Category: Technology

All right, I am getting a lot of referrers which list a local file as entry page. These files have a variety of names which seem to make them computer-generated, such as:


C:\Documents_and_Settings\sahil\Local_Settings\Temp\payday_259.html
C:\Documents_and_Settings\Joe_Sharkey\Local_Settings\Temp\golf0.html
C:\Documents_Settings\Admin\Local_Settings\Temp\GoldMine47.html


These come from a variety of ISPs around the world, including a great number here in the states.

What the heck is up with that?

Hey, Web developers, here are some handy cheat sheets for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and such: http://www.blogsip.com/node/45

(Link courtesy of Bucci.)

Forget the Most Holy and Exalted Overlord of Quality title I already got, I want this one:

Senior Anal Software Tester. Hopefully, that’s anal-retentive, not some sort of Java-In-The-Butt application.

Some people, me included, were a little peeved when America Online added its advertising bots to all Buddy Lists this week:

I mean, it’s bad enough we have full volume flash ads on the Buddy List window with the obligatory mouseover pop under ads and the insistent AOL Today or their equivalents, but now we get AOL adding things to our Buddy List. What’s next? Removing other bots for its advertisers’ competitors or banning screen names with product names in them? Or is it….the “Words In Your Mouth” campaign?!

How far fetched is this? Don’t think about it, because it’s not.

Battling Google, Microsoft Changes How It Builds Software:

Jim Allchin, a senior Microsoft Corp. executive, walked into Bill Gates’s office here one day in July last year to deliver a bombshell about the next generation of Microsoft Windows.

“It’s not going to work,” Mr. Allchin says he told the Microsoft chairman. The new version, code-named Longhorn, was so complex its writers would never be able to make it run properly.

The news got even worse: Longhorn was irredeemable because Microsoft engineers were building it just as they had always built software. Throughout its history, Microsoft had let thousands of programmers each produce their own piece of computer code, then stitched it together into one sprawling program. Now, Mr. Allchin argued, the jig was up. Microsoft needed to start over.

Mr. Gates resisted at first, pushing for Mr. Allchin’s group to take more time until everything worked. Over the next few months, Mr. Allchin and his deputies would also face protests from programmers who complained he was trying to impose bureaucracy and rob Microsoft of its creativity.

Forget the bug jail; I want a bug dungeon, somewhere deep and dank to send naughty developers.

Oh, sure, some tech snobs liken Bill Gates and Microsoft to The Devil and the AntiChrist, but face it, you pasty-legged, Macintosh-huffing zone dweebie, when Steve Jobs introduces the iPodPeople, a music player with the ability to download music, photos, OnStar service, debit card, and other software protected by GUID and DRM which you can implant directly into your freaking head, you’ll line up around the block for the outpatient surgery.

And feel good that you’re helping overturn the Microsoft hegemony.

The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security

To which I would add a seventh: Biometric identifiers. Sure, it does price some timid criminals out of the market of cybercrime, but it also increases the risk to the innocent or the protected. After all, whereas the serious criminal who really, really wants to get in only had to guess your passwords and PINs, now he or she needs your body part.

(Link seen on /..)

SPAMIS, that Microsoft-hating, anti-spam group whose very mention has brought most of my traffic (Google-driven as it may be), has issued another communique, an unsolicited e-mail message which concludes:

[SPAMIS NOTIFICATION]: 
Fully "READY" to Begin Increasing Public Service Announcement
Emails to 20 Times the Amount of Internet Users by 25 Times the 
Current Sending Rate & Speed When a Certain Activity Transpires.  
[CURRENTLY IN WAITING FOR THIS ACTIVITY TO TRANSPIRE]

Of course, as I’ve read too many mystery novels and have watched my share of film noir, I automatically assume that the means something of extortion, but perhaps I am simplistic in thinking that perhaps this SPAMIS group is threatening to send MORE SPAM unless Microsoft comes through with….???

What’s the difference between an Apple salesman and the typical Apple user?

See if you can spot it.

opt-in broadcast email advertising is a completely legal method of
reaching millions of people with your message instantly…

is your business or organization utilizing broadcast email advertising
to reach millions of people a day for free…?

Funny, I didn’t opt in for that….

..You are receiving this email notification because... 

