September 2009

There were 43 posts published in September 2009 (this is page 2 of 5).

Unknown bot detected

This morning I was looking through the webserver logs for MT.Net when I noticed the following three successive hits from yesterday:

91.120.21.161 – – [24/Sep/2009:07:34:15 -0400] “GET /category/Checking%20In/ HTTP/1.1” 404 11629 “-” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”
24.77.243.153 – – [24/Sep/2009:07:34:17 -0400] “GET /category/Checking%20In/ HTTP/1.0” 404 11629 “-” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”
200.43.232.165 – – [24/Sep/2009:07:34:22 -0400] “GET /category/Checking%20In/ HTTP/1.0” 404 11629 “-” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”

Highly suspicious, right? Three different IPs hit the same obscure link at the same time, all with identical browser strings?

Then there were these hits from this morning:

77.94.32.33 – – [25/Sep/2009:06:42:14 -0400] “GET /2009/09/22/ HTTP/1.0” 200 15894 “-” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”
77.94.32.33 – – [25/Sep/2009:06:42:27 -0400] “GET /2009/09/23/ HTTP/1.0” 200 17625 “-” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”
77.94.32.33 – – [25/Sep/2009:06:42:34 -0400] “GET /wp-login.php?action=register HTTP/1.0” 200 4141 “-” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”
190.175.0.151 – – [25/Sep/2009:06:43:09 -0400] “GET /wp-login.php?action=register HTTP/1.1” 200 4141 “-” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”

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MT.Net mystery solved

I think I solved the mystery I was seeing on MT.Net, so now I can tell you what happened.

I’m using the SABRE WordPress plugin to block bot users from wreaking havoc on the MT.Net blogosphere. Earlier this week, a supposed bot passed the SABRE math test, so I decided to crank up the CAPTCHA feature of SABRE to further weed out bots. (Now, I don’t know if it actually was a bot that registered or simply some bored Russian, but I wanted to see what the CAPTCHA did anyway.)
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MT.Net maintenance ahead

I found an “unexpected inconsistency” with MT.Net today. Can’t go into details yet but I’ve been pondering it this afternoon and can’t think of any reason it should be occurring.

MT.Net may go dark briefly while I try a few things to fix it. Stay tuned.

Unknown warranty call

I got this car warranty call yesterday from a unknown Caller ID. My efforts to reach a live human being were unsuccessful as I got disconnected when I pressed “0.”

Here’s a recording of the call in case others were interested to hear what these calls sound like. When I get time I’ll add the others I collect.

In like McGuinn

Guitar legend Roger McGuinn is also an accomplished techie, and maintains a blog devoted solely to his various gadgets. Last month, Roger shared his journey into solar power.

What started with the purchase of a small solar panel to charge his cell phone led to him to fully convert his home to solar power. In doing so, he didn’t give up anything but a power bill: he’s got enough juice to power his two refrigerators and 5-ton air conditioner.

An amazing set of alternative-energy rebates and deals are being offered this fall to North Carolina residents. I’ll post about these soon but the deals have me seriously considering following Roger’s lead and putting panels on our roof.

Baking contest judge

mr-creosote

You know the scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life where Mr. Creosote bursts at the seams when offered a “wafer-thin mint?” That’s kind of what it’s like to serve as a baking contest judge: after a while you think the next “wafer-thin mint” might be the one that does you in!

I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I volunteered to act as a judge for the first-annual Mordecai Historic Park baking contest. I was told there would be forty cakes and cookies to judge. I figured that wouldn’t be too bad – until the day arrived and the number of entries had jumped to 62!
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Well, THAT was an interesting 24 hours!

About four o’clock yesterday I’m staring at my computer screen, helping a coworker with a server issue. Suddenly I’m feeling nauseous and thinking it wise to head home. I felt strange when I stopped by the pharmacy on the way home, wondering if anyone noticed I was starting to feel sick.

At home I had a little while to eat dinner before heading out to the East CAC meeting. I skipped all handshaking and sipped water the entire meeting, walking out at one point to (attempt to) empty my stomach.

Then in a freak accident on the way out of the meeting, the city representative who helps me with the CAC slipped in the dark parking lot, broke her leg, and fractured her ankle! Though I was woozy myself, I stayed with her until the paramedics arrived to take her to the hospital. Then I drove her car back to our house, fetched Rocket, and he and I walked back to the park to drive my car home.
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Spam bot figures out SABRE math test

It was bound to happen eventually. This morning a spam bot figured out the math test check that my SABRE plugin was using to filter human website visitors from spam bots. This happened on one of my less-frequented blogs, which actually helped me discover it as that particular blog doesn’t get many registrations.

Looks like now I’ll have to graduate my blog universe to the full-blown CAPTCHA tests if I want to keep the Russian spammers from crashing the MT.Net party.