Life is a Highway...

Wii Number : Looking to Make Some Connection

Okay, here's my/our Wii number:

0783 4794 9203 0316

Feel free to register this number and please take a moment and post your Wii number below.

For those wondering how to get their Wii Number, from the main Wii Menu screen click the Message Board icon (the envelope at the bottom-right of the screen), then click the New Message icon (second from the left at the bottom), then click Address Book. Your Wii Number is on the cover page (you may have to click the cover to close it if it opens automatically).

When you enter a friend’s Wii Number, you won’t be able to exchange messages with them until they’ve added your Wii Number to their console too. Obviously, you need to have your Wii online in order for this to be of any use at all. For the best results, make sure you have WiiConnect24 enabled in your settings, so you can receive messages etc even when your Wii is in standby mode. You’ll know if you’ve received a message since you last checked because your Wii’s optical drive will be glowing blue. You can set the brightness of the glow (or disable it entirely) on the settings screen.

Once you've registered my Wii Number, please post a comment here so that I can add your Wii Number to finalize the exchange. Remember, both have to register each other's Wii number for this process to work.

Posted by John Highway at 09:07 PM | 1 Comments

Google Mail Issues 15Gb of Storage Space

Looks like the folks at Google had allocated one (or more) Google Mail account with a total storage size of 15+ Gb... I kid you not -- take a look at the screen shot above.

Posted by John Highway at 05:15 PM | 0 Comments

A Means to Strike Back at the Spammers

Without having used "Blue Security's 'Do Not Intrude' Program" personally, the idea of going after the spammer is always good news to me. The premise of "Blue Security" is this:

The Do Not Intrude program allows individuals to register an e-mail address with Blue Security and tracks spam messages with desktop client software known as "Blue Frog." When spam e-mail is sent to a Do Not Intrude Member, Blue Security traces the message to its origin and then bombards the Web site behind the campaign, known as the "sponsor," with requests to remove the e-mail message from his or her distribution lists. Millions of e-mail messages translate into millions of "opt out" requests, bogging down the spammers' servers.

While I prefer that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is sent to the spammer's computer, completely frying his/her tool to spam, this is a good start.

Read more about it at: Spammers turn on antispam vigilantes - Computerworld

Posted by John Highway at 12:31 PM | 0 Comments

"DELETE" Button Now Available on Google Mail...

One of the key points about Google's mail service is that with more than 2 gigabytes of storage available to each user, when will find the need to actually delete something from your mailbox? Majority of users on the internet will find that he/she will never need to delete mail to make more room available for storage but if you do, Google Mail now gives the user the ability to delete unnecessary or unwanted mail.

Simply click on the button to move any unnecessary/unwanted email from your inbox or archive directly to your trash. Deleted messages and conversations are permanently removed 30 days after you've moved it into the trash. The option to archive messages and conversation is still available -- so that you can look back on your past email ... say six-years from now, according to Google.

Posted by John Highway at 11:38 PM | 0 Comments

Get Gmail on your Mobile Phone...

Don't have Internet access but you do have 'web' access through your cell phone provider? Well, now you can also get your Gmail through your cell phone.

Google has announced it's newest feature in the Google Mail world, Gmail Mobile.

Now you can access your Gmail account from your mobile phone or device. Just point your phone's web browser to http://m.gmail.com. Your Gmail account stays synched, whether you access it from the web or the mobile interface. It's easy to use and it's free (but yes, your wireless plan could still charge you).

It also has these cool features:

• Automatically optimizes the interface for the phone you're using
• Opens the attachments you receive in messages, including photos, Microsoft Word documents and .pdf files
• Lets you reply by call to people whose phone numbers are in your Gmail Contacts list

Read more about it at: Gmail Mobile.

There are also additional features added to the functionality of Google Mail:

Vacation auto-responder

Set an auto-response so that if you’re lying on a beach or taking a train across Siberia, your friends will know you won’t be checking your email. Learn more

and finally, a feature that's available on other e-mail services finally made it's way to Google Mail, Group Contacts -- so that you can to a single 'group' address and everyone in the group gets a copy of the email:

One of our most-requested features is finally here! Now you can send messages to a group instead of having to pick out the individual addresses every time. Learn more

Posted by John Highway at 02:15 PM | 0 Comments

Google Mail with 3 New Features!

Okay, Google has announced to Google Mail (aka GMail) users that they've incorporated 3 new features into its application: RSS Feeds, Faster Attachment Viewer and Displaying Useful Information in Listing.

RSS Feeds:

View your favorite RSS feeds right in Gmail as “Clips” along the top of your Gmail screen. Display clips from blogs, news sites and other online sources. Pick from the latest headlines, random popular feeds, or add any RSS/Atom feed you want.

Faster Attachment Viewer:

Don’t want to wait for an attachment to download? Now when you get Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or .pdf attachments, you can view them as a web page in HTML by clicking the "View as HTML" link right next to it. For when you're on a mobile device or you don't want to install some new software just to view a document. Or if you just want to see it faster.

Useful Information:

Now Gmail automatically detects addresses and tracking numbers, and displays useful information for them alongside your messages. With a single click, you can get directions to that address your friend sent you, or find out when the new book you ordered will arrive. Pretty handy!

Read more about the new changes at: About Gmail

Posted by John Highway at 03:46 PM | 0 Comments

What's New at Google?

Just Launched!

Virus scanning is here!
Get an automatic check-up every time you open or send a message with an attachment. We even try our best to remove viruses so we can protect you against all the ones we find. You're on your own with the common cold (try chicken soup).

How does anti-virus scanning work?

Each time you send and receive attachments, Gmail automatically scans them for viruses.

If a virus is found in an attachment you've received, our system will attempt to remove it, or clean the file, so you can still access the information it contains. If the virus can't be removed from the file, you won't be able to download it.

If a virus is found in an attachment you're trying to send, you won't be able to send the message until you remove the attachment.

Posted by John Highway at 04:08 AM | 0 Comments

New Google Analytics (a webstat service)

Google has branched into many areas of science and technology, they're even providing a webstat service, Google Analytics. The service is new and many people have already signed up and because of that Google has locked it so that new registrations will have to wait. You will need to register for a Google account (not necessarily a Google Mail account).

But once you're allowed access and with a simple insertion of some javascript code fragment (How do I add tracking code to my website?):

<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "UA-XXXXXX-X";
urchinTracker();
</script>

you can start tracking the visitors to your website/webpage and the information provided is quite detailed. Once embedded within your webpages or website, the information may take as little as a couple of minutes to a couple of hours before you'll start to see some information.

