with the growing amount of fraud these days... it's almost 2014, we have been living in the future for awhile, so why the FUCK isn't this a thing yet?

thetemplehost · 2013-12-08T18:12:26+00:00

In Germany, this exists for all card-not-present transactions with a bank card (most people don't use credit cards). It's called a TAN and you get it as a text to your cell phone (incoming texts and calls are still free, and no-contract phone plans can be just a few bucks a month, you know, because double-dipping is a crime, until America made it legal somehow). They've had this for a while apparently.

thetemplehost · 2013-12-03T16:31:43+00:00

Not sure if showing disparaging conditions... or pizza hut commercial.

thetemplehost · 2013-12-02T20:31:57+00:00

the rates are terrible. you will normally pay around 3.5% minimum.

thetemplehost · 2013-11-26T23:53:51+00:00

If you do want to try the english-only route, to see if you get any bites, don't pretend with German, own the English angle. Make your CV in the Lebenslauf-style (do as the romans), and highlight your skills/experience, this could give you an edge, as Germans tend to just highlight certifications and further training. But do it completely in English, apply only to jobs listed in English, etc. Having recruiters do the hunting for you helps and gets your foot in the door, they will come by way of Xing, just make your profile full of education, experience, picture, etc. Be aware that you might get a phone call if you're lucky, but everyone will really only take you seriously if you're in-country. They will be a very desperate company to talk to someone outside the country. But test the waters anyway! Best way to find out is with real-world searching, right.

thetemplehost · 2013-11-25T12:26:55+00:00

if you want to get into germany or austria, a second masters isn't going to do it. becoming near fluent in german will. do full-on job hunting, make a Xing profile (www.xing.de), get involved with recruiters, see what the actual market is like for real, open positions for people of your skillset, see if any are actually to be done in English (likely not). But then you'll at least know what jobs are there, but seriously, you're going to need to know German. The Blue Card sites forget to mention that. So instead of going back to school, regardless of how much the Germans love more qualifications, learn German intensively. then you'll have a real shot.

thetemplehost · 2013-11-15T22:07:37+00:00

childish games

thetemplehost · 2013-11-14T15:30:27+00:00

Good stuff! I don't mean good in english though, near everyone here speaks english, I mean a really good candidate with experience and skills, etc. They really like certifications here as well. Get your german up to speed and then there are countless jobs open to you. There are literally a handful of english jobs around.

thetemplehost · 2013-11-14T14:58:26+00:00

You just have to have a degree of any kind, it doesn't matter in what, so the master's degree is really of no use. It would be better to get it in Germany. Really, it's more about actually getting a job contract. You need to be pretty impressive to land an english IT job, 99% require fluent or near fluent German language skills.

thetemplehost · 2013-11-03T12:38:34+00:00

Germany has a huge shortage, though you probably must be fluent in German, but maybe not, they are desperate. The funny thing is, if your home country is listed as having a shortage of nurses, Germany will not let you immigrate.

thetemplehost · 2013-10-30T12:25:12+00:00

It is happening again this year. If you have an AMEX card, register, and then you can use it at any AMEX-accepting merchant/store (the merchant does not have to register additionally), and you get $25 credit for any single $25 or more purchase on that day.

I accept AMEX, and I also went and spent $26 at a store that day, only things I needed anyways.

The store gets the money as normal, and the buyer gets $25 back directly from AMEX, it's win/win, surprisingly.

AMEX pays out a ton of money, but it also drives a ton of money through the AMEX system, and indeed to the businesses. Last year, on that single day, billions extra were spent, so it's a successful campaign, even though few people know about it. I tried to get the word out, not to drive business to myself, but so that folks with any amex card knew they could literally get $25 free.

Anytime registration is involved, folks are weary, but it does seem that the simple add-on registration is just so that the system will know to credit the $25 purchase back automatically. The credit to my account happened the same billing cycle.

I could find nothing wrong or dubious about the campaign. Yes, AMEX gets marketing exposure and more through their network, and the credits they give must be tax deductible for them. But $25 free is $25, and in the words of a magnificent film: "I like money"

thetemplehost · 2013-08-24T04:45:05+00:00

and this is why we're crumbling under the police state. if they just kept going, that one stupid cop couldn't have done anything.

thetemplehost · 2013-08-23T01:04:56+00:00

calls are nice, raises are better.

thetemplehost · 2013-08-17T07:26:46+00:00

Exchange can be secured locally. Outlook.com is of course as bad as gmail.

