I hate SPAM, and GoDaddy is Useless!

After the debacle with my CenturyLink DSL last summer, I had to make a quick decision on alternatives to hosting my own domain, email and web. I ended up being off the network for two weeks when CenturyLink couldn't figure out how to restore my DSL server when they did an upgrade that I had already cancelled. Many years ago, I used a domain-hosting service called DomainDiscover that registered my domains and DNS, redirected web requests inside of a frame, and relayed email from a virtual domain to my ISP account. After I started running Apple's OS X Server, though, I realized that I could provide most of those services myself, on my own home server. My ISP, NeTrack, who was later acquired by Indra's Net, provided a static IP address, so hosting my own domain was fairly straight-forward. Once I started running my own services locally, I decided that it wasn't necessary to be paying DomainDiscover for the other services that I wasn't using any longer. All I really needed was a domain registrar. Checking on pricing, it seemed that GoDaddy was about the least expensive, and while nobody had a great customer service record, GoDaddy was large and established, so I transferred my domain registrations to them. So, when my DSL was down for an extended period of time, I did some quick checking, and discovered that GoDaddy had recently started using CPanel virtual Linux hosting, and had hosting plans on sale for half-price, so it was only about $5/month, as I recall. Since my domains were already at GoDaddy, it was easy to setup the hosting account, and I was able to get email service back up in a matter of minutes. Over the next couple of weeks, I was able to create MySQL databases and restore backups from my home server, and migrate all of the content for Drupal, so I had my websites backup in a couple of hours. Since that time, however, the amount of SPAM that I receive has increased significantly. While cPanel includes SpamAssassin, it allows very little configuration, so its practically useless. What is worse that the SPAM is the backscatter. These are bounced messages from a forged sender that look like came from me, but didn't. When the SPAM can't be delivered, it sends the failure notice to the forged sender's address, which is mine in this case. I'm getting over 500 backscatter daily! Let me say at this point that if you have looked up my name or email address on the web, because you're angry that I'm sending you SPAM about something seen on the Oprah show -- I'm not the one sending it, I haven't been hacked or infected with a virus or worm, and it didn't come from my computer! My domain, or rather my domain's email server, is being spoofed by spammers, who are obviously sending huge quantities of SPAM from a variety of different sources, pretending to be my domain.

What does backscatter look like, and how can you tell where it came from?

Let's take a look at the headers from one of the messages. There different ways to do this in different email applications. In Apple's Mail, I choose "Message -> Full Headers" from the View menu. ------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------ Return-path: Received: from [188.52.86.70] (port=65247 helo=mail.tombaugh.org) by p3plcpnl0545.prod.phx3.secureserver.net with esmtpa (Exim 4.85) (envelope-from ) id 1YhKy8-0002yW-SZ; Sun, 12 Apr 2015 09:42:49 -0700 Subject: from: Brandon Tate From: Brandon Tate Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-291EBA29-F9D3-9F3D-1ECC-F30B84161BF8 X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (11D257) Message-Id: <0bfcd819ccfa e68a1153="" f5a993f5="" tombaugh.org=""> Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2015 05:42:44 +0000 To: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 (1.0) --Apple-Mail-291EBA29-F9D3-9F3D-1ECC-F30B84161BF8 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi! How are you? Have you seen this before? Oprah had been using it for over a year! ----------------- First, let's look at the "From:" line From: Brandon Tate If a human were to look at this, its apparent that the name and address don't match. However, many email applications now hide the actual email address, and only show the sender's name, so many people aren't even aware that it has been faked. Now, let's look at the "Received from" line: Received: from [188.52.86.70] (port=65247 helo=mail.tombaugh.org) by p3plcpnl0545.prod.phx3.secureserver.net with esmtpa (Exim 4.85) This shows the IP address making the connection to the SMTP server. You can find who this address belongs to by doing a "whois" lookup, from a website, the terminal or command prompt, or the Network Utility on a Mac. I did a whois lookup, and see that address is assigned to Saudi Telecom: Whois has started… % This is the RIPE Database query service. % Information related to '188.52.0.0 - 188.52.255.255' % Abuse contact for '188.52.0.0 - 188.52.255.255' is 'registry@saudi.net.sa' inetnum: 188.52.0.0 - 188.52.255.255 netname: SAUDINET_DSL_POOL descr: DSL HOME Subscribers country: SA role: Saudi Telecom Co. Registry Admin-C contact address: STC complex, murslat, Riyadh address: P.O.Box: 295997 address: Riyadh 11351 address: Saudi Arabia phone: +966-11-4434970 % This query was served by the RIPE Database Query Service version 1.78 (DB-3) I live in Colorado, and my domain is hosted by GoDaddy in Phoenix, so this definitely didn't come from me! Next, on the same line, see the "HELO=" which shows the name that the sender proclaimed to be -- mail.tombaugh.org. If you lookup this host name in DNS, it shows: dig mail.tombaugh.org all ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> mail.tombaugh.org all ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- -="" 0="" 128="" 12="" 13:29:05="" 1="" 2015="" 23.229.231.36="" 2="" 3600="" 45335="" 600="" 65="" 75.75.75.75="" a="" additional:="" answer:="" answer="" apr="" authority:="" cname="" flags:="" got="" id:="" in="" mail.tombaugh.org.="" msec="" msg="" noerror="" opcode:="" qr="" query:="" query="" question="" ra="" rcvd:="" rd="" section:="" server:="" size="" status:="" sun="" time:="" tombaugh.org.="" when:="">>HEADER<<- .="" 0="" 10800="" 12="" 13:29:05="" 16="" 1800="" 1="" 2015041200="" 2015="" 3976="" 604800="" 75.75.75.75="" 86400="" 900="" 96="" a.root-servers.net.="" a="" additional:="" all.="" answer:="" apr="" authority:="" authority="" code="" flags:="" id:="" in="" msec="" msg="" nstld.verisign-grs.com.="" nxdomain="" opcode:="" qr="" query:="" query="" question="" ra="" rcvd:="" rd="" section:="" server:="" size="" soa="" status:="" sun="" time:="" when:=""> The DNS query shows that the IP address for mail.tombaugh.org is 23.229.231.36, not 188.52.86.70. In my opinion, this should cause the email to be blocked immediately! Unfortunately, it was accepted for delivery, but bounced, and sent the failure notice back to my account.

What can be done to prevent SPAM?