You'll get nifty displays like:

Continue reading "New Google Analytics (a webstat service)"

Posted by John Highway at 02:26 AM | 0 Comments

Prius Number Crunchers

Laura Adams of Bowie, Maryland, a neighborhood outside of Washington, D.C., bought her first-generation Prius in January 2002. "I've always been interested in finding alternate methods of fuel," she said. "I would love to have an electric vehicle, but this is the next best thing."

Adams drives about 50 miles a day to take her children to school and run errands. She wants the world to know that the idea that hybrids are slow is a misconception.

"Our traffic is No. 3 in the nation. I have no trouble merging into lanes and keeping up with traffic," she said. "That bothers me that people think I have to give something up to own this car. [Compared to other compact cars], I don't give up anything in terms of space or in terms of power."

What Adams has given up is high gasoline bills. Her average fuel economy from spring through fall is 48 miles per gallon. In the winter she averages 39 miles per gallon because it takes longer for the engine to warm and to work efficiently. Her all-time best is 57 miles per gallon.

The Prius Number Crunchers

Posted by John Highway at 10:25 AM | 0 Comments

Hurricane Katrina

TechTV Forever run by Eric Craft (and his team) and Long Live TechTV, run by Chris (densefive) and Mark (mrwebauthor) are banding together to try to get people to donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund http://www.redcross.org by posting banners and links at their group homepages and drawing attention to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on their message boards. At LLTTV they have a podcast called 535 York and which they record on Thursday nights about 10pm EST. Please join in Thursday in a moment of silence at the beginning of our podcast. The moment of silence will run from 10pm EST til 10:01pm EST to remember those that lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina. If you can not make the podcast please still observe a moment of silence. We are going to try to make this a continent wide moment of silence. So please spread the word.

Cyberwalker blog

Posted by John Highway at 01:24 PM | 0 Comments

Google's Gmail is Free...

Wait, there's a catch.

Yes, Google Gmail has opened the doors a little wider for people to get a Gmail account that is used in conjunction with Google's release of Google Talk. There's one condition though, actually two.

(1) You have to be in the United States.

(2) You have to have a cell phone that accepts text-messages.

Why? Cause while others will tell you that you don't need an Gmail invite code, for those that don't don't live in the U.S. or even own a cell phone that uses SMS services, you still require an invite code. What's different is that if you have a cell phone with SMS-capabilities, you can get Google to send you a key code that you can then use on the Google Gmail website to unlock access to fill out for a Gmail account. So technically, that key code is your Gmail invite. Without it, you can't open a Gmail account.

Luckily, I still have 15,000+ Gmail invites for anyone looking to try out Google Talk (still in BETA).

Posted by John Highway at 06:58 PM | 0 Comments

Google Talk Sends People Scrambling for Gmail Invites

If you've not heard already, Google has released a new application currently in BETA, Google Talk, Google's own Instant Messaging service that also includes high-quality voice conversations over the internet. The only hitch is that you need Google's Gmail account to log in and while they say that Gmail will be open to everyone in the US, this little app has caused loads of people to scramble to my site and acquire a Gmail invite so that he/she can use this IM application.

With over 15,000 Gmail invites available, the queue is constantly hovering at about 40 users waiting for the next schedule distribution of Gmail invites (which occurs every 10 minutes).

Read more about Google Talk.

Posted by John Highway at 01:51 PM | 0 Comments

Gmail's *dot* Issue in the Username

I've been getting someone else's email that's address to a different Gmail account for the past couple of weeks. The intended target is a slight variation to my current Gmail account by a couple of "dots" within the username. I looked around Google Help and found the following:

Gmail doesn't recognize dots (.) as characters within a username. This way, you can add and remove dots to your username for desired address variations. For example, messages sent to GoogleAmy@gmail.com and Google.Amy@gmail.com are delivered to the same inbox.

Please note that hyphens (-) or underscores (_) cannot be used in a Gmail address.

If you created your account with a dot in your username and you wish you hadn't, you can change your 'Reply-to address.' To change your reply-to address:

1. Click 'Settings' at the top of any Gmail page.
2. Enter your username@gmail.com without a dot in the 'Reply-to address' field.
3. Click 'Save Changes.'

Please note that to log in to Gmail, you must enter any dots that were originally defined as part of your Gmail username.

Continue reading "Gmail's *dot* Issue in the Username"

Posted by John Highway at 03:58 PM | 1 Comments

Firefox 1.0.4 Update Now Available

Firefox v1.0.4 is now available for downloading. This new version addresses some security flaws that were overlooked in the previous version.

Check http://www.mozilla.org for more information on the newest release.

Posted by John Highway at 02:20 PM | 0 Comments

Y! Storage 1GB...

What's New With Yahoo! Mail

In an effort to keep up with Google's Gmail new mail/storage availability to users, Yahoo! released the 1GB storage for all Y! users, for free! Of course, you know that Google's Gmail is currently offering over 2.145GB of storage for all users that sign up for the free service. Y! offers something similar (2GB) a paid upgrade.

One benefit of using Y! 1GB mail storage is that the service is not beta. This means, you can pretty much complain for a sh*tty service when things go wrong (e.g. you don't get your mail in a timely manner, you don't lose your mail, etc.). Because of this caveat, Google's Gmail can claim that they're still testing and things cannot be guaranteed until it's out of beta.

Choose your free mail service wisely. Don't go using Gmail for important and costly company e-mail transactions.

If you're still waiting for Gmail account to play with and test, check out my Gmail Queue -- it offers free invites to anyone with an existing e-mail account.

Posted by John Highway at 12:38 PM | 0 Comments

Firefox 1.0.2 is Available

Mozilla - Home of the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird e-mail client

That's right, Firefox 1.0.2 is now available for downloading. If you haven't tried it, you should at least give a try and if you don't like it, you can always go back to Internet Explorer.

Posted by John Highway at 05:41 PM | 0 Comments

Identical Twins Not A Problem for Parents Only

NASA's Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit are identical twins - so alike that they even fooled NASA. Researchers have discovered that they sent the robots to Mars with an instrument meant for Opportunity inside Spirit and vice versa.

While the bungle does not undermine the main scientific conclusions drawn from the data collected by the rovers, it is an embarrassing slip-up for a space agency that once lost a Mars spacecraft because engineers mixed up metric and imperial units.

( more )

Do you DIGG this story?

Posted by John Highway at 05:24 PM | 0 Comments

Grow-your-own breast implants

INSTEAD of silicone implants or tissue taken from elsewhere in the patient's body, plastic surgeons might soon be using tissue grown from patients' own stem cells.

