Random Bytes...by Ross Rader

Saturday, August 30

[09:52PM EDT] I bought a new DVD player today.

$65.

It has ten times more features than the one I bought in 1998 for $800.

A screensaver function? Didn't know I needed a screensaver for my TV, but I'm very happy that I've got one now. C (5) | T (378) | #

Friday, August 29

[08:17PM EDT] The top five terms driving traffic to Blogware blogs are:

1. blackout
2. pictures
3. toronto
4. accordion
5. blogware C (1) | T (17) | #

[06:28PM EDT] Domain name registration spam doesn't usually come directly from accredited registrars - usually, the ne'er do wells hide behind a reseller front so they can throw their hands in the air when someone has a problem with this type of despicable behavior. Apparently, the charade is no longer needed.

Nice to see that the industry has risen to new levels of desperation.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: CHEAP DOMAIN NAMES @ NETNAMES.COM
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 19:40:02 -0100
From: NetNames
Reply-To: NetNames
To: rwmrader@tucows.com

CHEAP DOMAIN NAMES:

http://www.netnames.com

RUSH NOW - $10 LOW PRICES!! C (4) | T (52) | #

[08:40AM EDT] I've always wondered what the story behind this spam was. Not being as optimistic as Dave Hill (who replied to the spam in McWilliams story), I'd always chalked it up to a mischievious spammer who was simply cleaning lists prior to sending out their latest Viagra volley. Not the case as it turns out.

And oddly, as if to somehow celebrate the Wired article, I received two more of these spam's this morning. Included below if you haven't had the pleasure of receiving one.

Read on for more....

Building a Time Machine by Spam Busted in 2001 for spamming, Robby Todino turned to mass e-mailings in his quest for time-travel technology. While netizens have had fun with the bizarre messages, Todino is serious. He's just waiting for the right intergalactic courier to come through. By Brian McWilliams.

[via Wired News]

-------- Original Message --------
Return-Path:
Received: from [80.34.27.112] (HELO 112.red-80-34-27.pooles.rima-tde.net) by fr2.webmaillogin.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.1.1) with SMTP id 5175950; Thu, 28 Aug 2003 19:00:54 -0400
Received: from nxe92.gqprm3.com (HELO wct8) [89.94.122.19] by 112.red-80-34-27.pooles.rima-tde.net id scD9O9A87IF6 for ; Fri, 29 Aug 2003 13:59:02 +0200
Message-ID: <82h$p72b73hb73kr27@iv0wb35qx2>
From:
To: **REDACTED**
Subject: Dimensional Warp Generator Needed xkg yxj
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 03 13:59:02 GMT
X-Priority: 1
X-MSMail-Priority: High
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v1.52f) Business
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="5.338.6.0.A0FDCCC"

Hello,

I'm a time traveler stuck here in 2003.
Upon arriving here my dimensional warp generator stopped working. I trusted a company here by the name of LLC Lasers to repair my Generation 3 52 4350A watch unit, and they fled on me.
Since nobody in this timeline seems to be able to deliver what I need (safely here to me), I will have to build a simple time travel circuit to get where I need myself. While it might be hard to find parts in this time to build anything decent, I need easy to follow schematics from the future to build one which is safe and accurate that will not disrupt the time space continuum with both forward and backward capability accounting for temporal location settings (X, Y, Z, n), which can be built out of (readily available) parts here in 2003. Please email me any plans you have. I will pay good money for anything you send me I can use. Or if you have a dimensional warp generator available, and are 100% certain you have a (safe secure) means of delivering it to me please also reply with a secure way to contact you. Send a separate email to me at:
webmaster@custompaintshop.net

Do not reply back directly to this email as it will only be bounced back to you.

Thank You
Brian Appel

sail
askqnmkus ot q x z nlh erd C | T (64) | #

Thursday, August 28

[01:43PM EDT] According to this bulletin written in November, 2001 by the folks "Microsuck", Windows has a nasty habit of doing a really good job of hiding a lot of things that you might not want hidden away. I haven't looked into the veracity of the claims, but assuming that there's some truth to it and given the age of the bulletin, it begs the question, does XP do the same thing? And if it does, the next obvious question is "Does Linux"? I wonder what the folks at Microsoft (Scoble?) have to say about this one.

