Jason Antman’s Blog

According to the latest (June 2009) NetCraft web server survey, the Free/Open Source Apache web server is now hosting 50.46% of all active web sites surveyed (about 38 Million). Microsoft’s IIS server is at 28.05% (or about 29 Million) – a 7.64% decline from IIS’s May 2009 statistics. Interestingly, Google holds 12.2%, presumably most of that is their own content or content generated by their applications.

This is nothing new – both Free/Open Source software and Unix-related stuff has always had a stronger share in the server (and Internet) market than Microsoft products. And, despite all of Microsoft’s FUD, it’s clear that Apache is still more popular than IIS by a large margin – probably in no small part due to the extendability and scalability of Apache, and its security record (just take a look at the difference in system calls).

The real shining example, however, comes from looking at the stats on the Internet’s million busiest sites – 66.26% running Apache and only 18.77% running IIS, which has been constant for the better part of the last year. That says quite a bit about the stability and scalability of Apache. Not to mention that a lot of the really big sites run their own custom-modified versions of Apache which may or may not be identified as Apache in a survey.

opensource apache, iis, web server

DNS is arguably one of the most important services on the Internet. Without it, every domain name and email address we know would be meaningless. We’d be thrown back into the days of IP addresses without corresponding names. And, given everything that depends on DNS, it’s also one of the most important services from a security standpoint. Compromised DNS servers could cause end-of-the-world havoc for whatever zones they control.

So here’s a fact that Microsoft and the other proprietary guys don’t want you to know: 58.65% of DNS servers that are listed as being authoritative for .com or .net domains are running the free/open source ISC BIND. Less than 0.3% are using a Microsoft product. To me, that says something.

This is according to the October 2008 measurement factory DNS server survey of 99+ Million addresses (618,000+ hosts).

opensource bind, dns, market share

I read a very interesting article on Linux-Mag.com today. The gist of it is that Microsoft (as happily announced in a press release) has submitted 20,000 lines of code for inclusion into the kernel. Specifically, the code is comprised of a number of drivers that will enable Linux to run better under Microsoft Hyper-V.

Yes, that’s right, Microsoft released code under GPLv2 and is asking for it to be put in Linux. They released it under the license that they call “cancer”. And the entire purpose is, essentially, saying “we want your project to run well as a guest under our hypervisor.

The Linux Mag article did touch on some recent news, such as Microsoft’s lawsuit against TomTom (settled in late March) claiming that the Linux kernel infringes their VFAT patents and the 2004 EU antitrust case (PDF).

A number of things are immediately apparent to me:

• The only reason for this is so Linux will virtualize well under Windows/Hyper-V.
• Microsoft doesn’t seem to be making any similar effort to allow Windows to virtualize well under Xen (and it seems to me that many more people would want Windows on a reliable Linux host than the other way around).
• Microsoft reached a settlement with TomTom, but never did anything to indemnify the Linux community at large.
• This is not a Microsoft endorsement (or even recognition) of the GPL.
• Microsoft made threats about Linux violating “over 228″ of its patents in 2007.

There’s a post on Greg Kroah-Hartman’s blog (he’s the kernel maintainer who will – or will not – eventually be in charge of the inclusion of the code). It should be noted that this all started due to a guy who I really admire, Stephen Hemminger, the principal engineer at Vyatta (whose router product I absolutely love, and their mock advertisements are just as wonderful). Steve has a post on his blog giving the background.

So what do I think should be done? Include the code. But first… (I know Microsoft doing all of this at once would be a dream, but maybe one or two of them would be nice)

1. If they haven’t already done so, Microsoft should publicly recognize the GPL and all of its terms as being a legally binding license.
2. Prior to having any Microsoft code included in the Linux kernel, Microsoft publicly states that the Linux kernel, as of the time they submitted their code, does not infringe on any Microsoft intellectual property.
3. It would be nice of Microsoft would agree to some level of cooperation with the Linux community.
4. Microsoft pledges to allow, support, and actively develop for Windows as a guest under Xen and KVM.

Ideas and Rants gpl, kernel, linux, microsoft

In terms of ongoing projects, I should be updating RackMan sometime soon, and also adding the demo site.

I’ve begun to move DNS for all of my domains in-house, mostly because since everything is behind NAT, it’s a real pain to manage DNS entries in two places (one of them being GoDaddy’s web interface). Because of the NAT issue, I’m also writing my own BIND configuration tool, currently named MultiBIND Admin. In addition to managing multiple zones in a sane way, it stores all configuration in MySQL. Among other things, it can store different IP addresses for A records for the inside and outside views. Zone files can either be pulled by a script on the name server (push capability is being worked on) or downloaded (for uploading to a DNS hosting provider like GoDaddy).

For my final project for my XML web design class, I’m going to be making some “mashup” with RackMan, Google Maps, Google Visualizer, Nagios, and a few other tools…

Stay tuned…

PHPsa, Projects bind, dns, google, PHPsa, rackman

When I did the communications upgrades to my truck, I was originally going to order the antennas and mounts from Tessco, but I found that The Antenna Farm in Montana had the best price on the IC-F5061, and also carried the antennas and mounts. I must first say that there was a notice on the Antenna Farm web site that they had moved to a new location a few days before I placed my order. I waited to place my order until the web site stated that things were shipping normally.

