200 Mbps residential broadband service

Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) recently introduced 200 Mbps symmetrical broadband service to home users. Actually, the broadband services of HKBN is divided into 10M, 25M, 50M, 100M, 200M and 1000M. I don't think there is a need to divide into some many transmission speed levels. 10M, 100M and 1000M would be more logical steps.

One question I have about 200M service is that Ethernent cards work with 100M and most home PCs are not equipped with a gigabit network card. If a user wants to enjoy 200M broadband service, my logical thinking is that he/she has to buy a gigabit ethernet card.

Intuitively, I don't think users can perceive the difference between 100M and 200M in normal web browsing and email activities. If the broadband connection is used for BT and other bandwidth demanding applications, then it would be a different consideration.

Error in Webalizer

Webalizer is a free software for monitoring web traffic and it can compute hit rates and the number of times individual URLs are accessed by reading the httpd log file. After succesful installation, the first time I run webalizer, there was an error message which said :

"Error: Skipping oversized log record"

On checking the httpd log, there is one long line logged as :

"202.81.182.233 - - [07/Apr/2007:13:15:39 +0800] "SEARCH /\x90\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9x\
c9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\
xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9\xc9.....

This is a worm sending extreme long code targetted at IIS web server. After deleting the long line, everything worked normally. Even if I did not delete the long line, webalizer would simply ignore it.

Telnet server

By means of yum, I installed telnet server, but I forgot how to start it. Hopefully, I recall that telnet daemon is controlled by xinetd. Just run
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd start

will put telnet daemon in service. Of course, it is necessary to tell xinetd that telnet should be enable by "chkconfig" or direct edit /etc/xinetd.d/telnet.

One more trick I made is to change the default port 23 of telnet to other alien port number. This is done by editing /etc/services.

Reverse lookup error

I found the following in my server logs :

gethostby*.getanswer: asked for "7.212.72.222.in-addr.arpa IN PTR", got type "A"
gethostby*.getanswer: asked for "138.0.68.222.in-addr.arpa IN PTR", got type "A"
gethostby*.getanswer: asked for "5.64.72.222.in-addr.arpa IN PTR", got type "A"
gethostby*.getanswer: asked for "148.48.69.222.in-addr.arpa IN PTR", got type "A"

It seems that when doing a reverse lookup, the server expected resouce record to be PTR. However, the system administrator make mistake to specify an A record, causing reverse lookup failure. As far as I can recall, reverse lookup failure might deny email and ftp services. It would be nice if some one can alert the system administrator to report the error.

Browsers supporting International Domain Names

I know for some time that both IE 7.0 and Firefox 2.0 can support International Domain Names (IDN). However, I can not think of any web sites operated by Chinese domain names that can help me to verify this functionality. Until recently, I noticed the domain name http://雅虎中國.cn/ is activated. Yes, by browsing 雅虎中國.cn, it is proved that both IE7.0 and Firefox 2.0 can handling the DNS resolution of IDN. Together with Opera, the three most popular web browsers in the world are capable of handling IDN.

A logical question comes to my mind. Can Safari of Apple do the same ?

HTTP Error Code 403.4

If I type http://www.zurichlifeinternational.com/, the web server has intelligence to return a page which tells me that the web site must be accessed by SSL and a preceding https should be before the web address.



Some people might say it is a clever setting and some might say why bother, just redirect to access the same address by https. I tend to support the latter. For the former, I think it has something to do with redirecting to an alert page upon detecting error code 403.4. Just don't know if this is easy to configure in the server side ?

小事看待

內地遊客購物被騙事件，中聯辦副主任李剛勸喻不可當小事看待。

十三億人民一齊收看行騙過程及手法，這當然不會是小事。還有，特區政府要挽救香港是購物天堂的聲譽，這也不會是小事。

E-Bill

My mobile service provider charged me HK$10 per month for the delivery of printed monthly bill by post. Quite unfair to subscribers since this practice has been in use for many years and no charge was imposed in the past. My subscription plan is HK$58 per month covering 500 minutes air time. The HK$10 surcharge will be equivalent to another 100 minutes air time. It leaves me no choice but to drop the billing by post and revert to billing by Email which in short just simply called as E-Bill.

Google Currency Converter

Do you believe Google search engine can function as a currency converter ? If not, look at what I can do in the screen capture below:

TCPview used as a forensics tool

I have used TCPview for over 2 years. Yet I have not realized that it is a forensics tool in Windows system forensics especially in an online environment. The reason is that it tells which ports are opened,established and the remote IP addresses connecting to different ports. The most important information is that it gives which programs are using which ports. This helps to identify the existence of back-door or Trojan horses in online Windows servers.

