Scripts and Spam and Web Site Income

Been working on a vbscript program that checks the update and anti-virus status of a group of computers, storing that info in a nice html file. Almost finished; testing takes about 10 minutes, since it talks to a whole 'Class C' IP address range.


And monitoring the anti-spam mail system. There's a bit more spam that has slipped through our defenses, and it's difficult to stop those. We've been pretty successful in spam filtering in the past.


Our users might be a bit spoiled, though. I get complaints if just a few (under 10) spams slip through each day.We're blocking 94% of all messages (about 600K a day) as spam. That's up a bit from the 90% a month ago. Still pretty impressive, though.


And still working on my latest secret money-making web site. Using some free (GPL) software, but there seems to be minimal support of one of the modules I need to use. I may have to delve deeper in the PHP code to fix things.

Murphy's Law

Here's a starting point for some wasted time: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Murphy .

Although some are funny, and most are true.

These might be appropriate for any weekend projects:

• Any tool dropped in a workshop will roll to the least accessable corner. Any object dropped on the way to the least accessable corner will land on your toe.
• Anything you try to fix will take longer and cost you more than you thought.

My addition to those: "Any project will require at least three trips to the hardware store." I've been bit by that one several times.

As seen by my Home Depot bills.

Back in the Saddle

A nice week off last week, the usual trip down to Oceanside. Good timing: the weather in the Central CA valley was in the 100's, and the temps in Oceanside stayed around 70-75. Lots of relaxation; reading books on the balcony overlooking the pool and ocean beach. The usual surfing the 'net (don't do ocean surfing).

Oceanside is just outside the US Marine camp at Camp Pendleton. There is also a Navy base there. On Saturday, there was a "Navy Appreciation Day". We were awakened at about 7am with a loud noise that sounded like an army of leaf blowers. It was a big Navy hovercraft that landed on the beach right next to the Oceanside Pier. Quite impressive (and loud).

But mostly a quiet time for relaxation. A bit of reflection on the events of the past year.

And a return to work, with some interesting remote computer forensics tasks and processes. But looking forward to a three-day weekend.

Friday Means More Mail Monitoring and Less Privacy

Friday is here! (Yay!) Today's project list includes proving to another department that their firewall is blocking all their email we send them, and the problem is not our mail servers. Some more testing on McAfee AntiVirus installation and policy changes.

And another erosion of privacy rights by the US Customs and Border Protection guys. More info on my Security Dawg site www.securitydawg.com .

Weekend plans? More cleanup at the mother-in-law's house, a minor almost-clog in the shower drain, and a nap or two.