DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Scanning my logs, I was shocked to see that Code Red (or variants thereof) continues to hammer my server, attempting to infect it. There are a lot of infected IIS servers out there… debris.com has been hit over 300 times in the past 5 days.

If you’re running a webserver with PHP, you can easily send a warning email to administrators of infected machines. The code goes into your 404 (“document not found”) handler, so unless you do have a file called default.ida, this should work for you.

The source code is here: PHP Code Red Warning Generator

Many U.S. states maintain their own “Do Not Call” lists, which telemarketers are forced (by law, and often by threat of fine) to heed. If you live in any of the following states, you can opt OUT of telemarketing calls: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming

Some states have restrictions that are of interest, whether or not they maintain “Do Not Call” lists. (Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Pennsylvania, Virginia)

Residents of ALL states can employ one of these methods, as well:

• The Direct Mail Association’s Telephone Preference Service (free registration by mail; $5 fee for online registration)
  
• Private Citizen, a widely-endorsed, nationwide “Do Not Call” list ($20)

California residents: our list is coming! CA Senate Bill 771 provides for a California Do Not Call list, which will be set up in early 2003.

Delaware residents: See Senate Bill SB41. Illinois residents: see SB1830. Massachusetts residents: see HB5225. New Jersey residents: see S445.

It is not surprising that criminals are attempting to benefit from this legislation. Beware the “do not call” scam.

I will endeavor to keep this data up-to-date; feel free to suggest changes using the email address elsewhere on this page. I thank Macintouch for pointing to the article that began this research frenzy (States Ring In Do Not Call Laws), and to the readers who have supplied additional information.

Update: On 2003-03-12, President Bush signed legislation creating a national “do-not-call” list. According to the AP report, “telemarketers say the registry will devastate their business.” That sounds like reason to celebrate. The system should be in place by summer 2003.

Patronize these links, man:

• Telemarketing Primer
• Laws, by state

Pictured are my first two attempts at fougasse, a French flatbread that is analogous to focaccia, which is Italian. These two loaves actually looked better than they tasted; I’d overbaked them, mistakenly believing the crumb would benefit from additional gelatinization of starches, when in fact the breads aren’t very thick, and were already baked through.

The things that look like lesions are basil leaves and hunks of parmesan, romano, and garlic. (I regret to say I hadn’t any pine nuts.)

Overnighting the rest of the dough in the cooler resulted in a vastly improved bread. This is surprising because the dough was already 3 days in the making. But I guess additional time is nearly always a good thing.

(subtitle: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen)

Universally loved by serious cooks, On Food and Cooking is an immensely valuable resource for anyone interested in the process of cooking. Cooking is largely a chemical process, and McGee explains it clearly, with nifty diagrams and electron-microscope photographs to illustrate the points.

Bread bakers will especially enjoy the section on flours and doughs. McGee answers questions of the nutrition of wholegrain vs. high-extraction flours, gluten development and dough breakdown from overkneading, why bread stales (and how to prevent and reverse it, to some extent). Some of this material may be familiar to readers of Crust & Crumb, because Peter Reinhart is a fan of McGee’s work.

Other sections include: dairy product (cream whipping, egg storage and grading, cheese making, etc.), sauces, beer brewing, wine fermentation, meat storage and cookery.

If you’re a casual cook with no interest in the underlying science, you’ll have no use for this book other than impressing your kitchen-geek friends. But, if you spend your weekends brewing beer or wine, making cheese, barbecueing, or baking, you’ll find many valuable tips here.

Patronize these links, man:

• Amazon (paperback)
• Amazon (hardback)

Parks Canada has launched a bear-awareness campaign, called Year of the Great Bear. So although we hadn’t yet experienced a live bear, we were not surprised to experience bears in the media — to hear that bear activity had caused several campgrounds and hiking trails to be closed during our visit. (The best way to deal with a wild bear, apparently, is not to encounter it in the first place.)

We’d been in Canada for a few days, hiking around Kananaskis Country and Banff National Park. And although we hadn’t seen any bears, we had seen quite a bit of other wildlife — goats, elk, deer, ground squirrels, and to our misfortune a large number of a different type of animal — they have two legs, an upright stance, tend to carry a variety of photographic devices on straps, are often covered with synthetic fabrics, nylon packs, hats, sunglasses, etc., and travel via enormous metal boxes that spew great clouds of noxious black smoke, even when idling in parking lots.

Actually the tourists weren’t as thick as we’d feared, even in Banff, which is somewhat known for being overcrowded. But then we arrived at Lake Louise, a gorgeous blue-green lake sitting between the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise (hotel) and Victoria Glacier, and surrounded by mountains. The parking lot and the bit of lakeshore adjacent reminded me of nothing so much as Waikiki, with overweight tourists standing shoulder-to-shoulder, posing for cameras, squawking, and irritating the hell out of me. We immediately located the nearest trailhead and set out.

100 yards up the trail we saw a paper sign tacked to a tree: “Recent bear activity in vicinity! Proceed with caution!” It had rained recently, but not as recently as this paper sign had been hung… and we stopped to think. Proceed at risk of disturbing a bear family, or return to the zoo of uncaged beasts in the parking lot? It took only a moment to decide; I’ll take the risk of seeing a bear over the certainty of a mob of tourists any day.

The sign was a blessing. We didn’t see any bears, but we didn’t see any more tourists either. Near the end of the trail, we saw a few hikers coming in the other direction, but still the contrast between the hotel grounds (Waikiki on the lakeshore) and the trail was striking. In total, we saw only about four other hikers in two hours’ time.

Yes, it’s ironic that many folks go on vacation to wilderness areas in order to get away from people, and succeed only in meeting up with hundreds or thousands of others who are also trying to get away from people. Fortunately many tourists don’t hike, and of those that do, even fewer are willing to take strenuous hikes. Getting away from people is only as hard as challenging yourself to take the more difficult, or longer trail. It’s well worth the effort. But, ahhh, you may want to bring some pepper spray. And for sure don’t read any of these accounts of bear maulings before you go!