Surprise, Microsoft TechNet recommends the use of TCPview in conjunction with netstat:
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/TcpView.mspx)

Disclosing Bind Version Number

I have two servers running Bind 9.3.1 and unfortunately bad guys can use the following to check the version number:

$dig @nameserver version.bind txt chaos
;; ANSWER SECTION:
VERSION.BIND. 0 CH TXT "9.3.1"

This is a security risk as hackers can check if the version in use contain buffer overflow vulnerabilities.

A simple work-around remedy is to insert the following in /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf :

options {
version "Not disclosed";
}

Upon the same query, the answer returned is :
;; ANSWER SECTION:
VERSION.BIND. 0 CH TXT "Not disclosed"

I recommend system administrators to do the same for security sake.

CPU Temperature

Can CPU fry an egg ? The answer is yes. In this picture, a guy tried to fold aluminium foil to make a tray and then used copper coins as heat conductor in between the CPU surface and the tray. Within 11 minutes, the egg was readily fried. This demonstration is quite meaningful and it let people know how horrible a CPU is if it is not properly mounted with heat sink and fan.

.cc top level domain

I am amazed by the clever use of the top level domain .cc. Originally, it is a country code domain for Cocos Island. However, people think that .cc can be used to describe commercial company, chinese community, country club or computer community. Here, we have Oriental Daily News already changed the web site name from http://orinetaldaily.com.hk to http://orientaldaily.on.cc. Another example is www.hinet.cc and we see big network operators such as Hinet also treasure the .cc domain.

Defrag trouble in FAT32

My son's PC is having a FAT32 hard disk with 80GB capacity. 70 GB has been used up and the drive has not been defragmented for years. Needless to say a slow access time is found. I tried to use the defrag program of Windows with a hope to reduce scatter fragment but Windows prompted me that at least 15 % of HD space should be available. Shit ! In a 80 GB HD, 12 GB will be sacrified due to poor design of FAT32. This leaves me no choice but to convert the whole HD from FAT32 to NTFS.

ipod charger too expensive

How much is one ipod charger ? It is sold at HK$250.


Actaully, this is far too expensive. I can just use a generic AC USB charger at HK$20 to perform the same recharging function. Apple Inc. should consider lowering the price !

Madonna's Confession Tour

Confession Tour DVD 是非常高水準的制作， 歌曲悅耳，舞蹈精彩。想不到 Madonna 年過四十，還可以一身性感打扮，贏盡台下掌聲。最值得讚賞是一眾舞蹈員，他們可以跳躍得很高、番跟斗、做高難度 hip hop，跟特技人的動作不惶多讓。如此精形的 DVD，再看兩三趟仍不會厭，低買。

notebook with solid-state drive

Now that 1GB flash memory drops to HK$80, I learn that notebook PC manufacturers have started to produce solid-state drive based notebook PC. I don't need to much storage, just 32GB will be OK. What can I expect in performance boost. On the whole, I can think of faster boot up, read/write hundred times faster, higher durability, shock proof, less noise, less weight and less power consumption on the notebook.

Hong Kong - a WiFi city

Hong Kong will shortly become a WiFi city following the Government's pledge to invest about HK$200 million for providing free WiFi access to citizens in all government premises including parks, public libraries and recreational centres. In fact, we are now able to have free Wifi access in the Hong Kong International Airport. PCCW and HKBN are installing WiFi Access Point in major areas in the city but the use is limited to their subscribers only.

As our city will soon be fully WiFi-enabled, I don't think I still have to consider 3G mobile phone service.

My comments on BC31

I have played BC31 four times this week. It is time for me to give comments on this release.

I reckon some changes in BC31. BC31 emphasizes more on techniques, yet we still have the chance to practise high intensity movements. The Capoeira moves (jinga) in the warm up track are really good. Surprise, evasive side-kicks come back again and a new move of double round-house kicks is added. In the Muay Thai track, we have to do 128 round house knees and finally the last power track (track number 8) lasts for over 6 minutes. Track 7 and 8 are really high intensity.

The changes in BC31 are very logical and sensible. Once again, BC 31 release shows that our choreographers have performed a great job in developing the best world-class training programs.

退稅

今年第一份喜悅要算得上是退稅。這一萬五千元有何作為呢 ? 我想這些錢應該足夠購買一台 PS3 加一台 64-bit 桌面電腦連 Windows Vista。如此一說，在2007 年內，遊戲機、手提電話、桌面電腦、手提電腦及其它電子器材應該有很可觀的銷路。消費萬歲，財爺萬歲。