Search Results for: node/SSCC children police

Hosting Issues

So I have had this hosting provider since 2005 and they have been bought out a couple times.  Some of the pluses though include the fact my email is hosted in Exchange, unlimited disk space, and supposed unlimited bandwidth (found that today).  I have never had any issues at all requiring extensive customer support until this past week.

Starting last week Windows Live Writer stopped posting correctly to my blog.  It had happened intermittently previously and I figured it was another glitch.  After the issue didn’t clear in 24 hours to the support console I went.

Date Type
09/15/2011 12:10 AM EDT Ticket Created
09/15/2011 12:10 AM EDT TMM contacted PowWeb
Subject:

Problems with libXML2

Customer Quote:

Earlier this year I started using XMLRPC to post content to my blog. Start in July I had incidents where posts would have the tags brackets(<>) stripped off. I ignored it figuring it was a glitch when it started working a couple days later. 

Starting about the middle of last week though this issue has become permanent. While I was normally easily able to work around it, the work around fails when I am posting images. 

Have there been any changes to the server configuration recently? 

I know it was not caused by a site configuration change because 3 other sites all exhibit the same behavior that are not used as frequently. 

Currently this is still just in the annoyance category, but as I start needing to put more pictures in content its’ going to increase on my ladder. 

All assistance I could find online pointed to server configuration with PHP version and libXML version issues. 

Thank you, 

TMM

09/15/2011 4:00 AM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/15/2011 7:53 AM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/15/2011 8:51 AM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/15/2011 9:50 AM EDT PowWeb contacted TMM
Subject:

[P08757884000000000] Problems with libXML2

Comment:

Hello, 

Thank you for contacting Support. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. In order to further investigate on your issue, please get back to us with the following information: 

1) Exact steps to duplicate your issue. 

2) URL of the page. 

3) WordPress username and password. 

Thank you! 

Sincerely, 

Kaila Pearson 

Customer Support

09/15/2011 9:19 PM EDT TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:

Drupal User Info: 

Username: TestUser 

Password:

URL: http://www.the-minuteman.org Full URL varies based on post title, it happens when content is published or sent as a draft to the server. Reproduction steps below show how to make it appear on the front page. 

Reproduction steps: 

1) Configure Windows Live Writer for an “Other services” blog and point to http://www.the-minuteman.org 

2) During configuration tell it to identify the blog theme. 

3) At this point configuration will hang because the post displayed on the front page website (http://www.the-minuteman.org) is incorrect. For example I get the following: 

pThis is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (1eb91935-d1da-4e9a-85fd-82ce1220f24d – 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)/p 

This should actually be: 

<p>This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (1eb91935-d1da-4e9a-85fd-82ce1220f24d – 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)</p> 

But the tags were stripped, and the inner text passed through as part of the blog post text. 

Alternatively, you can skip the theme detection and attempt to post to the blog through Live Writer. The content within the post will exhibit the same loss of tags. 

Draft posts can be open and viewed from this listing: 

http://www.the-minuteman.org/admin/content/node 

For some reason the tags are being stripped off and every piece of information I have found points to server configuration, not blog software.

09/15/2011 9:30 PM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/15/2011 10:54 PM EDT PowWeb contacted TMM
Subject:

[P08757884000000000] Problems with libXML2

Comment:

Hello, 

Thank you for contacting Support. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Could you please get back us with the exact URL where you are trying to login to Drupal admin page, so that we can assist you further. 

Please reply to this email with the requested information, so that we can assist you further. 

Sincerely, 

Riley Malson 

Customer Support

09/16/2011 12:26 AM EDT TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:

This is not tied to my Drupal web browser interface but the XML-RPC interface that different external programs use to post content. 

The symptoms of the failure are visible on my blog. Here is an example post that failed. 

http://www.the-minuteman.org/content/2011/September/15/failed-test-post-TMM 

09/16/2011 12:27 AM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/16/2011 12:41 AM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/16/2011 12:41 AM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/16/2011 2:31 AM EDT PowWeb contacted TMM (Resolved)
Comment:

Hello, 

In order to further investigate, could you please get back to us with the Drupal admin login details. 