So claims Jeremy Mao of the University of Illinois, who has tested the idea in mice. He seeded scaffolds with human bone-marrow-derived stem cells and inserted them into mice.

(more)

Do you DIGG this story?

Posted by John Highway at 03:07 AM | 0 Comments

There's a New Gratis Program...

Gratis Network (the makers of FreeiPods, FreeMiniMacs, etc.) now bring you FreePSPs. I've signed up and completed the RealRhapsody 14-Day Free Trial.

If you get the opportunity, help me out and sign up under me.

Posted by John Highway at 10:17 PM | 0 Comments

Free Mac Mini Update

FreeMiniMacs.com - Get a FREE Mini Mac!

Here's an update to my Mac Mini situation. It appears that I have 5 people signed up under my banner but only two have completed the offer portion. Give it a shot.

And now, it also appears that Blockbuster Online has been removed as a possible offer to complete. Don't fret, I found another service that gives you a trial period before they actually start charging you. Try eFax.com, the service where you get your faxes sent to you as an e-mail. Don't have fax line, that's okay, this will give any upstart business the opportunity without the needed equipment.

If you do find Blockbuster Online as an offer to complete, I highly recommend it. It's the best offer to sign up for is the Blockbuster Online movie rental. You get (2) week free trial and then you get the first three months at $9.99 if you wish to keep it. I got my "offer" credit within hours. Do make sure that you allow pop-up windows when visit freeminimacs.com... so that you'll get credit when you sign-up, you can always close it up later once you've gotten the confirmation.

Posted by John Highway at 08:08 PM | 0 Comments

Recent Move by Google has Caused Server Errors

Is that Gmail Invite Code really used up?

In a recent move by Google and the administrators of Google's Gmail system, additional Gmail invites were given to the Gmail populace in record numbers, in some cases, users were given 50 invites. This translated to some sites having large pools of Gmail invites (e.g. http://www.highwayman.org/gmail, http://www.isnoop.net/gmail, http://www.iheartmorganwebb.com/gmailgiveaway.php) to give away. Some users have individually posted URL links on various websites. These large number of invites appear to have some affect on the Gmail servers, a huge impact against the Gmail servers, giving false-positive responses.

The image to the left is example of a successful Google Gmail invite acceptance by the servers, this is the image you're expecting to see when you click on a valid Gmail invite URL.

Within seconds of hitting the refresh key and with the same URL Invite, you get this response from the Gmail server. While this is a response, it gives the user trying to accept the invite the impression that the Gmail invite code was already used. I later tried the invite code again and it returned me to the proper Gmail form.

Other problems also came into light when users found many of the messages being sent to the Gmail servers were not being accepted and in some cases, terminated by the sending server when it gave up trying to re-send the same message.

To help alleviate this situation is to have users not post pages of Gmail invite URLs. The reason for this is because there might be robots or scripts searching the Internet for Gmail invite URLs. Of course, it needs to validate the availability of the invite code by referencing the invite URL.

While this might not sound much to you and I, but imagine a script/robot that discovers 50 some invite URLs on one page; now think of that same process being repeated over a thousand times because there might be a thousand robots doing just that. Let's go a little further and increase the number of invites on a webpage from 50 to 500 (that's 10 users posting 50 invite URLs).

This amount of automated 'pinging' of the Gmail invite availability could cause the server loads on Google's Gmail to unexpected service levels.

Users might help this situation by sending his/her Gmail invites to websites that act as a 'distribution point' (see websites below). This way, the invite is given to each user as a first come, first serve basis and eliminates the need to post full URL strings on webpages.

* http://www.highwayman.org/gmail
* http://www.insoop.net/gmail
* http://www.getagmail.com
* http://www.iheartmorganwebb.com/gmailgiveaway.php

If there are any others, please let me know.

DIGG this story

Posted by John Highway at 03:57 PM | 0 Comments

Symantec anti-virus flaw hits 30 products

The Register: Symantec anti-virus flaw hits 30 products

A cross-platform flaw affecting many Symantec security products - both consumer and enterprise - has been discovered. Users of Symantec's Norton SystemWorks 2004, Norton SystemWorks 2004 (both Mac and Windows), Norton AntiVirus 2004, corporate anti-virus apps and Brightmail anti-spam software (among others) all need to apply patches following the discovery of the "highly critical" security bug. In all 30 packages are affected.

The vulnerability stems from a flaw in an antivirus scanning component (called the DEC2EXE parsing engine) involving the processing of UPX compressed files. Maliciously constructed UPX files could be created to cause a heap-based buffer overflow. This in turn makes it possible for malicious hackers to inject hostile code onto vulnerable systems, allowing them to be taken over by attackers.

Symantec said the vulnerable EC2EXE engine is no longer required to parse compressed files. It had already planned to dispense with the component across its product range and the discovery of vulnerability by security tools vendor ISS has simply brought forward this process. Update details are here. ISS's alert is here.

Posted by John Highway at 12:46 PM | 0 Comments

Microsoft Free Spyware

Security at Home: Spyware

If you're an authentic XP user and you're constantly worried about spyware being installed on your computer, consider Microsoft free anti-spyware download. Now that Microsoft has purchased one of the prominent anti-spyware, the company has made its anti-spyware software available as a free download.

The installed software will in your system's memory so that's constantly keeping an eye for spyware from maliciously being installed on your computer. Because it's offered by Microsoft, be sure that your anti-spyware software will automatically be updated.

Off the bat, the software detected two spyware software that had been missed earlier by Ad-Aware SE.

Do I think it's better than other anti-spyware softwares (e.g. Ad-Aware SE)? No, I think it's a great supplement to run concurrently with Ad-Aware/Spybot Search & Destroy.

Posted by John Highway at 12:59 PM | 0 Comments

Vulnerability in Mozilla, Firefox & Thunderbird

Yahoo! News - Mozilla and Firefox Vulnerabilities Identified

Users of the Mozilla and Firefox browsers and the Thunderbird e-mail client may be vulnerable to flaws that could allow an attacker to spy on or take over a system, according to security researchers.

"... In recent months many users have begun switching to browsers such as Firefox and Mozilla because of increasingly serious security risks affecting Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer. However, the newfound popularity of the Mozilla-based browsers has been accompanied by greater scrutiny by security researchers, and the regular discovery of new flaws."

Posted by John Highway at 04:13 PM | 0 Comments

Upgraded 20gB iPod to a 40gB

Life is a Highway...: Highway Joins the Ranks of iPod Owners

Well, if you've read the referenced journal entry, I had myself a 20gB iPod but strangely enough, on Tuesday 12/28 afternoon, it had stopped being recognized by any computer I attached the iPod via USB. I couldn't figure out what the issue was.