Unfortunately, it is obvious that the SMTP server that received the message isn't validating the reverse DNS lookup from the HELO, and they aren't checking the SPF record. Who's email server is that not checking these basic parameters? Lets look back at the received by line: Received: from [188.52.86.70] (port=65247 helo=mail.tombaugh.org) by p3plcpnl0545.prod.phx3.secureserver.net with esmtpa (Exim 4.85) Oh my gosh! That's one of the servers in the secureserver.net domain operated by my hosting company, GoDaddy! So GoDaddy's cPanel virtual Linux hosting email servers are not checking that the senders name and address match, nor are they checking their own SPF records in their own DNS for the domains that they host for their customers! The first line of defense against SPAM is in the SMTP server itself. The SMTP server bundled with CPanel is EXIM. Exim has the helo_verify option which will reject mail if the sender doesn't open with HELO or EHLO, or if the address verification fails. This is obviously NOT enabled. If it were the SPAM would get refused before it was sent. The second line of defense is to use a blacklisting service such as SpamHaus to see if the sender has been identified as a spammer. I checked the address 188.52.86.70, and its in the SpamHaus Zen blacklist, and several other services as well. This leads me to believe that GoDaddy isn't using a blacklist to validate senders, either... The next check that should be done would be to verify the authenticy of the sender using a certificate, Yahoo's DomainKeys or DKIM, or Sender Policy Framework. One of GoDaddy's own Support articles suggests creating SPF records in their DNS, which is ironic since their own servers don't seem to check SPF records!. This is what an SPF record looks like: dig mail.tombaugh.org txt ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> mail.tombaugh.org txt ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- 0="" 107="" 12="" 13:29:32="" 154="" 18254="" 1="" 2015="" 2="" 3600="" 75.75.75.75="" a="" additional:="" all="" answer:="" answer="" apr="" authority:="" cname="" code="" flags:="" id:="" in="" include:secureserver.net="" mail.tombaugh.org.="" msec="" msg="" mx="" noerror="" opcode:="" ptr="" qr="" query:="" query="" question="" ra="" rcvd:="" rd="" section:="" server:="" size="" status:="" sun="" time:="" tombaugh.org.="" txt="" v="spf1" when:=""> The SPF record is stored as text, and shows the names of the mail servers that are authorized to send for this domain. In this case, its including any mail server run by GoDaddy. According to GoDaddy, after wasting an hour talking with their technical support, I should change my email account password, and create an "SPF" record in my DNS... The problem is, the mail didn't come from my account, so changing my password won't affect anything, and I already have an SPF record! The technical support people at GoDaddy that I talked with today claim that since this email is being handled by cPanel that they can't change the settings to enable helo_verify, set a blacklist, or enable checking SPF records, which I think is bullshit! Even if GoDaddy weren't able to change the configuration for cPanel, they could (and should) relay their inbound email through their own gateway servers which ought to incorporate these kinds of basic filtering mechanisms. I'm frustrated that not only is GoDaddy not helping to prevent or block SPAM, it appears to me that, in essence, they are enabling the spammers! Any combination of the three simple configurations that I outlined above would prevent this spam from being sent to thousands of recipients, and would eliminate hundreds of backscatter messages per day as well. The only option that they were able to recommend is to move to a virtual Linux host, instead of cPanel, so that I could do all of the work to setup these things myself. This is what I was expecting to avoid by hosting my domains with a "professional" hosting organization. So, until I decide to host my own server again, I'm going to be deleting ~500 backscatter and a bunch of other SPAM every day...

Driving in the Mountains

We're spending the weekend at our trailer in Buena Vista. It was too windy yesterday to ride our bikes that we brought up, so we decided to drive down Highway 50 over Monarch Pass down to Gunnison. This weekend has been my first chance to drive my new VW Jetta SportWagen TDI in the mountains, so I was interested to see how it handled the higher altitude and steeper grades. The 2.0L TDI makes plenty of power to ascend even a 7% grade at 11,000 feet.

What I was even more impressed with, though, was how well the DSG transmission worked on the descent. I'd already noticed that when braking, the DSG will downshift to help slow down using engine braking. What I had not thought about was how nicely that would work when descending a 7% grade. When coming down from the pass, holding the brake for a moment would cause the DSG to downshift one or two gears. It would hold that gear until I touched the throttle again. It worked perfectly to control the speed coming down a steep grade. I know that I can use the Tiptronic mode to do this manually, and that it will even automatically match the engine speed, but I was impressed that in automatic mode it did this so well on its own.

My previous vehicle, a GMC Sierra K-2500 truck with the Duramax Diesel and Allison transmission would do downhill engine braking, but I think only when it was in Tow/Haul mode. It also worked quite well to control the speed, especially when we were pulling the trailer.

I was also quite pleased to see that for the trip to and from Gunnison, including going over Monarch Pass twice, we still averaged 36 MPG!

VW Jetta SportWagen TDI

Last week I bought my new 2011 Jetta SportWagen TDI, the day before we took a 3,200 mile trip from Denver through Missouri to North Dakota, and back again. The TDI was the perfect car for the road trip, roomy and comfortable, and up to 43MPG on the highway. Based on fill-ups, my best mileage was 39.67MPG, with 486 miles on one fill-up and still a 1/4 tank left. My overall mileage has been about 37MPG, combined city/highway for the first 3,500 miles.

There are quite a few things that I really like about the new Jetta:

• The fuel economy is fantastic. Even in the first 3,500 miles, I'm getting at least 30 MPG driving to and from work, and over 43 MPG on the highway, if I keep the speed down a little...


• The TDI makes plenty of power, especially for an engine that gets such great fuel economy. Although its only 140 HP, the diesel makes 236 ft-lbs. of torque, which is really more important. Plenty of power to accelerate onto the highway, or for passing. I'm anxious to get up into the mountains to see how it does at higher altitude.


• Even though the fuel tank holds only 14.5 gallons, with the great fuel economy that's enough fuel for a range of about 500 miles on the highway, so you don't have to stop to fill up so often.


• After much internal debate, I finally decided on the DSG automatic rather than the manual transmission. While my previous Jetta has a manual transmission, and I can certainly enjoy driving a stick-shift, I thought that for the long term the automatic might be more comfortable. Since the DSG doesn't use a conventional fluid torque converter, its more efficient than traditional automatics, and in fact is often rated with higher fuel economy than the manual. I also thought that since the diesel has a lower redline and narrower (and lower RPM) power band than a gasoline engine, that with the manual you would need to be shifting constantly to stay in the appropriate gear. I decided that it would be better to let the transmission do that for me! Driving the DSG still feels a little quirky at times, although its generally very smooth and shifts very quickly. At startup it feels a little slow to engage sometimes, which can lead you to open the throttle a bit more. Once the transmission and turbo get engaged, it makes for quite a quick start, often quicker than intended. It can actually be challenging to drive this car slowly! ;-) With a bit more practice and patience, though, I'm getting the hang of making smooth starts. The other thing that is taking some adjustment is that the DSG downshifts for you when braking to help you slow down. It seems like the harder you brake, the quicker it downshifts, so braking smoothly can be challenging if you're not paying enough attention. Again with some more practice I'm sure that I'll have the proper finesse soon!


• For a compact car, there is plenty of space inside. The Jetta seems almost as spacious as our Passat, and was very comfortable to ride in even for a long trip. The seats are very comfortable, and easily adjustable to keep comfy even on a long drive. The electric heat was handy to have, as it was only 27 degrees in North Dakota on the morning when we left.


• The car came standard with Bluetooth integration for my cellphone. While this isn't something that I may have ordered if it were an option, I'm really liking the way that it works. Once paired with my phone, it automatically links every time I start the car. If I get a phone call while I'm driving, I can press the phone button on the steering wheel with my thumb, and it mutes the stereo, answers the call, plays it through the speakers, and has a microphone built into the overhead console. It really works quite well.


• I love the soft leather-wrapped 3-spoke steering wheel, with built-in controls for the stereo, phone, and trip computer. I tend to hold onto the lower portion of the steering wheel when driving on the highway, and many 4-spoke wheels like the one in our Passat don't have enough spacing between the top and bottom spokes to fit my hands into comfortably. The 3-spoke wheel works perfectly.


• The car I picked out has the panoramic sunroof and 17" wheel package. I love having the sunroof for ventilation, and it makes the car feel much more open and roomier, even in the back seat, since the glass comes back over the rear seats as well.


• The TDI comes with the Multi-Function Display trip computer, which shows the instantaneous and average fuel consumption, both for the current trip and cumulatively. The trip counters reset after two hours, so it always shows your current activity. It also tracks duration, distance, and average speed for both the current trip and cumulatively. The MFD will also show the phone status, and the current selection on the radio. A new addition, compared with our 2008 Passat, is a simple, large digital speed display. Very nice...


• The touchscreen AM/FM/Satellite Radio/6-CD Changer is also great. Again, although satellite radio is not something that I would have ordered, we did enjoy it on the trip. It was nice to be able to pick a channel by category, and not have to constantly hunt for local radio stations while traveling. I am having the factory Media Device Interface for the iPod installed by the dealer this week, so in the future I'll be able to control my iPod through the radio as well.

So what's missing? I think that about the only thing that would make this car better, perhaps perfect, would be if it were offered with all-wheel drive. Volkswagen has their 4-Motion all-wheel drive systems, like the Audi Quattro, which is only offered on a few of the high-end trim levels of the Passat and CC. There are European versions of the Jetta/Golf that are offered with both TDI and 4-Motion, but not in the US. Even the Audi A3, which is offered with the TDI, or with Quattro, isn't available with both TDI and Quattro. I would most likely have gone with the more expensive A3 if Quattro would have been offered.

