Oh Dear poor facebook!

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Facebook appears to be unavailable for many users, our office included.

This looks like a DNS issue, looking up www.facebook.com reveals no answer, but facebook.com does resolve.

So I added this to my hosts file[1], its one of the addresses for facebook.com, and it all came rumbling back.
(update, I've updated the line to include the login hostname)

69.63.181.11 www.facebook.com login.facebook.com

Facebook.. if you're listening, fix your DNS, and you owe me!

[1] Windows users, use notepad, you'll find that file here:
C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Just copy'n'paste the line at the end

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note to self, how to use your favourite editor for the crontab without changing it permanently

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I like to use nano to edit the crontab, but I don't want to change the default editor.
(Some people are very un-funny about that kind of thing!)

This is the one-liner to use nano, and I seldom remember it.

env EDITOR=nano crontab -e

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note to self, how to make a mysql instance read-only

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Another piece of DBA hoodoo that I seldom need!

SELECT @@global.read_only;
SET GLOBAL read_only=1;
SELECT @@global.read_only;

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note to self, how to skip a mysql replication error

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Another one that I have to google every time.
Not being a DBA I don't do this very often, but now and again I find myself in the Hot Seat.

SET GLOBAL SQL_SLAVE_SKIP_COUNTER=1;
START SLAVE;
SHOW SLAVE STATUS;

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note to self, how to convert pfx to pem without passphrase

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I do this so infrequently that I always have to google it.
Now I can search my own blog!
openssl pkcs12 -in mycert.pfx -out certificate.cer -nodes

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I've been Scammed! (not really... but he tried his best)

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Be safe.. the following describes an attempt to scam me into giving someone remote access to my PC, I was in a playful mood so I strung him along, don't you do that same thing unless you *know* what you're doing. And above all never let anyone remotely access your pc unless you're 100% sure that you ant them to.

I just got a call from a company calling themselves "virtual pc doctor".
He said that I was being called because I was a microsoft registered user.

The guy got me to log into my pc.

Then we clicked the start button and he got me to tell him if it said "computer" or "my computer".

Then we looked at the event viewer, he told me that the errors and warnings were some kind of dire "online infections" that can't be detected by anti-virus.

Woo, scary techno-shit, I thought (not!)

Then he asked me to open www.logmein123.com.

I didn't. I googled it instead.

He told me that a technician would log in, and cure these infections and install a "gateway" which would prevent further infections.

At this point I challenged him about the "online infections" and told him that I didn't think "dhcp client cannot obtain address" was very serious at all.

He said that if I thought that then that was my choice, but my computer could be irreperable damaged.

"oh!" I said, "how?"

"by corrupting the harddrive and the operating system" said he,

"OH!" I said, "Thats, bad. But what kind of software is capable of damanging the hardware? I can just re-install windows can't I?"

"No, because this is new, in the past few weeks, thats why we are giving you the call"

So I asked him where his company was located, and when he said the UK I asked him for registration details.

He Rang Off.

I reported the scam to trading standards.

If he calls you, hang up and report it yourself. Be safe!

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