Continue reading "Upgraded 20gB iPod to a 40gB"

Posted by John Highway at 12:28 AM | 0 Comments

Highway Joins the Ranks of iPod Owners

Yes, I've joined the ranks of iPod owners everywhere, thanks to my wife, who got me this gift for Christmas and she got it at regular price minus the department store discount of 20%.

Yup, 20%.

So, I installed the software, installed the latest update to the iPod's firmware, downloaded my first MP3 free music of the week from iTunes and even ripped songs from my Sara Evans CD's Restless onto my new MP3 player.

Continue reading "Highway Joins the Ranks of iPod Owners"

Posted by John Highway at 11:08 PM | 0 Comments

Moveable Type Upgraded from 3.11 to 3.14

This blog has officially been upgraded from version 3.11 to 3.14 :)

Posted by John Highway at 01:25 PM | 0 Comments

Hacker Sentenced to Longest U.S. Sentence

Hacker Sententenced To Longest US Sentence Yet

Iphtashu Fitz writes "The Associated Press is reporting that a Michigan man has been sentenced to 9 years in prison for his involvement in hacking into the corporate systems of Lowe's Home Improvement and attempting to steal customer credit card information."

[ Do you ::digg:: this story? ]

Posted by John Highway at 08:48 PM | 0 Comments

Apple Dropping RealNetworks from iPods

Apple Disabling RealNetworks Harmony Technology

According to a CNET news.com story, iPods will no longer be able to play tunes purchased from the RealRhapsody online music store.

[do you ::digg:: it?]

Posted by John Highway at 12:39 PM | 0 Comments

Kazaa Unable to Block Child Porn Use

The Register (Law)

In a comment released by Philip Morle, Sharman Network's chief technology officer, he told the Australian Federal Court in Sydney that he did not think the company could bar people who used its P2P software to distribute child pornography. He then goes on to say that he was not aware on Kazaa's policy on child pornography.

Tony Bannon, QC - quoted the company's policy on child pornographers: "If at any time Kazaa finds that you are using Kazaa to collect or distribute child pornography or other obscene material, [Sharman] reserves the right to permanently bar you and your computers from accessing Kazaa and other Kazaa services."

Posted by John Highway at 01:50 PM | 0 Comments

Apple Owners Not Free from Security Holes

Security bugs take a bite out of Apple | The Register

Apparently, Apple has posted some security updates to fix 16 security vulnerabilities in its Mac OS X operating system. Left unfixed, hackers could unleash a fury of hurt on MAC users. One vulnerability affects at least 25,000 web servers running Apple MAC OS.

See, it's not that Apple OS is free of security bugs, it's that in the past, Apple's market shares of Internet users didn't warrant a hacker's attention. But, as more and more users start to convert to Apple Mac OS X, the temptation becomes greater for hackers to try and exploit. In time, you'll need to start updating your OS with daily updates. :)

Posted by John Highway at 01:32 AM | 0 Comments

Security Alert: Fake Lycos Screensaver

Fake Lycos screensaver harbours Trojan | The Register

Well, we knew it wouldn't take long for virus writers to begin distributing their own version of the Lycos Screensaver program, however this one contains a keylogging virus.

This fake screensaver comes through your E-mail and contains an attachment with a RAR SFX archive that has an embedded keylogging trojan inside. The E-mail comes to you with such subjects as:

"Be the first to fight spam with Lycos Screen"

Don't be fooled by this E-mail and never open attachment files from someone you don't know. If it's from someone you know, verify it by asking the friend if he/she had recently sent you an E-mail. Also, evaluate the source to which the E-mail is coming from -- what I mean is that if the user did send you the E-mail and the user is prone to having opening any attachments, it might be a good idea not to open it.

Continue reading "Security Alert: Fake Lycos Screensaver"

Posted by John Highway at 01:21 AM | 0 Comments

Phishing/Spam E-mail on the Rise...

Who would you like to attack today? | The Register

It's really sad that it's come down to 1 for every 16 E-mail received is now somehow infected with some kind of virus. What about those porn sites that sends out E-mail blindly to users. I mean, we have laws that prevents adults/company from showing sexually explicit material to minors, why isn't there such a penalty for those caught sending sexually explicit material to minors on the internet. Shouldn't matter if it's a mass distribution, you send it to a minor, you get caught, you do hard time.

Posted by John Highway at 01:39 PM | 0 Comments

Lycos Screensaver Halted

Back on November 29th, 2004 -- it was reported that Lycos Europe was attempting to put the screws on spammer sites by introducing the installation of a screensaver that when activated would make HTTP calls to known spammer sites. Numerous HTTP calls to a single site can overload the webserver and in some cases, bring the webservices offline. This is commonly known as Denial of Service (DOS) attacks, which are highly illegal.

Continue reading "Lycos Screensaver Halted"

Posted by John Highway at 03:34 PM | 0 Comments

"It Has Begun..."

"Do you know what you're computer is doing?"

The trial battle between the file-sharing giant, Kazaa (Sharman Networks) and the combined forces of Universal, EMI, Warner and Sony BMG opens with claims that Kazaa, not only created the world's largest music piracy network, but also knew for what illegal purposes its software was being used for.

My comments: We live in a capitalistic society, people only want to get paid for what they created.

Kazaa trial opens with 'massive piracy' claim

Continue reading ""It Has Begun...""

Posted by John Highway at 09:03 PM | 0 Comments

Woman Sues AMEX and Lycos Europe to Battle SPAM sites

Strangely enough, a New York woman is suing American Express ($2 million) for allowing her to run up a debt of $951,000 on her Amex Card. Antoinette Millard, 40, stated that American Express should have realized that she was mentally imcompetent and that she [Millard] was acting impulsively and irrationally when she entered into the contract.

"Woman blows $950K on Amex Card"

In other news, Lycos Europe has taken the task to battle spammers by distributing a special screensaver ("Make Love Not Spam" available for Windows and MacOS) which will send a request to view a spam source site. Of course, when a large number of screensavers sends their requests, all at the same time, this would most likely overload and degrade the site's webservices.

"Lycos screensaver to blitz spam servers"

Posted by John Highway at 02:54 PM | 0 Comments

RIAA Continues the Search

RIAA sues filesharing US students | The Register

The RIAA is at it again... this time 761 people have been issued suits for alleged illegal filesharing, with 25 people named for using university networks to distrbute music.

