Bad Software (it's not just for Microsoft anymore!)

Okay, I think I've bashed Microsoft enough about their programming practices, and I'm pretty much equal opportunity when it comes to inept computer programmers. So...

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~plonka/netgear-sntp/

Here's the summary of the above article:

- 700,000 Netgear routers are deployed
- Each of those routers connects to the NTP time server of the University of Wisconson. The IP address of the server was hardcoded into the software. (The university was not asked first)
- The software is making the connection ONCE PER SECOND.

The end result is a Denial of Service (DoS) attack against the University of Wisconson to the tune of about 150 Megabits per second.

What is the the cause of this? It appears to be a screwup from one or more programmers who wrote the software for the router. What can we learn from this?

1) When deploying a product, do NOT rely on a service that your company does not control nor have a contractual agreement with the service provider. (If the university took down the servers, none of 700,000 routers would have been able to set their clocks)

2) When connecting to a remote system, use the DNS name, not the IP address!

3) When you write code to handle failure to connect to a service, do NOT retry again every second from now until infinity. A good approach for deciding when to re-transmit is to use the binary exponential backoff algorithm. Try again in 1 second, then 2 seconds, then 4, then 8, then 16, etc. This is the same algorithm that TCP uses (the protocol that is used for downloading webpages and sending/receiving e-mails) for when it is unable to connect to a host.

(Note to self: be careful about purchasing Netgear products...)

Australia WANTS you to be gay!

http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6901678%255E2

Allow me to quote the article:

A "MAN drought" in the over-60s age group is forcing some women to pursue lesbian relationships, a Queensland counsellor says.

Relationships Australian spokesman Jack Carney said earlier death rates in men meant women in their twilight years were often forced to turn to other women for love and companionship.

Mr Carney said his government-funded support group encouraged older women to explore lesbian relationships, which were seen as more nurturing and emotionally supportive.

"As they get over 60 opportunities to get a man diminish substantially. Men marry younger women and they die about eight years younger so there is a real male shortage," said Mr Carney, who has 20 years' experience in relationship counselling and education.

"And as women get even older it gets much worse, so we ask them to entertain the idea of lesbian relationships.

"I know of groups of women in their 50s who have banded together to buy up land and made a pact that they would settle for each other if they had not found a man by a determined time."

Australian Pensioner and Superannuants League state secretary Yvonne Zardani said it "wouldn't surprise me" if some were in same-sex relationships.

Myra Flynn, from support group Older Dykes, said some older women "defaulted" to lesbian relationships because of a lack of men. Others had struck up relationships with men in the 1950s and 60s because they could not be open about their sexuality, or they wanted a child.

Census statistics show the divorce rate of those aged over 60 has more than doubled in Queensland in 10 years, meaning more women are now unmarried in their older years.

Australian Families Association spokesman Alan Baker said married couples having difficulties should stick with it unless it was an abusive relationship.

Hazel Parkins, a twice-divorced woman of 57 from Highgate Hill in Brisbane, said it was increasingly difficult to find suitable men, although she "is not looking".

"I feel sorry for people who are married for many, many years going out on their own again after they divorce. It would be a real shock."

Now I've seen everything...