till's blog

This is from last summer (2007). The exhibition was called "PLANET PROCESS" and featured a bunch of streetartists from around the world (see tags on Flickr).

Now I guess I need to work on my stitching and clone stamping (see sky), but since I just started recently, I think I am getting there. Enjoy. More stitching on Flickr.

Last night a friend noticed that using his domain there were a couple spamhosts floating around on the Internet promoting the usual (porn, cialis and the like). We host(ed) his DNS through everydns.net's free service (which aside from one downtime and this incident has been outstanding over maybe six or eight years). It's a free service, powered by donations.

Here is the run-down

The DNS (Domain Name System) is used to map fancy hostnames to IP addresses, so for example whenever you go to www.google.com, the name servers listed on google.com make sure that you are send to the correct computer so you can do your search.

My client's domain: example.org
The spam host: freejoin.example.org

How did it happen?

Everydns.net treats all domains equal, so when we put ns1 through ns4.everydns.net on the domain as authoritative nameservers, the abuser added freejoin.example.org to his account on everydns.net and added a dozen of hosts "beneath" it to advertise their services.

I am surprised that no one had noticed anything like that before.

Solution

In this case we moved the DNS to another server and that fixed the situation for us.

David Ulevitch, the owner/founder of everydns.net, was notified (2008/05/04) prior to writing this blog post and he let me know that the bug is being fixed.

So, I've spent some time this morning reading the comments regarding China over at Hauptstadtblog.de (available in Germany only) and the general tone of all pro-China people commenting on there is:

• China doesn't like people interfering.
• China will remember.
• Learn our language/history and understand our culture! 

So, woah. I think I finally got it. We are not supposed to say anything, basic human rights are not part of your culture and if we still interfere, you will fuck us up economically in the long run?

All cultural differences aside, I really respect most of everything there is in the world. Whatever you do, do it, just don't harm anyone else.

Then again, China wants to do trade with the world and the world is supposed to not pay attention to interior affairs? You want the Olympic Games and expect everyone to just pretend that they don't see? Point taken it happens more than often. Yeah, we buy oil from Saudi Arabia even though they do all kinds of cruel things to people. It's a double-standard. But when the world finally pays attention how can anyone in their sane mind ask them to turn around?

I also fail to see how grown-up Chinese people, despite all the pride they have for their country, do not see this and instead chose to believe propaganda when it's so obvious that your government has more of a dictatorship than anything else. But I guess that is part of their culture and we are not supposed to interfere.

Though Germany is not a 100% perfect, of course I am still proud to be German. And that's because you can express your opinion on anything you want. People are allowed to be left, right, center, liberal, conservative, whatever. Even those Nazis are allowed to express their opinion (as long as they do not deny the Holocaust) - I mean, look at it, even they are allowed to be part of this democracy. Democracy's strongest asset, is also its biggest weakness.

In China you go to a labour camp for writing a critical blog.

So I moved last Friday and I am still unpacking boxes, one at a time. Primarily because I didn't have so much time (work) and I just don't mind.

Last weekend I went out and bought this new couch. This is probably the most colorful piece of anything that I have in my new flat. If you forget about my camo chair for a second, but that is boxed for the most time anyway.

Yeah, it's IKEA. Some people hate IKEA. What can I say, it was dirt cheap and I liked the color. Don't ask me why. It's a fake leather thing (for all you vegans out there ;-)), so there was no harm done to animals producing this couch. Woo!

This is from Gleisdreieck (Berlin), which is an area which almost nothing besides train tracks, a some abandonment and so on. Anyway, this piece is hidden between a railroad and a subway track.

Yeah, I thought we were past frames, but I need this snippet today to make a site that was opened by someone else in a frameset free itself. Free as a bird, free as a bird.

I just found this today. Someone pasted it on IRC and described it as "epic fail", which I guess fits pretty well.

The intriguing part of this is, yes, people are so stupid. I cannot believe it. Seriously, I don't demand super-interest in history from everyone on the planet but just a little bit of it should be part of everyone's general education. No matter if you are a car mechanic or an astronaut (with no intend on judging what is better).

And yes - Nazi Germany hosted the games in 1936 (in Munich) and yes, I believe people need to step up and not let China get away with not only what they are doing in Tibet, but what they are doing to their people in general.

Seeing how Germany acts in this situation makes me sick and I feel so ashamed of the people I voted for because they are obviously spineless opportunist and politicians of the most disgusting type.

Found some pictures from my trip to Tenerife in 2006. I had uploaded some, but now all, or most are on Flickr. I would just love to go back, especially with the weather sucking so much in Berlin right now.