A good overview of the mod_security module for apache can be found at pathfinder. Mod_security is a good application firewall that can help protect and apache server from common application level attacks (sql injection, email header injeciton, cross-site scripting) by inspecting the payload of requests coming to the server. Its very useful in quickly putting up a security measure without having to inspect all the applications running on your server, which can be time consuming).

Our first reaction is to pull the plug, analyze, and rebuild a secure and scalable solution. But pulling the plug is usually not an option. If a company relies on an application for leads or sales, they probably can't afford to shut it down for any length of time. Under these circumstances, triage is usually the best one can hope for.

I've had to put in a number of checks and anti-spam measurements to counteract s slew of comment and trackback spam. If you try to leave a comment and run into errors, please email me to let me know. 

The Washington Times discusses MLS's proposed "Beckham Rule" today. Nothing really new, except for a clarification. If you're not familiar, the Beckham Rule is meant to allow MLS teams to pay a player outside of the communist confines of the \$1.6M salary cap (btw, wasn't it closer to \$2M?). Now, we all know that a lot of players have made more than the league maximum salary (somewhere in the mid \$200K), but until now those wages have come from the league's own money. The Beckham Rule would let team owners spend their own cash on players. Supposedly, New York wants to bring Ronaldo using such a rule.

"You've got hard-core European soccer fans that are watching games on Fox Soccer Channel and are going to Manchester United and AC Milan games in New York, but aren't coming to Red Bull games," said Garber this week on a visit to RFK Stadium. "We need to have a higher quality of play, and perhaps in certain markets a star player will help us get there."\

As long as owners are spending their own money, I'm all for this. You might think this will put team's owned by multiple owners (DC, Chicago) or stingy owners (Columbus, New England) at a disadvantage. But the history of high-profile foreign signings shows that it's nigh impossible for a single foreign player to draw in fans and turn a team around (see Luis Hernandez, LA Galaxy or Lothar Mattheus, NY Metrostars, among others. Plus, a team can't depend on a single player to be competitive (see Landon Donovan, LA Galazy or Marco Etchevery, DC United 2001-2003).

I don't expect this to have an immediate or long-term effect on the quality of play in the league. To do that the league needs to maintain the development league and expand rosters so that all players improve. I do think that some players will benefit from training with such star players, much like Beasley benefited while Hristo Stoichkov was at the Chicago Fire. In the end, this is more about bringing in more recognized players to hopefully get more exposure in the media, make televised games more attractive to fans in non-MLS cities, and appeal to eurosnobs.