Microsoft's Really Hidden Files There are folders on your computer that Microsoft has tried hard to keep secret. Within these folders you will find two major things: Microsoft Internet Explorer has not been clearing your browsing history after you have instructed it to do so, and Microsoft's Outlook Express has not been deleting your e-mail correspondence after you've erased them from your Deleted Items bin. (This also includes all incoming and outgoing file attachments.)

And believe me, that's not even the half of it. When I say these files are hidden well, I really mean it. If you don't have any knowledge of DOS then don't plan on finding these files on your own. I say this because these files/folders won't be displayed in Windows Explorer at all -- only DOS. (Even after you have enabled Windows Explorer to "show all files.") And to top it off, the only way to find them in DOS is if you knew the exact location of them. Basically, what I'm saying is if you didn't know the files existed then the chances of you running across them is slim to slimmer.

[originally via Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]

C (1) | T (41) | #

[09:10AM EDT] My Junkmail Folder

Since 7am, I've received at least 200 Sobig induced messages. They are coming in at a rate that exceeds what I was seeing last week.

Is this a second wave?

[Update: 10:22am - I've received well over 500 now! No sign of slowing down.] C (2) | T (53) | #

[08:12AM EDT]

Microsoft plans cheaper OS, e-mail bundle ZDNet Aug 27 2003 3:10PM ET

[via Moreover - ZDNet]

While this may suit a segment of the market that Microsoft wants to go after, I think its time that they start seriously considering the needs of another segment that appears to be extremely underserved by current suites and operating systems.

I'm talking about the "Emailers and Browsers" of the world. Consumers that do nothing with their computer except use email, web and maybe IM. I guess I'm describing the information appliance that we were promised a few years back, but there's no need to go out and create a whole new OS running on new hardware when slightly older laptop technology would do the trick nicely - early PIII class machines have more than enough hardware to power the necessary apps.

Think: "MSN-in-a-box" circa 2003. We're not talking about a $40 bookend that includes Spyglass and Trumpet Winsock. Think: Going down to BestBuy and getting everything you need for out-of-box Internet for $999, hardware included.

The only thing I would ask is that this be a simple exercise for the -end-user. It has to be as close to zero-configuration as possible. Critical user data should be stored on a server somewhere for recovery and use on other machines (IMAP mailboxes, IE Favorites, message filters, IM preferences and so on). I should be able to login to any MSN-in-a-box and get *my* stuff. And oh yeah - it *must* have WiFi.

Come to think of it, this would be a great segment for Michael Robertson to take a look at. Lindows could use some traction in the home. Apple would be wise to take note as well. Job's and gang have done a great job in the user experience department - I see no reason why they would approach this any differently. iBoxes would be a great way to get people using Apple's OS which would almost certainly lead to future sales of more capable equipment. Could be cheap evangelism for the underdogs.

I suppose this is what Mira is intended to address. C (1) | T (58) | #

[06:27AM EDT] When I went to put on my seude "s'fine to wear 'em with jeans" shoes this morning, I realize that they'd been rattling around in the van for the last little while. I tossed a pair of socks into my bag and slipped on my sandals - didn't think that swapping footwear at 5:30am in our parking lot would raise any eyebrows.

Flashback to a month ago when I sickly realized that I had lost my wallet.

I had geared up to go for a bike ride and then circle back out in the van for some essentials (toothpaste, toilet paper, that kind of thing...), but when I got outside, it looked like one of Toronto's famous summer storms was brewing so I went straight out to the drug store instead thinking that I could just hop on the bike when I got back, weather permitting. Which I did. I did my errands, came back - and headed straight out for a ride without bothering to take the couple of things up to the apartment first.

So this morning, I'm sitting there on my tailgate, shoe's and socks off, putting my shoes on. Right foot, in. Tied. Left foot, in. Almost. Foot didn't fit all the way in. I reached in to fish out the obstruction, and lo and behold. My wallet.

Dumbass.

New place to add to the list of places I absolutely must look when I lose something. Geez that list is getting long. I hate to see how many volumes it will occupy when I'm in my forties. C (3) | T (52) | #

Wednesday, August 27

[11:05AM EDT] Very important and useful. I only wish that there was a formal effort underway to unify blogging standards. But as I promised, more on that when I get mentally coherent on the subtleties of the subject.

