Schamschula
@schamschula.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Ph.D. Physicist (Optical/Computational), Mac/FreeBSD/*NIX geek/sysadmin, MacPorts port maintainer/committer, Sailboat Racer/Windsurfer, Alpine Hiker
[bridged from https://mastodon.social/@schamschula on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
[bridged from https://mastodon.social/@schamschula on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
In the race for most requests from the campus weather data server between the global scraper bot net and corporate scrapers (Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, etc) the former is winning.
February 11, 2026 at 8:37 PM
In the race for most requests from the campus weather data server between the global scraper bot net and corporate scrapers (Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, etc) the former is winning.
I'm glad for the campus VPN access. I just went in a blocked a group of SEO related bots in robots.txt, one of which was hammering the site with thousands of requests up to three/second.
February 5, 2026 at 10:19 PM
I'm glad for the campus VPN access. I just went in a blocked a group of SEO related bots in robots.txt, one of which was hammering the site with thousands of requests up to three/second.
I always wonder why scrapers bother to request robots.txt. If I can't figure out the name of the bot, why do they think there would be an entry in the file they need to obey?
February 4, 2026 at 8:26 PM
I always wonder why scrapers bother to request robots.txt. If I can't figure out the name of the bot, why do they think there would be an entry in the file they need to obey?
There seems to be a distributed web scraper that randomly chooses the Chrome version number for its agent string, but it always ends in .0.0.0, e.g. Chrome/133.0.0.0. The OS is most often Windows NT 10.0, but occasionally Mac OS X.
February 4, 2026 at 6:31 PM
There seems to be a distributed web scraper that randomly chooses the Chrome version number for its agent string, but it always ends in .0.0.0, e.g. Chrome/133.0.0.0. The OS is most often Windows NT 10.0, but occasionally Mac OS X.
I just checked the boat house camera: for once it didn’t record any fishermen. It triggered on three white pelicans flying past.
January 26, 2026 at 10:47 PM
I just checked the boat house camera: for once it didn’t record any fishermen. It triggered on three white pelicans flying past.
Listening to my music collection this afternoon a track from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Closing_of_Winterland came up. I remember watching this concert live on Bay Area TV. Definitely a New Year’s memory!
January 1, 2026 at 2:11 AM
Listening to my music collection this afternoon a track from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Closing_of_Winterland came up. I remember watching this concert live on Bay Area TV. Definitely a New Year’s memory!
The folks that handle #abuse at #digitalocrean seem to be rather ineffective. One massive exploit scan after another on my campus weather data server from their network. It's like playing a game of whack-a-mole.
December 28, 2025 at 5:06 PM
The folks that handle #abuse at #digitalocrean seem to be rather ineffective. One massive exploit scan after another on my campus weather data server from their network. It's like playing a game of whack-a-mole.
Reposted by Schamschula
TMW the wind destroyed time https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/nanog@lists.nanog.org/message/ACADD3NKOG2QRWZ56OSNNG7UIEKKTZXL/
December 20, 2025 at 10:37 AM
TMW the wind destroyed time https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/nanog@lists.nanog.org/message/ACADD3NKOG2QRWZ56OSNNG7UIEKKTZXL/
The upgrade to #php 8.4 made #mediawiki a total dumpster fire. Currently rebuilding #nextcloud-php83 on #poudriere so I downgrade back to php 8.3
December 14, 2025 at 6:13 PM
The upgrade to #php 8.4 made #mediawiki a total dumpster fire. Currently rebuilding #nextcloud-php83 on #poudriere so I downgrade back to php 8.3
It must be the end of the semester: #blackboard fails to render jpeg files in line. I have to download every to grade it
December 11, 2025 at 4:40 PM
It must be the end of the semester: #blackboard fails to render jpeg files in line. I have to download every to grade it
I sure love it when a release announcement for a major package is sent out via email, but the source tar ball has not been uploaded to the mirror sites, never mind the primary site.
December 4, 2025 at 2:22 PM
I sure love it when a release announcement for a major package is sent out via email, but the source tar ball has not been uploaded to the mirror sites, never mind the primary site.
