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§ Actiontec M1000 DSL modem security

I used to use an Actiontec GT701 DSL modem.  Since my entire livelihood depends on my internet access, I got a little nervous when some odd things started happening.  As it happened, a friend was having trials with the phone company getting her DSL to work, and was advised to try the Actiontec M1000.  Still no go, so I tested her modem here and it worked nicely.  (That was all the phone company's fault, and after getting escalated a few times, I believe they were a bit embarrassed.)  So I looked around and found a slightly used M1000 (with wireless) for about $30!  (I don't want the wireless - I use Airport.  Being an Apple product, it's actually comprehensible to mere mortals like myself.)  But after a few days, weird things started happening with the M1000...

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§ Don't AJAX an image!

Using AJAX is fine when you need it, but I've used AJAX to simply reload CAPTCHA images.  Boy, some people are dumb!  Me, in particular.

UPDATE:  I'm dumber than I thought...

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§ Adventures with Ubuntu 9.10 on G4 Yikes!

I have an Apple G4 Yikes! (or PCI Graphics) that I've loved for years.  I ran Jaguar, then Panther, and it currently runs Tiger well enough to suit me.  I got a G5 a while back, so this box got sort of retired, until I picked up some contract work doing websites.  Since I had a whole new set of emails, chat sessions, VOIP, invoices, etc., etc., I turned on my trusty Yikes! and devoted it to all of that stuff for that job.

When I stopped working that contract, my poor old G4 started getting lonely again.  So, the other day I thought maybe I should use it to try Linux again.  I've looked at Linux a number of times through the years, for various reasons, including on old Macs, but never quite got sucked in to being a convert.

"I keep hearing good things about Ubuntu," I thought, "so I think I'll try it; this'll be fun!"

That depends on your definition of fun...

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§ Software that leaves a mess

The other day, my WinXP machine kept bringing up the "let's clean up your hard drive" wizard, which I kept closing.  I finally realized that Explorer claimed that I had 0 bytes available on my system drive!  "Impossible," I thought, "what's wrong now?!  A virus?"  Not quite...

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The first principle of the military analyst is to figure out how the enemy can hurt you worst with his known capabilities and then plan to stop him, not hope he won’t try it.
Early Honor Harrington series, David Weber