Posted by John Highway at 02:26 PM | 0 Comments

Stargate SG-1: The Aliiance

StarGate - The Alliance

Screenshots of the game's environment looks very kewl. Stargate SG-1: The Alliance is the spectacular interactive game experience that puts players in the action packed universe of the hit Stargate SG-1 television series.

I'm looking for to the game's release for a full game review.

Posted by John Highway at 01:14 PM | 0 Comments

Lexar 1.0GB USB 2.0 JumpDrive ($59.99)

A good deal if you're looking for high-capacity storage thumbdrive.

Starting price:   $109.99
Instant Discount: -$30.00
Mail-In Rebate:   -$20.00
Final Price:       $59.99

Lexar 1.0GB USB 2.0 JumpDrive
Model: JDA1GB-275

An ideal storage solution for transporting data, this durable, compact JumpDrive features a convenient keychain hole for maximum portability.

Generous 1.0GB storage capacity.

High-speed USB 2.0 interface for fast data transfer; backward-compatible with USB 1.1.

Data protection light blinks until data is safely stored.

Offer expires: 2004-11-20

Posted by John Highway at 02:20 PM | 0 Comments

Modded XBox Denied Live Action

Alex Albrecht: Xbox live and Halo 2...

If you've gotten yourself a modded Microsoft XBox console game unit, it would appear that Microsoft enabled the ability to detect this (even if turned off) and deny you access for XBox Live.

Posted by John Highway at 10:31 PM | 1 Comments

Waiting for Approval... FreeiPods.com

Well, I've submitted my request for approval to have them the process of sending me my free iPod from FreeIPods.COM. I've asked for the full blown version, I originally asked for the iPod MINI but figured the 20G would come in handy instead of the little 4G.

Hopefully, my wife will have a chance in getting one too.

Here's her referral code: http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=9086446

Posted by John Highway at 12:26 PM | 1 Comments

New IE Security Hole Lets in MyDoom Virus

What does this mean?

This new variant is very different from previous versions of Mydoom. It installs a web server on the infected system running on port 1639. It sends out e-mails with a link to a special page on the web server. Users who click on the link may be infected through a new, unpatched vulnerability in Internet Explorer.

Update Windows XP; Windows XP Service Pack 2 is not vulnerable to this attack. Be skeptical of links in unsolicited e-mails. Run intrusion prevention software that protects against some buffer overflows generically. Run a personal firewall that might block the web server on either the client or server end. Using a NAT device, such as a typical router, prevents spreading of the worm.

Posted by John Highway at 07:28 PM | 0 Comments

FireFox 1.0 RC2 is now Available

kevin rose dot com

If you're a FireFox user and you've recently upgraded to the PR version, there are now release candidates available.

Please remember that these are not completely stable but they do fix some bugs previously found on PR and RC1 versions.

Posted by John Highway at 06:59 PM | 0 Comments

I'm So Non-Intelligent...

Road Blocks

I'm stuck on Level 16 (password: MERTIN).

Update! [2004-11-03] I'm now on Level 18 (password: sub2)

Update! [2004-11-04] I've completed all the levels ... on my own! :)

Posted by John Highway at 11:33 PM | 0 Comments

Solaris Closer to Being OpenSource

Sun Microsystems still isn't giving any details, but the
Unix giant says that it's getting closer to making its Open
Solaris project, along with the final pieces of Solaris 10,
a reality. Read the latest.

(check here)

Microsoft's market-dominant Web browser slips another
percentage point as Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser
makes inroads ahead of its official launch. Check out the
numbers.

(check here)

Posted by John Highway at 02:12 PM | 0 Comments

Wi-Fi For Christmas...

Free Wi-Fi is becoming reality in a growing number of
cities. San Francisco plans to make free wireless computer
access available at housing projects and community centers,
while Rio Rancho, N.M., will be giving Wi-Fi to its
residents for Christmas.

News: San Francisco to Expand Wi-Fi Program
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1318-10-15-154249-145818-1

News: New Mexico City Hopes for Wi-Fi Access by Christmas
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1318-10-15-154249-145821-1

Posted by John Highway at 04:47 PM | 0 Comments

Einstein Was Right!

Astronomers find proof of Einstein's theory. 22/10/2004. ABC News Online

Einstein was right: Scientists say satellites pulled slightly off their orbits show that the earth is indeed twisting the fabric of space-time as it rotates.

An international team of scientists put together by NASA says the findings are the first to directly measure and prove an important aspect of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity - that a rotating body warps and twists the "fabric" that combines the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time.

Posted by John Highway at 06:43 PM | 0 Comments

Alternative to FreeiPods.Com ...

It's only time when some other business is gonna use the same business model as 'FreeiPods.com' and looks like mp3players4free.com is that company. What's different about this site is that it offers other MP3 players like, for example:

Rio Carbon 5GB player, iRiver H320 20GB and others.

Newly started, there are many great offers to jump on and right now the easiest and simplest is joining Blockbusters.com online DVD rental. You get a 2-week free trial period but you'll need to enter a billing address and credit card. If you've recently joined and cancelled your membership, you can join again with different billing information.

Now, whether or not this company is as true as FreeiPods.com, that's still up in the air but be sure that I'll keep my eye out for it and I'll update you when there's more information.

Posted by John Highway at 12:05 AM | 0 Comments

E-mail Scams Hit Linux Users

Red Hat has warned users of an e-mail scam designed to plant
malicious code on users' systems. The malicious e-mail poses
as a security update from the vendor, a technique that has
become familiar to Windows users but is a novelty in the
Linux world. Find out what to look for in
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1290-8-21-46452-142947-1

Posted by John Highway at 12:06 AM | 0 Comments

Critical Security Updates for Mozilla/Firefox Users

Looks like security holes in browsers is not just for Internet Explorer users only (got the "Update your Firefox browser" message). Just so you know, I've switched from using Internet Explorer to using Firefox so I'm not just harping on Firefox because I'm still an Internet Explorer user. As an application becomes more popular (e.g. Firefox) and the interests begin to shift, it's only natural that users will begin to devote more time to writing code that will exploit such security holes because it would affect a great number of users. Why isn't there more viruses for Mac users? Because 90% of the users are using Windows ... would spend your time writing a virus that will affect 5% of the world users or 80% of world users? Do you get more recognition for throwing 3% off the network or 75% off the network?

Continue reading "Critical Security Updates for Mozilla/Firefox Users"

Posted by John Highway at 11:41 PM | 0 Comments

More Gmail Invites...

Looking for a totally BLANK Gmail invite that will allow you to create an account with whatever account name you wish? Do you want to try your luck?