I've heard that with the recent tragedy in Japan, that production of many Japanese auto brands may be severely limited for the near future. While Subaru has a US-based factory in West Lafayette, IN, it has closed a number of its plants in northern Japan, the area that sustained the worst damage from the earthquake/tsunami. I think that if VW were to offer a 4-Motion-equiped version of the Jetta SportWagen in the US that it would likely pick up a fair share of Subaru's market. I would guess that many Subaru buyers make their selection because of the all-wheel drive.

State High School Marching Band Competition

Yesterday we went to the Colorado Bandmaster's Association State 4A/5A High School Marching Band Finals held at Falcon Stadium at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs.

First I have to say how amazing each and every band performed! I'm very impressed by the level of performance shown by all of these kids. I think that are far above where I remember my high school band, and possibly college bands at the time as well.

I was planning to take pictures of Arapahoe's band and color guard during the semi-finals, since it was during the afternoon when there would be plenty of natural light. We got a phone call from one of the color guard parents asking for help moving the large props that are used during the performance, as not all of the volunteers that they had arranged for had been able to make it. We were happy to help out, but it was a lot of work to wheel them down the hill from the parking lot, and into the tunnel leading to the field. It turned out that the tunnel wasn't quite as tall as they expected, and the candy cane tubes were slightly taller than they thought, so they were a few inches too tall! We tipped a couple of the at an angle to get them through, but decided that was taking too much time. We discovered that removing one of the tie-down straps that attaches the tube to the base allowed the top tube to drop down just enough to clear the top of the tunnel. A quick re-adjustment on the other end of the tunnel, and everything worked out just fine.

Unfortunately, that meant that our vantage point for their afternoon performance was from behind the end zone, instead of high up in the stands, and without my camera...

Arapahoe placed fifth in the semi-finals, so they moved on to the finals in the evening. We were told that there should be plenty of volunteers for the evening, so that we could return to the stands to watch. Even though the 4A finals were first, we wanted to watch, since we've seen some of the 4A bands at some of the other competitions.

During the Loveland High School Band performance, the woman sitting directly behind me was constantly "cat-calling" and "hooting and hollering" so loudly that I couldn't hear the band at all! I tried moving over into the empty seat next to me so that i wasn't directly in front of her, but it didn't really help... At the end of their performance, as the women was gathering her things, she hit me in the head with her bag! She muttered "sorry" and I turned around to tell her "that wasn't as bad as all of the screaming..." She then told me that "if I didn't want any noise, that I shouldn't have come." I told her that I came to hear the bands, not the parents... She then had the gall to tell me that I "should have sat somewhere else..." as if I had some choice about sitting in front of her... What a b****... I guess there isn't much "love" in Loveland... ;-) This is as bad as Little League, where the parents behave worse than the kids, and are more competitive. You know, I think that if she had said "sorry" that she "just got excited when her kids were performing" I probably would have gotten so irritated... But when she turned it back to become MY fault, it really made me angry!

Loveland ended up in second place, behind Air Academy High School, who are very impressive with their speed and precision in their formations. Loveland's show incorporates spreading several enormous tarps on the field in the shape of a crescent moon, one of the elements of their show. It takes an inordinate amount of time to lay out all of the pieces, which have to be taped together in places to hold them down. Last night, two of the kids fell on them. A trombone player seemed to have tripped over one of the edges, and one of the color guard girls seemed to have lost her footing on the slippery surface. I hope that both of the kids are OK...

Arapahoe had perhaps their best performance of the season in the finals. Since they are a smaller band than most of the other 5A bands, they don't seem to project as well as the other bands. They have a great show, though, and did very well. The color guard did a great job, with only a couple of little slips. Overall, the judges marked them 0.4 points lower than Douglas County, so they finished in fifth place in the finals as well. They were rated fifth in the state going into the competition, so really they did as well as expected. See all of the scores here.

Being somewhat new to this, I have a few observations about band competitions in general.

One of the things I find interesting is that the bands are lead by student drum majors, not by the band directors... They do an awesome job of directing, and have amusing salute routines when they start and finish, and during the award presentations. However, I guess that I object somewhat to them being spotlighted so much more than the rest of the band members. Most of them are in different uniforms than the band, which seems unnecessary to me... We can tell that they are the drum majors when they climb onto the stand. Also, some of the bands have their drum majors, who are predominately girls, dressed in evening gowns. While elegant, it doesn't seem to fit in with a "marching band."

Another thing that surprises me is that all of the bands have a "percussion pit" that seems more suited to a concert band than a marching band. Lots of bells, marimbas, and xylophones, chimes, timpani, gongs, etc. Some of it seems like gratuitous use of as many percussion pieces as possible, whether warranted or not. Some of the bands also have electric bass and guitars, and synthesizer keyboards, which are hardly classic marching band instruments. I also notice that none of the bands use handheld cymbals in the drum line, only in the percussion pit. The exhibition performance while the judges tabulated the results was by the University of Northern Colorado band, who didn't use any percussion pit, and had four cymbals in the drum line that worked very nicely.

I also think that some of the elaborate scenery pieces, particularly the tarps spread on the field, like Loveland uses, are both unnecessary and dangerous. Having to step on and off of different surfaces while marching backwards seems like too big of a risk to make it worthwhile. Douglas County High School uses tarps, too, but much smaller than Loveland, and only in one corner of the field. I think that they start out on the tarps, but I don't think that they return to them during the performance.

Again, though, I was very impressed with all of the bands, and congratulate everyone who participated, as a performer, parent or staff. Its obvious that everyone puts a tremendous amount of effort, and lots of practice time, and it all showed on Saturday.

Car Computer vs. Droid

I've been meaning to post something about this for some time, but haven't had a chance...

Last year, I was making some plans to install a computer in my car, to use for navigation, entertainment, etc.

However, in February, I upgraded my cell phone to an Android phone, a Motorola Droid from Verizon.

What I've realized is that everything that I wanted to do with the car computer, Droid does!

I was planning to take my old G4 Mac Mini, and mount it in the trunk. I found a power supply from Carnetix that works with the Mini, and will wake or sleep the computer with the ignition. I found a head unit from Xenarc that is a standard DIN unit that would fit in the dash of my Jetta. The Xenarc has a DVI input to connect for the video on the Mini. It uses a touch screen, which connects to the computer as a USB mouse. It has the amplifier and radio tuner, a volume control, balance and fader, tone controls, etc. so that it works as the head unit even without using the computer.

I have an old Garmin GPS-III, with a serial cable and USB adaptor to use for navigation, using RouteBuddy as the software.

Since the Mac Mini can play DVD's, and has iTunes for music, it would be easy to use for in-dash entertainment. I was thinking that Front Row would make a decent interface to use in the car. I found a plug-in framework called FrontPython that allows adding other applications to Front Row. I was going to build a FrontPython plug-in to add RouteBuddy to Front Row to make it easy to access.

When I got my Droid, I also got the car dock, which is a suction-cup mount that the Droid clips into while driving. The phone works well enough using the speakerphone that I use it for hands-free operation. The Google Maps navigation works great, especially with the voice search. I have used DoubleTwist to sync my iTunes library to the Droid, so I have music available if I wanted. Since the Droid uses a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, I could plug the Droid into auxiliary input on my existing car stereo. I can also stream video from a variety of sources, so I can get plenty of entertainment from the Droid, including email, web, testing, twitter, etc.

Part of my reason for wanting the car computer was to keep me occupied on the frequent occasions that I was sitting in the car waiting for kids. With the Dorid, I have plenty of entertainment, and navigation, in my pocket at all times.

