It’s easy to blame outside factors when your network systems go a bit odd, but it’s a good idea to make sure it really isn’t your stuff that’s gone decidedly weird first. So this morning, some of my colleagues and I spent a while prodding our DNS servers with a stick* to see why Google, Apple and Yahoo domains kept bouncing up and down. The common factor was that they all used Akamai’s DNS.

It looks like our theory was correct: Akamai DNS problem affected large sites

The worrying aspect of this is that so many large sites were depending on one company. The title of this Metafilter item is very apt: A Couple of Large Pieces, Joined at the Hip** Commercial pressures are making the Internet’s low level structure too linear and prone to failures, and software and service monocultures (Apache and Bind for instance) are weakening the higher levels.

Or maybe I just worry about these things too much.

(* Not literally.) (** As opposed to the design ideal of ‘small pieces, loosely joined’)

Since someone was either trolling or honestly offended by the item I wrote a couple of years ago about me realising my own growing snobbishness “It’s Grim Up North (Shields)”, I’ve removed it. I’ve got nothing against goths or large men with tattoos. (I do have something against cinema websites with incorrect information though). I just can’t be bothered responding anymore. The title of the item referred to a cartoon strip in Private Eye, the target of the item’s criticism was me, written when I’d been having a bad time.

Gentoo Linux is a Linux distribution that frowns on binary software - everything is compiled as it is installed. This can take a while. It has a legion of vocal fans who are now making even Debian and FreeBSD users seem un-smug by comparison.

I’ve been getting less enthusiastic about Gentoo ever since I first read about it. It’s a neat idea, but I haven’t actually tried it yet, I admit. I haven’t got round to installing Mandrake 10 yet either, for the same reason - I don’t have the time. I don’t have the need.

If I need a particular application optimised for my particular use for it, I’ll compile it. Things like SleepyCat’s database, or OpenLDAP. When I need to, I’ll compile my own kernels. I just don’t think I’m going to be on this planet long enough to spare 10 hours watching KDE compile if I can get a set of peer tested packages installed in a few minutes.

Gentoo can be educational, it’s a good demonstration of what open source can do. But I think a lot of its users might grow out of it, when they realise that running someone’s make script isn’t quite so exciting any more.

Link: GENTOO is Rice Silly quotes from daft Gentoo kids Link: Mandrake Expatriate Syndrome A good explanation: Mandrake drove them to it.

(Sam has almost persuaded me to switch to a BSD…)

So, dressing like an abused Abu Ghraib prisoner is the same as making a bomb threat. It’s common sense!

Link: If only heíd put womenís underwear on his head instead …

The amount of Russian(?) spam I receive has been steadily rising over the last couple of weeks. Today I had nine spams in total. Four were caught, five got through to my inbox. All were entirely cyrilic. Puzzling.

Gosh.

Link: The Perl Spectrum Emulator

Amazingly, the USA’s government is continuing to demand immunity from international war crime laws. And it will get it too: “The US secured the UN’s agreement by threatening to veto all its peacekeeping operations.”

Since the USA is effectively doing whatever it wants, becoming the de facto World Government, shouldn’t everyone in the world be given the right to vote in USA Presidential elections? Maybe we should dump tea into harbours to protest our lack of representation.

Link: US demands war crimes immunity

We went to watch the Wesak Day ceremony in Piccadilly Gardens today, which was slightly surreal (at one point a senior monk was talking about world peace while a cleaning machine nearby drowned his voice) but very interesting and, well, nice. Lots of fried noodles and Thai ice drinks too, and big veggie hotdogs. It was a good idea and I hope they do it next year too.

A. joined in and ‘bathed The Buddha’, and was given a cup of “nectar”. I was too embarrassed - I’m too much the grumpy not-joining-in type.

The “Pray for peace” banners seemed to dominate the “Buddha’s Birthday” banner, which seemed to give a lot of passers-by the wrong impression. We didn’t stay for the dragon/lion dance (no idea which), kung-fu and other events.

Link: Wesak Day

My sister and I went to see Noam Chomsky give a talk in Manchester today, to a crowd of about 1000 people. It was a typical Chomsky topic, but he had a very engaging style, and subtle, dry humor. One of the things I find amusing in Chomsky’s writing is that certain facts and phrases always crop up. Today we had to wait until the questions and answers session before he managed to slightly digress and get in all the mandatory bits. A Chomsky drinking game or bingo board might just work… I’ve been looking forward to this talk for six months or so, and it didn’t disappoint.

One strange thing is that, according to rumor, Chomsky’s hosts took him out for lunch, not at one of Manchester’s many excellent ethical/organic/veggie restaurants, but “Harvey Nicks”! I suppose he would have been able to eat unrecognised and unhassled.

Pictures of cats watching cats watching cats watching cats watching cats, etc. Like this.

Link: The Infinite Cat Project