9 Oct 2005 richdawe   » (Journeyer)

Auto-blackholeing zombies

A while ago I had the idea of having netfilter automatically blackhole any traffic from zombies. A module would automatically check Spamhaus's XBL and throw away the traffic. Or send RSTs.

A slightly more friendly alternative is to redirect HTTP traffic from that IP address to a web page explaining that the user needs to clean their computer.

I have no idea if this is possible with netfilter, never having played with it. I'm finding it hard to get free time to investigate this, so I'm recording this idea here for posterity.

"Agile Software Development In The Large"

I finally finished reading "Agile Software Development In The Large: Diving Into the Deep" by Jutta Eckstein, which I've been reading since April, when I bought it at ACCU 2005.

Mostly I bought it to find out more about Agile programming, but it seems jam-packed with sensible advice, like "Peopleware" by Tom Demarco. It's very readable, interspersed by useful real-world examples of how to apply the advice.

My only criticism is that I still have no idea what Agile Programming is. From that I conclude a few things:

  1. Agile Programming isn't one thing, it's a collection of methodologies - Extreme Programming, Scrum, other methods. (Well, duh, I'm sure I knew that before I read the book. I guess I expected to find it was some other magical thing.)
  2. I may have already been doing a number of the things that make up Agile Programming. Sprints seem familiar, although I don't think I involved customers to the extent required by Agile Programming methodologies.
  3. I haven't had enough experience to really get this book yet.

Point 3 is the crux. Time to experiment a bit with it.

TV...

...or why I may finally get a TV. More4 on the free-to-view broadcast Digital TV is going to show the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. That guy is a legend.

Music

"X&Y" by Coldplay

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