A Lightweight Approach to Wireless Access Point Geolocation

By Brad Tombaugh 17 July 2010
Brad@Tombaugh.org
www.Tombaugh.org
Brad@FullCircleTechSolutions.com
www.FullCircleTechSolutions.com
BTombaugh@gmail.com
Tombaugh.BlogSpot.com

Draft 1.0

Introduction:

One of the side-effects of "wardriving" to detect the locations of wireless access point (WAP) using a mobile device such as a laptop computer with a GPS is that all of the locations of the WiFi hotspots all appear on a map at the location where they were detected, not where the source of the radio signal originates. This generally means that all of the mapped locations of detected networks are marked in the middle of a street.

Theorum:

The geographic location of a wireless access point (WAP) can be approximated by recording the GPS coordinates and signal strength in three or more locations. The point of origin can then be calculated using trilateration.

To optimize efficiency for use with a mobile device such as a smartphone, use of a simple algorythm to capture four points, corresponding to the minimum and maximum latitude and longitude coordinates where the signal from the WAP can be conveniently measured.

Assumptions:

The maximum signal range of a typical commercially produced, consumer-grade wireless access point is roughly 300 ft or 100m.

Since most commercial wireless equipment is provided with an omni-directional antenna, its assumed that the radio signal radiation pattern can be expected to be roughly circular.

While buildings and terrian can reduce the range of wireless signals, in a typical residential area the interference could be assumed to be roughly equal in all directions. Thus, it can be safely ignored when estimating the location of the access point.

The radiated power of the wireless radio signal decays using the inverse square law, decreasing exponentially with distance. The further from the source of the signal, the lower the power reading.

The radiated power of a typical wireless access point can be expected to be in range of a maximum of -10dBm to a minimum usable signal strength of -95dBm.

Due to a maximum distance of less than 500 feet, simple Cartesian coordinates could be used, rather than great circles or Vincenty's Formula.

The observed wireless access points are assumed to be stationery, remaining in a fixed position. I.e. not another mobile device, but a wireless access point/base station.

Approach:

To estimate the actual geographic location coordinates of a wireless access point in a residential or commercial building, readings are typically taken with a laptop computer or wi-fi equipped smartphone. A built-in or externally connected GPS is used to record the coordinates where a signal reading is taken. In practice, readings are generally taken while driving in a moving vehicle on a public street, or perhaps walking with a smartphone. Typical practice for "wardriving" applications such as KisMac are to record the GPS location at the first point where a reading of a particular wireless access point is acquired. The Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID) and MAC address are recorded for identification. The deficency of this practice is that all of the recorded wireless access points appear to be on streets when the coordinates are mapped, and do not reflect the true origin of the wireless access point.

Commercial applications like SkyHook Wireless record a large number of readings from many points, and use a server-based application to aggregate the results. This approach is impractical for a single laptop or mobile device.

Rather than collecting a large number of points, only three points are needed to trilaterate the location. The question is how to determine which of many possible points should be recorded. My approach is a simple process to record coordinates and signal strength at the four "corner points" with the minimum and maximum values for latitude and longitude. This can be determined using a simple calculation to see if the observed point is greater than the previously recorded maximum for either latitude or longitude, or if the point is less than the previously recorded minimum values.

Once four points have been collected, the approximate location of the origin can be calculated by determining the intersection of four circles representing the recorded coordinates as the origins of each circle, having a radius relative to signal strength reading.

Since Android smartphones report the signal strength in dBm, ranging in value from -10dBm maximum signal strength, to a minimum detectable signal strength of -100dBm, it is easy to approximate the distance from the source by using the absolute value of the signal strength as the distance in meters. This correlates to an approximate distance of 30ft or 10m where the signal strength is the strongest, to approximately 300ft or 100m where the signal strength is the weakest.

Calculation:

Calculation of the intersection of four circles is based on this article at Mathworks:

yes, four circles n radii is known..... all are different radii also...... can u tell me the algorithm for it...... i must find center for the intersection area also.......... i hav an image to show the intersection area made by four circle but i don know how to post it..... recommend any site to post pic for view......

Ok, if the radii are known, then just do this. We know the equations of each circle.

(x - x1)^2 + (y-y1)^2 = R1^2
(x - x2)^2 + (y-y2)^2 = R2^2
(x - x3)^2 + (y-y3)^2 = R3^2
(x - x4)^2 + (y-y4)^2 = R4^2

Subtract one from the rest. Thus

2*(x2 - x1)*x + 2*(y2 - y1)*y = R2^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x2^2
2*(x3 - x1)*x + 2*(y3 - y1)*y = R3^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x3^2
2*(x4 - x1)*x + 2*(y4 - y1)*y = R4^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x4^2

This is a linear system of 3 equations in the two unknowns (x,y). Solve using backslash (\ operator in Matlab).

A = 2*[(x2 - x1),(y2 - y1);(x3 - x1),(y3 - y1);(x4 - x1),(y4 - y1)];
rhs = [R2^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x2^2 + y1^2 - y2^2; ...
R3^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x3^2 + y1^2 - y3^2; ...
R4^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x4^2 + y1^2 - y4^2];

xy = A\rhs

This will derive an estimate of the center coordinates.

See an illustration.

Alternate Calculation:

Since the calculation of the intersection of four circles is rather complex to perform on a mobile device, we can approximate the position by determining the bounding rectangle where the four minimum and maximum latitude and longitude points where the wireless signal was detected. This may not work in all cases, but can serve as an illustration of the approach. In particular, this approach would not yeild good results for cases where there are not detection points from at least three sides. The origin of the signal would have to be contained within the area defined by the detection points.

We can further refine the bounding rectangle which should contain the origin of the signal source by determining the boundries implied by the relative signal strengths measured at each of the points. For example, if the signal strength measured at the northern-most point was -90dBm, we would assume that the source of the signal must be within approximately 90m south of the coordiantes recorded. By calculating the coordinates with maximum distances from the points of detection, based on the signal strengths measured at each point, we can determine a small area bounded by these points. There should be a high probability that the source of the wireless signal originates from within this bounding rectangle. Taking the geometric centroid of this bounding rectangle should approximate the origin of the wireless signal.

This can be illustrated by the interactive map linked here. The white circle drawn in the center of the map represents the actual location of the wireless access point, or the origin. The blue circle represents the approximate range from the northern-most point of detection, based on the signal strength. The yellow circle represents the eastern-most point of detection, the red circle for the southern-most, and the orange circle representing the western-most point of detection.

From this set of coordinates, we can draw a bounding rectangle shown in purple, which represents the range of coordinates where the wireless signal could be detected. Based on the layout of streets and accessability of the area, the actual origin of the signal could be contained with this bounding rectange if the points of detection were accessible from at least three sides, or possibly all four sides. However, in cases where the wireless signal can only be observed from one side, such as a facing street, the bounding rectangle defined by the points of observation would not encompass the origin, but would be adjacent to it.

Because we cannot be certain that the set of detection points actually enclose the point of origin, and to determine the smallest possible area with the highest probability of containing the point of origin, we calculate a bounding rectangle by determining a set of points which are the furthest possible distance from the minimum and maximum geographic coordinates based on the measured signal strength.

The bounding rectangle shown in green on the map below represents the most likely boundries in which the signal originates, by calculating the distances infered from the measured signal strength at the extreme coordinates where the wireless access point could be detected.

Implementation Approach:

The Android smartphone environment is well suited to this approach, since it combines a wireless network transceiver, with signal strength reported in dBm, with a GPS receiver with good precision, along with enough computing power and data storage to record the detected coordinates. The Android-Wardrive application by Raffaele Ragni is particularly well-suited to this approach because it already records its data in a Sqlite3 database. It also shows a map of the detected wireless access points using the Google Maps API, and can export to an online database or a Google Earth KML file.

The first step to implementing this approach would be to extend the Sqlite3 database schema to include four additional coordinate pairs as well as their signal strength. The existing coordinates could be retained to map the initial point of detection, and could be updated by the geolocation calculation.

Due to the computing overhead involved in performing the calculations, it would not be recommended to attempt to calculate the geolocation in real time. There will be significant amount of additional overhead in collecting the additional data points, especially in an area with multiple wireless access points. Additionally, the method for geolocation requires that a reasonable survey be completed to detect the greatest diversity of locations for best results.