Reposted by Schamschula
"Even Carrington would be impressed" 😬
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=02&month=12&year=2025
Hopefully we just get "someone should check on our satellites" levels of auroras and not "A bunch of open questions in solar-terrestrial physics are about to be answered"
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=02&month=12&year=2025
Hopefully we just get "someone should check on our satellites" levels of auroras and not "A bunch of open questions in solar-terrestrial physics are about to be answered"
December 2, 2025 at 7:41 PM
"Even Carrington would be impressed" 😬
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=02&month=12&year=2025
Hopefully we just get "someone should check on our satellites" levels of auroras and not "A bunch of open questions in solar-terrestrial physics are about to be answered"
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=02&month=12&year=2025
Hopefully we just get "someone should check on our satellites" levels of auroras and not "A bunch of open questions in solar-terrestrial physics are about to be answered"
Microsoft Word doesn't know the word "several," and suggests nonsense alternatives.
December 2, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Microsoft Word doesn't know the word "several," and suggests nonsense alternatives.
When you come back from Thanksgiving break, only to find out that the campus network has turned into a notwork! Back home, grading papers on Blackboard.
December 1, 2025 at 2:46 PM
When you come back from Thanksgiving break, only to find out that the campus network has turned into a notwork! Back home, grading papers on Blackboard.
I get why campus IT is doing network updates during Thanksgiving break, but my server was been off line for a couple of days, only to come up partially (it wasn't able to fetch new data) for about a day, only to go down again.
November 25, 2025 at 9:30 PM
I get why campus IT is doing network updates during Thanksgiving break, but my server was been off line for a couple of days, only to come up partially (it wasn't able to fetch new data) for about a day, only to go down again.
What's up with #censys? First I block their scans in nginx.conf. They didn't get the message. I then add their published CIDRs to a ipfw drop table. So now they again tried from unpublished CIDRs -> added those to the drop table.
November 20, 2025 at 12:24 AM
What's up with #censys? First I block their scans in nginx.conf. They didn't get the message. I then add their published CIDRs to a ipfw drop table. So now they again tried from unpublished CIDRs -> added those to the drop table.
It's that time of the semester where students that have not turned in any work start asking if it's too late. Well, it is! Time for them to drop the class before they get a failing grade.
November 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
It's that time of the semester where students that have not turned in any work start asking if it's too late. Well, it is! Time for them to drop the class before they get a failing grade.
Reposted by Schamschula
My view of tonight’s northern lights from Huntsville in North Alabama.
November 12, 2025 at 2:26 AM
My view of tonight’s northern lights from Huntsville in North Alabama.
Having a great time figuring out how to satisfy the university learning management system's new accessibility standards.
1) Dumb down all table formatting
2) Export to MS Word as the LMS can't identify remaining table headers from Apple Pages
3) Throw up hands when it asks to tag an exam […]
1) Dumb down all table formatting
2) Export to MS Word as the LMS can't identify remaining table headers from Apple Pages
3) Throw up hands when it asks to tag an exam […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 11, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Having a great time figuring out how to satisfy the university learning management system's new accessibility standards.
1) Dumb down all table formatting
2) Export to MS Word as the LMS can't identify remaining table headers from Apple Pages
3) Throw up hands when it asks to tag an exam […]
1) Dumb down all table formatting
2) Export to MS Word as the LMS can't identify remaining table headers from Apple Pages
3) Throw up hands when it asks to tag an exam […]
The joy of using a smart board rather than a traditional projector: Windows update kicks in the middle of lecture, causing a twenty minute break.
#patchwednesday #smartboard #windows
#patchwednesday #smartboard #windows
October 15, 2025 at 3:57 PM
The joy of using a smart board rather than a traditional projector: Windows update kicks in the middle of lecture, causing a twenty minute break.
#patchwednesday #smartboard #windows
#patchwednesday #smartboard #windows
Reposted by Schamschula
Six of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S.
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org
The official website of the Nobel Prize - NobelPrize.org
The Nobel Prize rewards science, humanism and peace efforts. This is one of the central concepts in the will of Alfred Nobel, and it also permeates the outreach activities that have been developed for...
www.nobelprize.org
October 8, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Six of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S.
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org
Censys just reminded me that I hadn't looked at my server's security.txt file for quite some time. Time to update the Expires time stamp.
October 3, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Censys just reminded me that I hadn't looked at my server's security.txt file for quite some time. Time to update the Expires time stamp.