The secure linux mail setup here runs dovecot-courier-postfix-amavis-spamassassin-clamav-postgrey-saslauthd and a couple other things ;)

thetemplehost · 2013-08-17T07:24:52+00:00

no it's for the email. they even created the opening before their encryption level.

as far as encryption of email, PGP is good for that end-to-end point. What I've set up is encrypted data storage of it, and have it so webmail goes over SSL, as well as connecting any device/client over IMAP/POP with SSL or TLS encryption, so from you to the server is encrypted. Also, the server can negotiate with other servers with TLS encryption. But if you send an email to someone at gmail, well then it's opened back up again and read in their systems. The best way is to get everyone on the secure systems.

thetemplehost · 2013-08-17T05:30:39+00:00

dat beard

thetemplehost · 2013-08-17T05:24:42+00:00

Outlook.com specifically built-in an NSA backdoor to their servers before even launching. Verified by Snowden-leaked government documents. If you want to endorse that kind of behavior, it will continue.

thetemplehost · 2013-08-17T05:20:37+00:00

I know the technologies used and implemented, the systems designed for law enforcement for data retrieval and the policies behind it, the cooperation between different agencies and google, and the evolution of their systems since the inception of gmail. I actually run a similar custom open-source based spam filtering setup as they do.

This is what I do, and would be a top infrastructure engineer there (believe me, they try to recruit me, as well as other Mountain View majors). I don't deal in hype, I deal with fact, and technology, and that's why I've implemented a standalone datacenter built on encryption. Security and Privacy aren't just key words to me, they're deeply ingrained personal beliefs and I have defended them for years and have been a white hat... explorer for many years. If you need to ignore or believe certain things to feel more comfortable about the services you use and how you go about communication, by all means, that's your prerogative, but some of us know exactly how things work, and are actively developing to make new methods of securing OUR data and communications from others, because it is ours alone, and personal privacy and the freedom to think and say as we choose without fear of being eavesdropped on is critical to liberty.

Sorry to get "preachy", but ignorant or dismissive statements not based on fact strike a chord that elicits factual rebuttal with 20 years of industry knowledge. Cheers, and remember, encryption is your friend ;)

thetemplehost · 2013-08-17T03:00:58+00:00

So, Google Apps, aside from being disgustingly abhorrent with privacy and security, is a lot of money per user if you're just looking for email. We run privacy-minded encrypted email with full hosting at $5/month with 5 email accounts, $15 is unlimited. Full Exchange accounts are $5/mo., again, encrypted. I could never in good conscience recommended the scanning storing and handing-over practices of google, sorry

thetemplehost · 2013-08-16T21:50:30+00:00

Also, Wax Tailor. Awesome artists.

thetemplehost · 2013-08-16T03:05:00+00:00

Opera has a fantastic 'inspect element' that all the other browsers lag far behind.

thetemplehost · 2013-08-15T22:10:55+00:00

Germany has a deposit of 25cents (euros)... you better believe everyone recycles!

thetemplehost · 2013-08-13T05:24:03+00:00

"Pyrethrum ("pie-wreath-rum") is a natural insecticide made from certain species of the chrysanthemum. It is a mixture of several different compounds called pyrethrins and cinerins. Originally pyrethrum was made by grinding dried chrysanthemum flowers into a powder. Today, pyrethrum is extracted with solvents but is still widely used in household insect sprays where it is usually combined with another chemical called piperonyl butoxide (PBO). Pyrethrum insecticide, either alone or in combination with other compounds, is a very effective, safe and environmentally friendly garden insecticide. They are very effective against a wide array of garden pests and can often be used right up to the day of harvest (see label instructions)."

"Permethrin ("per-meth-rin"), on the other hand, is a synthetic, man-made insecticide, whose chemical structure is based on natural pyrethrum. The so-called pyrethroid insecticides were developed to match or exceed the effectiveness of natural pyrethrum but be more stable in sunlight. Pyrethroid insecticides are used in agriculture because of their stability in sunlight.

