Category: General

Server isssues

My apologies. As of late, there have been several service disruptions on this site.  In speaking with my web host, they have identified the following issues:

  • On Thursday 4/11 and 4/18 between 6-10 am local time (1000-1400 UTC) the server that hosts engineeringradio.us was subjected to a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, where approximately 200,000 login attempts were made per hour from 90,000 different IP addresses.  This was part of a greater attack on WordPress websites.
  • On Wednesday 4/24 there was another DoS attack of a more limited and focused scale around 3-4 pm time frame
  • On Tuesday 4/30 beginning at 5 am, (0900 UTC) there was a server issue that returned an error 404 message to anyone trying to access the website.  The .htaccess file was somehow corrupted, which later caused an error 500 message.  This outage lasted until approximately 2 pm (1800 UTC) when the .htaccess file was reloaded.

I have taken several steps to secure the web server and website against intrusions and other attacks.  A distributed DoS attack is very hard to track and combat, the best course is to beef up security policies and weather the attacks when they come.  I have contemplated moving this website to my own server, but that is more work than I have time for right now.  Perhaps at some future point, if reliability continues to be an issue, I will do that.

For now, your patience is appreciated.

Eventually, the internet WILL be censored

Congress, is yet again contemplating a cyber security bill, this time called CISPA.  This one has some worrisome privacy implications for the general internet user.  I recall, not too long ago, another such measure called SOPA/PIPA which created a huge uproar and was voted down.  For Congress and its corporate sponsors, this development was just a slight inconvenience when applying the “if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again,” legislative method.

Not mentioned in this particular bill is the internet kill switch, which exists now in one form or another, and the unofficial back doors into operating systems and routers.  Those things are in place but their use is not codified.  The internet can be monitored, user data can be stored indefinitely and it can be restricted or switched off at a moment’s notice.  That is the reality of the world we live in.

This is why a vibrant, independent radio broadcasting medium is important.  After doing some numbers crunching over the weekend, I came upon some pretty interesting data points:

  • Large and medium-large (over 30 stations) group owners account for approximately 2,300 AM and FM stations
  • NPR-affiliated stations number about 900
  • There are 4,736 AM, 6,603 commercial FM, 3,917 educational FM, and 802 low-power FM stations licensed as of March 31, 2013.
  • There are 77 AM and 178 FM (not counting translators) stations known to be silent

Therefore, approximately 3,200 of the 15,803 stations on the air are controlled by major corporate interests or media conglomerates, the remaining stations are owned by medium-small groups (less than 30 stations) or individuals.  Those figures create an interesting situation when discussing the future of radio.  What do the majority of owners and listeners want?  Ask the market.

Time

The fourth dimension, at least in theory.  We keep track of time in a linear way, each second marking a particular point that will happen only once and never be revisited.  There will never be another 10:42:30.1 on April 17, 2013, for example.

Of course, there are several ways to record the same time:

  • Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): This is the time at the prime meridian, 0° Longitude.  From there, time zones span out to +12 or -12 UTC, meeting again at the International Dateline.  In military parlance, UTC is known as Zulu because it is in timezone Z.
  • Local Time: In any given location, is determined when the sun is directly overhead (± sidereal correction) at noon.
  • Local Timezone:  One of twenty-four arbitrary divisions where the sun may be directly overhead (± sidereal correction) somewhere within the division at noon.
  • Unix Timestamp:  The number of seconds that has transpired since 0000, January 1, 1970.  Unix time stamp 1366209730 equals 10:42:30, April 17, 2013.  In hex looks like 516F0260.  Used by all Unix/Linux variants.
  • GPS Time: UTC – LS (Leap Second) + 19 s.
  • ISO 8601 date/time: 2013-02-17T10:42Z
  • Julian Date: A continuous count of days and fractions of such since noon Universal Time on January 1, 4713 BCE.  April 17, 2013, 10:42:30.1 equals 2456399.946193

One thing to note and mark your calendars: Unix (and variants) may have a problem on January 19, 2038, because of a 32-bit integer issue.  This is known as Y2038, and a smart man would start planning now.

We are off the air!

A phone conversation that occurred one Saturday morning:

DJ: (answers hotline) Hello?

Myself:  This is Paul from Radio Engineering Services, you called the answering service and said you are off the air.

DJ: Yes!  The red bat light is flashing and everything!

Myself: Okay, did you try to put the backup transmitter on?

DJ: No.  I didn’t want to mess anything up.

Myself:  You are off the air; I don’t know how things can be more messed up than that

DJ: (laughing) Okay, you’re right.

Myself: Do you have the directions for the backup transmitter?

DJ: Yes, they are right here

Myself: Okay, go ahead and do that, I will call the local engineer and see if I can get him out to the transmitter site, then I will call you back.

DJ: Okay, thanks.

The good news is the backup transmitter came on and they were back on the air.  It is also nice to know that the station has a live DJ on Saturday morning at 7:00 am, many do not.  The main transmitter power outage was likely due to a utility company transient, the area had suffered an ice storm the day before and they were out restoring power that morning.

At least this was a real emergency, I used to get calls at home that the headphone jack on the console was loose.  I took the home phone number down after that.