Marketing 101: Doing the Right Thing (Rackspace)

I've blogged in the past about how doing the right thing is one of the most effective marketing tools you have have.  In this networked world, doing the right thing gets you accolades and fans.  And, while I've bitched about RackSpace in the past, I'm really impressed with how they are handling the latest Internet security glitch -- the SendMail root exploit.  I just got an email that started this way:

Dear Scott Johnson,

We'd like to inform you of a potential security threat affecting Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris servers running the Sendmail mail server software. There is a newly discovered vulnerability in Sendmail that may allow remote attackers to gain the privileges of the sendmail daemon, typically root.

**This vulnerability does not affect servers running Plesk PSA or Hostware. Plesk PSA and Hostware use the Qmail mail server software.

Rackspace deems this Sendmail vulnerability as CRITICAL. To ensure the security of your system(s) at Rackspace, we highly recommend that you take one of the following steps as soon as possible:

...

Now just sending this out is a damn good thing in and of itself.  But it gets better.  When I read a little further I saw this:

Please note that we will install the latest version of Sendmail packaged by your operating system vendor to ensure that your system is secure. Rackspace will install updates to our standard installation of Sendmail -
free of charge.

That's the right thing.  Even though Rackspace could bail on this or just point you to a man page, they offer to do it for you.  And they're willing to do it for free -- if you're using their standard software.  That is very much doing the right thing.  They've recognized that security is a huge issue for people and they're willing to take responsibility for things.  Nice Job !!!

Note 1: If you've customized your Sendmail installation then they're going to charge you but they do point this out up front.

Note 2: I do recognize that this notice was sent out late but they're still doing the right thing and that gives them points in my book.

Oh and how was the work they did ?  Well I actually don't know.  Apokalyptik who does most of my serious sys admin has me running QMail which isn't affected by this.  And if you're looking for sys admin assistance, you should talk to him, he's great.

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Random PHP Trivia or How I Learned to Love the . Operator

I'm starting to really gear up for my PHPCON presentation on PHP Subtleties -- you know the little things you ought to know but don't.  How many times in PHP have you done something like this:

echo  "$x<BR>";

Now while it is slightly more difficult to write this:

echo  $x . "<BR>";

But the net benefit of this is roughly a 50% speed up. 

Disclaimer: Very, very, very crude benchmarking here using simple microtime() and a calculator.

Now you might think that this would give a greater speedup since I'm using single quotes now, not double quotes:

echo  $x . '<BR>';

But the improvement is actually miniscule at best.  Maybe 1%.

And that, Gentle Reader, is how I learned to love the . operator.

Note: The . operator is string append so the conclusion of this little piece is that string appending is substantially faster than string interpretation (when you have "$x<BR" then PHP will replace the $x with its value).

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Blogging versus Mail

Radio Free Blogistan (RFB) is having trouble with email:

There was a time when I had my in box(es) totally under control. Stuff got filtered. I either deleted messages, replied to them, or saved them if they really needed saving. Then blogging helped, because it provides a way to directly deal with any information that comes into my box and deserves immediate public comment or should be passed along as is to some specific audience (that's what x-pollination is all about, to me).

But as I blog more it seems that I attend to my e-mail less. Between blogged items, to-do list items, and e-mail messages related to some action I intend to take, e-mail always seems to fall to the bottom of the pile. Then there's the problem of the in-box getting too full and "urgent" messages scrolling off the screen. [_Go_]

Interesting.  This is much the same experience that I've had since I've been blogging.  While I still check my mail early in the day, I generally worry about my blog entries first.  And, although I'm clearly biased, I honestly think that its solely the use of Inbox Buddy which has kept my mail on track.  Although Inbox Buddy has lots of anti-spam features, it also is rich with email management tools which help prevent the problems that RFB is having.

Thanks to James for passing this on to me.  [_Go_]

Note: I'm one of the authors of Inbox Buddy and a principal in the company so I clearly have bias.  But that doesn't mean it isn't a great product.

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Humor for *nix Folk Only

Thanks to Asleep for leading me to this. [_Go_]

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Blogging, Raging Cow and Ethics

I commented a day or so ago about Raging Cow and their faux-blog.  Faux in the sense that the content is fiction.  I got some interesting feedback from Tristan who sent me his "Declaration of Bloggerdom":

1. We are bloggers.
2. We are individuals.
3. We are not for sale
4. We are not a target market.
5. We link to sites because we find them interesting, not because we think we'll get free goods or money out of our links.
6. If we have a relationship with a product/company/service/person we link to, we will disclose it in the same post.
7. We believe in contributing.
8. We believe in truth.
9. Our writing is our own. Our words are our own.
10. Like them or not, our opinions are our own, too. [_Go_]

I agree with the points but the ubiquity of marketing literally everywhere makes it hard to see why a marketer's blog couldn't just agree with it.  Right now Raging Cow is getting attention simply because its one of the first blogs to pervert bloggerdom.  What happens when there are 20?  Or 200?  How will we establish the current level of trust we have for blogs?

Tristan's answer is "The Full Disclosure XML Feed":

Here's how it works:
First, there's an XML definition to say this is an XML feed: <?xml version="1.0"?>

This is followed by the <fulldisclosure> tag which says this is my full disclosure feed.

Generic information similar to an RSS feed includes the weblog title, weblog url, the RSS url (this is important because some people may only read a site through an RSS reader), the type of site (this can be either personal (for a personal site), corporate (for a site run by the corporation pushing the product), or marketing (for marketing agencies, advertising agencies, public relations companies, and other outside agencies promoting a product on behalf of a client), and a contact part (this can either be an email address or the URL of a web form to contact the person or company).

We then go into the <ad> section For every type of ad, we include a <type>,<compensation>, <value>, and <entry>. Let me go into more details on this... [_Go_]

I need to digest this a bit before I can comment further.  One thing I will say is that implementing this on a per post level would definitely increase the amount of work to blog content which isn't good at all.  And if it isn't implemented on a per post level then the questions remain.

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How Very Odd: Integrating Personals into your Content Site???

I just saw that Salon now offers personals.  How strange:

Spring Street Networks is the only personals company whose mission is to be the best partner for content brands. Online personals is one of the most profitable and swiftly growing Internet businesses; we have built a network of high-quality media companies that has the highest conversions in the business. [_Go_]

Its unclear if each "partner site" has their own database of people or if there is one common database.  If its a common database then there are some severe privacy implications.

How very, very odd.

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