This document creates an IANA maintained registry of XML element identifiers so that document authors and implementors have a well maintained and authoritative location for their XML elements. As part of this standard, the IANA will maintain

the public representation of the document,

the URI for the elements if one is provided at the time of registration,

a registry of Public Identifiers as URIs.

[via IETF-Announce]

C | T (20) | #

[10:38AM EDT] -------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Does this remind you of anything...
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 10:37:00 -0400
From: Ross Wm. Rader
Organization: Tucows Inc.
To: Chuck Daminato ; Tazmin

On 8/27/2003 10:19 AM Chuck Daminato noted that:

> http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030827
>

HEY! That's my joke! I *invented* that!!! I have witnesses!! Right taz?

grrr. ;)

--

-rwr C | T (104) | #

[08:35AM EDT] Dave says:

Mail meltdown, again. 600 messages waiting this morning. My DSL line hasn't been doing well the last 24 hours, and that means mail gets even more unreliable, and overnight it overloaded again, even though I have Eudora checking every five minutes. So if you sent me an email overnight, there's a pretty good chance I won't see it. Same for the rest of today. Not sure what I can do, but it sure makes planning a trip to Calif pretty hard without reliable email.

[via Scripting News]

Dave: Try IMAP. Its a godsend. I get up to 1000 messages per day and I've never been happier with the performance of my mailbox. Trick is, you'll have to find a decent IMAP reader. Thunderbird is the best one available for Windows or simply use Pine if you want to go retro. Once you get settled in, start working everything over to the server side (all your folders and archives etc.). You can easily move mail from your local box onto the server by simply dragging folders from your local host and dropping them onto the remote drive (assuming you're using a graphic client). Going from there, a whole world of efficiencies await you. Server side filter that deals with your mail even when your client *isn't* running? Imagine how satisfying it would be to sit down at your mail and have it all pre-filed in your folders waiting for you to read.

Email isn't busted, but POP most certainly does suck. Don't give up yet. You still have options. C (3) | T (30) | #

[08:12AM EDT]

later: just click the damned smiley. C (2) | T (53) | #

[07:46AM EDT]

...if you thought the message from the time traveller was weird, check out this snippet from a pr0n spam...

"ATTENTION. Clearance offer. Buy 30 grams of heroin, get 5 free. Prepay your batch of rockets (air-to-air) and recieve (sic) a portable rocket-lacuncher (sic) for free.

This offer won't last! Only until 20th of August all our clients will also recieve (sic) a pack of 2 CDs, with best selection of pornography."

? C | T (27) | #

Tuesday, August 26

[08:54AM EDT] This guy clearly wasn't thinking. Blackberry's a great "erase everything permanently" feature that allows you to wipe *everything* from the unit with a quick tap of the stylus in just the right place in just the right way - and selling it for $16? Are these things that worthless nowadays? I managed to get rid of mine for roughly $350 about a year ago (and yes, I made sure it had been blanked ;)

BlackBerry Sold On eBay Reveals Bank's Secrets A former VP at Morgan Stanley realized he had no need for his old Blackberry (bought with his own money, but set up to work with his Morgan Stanley email), so he sold it on eBay for $15.50. What he didn't realize was that the device had copies of plenty of his confidential emails and a wonderful address book giving away large parts of Morgan Stanley's org chart - including contact info (sometimes home phone numbers). The VP says he had no idea there was any data on the device, and assumed that having the battery removed from the device would have erased its memory.

[via Techdirt]

C | T (15) | #

[07:10AM EDT] ZD is running a piece called "RSS Readers: Bringing the World to Your Desktop"

Decent enough article, but surprising that they didn't talk about Radio, Amphetadesk and Newzcrawler - three of the more functional aggregators (in each, their own different way...

No non-windows aggregators included either...

[via Frank Reiter]

C | T (25) | #

Monday, August 25

[08:55PM EDT]

C | T (48) | #

[08:40PM EDT] No, I mean, above this post...up to the top line of text at the top of my page...where it says "Home" and all that jazz...

Now make sure that you're logged out (and if you don't know what I mean, just nod and smile like you do).