If you have any further questions, please update the Support Console. 

Sincerely, 

Mae Silva 

Technical Specialist

09/16/2011 8:24 PM EDT TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:

Here is the primary user account information: 

Username: TMM 

Password:

09/16/2011 8:44 PM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/16/2011 9:49 PM EDT PowWeb contacted TMM (Resolved)
Comment:

Hello, 

Thank you for your reply. 

I have checked there is no error logs to investigate further on this issue. Since Drupal is the third party application I suggest you to contact the vendor of the application. 

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reply through Support Console. We are available 24×7. 

Sincerely, 

Neville Kodner 

Technical Specialist

09/17/2011 1:26 AM EDT TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:

I have investigated the drupal forums regarding this issue and I have gone one step further and mirrored my site on to a local development server I use for updates. 

The mirrored version of my site, a fresh copy of files and snapshot of the database, placed within my test environment works as it should. I fail to see how this is my blog software or site configuration when I can turn the problem on and off by placing it on my test server here or uploading it to Powweb. 

Not to mention the fact that it was running reliably at the beginning of August and I have not done any changes to configuration other than unrelated module updates. The issue also has seemed to come and go, finally becoming permanent over the past week. I initially ignored it thinking it was a glitch because it would come back later. 

All information I have been able to find regarding this type of issue online points again to the web services host, not the drupal software. 

My test server is running PHP 5.3.2 

Apache 2.2.14 

SQL Version 5.1.46 

Here is the exact error in the Drupal forums: 

http://drupal.org/node/415566 

Here is a similar issue in the Drupal forums: 

http://drupal.org/node/347298#comment-1209085 

http://drupal.org/node/347298#comment-1295684 

I’m confused though since you guys are running 5.2.17 and the issues reported were with 5.2.8. However this has turned on and off entirely on it’s own on your servers with my altering absolutely nothing in the configuration or settings within my blog. Meaning something changed in the hosting configuration. 

There are no error logs because it is a function erroneously stripping out data that it should not. Drupal gets a result from a function call that it thinks is correct but is in fact wrong.

09/17/2011 1:28 AM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/17/2011 1:37 AM EDT PowWeb contacted TMM (Resolved)
Comment:

Hello, 

Thank you for your reply. 

We support PHP version 5.2.17, Apache version 1.3.33 and MySQ version 5.0.45. 

If you have any further questions, please update the Support Console. 

Sincerely, 

Ariel Danson 

Technical Specialist

09/17/2011 1:42 AM EDT TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:

Has your supported versions changed since June? Something has changed and it doesn’t appear to be by my hand. I created a virgin test site and it is having the same problems. 

I have been using Windows Live Writer since January without issue until about the middle of last month.

09/17/2011 1:42 AM EDT Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/17/2011 1:46 AM EDT PowWeb contacted TMM (Resolved)
Comment:

Hello, 

Thank you for getting back to us. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We have not changed the supported version recently. Please reinstall the application or contact the application provider to fix the issue. 

Thank you! 

Sincerely, 

Aden Nelson 

Technical Specialist

So maybe I’ve been spoiled by the company I work for by the fact that we think customer service is a big deal.  Ownership of a problem is a big deal.  Making sure the customers problem is solved is a big deal.  Getting to root cause is a big deal.  Notice how it was marked resolved long before anything was actually solved.  Very quickly they blamed it on third party software without any actual proof.

This company has totally shifted the blame for the problem from them to me. Ignoring the fact that this has happened on two independent Drupal installs who’s configurations haven’t changed.  No single individual took lead to deal with this problem and just bounced it around.  I’m stuck copying and pasting the source code from WLW into the submission form in Drupal.  Any pictures I want to submit become an arm twisting game of getting the URL correct to point to the image if I’m uploading it.

I just checked, I have prepaid 2 years of hosting starting in Nov 2010.  That gives me a year to come up with a new hosting solution and a solid game plane for site and email migration.  I will actually probably move earlier because I pay per month for my Exchange hosting and if I can find it cheaper, that’s money back in my pocket that I haven’t spent yet.