I Heart Morgan Webb Gmail Giveaway!

You have a 5 in 3000 chance to win invite code. All you have to do is hit the refresh key until you come across one (1) of the five (5) preselected number that's randomly generated.

Posted by John Highway at 10:14 PM | 0 Comments

INDUCE ACT: Throw Us Back to the Stone Age.

Wired News: Techies Blast Induce Act

A definitely loss for everyone that uses any recording devices today should this Act get passed by Congress; the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act pass, tech companies that deals with digital recording (e.g. TiVo Inc.) would be help responsible for creating devices that could be used in digital content piracy. This Act would negate the Supreme Court's "Betamax Decision" of 1984.

Check out the link for more information.

Posted by John Highway at 04:45 PM | 0 Comments

The Top 5 Game: Essential Software

sarah. word.: The Top 5 Game: Essential Software

Building many new systems for myself, I've always found the following softwares to be most necessary:

1. Virus Shield (I use McAfee Security Office)
2. Firefox
3. Ad-Aware (no time like the present)
4. FileZilla (FTP through Secure SSH connection)
5. PuTTY

Those are my top five softwares that needed to be installed on any of my computers.

What are your top five software apps?

Posted by John Highway at 09:19 AM | 0 Comments

MovableType 3.1

I've just successfully upgraded my Moveable Type services from 3.01D to the most recently released version 3.1.

Yes!

Posted by John Highway at 10:20 AM | 0 Comments

What a total dweebo!

Talk a n00b phishing for data... I just got this e-mail which Cloudmark's SpamNet automatically identified it as SPAM. Anyways, as you can see, the email came to me as text instead of the HTML that the user hoped that it would have been translated. What he needed was 7bit encoding and not 8bit.

(http://earth.xtremhosting.com/~reptile)

As you can see the email was trying to phish for personal information by directing the user to go to the website hosted on xtremhosting.com who's account name is 'reptile'.

Personally, if a credit card company requires me to update my information, I would simply go to the website directly and through some link that's provided in some shady e-mail that's been dressed up to look like a credit card company, even if it looks legit. It's safer that way.

Posted by John Highway at 09:27 PM | 0 Comments

MovableType 3.0 Small Modification to Comment Approval

/*
This is a small modification to the existing 'comment pending approval' email that is sent to the author of the MT blog. In the previous version, the author would receive something like:

Approve this commenter: <_SOMEWEB_BLOG_SITE_/<MT_BIN>/mt.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=<NUM>&_type=comment&id=<NUM>>

The modified version will give you:
Approve this commenter: <_SOMEWEB_BLOG_SITE_/<MT_BIN>/mt.cgi?__mode=approve_comment&blog_id=<NUM>&_type=comment&id=<NUM>

This will bring up a window and automatically 'approve' the comment based on reading the comment contents from the email notification that the author received
*/

Posted by John Highway at 02:22 PM | 0 Comments

Email Identify Theft Alert...

Be on your toes. If you get something in your e-mailbox and it looks something like the image above, make sure to scrutinize the e-mail item thoroughly.

You might notice that when you move your mouse over the text (not just the link), your mouse turns into a different pointer, meaning that the entire message is a link. This is because the message itself is a hyperlinked image. Some mail programs will display the actual URL to which the image is linked to. In the example above, it's pointing to "http://210.102.51.61:87/citi/index.htm" instead of the actual domain address belonging to Citibank.

Clicking on the link will take you to the page above which looks just like Citibank's. But the image previous enough should be an indicator that something is not kosher.

Oh, who does the IP address 210.102.51.61 belong to?

Posted by John Highway at 12:21 PM | 2 Comments

It pays to be an Early Adopter.

I want to thank the folks at SixApart for listening to the users and have reworked the licensing structure that would benefit everyone.

As for me... I've already paid my support fees to have my own personal license (giving me 5 weblog authors and 5 weblogs) -- but today, I get an e-mail from them stating that they've changed the personal license to have 5 weblog authors and an unlimited amount of weblogs. Because I was an 'early adopter', SixApart has upgraded my personal license to an Unlimited Personal Edition (priced at $99.95) for FREE! :)

E-mail excerpt from Mena @ SixApart

As a paid licensee these changes directly affect you. To thank you for supporting us early in the release of Movable Type 3.0 your license has been upgraded to an unlimited user and weblog license (normally priced at $99.95) at no cost to you. Since we've already upgraded your license in our system, you don't need to do anything for the license to take effect.

I'm totally stoked!

Posted by John Highway at 12:21 AM | 0 Comments

What does the letters in your name mean?

Obtained from CyberJunkie

Posted by John Highway at 06:13 AM | 0 Comments

Team Food-n-Friends with Kevin Bowen

Posted by John Highway at 12:16 PM | 0 Comments

I Never...

(_) I NEVER HAVE BEEN DRUNK
(X) I NEVER HAVE SMOKED POT
(_) I NEVER HAVE KISSED A MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITE SEX
(X) I NEVER HAVE KISSED A MEMBER OF THE SAME SEX

Continue reading "I Never..."

Posted by John Highway at 06:18 AM | 0 Comments

MySpace.Com

Well, I caved and decided to give this site a try:

MySpace.Com

So, I'm now a member of MySpace.Com, an online community that allows friends to meet their friends' friends online. Apparently you can also share pictures, online journals, bulletins and lots of other cool stuff.

If you wish to give it a try, click on the link below and maybe we can hang out on MySpace!

http://www.myspace.com/reloc.cfm?c=2&id=38583BAB-9F98-49C6-9A81-4E086E2C757E

Posted by John Highway at 02:48 AM | 0 Comments

Popup Protection Irony...

I really enjoy the irony in which a service (e.g. Microsoft Network - MSN) is offering protection against pop-up ads but to advertising such a service, they themselves resort to such technologies.

Posted by John Highway at 03:42 AM | 0 Comments

G4 Fires Entire Staff of TechTV

The Laporte Report: Comcast Fires TechTV Staff

This is horrible -- after reading Leo Laporte's blog, I've just learned that G4 has fired the entire staff of TechTV. This is a dumb move I think -- G4 purchased the rights to TechTV to gain the viewership that's been following TechTV. The viewers watch TechTV because of the TV personalities that's been on the various programs.

Now, they've fired the staff and possibly the popular TechTV personalities -- which is a stupid move -- because the viewers you're hoping to gain with the purchase of TechTV will most likely not watch the shows cause the personalities won't be there.

I've started a online petition that I'm planning on faxing to Comcast and G4 at the petition conclusion, which is June 17.

