Nick Bonadies's Barbarian Blog

Impossible Ebay

nick@barbariangroup.com(Nick Bonadies) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:40:39 -0400

eBay is busted, and its not because some code went bad or because a server somewhere failed. Its because eBay is overrun with people trying to scam other people.

Even the unstoppable Bruce Schneier isn’t immune. He almost got scammed twice while trying to sell his laptop on eBay.

Consumerist has a nice write up about the problem:

The cool thing about eBay’s support system is it will always answer your question; unfortunately, that answer will always be a form letter on how to reset your password, as Timothy discovered when he tried to figure out how to sell his laptop to someone who wasn’t a Nigerian scammer. Timothy has learned the awful truth behind today’s eBay—something many readers here already know—which is that it’s become virtually impossible to sell any sort of medium-to-high end electronics there anymore.

Pretty lame. But I never really trusted spending a lot of money on anything via eBay. Its just too bad that everything on the internet sort of turns into this. Too bad or crazy awesome. I can’t decide.

HOWTO: Create a transparent local Apple software update server

nick@barbariangroup.com(Nick Bonadies) — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:18:01 -0400

If the benefit isn’t clearly obvious from the title, let me explain why you would want to set up something like this in your office network. Bandwidth is expensive. Especially if you need a bunch of it and require a solid SLA. Apple updates can be HUGE; the most recent Mac OS 10.5.7 combo update clocked in at a whopping 729MB. Now imagine you have an office of 20 people all using the same internet connection to download the same package from the same place. Madness right?

They’ve just saturated your inbound link and business is grinding to a halt! If you’re in this position you’re already too late, and you’ll have to make up for it using some fancy QoS rules or blocking traffic from the Apple software update servers all together. Don’t live in fear of the next Mac OS update because now you have time to set up your very own Apple software update server!

Lets get to the good tech bits…

Free Limited Time Offer

nick@barbariangroup.com(Nick Bonadies) — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:23:05 -0400

Here is your chance to own a piece of Barbarian Group history! I have a bunch of extra buttons left over from my wildly successful mayoral campaign that I’m going to give out FREE to the internet. Just mail me a self addressed stamped envelope to the address below and I’ll mail you a button back. Also it’d be nice if you included a funny/interesting/weird something or other in the envelope you send me and I’ll can post whatever I get!

Nick Bonadies
The Barbarian Group
338 Newbury Street, 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02115

Pepsi Throwback

nick@barbariangroup.com(Nick Bonadies) — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:16:09 -0400

I got one of those Pepsi Throwback sodas that was just recently released. It was down right delicious! I like this trend! The packaging leaves something to be desired though. This design looks much nicer I think. Anyway this stuff is definitely worth checking out if you are a regular consumer of cola type sodas.

Mayor Friday

nick@barbariangroup.com(Nick Bonadies) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:42:46 -0400

Complete with mayor sash from Ben and skull cane from Bruce.