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Swarming Searchbots from Amazon AWS

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I wrote about this – a few months ago in “Are hungry searchbots eating your site alive?” – but the saga continues! I need a rescue mission, so please will someone send in the SWAT team?

[Geek warning—this post is really for geeks only]

Here’s the short version:

  • If you tweet your blog posts, there are hundreds of bots reading the twitter feed and waiting for your post;
  • These bots immediately descend on your web server (following a tweet) and spider all over the place;
  • If your blog is WordPress-powered or requires significant CPU or database resources to generate a page, this can slow your server at exactly the time when you most need the capacity for human visitors;
  • The majority of these swarming bots do not properly identify themselves to your server; and
  • The majority of them are coming from AWS now.
  • It’s time to firewall unidentified bots hosted at AWS out of our blogs!

[Read more…]

Top sysadmin tools for iPad

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Digital nomads, you can finally and really be the system administrator for your cloud (and other) servers from your iPad. Since December, each time I’ve left town, I have intentionally left my MacBook Pro at home in favor of my iPad. I found that just having a few specific apps allowed me to fully administer my cloud servers from the pad. Please note that a bluetooth (or other) keyboard is required for some of these apps to function fully. But generally I can do everything I need to when I’m on the road. [Read more…]

My iPad’s cute little raincoat keeps it travel-ready

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When I got my iPad and started carting it around everywhere with me, it first went into the big backpack along with my MacBook Pro (15”), and since I’m used to carrying 20+ pounds in the pack, adding the iPad didn’t bother me at all. It’s a good workout. And when I’m flying internationally, I take one wheeled bag and the backpack, so it’s standard-issue for me.

However, as I started relying more on the iPad for my mobile life, I realized that I could go without the full backpack[1. At least on business days. On weekends I trek around the city on foot, and I prefer to have some weight on my back just to get a better workout, as well as to carry a windbreaker, sweater and other supplies.]. So I checked at REI and found two items I couldn’t live without[2. I have no connection or contact with the manufacturers, bought the products at full retail, and can highly recommend them after months of use.]. [Read more…]

The Paris Metro you’ll never see

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Without much comment, but with so much enjoyment (as one who uses the Paris metro beaucoup  when I’m there — three times in the last 12 months)… the story of a subterranean world very few will ever see.

I would call them benign explorers and documenters of public territory (my words, of course) and certainly not terrorists, though I’m sure there would be hell-to-pay if they were caught by “the wrong people” and someone wanted to hold them up as examples of how poor security is. But they are urban heroes to me.  😉

I’m certainly not going to tell you the details, but I’ve done my own exploring of locked up places that I shouldn’t have visited (once freeclimbing up the side of a brick building at midnight with no gears, ropes or other aids, checking for unlocked windows, and picking locks), and I know the rush of being there with no intent to do  harm but just exploring spaces that are usually closed off!

Perhaps you’re aware of the outcry among photographers (including myself) about rent-a-cop guards in the U.S. who try to stop you from taking perfectly legal and legitimate photographs in public places (most often near courthouses and federal buildings) — I have been stopped twice by these two-bit uninformed guards trying to keep me from taking photos because they believed there are federal laws prohibiting photography of federal or critical structures (even bridges). That’s not the same as jumping off the platform and running next to the subway tracks, but I couldn’t resist the comparison because it shows the paranoia that exists here in the U.S.

Also see my Art in Public Places articles, and the mixed-reality games I’ve made over the years since 2002.

[Photo “Ubiquitous | Paris 2007” from SleepyCity.net]

Don’t rely on governments to solve your security problems

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Far from solving all your problems, if you rely on government to solve your cyber-security problems, I think you’re more likely to end up with restricted access to the Internet and someone other than hackers evaluating your communications. And I mean this is a possibility not only from your own national government but due to future international “cooperation” among governments.

Here are five reasons why you have to build your own cyber-protection capabilities rather than relying on governments to solve any of your security (and cyber-attack) problems for you. And you have to be vigilant and aware of what’s going on that might put governments even more in control of your online communications, reducing the options you have available to communicate privately with others as well as to defend yourself. [Read more…]