In the past I was more than happy to recommend Powweb to friends but given the first time I really had a serious issue and support utterly face planted.

If anyone has any input on what the problem might be, here’s an example of what happens when I submit through WLW currently.  I have disabled the TestUser account, and regenerated a new site password for myself since they think this issue is resolved they no longer require access.  Keypass makes stuff like this much easier to handle.  I am NOT going to close this ticket until I find a resolution to this problem.  WLW worked without issue from January to the beginning of August.  At which point I had a few flaky issues, but they always came back.  Then last week it died permanently.

I am going to continue posting new content, I won’t be putting many of my own pictures up except through my photo gallery.

So I am all ears on good hosting providers that support PHP, MySQL, and Exchange services.  I’ve got time and if I move early I’ve got some side sites that can live out there that can die around November 2012.  I know I could host myself, my bandwidth out in BFE though isn’t that great and I hate general IT maintenance with a passion.  So fellow bloggers, what would you recommend.

I’d say I told you so…

But what’s the point? The people who realize that using Javascript for everything is a bad idea don’t need me lecturing them. The people who want to use Javascript for everything couldn’t create a secure system, much less understand the realities of a hostile environment if their life depended on it. Their fandom precedes the ability for critical thinking.

This is why when I read this, this morning;

This impacts Node at the Buffer to UTF8 String conversion and can cause a process to crash. The security concern comes from the fact that a lot of data from outside of an application is delivered to Node via this mechanism which means that users can potentially deliver specially crafted input data that can cause an application to crash when it goes through this path.

I said, “And nothing will change.” At least, as a minor saving grace, HTTP(S) headers do not fall vulnerable to this particular bug, but that’s mainly the headers there is question to the remainder of the processing.

The fact is, nothing is perfect, nothing is fool-proof, and frankly my hate for Javascript is largely due to the people I find who fall over themselves defending it. Does it serve a purpose? Yup, you bet. Is is a hammer that should be used while seeing every problem as a nail? Absolutely NOT.

 

I’m sure someone’s fuming

So I’m sure our opponents will go into PSH over the following:

The four hour course, which will be held this Saturday, January 12th, is recommended for children who received a new BB gun, shotgun or hunting rifle for Christmas or for those who may already have a gun.

Sheriff Steve Prator told Shreveport Times, “Children who will receive a gun for Christmas can try it for the first time in front of certified law enforcement academy firearms instructors.

That’s right folks, a Sheriff’s department is offering free firearms training to kids.  But it gets better, to cover the costs of the training some different sources have stepped up to the plate.

The course is free and is sponsored by donations from local citizens, Walmart, and local wholesalers.  Children without a gun can use a gun that will be supplied by the academy, according to Shreveport Times.

I’m sure our opponents are screaming how Walmart and other businesses should be buying back the guns from the kids.  How that if we keep them hidden and out of sight children will never find them or be curious about them.  At the same time though these individuals are more than happy to have them go through sex education, because you “know kids are curious and not talking about it won’t do anything to solve the problem.”

I’m sure someone else will scream how it’s insensitive given the recent school shootings, blah de blah blah blah.  At which point their hood and veil come off.  We see right through their lies into the bell of the beast.  This isn’t about making kids safer, this isn’t about stopping criminals, it is about banning firearms and control. Period.  They use the tragedy merely as an emotional crutch to support their agenda because they cannot support it with facts and logic.

Don’t believe me?  Let’s look at a conversation that happened over at Sebastian’s place.  I’m going to post it here because honestly, I don’t want it lost down in some thread in the comments, I want it front and center.  Especially with how it ended.  This is pretty long so I’m shoving it below the fold.  Here is a link to skip to the conclusion below the fold.

Continue reading

In Which The Anointed Fail

My heart broke when my mom called to tell me about this last night.

The shooting happened Saturday afternoon in the officer’s parked van in Stanwood. The sibling, whose age and gender have not been released, found a loaded handgun in the vehicle and fired it, striking the girl, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating.