During the initial detection of a new wireless access point, in addition to logging the current geographic coordinates and BSSID, the initial coordinates and signal strength should be written to each of the peripheral coordinate pairs.

With each subsequent reading, the current location point would be compared with the four peripheral coordinate points. If the new reading is further North (current latitude > stored Northern latitude) then the new coordinates (both latitude and longitude of the current location) along with the signal strength should be written as the Northern-most coordiantes. If the new location is further South (current latitude < stored Southern Latitude) than the current location coordinates (both latitude and longitude) and the signal strength should be stored as the new Southern-most point of detection. Similar comparisons should be made for each of the extreme East and West points of detection using the maximum and minimum longitude. It is both possible and likely that during the initial data collection, each new point detected could replace two of the previously recorded coordinate pairs.

The geolocation calculation could either be added as an addition option under the menu, or could be combined with the Export to KML option.

Getting ready to watch Madisen Beaty (@madisenofficial) in "The Pregnancy Pact" on Lifetime

Volkswagen CC

We had a few minutes to kill at the VW dealer this morning, while waiting to pick up Jeannette's Passat after an oil change. We wandered into the showroom, and checked out the new CC. Its similar in many ways to the Passat, but in a very sleek package! The exterior styling of the CC has a profile similar to a Mercedes CLS, scaled down a little... The price is scaled down a little, too!

The two-tone interior is awesome. Its available with the 2.0 liter turbo, which I think is a fantastic engine. 200hp, but still over 20mpg city and 30mpg on the highway. We've gotten 37mpg in the Passat driving in the mountains, which is pretty amazing...

In another year, when Melissa starts driving, it might be a tough call for me to decide between replacing the old Jetta with a CC, or a Jetta TDI...

Google Wave

A few days ago, I got an email invitation for Google Wave. In the video of the demo/presentation they made at their developers conference earlier this year, Wave is Google's idea of what email might be like if it were invented today, instead of 40 years ago... I think it looks very interesting! Sort of a combination of email, instant messaging, and an interactive "wiki" editable in real-time by multiple people at once. They showed some neat integration with Wave, Twitter, and Blogger, where the same comments posted in one place appeared in all three automatically, in real-time. I have invites left, let me know if you're interested...

My Life Just Got A Little Cheaper

Had to go to WalMart this morning to pick up refills on my prescriptions. As we walked in the door, Jeannette started pointing at the sign we passed advertising Prevacid - now available Over The Counter! We had to wait awhile for the pharmacy to open, so we started shopping for some groceries and things... We walked past the display for the Prevacid, available as either 14 pills or 42, but only a 15mg dose, where the one I take every day is 30mg. The 42 pack was just over $25, which is about half of what I pay as my co-pay for a 30 day supply. Once the pharmacy opened, I asked them if Prevacid was available as a "generic" yet, and one of pharmacy techs in back said "Yes, we just got it yesterday!" So, it turns out that the generic as a prescription is a better deal -- a 30 day supply of 30mg dose was under $15! Thats much better than $50 every month!

Fetzer Gewurztraminer

Last week, we had a bottle of wine that my mother-in-law brought over. It was the 2006 Fetzer Vineyards Valley Oaks Gewurztraminer. Gewurztraminer is a light grape from France and Germany, which Fetzer grows in its California vineyards. While not as sweet as the German Riesling that I usually prefer, this Gewurztraminer was actually quite nice! It was fairly smooth mouth feel, a mild fruit, good body, with a nice finish. Not overly dry, despite being 12% alcohol. It went very nicely with our dinner, grilled chicken and steaks. It actually held up nicely with the steak, as well as the chicken. Locally, Davidson Liquors carries it for $8.99, quite reasonably priced. This is one that I would definitely enjoy again!

Pay Attention, People!

OK, its April 1st, and the dreaded Windows virus "Conficker" is supposed to awaken.

The article on this story at CNN.com discusses the virus, and mentions that it only affects PC's running Windows, and doesn't affect the Macintosh.

However, the photograph that they choose to illustrate the article is a late-1990's Apple Power Macintosh G3 Desktop! I recognized the machine in the picture right away, because I have one, and its still in use as one of my home servers...

While I think its great that the media often uses images of Apple products in technology stories, it doesn't seem right when the story is about another Windows virus! ;-)

Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania

My cousin Ray Tombaugh was on a trip in June, and was able to visit the area near Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania. The Tombaugh family lived in this area since at least 1785, when George Tombaugh received a "land patent" for the Haw Bottom Tract. He was kind enough to send me the pictures below:


Pic 1: The entrance to the cemetery at the former site of the Dunkard Church.  Supposedly some old ladies from Ohio pay to have it taken care of by one of the local farmers.


Pic 2:  The Leattherman Covered Bridge - down the road from the cemetery.


Pic 3: Tombaugh Homestead


Pic 4: Headstone of Solomon and Lydia Letherman Tombaugh, Parents of Leon H. Tombaugh.


Pic 5: Headstone of Rachel Spohn Tombaugh, wife of Mathias Tombaugh. Mathias's stone was overturned.


Pic 6: Headstone of Eli and Rebecca (Wise) Tombaugh


Pic 7:  Headstone of John Tombaugh


Pic 8: Home of John Tombaugh


Pic 9: Lethermen Homestead: Original graves are up at the top of the hill.


Pic 10:  The Century Inn at Scenery Hill, owned by Tombaughs during the Victorian period.

Johannes Jacob Dambach

I'm confident from my research that our original immigrant ancestor was named Johannes Jacob Dambach, not Tannbach. This is based on a combination of immigration and church records. He is referred to by the later Anglicized version of the name as John Jacob Tombaugh in the "Tombaugh History" book.

I also believe that he was married twice. Immigration records show his wife as Maria Helena, and there is a record of marriage in 1738, after his arrival, to Maria Elizabetha Seyboldt, who was most likely form Holland. I'm guessing that his first wife, Maria Helena, was likely from the same area in Germany as Johannes Jacob. You'll notice how the records listed below have a variety of spellings of the names.

I would love to find out if there are any burial records for Maria Helena Dambach, around 1735 - 1738, at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Lancaster. My guess is that she died during or shortly after child birth with Jacob, at about that time.

I've also found this article on the Lancaster Historical Society website that seems to be a close match to the property records for our (Hans) Jacob Dambach. I think that they have the date wrong on this page, but if you follow the "Chain of Title" page its correct...

Paraphrasing from the "Tombaugh History" says: Our earliest known immigrant ancestor left Germany for Friesland, Holland for a few years before coming to the colonies on the ship Albany in 1728. He possibly lived in Philadelphia from 1728 until perhaps 1738. The marriage record below is from 1738 in Lancaster, and the Tombaugh history states that he owned property in Lancaster from 1742 until his death in 1758. The Lancaster Historical Society article shows that he was deeded the Duke Street property in 1745, so there was another property that he acquired in 1742.

------------

1728 Albany
[List 7 A, B] Albany
Captain: Lazarus Oxman
From: Rotterdam
By Way of: Portsmouth
Arrival: Philadelphia, 4 Sep 1728
30 Palatine men and their families, making in all about 100 persons.

Johann Jacob Dambach
Maria Helena
Johann Philip Adam, 7
Fridrich Marcell, 5
Frederica Elisabetha, 2
from: Ittlingen, Baden
To Lancaster, PA.
Bur1983
alternate spelling: Danbach
Departure: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Arrival: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s
Name: Johann Jacob Dambach
Ship: Albany
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Family Members:
Wife: Maria Helena Dambach
Daughter: Frederica Elisabetha;
Son: Johann Philip Adam;
Son: Fridrich Marcell
Source Publication Code: 1031.8
Primary Immigrant: Dambach, Johann Jacob
Annotation: Date and port of arrival or date and place of naturalization. Span indicates period between last mention of emigrant in country of origin and first mention of his residence in the New World. "Surname, ..." indicates a variation of a surname.
Source Bibliography: BURGERT, ANNETTE KUNSELMAN. Eighteenth Century Emigrants from German-Speaking Lands to North America. Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society, 16/19. Birdsboro, PA: The Pennsylvania German Society. Vol. 1: The Northern Kraichgau. 1983. 461p.
Page: 86
Source Citation: Place: Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 86.
Source Information: Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

-------------

Church records show a marriage after his arrival, so presumably his first wife died early, and he remarried?