When I placed my order, I added in the “notes” field that I would like tracking numbers sent to me as soon as they were available, as I had requested UPS shipping. I received an initial order confirmation. After waiting a few days, I had received neither a confirmation that my card was charged nor a tracking number. The order status on their web site was still listed as “processing”. I called back four days after placing my order, and it took five calls over two days to get anything other than an answering machine. When I finally got through to John (the owner and, as far as I can tell, sole employee), the voice quality of their phone line was so poor I could hardly communicate. I got enough of his end of the conversation to understand that I should email him, which I did (for the second or third time). In the email, I stated that I was having the equipment installed, so I really needed to know when it would arrive in order to schedule an installation.

I placed the order early on a Monday morning. After numerous attempts to make contact, and no change in the “processing” status on the web site, I finally got an email back on Thursday afternoon stating that some of the antenna mounts were out of stock, and part of the order would be drop shipped from the distributor, and should be there the next day. Still no mention of a tracking number, which I had requested numerous times. I’ve done quite a bit of selling on Ebay, and know how easy it is to provide a customer with this information. He also stated that the high frequency antenna mount for the WiFI antenna was out of stock at the distributor as well, so he had them make up a more expensive one at no extra cost.

The drop ship box arrived the next day, Friday. It contained the two antennas (I ordered the WiFi antenna directly from L-Com) and two antenna mounts – *one* of the Antenex MB8X’s, and the high frequency mount for the WiFi antenna. The WiFi NMO mount was definitelty not the one I ordered. I know John incurred extra cost in having them custom add a connector, but it didn’t look like any NMO mount I had ever seen (it appeared to accept a pin in the center, as opposed to having a flat disc to make contact).

The next week, on Tuesday, the Icom radio arrived. It was as ordered, but the second Antenex MB8X was nowhere to be found. I did finally receive a tracking number about 24 hours prior to delivery.

Two weeks after I placed my order (with three day UPS shipping), Ken managed to fit me in early in the morning. I told him about the missing third antenna mount, and he agreed to use one from his stock. Much to my dismay, when he dropped off the truck, I learned that *neither* of the antenna mounts that arrived were true NMO mounts, and thus they were both useless.

Overall, I’m horribly disappointed with The Antenna Farm. The lack of communication is appalling, regardless of whether they’re having telephone problems or not (and I find it hard to believe that this guy doesn’t have a cell phone, or can’t setup something VoIP-based). The online feedback on order status is nonexistent, and I might as well have had it shipped USPS, because I only got one tracking number and that was a mere day before delivery. One of three antenna mounts was never received (though John did refund me the cost) and the other two were not as specified. He clearly has no idea how to deal with someone who actually has a timeframe – perhaps normal for someone who does most of his business with hams and not public safety (I guess that’s my fault for choosing a bad vendor). When he found out that there would be delays in fulfilling my order, John should have contacted me and asked me how I wanted to proceed. The bulk of my order was drop shipped from Tessco, who I’ve done business with before and would have been more than happy to order direct from.

The programming kit for the F5061 that I ordered from The Antenna Farm, which was listed as “you buy the cable, we throw in the software”, arrived as a loose cable in the radio box and a home-burned CD, without even any writing on it to say what it was, with a simple zip file of the installer. I don’t know what Icom’s licensing agreement is, but I doubt they’d be happy about this, as the software isn’t available on their web site.

To top it all off, I was told by my installer that he stopped buying from The Antenna Farm a few years ago due to endless problems.

Vehicles antennafarm, communications, EMS, radio

I’ve done a bit of work on my truck since my last update, and also have some new photos. The work done includes:

• Added 4 strobes head to rear of truck, with strobe box in NEMA enclosure in bed.
• Icom F5061 (VHF 50W) mobile radio in console
• Three antenna mounts and antennae on roof – WiFi antenna, VHF mobile antenna and wideband scanner antenna. The installation and wiring was done by Ken’s Auto Electric of Midland Park, NJ (Ken is a great guy, and prices very reasonably).

Click photos for larger version.

Looking good after a wash and detail…

Another photo after the wash (before antenna installation)

Front lighting job finished.

Direct frontal view (before antennae). The Dual Avenger is barely visible behind the Super Duty graphic at the top of the windshield, but shows through very clearly when lit.

Running board mounted LIN4’s.

Rear license plate mounted LIN3s and rear strobes.

Closeup of rear LIN3s on license plate bracket.

Icom F5061 mounted in center console, wired to center antenna.

Video of rear lights (LIN3s and strobes) during the day. Quicktime MOV, 20 seconds, 26 MB. download/view video.

Video of truck lit at night, shot from all sides. 24 seconds, Quicktime MOV, 29 Mb. download/view video.

Antenna installation by Ken’s Auto Electric. Front to rear:

1. L-Com HG2405U-NMO 2.4GHz 5dBi WiFi antenna for future laptop.
2. Antenex QW152B 152-162MHz 1/4 wave unity gain VHF antenna hooked up to Icom mobile.
3. Antenex ABSCANC 150/450/800 MHz scanner antenna.

Vehicles antennafarm, antennas, emergency, EMS, f250, icom, lights, radio, truck