Now look again!

Bret made a cool component that detects if you are logged in and if you aren't, it gives you an easy way to login or signup for a new reader account. Pretty cool.

So I stole it. ;)

Thanks Bret! I hadn't thought of this - its pretty cool.

Now if I could just convince him to start publicizing his blog ;) C (4) | T (35) | #

[08:20PM EDT] Bret notes that Verisign is moving ahead with the WLS service. Roughly a year ago today, the ICANN Board approved the WLS.

I still can't say that I've heard any customer, ever, ask about some sort of a system that would allow them to buy someone else's domain name registration just in case it expired. Of course, I'm not really involved with the day to day of our domains operation anymore, so they might be beating down our door, their just not talking to me ;)

[obApology: My sincere apology for bringing up an ICANN related comment. I promise never to do it again ;)]

C | T (29) | #

[08:22AM EDT] DEAR SIR/MADAM:

I AM MR. DARL MCBRIDE CURRENTLY SERVING AS THE PRESIDENT AND
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE SCO GROUP, FORMERLY KNOWN AS
CALDERA SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL, IN LINDON, UTAH, UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA. I KNOW THIS LETTER MIGHT SURPRISE YOUR BECAUSE WE HAVE
HAD NO PREVIOUS COMMUNICATIONS OR BUSINESS DEALINGS BEFORE NOW.

MY ASSOCIATES HAVE RECENTLY MADE CLAIM TO COMPUTER SOFTWARES
WORTH AN ESTIMATED $1 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS. I AM WRITING TO YOU
IN CONFIDENCE BECAUSE WE URGENTLY REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE TO
OBTAIN THESE FUNDS.

IN THE EARLY 1970S THE AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH
CORPORATION DEVELOPED AT GREAT EXPENSE THE COMPUTER OPERATING
SYSTEM SOFTWARE KNOWN AS UNIX. UNFORTUNATELY THE LAWS OF MY
COUNTRY PROHIBITED THEM FROM SELLING THESE SOFTWARES AND SO THEIR
VALUABLE SOURCE CODES REMAINED PRIVATELY HELD. UNDER A SPECIAL
ARRANGEMENT SOME PROGRAMMERS FROM THE CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF
BERKELEY DID ADD MORE CODES TO THIS OPERATING SYSTEM, INCREASING
ITS VALUE, BUT NOT IN ANY WAY TO DILUTE OR DISPARAGE OUR FULL AND
RIGHTFUL OWNERSHIP OF THESE CODES, DESPITE ANY AGREEMENT BETWEEN
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH AND THE CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF
BERKELEY, WHICH AGREEMENT WE DENY AND DISAVOW.

IN THE YEAR 1984 A CHANGE OF REGIME IN MY COUNTRY ALLOWED THE
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH CORPORATION TO MAKE PROFITS FROM
THESE SOFTWARES. IN THE YEAR 1990 OWNERSHIP OF THESE SOFTWARES
WAS TRANSFERRED TO THE CORPORATION UNIX SYSTEM LABORATORIES. IN
THE YEAR 1993 THIS CORPORATION WAS SOLD TO THE CORPORATION
NOVELL. IN THE YEAR 1994 SOME EMPLOYEES OF NOVELL FORMED THE
CORPORATION CALDERA SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL, WHICH BEGAN TO
DISTRIBUTE AN UPSTART OPERATING SYSTEM KNOWN AS LINUX. IN THE
YEAR 1995 NOVELL SOLD THE UNIX SOFTWARE CODES TO SCO. IN THE YEAR
2001 OCCURRED A SEPARATION OF SCO, AND THE SCO BRAND NAME AND
UNIX CODES WERE ACQUIRED BY THE CALDERA SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL,
AND IN THE FOLLOWING YEAR THE CALDERA SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL WAS
RENAMED SCO GROUP, OF WHICH I CURRENTLY SERVE AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER.

