Wow. A lot has transpired since the last diary entry. I may never make another, who knows.

Here's the general skivvy:

• I started consulting on my own, creating Free Daemon Consulting and am still working on making Free Daemon Hosting ready for ``production''.
• I have started using de.lirio.us, a free (as in code and use) version of de.licio.us, so follow the rss feed from there or any tag of mine you find interesting. Social bookmarking seems rather useful from a practical sense (I use multiple browsers) and most of the bookmarks I make are useful for others as well ;-)
• I envisioned a compression algorithm based on hashes, which is mathematically broken, but I am either insane or just convinced that there is some practical application somewhere for this. See Hash Zip.
• I am maintainer of 23 ports in the OpenBSD ports tree, more to come.
• I started using evolution for mail reading, still prefer it, but it became clear that it was too buggy for general use (especially 2.2.x) on OpenBSD/i386 so I switched to Mozilla Thunderbird. Still a few features I sorely miss (like filtering on selected messages) but at least it does not crash!

In any event, if you know of someone who has a UNIX installation, or would like to have one, and needs a consultant, consider referring me. I have been supporting myself, my wife, and my desire to work on Free Software for 2.5 years now by consulting. A lifetime would not be enough time to do all the work I would like to get done, both paid and unpaid. Viva la source!

Yesterday was a change I will never forget. I am no longer employed.

So far, my network of friends has been quite useful in pointing me to potential jobs, with the variety including east coast, west coast, Canada, and everything inbetween. That said, if you feel you might be interested in employing me, feel free to stop by and pickup a copy of my resumé; even if you cannot offer me employment, I'm open to hearing any feedback or advice. Thanks!

Ugh. How broken can dns be?

root servers say:

66.in-addr.arpa. NS *.arin.net.

Arin says:

210.66.in-addr.arpa. NS *.cox.net.

Cox says:

106.210.66.in-addr.arpa. NS *.coxinet.net.

CoxInet says:

106.210.66.in-addr.arpa. NS ns.theshop.net.

TheShop says (per my request):

26.106.210.66.in-addr.arpa. CNAME 66.210.106.26.pt.fries.net.

I say:

66.210.106.26.pt.fries.net. PTR ns0.fries.net.

Everybody sees:

todd:$ host 66.210.106.26

Host 66.106.210.66.in-addr.arpa not found: 2(SERVFAIL)

todd:$

So I have to do this as a workaround:

todd:$ cat bin/seed_dns.sh

for i in 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

do

for h in dns{1,2}.coxinet.net ns.{,east.,west.}cox.net

do

host 66.210.106.$i $h

done

done

todd:$

UUUUUUGH!

Today is a good day to try out OpenCM.

If you have OpenBSD, I've made a port so you can get started.

Wow, I'm in opencm news. I thought I replied about a port fast, but didn't realize it was within 2 hours of the release.

The world does not always, and often does not, appreciate those that do it favors.

Consider sshd and privelege separation. As we are in the time when vendors and developers need to assist in making privelege separation work for all, many critics and nay-sayers are suggesting alternate agendas for the lack of disclosure on the bug that can be kept at bay through privelege separation.

Let us see this for what it is. The reality we face is:

1. bug is discovered
2. choice made to delay full disclosure so everyone has an opportunity to be safe
3. announcement of privelege separation as a safe and recommended upgrade
4. time delay to allow for security upgrades
5. full disclosure of the bug, the alert are safe

There are those who are calling for this scenario:

1. bug is discovered
2. full disclosure, including bugfix
3. privelege separation is suggested as a way to avoid future bugs
4. many people caught off guard, and exploited

I know which scenario I like better. Unfortunately, unhappy people would suggest otherwise. *sigh*.