Archive for the month of January 2009
Corporate email 2008: 90 percent spam
stplanken — January 29, 2009 - 23:30
In line with findings by Sophos in April 2008 PC Magazine reported that of 430 million email messages monitored by Panda's TrustLayer Mail service during 2008, 90 percent was spam or malware. Most spam was sent by zombie computers taken over by worms sent remotely.
Gene sequence discovery might lead to live BSE tests
stplanken — January 29, 2009 - 19:14
Researchers at the University of Calgary have identified the gene sequences linked to the brain-wasting disease Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy ("mad cow disease").
Future tests may detect the presence of BSE well before symptoms show up in the cow.
Greece may block Croatia's path to EU
Balkanblog — January 29, 2009 - 18:15
Greece may block the opening of a new chapter of Croatia's EU membership talks, because Croatia recognized Macedonia's national minority and the national orthodox church. Earlier, Greece also blocked Croatia's accession to NATO.
Limiting indentations for threaded comments in Drupal
stplanken — January 28, 2009 - 19:32
(This works for Drupal 5.x and 6.x.)
Threaded comments in Drupal are fine, but after a certain number of replies, you really need to limit the amount of indentation or the comment space will get too small to be useful.
At first, I hacked the comment module and added a variable to define the maximum number of nested comments. Since I am drastically reducing the number of hacks in favor of more appropriate solutions, I decided to solve this with CSS.
Take a look at the result. In comments, the left indentation (margin-left) is taken from comment.css.
Serbia lobbying for ICJ case
Balkanblog — January 28, 2009 - 19:13
Serbia has asked some 80 countries to submit formal statements to the International Court of Justice to outline their stance on Kosovo's declaration of independence. This could help Serbia convincing the court.
So far, 54 countries of the 192 UN members have recognized Kosovo's independence, including the US and most EU countries.
Bosnia-Herzegovina not ready for EU membership
Balkanblog — January 28, 2009 - 19:06
Miroslav Lajcak — EU High Representative and special representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina — said that Bosnia is far too dysfunctional and troubled to apply for EU membership. He said that due to Kosovo's independence, the international community had lost focus on Bosnia-Herzegovina and that it may be time to intervene.
Karadzic suggests reduced indictment
Balkanblog — January 28, 2009 - 18:52
Radovan Karadzic — on trial at the UN war crimes tribunal — said that judges should order prosecutors to cut down his indictment or risk his trial taking "years and years" to complete. The number of allegations against him were reduced but a second genocide charge was filed September 23, 2008.
Trial of Vlastimir Djordjevic commenced at UN tribunal
Balkanblog — January 27, 2009 - 22:22
The trial of former Serbian general Vlastimir Djordjevic has started at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He is accused of being involved in the murders of hundreds of ethnic Albanians and the deportation of 800,000 others from Kosovo during 1998-1999.
According to the indictment, Djordjevic "willingly participated in a joint criminal enterprise whose aim was to expel the majority of the Kosovo Albanian population to ensure continued Serbian control over the territory".
Remote Desktop: MSTSC requests outbound connection over port 80
stplanken — January 26, 2009 - 23:01
While attempting to connect to my HP MediaSmart server with Remote Desktop, I noticed that MSTSC.EXE requested an outbound connection over port 80. Since the server and my laptop are both on the same home LAN, my curiosity was aroused.
I only specifically allow connections over 3389
so everything else triggers a warning.
Serbia invites EU to check cooperation with UN tribunal
Balkanblog — January 26, 2009 - 22:05
Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic said that his country invited the EU to send observers to see how well Serbia is cooperating with the UN war crimes court. Full cooperation — the extradition of Ratko Mladic in particular — is a key condition for Serbia to join the EU.
Albanians calling for release of former KLA fighters
Balkanblog — January 26, 2009 - 21:46
Thousands of ethnic Albanians protested in Presevo, demanding the release of the 10 former KLA fighters arrested December 26, 2008.
Yesterday, Albanian political parties signed a declaration demanding the release of the ten former KLA members and amnesty for local guerrillas who fought Serb forces
Explosions rock Mitrovica
Balkanblog — January 24, 2009 - 22:59
Kosovo police said two explosions occurred in a residential area in the northern town of Mitrovica. The explosions — presumed to be from hand grenades — occurred occurred within an hour of each other near apartment buildings of mainly Albanians. No injuries were reported.
KFOR and EUFOR troops were dispatched to the area.