bobjots : redux

Apparently there's a trojan somewhere in this account which I have yet to detect. It is triggered everytime someone attempts to post a comment (basically every time an HTTP Post command is called) .. which basically explains the 404 Page Not Found errors. It then generates a binary file which is essentially a back up of the whole blog and stores it in the CGI-Bin which eventually overloads this account's quota.

Looks like its back to the drawing board. For the time being, comments will unfortunately have to be disabled. Sorry. Apparently by using Typekey authentication for comments, I'm able to bypass the error. Will have a look at the in-built authentication routines of the script to see if I can identify what's causing the original error.

Sorry for the inconvenience but I guess folks who want to comment will have to utilise the Typekey authentication service until I can work out the bug.

Ok .. looks like it should work now and upgraded too. 1 down .. 2 to go .. when I wake up.

Injection script messed up the MT installation. Will be fixing it over the next few days. Sorry :(

I think some of you may have worked out that there's a problem with this blog (and quite a few others apparently all over the blogosphere that runs on both Movable Type and Wordpress). For MT blogs, there's this persistent 404 Error (ie. Page Not Found) that keeps popping up when I am either trying to publish a new post or someone tries to post a new comments.

I've been checking around and based on what I read, it seemed that the latest upgrade of ModSecurity in a lot of servers seem to be the culprit. A quick fixit seems to have dealt with the 406 Errors on this server but the 404 Errors are still around with no solution in sight yet and the error logs are not being very helpful either. I'll be experimenting further.

If you've been having trouble posting a comment, drop me a note (click on the Contact Me) link on the top right. At least I'll know how persistent this problem is.

This is a 406 error fixit test ..

I got a call from a rather irate friend recently who's been complaining that since the Pakatan Rakyat took power in Selangor, the new state government had been doing nothing. I tried to explain that it generally wasn't in the best interest of the media owners to put Pakatan Rakyat ruled states in a good light, and Selangor being the lost crown jewel would, of course, be the target for as many negative op-eds as possible.

This is pretty obvious from the coverage by most of the mainstream Malay language press as well as the mainstream electronic media. Apart from community orientated newspapers (I am using the plural here very liberally) like Sinar Harian, and perhaps in the Metro pullouts of The Star, it is true that we hardly get anything newsworthy about what's happening in Selangor.

I've been blogging for the last few years with just one blog, basically mashing up all my thoughts whether its about my personal life (not much of which is shared online), my faith and also on politics and social development. I've been wondering if I should at least split the more faith-centric entries and the social commentary type entries into separate blogs. Of course, there's a lot of convergence in these two areas; at least for me; which makes it a harder decision to make.

So, I'm soliciting your opinion ..

I'll keep this poll up for a week or two before taking it down. Thanks in advance.

Hehe .. ok .. bad translation. Should be "Idola Memuji Tuhan?"

Apparently I'm a bit lembap in popular entertainment but the song "Shout to the Lord" apparently was featured not once, but twice, on American Idol. The first time, they had the lyrics amended a bit, perhaps to make it a bit more politically correct ..

Some of you may have noticed popunder ads on this blog showing up. Rest assured, its not my doing. It took me a while to figure out but I finally guessed that it was the Rankwidgets that were injecting the Clicksor ads on this blog.

Honestly, I don't mind having some ads on my blog (obvious isn't it) but I'd prefer if I actually knew who was advertising here. Rankwidget could have just sent us all an e-mail letting us know that they planned to insert ads in the widgets and provided us an option to opt out.

Anyway, its fixed now .. I hope.

Apparently the blog advertising network; Advertlets; allowed their domain to expire and all blogs that carried their ad snippet were temporarily hijacked by Adbaaz. If the latter name sounds familiar to you, especially if you're privy to discussions online on security and privacy, its because its a pretty notorious advertising network that uses somewhat gray methods including browser hijacking to disseminate the ads on their network.

Anyway, if you're in a fix over this, the fix-it is to remove the Advertlets ad code from your template code and to clear your browser's cookies and cache.

Speaking of domain expiries, I just made payment to my host but I think I might be a little too late to prevent the hosting from being temporarily suspended. Hehe. So this site might be down for a day or so.

And I've been a little tied down lately babysitting my 3 year old for the last week or so. The new term of her pre-school only started on the 3rd. That kinda explains my absense from blogging. So that's that for now. Will try to update later if my payment clears in time and the hosting doesn't get suspended. :)

When the people who tell you to go update your blog tends to be people who either don't blog or keep secret blogs ;)

Anyway, I've been a bit busy of late helping a friend re-develop an online jazz portal; All Dat Jazz; and a few other websites. But I guess I'm not too busy to wish all my Muslim friends and visitors ..