Show your support: Reverse G4 / Comcast Decision to Fire Entire Staff of TechTV

Posted by John Highway at 11:05 AM | 0 Comments

PSA: Mail Delivery Virus

I want to warn any one who reads my journal entries that in case you didn't know, there appears to be a new variation to how the virus embedded in an attachment appears.

The virus sends itself as an 'Mail Delivery' failure message and in the attempt to entice you to spread the virus, the message offers you a link to to view the message you supposedly tried to send. By clicking on the link, you actually open an attachment that then activates the virus.

Continue reading "PSA: Mail Delivery Virus"

Posted by John Highway at 07:54 AM | 0 Comments

Our Petition Gets Recognition

The Laporte Report: Tuesday is News Day

Day 11. Thanks for all your support - all those thousands of messages and petition signatures have definitely helped me have the courage of my convictions.

Wow, it's actually kewl to get recognition for something you've done to help someone else out. What do I mean? Well, in my previous blog entry, I mentioned that I've started an online petition to help drum out support for Leo's wrongful termination of his contract by Vulcan Ventures (outgoing owners of TechTV) and my petition is help Comcast & G4 (new owners of TechTV) understand the value that Leo brings.

Anyways, in his April 13th blog entry, he's officially acknowledge that he knows about the petitions -- it's one thing to do it, but it feels something different when it's acknowledge by the person you're doing it for. :)

Wow... I feel all warm and fuzzy now.

*COUGH* *COUGH* How about that Barry Bonds?

Posted by John Highway at 03:29 AM | 0 Comments

It's time to FIGHT BACK! (revisited)

Life is a Highway: It's time to FIGHT BACK!

Hi there again, it's Highway ... the guy that started A Call for G4/Comcast to Hire Leo Laporte from Vulcan Ventures... just so you know what I'm planning on doing with the petition, besides emailing to the various contacts at Comcast and the G4 group -- which can be ignored. I'm going to take the list of now 650+ signatures and I'm going to send a physical copy of the petition via US Postal Mail as registered mail of the list of signatures (names).

To help give this petition more voice, of the mistake that Vulcan Ventures did, I can send the company [Comcast & G4] a copy of the letter with each person's individual mailing address. If I'm provided mailing information, I can individualize a letter to come from each individual that sends in his/her information. Each individual mail will be sent via US Postal Service, registered so that it will require actual acknowledgement of receipt.

If this something you like done, feel free to email to "hireleolaporte@veamms.com" (the email address has been converted to ASCII to thwart email harvesting programs) and just include your full name and mailing address, simple as that. All information WILL be kept private/confidential and WILL be erase/destroyed once the letter has been mailed.

If you want to help out with defering the costs of mailing registered postal mail, you can 'paypal' a donation to the indicated email address. This is not required.

Anyways, just trying to think of ways to make this effective and with a list of 650+ names from a petition that started on April 4th at about 12:30PM EST ... I'm sure Comcast will take notice.

Please pass this message around --

Posted by John Highway at 05:01 AM | 0 Comments

It's time to FIGHT BACK!

A Call for G4/Comcast to Hire Leo Laporte from Vulcan Ventures - Signatures

To: Comcast/G4

We, the undersigned, petition the G4 Group, a division of Comcast, to hire Leo Laporte, who we feel is the 'heart' and 'soul' of TechTV, in particular TechTV's more popular shows 'The Screen Savers' and 'Call For Help'. What Vulcan Ventures had attempted to do, forcing him to relinquish his shares in the company [Vulcan Ventures] in order for his contract to be renewed, was nothing short of blackmail and hostage negotiations -- holding his contract as hostage unless he [Leo Laporte] gives up his shares.

We the viewers of TechTV have signed this petition to indicate our dissatisfaction on how the matter was handled by Vulcan Ventures and would like said future owners [G4/Comcast] of TechTV to hire Leo Laporte, as we view this as a wise move to maintain the viewership numbers of TechTV.

Posted by John Highway at 12:40 PM | 0 Comments

A TechnoJunkie Line Ends

The Laporte Report: End of Line

I hope that G4, the new owners of TechTV, will see the follies of Vulcan Ventures and see the wisdom behind re-hiring Leo Laporte back to help out with techno-shows like Call for Help. I, for one, am sadden that Vulcan Ventures would do something as such -- change the contract deals at the last minute and would be happy to see Leo returns when G4 finally takes over.

Posted by John Highway at 08:44 AM | 0 Comments

P.S.A. Zip Attachments: Virus

hwy

Posted by John Highway at 05:12 AM | 0 Comments

XBox Email Scam!

I just received the following email and you know the saying "if it looks too good to be true, it's most probably not true". Well, that's what I found about this email. Three things clicked in my head when I checked out the site.

1) Graphics sucks
2) Ask only for Debit Card (because Credit Card function is not available)
3) Additional "SPAM" tactic text included at the bottom.

Here's a sample of the email.

Now, the website was evident in trying to make itself look credit by using the once-popular "Pokémon" theme -- but when it asks for only debit card (which of course has less securities than a credit card) something is definitely wrong.

I did a scan on the internet for other such events and found this posting on about.com.

Posted by John Highway at 11:55 AM | 0 Comments

McAfee [W32/Netsky.c@MM] from [68.185.213.163]

Posted by John Highway at 10:41 AM | 0 Comments

eBay Scam Alert

Life is a MoBlog (Highway)

Beware of email scams from people claiming to be eBay but the link actually goes to some site hosted by www.nivs.lv.

What it really does is that it opens a pop-up window that does whatever unscrupulous stuff while uses the original window to open a ebay.com webpage. I have the google toolbar that blocks pop-ups so I don't exactly know what the other windows does, but I'm not taking the risk.

Posted by John Highway at 03:14 AM | 0 Comments

W32/Mydoom@MM Virus(es)

Just wanted to warn everyone that visit my blog to update your Virus Definitions. I received an email today from someone at AOL with the subject "HELLO". I run all my email through McAfee's SecurityCenter, which downloads my email, filters it for spam (aka SpamKiller) and also scans for viruses.

It picked up the virus better known as Information W32/Mydoom@MM.

Remember, don't open attachments if you don't know who they're from. This virus has it's own built in email program that can spoof the return address as someone in your address book, so be very careful.

Posted by John Highway at 12:28 PM | 0 Comments

MT2.661 & MT-Blacklist1.63

MT-Blacklist/Comment Spam Clearinghouse: MT-Blacklist v1.63 beta

Upgrade complete, this blog and other blogs that my webspace maintains should all be using MT v2.661 and MT-Blacklist v1.63 -- thanks to Jay for the Blacklist feature -- many comment spammers have been blocked from posting comments.

