The ASP.NET application run by bungie just rocks. Its sets the benchmark for everything to come after it. Makes database analysis even seem interesting! Even impressed Scott

Not content with just one xbox? Well, build yourself a cluster. Maybe we should build a compile farm in the office? Here's some simple steps to run Linux on your box.

As I embark on my marathon halo 2 campaign, I thought I'd offer everyone a special wallpaper for today only. Grab it here. There a load of other halo stuff on the mini site which will be extended over the coming months. There even a halo game written in flash that you can play at work.

My radio station will be off air today as will many of my other hosted services as I going be selfish as grab as much bandwidth as possible for my XBox Live connection. Normal service will resume once I collapse from exhaustion later tonight.

For those of all joining me in a day of halo madness, add my gamertag 'solidstore' to ya xbox.

OK, I've had enough of these guys. And from the look of it so have many other people - including silverstr.

I generally approve of all the work going on to rid the world of spam, but these guys are so arrogant. Statements like: nobody with a dynamic ip should be running servers or are incapable.

Dynamic IP are a fact of life! Many BUSINESS broadband accounts provide their customers with fixed ip using long term dynamic leases. Of course they will still end up listed! Network range blocking is not much short of technology discrimination.

Just because my servers run from a residential broadband account does not make them insecure. During the course of my career I've been involved in the networks of many organizations and I can sleep safely knowing that my own boxes are a tight as that of many them (which in a scary side note, is not as tight as you might think).

All I can do about the situation

• is ask for mail server admins not to use this service - you will lose real business otherwise!
• congratulate the masses with their continued DDoS on these guys

There are better blacklist to use, run by organizations with some idea of how the real world operates. I personally use SPF records to limit the addresses spammer can use (not mine basically).

My Individual Stats (solidstore) 

XNE Clan Stats

It's finally here. Halo 2. Well almost. Us European's must wait 2 days for the Thursday release here. The US are already off and running. So that you don't feel left out, here some stuff to look at till Thursday.

The User Manual

The Leaderboard - I bet the early release was too ensure that only Americans topped the charts!

Statistics

Let the killing spree commence!!!! See ya on the field. solidstore.

Bang
Pop
Whoosh
Kaaboom
Crack
Wizz
Fizz
Spark
Flash

Yesterday a colleague gave a presentation that required the use of their laptop for a demo - given that our sales team had nicked the protector we had to resort to using two laptops, each with an external monitor connected. These laptops were connected via Net Meeting - desktop sharing, to give us 4 screens which everyone crowded around.

Today, I saw this. Don't know if it will do the same job, but worth a trial.

Useful list of current threats on the Internet. Includes some network address ranges that you definitely want to block at your firewall.

Current 'Live' INFOCon status

GREEN -- Everything is normal. No significant new threat known.

YELLOW -- We are currently tracking a significant new threat. The impact is either unknown or expected to be minor to the infrastructure. However, local impact could be significant. Users are adviced to take immediate specific action to contain the impact. Example: 'MSBlaster' worm outbreak. 

ORANGE -- A major disruption in connectivity is imminent or in progress. Examples: Code Red on its return, and SQL Slammer worm during its first half day 

RED -- Loss of connectivity across a large part of the internet. 

I've just added some live internet traffic analysis monitoring software to my servers. You can get stats on my inside or outside traffic passing thru my perimeter router.

For those of you who've read any of Dan Brown's novels especially Da Vinci Code or Digital Fortress you might be wondering what all the strange codes/symbols inside & on the book's cover mean. Well - no I wont spoil it for you. Try to figure it out here And only use Google for research (no searching for the solution!)

[Update]: Just figured out the 'GUID' like codes in the back of Digital Fortress & Deception Point - its just as Ian, TJ and myself thought. The code numbers are chapter numbers which gives to a letter from the first word of its opening sentence. Then arrange these letters into a Cesarian grid. And read down the grid.

For a long time now I've been wishing for a realistic solution to Internet access whilst driving or at least when parked somewhere. Mobile phones are too expensive and small. Ever tried blogging more than a single sentence on a phone!

However, this site has again spark my interest with their carbot. This guy's even got a handy install guide for wiring it into you car. Hopefully the current demand for more WiFi hotspots will eventually include most major towns in the UK. Else I guess we have to wait for WiMax in 2006/7.

Following on from the Windows 2000 Security guides, here's the equivlent for Windows 2003 Servers. I have used the settings suggested in this guide on my employers network since Windows 2003 release with great success - some of the users might think too much success as the group policies are alway the first thing to be blamed when strange stuff occurs on the network. By hey, we still running!

How do they collect the fine?

I loath SQL. Here's another example of why:

This wont execute from Query Analyzer

INSERT INTO [dbo].[TB_PROPERTY]([KEY],[STRING_VAL],[SYSOWNED],[msrepl_tran_version])
VALUES ('KEY_NAME', 'IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sysobjects
        WHERE id = OBJECT_ID(''%STORED_PROCEDURE_NAME%'') AND OBJECTPROPERTY(id, ''IsProcedure'') = 1)
    DROP PROCEDURE [dbo].[%STORED_PROCEDURE_NAME%]
GO', 1, '2A3AD395-E4A4-4875-BF77-BF64F00A0A52' )
GO

It seems that QA detects the GO statement inside the quoted string and refuses to continue. A 'GO' string that begins on a new line is always interpreted as a keyword even if inside a string! Doh!