Category Archives: general

Plagiarism, flattery and the Internet

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Frequently I write posts that others may find useful.  In fact I have even been cited in software manuals and on other sites across the web as a reference or a resource for information on a particular topic. Earlier today a visitor to my site alerted me to the fact that two of my posts on the Nagios system and using it with Mac OS X had been copied outright on a blog located in Belgium.

While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, wholesale plagiarism is not very flattering at all.

The website in question is the WordPress blog published by CP IT Solutions, Inc. Both posts are obvious copy/paste entries from my own blog.  Here are the details:

Copies

http://cpsolutions.be/wordpress/?p=213

http://cpsolutions.be/wordpress/?p=215

Originals

http://arfore.com/2008/10/12/starting-nrpe-via-launchd/

http://arfore.com/2008/09/25/nagios-nrpe-on-os-x-server-105/

The person in question is apparently a Microsoft Certified Professional, and also hosts a Joomla site on the same domain.

WordPress blog – http://cpsolutions.be/wordpress/

Main site – http://www.cpsolutions.be/JOOMLA/

I wonder what his clients would think if they knew that he was just copying other people’s work and putting it up as original thought?  I have sent e-mails to both the owner of CP IT Solutions as well as the ISP for his site.  Interestingly enough, for someone that provides IT consulting services they use a hosting provider rather than run their own site, as seen by the WHOIS entry below, hopefully they are going to be called on for hosting consultancy services.

WHOIS entry for cpsoltuions.be

% WHOIS cpsolutions
Domain:      cpsolutions
Status:      REGISTERED
Registered:  Wed Sep 27 2006

Licensee:
   Not shown, please visit www.dns.be for webbased whois.

Agent Technical Contacts:
   Last Name:     Kristof De Vlieger
   Company Name:  DVK Systems & Consultancy BVBA
   Language:      nl
   Street:        Luikersteenweg 547
   Location:      3800 Sint-Truiden
   Country:       BE
   Phone:         +32.11768005
   Fax:           +32.11768002
   Email:         tech@dvkhosting.be

Agent:
   Name:      DVK Systems & Consultancy Bvba
   Website:   www.dvkhosting.be

Nameservers:
   ns3.dvkhosting.com
   ns2.dvkhosting.com

Sure many of us use snippets and other items from our fellow IT professionals, but at the very least give credit where it is due.

Review: Logitech Cordless Optical TrackMan

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In November 2009, my USB Logitech Optical MouseMan died a cruel death.  I had been using this particular trackball for a number of years.  In fact, I liked it so much that I bought two more, one for the desk at home and one for use on the road with the laptop.

As I contemplated going out to OfficeMax to buy yet another one, I realized that it might be time to upgrade, at least a little bit.  While I was very fond of the existing device, there were a few features that I was lacking that had been added to the newer models over the years:

  • cordless operation to make desk arrangement less cumbersome
  • scroll wheel
  • extra buttons for things like forward and back in a browser
  • third button for use in X11

After realizing that I needed an upgrade I decided to dig into some research on the possibilities.  Now I must confess that I am a completely unrepentant trackball user.  I had been using trackballs for my computers for at least the last 20 years.  I did occasionally use a mouse, because sometimes they are better tools, but for the most part I used trackballs exclusively.  One of my favorites over the years has been the original Kensington Turbo Mouse.  It had a great big trackball and four large, easy to hit, buttons.  One of the great things about this particular trackball was the fact that you could swap out the trackball with a standard billiard ball and it would fit perfectly.

After some research I decided to go with the cordless version of the same trackball that I was replacing.  I purchased the Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman at Fry’s in Atlanta.

Initial Impressions

One of the first things that I noticed about the new trackball was that it was tremendously stiff.  I didn’t remember this being the case with my older models.  The cursor movement was also very jerky.  Over the first day of use, however, the movement and tracking of the ball improved.  My guess is that part of the stiffness was caused by some sort of film that was on the ball from the manufacturing process.  One user in a forum posted that his was vastly improved by cleaning the entire ball with rubbing alcohol.  Not having any of this on hand, I hoped that the film would gradually be removed with use.  Thankfully this was the case.