Here’s the quick run down incase you are outside the loop, but an off duty police officer left a loaded weapon in his car with his children.  The children found the weapon and one of the children shot the other.

It is a heart breaking story and is totally preventable through a couple different means.  The most important of which is EDUCATION!  Educate your children about the use of firearms.  Instruct them they are tools, not toys and should be treated as such.  I grew up in a house with a loaded firearm on the wall for coyotes and other varmints.  My sister and I never shot each other because our parents educated us.

If you turn firearms into the forbidden fruit it just drives curiosity and removes the ability for you to demonstrate the respect they deserve.  You cannot hide your children from firearms.  The best thing you can do is educate them and remove their curiosity.

As a side note, this accident happened in the charge of one of the anointed.  The people the anti-rights cultists claim are the only people most highly qualified and trained to use a firearm.  My parents weren’t in law enforcement and properly educated their children about firearms.  Some food for thought.

*I know some might say kids are too young to understand, maybe you should actually expect something out of your child.  You might be pleasantly surprised at the result.

The Tripwire Question.

A Girl and Her Gun stumbled across a post that is designed to provoke thought about your tripwire.  I hopped over to her linked post and read through the comments.  Between A Girl and Her Gun and the comments there it’s it’s obviously about that time again.

Starting off I have previously talked about tripwires here.  More specifically the ignored lessons of the 20th century.

First up, if you’re caching weapons, the time to use them is now.  You’re assuming that you will still be able to freely travel back to your cache as well as assemble with your friends for an armed resistance.  You have no such guarantee and anyone who is attempting to disarm you is trying to pacify you.  Any claims of good intentions are false and here’s why.

  1. In the words of John Ross, “The time to fight is before you’re handcuffed in the back of the van.”  Having us volunteer our arms is like asking us to climb in the back of a van while hitch hiking and handcuff our self to the floor.  At that point, what can the driver do to you?  Anything that he wants.
  2. Any politician wanting your arms doesn’t want them for “the public good” he wants them so you have not way to fight back.  We have seen time and again the falsehood that is gun control.  So knowing that their claims are lies, why would you surrender your arms?
  3. Everyone has the right to self defense as well as the right to the best tools to do so and it is a divine right and thus not within the bounds of mankind to remove that right.
  4. As a law abiding citizen, what does your disarmament do for the government?  It serves to ensure that you have no means to fight back if you decide you disagree with a law.  It stacks the deck entirely in their favor.

So with that out of the way, lets get to the core of A Girl and Her Gun’s post:

How many stories have we read about activists that save the world while their own kids suffer.  Is the greater good more important than the individual?  Absolutely not and yes, of course it is. There has to be people who are willing to sacrifice it all for what they believe in, if not, where would this country be, where would I be?

Yes, kids will suffer two fold because of this assault on our rights.  They will suffer the first because there will be those of us who will kiss them on the forehead and never see them again.  There will be others who will have them stripped away by the government because they dare to speak out against the state.  The state is a terrorist by all definitions.  These terrorists understand the leverage provided by using someone’s family against them.  This fact is an inevitability of the situation.  We do not wish for it, but it is the beast coming to our door and he can not be ignored. Forgot to post the second: The kids rights are in jeopardy just the same as your own.  Their choices are being made for them and the worst part is they will never be aware of that fact.

There is nothing more important than my children and each of them deserve to grow up knowing they are loved and valued and they need a mommy for that, at least partially, but then again, if they are growing up in a North Korea kind of country, who the hell cares or maybe it matters even more.

There is no question in that.  See this post which ended in a letter to my future kids.  Growing up though I learned that love has many forms.  My dad never expressed it in the ways most people would expect.  He just couldn’t, it wasn’t in his nature.  In fact there were only two times he ever actually said it, one of which was just before he passed away.

My dad would have left home without thinking twice to ensure the safety of my mother, my sister, and myself.  If it was necessary to guarantee my future beyond his horizon he would fight.  He would fight not just because it was the right thing, but because he loved us and wanted the best for us. 

