Can't we just go back to using /etc/hosts ?

-- 
Seeya,
Paul
--
Key fingerprint = 1660 FECC 5D21 D286 F853  E808 BB07 9239 53F1 28EE

A: Yes.   
> Q: Are you sure?
>> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.   
>>> Q: Why is top posting annoying in email?
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Paul Lussier
"Ben Scott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>   Really.  That's interesting.  I'm on Comcast (Dover, NH) and I
> haven't noticed any problems of that sort.  Any pattern to the sites,
> that you can discern?

Nope.  The two I can remember of hand are:

  www.evangelicaloutpost.com[1]
  www.shamusyoung.com[2]

Both result in 'not found' errors from home:

  $ host www.evangelicaloutpost.com
  Host www.evangelicaloutpost.com not found: 2(SERVFAIL)
  $ host  www.shamusyoung.com
  Host www.shamusyoung.com not found: 2(SERVFAIL)

using these DNS servers:

  $ cat /etc/resolv.conf
  search hsd1.ma.comcast.net.
  nameserver 24.34.240.9
  nameserver 24.34.241.9
  nameserver 68.87.64.196

>   Also, are you using manually configured DNS servers, or what they
> give out via DHCP?  If the former, you might want to try the later.  I
> know they've been changing things around as of late.

I think they're managed via DHCP.

>> Is this intentional censoring on Comcast's part, or just incompetance
>> at maintaining a DNS server infrastructure?
>
>   "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by
> stupidity."

Theirs or mine ;)  

>> How about the GNHLUG server?  Can we make that a DNS server as a
>> "membership" benefit?
>
>   Well, from a policy standpoint, I have no objections, but I wonder
> about some technical aspects.  I'm not sure about the performance of
> that system.  More importantly, unless you have a static IP address,
> how do we open it up to just "members"?

We couldn't really restrict it, not practically anyway.  Perhaps we
could play with DNSSEC, but I don't believe that actually is intended
for this purpose.
-- 
Seeya,
Paul

The actual urls I was trying to access were:

[1] http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/003253.html
   (Marine Corps Rules for Gun Fighting)
[2] http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612
(DM of the Rings)

Both quite amusing, though the latter is much more of a time sink :)
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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, Bill Ricker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

... and usesancient  ENDIF syntax, as if syntax-aware editors couldn't
handle closing-brace-match.


 I'm of two minds when it comes to this sort of thing.  (Normally,
I'm lucky to have one mind.)

 On the one hand, yes.

 On the other hand, there have been times where the mismatch between
"open foo" and "close foo" (regardless of syntax) has helped me find
bugs.

 On the gripping hand, choice is good.  It should be optional.

-- Ben
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XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Bill Ricker

  "XML is for people who don't understand Scheme."  (not my quote,
that just seems like such good flamewar fodder that I had to pass it
along)


There's nothing new under the sun. Each generation thinks they
invented sex and fast square root algorithms.

I've said for years, if LISP stands for Lots of Invidious Silly
Parentheses,   >http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/


Re: [SPAM-25] Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Dan Coutu

Drew Van Zandt wrote:

Basically it's just HTML with made-up tags instead of standards like
This is bold.  The advantage is that you can use a standard
parser rather than inventing a new parser every time, and then just
look through your already parsed data for particular
application-dependent key->value pairs.
Sigh, this isn't really true. Both HTML and XML are more like siblings. 
Both are subsets of SGML.
(Standard Generalized Markup Language) SGML was devised many years ago 
to be a way to represent
documentation markup. Sort of a descendant of nroff if you like. The 
team that designed SGML was
senior enough and forward thinking enough to craft a markup language 
that could be used to represent
almost anything. Part of the SGML standard allows for the creation of 
user-defined tags, what Drew
refers to as made-up tags. User defined tags must be defined following a 
set of rules, just like definining

variables in your favorite programming language.

HTML allows for sloppy parsing that doesn't strictly conform to the SGML 
specification. On the other
hand XML adheres strictly to the SGML standard and doesn't allow sloppy 
parsing. Therefore
where HTML allows things like a  tag with no closing tag XML 
requires either a matching begin-end
tag pair (such as  ) or an empty tag (such as ) that 
explicitly says 'this tag has no content.'