Usage

I did notice a “learning curve” when it came to getting used to the style of the design and placement of the trackball.  The ball is placed off-center on the right-hand side of the casing.  I was used to having my hand completely flat in orientation with respect to the wrist rest and the trackball from the older models.  After some use I found the new orientation to feel more natural.

As with many users, I have found that you will need to spend some time tweaking the Logitech multiplier and tracking speeds in the Logitech control panel as well as the OS X mouse preference pane.  It took me sometime to get the settings just so.  This was not really the case with the USB model, however with the older model you didn’t have a multiplier available in the Logitech software package.  After quite a bit of back and forth with the settings, I finally got it to a useable setting.

Software

The Logitech software gives you the expected settings for the various buttons, scrolling speed as well as the multiplier to apply to the tracking and cursor movement.  Interestingly enough, the software installer can’t figure out that you don’t have a Logitech keyboard installed, just pick one and move on.  Due to the three kexts (kernel extensions) that are installed, the software requires you to restart, even though you can dynamically load a kext without rebooting.

In my particular installation, the registration application that starts after installation never completely loaded.

I did find some interesting points while tweaking the software settings:

  1. The scroll speed in the Logitech panel doesn’t appear to actually have an effect on the speed of the scroll wheel.  This will need to be controlled in the standard OS mouse preference pane.
  2. The tracking multiplier can have a huge effect on the jerkiness of the cursor.  My best results were achieved when leaving the multiplier set on 1 and controlling the tracking speed with the standard OS mouse pane.
  3. The battery life indicator in the Logitech panel is nice, however it would be great if there was a menubar indicator or a LED indicator on the device itself.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the new trackball.  In fact, I have become so used to having the extra buttons and the scroll wheel that I find myself trying to use them when I am at home with my older, USB model.  Looks like I need to add another item to my shopping list.

Google breaks the best search engine in town

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In the old days of the Internet search engine business you had a vast multitude of places to visit. There was Excite, Yahoo!, WebCrawler, Lycos, and many others. You had the search engine aggregators, such as Dogpile and HotBot.

What you didn’t have was a single source to use to search the whole of the web. When Google came along they created a way to analyze the relationships between pages to produce more useful results. The search results were no longer just a mishmash based on how many times a word existed in a page, now the results had a certain relevancy.

Then Google added advertising into the mix, providing users with a way to find products or vendors that had some correlation with the keywords entered. This was a great tool for the layperson and researcher alike. Along the way Google has added shopping results, images, news, videos, and maps. However they seem to have forgotten their core product: a clean, easy-to-use, clutter-free search engine.
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Otterbox iPhone 3G Defender Impressions

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Finding the right case for you iPhone can be a challenging and somewhat frustrating process.  Not only do you have to contend with the sheer number of case types, but you also have to balance the needs of your particular listening and working environments.  If you are like me you may have found that you actually need more than one type of case.  While it would be nice to have the ultimate iPhone case that I could comfortably and easily use in any situation, I have yet to discover it.

Recently I purchased an Otterbox iPhone 3G Defender case for use with my iPhone 3GS.  The main motivation behind this particular purchase was the ruggedness of the case.  Next summer I am going to be riding a self-supported bike tour with a couple of friends in Pittsburgh, so I was in the market for a case that could handle the shocks, drops and dust that I would encounter both on the tour and while training for it (man, do I ever need to start the training).

My daily driver of a case to this point has been a red and black (Goooo Dawgs!) iFrogz Luxe.  This is a very nice case that adds minimal bulk to the iPhone design while providing a basic level of protection from scuffs and bumps that can occur during average daily use.

While the iFrogz Luxe turned out to be great for a daily case, it became rapidly apparent that it was not going to withstand the rigors of an extended bike tour and training process.  After determining this, I turned to the Otterbox.  Otterbox is known for making very rugged cases, waterproof cases, and water proof equipment boxes.

