Since yesterday my server has again been getting absolutely obliterated by AI scrapers. This time, though, load is below 1, but I'm getting up to 10 requests a second and all of my Apache workers are in state "R". "apachectl restart" fixes it... for a while.
What levers do I have to pull on this? E.g. maybe it would be sensible to drop connections if they stay in "R" for more than a couple seconds?
This 12 year old post suggests some sysctl.conf changes, but I have...
https://jwz.org/b/yk0T
Today my server is getting slammed by a very wide botnet that is really interested in such hits as
/var/www/jwz/..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2f..%2fetc%2fpasswd/emacs-timeline.html
Not an AI training bot! How quaint! How retro!
It seems to be associated with something called "bxss dot me" and to them I would like to sincerely say, I hate you please die.
What The Fib.
Every time I notice the layout of LEDs on these spotlights at the club, I cringe. Why, why would you do that!
A square tiling makes sense. A triangular or hexagonal tiling makes more sense. A Fibonacci spiral makes the most sense. But what the absolute clustering-fuck is this shit? This layout gets more cursed the more you look at it.
https://jwz.org/b/yk1X
Car Brain.
There's a lot of stupid in the world, but here's some more. For those of you not in San Francisco: we have an old freeway running right past the ocean. It is falling into the ocean, and for decades had been closed like 20% of the time as...
https://jwz.org/b/yk1T
I don't like to talk in absolutes about security, but... my headphones are 100% immune from the latest exploit, via this One Weird Trick!
Now hear me out...
I call it "eargapping". I learned about it in my Intro to Antique Coding class.
https://jwz.org/b/yk1K
Recent books.
Once again it feels like I read more books than this, but the teetering tower of OSHA violations does not lie. Here are the books that I enjoyed this year, in desk-stack order ...
https://jwz.org/b/yk1I
I clicked on a link to someone dunking on Rob Schneider but I didn't see it because Blewsky told me I have to be logged in to see this post.
And nothing of value was lost.
Today in "Google broke email"
I have just learned that, beginning in 3 days, my employees will no longer be able to receive their work email.
Apparently Google is dropping support for Gmail accounts being able to fetch mail from outside accounts. At all. And they announced this change less than 60 days ago. (The announcement was in the basement, stairs, leopard, etc.)
What I want to accomplish is simple: ...
https://jwz.org/b/yk1C
tl;dr PG&E has been a criminal enterprise operating illegally in San Francisco for well over a century. Eminent Domain PG&E.
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
The great PG&E debacle: A timeline 1898-1997: A deep dive into the scandalous history of the power company, including the Raker Act and Hetch Hetchy dam deal:
https://jwz.org/b/yk00
New euphemism just dropped: "Customer Satisfaction Adjustment" means "Please Don't Eminent Domain Our Corrupt Asses"-bribe. https://www.pge.com/en/account/customer-service/claims.html
All I want for xmas is fiber on 11th Street.
What asshat decided that user name and password should now always be on separate pages? How does this make anything better? Fuck you.
jwz