There is no question my dad would act against any threat against his family, he proved it.  I know not everyone who reads this blog looks upon religion the same.  I also avoid it because I don’t like forcing my beliefs on others.  However this line has a significant weight despite the religion.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

While at the time children may not understand and this applies to sacrificing time with those you love as well.  With age comes wisdom.  They will understand that the choices were the opposite of selfishness.  You fought not just for your right to have a choice, but for their own as well.  It is not only your children who will understand the sacrifices.

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing – Edmund Burke

While one would want to just be with your kids to physically protect them, it provides the excuse for good men to do nothing.  There are many reasons not to fight when you consider your children.  However I can think of nothing that would put a bigger fire in my belly than the fear of evil men making decisions for myself and my children without a way to say, “NO!”

*I pulled those lessons from Joe, his post can be found here.

Quote of the Day – A Girl (12/18/2012)

When I was mugged I blamed only 2 people. My attacker and myself. I can’t control him, so I looked at myself to figure out what I could do to put myself in a better position for survival should the element I couldn’t control decided to come after me again. I took responsibility. I didn’t blame the cops or the grocery store parking lot or even my parents. They had some influence as did society, but it was me who stood there and did nothing. It was me. I did not come after you or anyone else. I didn’t go to congress and ask for new laws to protect my lack of action. I took action. Law abiding, legal action and I took responsibility for my part in that day. I can tell you none of it felt good. I didn’t feel good after I picked myself up off the ground, I didn’t feel good as I hid in the bathroom and took care of my scraped up arms and back. I didn’t feel good when my so called friends turned their backs on me. I didn’t feel good when my daughter looked me in the eye and told me she didn’t feel safe because I didn’t stop the and guy. It didn’t feel good when I showed up in the park to learn how to defend myself. I felt anything but good. I felt sad and lonely. I felt lost and broken. I felt ashamed and confused. I felt scared and and hopeless. And I fought all of that everyday for over a year in order to take responsibility. In order to feel good again.

A GirlFeeling Good
December 18, 2012


[First, go read the whole thing, it’s worth it and there were a few other quotes I almost put up first till I hit that one.

Now when I read that my immediate thought was, “No one ever said doing the right thing was the easiest route.”  I did a previous rant in the immediate wake and honestly her post and mine are intertwined together.

Feelings are driving the conversation for a lot of people right now, they want to do something, anything.  As I said before:

They want to be able to look at a physical object and blame it for what as happened.  They want to destroy the physical object and blame it for their grief.

They don’t want to admit that ultimately there was a person behind the gun.  They don’t want to admit no matter how hard they tried, they wouldn’t be able to control him.  They don’t want to admit all the efforts they took in advance to feel good in the wake of things like Columbine and other mass shootings in the end did nothing.  Not only did they do nothing, but the may have made it worse.

To them though that last thought is an impossibility   It is impossible that the actions they took to satisfy their feelings could have been counter productive.  How could they?  Their responses felt right to them in a previous time of emotional tragedy.

People currently forget that 11 years ago a group of men brought this country to its knees with a set of box cutters.  The tool is a tool and nothing more.  It’s use for good and evil rests entirely with the person holding the tool.

The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, gave her life ultimately trying to protect her students.  She was forced, by law, to be unarmed in that encounter.  The aggressor however broke numerous laws and had to actually steal the firearms to carry out his crime.  Think about that for a second, objectively.  We, as a community, trusted that woman, as well as the staff with the care and protection of our children.  We trusted that they would do what is necessary to keep them safe and educate them for the future.  We trust them enough to send our children there for a decent part of their young lives.  Yet we refuse to allow them the choice of carrying a firearm to defend our children should evil come before them.

We refused to allow the people immediately on the scene to respond to the threat posed against the children.  Instead the shooter was given 20 minutes to perpetrate his crimes.  He was given 20 minutes with defenseless victims.  Victims who were in the charge of responsible adults.  Those responsible adults, responsible for the children in their charge, were forcibly disarmed under the law.

The law in this case guaranteed the outcome.  We will never know what the outcome would have been had just one teacher been able to choose to be armed.  We can hypothesize given previous events, such as the Pearl High School incident in 1997.  But we can never actually know, all we can do is wonder.