-> MICROSOFT SENDS ILLEGAL UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL SPAM <-

OUR MISSION: Worldwide Boycott of MICROSOFT Software / Hardware / Service
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT: "Don't Support Illegal Spam, Don't Buy Microsoft Products"

OUR GOAL: 100 Billion Views / 99.9% Internet Saturation / 178 Parts (2005-2007)

[SPAMIS Foundation: Strategic Partnership Against Microsoft Illegal Spam] 

[Part 47 of 178]
----- ---- --- -- -  -    -
Microsoft Employee Mike Lyman Speaks Out on Online Spam
Message Board NANAE & Mailing List SPAM-L on Microsoft Spam
___________________________________________________________

MICROSOFT IS ONE OF THE "GREATEST, MOST HATED INSTITUTIONAL SPAMMERS AROUND"

"I'm with one of the greatest, most hated institutional "spammers" around.
 most people speaking officially for the company will go round and round
 with you how we don't spam. Well, in the past it was not always obvious
 that you were opting in, sometimes it still isn't obvious and our sign up
 process still leaves a lot to be desired and is open to abuse."

FIRMLY ADMITTING THAT MICROSOFT IS A "SPAMHOUSE" AND SENDS OUT SPAM

"We are a spamhouse. Doesn't matter that we're Microsoft.  Our legitimate,
 unsolicited email is still just spam."

___________________________________________________________

MIKE LYMAN:
Microsoft Head Email Abuse Administrator for Microsoft Speaks
Out About Microsoft's Previous & Current Spamming Activities

PREVIOUS CREDENTIALS:
West Point Military Academy Graduate of 1987
Ex-Computer Administrator for the US Department of Defense
___________________________________________________________

MEDIA & JOURNALISTS INTERESTED IN A STORY ON SPAMIS AND/OR MICROSOFT SPAM?
LEGAL FIRMS INTERESTED IN LITIGATION AGAINST MICROSOFT'S ILLEGAL SPAMMING?
Contact: Spamis, Box 1259, Seattle, WA 98111 / Phone or Fax: (206)260-2409

QUESTIONS ABOUT THESE PUBLIC STATEMENTS FROM MICROSOFT:
Microsoft Head Spam Spokesmen: Aaron Kornblum or Ryan Hamlin

SPAMIS EXISTS DUE TO THE IMPROPER, RUDE AND FALSE ALLEGATIONS SET FORTH BY:
Microsoft Head Law Firm: Preston, Gates, Ellis, Seattle, WA - USA
Lawyers at Fault: Robert J. Dzielak / David A. Bateman / Theodore J. Angelis

[Part 47 of 178]
(c)2005 SPAMIS: Strategic Partnership Against Microsoft Illegal Spam

Thanks for playing, spammer. Perhaps my virulent anti-Microsoftism will inspire me to send you some cash. But probably not.

Some security is too secure. For example, I was signing up for something, and the application tried to prevent automated registration by forcing me to type this:

I can take my chances on whether the second and fourth characters are Ks or Xs, but what the dog is that third character? I don’t have a futhark keyboard, for cryin’ out loud.

I received an e-mail today, nominally from Sprint, but you never know:

Dear Valued Sprint Customer,

At Sprint, our focus is making sure that we always provide you with the highest level of service. Therefore, our policy is to send you emails only with your permission. Click here if you’d like to continue receiving email communications regarding account information, special offers and product updates. Remember that Sprint respects your privacy and will never share, sell, or rent your email address to any third parties.

Whether your current Sprint Service Plan is for personal or business use, we believe that email is the most efficient and environmentally friendly way to communicate with you. If you do not respond to this message, you will no longer receive emails from Sprint (unless you later provide us with your permission). This does not apply to online invoice notifications.

Thank you,
Sprint Customer Service

So I think: This is the future of the phish scam. A two-parter. Much like the Nigerian scam seeks a response, the phuture phish will send out opt-in notifications like this, and when the user clicks okay to acknowledge he or she is a customer of the company in question, then sometime in the near future, the “company” comes back with an audit e-mail or the common phish scams.

The scam will target only users who have acknowledged that they have an offline relationship with the company whose logo appears in the scam, and the user will expect legitimate e-mail from the company because he or she has told the company that he or she wants e-mail from the company.

It’s slick, it’s elegant, and it’s coming….

(Added to the Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam.)

Microsoft Will Drop ‘My’ Prefix for Longhorn:

If you are a Microsoft user, there’s a big change coming in Longhorn — the code name for the next MS operating system: the “My” prefix is disappearing.

Microsoft users have become used to the “My Music,” “My Pictures,” and other “My” folders, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, reported. Those Windows folders will still be yours — but they won’t keep hitting you over the head with that terminology.

Ending a longstanding tradition, Microsoft says, starting in the next Windows version due out next year, folders will be known simply as “Documents,” “Music,” and so on.

It’s a precursor to renaming all folders and whatnot as Our Computer, Our Music, Our Documents, and so on.