You can grab the latest versions:
MT 2.661
MT-Blacklist v1.63 (RC1)
MT-Blacklist v1.63 (RC1) Upgrade Only

Posted by John Highway at 11:24 AM | 0 Comments

SPAM ALERT: U.S. BANK

This is a notification to all users that have gotten email from supposedly the 'U.S. Bank' with the subject "Your account at U.S. Bank has been suspended.". It's not just a spam letter but it's encapsulated with a trojan virus ...

If you open this email out of curiousity, chances are your system is infected with this trojan horse. If you don't have one installed, you should a good anti-virus program running and up-to-date.

Dear U.S. Bank account holder,

We regret to inform you, that we had to block your U.S. Bank account because we have been notified that your account may have been compromised by outside parties.

Our terms and conditions you agreed to state that your account must always be under your control or those you designate at all times.

We have noticed some activity related to your account that indicates that other parties may have access and or control of your information in your account.

These parties have in the past been involved with money laundering, illegal drugs, terrorism and various Federal Title 18 violations.

In order that you may access your account we must verify your identity by clicking on the link below.

Please be aware that until we can verify your identity no further access to your account will be allowed and we will have no other liability for your account or any transactions that may have occurred as a result of your failure to reactivate your account as instructed below.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

https://www.usbank.com/account_verify/cgi/index.htm

Before you reactivate your account, all payments have been frozen, and you will not be able to use your account in any way until we have verified your identity.

Now clicking on the link will actually take you to:

http://www.usbank.com=01@bos.es.kr/index.htm => http://bos.es.kr/index.htm

Now, besides the fact that I don't have an account with the 'U.S. Bank' any request for account information/validation should always be treated with the utmost scrutiny. But what makes this email worse than most email scams looking for information are those that comes embedded with a virus/trojan horse so you can't even check out the message.

Anyways... beware.

Posted by John Highway at 08:10 AM | 0 Comments

Patting myself on the back...

Well, with some help from fellow collegues from work, I'm now able to utilize the internet from my laptop using the school's (Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland) network.

Here's how it was done:

[LAPTOP]-[802.11B PCcard] <--> [802.11B USB]-[DESKTOP]-[NIC]<->[SCHOOL/INTERNET]

[802.11B USB] is configured to 'Network Type': AD-HOC & WEP is set to none
[NIC] Desktop NIC card is shared (ICS).
[802.11B PCcard] is manually configured to use DNS Servers of school.

Components:
Linksys 802.11B Wireless Compact USB Adapter ($69.00)
Linksys 802.11B Wireless PCMCIA Adapter ($59.99)

Once the drivers have been installed on the computer that will be designated as the ad-hoc 'router', make sure to share (internet connection sharing) the other network card that isn't the wireless card. You will also need to change the 'network type' of the USB Adapter to be 'Ad-Hoc' instead of 'Infrastructure'. WEP encryption is optional. Changing the SSID is also optional.

Allow the computer time to reset the network configurations on the USB adapter. You will get a network established and the USB Adapter is now a WAP.

If you don't auto-discover WAPs in the area, you'll need to add the access point with the matching SSID. Make sure the WEP matches your USB Adapter and you'll need to change the DNS servers to match that of the given network that you're attaching to.

Once done, you should be able to start surfing and reading your email from your laptop.

Posted by John Highway at 08:15 AM | 0 Comments

Spammers Know Literary Works?

BBC NEWS | Technology | Spammers turn to classic prose

A friend had sent me this URL link to an article that tells how spammers are trying to stay ahead of the game of anti-spamming software.

They tried breaking up words with '.' or special types of characters, anti-spamming software is cracking down. They tried using invisible yet meaningless HTML tag codes... anti-spamming software is cracking down. What's left? Literary works ... complete passages can be found embedded in the spam message in the attempt to fool the anti-spam software that the spam is a legitimate piece of email.

Sometimes I wonder, do spammers get spam mail too? And do they suffer the same inconvenience as the rest of us? Or do they all share some kind of 'escape' code that prevents spammers from sending spam to other spammers?

Continue reading "Spammers Know Literary Works?"

Posted by John Highway at 01:02 AM | 0 Comments

New Spammer Target of the Week

Here's the original email spam:

Act now while rates are still low!
http://www.surprisepromotions.com/mr/

Remember to use convincing FALSE information.

Posted by John Highway at 01:55 AM | 0 Comments

Most Excellent -- Comment Spammers, take a hike!

As some of you owners of blogs might have experienced or come across, comment spammers are going around the net looking for blogs to comment and spam. Well, I've installed Jay Allen's MT-Blacklist and it worked great... check out the activity log:

Right now, the list that I update is protecting the following blogs I help maintain:

http://www.highwayman.org/mt/highway
http://www.highwayman.org/pinglin
http://www.amycoon.com
http://www.iheartmorganwebb.com

So you comment spammers, take a hike.

Continue reading "Most Excellent -- Comment Spammers, take a hike!"

Posted by John Highway at 03:09 AM | 0 Comments

Spammer Target of the Week

Original Email Subject: Ext. Auto Warranties(save time/money)

http://140.186.141.129/adv/warranty/index.htm
(I'm not making this link clickable as they can track what the referring site was and filter records against that detail and block or invalidate responses with that information. Open a new browser and cut-paste the URL).

Here's the original email:

Continue reading "Spammer Target of the Week"

Posted by John Highway at 04:27 AM | 0 Comments

I think everyone should try this

kuro5hin.org || Responding to Spammers -- The Internet Strikes Back
.: Link originated from reading Attacking the Spammer Business Model (SlashDot)

After reading this article, I think everyone should help put spammers out of business or at least make the lives as unpleasant as they have done to us.

Once a week, I will start posting a link to spam email I've gotten and I would like everyone that visits my blog is to visit that site and register (using false or bogus information). Keep in mind that you'll need to register with information that isn't completely absurb that spammers can spot a fake registration (e.g. you can't be using far fetch things like 123 Any Street), you'll need to put some place that could possibly exist (e.g. 5281 Bargar Court, Valley Springs, Maryland 20182).

The idea is make the data look real enough that they will have to check it out but not leave real data that it will reach anyone. The point being that it will eventually become more troublesome and not worth the effort with the amount of spam that spammers sent. Just imagine if they sent out 100,000 emails and just 1% responds with faulty information. That would mean 1,000 follow-ups that leads nowhere.

What do you all think of this idea?

Posted by John Highway at 03:56 AM | 0 Comments

Death to Spammers