--DTVZ

On 11/14/06, Paul Lussier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kevin D. Clark) writes:

> "Bill Ricker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>>>   "XML is for people who don't understand Scheme."  (not my quote,
>>> that just seems like such good flamewar fodder that I had to pass it
>>> along)
>>
>> There's nothing new under the sun. Each generation thinks they
>> invented sex and fast square root algorithms.
>>
>> I've said for years, if LISP stands for Lots of Invidious Silly
>> Parentheses,   >> and usesancient  ENDIF syntax, as if syntax-aware editors couldn't
>> handle closing-brace-match.
>
> I agree with this all 100%.  XML is just another markup language for
> me.  Earlier in my career ASN.1 and BER-encoding were my bread and
> butter.  Nowadays XML has more popularity (probably deservedly so).

Is there anyway we could foster this into a real discussion on XML,
what it is, what it's used for, why it's
good/bad/evil/sucks-rocks/better-than-sliced-bread ?

About the only thing I know about XML is that it appears to be a
markup language for Pirate Treasure Maps (you know, X-marks-the-spot...
okay, sorry, not funny :)

I know it wasn't intended for wetware-parsing, but increasingly hear
how many people have trouble dealing with it.  Conversely, I haven't
yet heard a single computer say anything bad about it :)

--
Seeya,
Paul
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Neil Joseph Schelly
Why not run one on localhost?
-N

On Tuesday 14 November 2006 09:29 am, Paul Lussier wrote:
> Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed that sites I can get to
> both easily and quickly from work are completely unreachable from
> home.  From Comcast's perspective, these sites seem to not even exist.
>
> Is this intentional censoring on Comcast's part, or just incompetance
> at maintaining a DNS server infrastructure?
>
> And on that note, can anyone recommend a decent set of DNS servers to
> point at instead of using Comcast's?
>
> How about the GNHLUG server?  Can we make that a DNS server as a
> "membership" benefit?
>
> Thanks.
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Re: Two security discussions on the evening of the 16th

2006-11-14 Thread Travis Roy


The nice thing about MythTV is that you can record one program  
while watching another. Unfortunately, I haven't figure out how to  
do that in real-space, yet.


You can actually record/watch as many channels as you have tuners. If  
you have 4 tuners you can record 3 shows while watch another.


The DirecTiVo could always record 2 shows at once (or record one  
while watch another). The series3 TiVo also includes 2 tuners.

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Re: XML quote Re: Meeting Notes: SLUG Mon 14 Nov - Google Earth and everything else

2006-11-14 Thread Paul Lussier
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kevin D. Clark) writes:

> "Bill Ricker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>>>   "XML is for people who don't understand Scheme."  (not my quote,
>>> that just seems like such good flamewar fodder that I had to pass it
>>> along)
>>
>> There's nothing new under the sun. Each generation thinks they
>> invented sex and fast square root algorithms.
>>
>> I've said for years, if LISP stands for Lots of Invidious Silly
>> Parentheses,   >> and usesancient  ENDIF syntax, as if syntax-aware editors couldn't
>> handle closing-brace-match.
>
> I agree with this all 100%.  XML is just another markup language for
> me.  Earlier in my career ASN.1 and BER-encoding were my bread and
> butter.  Nowadays XML has more popularity (probably deservedly so).

Is there anyway we could foster this into a real discussion on XML,
what it is, what it's used for, why it's
good/bad/evil/sucks-rocks/better-than-sliced-bread ?

About the only thing I know about XML is that it appears to be a
markup language for Pirate Treasure Maps (you know, X-marks-the-spot...
okay, sorry, not funny :)

I know it wasn't intended for wetware-parsing, but increasingly hear
how many people have trouble dealing with it.  Conversely, I haven't
yet heard a single computer say anything bad about it :)

-- 
Seeya,
Paul
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Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Paul Lussier

Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed that sites I can get to
both easily and quickly from work are completely unreachable from
home.  From Comcast's perspective, these sites seem to not even exist.

Is this intentional censoring on Comcast's part, or just incompetance
at maintaining a DNS server infrastructure?

And on that note, can anyone recommend a decent set of DNS servers to
point at instead of using Comcast's?

How about the GNHLUG server?  Can we make that a DNS server as a
"membership" benefit?

Thanks.
-- 
Seeya,
Paul
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Re: Why must Comcast's DNS suck?

2006-11-14 Thread Ben Scott

On 11/14/06, Steven W. Orr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/recursivedns/features.html


Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this service for the purpose of
hosting a domain?


 No, those would be all the other DNS services they offer.  Recursive
DNS service means a namserver that takes recursive queries from other
resolvers (like the stub resolver in the C library), and then does
iterative queries until it gets the final answer.

-- Ben
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