It’s time to stop passing laws based on irrational emotion and examine a very simple and harsh fact.  When evil finally shows up, how can we react.  We focus too much on stopping evil out right and preventing it from ever happening.  While definitely a worthy goal, it is almost impossible to achieve since you cannot actually control the aggressor.  All you can do is react as quickly as possible and try to minimize damage.   What you can control to achieve that goal is yourself and your response, except in many cases the law has neutered that ability from the victims. -B]

Radio, Radio, and More Radio

Saturday ended up considerably busier than expected.  Initially I had just planned to help with the ARES exercise, but it ended up they were making a trip up to the Kamiak radio site.  I went along to help since I hadn’t seen the radio site.

DSC_0059

That’s the tower with the KABARA Repeater Antennas, as well as the packet system we were up there to work on.  Next to it is that tower is KWSU.

DSC_0098

Inside the radio shack was some impressive equipment for the KABARA system, more specifically a pair of duplexers for the 6-meter repeater.

DSC_0081

After a quick tour we then got down to why were were there.  Someone was going to have to climb the tower for recon for an upcoming antenna installation.

DSC_0093

He wanted proof that he climbed the tower.  I have other pictures while he was at the top, none however provide proof that it was actually him climbing.

It appears the recon was successful, the hardline we were planning on using is currently at the location where we are planning on installing the antenna.  We just need to coordinate with some of the other antennas owners when we go to actually install it.

The antenna is going to be hooked into this.

DSC_0051

Which is the packet node on top of Kamiak, the recon was because the owner is planning on adding a 70cm link if I remember correctly.  It was pointed out to me though how wind can be a royal bitch up on the tower.

DSC_0099

The wind was light that day, the antenna is either caught in the tower, or permanently deformed from wind and ice loading.  That particular antenna however was no longer in use.

After that we headed back down the hill with one quick stop right after we got out of the trees so I could do this today.

Kamiak_Butte_Panoramic_thumb

After that K7LL helped me test an mobile amp I have.  It works, but nowhere near as effective as it should be.  It is now sitting on my workbench awaiting disassembly.  An upshot a coworker and fellow ham drove by and I paid him a visit.  I must say his ham shack is by no means a shack, and is actually quite nice.  He actually had a spare 2m/70cm base and it’s now sitting on my desk.  He also has a spare HF rig but it needs some repair work.  Electrolytic capacitors don’t last for ever.

From there I went and picked up a sign for the lodge.  The sign was vandalized and I picked it up to take it home to attempt to clean it.  Attempt one removed some of the paint but next on the list is acetone.  From there I headed over the Moscow to W7UQ to kill some time before going over to a friends house for dinner and helping him with some homework.

While sitting at W7UQ one of the members showed up and I then preceded to spend the next 2 hours discussing antenna design, radiation patterns, and methods to solve some issues they are having with their current project.  Including moving from just telemetry based information to adding command and control.  I gave him my contact information so they can come to me with questions and help with the project.

Lastly I had dinner over with some friends.  I finally headed out from their place at 0130 after helping him with a programming assignment.  Overall it was a busy, educational, and productive day.

SSCC #30-#33–Washington DC

This show of force by the DC Metro Capitol PD was nothing more than that.  It was done in front of parents and children specifically to instill fear of what could happen to them should they disobey.  Fear, they use fear to coerce people into behaving as they would like.

    ter·ror·ism

    noun /ˈterəˌrizəm/

    1. The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims

The government is force and every law they pass is done with the threat of force.  That force is now used to intimidate, harass, and stop children from partaking in free enterprise.  Not only that but the female officer on more than one occasion attempted to stop the documentation of the behavior of the police.  If you happen to find the names of the officers involved, please, post them in the comments.

It’s good to know that given the crime rate in DC the police have nothing better to do that to shut down someone selling lemonade.  Especially on Lemonade Freedom Day.

State Sponsored Criminal Count: +4 = 33

Because there is no greater crime than children selling lemonade in the capital of the “most free” country on earth.