MY ASSOCIATES AND I OF THE SCO GROUP ARE THEREFORE THE FULL AND
RIGHTFUL OWNERS OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARES KNOWN AS UNIX.
OUR ENGINEERS HAVE DISCOVERED THAT NO FEWER THAN SEVENTY (70)
LINES OF OUR VALUABLE AND PROPRIETARY SOURCE CODES HAVE APPEARED
IN THE UPSTART OPERATING SYSTEM LINUX. AS YOU CAN PLAINLY SEE,
THIS GIVES US A CLAIM ON THE MILLIONS OF LINES OF VALUABLE
SOFTWARE CODES WHICH COMPRISE THIS LINUX AND WHICH HAS BEEN SOLD
AT GREAT PROFIT TO VERY MANY BUSINESS ENTERPRISES. OUR LEGAL
EXPERTS HAVE ADVISED US THAT OUR CONTRIBUTION TO THESE CODES IS
WORTH AN ESTIMATED ONE (1) BILLION U.S. DOLLARS.

UNFORTUNATELY WE ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY EXTRACTING OUR FUNDS FROM
THESE COMPUTER SOFTWARES. TO THIS EFFECT I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE
MANDATE BY MY COLLEAGUES TO CONTACT YOU AND ASK FOR YOUR
ASSISTANCE. WE ARE PREPARED TO SELL YOU A SHARE IN THIS
ENTERPRISE, WHICH WILL SOON BE VERY PROFITABLE, THAT WILL GRANT
YOU THE RIGHTS TO USE THESE VALUABLE SOFTWARES IN YOUR BUSINESS
ENTERPRISE. UNFORTUNATELY WE ARE NOT ABLE AT THIS TIME TO SET A
PRICE ON THESE RIGHTS. THEREFORE IT IS OUR RESPECTFUL SUGGESTION,
THAT YOU MAY BE IMMEDIATELY A PARTY TO THIS ENTERPRISE, BEFORE
OTHERS ACCEPT THESE LUCRATIVE TERMS, THAT YOU SEND US THE NUMBER
OF A BANKING ACCOUNT WHERE WE CAN WITHDRAW FUNDS OF A SUITABLE
AMOUNT TO GUARANTEE YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THIS ENTERPRISE. AS AN
ALTERNATIVE YOU MAY SEND US THE NUMBER AND EXPIRATION DATE OF
YOUR MAJOR CREDIT CARD, OR YOU MAY SEND TO US A SIGNED CHECK FROM
YOUR BANKING ACCOUNT PAYABLE TO "SCO GROUP" AND WITH THE AMOUNT
LEFT BLANK FOR US TO CONVENIENTLY SUPPLY.

KINDLY TREAT THIS REQUEST AS VERY IMPORTANT AND STRICTLY
CONFIDENTIAL. I HONESTLY ASSURE YOU THAT THIS TRANSACTION IS 100%
LEGAL AND RISK-FREE.

[via Doug]

C | T (377) | #

Saturday, August 23

[09:38PM EDT]

C | T (383) | #

[09:29AM EDT] I didn't just wake up this morning and decide to single out a whole bunch of people that don't have feeds. This isn't about RSS or specific bloggers, its about blogging and syndication in general. Trust me I do have a specific point that I want to share - I just want to chew on it a for a little bit and figure out *how* I want to share it.

And apologies to all of you that got spammed by the email notification bot this morning. ;) C | T (73) | #

[08:30AM EDT] Evan doesn't feed either. Remember that trend? It didn't have anything to do with being a David. C | T (85) | #

[08:22AM EDT] Nick Denton doesn't seem to syndicate. I really wish he did. Like Esther, he doesn't blog frequently. But when he does, I'd like to be able to take notice of it quickly. C | T (41) | #

[08:13AM EDT] Esther - syndication has another meaning as well - "having an RSS feed for your blog!" C (2) | T (351) | #

[08:10AM EDT] This Eric is also dark, but open, so I guess that helps. C | T (340) | #

[08:09AM EDT] Eric doesn't have a feed either - so yes, "the darkness continues". C | T (12) | #

[07:55AM EDT] Declan doesn't have RSS either, but he *does* use email - which is sort of like "medieval syndication" for you boys and girls that weren't around before email died. C | T (42) | #

[07:50AM EDT] This media David doesn't have a syndication feed either. Spot the trend here? C | T (64) | #

[07:47AM EDT] Dave Barry is supposedly a syndicated columnist. So where is his syndication feed? C | T (1) | #