Pennsylvania Church Records - Adams, Berks, and Lancaster Counties, 1729-1881
Marriage Records of Rev. John Casper Stoever
about Johannes Jacob Dambach and Maria Elizabetha Seyboldt Dambach
Name: Johannes Jacob Dambach
Date: 21 Mar 1738
Event: Marriage
Relation: Groom
LOCATION: Lancaster, Lancaster CO., PA
Church: Records of Rev. Stoever
Record_ID: 315756
Source Information:
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania Church Records - Adams, Berks, and Lancaster Counties, 1729-1881 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. Original data: Extracted from microfilmed transcriptions of the original church records. The microfilmed records are located at the Family History Library.


Data Source: Pennsylvania, Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages
May 20, 2008 10:18:52 PM MDT

Marriage Date: 21 Mar 1738
Groom: Johannes Jacob Dambach
Bride: Maria Elizabetha Seyboldt
Location: Lancaster
Early Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages in Southeastern Pennsylvania

Source Information:
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000. Original data: Early Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA, USA: n.p., 1896.

Description:
Collection of some Lutheran Church records from southeastern Pennsylvania before 1896.

-------------

Johannes Jacob Dambach’s will lists “Bernard Hubley” as an executor. Bernhard Hubley was listed as an elder of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1766

from: 200th anniversary corner-stone laying 1761-1961, the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

About this book

Source: Original data: 200th anniversary corner-stone laying 1761-1961, the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lancaster, Pa.?: unknown, 1980.

Notes:
Cover title.
Flor Peeters organ recital program tipped in.
Preface signed: Wallace E. Fisher.

Subjects:
Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity (Lancaster, Pa.) -- Anniversaries, etc.
Lancaster (Pa.) -- Church history.
Pennsylvania -- Lancaster County -- Lancaster

Location:
Lancaster (Pa.) -- Church history.

----------------

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Hans Jacob Donbach
Name: Hans Jacob Donbach
Year: 1728
Place: Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 1330.1
Primary Immigrant: Donbach, Hans Jacob
Annotation: Date of arrival or date of oath of allegiance and port of arrival. Name of ship and other historical information may also be provided.
Source Bibliography: COUSINS, ELIZABETH. Immigrants Into Pennsylvania, September 1727-September 1732. np: Pathfinders, nd. 51p.
Page: 7

Source Citation: Place: Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 7.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

-------------------

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Hans Jacob Donbach
Name: Hans Jacob Donbach
Year: 1728
Place: Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 1804
Primary Immigrant: Donbach, Hans Jacob
Annotation: Taken from original manuscripts in the state archives. Names given throughout pages 1-677. Foreigners arriving in Pennsylvania named on pages 521-667. No. 3776, Kelker, supplements this.
Source Bibliography: EGLE, WILLIAM HENRY, editor Names of Foreigners Who Took the Oath of Allegiance to the Province and State of Pennsylvania, 1727-1775, with the Foreign Arrivals, 1786-1808. (Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 2, vol. 17.) Harrisburg [PA]: E.K. Meyers, 1890. 787p. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1967.
Page: 14

Source Citation: Place: Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 14.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

------------------

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Hans Jacob Donbach
Name: Hans Jacob Donbach
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 7820
Primary Immigrant: Donbach, Hans Jacob
Annotation: An index by Marvin V. Koger, Index to the Names of 30,000 Immigrants...Supplementing the Rupp, Ship Load Volume, 1935, 232p. is inferior to Wecken's index in the third edition (above). Page 449 contains "Names of the First Palatines in North Carolina, as
Source Bibliography: RUPP, ISRAEL DANIEL. A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and Other Immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776, with a Statement of the Names of Ships, Whence They Sailed, and the Date of Their Arrival at Philadelphia, Chronologically Arranged, Together with the Necessary Historical and Other Notes, also, an Appendix Containing Lists of More Than One Thousand German and French Names in New York prior to 1712. Leipzig [Germany]:
Page: 57

Source Citation: Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 57.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

---------------------

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Hans Jacob Donbach
Name: Hans Jacob Donbach
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 9041
Primary Immigrant: Donbach, Hans Jacob
Annotation: Contains 29,800 names, with annotations written by Krebs (see no. 4203). Various references to the names in Strassburger will be found in other listings, mostly where authors have attempted to line up their information with that in Strassburger. This work
Source Bibliography: STRASSBURGER, RALPH BEAVER. Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A Publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808. Edited by William John Hinke. Norristown [PA]: Pennsylvania German Society, 1934. 3 vols. Vols. 1 and 3 reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1964. Repr. 1983. Vol. 1. 1727-1775. 776p.
Page: 21

Source Citation: Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 21.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

-------------------

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Jacob Danbach
Name: Jacob Danbach
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 6665
Primary Immigrant: Danbach, Jacob
Annotation: Lists Palatines arriving in Pennsylvania between 1718 and 1742. Note that the first printing of vol. 3, 1840, has been used in no. 2048, Filby and Meyer. Also in no. 717, Boyer, Ship Passenger Lists, Pennsylvania and Delaware, pp. 48-86; and printed in pa
Source Bibliography: PENNSYLVANIA (COLONY). PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, from the Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government. (Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, vols. 3-4.) Harrisburg, PA: State of Pennsylvania, Theo Fenn & Co. Vol. 3 (1840), containing the Proceedings of the Council from May 31, 1717, to January 23, 1735-1736, pp. 299-301, 303-305, 307, 346-348, 350-351, 390-392, 409-411, 414, 436-437, 440-442, 444, 457, 460-461, 483
Page: 348

Source Citation: Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 348.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

-----------------

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Jacob Danbach
Name: Jacob Danbach
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 717
Primary Immigrant: Danbach, Jacob
Source Bibliography: BOYER, CARL, 3RD, editor Ship Passenger Lists, Pennsylvania and Delaware (1641-1825). Newhall, Calif.: the editor, 1980. 289p. 4th pr. 1986. Reprint. Family Line Publications, Westminster, MD, 1992.
Page: 54

Source Citation: Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 54.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

Some Updates for the New Year

OK, so I've realized that its been a long time since I've posted anything...

Many of my last posts were reviews of wines, and I haven't posted any of those for a long time, either... While I've continued to enjoy German Rieslings, I have generally been buying the same ones that I have already reviewed. I have continued to see variations in the Saint M -- some have been good, some have been not so good... I've seen some variation in the Schlink Haus as well, but not as much. Also, we've been able to see that the Schlink Haus has changed the into on their label when they are different. Of all of the inexpensive German Rieslings, it seems that the Schmitt Söhne is the most consistent.

I also had a long post about our experiences with eBay and their collection agency. After sending all of the documentation that I could find to both of them, I have heard nothing. From either party... I'm assuming that no news is good news, and that they will be leaving us alone now.

I have also been thinking that the blog might be a good venue for sharing some of my genealogy research. A few months ago, I found some information on someone else's blog, and thought it was an interesting idea. I've just emailed a few things to some family members, and thought that it would make a good start here as well.

NetFlix Keeping Profiles!

Yay! Today, in their corporate blog, NetFlix announced that they would be keeping the Profiles feature. They had previously planned to eliminate the feature, which allows one customer to manage multiple queues of movies. This works out great for families, where each member of the family can select their own movies in their own queue, so that everyone gets something to watch. This is great news! I was afraid that we were going to have to resort to movie channels and Pay-Per-View if this NetFlix feature went away... They were persuaded by an outpouring of public response to keep the Profiles feature in place. Thanks, NetFlix!

eBay is stupid!