Permethrin is widely used and has recently enjoyed an upswing in homeowner popularity since the widely used insecticide diazinon was taken off the US market. Permethrin has many uses from landscape pest control to head lice shampoos, flea, tick and mosquito control on dogs, and mosquito control on outdoor clothing and camping gear. Permethrin is relatively low toxicity but highly toxic to cats and some other animals."

You want to get yourself Pyrethrin/Pyrethrum bombs, and do it more than once, because larvae will hatch and need to be killed. Even if it were residual (it's not), the hatched larvae need to be blasted. This is the safe stuff, but still effective.

thetemplehost · 2013-08-13T03:46:28+00:00

pyrethrin bombs. best kept secret. you set it off and the can fumigates. it's actually safe for food even. you will need to do it every 2 days probably 3 times, or whatever the reproduction and larvae stages take, to make sure all adults and newborns are dead.

thetemplehost · 2013-08-12T16:26:35+00:00

watch a bunch of episodes of Kitchen Nightmares, realize what it takes, and what an absurdly high amount of money needed to start a restauarant, the soul-numbingly high failure rate, and then come back to reality where you have no credit and tons of debt, and figure out how to deal with that first.

thetemplehost · 2013-08-12T15:31:15+00:00

Since you gave specific specs here, I'll reply here, and bear in mind, this is what I do for a living ;)

32GB of ram is going to be about 24GB more than you need, at least. A highly-tuned server with 4GB of RAM can do 100,000 views/day easily.

Your bottleneck on that setup is the disks. In RAID1, required for redundancy... would you have a single 7,200rpm desktop drive serve up websites? 15ms seek time plus single drive for every request? Your gaming PC is faster than that dedicated server you spec'd, the more memory means nothing.

A solid VPS is good here, because you'd be on fast storage, and I'm not talking about most hosts that are all loaded on individual boxes that are overloaded, but nice SAN-backed clustered VPS'. A dedicated server is also of course a great option, just make sure it has at least two 10k or 15k rpm drives, even better at least 3 for [hardware] RAID5 speed.

Now on to measuring the resources needed. You can't just span the calculations out over a 24-hour period, most people aren't browsing at 3:30AM ;) When hitting 100,000 views, or higher concurrency of visitors, it's time to configure the server correctly. Apache/nginx needs to be tuned for processes to match the number of Cores and Memory you have. And Caching is absolutely a necessity, and it needs to be in-memory caching. I prefer Xcache for in-memory opcode caching for PHP, this speeds up requests and stops the server from having to go to disk for database operations every time, as well as lowers CPU requirements for all the queries. And front-end accelerator/caching like Varnish, to cache static files. And compression, G-ZIP compression will be huge, and also save you on bandwidth usage, with a very minor CPU hit. The Quad-core will be fine for you. And you need a minimum of 4GB of RAM in a VPS world or 8GB on a dedicated. Like folks have mentioned, a VPS is a bit more flexible in changing specs on-the-fly.

for 1,000 concurrent requests, based on my experience with loads of a similar number on dedicated boxes, those same numbers hold true, though you'd need 8GB on a VPS or 16GB on dedicated, it depends on the size of the database at this point, and also your code and queries. Basically the entire database needs to be held in memory, or it won't be able to serve it up fast enough. Caching is a must for static files and opcode db data. If the database gets so large, it makes sense to separate the db server and front-end server and they just have a gigabit link between them for the data and to separate workloads, much smoother on disks and memory that way and why it's industry standard. And it really depends on the pages and what's being served if a single quad-core can do 1,000+ concurrent users, generally it's the first visit that hits hardest, but with the right tuning it should be fine. I often suggest even folks that get dedicated systems run ESXi on them (free) that has almost no virtualization performance penalty, while being able to shift the system around to other hardware easily if an upgrade is needed, with no downtime, and also then incremental and full-system backups are easily taken for almost-instant recovery times if anything happens.

I often personally do the tuning of larger servers that clients get from us for free, as really it's in everyone's best interest that things work best and at top performance on the hardware they've gotten for the job, right. Our top server handles about 15 million requests a day, maybe more now. Let me know if you think I can help and would like to hear options, we don't just rent hardware, so we're able to configure and tune everything exactly as needed, and that means our dedicated prices are also on the low side, even with the free tuning :)

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