Very nice. Very nice indeed. I’ve been using beta 1 since it came out and this is a considerable improvement.

They’ve done some work on the look (icons and such), and it seems to be a bit faster as well. Definitely check it out if you’re into the beta thing.

It’s only in 2GB right now, but as soon as they upgrade to 4GB I’m getting one. I can’t stand having my current one floating around free in my pocket, and most with a keychain anchor put it on the lid rather than on the drive.

Yeah, this one looks sweet.

Image: A Geek Flat

Anyone into physics needs to check out this explanation of the classic particle vs. wave light phenomenon:

VIDEO: Is Light a Particle or a Wave?

Only this one is more lamerer. This will take a list of words from a list you provide and append them to the front of a provided domain to see if they are valid hostnames. The idea is that you can then cat the output into a master list of things to scan:

hostfind.tar.bz2 hostfind.tar.bz2.sha1 hostfind.tar.bz2.sha1.asc

It took me nearly as long to package this thing as it did to write it. Unfortunately, the packaging is way more leet than the program itself — kind of lame considering there’s no README or anything…

I was working under the idea of, “if you make bzipped tarball of a 10 line shell script and sign it, it’s real software.” Turns out that’s not the case. I checked it again after I got done packaging it and it was still useless.

Anyway, I’m going to be incorporating this “module” into my bigger mst project, which is actually halfway decent in terms of being a time-saver (unlike this hideous token of boredom).

[The really sad part is that I use blog posts like this one as an archive system so that I can find this stuff later. I have plenty of places to put it where it won't get lost, but being able to search for it on my site is just too convenient.]

Here’s a snip from a forum question that I’m getting ready to write a little piece on. My response is crude, but my next version of the response will be more intelligent.

So my question is: If you have plenty of public IP addresses, is there any reason (from a security perspective) that you should still NAT your host IP addresses?

With private addresses you have an extra step that must actively be carried out. If you don’t do the NAT’ing it then by default nothing will make it to those hosts to the Internet.

In other words, with routable addresses, the default configuration takes Internet traffic to your DMZ hosts, whereas with NAT’ing there’s an extra piece that’s needed.

Think of it as two layers — knowing where to send Internet traffic, and determining whether it’s allowed or not. Well, with routable addresses any request to a port on a DMZ host knows where to go — right to the host. But if you use granular NAT rules you won’t have that. You can say, for example:

external1:80 –> internal1:80

Notice how specific that is. A connection to port 110 on external1 won’t take the traffic anywhere inside. :) With routable addresses, that traffic goes inside by default and it’s up to filtering to stop it.

I prefer it the other way, where you have to explicitly allow specific host:port translations. Perhaps he has a good point about the complexity not being worth it, though — it’s up to you guys to quantify the cost vs. benefit of doing this.

But to answer your question — yes, there is a benefit security-wise, but it’s mostly based on countering human weakness, i.e. poor configuration. You can attain the same security level using filtering; it’s just that that many don’t.

---

You guys have anything to add as far as benefits of using NAT vs. public IPs?

If you’re a geek like me, your books are a source of pride and joy. For those who love reading and learning, your book collection is something to be cherished and displayed. What follows is the best way I’ve found to inventory and search your collection.

Archiving

The best resource I’ve found for inventorying your books is LibraryThing.com. Using this amazing resource you can import your books and have them displayed beautifully, with all the information you could possibly want on each entry. The system uses a database that’s linked with Amazon as well as dozens of other sources. The sheer number of options is staggering; you can tag your books, compare collections with other LibraryThing users, and even connect with others that have similar interests.

Searching Your Library

Being able to find what you’re looking for in a large collection is a must, and I’ve come up with a pretty cool way to search my library without even navigating to the main LibraryThing website. Using Firefox Quicksearches you can actually search your entire book collection right from the Firefox address bar. Here’s how you set it up:

1. Create a LibraryThing account and add some of your books
2. Go to your library and right-click inside your search field
   
3. Name the search and add a keyword for it, such as “books”
   
4. Once you’ve saved the bookmark, go into your bookmark management and edit the bookmark’s location field with the following url:

   http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=danielrm26 &view=danielrm26&searchmode=Books&searchbox=%s&searchButton=Search

5. Replace my username with your own (red)
6. You’re done. Now, from Firefox’s address bar, type:

   books $searchterm

   You’re instantly taken to LibraryThing.com and shown all of your books relating to your searchterm. Repeat as desired.

Searching On The Go

Ever been in the bookstore looking at a particular selection and been unsure about whether you had it already? Well, LibraryThing puts and end to that as well.

Naviage to http://www.librarything.com/m from any web-enabled device, enter your username, and you can search your books before making the purchase.

Enjoy.:

There’s a problem with Reddit and Digg, but it’s not what you’ve been hearing. It’s not the spammers, and it’s not the voting systems. The real issue is that people don’t know the difference between legitimate promoting of one’s own original content and blogwhoring or blogspamming.

Most think blogspamming is when you repeatedly post links to your own original content, hosted on your own website. But that’s not it; blogspamming is when you take someone else’s content, put it on your site, and then post the link to YOUR page instead of the original source. It’s truly disgusting behavior.

The difference is massive, and the survival of sites like Reddit depends directly on people understanding this.

The Idea Bazaar

The Internet’s most beautiful trait is its ability to rapidly propagate good ideas, regardless of source. It’s much like a traditional, open marketplace where people bring the pottery, clothing, woodwork, etc. and ask their peers to look at it. Or, even better, it’s like open-mic night in front of billions of people.

Hello, everyone. This is a poem I’ve written. Or here’s a short story I just finished. I hope you like it…

This is what the Internet’s about, and I think Digg and Reddit should be more open to this philosophy. We shouldn’t penalize people for offering their own original content to the world.

Writers submit their work to publishers; they don’t wait for it to be found. Artisans have shows and invite lots of people. Academics submit to their respective journals. Submitting original content for peer review is an absolute must in a society that values progress.

Sites that are based on a constant influx of quality content need to adopt a mantra of judging offerings based on only two things: originality and merit. Any would-be resource that fails to grasp this (or later forgets it) is doomed to fail.

– [And yes, it's pretty obvious from the post that this has happened to me before, but this isn't a bitterness issue. I speak partly because I'm guilty of it too -- being quick to judge based on things other than content.]

I’ve posted about this before, but if you are a reader and don’t use LibraryThing.com — you’re missing out.

LibraryThing lets you archive, rate, and search your books, as well as compare your collections to those of others. It’s totally amazing. I just signed up for the life membership for just $25.

Seriously, go check it out.

LibraryThing.com

About LibraryThing.com

LibraryThing.com Zeitgeist

My Library

(** Oh, and the coolest feature? http://librarything.com/m lets you check whether or not you have a book from your phone/pda while you’re in the bookstore)

That really is the best title for this story.