We've gotten a couple of collection calls from a company called I.C. System, trying to collect on an account with eBay... Except that we don't even HAVE an account with eBay! Apparently we were victims of an identity theft last year, and someone opened a fake eBay seller's account with the stolen id... They apparently sold something to someone, and eBay wants to collect $45 for their fees.

When we were first called by I.C. Systems, we explained that we had discovered last October that we had been the victim of credit card fraud. My wife had downloaded transactions from our bank, and found several fraudulent transactions had appeared in the preceding days.

Two of the pending transactions were authorizations from eBay, and another was from Juno Online, also on the same date. The only one of these authorizations that became an actual charge transaction was from Juno, which charged our Visa Debit card account for monthly dial-up internet service. We wouldn't need to use Juno for dial-up, as I have a 7Mbps DSL circuit, and host my own website and email!

We immediately contacted our bank to report the fraudulent charges. They closed the account immediately, and issued us a new card and account number.

When the Juno authorization became a transaction, it included their telephone number, which we promptly called and explained our situation. They were very cooperative, and immediately closed the account which had been created fraudulently, and credited all charges. From the information that we were able to obtain from Juno, it appears that an account was opened using my son's name, our address, and using my wife's debit card.

However, since the eBay authorizations never became transactions, there was NO identifying information with which to contact eBay to report the fraud. Our bank advised us that since there was no charge made to the account before it was closed, that we should have no further liability.

During the phone conversation that we had with I.C. Systems, the agent said that while he could make notes in the file, we wouldn't be able to do anything else for us. He said that we would have to contact eBay ourselves. I asked him for a phone number or email address to contact eBay, and was told that they didn't have one! He said that the only way for us
to contact eBay was online, and gave some instructions on using the online “chat” on the eBay website.

When I pointed out to him that since I didn't actually have an account with eBay, I had no way to reference this fraudulent account when talking to eBay. I asked him if he could email me the account information and history for the eBay account. He said that they didn't have email available, only phone, so he read me the account “handle” and gave me the “EID” for the eBay account. This is the only information that I have on the account.

I then attempted to get to the online chat at the eBay website, and discovered that it is damn near impossible to contact anyone at eBay for help without being logged into an account, which I DO NOT HAVE!

After many failed attempts, where I ended up going in circles between the login page and the “help” page to start a chat, I was able to log in as a guest and started a chat. The first person that I chatted with at eBay transferred me to someone in their fraud department. I explained what happened to them, and they said that they would contact me for further information. However, as soon as the chat ended, the text transcript was cleared, so I have no record of this discussion! Neither of the people that I chatted with at eBay have ever followed-up on our conversation.

Since it seems that the ONLY attempt made by eBay to contact the account holder regarding this account before turning it over to collections was to continue to email the fraudulent email account at Juno which was closed in October, we never received any statement from eBay that would have alerted us to the fraudulent account. I can't believe that anyone operating a business would not attempt to send a letter or statement to the physical mailing address for one of their customers before sending them to collections! This seems like it is not only a bad business practice, but is also downright stupid!

The only documentation that I can offer as any kind of evidence is the paperwork from our bank when we reported the fraudulent charges. The eBay transaction was not listed here, since there was never an actual charge to the account, only an authorization. Its sometimes hard enough to prove that you did something when you did it, but how do you prove that you didn't do something?

I have no idea who stole my son's identity, or my wife's debit card number, as we never lost possession of the card. We have not had any further instances of identity theft since this debit account was closed. I would be happy to discuss this with them, and will provide any additional information that I can, but I do not intend to pay any amount on this account, since it was not created by me or any member of my family.

Now, there are a bunch of things that I don't understand about this whole incident...

First, someone went through considerable effort to steal the credit card number, including names and addresses... But the only thing that they actually charged on it was $10 for a Juno account? Except that the combination of the fake Juno account and the credit card number allowed them to open an eBay seller account that is pretty much untraceable.

So what would they do with that? My thought would be that they would setup a fake auction for something expensive, collect the money from the sale, but then never ship it to the buyer. If they had done that, though, it seems like eBay fraud/security would have come to us with an angry buyer to find out what happened to their stuff. That's never happened.

So what would be the advantage of having an untraceable, fake eBay account, if you're not ripping off buyers? I would have to guess that it would be to sell stolen goods that couldn't be traced? Seems like their must be easier, lower profile ways to do that?

In the end, they seem to have skipped out on $45 in seller fees on eBay... They took a lot of risk, and went through an awful lot of trouble to save $45 it seems... And they created a real mess for me!

In addition to the obvious problems of the credit card and ID theft that must have resulted from someone's online purchasing system being hacked, it seems like there are a number of flaws/deficiencies in the way that eBay operates...

Since they are only an online business, they don't have any way to physically validate someone's identity. They can't ask for a driver's license or other ID, since everything is automated and remote. They make the assumption that getting a valid credit card is a safe way to validate someone, so they request an authorization on the credit card for a buck. This still only proves that the credit card is valid, and doesn't really prove that the person is who they say they are...

Only creating an account authorization doesn't really prevent fraud, either. As in our case, we knew that the transaction was fraudulent, but there was nothing to report, as no money was taken. It seems like it would be worth the effort for eBay to charge a nominal fee, like $10-12, to open an account. This is small enough that it shouldn't keep legitimate customers away, but would create an actual financial transaction that could be disputed right away when fraud occurred. They could even credit back the fee against any charges if they really wanted, but why wouldn't they want to make the extra money to cover the costs of opening the accounts?

To prevent fraud, it seems like they could mail an account contract to the name and address that they were given, and have the form be signed and returned in order to activate the account. This would also validate the name and address are legitimate, especially if verified as the billing address used on the credit card. This would also get them a signature on an actual contract for legal purposes.

There must have been some advantage to be gained by opening the Juno account. Presumably eBay requires an email address to open an account (I don't know, since I don't have an eBay account!) and they will probably not accept a free account like Yahoo! or Gmail since they could also be easily faked. But requiring a commercial email account as a component of authentication doesn't really prove someone's online identity, either. It only side-steps the issue, and relies on the ISP to have properly verified the identity of the person opening the account. This is a pretty weak assumption.

The next place that eBay's business model falls apart is that they only email statements to the address given in the account setup. We called Juno and had them close the account the day after it was opened, so it would only have accepted email for about 24 hours. If eBay continued to send statements to that address, they must have been bouncing back to them. At that point, they should have mailed a printed statement to the physical mailing address that they had on file. eBay gave our address to their collection agency, so they must have had it themselves. Why not spend the postage to make an effort to contact the account holder themselves? To immediately turn an account over to collections seems lazy and irresponsible...

My other issue with eBay is that there is no way for a fraud victim who doesn't actually even have an ebay account to contact them for assistance. Every avenue to contact eBay seems to be through an online chat, and requires that you be logged in with your account. But what about those of us who don't have accounts? While I can understand their desire to avoid publishing a customer service call center phone number that everyone could call, it seems like they should at least be able to let their collection goons give a phone number to contact to dispute charges.

I've now written letters to both eBay and I.C. System explaining all of this again, and have included copies of the dispute forms from our bank as my only "proof" that I didn't create the account. We'll have to wait to see what happens next, I guess...

Save NetFlix Profiles!

Yesterday NetFlix announced that it was going to be removing the Profiles feature of its subscription service. I think that this is a huge mistake! Profiles turned out to be the best feature of NetFlix when we switched from Blockbuster a year ago. With one account, we could have one queue for me, one for Jeannette and Melissa, and one for Eric. We all have different interests in movies, so using separate queues allowed each of us to have a movie that we would like. This also helped with the Recommendations, since it would suggest the right kinds of movies for each of us. If we were all using the same queue, the recommendations would only be able to show action/adventure/romantic comedy/science fiction movies from Disney!