Otterbox states that the iPhone 3G Defender is not intended for protection against water intrusion, due to it’s openings for the microphones and speakers of the iPhone 3G design.  This being said a friend that also has one said that it will protect your phone from an occasional spill, like when someone knocks over a coke on the table at a meeting.  I can personally attest to the drop and bump protection, having purposefully dropped my phone while incased onto a concrete sidewalk from a height of three feet.  (Not recommended for the faint of heart!)

I really liked the additional grip that the case provides.  Sometimes the slick plastic back of the iPhone 3G and 3GS can be a little hazardous.  The buttons are fairly easy to operate even while incased in the poly-carbonate shell and silicon rubber cushioning.  All of the ports with the exception of the speakers and microphone are firmly covered with silicon rubber flaps that interlock into the plastic shell when not in use.  This is great, since the water sensors on the 3G and 3GS are located in the headphone jack and inside the dock connecter port.  With the openings firmly covered and protected it is possible to fudge a little on reporting water damage when attempting to get a warranty or AppleCare replacement.

If you want to dock your phone while in the 3G Defender, however, you maybe out of luck depending on the dock connector design.  Due to the nature of the case design, there is a fairly deep recession that has to be navigated in order to connect anything to the dock connector.  A cable or two won’t be a problem, but if you use a device like the iHome or a car mount then you will most likely be out of luck, unless you buy something like the iStubz from CableJive.

Another problem you may run into has to do with the sheer extra bulk added by the case.  I frequently use my iPhone while in my 2007 Toyota Tundra, both for music and for navigation.  I mounted my iPhone on the console in place of the ashtray using a mount and device holder combination from ProClip.  While the combination is a bit pricey, I like their product choices.  Fortunately my device holder is adjustable enough to hold the 3G Defender case, but unfortunately the dock connector plug does not extend high enough to connect with the iPhone while in the case.

Beyond those two issues, which are fairly easy to overcome, I am still having trouble getting used to the confinement of the screen itself.  The 3G Defender enclosure leaves all of the screen itself usable, but some functionality is tricky when using the onscreen keyboard and sliders.  This will be especially noticeable by those of us that don’t trim our fingernails all the way to the quick.  I know that many of my female friends, as well as some males, will find the edges of the case get in the way.  The one application feature I am having the most trouble with is the address bar in mobile Safari.  When using Safari and trying to get the browser to re-display the address bar, I find myself having to use the side of my finger tips instead of end of the finger.

I would judge that the 3G Defender is a great case for use in a physically demanding environment.  I am not completely sold on its use in an average daily environment that doesn’t involve lots of physical abuse.

Pros

  • shock protection
  • dust protection
  • better overall grip (especially for individuals with larger hands)

Cons

  • dock connector recessed farther than desired
  • added bulk may make accessories unusable without additional cabling
  • some on-screen functionality can be impaired due to the side of the case surrounding the screen

Overall I would say this is an excellent case and well worth the price being charged for it.  Paying $50 to protect your $400 investment is a no-brainer.

A new hosting day dawns

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anhostingDue to expenses and performance issues, not to mention the massive outage and data loss that occurred in May of 2009, I have decided to move on to a new hosting solution for arfore.com and the other sites I host.

After doing some research into what others are using as well as the cost involved, I decided to migrate to AN Hosting.

AN Hosting got started as a two-person operation in 2001.  In 2005 they were bought up by Chicago, Illinois-based midPhase Hosting.  Their hosting plan was pretty reasonable.  It compares nicely with the cost of my MediaTemple (gs) account.  One of the great things about it was the cost.  Since AN Hosting plans are paid for in advance (either 12 or 24 month plans) you get the same services for less than half the cost of the MediaTemple account.

The control panel that AN Hosting uses doesn’t have quite the same visual polish that the MediaTemple Control Center has.  They both use CPanel, but the interface with MediaTemple is much slicker in comparison.  The only real gripe I have so far with the AN Hosting Cpanel is that I can no longer directly control all aspects of the DNS Zone files the way I could before.  You still have the ability to create MX records, but the other aspects of DNS are handled by the sysadmins.  This is a fairly small issue.

As I get further into the hosting I will write a fuller comparison of the systems and any potential shortcomings that I see.