Archive: February 28, 2002
Here's an algorithm for validating credit card numbers. That's great, but where's documentation on this?
Ok, we're getting closer. The algorithm seems to be based on an ANSI standard, which is good  Now the problem is that it'll cost to get the standard. (I hate that). This is interesting:
The LUHN formula was created in the late 1960s by a group of mathematicians. Shortly thereafter, credit card companies adopted it. Because the algorithm is in the public domain, it can be used by anyone.
The LUHN formula is also used to check Canadian Social Insurance Number (SIN) validity. In fact, the LUHN formula is widely used to generate the check digits of many different primary account numbers. Almost all institutions that create and require unique account or identification numbers use the Mod 10 algorithm.
Here's a definition of the LUHN formula from Whatis.com, as well as a link to a good C algorithm for checking a number with LUHN.
Excellent, here's Checking Credit Card Numbers from About.com, as well as a link to Everything you ever wanted to know about CC's
Here's an article from The Register about credit card hacking techniques, which includes a link to How to Obscure Any URL - How Spammers And Scammers Hide and Confuse.
I just found out the XMB forum is ceasing development. So it seems to be split in two (or maybe three? Correction, four! ReBB? All of this is so lame). What was to be the 2.0 version has been taken over by Michael Kunze, and DevBB is supposedly a slightly cleaned up XMB, which will someday transition into myBB. (I don't know why they'd have a temporary name: "What many of you know as DevBB will eventually become MyBB." Oh, it's because myBB is being written from scratch. Great.)
Here's a thread on Michael's site explaining the ending of XMB forum's development. Now what's left of version 2.0 is going to be something called CMForums 1.0 which will be yet another "portal system, with news, links, and other cool features". Also scroll down in the thread for one of the most inane descriptions of OOP I've ever had the vomitous displeasure of reading.
Holy crap, so lame, oh God so lame!
"The new board keeps getting better and better every time I hear about it..."
"D*mn! This board is really gonna rock!!! So many features with a great GUI and ultimate control.... Like it already!"
"Isn't we faking kool or wat (as Serbians would say)"
Dude, are these people twelve? So many message boards don't even exist yet (and I'm not just talking about the ones I've mentioned here. I've mentioned this before).
Here's a little more info about why these people decided to leave XMB and make their own illiterate forum.
Holy crap... all my other shows are an hour long, and Friends seems so short!
The WWW Unit Converter. Very handy, and updates in real time. Very cool. Also check out OnlineConversion.com and Convert-me.com.
It's ok Dave, Google is still on the side of Good. The Washington Post: We Get What They Pay For.
Google alone among the top search services has vowed not to collect fees from companies to guarantee them inclusion in searches. By contrast, AltaVista, Inktomi and Lycos all charge fees in return for inclusion and sometimes favorable treatment in their Web indexes.
Google also said money alone would not dictate placement, even in its paid links. The rate at which users click on a paid link also will be part of its formula, the idea being that the more relevant the ad, the more clicks it should generate, and therefore the higher it should appear in the results.
Whoa, Matt, I really dig your comments interface. No page reload! Very cool.
Via PHPEverywhere, it looks like there's a pretty big security hole in many different versions of PHP. Bad news. It can be exploited on any PHP script. Here are the details from PHP.net:
"[27-Feb-2002] Due to a security issue found in all versions of PHP (including 3.x and 4.x), a new version of PHP has been released. Details about the security issue are available here. All users of PHP are strongly encouraged to either upgrade to PHP 4.1.2, or install the patch (available for PHP 3.0.18, 4.0.6 and 4.1.0/4.1.1)."
I've just learned after talking to Sean that I've been "targeted for assimilation" by members of a cult! I knew something was fishy!! I'll post more info on the cult when I get home. I have to do some research.
Wuaaaaahhhhh (insert Heavenly music here). I've been trying to find a copy of Greg Bahnsen's Theonomy in Christian Ethics forever. It's been out of print, even though it only came out in 1984. I've had Alibris running a book search for me for years. They've only come up with two copies the entire time... one was 95 dollars, which I passed on, and the most recent copy was something like 295 dollars. Correction, 293 dollars!
Well Covenant Media Foundation is releasing a 25th anniversary edition (this links to their specials page, which will change eventually), in both a bonded leather edition for $100 and a clothbound edition for only $35! And the book now comes with a multimedia CD containing a bunch of articles and 20 of his lectures on MP3. I'm so excited!
Whoa, I just looked again and it looks like the CD has PDF versions of four of Bahnsen's books (including Theonomy in Christian Ethics). I already have two of them, but in any case, that's awesome!
Features I may want on my weblog
1. Comments
2. Back and forward links in a whole bunch of places.
3. Post titles
4. Show all weblog entries.
5.... Any other cool features I forgot? Oooh, supporting the Blogger API.
6...
I just found out that if you put in the main IP address of the web servers at Hosting Matters, my very excellent web host, you get a whole bunch of stats about the machine. Very cool!
Turns out they do it with the help of phpSysInfo.
I just noticed the weblog directory at blogs.yaysoft.com has gone away. Here's Matt's explanation.
Adam, I'm surprised that someone who has done as much web programming as you have wouldn't just write his own weblog software. You could do it in a day. I guess I'm also surprised that you wouldn't mind storing your content on Dave's server. Nothing against Dave, it's just that I like having my stuff on my server, and I figure you would too.
Dwight's blog moved to http://www.geekblog.net/, so update your links!
Awww, little Keith learning SQL back in 1999.
Via the Daily Python-URL, a GNU-Friends Interview Guido van Rossum. "Guido van Rossum, known primarily for his work on Python, was recently awarded the FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software. In this interview with him, he tells of his first experience with computers, his vacation plans and other things."
I hope that the operating system will be an uninteresting detail for most people, just like CPUs, memory and I/O already are: a commodity, taken for granted. What users see will be just applications -- very powerful applicatons, and hig-level ways to tie them together.
The interview is mostly personal rather than about Python. He just had a baby!
There's a comment on PHP Everywhere about the ZDNet article about HTTP from the other day.
Interesting point, but this alarmist attitude only makes ignorant chickens squack in fear. The solution already exists. It's called message queuing. Microsoft even has a queuing product called MSMQ. The algorithm:
> For every long-running RPC call coming from a client, you store the transaction on the server in a queue and disconnect. For each transaction in the queue, you also store a client callback address. When the transaction is popped off the queue and carried out, you send the response back to the client callback address.
That's fine, the article said you can hack this stuff onto HTTP. The point was that he wanted an "industry-wide way to do long-running requests", not just a proprietary scheme from Microsoft. Box said "if one vendor does it on their own, it will simply not be worth the trouble", and this is coming from someone at Microsoft. If he thought MSMQ fit the bill, wouldn't he have mentioned it?
Speaking of Rebecca Blood, she has this odd question, "What is real?" and then a phone number. What's that about? I'm intrigued... I want to call the number!
Also via Rebecca's Pocket, The Encyclopedia Mythica. I'll finally be able to look up what most of the server names at my web host stand for
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Thursday, February 28, 2002
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new⇒Johnny Walker Blue Label
Wow, thanks for the scotch review:D
Lagavulin and Laphroaig aresome of...
Keith: Aug 29, 3:35pm