I can't really understand what NetFlix hopes to gain by eliminating profiles. While it will reduce some of the complexity of multiple queues under a single account, its no different than managing subscribers and dependents for health insurance plans, or many other common scenarios. It won't reduce the number or frequency of movies being rented, which is where I would imagine their capital expenses are tied up.

It really seems like netFlix is trying to drive its customers to use several individual accounts that cost more per movie than the multiple-movies-per-month plans that are more cost effective for consumers.

Since we have already had so many issues with BlockBuster, I'm not sure that we would return to their online service. They still don't have a store that would be convenient for us, which is part of the reason we left them. Being able to return the online movie at the store in exchange for a free rental gave us a lot of flexibility.

I think that if NetFlix removes the Profiles, we are likely to cancel, and get movie channels or use the Pay-Per-View on DirecTV instead. We've also rented movies from the grocery store or checked them out from the library. Its not as convenient, but beats paying more to NetFlix to get back the functionality that we already have today...

There is an online petition to try to convince NetFlix to keep the Profile feature. If you are a NetFlix subscriber who uses the Profiles feature, please consider signing the petition to encourage them to reconsider.

Wine Tasting 16 March 2008

At the wine dinner last week, we sat with Sterling Robinson, Derek's friend from Seven 30 South. We talked about each wine as we tasted them. When we were discussing the Riesling's, he suggested that I try a Riesling from Alsace, France, as they have a different character than the German varieties that I usually get.

When I stopped at Davidson's later in the week, I picked up an Albrecht Riesling from Alsace, as well as another bottle of Schmitt Söhne Riesling QbA. On Friday, a lady that Jeannette works with brought her two bottles of Riesling, to thank her for helping with a project. That gave us a Columbia Winery Cellarmaster's Reserve from Washington state, and a Schlink Haus from Germany. We thought that since we had such an interesting assortment, we should do another wine tasting.

Columbia Winery 2006 Cellarmaster’s Riesling
Columbia Valley, Washington
Our Cellarmaster’s Riesling offers fragrant honey, pear and apricot aromas that lead to delectable fruit flavors and crisp acidity. Enjoy with spicy foods, fresh fruit desserts or sipping on your deck or patio.
http://www.ColumbiaWinery.com
Produced and Bottled by
Columbia Winery
Woodinville, WA USA
Alcohol 10.0%
$8.99 at Davidson's

Had a subtle fruity, floral aroma. Medium body, with some spritz. An attack of sweetness, not so well balanced. Acidic mid-palatte, and a bit too much alcoholic finish.

I had all of the opened leftovers in the fridge for a couple of days before I finished them off. After the Columbia had a chance to breathe for a day or two, it actually smoothed out a little bit. The alcohol on the finish wasn’t as strong, and the acidity and sweetness balance seemed better as well. This wine might benefit from decanting, or at least being opened an hour or two in advance to breathe.

Schlink Haus Riesling 2006 Qualitätswein - Rheinhessen
"Schlink Haus Wine Selections represent dependable quality and great values.
The Blue-glass-bottle has been revived from a 200 year old tradition in the Nahe Valley.
The Riesling is the finest and best known of Germany’s white varieties. A crisp and refreshing wine for seafood, chicken and salads."
Bottled & Shipped by:
Günther Schlink GmbH
A.P. Nr. 7 907 008 028 07
D-55543 Bad Kreuznach
in D-54518 Esch
Produce of Germany
imported by: Wein-Bauer, Inc.
Franklin Park, Illinois 60131
Alcohol 9.5%
$5.99 at Davidson's

Light bodied, subtle earthy aroma, light straw color. Light fruit up front, apricot note on the finish. Subtle minerality, but overall very smooth.

Lucien Albrecht 2003 Riesling Reserve
Appelation Alsace Controlee
White Alsace Wine
Bottled by Lucien Albrecht
A 68500 Orschwihr Haut-Rhin
Alsace, France
Product of France
Martin Linhoff Selections
Imported by Pasternak Wine Imports, Greenwich, CT
http://www.lucien-albrecht.com
13% alcohol

Mineral presence was noticible in the aroma. Sharp mineral bite, rather dry. Rather tart/sour on the mid-palatte. Would probably pair well with something like filet of Sole with lemon and capers?

I finished the leftover portion of this on St. Partick’s Day evening with some corned beef, potatoes, and saur kraut, which the Albrecht paired with pretty nicely.

Wine Dinner at Baur’s Ristorante 11 March 2008

Last Tuesday night, we had the opportunity to attend a wine dinner with Bob Bertheau, head winemaker from Chateau Ste. Michelle, at Baur’s Ristorante. Many thanks to our friend Derek Bennington of Vine Catcher for the invitation.

Baur's is located at 15th and Curtis St. in downtown Denver, about a block from the Denver Center for Performing Arts. There is an RTD Light Rail station next to the DCPA, so we took the train downtown after work. The restaurant is in a building that used to be home to Baur's catering, restaurant, and candy shop since 1891. Current owner Jimmy Lambatos opened this restaurant last fall. Our wine dinner was in the elegant "Venetian Room" for private parties.

I should mention that since I'm lactose intolerant, I had made arrangements to have whatever modifications/substitutions made for my meal, in order to avoid any dairy. The staff at Baur's were most accommodating, and made sure that everything they brought me was dairy-free. I'll only mention the regular menu items below, although I was served something slightly different in a few cases.

Before the dinner began, we were treated to several glasses of Chateau Ste. Michelle's exquisite 2006 Eroica Riesling. It made a wonderful start to the evening. The Eroica Riesling is very light and refreshing, with the hints of citrus and and subtle mineral note. The Eroica is produced as a partnership between Chateau Ste. Michelle and German winemaker Dr. Ernst Loosen. Dr. Loosen's Blue Slate Riesling is Jeannette's favorite, so we both enjoyed the Eroica immensely.

The dinner was served in five courses, each accompanied by a different wine. It began with a "Dinner Amuse" course of Honey Smoked Salmon, Baby Fennel, Chive, and Créme Fraiche, paired with the 2006 Eroica Riesling.

The Appetizer was a Vadouvan seared Diver Scallop, served in a shallow bowl of Watercrest Soup with Spring Peas and crisp bacon. It was paired with the 2006 Horse Heavan Sauvignon Blanc. This wine was light and crisp, with a subtle citrus component.

Next came the Salad course, with Prosciutto Di Parma, baby Arugula, candied walnuts and shaved Parmesan, served with the 2006 Indian Wells Chardonnay. The warm and buttery oak flavor paired quite nicely with smoky Prosciutto.

The Fish course included a grilled Alaskan Halibut, with Chantrelle Mushroom crust, white asparagus and Fava beans and smoked corn. The wine was the 2005 Canoe Ridge Estate Merlot. While I was a bit surprised to see a red wine with a white fish, the mellow Merlot actually paired nicely with the Halibut.

A Meat course followed the fish, bringing a Muntok Pepper-crusted Bison Tenderloin, accompanied by a Goat Cheese and Shallot Bread Pudding and a sour cherry sauce. The Bison was fabulous! It was so tender that you could pull it apart with your fork! The pepper and sour cherry flavors were enhanced by the 2004 Ethos Syrah, which brought warm earthy tones and dark fruits.

For the Dessert course, we had a brown butter Financier with vanilla poached pears, and a Riesling Sabayon custard. It was served with the 2005 Ethos Late Harvest Riesling. This wine was more intense than the Eroica, with rich honey and apricot flavors. It was delightful!

Between each course, Bob Bertheau gave us some history of the winery, some of his background, and a few stories about picking the frozen grapes for the 2006 ice wines on Halloween night and working with Dr. "Ernie" Loosen. The food was fabulous, and the wines were wonderful!

The staff at Baur's did a great job of delivering the food and wine quickly and unobtrusively, and whisked away the remains almost without notice. As I mentioned earlier, they paid special attention to my dairy-free diet, and were careful to mention with each course that my serving had been specially prepared so that I didn't need to worry. We had a wonderful evening, and are looking forward to their next special event!