Interesting to see how this blog's evolved .. and yet stayed the same ..

• Internet Archive Wayback Machine

I am now in a room at the quaint Regal Court Hotel in Kuching, Sarawak having arrived here today as part of an initial fact finding team on the impact of increased oil palm cultivation on the indigenous communities and the environment. I had to do some homework on this issue as I am not very familiar with the situation in Sarawak but was very heartened to see this report on Malaysiakini that spoke of the Federal's Court decision to uphold a lower court's decision to recognise the pre-existence of native customary rights over land before any statute or legislation.

This is a very important development in the struggle for the legitimate recognition of indigenous rights over their land, especially with the proposed Native Customary Right Land Development Programme by Sarawak's Ministry of Land Development hanging over the horizon. Reading the project's Issues and Responses gave me the jitters. I'd also be interested to see how this plays out for West Malaysia's Orang Asli. Could it imply that the more restrictive and paternalistic provisions of the Aboriginal Peoples' Act 1954 could possibly be challenged?

Malaysiakini reports the Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister, Shaziman Abu Mansor, as saying that plans are afoot to introduce an Internet code of ethics to curb what the powers that be claim is the "misuse" of the medium. This came in response to a question raised by a ruling party backbencher who asked if any steps were being taken to control bloggers.

In what is supposed to be a progressive and open society, why is the government afraid of public debate and scrutiny of their statements and activities? As a young child, I was always told that if one is upright and beyond reproach, they have nothing to be afraid of. Maybe this basic adage ought to be posted up on the walls of the Parliament?

Just saw this comment posted on this blog purportedly by me ..

I think we are aware that there has been quite a number of incidents whereby the authorities have victimised bloggers for malicious comments put up on their blogs by third parties. Two high profile cases involve Jeff Ooi and Rocky's Bru.

There has also been an irritating recurrence of an erstwhile impersonator who makes goes around pretending to be other bloggers while posting inflammatory comments usually relating to particular religious faiths and political opinions. Extremely irritating .. like a fungal infection that won't go away. I have mentioned this person a few times in this blog with some links to what others have had to say here, here, and here. I have my own suspicions as to who that person is but I'll keep it to myself for now.

An attempt is happening right at this moment to gain access illegally to this blog. The following script is being utilised :

ProxyNow_Username_Password_Login_Actionscript.pl

from this IP address : 219.95.124.116 which is a registered TM Net IP currently being traced to Kampong Ulu Mendrus or Baling and registered to nur.com.my. It probably is an open proxy that is being exploited right now. The whois details for nur.com.my is as follows :

Are you a blogger? Do you wear your faith on your sleeve? Do you identify with or belong to a congregation that subscribes or derives her beliefs on the Christian faith from the formulations of the Augsburg Confession and the other credal documents contained within the Book of Concord? In short, are you a Lutheran blogger? If you are, stand up and be counted.

I made a little 120 x 120 button that you can see on the right navigation bar of my blog. As you can see, it isn't linked to anything yet (although I might be linking it to the Lutheran Blog Directory later). In this age and time, when we Christians tend to focus on individualism, it might be a good idea to have an occasional reminder as to what keeps us together.

You can put it up on your blog and link it to this entry temporarily by putting up this code snippet :

<a href="http://www.bobjots.org/2007/09/lutherans_who_blog.php" target="_blank"><img src="your_server_location/lutheran_bloggers.png" border="0" alt="Lutherans Who Blog"></a>

I'd appreciate it if you could save a copy of the image on your own server (hover your mouse button over the image and right click, the select Save Image As) rather than link the image directly from this server. I'd also appreciate if you could drop a comment here or contact me if you have put it up so that I can get in touch with you if I set up a directory or blogroll.

Saya telah ditagkan oleh sahabat saya Nik Nazmi untuk mengambil bahagian didalam rantaian Tag Integrasi Kaum.

Rantaian tag ini bertujuan untuk memperkukuhkan integrasi kaum di Malaysia.

Setiap orang yang kena Tag dikehendaki hanya mengetag 2 orang, satu orang dari kaum sendiri, satu orang dari kaum lain.

I apologise for the distraction caused by the comments placed by some fellow claiming to be Julius Paul. FYI, the Rt. Rev. Julius Paul is the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and if it was the intention of the commentator to give the impression that its the same Julius Paul, I think he failed quite miserably.